Spider-Man: Brand New Day Review

Intro Sketch

Rex (00:00:00 - 00:00:01): Let’s go!

Rex (00:00:01 - 00:00:06): The True North Nerds are about to start! I know! I’m trying to find the signal!

Rex (00:00:06 - 00:00:08): Thank you, Monster Nerd!

Rex (00:00:08 - 00:00:12): No, that’s the wrong one. Move over! Let me do it!

Rex (00:00:12 - 00:00:16): If I don’t go to this nerd school, I’m gonna lose my mind!

Rex (00:00:16 - 00:00:18): Come on, come on!

Rex (00:00:18 - 00:00:21): We can’t go against that guy! We’re nerds!

Rex (00:00:21 - 00:00:22): We’re gonna miss it!

Rex (00:00:22 - 00:00:27): My fellow nerds and I’ll retire to the nerdery with our calculators.

Rex (00:00:27 - 00:00:28): Wait! I got it!

Theme Song

Kirby Crackle (00:00:28 - 00:01:14): [Theme song lyrics omitted.]

Welcome and Opening Banter

Brent (00:01:14 - 00:01:39): Welcom loyal listeners to another episode of True North Nerds. This one’s a doozy because San Diego Comic-Con happened at the It’s the same time that, uh, Spider-Man came out. Well, just before, but it’s for this— all this episode. So we got a lot to talk about this time. Uh, but before we get there, we have Gen.

Gen (00:01:39 - 00:01:40): Hi!

Brent (00:01:40 - 00:01:42): We have Kevin.

Kevin (00:01:42 - 00:01:43): Hey, that’s me!

Brent (00:01:43 - 00:01:46): And we have Ryan, who is buried under news notes.

Ryan (00:01:46 - 00:01:48): Hello everybody!

Brent (00:01:48 - 00:01:55): Uh, okay, Ryan, what do you want to start with?

News and Pop Culture

Ryan (00:01:55 - 00:02:10): Okay, so first I have one thing before. So there was an announcement, or at least there’s something, you know, it’s not really an announcement, but there is an announcement that goes with it. Next year is the 50th anniversary of Star Wars.

Gen (00:02:10 - 00:02:13): Yes.

Ryan (00:02:13 - 00:02:14): Uh, do you feel old yet?

Brent (00:02:14 - 00:02:17): I wasn’t around when it came out, so I’m okay.

Ryan (00:02:17 - 00:02:18): Yep, me too.

Gen (00:02:18 - 00:02:20): Yeah, same. Sorry, Kevin.

Kevin (00:02:21 - 00:02:25): I was 6 and I never saw it in theaters.

Ryan (00:02:25 - 00:02:28): Well, Kevin, have I got news for you.

Brent (00:02:28 - 00:02:31): I know, I’m so excited I can see it in a theater.

Ryan (00:02:31 - 00:02:52): Yes, Lucasfilm has announced, uh, there’s actually— so there’s gonna be 2 new ways that fans can enjoy the original trilogy. Uh, so the first is, uh, the original trilogy is being, uh, re-released as unabridged audiobooks. Uh, starting, uh, February 2nd of next year.

Kevin (00:02:52 - 00:03:00): Oh, is this, is this a release of the NPR, um, Star Wars audio drama that—

Ryan (00:03:00 - 00:03:23): I don’t know, because I didn’t— that’s not in my notes. So maybe, I don’t know. But, uh, and so to follow up with that, then on the 19th of February, a newly restored version of the classic ‘77 release Star Wars: A New Hope, which it wasn’t called A New Hope at the time, I don’t believe, or it was just Star Wars.

Kevin (00:03:23 - 00:03:24): It was just called Star Wars.

Ryan (00:03:25 - 00:03:31): Will be playing in theaters for a limited time, so we can all go see the original cut in theaters.

Gen (00:03:31 - 00:03:34): Hey, we can take our nephew.

Brent (00:03:34 - 00:03:49): Yeah, that’s a good idea if he still likes Star Wars by then. Um, and if he doesn’t, we’ll just disown him. Uh, to answer your To answer your question, Kevin, it is the novelizations that are being turned into audiobooks.

Kevin (00:03:49 - 00:03:49): Oh, I see.

Brent (00:03:50 - 00:03:52): Okay, like the unabridged one.

Speaker B (00:03:54 - 00:03:54): Got it.

Ryan (00:03:55 - 00:04:14): Thank you for clarifying that. Okay, so now I’ve broken up my news, the— all the rest of the news into 2 chunks. I’ve got MCU news and other and everything else. Um, Let’s do other first, then we can do MCU, and that rolls us right into our movie review. How’s that sound?

Gen (00:04:14 - 00:04:16): Okay. Sounds good.

Ryan (00:04:16 - 00:04:17): Okay.

Gen (00:04:17 - 00:04:19): Sounds almost like we planned it that way.

Ryan (00:04:19 - 00:04:30): Almost. If I had planned it that way, I wouldn’t even have brought it up. So we got a new trailer for Coyote vs. ACME, which we also saw the other night.

Kevin (00:04:30 - 00:04:32): It was very funny.

Ryan (00:04:32 - 00:04:42): Yes, I am looking forward to seeing this movie. And I’m glad that the power of the internet influenced a company to buy it from Warner Brothers so we could all see it.

Gen (00:04:42 - 00:04:45): Yep.

Ryan (00:04:45 - 00:04:52): Uh, so yeah, we’re all looking forward to that. Uh, Gen, what did— did you see the teaser for Percy Jackson season 3?

Gen (00:04:52 - 00:04:55): I haven’t finished watching Percy Jackson season 2 yet.

Ryan (00:04:55 - 00:04:56): Oh, okay then. Kevin.

Kevin (00:04:56 - 00:04:57): Genevieve.

Gen (00:04:57 - 00:05:00): It hasn’t drawn me in as much as, as the first season did.

Kevin (00:05:00 - 00:05:02): No, I get that.

Gen (00:05:02 - 00:05:03): Now he just seems like a jerky teen.

Kevin (00:05:03 - 00:05:05): Well, he is a jerky teen.

Gen (00:05:05 - 00:05:06): I know.

Brent (00:05:06 - 00:05:07): Yeah, teenagers are jerky.

Ryan (00:05:07 - 00:05:08): Yeah, especially—

Gen (00:05:08 - 00:05:15): He was less of a jerky teen in the first one, but yeah, I gotta get around to it.

Ryan (00:05:15 - 00:05:17): Okay. Kevin, did you see it?

Kevin (00:05:17 - 00:05:18): I did not.

Brent (00:05:19 - 00:05:20): Sorry, bro.

Kevin (00:05:20 - 00:05:20): Sorry, Ryan.

Gen (00:05:20 - 00:05:22): I know you can’t get mad at me.

Ryan (00:05:22 - 00:05:27): Well, I figured that was more in your wheelhouse than Kevin, than anybody else’s other than me.

Kevin (00:05:28 - 00:05:30): I have watched all of season two.

Ryan (00:05:30 - 00:05:58): Yeah, so have I. Uh, so it is just a teaser. We see Percy holding this voiceover going on, and he’s holding up, you know, I don’t know if he’s holding up the world. I don’t know. It’s a big round heavy thing. So, and that’s all we see. It’s very much a teaser. So that’s that’s coming. Uh, but I know someone did see this one because Brent shared this trailer with us. Brent, please tell us about Neuromancer.

Brent (00:05:58 - 00:06:35): Uh, so the, the trailer for Neuromancer, based on, on my favorite books, uh, by William Gibson, is an Apple TV show. Um, looks pretty good. Uh, yeah, that would be my only complaint is I thought it was coming this summer and now I have to wait until January. Um, it, to me, it got the look right of of the setting. Um, one of the, one of the characters, Molly, looks pretty much like how I figured from her descriptions in the book. Uh, we will see how the, the rest of it goes.

Ryan (00:06:35 - 00:07:04): Uh, it looks interesting. I will give it a watch if I still have Apple TV access in January. Uh, so this is, uh, it’s news, but it’s already out there, which you can go and watch these right now. 10 new episodes of Batman: Caped Crusader all dropped on Prime just this past Friday. So if you’re, uh, up to date or need a refresher, watch season 1 and roll right into season 2.

Kevin (00:07:04 - 00:07:07): I hate when they drop everything at once.

Ryan (00:07:07 - 00:07:12): Well, you just gotta piece it out yourself. I still haven’t finished, uh, Spider-Noir yet.

Kevin (00:07:12 - 00:07:19): Oh yeah, me neither. I haven’t finished Spider-Noir, I haven’t finished The Bear, I’m behind on Um, Superman.

Ryan (00:07:19 - 00:07:21): Oh, Superman’s so good.

Kevin (00:07:21 - 00:07:39): I know, I know. And I loved Batman: Caped Crusader last year. I love the noir feel of it. I love the ’40s aesthetic. I, I thought it was really cool. I like the way they gender-bent some of the characters. Just, I just thought it was really well done.

Ryan (00:07:39 - 00:07:59): Yep, that will probably end up on my list of things I watched this week while I’m off. Uh, we got a trailer and our first look at the new Resident Evil movie. Uh, Brent, you have thoughts on this movie, don’t you?

Brent (00:07:59 - 00:09:06): Um, I don’t really know much about the, the games, to be honest. Like, I, I think I played the first one and I played like— there’s like an arcade port of it. With, uh, like it was a light gun game with shotguns, like kind of shooter on rails. Yeah. I played that a bunch at like Dave Buster’s and things like that. Um, what I do know about it is it’s, uh, written and directed by the guy who did Weapons. And basically from an interview that I heard with, he was like, so they came to me with the, like, would you like to do Resident Evil? And I’m like, sure. thinking the entire time that was like, they’re never gonna let me do a Resident Evil movie. So he wrote the Resident Evil movie he thought he would never have to make. And then they were like, okay, so, uh, how does Bulgaria sound for filming? Oh, uh, we’re doing this, are we? And that was his story about getting the movie. Um, I know from online complaints it doesn’t look like there’s any familiar characters in it, but maybe they’re just doing something different.

Ryan (00:09:06 - 00:09:23): So yeah, I almost wonder, like, it looks like it’s almost like a different point of view because from the trailer it makes it look like he— oh, he’s a— excuse the cough. Uh, he’s like a hospital— like he transports things between hospitals.

Brent (00:09:23 - 00:09:24): Yeah.

Ryan (00:09:24 - 00:10:05): In this case, he looks like he’s given some kind of medical thing that he’s got to transport to Raccoon City, which is, you know, a location from the games. And, uh, looks like on his way there, well, he runs into the Resident Evil mess. Uh, looks interesting. I’m not a big horror movie— I enjoyed the first original 2 Resident Evil movies. After that, they kind of started to lose me. But, uh, yeah, might give this a shot. Uh, you guys saw parts, at least parts. I don’t— I didn’t catch the whole panel. But at, uh, at San Diego, there was a Spaceballs panel.

Gen (00:10:05 - 00:10:06): Woo!

Ryan (00:10:06 - 00:10:17): There was, which was quite hilarious between, uh, the Rick, uh, the, the Rick Moranis hiding in the crowd— air quotes— hiding in the crowd.

Gen (00:10:18 - 00:10:18): Yeah.

Ryan (00:10:18 - 00:11:02): Uh, and then them, uh, announcing the entire extended cinematic universe of Spaceballs with, with— I really want that on a t-shirt. Yes, with I love the diagram where it shows like both solid line means this, dotted line means that. It’s like and then the recommended viewing order. Usually you’re supposed to start with like phase six, then go to phase eleven, then phase two, then phase one. Then they say oh yeah, it’s great. It they had they had a really good time. poking fun at all the extended universes that are out there.

Brent (00:11:03 - 00:11:06): And Rick Moranis got like a standing ovation.

Ryan (00:11:06 - 00:11:07): Yes, as he should.

Brent (00:11:07 - 00:11:17): I don’t know why, I think my favorite gag in all of them is— I think it’s in the last phase, uh, Spaceballs for kids.

Ryan (00:11:17 - 00:11:32): Yeah, it’s just such a simple joke, but I really laughed Uh, I enjoyed when they were searching for him in the crowd and the, the troopers showed up with the comb and they were combing the crowd.

Gen (00:11:32 - 00:11:33): Combing the audience.

Ryan (00:11:33 - 00:11:49): Oh yeah, of course they were. Like, wonderful. Uh, we got a new trailer for the kind of horror movie, whatever you want to call Clayface, uh, from the DC Cinematic Universe or whatever we’re calling it.

Kevin (00:11:49 - 00:11:51): I’d call it a body horror film.

Ryan (00:11:51 - 00:12:06): There you go. Yep, looks interesting. Uh, I don’t think I’ll be necessarily seeing it in theaters unless we decide to go for the show, but, uh, nope, I think it’s— I can very much see that’ll be a watch at home.

Gen (00:12:06 - 00:12:08): I want a body horror. I—

Kevin (00:12:08 - 00:12:18): yeah, I want to see all the DC films. I want to support them, but I don’t know if I, I, I’m— if my stomach is up for Body horror.

Ryan (00:12:19 - 00:13:03): Yeah, there was some stuff in this week’s episode of Star Trek that started on last this new episode of Star Trek that CTV Sci-Fi has done a horrible job of promoting and putting it out there and putting it on TV because it I don’t know if it was actually on on Thursday night or not because I wasn’t around. I was just at the movies. So my— I have my PVR set to film this whole series. Remember when I said after episode 1 that I thought, oh, episode 2 is scheduled to be on at like something stupid like 2 o’clock in the morning on Friday morning? Yeah, it was on, on their schedule. It recorded an episode of The Librarians.

Gen (00:13:03 - 00:13:04): Oh, I love that show.

Ryan (00:13:04 - 00:13:27): So there’s no episode 2 scheduled on Rogers anywhere. Uh, then when I came home last night from from being out, I saw that, oh, there was a replay of episode 2. I was like, okay, well, I’ll set it to record. It was again on later on in the morning. This morning I’ll watch it this morning before I go to work. I put it on and it starts off partway through episode 1.

Gen (00:13:27 - 00:13:28): Hmm.

Ryan (00:13:28 - 00:13:41): And so then I’m like, well, maybe it’s on demand. Nope, not available on demand, only available on, uh, on Paramount. So I have no way of watching episode 2 now.

Gen (00:13:41 - 00:13:45): But on the bright side, you got an episode of The Librarians. That’s a great show.

Ryan (00:13:45 - 00:13:47): Yeah, but it was one I’d already watched.

Brent (00:13:48 - 00:13:48): It’s—

Ryan (00:13:48 - 00:13:51): and it’s also the new, the new crew, and I don’t know.

Gen (00:13:51 - 00:13:52): I haven’t watched the new ones yet.

Ryan (00:13:52 - 00:13:54): Yeah, I’m not as much a fan as of the new group.

Gen (00:13:54 - 00:13:56): Oh, okay.

Ryan (00:13:56 - 00:14:34): Um, but yeah, so there, and end of rant. Um, moving on. We got a really good-looking trailer for Lanterns, staying in the DC stuff, with some more reveals. We see Sinestro, we see that Hal will spend some time in space. We got Nathan Fillion in this one, this trailer, so the confirmation that he is on the show. I’m looking forward to that, that’s coming out this month as well. You’re starting? Yeah. Did anybody else see it?

Brent (00:14:34 - 00:14:50): No, I’m, I’m kind of avoiding trailers at this point. Okay, for Lanterns, because I, I do want to see the show and I don’t want to spoil anything else for it.

Ryan (00:14:50 - 00:14:58): Okay, uh, with that in mind, did anybody see the trailer for Matchbox the movie.

Kevin (00:15:00 - 00:15:03): No, I saw something about it, but I’m not sure what.

Ryan (00:15:03 - 00:16:20): Okay, well, so this is John Cena’s latest movie, also co-starring Jessica Biel, who I haven’t seen in anything in a long time, so it’s nice to see her working again. So in this movie, John Cena’s character is a CIA agent who is reuniting with some old childhood friends that I guess together they had a Matchbox Club where they would get together and play with their Matchbox cars and stuff in like a garage or something. I don’t know. And then he ends up sweeping them all up into some big old adventure where they’re looking for explosives. They’ve stolen explosives or something. So, you know, the fact that it’s called Matchbox Movie is, you know, there’s a few spots in the trailer that make it look like there’s scenes where, you know, you see people the kid playing with the car, and then next thing you know, like, 2 cars go crashing into each other right out down the street in front of them. Or they cut to the kid— them, the adults as children playing with their cars, doing flips and stuff, and then they— now they’re doing it in this real life, you know, adventure. And so it’s like, it reminds me of when that Battleship movie came out that was called Battleship.

Kevin (00:16:20 - 00:16:20): Mhm.

Ryan (00:16:21 - 00:16:35): And the only connection to the game Battleship at all was, uh, at one point they use sonar buoys on a grid that looks like the same grid from Battleship. And then they stay like— you watch the alien ship moving around and then they shoot at it.

Brent (00:16:35 - 00:16:41): The aliens’ missiles that launch like the aliens look like the pegs in Battleship. That’s the other one.

Ryan (00:16:41 - 00:16:46): That’s true too. They did. Yes. Uh, as bad as that movie is, I do enjoy it.

Gen (00:16:47 - 00:16:48): I did not see that movie.

Brent (00:16:48 - 00:16:49): Yes, you did.

Gen (00:16:49 - 00:16:50): Did I?

Brent (00:16:50 - 00:16:52): We watched it up at the cottage.

Gen (00:16:52 - 00:16:54): I have no memory of that movie.

Brent (00:16:54 - 00:16:56): It was pretty forgettable.

Ryan (00:16:56 - 00:16:57): Rihanna’s in it.

Gen (00:16:57 - 00:16:58): It left a lasting impression.

Ryan (00:16:58 - 00:17:07): Um, so that’s what I’ve got for other news. Does anybody else have other news before we—

Kevin (00:17:07 - 00:17:13): Yes, I’ve got one. Uh, the president of Wizards of the Coast resigned this week.

Brent (00:17:14 - 00:17:15): Yeah, I saw that.

Kevin (00:17:15 - 00:17:27): Um, after seeing the company through some hard times and having it stay, um, financially feasible, uh, he’s decided not to renew his contract, I guess.

Gen (00:17:28 - 00:17:28): Hmm.

Kevin (00:17:30 - 00:17:36): Um, and you know, Wizards of the Coast oversees Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons and Dragons, and so I mean, that’s a pretty big deal.

Ryan (00:17:36 - 00:17:42): Yeah, it’s all under the Hasbro umbrella nowadays, isn’t it?

Kevin (00:17:42 - 00:18:02): It is. Uh, his name is John Hight, and he steps down on September 1st. He joined Wizards of the Coast from Blizzard, and he’s been— he’s been president for 2 years. Uh, yeah, and he will stay on as an advisor after September 1st.

Ryan (00:18:02 - 00:18:12): Oh, that means just— maybe just time to step back. Relax, get a little, you know, do something different, especially if he’s just gonna still be around as an advisor.

Brent (00:18:15 - 00:18:16): Um, something sort of—

Kevin (00:18:16 - 00:18:18): uh, they did just announce a—

Ryan (00:18:24 - 00:18:26): go ahead. They announced a—

Brent (00:18:26 - 00:18:27): so we have—

Kevin (00:18:27 - 00:18:31): they announced, uh, they announced a World of Warcraft. Oh.

Gen (00:18:32 - 00:18:33): I think we got—

Kevin (00:18:33 - 00:18:36): oh, and World of Warcraft D&D. Yeah, something weird’s going on here.

Ryan (00:18:40 - 00:18:43): Uh, you guys are funny. But yes, I saw the—

Brent (00:18:43 - 00:18:46): Yes, I’m here.

Kevin (00:18:48 - 00:19:00): Okay, just weird lag. I, uh, yeah, I, uh, you, you saw— you, you mentioned the Star Wars D&D, and I mentioned that they were— are releasing a World of Warcraft expansion as well.

Brent (00:19:00 - 00:19:38): Yeah, they both kind of got announced at the same time. This isn’t the first time that Wizards of the Coast has done a D&D Star Wars game. Like, they did one a number of years ago where it didn’t quite— it was during 3rd edition, I think. It didn’t quite merge well. But, uh, I, I like the current version of D&D, so maybe there’s something will like work out well. I, I could have sworn somebody else had the, the tabletop rights, but maybe that’s just like fallen through at this point.

Kevin (00:19:38 - 00:19:39): Yeah, I don’t know.

Brent (00:19:39 - 00:19:48): Um, all right, so, uh, let’s, uh, let’s go dive into San Diego Marvel stuff.

SDCC and Marvel News

Ryan (00:19:48 - 00:20:02): Okay, so, uh, let’s go. Uh, before San Diego, I guess, or maybe right at the beginning, we got a Doomsday trailer. Did everybody watch that? It looks pretty good.

Brent (00:20:02 - 00:20:03): Yes.

Ryan (00:20:03 - 00:20:14): Uh, yep. So it looks cool. We see all of our heroes, you know, the teams coming together. Uh, yeah, can’t wait, can’t wait. It’s gonna be great. It’s gonna make all the monies.

Brent (00:20:14 - 00:20:16): They’re hoping.

Ryan (00:20:16 - 00:20:17): Yep.

Kevin (00:20:18 - 00:20:22): It’s gonna have to work hard to beat Spider-Man. Spider-Man’s raking in the money this weekend.

Ryan (00:20:22 - 00:20:24): Oh yeah, setting new records.

Brent (00:20:24 - 00:20:25): Hold that thought, we’ll get there.

Ryan (00:20:25 - 00:20:36): Um, we got confirmation that Vision Quest, which will conclude the WandaVision trilogy, will premiere on Disney+ on October 14th.

Brent (00:20:36 - 00:20:42): Oh, there’s a trilogy? Yeah, and I guess Agatha’s the second one.

Kevin (00:20:42 - 00:20:43): Yeah.

Ryan (00:20:43 - 00:20:52): Well, is it, or are they counting like, oh, um, Doctor Strange movie?

Brent (00:20:52 - 00:20:55): That’s— I’d be curious to know which one is the trilogy part of the trilogy.

Kevin (00:20:56 - 00:21:04): It’s number 2. It’s Agatha. Agatha is number 2 because all, all 3 series are helmed by the same directing team and the same—

Brent (00:21:04 - 00:21:06): okay, gotcha—

Gen (00:21:06 - 00:21:06): showrunner.

Kevin (00:21:07 - 00:21:07): Yeah.

Ryan (00:21:09 - 00:21:33): Uh, so at the panel, they started bringing out the new cast, all the casts, and they did something like, what if we made the back of this, of the auditorium, the front? And they opened a, you know, they moved the curtain and there was a bunch of cast members there. And then they did another spot and then they all came up to the front stage and, uh, they started taking questions from the audience. And there was someone in a really awesome Deadpool costume.

Brent (00:21:33 - 00:21:34): Hmm.

Ryan (00:21:34 - 00:22:45): Uh, complete— it was a denim, you know, Canadian tuxedo, he referred to it. Um, we found out later that the, the gray is referred to as Jean Grey. Uh, so it was Jean Grey Deadpool. And, uh, this person had a very familiar voice and was, uh, was kind of, you know, made a joke about this being a very, uh, elaborate way to announce a movie and asked if they had started filming yet. Um, making it sound like maybe this person isn’t in the movie, or, you know, especially since, you know, it’s Ryan Reynolds. Um, then he started— it was pretty funny. He started asking Ant-Man why, why Thor was crying. Uh, then of course Paul Rudd made a joke about him being a Wrexham fan and that’s why he was crying. And it was, uh, it was quite the little, uh, back and forth. Uh, plus I guess, uh, Mr. Reynolds had been walking through San Diego in this costume taking photos with random people and do, you know, anything he, you know, I think he— I don’t believe he let on to anybody that it was him in the costume until afterwards, right?

Gen (00:22:45 - 00:22:45): Yeah, because—

Brent (00:22:45 - 00:22:47): Well, probably not because he would have been mobbed.

Gen (00:22:47 - 00:22:48): Security.

Ryan (00:22:48 - 00:23:19): Yeah, exactly. But, uh, so that was pretty good. Uh, that was fun. Uh, then we got the announcement that we are getting a Black Panther 3 that will be coming to theaters December 15th, 2028, uh, directed once again by Ryan Coogler. And the film will feature the son of T’Challa named Toussaint, uh, who will be played by act— uh, by actor David Johnson. Uh, and then in this movie, he will be taking on the mantle of Black Panther.

Kevin (00:23:19 - 00:23:23): He grew up real fast. Yeah, do you remember at the end of the second one?

Gen (00:23:23 - 00:23:24): No.

Kevin (00:23:24 - 00:23:33): Uh, there was a scene on a beach with, um, the baby and, um, I can never remember his name.

Brent (00:23:33 - 00:23:36): He was like 3 or 4 at that point by the looks of him.

Ryan (00:23:36 - 00:23:37): Yeah, he was, he was a toddler.

Brent (00:23:37 - 00:23:39): He was a toddler, definitely.

Kevin (00:23:39 - 00:23:43): Yeah, it’s Lupita Nyong’o is the mother, her character.

Speaker B (00:23:43 - 00:23:43): Yeah.

Ryan (00:23:46 - 00:24:09): Uh, but the— I guess the biggest headline-grabbing, uh, announcement was the fact that we will be getting a new Ghost Rider film, also in 2028, directed by Shawn Levy and starring another one of Canada’s favorite Ryans. No, it’s not me, not yet. This time it’s Ryan Gosling.

Gen (00:24:09 - 00:24:13): Yay! It’s my favorite famous Ryan.

Ryan (00:24:14 - 00:24:18): I like how you, you added that little caveat there. Thank you.

Brent (00:24:18 - 00:24:43): I, uh, as a music nerd, I very much appreciated them using, uh, Suicide’s version of Ghost Rider, the original version of that song, to, to do the entrance music for it. Um, they’re a band that doesn’t get much respect in the outside world, so it was, uh, it was kind of awesome to hear, hear that and then see the logo pop up.

Gen (00:24:44 - 00:24:49): Yeah, I don’t know anything about Ghost Rider, and I don’t really care about Ghost Rider, but I’ll watch it because Ryan Gosling is in it.

Ryan (00:24:49 - 00:24:50): There you go.

Kevin (00:24:50 - 00:25:00): Now, um, not everybody is happy with Marvel right now. Have you seen the posts, the things that Mahershala Ali has been saying lately?

Brent (00:25:00 - 00:25:03): Yeah, it’s hard to blame him.

Kevin (00:25:03 - 00:25:05): Yeah, he is not happy.

Ryan (00:25:05 - 00:25:08): He’s the guy that was cast to be Blade.

Kevin (00:25:08 - 00:25:17): Yeah. 5 years ago. And, uh, they’ve just now officially canceled the Blade movies and he’s been on hold with Marvel for 5 years.

Brent (00:25:17 - 00:25:23): I don’t know if they’ve even officially canceled it, but it sounds like his contract is up.

Kevin (00:25:23 - 00:25:24): Yeah.

Brent (00:25:24 - 00:25:40): Which would be, you would think that would mean the same, but, um, yeah, we’ve kind of known that this pro— this movie has been in problem territory for a while. Like it got close enough that they had costumes that they then sold off to the Sinners production.

Kevin (00:25:41 - 00:25:41): Yeah.

Brent (00:25:41 - 00:25:44): Um, so, uh, I’m sure he still got paid for those—

Gen (00:25:45 - 00:25:46): for that 5-year contract.

Brent (00:25:46 - 00:25:51): So he, he definitely got something out of it. Yeah, that, that’s just how those things—

Gen (00:25:51 - 00:25:55): Yeah, you can’t tell somebody to put their career on hold for 5 years and not pay them.

Brent (00:25:55 - 00:26:07): Well, he did other things in that time, but like, his thought was that like if they wanted to make it, they had all the money and all the opportunity, and that never happened.

Gen (00:26:09 - 00:26:09): Yeah.

Ryan (00:26:12 - 00:26:13): Yep.

Brent (00:26:17 - 00:26:48): I will say it’s it’s like they should from an optic standpoint. I kind of feel that maybe the Black Panther three one was a little bit of a blessing in disguise because if you look at like the two cancellation announcements, they are both. projects that had prominent Black leads in them. Because, uh, we, we got news that Wonder Man season 2 isn’t happening either. Yeah, which—

Gen (00:26:48 - 00:26:49): yeah, that sucks.

Brent (00:26:49 - 00:27:03): Yeah. And like, and especially since they like said there was going to be a second season. Like, it wasn’t one of those things where they like just like, well, we don’t know, and now they’re officially canceling it. It was like, no, we’re going to do it.

Kevin (00:27:05 - 00:27:06): Strike.

Gen (00:27:06 - 00:27:09): Yeah, I wonder what’s going on with Marvel that they’re canceling stuff.

Brent (00:27:09 - 00:27:14): In, in this case, my guess is they’re focused—

Ryan (00:27:14 - 00:27:15): they’re—

Brent (00:27:15 - 00:27:20): they’ve shifted back to the original model where they’re going to focus more on the movies than the TV shows.

Gen (00:27:20 - 00:27:30): Yeah, yeah, I kind of like that better. I’d rather sit and watch a 3-hour movie than have to go through several seasons of a TV show.

Brent (00:27:32 - 00:27:47): Like, I think they’re— they are going to— like, the, the shows that— like, we’re definitely getting more Daredevil, for instance. Like, there will be shows, they’re just not going to be like— it’s not going to be like 2 or 3 shows a year and like 2 movies. Yeah.

Ryan (00:27:47 - 00:27:54): Uh, that’s it from my notes.

Speaker B (00:27:54 - 00:27:54): I, uh—

Ryan (00:27:55 - 00:27:57): anybody else got anything else to add?

Kevin (00:27:59 - 00:28:01): Uh, not that I can think of.

Brent (00:28:01 - 00:28:23): No, just the, um, I did like the fact that they included the, the guy who is the interviewer who Kevin Feige has like a little, a friendly, uh, back and forth with, who originally brought up Ryan Gosling as Ghost Rider years ago. And then they, they worked him in as part of the bit to introduce it.

Ryan (00:28:23 - 00:28:23): Yes.

Brent (00:28:24 - 00:28:39): Um, I did— he’s also the guy that, uh, I, I want to listen to this guy’s podcast or whatever it is he does because the— he’s also the guy who, um, got like an honest answer out of him, out of Feige, about, um, what’s his name, Kylo Ren.

Ryan (00:28:40 - 00:28:41): Um, Adam Driver.

Brent (00:28:41 - 00:29:38): Adam Driver. Because he asked like, so where are we with Adam Driver joining the MCU? And Kevin Feige’s like, well, we had our like annual conversation where it goes really well and he politely turns us down. And he’s like, there’s no— like, like, I— and like they go into it a little bit more and Kevin Feige is like, no, it’s a great conversation, he’s very talented and we’d love to work with him, but right now the, the stars are not aligning for it. Um, with that being said, since Ryan is out of San Diego news other than the toy stuff, which you can hear on the latest episode of Tales from the Collectiverse that is on our feed as we speak, uh, we move into the latest Spider-Man film, uh, A Brand New Day, right? It is Brand New Day, right?

Spider-Man: Brand New Day Review

Ryan (00:29:38 - 00:29:39): Brand New Day.

Brent (00:29:39 - 00:29:42): I keep getting mixed— the subtitles mixed up so bad.

Ryan (00:29:43 - 00:29:51): No, this is the— we’re into the Day trilogy. We’ve left the Home trilogy. Now we’re into Day.

Brent (00:29:51 - 00:29:53): I am— go ahead, Gen.

Gen (00:29:53 - 00:29:56): Word was going to be carried on if it was going to be brand new or Day.

Brent (00:29:56 - 00:30:45): Uh, I am going to preface this now. In order for us to speak fully on this movie, we are going to be spoiling probably one of the most major plot points. If the internet has not spoiled it for you already, Uh, we are probably going to do it, so be forewarned, it will show up later on in this review because I feel like in terms of us talking about it, if we don’t spoil it, this review is going to be very short. So there you go. So there are spoilers. If you want, uh, you could probably just end, stop, pause the podcast now until you go see it. Uh, but I think I speak for all of us in the short-form version. Go see it. It’s a lot of fun.

Gen (00:30:45 - 00:30:46): Yep.

Ryan (00:30:46 - 00:30:47): Agreed.

Brent (00:30:47 - 00:30:53): All right, so you’ve been warned, spoilers may be commencing. All right, let’s start with Gen.

Gen (00:30:53 - 00:30:56): Oh no, I think we should start with Ryan.

Brent (00:30:56 - 00:30:58): Okay, we start with Ryan. Let’s start with Ryan.

Ryan (00:30:58 - 00:31:03): Man, I just did all the talking. My sinuses are plugged up. Oh, okay, here we go.

Gen (00:31:03 - 00:31:06): Uh, yeah, but you were the one who was most excited for this.

Ryan (00:31:06 - 00:32:25): I was. And, uh, and, and I was not disappointed by this movie one bit. Uh, this is a Spider-Man movie. It’s not a greater Marvel movie. It’s not a multiversal movie. It’s not crossing over. You know, yes, there are some other people in it, much like Spider-Man comics. This was, you know, it— this was a really good representation of a Spider-Man comic book. We get to see there’s a, there’s a time jump from where we left off with him to where we end up, where this movie takes place, of, uh, I guess, what is it, 3 years while they’re gone away to university, his friends? I think so. Uh, so 3, 4 tops. I don’t know how long their course is. And in this time Spider-Man has— Peter has been letting himself be Spider-Man more than Peter Parker. He hasn’t cared. He’s not taking care of himself. He’s only doing the superhero thing. Uh, we get some great, like, montages of him, like, you know, cleaning up the streets. That’s where we get to see people like Boomerang and Tombstone. And what was that one you and John were talking about today?

Brent (00:32:25 - 00:32:33): Oh, I can’t remember what his name is. Okay, uh, crap. He’s a minor villain.

Ryan (00:32:33 - 00:33:09): Yeah, which is great because we get to see these characters, you know, they’re blink and you miss them sometimes, but it was like they’re more bad guys to flesh out New York City and Spider— in the Spider-Man universe without, you know, killing off bad guys or getting— you know, they get arrested, they go to, to the prisons. And of course they get broken out like Scorpion. Uh, so seeing Peter’s new setup, his new life, uh, I thought that was very interesting. His little, uh, still using the, the AI, and he’s got that little, you know, 3D printer that could pretty much make anything.

Kevin (00:33:09 - 00:33:10): Mhm.

Ryan (00:33:10 - 00:33:27): That was handy. Uh, the The villain was interesting, if you want to in the end, you know, call her the villain. Uh, I guess she’s the protagonist for the movie.

Gen (00:33:27 - 00:33:30): Um, antagonist.

Ryan (00:33:30 - 00:34:12): Antagonist, sorry. Thank you. I’m not, I’m not an English person. I barely speak it. Um, their choice to go with— okay, here’s the spoiler— Jean Grey. Uh, as the character that, you know, is moving this plot along, uh, was very interesting. Uh, the, the, the whole mind bubble thing at the end where she, you know, she extends her powers and affects all these people— if I’m not mistaken, in her comic book origin, there’s something similar to that where she loses control before she goes to the Xavier School, does she not? Yes, Stephen.

Kevin (00:34:12 - 00:34:13): Yes, I believe so.

Ryan (00:34:16 - 00:35:56): So at least that was kind of a good tie-in. The the inclusion of of damage control and you know their continued expansion and or being used in these Marvel shows and movies and kind of being shown that maybe they’re not the greatest and the nicest organization. Uh, that was interesting. I, I liked that plot point. The use of the Hulk was really well done. It was just, just enough Hulk to make you, you know, not too much, not too little. It was just right. Uh, but the, the real, like, superhero companionship or, like, story that was the interactions between Peter and and Frank. Yeah, like, it— you can tell, like, the fact that the, the 2 actors themselves are very close and have had a long time, uh, connection, uh, shines through. And it adds, you know, it helps their performance, it, it adds to it. And they just say it, it added a new dimension to Frank, like a little bit of growth to his character. Um, so that was cool. And then the Peter struggle with his— what’s the mutation? And really just, it’s, it’s a struggle with himself, right? In the end, the— he’s dealing with change and he hasn’t been taking care of himself. So that’s the, the effects to his body. Then running into his friends again and his struggle with, do I tell them?

Brent (00:35:56 - 00:35:56): Do I—

Ryan (00:35:57 - 00:36:23): don’t I tell them? If I, I gotta keep them safe. It’s just, I know I’m just rehashing the whole movie here, but it’s just there’s so many great points to this story, um, and things that leave me wondering and saying, okay, well, you know, at the end when he shakes hands with Ned and goes into their handshake and he does it too and then calls him Peter.

Speaker B (00:36:23 - 00:36:23): Yeah.

Ryan (00:36:24 - 00:36:27): And then it cut to black. It’s like, oh my God, really?

Gen (00:36:28 - 00:36:30): It’s like, yeah, did he get all his memories back?

Ryan (00:36:31 - 00:36:31): Exactly. Did he?

Kevin (00:36:32 - 00:36:36): No, I don’t think so. I don’t think so.

Gen (00:36:37 - 00:36:37): Or did he?

Brent (00:36:37 - 00:36:38): He got a little bit of it back.

Ryan (00:36:38 - 00:36:40): Yeah, see?

Kevin (00:36:40 - 00:36:55): No, no, no, no, no, no, no. MJ called him Peter in front of Ned when he was still in his Spider-Man mask, and when he introduced himself as Peter, Ned realized that that was Spider-Man that he met in his apartment earlier that week.

Gen (00:36:56 - 00:36:56): What the—

Ryan (00:36:56 - 00:37:00): But he doesn’t say his name. He doesn’t call himself Peter.

Kevin (00:37:00 - 00:37:14): No, he says, hi, I’m Peter. The last line, the last thing Peter says to Ned is, hi, I’m Peter. And he goes, Peter? And, uh, Ned puts two and two together.

Brent (00:37:15 - 00:37:19): Like, it’s, it’s Although I don’t know about that because of the handshake thing.

Gen (00:37:19 - 00:37:21): Yeah, he didn’t do the handshake with Ned as Spider-Man.

Kevin (00:37:21 - 00:37:36): No, the handshake, the handshake felt like reflex to me. That’s— I, I, I don’t, I don’t know if it’s memory or just muscle memory. It got to me, but like, I don’t think, I don’t think Ned has all his memories back.

Brent (00:37:36 - 00:37:40): I don’t think he has all of them, but I think there— it is in there.

Kevin (00:37:41 - 00:37:52): Yeah. And he, he wouldn’t have put— I don’t think he would have put Peter and Spider-Man together if MJ hadn’t called him Peter in their apartment when they were playing Genga or whatever it was they were playing.

Gen (00:37:52 - 00:37:54): They were playing Legos.

Brent (00:37:54 - 00:37:55): Yeah, they were playing Legos.

Speaker B (00:37:55 - 00:37:56): Yeah.

Ryan (00:37:57 - 00:38:15): Now in the comic book Brand New Day, after his deal with the devil to have everybody get his mind wiped of his identity, now If he reveals himself to them, then they get their memories of him back.

Gen (00:38:15 - 00:38:28): Yeah, because I was wondering why he wasn’t introducing himself as Peter to anybody. Well, okay, I get it with Bruce, but like, why wasn’t he telling MJ and Ned that his name was Peter?

Ryan (00:38:28 - 00:38:28): Yeah.

Gen (00:38:28 - 00:38:30): That didn’t make any sense.

Ryan (00:38:30 - 00:38:57): Also, in a few of these things, a few, I think in the comics, I don’t remember if there was in the cartoon as well, when even though Bruce doesn’t remember Spider-Man as Peter, Hulk does. And I don’t know if they explained it away in that Hulk wasn’t like— he wasn’t Hulk at the time of the wipe, or if it’s just something to do with the whole gamma radiation, the Hulk, his physiology and all that.

Gen (00:38:57 - 00:38:59): Okay, that’s a cool idea.

Ryan (00:38:59 - 00:39:25): I like that. So there’s times like at one point, I believe Uh, when they’re having an interaction, it’s like Hulk’s like, hey, you know, talking to him, and he’s, you know, like, you know, Peter friend or something like that. And he’s like, wait a minute, wait a minute, whoa, whoa, you know who I am? He’s like, yeah, why wouldn’t I? And it’s like, and as he’s, he’s like, Brittany, I think it’s down, and gives him a big hug or something because nobody knows, nobody else knows that he’s Spider-Man at that point.

Gen (00:39:25 - 00:39:30): That kind of makes the interaction where they’re fighting.

Ryan (00:39:30 - 00:39:32): That’s where I was going.

Gen (00:39:32 - 00:39:33): Yeah, that makes that make more sense.

Ryan (00:39:33 - 00:39:58): When he says, I’m your friend, and that’s— yeah, and you see the look where he can see, you know, the only time we ever see through the lens and see Peter’s eyes through the lens, and like the Hulk is seeing— like, is— it looks like he’s actually making eye contact with him, and he’s either, you know, either way he broke through to Bruce to get him to calm down.

Gen (00:39:58 - 00:40:01): So, um, well, he broke through to the Hulk and the Hulk calmed down.

Brent (00:40:01 - 00:40:12): Dude, do they ever meet? Not to throw water on that idea, but dude, like, I’m trying to pick— to go back. It’s been a while since I’ve watched the other—

Ryan (00:40:12 - 00:40:15): Well, they would have been at Tony’s funeral.

Brent (00:40:15 - 00:40:28): Okay, yeah, no, okay, gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. At the very least Like, the, the only thing I could think of was in Endgame where when Hulk uses the gauntlet.

Ryan (00:40:29 - 00:40:29): Yeah.

Brent (00:40:30 - 00:40:34): And brings everybody back. So like, there’s that brief minute there, kind of.

Ryan (00:40:34 - 00:40:38): But yeah, but he wouldn’t— even then he wouldn’t have been there yet because Peter comes through the portal.

Brent (00:40:38 - 00:40:40): Yeah, he comes through the portal.

Ryan (00:40:40 - 00:41:03): Fight. So it would have been everything after the death of Tony would have been when they would have met. So who knows, maybe that’s not part of this, but from the source material, that’s there. Um, yeah, I think that’s all my thoughts for now. I enjoyed it. Next.

Gen (00:41:03 - 00:41:06): Do you want me to go next?

Brent (00:41:06 - 00:41:10): Sure, go for it.

Gen (00:41:10 - 00:41:45): Okay, since I was supposed to go first and I just dumped it on Ryan. Um, I liked it too. It was very good. Uh, I love Spider-Man movies. Um, I haven’t read the source material, but, um, and I also did not see the Punisher TV show, but I loved, uh, favorite part of the whole movie were the interactions between Spider-Man and Frank and how they were like, they weren’t enemies, but they weren’t friends. They were kind of like almost like co-workers that you kind of get along with for a while until later on in the movie where they became friends.

Ryan (00:41:45 - 00:41:49): But well, you know, he saved his life that one time. Yeah.

Gen (00:41:49 - 00:44:10): Oh, I know, I love that because it’s like Spider-Man’s kind of treating him like this nuisance that keeps following him around, and Frank’s treating him the same way. Like, they each think the other is the nuisance that’s following him around. So I, I loved their uh, their friendship growing and, you know, the interactions that they had. And, um, I actually loved it at the very, very end where he wakes him up— he wakes up in the hospital and, uh, uh, Frank is like, were you crying? I can’t believe I saw you cry. And I, I think that, that, that’s the moment where, well, not only does Frank feel guilt for shooting him unintentionally. But I also feel like Frank is probably in that moment almost reliving the loss of his family and realizing how much this kid means to him, even if he is a nuisance. Um, so I really loved their dynamic. And, um, I really loved— I mean, it’s, it’s kind of a theme that I have, and, uh, with the superheroes that I enjoy the most, like Salem and Squirrel Girl. Um, I really like— and what, the Wonder Woman movie? I really like it when the, the, the end of the movie or the, the resolution of the movie doesn’t come from— it comes from love or acceptance or understanding or empathy. And I love that that’s where this movie went with Jean Grey, where she wasn’t a villain. She’s not like all the villains at the beginning that flash by so quickly I missed all of them, or Scorpion or anything like that. She is just an angry, scared, lost kid, exactly like Peter was. Um, and that they found each other, and that yes, there was obviously some twists and turns along the way because, you know, plot, but I love that the end of the movie was Jean kind of stepping into Peter’s shoes and listening to what Aunt May told to, to Peter and having that completely relate to her as well. And then having Peter step into that scene and, and Jean saying, yeah, yeah, but I’m all alone, and him saying, but you got me.

Speaker B (00:44:12 - 00:44:12): And—

Ryan (00:44:12 - 00:44:13): Yeah, that, that got me.

Gen (00:44:13 - 00:44:25): That got me. Because even though at the very end of the movie, like, she saves— she uses her powers to save him so he doesn’t die, and I don’t know how, they don’t specify, but that doesn’t matter. Um, but I love how—

Ryan (00:44:25 - 00:44:27): She kept him breathing.

Gen (00:44:27 - 00:46:02): Yeah. Oh yeah, she was breathing for him because you see that scene where he’s out of the woods and she stops breathing. She stops breathing and he’s breathing at the same time. But I love that, um, in just that short interaction. He helped— she helps him realize the changes he’s going through aren’t terrible, where he stops his inhibitor and fights the, the hand, not the foot, the hand. Um, but at the same time, he real— helps her realize that, you know, other ways to do things besides violence and vengeance and you know, you can be a better person and a bigger person and better than the people you’re fighting. So I really loved that. And I love that she didn’t stick around at the end. I like that she kind of left knowing that she has at least one other person in the world that she can talk to. Um, I hope she put herself in his phone or whatever. Um, I really loved, uh, I really like— I’m learning that I really like Zendaya. Yeah, she’s great. I like her. I, I mean, she’s, she’s not from my generation, so I never really saw her in any of her breakout roles, obviously. But everything that I’ve seen her in, I’ve really liked her in. And while she is very gorgeous and statuesque and fashionable on the runway, when you see her in interviews, she’s very down to earth and fun and funny and, and, and like genuine. And I really like that. Um, so I’m a big fan of Zendaya now.

Ryan (00:46:02 - 00:46:19): Did you guys— but I loved her clip of her at one of the late night shows recreating the dance scene from Spider-Man 3 when Tobey Maguire came out the door and did like that, those dance moves when he was all like emo Tobey, emo Spider-Man. So she recreated—

Gen (00:46:19 - 00:46:21): I think you sent a clip of that.

Ryan (00:46:21 - 00:46:23): Yes, I wasn’t sure if I did or not.

Gen (00:46:24 - 00:46:28): Yeah, no, she’s, she’s funny. I like her. I’m really happy for her and Tom Holland.

Ryan (00:46:28 - 00:46:29): Yes.

Gen (00:46:29 - 00:47:09): And, uh, they seem to be like genuine. Anyway, I’m going on a sappy rant now. Um, but anyway, I loved her MJ. I loved, um, I love the honesty that they had. That, okay, so she read the letter and she was like, were you gonna tell me about this? And he’s honestly saying, you know, why he didn’t. And her honest reaction of, you know, this girl meant the world to you and this girl was everything to you, but that’s not me. And I’m grateful for you for saving her, but I don’t know you. And that got me too.

Ryan (00:47:09 - 00:47:11): I was like, oh. Yeah.

Gen (00:47:11 - 00:47:21): But the fact that she’s honest enough to say that but also still open to befriending him, because she doesn’t— she invite him That’s when she invites him up, right?

Ryan (00:47:21 - 00:47:21): Yeah.

Gen (00:47:21 - 00:47:26): Uh, is that when she meets— when he meets Ned?

Brent (00:47:26 - 00:47:28): Yes.

Gen (00:47:28 - 00:48:04): I can’t remember. Yeah, so like, even though she is not that MJ, she is not Peter’s MJ, she still feels that connection the 3 of them have and is willing to— like, she doesn’t read that letter and go, oh, creepy stalker, get away from me. she’s still willing to, you know, even explore that because she’s like, she still obviously feels something even if it’s not what he feels. So I don’t know, I really loved how their whole dynamic was. And, uh, same with Ned. I love that he made the Spider-Man tracker.

Ryan (00:48:04 - 00:48:09): Yeah, even if I love who his suspects were.

Gen (00:48:09 - 00:48:27): Yeah. I love that he was so— was like, okay, again, I can’t really remember the first movie that much, but wasn’t he obsessed with Spider-Man in the first movie before he knew that it was Peter? Or did he know it was Peter right from the get-go?

Brent (00:48:27 - 00:48:38): No, he doesn’t know that it’s Peter right from the get-go, but pretty early on they’re supposed to make a Death Star together and Peter comes in in full costume.

Gen (00:48:40 - 00:49:19): Right. So, but I love that, that Spider-Man— like, he knows that he has a connection to Spider-Man. He’s just trying to figure it out. So I love that those kind of things from their old— like, their friendship and their love and their bond is so strong that it filters through the spell that Doctor Strange casts, whether they realize it or not. So anyway, that was my long rambly way of saying I really enjoyed this movie. Um, it is a strong contender for second favorite movie of the year because nothing— I don’t think anything’s gonna knock down Hail Mary. Um, so it is a strong contender for second favorite of the year. And I— if you liked any of the other Spider-Man movies, you definitely need to see this one.

Ryan (00:49:19 - 00:49:20): Right.

Gen (00:49:20 - 00:49:22): Okay, next.

Kevin (00:49:22 - 00:51:01): Yeah, no, I had a great time with this movie as well. I’ve been telling people who ask that be prepared for it to be a little bit darker than the last Spider-Man movies, mostly because Peter’s in a darker place when this movie starts. Um, nobody has mentioned the other sort of cameo character that has appeared in this film, and I loved her to bits. I love how confident Black Widow is. Um, oh yeah, yeah. Um, and the fact that, uh, yeah, uh, her office— I love her office. Um, yep, I love how Peter has to appear when he’s in her office. I think it’s very funny. I won’t say anything, go see it, you’ll, you’ll understand what I mean. Uh, Florence Pugh is great as, um, the new Black Widow, and, um, uh, sounds like in her mind the New Avengers are the premier super team of the MCU, which, uh, is kind of fun because we know that that’s gonna— something’s gonna happen there soon. Um, so yeah, I, I love Florence Pugh in this movie. I thought Spider— um, uh, Black Widow, not Spider-Woman, Black Widow was— Yes, another spider character. Um, uh, is, is— was great. Uh, I also want to mention, uh, Jean DeWolff. Um, Jean DeWolff, uh, is a character from ’80s era Spider-Man comics. There was a classic story arc, uh, called The Death of Jean DeWolff Um, she was like Peter’s, um, police contact, and she is in this film too. And she’s played by the actress from The Bear, um, who—

Ryan (00:51:01 - 00:51:03): That’s where she’s from. Okay.

Kevin (00:51:03 - 00:51:43): Yeah. Uh, she plays, um, the— she used to be a line cook and she’s learning how to be a chef. And yeah, anyway, uh, so she’s wonderful. I loved the dynamic between her and Peter. She doesn’t know who he is. But she’s really the only person he talks to and tells things to. And, uh, yeah, uh, so when— as soon as I saw her on screen, I’m like, oh, oh. And knowing that the death of Jean DeWolff was such a pivotal ’80s Spider-Man story, uh, I was worried she wasn’t gonna survive this movie. Um, I won’t say if she does or not, uh, but she’s a great character and I love her. I love her kids.

Gen (00:51:43 - 00:51:44): Yeah.

Kevin (00:51:44 - 00:52:17): Hey kids, Spider-Man says hi. Uh, I love that. Um, I wanted— I want to ask you guys a question, uh, because this hit me after seeing the movie. And we were— I mean, it, it leaked and it was spoiled that Jean Grey was the antagonist of this film. But if you didn’t know who Jean Grey was, Jean Grey is not a household name character. If you didn’t know who she was, would this story have resonated as much?

Brent (00:52:17 - 00:52:19): I think so.

Gen (00:52:19 - 00:52:31): Yeah, I think so, because it’s still the story of her trying to find and then avenge her sister. So even if you don’t know who Jean Grey is, you know she’s a powerful telepath.

Ryan (00:52:32 - 00:52:32): Yeah.

Gen (00:52:32 - 00:52:37): And you know that she’s got— the reason that she’s doing this is for her sister.

Ryan (00:52:38 - 00:52:38): Right.

Gen (00:52:39 - 00:52:43): Although that leads me to my question of, does Jean Grey have a sister canonically?

Brent (00:52:44 - 00:52:44): Yes.

Gen (00:52:45 - 00:52:46): Okay, I didn’t know that.

Kevin (00:52:48 - 00:52:48): Yes.

Brent (00:52:48 - 00:53:01): She just showed back up recently. Like, I feel that she’s— she may have been dead for a portion of time because, you know, that’s, that’s X-Men for you.

Gen (00:53:02 - 00:53:03): That’s comics for you.

Brent (00:53:04 - 00:53:16): It’s as one of my favorite internet webtoons from the mid-2000s puts it, like, you’re an X-Men, you die all the time. And Wolverine comes in and like, gosh, I’ve died like a million times.

Kevin (00:53:19 - 00:53:29): So yeah, I wondered about that. Like, we all know she’s a founding member of the X-Men, blah, blah, blah. This is not the same Jean Grey that we have seen in movies in the past.

Brent (00:53:30 - 00:53:30): Yeah.

Kevin (00:53:30 - 00:54:57): Whereas other X-Men, we are seeing the actors. We’re seeing Patrick Stewart, we’re seeing James Marsden, we’re seeing Kelsey Grammer. Uh, this is a new Jean Grey for a new Earth, right? This is not the Earth that the X-Men movies take place in. So, um, is there a chance we could get to see her, this, this Jean Grey, in a showdown with Famke Janssen’s Jean Grey? Or the Jean Grey from, uh, whoever played her in, um, um, First Class. Yeah, First Class. So, you know, um, interesting. There’s, uh, Sophie Turner played her in the, uh, yeah, um, so, you know, I just wondered, I wondered about that, um, because this is a Jean Grey that’s very angry. She’s, um, she doesn’t seem to care who she hurts. Um, and that’s not the sort of characterization we know— we’ve known of Jean Grey from other media. Uh, so I, again, I wondered if not— if, if people going in not knowing her history with the X-Men, um, whether, whether the film would resonate the same way. And you think she would? We need to talk to somebody who’s never heard of her before but has seen Spider-Man.

Brent (00:54:57 - 00:55:01): Which unfortunately was not any of the people we knew in that theater.

Kevin (00:55:01 - 00:55:05): No, everybody, everybody knows who—

Ryan (00:55:05 - 00:55:12): well, Jean Grey as a character has been in like, what, 5? At least 5 X-Men movies.

Brent (00:55:13 - 00:55:13): Yeah.

Ryan (00:55:13 - 00:55:19): Uh, Um, and then other like appearances in Wolverine movies.

Brent (00:55:20 - 00:55:20): Yeah.

Ryan (00:55:21 - 00:55:34): And mentions in anything X-Men. So yeah, if you’ve seen other— the other Marvel movies that aren’t MCU, chances are you’ve watched those. So you may be like, oh, Jean Grey.

Kevin (00:55:34 - 00:55:37): Yeah, yeah.

Brent (00:55:37 - 00:55:56): I, I think Kevin’s point stands. Oh, Yes, she’s not Wolverine. Yeah, but yeah, I don’t— I, I didn’t— I’m trying to think back to what kind of reaction that name reveal got in the movie. Now the thing is too is that’s been like rumored about for the last like little while.

Ryan (00:55:57 - 00:55:59): Yes, she is a redhead.

Gen (00:55:59 - 00:56:08): I had no idea because I didn’t read any of the rumors, got anything about this movie, so I had no idea that Jean Grey was in it. I was surprised.

Brent (00:56:08 - 00:56:16): Now also, like, for people like me, my predictions on this movie were completely and utterly wrong, pretty much top to bottom.

Ryan (00:56:16 - 00:56:24): So, well, I remember at one point people were saying that the villain was gonna be Mr. Negative.

Brent (00:56:26 - 00:56:37): I, I could have sworn they like said he was in the movie But maybe not. Maybe it was just somebody read into it.

Ryan (00:56:37 - 00:56:40): Yeah, with the whole body swapping thing.

Brent (00:56:40 - 00:56:57): Yeah, and I was like, I was looking through the cast because usually, like, kind of like what Gen said about like a redhead, automatically she’s Jean Grey. Like, like, it was like there was only 2 people she could be. It was Jean Grey or it was the real MJ.

Ryan (00:56:57 - 00:57:00): Yeah, now with psychic powers.

Brent (00:57:00 - 00:57:28): Yeah, which neither one really made sense right out of the gate. Um, so, you know, was there an Asian actor who was signed up for this movie that didn’t make the cut at the end of the day? I don’t know, that like they— that people could have just latched on to. But maybe it was also because the, uh, the ninjas were in there for a while.

Ryan (00:57:28 - 00:57:29): Yeah.

Kevin (00:57:29 - 00:57:35): Oh, I did like the ninjas. I like the way they would jump on each other’s back even though they were—

Brent (00:57:35 - 00:57:46): Oh, it was, it was total wushu martial arts. Yeah, yeah, martial arts style. That was cool, which was really cool. Like, it fits with Spider-Man though, right?

Kevin (00:57:46 - 00:57:49): Yeah, yeah. Love them. I love the hand.

Brent (00:57:52 - 00:58:10): So I guess we’re, we’re down to me. Uh, no surprise, I really liked the movie. Uh, the only thing that like I, I kind of like— it’s not even a nitpick, but they introduced Tombstone and then like you snap your fingers and that was it.

Kevin (00:58:10 - 00:58:11): Yeah.

Brent (00:58:11 - 00:58:40): I, I kind of— and Marvin Jones III, who is a very solid actor, and like the minute we heard that he was playing Tombstone, like, oh yeah, he fits, um, especially since I didn’t realize this, he’s the guy who voiced Tombstone in, uh, Into the— Enter the Spider— or Into the Spider-Verse, sorry, the, the 2018 movie. So it’s like he’s played that character before too, but it was kind of like, oh, he doesn’t really get to do much.

Ryan (00:58:40 - 00:58:42): Hey, but he got lines.

Brent (00:58:42 - 00:58:57): Yeah, he’s the one who got lines. Tarantula and Boomerang, however, Uh, sorry guys. Apparently the actor who plays Tarantula has come out and said they filmed more stuff that got edited too, kind of to the surprise of no one.

Kevin (00:58:57 - 00:59:06): But even, um, even Scorpion, while he did have a bigger part, wasn’t that big a part of them.

Brent (00:59:06 - 00:59:28): No. The, uh, the, the one thing— now this is just a bit of interesting casting, like there’s nothing to it, but did— I didn’t realize it, but did anybody, uh, notice who, uh, MJ’s boyfriend at the party was?

Ryan (00:59:28 - 00:59:32): Oh, you mean Ezra Bridger? Or Ezra the Hunter?

Brent (00:59:32 - 00:59:36): It’s like he looks familiar, and I didn’t realize it until like reading up on it the other day.

Gen (00:59:36 - 00:59:37): Yeah.

Kevin (00:59:37 - 00:59:39): Oh, I thought it was Flash Thompson.

Gen (00:59:39 - 00:59:40): I don’t—

Ryan (00:59:40 - 00:59:42): oh, nope, nope.

Kevin (00:59:44 - 00:59:45): That’s who it looked like to me.

Ryan (00:59:45 - 00:59:47): I can see that.

Brent (00:59:47 - 00:59:51): It’s similar hair, similar hair, similar build structure.

Ryan (00:59:51 - 01:00:13): Yeah, but yeah, no, it was the actor who plays Ezra Bridger in Ahsoka, which means, you know, Jedis are in the, the Marvel Universe now. Well, we know that, you know, they watched that, they watched that classic movie, you know. Empire Strikes Back, Ned had it on his— on his— one of his side screens while he was playing with his spider tracker.

Brent (01:00:13 - 01:00:50): Yeah, the, um, to go along that, it did insert like— I was— so, um, Keith David, one of my favorite character actors, uh, you know, in one of my favorite movies of all time, John Carpenter’s The Thing. He’s also in They Live. He does a lot of voiceovers. He was the voice of Goliath and Gargoyles. He was on all the red carpet stuff. Like, I saw him in a bunch of things and like, who is he in this movie? And like, it took so long, like, oh, he’s the voiceover of the nature documentary that Peter’s watching on spiders.

Kevin (01:00:50 - 01:00:52): Nice.

Brent (01:00:52 - 01:01:25): But, uh, yeah, um, We’ll see. This is the first Marvel movie in quite some time to be like dominating box office-wise too. It is currently— the latest dailies show it at like over $168 million, which means it’s getting close to its budget. Can it make a profit off of it? We shall see.

Kevin (01:01:25 - 01:01:34): What was the last Marvel movie? Was it Fantastic Four? There hasn’t been anything since Fantastic Four, right?

Ryan (01:01:34 - 01:01:44): Yes. Yeah, that sounds right. Then something’s gonna be like, oh, you guys forgot about this.

Gen (01:01:44 - 01:01:52): Like, oh yeah, been so many movies, it’s really hard to keep them all straight, especially what the order they came out with.

Ryan (01:01:54 - 01:01:56): Yep.

Brent (01:01:57 - 01:02:07): So, uh, yes, uh, Spider-Man: Brand New Day. If you like Spider-Man movies, go see it. If you don’t like Spider-Man movies, yeah, this one may change your mind. It’s hard to say.

Ryan (01:02:07 - 01:02:08): Yeah, give it a shot.

Brent (01:02:08 - 01:02:19): Give it a shot. Uh, this is definitely the, the, the, the next— the— was it you, Ryan, was saying that it like, it sounds like they’re doing a trilogy of movies?

Ryan (01:02:21 - 01:02:22): Uh, no, I didn’t.

Brent (01:02:22 - 01:02:26): Oh, okay. I thought, I thought somebody mentioned that.

Ryan (01:02:26 - 01:02:31): So there’s been a few people that have said that, but I have not heard them say anything. I don’t—

Gen (01:02:31 - 01:02:32): I hope they do.

Ryan (01:02:32 - 01:02:52): I haven’t heard them say anything about his contract other than I think— I believe his contract was up after the last Spider-Man movie, and that’s why there was speculation, oh, that’s it. But then, you know, they signed on again. Now, how many picture deal was it? knows. Uh, does it include Doomsday and Secret Wars? Who knows.

Brent (01:02:52 - 01:03:06): It definitely sounds like— like, from watching this movie, this definitely sounds like that— like there is at least one more in the pipe. Yeah, like we, we have a lot of loose ends here.

Ryan (01:03:06 - 01:03:10): So, well, it did say Spider-Man will return.

Gen (01:03:10 - 01:03:11): Yes.

Ryan (01:03:13 - 01:03:23): Yeah, but didn’t say in what movie or what capacity. Um, I could see him not necessarily being in Doomsday, yeah, being in Secret Wars.

Brent (01:03:23 - 01:03:47): I, I agree with that. That, that would be my guess. I kind of feel Doom or, uh, Secret Wars is going to focus in on the younger heroes. I haven’t— this is just a gut feeling for me, but that is Because if you look at the casts and stuff for Doomsday, it’s all the old guys, relatively speaking.

Gen (01:03:47 - 01:03:49): That’s because they were like, the old guys make money.

Brent (01:03:49 - 01:04:09): Yes. No, you were not wrong. But it kind of like, it feels like maybe the younger cast will be the focus of the next movie. But we shall see. We have at Christmas will be Christmas time will be when we find out at least part of the answer to that question.

Gen (01:04:09 - 01:04:12): Um, yeah, I don’t want to think about Christmas yet.

Patreon and Community

Brent (01:04:12 - 01:05:37): Yeah, me neither. Alrighty, that brings us to the— towards the end of this episode. And with that, Patreon shoutouts. patreon.com/TrueNorthNerds if you would like to help us out, uh, keep bringing this show to you. Um, Excuse me, uh, $3 a month helps us out, and it also gets you, uh, free, uh, stuff in, uh, that are only for Patreons. Wow, that was a jumbled up word salad. Uh, like, uh, Listen to This, a music nerd show, which if you go there right now, there will be a brand new episode up. I am uploading it shortly after we are done recording, uh, because I got the okay from the— from Rex and from Alex to put it up. So there it is. Um, you will also, if you go through the archives of it, there is the first season of Kung Fu Island. Um, season 2 has been long promised. It is not dead, but it is being complicated by day jobs. So, um, I, I’m actually hopefully going to be talking to, uh, Nate Milton shortly about, uh, reviving it amongst other things, uh, and you also get a shout out. So shout outs go to Drew, Karina, Alex, Team Woods, who apparently, uh, one of our members— one of our number, uh, ran into today.

Kevin (01:05:37 - 01:05:41): I did. I saw. Hello to Trent and Heather.

Brent (01:05:41 - 01:05:49): Thank you very much for the website that you designed. And, uh, also Maple Printing and our good friend Rex.

Speaker B (01:05:49 - 01:05:49): Rex.

Brent (01:05:50 - 01:06:03): So, uh, thank you very much, all of you, um, especially Rex, who I’ll be seeing in 2 weeks in person. Uh, who has a geek pick? Who wants to go first?

Geek Picks

Kevin (01:06:03 - 01:06:04): I can.

Brent (01:06:04 - 01:06:05): Okay, you go.

Kevin (01:06:05 - 01:07:26): So, uh, a, a universe-shattering multiverse story featuring characters from legacy media— doesn’t that sound like a great premise for a TV show? It does, because it’s the premise of Stuart Saves— Stuart Fails to Save the Universe, the newest Big Bang Theory spin-off. Uh, basically it’s a comedic take on Sliders. Uh, in the pilot episode, we learned that Sheldon and Leonard, uh, built some kind of crazy dimension-breaking device, and it has created a universe where zombies Uh, um, pull up out of the ground and giant moths attack with reckless abandon. Uh, so Stuart, uh, Stuart and his ex-girlfriend Denise and, uh, I can never remember his name but he’s played by Brian Posehn, the geologist, they are sent on a quest by a parallel dimension Stuart to go to the university to break the machine and, uh, hijinks ensue. Uh, I thought the pilot was quite clever and funny. The humor may not be for everyone’s taste, but, uh, if you like the secondary characters on The Big Bang Theory, then I say give Stuart Fails to Save the Universe a shot.

Gen (01:07:26 - 01:07:33): I want to watch that, actually. I’ve, I’ve seen the, like, previews for it, and it looks funny.

Ryan (01:07:34 - 01:07:37): So it is on Crave.

Kevin (01:07:37 - 01:07:37): It is on Crave.

Gen (01:07:38 - 01:07:39): Okay, good to know.

Ryan (01:07:39 - 01:07:43): Uh, I almost used that as my pick today too.

Kevin (01:07:43 - 01:07:46): Glad I went first then.

Speaker B (01:07:46 - 01:07:48): Yep.

Gen (01:07:48 - 01:07:49): Uh, do you want to go next, Ryan?

Ryan (01:07:49 - 01:09:46): I sure will. Uh, my pick, I will go with the comic, and we all know I’m a sucker for a blind bag comic, and this week, uh, I was not disappointed. There was a new blind bag for The Queen in Black, which is the latest Marvel big crossover event because, you know, there has to be a new one every other week. Uh, in this one, Hela, uh, you know, the Queen of Hell, the Asgardian, uh, she, I guess before this, had taken over, uh, control of the symbiotes from Knull and is now the Queen in Black. And she’s got her sights set on, you know, first conquering Earth and then the rest of existence. Uh, so of course the heroes have to team up to, to defeat her, but then they also have to deal with the King in White, which is now Knull. So you got 2 opposing forces both trying to end everything, and all of our heroes stuck in the middle. Uh, the blind bags themselves were pretty cool. Uh, in this case, you didn’t have to worry about getting like, you know, a Cover A or a Cover B. any of the covers in the blind bag were not ones that could be ordered separately. Uh, I got lucky. I got the Stegman design cover and the variant of the Gleason, like, sketchy Queen in Black cover. Shiny one too. Uh, I also pre-ordered the regular Gleason cover and was lucky enough to get the one from the if you— there’s a deal where if you buy a whole box, there’s a special insert in it, and I was able to get my hands on one of those inserts. Uh, so I got all 3 of the Gleason covers, which are awesome because I really like his covers. So yep, go ahead, go find your local comic shop and give, uh, The Queen in Black a shot. Next.

Gen (01:09:46 - 01:10:10): Uh, I kind of have 2, but I’ll make the first one a quickie. Um, I finished listening to, uh, Dungeon Crawler Karl, which is hard to say. Um, I just finished it today, actually. And echoing Kevin’s review, it’s awesome. You should— everybody should either read it or, uh, the Audible, uh, audiobook was amazing.

Brent (01:10:10 - 01:10:12): Yeah.

Gen (01:10:12 - 01:10:16): And, um, now anytime something happens in my life, I keep thinking, new achievement!

Kevin (01:10:17 - 01:10:30): Um, Oh, that’s another bit of San Diego news that we didn’t mention, is that Jeff Hayes, the voice actor who reads the Dungeon Crawler Carl books, has been cast to play Princess Donut in the live-action TV series.

Gen (01:10:30 - 01:10:32): Does he do all the voices in that audiobook?

Kevin (01:10:32 - 01:10:33): All of them.

Gen (01:10:33 - 01:10:35): Wow, he’s good.

Kevin (01:10:35 - 01:10:37): He’s very, very good.

Gen (01:10:37 - 01:10:44): So now I’m sticking with this Audible subscription so that I can listen to all these books, but I gotta wait until next month for my free book.

Kevin (01:10:45 - 01:10:49): There will be, there will be 10 books altogether, I think.

Gen (01:10:49 - 01:11:37): So yeah, I’m gonna have to, I have to subscribe to Audible for a while. Um, so yeah, my other geek pick is I have started watching, uh, Young Sherlock on Amazon Prime. Oh, and it is, um, developed by Guy Ritchie, uh, and it’s about Sherlock Holmes when he’s probably about 19 or 20. He’s young and he becomes friends with James Moriarty. So it’s awesome seeing the two of them together because I love that their dynamic is that they’re always trying to prove that the other one is the smarter one, but they’re still buddies. It’s really funny. And also Colin Firth is in it as hang on, look at the wiki. Do do do do. Bucephalus Hodge.

Brent (01:11:38 - 01:11:46): Uh, I had Bucephalus once. Good dose of, uh, Pepto-Bismol cleared it right up.

Ryan (01:11:46 - 01:11:47): Oh, nice.

Gen (01:11:48 - 01:12:21): So the thing that’s hilarious is that Bucephalus is actually the name of Alexander the Great’s horse. Um, there’s your fun classics fact for the, for the podcast. Uh, Max Irons is Mycroft Holmes. Uh, so the guy playing Sherlock is Hero Fiennes-Tiffin. And James Moriarty, I’m not going to pronounce his name right because it’s, uh, I think Welsh and it has a little accent over the O, but it’s Domhnall Finn. Oh no, he’s Irish, sorry. Uh, but I don’t know how to pronounce that accent properly, so apologies. I love him, he’s so good in this.

Ryan (01:12:21 - 01:12:22): Hmm.

Gen (01:12:22 - 01:13:08): The, the show itself is shot like— you can tell it’s a Guy Ritchie-inspired or produced by or whatever. It’s very much shot like a Guy Ritchie movie. Um, the characters are great. It kind of— every episode ends not on a— well, kind of on a cliffhanger so that you want to keep watching the next episode. I think I’ve gone about 5 episodes in. Yeah, I’ve been watching them on Fridays, uh, when I work from home because they’re about an hour long and that’s how long my lunch break is. So yeah, I recommend if you have Amazon Prime— don’t get Amazon Prime just for this, but if you have Amazon Prime already and you like Sherlock, you should give this show a try.

Kevin (01:13:08 - 01:13:12): Sounds very cool.

Speaker B (01:13:12 - 01:13:14): Cool.

Brent (01:13:15 - 01:13:27): For my geek pick, I am going with a little bit of film nerdiness. Uh, I would like to recommend Michael Mann’s Heat, which I rewatched last night. Uh, man, that movie is still fantastic.

Gen (01:13:27 - 01:13:28): And loud.

Brent (01:13:28 - 01:14:32): Well, that, that’s due to us not having 5.1 and it being mixed kind of weird on Blu-ray. There might be a better version of it floating around out there. Um, or if you have 5.1, you’re probably good. Came out in 1995. It’s a crime film. It is really well done. And, uh, it stars Al Pacino back before he started doing a caricature of himself as an actor. And, uh, same with Robert De Niro for that matter. And, uh, you know, also has, uh, people like Tom Sizemore. He’s one of those guys who, like, I forgot, like, how solid of an actor he was, uh, until, uh, he wasn’t kind of thing. And, uh, Val Kilmer, Jon Voight, uh, that movie, it’s just an awesome crime drama, and I highly recommend watching it if you have not seen it before. Uh, coming back in 2 weeks, um, well, Gen and I probably won’t be here because we will be on vacation in Montreal, so it should be just the Kevin and Ryan Show.

Closing

Gen (01:14:32 - 01:14:33): Whoa!

Kevin (01:14:33 - 01:14:37): And I will have just returned from my trip to Star Trek Las Vegas.

Brent (01:14:37 - 01:14:38): Yes.

Kevin (01:14:38 - 01:14:54): So I’ll have some Trip Report stuff to do, and I’m sure there’ll be— oh, there’s new season, new episodes of Strange New Worlds we could talk about, and Batman, and all kinds of things. So there’s lots to talk about, right, Ryan?

Ryan (01:14:54 - 01:15:00): Yep.

Brent (01:15:02 - 01:15:13): So, uh, yeah, um, tune in for that episode. Join the Patreon at patreon.com/TrueNorthNerds. And until next time, abomasday.

Kevin (01:15:13 - 01:15:14): Bye!

Outro

Kirby Crackle (01:15:14 - 01:15:18): [Theme song lyrics omitted.]

Rex (01:15:19 - 01:15:47): Thank you for listening to the True North Nerds. You can find us at truenorthnerds.com, on Facebook, X, and Instagram at True North Nerds. To contact one or any of the nerds, email them at truenorthnerds@gmail.com. Theme music provided by Kirby Crackle. You can find more of their music at KirbyCrackleMusic.com. If you’d like to support the show, please consider becoming a Patreon at patreon.com/TrueNorthNerds, or go to your podcast app of choice and rate and review us.