Comic Book Chaos: From Pajama Suits to the MCU Multiverse

In this episode of Original Geek, Steve and Jeff dive into the radioactive vat of comic book nostalgia—from the days of Richie Rich and spinner racks to MCU blockbusters and spandex evolution.

🎭 Who’s the best Batman? (Hint: It’s Keaton vs. Bale in Geek Court)
 💥 What comic book movie was an epic fail? (Sorry, Green Lantern)
 🦸‍♂️ Which heroes defined Gen X geek culture? (Wolverine, we see you)

Plus: basement treasures, costume glow-ups, and why Gen Z needs to stop tanking shows like The Acolyte.

If you remember plastic bags, foil covers, and comic shops that smelled like dust and dreams—this one's for you.

🧠 Tell us your favorite superhero, your first comic, or what deserves a reboot. Hit us at OriginalGeekPodcast.com and join the tribe.

#OriginalGeek  #ComicBookNostalgia  #MCU  #BestBatmanDebate  #WolverineForever  #KeatonVsBale  #GreenLanternFail  #BasementTreasure  #GenXGeek  #GeekCulturePodcast  #SpiderManNoWayHome #ComicBookPodcast

Welcome to Original Geek—the podcast for anyone who rolled their first d20 on shag carpet, waited hours for a comic book JPEG to load on dial-up, and wore the label “geek” back when it got you mocked, not monetized.

Hosted by stand-up comic Steve Scarfo and Forever DM Jeff Shaw, we dive deep into what it meant to be a geek in the '70s and '80s—and how that underground culture became the mainstream multiverse we live in today.

🎙️ Subscribe for weekly episodes on Dungeons & Dragons, Star Wars, comic book chaos, geek court debates, and critical hits from your childhood basement.

👾 Follow us @OriginalGeekPodcast on socials and visit OriginalGeekPodcast.com for merch, extras, and to send us your own geeky tales.

If you ever hid a Monster Manual like it was porn, you’re not alone. You’re an Original Geek. Welcome home.

Chapters

• 0:00 Show Intro and Todays Topic: Comic Books
• 8:56 Geek Flashback
• 12:35 Geek Court
• 19:38 Basement Treasures
• 25:35 Geek Rant
• 31:14 Critical Hits & Epic Fails
• 40:17 Geek Evolution
• 45:37 Ask an O.G.

Transcript

Steve Scarfo (00:16.896)
Yeah.

Jeff (00:22.542)
Nice.

Steve Scarfo (00:22.652)
All right. Welcome back to Original Geek. It's the podcast for anyone who rolled dice in a basement, waited hours to download comic covers on dial-up, and proudly wore the label Geek back when it was a target and not a trend. We're going to dive deep into what it meant to be. all right. That's I'm just going to start over. I can edit this out. I learned today. I'll just leave the music on.

Jeff (00:29.582)
you

Jeff (00:42.702)
What?

Steve Scarfo (00:48.622)
Fuck, I fucked one up already.

Jeff (00:51.128)
That you leave it in.

Steve Scarfo (00:52.802)
Leave it in. All right, hold on. I'm going to put a mark just in case. I'll put a mark. Hold on. I put an on my notes.

Steve Scarfo (01:02.336)
OK, here we go. All right. Welcome back to Original Geek. This is the podcast for anyone who rolled dice in a basement, waited hours to download comic covers on dial up and proudly wore the label geek back when it was a target and not a trend. We're going to dive deep into what it meant to be a geek in the 70s and 80s and how that compares to the mainstream world we live in today. We are two of the Gen X survivors who didn't just watch geek culture evolve. We lived through it. Every awkward.

Hi, I'm Steve Scarfo.

Jeff (01:35.502)
I'm Jeff Shaw, we'll be your radioactive spiders for today's Multiversal Crossover. Last week we talked about Dungeons & Dragons, and just so know, we'll come back to Dungeons & Dragons today. What are we talking about?

Steve Scarfo (01:56.654)
Today we're going all comics, comic books, MCU. We're gonna talk a little bit of DC. I'm wearing a little Star Labs t-shirt. Bonus points if someone can tell me where that's from. And if you're a geek, you probably already know. If you're not a geek, you don't know who this is, this might not be the right show for you. It's sort of a moderate cut at best. It's not all that deep if you're in our world. But that's a great point.

Jeff (01:59.022)
Ooh.

Jeff (02:15.384)
Deep Cut.

Steve Scarfo (02:25.582)
We're gonna talk about all sorts of stuff. did D &D, today we're doing comics. We're probably gonna jump into some science fiction next week. We'll be talking all sorts of stuff. So today, we're gonna start with the evolution of the superhero culture from the golden age of comics to the MCU multi-million dollar blockbuster.

Jeff (02:45.688)
Perfect. Looking forward to it.

Steve Scarfo (02:47.052)
So, all right, so let's start off with where, you know, if you look back from where we are today, it started with Marvel in DC kind of shaping this world. You know, when we were kids, we talked a little bit last week about going to that store and grabbing those books and bagging them up and and the horrible, horrible shows that they had. I remember the first Spider-Man TV show. You could see the stitching across his head.

for the ridiculous mask they put him on.

Jeff (03:20.014)
Yeah, but we did have good animated content and actually...

the, well I mean, not compared to today, but the Super Friends. Like they were great. That was good. And then, I did not remember, like, well, I should say, I didn't know I was watching these in reruns. Like I actually thought the Adam West Batman, I liked it, but I was a, I was kid and they were campy and it worked. And that's what in the 1940s, that's DC Comics, they were it.

Steve Scarfo (03:31.84)
You

Gleapin' gloop.

Steve Scarfo (03:47.556)
Mm-hmm.

Jeff (03:55.32)
There was no Marvel at that time. And there was, there were timely comics at that time, timely time. So there was Catholic America and Submariner, Human Torch. But yeah, but it was, no, Fantastic Four came later. 40s, DC ruled. DC, yeah, like it started out, yeah, like it was.

Steve Scarfo (04:10.488)
fantastic for we're around you.

Steve Scarfo (04:18.71)
you mean the DC Human Torch, not Johnny Storm.

Jeff (04:25.016)
And this before our time, do wanna, we always talk about we're the OGs, we're Gen X, but I wanna give the boomers some love right now. Because in all honesty, without Stanley, without his thinking, hey, these comic books, they don't have to be for little kids, which is what a lot of DC stuff was.

Steve Scarfo (04:36.132)
how this is

Jeff (04:52.302)
We can write it for late teens, we can write it for adults. And thank you, Boomers, for doing that because, I mean, the comics that we enjoyed that were more geared, like my favorite comics were Marvel. And that was more for late teens and adults.

Steve Scarfo (05:13.656)
yeah, the two I remember the most. And I agree, let me give it up for the Boomers because the George Reeve Superman were some of the first comic book stuff I remember seeing. I don't remember, I should have done some better research on this. I don't remember the year that came out. But I must have been a kid watching reruns, because they were all black and white. But to see him run in and pull off the coat and to see him fly for that first time was just...

Jeff (05:22.04)
the

Jeff (05:33.73)
Yeah, black and white, early 60s.

Steve Scarfo (05:42.264)
like awe-inspiring as a child to see that on screen. We would not be anywhere. I mean, I think we did more than they did. But no, that's where we all started. But yeah, I remember...

Jeff (05:53.048)
Well, I wasn't too bright because like I said, like I thought the Adam West Batman was brand new when we were kids and I, George Hugh Superman. I didn't know any better. I first saw that. wow.

Steve Scarfo (05:58.017)
you

Steve Scarfo (06:02.957)
Yes.

Steve Scarfo (06:07.044)
But when we talk about what we collected, first, the two books I remember the most and probably the ones I spent the most of my time with were the Todd McFarlane's Spider-Man, because the artwork he had on those covers was amazing. And Wolverine when he got his own book, back before he was the thing he is today, you know, before the greatest showman there put him on, put him on screen for us and made him awesome.

I'm just trying to blank on the guy's name, but Hugh Jackman. Thank you. Huge Ackman.

Jeff (06:37.934)
Hugh Jackman?

Well, yeah, mean, Wolverine was like dirty Harry. He was like he like like it could not be more different from Superman. Superman is clean, super clean, did the right thing, certainly wouldn't kill anyone. And here's Wolverine with claws. It was amazing.

Steve Scarfo (07:06.106)
yeah, completely the opposite. Even Batman, who was a grimier version in DC, still didn't want to kill people like he sometimes bad guys got really badly hurt. know, Superman always made sure everyone safe Wolverine, the best with a bloody claws like all you saw was blood dripping off the blades. And then, of course, later they got more graphic. But. Yeah, some of the. The way it went from where.

Jeff (07:25.964)
Yeah.

Steve Scarfo (07:34.734)
where it was so clean and pristine and like you said, kid-like.

Jeff (07:39.554)
Yeah. I it was meant it was for kids and it, and like I said, like, thank you, boomers. Well, specifically Stan Lee. I don't know if he's technically a boomer or what is it? The silent generation I think is before that, but, but it's the, but, but it took like, cause we were kids when in 78, that's when Superman, the movie of Christopher Reeves.

Steve Scarfo (07:56.814)
Stan's his own generation. gets an O. He's the Stan Lee generation.

Jeff (08:09.358)
And, um, you know, so Gen X we can't take credit for supermans, like being the first good quality movie for a superhero, but man, we can take, we can, I think, take credit for Wolverine's success. I think so.

Steve Scarfo (08:28.356)
I think, so I think I know what you're saying, but I disagree a little bit because 78 we were kids, but it was interest from us and maybe the few years older, the late boomer, early Gen Xers, you know, cause we're a few years in that really drove them to make that first Superman movie. So we might've been kids when it came out, but it was our generations buying

of these comic books that led these companies to say, this is a property, you know? And obviously, again, not the first one. There were a couple different versions of the TV show, and Superman was, think, an audio serial back before TVs were even a thing. So the character's been around forever, but the drive to put it on a movie, in a real movie, not just a TV with, you know, crazy bad special effects and...

Jeff (09:26.562)
Yeah.

Steve Scarfo (09:27.362)
I saw a clip earlier today. It was a real person jumping into the air and then an animated Superman in black and white. And then he goes behind a rock and then a real guy jumps up. And it was so obviously a cartoon in between. It was ridiculous and hysterical and I loved it.

Jeff (09:48.994)
So, is it time for a geek flashback?

Steve Scarfo (09:51.97)
I think so. So Jeff is going to lead us in very nicely in the segue, by the way, to something we didn't do in the first episode. We had planned it, but we didn't really talk about it. We have different segments we're going to talk about. And this one is the geek flashback. So there'll be a thing that drops in here. I probably will leave that in too. So here's our flashback talk topic. And feel free if you guys are listening to play along.

We'll talk a little bit more about how you can interact with us in the show too. But I'm gonna, you know where this is coming. What was your first comic book? What was the first? Yeah, we'll start with the first comic book. There's a couple different questions there.

Jeff (10:36.77)
I have to admit it was probably like Richie Rich or Casper or Wendy. Most likely it was that because someone else would have bought that for me. So I would have liked my parents, my grandma, someone would have bought that for me and they would have bought me the little kid comic book. But what stands out to me as my first superhero one,

Steve Scarfo (10:42.072)
Yes.

Jeff (11:06.726)
And of course it is my memory exactly right on this. don't know. That was a long time ago, but I still, remember this cover from at least if it was my first, it was one of my first. And I love that they recreated this in the Avengers and it was Ant-Man on the arrowhead of Hawkeye's arrow. Going to get launched.

Steve Scarfo (11:13.028)
You

Jeff (11:36.43)
and that was on the cover and it was awesome. And was that absolutely my very first Avengers comic? Maybe not, but certainly pretty close to it. Would have been late 70s, early 80s.

Steve Scarfo (11:51.534)
That was a pretty cool image. guess, so this is where you and I follow differently on the books that we read, because I didn't start reading Avengers until I think after you and I started being friends. I was stuck, I think I had some of the same Richie Rich, like original kiddo comics back in the day. The first ones I remember buying are those ones I was just talking about, the McFarlane Spider-Mans and the Wolverines. And it had to be from an X-Men.

that I fell in love with Wolverine because there was something about that character. I think the healing and the fact that he was always so reckless was so cool. But I remember buying that first, goodness, it was for at least a while worth quite a bit. I had the very first Wolverine in a bag, backered. I think I bought two, red one, and immediately bagged the second. You know, those.

Jeff (12:44.398)
Smart.

Steve Scarfo (12:48.886)
I still have it somewhere. think I still have some of them. I lost a bunch and a flood, which is a family trauma I'll have to process on another episode. it was something magical about seeing him in his own story. And I goof around about forgetting the name, but Hugh Jackman playing him on screen. If you had looked at some of the other movies Hugh Jackman had done, I'd have been like, no, he's horrible.

he totally embodied that part. But yeah, so I'm going to say X-Men was my favorite, my favorite first image of a comic book cover.

Jeff (13:30.766)
Nice. Nice.

Steve Scarfo (13:34.468)
All right. So let's jump into, you know, these things will get different every time we do them. Just bear with us. And maybe I'll cut this part out too.

Jeff (13:46.222)
Well, I think it's time for geek co-

Steve Scarfo (13:49.198)
Geek Court.

Jeff (13:51.458)
We've been on the same page for most of this episode and all. And in last one, it's time to.

Steve Scarfo (14:01.476)
So I really want to use the sound from Law and Order, the conk-conk, but I'm feeling we'll get in trouble. So I'll just use what I just did. I don't think they'll notice it as their sound. Geek Court, all right, so here we go. And listen, again, jump into this conversation. OriginalGeekPodcast.gmail.com. Tell us what you think. If we are on target or full of shit. But here's the biggest question for today.

Who was the better movie Batman, Michael Keaton or Christian Bale? We're not even gonna count Affleck.

He was the most recent. That's what you can say about Affleck. He was the most recent.

Jeff (14:41.55)
Well, wait a second. All right. But you're also skipping Val Kilmer and George Clooney.

Steve Scarfo (14:52.366)
George Clooney.

You want me to put, you want to put all five on the table? All right. We were going to go Keaton or Bale, but let's throw them all up there. So we got Michael Keaton, the original, Val Kilmer came number two, George Clooney jumped in there number three, Christian Bale admittedly did the darkest, grittiest one. And then.

Jeff (15:09.774)
Yeah. Yeah.

which is why is my choice?

Steve Scarfo (15:17.216)
And then of course, Ben Affleck.

Jeff (15:20.448)
Okay, yeah, no.

Steve Scarfo (15:22.284)
Yeah, come on, gotta, don't get me wrong, I love bad mouth like.

Jeff (15:24.98)
Immediately off the, George Clooney, Aflac, immediately off. And just so you know, I'm not one of those haters of the Aflac version. It's just, he's not as, and I know Kilmer only got one shot, but it may be we're Gen X and that's why I love Val Kilmer, but I do wish we had had more Val Kilmer Batman, but.

Steve Scarfo (15:46.936)
I I wanted to see Val Kilmer do his character from Top Gun with the teeth. The Iceman with the teeth talking to, you know, talking to the penguin. Come on penguin, let's go. You know what I mean? I'll have to cut the cough, pardon me. So why, we gotta, I mean, I like the Christian Bale version, but I'm telling you, it's gotta be Keaton.

Jeff (15:54.335)
Iceman

Jeff (15:58.638)
Yes.

Steve Scarfo (16:17.324)
So Keaton was the original. Keaton had to wear the crappiest costume of all of them. It was like one molded piece and he still made it look pretty damn cool. Keaton got a couple of movies, at least two. I think it was two.

Jeff (16:33.998)
Well, tactically three, he got the flash. He got to come back.

Steve Scarfo (16:39.2)
We're going to we're going to talk a little bit about the cameo in the flash later, no, Michael Keaton. So here's a deal. Michael Keaton was a guy known for movies like Mr. Mom. You know, I mean, he was a comedic actor. He is a comedic actor. Michael Keaton did Multiplicity, one of my favorite movies where he played five different characters and pretty convincingly, I thought. But again, a comedy. And then he drops into

and that order is probably wrong. But then as Batman, Michael Keaton was a whole, like to me that showed him become a different genre, become a different character. I I loved Michael Keaton showing off his darker side, even though he had probably the tamest of the dark sides.

Jeff (17:32.642)
The tamest?

Steve Scarfo (17:34.862)
Well, mean, Christian Bale was a lot grittier. There was a, but his movie was a different time.

Jeff (17:39.406)
George Clooney of the tamest, come on. He had actually had a sidekick with it, you know.

Steve Scarfo (17:44.738)
Well, holy rusted metal, Batman. I do agree. Chris O'Donnell as Robin was probably not.

Jeff (17:48.586)
Oh wait, we didn't include Adam West. How dare we? Anyway, um...

Steve Scarfo (17:52.944)
goodness. Well, we did say cinematic Batman. Again, I think like Stan Lee, Adam West is in a little, he was in a category by himself. He kicked off the whole thing.

Jeff (18:01.036)
Does made for TV movies count? Cause Batman...

So Christian Bale, you know, nothing against, you know, Mr. Mom for being Batman. And Mr. Mom did his best as Batman. But let's face it, Christian Bale, The Dark Knight, far better. Superior Batman. You know, I loved Keaton's Batman at that time. But when you look at it in...

truly a comparison. The Dark Knight, it's the best. And Christian Bale with that deep, you know, I can't do a Batman. Wait, let's do a Batman who's got the better.

Steve Scarfo (18:49.016)
He's got that Iron Bat man.

Batman up? Okay. Go ahead, you go.

Steve Scarfo (19:02.448)
You sound like the guy on YouTube who's trying to pretend he's trying to get the voice. I'm Batman. No, that's not OK. Are you a bad man? I don't know.

Jeff (19:02.84)
Bye bye.

Jeff (19:06.86)
You

Jeff (19:12.216)
That's Pete Holmes is he does a great job. Yeah.

Steve Scarfo (19:13.422)
Pete Holmes, it is Pete Holmes, who's freaking hysterical, by the way. No, here's mine, here we go. I'm Batman.

Jeff (19:18.083)
Ha

Jeff (19:23.438)
That's good. So you do have the better Batman from the two of us, but what you don't have is a better choice for the better Batman. And that's Christian Bale.

Steve Scarfo (19:30.468)
No, no, no no Michael Keaton man, I listen I I love Christian Bale. He was great I'm not gonna take it away from him, but just for pure pure And I'm gonna say the beginning of the most recent run of these movies and our time for our timeline our timeline like in our lifetime It has to be Michael Keaton Listen, I don't know Jeff goes Christian Bale

I want Michael Keaton. We threw at least four Batman out the window. If you guys think we're just full of shid let me know.

Jeff (20:01.891)
Ha ha.

Jeff (20:06.094)
Yeah, who's your favorite Batman? And obviously it's Christian Bale. I mean, all right, so let's compare. Let's...

Steve Scarfo (20:08.067)
Let it.

Steve Scarfo (20:12.748)
No, I think the right way to say it, Jeff, is tell us who your favorite Batman is and then tell us why it's Michael Keaton.

Jeff (20:20.206)
Okay, then tell us what your favorite Batman movie is and then who starred in it because if it's probably the Dark Knight and maybe Heath Ledger's Joker had a you know fairly substantial reason for that but Christian Bale's Batman

Steve Scarfo (20:27.306)
there you go.

Steve Scarfo (20:39.744)
No, I don't think we can include the Joker because his performance was phenomenal. And if we had to include the bad guys, it would put George Clooney's Batman even further in the hole. Because of all the horrible, horrible portrayals of villains that they gave him, he got stuck in a hole quite a bit.

Jeff (20:58.574)
Come on, chill out!

Steve Scarfo (21:04.324)
Oh my goodness. All right, tell us what you think.

Jeff (21:06.254)
All right, I think it's time to de let's yeah. so yeah. Tell us what you think. Sorry.

Steve Scarfo (21:10.436)
Tell us what you think let us know but now we're gonna we're gonna dive deep into the basement Jeff We're gonna dig up some old stuff stuff that only guys like us or maybe some girls like us might have hidden We talked about a whole list of stuff, but Jeff has told me he's got this is a segment called basement treasures so He's dug in deep. I have no clue what you're about to say. So let's hit it hit us with it

Jeff (21:28.406)
Yup, dug down deep.

Jeff (21:33.952)
You do not. Okay. So my choice for basement treasure is not because this movie is the best. It really is not. but nostalgia and then a lot of what we talked about at Original Geek and what, you know, maybe why you're listening is for nostalgia. want that walk down memory lane. Well, the Incredible Hulk TV series was a favorite of mine. I loved it. The whole

You know, you won't like people of angry the the the music exactly. Well in 1988 they brought it back So it went it was it ran from 77 to I think 82 and then It was gone and it brought it back in 1988 and it had Thor and That is why I wanted to bring that out of the basement. Take another look

Steve Scarfo (22:03.812)
Do do do.

Jeff (22:33.678)
and enjoy this first time Thor appeared on screen. And I do love that as bad as some of the early comic book content was, I love that it didn't bury it forever, that we got to dig it out. as when I was 18 and I saw that, I really, it really,

I thought, wow, that's awesome seeing Thor on screen. so for me, that's why I wanna bring out that Basin Treasure is the first on screen.

Steve Scarfo (23:16.096)
I mean, not for nothing.

I don't know if it is. I'm gonna call it the first, because it's the first one I remember, but the first crossover, the first where there were two heroes, Hulk and Thor, in the same show. I don't know that they did that during the Spider-Man days back on the old Spider-Man TV show.

Jeff (23:38.146)
No, so yeah, for Marvel, definitely.

Steve Scarfo (23:43.074)
Yeah, that's awesome. That's great choice. I love that I didn't know that it was coming, because I remember those. I used to love The Hulk 2. Lou Ferrigno as The Hulk was amazing. Bill Bixby playing Dr. Banner.

Jeff (23:56.034)
Yeah.

Jeff (24:01.742)
So I just, and I like, as I was kind of like looking into this episode, one thing that I didn't know is that Lou Freakno wasn't even Hulk's voice.

Steve Scarfo (24:12.256)
No, Lou Ferrigno has a hearing impairment. He doesn't have clear speech. So he couldn't he couldn't do the voice. They didn't let him.

Jeff (24:17.25)
yeah, okay, yeah. He doesn't even have a voice. Like, all the growls and the grunting. Like, they couldn't even do that. That's crazy.

Steve Scarfo (24:24.117)
It was just grunting and growling,

Steve Scarfo (24:29.316)
Yeah, they could have let him. I don't know why they chose not to, but I remember watching some stuff and he didn't seem to mind. And maybe that was just what he told the cameras of the day. But no, great call. Great call. I'm going to go with one of the ones on our list because I really did enjoy it as a kid. Maybe not even quite as a kid, a little older than a kid. The Rocketeer, which was a Disney production set in the 1950s, I believe.

Jeff (24:38.018)
Yeah, that's true.

Steve Scarfo (24:58.22)
a guy who's a pilot finds, it's a rocket pack that was an experimental, I believe an experiment done by the government and they couldn't get it to work and they kept crashing and killing people. And because he was just, you know, down home ingenuity, he built this helmet with the rudder on the top, which gave him the really cool profile look.

And how that's how he could steer and control the rocket and he had a little button for the the booster But I love a good origin story As much as we hate seeing that spider bite Peter Parker every time there's a movie that comes out There's something about that story that at that time I thought was you know a person who went from You know trying real hard to being this thing It was just a fun ride

You know, no deep meaning. was, you know, there's always the superhero tropes of, and again, he's sort of like a Batman, because he didn't have superpowers. He just had this jet pack and helmet, right? That was it. He was just a guy who kind of aspired to be more and found a way to do it. Do you remember the Rocketeer at all?

Jeff (26:14.446)
I do, but I don't have quite the same fond memories of it. But hey, I appreciate that you dug that out of the basement and then just like Michael Keaton's back.

Steve Scarfo (26:17.901)
Not as fondly.

Steve Scarfo (26:32.313)
Jeff (26:35.69)
No, no, Keaton's awesome. He's awesome. Like, and I have to admit, you know, one of the best parts of the Flash movie was the return of Michael Keaton's Batman. So, no, I loved it. And and yeah, and I loved his performance. So.

Steve Scarfo (26:53.974)
and the return of George Clooney's Batman. Spoilers.

Jeff (27:00.494)
just dare you.

Steve Scarfo (27:01.828)
Sorry, spoilers are supposed to be first. If you heard that and you hadn't quite seen this movie yet, then tough shit, I guess. It's been a couple years, yeah. It's not coming back. Go watch it anyway. That is the least of the bad part. Yes.

Jeff (27:09.998)
Yeah, it's dead. It's gone. It's not coming back. James Gunn has has moved on from from all.

Steve Scarfo (27:24.152)
All right, so we are now, we have a couple more pretty cool segments coming up for you here. So, this is what we're calling our message to the new generation. We might change this, but we're gonna go with it for now. This is our message to you. If you are not Gen X, if you are, I don't even know where the millennials start.

Jeff (27:47.406)
We've got Millennials, we've got Gen Z, and maybe even Gen Alpha. This could apply to you if you're listening.

Steve Scarfo (27:50.692)
and alpha. Yeah. And the gen betas are still under 10. So we're gonna leave them alone. They're fine. All right. Again, you gave me some information that you had something but didn't tell me what it was. So let it rip.

Jeff (27:57.858)
You're okay.

Jeff (28:05.282)
I do. All right. So as, as great Stanley said with great power comes great responsibility. And right now you geeks, you millennial geeks, you Gen Z geeks, you have great power because when you post things, sometimes they go viral when as a collective, you put a review on to a show or a movie. it could tank it.

And then other people don't want to see it. So keep that in mind as you know, if, if, if you want to continue with this great content, this, as we said in the last episode, this golden age of geekdom, please stop tanking everything. Of course you can have your opinion. Of course you can render it, but don't just tank it to be a troll. Like in, and if you want something to improve, of course, comment on it.

But don't try to kill it. Cause now we don't have like a second season of the accolade. You know, I know we're talking Star Wars and we're only supposed to be talking sort of superheroes here, but like that was a great series. And like I said, if that came out in the eighties would have been the best thing ever. So keep that in mind. You have great power with what you say and with your, that we didn't have back in the eighties and we were just grateful.

even crappy things like the Incredible Hulk Returns, because at the time it seemed great. Will not stand the test of time. That Thor, no comparison to the current Thor. please, Millennials, Gen Z, just don't troll things to destroy, troll things to make them better.

you Steve.

Steve Scarfo (29:58.763)
Use your trolled them. I think I might just pile on a little bit because I think it's important. You know, you talk about going viral, which is not a thing that we could have ever talked about. And that's even only in the last decade, maybe that that the idea of how social media is. And again, I'm a geek at heart. I watch all sorts of stuff. I watched.

Jeff (30:05.304)
Good.

Steve Scarfo (30:24.676)
15 minute video today on YouTube about how AI is destroying, actually no, it half an hour, it John Oliver tonight on HBO or Max, whatever the hell they're calling it these days, about how AI is being used negatively, right? And how the whole purpose is to go viral with crap. So I would say, and I've seen a bunch of these AI videos, which I make them too, and I think they're great, but.

With great power comes great responsibility. Use it right, you know, not only use it to enhance and promote and do good things, use it as a tool. Don't use it to replace your creativity. Don't sit back and let someone else decide what you want to do and certainly don't let AI generate your entire world. I use it for show notes. I use it for stuff, but I use it as a tool. And then Jeff and I, talk. This is what we this is what drives me crazy. And when

And when you go online and you trash something just because you think that trashy comments gonna go viral and get you a thousand or a hundred thousand or a million views and you might get 82.7 cents from YouTube. Think about what that might really be doing because there was a time when Jeff and I, we talked about it last week with D &D, we had to hide comic books in our book bags. Like people would make fun of us for walking around with a kid's book, know, 14, 15, 16 years old.

going to a premiere for a new Avengers movie or seeing Robert Downey Jr. come back again wasn't like an amazing thing. And let's talk Spider-Man, no way home when three Spider-Men were on screen at the same time. One of my favorite moments in cinematic history because I loved all three of those guys as Spider-Man. So to see them together in one movie, I know some people hated it. I know some people got

Jeff (32:08.253)
yeah, that was awesome.

Steve Scarfo (32:20.99)
know, Toby McGuire shouldn't come back or whatever. Use that information. Give your opinions for sure. They're yours. You earn them, you own them. But don't trash stuff just to trash it because I want to see another great crossover movie. My favorite movies are these multiversal movies because they show characters that we love in ways that they don't usually get to be even way back to the Hulk and the Thor.

Seeing somebody out of place, out of pocket, and interacting with another character that you love is, there's just nothing better. So stop screwing around, use your power for good. If it's gonna go viral, make it go viral to make people laugh or make people interested, stop being a dick.

Jeff (33:05.686)
And actually this rant leads really well in next segment which is about critical hits and epic fails I am my god. I am

Steve Scarfo (33:14.946)
Wait, wait, you're jumping over one. Yeah, the geek you jumped over, which is kind of...

Jeff (33:22.976)
It would have worked really well with critical hits and epic fails is the next thing.

Steve Scarfo (33:27.904)
Well, I can edit that out. You want to do that one first and we'll go back to Geek Evolution? can, all right, let me edit. Let me put a marker in. All right.

Jeff (33:31.511)
Yeah.

Steve Scarfo (33:37.86)
Yeah, just lead yourself in again.

Jeff (33:44.366)
This actually goes really well with our next segment, which is critical hits and epic fails. Because when you talk about epic fails, I mean, we are going to be saying some negative things. But we do it out of love because we want more good quality content. So giving that feedback and then you get the better product. But let's first focus on the positive. A critical hit.

And Steve, what's like one of the biggest superhero critical hits for you?

Steve Scarfo (34:21.102)
Well, you know, I had something else on my list, so I will use that, but I'm gonna go back to the Spider-Man No Way Home. But again, the idea of bridging the generations of movies, which for the first time in a long time too saw multi-billion dollar conglomerates cooperate between Marvel and Sony.

Jeff (34:31.415)
yeah.

Steve Scarfo (34:48.356)
to bring these Spider-Men and their nemeses out together. There were bad guys from four different movies, do you know what I mean? All together in the MCU with Happy, with Aunt May, and actually brought back Daredevil. So this whole...

Jeff (34:58.764)
Yeah.

Jeff (35:12.441)
yeah!

Steve Scarfo (35:17.442)
I might be crossing my movies there. Daredevil was a different Spider-Man, but the No Way Home.

Jeff (35:23.362)
No, wasn't he in the...

Jeff (35:27.81)
Yeah. He was in that. Yeah.

Steve Scarfo (35:28.706)
That was the beginning of No Way Home, right? Because he gets caught for being Spider-Man and that's what sends him to Doctor Strange, right? All right, I had it right. Yeah, so we got like a bunch of crossovers in one big, beautiful movie that incredibly well acted across the board, know, heart wrenching at the end if you like these characters at all. And I won't spoil that one. If you haven't seen it, go watch it. If you haven't seen it,

Jeff (35:32.94)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Steve Scarfo (35:57.666)
I don't know what's wrong with you. But that's a critical hit for me. I was gonna just say something different, but I'm gonna leave that one for another time.

Jeff (36:03.694)
Well, no, that's a great call-out. What I liked about that one is that Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man, who I thought he was an awesome Spider-Man, because we could do a similar court as to who's the best Spider-Man. And I think Andrew Garfield's going to keep losing, but I don't think he should. I actually think his Spider-Man was fantastic. And I really loved...

Steve Scarfo (36:19.225)
Yes.

Jeff (36:33.262)
that he finally got some respect from that and got to hear that because it was his Spider-Man that was truly canceled. know Tobey Maguire had kind of, and this happens, kind of aged out a bit. And Spider-Man is supposed to be young adult, really, know, teenager. And so it's...

Steve Scarfo (36:54.35)
Well, yeah, late high school, early college.

Jeff (36:57.516)
Yeah. So it's weird to have a middle-aged Spider-Man. Of course that's going to happen naturally. so I thought Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man is awesome. And it wasn't necessarily the act. It was not the actor's fault that the second one had some problems. And it's great that he got another shot at it. So.

Steve Scarfo (37:20.332)
And I think the portrayal by all three of them came out so different for three guys playing the same character and essentially the same person, not even like three guys have the same name. No, it was supposed to be the same person. And each one of their performances was just subtle, subtly different, very grounded, very emotional.

The whole scene where they're talking about where their webs come from and how I think Tobey Maguire is the only one who has natural webbing and the other two have to make their webbing and he's like, don't make fun of me. Like it was such a great scene, so grounded, so sweet and like right before an epic battle that the movie just plays well to me anyway on every level.

Jeff (37:58.926)
Yes, it's great, it's great.

Jeff (38:12.418)
Yeah, absolutely.

Steve Scarfo (38:16.484)
Do you have a different hit you want to talk about, are we dropping over to fails?

Jeff (38:19.508)
No, I think we gotta go to Epic Fails. What movie fail?

Steve Scarfo (38:23.534)
Epic. Epic fail. Finish him. Sorry, I just wanted to do a couple of voices.

Jeff (38:32.302)
What's your favorite? I'll do when you do sci-fi. I'll do, it'll be my choices, but let's go.

Steve Scarfo (38:37.856)
Okay. This is a movie that I love to hate and hate to love. But it was the original Green Lantern. 2011. And pretty much everything about this movie was it could have been on Mystery Science Theater 3000. Like.

I love that they had the portrayal and the site and the the CGI at the time was pretty good, but they just went overboard. It was too much CGI. The suit was just. Ridiculous, it looked like a glowing lozenge. Hold on a second. I'll have to edit that part out. My throat is kill me. Sorry. Yeah, Green Lantern and and I love him.

He's great at Deadpool, Ryan Reynolds is awesome. And he's probably the reason why I think it's love to hate, hate to love, because he's good in it, because he's always a little bit funny to me. But, whew, that was a stinker.

Jeff (39:45.901)
Yeah.

Jeff (39:50.936)
You know, it's, funny cause you know, when I, you know, I'm not going to defend that movie necessarily, but actually I, I honestly, I, I liked the first Green Lantern with Ryan Reynolds. think it's because I liked Ryan Reynolds. He wasn't a super, a superstar at that time. I think Deadpool really helped. Now, of course he was in movies. His name was.

at the top of these movies, but like I think Deadpool really made him like a huge bankable star where, you know, he just, you know, getting big paydays, but, cause obviously he was, he was the lead in Green Lanterns, a big marquee character, but.

Steve Scarfo (40:38.84)
Was that his first lead?

Jeff (40:41.592)
Green Lantern? No, I mean, he was best friends.

Steve Scarfo (40:43.3)
where he was the one name.

Jeff (40:48.056)
He was like, he was fat as like a teenager and then like,

Steve Scarfo (40:54.616)
God, who was that with Amy? Was that Amy Smart?

Jeff (40:58.05)
yeah, Amy smart was in that and, Ana Ferris was in that, but yeah. So, I mean, he is Ryan Reynolds and I mean.

Steve Scarfo (41:03.299)
Yes.

Steve Scarfo (41:08.29)
Yeah, I don't think he was, I think it was a triple header that one. think Green Lantern might have been his first Ryan Reynolds as Green Lantern, like a name above the title type of.

Jeff (41:16.595)
yeah, yeah and then...

Yeah. And I think I really liked the character green lantern. And, um, I actually didn't mind this, the CGI costume. A lot of things that bothered a lot of people. They, they just, they did not like in that movie. And I, but for me, and it wasn't the thing that even if I had a social media presence at that time, even social media was the thing I would have gone on and ripped that it, because I didn't.

as much as I liked that character, didn't collect Green Lantern growing up. didn't know, like, still like, even though I didn't know Sinestro, like except like Super Friends, like I remember Super Friends, Green Lantern, but like, it just seemed dumb. Like the, the plot seemed really stupid. And, but I, like, I just, I don't, I honestly, I

Steve Scarfo (42:09.262)
Yeah, of all the things they could have chosen.

Jeff (42:16.29)
don't know Green Lantern, the Green Lantern universe as well as some other fans out there, people are listening. So I'm sure there's plenty of reasons not to like this movie. But I actually, it's just at the end I'm like, this seems kind of dumb, but I would have been okay if they had made another one, I would have gone to see it and just hoped it was better than the first one.

Steve Scarfo (42:40.452)
Which is just another reason why you can't trash these movies. Make sure that they make another one and make it better. Well, that brings us to, say it again. It is, look at you. You're dropping in where I was gonna hump. It brings us to our segment on geek evolution and this actually, the topic for today fits right into the horrible costume there.

Jeff (42:44.771)
Yes.

Exactly. Evolution, right? It's an evolution.

You

Steve Scarfo (43:09.292)
And it is about costumes in superhero movies. I alluded to a little bit before with the George Reeves. It looked like he was wearing a set of woolen pajamas with an S sewn on by his Aunt May or whatever to these suits that we have today. What do you think of the change in the costume and how it looks the way it

Jeff (43:32.686)
It is crazy to think back, because when I think about when I was a kid and we talked about this, watching the Jarls Reaves Superman and thinking we're maybe watching something that just premiered, watching Batman with Adam West, they had dad bonds. Like it didn't even occur to us to question whether they were even strong enough to do these things that we're watching them do.

Steve Scarfo (43:57.956)
Well, George Reeves at least had some shoulder width to him. Like it wasn't huge. It wasn't like, you know, it wasn't like Henry Cavill or one of the guys, you know what I mean? The Cavalry. You know, but he had but Adam West was just a tiny little man.

Jeff (44:07.096)
Yeah, the cavalry. I mean, come on.

Steve Scarfo (44:17.457)
but then they started with padding.

Jeff (44:18.646)
And he, and like even Kristo Reeves who's in good shape, but yeah, they, didn't like, they didn't ask him to bulk up. Like, who played Thor? Chris Hemsworth, like Chris Hemsworth, if you watch, if you see him pre Thor and even now post Thor, he's not jacked like that. I mean, they're now asking like these actors to get in.

Steve Scarfo (45:04.184)
Bye now.

Schwarzenegger didn't have to wear anything though. It was just his body so Oddly enough the one of the videos I watched today and honestly just by happenstance because this is the shit I watch Christopher Reeve one of the last people to play a superhero who refused to wear padding He didn't want to wear padding under the shirt under the the suit They said that even for Henry Cavill

they had to put a muscle suit on under him because the thing about spandex and lycra, it squishes everything together. So Henry Cavill was in amazing shape.

Jeff (45:47.864)
Yeah.

I don't know that.

Steve Scarfo (45:50.646)
Hemsworth, although he doesn't usually wear the spandex, even Tobey Maguire back when he did the one where he becomes Venom and he was just ripped. Like they showed a clip of him talking about he worked out for like five months and they still had to put a suit on him underneath the suit because the spandex would like squish everything into one tube. So as much as I don't, I think there's a bit of disingenuousness to it.

Jeff (46:08.8)
Wow

Okay.

Steve Scarfo (46:20.996)
I understand it, but then like we got to talk about Michael Keaton's Batman, and I think it was Val Kilmer's Batman that had the nipples Where they went maybe a little too far on some of these costumes

Jeff (46:28.887)
Yes.

Steve Scarfo (46:38.306)
Yeah.

Jeff (46:38.602)
Right. And it's, it's interesting because it was, and I think that is a large part as to why in the first X-Men movie they went with leather, right? I mean, it was like that spandex was kind of ridiculous and the costumes looked silly. And yeah, if you think of what, what would an everyday person, and that's one thing I like about the evolution of these costumes is,

Steve Scarfo (46:52.44)
Yes.

Jeff (47:07.718)
before we had CGI, know, I, CGI to the degree that we have it today, but X-Men, I think came out in 2000, 2001, somewhere around there, and they were in leather and those actors looked awesome. That was a great movie and.

Steve Scarfo (47:19.044)
Hmm.

Steve Scarfo (47:26.978)
Yeah, solid choice to not use Spandex.

Jeff (47:31.726)
Yeah.

And then the Netflix shows even a step further, they're not in a costume at all, except for Daredevil, but like Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, Iron Fist, they were not wearing any kind of costume. And then the Daredevil costume in the comic books looks more like spandex.

Steve Scarfo (47:49.442)
Yeah, mostly leather and rags, guess. Iron fist rags.

Jeff (48:01.966)
Whereas the Daredevils in Netflix is leather, right? Gotta go leather.

Steve Scarfo (48:05.782)
It was leather for Ben Affleck. We're back to Ben Affleck, one of the few guys who's played multiple superheroes. But yeah, his was leather too. Just to go back to, we were talking about Hemsworth, The Rock, Dwayne The Rock Johnson, one of the only ones not needing a muscle suit under his Black Adam suit.

Jeff (48:30.479)
yeah!

Steve Scarfo (48:31.204)
because he was one of the few who actually had the physique. think Schwarzenegger wouldn't have needed one had he ever put spandex on.

Jeff (48:42.008)
Thanks.

Steve Scarfo (48:42.82)
All right. All right. So as we get ready to wind this sucker down, our final segment, we did this one last week, but we didn't call it out. We're calling it Ask an OG. So we want a couple of things from you. Answer some of the questions we posed tonight. Who was your favorite superhero? What was your first comic book experience? Do you have a critical hit or epic fail you want to talk about? What do you think was the most underrated comic book movie of all time?

Give us one of those. How about that? And If you for extra credit if you're so willing And what what comic book movie gets should get a reboot and how do they do it, right? So Signing off here Come back next week. Check us out. We're gonna be doing a science fiction Preview I guess we'll call this the preview of next week's episode science fiction We're gonna cover all the same

segments that we did tonight, but hit us up on Facebook and Twitter and Instagram and X and Tick Tock and and go to our website. It's still under under construction right now. Original Geek Podcast dot com. Original Geek Podcast. Pretty much every social media and except for X, I think I had to go original geek pod, but you will find us. Any any parting words of wisdom, Uncle Ben?

Jeff (50:11.438)
Well, yeah, I think, you know, if you've enjoyed this trip down memory lane, I think, you know, that's what this podcast is all about is nostalgia. And, you know, one thing I like about working on this podcast with Steve is thinking about these things that sometimes we've forgotten about, or, you know, just it conjures up, you know, some really fond memories about the past and early geekdom and all we've been through and survived and

come out the other side of this golden age of geekdom that we're in. And I think if you know anyone else who likes a similar trip down memory lane, let them know about our podcast and make sure to like and follow. Thank you.

Steve Scarfo (50:53.636)
That's right, like and subscribe.

Steve Scarfo (51:16.398)
See you next time.