Geek Freaks

Phil from Distance NERDing saw the new Street Fighter movie and thinks the critics got it wrong. He makes the case that it plays like a fighting game's story mode, and that the people calling it disjointed are mostly the ones who stopped playing after Street Fighter II.

Episode Summary

After the spoiler warning, Phil breaks down the Ryu and Ken rivalry, Akuma's pull on Ryu through the Satsui no Hado, David Dastmalchian's unhinged Bison, and the one thing he can't forgive: Cody Rhodes' Guile fights Vega off screen. Frank, who hasn't seen it yet, pushes on whether the camp works for casual viewers and lines it up next to James Gunn's Superman.

The second half moves to Vision Quest episodes 1 and 2. Frank and Phil talk about the Jarvis moment, James Spader's return as Ultron, Tommy's two sets of memories, and who could be paying Paladin. They close on Marvel scaling back Disney+ budgets, what's coming up for Distance NERDing and its D&D actual play, and a Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 campaign recommendation.

Chapters

• 0:00 Phil from Distance NERDing Joins, Is Vision Quest Rebuilding Marvel Hype?
• 1:30 Street Fighter Spoiler-Free Review: Better Than the Reviews Say
• 3:57 Street Fighter Spoilers: The 1993 Setting, Ryu, Ken, and Akuma
• 15:35 Chun-Li, Bison, Guile, and the Game-Accurate Moves
• 22:34 Embracing Camp: Street Fighter, Gunn's Superman, and Adaptations as New Runs
• 26:12 Street Fighter Verdict: Theaters or Streaming?
• 28:28 Vision Quest Episodes 1 and 2: Jarvis and James Spader's Ultron
• 41:03 Paladin, Tommy, and Who's Pulling the Strings
• 55:13 Is Marvel Pulling Back on Disney+?
• 57:45 What's Next for Distance NERDing
• 1:00:14 Recommendations: Modern Warfare 4 Campaign and a WoW Guild

Key Takeaways

• Phil argues Street Fighter is built like arcade story mode, with separate character arcs that converge on one fight. Viewers who don't know that format read it as disjointed.
• The movie pulls deep from post-Street Fighter V lore: Gouken and Gouki, Ryu and the Satsui no Hado, and Bison draining fighters to fuel his Psycho Power.
• Phil's two gripes are Guile's off-screen fight with Vega and Ken never landing the flaming Shoryuken.
• His verdict is theaters, with a crowd. Moviegoers with no attachment to the games are the most likely to bounce off it.
• Frank found Vision Quest episode 1 slow and episode 2 the payoff, while Phil was hooked from the start. Both rank James Spader's Ultron as the best thing in the show so far.
• Both hosts read Marvel's TV slowdown as a budget decision, since big-budget series didn't pull in enough new Disney+ subscribers. Frank sees Zodiac as a test run for cheaper, Arrow-style shows.

Quotes

• "The way that they did this entire movie was almost the same way that you play a fighting game." (Phil)

• "Every single character in this movie performs something that they're known for in the game." (Phil)

• "If you want the blood and gore, Mortal Kombat. If you want the dude beating up a car in the middle of the street while people cheer, Street Fighter." (Frank)

• "Could it be anybody else but Jarvis? He's just been with us since the beginning." (Frank)

• "I can listen to that dude read the dictionary." (Phil, on James Spader)

Sources

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Subscribe wherever you listen and leave a rating or review, since it helps new listeners find us. If you have a friend who skipped Street Fighter because of the reviews, send them this one, and if you disagree with Phil, go tell Distance NERDing. #GeekFreaksPodcast

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Send Us Your Questions

Did Street Fighter work for you, or did it land as disjointed? Who do you think hired Paladin? Send your reactions, questions, and topic ideas to [email protected] or drop them in the comments, and we may read them on a future episode.

Episode Summary

Vision Quest premieres today, and we're getting you ready with a full primer on Vision's MCU story, from Age of Ultron and his death at the hands of Thanos to the White Vision who flew off at the end of WandaVision. Then Thomas and Frank sit down with Chris DeMoulin, CEO of LA Comic Con, to talk about how the biggest convention in Los Angeles gets built every year.

Squeaks and Thomas join Frank to break down what the Vision Quest trailers have already given away, why Ultron living in the "basement" of Vision's mind could drive the whole season, whether Billy and Tommy are being set up for a Young Avengers team, and one wild theory connecting Wanda to Doctor Doom's three witches. In Headlines, the crew reacts to the NYCC announcements for Marvel Zodiac and DC's Absolute Justice, Avatar: Seven Havens getting renewed through Book Four, a comedy series about a young Avatar Kuruk, and Xbox launching its own film and TV studio. Chris shares why he put the LA Comic Con main stage in the middle of the show floor, what it took to land first-time convention guests like Bob Odenkirk, and why 350 fans now own a piece of the show.

Chapters

• 0:00 Intro and Catch-Up
• 1:37 Vision's MCU Story So Far
• 9:03 Vision Quest Hype Check and Predictions
• 17:36 Wild Theory: Wanda, Doom, and the Three Witches
• 19:28 Headlines: Marvel Zodiac, Absolute Justice, Avatar, and Xbox's New Studio
• 34:32 Interview: LA Comic Con CEO Chris DeMoulin
• 48:07 Network Roundup and Patreon Shout-Out
• 50:14 Picks of the Week

Key Takeaways

• Vision Quest's first episode is titled "No Strings," a nod to Ultron's song from Age of Ultron, and Ultron appears to be locked deep inside Vision's mind, setting up a power struggle for control of the body.
• Frank thinks the moment Vision does something irrational to protect Tommy will be the moment his inherited memories finally connect to real emotion.
• Marvel Zodiac looks like a grounded spy series with Secret Warriors roots, and the Scorpio connection could bring in Nick Fury's brother as a future successor to Samuel L. Jackson's Fury.
• Absolute Justice brings DC's Absolute universe together in five issues starting April 2027, written by Jason Aaron, with no tie-ins required.
• Xbox's new studio will handle the Call of Duty movie, a Diablo series, and Fallout Season 3, and Squeaks sees it growing into a fan event in the style of BlizzCon.
• Chris DeMoulin starts booking talent up to two years ahead, works from yearly fan surveys, and keeps adding panelists right up until the week of the show.

Pull Quotes

• "Just slap Spider-Man up somewhere. You don't need to show me. We're gonna go see it." (Squeaks, on trailers that give away too much)

• "I think he's a brutally underappreciated villain that I would argue is just below Doctor Doom in importance." (Frank, on Ultron)

• "If this Vision dies, then all of Ultron dies." (Thomas, on why Ultron might protect Vision)

• "A fan show has to be about the fans." (Chris DeMoulin, CEO of LA Comic Con)

• "We want you to come and be a fan, but we also want you to feel like it's your show." (Chris DeMoulin, on the 350 fans who invested in LA Comic Con)

Sources

All news discussed on this episode comes from GeekFreaksPodcast.com.

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Listener Questions

What's your Vision Quest prediction? Tell us whether you think Wanda shows up, who the end-of-season cameo will be, or which Xbox franchise deserves a movie next. Send us your questions, reactions, and topic ideas on any of our socials, and we might read them on a future episode.

Frank and Thomas break down the full first season of HBO's Lanterns the night after the finale, from John Stewart's new oath to Hal Jordan's "I love you, Junior" goodbye. Frank had the season sitting at a six until the last episode pulled it up to a strong eight.

The conversation keeps splitting along one line: how the show plays for a comic reader versus someone who only knows the DCU on screen. That split shapes the read on John embracing fear, the lantern that looked more yellow than green, his choice to let Noah live, and a villain lineup that gave Sinestro too little screen time and Antaan almost nothing to do. The back half looks ahead to Man of Tomorrow, what a second season should be about, and the questions about Hal and Sheriff Kerry Kane the finale left open. Full spoilers start at 11:12.

Timestamps and Topics

• 00:00 Housekeeping and the John Stewart Patreon Statue
• 01:53 Finale Gut Reactions and Season Scores
• 11:12 John Stewart as the Cowboy Green Lantern (Full Spoilers)
• 17:22 The Yellow Lantern Tease and the Noah Decision
• 26:23 John's Family and the Hal Jordan Goodbye
• 39:53 Where the Villains Fell Short
• 46:29 Lanterns in Man of Tomorrow and Season 2
• 49:57 Final Thoughts
• 55:44 Side Quest and Patreon Shout-Out

Key Takeaways

• The finale changed Frank's score for the whole season. Knowing where the story lands made earlier weak spots, like the limited Sinestro time, play as setup.
• John's new oath includes "I embrace fear." To a comic reader that sounds like Parallax. Taken on its own, it gives the Green Lanterns the thing Frank and Thomas said they were missing back in their episode one review: admitting fear exists and overcoming it.
• Frank compares the repaired lantern to kintsugi, the Japanese practice of mending broken pottery with gold, as a way to read the yellow in it as a flaw being honored.
• Sparing Noah is the choice that sells John as a superhero. He takes on the risk of a young Manhunter and commits to becoming strong enough to stop him if it comes to that.
• The villains were the weakest part of the season. Zoe is gone by the midpoint, Antaan's crew never returns, and Ulrich Thomsen's Sinestro needed more scenes.
• For Man of Tomorrow, Frank wants John in a role as active as Mister Terrific's in Superman, plus a clear signal of what Lanterns season two is about.

Quotes

• "This John Stewart is a superhero. He's not a cop." (Frank)

• "Before that finale, I had the season sitting closer to a six. With that, I have it at a strong eight." (Frank)

• "Antaan. What a waste of a character." (Frank)

• "They've left us wanting a little bit more than they should have." (Frank)

• "If it wasn't for this ending, it would have been an unsatisfactory show, no doubt." (Frank)

Links and Resources

GeekFreaksPodcast.com is the source of all news discussed during the podcast.

Call to Action

Follow or subscribe to Geek Freaks wherever you listen, and leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify so more DC fans can find the show. If you have a friend who was sure that lantern was turning yellow, send them this episode and tag your reaction with #GeekFreaksPodcast.

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Listener Questions

Did you watch Lanterns without reading a single Green Lantern comic? Frank and Thomas want to know how the season played for you, since neither of them can watch it that way. Send your take, your season two theories, or a topic you want covered on a future episode.

Episode Summary

Avengers: Endgame is back in theaters with a new ending, and it puts Loki on Steve Rogers and Peggy Carter's doorstep as the MCU's answer to Doctor Doom. Frank breaks down the leaked Encore Edition scenes, then sits down with Keith Arem and Chris Yates, the writers behind Danny Trejo's cursed-conquistador comic Year of the Devil.

The Encore leaks include a TVA post-credit scene where incursions multiply into the thousands and a visit from Doom to Bruce Banner's underground lab, and Frank lays out what they mean for Avengers: Doomsday on December 18. In the interview, Keith explains how Danny stopped a recording session to pitch a book they could make together, and the pair talk about building Diego de Rojas from Danny's tattoos, his grindhouse roles, and his love of history. In Headlines, Mark Hamill replaces Jim Cummings as Darkwing Duck, Paramount settles with 12 state attorneys general over its Warner Bros. Discovery merger, Daredevil: Born Again ends with season 3, Alan Ritchson is in talks to replace Jason Momoa in Helldivers, and Brad Pitt returns for World War Z 2. Frank closes with a personal message for Suicide Prevention Awareness Month.

Chapters

• 00:00 Intro
• 01:10 Avengers: Endgame Encore Leaks and the Road to Doomsday
• 07:58 Interview: Keith Arem and Chris Yates on Danny Trejo's Year of the Devil
• 19:55 Headlines: Mark Hamill Is the New Darkwing Duck
• 24:38 Paramount's Settlement Terms for the Warner Bros. Discovery Deal
• 30:02 Daredevil: Born Again Ends With Season 3
• 35:01 Helldivers Recasting and World War Z 2
• 39:01 Network Updates
• 40:40 Suicide Prevention Awareness Month

Key Takeaways

• The leaked Encore ending positions Loki, now the god of stories, as the counterweight to Doctor Doom heading into Doomsday.
• The TVA post-credit scene shows incursions spreading from one to thousands, which Frank reads as the setup for Secret Wars.
• Year of the Devil follows Diego de Rojas, a conquistador who frees the devil from a prison beneath Chichén Itzá and is cursed to hunt the Four Horsemen across 500 years. It's a five-issue prestige series from PCB Entertainment launching September 29.
• Frank thinks Mark Hamill brings clout to the Darkwing Duck reboot, but a younger lead would have given the series a longer runway.
• Paramount's settlement requires 30 theatrical films a year, a $1.5 billion investment in California productions, and keeping both historic studio lots open. Frank opposes the merger but calls these terms the best-case version of it.
• With Born Again ending, Frank pitches three ways forward for Charlie Cox's Daredevil: a Daredevil: Yellow adaptation, a Defenders-style series with a rotating street-level cast, or a yearly special presentation.

Memorable Quotes

• "Loki vs. Doctor Doom, which is a sentence that just screams awesome comic book to me." (Frank Lourence)

• "We felt like it had to have some dirt under the fingernails." (Chris Yates, on Year of the Devil)

• "He just kind of literally stopped in the middle of a session and he was like, I want to do a book with you." (Keith Arem, on Danny Trejo)

• "Number one is jobs. Number two is creativity." (Frank Lourence, on the Paramount and WBD merger)

• "It's not about blowing up aliens and fighting for democracy. It is about the satire of that." (Frank Lourence, on the Helldivers movie)

Sources

All news discussed on this episode is sourced from GeekFreaksPodcast.com.

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Follow Geek Freaks on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, and leave a five-star review. Frank will shout out new reviewers on next week's episode. If you know a Darkwing Duck fan with opinions about Mark Hamill in the cape, send them this episode. #GeekFreaksPodcast

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Listener Questions

Is Loki the right hero to stand against Doom, and what should Marvel do with Daredevil after Born Again? Send your answers, questions, and topic ideas to [email protected] or DM us on any of the socials above.

BlizzCon 2026 handed out a StarCraft open world shooter that does not land until 2030, a Diablo 5 release window in spring 2029, and a plan to turn World of Warcraft Classic into something called World of Warcraft Forever. Frank and Squeaks were both on the floor for all of it, and they came back with announcement reactions, three hour lines, a Todd McFarlane signature, and Matt Mercer running an Overwatch tabletop game in front of 8,000 people.

The Warcraft talk takes up most of the hour, and for good reason. World of Warcraft Forever adds new races, new zones, dungeons and raids to the Classic version of Azeroth, including undead paladins for the Horde, with a beta starting next Thursday ahead of a November 4 launch. Frank played the five man dungeon demo on the show floor and came out talking about how much real communication a slower pace forces back into a group, while Squeaks, who has never touched Classic, walked away planning a warlock. On the retail side, the Eclipse patch and the language Blizzard kept using about closing out twenty years of story push the two of them into a long argument about whether the next expansion ends World of Warcraft and starts World of Warcraft 2 on a modern engine. Elsewhere: Diablo 4 gets Hell's Legacy with Deckard Cain back as the storyteller, a Diablo animated series is coming to Netflix with Overwatch and Warcraft adaptations teased behind it, Overwatch introduces a vampire healer whose backstory and voice were built around the actor playing him, and Wrath of the Lich King Remix only got revealed if you sat through the deep dive panel. The crowd is the one sore spot, with Frank putting attendance near 75,000 against the 40,000 to 50,000 of past years and both hosts stuck in two and three hour lines for the store and the Darkmoon Faire.

• 0:00 Intro and BlizzCon 2026 First Impressions
• 3:36 Meeting Todd McFarlane and Watching Matt Mercer Run Overwatch
• 6:08 Oversold Crowds, Three Hour Lines, and a Dry BlizzCon
• 10:06 StarCraft Returns as an Open World Shooter
• 14:22 Diablo 5 in 2029, Hell's Legacy, and Deckard Cain
• 19:52 The Diablo Animated Series on Netflix
• 21:28 World of Warcraft Forever and the Classic Overhaul
• 29:07 Eclipse, the Titans, and the Case for World of Warcraft 2
• 38:12 Overwatch's Newest Hero and the Wrath Remix Reveal
• 41:31 Final Day Highlights, T-Pain, and the Arena Championship
• 48:37 Recommendations, the Patreon Statue Vote, and the Forever Guild

Key takeaways

• World of Warcraft Forever launches November 4 with a beta starting next Thursday, adding new races, zones, dungeons and raids to Classic, plus undead paladins for the Horde.
• StarCraft is back as an open world shooter set 100 years after StarCraft 2, but the 2030 date landed hard in the room, and both hosts worry about a Warhammer style game with no Protoss or Zerg to play.
• Diablo 5 arrives spring 2029, with Hell's Legacy bridging the gap in Diablo 4 and Deckard Cain returning to bring old bosses back for another fight.
• The Diablo animated series at Netflix is the adaptation Frank is most confident in, with Castlevania and Cyberpunk Edgerunners as the track record, and Overwatch and Warcraft projects teased after it.
• Blizzard's repeated framing about the culmination of twenty years has both hosts betting the next expansion closes the current story, with Frank arguing a true sequel is the only way past a 2004 engine.
• Attendance was the weekend's biggest problem, with two hour waits just to enter the convention center on Saturday and three hour waits for the store and the Darkmoon Faire.

"When they put that 2030 on the screen, the air went out of the room." - Frank

"I got to meet my dream comic book creator. I could be gone tomorrow and I would feel like life was fulfilled." - Squeaks, on meeting Todd McFarlane

"That kind of communication is peak Warcraft, and that stuff is not said in World of Warcraft today." - Frank, on the Forever dungeon demo

"We are reaching the limits of what this engine can do." - Frank, on why he thinks World of Warcraft 2 has to happen

"There is a blood knight in Diablo Immortal and I love the hell out of it. I named him Squeaks Belmont." - Squeaks

Every story covered in this episode comes from GeekFreaksPodcast.com, the source for all news discussed on the show.

If you have not subscribed yet, do it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify so the next one shows up automatically, and leave a rating or review while you are there. Send this episode to the friend who quit World of Warcraft back in Cataclysm, because Forever is aimed directly at them. #GeekFreaksPodcast

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Got a BlizzCon take we missed, a WoW Forever class you are locking in, or a prediction about World of Warcraft 2? Send us your questions, reactions, and topic ideas, and we will get to them on a future episode. We are also forming a guild for World of Warcraft Forever in both Classic and retail, so reach out if you want in.

Dungeons & Dragons 2 has a finished script, and the studio that made the first one already passed on it. Avengers Doomsday is deep in edits, the Russo brothers just called their script a living organism, and everyone lost their minds about it.

Squeaks opens the show with a full report from the Pokémon World Championships in San Francisco, where the Moscone Center got taken over by TCG, Pokémon Go, Unite, and the new Pokémon Champions app, and where buying a single piece of exclusive merch turned into a timed-entry website that crashed on everybody. Then Allen Dunford joins Frank to talk about The Samurai Redneck Zombie Killer #1, the Comic Soup book he co-wrote with Kit Wallis that funded its previous record in a single day. Allen gets into the grindhouse and manga influences, why the story stays locked on two survivors instead of a community, and the Geek Freaks variant cover on the Kickstarter. Frank closes with the first News Quickfire, a tighter news segment built on listener feedback.

The news run covers D&D 2's script and where the project could land, Netflix developing a live action Ravenloft while Forgotten Realms gets canceled, HBO's Baldur's Gate series with Craig Mazin, the real reasons Honor Among Thieves underperformed, the Avengers Doomsday improv conversation, Jim Cummings losing Darkwing Duck to a recast, and a full status check on Gargoyles, Hey Arnold, Doug, and the 90s reboot slate.

Chapters

• 0:00 Intro: Patreon Upgrades, SideQuest Relaunch, and Show Changes
• 1:34 Squeaks at Pokémon Worlds: Moscone Center, Pokémon XP, and the Tournaments
• 5:21 The Merch Problem: Pokémon Center Lines, Resellers, and Scalpers
• 10:12 Guest: Allen Dunford on The Samurai Redneck Zombie Killer
• 21:37 Seven Years Indie, the Comic Soup Slate, and the Geek Freaks Variant
• 27:30 News Quickfire: D&D 2's Finished Script, Ravenloft, and Baldur's Gate
• 34:14 Avengers Doomsday, the Russos, and the Improv Panic
• 40:52 Darkwing Duck Recasts Jim Cummings, Plus the 90s Reboot Roundup
• 48:10 Wrap-Up and Listener Feedback

Key Takeaways

• Pokémon Worlds was an incredible event wrapped around a broken buying experience. The Pokémon Center on site required a timed booking through a site that crashed, the second merch area turned out to be reseller tables selling singles for hundreds, and Squeaks walked out having spent twenty dollars and bought his Worlds backpack online later at roughly four times the price.
• Next year's Worlds moves to Singapore, so US fans have no idea when it comes back.
• The Samurai Redneck Zombie Killer started as a title and a cover. Kit Wallis brought Allen the name and the first five pages, posted the cover to Instagram, and the response was so far outside his normal engagement that they fast tracked the whole book. It beat Comic Soup's previous best campaign total in a single day.
• Allen and Kit built the book around two people instead of a community, borrowing the Leon and Mathilda dynamic from The Professional, right down to naming the samurai Lee. The art uses a manga inspired color scheme with the first five pages in full color before shifting to black, white, and splashes of red.
• Paramount Skydance passed on Dungeons & Dragons 2 as financially unviable, but Hasbro is shopping it. Honor Among Thieves earned around $205 million on a roughly $150 million budget split with Hasbro's E1, opened four days before The Super Mario Bros. Movie, landed a month after the OGL boycott, and never told non fans it was a family comedy.
• The Avengers Doomsday improv worry is overblown. The Russos worked the same way on Infinity War and Endgame, their visual reference is Once Upon a Time in the West, and Robert Downey Jr. said he would not have come back without them. Improv on a movie this size gets spent on one on one character scenes, not on Sentinels and VFX plates.
• Jim Cummings and Terry McGovern are both being recast in the Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg Darkwing Duck reboot, seven years after Cummings recorded the pilot that got it greenlit. The 2017 DuckTales storyline he voiced was about an actor destroyed by a Darkwing Duck recast.
• Gargoyles' live action version is dead but the animated one is alive, Hey Arnold is in conversations, an adult Doug has concept art out, and King of the Hill is the template everyone is pointing to.

Quotes

• "Twenty bucks, because it was a horrible experience when it comes to purchasing anything." - Squeaks
• "It is a black mark on the Pokémon brand right now." - Frank
• "He had the title already. It does what it says on the label." - Allen Dunford
• "We're not focusing on a community. We're just focusing on two people trying to survive this thing." - Allen Dunford
• "In the indie sphere, you're not just the writer. The book doesn't stop at the script." - Allen Dunford
• "Improv works better when it's scaled down. It doesn't work super well when it scales up." - Frank

All news discussed on this episode comes from GeekFreaksPodcast.com.

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Frank asked for it directly on this one, so tell him how the shorter News Quickfire segment is landing. Send your questions, reactions, and topic ideas, and let us know what you want more of and less of going forward.

Lanterns just aired the episode; showrunner Chris Mundy has been calling his Emmy episode, and Frank and Thomas spend the first half of the show pulling it apart. The John Stewart flashback rewrites his origin, leaves Hal Jordan looking like a jerk, and puts fear, race, and family expectation at the center of what it takes to carry a ring.

Then the guys move to the GTA 6 gameplay reveal that Rockstar dropped on Netflix before YouTube. Ten years of development, a two billion dollar budget, an 80 hour campaign, and a map three times the size of Red Dead Redemption 2, plus relationship and fitness systems that quietly punish you for neglecting them. Frank and Thomas also read listener comments on the Lanterns episode, run through network news, compare notes on where they are in Dungeon Crawler Carl, and close with picks of the week.

CHAPTERS

• 00:00 Which Avenger Would Make the Best Green Lantern
• 02:42 Lanterns Episode 3 and the John Stewart Origin
• 09:00 Willpower, Fear, and the Question the Show Keeps Asking Wrong
• 17:41 Listener Comments on the Lanterns Episode
• 24:18 GTA 6 Reveal: Two Billion Dollars, 80 Hours, and a Map Three Times Red Dead 2
• 30:09 Car Alarms, Surveillance, and 600,000 NPC Animations
• 34:25 Network News and Dungeon Crawler Carl Book Five
• 41:07 Picks of the Week: Geoff Johns Green Lantern and Dimension 20

WHAT WE COVER

• Both hosts rate the Lanterns flashback near perfect on writing and performances, and both admit it changed how they read Hal Jordan. Frank says the episode was not aimed at him, and that watching Black viewers respond to it told him more than the episode alone did.

• The show asks recruits whether they are afraid. The comics, going back to Geoff Johns' 2005 run, ask whether your will can overcome the fear you already have. Frank and Thomas think the show is asking the wrong version on purpose, and that the season is retelling the Rebirth era transition in a grounded way.

• Jonathan's theory, relayed by Frank: the Guardians are breeding the humanity out of their Lanterns, which is the exact mistake that produced the Manhunters. Thomas ties that to the wiping of sector 666 and to how detached the Guardians are from life on a planet like Earth.

• The show changed John's military discharge from honorable in the comics to dishonorable, a choice Thomas did not like even though he understands what it adds to the character.

• GTA 6 arrives November 19 after more than ten years and roughly two billion dollars. The campaign runs about 80 hours before side content, the map is three times the size of Red Dead Redemption 2, and NPC animations jump from 55,000 in GTA 5 to 300,000 in Red Dead 2 to 600,000 here. Rockstar kept the satire but avoided current politics, memes, and trends to keep the game evergreen, and stealing a car now means dealing with alarms, trackers, and block cameras.

• Geek Freaks is doing a dedicated GTA 6 episode at launch and streaming for charity for the first time since 2021.

QUOTES

• "The question has never been, are you afraid. The question is, if you're afraid, can your will overcome that fear?" Thomas

• "He's pushed everything out of his life that could possibly give him fear. That doesn't mean he doesn't have it. It just means he's given himself less excuse." Thomas on Hal Jordan

• "They're trying to turn the Green Lanterns back into the Manhunters, no emotions, only listen to orders. But that's not what you actually want." Frank

• "GTA is going to teach us to be better people, which is not the game you'd expect that from." Frank

• "In the beginning it was all about being in your boxers and punching goblins, and now there's class warfare, corporations, sabotage and spying." Frank on Dungeon Crawler Carl

SOURCE

Every story covered on this episode comes from GeekFreaksPodcast.com, the source for all news discussed on the Geek Freaks Podcast.

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TALK BACK

Tell us which Avenger you would hand a Green Lantern ring to, whether you think Hal is lying about fear, and how much of your November you are giving up to GTA 6. Send questions, reactions, and topic ideas to [email protected] or drop them in the comments on any of our socials.

The Avengers: Doomsday trailer has fans convinced there are two Doctor Dooms in this movie, and that one of them might not be Robert Downey Jr. at all. Frank and Squeaks break down the eye color, the two suits, and the Cillian Murphy voice theory, then look at what happens to Marvel when Kevin Feige's contract runs out in 2027.

From there it turns into a full state of the franchises. The Feige succession list runs from Brad Winderbaum to Louis D'Esposito to one genuine wild card pick, before Star Wars gets put on the table: the Ahsoka trailer, Thrawn's return, Starfighter, and whether the Rey movie ever actually happens. Then Pirates of the Caribbean, where Disney is reportedly writing two competing scripts, and Frank pitches the real seventeenth century pirate queen whose story would beat both of them. Plus a Dungeon Crawler Carl check-in and a Question of the Week about how you would prove someone is an alien.

• 0:00 Intro and BlizzCon Countdown
• 1:34 Question of the Week: How Do You Test for an Alien
• 3:16 The Two Doctor Dooms Theory
• 11:05 Who Replaces Kevin Feige in 2027
• 22:36 Star Wars Without the Skywalker Name
• 29:33 Ahsoka, Thrawn, and the Sequel Era Gaps
• 34:15 Pirates of the Caribbean and Its Two Competing Scripts
• 46:22 Dungeon Crawler Carl Check-In

Key takeaways:

• The two Doom theory rests on three small trailer details: the eyes reading green in one shot and closer to blue in another, two distinct suits, and a voice some fans think sounds more like Cillian Murphy than RDJ. There is precedent too, since dueling Dooms from different universes is the current main story in Marvel Rivals.
• Frank's argument for a recast is about longevity. RDJ's betrayal only works once as a surprise, so if Doom is meant to carry the MCU past Secret Wars, you need an actor you can keep around.
• The Feige succession shortlist: Brad Winderbaum brings television experience and would likely greenlight Midnight Sons immediately, Louis D'Esposito is the operations veteran who would need a creative partner like the Russos, and Frank's wild card is Iman Vellani, who is now writing comics for Marvel and Image.
• Both hosts want Star Wars to break from the Skywalker name completely, with Dave Filoni doing for the sequels what The Clone Wars did for the prequels. Frank also makes the case that Ahsoka, not Rey, is the real heir to the Anakin lineage.
• Disney has two Pirates scripts in play, one led by Margot Robbie as Red and one featuring younger versions of the original cast. Squeaks calls the Red version predictable, and Frank counters with Zheng Yi Sao, a real pirate commander the Chinese government eventually had to negotiate with instead of fight.

Frank: "I'd actually respect Marvel for keeping a secret for once."

Frank: "I've been hurt too many times by Kevin Feige."

Squeaks: "It's time to go away from the Skywalker in total."

Frank: "The true descendant to Anakin is not Rey. It's not even Luke. Frankly, it is Ahsoka."

Squeaks: "That's the same thing we see everywhere. Find something new."

All news discussed on this episode comes from GeekFreaksPodcast.com.

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Got a question, a counter theory, or a topic you want covered? Send it in and it may end up on a future episode. We want to hear who you would put in charge of Marvel after Feige, and whether you would actually watch a Zheng Yi Sao pirate movie.

Marvel finally put the MCU X-Men cast on stage at D23, and Adam Driver as Mister Sinister might not even be the most interesting name on the list. Frank and Thomas break down the new Avengers: Doomsday trailer, the full X-Men lineup, the X-Men '97 season 2 finale, and the Lanterns premiere on HBO.

The Doomsday conversation starts where most fan reactions did, with Robert Downey Jr.'s voice under the Doom mask, and moves into power scaling against Thor, the Reed and Victor history the trailer is quietly setting up, and which legacy characters are unlikely to survive December 18. From there it's the casting reveals: Christopher Abbott as a much younger Professor X, a Magneto without the Holocaust backstory, Inde Navarrette stepping into a role Lenore Zann has owned for three decades, and Maya Boyd going from Broadway to Storm with no screen credits at all. The back half turns critical. X-Men '97 season 2 lands an 8 out of 10 from both hosts, with a long argument about why the resurrection plotting undercut Nightcrawler's sacrifice and why the middle stretch never matched the Egypt episodes. Then it's full spoilers on Lanterns, including the ending, the Watchmen and True Detective fingerprints all over it, and predictions about the 2016 timeline and where Guy Gardner fits.

• 0:00 December 18 plans, Dune vs. Avengers Doomsday
• 2:20 Avengers Doomsday trailer, Doom's voice and power scaling
• 9:15 The MCU X-Men cast reveal from D23
• 22:50 Vision Quest first look and the case for bringing Ultron back
• 26:23 Star Wars Starfighter and the rest of the D23 slate
• 27:55 X-Men '97 season 2 finale review and grades
• 38:41 Lanterns series premiere, full spoilers
• 55:33 Weekly recommendations

Key takeaways

• The Doomsday trailer sold Doom as a real successor to Thanos, largely on the strength of one shot stopping Stormbreaker and throwing Thor back.
• Marvel is casting the X-Men young on purpose. Magneto reportedly loses the Holocaust background entirely because of it, which Thomas calls pivotal enough to worry about.
• Inde Navarrette reads as an early, guarded Rogue rather than the fully powered version from the comics or X-Men '97, and the real question is how she sounds next to Lenore Zann's voice.
• Adam Driver as Mister Sinister lines up with the gene manipulation groundwork already laid in Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
• X-Men '97 season 2 gets an 8 from both hosts. The voice work, especially A.J. LoCascio's shift once Gambit takes back control, holds up even where the pacing does not.
• Lanterns plays like prestige HBO rather than DCU house style, and its best material is the pilot's first five minutes and the jailhouse interrogation, not the constructs.

Quotes

• "How many times can you kill Patrick Stewart?" (Thomas, on the Doomsday casualty list)
• "This one felt like, oh, all hands on deck." (Thomas, on the Doomsday trailer)
• "The idea of resurrecting somebody needs to feel impossible to you." (Frank, on X-Men '97 season 2)
• "There's this cognitive dissonance for me with this season." (Thomas, on grading X-Men '97)
• "Both these men are living false perspectives of what it means to be a hero." (Frank, on Hal and John in Lanterns)

All news covered on this episode comes from GeekFreaksPodcast.com, including the full D23 announcement roundup and the footage that never got an official release.

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Got a question, a counterargument, or a topic you want covered? Send it in. Who do you think dies first in Doomsday, and does Lanterns hold the landing after that ending? Questions and reactions get read on air.

House of the Dragon Season 3 ended with Sunfyre back from the dead and Rhaenyra executing the High Septon inside his own sept, and Spider-Man: Brand New Day gave the MCU its darkest Jean Grey yet. Frank, Thomas, and Jonathan break down both, plus the Marvel Hall H panel from San Diego Comic-Con and why Ghost Rider got announced with nothing behind it.

On the House of the Dragon side: the Episode 7 resurrection that flipped the board, Helaena's tapestry and what it was quietly spoiling all along, where the show splits from Fire and Blood on her death, why Rhaenyra was never built to sit on a throne in the first place, and a final score for the season from each of them. Then a full spoiler conversation on Spider-Man: Brand New Day covering Sadie Sink's Jean Grey and the road to Dark Phoenix, the Hulk and the Punisher as mirrors for where Peter Parker could end up, the ending that made a handshake hit harder than a kiss, and whether Marvel has its footing back going into Doomsday, Secret Wars, and X-Men. Network news and picks of the week close it out.

• 00:00 Intro: Three Weeks Off, Alaska, and Missing Comic-Con
• 03:11 San Diego Comic-Con and the Marvel Hall H Fallout
• 05:53 Project Hail Mary Is the Movie of the Year
• 07:02 House of the Dragon Season 3: Rhaenyra's Turn and the Finale
• 18:53 Sunfyre, Helaena's Tapestry, and Book vs Show Changes
• 25:02 Season 3 Final Thoughts and Scores
• 28:00 Spider-Man: Brand New Day Spoiler Talk
• 33:00 Sadie Sink's Jean Grey and the Road to Dark Phoenix
• 41:02 What It Means for the MCU: Doomsday, Secret Wars, and X-Men
• 50:16 Network News and Picks of the Week

All news discussed comes from GeekFreaksPodcast.com.

Follow the show on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, and leave a five star review if this one hit. Share it with someone still arguing about the House of the Dragon finale and tag us with #GeekFreaksPodcast.

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Got a take on the finale, a theory about what Jean Grey becomes next, or a show you want covered? Send it in. We read listener questions and topic suggestions on air.

• Rhaenyra spent three seasons trying to be her father and the finale is the moment she stops. Frank frames it as her Anakin-to-Vader turn, right down to killing the realm's holy man and walking back out to claim she is the savior.
• Episode 7 and the return of Sunfyre lands as the season's biggest swing. Jonathan calls it a genuine plot twist with no setup, and it resets who is actually holding power going into Season 4.
• Helaena's knitting was spoiling the show in plain sight. Her tapestry lays out everything she has seen, and nobody in the story looks at it until it is too late.
• Both Frank and Jonathan score Season 3 an eight, with the caveat that Episodes 4 through 6 drag badly. Thomas, who bailed on the season early, gets talked into going back and finishing it.
• Spider-Man: Brand New Day works as a character study more than a clean three-act movie. The guys argue it is structurally strange on purpose, closer to picking up a random issue mid-run than a typical MCU installment.
• Jean Grey's power set is used in a much more specific and much darker way than expected, which the guys read as deliberate setup for Professor X's mental blocks and the eventual Dark Phoenix story.

• "She's now in her Darth Vader era." (Frank)
• "She was never meant to actually sit on the Iron Throne. She was always meant to capture it." (Frank)
• "The dragon fire ripping through a city is going to kill the good and the bad alike. It's not justice. It's just suffering." (Jonathan)
• "So many parts of this shouldn't work. But it does." (Thomas, on Spider-Man: Brand New Day)
• "I can't believe how much relief I suddenly felt from a damn handshake." (Frank)

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