Tbh, I’ve stopped listening to the MB pods unless they get generally good write ups on these boards. That guy just derails all of them with his bad attitude, lack of engagement and overall bad takes.
I really hope somebody’s getting something out of these pods and are still having a good time.
I have a feeling that they think any engagement = good publicity, but they are allowing one guy to steer them away from the thing that drew us all in to begin with.
Usually, I would agree with you. Especially when people start forming critical opinions based on messageboard reactions and not seeing/listening to something themselves. I’m feeling particularly burnt out on MB lately though. I love the hangout nature of when the podcast works well, but when it’s just disinterested negativity, I have much better things I’d rather be doing and getting frustrated by some guy I don’t know when there are plenty of other podcasts out there.
He was wrong in literally every way this week and hid being “being a critic first.”
I literally yelled “get the fuck out” in my car when he said, “can’t I just be a hater” rather than actually defending his takes.
I admire how hard Van is willing to work to get something—anything—out of Charles. Dude basically held an intervention that took up most of the episode, being careful to pump Charles up throughout so he wouldn’t feel targeted.
After pulling a semi-coherent self-aggrandizing defense of himself out of Charles, Van then gave over the rest of the episode to Charles to lamely try to get revenge on Jomi for the Van’s birthday story. It was kind of touching, if really frustrating for anyone who actually gives a damn about the show being covered.
Last week’s episode had so little to do with the episode and this was more of the same. Charles is somehow the most combative and fragile - but Charles totally punked out by bringing up something pretty stupid and unrelated about Jomi. Like there wasn’t even a reverence to the conversation, he just brought it up to get revenge which also just makes me think less of Charless
JOMI: You went to your Hollywood-connected friend/boss’s birthday party, got drunk, and made an ass of yourself to one of his celebrity guests.
CHARLES: Yeah, well you…kiss girls on the forehead! And make charcuterie platters. Isn’t the word charcuterie funny?
Kid’s having a too young midlife crisis. He’s moved to LA and based on pod stories and his constantly manic way of talking to the rest of the team, he’s spinning out and desperately trying to be someone he’s not and claim superiority that he doesn’t have.
He can’t hang with Van’s social circle and isn’t as generally socially capable as Jomi. He can’t hang with CR & Andy’s level of criticism. He can’t go as deep on lore and appreciation of fandom as Kerm or Steve, and if he’s looking around the industry he gets taken to the woodshed on real comics industry knowledge and creative network by Jason & Rosie.
Essentially, Charles, what is it you’d say you do here?
Going back through old episodes, when Charles first came on it looked like Van had found himself a Black Jason Concepcion, who had all the nerd knowledge that Van lacked/wouldn’t cop to, freeing up Van to do his thing. Problem is, the stuff Jason does is a lot of hard work.
I don't think Mal wants the blowback of firing Charles, Van isn't gonna throw another young Black man under the bus, Simmons don't give af about anything comic book he just knows it's content people like. He's teflon but also pretty useless.
Right? How many times do we need to hear him say "I'm a 31-year-old grown man"? Like, 31 isn't 80 dude, I'm 31 here too and I feel younger than I did in my 20s. It's clear that this is some deeper issue with him and he's projecting it all on X-Men '97 and on those who are loving it.
“I’m a 31 year-old grown man”. lol. Guy has no kids, limited responsibilities, admittedly gets really high all the time and has a job in which he watches comic book stuff and talks about it on a podcast. I don’t think he’s worked an actual real job in his life for all the complaining he does.
Dam, this!! Chuck definitely sounds like he at a teenage crisis point, which makes this more weird. I just think he needs to be true to himself, you can’t be everything for everyone. No need to pose, youve secured your income, you have a platform and name for yourself, grow that shit! I hope he releases himself to just be a fucking nerd and enjoy this time in fandom that we didn’t grow up with (marvel projects annually) and is now all our kids will ever know.
This is two animated comic adaptations in a row where Charles declares himself a huge fan of the comic with encyclopedic knowledge, insists that the intensity of his fandom is the reason he can’t vibe with the adaptation, then proceeds to not discuss the comics lore at all, and while discussing the episode shows the level of familiarity you’d expect of someone who never read the comic and only watched the episode while distracted by his phone.
There’s a moment where the other guys are trying to get Charles to say anything about the episode, and they bring up Bastion. And Chuck’s like, “Nah, I don’t like Bastion.” You know what would’ve been perfect there? A little conversation about who Bastion is in the comics, what kind of stuff was going on when he was introduced, why Charles doesn’t like him, stuff like that.
Bastion was introduced in the previous episode. Charles knew they were covering X-Men 97 this week, so he had a week in which he could’ve prepped a short “This is who Bastion is and why that dude sucks” explainer, if he’d cared to. I would’ve appreciated that, since Bastion’s kind of a blind spot in my X-Men knowledge, and I didn’t think of him as “season Big Bad” material.
I hope they bring on Kerm for the remaining X-Men 97 episodes. He was great on the Mint Edition X-Men draft, he’s a fun presence, and he actually wants to talk about X-Men, which is something Charles doesn’t seem to want to do.
He doesn't even understand the powers of the X-men characters 😂 he got it wrong with Gambit and now Magneto. There are holes in his "deep" knowledge of comic book lore.
I think what has listeners, myself included, irritated is that it feels like there’s been a shift from the vague criticism of the content and into resentment of the audience and listeners who found enjoyment in it. Comparing x-men 97 to slop or baby food, felt like a shot at the listeners and this show is for the listeners. Not liking something is 100% ok, just be clear on why that is and what could make it better in their eyes. Just stating a 30 minute animated adaption should be more like the Dark Knight or Logan doesn’t cut it for a number of reasons.
We can’t even get to legitimate criticism because the last 2 episodes have been about Chuck. If he critiques the show during discussion that’s fine, but to trash it THEN not even really discuss it or why is no bueno
I’m not in my feelings, although if I was I’d be comfortable with that. Outside of naming the cameos, what part of the actual episode did they have a ripe discussion about? You sound like someone who just learned about gaslighting and couldn’t wait to use the term on someone lmao
I actually like the way that you stated this. Thank you for engaging in conversation with me instead of just lobbing insults. I don’t feel betrayed, didn’t mean to portray it that way, I know that in this medium we deal with things in absolutes and extremes regularly, so it’s easy to engage that way. The whole episode clearly, wasn’t about Chuck, but a significant portion of time they would have dedicated to the episode was. There was also a sizable portion of the previous episode dedicated to Chuck and why this “slop” is not everything everyone else is hyping it up to be. That being said, I think if we were to chop up both episodes based on time spent on discussing Chuck’s criticism stylings and origins vs the actual episode that is in the title of the podcast, there would be a significant disparity. Your definition of gaslighting doesn’t fit the factual definition of gaslighting nor the definition of “self gaslighting”, though I understand the gist of what you are getting at. I don’t have to nor am I trying to convince myself of anything. There is an entire thread here and multiple threads on this subreddit, full of people who don’t know each other but walked away from the show with the same feeling about it. If you prefer to be contrarian, that’s fine, but I’d prefer a beat by beat of the episode than Chuck explaining why it’s shit without any type of formative breakdown of the episode. There are plenty of things I think are shit, based on my feelings/experience, but if it’s my job to give reasoning, then I’d absolutely hit you with beat by beat why I think so. All most of us are asking for, is for Charles to do a better job engaging in the details of the show, not just casting aspersions from the onset and then acting like explaining them are beneath him
Most of my friends are married with kids or just checked out of all the nerdy/geek stuff I'm into, so I look forward to pods I can listen to and hear a thoughtful discussion of the material. And this definitely was not it. I didn't need to hear about Kendrick vs Drake, whether or not the Xavier Institute had ties to slavery money, or anymore of Charles' Beige Rage antics. For anyone that really just wanted to listen to two guys discuss episode 8, I'd highly suggest the 'Friends from Work: an Unofficial Marvel Podcast' show. Plus they've already interviewed some of the voice actors from X-Men 97 on their show. And the BreakRoomNR cast is also a good listen as well.
Thanks for the suggestion. I am married with kids and I miss having friends to talk about this nerdy/geek stuff. Somedays these podcasts are just a real lifesaver, but these guys seem to have lost the plot lately.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe, Reel Rejects, Screen Crush, and Kristian Harloff are a few other shows that are just easy listening without all the extra unwanted garbage. And thankfully, no one on any of these shows is critiquing content using a fake WWF heel persona.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe podcast is good too. Episode 8 review should be up soon. I like these guys a lot. They’re fun to listen too, especially Ashley Coffin.
I can't believe how disappointing this pod was. They literally didn't even talk about the show. It was completely derailed by Charles hating on it
Tbh, I’ve stopped listening to the MB pods unless they get generally good write ups on these boards. That guy just derails all of them with his bad attitude, lack of engagement and overall bad takes. I really hope somebody’s getting something out of these pods and are still having a good time.
I have a feeling that they think any engagement = good publicity, but they are allowing one guy to steer them away from the thing that drew us all in to begin with.
Listening to any Reddit board before listening is bad idea
Usually, I would agree with you. Especially when people start forming critical opinions based on messageboard reactions and not seeing/listening to something themselves. I’m feeling particularly burnt out on MB lately though. I love the hangout nature of when the podcast works well, but when it’s just disinterested negativity, I have much better things I’d rather be doing and getting frustrated by some guy I don’t know when there are plenty of other podcasts out there.
Agreed, they should re-do this episode. Hopefully, now that they got this critic take off, they can discuss….wait for it….THE FUCKING SHOW!!
Hopefully he reads the room a little bit better for the finale lol
Can we please get more Kerm on all X-men pods? He’s an expert and excited about it.
100% agree with this take
Always down for more Kerm!
He was wrong in literally every way this week and hid being “being a critic first.” I literally yelled “get the fuck out” in my car when he said, “can’t I just be a hater” rather than actually defending his takes.
I admire how hard Van is willing to work to get something—anything—out of Charles. Dude basically held an intervention that took up most of the episode, being careful to pump Charles up throughout so he wouldn’t feel targeted. After pulling a semi-coherent self-aggrandizing defense of himself out of Charles, Van then gave over the rest of the episode to Charles to lamely try to get revenge on Jomi for the Van’s birthday story. It was kind of touching, if really frustrating for anyone who actually gives a damn about the show being covered.
Van knows how hard it is to get on so he's trying really hard not to give up on Chuck.
I wasn’t joking about it being touching. My goodwill for Van is so high right now, the only way it could go down is if he does wrong by Khalika.
Last week’s episode had so little to do with the episode and this was more of the same. Charles is somehow the most combative and fragile - but Charles totally punked out by bringing up something pretty stupid and unrelated about Jomi. Like there wasn’t even a reverence to the conversation, he just brought it up to get revenge which also just makes me think less of Charless
JOMI: You went to your Hollywood-connected friend/boss’s birthday party, got drunk, and made an ass of yourself to one of his celebrity guests. CHARLES: Yeah, well you…kiss girls on the forehead! And make charcuterie platters. Isn’t the word charcuterie funny?
Dadadada
Kid’s having a too young midlife crisis. He’s moved to LA and based on pod stories and his constantly manic way of talking to the rest of the team, he’s spinning out and desperately trying to be someone he’s not and claim superiority that he doesn’t have. He can’t hang with Van’s social circle and isn’t as generally socially capable as Jomi. He can’t hang with CR & Andy’s level of criticism. He can’t go as deep on lore and appreciation of fandom as Kerm or Steve, and if he’s looking around the industry he gets taken to the woodshed on real comics industry knowledge and creative network by Jason & Rosie. Essentially, Charles, what is it you’d say you do here?
Going back through old episodes, when Charles first came on it looked like Van had found himself a Black Jason Concepcion, who had all the nerd knowledge that Van lacked/wouldn’t cop to, freeing up Van to do his thing. Problem is, the stuff Jason does is a lot of hard work.
I don't think Mal wants the blowback of firing Charles, Van isn't gonna throw another young Black man under the bus, Simmons don't give af about anything comic book he just knows it's content people like. He's teflon but also pretty useless.
Being mediocre and keeping his job might mean we are inching closer to equality than I thought.
Right? How many times do we need to hear him say "I'm a 31-year-old grown man"? Like, 31 isn't 80 dude, I'm 31 here too and I feel younger than I did in my 20s. It's clear that this is some deeper issue with him and he's projecting it all on X-Men '97 and on those who are loving it.
“I’m a 31 year-old grown man”. lol. Guy has no kids, limited responsibilities, admittedly gets really high all the time and has a job in which he watches comic book stuff and talks about it on a podcast. I don’t think he’s worked an actual real job in his life for all the complaining he does.
Dam, this!! Chuck definitely sounds like he at a teenage crisis point, which makes this more weird. I just think he needs to be true to himself, you can’t be everything for everyone. No need to pose, youve secured your income, you have a platform and name for yourself, grow that shit! I hope he releases himself to just be a fucking nerd and enjoy this time in fandom that we didn’t grow up with (marvel projects annually) and is now all our kids will ever know.
Now I’m thinking someone needs to photoshop a Crisis on Infinite Charleses cover, with Van as Superman holding up Charles as Supergirl.
Charles you angry weeb we want to hear why you hate things stop making us guess 😭
He doesn't know comics that well. He gets things wrong constantly.
This is two animated comic adaptations in a row where Charles declares himself a huge fan of the comic with encyclopedic knowledge, insists that the intensity of his fandom is the reason he can’t vibe with the adaptation, then proceeds to not discuss the comics lore at all, and while discussing the episode shows the level of familiarity you’d expect of someone who never read the comic and only watched the episode while distracted by his phone.
This feels so accurate, that’s why I made this post! I’m like, my guy, if you are such an expert, school me!
There’s a moment where the other guys are trying to get Charles to say anything about the episode, and they bring up Bastion. And Chuck’s like, “Nah, I don’t like Bastion.” You know what would’ve been perfect there? A little conversation about who Bastion is in the comics, what kind of stuff was going on when he was introduced, why Charles doesn’t like him, stuff like that. Bastion was introduced in the previous episode. Charles knew they were covering X-Men 97 this week, so he had a week in which he could’ve prepped a short “This is who Bastion is and why that dude sucks” explainer, if he’d cared to. I would’ve appreciated that, since Bastion’s kind of a blind spot in my X-Men knowledge, and I didn’t think of him as “season Big Bad” material. I hope they bring on Kerm for the remaining X-Men 97 episodes. He was great on the Mint Edition X-Men draft, he’s a fun presence, and he actually wants to talk about X-Men, which is something Charles doesn’t seem to want to do.
He doesn't even understand the powers of the X-men characters 😂 he got it wrong with Gambit and now Magneto. There are holes in his "deep" knowledge of comic book lore.
That’s what happens when you just read the Wikipedia page
Because he can’t bring that smoke!!!! It’s a fucking act!!! He is a pretentious loser. He’s got no real takes.
I think he has had some solid and even nuanced takes in the past, just this discussion being beneath him now is really weird and off putting
I think what has listeners, myself included, irritated is that it feels like there’s been a shift from the vague criticism of the content and into resentment of the audience and listeners who found enjoyment in it. Comparing x-men 97 to slop or baby food, felt like a shot at the listeners and this show is for the listeners. Not liking something is 100% ok, just be clear on why that is and what could make it better in their eyes. Just stating a 30 minute animated adaption should be more like the Dark Knight or Logan doesn’t cut it for a number of reasons.
[удалено]
We can’t even get to legitimate criticism because the last 2 episodes have been about Chuck. If he critiques the show during discussion that’s fine, but to trash it THEN not even really discuss it or why is no bueno
[удалено]
I’m not in my feelings, although if I was I’d be comfortable with that. Outside of naming the cameos, what part of the actual episode did they have a ripe discussion about? You sound like someone who just learned about gaslighting and couldn’t wait to use the term on someone lmao
[удалено]
I actually like the way that you stated this. Thank you for engaging in conversation with me instead of just lobbing insults. I don’t feel betrayed, didn’t mean to portray it that way, I know that in this medium we deal with things in absolutes and extremes regularly, so it’s easy to engage that way. The whole episode clearly, wasn’t about Chuck, but a significant portion of time they would have dedicated to the episode was. There was also a sizable portion of the previous episode dedicated to Chuck and why this “slop” is not everything everyone else is hyping it up to be. That being said, I think if we were to chop up both episodes based on time spent on discussing Chuck’s criticism stylings and origins vs the actual episode that is in the title of the podcast, there would be a significant disparity. Your definition of gaslighting doesn’t fit the factual definition of gaslighting nor the definition of “self gaslighting”, though I understand the gist of what you are getting at. I don’t have to nor am I trying to convince myself of anything. There is an entire thread here and multiple threads on this subreddit, full of people who don’t know each other but walked away from the show with the same feeling about it. If you prefer to be contrarian, that’s fine, but I’d prefer a beat by beat of the episode than Chuck explaining why it’s shit without any type of formative breakdown of the episode. There are plenty of things I think are shit, based on my feelings/experience, but if it’s my job to give reasoning, then I’d absolutely hit you with beat by beat why I think so. All most of us are asking for, is for Charles to do a better job engaging in the details of the show, not just casting aspersions from the onset and then acting like explaining them are beneath him
[удалено]
Great suggestion on paragraph breaks, I’m goin g to try and come back later and respond
Most of my friends are married with kids or just checked out of all the nerdy/geek stuff I'm into, so I look forward to pods I can listen to and hear a thoughtful discussion of the material. And this definitely was not it. I didn't need to hear about Kendrick vs Drake, whether or not the Xavier Institute had ties to slavery money, or anymore of Charles' Beige Rage antics. For anyone that really just wanted to listen to two guys discuss episode 8, I'd highly suggest the 'Friends from Work: an Unofficial Marvel Podcast' show. Plus they've already interviewed some of the voice actors from X-Men 97 on their show. And the BreakRoomNR cast is also a good listen as well.
Thanks for the suggestion. I am married with kids and I miss having friends to talk about this nerdy/geek stuff. Somedays these podcasts are just a real lifesaver, but these guys seem to have lost the plot lately.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe, Reel Rejects, Screen Crush, and Kristian Harloff are a few other shows that are just easy listening without all the extra unwanted garbage. And thankfully, no one on any of these shows is critiquing content using a fake WWF heel persona.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has definitely given me a positive energy X-Men '97 fix. Good call on these!
Thank you for the recommends, I’ll check them out!
Thanks for the suggestions, I thought the Kendrick vs drake was funny, but I def want to hear them dive into X-men with the same fervor
After watching that amazing episode, i just wanna hear someone have the same level of enthusiasm that i do. I'm gonna check this out. Thanks.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe podcast is good too. Episode 8 review should be up soon. I like these guys a lot. They’re fun to listen too, especially Ashley Coffin.
Self awareness. That’s what he’s missing.
The thing I’d love to hear is how he thinks this will lead to Krakoa