Build the Best Spider-Man Movie Draft
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I still love being Spider-Man. I mean, who wouldn't? So no matter how many hits I take, always find a way to come back. Because the only thing standing between this city and Oblivion is me. There's only one Spider-Man, and you're looking at him. Greetings, and welcome into the Ringerverse here on the Ringer Podcast Network.

I'm Mallory Rubin, and it is my absolute pleasure to invite you not only back to the Visions Academy, but also to join us on the Ringer's Nexus podcast feed for all things fandom. Joining me today, as always, we've never found the right band to join, so we started our own. It's my house of our title. Co-host, Joanna Robinson. Yo, what's up? Thwip!

So excited. It's draft day, Mallory. It's draft day. Not the incredible film draft day. It is a draft day for us. Sadly, Kevin Costner is not here. He's not making a lot of appearances these days, and he is certainly not here on this draft. But who is? Though it is still true that nobody went to Bo Callahan's birthday, in case anyone's wondering. Joe, plenty of people at this party. It is not just us today, because you might be wondering, for a draft...

for a house of our party. What's a podcaster gotta do to join this spider team? And Ben Lindberg and Jessica Clemens are here to find out. They are our fellow drafters for today's Build the Best Spider-Man Movie Draft. Ben, Jess, welcome.

Hello. So excited to be here. Apologies in advance for my voice. My wife and I have been exposed to a radioactive toddler. It has given us zero superpowers. It has actually sapped our powers, but I've been on vocal rest all weekend. I'm ready.

I'm incredibly nervous to be here because I've only heard how aggressive Mal is during these drafts. And I hope I chose right. I hope I chose correctly. This is my first draft. I assume it's like kickball rules. You choose the strongest first. And I'm just going to try going in. I'm going to go in as fast as I can.

See, I've been hopeful that Mal might be on her best behavior here. And by that, I mean her least lethal, cutthroat, sadistic behavior in that this is Jess's first time on House of R. And the first time you invite someone to your house, you try to be hospitable, right? You try to tidy up a little, present your best face. So might Mal possibly pull some punches here? Or does that go against her nature? I don't know. It seems like Jess has come in with the right competitive spirit.

I feel like once you invite someone into your house, you were comfortable enough to show them who you actually are. I feel like the second time. But the first time you might dust, you might put some clothes in the bin or put something in the closet. You want to look presentable. So just the full exposure and full force of draft Mal on your very first appearance on this podcast, that could be daunting. Ben, I find your attempt to neutralize Mal at the beginning really admirable.

I'm trying to appeal to her better nature before the draft actually begins. I don't invite a lot of people over, as you know, so this isn't really a thought exercise that I've engaged in actively before. You know, pretty comfortable in pajamas hanging out with my cat. I am on my best behavior today. You know, I'm feeling...

mellow. I'm feeling like this is an exercise in shared celebration, much like the hype draft. Sure, is there going to be a competitive spirit among the group? Of course, it's a draft. But we are seeking to build the best Spider-Man movie from the component parts that we adore, that we cherish, right? So...

What if it's just a love fest the entire time? Could that happen? Maybe. I think so. Why not? No? Ben, do you remember the, like...

And I hope you do because you're currently crushing it. But like the year draft that we did early this year. Oh, yeah. Right? The hype draft for the year. I won that draft. Do you remember? No, I think Ben won. If you look at the record. If you look at the vote. Yeah, does the vote count or does the history count? Anyway. This is a democratic rule. You might remember. Whether the things we drafted turned out to be good. That's the real victory. No, that's not what the point of the draft is. It's to win. It's already getting contentious. Do you remember how Mallory at that draft was like,

this is a love draft. It's just going to be hype and things we loved. And then she was instantly ridiculing Sean Fennessey. And good old Sean. Well, he had a baffling first pick. Absolutely confounding to this day. I remember.

I remain befuddled. Sean Draft Daddy Fantasy, which is what Mallory called him and had texted me the other day, is not here to absorb the blows for us. So we'll see what happens to us. As soon as the draft starts, the symbiote takes over Mallory. Yeah, exactly. That's right. Dancing and swaggering down the street. Exactly. I have a little voice in my head shouting about the lethal protector right now. Here's the thing. While I won the hype draft, I got absolutely obliterated on the Build the Best Batman movie draft.

draft. So that's part of it too. I'm looking to bring a different energy to the second version of our build the best X shared experience. But my pals, my fellow drafters, before we actually set the order, before we run through the rules, before we make our picks, before we compliment each other for 90 minutes about what a great job we've all done, some quick programming reminders.

A lot of stuff going on on the ringer verse on Wednesday, two of the people who you'll be hearing from today, right now on this very podcast, we'll be back with another podcast. Ben and Jessica will have a video game pod on Diablo, on the Gollum debacle, tough one, the Gollum heads. Tough one for Mallory's hype. And,

Anything else that you want to tease about the impending video game pod coming on Wednesday? Talking some Street Fighter, breaking down some fighting games. Maybe we'll devote the entire episode to our reactions to the footage of Marvel's Spider-Man 2 shown in Across the Spider-Verse. We'll see where it takes us. I'm excited. It's going to be very fun. And maybe we won't spend 30 minutes talking about Gollum, but I have a lot to talk about. I have a lot to talk about. I've got a lot to say. I would listen. I would listen. On Friday.

of the Midnight Boys. Pew pew! We'll have their instant reaction to The Flash. And then, a couple days after that, the Mint Edition crew will be back to talk about the newest Pixar film, Elemental. And then just a couple days after that, the whole Ringiverse crew will be kicking off our Secret Invasion coverage. It's already almost Secret Invasion time. Joe and I will be back with our House of Art deep dive on the Secret Invasion premiere next Friday, June 23rd. Joanna!

That's a lot. How can people follow all of that? Yeah, listen. Okay. I'm so, so glad you asked me. First of all, if you want to follow us on the socials, like all major social platforms, right? TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, at ringerverse is where you want to go or at the ringer, you know, either way. Um,

And in case you want to remember what happened in the House of Art 2023 hype draft, you can go on Twitter and see that Mallory picked The Mandalorian and Dial of Destiny, both the instant classes. It's a hype draft. It's about excitement. It's not a predict the eventual quality draft. That's what the actual coverage is for. If you have any opinions about democracy or how drafts should work, you can email us.

hobbitsanddragons at gmail.com. That's hobbitsanddragons at gmail.com. If you want to send Jess a welcome to the ringer letter, it's hobbitsanddragons at gmail.com. We'll make sure she gets it. We are so thrilled to have her here.

Last programming reminder. It's the same as always. It's the friendly neighborhood spoiler warning. It's a tough one today because it's just all of all of Spider-Man. Today's podcast, today's draft will feature at some point, potentially plot details from every theatrical Spider-Man film since 2002 Spider-Man. We may dip into some comics canon.

Some adjacent MCU or Sony canon could potentially come up today. If it is Spidey-centric, if it is Spidey-proximate, it is fair game today. But you knew that. You're listening to a Build the Best Spider-Man movie draft. What did you expect? Okay.

little pregame before we get into the rules. Why are we here? Why are we doing this? Well, we all just saw and loved Across the Spider-Verse. We're having a blast talking about Spider-Man, talking about why we love Spider-Man movies, talking about why we love Spider-Man stories. And while I think we would all agree that not every Spider-Man movie is quite as successful as Into or Across the Spider-Verse, there are

bits and pieces of each of these movies that we love, that we have held on to and thought about over the years, that we have rejoiced when they have come back into our lives on the big screen. And particularly in this multiversal movie moment that we are in with Across the Spider-Verse, with No Way Home Before, where there's a lot of like mashing up of elements of various Spider-Man properties, this is really top of mind for us as an exercise. Will this be confusing at some point today? Was it during the Build the Best Batman movie draft?

Where if memory serves, Sean asked midway through the draft, what is the point of this exercise? Yes. Yes, it will be. But we're here to have fun. Damn it. And we're going to try to do exactly that. So before we dive in, I want everybody to share with each other.

with our beloved listeners and try to share in a way that doesn't tip your eventual draft strategy, if at all possible. What Spider-Man means to you? What is your relationship to Spider-Man films, to Spider-Man as a character, to Spider-Man as a storytelling staple? Let's start with our guests today. Ben, you want to kick it off? What does Spider-Man mean to you?

He means a lot to me as a native New Yorker, a nerd, someone who still does not drive and is not licensed to do so. If you put me behind the wheel of the Spider-Mobile. Didn't you get your license in Sonoma when you were running a baseball team?

I got a learner's permit, which has since expired as it was several years ago. I have vivid memory of you needing to learn how to drive when you were running a... Yeah, it didn't take. So I'm no better or more qualified behind the wheel than Peter Parker, despite being a grown-up and a dad. But again, that goes along with being a native New Yorker, though not from Queens specifically. But I identify very strongly with

Spider-Man, for all those reasons, he is funny, he's flawed, he's relatable, maybe the most relatable of all the heroes. And also, I have a lot of admiration and love for the Spider-Man movies because, and I made this point on Trial by Content recently, but so much variation in directors and producers and stars and styles, live action, animated, it runs the gamut. But these movies are...

Largely very entertaining at a minimum. And I'm not sure there's a franchise with this many movies where the quality is as consistent or the floor is as high. Right. Because there hasn't been a bad Spider-Man movie, really. We could argue about what the worst one is, but there hasn't been a Fantastic Four or Batman and Robin style bomb movie.

of a Spider-Man movie in there somewhere, which is one of the reasons why there are so many of them. So even the worst ones you can enjoy. And the best ones, I think, are clustered so close together to the top that I don't know that there's a clear consensus about what the best one is. You could make a convincing case for several of them. So I think it's unusual, if not unique, among franchises that have been this prolific.

especially centered on a single character or a single concept for a character with many incarnations. I'm trying to say it without giving away my thing. Okay, I got this. My brain's a thesaurus. I'll think of other words that kind of sound like it. So growing... Oh, no, don't say that. Okay, growing up with...

I was a teen during Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man specifically really young for Tobey Maguire's and so when I liked the Andrew Garfield Spider-Man I remember getting so much hate for liking the Andrew Garfield Spider-Man that I was like oh let me go look at all the Spider-Men and I was like these aren't

bad. And I felt like I had to stand up and fight for Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man a lot. And through that love of loving Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man got me to love Toby and go back to watching all those when I was older and then going into Tom Holland's Spider-Man. And I think it's just gotten better since. And I just love how much they're diving into different versions of Spider-Man because there's so many and I'm not going to read every comic in which Spider-Man variants are in there. So they're trying to bring it to the big screen where we can like

see it and like it and it speaks to us. I didn't give away any of my hints. That was cagey. Okay. All right. Intriguing. Joanna? Well, thank you for asking me, Mallory. I will, as well as Ben, cite the excellent Trial by Content podcast that I was not a part of, but Ben filled in admirably for me about...

various spider men and people. And a point that I loved on that show, and I think it was Neil Miller who made it, was this idea that not every generation, but the last three generations all have a spider person that maybe they grew up with, that they identify with. And the idea that those spider people have characteristics of that generation. As we know, a reason this property is rebooted so often is because of quirks in the

deal between Sony and Marvel, so it is unusual in that way, as Ben pointed out. And so because we were just constantly having spider people, we constantly have this prism that reflects...

where the culture is, where we are, where comic books are, et cetera, et cetera. And like, you can't, you can't discount how fundamentally important the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man films were for like the future of all superhero films in general. As much as you can't discount how still important across the Spider-Verse is, like the fact that it is just like,

run through, shot through with relevance is incredible for a franchise. And I'm so thrilled that we get to talk about all the different facets. Obviously, there is one correct answer for every category and I will be naming it. But other than that, like, you know, there's just like so many good runners up. I love it. I love it. I agree. You know, I think that

Spider-Man stories feel at once like eternal and like there's this great shared through line and tradition in a Spider-Man story, the coming of age tale, something that feels like quintessential and archetypal and classic and very relatable as Ben said, but also that each reboot can feel fresh, whether it's through the performances or the particular figures or who is paired and how and in what way, the aesthetic, et cetera. And part of what's really fun, I think about

this particular franchise for a draft like this is like you really could go with any number of strategies and sincerely like this is not a bit they would be valid like you could recreate something that you already have a deep affection for and a connection to you could try to bring people something that they've never seen before because both of those things and everything in between is like something that people love about spider-man's story and like

what particular spider person or villain or setting or school or age or power set or suit like connects to you. Well, maybe there's an answer that's fixed forever and maybe that changes over time. And like, that's one of the great joys of falling in love with a superhero and a comic book story. It tells you something about yourself, right? So Spidey does that for so many people, so many youngsters who are trying to figure out like how to fit in or how to,

some sort of changing circumstance in their life. There's just like a joy to the world and the character that is, even though we have not ourselves been bitten yet by radioactive spiders, that feels like, okay, I get it. I know what it's like to be Peter or Miles or Gwen or Spider Noir or Spider Ham or whomever.

Do you all, like, after you see a Spider-Man movie, when you see spiders in the real world, do you have a different response to it? Like, does it shift from debilitating fear to, like, well, should I...

reach out with my hand or expose the back of my neck and see what happens? Is that a thought that goes through your head? Absolutely not. Not a damn day in my life have I ever saw this spider. No. Oh, no. I still do not like spiders. Actually, it makes me hate them more now because what if the one is radioactive? What if one really hurts me? Also, I'm already giant. Uh,

I'm already at where I want to be physically. I don't need to get bigger. And when I say bigger, I mean like tall as hell, really strong, accidentally knock a hole in a wall. So no, I don't like spiders. I think this movie made me hate them more.

I remember reading that when Andrew Garfield was preparing for the role, you know how a lot of actors, they'll go kind of method. If they're playing a doctor, they'll embed themselves with doctors. They'll try to learn what a doctor's life is like. Andrew Garfield studied spiders. I don't know exactly what that entailed. It's still classic. He wanted to make spiders.

spider-like movements. So I would guess that he probably came away from that feeling more sympathetic towards spiders. I mean, spiders, they're our allies, right? Not just when it comes to crime fighting, but also when it comes to annoying insect fighting. Some of us have seen the film Arachnophobia and we will never turn on a lamp the same way, step in a shower the same way. Forget it. Forget it. No. Yeah.

What do you think Jeremy Strong would do if asked to play? Oh my gosh. How would Jeremy Strong prepare? He would definitely wear the web shooters. He would weave his own web and then sleep on it. He lives in like the forest in a little hammock of spider web. Exactly. Oh my gosh. Gossamer. Beautiful. Okay, should we run through the categories? We have four drafters today. We have six categories. Here's what they are.

Spider-person. We will each be selecting a franchise's spider being. So to be clear, more than one of us could in theory select a Peter Parker, but Jess already mentioned Andrew. Let's just stick with him. Only one of us can pick Andrew Garfield's Peter Parker. So we can't pick...

I am selecting Andrew Garfield's Peter Parker from Amazing Spider-Man. And then someone else says, I am selecting Andrew Garfield's Peter Parker from No Way Home. Andrew Garfield's Peter Parker can only be selected once. Okay. A given franchise, though, of course, can have more than one eligible Spider person. The Spider-Verse franchise obviously has legions. So you can pick more than one character from a given movie or franchise, but the same character can only be selected once. Villain.

Once again, you must choose the specific performer's version, not just the character. So you'd have to say Catherine Han's Doc Ock from Into the Spider-Verse, not just Doc Ock. So more than one Doc Ock could, in theory, be selected in this draft, but only one person can pick Han's Olivia. Okay. Plus one flexible category. This could be a love interest, a

It could be a guy in the chair. It could be a sidekick. It could be a partner. Any companion, basically. Now, again, you must pick the specific version. So Emma Stone's Gwen Stacy, not just Gwen Stacy. Another thing that we should clarify is that certain characters will be eligible in multiple categories. But again, the character can only be selected once. So if somebody selects

She's trying not to name anyone else. Dipping. Let's just stick again with

With Andrew Garfield. I love how much Andrew's getting mentioned in this podcast. We're a very pro-Andrew Garfield crew. Please, no one choose Andrew Garfield. If somebody selected Andrew Garfield's Peter Parker as their spider person, then Andrew Garfield's Peter Parker could not later be selected as a mentor or a wild card. Okay. Only one selection. Once someone's off the board, they are off the board. Okay? Okay.

Oh, God, I'm going to lose. You're going to do great. You're going to crush it. All your heart. Next category, mentor. Now, this is distinct from plus one, though there could be certainly some overlap in how you think about the categories.

This could be a guardian. This could be a teacher. This could be a relative. It doesn't have to be a family member, but it can be. And again, it's possible that you could argue for a character in either category. Any category is eligible for wildcard, which we'll get to in a minute. So just make that part of your strategy. And when you were selecting your pick, make sure you specify which category you were making the selection for. Because you can fill the categories in any order you want. If you want to start with accessory, go with God. Okay.

Which brings us to accessory. Okay, this is the one that's going to require the most explanation here. This was the one that we had a little bit of pre-recording discussion over. Your spider being. I was saying spider person, but let's broaden it to spider being. Maybe spider cat will be the first overall pick. Who can say? Probably depends on whether or not I get the first selection. Your spider being. Okay.

will automatically come with a suit. Here's what we have decided, collectively. It will be their first proper suit from their first appearance. As Joe put it, we're not talking onesies. Proper spider suit that that character wears. If you want your mashup movie to feature another suit

And it can be from any film franchise, from any character. You must select that supplemental suit as your accessory. But you do not have to select a suit as an accessory. An accessory can be a different bit of drip, right? If you're thinking about fashion beyond just your fighting suit, it can be an invention, a gizmo. It can be a camera. It can be anything at all. This is a very broad category.

That's so cute. I can see us getting into some quibbles here. That's so cute. Do you mean like Peter Parker's camera that he uses for his job at the Daily Bugle? That's adorable. Maybe you want your spider person to be well-rounded with an internship or a job. Who could say? I love it. Love it. Depends again what kind of movie you're trying to make. Not trying to be this person, but I'm going to be this person for a second. So if I chose Miles Morales, am I choosing the Stan Lee costume he got or am I choosing the spray painted black costume that he got?

Because it's the first one here. Good question. Yeah, let's use that example. So I think by the rules that we landed on pre-recording, the suit that Miles would be wearing in your movie is the debut, right? In the final act of Spider-Verse where he comes out with a spray-painted suit. Yes. Okay. Right? Everyone in agreement? Everyone in agreement? Yes.

Okay, fantastic. But if you want him to look like he's bleeding from his armpits, you need to upgrade him to the across the spectrum. And if somebody else who didn't have miles wanted to select the Stanley costume shop garb, they could do that. That's cute. Okay. You should do that now. They could do that. And it would be beautiful. Just like that moment was in the movie. It always fits eventually. Damn it.

Yes.

And finally, our sixth category, wildcard. This can be anything. So you can double up from another category. You could pick another villain. You could pick another plus one. You could pick another mentor. You could pick another spider person. Or you could pick something else completely that didn't fit into any of the other categories. Do you want to pick a score? Do you want to pick a director, et cetera, et cetera? Do you want to have a specific setting, a specific school, or a specific New York? Oh, man.

Think about wildcard in whatever way best suits your movie. And again, it's completely fine to just double up from another category or to use this to bring another element into your film that wouldn't be firmly established in a quick screenshot on Twitter otherwise. Any questions on the categories before we quickly run through our other rules? I think I'm clear on the categories. Joe, will you be drafting Paul Giamatti's Rhino and building The Amazing Spider-Man 3?

I think you know how much I feel compelled and drawn to anything involving Paul Giamatti. So it's very possible. The third movie from Garfield we never got. I could see you constructing that. I mean, you know. Somebody should. Redemption. Redemption for Rhino. Really? Redemption for what Giamatti was doing in those scenes, really? Yeah.

I love a forehead tat. No? I've given some consideration to a strategy that seems so devious, so dastardly, that it could get me imprisoned by the Spider Society and banned from future drafts. But I won't.

know if I can pull the trigger on it until I'm on the clock and we find out the draft order. You can't draft James Cameron's theoretical Leonardo DiCaprio's Spider-Man. All right. You have to draft from canon. Not that tedious, though. It has to be a movie that was made. I understand that. Sorry to go full Miguel, but it must be a canon event. That brings us to the other rules. Let's talk about what is actually eligible here. So

All global theatrical release standalone Spider-Man movies are eligible, not just live action. Obviously, the animated movie that we all just watched and loved is the impetus for this podcast. So that means you can draft from the following 10 films. Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse, Spider-Man No Way Home, Spider-Man Far From Home, Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse, Spider-Man Homecoming, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, The Amazing Spider-Man, Spider-Man 3, Spider-Man 2, Spider-Man. Got it.

Spider-Man must be in the title. You cannot draft from movies that include Spider-Man but are not standalone Spider-Man films. So that means movies like Captain America Civil War or Infinity War or Endgame or Venom or Morbius, with apologies to Steve, on the Morbius front, are not eligible for this exercise. Though to be clear, if one of those characters, like Venom, appears in one of the 10 eligible films...

that character is eligible for conclusion. So that sounds confusing, but I think ultimately it fits. It's pretty clear. If we have anything come up in real time, we'll talk it through. No limit to how many selections you can make from a given movie or franchise. It's up to you and the strategy that you want to employ. Again, if we need a ruling at any point on a pick, we will consult Arjuna and Steve. When we finish, it will go to the public.

The listeners will vote for their favorite draft on the Ringerverse Twitter and Instagram handles. What is the best build your own Spider-Man movie look like? That's up for each of us and all of the listeners to decide. And of course, finally, it will be a snake draft. Steve will determine the order.

using a draft randomizer. We will let him explain how he is going to determine the draft, but none of us know yet where we are picking. We are about to find out and then we're going to dive in. So before Steve sets the order, any final questions on rules or approach?

I think we got this. Yeah, I'm ready. Although I will say here's a problem or maybe it isn't a problem. Maybe it's a challenge that will bring out the best in us. But in a way, I feel like we are not only competing with each other. We are competing with the existing classic Spider-Man mashup movies that are out there.

Whereas in the Batman movie draft, you were essentially making a Batman multiverse movie, which didn't already exist or didn't before the Flash, if we want to count that. But we are going up against cinematic classics, the Spider-Verse movies and No Way Home that have mixed and matched in the way that we're going. Amy, Kevin, call us.

We're ready. It's true. It's a good point, Ben. I think that gives us a firmer and more clearly established measuring stick, but also like it makes this feel a little bit more valid than the Batman draft did in some way. It feels like it could happen. Like maybe anything that anybody says today could actually happen in an eventual Spider-Man movie, which is weird, but really fun to think about. Okay. Steve-o-rama. Steve-o-rino. All right.

So, before we began our recording, I asked Joanna Robinson, what is the coolest way that we could possibly determine the order of this draft? And she said, roll a D4. Yeah, that's exactly what happened. That's exactly what happened. We're honest on Mondays. Wow, this is J. Jonah Jameson level of journalistic integrity for me, Steve. Slander is spoken and print is liable. But today, we are going to be rolling a D4 to determine the order of this draft.

So Joanna Robinson, pick a number between one and four. Three. Mal, pick a number between one and four that's not three. Two. Ben? One. Jess? I think I'm... Am I three? I don't... I'm sorry. My heart is beating so... My heart is beating so hard. Wait, wait. I picked three. So Jess is four, right? Yes, Jess is four. Okay, great. All right. So with the roll of the dice, three is first. Number one is second. It's Esther. Esther.

It's third. Fucking nightmare. And with that, we have our order. Absolute disaster. Okay, wait. So Joe is one. Joe drafts first. Ben drafts second. Jess drafts third. I draft fourth. And I'm on the turn, so I'll go then fifth. And then Jess, you'll be back up at six. We're going to sneak the rest of the way. Yeah.

Correct. Okay, just walk me through it while we go. Let me just say that at the beginning when I said there's a clear worst pick to have, it was four. I disagree. I'm despondent. I disagree. I'm pivoting in real time to something that I think will be bold and fresh. I'm going to embrace it. I'm excited. This is what happened with the hype draft where I got number one and I took everyone's number one pick and it was great. And then it was just absolute slaughterhouse for me. I like being on the turn. I think it helps me a lot around too. But for the...

We'll see if the first round goes the way that I'm anticipating. It's I have to do something. I have to do something bold, but I'm prepared to. And so that's that's just the way it goes.

Oh, boy. Okay. Joe, Ben, Jess, Mal. I think that if we wanted, we could ask how Steve determined who got to pick the first number. Like, where was that draft randomizer determined? But you know what? Who has the time? All right. Should we kick things off? Should we build the best Spider-Man movie? Let's do it.

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Joe? All right. Shock us all with the first pick. No, honestly, I thought that I was braced to go last. Mm-hmm. And so I was ready to pick something. And then I listened to Jess try not to give her hand away, but either she's playing...

Like, dimensional chess? Or is just playing, like, with an open and honest and naive heart? And I think it's the second. I don't want to take Andrew Garfield from her, which it seems like something that she seems to care about. But I was prepared to go for Andrew. I'm going to go with Tom Holland's Peter Parker. Woo! Whoa. Okay. Oh, no. I'm genuinely surprised. Okay. Wow. Wow.

Wow. Okay. That's a good Peter, though. That's a good Spider-Man. That's a great pick. Yeah, I'm just surprised. You already set up for...

That's tough. Yeah, that's a vulture pick. I might have gone with that pick, actually. It sounds like you two are surprised, but that might have been my number one also. I'm surprised that Joe went with that pick. Yeah. I think that's fair. Yeah. Any reasoning, Joe? Any explanation? Thinking about all the other components that I want to arrange, I just feel like Tom, and especially when we're talking about that coming of age, I mean, I think there's two clear great coming of age picks here.

Um, and someone else will get the other one, but I just think that like for all the other components that I, that I would like, no, are there for all the other components that I would like to slide into place? Um, I think Tom, uh, fits the best. I, we love Tom Holland for phenomenal Peter Parker. So yeah.

Yeah, he's my Peter, I'd say. I like a coming-of-age story, which is why I like Spider-Man in general, right? And it's funny, Jess earlier mentioned that she was a teen during the Andrew Garfield Spider-Man movies. Andrew Garfield was not a teen during the Andrew Garfield Spider-Man movies. He was not even particularly close.

Tom Holland is the only one thus far who actually has been a teen when he started playing Spider-Man, which I do appreciate. I like a Spider-Man story that feels like Spider-Man meets Freaks and Geeks.

And I guess there are some actual cast members from Freaks and Geeks who have been intimately involved in Spider-Man Homecoming and other Spider-Man movies. But I like it when it feels like a true high school story. And I think he may be the only one who has actually pulled that off for me. You're not supposed to be making jokes. I'm not supposed to. Please do it. Please do it.

You are enemies today. I thought we were going to be cussing at each other for the next 90 minutes. That's what I was told. No, no, no, no. This is a best friends draft race and I love it. I love this. I love this. We need like a lot of swips to the temples here. Love. Love. Love.

I mean, I also love Tom Holland's Peter Parker, but once another drafter selects Tom Holland's Peter Parker, it is your moral obligation to annihilate the pick. I'm speaking from the heart here. So, you have like hours of podcast record supporting Tom Holland, Peter Parker. I think it's a fantastic pick. I genuinely, I love the pick. Love the pick, sincerely. I think it's great. I'm shocked you made it, but I think it's great. Love to be surprised. All right.

My first pick, I could go in several different directions here, but I guess... Don't be a coward. Do the thing that you said you were going to do. No, Mallory, stop. Be bold. Ben, pick the top seed. Come on. I have a very bold idea that I'm not sure would survive an appeal here, and it might actually... Only one way to find out. Go to Steve and Arjuna. Can I draft Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man as a villain?

By virtue of evil emo Toby in Spider-Man 3. I just love that.

But I'm not the producer. Here's what I love about the strategy. Taking Toby off the board before somebody else can pick him as a Spider-Person, I just think is fucking awesome. I agree, but I think you are leaving. Now you are screwing yourself on the Spider-Man category and leaving Mallory to... The Spider-Man category. Doesn't leave me with...

Two picks I would not have otherwise been left with? Maybe. But that's not why you should do it, Ben. Oh, sure. Sure, sure. No, I genuinely do think that's valid. Why wouldn't it be? Any counterpoints? Ben, I just don't think anyone's going to pick Toby until you come back around. That's what I think. It is possible that he might not be picked. He would definitely be picked before Mason acts you. I wanted an eligibility ruling. Yeah.

And it sounds like... He's not making it back to you. You gotta do it here. Yeah. I mean, I still need to go get a Spidey if I take Toby in this category, which is a problem. God, Ben. Don't do this. Don't do this. All right. Not like this. I'm not gonna do this. I'm not gonna do this. I liked it. I think it's great. I have another way I could go. Shameful cowardice. Might still be bold and devious. I think you should go with the evil one because it's not mine. Pick it on the loop. Be

other side. It won't be there on the loop. It will. Promise. It might be. Here's what I'm going to do. In the Batman draft, there was a number one pick that was kind of the consensus, I think. And that was about the best villain in that franchise in the Batman movies. And I think there's a similar kind of consensus when it comes to the best villain in a Spider-Man movie. And so I'm going to take Willem Dafoe's Norman Osborn here.

I have to say this is a delightfully astounding start to the draft. I can't believe this is happening. Wow. Okay. Walk us through it.

I just don't see how you could dispute that he is probably the best villain in Spider-Man movie history. Now, it's a deep category, and Maori draft guru Ruben will always point out that one should consider positional scarcity when it comes to drafting. That's what makes this, I have to say, baffling. Baffling. Like, Ben, this is Best Friends Draft. I adore you. I want to support you. Shred him. Shred him. He's a Spider-Man.

I think... Let him live. Let him live. He's made a good decision. I think the listeners will support me. I think they're going to see Norman Osborn's smiling face. It's a great pick. And they will respond to that. He is a character who died and yet appeared in several subsequent Spider-Man movies because he is such, and to borrow some malterms, iconic and indelible screen presence. Yeah.

But you can't kill him. You can't remove him from this franchise. He steals the show in No Way Home, at least on the villain side of things, right? You put all the villains together and that's when he really shines. When you see that he was the true, authentic Spider-Man villain all along. Goblin appears in every Spider-Man franchise in some form. I just think you can't go wrong with anchoring your movie with Spidey's number one nemesis. Okay. Ben saw...

of hours of ringer draft cannon events and just took the goblin glider right to the heart of the defined strategy of positional scarcity. You have to respect the boldness. You have to. Just threw like a pumpkin bomb in your own draft, my friend. Yeah.

Sean's number one Heath Ledger Joker pick in the Batman draft. I think that was different category. I do think that was different. I think the standing of Willem Dafoe's Norman Osborn is, if not quite the same, similar. More will be revealed in time. But just to undermine your point right now, I will say that I don't even have him number one of my personal villain power ranking for this draft. Damn. Damn. Damn. Damn.

Oh, boy. Okay, Ben, you know what? You came to play. Yeah. She's crazy. I don't know if I came to win, but I came to play. Joanna is dismayed right now.

We had like one shot, one shot to neutralize Mallory. Jess, you're up. And I'm choosing, and this is, sorry, I'm following the steps. This is the best friend, the mate, the cool person. No, you can pick whatever you want. No, any category you want. This is just your number one overall pick. So if you want to pick your spider person, you can. If you want to pick your mentor, you can. And you're confused because you're like, why did Ben draft the villain first? You're like, why did he do that? That's surely a must be mandated that we all pick.

from different categories, but not so. No. Go back to what I said and take it all out. Because Ben, that was a ridiculous pick for our first pick. I'm so sorry. Wow. Turning on you in real time. I don't think anyone's going to jump on that. But I think someone will jump on, oh, God, which one's more important to me? My heart is racing right now. I got to take... I got to take...

Catherine's Han Doc Ock. I gotta take Catherine's Han Doc Ock. I got to. I don't even understand what we're doing. Villains. I got to. There's a run of villains in the first show. I have to take for no reason my Catherine Han's Doc Ock. And you will understand why as I go further. I have a strategy. Rolling down to number 10 on my villain ranking to cross that out. You'll see.

I mean, she's a great villain. You will see. She's a great villain, but you'll understand my theme. And I...

What I gave you earlier when I said how Andrew Garfield is important to me is number two out of the reasons why I love Spider-Man. The number one will come through at the end of this draft. And I will show you why Spider-Man means a lot to me. No disrespect to the pick because people were just piling on mine. But if Norman Osborn is not Mal's top villain...

I will say that Katherine Hunt's Doc Ock is not even my top Doc Ock, which is no disrespect to her performance. But if Jess is about to do what I think she's going to do, then I think it's really cool. Yes, there's a larger plan here. Just you wait. I just had to make sure because it doesn't work without her and I need her. Okay, I see what you're going for. I like this. I respect this. I don't see what Ben is doing quite yet, but I look forward to finding out.

Ben is drafting the most beloved and indelible Spider-Man villain of all time. Okay, Malik, here you are. Speaking of beloved and indelible, sincerely, I have had some surprises in drafts, my dear friends and colleagues. I can't believe this. I have never, I can barely speak right now. I'm quivering. I have

She was so mad. Joe's killing me. Joe's face. Not only do I get to make one amazing picture, I get to make two on the turn here. Holy fuck. Okay. Composing myself with my first selection.

The number four... Astoundingly, the number four overall pick. The final pick in round one. I will be selecting my spider person. I will be selecting Miles Morales, Spider-Man. Avion of Amlad! Okay. My name is...

It's Mallory Rubin. I was bitten by a radioactive spider. And apparently for like two minutes, I've been the one and only person drafting because I just got to take miles with the horse fucking pick. Oh, please.

Oh my God. Mine will all come together. You just have to wait, but it will be there. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not known for my, my patience. I got to say, I just need you to know that the maniacal cackling that you're hearing right now is your fault. Miles off the board. Oh my goodness. Incredible character. Incredible Spider-Man.

incredible visual palette. I now get to be in the Spider-Verse in my movie. This is just thrilling in a way that I can barely believe. And to build on the joy, to build on the jubilation, I will be selecting my plus one.

Villain can wait because as mentioned multiple times, it is an exceedingly deep and varied category. I will be selecting to pair with Miles Morales, my plus one, Zendaya's MJ from Homecoming, Far From Home, and No Way Home. You know,

I know a couple of magic words myself, starting with the word please. But I don't even know if I'm going to have to say please when I ask people to vote for my team at the end of it, based on how this is going. Just like to thank my fellow drafters. I'm unfazed. Don't!

Don't involve me in this, Molly. Don't involve me in this, Molly. Don't involve me in this. I have nothing to do with this. I'm just delighted right now. Absolutely delighted. I'm still in a really good position. Actually, you didn't take anyone that I was going to take. I was thinking that this is shaping up for Joe to be able to do something fairly remarkable at 2-3, I think, on the turn. This has been just a... Wow.

Boy. Okay. Jess, it is back to you for your second selection. I'm so mad. I should have taken Zendaya when I had the chance. Should have taken Zendaya when I had the chance. I'm going to choose... I got Doc Ock. I'm going to choose... Which is wild as hell. I'm going to choose my mentor. Is that okay? Can I choose my mentor? Absolutely. Which, again, I don't think...

any all will probably take, but it is our own favorite quick, quick cameo appearance.

Charlie Cox, Matt Murdock. That is my mentor. I'm taking it. Now I don't know what you're doing, but I'm still really into it. I'm waiting. I'm waiting. I'm waiting. Charlie Cox, Matt Murdock. Once I reveal who the other, I have a full template to tell you, explain why. I'm excited. But I now have my doc Ock, Katherine Hahn's doc Ock, and my mentor is Charlie Cox's Matt Murdock. Are you making a comedy? Yeah.

That hurt my feelings. No, I mean that as like a compliment. You're picking a lot of comedic performance, comedically inclined performers. No, I'm choosing something as politically driven as possible. And we'll get there in a minute. We'll get there in a minute. We'll get there in a minute. Okay. Okay. Now I feel like I'm back. Good, good.

Okay, we are back to Benjamin for your second pick.

Well, as predicted, as foretold, Toby did make it back to me. So I will take Toby Maguire Spider-Man as a spider person, not as a villain. Wow. Evil Spider-Man is now off the board as well. Andrew falling to Joanna. This is collectively a shameful failure. Don't be so sure. We'll see. Not until she selects Andrew. But...

I am taking Toby to pair with his nemesis, Willem Dafoe's Norman Osborn. The timeless battle between those two will be renewed. They have a lot of history. We will be exploring that history in my film. This is Mallory's face and she's about to say something so mean. Well, no. This is interesting to be on the other side of this because I selected many picks from the Nolan franchise in the Batman draft. And Sean said to me...

Can I ask you, why are you making a movie we've seen before? And I would like to now ask you the same question. Why are you making a movie we've seen before? I will deviate. I will deviate from those films. But those were fine and successful and trailblazing films. Yeah. That's what you want to do. In your draft, if in the second round you could say those were fine, you got to do it. You got to do it. This is Mallory learning from her experience drafting Bane, which she thought was really going to get her somewhere. I love it.

That was a dark revelation for me. But I stand by the take. I stand by the take. That was one of the drafts where I went with my heart, not like appealing to what I thought people would vote for. No, she was like, people love Bane. And we were like, people love Bane.

People love to make fun of Bane. It's just a great performance. I respect coming at it through your heart because I think that's what I'm doing right now. And I'm going to learn that I need to appease people at the next draft. But this draft, I think I'm coming too deep from the heart. So it clearly might not win. But I respect it and I get it. I understand it. Maybe not Bane, but a little bit.

To be clear, what I said the original Spider-Man trilogy were fine films. I meant fine, not fine.

Yeah. A more positive, complimentary way. A fine time with the movies. Fine films. Oh, yes. Whether or not Toby is your preferred Spider-Man, I think every subsequent Spider-Man owes a debt to Toby for establishing the character in the movie canon, for demonstrating that good movies could be made out of Spider-Man, that it was economically and creatively viable. And I think there's a lot of love out there still for him. Okay. It's me, right? Yeah.

Joe, it's you on the turn. You have two picks back to back. Yeah. I am like brimming with power right now. Okay. So like Mallory's like trying to adopt Draft Daddy Sean's position of like why make a movie that we've seen before. And I agree with you. But at the same time, it's not going to stop me. Sure.

In the mentor category, from picking Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark, why would I leave that on the table for anyone at all? Yeah. Great grab. Great grab. Tony is in my draft as my mentor. Great pick. Great pick. The question is, yeah, I mean, I guess I just never dreamed that I would have this opportunity, and so I have to take it.

So in my plus one, I'm going to go with the lanky, the lankiest, most emotional spider person there ever was. Andrew Garfield's.

Amazing Spider-Man. I love, you know, Mallory knows how much I love Andrew Garfield. Jess and I can talk about this for hours. Let's go talk about Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man. I love him so much. I so love Andrew. Love his comeback in the culture from No Way Home. Huge, huge emotional moment for me and for him. And, yeah. So, here it is. My all white straight male draft so far. I, no, I,

Oh, man. We got room. We got room. We got room. I have plans. I have plans. But yeah. Oh, okay. Incredible. Okay. Wow. Tony. Oh, is it back to me? Is it back to me? It is Ben. Ben. Oh, damn. Okay, go Ben. Wow. Back to me already. Yeah. Zippy draft so far. Yeah. This is moving quickly. All right. Okay. For my next pick.

I will be selecting my plus one, I believe. And I will be taking Ned Leeds.

Yeah. There you go. Yeah. Yeah. Guy in the chair. You could quibble with whether separating Tom Holland and Ned leads, whether the friendship, whether the bromance will be quite as effective with Toby behind the mask in the costume and Ned in the chair. But I think if we can age adjust here, if I'm getting the younger Toby who appeared in the first Spider-Man film, that I think it'll be more age appropriate. I think they will bond better.

Ned is, I think, the best spider friend. I was considering taking Andrew Garfield as Peter 3 in plus one just to spite all the Garfield lovers on this draft if he had fallen to me. So it was wise for you to take him there, Joanna. I can't believe he fell that far. I thought he would go third overall. I'm fourth. Me too. Seriously. Me too.

I was sure of it. More so than all of the crushes, more so than all of the love stories. I think the true love story of the Spider-Man movie franchise is Ned and Spider-Man. I thought you were going to say Ned and the Emperor Palpatine Lego, you know?

Somehow. The fact that he is a big Star Wars fan also played into my pick slightly here. Yeah, you guys could build the Death Star together. That's beautiful. You could both sit in the school library and pretend that you were looking at porn to cover for your friend. What are pals for? Yeah.

So, might he one day turn into Hobgoblin and the love and friendship will curdle? I suppose that is possible. But to this point, it is pure. It's friendship. It's love. He's dependable. He's good with a computer. I want Ned Leeds by my side in any adventure we could concoct here. And of all your Hobgoblin options, I feel like this is the best one, honestly. Aw. Okay. Oh, God. All right. What is...

Back to you, Jess. Did everyone choose their plus ones? Am I allowed to ask that? Everybody has a plus one except for you currently. Yes, that's correct. And everyone has a Spider-Man except for me. Okay. Yep. So I'm not losing now. It's only up from here, baby. My plus one. My plus one. My plus one.

Yeah, yeah, you took Zendaya's MJ away from me. Whatever. I didn't need her. I didn't need her. We don't need her. If she's listening on this podcast, I love you. I love you, Zendaya. I need you. But right now, I had a backup in case because I knew she was really good. And this backup

I'm not trying to shoot myself in the foot. Isn't as good as her, to be fair. But it's very fun regardless. It's very fun regardless. And I don't think anyone was going to take it, so I waited last, I guess. My plus one to my Spider-Man that you guys don't know yet is...

Max Dillon. Specifically, Max Dillon. Not Electro. I want Max Dillon before he's Electro, when he is the nerdy scientist and he keeps getting pushed around. That specifically is the plus one. It is not Demon Electro yet. This is Max Dillon we're talking about. Jamie Foxx. Now, again...

It will make sense. Some, it will make sense. I promise. The reveal at the end is going to be spectacular. When the plan becomes clear. It better be. The suspense is mounting. We're building to a great third act here. Sixth act in the final pick. My goodness. I can't wait to give you the Spider-Man and you guys be like, Jessica, what the hell is this? Jessica, what the hell is this? It's a bold new strategy.

Okay. Max Dillon as the plus one. So everybody has a plus one now. Okay. Back to me on the turn. So I have two picks in a row. I am once again astonished. I am about to select my villain who, as I teased earlier, I had someone other than

Green Goblin ranked as the number one overall villain, as I suspect many Spidey enthusiasts do. I will now be selecting with pride and joy, Alfred Molina's Doc Ock. Avion of Amlod! The power of the draft!

I just can't, I can't believe Doc Ock is still here. This Doc Ock. The reason I didn't choose Doc Ock, it was very specific where after I saw him in No Way Home, I was like, no longer a villain to you, right? Yeah. And he's also not that, I was like, oh, I want Miles to go up against someone that's hardcore as hell. Like, what? And then I'm like, Doc Ock,

Okay, sure. But he's no Norman Osborn. He's 1A to Norman's 1. That I would watch him go against. This is, I think, part of what makes Alfred Molina's Otto Octavius such a compelling character, ultimately. And I think this is a through line across many of the more interesting and engaging characters.

Spidey foils, including to give credit to Ben here, including Ben's pick. I think this is something that they both share, which is a connection to our hero, right? So the fact that across a given property, a given Spidey might have some sort of admiration or respect or interest in Otto's research, Otto's work, scientific pursuits, right?

And then what happens when things fester, when they sour, when someone that you trust or admire ends up being your foe? Well, you'll all get to find out in the movie that I'm making. And then, hey!

What if there's a redemption quest? We love a character on an arc, Joe. We say that all the time. So the fact that in No Way Home, Doc Ock was as much friend as foe is ultimately to this character's credit. This gives me the ability to try more things and to play in more arenas. Who wants something that is...

and tidy. You know, the goblins screaming at himself and shouting in the mirror pointy fangs and... No. Give me something a little more nuanced than that for my film. Okay, Mallory. Lover of Gollum. And then...

You can't love Garlem. You can't love Garlem. Green Goblin. Thank you for proving my point. But yeah, I think that is true. I now, and this was something I was actually worried about with the draft. Would I be able to achieve some sort of balance across the different franchises? So far, I've got Spider-Verse accounted for. I have...

the MCU films accounted for and I have the original films accounted for. Same here. So I'm feeling great about that. I will now with sincere joy in my heart once again be going back to the MCU for my mentor. And I can't believe that I beat Ben to this pick. I just can't believe it.

My team, my movie, my squad is about to have the hottest aunt around. Aunt May, Marissa Tomei, to the family. Bring those high-waisted jeans right on over to the movie we're making. Deeply surprised that you beat Ben to Marissa Tomei. I am. Lord. Ben, I thought...

You could sense that with your bed tingle that I would make this pick if you didn't. Just can't believe it. What a wonderful character, right? The MCU's decision to make May, look, with a lot of love and respect in my heart, sincerely for the elderly among us, to make May young and cool and hot and independent, fit queen drip lord Aunt May, right?

dating, breaking Happy's heart, helping Peter, packing up the suit when Peter needs it, like, there, but also doing her own thing. I'm just not sure how much mentoring she does for Peter, actually, at the end of the day. But I think that that's... Like, she's deeply hot, and if you want some chicken larb, like, you know where to go. I larb you. That's true. And I larb that I got to make it. Pick you up from the airport. Great. But, like, as far as advice is going...

I don't know that it's coming from me. I think that this is, I'm glad that you said this, and this is part of actually sincerely what I love about this character as a mentor. Like whether it's Peter in those films or Miles and MJ here in the movie that I'm making, our heroes need support. They need people who believe in them. They don't need people who are stifling them and suffocating them and trying to thwart and inhibit their own potential. Wow.

Marissa Tomei's Aunt May is exactly the kind of mentor that my movie needs. Oh my God, I just love a zag when Mallory Rubin, number one Tony Stark defender, tries to start throwing subtle shade at Tony Stark. No, that's...

necessarily about Tony I love Tony I love Tony as you know I'm a I'm a staunch believer that the Peter Tony dynamic is is really to those movies credit I I love that bond love it to me good pick I enjoy the the gender swap of the great power great responsibility line after and the true or more comics accurate version of the line as well yeah there's that my movie is going to be authentic to the source material thank you I

I appreciate Doc Ock as well. If Norman Osborn had been selected, then I would have been happy to take him. I think that's...

really a through line of Spider-Man villains. Not only what you mentioned, that they're sort of a darkest timeline version of Peter, at least in Doc Ock's case and in Norman Osborn's, but also there's a sympathetic, tragic element to a lot of them, right? They didn't start out with bad intentions. They had great intentions and then their inhibitor chip got fried and then things went awry. But with a lot of these guys, they started out

with either good intentions or just stumbled into the wrong radioactive area or antimatter surrounding or whatever it was. I would also have... Bad day at the office. Who among us? Yeah. High on my villain board. Yeah.

probably higher than the consensus also would have been Flint Marco and Thomas Hayden Church's Sandman, who shares that same sort of, you know, just wandered into the wrong. If someone could still make a wild card pick, you know? What are you doing? I love your defense of Sandman. I loved it. I love Sandman. Try my content. The real enemy is the healthcare system. Yeah.

Right, yes. Just trying to take care of his kids. Yeah. We've all been there. Beautiful. Yeah. Yeah. I knew you'd have at least one as a father of daughters and a son of a mother moment on your pod. There it was. Yeah. A great girl dad. Amen. Love it. Okay. Next pick. It is back to Jess. It's me. It's you. It's me. It's me. It's time. Yeah.

It's time for the reveal. Oh. It's the reveal time of my Spider-Man. And this, I wrote my notes to why this is true. So I'm sorry if you see me look down a lot. It's because I'm looking at my notes because I need to make sure it's said out loud. I love Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man. Yes, I do. But the real reason I like Spider-Man is

is because Spider-Man over the time has been, it's Peter Parker, it's Peter Parker. It's the same kind of story and you need to keep it fresh and they have been keeping it fresh to their due. And I love how they're keeping it fresh, but Across the Spider-Verse does it in a way that includes so many people that don't normally get to see themselves because Peter Parker is the same man. And so I chose Spider-Punk Hobie Brown

because this is a rebellious film. This is going to be a rebellious film. And this is why I chose Katherine Hahn. Not only is he 70s punk and she is 60s science hippie, they both have the same mission of rebelling, kind of in their career and in their education. And I think they're two sides of the same coin. What we loved about

Killmonger and what we liked about Black Panther, where were they? Two sides of the same coin. They just had different outcomes, different impacts on the outcome, which I think is the same between Hobie and Doc Ock's Katherine Hahn. I think they're both just so important to their mission. They just like freedom. They want to make sure they can do it under their own guise,

whether hers is working for Fisk and his is working for the Spider Society. So I think these two enemies would have that conflict of being the same kind of person. So it makes sense why I would choose Zendaya, but I ended up going with Max Dillon.

I ended up going with Max Dillon. And I think because Max Dillon would look up to Hobie as kind of a mentor of being like, hey, just be chill. Be cool about it. You're fine. Don't listen to these people that are really mean to you. Something that he needed in the film. And this way, maybe he wouldn't become a villain. Or maybe Hobie would help him follow a career as Electro as a good guy somehow. I don't know. But I do think Max Dillon would be a good one. Why I chose Charlie Cox?

Instead of becoming friends with Gwen's dad, becoming friends with the cops, the police, go to like the real person that can get you a lawyer, the lawyer of the MCU, who is a rebellious person, who literally puts crime and justice into his own hands. He's like, oh, I don't like how the courts are doing this. I'm going to go handle it on the ground myself. So I think him and Hobie doing that together have the same mission.

and integrity of just being like, hey, you know what? Nah, this guy was wrong. We're going to go give him a what to. Now, am I for streetwise vigilantism all the time? No, because sometimes you're beating the wrong ass. But I think Hobie does come from a good heart and a good spirit. And so does Charlie Cox.

or so does Matt Murdock and I think their mission to fight would be so great and it'd be kind of what we got in the comics with Peter Parker sometimes coming across Daredevil we would just get it with Hobie Brown so that is why I chose ultimately Hobie Brown we want a Warriors movie you're gonna get one we're gonna get a British 70s punk Warriors movie with this right here that's really fun that's really fun love it great effects yes

Also, now you're the only one of us with like a central spider person who hasn't starred in a movie already. So you're making, you're making something new. Yeah. I like it. Yeah. If they're listening to this podcast right now, I,

I just want, I want to, I want to credit on it. I want to credit on it. Cody Ziegler, if you're listening, I want to, I want to credit on this, but I do love Hobie. I loved him so much. As soon as he was revealed in the movie, I love an anarchist, a socialist. I love them. And so watching him, I just want to see more. And so I've been building a world for him. That's it.

That's it. I feel like I should preface this with a Mal-style expression of disbelief that this pick is still available to me. And I will say that with joy and jubilation in my heart, which are very rarely in this character's heart, I will be selecting J.K. Simmons' J. Jonah Jameson. The only character in the Spider-Man franchise. Which category?

That's a good question. I could take him in any number. I think you could make a case for him as a villain. I already have a villain. You could make a case for him as a mentor. He does give Peter his first job in journalism. I guess, yeah. But I will be taking him as a wild card. Wild card. Okay.

J. Jonah Jameson is the only character who is so iconic, so associated with one actor that he cannot be recast. He can either not appear in your film or he can come back but be bald instead of having a flat top now. If you're going to have J. Jonah Jameson in your movie, then it is going to be J.K. Simmons because he is so iconic.

inextricable from that character. He so embodies that character. He brought that comics character to life in such a way that he is irreplaceable. And you could make a great case for him as a villain. I think in some ways he is a greater antagonist to Peter Parker than many of the villains that we've already named.

But at times, when he's not in his Alex Jones online video mold, he sometimes has better impulses, and those can be appealed to. He does not pay well if you're an enterprising journalist. He has not done a lot to increase confidence in the fourth estate. So as a member of the media and the press...

I wish he would be a better representative for us in popular media. However, there is no character more memorable to the point of being unrecastable than J.K. Simmons' J. Jonah Jameson. It's a good pick. I thought it's one Joe might make at some point. However, I once again am compelled to note that you're just taking the sling ring and putting Ned into a Sam Raimi movie that is otherwise unchanged. That's okay. I mean, I kind of think... I mean...

Given the temperature on Franco these days, I feel like that's the spot that was most in need of a recast. So it's a great job. Right. Thank you. That was yours. So the first wild card pick has been made with that one. Okay. And it's about to be Joe and my one. Okay. So I've got two right here. Joe on the turn here. Yeah. Yep. So easy for me. All right. I'm going to actually start with my villain. My villain. Okay. We were talking about how we like two sides of the same coin.

For villains, we like to see that dark mirror. Mallory, you and I talk about that a lot. Blah, blah. And we love a symbiote suit. I'm going to pick Tom Hardy's Venom in my villain category here. Amy Pascal is like, yes, that's all I want is for Tom Hardy's Venom to fight Tom Holland's Spider-Man. Thank you so much, Joanna Robinson. So there we go. A lot of quips to go with a lot of thwips. Really excited for this.

Which brings me to my wild card. I have no notes on the pick, sincerely. And it is with great joy and jubilation in my heart. I am honestly staggered and astonished that we have gotten this far. I can't believe it. Wait, do you know what I'm going to pick here? I have to assume because there's one character who I just can't believe is still here. I don't know. Maybe not.

Same, I'm assuming. What is it? Who is it? No, you would think because then that would add some diversity to my pick, but that's not what I'm doing. No women. No people of color. Thank you. Thank you for the clarification. It is my Breitbart's only lineup of Spider people. Oh, no. Oh, no, no, no. I am picking Chris Evans as Steve Rogers.

Who appears in Homecoming. Wow. On the TV, right? I've got Captain America and Iron Man and Venom in my... Both of these picks are fairly eligible. Oh, but they're eligible. Technicalities. But are you making a Spider-Man movie? Yeah, I am.

Absolutely. You're not making an Avengers movie? I have two core Spider-People and a classic Spider-Man villain in my movie. So yes, do I have to event two top-tier varsity A-plus Avengers in my movie? Yes, but I also have two top-tier Spider-Men in my movie and Venom. Okay. Yes. I'm sorry. What role will Cap be playing in your film? Will he be also trying to mentor...

Peter and then causing strife with Tony and a lot of infighting is going to break out or like what is he just going to sit on the moon? What's Cap up to in your film? Oh, they're going to be talking about like they're going to be enjoying a movie marathon together. And Peter Parker's going to be like, have you seen this old movie? And he's going to be like, no, I need to put it in my little journal. Let's watch it together. Incredible. Okay. Bold.

I really think you're just jealous that I have Captain America in my lineup. You did get really good people. I'm not going with the all Avengers draft. I decided not to.

Not all Avengers. Stephen Strange is not invited to this party. Yeah, Dr. Strange is still out there. He could be your accessory. Potential mentor. Wizard is your accessory? Stephen's not invited. No. That's so sad that none of us put Dr. Strange on our thing. I mean, Ben has to pick a mentor. He could take him right now. Oh, so sorry. Oh, so sorry. But I will not. I will be the first to select an accessory.

Am I the first to select an accessory? You will be. It's kind of a thin category, I guess you could say. So maybe it's surprising that we haven't already drafted an accessory or maybe it reflects our lack of enthusiasm for the options here. When you think about Spider-Man, you don't necessarily think of accessories immediately, especially if we're counting suits and uniforms.

as kind of the default goes with the Spidey. So there are fancy suits out there and there are other Stark devices that are available to you all. You got a pretty old suit though. You sure you don't want to pick another one? It's true. It's classic. However, I will be selecting the Dimensional Travel Watch from the Spider-Verse films.

Because it opens up so many possibilities for me. If this turns into a franchise, I can have an unlimited number of settings. This is like filming on the volume, except even more convincing. I can go anywhere at any time. It always goes well. Except I will be on location. I won't need to be on the volume. I can go to the universe that looks like the location that I want to use as the backdrop for my film.

This obviously will save me some money when I'm budgeting for this film because, again, I can just slip into another universe whenever I want. If I need to do a scene change, no problem. Just use my watch. I can change my setting. And it means that I can move freely between live action settings and animated settings. I can port my Raimi Spider-Man figures from anywhere.

standard old Earth into all sorts of variant Earths with the beautiful comics inspired background and art.

and we can just traipse around the multiverse and I can bring my familiar characters into unfamiliar settings and expose them to all sorts of encounters and backtraps that they have not seen thus far. And they'll all be fish out of water because I am mostly drafting non-multiversal figures here and I am exposing them to the multiverse, which will be shocking and they will have to adapt to these new surroundings.

It'll be fascinating to see what they do and what my writers come up with once the strike is over, of course. And I'm very excited about the potential here. I've opened up an infinite number of worlds of possibilities for my franchise. Love it. Great pick.

Great. Thank you. Beautiful. Back to Jess. Okay, this kind of flips the script for me, but for my wild card, and tell me if I'm not allowed to do this, I want to add a plus one, and I want it to be Miles Morales' Prowler. Is that a possibility? Ooh, interesting. I guess it remains to be seen whether he could qualify as a plus one, right? But...

Might need a ruling on this one. Depends on what he's against. I'm into it. It depends on what he's against. I'm really into it. I think so because... It's a different actor. Yeah, like it's of a piece with multiple Peters being eligible for selection, right? So I think that's fine. Yeah, I think you can do that. We just have to specify Miles G. Morales as the Prowler.

We don't know yet. And the reason I'm putting them as our plus one is because there's a... The scale for even...

who Hobie is, is kind of unbalanced, right? So it depends on what you consider good or bad, wrong and right, evil and not evil. So I think with the Prowlers, Miles Morales, why I've chosen him as a plus one is mainly, A, we don't really know what he's fighting in Earth-42 right now, but we know Earth-42 is a pretty crazy wild place. So we don't know what side he's necessarily on. We just know that the Prowler's bad. So we don't know

if Miles is bad bad yet but I could also see Hobie and him being friends like as he's transitioning into becoming a bad Prowler and then he's like oh he's gonna die and this is gonna be my canon event but that is why I chose Miles Morales as Prowler love it okay

Okay. So it's Max, Max Dillon and Miles Morales. The wild card is a fascinating place right now. The wild card picks so far are Captain America, J. Jonah Jameson and Miles J. Morales is the preller. It's exactly what you want out of a wild card, honestly. Okay. So it's back to me and these are my final two picks, right? This is it. So I know definitely what I want to do with the first one, which will be my accessory. And I,

I had two picks at the top tied at the top for accessory Ben took one of them the dimensional travel watch and gotta give credit where it's due that was a that was a 1B I believe you told me earlier in this podcast that you're not supposed to give credit where it's due well I just am complimenting you and following through

I'm going through all my words at the beginning of the draft to be kind. Though I will now insult you and say, did you need to do it when the kind of inherent proposition of the exercise is that we're in the multiverse? Just throwing that out there for people to chew on. I don't know about that. I would not say that. Chew on it. Chew on it when you're voting. I'll spit it out after the show. What you do need. Just spit it out.

What you do need is the ability to innovate, to craft, to make and shape. And so...

I will be selecting as my accessory the Stark Industries fabricator with which I can make any fucking thing I need for anyone in my movie at any point. I can go all far from home and make another suit on the jet as I'm rocking out and misattributing...

classical songs. I can make inhibitor chips if my guide dog is, you know, going through it. I will be able to craft whatever I need at any point. And I don't see how that can't be the top pick in accessory. Could I, in fact, even make my own dimensional travel watch? Probably. Probably, Ben. I don't know that. I don't know.

that Tony knows how to Stark industry doesn't know how to do Tony who solved time travel like over a fucking popsicle time travels different from dimensional travel so you need an Ant-Man to do it so if you want it if you want he studied it a lot and never got there she's the one who picked Tony Stark as her mentor Tony Stark so that he could multiversal travel if you want a multiversal travel call Dr.

Dr. fucking Stephen Strange. I just have the tools. I do enjoy that Dr. Strange has not been selected because I think we can all agree that he's a terrible mentor. So that's great. I have a conundrum here for my final pick at wildcard because I'm just going to talk it through and be honest and workshop it with my pals here in real time. Here are the different things pulling on my mind and my heartstrings.

I want to use wild card to introduce a new element entirely into the draft. I would like to select something in the musical universe, perhaps, or a filmmaker, perhaps, or I'm not, I'm going to stop giving away the other things I'm thinking of. I'll save the final one in case it's the pick I actually make, but I am genuinely blown away by,

that Spider-Gwen has not been taking. I know. And I don't think we can go through the draft. Spider-Gwen and Gwen Stacy. Like, neither of the Gwens have been chosen. I agree. I'm just going to put this out there, again, in the interest of radical transparency. When I said at the beginning of the draft that I thought four was the toughest spot, it was because I thought that the first three picks would be in this order.

Miles Morales at one. Got him at four. It's fine. Okay. Tom Holland's Peter Parker at two and Andrew Garfield's Peter Parker at three. I had, with apologies, no interest really in taking Toby at four. And so the thing that I was getting ready to do was to take Spider-Gwen, to take Gwen Stacy, Hailee Steinfeld's Gwen Stacy Spider-Woman in the first round as my Spider-Person and build a movie around Spider-Gwen. And so I still have the chance to take...

Spider-Gwen here. Is this a fun love triangle between Zendaya's MJ? Exactly. And that's what I was just going to say, Jo. And introduce. I know. Could they all just be wonderful pals and make a great team? Could there be some romantic tension? You know, Miles had in Across the Spider-Verse the Hobie-centric jealousy. Let's give

Let's give MJ and Gwen a little taste of it, right? Who's going to win Miles at the end? It physically hurt me to draft Andrew Garfield and not Emma Stone. And I just have to say that like...

it's the power of Chris Evans that Emma Stone is not in that wild card. Guys, I'm going to do it. I'm taking, I'm taking Haley Seinfeld's Gwen Stacy. I'm taking Spider-Woman at the end. I just can't believe it. I was really considering doing either upside down rain kiss. Just that's like a thing, which I hope someone still does. Into the Spider-Man movie. I drafted Toby. I get the kiss. No. Oh yeah. Do you?

I think he gets the kiss. I think he gets the kiss. J. Jonah Jameson? I don't know. Ned. You're not making a very romantic movie so far. Oh, I love it. Beautiful Ned. Darling Ned. I feel great about my draft. I feel unbelievable about it. Ned has a lot of game. Ned has a lot of swagger. Oh, yeah. Remember the... It's just... The... The...

whirlwind romance. The play with Betty. Yeah, love it there. On a flight, yeah. Wonderful stuff from Ned. Okay, my team is awesome. I feel great. Back to Jess. My accessory, again, like I said earlier, coming from the heart, not my brain, coming from the heart, I don't even know why. I chose for an accessory the Cloak of Levitation.

The reason I chose the Cloak of Levitation is because what did we, yeah, and what have we seen Hobie be doing this entire time? Snatching, stealing from close friends. So I want to see Hobie steal the Cloak of Levitation and kind of indirectly, I kind of got a third,

plus one. I love it. Right? I'm into it. I love this. I love it. We haven't seen Spider-Man paired with the Cloak of Levitation in a Spider-Man movie, but we've seen Spider-Man paired with the Cloak in a 1F episode. And, of course, the Cloak of Levitation is in a Spider-Man movie because of Doctor Strange, who is not an eligible mentor in anybody's mind for the draft. But you took the part. I'll take the part.

I'll take the cake. I'll take the cloak, however you can say. Eat shit, Dr. Strange. The cloak, you're invited. Goddamn. This is good. Goddamn. It's fun to think of the differing frame rates with the cloak. Yes. Oh, super fun. Yeah. Great. Wonderful. Okay. Jess, your team is complete as well. Fantastic. Ben and then Joe for the final two picks of the draft. Yeah. So only my mentor remains.

Got a lot of different directions I could go here. You should take Doctor Strange now with the understanding that you wouldn't have his cloak. No cloak. No cloak. No, I will not take Strange. I've already got the dimensional travel watch. I don't need the sling ring or anything. I'm good. So I think I want to pull my mentor from the Spider-Verse. And there are a number of ways I could go. I mean, Happy Hogan's still out there as a potential mentor. Yeah.

Roger Harrington still out there, who, of course, you know, Peter's always been more than a student to him. He's been like a son and a little brother at the same time. Please take Roger Harrington. Love Roger Harrington. Shout out to Freaks and Geeks again. But...

I narrowed it down to a few potential mentors from the Ringerverse. And I thought, of course, of each of Miles's parents who, frankly, make those movies for me. Yeah. The only problem is I didn't draft Miles. And I feel like it would be a little weird for me to draft one of Miles's parents. I just, you know. To mentor a...

Ryo, Ryo, Ryo. Toby Maguire. Yeah. I'm just not sure that that works. I love it. As much as I love Ryo's speech on the roof and across the Spider-Verse, I mean, that just highlighted a movie to me, maybe. The speech from Miles' dad when he is tied up in his dorm room and he can't respond, just heartbreaking, heart-wrenching. But I can't pair one of Miles' parents with a Spider-person other than Miles. And so...

I will be selecting with my last pick as my mentor, Jake Johnson's Peter Parker. God, that would have been the one that just killed me if we didn't if we didn't pick him.

I was trying to keep mine as diverse as possible, so I didn't really want to put Peter B. Parker on there once I got... No offense, Joanna. We all know what I did. We all see what I've done here.

But I like Peter B. Peter B. I felt bad because I was like, Peter B. needs to be on here somewhere. Is it Peter B. with May or is it just Peter B.? With May Day. It's just Peter B. and Ben. You need to carry that with you. That you've taken Peter B. You, a young father, have taken Peter B. away from his infant child to make your movie for the sake of IP. Wow.

And the Hollywood machine. You have torn a family asunder. Maybe I'm drafting Peter B. Parker from into the Spider-Verse before Mayday appeared on the scene. Can you walk us through the mentor dynamic between Peter B. and Toby's Peter Parker? Like, what are these scenes like? And then what is Ned's role? Yeah.

This is fascinating. There's an obvious difference between mentor and plus one, in this case, at least. You need both. And look, as much as I like the age-appropriate Spider-Man, the Tom Holland actual teen Spider-Man, Toby is not quite there, but he is the most convincing nerd to me. I think probably Tom Holland is the most convincing high school student ever.

Toby is the most convincing nerd, and so he's going to need Jake Johnson to provide some of his new girl charm, I think, and give him some game, right? He's got the bartending acumen. He's wooing Jess, right? I mean, he is going to be the one that Toby's going to go to for advice, right?

Okay, so this is just about dating advice. Got it. It's partly about dating advice. But to be clear, you specify that you are selecting Peter B from Into the Spider-Verse where we meet him weeping in sweatpants because of his breakup. And this is who you are deploying for relationship advice. I spend a lot of time in sweatpants. Guys, Ben's got a good team. Join me here in annihilating him.

The tone, the reception has really changed since early in the draft when I was being ganged up on. Suddenly, it sounds like I'm the favorite. I think Joe and Jess don't know. I would not say that. I think they don't even feel like they need to comment because they're not even... They don't think your team warrants a response. I think he's overestimating the nostalgia for the Raimi films. I think so, too. I think the people will respond, but I... Which is interesting. Yeah.

I was going to say, it's interesting that you're doing the nostalgia and Mal's doing, I don't want to say, what do you want to call it? The new fans. Yeah. Yeah. Right. I have every franchise represented except for the amazing Spider-Man franchise with switch with love to Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone. I feel fine about.

Yes, I could say the same. Yes, about my selections. But look, you brought up the sweatpants. I mean, I would draft the sweatpants before the Iron Spider suit, personally, if we're talking about what I would want to wear in this scenario. Comfort over nanotech.

So the pillar of the podcast, of course. And as much as I like the young coming of age Spider-Man, even though the age that they're coming to in real life varies dramatically, I also like the old, seasoned, wizened Spider-Man, right? Wizened! Old, seasoned! That's been the subject of a comics run, right? He's like 30 years old! Ancient! Ancient by Spider-Man standards.

I mean, can we even imagine Peter B. Parker swinging? I mean, look, there's an old man Peter Parker in the comics, right? So I like some separation in each. How quickly you forget the lessons in the woods, you know? Mm-hmm. Yeah. It's a leap of faith, much like your draft strategy, I might note. Yeah. Look, I mean, my devious plan originally. What on earth?

- How much work did we tell you? - I know. - You met, well, I know. You're like, Mallory is so nice. And then you do this and you're like, is she? - The Batman one was, I think the Batman one was a bad example because Sean would straight up just be like, no, what are you talking about, Mal? And I was like, oh, okay. But Mal, you've been eating everyone alive on this.

I'm having a blast. Not by your picks, to be clear. Just by your attitude. My winning team. Just by your attitude. My championship squad. Greenlit for sequels already. Sequels aplenty.

My initial hope was to somehow corner the market on Spider-Man, at least, by just drafting as many spider people as possible in as many categories as possible, which is why I was considering Toby as a villain. You could also, I think, include Toby's Peter 2 as a mentor, right? And so you could have...

could have him or, or Peter three, Andrew Garfield's Peter three is a plus one. And I got Peter B Parker here as a mentor. So you could squeeze a lot of, how many people have multiple spider people on their team? Let's see. Ooh, I do three of us, right? Yeah. Yeah. I only have one. That's okay. You got, you got the prowler, you got miles. She's Morales. That's pretty. Yeah. Plus you've got fucking daredevil. I know. I did. That's amazing. Pretty fantastic. Um,

Well, that's the final pick of the draft, which is Joanna Robinson making the final selection in Accessory, the only remaining open slot. Joe, what are you doing here? And as we all know, based on, I mean, Jess barely knows me, so maybe she doesn't know that this is unusual for me to have an all-white male draft, but it is. Hey, you're setting it now going forward. I will only expect this from you. Commit to the bit.

No, we all know that the accessory category is where women belong. And so what I was doing, my first thought was that I wanted to draft a...

Jennifer Connelly's Karen, but then I realized I get her with my suit, actually. So she's already here. That's already one AI woman involved, but I'm going to go ahead and grab the hit. So is the enhanced combat mode and instant kill that you can't control? Uh-huh. Well, learn to control. Learn to control. Yeah, training wheels. I will be...

Edith. E to the D to the I to the T to the H. So you've decided to make an Iron Man movie and that's fine. No, I have two fucking spider people in my draft, Mallory. And I call it Spider-Man. I have Venom. What are you talking about? Tony Stark built a cave. Subscribe.

I'm so sorry. People like Iron Man movies. This could be a... It could be the winner because people do love Iron Man. I'm so sorry that I've got two of the most popular film characters of all time, Captain America and Tony Stark, in my Spider-Man movie. You want to make sure to get...

the power to control nuclear weapons back into the hands of a teenager. It's great. You're making the exact same mistake that Tony made in the first place. I'm sure that Quentin Beck, while not officially casting your film, is just around the corner waiting to pick them up in the bar. Oh, oh, I'm so sorry. Do you not want Jake Gyllenhaal in

You're saying you don't want Mysterio in your movie? He would fit in yours. I would love it. I would love it. Still on the board somehow. Yeah. I mean, look, you've made one tactical mistake, I think, which is that Mal could obviously fabricate and manufacture the Edith device. I can make Edith on my own. That's true. Yeah. I don't know that that's a mistake.

Just because she could also make yours. Yeah. Thank you. We have not established that. We have not established that the watch is within Tony Stark's manufacturing powers. On the Mysterio front, I'm curious, who is everybody like most surprised didn't get selected? I think that Mysterio and Vulture being here is a surprise to me. Who stands out to all of you? Michael Keaton's Vulture, to be clear, was high on my list. Not Italian Renaissance Vulture, who was also wonderful. Renaissance Vulture. Yeah.

My backup accessory was going to be Vulture's exosuit. But then I was like, I don't really want it. It's too clunky. But then my second, my other theme to my other draft were all people that didn't have superpowers. Were all people that were just like Spider-Man by not being bitten. And I put Mysterio as the villain in that bracket. Because I was like, this is a guy that doesn't have powers. He's just a weak, weak man.

For me, and this is a real fuck you to Miguel O'Hara, no Uncle Ben needed in any of these Spider films. Right. Right. Uncle Ben, real core, core concept to a Spider-Man film. Not invited. Not invited. Not invited.

None of our movies are coming to fruition then if there's no Uncle Ben dying. We also snubbed Queen Kirsten Dunst and MJ, the original MJ. And Emma Stone. I'm comfortable with MJ now. Leaving that MJ out is fine with me, but Emma Stone. I miss Emma. You were a queen.

Yes, we did it. I'm thrilled. I'm honestly thrilled with my draft. I would have put Bryce Dallas Howard's Gwen in mine, maybe. She's fun. Okay, keep going. So sorry. I literally immediately was like, I like Emma Stone's Gwen, but I also like Bryce Dallas Howard's quick appearance. I thought someone might take Kingpin from Into the Spider-Verse to get the Collider. It's on my list. Yep. It's on my short list, for sure.

I didn't want to put Fisk in mine since I put Charlie Cox. Right. Thought about Uncle Aaron as a possible mentor or villain. I thought about the Amazing Spider-Man remote door lock, which is a tech that I would love to have to be able to lock and unlock my door without getting out of my chair would be wonderful. But you can build that. Did anyone strongly consider taking a score or a soundtrack? Joe, I thought you might. I

thought about it, I really love that as like an opportunity, a concept, but I just didn't feel like I had time to waste on a concept here. No room for concepts inside of an Iron Man and or Avengers movie. I mean, no room for concept when in the wild card I can either pick a score or fucking Captain America. So I think I chose correctly. Jesus Christ. Oh man. Did anyone consider taking a director or screenwriters or

specific New York. Did anyone consider taking Europe? Anything like that? A location? I took every location, so I felt like I was covered with my international travel. You took a watch that someone else could turn off, potentially. But yes. Sure. Or break. Any location. This is

This is just Mallory's, Mallory's, don't bring up anything you picked that you liked because Mallory will just try to pick at it. Just try to tear it down. Yeah. I complimented a lot of picks today. I think I was more complimentary than usual. I wanted to stay in universe with my picks though, I think, instead of bringing in behind the scenes creators. Some diegetic sound in the Spider-Verse films, you know? Miles is singing along. Alas. Alas. Okay. We did it. We've drafted. We've drafted.

And it goes to the people now to vote. You will be able to find this poll on the ringer verse, Twitter and Instagram. When exactly who can say soon, soon the top of this week. So go and vote for your favorite draft. This was a joy. Any final thoughts before we part?

My draft won't make sense unless you listen to the podcast. If you've gotten this far. If you've gotten this far. Looking at the images on Twitter will look so confusing. I guarantee it. But if you listen to this podcast. I love that you put this together. I'm going to love looking at your draft. Having...

Done this weekly on Trial by Content. I'm here to tell you that a lot of voters don't listen to the podcast at all, and that's going to be an interesting fun time for them. They're going to be so confused. I think Spider Punk at the center holding it down really sets the tone for, you know. I think that makes sense, but then they're going to be so confused why it's Matt Murdock as his mentor. I think Max Dillon's going to be the real question mark, honestly, but I'm excited for you to make your case. I think they're just going to be like,

They're going to be like, whatever. Jessica's weird. She chose Max Dillon. She chose Max Dillon. Love it. Did anyone consider building a movie around Spider Noir? I actually seriously thought someone might do that. Yes. Yes, I did strongly consider that. Yeah. I do think, I mean, taking Peter P. Parker, he could, I think, deserve a little more spotlight. But yes, noir deserves more screen time. So that was one way I considered going. But yeah.

I'm pleased with where it went. I commend my picks to the people. I'm confident that they will make the right decision. Joe, did you consider Scarlet Spider at any point? No. No? No. All right. That's a wrap. It is a time now after this wonderful draft to caffeinate and fuel up. Time for some coffee coffee with room for some cream cream. Remember to vote for your favorite

draft from today's build the best Spider-Man movie house of our extravaganza. Thank you to our plus ones and our mentors, Steve Allman for producing this episode, Arjuna Ramgopal for his additional production work on this episode, Jomia Deneron for his work on the social for this episode. And thank you, of course,

to Jessica Clements and Benjamin Lindberg for joining us today. Remember to head back into the ringer verse on Wednesday for more time with Ben and Jess for their video game chat about Diablo and all sorts of other gaming happenings. And then on Friday, pop back once again for the midnight boys, instant reaction pod on the flash. Joe and I will be with you next week for our deep dive into the secret invasion premiere. We cannot wait until then.

Go easy on our drafts. We had a terrible teacher. This episode is brought to you by State Farms.

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