The Return

You are now listening Escape Reality Comics Podcast show, a podcast where we discuss all things nerdy, geeky fandom and so much more. We will cover everything from what's happening in the world comic shows and fandom to the hard hitting stories, the news today. Now, here's your host, Chad, and Kevin. Hello, and welcome to Escape Reality Comics podcast show. I'm your host, Chadlirious. With my co host, Kevin, how are you doing today bud? I'm great. How are you? Doing frickin awesome. We're back on on the podcast. We're doing our thing. Now, we there for a bit, we had like six months of nothing for a while just for research purposes and have a little break. So now we're back.

Didn't seem that long ago. So that's okay.

It didn't but you know, after like doing some major research on how to do a podcast a lot better how to make it more profitable and a lot easier for both of us and our listeners. We just thought you know, just take a little break, do some research and come back later. So now we're back. And this is our first podcast since we're back. So hi. Alright, so today's title is gonna be the return for obvious reasons because we are returning the Podcast. Today we're gonna be talking about the Punisher skull. And what's going on with Activision. And today's episode is brought by Popl. So thank you, Popl for sponsoring us. Let's start with the Punisher skull. So, Kevin, you probably know you. You're a punisher fan, aren't you?

Yeah, I think it's, you know, you spot on here. I think it's the Skull. Skull is what makes you always remember that stuff. You know what it is?

Exactly. But like since 1974, we're used to seeing a punisher logo with a skull with elongata teeth right.

Yeah.

That's all gonna change.

Oh, boy

that is all going to change. This year, we'll be seeing a whole new logo for the Punisher new series that drops in March of this year, and concludes in April of next year, why is it in story that Frank Castle is changing his logo. While in March Frank Castle is becoming the warlord of the hand. The hand is an ancient guild of ninjas. And that was very small comic series such as Daredevil, Electra and kingpin which either they fought against or they fought with the hand. So it depends where the hand lies. So what is Frank's role Frank's roles the hand is the beast that is his title, a ruthless warrior with a demonic associations. So a skull is going to be changing with his new position in the hand. The logo is going to be more of a horn demon like skull. So it's going to be pretty interesting how they're going to do so they're going to have like a demon looking skull with horns and some sharp teeth, which this actually this move actually ticked off some Punisher fans. But why in real life? Why are they changing? What what? Can you give me a guess on? Why do you think they're changing this logo?

You know, I think, you know, maybe based on time now, you know, since you know, it's been so long it's been decades I imagine is not unless there's a political angle.

There's political angle. It's always political. It's common book so there's going to be political and comic books are pretty much goes hand to hand so and you can reason why it's changing you can think the Blue Lives Matter movement which is used to combat the Black Lives Matter movement. I guess what's going on is that these people are wearing the the Blue Lives Matter people this movement is they're wearing the Punisher logo on their uniforms and police officers doing this military personnel is doing this on their cars, their trucks on anything, you can like backpacks or stuff, but they have the blue line across the with the Punisher. So yeah,

no boy. So they're really integrated.

Yeah, exactly. Which was ridiculous in the first place, but I'll get to that later. But it just didn't. Some fans were ticked off about this right there. We're like looking at this Punisher like Dude, this not what the Punisher stands for? Well, Gary Conway, the CO creator of The Punisher actually agrees with you. He has written in 2019 He says this and I'm gonna quote him. "Any cop who wears a punisher logo in his official capacity is an identifying law enforcement with an outlaw. These cops are a disgrace to serious police officers everywhere. They show an imbecile level of irresponsibility and show should be fired immediately." So that's what he believed this is what he is saying. He's the CO creator of The Punisher. He does not like this move whatsoever. So you can think the black, I mean, excuse me, the Blue Lives Matter movement for doing this. And he just got tired of it. They basically lives matter if you guys don't know is basically the combat the Black Lives Matter movement. It's basically Black Lives Matters all about equal rights, they want basically be treated better by police reform. The with the Blue Lives Matter movement is basically people who actually support these people. And mind you into January six, these are the same people that beat the crap out of a cop on the January 6 riots. So blue lives matter, right. So anyways, I swear that's the most political I'm going to get on this on this one. So I mean, it's not just Gary Conway that is ticked off with this Punisher skull being used as a Blue Lives Matter Movement Symbol. Marvel comics is also addressing this. They addressed an issue on the Punisher solo title, which saw Castle chastising a group of police officers for wearing his symbol and telling them that He's not someone they should be idolizing at all. Marvel Comics and Gary Conway are don't like to sit on the mind you Gary Conway is actually for black lives matter. He actually like what he did. He said something on Twitter a while back, saying that he is going to he's letting people use the black lives. I mean, excuse me, the The Punisher logo, but to use it as a Black Lives Matter movement, kind of like kind of change it that way to bring back the symbol on shirts or something like that. Shirts, logos, I don't know. But he's gonna sell these and I guess he's all the proceeds going towards black lives matter. So that's a good thing. I mean, I think it is, I don't know how you feel about it.

It's like trying to tackle it. You know? Like, what? Yeah, you know that that logo has been out for decades and decades. Like what are you gonna get rid of that though? So interested in that.

Also, the thing too, is like, a lot of fans are upset with this. I just have to say, just be patient. It'll come back. You know, it's gonna be next year when the when the whole series concludes. And I think believe I said in April, right? Yeah, April next year of 2023. It's one that whole Punisher series should conclude. And who knows what's gonna happen after that? So we'll definitely see what happens but just for the people are upset about I just say, just be patient. It's gonna come back eventually. It does usually what comics do so

yeah, that logos there, you know, like this. Yeah, they're maybe they're just trying to breathe a little, you know.

In my personal opinion, I think I think any cops that wears the Punisher skull has a grave misunderstanding of the Punisher character. Yeah. I mean, it's been shown like, you know, Frank Castle, he doesn't like cops. That's his whole stick. He doesn't like he doesn't believe in the legal system. So he becomes the legal system. So he becomes the judge, jury and executioner and just kills people. That's it. So people are these law enforcement officers that sit there like, oh, you know, I'm gonna have I'm gonna wear the skull. What? That makes no sense. That makes absolutely no sense.

I mean, I guess it'd be different if, if you're, even though you're a cop, you love the logo. You love Marvel Comics? You know, but then that's contradictory. And to a degree, especially if you're gonna show it off.

Exactly, especially if you're law enforcement. I mean, yeah, well, you're basically saying that, hey, I'm just gonna, just gonna do whatever I want. I'm not gonna that's what the message conveys. Now, you know, I don't think any cops don't do that. I don't think I don't hope I mean, cops are as a whole different thing. I'm not gonna get touched into but but yeah, so how do you feel about this?

Yeah, you know, it's I'm glad that Marvel has, you know, tried to handle a differently. You could tell it's kinda you know, they have to, they have to deal with it.

Yeah, exactly. They want to like separate themselves with this whole blue lives matter BS movement going around.

I just, and I think people don't like they once they see that Skull, the classic one. They just, they bought it because they found it in a store. I don't even know if they know that it is the Punisher what it's from. Oh,

they know, they know. They saw the movies, you know, they see Frank Castle Yeah, um, for sure, but, you know, I don't know. I just I think that I don't think people are that stupid. You know, I mean, he especially cops in especially military because although I was a comic fan, I was a military I used to you know, I didn't have the skull on me. But you know, I used I saw people all the time, you know, with their with the Punisher skull on their backpack or on the side of the car or whatever, you know, military is all that you So yeah, I mean I still see it today I still see it around just walking you know, it'd be picking up my kids from school and I see some with Punisher Punisher little sticker detail decal on their freakin truck or whatever so it's usually these people are like right by that one is the Trump sticker you know just blue lives matter bullshit no much other stuff but yeah it's a definitely a certain class of political people that do this but yeah

I don't know I I don't like to have a lot of like decals and things on my vehicle anyways but you're gonna proudly do it I guess Let's confuse everybody with this logo. Yeah,

I think the only decal I really have on my on my car is pretty cool it's actually right on like on the was a driver side of my little back window it says if you're never ride my ass make sure you pull my hair so

yeah, that's a classic one.

I mean I have

that one but yeah one windy Kelly kind of wish I did have my wife get he hooked me up with it is it's got the ATAT decal and then it's got it shooting down at stick people. And it says in the captions the umpire doesn't care about your stick people family. I was like you know what, I kind of want that.

I think the best one I saw so far is when someone was saying you know the stick family at the stick figure family, their subs, substituting that with lightsabers. I know it's pretty cool. I was like oh that's pretty awesome. You know they have the blue the red you know the green. And like the two little ones that right by it. I thought was pretty cool. I thought was like out of the box.

But yes, so apparently you and I agree on the Star Wars decals on your car. Yeah.

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Oh, god. Yeah, I told you about this a couple of days back. So

yeah, dude, I got into this one. I mean, I was actually that sale hasn't gone through yet. Because it might take you know, it's going to take a little while. Yeah, but for those who don't know Microsoft buys out Activision Blizzard gaming company for an all cash out bid for 68.7 billion, which is a record bid that came out and literally Nowhere. Nowhere.

I don't I don't think I could have guessed this one. And I thought it was fake. You know, like, yeah, right. Microsoft bought it.

Yeah. I was kind of like surprised with it, to be honest, surprized me is that basically how fast they made the deal. Why did they sell well,

he was it a couple of months back last year. They had a lot of allegations going on with the some of the head guys at Blizzard. So I'm kind of assuming they could be a part of

That was part of it for sure. And not just that. So like it. you said last summer was filled. They fell under scrutiny when a senior executive ignored the sexual harassment and discrimination claims which overwhelm the CEO Bobby Konich. Hope I said that right? Konich. Bobby Konich the CEO of Activision Blizzard. And I guess on top of that, at the same time, Microsoft was rethinking its relationship with Activision Blizzard. So this put tremendous pressure on Bobby Konich the CEO of Activision Blizzard was at December, last year, Activision stock dropped down sharply, right. So I guess this is when Microsoft come in with a bid. It's like, oh, you know, I know you guys are doing horrible and you're overwhelmed with you know, sexual harassment and descript discrimination claims. We want to buy out your company.

We got the money.

So they first said they first enough we don't know what the offer was at the first one. And so I guess Activision CEO, Bobby Konich say like, you know what, no, come back with a better offer. And they did. They did. So I guess now Microsoft, even it was kind of funny that Microsoft did the due diligence, right? Even with this they they take a look at the sexual harassment claims the discrimination claims. And they actually Microsoft's like, yeah, you know, it's past history. It's basically it's doable they can take care of it they're actually going to buy it knowing these issues. I mean, they didn't just go oh, we're gonna buy your company I don't know where so yeah, so I guess when the purchase go through the CEO Bobby Konich have Activision is posed to be dropping down, stepping down excuse me as the CEO

so yeah, let's get that he won't be you know, included with it. Yeah, eventually,

what will Microsoft gain from this deal? What is what is the bigger picture here? Why is Activision buying blizzard? Activision Blizzard? I guess I guess Okay, game over gain over 400 million monthly users. When Microsoft buys Activision. Activision is supposed to help them with this new metaverse. So what is the metaverse Metaverse is a union of online and virtual reality that companies stake their futures on. So I guess you know, like NF T's anything that deal with virtual reality space, I guess people are now horizons, you know that the Facebook horizons Metaverse type situation? Yeah, I guess people are making money off of that. So it's like they're trying to get virtual reality space. And I guess somehow they're supposed to these companies are supposed to make money off of that. I'm not sure how right now, Metaverse is more like a buzzword. It's not like an official thing. But there's NF T's people are making tons of money in a tease right now. And I guess people are just buying Virtual Reality space. I don't know what that means. But hey, apparently it's happening. So. But yeah, also lastly, Microsoft is betting in on avoiding antitrust scrutiny. And that's why they're also buying Activision. So antitrust laws are in place to promote competition and avoid monopolies. But yeah, they're expecting the deal to go through in 18 months.

Like all the games that they have under their belt now I kind of wonder like, you know, are they gonna bring only things to the Xbox brand? You know, is it only going to be Diablo on there now? You know, I kind of wonder what's going oh, yeah,

they're buying Diablo they're buying World of Warcraft. They're buying anything like that?

Yeah. Yeah, everything that's under them. I kind of wonder, is it gonna stay really exclusive? Are they going to kind of keep it kind of the same? And not really disrupt it? You know?

I don't know. Yeah, we're, we're about to see what's gonna happen. I I'm pretty sure some titles might get paused for there for a little bit. But I don't see it stopping. Because I mean, 400 million people, monthly users on this. It's, it's a big number. That's nothing to scoff at. These people are buying like $60 games, you know, plus, what online? They're buying in game purchases and all this other stuff. So yeah, Diablo Phil Spencer

of Xbox. I mentioned he wants to revisit a lot of stuff. So what did you know you were played the guitar hero stuff back in the day.

Oh, God. Yes. I was obsessed with Guitar Hero.

Yeah, so if they bring that back, you know, that'd be kind of fun. Yeah, that would be that'd be cool as shit. Yeah, it's kind of kind of we're missing that stuff now. Well, I mean, yeah, this you know, me as the gamer boy here. I I love I love this last topic. Anyways, I can talk about this forever. So,

dude, yeah, no, this is actually this actually, when I was doing the research on this. I was really into it. I was like, Oh, crap. I mean, there's no I mean, this is the this is a record bid for Microsoft. Yeah, this is record.

You know, Sony's paying attention. They probably go,

dude. I know. And the thing is, they're going to add 400 million users, which is going already have a basically Sony what else Sony and another company is going to be sweating bullets right now.

Oh, yeah.

They have to be they have to be

I'm just really excited about this man. Right? Yeah.

But I guess even if the deal doesn't go through I guess what my soft you can do is still gonna pay Activision Blizzard to disconnect from other companies from other contracts. So who knows what's gonna happen?

Yeah. All Xbox in the future, I guess.

Yeah, it's gonna be Microsoft Xbox. Basically just gonna have like, was it three companies Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft? Yeah, just competing with each other. So I mean, I missed the back of the days when the old game systems used to be like you know, you had a Sega you had a Nintendo you had you know, different brands and different games you know? Now it's like oh, I have this game and you pretty much have the same game on this console and and you have the same game on this other consoles. So yeah, you know, whatever. Like Nintendo is only one that actually has pretty much everything, you know, like separately kind of, I guess. Yeah, they still have everything like oh no, like Pokemon. We won't share Pokemon you Can't have Pokemon on Sony or anything like that just only on Nintendo. But like, you know, like versus like Sony with Xbox and pretty much have the same games. I mean, there's some solo. Yeah, the halo stuff. Yeah, yeah, the halo stuff is still gonna I guess it's gonna be still Microsoft who knows what's gonna happen I think by this, so it's gonna be something else. Well,

I mean, you're always gonna have Halo now. I mean, I guess Halo Infinite is just doing very well. So that would be a good reason to pick up an Xbox I you know if you can find one

if you find any of these like PlayStation and Xbox oh my god dude, good luck. Good luck. Like I am trying to get a new graphics card for my computer. I think I was telling just last year. I was looking for is like dude, like people are buying I guess is like, you know, if you buy it from Nevada, right? They have a price like say $1,800 I can't remember the exact price but it's like $1,800 Right? But soon as I like try to buy it it's gone. It's all outdated now so I'm like okay, damn it that I look on Amazon and eBay oh my god these people are what they're doing these scalpers are buying all the freakin graphics cards and tripling the price on these fuckers dude is like 20 It's like, I'd much rather buy a whole new computer than buy another just a simple graphics card nowadays.

Yeah, and you think it would go away? But no, didn't go away?

No, it's still going on me. They're doing the same thing with PlayStation two. So it's like, I'm not gonna pay $1,000 for a PlayStation four, five. I'm not I can wait. You know, I got my Oculus. I'm good.

Yeah. Well, like you know, when we had the, I guess the first part I felt you know, I got one. I got a PlayStation five. So

yes, remember that? How's that working out for you?

It's great. Yeah, it's

still going yeah, just rub it in. Why don't you That's right.

I got it. I got it. All I got

now is really my Oculus is speaking of that on the I think I was talking I touched on the was at Horizon worlds for Facebook. I we actually build a world on that thing. It's a nerd world on Oculus if you go down to horizons world and type in this like little button like a little Location button in the bottom on your little wristwatch with wrist watch Jesus Christ wristwatch right in there like there's like little bubble location thing you just type in type in nerd world. You'll be able to see our our Escape Reality Comics Nerd World. It's pretty cool. I got the Wayne Tower on there. I built Wayne Wayne industries I got Batman hanging out on top of the freakin thing I've Superman flying around. I have like pokey balls. I have magic carp. Freaking what else have I made a Thor's hammer?

You mixed it all up? Dude. I

make Yeah, I'm just like, you know what screw it is have fun with it. So I like have our studio right with our microphones. And then you go through certain like amount of steps inside the building inside the studio. You actually hear an intro that doo doo doo doo doo, you know, pretty cool. But yeah, I saw it I just need to get better audio for that. Because it sounds really bad but it's there. And then you have like escape or like comics on there. And then you also at the very back of the whole world actually have a graveyard for Chadwick Boseman and Stan Lee. So it's kind of like a memorial for them. So yeah, it's pretty freakin cool. I mean, I had fun. I'm gonna think about making the Batcave on that thing and see how it happens. But yeah, if you guys want to check it out, it's just nerd world. No, it's not real. It's just something to look at. I mean, there's nothing you can really do. I'm not really good at programming yet, but I'm looking to that so yeah, it'll be there soon. Well, that is it for today. I hope you guys have a nice and wonderful day with from that cup of coffee in the morning to the nice glass mirlo at night. Guys have a nice night and safe one. I'm glad we are back will be back will be. Let me touch on this one first. Before we actually complete in the show. We will be posting every Wednesday so our schedule has changed before posting every Wednesday and Saturday. Now we're posting every we're gonna be posting every Wednesday, every week. So there you go. So now we're back. Alright, that's it, bye Thank you for listening to Escape Reality Comics Podcast show. Tell us how we did. You can let us know on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tik Tok and YouTube. Just search for your E.R. Comics.