Parts of it are satirical but on the whole it isn't a joke video. It breaks up actual points about companies refusing to change or take risks with characters out of fear of if it goes wrong.
I love how he says "he's so dumb he tries to eat a hot dog with no mouth" rather than "with a mask over his mouth" as if he thinks spider man isn't wearing a costume and he just looks like that
@@nicak777alex9 well it is above average and he's only faster than the average wall. The wall is just a slightly abnormal wall not the usein bolt wall that guy wins gold medals.
I'm only guessing, but I assume The Wall was created SOLEY for the visual gag of a background prop rushing into the foreground and ambushing actors. You never expect a wall to just move out and attack, so it made for a visual surprise
I can’t believe that Spider-Man could be unironically inserted into the “it’s about the Mets baby the Mets!” Meme and it would be completely in character and canon compliant
The wall teaches us this: No matter how much suffering and misfortune you endure, how much damage you cause in your cry for help, no matter how heroic the figures you seek out are. Sometimes you get overlooked. Sometimes you aren't taken seriously. Abuse and sexual assult survivors aren't believed (especially male ones), people who develop horrible medical complications aren't acomedated, people suffering from trauma are rejectes as agressive and hostile. Sometimes when things suck, we don't get help, so if you can, you better make damn sure you do what you can, because it's too easy to ignore, even spiderman can fall into that trap, but thankfully it doesn't take a superhuman to help, just a hero, people like my mom who have housed and cared for people suffering from trauma, abuse survivors, and so many others, despite her own struggles leaving her bedridden for days at times. They teach us so, because if we stop to think about these characters we can't help but feel the urge to reach out a hand.
Every sexual assault victim who is a woman is instantly believed to the point that people instantly lose their careers no matter if it was a lie or not
The "real" ending to The Wall's story is: shortly after his encounter with Spiderman, having learned nothing and continuing to be a jerk, he picked on the wrong superhero and was savagely murdered by Kool Aid Man.
18:13 Nah, that's a weak take. Armless Tiger Man's message is that human resilience is the greatest power of them all. The man lost both arms and still could not be stopped. In my town, there's a place called the Maritime Heritage museum, and they've got this one sailboat on display. It's a single person craft. well maintained, especially considering it's gotta be like 60 years old by now. It was built by a guy who used to clear tree stumps with dynamite, until one detonated prematurely. Blinded him and blew off his hand. He didn't STOP making sailboats because of that, no, no- that was when he STARTED making them. This guy had ONE HAND and NO SIGHT and he BUILT SAILBOATS. People COMMISSIONED HIM for them! He made GREAT SAILBOATS!
So you basically did an analysis of Spider-Man's most forgettable villains, and an analysis of sympathetic villainy, all with the motif of The Wall? Brilliant.
I mean, imagine being The Wall. You've essentially lost mobility of your arms, you can't fit in most places, his life was irreversibly ruined. Makes sense he turned to being a villain. They could easily make a story about the struggles of being handicapped with him.
@@bugjams He could find a sculpture to reshape his body and get a mechanic to put pistons and rotators in him so he can have something close to arms and be thinner
@@sauce6746 yeah, but he’s not Tony Stark or (insert other rich guy here), and those things would certainly cost money… hey, maybe that’s why he turns to a life of crime?
I think the "I wonder who won" line in the Wall comic is meant to have a double meaning. Spider-Man and The Wall both got kicked out of the park, neither won the fight, and neither achieved what they wanted. It's like, "I wonder which one of *us* won".
Yeah, that was my interpretation --- it's a deconstruction of the entire hero vs villain trope; they try to fight, but it's against the rules, so they have to stop, but the entire purpose of both Spiderman _and_ The Wall is to fight each other. Without fighting, they are nothing, and so they just sit there, purposeless and confused.
this reminds me of a game i played when i was little. I'm not from an english speaking country, i'm italian. when i was like 5 my grandma gave me this superhero costume. i dressed up and my mom asked me what hero i was. i just randomly made a sound that sounded english to me, and i said "i'm wall man". my mom explained to me that wall was actually an english word , So i started playing in my head this game where i was wall man. i had power of creating walls out of nowhere, super strenght, speed, and vision. then i added the avengers, 'cause in my head i can be the leader of the avengers. i slowly started adding every hero and protagonist of every show or movie i liked: star wars, pokemon, dragon trainer, inazuma 11, and countless others. and every time i added a new universe i had an adventure in that universe and became the strongest in what the story was about. (the strongest jedi, the strongest pokemon trainer, the strongest dragon trainer, etc. ...). so i basically created an universe where i was the strongest being, i invented a backstory, new planets and solar sistems, new enemies, and every game i played was connected to it: i played with legos? they where on a mission in the lego world sent by wall man to defeat the bad guys. then when i became 10 i started losing interest to it, and eventually i just stopped playing the game, but i will forever remember wall man as the greatest hero of fiction.
mfs be like "Superman is the symbol of hope!" No, no, those people are incorrect. They clearly never heard of the amazing Wall Man. The greatest superhero in existence. Wall Man represents everything an average person has. He has flaws, he struggles, bad things happen to him constantly, but despite all the stuff he went through... He didn't let the suffering describe who he is. He improvised, he adapted, and he overcame his struggles. This is why not just every hero, but every person should strive to be like Wall Man, why else do you think he managed to create a super team of all the fictional universes, become best friends with all the people in said team? Because he deserved respect, and everyone gave him the respect he rightfully deserved. Long live Wall Man, we love you
I once contemplated covering this fiend and shuddered in terror at the thought. You're a brave man for risking your mental health by creating such an amazing video.
@@ponytaco5976 Could you imagine if Vile tackled this insanity? A glance into this void would be too much even for a disenbodied eldritch creature like him.
Just so everyone knows, the Marvel Database article on the Wall was changed because of this video and the strengths was changed to "The Wall has been seen moving faster than an average man, let alone a brick wall."
Segment about Mindworm just broke me. It remind me of a friend from school, who just suffered a lot and a has some mental problems. After his mother death from cancer, he was depressed and due to his mental state he lost his chance to form a relationship with a girl that he loved very much, then he had to study for a profession that he hates, because his relatives insisted so, after the girl he was in love with announced a betrothal with some guy, he began to drink a lot, as a result, he provoked several drunkards, and they inflicted serious wounds on him. Before his death, he said that he would rather die like this than live with the pain he experiences every day 24/7. Almost a year later, I'm still thinking about him, and how we could help him if we were more serious about his well-being.
Someone help me out with the Armless Tiger Man. Like, I get that he lost his arms in an industrial accident and used his newfound hatred of machines to develop his mouth and legs to make up for the loss. And I get the working for the Nazis. And I get ending up in Hades as part of Pluto's jury in a trial against Zeus. That all makes perfect sense. But where does the Tiger Man part come from? As far as I can tell, he was already a Tiger Man when he lost his arms in the accident. Are Tiger Men a thing? Is he a mutant? Did one of his parents fuck a tiger? Why is Tiger Man a Tiger Man? Why?
I think it might be attributed to the ferocity and dedication he possessed with developing himself to destroy metal machines with just his legs and teeth. It is kind of like the Chameleon, a man who blends in with his surroundings through the use of disguises, but isn't actually a chameleon or a human hybrid of one, so he either picked up the name or was referred to as such because of his skills. By that same logic, Armless Tiger Man is called "Tiger" due to his savage nature and brutal relentlessness. Other than that, I am not entirely sure, but my explanation makes a little bit of sense.
Two answers: It's 1940s America, probably is meant to mean he's of Asian descent, and the US extremely racist at the time. (Just look at any Us poster about Japan in WWII, they're big yikes). So, Possibly it's a racist stereotype. second answer: He's with the Nazis. A Tiger was a famous Nazi tank (and incredibly overhyped by German propogandist and then later the acusred Wheraboo hordes which flood any discussion of WWII). So, it could mean he's strong as a tank.
I actually found myself coming back to this after reading the Squirrel Girl comics. A lot of these themes are integral to that series and its appreciation for the underappreciated and often goofy minor villains that litter comic book history, with her befriending characters like Brain Drain and even coming to blows against Spider-Man at one point over whether Kraven The Hunter could be redeemed.
Jesus Christ I got such insane whiplash after that adventuretime section suddenly going back into The Wall. I completely forgot this was a Spider-Man video because of how well you retold the story of Ice King and Marcy. Overall amazing video because every time it switches to another section I get roped right back in instantly! Extremely well done!!
The “Wall that you’ll never Crawl” scene will be remembered right next to Iconic Comic moments, Such as Batman snapping the Joker’s Neck in the Dark Knight Returns..Truly a Masterpiece.
@@adantez7268 My bad. I was high and was meaning to redact that. I know exactly what you are talking about. It was when they were in the tunnel of love. That is one of my favorite renditions of the bat.
There's actually a real guy called Wally Wallington. Look him up, he has the power to move rocks faster than the average rock, and he sometimes makes walls too
This is one of the greatest videos I’ve ever seen, it went from the Wall, to nepotism, to JJ Abrams kid, to drugs, to weird ass Superman covers, to Gorillas, to armless tiger man, to rocket racer, to Big wheel, to speedball, to mind worm, to Cartoon Network, to adventure time, to some personal story in high school and then somehow circling it back to the wall
Never thought I’d hear someone talk about adventure time when talking about Spider-Man … Then again I never thought I’d hear a villain that *moves faster then the average wall*
@@PhoebeTheFairy56 oh, you mean tom kenny? he also voices the penguin in "the batman" tv show that aired from 2004-2008. as a side note, the penguin also gets a green lantern ring in an episode also tom kenny voices a very minor character in a very small and indie tv show you may or may not have heard about. the show's called something like "spongebob squarepants", idk, it's not that well known
Kite-Man is unironically my favorite stupid villain. His character really deepened in the last 20 years or so. He's a humbled guy who understands everyone finds him dumb or annoying, but in the end he reassures himself and keeps going forward. His character is all about being humble enough to see himself for who he really is, while at the same time knowing when someone's opinion of him is worthless or is worth listening to. He's about self confidence, while also being self aware. Kite-Man, hell yeah.
I take your point here, but I think that you're being overly harsh on Armless Tiger Man. Unlike the other villains you mentioned, Armless Tiger Man is a genuinely powerful concept. This is a guy who was maimed in a factory accident, and instead of placing the blame on the societal factors that led him to being forced to work in dangerous conditions, he swears vengeance against literal inanimate objects. There's a lot that can be said there - About misdirected anger, about industrialization, about disability, and probably some that I can't think of right now - It's just that no one has ever *tried* to tell those stories.
11:42 Quick reminder that some of the Flash's most well-known villains are Captain Boomerang (throws boomerangs), Captain Cold (freeze gun), Heat Wave (fire gun), Mirror Master (goes into mirrors), The Trickster (has a bag of lethal tricks) and The Top (The Wall but spinning top). The closest thing The Flash has to a decent normal villain is Reverse Flash, who is The Flash but evil.
The trashiest part about the Abrahm comic story is that it RIPS-OFF the Spider-Girl origin to an absurd extent. Peter crippled? Yup. Mary Jane dead? Yup. Child inherits the mantle years after the dad gives up? Yup
Mary Jane wasn't dead in the Spider-Girl run? She was running the Spider-Girl costume store in order to fund her college fund (and nothing stocked in her size so she won't be able to buy anything there)
beautiful. a testimony to how it doesn't matter whether the idea is chessy or absolutely silly, as long as you write and execute it well. it goes the other way too: it doesn't really matter if your idea is revolutionary if you wrote it badly and executed it poorly. and i love how this acknowledges how you can apply this in life: it doesn't really matter who you are, but what you do and how you do it.
4:48 Possibly the saddest death in cartoon history, the way the actors preformed and the level of intensity in those scenes was immaculate, 10/10 acting
@@jimbear69.5 But he only came back to life through sheer determination to enforce the rules, and despite being murdered, he still didn't slap the wall with a $50 fine. This teaches us that at the end of the day, no matter how badly someone treats you, no one deserves a $50 fine. 🥲
i believe him being named "joshua" is a reference to the golem of prague, who in some versions is named Yehoshu'a (hebrew predecessor of joshua). this could be taken in so many interesting directions.. golem stories are already about otherment, power, and golems themselves are in a place between dead and alive or jew and non jew or with a soul and without. i wish i was a comics writer so i could take this
You know, all jokes aside, I do like the idea of a villain who can disable Spider-Man's ability to stick to walls. I know that's just a silly line he said because he's a wall but it really got me thinking about that idea
The way you make Spider-Man seem so wholesome and selfless, I love him as a hero so much thanks to you. No wonder he is THE staple of Marvel. Beloved by all, and I see why.
Alex this is genuinely a masterpiece. A beautifully curated balance of insight, humour, emotion, depth, philosophy. Just wow. Almost made me forget that this is just about a fucking wall.
What’s even funnier about this obsession with gorillas in comics, at least in my opinion, is that Gorilla Grodd, who was introduced as an arch-nemesis for the Flash, eventually became one of the most famous supervillains in history.
I love how no one can describe anything that happens in Adventure Time without being forced to leave out a ton of lore. I imagine the original script having 20 extra pages describing the Christmas episode and a breakdown of Princess Bubblegum's whole biology and history, to explain where he got the soup. Every tap of the delete key a torture.
15:01 Correction: Jackson Weele NEVER drowned, all thanks to the vehicle's watertightness. He also realized how messed up his actions were and decided to walk to his home, ready to face the consequences: his wife learned what he has done and left him, then he got incarcerated. This is also when he decided to join Villain Anonymous, a group for villains to redeem themselves in 12 steps. Another guy took the mantle of Big Wheel, as Jackson's "successor" later on. Edit: changed the time stamp, somehow I put it wrongly
@@thomaes751 worse that morbius? it broke the box office record by 1 TRILLION! and is by far one of the movies ever made, with a plot and really characters.
@@thomaes751 Morbius literally has some of the characters of all time, and arguably some of the storytelling ever made And it definitely had the special effects in the MCU
I just can’t get enough of Simon and Marcy in the show. Their relationship is just so beautiful and sad, obviously until the end, and it was one of the best things I’ve experienced on television
Ice Kings full backstory really hit me hard as a young teen, that shit was sad. It made me realize that sometimes things are awful, and they might not ever get better. But you can at least try your best to be happy. It broke my heart when Adventure Time showed me there wasn't anything that could really fix ice king.
This is why I love James Gunn's ability to give one-off comic book characters great relatable stories. I hope there will be more stories like this for these minor characters.
Nah, James Gunn takes obscure characters and drastically changes them and in doing so, he ruins them. Just because they're obscure and most people don't know or care about them doesn't mean he should take advantage of these characters.
@@mrguy4755 He's not wrong IIRC. Gunn did change a lot in the characters he used both for GOTG and SS. That's not always a bad thing, but he did essentially give some of them completely new stories.
@@olserknam Well, like Alex said, I don't like when writers take these characters and make fun of them. It's easy to poke fun at something stupid, and I think James does that by making his stories about these characters comedies. It's easy to take the piss out of Polka Dot Man, much harder to make Polka Dot Man seem like a serious cool villain, but that's the stories I wanna see.
Fun fact, the only way I ever knew about Big Wheel was because he was my favorite boss in the Mysterio's Menace spiderman game for the GameBoy. I always wondered who the hell he was considering he was the only villain I hadn't heard of in that game. They really went with BIG WHEEL instead of like, Venom or something
I'm picturing a version of the wall that becomes the wall and looks at himself and goes, "Welp, my life is ruined." and starts wondering what to do with his life. Most people that look strange like him spend their time fighting Spiderman, and his old community has rejected him, so that's just what you're supposed to do, right? Besides, anyone in a costume like that's probably up to something even if he saves the city sometimes, (the news says so) might as well make sure he doesn't have time for that. After his first confrontation with Spiderman he isn't even arrested, just a kid out of his depth. He struggles to continue his education despite his newfound appearance, but his isolation pushes him to seek out the only community of people he might find common ground with. In time he forms connections with the other villains at the bottom of the pecking order, usually people more broken than him, and sometimes acts as muscle or a distraction, eventually even acting as a middleman. (a few powerful figures will 'shoot the messenger' out of rage or on a whim, but for someone as durable as the wall, something needs to be premeditated to actually pose any threat) In time his social skills surpass how much he can actually help in a fight, and he moves more into the background, becoming even more of a coordinator. He still doesn't have a clear goal, but has begun to gain actual disdain for Spiderman, for being both physically and mentally well (unlike himself and most of those around him) who has become accepted by the media, unlike most people who wear costumes, suffer freak accidents, or were simply born different. He becomes well known for making alliances that actually hold, and tends to act as a figurehead for the larger ones, even if he doesn't actually lead them at first. Not sure where to take him from there, whether he becomes sorta like a kingpin with funkier minions, or whether he eventually leaves that life behind and takes a role to keep people like his younger self on the right path. To help give them an option other than beating up others like them, regardless of what side they'd be on.
I don't think a full kingpin, more a minor villains club mercenary group, with him being a distant but liked leader that always shows up in just the right time to take the fatal bullet in the middle of an operation and reminding his subordinates why they love him, or who always has more information than anyone wants to give him, having heard it by pretending to be a wall.
Holy crap by the end I totally forgot this video was about a dumb wall character and ended up crying multiple times. Amazing writing and a really great message holy crap good job. This really felt like a extended TED talk and it was incredible lol!
This video is quite potentially your magnum opus. When watching this it’s so easy to forget that the video didn’t have millions of dollars spent in its editing, scripting, casting, etc. How a person could create such a transcendent piece of artwork is beyond me.
I had an existential crisis whenever I gave a homeless lady $20. About 2 or 3 minutes after I had done that good deed, and I was feeling really good about it, I stopped and realized that I might not have done that out of the goodness of my heart. I may have been doing it just for me. The crisis occurred right then, whenever I realized that altruism might not be a real thing. A similar crisis that Spider-Man recognized whenever he set off to help Mindworm. I had to go to my priest and confess this to him, but he reassured me that yes, altruism does exist. All he had to do was point out the fact that human nature sometimes seeks out true altruism whenever one person chooses to die for someone else. There are just so many examples of this happening.
Altriusm or no, you still willingly gave that lady $20. Who knows, it might've saved her life. Your act of kindness could've been the thing she needed to keep going.
Contrary to what bad people would have you believe, being good feels good. There's nothing wrong in feeling satisfied after a good deed, it's the reason we've survived for so long. You know how you feel good after a shower? How you often eat not for nourishment but pleasure? How you don't drink merely to stay hydrated but because cold water feels amazing? You know how a hug feels good? Humans are "programmed" to do good for humans, and so we feel good when we do them. I think thinking about it this way makes it even more beautiful. You didn't do it because helping others is the rational thing to do, you did it because it's the human thing to do. Sure, there's selfish people who've never felt the warmth of helping another, and they often scream the most when talking about human nature, claiming humans are bad and self centered. But the truth is, at some point we need to realise that having empathy is a reward by itself, and not a sacrifice we make out of logic or pressure. Just like when a kid grows up and realises being well rested feels amazing, going to bed early stops being a chore and starts being something you enjoy doing, not something your parents or priest tell you to do. Or like brushing your teeth or eating healthy, sure, there's logic behind doing it, but the real reason is that it feels good for everyone involved, specially you. Altruism doesn't need to be a sacrifice in order to be so. I would argue the opposite, that true altruism comes from the heart and you do willingly, not something you are forced to choose. So please, if you enjoy being a good person, don't feel ashamed. And if someone tells you that altruism and empathy aren't meant to feel good for oneself, I would maybe consider they are the bad person and are just acting that way out of societal pressure. If having empathy was a sacrifice, humans wouldn't have survived as long as we have
A'ight I got a hot take with The Wall's inclusion in the Spider mythos and you gonna have to bear with me for this one. I kinda was in the mood to write an arc where Spidey's Spider Sense goes batshit crazy, it stings, he flinches mid swing, it gets out of control in a fight, etc. and while at first he soldiers on through these growing pains, it goes so out of hand it creates a delusional vision of past dangers, like it memorized these moments and Peter falls for it, reacts to say, the time Gwen fucking fell of the bridge and jumps, only to realize "Wait I'm actually gonna hit New York's pavement, what the fuck am I doing?" So let's say that either the FF or whoever is available at the time find a way for him to undergo some kind of treatment to completely neuter Spider Sense. Like it's the only way he doesn't go fucking insane. And he tries to fight crime and it truly feels like bullshit for once. Spidey presses on, but it's a fucking lot he has to be aware of and it's not something he can simply get accostumed to. This culminates in him after the plot of the week, or whatever arc underwent at that moment and out of the fucking blue, while his hand rests on the walls of an alleyway, we slowly get to see a face emerge from it. Then an arm and a leg. And the frame of The Wall, popping up behind Pete and patting his back, giving a little pep talk while Peter just turns flabbergasted. Stunned into silence, he doesn't even say anything he just lets him speak. And then The Wall walks away. He decides he's gonna catch up with him. He doesn't even remember but he's grateful he didn't break his skull open, in fact, he's almost convinced The Wall isn't even from the same continuity. And he does admit he lived through fucking Battleworld and it can be asume he found his way to main Marvel continuity. And it humbled him. Like he's just some dude that has no idea where his powers come from and he acted tough shit trying to make a fuss on the Mets stadium, but the increasing insanity of Marvel's cataclysmic events and rise of both heroes and villians that populate the planet - And beyond - wore him down. Sure, he's an immovable wall, he still has his confidence, but he mellowed out because the world as is was exhausting to deal with. So what does The Wall do? Being a villain wasn't what made him what he is, which is why he hides in the streets and suprises criminals, protect hobos, shit like that, mess with the Kingpin's men by "living inside their walls". He adapted in spite of a missing piece, and he builds himself up time and time again. "All in all, it's just another brick in The Wall, so I just reinforce on what's missing". And Spidey actually listens. Sure, it doesn't click. It's the ridicolousness of The Wall giving him a pep talk that takes him out of the crucial lesson. But he does consider this like catching up with an old acquaintance, and he acknowledges he'll take that advice, it helps Spidey get motivated. He's THE Spider-Man, he can and will find a way to reinforce himself to compensate for the missing piece. So in the same bench where Morgan Freeman had left them after interrupting the game, they contemplate about watching the Mets play some time in the near future. And th- And then they kith.
What I love most about The Wall messing with criminals is that, even in the Marvel universe, the idea that a wall suddenly grew a face and legs, attacked you and ran away would make you sound crazy. The Wall's gimmick is so ridiculous that it works in his favor.
TBH, The Wall could be a great allegory for severe disability. A physically fit young man who suddenly, due to an unknowable accident, becomes an armless, bumbling being who struggles to perform basic human tasks. There could be a lot of tragedy, with Wall seeing himself as an inhuman monster while Spiderman tries to tell him that he's still as human as everyone else. Maybe Wall wants to crush and break people because he wants them to suffer as he had, or maybe he just wants to be seen and known. An anthropomorphic wall is way too interesting what the hell.
that last sentence reminds me of Electro in TASM 2, he was a greatly lonely guy who would become obsessed with someone if they did so much as remember his name, he even says "You see me.." when the city screens show his face
The Wall reminds me of The Thing (rock guy, not weird alien) and with your addition of him being notably disabled by his powers and it working as an allegory for life changing injuries, it makes me think that The Wall would actually make for a fantastic (heh) foil for The Thing especially since they both see themselves as being monstrous and the obvious points of envy in that the hero has not only friends, stronger powers, but also got to keep his arms after his accident. It’s practically dripping with narrative potential.
It’s finally here. Your magnum opus. The single greatest piece of comic book media since marvels inception. This is truely something amazing. Good job Alex Lennen. I congratulate you.
The line at 42:12 about Ice King's personality slowly blending into the jokes he made is tragically not just a problem in fiction. For context, my grandfather has some serious problems like long term memory loss and serious dementia. The jokes he used to tell me and his other grandkids slowly became his whole personality as he aged, and it's now to the point where no one can tell whether he's aware of how ridiculous the things he does are or if he genuinely has no grasp on reality. He used to make this joke where he would act like he was scared that his grandkids would hurt him whenever they were going to give him a high five. Now he genuinely cowers when someone tries to give him one. No one even knows if he's being serious. Adventure Time clearly used this as a part of the story to representing aging and the decay of the mind, and it's scarily close to how things can happen in real life. I may start watching the show if that's how well done it is in every episode.
Aw my grandpa did something similar before he passed due to Alzheimer’s. We were walking in the hallway and he started pretending to faint and when we started stressing to catch him he would just laugh and say “haha you should’ve seen your faces!”
It's not like that every episode, and a lot of the deeper character arcs really only hit you when you know the characters. It's a catch 22 where it's not worth watching if you just want the best stuff, but the best stuff isn't good if you don't watch the whole thing.
Having Spidey only communicate through speech bubbles is actually pretty ahead of it's time seeing how they did similar things in Into the Spider-Verse like the "Bagel!" graphic. I hope if we get a second Into the Spider-verse that we get a lil' shoutout to the Electric Company Spider-Man that's be awesome lmao
I genuinely hope you aren't permanently insane due to this gem of a video essay. Thanks for this 5 star delve into obscure characters that are otherwise overlooked. Good job!💯
Sounds like a twilight zone intro... you are approaching the gorilla limit. A world of possibilities, things that are, things that where, and things that should never be. Will you chimp out, regain humanity or escape through that strange door... to........ the twilight zone. Idk
45:30 The Wall's backstory being the result of a lack of OSHA compliance making him the OSHA equivalent to Poison Ivy, causing havoc and *meting out vengeance* to those he deems as endangering others with careless ignorance of safety rules. Like Smokey The Bear if he broke people's legs for starting wildfires with a careless cigarette.
@@solluxcaptor6823 *sees someone leave a fire place smoldering as they pack up camp and start to walk away* Only YOU, can get your ass kicked this hard by a bear! RAGGGGH!!!
Didn't even realise Peter was talking about the baseball game when he said "I wonder who won." I thought he was asking The Wall "did you really win?" and i think this is more fitting in the context of the video. They're both equals sat there next to each other, neither being able to watch the game. There's no assertion that one is better than the other and there's no real winners. Spiderman wanted a day off because he wanted to feel normal. The Wall wanted to ruin his day because he realised he could never _be_ normal. In the end the wall might seem like he's won but now what, he got the satisfaction of ruining Spiderman's day and now he's at square one, no better than Spiderman in any way, sat next to him realising this. Both Spiderman and The Wall now must just go back to their prolonged existence, both knowing they can never be normal people, living normal lives and neither gained anything from this experience. Northing has changed and time keeps marching forward.
This morning I was thinking “man, it’s been a while since I’ve really laughed at something, I wonder when I’m gonna find something that genuinely makes me laugh hard again.” Turns out I would find it today, in this video. Specifically part 2 when you listed the different spider man and gorilla stories, but the entire video was great. Not only comedically, but as an analysis as well. Great job!
The umpire coming back to life really ruins it for me,character deaths don’t even matter anymore cause they always seem to come back when the plot needs them to
I appreciate how it’s implied in this video that, if Joss Whedon’s father and grandfather are both tv writers… that makes him the biggest nepotism baby of them all.
just having people who work in the same industry as you doesn't count as nepotism. It has to be proven that you only got hired because of the family connection, which there is no proof of. He worked on buffy the vampire slayer and that show was really great. It gave Sara Michelle Gellar and Allison Hannigan their first tv roles.
when "I remember you" came out I was so amazed by the lore and heartfelt moments of this world and then "Simon and marceline" came out. I have no words. The citadel came and and I was hooked but then I stopped following the series after losing cable. Coming back to it as a grown man it feels so nostalgic
37:07 You also forget that he is naturally drawn to her due to their past together. The Ice king part of him just can't comprehend how strongly the Simon part cared for her as a protector.
Yeah I remember learning that the entire reason Marceline moves from so many different locations (one time Finn and Jake's tree house in the episode "Evicted")is because no matter where she moves. Ice King finds her and won't stop bothering her. But she runs because she doesn't like seeing what he has become until "I remember You" when it all comes together. I love how the writers make it seem like it was perfectly planned since Season 1. Side note: I know so many people who hated the show after it become less episodic and more Serialized but I always saw Adventure time as Serialized since Season 1 and the show writers have my back
You just made me come up with several different ideas 💡 for this character. 1) he could be an Inhuman 2) he could have similar powers as Ben Grimm. 3) maybe his ultimate enemies are The Wrecking Crew. 4) maybe he can get as big as a building. 5) he could work with the Vulture or Stilt-Man. 6) maybe he teams up with the Spider-Man Revenge Squad. 7) maybe he has graffiti on his brick body. 8) maybe he becomes a hero named the Rook. 9) maybe his tired of super humans trying to smash him. 10) maybe he's related to Sandman.
The actual topic was incredible, but the moments of silly fun and sincerity with the live action moments is actually my favorite part here. I don't know what to describe this video as, but I just gotta say it's hella good
I genuinely love that you delved so deep into other shows and characters that at times I’d be jarred by you coming back to the wall, having forgotten what this video was about in the first place. This was quite the journey and I thoroughly enjoyed it
"ridiculousness makes the reader surrender their emotions, because we're hit the hardest when we expect to laugh." Holy crap that's actually incredible and gets me to reflect on why I've found so much enjoyment in "kid's shows" that hit that all ages demographic by appearing sweet or funny on the surface then hitting you with that emotional gut punch. Gravity Falls, She-Ra, Centaurworld, Hilda, Owl House, Amphibia, so many come to mind. One could say this video really *tears down the walls* of our preconceptions about what makes stories effective at hitting our emotions.
the wall only speaking incorrect spanish, the emotional adventure time discussion, the minecraft story… truly this video has made me feel every emotion that exists
I didn't expect a detailed analysis of some of my favourite moments from Adventure Time out of a 52 minute long video about a humanoid wall, but damn was I pleasently surprised. I've been re-watching the show with my SO mainly because I wanted her to experience moments like those, and tbh I think you summed up their resonance better than I ever could. Subbed immediately
Honestly I first expected this video to either be a joke or an incredibly stuck-up video essay, but this was a really entertaining and interesting analysis of the industry. Great job.
The Wall honestly does have serious potential as a tragic villain. I think it's fine to be some tragic accident that wasn't his fault, since being the Wall at all is enough of a tragedy on it's own. Compare him to Mindworm. As a child he couldn't control his powers, was bullied for his appearance, and had to feed off the minds of others to sustain himself. But in exchange, he genuinely has superpowers! The various problems caused by his upbringing and negative aspects of his powers ruined his future, but with the proper help there's a genuine power he can leverage. The Wall has... nothing. Think of how shitty being a living wall is. That scene in the skit where the "Wall" opens a door? The actual Wall can't do that. The "Wall" twisting around and turning his head? The Wall can't do that either. The Wall is physically incapable of opening doors, writing, playing games, working. hHe struggles to eat and drink since he doesn't have a spine or a neck. About the only things he's still able to do are walk, talk, fall, and stand up (somehow). He doesn't have a superpower, he has a genuine disability, and we laugh at him for it! Think of how terrible his life would be after becoming a wall. He's starving to death on the streets because he can't feed himself, he can't get a job because he has no work skills and everyone keeps running away from him... how often would he get arrested by the cops because a scared civilian thought he was just some stupid super criminal like the rest of them, only to be dropped back into the streets once they find he didn't do anything? By the time he sees Spiderman walking into a baseball stadium, it makes perfect sense that he would be frustrated and desperate enough to go in after him. Ruining Spiderman's day to vent his frustration, while desperately hoping that Spiderman might actually listen to him and help him. The result is the story of a disabled man, downtrodden by a society that fears him for what he is and refuses to offer him the help he desperately needs.
Spider-man is well known to be compassionate and caring so him lashing out infront of spidey and simply being dismissed as spidey is more concerned about how the game ended would have probably hurt the wall. It'd be a genuine motivation for him to Harbour ill will towards spidey if he showed up again. I actually think if we revisit him to find that he somehow carved out a decent life for himself and actually helped out spidey instead it'd be even more interesting though. It could be a story about not letting your "curse" define or ruin you and about how you can turn it into something good while also commenting on how people deserve compassion sometimes when they lash out but that nobody is obligated to help you if you do, you must be able to help yourself or earn the help through your own actions.
At the end of the story, Spider-Man says "I wonder who won?". If we assume this is purely within the context of his behavior prior to his ejection from the stadium, we are left with an uncaring and unsympathetic character sitting next to the guy that just assaulted two people. But what if this is Spider-Man showing us the play Deadpool made famous- what if he's *breaking the fourth wall* (pun not intended)? Spider-Man stopped the Wall from committing any other felonies, but his day off is a wash-out: the Wall succeeded at that much. Yet, look at his face. Clearly, this little victory doesn't make the Wall feel any better about life or himself. Which of them won, Spider-Man wonders aloud.
That's exactly where my mind went with it. Start the comic/show on Spiderman, swinging around, doing superhero stuff. Wall comes out and does something really minor to help Spiderman, Spidey blithely says thanks, and then Spiderman swings away. And we just linger for a few panels, the heroic music - imagined or otherwise - fading out and leaving behind silence and the background white noise of the city. Punctuated only by the clomp clomp clomp of the Wall's big boots hitting the ground as he walks away. Several panels with no dialogue, no big booshes or kapows; just a dude walking, looking kinda miserable. In the fifth panel, we get a thought bubble. But it isn't special or groundbreaking, the Wall just thinks "I'm thirsty." He looks over and there's a vending machine. He cocks an eyebrow and goes to look. There's some water in the vending machine. It's expensive, Wall thinks, but I can afford it. He turns around, finds a random guy and convinces him to stop skateboarding for a second. Asks him "Excuse me, sir, could you help me get a water from this vending machine?" The guy looks at him like he suspects a scam. "Why don't you do it yourself, buddy?" "I don't have arms." The Wall says, taking up a whole panel. His face isn't sad or anything, maybe a bit bleak looking. This isn't a great tragedy for him or something he angsts over any more, it's just reality. He doesn't have arms. The civilian guy hops back on his skateboard and rides away, telling the Wall "If you want it that bad take off the costume, freak!" The Wall isn't overtly hurt by this, he just looks a bit down and decides in a thought bubble that, hey, bottled water is overpriced anyway. We get a sequence of him trying to hail a cab - most of them won't give him a ride because he's a giant freakin' wall - and taking a trip out of the city. The cabbie asks him if he lived out in New Jersey for long, but the Wall says no, he actually lives in New York proper. The cab drops him off on the shore of a river. It's not super dirty or polluted, but it's also definitely not clean. There's fishes and reeds growing along the sides. The wall wades in to about waist height and takes a deep breath, then he sits down and his mouth goes under the water. He drinks directly from the river, the cabbie watching in a complete mindfuck. When the Wall is done, he steps out of the river, and looks at the cab. "I can walk back." He says. "I don't want to stink up your car. Thanks for staying anyway. I appreciate the thought." That's as far as I got but there's probably something to be said for doing something like making the cabbie a good enough dude to give the Wall a free ride back to his house. As long as the tone remains this really somber yet super normalized "It's fucked up but it's everyday for this dude". Like it's not even something that's seen as a hassle so much as the norm. People just assume it's a costume, assume he's the asshole because he's The Wall, but he's not. He's a dude with no arms that can't get disability because the government doesn't give it out to costumed villains he looks like one. He needs special accomodations and doesn't get them, but rather than be a villain he just... Exists. He copes with it. He suffers it.
He has a lot of potential to return. He can get a new suit, and get picked up by like Tinkerer or something. The Wall could try to reason with Spiderman but he doesn't know what positive things to say, so instead Spiderman doesn't see this as a truce. Tinkerer could help Wall control his powers, but when Wall and Spidey finally fight, Wall's disability hurts him the most, since he's a literal living Wall, he's literally solid. And that's how his heart becomes brick and he dies, in Spiderman's arms, as Spiderman says "....I...Won." In reference to their first fight.
13:51 There's actually a logical explanation for the gorilla obsession: *Planet of the Apes* It's pretty much been forgotten nowadays but the film enjoyed an ungodly amount of fame in the 70's. Despite almost no film other than the original receiving critical acclaim, the franchise was popular enough with the general populace of the day that Fox wound up creating 4 sequels, a TV series and an _animated TV series_ The screenwriter for the 2nd film literally tried to (spoilers) _blow up the Earth_ to prevent more sequels being made but the popular demand was so great, the higher-ups infamously handed him a telegraph saying simply: "Apes exist, sequel required"
48:45 first rule of Minecraft, always build a fake throwaway house, most folks, even that guy, would wait long enough to verify, if they don't grief the fake house show them the backup fake house, after a few years then show them the real thing
This is gold. Everything from the script, the visuals, the messages you give, and the skit at the end. First time viewer, looking forward to browsing through the rest of your channel.
You could have unbroken eye contact with the camera for five minutes straight spouting random nonsense and I'd still watch. The less coherent the better.
I’ve always find the advice of “pretend to have/be a person with confidence” confusing. I’ve heard it many times before, and it is genuine advice - you can tell in the majority of people with confidence that it’s just a front they are projecting. So it clearly works for some people. However, what I find confusing is how? I’ve personally never found it helpful, like if I knew how to be confident I’d be confident, telling me to pretend to do something my brain doesn’t know how to do is just…it’s like “to be more confident all you have to do is imagine a new colour” or akin to “have you tried not being sad?” to someone with depression.
I suppose when I hear "be more confident" and when I attempt to apply it to myself, I take "be more confident" as "enact behaviors of people or characters that you see as confident." Essentially, act like people who you see as possessing and exhibiting confidence. That's what I try to do at least.
It's often easier to pull inspiration from outside sources rather than inside yourself. Behavior informs mood to a huge degree like how exercise will make you feel good or reading a book makes you feel satisfaction. So they're saying mimicking confident behavior you observe will eventually breed real internal confidence. You don't need to figure out how to be confident, it's a simple monkey see monkey do situation.
from what I've heard from my neurodivergent friends, if a particular behavior doesn't come naturally to you, your best option is to observe, copy, practice, and find a few friends who will give you kind feedback on how you're doing
10:38 A good trick for handling this is to read a conversation you've written aloud, skipping over everything that isn't dialogue. Bonus points if you put on voices that fit each of the characters. Most folks use different parts of their brains when they write and speak, so this forces you to view your written words in a vocal manner.
@@killercore007 yknow what actually helps me with that? Audio recording. Set your phone to record audio, recite the conversation, and then you can listen back to it. Its not physically writing it down, but its having it down in some form for use later.
@@frogfireFantasy| This is a very clever extra step! There's often a disconnect between how we THINK we sound and how we actually sound, which is why so many people don't like to hear recordings of themselves speak. There's no better way to ensure you evaluate your work without bias then to do what you describe here.
I was putting away my chainsaw in the attic and slipped, cutting my head off. Now I have superpowers. Not even Chainsaw-based powers, just basic flight and super strength.
This is balls on a youtuber, every clip, every edit perfectly done. The mic quality is so good that my eggs broke from the compassion behind this video. Every youtuber should study this video to see why it works. Thank you alex, I nominate you to be president of the world after this video
I'd say this is the best thing you've made so far. It would have been easy to just make an hour long shit post, but that's not what you did. I don't know how to describe it but this is just magnificent. I look forward to your future endeavors, best of luck.
I agree, the way each point just seamlessly melds in with the next was actually impressive. I never once felt like he was going off-track, and it all wrapped up perfectly in the end
This is probably the only universe where i watched the entire video from start to end, but i don't regret it, i get to know about the beauty of Simon & Marcy, the minecraft anarchy server betrayal, and the hilarious The Wall trailer. Absolutely worth my time.
I genuinely forgot this was supposed to be a joke video like 10 minutes in and actually got really into it. Absolutely amazing video.
IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE A JOKE VIDEO?? damn, i should get posted on r/whoosh because I thought the joke ended by pt.3 :,)
If it is a joke they're bringing up really good points at least
Parts of it are satirical but on the whole it isn't a joke video. It breaks up actual points about companies refusing to change or take risks with characters out of fear of if it goes wrong.
Yo, same dude
This was a joke video? *visible confusion*
I love how he says "he's so dumb he tries to eat a hot dog with no mouth" rather than "with a mask over his mouth" as if he thinks spider man isn't wearing a costume and he just looks like that
i mean he is a wall so you can't blame him
@@CaresAndAsked6176 He's still a person, he should know what masks are
@@vision4860 Nah what he’s saying is that it’s understandable that he thinks Spider-Man just looks like that, considering he’s a fucking wall
@@vision4860 if he turned into a fucking wall then anything is possible so that makes him think spiderman looks like that
@@vision4860 he's only smarter than the average wall
"Able to run faster than an average wall"
Okay... yeah... that's actually amazing. Kudos to whoever wrote that.
He can also jump higher than a building.
Now you may be saying "wow Vision, that's really high."
But you have to remember that buildings can't jump.
You ever seen how fast a wall runs? Quicker than a sloth or snail and those are the fastest creatures known to mankind!
@@vision4860 explaining the joke wæaaaaaaaaaa
I love that the implication is, that the above average wall is faster than him lmfao.
@@nicak777alex9 well it is above average and he's only faster than the average wall. The wall is just a slightly abnormal wall not the usein bolt wall that guy wins gold medals.
I'm only guessing, but I assume The Wall was created SOLEY for the visual gag of a background prop rushing into the foreground and ambushing actors. You never expect a wall to just move out and attack, so it made for a visual surprise
That and all of the baseball puns about the balls going “over the wall”
@@yungoldman2823 linara need to bring him back so he can jump atop the 4th wall
Sounds kinda like a jackass stunt
Imagine if the moment the wall came out the whole structure of the stadium came down over his head lmao
@@sagejn1471 Then a new super villain will come up. "THE STADIUM", with super strengh and able to run faster than an average stadium
"Able to run faster than an average wall" best line ever
Hollow Knight profile picture 👍
Superhuman speed
@@birdmcturd1626 you mean superwall speed
I love how it says absolutely nothing about how fast he can move just faster than not at all
"it felt heavier than a normal finger"
The fact that this was condensed into an hour is honestly insulting and deeply saddening. I wish to see the full raw massive uncut thing
#ReleaseTheWallCut
We need the extended edition!!
I feel like the adjectives full, raw, massive, and uncut had a different effect to what you were intending
@@sesquipedalian8909 doesn't help I put thing in the end either
I love raw massive uncut things.
I can’t believe that Spider-Man could be unironically inserted into the “it’s about the Mets baby the Mets!” Meme and it would be completely in character and canon compliant
It was always about the Mets baby!
You from JimmyHere?
my man got 616 likes, so your comment is also canon in the main marvel comics universe
...the meme was initially a kingpin meme so it checks out, either way
This man made a documentary about an evil brick wall, yet the "I'm filming this on a 3DS" line is what does me in.
7 months ago, 1.2K likes and 0 replies? Lemme fix that for u
8 months ago and 1 reply lemme fix that real quick🗿
9 months and only 2 comments? Let me fix that for y'all
1 year and only 3 comments? lemme fix that for you
1 year and 2 days ago and only 4 comments? Let me fix that for you
The wall teaches us this:
No matter how much suffering and misfortune you endure, how much damage you cause in your cry for help, no matter how heroic the figures you seek out are. Sometimes you get overlooked. Sometimes you aren't taken seriously.
Abuse and sexual assult survivors aren't believed (especially male ones), people who develop horrible medical complications aren't acomedated, people suffering from trauma are rejectes as agressive and hostile.
Sometimes when things suck, we don't get help, so if you can, you better make damn sure you do what you can, because it's too easy to ignore, even spiderman can fall into that trap, but thankfully it doesn't take a superhuman to help, just a hero, people like my mom who have housed and cared for people suffering from trauma, abuse survivors, and so many others, despite her own struggles leaving her bedridden for days at times. They teach us so, because if we stop to think about these characters we can't help but feel the urge to reach out a hand.
Every sexual assault victim who is a woman is instantly believed to the point that people instantly lose their careers no matter if it was a lie or not
@@Jiub_SNreally that’s what you took away from this?
@@Jiub_SN buddy, I wish that were true, but sadly, I know someone who is living proof that it isn't, because racism is a thing that exists too.
@@flim_flam4762 I mean, that is certainly one thing that do happens far too often nowadays, unfortunately
Not remotely true @@Jiub_SN
The "real" ending to The Wall's story is: shortly after his encounter with Spiderman, having learned nothing and continuing to be a jerk, he picked on the wrong superhero and was savagely murdered by Kool Aid Man.
"OH you, the wall,
never to ruin another game of ball.
Killer of pitchers killed by a pitcher of
kool aid.
YHEA." Sun tzu, 101 facts about sharks.
OH YEAHHHHH
@@confusedduck8695 Awesome poem!
18:13 Nah, that's a weak take. Armless Tiger Man's message is that human resilience is the greatest power of them all. The man lost both arms and still could not be stopped.
In my town, there's a place called the Maritime Heritage museum, and they've got this one sailboat on display. It's a single person craft. well maintained, especially considering it's gotta be like 60 years old by now. It was built by a guy who used to clear tree stumps with dynamite, until one detonated prematurely. Blinded him and blew off his hand. He didn't STOP making sailboats because of that, no, no- that was when he STARTED making them. This guy had ONE HAND and NO SIGHT and he BUILT SAILBOATS. People COMMISSIONED HIM for them! He made GREAT SAILBOATS!
If I remember correctly, that museum is in Astoria? If so, I was there earlier this year!
What a legend
Chad
-wick is. What other boats did he create?
No his message is the Nazis were ridiculous and evil. How is this hard lol
Everything since this channel's inception has lead to this moment, you've made me proud
we're all proud
I’m crying right now. This is very emotional 😭
True
That last trailer part hits hard
@@awl3452 that kiss was so romantic tho 😳
Man I actually cried during the part about Simon. Then the Wall came back into play and hit me like a brick.
Guess you could say…
It hit you like a…
Wall?
@@aelechdeepestflame4347
*_I CAME IN LIKE A WRECKING BALL_*
@@concept5631 wrecking *wall*
@@nb5437but the wall cannot be wrecked…
Or climbed…
I don’t know what else to say the wall is just the strongest character ever
The same exact thing happened to me, ice king is a major weakness for me emotionally
So you basically did an analysis of Spider-Man's most forgettable villains, and an analysis of sympathetic villainy, all with the motif of The Wall? Brilliant.
W pfp
I mean, imagine being The Wall. You've essentially lost mobility of your arms, you can't fit in most places, his life was irreversibly ruined. Makes sense he turned to being a villain. They could easily make a story about the struggles of being handicapped with him.
@@bugjams He could find a sculpture to reshape his body and get a mechanic to put pistons and rotators in him so he can have something close to arms and be thinner
@@sauce6746 yeah, but he’s not Tony Stark or (insert other rich guy here), and those things would certainly cost money… hey, maybe that’s why he turns to a life of crime?
The pure implication of there being a "Gorilla limit" is exactly what I love about classic comics
Yo it's my boy Toad
we must find and use that gorilla limit, by way of theoretical comic or otherwise about
hordes of gorillas attacking cities or something i dont know
I think the "I wonder who won" line in the Wall comic is meant to have a double meaning. Spider-Man and The Wall both got kicked out of the park, neither won the fight, and neither achieved what they wanted. It's like, "I wonder which one of *us* won".
Yeah, that was my interpretation --- it's a deconstruction of the entire hero vs villain trope; they try to fight, but it's against the rules, so they have to stop, but the entire purpose of both Spiderman _and_ The Wall is to fight each other. Without fighting, they are nothing, and so they just sit there, purposeless and confused.
Well, the Wall’s goal was to just mess up spiderman’s day off, and considering that he got him kicked out of the park, I’d say the Wall won
Damn, thats deep
What do you mean the gigachad *THE WALL* just wanted to annoy Spider-Man’s day and he achieved it tenfold.
This is the moment we have all become depressed English teachers.
this reminds me of a game i played when i was little.
I'm not from an english speaking country, i'm italian. when i was like 5 my grandma gave me this superhero costume. i dressed up and my mom asked me what hero i was. i just randomly made a sound that sounded english to me, and i said "i'm wall man". my mom explained to me that wall was actually an english word , So i started playing in my head this game where i was wall man.
i had power of creating walls out of nowhere, super strenght, speed, and vision. then i added the avengers, 'cause in my head i can be the leader of the avengers. i slowly started adding every hero and protagonist of every show or movie i liked: star wars, pokemon, dragon trainer, inazuma 11, and countless others. and every time i added a new universe i had an adventure in that universe and became the strongest in what the story was about. (the strongest jedi, the strongest pokemon trainer, the strongest dragon trainer, etc. ...). so i basically created an universe where i was the strongest being, i invented a backstory, new planets and solar sistems, new enemies, and every game i played was connected to it: i played with legos? they where on a mission in the lego world sent by wall man to defeat the bad guys.
then when i became 10 i started losing interest to it, and eventually i just stopped playing the game, but i will forever remember wall man as the greatest hero of fiction.
But could he beat Goku?
@@ahennessy7998 yes he could. but they were friends.
Long live Wall Man, paragon of the age, inspiration to countless others across time ~★
All hail Wall Man ! Saviour of the universe and champion amongst champions !
mfs be like "Superman is the symbol of hope!"
No, no, those people are incorrect. They clearly never heard of the amazing Wall Man. The greatest superhero in existence. Wall Man represents everything an average person has. He has flaws, he struggles, bad things happen to him constantly, but despite all the stuff he went through... He didn't let the suffering describe who he is. He improvised, he adapted, and he overcame his struggles. This is why not just every hero, but every person should strive to be like Wall Man, why else do you think he managed to create a super team of all the fictional universes, become best friends with all the people in said team? Because he deserved respect, and everyone gave him the respect he rightfully deserved. Long live Wall Man, we love you
"You're up against the wall, and I am the fucking wall"
- The Wall, talking to Spiderman (presumably)
"Lighning bolt lightning bolt lightning bolt!"
- Electro, talking to Spiderman (presumably)
"Guys, the drill, go get it."
-Uncle Bain, talking to Spiderman (presumably)
"Spidey, I'm so wet."
- Hydroman (presumably), talking to Spiderman
“Now go to the forums, and cry like the little bitch you are!”
-James Jonah Jameson, talking to Spider-Man (Presumably)
"Spiderman, I can't see shit"
- Daredevil (presumably), talking to Spiderman
I once contemplated covering this fiend and shuddered in terror at the thought. You're a brave man for risking your mental health by creating such an amazing video.
I’d love an analyzing evil video on The Wall though :(
@@ponytaco5976 Could you imagine if Vile tackled this insanity? A glance into this void would be too much even for a disenbodied eldritch creature like him.
Surprised this wasn’t top comment, glad to see u here
@@Parzivle probably because no checkmark
Welcome to another episode of analyzing evil. On this episode we’ll be covering the most dastardly villain, the wall
Just so everyone knows, the Marvel Database article on the Wall was changed because of this video and the strengths was changed to "The Wall has been seen moving faster than an average man, let alone a brick wall."
They really should've kept it
@@RipRLeeErmey yeah, it was funny as hell.
Remember what they took from us
@@SharkyMcSnarkface they can never take that amazing username/pfp combo
Segment about Mindworm just broke me. It remind me of a friend from school, who just suffered a lot and a has some mental problems. After his mother death from cancer, he was depressed and due to his mental state he lost his chance to form a relationship with a girl that he loved very much, then he had to study for a profession that he hates, because his relatives insisted so, after the girl he was in love with announced a betrothal with some guy, he began to drink a lot, as a result, he provoked several drunkards, and they inflicted serious wounds on him. Before his death, he said that he would rather die like this than live with the pain he experiences every day 24/7. Almost a year later, I'm still thinking about him, and how we could help him if we were more serious about his well-being.
Sorry you went through that.
Absolutely brilliant. I have no other words to describe this.
Honestly.
OMG Drake here
Not pointing out the obvious catwoman ripp off kida hurt
Crossover comment moment.
Yeah, I laughed way to hard at this video
Someone help me out with the Armless Tiger Man. Like, I get that he lost his arms in an industrial accident and used his newfound hatred of machines to develop his mouth and legs to make up for the loss. And I get the working for the Nazis. And I get ending up in Hades as part of Pluto's jury in a trial against Zeus. That all makes perfect sense.
But where does the Tiger Man part come from? As far as I can tell, he was already a Tiger Man when he lost his arms in the accident. Are Tiger Men a thing? Is he a mutant? Did one of his parents fuck a tiger? Why is Tiger Man a Tiger Man?
Why?
Tigers don't have arms. Therefore armless tiger man is a tiger
I think it might be attributed to the ferocity and dedication he possessed with developing himself to destroy metal machines with just his legs and teeth. It is kind of like the Chameleon, a man who blends in with his surroundings through the use of disguises, but isn't actually a chameleon or a human hybrid of one, so he either picked up the name or was referred to as such because of his skills. By that same logic, Armless Tiger Man is called "Tiger" due to his savage nature and brutal relentlessness. Other than that, I am not entirely sure, but my explanation makes a little bit of sense.
You know, the idea of him being a mutant does seem plausible.
Two answers: It's 1940s America, probably is meant to mean he's of Asian descent, and the US extremely racist at the time. (Just look at any Us poster about Japan in WWII, they're big yikes). So, Possibly it's a racist stereotype.
second answer: He's with the Nazis. A Tiger was a famous Nazi tank (and incredibly overhyped by German propogandist and then later the acusred Wheraboo hordes which flood any discussion of WWII). So, it could mean he's strong as a tank.
@@historymarshal2704 Let's be perfectly honest, the entire world was racist as hell in the 1940's, and throughout the majority of history.
I actually found myself coming back to this after reading the Squirrel Girl comics. A lot of these themes are integral to that series and its appreciation for the underappreciated and often goofy minor villains that litter comic book history, with her befriending characters like Brain Drain and even coming to blows against Spider-Man at one point over whether Kraven The Hunter could be redeemed.
Jesus Christ I got such insane whiplash after that adventuretime section suddenly going back into The Wall. I completely forgot this was a Spider-Man video because of how well you retold the story of Ice King and Marcy. Overall amazing video because every time it switches to another section I get roped right back in instantly! Extremely well done!!
Oh
Same man... same...
SAME
Holy shit, yeah! I was like, "What the fuck? Oh yeah, that's right that's what this video was about..."
Same literally went in my head “ huh… oh yeah this is Spider-Man”
The “Wall that you’ll never Crawl” scene will be remembered right next to Iconic Comic moments, Such as Batman snapping the Joker’s Neck in the Dark Knight Returns..Truly a Masterpiece.
You mean the killing joke?
@@liljoker2535 The animated movie Dark Knight Returns. About an aged batman being turned against by the government and superman
@@adantez7268 I was referring to the comic but that works too.
Not as memorable as The Thanos Copter tbh
@@adantez7268 My bad. I was high and was meaning to redact that. I know exactly what you are talking about. It was when they were in the tunnel of love. That is one of my favorite renditions of the bat.
"You're a wall now!"
The only thing that would've made this funnier would be if his civilian identity was called Mark Wallberg.
Clay "The Brick" Walls
What if he listened to pinky floyd's the wall?
"What? Nooo... I'm a wall, see? Nothing wrong with that, right? Let's just get this out of the way, ok? C'mon, let's go to Arby's."
His full name is Joshua walldemeyer if I spelt it correctly
There's actually a real guy called Wally Wallington. Look him up, he has the power to move rocks faster than the average rock, and he sometimes makes walls too
This is one of the greatest videos I’ve ever seen, it went from the Wall, to nepotism, to JJ Abrams kid, to drugs, to weird ass Superman covers, to Gorillas, to armless tiger man, to rocket racer, to Big wheel, to speedball, to mind worm, to Cartoon Network, to adventure time, to some personal story in high school and then somehow circling it back to the wall
Never thought I’d hear someone talk about adventure time when talking about Spider-Man …
Then again I never thought I’d hear a villain that *moves faster then the average wall*
I've done it before, because ice king's va also voices doctor octopus in one of the spider-man shows
@@PhoebeTheFairy56 oh, you mean tom kenny? he also voices the penguin in "the batman" tv show that aired from 2004-2008. as a side note, the penguin also gets a green lantern ring in an episode
also tom kenny voices a very minor character in a very small and indie tv show you may or may not have heard about. the show's called something like "spongebob squarepants", idk, it's not that well known
Kite-Man is unironically my favorite stupid villain. His character really deepened in the last 20 years or so. He's a humbled guy who understands everyone finds him dumb or annoying, but in the end he reassures himself and keeps going forward. His character is all about being humble enough to see himself for who he really is, while at the same time knowing when someone's opinion of him is worthless or is worth listening to. He's about self confidence, while also being self aware.
Kite-Man, hell yeah.
kite man, hell yeah
Kite Man, hell yeah
Kite Man, hell yeah
Kite Man, hell yeah
Kite-Man, hell yeah
I take your point here, but I think that you're being overly harsh on Armless Tiger Man. Unlike the other villains you mentioned, Armless Tiger Man is a genuinely powerful concept.
This is a guy who was maimed in a factory accident, and instead of placing the blame on the societal factors that led him to being forced to work in dangerous conditions, he swears vengeance against literal inanimate objects.
There's a lot that can be said there - About misdirected anger, about industrialization, about disability, and probably some that I can't think of right now - It's just that no one has ever *tried* to tell those stories.
11:42 Quick reminder that some of the Flash's most well-known villains are Captain Boomerang (throws boomerangs), Captain Cold (freeze gun), Heat Wave (fire gun), Mirror Master (goes into mirrors), The Trickster (has a bag of lethal tricks) and The Top (The Wall but spinning top). The closest thing The Flash has to a decent normal villain is Reverse Flash, who is The Flash but evil.
Si es raro que el sujeto que puede correr a la velocidad de la luz sus enemigos sean un tipo con Boomerangs un mono y otras cosas
And the Wall is an angry woman who looks kind of like CCH Pounder.
The trashiest part about the Abrahm comic story is that it RIPS-OFF the Spider-Girl origin to an absurd extent. Peter crippled? Yup. Mary Jane dead? Yup. Child inherits the mantle years after the dad gives up? Yup
"look dad, its my first spiderman oc!"
"isnt that just spider-girl?"
"oh shit... hum... no... its spider... boy! yes! its spider-boy!"
Kinda based if you think about it. Instead of just taking a hero and making them a girl counterpart, he made them a boy. Absolutely game changing.
Mary Jane wasn't dead in the Spider-Girl run? She was running the Spider-Girl costume store in order to fund her college fund (and nothing stocked in her size so she won't be able to buy anything there)
its weird asf its like spider-girl as male but edgy and weird as hell like spidertotem arc
Guess copy paste is in the family genes.
beautiful. a testimony to how it doesn't matter whether the idea is chessy or absolutely silly, as long as you write and execute it well. it goes the other way too: it doesn't really matter if your idea is revolutionary if you wrote it badly and executed it poorly.
and i love how this acknowledges how you can apply this in life: it doesn't really matter who you are, but what you do and how you do it.
"Suddenly, Dracula appears"
I am brokenhearted and put aghast by this stellar storytelling.
"Suddenly, Dracula appears" is the funniest thing I've seen in ages
4:48 Possibly the saddest death in cartoon history, the way the actors preformed and the level of intensity in those scenes was immaculate, 10/10 acting
Never mind hes alive, but still 10/10 scene
@@jimbear69.5 But he only came back to life through sheer determination to enforce the rules, and despite being murdered, he still didn't slap the wall with a $50 fine. This teaches us that at the end of the day, no matter how badly someone treats you, no one deserves a $50 fine. 🥲
i believe him being named "joshua" is a reference to the golem of prague, who in some versions is named Yehoshu'a (hebrew predecessor of joshua). this could be taken in so many interesting directions.. golem stories are already about otherment, power, and golems themselves are in a place between dead and alive or jew and non jew or with a soul and without. i wish i was a comics writer so i could take this
He's not actually named Joshua, this was just a guy working with him
Either that or Alex kept showing the wrong guy throughout the video
Also, Biblical Joshua is most famous for his story with the Wall Of Jericho (Yes he knocked it down, shhh you're ruining my Deep Insight)
@@olserknam no it is joshua though i looked it up
i'm legit surprised that his name isnt Wallace wallstein or something
@@ironmaster6496 Wohel Goldwall
You know, all jokes aside, I do like the idea of a villain who can disable Spider-Man's ability to stick to walls. I know that's just a silly line he said because he's a wall but it really got me thinking about that idea
That would be really cool yeah. It’s always fun when an enemy forces a character to have to fight or just exist in a way they aren’t used to.
Didn't Electro do it in a Sin Eater comic?
The way you make Spider-Man seem so wholesome and selfless, I love him as a hero so much thanks to you. No wonder he is THE staple of Marvel. Beloved by all, and I see why.
Too bad Marvel is sucking him dry like a malnourished cow.
The mix of both genuine, thoughtful analysis and ridiculous fun with friends is genuinely inspiring. Thanks for sharing The Wall with the world.
Alex this is genuinely a masterpiece. A beautifully curated balance of insight, humour, emotion, depth, philosophy.
Just wow. Almost made me forget that this is just about a fucking wall.
“Gorilla limit” caused me to laugh hysterically for a good 10 minutes
GORRILA LIMIT
*rookie numbers*
“C’mon guys, one Gorilla per month. Everybody knows the rules.”
I swear I've come into contact with the gorilla issue before and it was so similar - that now I think it may have been from this video.
What’s even funnier about this obsession with gorillas in comics, at least in my opinion, is that Gorilla Grodd, who was introduced as an arch-nemesis for the Flash, eventually became one of the most famous supervillains in history.
I love how no one can describe anything that happens in Adventure Time without being forced to leave out a ton of lore. I imagine the original script having 20 extra pages describing the Christmas episode and a breakdown of Princess Bubblegum's whole biology and history, to explain where he got the soup. Every tap of the delete key a torture.
15:01 Correction: Jackson Weele NEVER drowned, all thanks to the vehicle's watertightness. He also realized how messed up his actions were and decided to walk to his home, ready to face the consequences: his wife learned what he has done and left him, then he got incarcerated. This is also when he decided to join Villain Anonymous, a group for villains to redeem themselves in 12 steps. Another guy took the mantle of Big Wheel, as Jackson's "successor" later on.
Edit: changed the time stamp, somehow I put it wrongly
... sad but good
NERD.
@@kainoadoliente9324 *Yes*
bro I just wanted to watch about wall man and now I have to read 2 paragraphs.
And I all really got lectured by this man💀
@@lindahamilton2996 2 paragraphs?
The wall should be brought to the MCU as the next villain. His story is so amazing 😪
Ikr
Couldn't be worse than morbius
@@thomaes751 worse that morbius? it broke the box office record by 1 TRILLION! and is by far one of the movies ever made, with a plot and really characters.
@@thomaes751 Morbius literally has some of the characters of all time, and arguably some of the storytelling ever made
And it definitely had the special effects in the MCU
@@literallymemoviesenjoyer it was 1 MORBILLION
This may be a joke video, but goddamn Mindworm’s fate made me sad bruh.
I was genuinely disappointed when he died, I really wanted him to have a good ending
This dude makes the most serious joke videos I have ever seen, to the point where they almost become serious videos on joke topics.
I just can’t get enough of Simon and Marcy in the show. Their relationship is just so beautiful and sad, obviously until the end, and it was one of the best things I’ve experienced on television
What did you think about Simon's story in Fionna and Cake?
@@MouseBat123 I thought Simon’s story in the new show was very good, and made a good extension to tie up a loose end of the original show
Ice Kings full backstory really hit me hard as a young teen, that shit was sad. It made me realize that sometimes things are awful, and they might not ever get better. But you can at least try your best to be happy. It broke my heart when Adventure Time showed me there wasn't anything that could really fix ice king.
Did you watch the last episode?
@@driveasandwich6734 but at what at cost😩
This is why I love James Gunn's ability to give one-off comic book characters great relatable stories. I hope there will be more stories like this for these minor characters.
The wall should show up in spider-man freshman year
Nah, James Gunn takes obscure characters and drastically changes them and in doing so, he ruins them. Just because they're obscure and most people don't know or care about them doesn't mean he should take advantage of these characters.
@@TitanBolt99 lmao what
@@mrguy4755 He's not wrong IIRC. Gunn did change a lot in the characters he used both for GOTG and SS. That's not always a bad thing, but he did essentially give some of them completely new stories.
@@olserknam Well, like Alex said, I don't like when writers take these characters and make fun of them. It's easy to poke fun at something stupid, and I think James does that by making his stories about these characters comedies.
It's easy to take the piss out of Polka Dot Man, much harder to make Polka Dot Man seem like a serious cool villain, but that's the stories I wanna see.
Fun fact, the only way I ever knew about Big Wheel was because he was my favorite boss in the Mysterio's Menace spiderman game for the GameBoy. I always wondered who the hell he was considering he was the only villain I hadn't heard of in that game. They really went with BIG WHEEL instead of like, Venom or something
To be fair, he is BIG WHEEL
Why would you take venom over BIG WHEEL
Yo lo conocí porque en un vídeo de the amazing spiderman comentaron que se sugirio que tuviera un cameo
The most important lesson I learned from Gumball was to not clone your friend and mass murder the clones. It's a very timely and meaningful lesson.
“Suddenly, Dracula appears!”
Now that’s how you introduce conflict
I'm picturing a version of the wall that becomes the wall and looks at himself and goes, "Welp, my life is ruined." and starts wondering what to do with his life.
Most people that look strange like him spend their time fighting Spiderman, and his old community has rejected him, so that's just what you're supposed to do, right? Besides, anyone in a costume like that's probably up to something even if he saves the city sometimes, (the news says so) might as well make sure he doesn't have time for that. After his first confrontation with Spiderman he isn't even arrested, just a kid out of his depth.
He struggles to continue his education despite his newfound appearance, but his isolation pushes him to seek out the only community of people he might find common ground with.
In time he forms connections with the other villains at the bottom of the pecking order, usually people more broken than him, and sometimes acts as muscle or a distraction, eventually even acting as a middleman. (a few powerful figures will 'shoot the messenger' out of rage or on a whim, but for someone as durable as the wall, something needs to be premeditated to actually pose any threat)
In time his social skills surpass how much he can actually help in a fight, and he moves more into the background, becoming even more of a coordinator. He still doesn't have a clear goal, but has begun to gain actual disdain for Spiderman, for being both physically and mentally well (unlike himself and most of those around him) who has become accepted by the media, unlike most people who wear costumes, suffer freak accidents, or were simply born different.
He becomes well known for making alliances that actually hold, and tends to act as a figurehead for the larger ones, even if he doesn't actually lead them at first.
Not sure where to take him from there, whether he becomes sorta like a kingpin with funkier minions, or whether he eventually leaves that life behind and takes a role to keep people like his younger self on the right path. To help give them an option other than beating up others like them, regardless of what side they'd be on.
You're definetly a creative storyteller, i'll give you that.
Brilliant.
Nice ideas!
I don't think a full kingpin, more a minor villains club mercenary group, with him being a distant but liked leader that always shows up in just the right time to take the fatal bullet in the middle of an operation and reminding his subordinates why they love him, or who always has more information than anyone wants to give him, having heard it by pretending to be a wall.
@@therighttrousers343 i guess you could say... The walls have ears
31:19 I love how the brick he ‘punches’ out of the wall is just sitting on the ground in the previous shot
29:12 * and pahah yeah i hadnt noticed that
Holy crap by the end I totally forgot this video was about a dumb wall character and ended up crying multiple times. Amazing writing and a really great message holy crap good job. This really felt like a extended TED talk and it was incredible lol!
No joke i felt the same.
Very good points
The wall represents the emotional wall we all build from time to time… truly one of the most thought provoking characters I’ve seen in a while…
The wall is about anal. Facts
An underrated comment indeed!
This video is quite potentially your magnum opus. When watching this it’s so easy to forget that the video didn’t have millions of dollars spent in its editing, scripting, casting, etc. How a person could create such a transcendent piece of artwork is beyond me.
I don't care how much it cost me. I'm one of the main investors for Morbius, which just made 374 billion at the box office
@@alexlennen Bravo, you were really behind the two greatest pieces of art to ever exist. And in the same month too.
@@alexlennen What a morbius monetary move
"I CAN BE PRETTY STUPID WHEN I WANNA BE" is a golden line
I had an existential crisis whenever I gave a homeless lady $20. About 2 or 3 minutes after I had done that good deed, and I was feeling really good about it, I stopped and realized that I might not have done that out of the goodness of my heart. I may have been doing it just for me.
The crisis occurred right then, whenever I realized that altruism might not be a real thing. A similar crisis that Spider-Man recognized whenever he set off to help Mindworm.
I had to go to my priest and confess this to him, but he reassured me that yes, altruism does exist. All he had to do was point out the fact that human nature sometimes seeks out true altruism whenever one person chooses to die for someone else. There are just so many examples of this happening.
Altriusm or no, you still willingly gave that lady $20. Who knows, it might've saved her life. Your act of kindness could've been the thing she needed to keep going.
Contrary to what bad people would have you believe, being good feels good. There's nothing wrong in feeling satisfied after a good deed, it's the reason we've survived for so long.
You know how you feel good after a shower? How you often eat not for nourishment but pleasure? How you don't drink merely to stay hydrated but because cold water feels amazing? You know how a hug feels good? Humans are "programmed" to do good for humans, and so we feel good when we do them.
I think thinking about it this way makes it even more beautiful. You didn't do it because helping others is the rational thing to do, you did it because it's the human thing to do.
Sure, there's selfish people who've never felt the warmth of helping another, and they often scream the most when talking about human nature, claiming humans are bad and self centered. But the truth is, at some point we need to realise that having empathy is a reward by itself, and not a sacrifice we make out of logic or pressure. Just like when a kid grows up and realises being well rested feels amazing, going to bed early stops being a chore and starts being something you enjoy doing, not something your parents or priest tell you to do. Or like brushing your teeth or eating healthy, sure, there's logic behind doing it, but the real reason is that it feels good for everyone involved, specially you.
Altruism doesn't need to be a sacrifice in order to be so. I would argue the opposite, that true altruism comes from the heart and you do willingly, not something you are forced to choose. So please, if you enjoy being a good person, don't feel ashamed. And if someone tells you that altruism and empathy aren't meant to feel good for oneself, I would maybe consider they are the bad person and are just acting that way out of societal pressure. If having empathy was a sacrifice, humans wouldn't have survived as long as we have
Alex you haven't failed me thank you for this rollercoaster of emotions
Exactly, just 9 minutes in and I’ve already laughed and cried twice
10 minutes in and I am now depressed
A'ight I got a hot take with The Wall's inclusion in the Spider mythos and you gonna have to bear with me for this one.
I kinda was in the mood to write an arc where Spidey's Spider Sense goes batshit crazy, it stings, he flinches mid swing, it gets out of control in a fight, etc. and while at first he soldiers on through these growing pains, it goes so out of hand it creates a delusional vision of past dangers, like it memorized these moments and Peter falls for it, reacts to say, the time Gwen fucking fell of the bridge and jumps, only to realize "Wait I'm actually gonna hit New York's pavement, what the fuck am I doing?"
So let's say that either the FF or whoever is available at the time find a way for him to undergo some kind of treatment to completely neuter Spider Sense. Like it's the only way he doesn't go fucking insane. And he tries to fight crime and it truly feels like bullshit for once. Spidey presses on, but it's a fucking lot he has to be aware of and it's not something he can simply get accostumed to.
This culminates in him after the plot of the week, or whatever arc underwent at that moment and out of the fucking blue, while his hand rests on the walls of an alleyway, we slowly get to see a face emerge from it. Then an arm and a leg. And the frame of The Wall, popping up behind Pete and patting his back, giving a little pep talk while Peter just turns flabbergasted. Stunned into silence, he doesn't even say anything he just lets him speak. And then The Wall walks away.
He decides he's gonna catch up with him. He doesn't even remember but he's grateful he didn't break his skull open, in fact, he's almost convinced The Wall isn't even from the same continuity. And he does admit he lived through fucking Battleworld and it can be asume he found his way to main Marvel continuity.
And it humbled him.
Like he's just some dude that has no idea where his powers come from and he acted tough shit trying to make a fuss on the Mets stadium, but the increasing insanity of Marvel's cataclysmic events and rise of both heroes and villians that populate the planet - And beyond - wore him down. Sure, he's an immovable wall, he still has his confidence, but he mellowed out because the world as is was exhausting to deal with.
So what does The Wall do? Being a villain wasn't what made him what he is, which is why he hides in the streets and suprises criminals, protect hobos, shit like that, mess with the Kingpin's men by "living inside their walls". He adapted in spite of a missing piece, and he builds himself up time and time again. "All in all, it's just another brick in The Wall, so I just reinforce on what's missing".
And Spidey actually listens. Sure, it doesn't click. It's the ridicolousness of The Wall giving him a pep talk that takes him out of the crucial lesson. But he does consider this like catching up with an old acquaintance, and he acknowledges he'll take that advice, it helps Spidey get motivated. He's THE Spider-Man, he can and will find a way to reinforce himself to compensate for the missing piece. So in the same bench where Morgan Freeman had left them after interrupting the game, they contemplate about watching the Mets play some time in the near future.
And th-
And then they kith.
I was with you till the last paragraph 💀
What I love most about The Wall messing with criminals is that, even in the Marvel universe, the idea that a wall suddenly grew a face and legs, attacked you and ran away would make you sound crazy. The Wall's gimmick is so ridiculous that it works in his favor.
I want to read this so, so badly
Truly the best screenplay
Comments like this are the reason I wade through the general cesspool that is the typical internet comment section. Thank you. Lol
TBH, The Wall could be a great allegory for severe disability. A physically fit young man who suddenly, due to an unknowable accident, becomes an armless, bumbling being who struggles to perform basic human tasks.
There could be a lot of tragedy, with Wall seeing himself as an inhuman monster while Spiderman tries to tell him that he's still as human as everyone else. Maybe Wall wants to crush and break people because he wants them to suffer as he had, or maybe he just wants to be seen and known.
An anthropomorphic wall is way too interesting what the hell.
Doesn't he excell at a couple human things too? I mean, he may be armless, but he has super speed.
That's true, but I cannot imagine being a giant wall on legs does any good for your balance. He doesn't exactly fall down though, so hmm.
that last sentence reminds me of Electro in TASM 2, he was a greatly lonely guy who would become obsessed with someone if they did so much as remember his name, he even says "You see me.." when the city screens show his face
The Wall reminds me of The Thing (rock guy, not weird alien) and with your addition of him being notably disabled by his powers and it working as an allegory for life changing injuries, it makes me think that The Wall would actually make for a fantastic (heh) foil for The Thing especially since they both see themselves as being monstrous and the obvious points of envy in that the hero has not only friends, stronger powers, but also got to keep his arms after his accident.
It’s practically dripping with narrative potential.
Don Bluth once said that children can accept anything in a story as long as there's a happy ending.
It’s finally here. Your magnum opus. The single greatest piece of comic book media since marvels inception. This is truely something amazing. Good job Alex Lennen. I congratulate you.
The line at 42:12 about Ice King's personality slowly blending into the jokes he made is tragically not just a problem in fiction.
For context, my grandfather has some serious problems like long term memory loss and serious dementia. The jokes he used to tell me and his other grandkids slowly became his whole personality as he aged, and it's now to the point where no one can tell whether he's aware of how ridiculous the things he does are or if he genuinely has no grasp on reality.
He used to make this joke where he would act like he was scared that his grandkids would hurt him whenever they were going to give him a high five. Now he genuinely cowers when someone tries to give him one. No one even knows if he's being serious.
Adventure Time clearly used this as a part of the story to representing aging and the decay of the mind, and it's scarily close to how things can happen in real life. I may start watching the show if that's how well done it is in every episode.
dude my grandpa is going through the same thing. sucks bro, he was so smart, and i know he still is, but he’s just.. not him anymore you know?
damn, you almost made me cry
Aw my grandpa did something similar before he passed due to Alzheimer’s.
We were walking in the hallway and he started pretending to faint and when we started stressing to catch him he would just laugh and say “haha you should’ve seen your faces!”
It's not like that every episode, and a lot of the deeper character arcs really only hit you when you know the characters. It's a catch 22 where it's not worth watching if you just want the best stuff, but the best stuff isn't good if you don't watch the whole thing.
Oh.... I'm so sorry to hear this...
Having Spidey only communicate through speech bubbles is actually pretty ahead of it's time seeing how they did similar things in Into the Spider-Verse like the "Bagel!" graphic. I hope if we get a second Into the Spider-verse that we get a lil' shoutout to the Electric Company Spider-Man that's be awesome lmao
It’s been announced
I genuinely hope you aren't permanently insane due to this gem of a video essay. Thanks for this 5 star delve into obscure characters that are otherwise overlooked. Good job!💯
The "gorilla limit" is probably one of the funniest things I've ever heard
Sounds like a twilight zone intro... you are approaching the gorilla limit. A world of possibilities, things that are, things that where, and things that should never be. Will you chimp out, regain humanity or escape through that strange door... to........ the twilight zone. Idk
45:30 The Wall's backstory being the result of a lack of OSHA compliance making him the OSHA equivalent to Poison Ivy, causing havoc and *meting out vengeance* to those he deems as endangering others with careless ignorance of safety rules. Like Smokey The Bear if he broke people's legs for starting wildfires with a careless cigarette.
To be fair I think less forest fires would be started if Smokey the bear stared breaking peoples legs for their carelessness.
@@solluxcaptor6823 *sees someone leave a fire place smoldering as they pack up camp and start to walk away*
Only YOU, can get your ass kicked this hard by a bear! RAGGGGH!!!
Didn't even realise Peter was talking about the baseball game when he said "I wonder who won."
I thought he was asking The Wall "did you really win?" and i think this is more fitting in the context of the video.
They're both equals sat there next to each other, neither being able to watch the game. There's no assertion that one is better than the other and there's no real winners.
Spiderman wanted a day off because he wanted to feel normal. The Wall wanted to ruin his day because he realised he could never _be_ normal. In the end the wall might seem like he's won but now what, he got the satisfaction of ruining Spiderman's day and now he's at square one, no better than Spiderman in any way, sat next to him realising this.
Both Spiderman and The Wall now must just go back to their prolonged existence, both knowing they can never be normal people, living normal lives and neither gained anything from this experience.
Northing has changed and time keeps marching forward.
I adore this perspective, hell yeah!
The awkward silence between you and the wall, and the squeaking of your shoes is another layer of comedy
This morning I was thinking “man, it’s been a while since I’ve really laughed at something, I wonder when I’m gonna find something that genuinely makes me laugh hard again.” Turns out I would find it today, in this video. Specifically part 2 when you listed the different spider man and gorilla stories, but the entire video was great. Not only comedically, but as an analysis as well. Great job!
The umpire coming back to life really ruins it for me,character deaths don’t even matter anymore cause they always seem to come back when the plot needs them to
I appreciate how it’s implied in this video that, if Joss Whedon’s father and grandfather are both tv writers… that makes him the biggest nepotism baby of them all.
just having people who work in the same industry as you doesn't count as nepotism. It has to be proven that you only got hired because of the family connection, which there is no proof of. He worked on buffy the vampire slayer and that show was really great. It gave Sara Michelle Gellar and Allison Hannigan their first tv roles.
And his brother Jed as well
@@greatpower6063 erm erm THERES NO PROFF hng erm ackshually you don't have hard prooof sooooo this writer I really like isn't a nepotism hire hehehe
@@Jiub_SNyou're not making anyone laugh you whining baby.
when "I remember you" came out I was so amazed by the lore and heartfelt moments of this world and then "Simon and marceline" came out. I have no words. The citadel came and and I was hooked but then I stopped following the series after losing cable. Coming back to it as a grown man it feels so nostalgic
The fact that this ended up having a 10 minute segment about Alex trolling on minecraft and having his freaking base explode is just beautiful
37:07 You also forget that he is naturally drawn to her due to their past together. The Ice king part of him just can't comprehend how strongly the Simon part cared for her as a protector.
Yeah I remember learning that the entire reason Marceline moves from so many different locations (one time Finn and Jake's tree house in the episode "Evicted")is because no matter where she moves. Ice King finds her and won't stop bothering her. But she runs because she doesn't like seeing what he has become until "I remember You" when it all comes together. I love how the writers make it seem like it was perfectly planned since Season 1. Side note: I know so many people who hated the show after it become less episodic and more Serialized but I always saw Adventure time as Serialized since Season 1 and the show writers have my back
You just made me come up with several different ideas 💡 for this character.
1) he could be an Inhuman
2) he could have similar powers as Ben Grimm.
3) maybe his ultimate enemies are The Wrecking Crew.
4) maybe he can get as big as a building.
5) he could work with the Vulture or Stilt-Man.
6) maybe he teams up with the Spider-Man Revenge Squad.
7) maybe he has graffiti on his brick body.
8) maybe he becomes a hero named the Rook.
9) maybe his tired of super humans trying to smash him.
10) maybe he's related to Sandman.
11) he wants revenge against kool aid men
@@MouldMadeMind that would be both hilarious 🤣 and awesome 😎 at the same time.
The actual topic was incredible, but the moments of silly fun and sincerity with the live action moments is actually my favorite part here. I don't know what to describe this video as, but I just gotta say it's hella good
I genuinely love that you delved so deep into other shows and characters that at times I’d be jarred by you coming back to the wall, having forgotten what this video was about in the first place. This was quite the journey and I thoroughly enjoyed it
"ridiculousness makes the reader surrender their emotions, because we're hit the hardest when we expect to laugh."
Holy crap that's actually incredible and gets me to reflect on why I've found so much enjoyment in "kid's shows" that hit that all ages demographic by appearing sweet or funny on the surface then hitting you with that emotional gut punch. Gravity Falls, She-Ra, Centaurworld, Hilda, Owl House, Amphibia, so many come to mind.
One could say this video really *tears down the walls* of our preconceptions about what makes stories effective at hitting our emotions.
Centaurworld is the perfect example, like the whole show is just the definition of tonal whiplash and that's so fascinating
Futurama isn’t a kids show but it still totally applies
That’s the kid’s comic, “Oracles of Odroia”, does. I’m writing it, and my cousin is illustrating it.
When he says that, where is that scene with the blonde kid from?
Not really a kid's show, but undertale and deltarune totally apply here.
the wall only speaking incorrect spanish, the emotional adventure time discussion, the minecraft story… truly this video has made me feel every emotion that exists
the incorrect Spanish was truly the highlight of this whole video haha
I didn't expect a detailed analysis of some of my favourite moments from Adventure Time out of a 52 minute long video about a humanoid wall, but damn was I pleasently surprised. I've been re-watching the show with my SO mainly because I wanted her to experience moments like those, and tbh I think you summed up their resonance better than I ever could. Subbed immediately
What SO means? Soul (o) mate? Satanic Orthodontist?
@@invertebrado the second one
@@invertebrado significant other
“Able to run faster than your average wall”. That sentence is the best thing this villain contributed to society
"it can be hell if you're wearing diferent clothes, imagine being a fucking wall!" thats a brand new sentence right there
Honestly I first expected this video to either be a joke or an incredibly stuck-up video essay, but this was a really entertaining and interesting analysis of the industry. Great job.
The moment he started talking about the surge of gorillas on comic book covers, I knew I would be laughing way too much
The Wall honestly does have serious potential as a tragic villain. I think it's fine to be some tragic accident that wasn't his fault, since being the Wall at all is enough of a tragedy on it's own.
Compare him to Mindworm. As a child he couldn't control his powers, was bullied for his appearance, and had to feed off the minds of others to sustain himself. But in exchange, he genuinely has superpowers! The various problems caused by his upbringing and negative aspects of his powers ruined his future, but with the proper help there's a genuine power he can leverage.
The Wall has... nothing. Think of how shitty being a living wall is. That scene in the skit where the "Wall" opens a door? The actual Wall can't do that. The "Wall" twisting around and turning his head? The Wall can't do that either. The Wall is physically incapable of opening doors, writing, playing games, working. hHe struggles to eat and drink since he doesn't have a spine or a neck. About the only things he's still able to do are walk, talk, fall, and stand up (somehow). He doesn't have a superpower, he has a genuine disability, and we laugh at him for it!
Think of how terrible his life would be after becoming a wall. He's starving to death on the streets because he can't feed himself, he can't get a job because he has no work skills and everyone keeps running away from him... how often would he get arrested by the cops because a scared civilian thought he was just some stupid super criminal like the rest of them, only to be dropped back into the streets once they find he didn't do anything? By the time he sees Spiderman walking into a baseball stadium, it makes perfect sense that he would be frustrated and desperate enough to go in after him. Ruining Spiderman's day to vent his frustration, while desperately hoping that Spiderman might actually listen to him and help him.
The result is the story of a disabled man, downtrodden by a society that fears him for what he is and refuses to offer him the help he desperately needs.
Spider-man is well known to be compassionate and caring so him lashing out infront of spidey and simply being dismissed as spidey is more concerned about how the game ended would have probably hurt the wall. It'd be a genuine motivation for him to Harbour ill will towards spidey if he showed up again.
I actually think if we revisit him to find that he somehow carved out a decent life for himself and actually helped out spidey instead it'd be even more interesting though. It could be a story about not letting your "curse" define or ruin you and about how you can turn it into something good while also commenting on how people deserve compassion sometimes when they lash out but that nobody is obligated to help you if you do, you must be able to help yourself or earn the help through your own actions.
At the end of the story, Spider-Man says "I wonder who won?". If we assume this is purely within the context of his behavior prior to his ejection from the stadium, we are left with an uncaring and unsympathetic character sitting next to the guy that just assaulted two people.
But what if this is Spider-Man showing us the play Deadpool made famous- what if he's *breaking the fourth wall* (pun not intended)? Spider-Man stopped the Wall from committing any other felonies, but his day off is a wash-out: the Wall succeeded at that much. Yet, look at his face. Clearly, this little victory doesn't make the Wall feel any better about life or himself. Which of them won, Spider-Man wonders aloud.
That's exactly where my mind went with it. Start the comic/show on Spiderman, swinging around, doing superhero stuff. Wall comes out and does something really minor to help Spiderman, Spidey blithely says thanks, and then Spiderman swings away.
And we just linger for a few panels, the heroic music - imagined or otherwise - fading out and leaving behind silence and the background white noise of the city. Punctuated only by the clomp clomp clomp of the Wall's big boots hitting the ground as he walks away. Several panels with no dialogue, no big booshes or kapows; just a dude walking, looking kinda miserable. In the fifth panel, we get a thought bubble. But it isn't special or groundbreaking, the Wall just thinks "I'm thirsty."
He looks over and there's a vending machine. He cocks an eyebrow and goes to look. There's some water in the vending machine. It's expensive, Wall thinks, but I can afford it. He turns around, finds a random guy and convinces him to stop skateboarding for a second. Asks him "Excuse me, sir, could you help me get a water from this vending machine?"
The guy looks at him like he suspects a scam. "Why don't you do it yourself, buddy?"
"I don't have arms." The Wall says, taking up a whole panel. His face isn't sad or anything, maybe a bit bleak looking. This isn't a great tragedy for him or something he angsts over any more, it's just reality. He doesn't have arms.
The civilian guy hops back on his skateboard and rides away, telling the Wall "If you want it that bad take off the costume, freak!"
The Wall isn't overtly hurt by this, he just looks a bit down and decides in a thought bubble that, hey, bottled water is overpriced anyway. We get a sequence of him trying to hail a cab - most of them won't give him a ride because he's a giant freakin' wall - and taking a trip out of the city. The cabbie asks him if he lived out in New Jersey for long, but the Wall says no, he actually lives in New York proper.
The cab drops him off on the shore of a river. It's not super dirty or polluted, but it's also definitely not clean. There's fishes and reeds growing along the sides. The wall wades in to about waist height and takes a deep breath, then he sits down and his mouth goes under the water. He drinks directly from the river, the cabbie watching in a complete mindfuck. When the Wall is done, he steps out of the river, and looks at the cab.
"I can walk back." He says. "I don't want to stink up your car. Thanks for staying anyway. I appreciate the thought."
That's as far as I got but there's probably something to be said for doing something like making the cabbie a good enough dude to give the Wall a free ride back to his house. As long as the tone remains this really somber yet super normalized "It's fucked up but it's everyday for this dude". Like it's not even something that's seen as a hassle so much as the norm. People just assume it's a costume, assume he's the asshole because he's The Wall, but he's not. He's a dude with no arms that can't get disability because the government doesn't give it out to costumed villains he looks like one. He needs special accomodations and doesn't get them, but rather than be a villain he just... Exists. He copes with it.
He suffers it.
@@karnewarrior Jesus, dude.
He has a lot of potential to return. He can get a new suit, and get picked up by like Tinkerer or something. The Wall could try to reason with Spiderman but he doesn't know what positive things to say, so instead Spiderman doesn't see this as a truce. Tinkerer could help Wall control his powers, but when Wall and Spidey finally fight, Wall's disability hurts him the most, since he's a literal living Wall, he's literally solid. And that's how his heart becomes brick and he dies, in Spiderman's arms, as Spiderman says "....I...Won." In reference to their first fight.
13:51
There's actually a logical explanation for the gorilla obsession: *Planet of the Apes*
It's pretty much been forgotten nowadays but the film enjoyed an ungodly amount of fame in the 70's. Despite almost no film other than the original receiving critical acclaim, the franchise was popular enough with the general populace of the day that Fox wound up creating 4 sequels, a TV series and an _animated TV series_
The screenwriter for the 2nd film literally tried to (spoilers) _blow up the Earth_ to prevent more sequels being made but the popular demand was so great, the higher-ups infamously handed him a telegraph saying simply:
"Apes exist, sequel required"
I recall DC made a lot of monkeys notably Grodd
I thought you meant in real life and was very concerned
"Was everyone in the comics industry on drugs??!?"
Short answer? Yes.
Long answer? Unquestionably.
48:45 first rule of Minecraft, always build a fake throwaway house, most folks, even that guy, would wait long enough to verify, if they don't grief the fake house show them the backup fake house, after a few years then show them the real thing
This is gold. Everything from the script, the visuals, the messages you give, and the skit at the end. First time viewer, looking forward to browsing through the rest of your channel.
it's all downhill from here
You could have unbroken eye contact with the camera for five minutes straight spouting random nonsense and I'd still watch. The less coherent the better.
I wholeheartedly agree. This is the single-handed most thought-provoking piece of media I have seen.
I’ve always find the advice of “pretend to have/be a person with confidence” confusing.
I’ve heard it many times before, and it is genuine advice - you can tell in the majority of people with confidence that it’s just a front they are projecting. So it clearly works for some people.
However, what I find confusing is how? I’ve personally never found it helpful, like if I knew how to be confident I’d be confident, telling me to pretend to do something my brain doesn’t know how to do is just…it’s like “to be more confident all you have to do is imagine a new colour” or akin to “have you tried not being sad?” to someone with depression.
I don’t have an answer I just want to be updated if you get a response
I suppose when I hear "be more confident" and when I attempt to apply it to myself, I take "be more confident" as "enact behaviors of people or characters that you see as confident." Essentially, act like people who you see as possessing and exhibiting confidence. That's what I try to do at least.
@@joshualawrence2963 yeah this is it
It's often easier to pull inspiration from outside sources rather than inside yourself. Behavior informs mood to a huge degree like how exercise will make you feel good or reading a book makes you feel satisfaction. So they're saying mimicking confident behavior you observe will eventually breed real internal confidence. You don't need to figure out how to be confident, it's a simple monkey see monkey do situation.
from what I've heard from my neurodivergent friends, if a particular behavior doesn't come naturally to you, your best option is to observe, copy, practice, and find a few friends who will give you kind feedback on how you're doing
10:38
A good trick for handling this is to read a conversation you've written aloud, skipping over everything that isn't dialogue. Bonus points if you put on voices that fit each of the characters.
Most folks use different parts of their brains when they write and speak, so this forces you to view your written words in a vocal manner.
I’ve already gotten that down to a tee. Too bad it doesn’t mean too much when you still can’t transfer it from your head to physical.
@@killercore007 yknow what actually helps me with that? Audio recording. Set your phone to record audio, recite the conversation, and then you can listen back to it. Its not physically writing it down, but its having it down in some form for use later.
@@frogfireFantasy| This is a very clever extra step! There's often a disconnect between how we THINK we sound and how we actually sound, which is why so many people don't like to hear recordings of themselves speak. There's no better way to ensure you evaluate your work without bias then to do what you describe here.
2:55 So that's the origin of the greatest Marvel character Paul
I like how it’s just “bricks fell on him” didn’t even bother with making them radioactive.
The other day a I tripped on a chair and it fell on me so now I'm cursed to live as Chairman and torment all my local heroes
I was putting away my chainsaw in the attic and slipped, cutting my head off. Now I have superpowers. Not even Chainsaw-based powers, just basic flight and super strength.
@@chronica6457 So that's how Chairface from the Tick was created 🤔
@@arempy5836 man you had a good opportunity to make a chainsaw man joke xD
@@Doofinon I don't know much about that manga. Plus, this dumb joke character came to me years ago.
This is balls on a youtuber, every clip, every edit perfectly done. The mic quality is so good that my eggs broke from the compassion behind this video. Every youtuber should study this video to see why it works. Thank you alex, I nominate you to be president of the world after this video
I'd say this is the best thing you've made so far. It would have been easy to just make an hour long shit post, but that's not what you did. I don't know how to describe it but this is just magnificent. I look forward to your future endeavors, best of luck.
I agree, the way each point just seamlessly melds in with the next was actually impressive. I never once felt like he was going off-track, and it all wrapped up perfectly in the end
This is probably the only universe where i watched the entire video from start to end, but i don't regret it, i get to know about the beauty of Simon & Marcy, the minecraft anarchy server betrayal, and the hilarious The Wall trailer. Absolutely worth my time.