This is MJ. I'm an author, I'm an artist, I'm an analyzer. Find all my work at MJMunoz.com.
This is Red Panda Report, Episode 7, Imitation Panda. Join me as I discuss the thrilling Red
Panda Adventures Number 7, Red Panda, Dead or Alive, featuring villainous vengeance,
simpering socialites, and a hypnotized hero. Red Panda Adventures Number 7 was published,
actually, I don't know why I thought it was called Red Panda, Dead or Alive, but it's
just Dead or Alive. Anyway, it was published April 1st, 2006, written and directed by Greg
Taylor, and clearly this is the seventh episode of Red Panda. So, oh, I will share the copy
for this, which comes from DecoderRingTheatre.com, your source for adventure, mystery, and comedy.
Someone is on a spree of high-profile robberies throughout the city. Someone wearing a very
familiar bright red mask. Can it be true? Has the city's champion turned traitor to
the cause of law and order? Can even Kit Baxter, the flying squirrel, save her friend and mentor
once the call has gone out? Red Panda, Dead or Alive. So, anyway, first off, I was a little
weird about the fact that this Red Panda clearly has a gang. He clearly uses a Tommy gun, and
yet people believe he is the real Red Panda. I suppose the real Red Panda has operated
in such secrecy, in such shadow and myth and rumor that people don't really know who he
is, what he's like, or what he's capable of, which I guess the secrecy and the anonymity
of the way Red Panda operates is kind of a double-edged sword being used against him,
which is pretty interesting. Let's see, next thing is, so, towards the end of the episode,
or right at the end, O'Malley said to Red Panda when he realized that he was innocent
of being the criminal Red Panda with the Red Panda gang, he said something along the lines
of, someday you'll slip up Red Panda and I'll be there to catch you. Doesn't that make it
sound like O'Malley wants Red Panda to be a bad guy? Wants him to be a criminal specifically
so that he'll be justified in capturing and catching and prosecuting him? So, that'd be
like going up to any random guy and saying, someday you'll slip up and I'll arrest you
for your crimes. Well, why? Why would you say that? And I don't know if that's cops
are dumb or what that is, but it just rang really odd in my ears. So, yeah. No me gusto.
No me gusto. Anyway, I like the fake Red Panda shtick. I think it's really cool. It's just
a really neat, really fun idea. I mean, it's not totally unique. It's not something that's
never been done. Like, I believe there's a fake shadow in the shadow at some point. And,
you know, there's Metal Sonic and whatever. Black Suit Spider-Man or, I don't know, whatever.
And I mean, like after, well, I don't know, was Venom running around looking just like
Spider-Man at some point? I don't know. Maybe he was, maybe he wasn't. Doesn't matter. Doesn't
matter. But just, you know, the imposter hero who's actually a villain is a cool, fun idea.
And I like it in the context here. I didn't expect it here. I don't know why. I suppose
because I know all the crazy things Red Panda can do and this phony Red Panda didn't really
do any of them. So, it didn't occur to me that somebody would be able to come in and
imitate him. Although, Nick Diablos, if he wanted to, could impersonate Red Panda. And
that was a thought that just struck me right now. So, I don't know. We'll see if that happens
in the future.
Okay, so there was a great line in this episode. I don't know if I'm going to do a best line
feature from now on or not. I don't really intend to, but I could. But this one was Christopher
Mott as the phony Red Panda. He was talking about, you know, he was saying this and this
and this. And this is a Tommy gun! And then he fires it. That was really cool. Really
cool. Very fun. Great, you know, villainous action to keep things exciting and just, I
don't know, it's just, it's ridiculous, but it's so cool. It's cool because it's dumb,
I guess. And that's the way some things are.
Okay, Kit's dedication to Red Panda is really cool. I like, I liked it overall. Like, I
mean, to me, it's clear that she has feelings for the big guy and, you know, that's at least
part of why she's sticking around. And, I don't know, she's got a weird chip on her
shoulder that I kind of don't like where she's like, oh, you're trying to send me away. You
want me to be safe. You think this is about me wanting my job. I value you too much to
walk away because whatever. I knew there was coming into this and now I'm sticking with
you no matter what. And him being noble and trying to send her away so that she's not
in danger and him talking about his doubts. Like, you know, he's obviously a very capable
man who's been able to accomplish a lot, yet he is imperfect. One of his imperfections,
one of his flaws, I guess. Maybe it's just a self-doubt. I don't think it's a self-doubt.
I think it's beyond that. You know, I think there's more to it than that, I should say.
That he doesn't know that he made the right decision in getting Kit to help him. I mean,
he'd be dead if he didn't have her around to help him at this point. But I guess maybe
he's thinking better him dead alone and having never met her never ruined her life than having
her with him and then having her life threatened and ruined. So, I like that. I think that's
cool. I think it's noble. I think he's being a real man about it. And, you know, she claps
back with her herb stuff. And, you know, your mileage may vary on it. Some people are going
to think it's amazing. It's the best thing ever. It is noble and heroic, because she
wants to put herself on the line for him. And it shows how deep their connection is.
And that's really cool. So, I'm not complaining about that. And then Red Panda's secret identity
being the real mask. It's a neat idea. I like that he has given his all to being Red Panda.
That's a neat spin on things. I don't know specifically. I guess Batman kind of falls
into that. That sort of, that same sort of territory where he really is Batman and Bruce
Wayne is just a facade. And, I mean, I like that. Okay. I can't think of where that's
real. The only place I can think of in, or the only thing I can think of from Batman,
because I'm not like a Batman comic book reader, really. I tried to. It didn't work out. We
went separate ways. We had different visions. So, anyway, was in Batman Beyond. He at one
point gets, I think it's in Batman Beyond. Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's Batman Beyond specifically.
Bruce ends up getting thrown into a mental facility. And at the end of it, he's saved
because he thinks he's going crazy or people around him think he's going crazy. So, they
put him under conservatorship or whatever, right? Because he's an old man and he's still
tied. No, he's not tied to Wayne Enterprises. He's sort of tied to it socially. But I don't
think he has any actual power in the company. He just has like a senior statesman, is that
how they call it? Anyway, whatever. He has clout, but he doesn't have actual power, right?
He has no controlling interests, I believe. But anyway, maybe he does some... Doesn't
matter. That's not the point. Anyway, the point is that in his head, the voice that
sounds just like him, I think it sounds just like him, is calling him Bruce and saying
Bruce this, Bruce that, whatever. And Bruce is confident in his sanity the whole time
and he ends up telling Terry, his Batman in training from Batman Beyond, if you're not
familiar with that series, great series, check it out, that that's not what he calls himself
in his head. In his subconscious, he's not Bruce Wayne, he's Batman. And there's a comedic
line in there that Terry gives, he says, hey, that's my name. And he says, tell that to
my subconscious. And it's very cool. So I guess that was my Kevin Conroy impersonation.
I've never really tried to do one, but if it worked, it worked, and if it didn't, I'm
sorry. Anyway, so I thought that was a cool aspect of the story. I thought it was odd
that Kid broke the rule of telling Peepers, or Peeper, about her static shoes. You're
not supposed to tell the bad guys about your powers, but whatever. Not a big deal. Just
kind of funny. She seems to be a stickler about stuff like that. As far as gadgets are
concerned, Tom Tomorrow used some sort of disguised gizmo to appear to be the Red Panda's
alter ego, which is pretty cool, and he's from the future, so they can do anything,
right? And then Tom Tomorrow has rocket boots. Red Panda and Flying Skrull have static shoes,
Tom Tomorrow's got rocket boots. It all works out. It's all in the feet, I guess. So, moving
on from there, villains, not much to say. Golden Claw is the true villain. She's behind
the Red Panda gang. She's orchestrating it all from prison. Apparently she still has
control of money and assets. By assets, I mean criminals, people to have do her will.
And through that, through the combination of those two things, money and people, which
is all you really need, I guess, she was able to pull off this caper, I guess you would
say. And that's pretty cool. That makes her even more formidable, and it's kind of fun
of this person who doesn't have any powers, who's just a great criminal mastermind, can
give Red Panda such trouble. Especially because he doesn't have any powers either. So I guess
in that way, they're kind of equally matched, aren't they? I'd never really thought about
them before. Because I think of him as a superhero, some gangster doesn't make sense to me. Kind
of like, and this is the last tangent I do, I hope, for the episode, there's a guy from
Arrow, from the Arrow TV show, Brick. Big guy, almost bald, real short hair if not bald.
He's a tough guy, he's real strong. As far as I know, he's not a metahuman. They just
call him Brick because he's a tough guy. And somehow, Stephen Amell, which his character's
name, Oliver Queen, is not able to defeat this guy. And nobody else is. It gets even
worse with the dragon guy a couple seasons later, like the last season, last season or
second to last season of Arrow. This guy's ridiculously hard to kill, and somehow he's
able to overcome everybody, even though he's just a normal buff Mexican guy. Like, you
know, la gente is muy fuerte, but not that strong, man. That's crazy. So, anyway, bug
die. Heck out of me. Anyway, I have a couple lore points to talk about, and then I'm going
to close out the episode. So technically, the Red Panda does have a gang, but the public
and police don't know about that. I complained about this whole gang thing throwing away
or giving away that Red Panda's not the guy doing the crimes, but it's there. You'll see
it later. In the books, especially when we get to the books, it'll be there in a much
more pronounced way, which is similar to the Shadow. The Shadow in his books, he uses his
agents all the time. You hear about them a lot in the radio show. It's just Margot Lane,
but then again, the radio Shadow and the book Shadow are pretty different characters. Okay,
next is Tom Tomorrow's a man from the future. I mean, from the future! And he seems to be
stuck in the past. That is, the Red Panda's present, and he's the only person we know
of who knows who Red Panda is. And I say that because there was that guy who died. Was it
Peter? Yeah, Peter. Peter, the guy who was behind Jackrabbit. He had, you know, Red Panda
pulled off his mask, revealed his identity to him, then that guy died. And then, you
can assume the people who train Red Panda, but we haven't met any of them, know who Red
Panda is. And yeah, so it's Kit and Tom Tomorrow. But then by the end of the episode, Tom forgets
because of the post hypnotic suggestion that Red Panda gives him, which is hilarious. Another
thing, the Justice Union has been brought up at least one other time besides this. It
was when Red Panda was telling Kit not to quit and not to give up on herself. He said,
if you don't deserve to be a superhero, then none of the Justice Union people do either.
And that was, what, Death Dance at Midnight. It was in episode six. So just last episode.
And anyway, they're sort of like an analog to the Justice League and they have a roster
that changes over time because from when they're mentioned and when they're first encountered
to when they're like dealt with more heavily later in later seasons of Red Panda, like
years have passed, maybe a decade, if not less than that. So kind of interesting. And
then last thing, Red Panda doesn't allow any other mystery men or superheroes to work in
Toronto, I guess, except Tom Tomorrow. I don't know why you can't stop Tom Tomorrow. Why
he doesn't really bother with him because the guy just like walks into his lair and
kind of bugs him. But then I don't know. After that, he kind of sticks around. I think he
deals with him at least once more. Maybe he just gets involved in stuff later down the
line that I won't spoil for you. But that's interesting. It's funny what a lone wolf he
is, Red Panda that is, but that'll get talked about more in later seasons. So I'm not going
to belabor it right now, but I mean, this was a fun episode. We have these socialites.
Oh yeah. I got to deliver on my promise. So we got villainous vengeance, simpering socialites
and one other thing. Oh, Hibden-Tyserion. Yeah. So yeah, the socialites, they suck, man.
And you know, I'm not going to get too political, but Taylor is Canadian. So I'm assuming that
means he hates poor, not poor people. He loves poor people and he hates rich people. And
anyway, man, you know, they say never meet your heroes. Maybe you shouldn't follow people
on Twitter who you like as creatives because when their politics come out, it bugs you.
And I'm not saying he's ever said anything specifically communist, but he did do something
that I was very disappointed in when he was talking about regular citizens. Well, never
mind. I'm not going to say that. I'm not going to cut it out. I'm not going to edit it because
I'm just not going to do that. But I'm also not going to finish that thought because it
doesn't matter. It's irrelevant to the show. And I will move on because I can tolerate
people having different opinions to some extent, even though I believe that certain political
ideologies are quite opposite. Mine are ultimately destructive and deleterious to society as
a whole and will cause the breakdown of it. But I'm not going to stop that by badmouthing
people in my podcast. So I'm just going to build the kind of world I believe we should
live in. And you know, good luck to you building something that can never exist or never work.
So anyway, goodbye. No, I'm not leaving yet. Anyway, the socialite's like, I appreciate
that many people who are in that sort of privileged position do get to the point where they are
so removed from normal society, so removed from the normal life of humanity that they
are empty shells of people and they are almost degenerate in their wealth and in their opulence.
And it's sad. However, I acknowledge the fact that sometimes the poor people are degenerate
in the way they operate because it's a way to cope with the world that they live in.
And I'm not saying that the only right people are middle class people, I guess like me.
I'm I'd say I'm lower middle class if not, I don't know, it's complicated. But I do believe
in the value of some hard work and I believe mostly in the value of not harming other people
and and accountability and responsibility for your sphere of influence and for your
sphere of control. You should do the best you can. You should be moral, not hurt other
people. But anyway, I do see like the positivity in showing the ugliness and callousness of
these socialite people and like the niece character who gets threatened in the beginning
at the party that nobody knows what it's actually for. She's a great counterpoint to that because
while she is a socialite, or at least related to socialite, she's not so far gone and not
so disconnected that these things don't mean anything to her. Like she's a real person
attached to the real world, unlike these other people around. So anyway, kind of complicated,
kind of funny. Like why would I spend all this time talking about just, you know, this
is me. This is me. If you like it, great. And if you don't, sorry, don't listen anymore.
And then the hypnotize hero thing, that's just about Tom Trenor getting hypnotized.
And I think that's funny. You know, technically, I could have used that appellation for Kit
when she was hypnotized by Nick Diablo's, but I didn't I didn't use it then. I'm following
the Red Panda rule, Red Panda universal rule. I'm trying to use alliteration as much as
I possibly can to keep things fun and funky, funky fresh, if you will, to use moral iteration.
Oh, it's triple alliteration. But anyway, that is pretty much all I have to say for
this episode. Again, it was a lot of fun and I look forward to listening to and then talking
about and sharing the next one with you. And if you have any questions, comments, concerns,
I go ahead and share those. And that's all I have to say. So without further ado, I ask
that you be well. This is MJ signing out. I hope you enjoyed that. Go to MJMunoz.com
to leave any questions, comments or other feedback you might have. There you can find
all of my analysis, art and fiction. I cover books, tokusatsu, comic books, anime and more.
Look around. You're sure to find something else that you'll enjoy as well. This has been
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