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14 - The Dark Era: Beast Transformed
63 Plays1 month ago
Issues: Hulk #150, Amazing Adventures #11-17, Hulk #161, Hulk #172
The X-Men are cancelled and we're swimming in a dark, tideless sea of 1970's Marvel comics, grasping around for any mutant life-rafts we can find. This one has a weird energy, folks. With no main series to guide them, Matt and Pat have to generate their own momentum and they certainly try their best.
Topics:
Will we ever get the intro right? The X-Men do their jobs. Are my pants ruined? Is everything ruined?? Is the Hulk ever good? Dr. Alan Grant. Concentric circles. Metabolic time sense? Surely that’s all we’ll ever hear from the Maddickses. Mike Plug. Harvey Fierstein as Bernard the Poet. Iron Man DEAD! Buzz Baxter & Patsy Walker! Mastermind’s bad plan. The diamond underworld is a small world. "Like soap through a fist!" Blob and Unus got a good thing goin' on. Fine, no more curses! Sherlock Holmes’ stupid apartment. Linda Donaldson's a bad wingman. Quasimodo again?? Hank can’t kiss his girlfriend. SECRET EMPIRE! An old flame returns. Halloween in Rutland, VT! Juggernaut and his pink hole in the sky. Tom Fagan’s Halloween Party. Full suit, furry face. JIM STARLIN! He is BLUE. No respect for Mounties. Ugh, the Mimic. CANADA! No, the Hulk is never good. Batman.
Write in to Pat's Email Corner: mutantmenacepod@gmail.com
Instagram: @mutantmenacepod
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Transcript
Live Report on Mutant Menace
00:00:01
Speaker
I'm Trish Tobey with W.A.R.C. reporting to you live from Westchester, New York, where there appears to be some sort of mutant menace on the loose.
Introduction to the Podcast 'Mutant Menace'
00:00:34
Speaker
Hello and welcome to Mutant Menace, a podcast about the X-Men. I'm Pat Reber. And I'm Matt Allcamp. And say it with us, Pete.
00:00:45
Speaker
yeah Welcome to Mutant Menace. We already said the name of the podcast.
00:00:55
Speaker
Oh, I thought we were doing so well, too. Oh, man. Thanks, Pete. how are you doing, Pat? I'm good. I'm having a pretty good day. I'm having a pretty good week. How are you doing, Matt?
00:01:06
Speaker
i'm I'm doing all right. Okay.
The 'Dark Era' of X-Men Comics
00:01:11
Speaker
We did a lot of reading for this episode. It it might not even all make it into the episode. but We did a lot of reading for this episode.
00:01:19
Speaker
There are a lot of stories we're going to squeeze into a single episode here, Matt, because we are in the dark era. i yeah just do have you been holding up it's dark uh it's a dark era yeah there's just how i would describe it it's it's weird to be in a world with no more x-men ah yeah well here's the thing that the issue numbers are still climbing up but it's all reprints so if you were a fan of x-men from the beginning you're not getting anything new here
00:01:56
Speaker
Yeah, they kind of like, they they reprint the X-Men versus the Avengers, and then, oh, but that's that's in their first annual.
Reprints of Classic X-Men Stories
00:02:04
Speaker
And then it's like the Juggernaut story. they They reprint again, the one where the Human Torch shows up for no reason.
00:02:11
Speaker
then it's the Sentinels, then it's the Mimic, then it's where Magneto's hiding out in there in their house. Oh, yeah, yeah. Set in traps like Kevin McCallister.
00:02:22
Speaker
Yeah. ah the lucifer one where blob and eunice rob a bank oh yeah that one was sick then it's dominus then there's a king-sized special with count nefarious i'll stop now but like that's that's how that's like the way it goes they just they're just and it's not even like best of just random issues yeah they include the nefarious saga they include dominus Look at us jumping right into it, Matt. We are so starved for real X-Men comics at this point.
00:02:55
Speaker
I know. And for us, it's only been a week. Well, did you, I mean, just to supplement, did you do anything X-Men related this week? Did I do anything X-Men related this week? I don't know, man. I did my job. but It's what the X-Men do. The X-Men do their jobs. Yeah. I don't know why I'm being combative about it, but I don't think I thought real hard.
00:03:16
Speaker
I'm pretty sure I didn't do anything X-Men related this week. Yeah.
Listener Emails and Mutant Claims
00:03:21
Speaker
Me neither. You don't even have to ask. I didn't do anything X-Men related this week. Okay. Well, I'm glad I didn't ask then.
00:03:28
Speaker
ah Should we get right into Pat's email corner Yeah, let's get right into that female corner. There's the theme song.
00:03:41
Speaker
Okay, here we go. We actually have a few today. Let me start with Sam, who wants to let us know that hey sam our podcast has been excellent to listen to while I read through my omnibus collection. Everybody loves an omnibus collection. It's such fun to hear a commentary about how silly some of the early comics were.
00:04:02
Speaker
Also, I have my own mutant power. I cannot smell flatulence. While it may not be wings or laser beam related, I feel it has been a net benefit for me in life. Sure, I can believe that.
00:04:14
Speaker
Although it does come with a dangerous downside in that I also cannot smell the natural gas odor, and I feel at risk of being unaware of dangerous gas leaks. Oh, well. That's why. So not just is it's not just like Sam can't smell their own.
00:04:31
Speaker
They can't smell anybody's. Right. Well, here's what confused me. Also, I'm going to say this. Feel free to include your pronouns or we're just going to assume.
00:04:42
Speaker
We're either going to assume or we're going to say they, right? Yeah, yeah. Just include your pronouns if you want. And if you don't care, <unk>t you don't have to. But anyway. I here's what concerns me is
Importance of Pronouns in Listener Emails
00:04:57
Speaker
flatulence.
00:04:58
Speaker
A fart is the smell. Matt, I know you hate fart stuff, but sorry, Sam. It's a good thing you wrote into me because if you were mad about fart stuff, he would flip out.
00:05:09
Speaker
it's Now it's on my podcast. hi The smell of a fart is a little bit of poop leaving with the air that's escaping your butt, right? it's That's not the smell of pure methane.
00:05:22
Speaker
That is the smell of, you know, here's your butthole. i Natural gas, natural methane gas... doesn't have an odor.
00:05:33
Speaker
It is completely odorless. The odor you smell when you like open a tank of methane is chemically put in there so that you know that you're smelling gas.
00:05:45
Speaker
Sam, I'm concerned that this is not a mutant power and you just don't have a sense of smell. because if Because if Sam can't smell the chemical additive in methane gas...
00:06:02
Speaker
Nor the fecal matter in flatulence. Right. That's two things we know that Sam can't smell. Unless they're related somehow.
00:06:16
Speaker
They're not. don't know. They both contain odorless methane gas. Here's... Okay. This is the only time I want to talk about something this gross. But I have to get... While we're on the subject... Pat, if you spend the day...
00:06:33
Speaker
farting a lot okay that you have just microscopically ruined your pants or your seat right you've just high speed projectiled lot of stuff until you wash them and it's like it's they're very small part it's nothing more than what sits in your nose because you probably smelled a fart at some point like it's I don't think I would consider that ruining a pair of pants. That implies that there's just microscopic shit all over everything, all the time, everywhere.
00:07:13
Speaker
Yeah, dude. yeah I'm sorry. we haven't but other there Do have any other... Thank you, Sam. i' Sorry to potentially debunk your mutant power, but I think it's for the best we tell the truth here.
Suggestions and Bonus Episode Ideas
00:07:29
Speaker
Michael, listener Michael, also wrote in saying, hey, Pat, tell Matt it's OK if you guys need to do a second take on the intro or rehearse it before you start recording. It's OK.
00:07:40
Speaker
I guess it's also OK if you keep not doing that. But, you know, whatever you do, you. i Very interesting. Thank you. Yeah. Michael also throws their hat in the ring here to be co-host on our bonus episode.
00:07:59
Speaker
Okay, well, you're, um, does that make Michael number two or number one on our? Matt, that makes Michael number one on our list.
00:08:10
Speaker
Okay. Well, if nobody else emails in, Michael, there's not even going to be a drawing. You're the guy. ah And if one person emails in, there's a 50% chance you'll be the guy. Yeah, we could keep I could keep doing the math like if two people write in 33% chance.
00:08:24
Speaker
thirty three percent chance What about three people, Matt? That's 4% chance. All right. Let's stop there and move on to our- 25% chance. What? I said four. I meant 25. Okay. Well, that's- is that that Is that the end of Pat's email corner?
00:08:39
Speaker
and No, Matt. Our emails are popping.
Marvel Comics Discussion
00:08:43
Speaker
Okay. Listener Jason- Ooh. Let us know that- Hey, Jason. He's going to write us an email asking why we'd skip the backup stories where Angel rocks a not-terrible costume at all.
00:08:55
Speaker
But- Then they discovered that we released the, why am I reading it? Like, um, like I have to recap it. Like it's a mutant menace episode. ah Meanwhile, as I just saw, you released a bonus episode covering the backup stories and the many issues you've reviewed. The purpose of this email has been totally undermined.
00:09:15
Speaker
That's all right though. Since a bonus episode is just extra sprinkles on top of a fantastic podcast. Oh, Jason. Thank you so much. um you Yeah. If Jason's referring to, yeah, the bonus episode that um went out after episode 11, between the episodes 11 and 12 that we did with Escape the Mojoverse.
00:09:36
Speaker
ah It's the origins of Beast and Angel. It's a lot of fun. Go check it out if you haven't. Yeah, please listen. It's a fun one. Jason also has some compliments for us. I'll let you use your imagination.
00:09:47
Speaker
And then also lets us know that Holy Hannah shows up in Stargate SG-1 few times. That's disappointing. Because you were planning on watching Stargate SG-1 over the weekend.
00:09:58
Speaker
ah More just that it's broken containment, Matt. It's a pandemic. And that... is this week's Pat's email corner. Well, thanks, Pat. That was a funny email corner. Do you want to start talking about some Marvel comics?
00:10:15
Speaker
I can't even say X-Men comics. Yeah. Let's get into it. All right. I'll do that. Do you want me to get into it? Well, okay. Let's set
Delving into the X-Men 'Dark Era'
00:10:23
Speaker
the scene here, Matt. It is early 1970. We have read our last issue of the X-Men.
00:10:29
Speaker
For all we know, they are not coming back except through... They're dead. Reprints of the old stories I've already read. Yeah, for all I know, they're dead. Yeah, they could be. They could just be. They could have just died. and um they There's some weird little pop-ups here and there.
00:10:46
Speaker
Between the 1970s and the first issue we're recapping, like Namor and Magneto show up in a Fantastic Four. Yeah, sure. Iceman appears in an ah in a Spider-Man issue.
00:11:00
Speaker
And we didn't read it?
00:11:04
Speaker
but where we are starting is ah with ah hulk number 150 in 1972 january 1972 could you believe it the x-men have been gone for two years just about yeah since january 1970 so two full years holy cow
00:11:27
Speaker
So this issue ah is edited by Stanley, written by Archie Goodwin. Archie Goodwin. New name the podcast. Artists Herb Trimpey and John Severin.
00:11:39
Speaker
Letterer Sam Rosen. Our bar boy Sam Rosen still kicking around. Glad he's still. He survived the purge. This issue starts as a Hulk-ass Hulk story.
00:11:52
Speaker
He's fighting army guys in a desert, ah fleeing and then fighting more army guys. But all the while, he's lamenting some lost green lady named Jarella. and don't know Hulk stuff.
00:12:04
Speaker
Do you know Jarella? I know Jarella by reputation, but... ah No, and I have not read a Jarella comic.
00:12:14
Speaker
I have I have read some older Hulk. I've read like Stan Lee era Hulk, but just issues here and there. And they're pretty good. This sorry, this issue is not. But please continue.
00:12:27
Speaker
I don't think this issue is that I think. OK, I think the Hulk stuff is pretty bad. i don't think the OK, we'll get to it. our Our X-Men story comes in when Lorna Dane drives by being chased by a gang of weird bikers who are obsessed with her green hair.
00:12:42
Speaker
Hulk confuses her for Jerella also because of the green hair and saves her from the bikers, but notices that a group he didn't touch are also unconscious and the green haired lady is gone with one last biker on her trail, which is fucking wild, Pat.
00:13:01
Speaker
These guys, okay, you have a gang of bikers. They're chasing this woman when the Hulk jumps in and destroys all of them. And then a bunch of them ah just like,
00:13:12
Speaker
We know Lorna Damon's powers. A wall of magnetic energy trashes another like five. And one guy's like, I'm going to keep going. I'm chasing. I'm not going to stop here.
00:13:26
Speaker
So wild. All right. With one last biker on her trail, Lorna makes her way to a little Adobe style house isolated in the middle of this desert. And the biker suddenly explodes. What did he fucking think?
00:13:41
Speaker
Looks like the Adobe belongs to Alex Summers. Lorna is there to convince Alex to come back to the X-Men. Alex is there on top of like a mesa looking like, ah what's the guy's name from ah gira the first Jurassic Park?
00:13:57
Speaker
T-Rex. Yeah, looking like a T-Rex. No, the man.
00:14:04
Speaker
Alan Grant. Yeah. He's got that adventurer look going on. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Lorna is there to convince Alex to come back to the X-Men. Alex is sick of his powers.
00:14:16
Speaker
Sick of the X-Men. Sick of superheroics. And he kicks her out. His yelling brings the Hulk who takes Lorna and runs off. So Havoc suits up and chases them. Yeah. We get the Havoc suit.
00:14:29
Speaker
h Because he can't contain his powers without them, even though he just did. Hulk has taken her up some kind of mesa, and when he realizes she's not Jor-Ella, he gets pissed.
00:14:40
Speaker
ah Hulk and Havoc tussle until Hulk rips off a big pillar of the mesa with Lorna on top. Havoc then needs to calm himself down and control his powers because just blasting Hulk will make him drop Lorna to her death.
00:14:52
Speaker
So he narrows his blast to a tiny beam and annoys the Hulk so much that he could convince him to gently lower the pillar. Like, I'll stop annoying you in your forehead if you lower it gently.
00:15:03
Speaker
And um then he uses his blasts to lower Lorna safely to the ground. Hmm. Hmm. This ordeal convinces him to go back to the X-Men with Lorna, so he says.
00:15:18
Speaker
The end.
00:15:21
Speaker
Here's the... You, here's the thing. You, here's the thing. i mean you i like the characterization of Lorna and Alex. Yes. I would say, and this is what he stopped short of saying earlier, this was a bad Hulk issue. This was a good X-Men issue. Yeah.
00:15:40
Speaker
yeah Yeah, I mean, maybe save for the part where Havok lowers Lauren to the ground with his blasts, which, you know... That's not how blasts work. Exactly.
00:15:51
Speaker
At one point in the future, he destroys a sun with them. know If we're on the subject of that's not how things work, that's also not how rocks work. You can't just lift a hill out of the ground and then carefully put it back. Yeah.
00:16:09
Speaker
right Well, I mean, unless, i if the mesa is one big, solid rock, you maybe could.
00:16:18
Speaker
It's, i I don't think, he's under it. He's under it, holding it out. I think he's structurally destroyed the bottom of this mesa. it may yeah Imagine, though, if the mesa was just made out of, like, granite or something.
00:16:32
Speaker
Like, it was actually just a big building that someone never finished. They were like, ah, fuck it, and then filled the building with cement and walked away. Okay, that's fair.
00:16:46
Speaker
um Pat, is this just all Hulk stories are? Like, are all Hulk stories just... Army's chasing the Hulk. Hulk fights them. Hulk runs away. Fights more army.
00:16:57
Speaker
He runs into maybe a super-powered thing, gets into a fight, runs away again. Like, is that all Hulk stories are? Because... In my imagination, that's what every Hulk story is.
00:17:08
Speaker
And now I have read one Hulk story, and that's what it was. So they make reference to Jerella, who is i Hulk's first love, I guess. And it turns out that they met inside an emerald dimension when he was sucked into some sort of gem.
00:17:28
Speaker
And that sounds like a Hulk story that I really want to read. Right. But instead... we're just watching him argue with the government and tear apart mountains which yeah is like the this is the filler content of ah hulk movie
00:17:46
Speaker
um jerella that the the story you're talking about was uh written by harlan ellison whoa yeah that's very cool so i think it's problematic for somebody to fall in love with the hulk
00:18:02
Speaker
The Hulk doesn't deserve love, you're saying?
Hulk's Intelligence and Love Interests
00:18:04
Speaker
No, I think the Hulk has like a three-year-old level intelligence. I don't think i don think it's appropriate to fall in love with the Hulk. There are some later Hulk stories, like some much more recent Hulk stories that I'm very familiar with where he falls in love, and it does feel very i appropriate.
00:18:27
Speaker
okay Like when he goes to these battle planets and war worlds and finds a warrior that appreciates his bravery and his i tenacity.
00:18:39
Speaker
I think that that's very important. They're finding the adult characteristics of the Hulk that they're, it's never a human. It's always a right another species that admires that sort of thing.
00:18:51
Speaker
But in this, in this era, Hulk is just like a big baby. Sweet. Yeah. He just runs around like a baby and says stuff like a baby says and does baby stuff.
00:19:04
Speaker
He has an adult's understanding of most things. He has a baby's grasp on language. ah You think that's true? Because he's always just like, oh mean man hurt hulk hulk run away right like that's not that doesn't appear to be an adult understanding of i i think that's just conflict that's his lack of ability to communicate it okay rather than his like i could explain to you that yeah a bad man hit the hulk and it made the hulk mad that's an adult sentence
00:19:40
Speaker
I don't know if that's true. I think it's more like, why did the Hulk, why did the man hit the Hulk? What could have, what, what solutions failed to cause the man to hit the Hulk? How could this communication gap have been bridged?
00:19:54
Speaker
Well, he's driven by rage. There's going to, that's what I'm saying. There's, it's a communication issue. Like a baby. Yeah. No, not like a baby. like ah Yeah, all babies are driven by rage. Like a talking dog.
00:20:05
Speaker
um So that's the that's that's that is the triumphant return of Havoc and Polaris. or Sorry, there's no Polaris. Who's Polaris? Why would I even say such a weird word? I mean, Lorna Dane. Lorna Dune.
00:20:19
Speaker
We do get a couple of interesting facts about Alex Summers. Number one, the concentric circles on his chest, he says he's using to gauge his energy output.
00:20:31
Speaker
So it's not channeling the energy. This is him observing like level one energy output, level two, level three, level four, as the circles go out from his chest.
00:20:44
Speaker
That's interesting, right? Sure. He's constantly absorbing energy, though. Yes, that's the other thing he says. i draw unlimited power from the cosmic rays around us, which we kind of already knew, but i here we are two years later. It's still cosmic rays that power him.
00:21:04
Speaker
Yeah. Well, it's nice to see Havok and Lorna again. That's what they've been doing. Havok's been out in a in a desert just hanging out himself hiding out feeling guilty so pat this feels fucking rudderless like like ending that at issue and moving on to the next does not feel like a normal episode it feels fucking so you feel ungrounded
00:21:36
Speaker
Yeah, there's a strange vibe here, thanks to the Dark Era, where we're just kind of reading some half-assed comics because they have X-Men content in them.
Ungrounded Feeling of the X-Men 'Dark Era'
00:21:48
Speaker
Right. Well, we need to know what happens the X-Men in the meantime. And some important stuff happens, like like what we're about to talk about. But it just feels like... I think this next one, the next few issues we're going to talk about are like a solid story.
00:22:05
Speaker
Yes. It's ah like the story of the beast. what What happened to the beast during the time the X-Men were gone? And I think that might feel a little better because we can be like, okay, what happened in the next issue? Not like, all right, let's see what other has an X-Man in it.
00:22:21
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Although I, I will say, yeah knowing that the X-Men does get uncanceled, this was really intriguing to say, like, wait, why all of a sudden after two years is Lorna Dane in the middle of the desert?
00:22:38
Speaker
Mm hmm. And then by the end of it, with Alex reflecting on his actions and being like, you know what? I think I could control my powers and be a superhero. After the the emotional writing and art of the Alex and Lorna side of that issue.
00:22:54
Speaker
Right. We excited to see what happens next with the X-Men. Right. It kind of feels like... It kind of feels good to know that people still care. Yeah. But...
00:23:05
Speaker
I do not going to follow back up on that in quite a while. ah In fact, I don't know if we follow back up on the Lorna and Havoc story. I don't think we're going to follow up on that in the whole dark era. I like, I think we we will vaguely understand what happened to them by the end, but I don't think this is going to follow up.
00:23:24
Speaker
Interesting. But anyway. All right. So
Introduction to Amazing Adventures #11
00:23:27
Speaker
what's the next, where, where do the X-Men pop up next? ah The next appearance of our X-Men here is Amazing Adventures number 11. And like you said, Matt, it is just The Beast, which is the title of this issue.
00:23:41
Speaker
yeah The Beast. Yeah, he just, they, he takes over Amazing Adventures for about seven issues. And and we're going to tell you about them. This is ah for you nerds out there, Amazing Adventures volume two, of course.
00:23:56
Speaker
Of course. Stan Lee, editor, presents a new era in graphic art history as created by Jerry Conway, scripter and Tom Sutton, artist Sid Shores, inker and Sam Rosen, letterer. Sam Rosen still just just everywhere, man.
00:24:13
Speaker
i And Jerry Conway is here. OK, he doesn't stick around. Spider-Man writer. but Yeah, yeah. We'll talk about Jerry Conway a lot more next episode, I believe. But what a guy.
00:24:25
Speaker
A Spider-Man writer, he also invented the Punisher. He is another just Marvel legend. And he opens this story in media res as a dramatic narrator recounts in second person the story of a big furry gray monster who's stalking some spy and breaking into a laboratory. media res, I believe you meant to say.
00:24:46
Speaker
I think it's in media res, Matt. think it's in medius res. I'm going to stand by it. I'm not going to let you disrupt. might recap by correcting me. The monster beats the hell out of the man and gets shot a few times. The racket alerts some guards and a gunfight ensues as the monster flees and finds himself w racked with guilt over the man's death.
00:25:09
Speaker
Who's this monster? Full of emotion, the monster locks himself in what he describes as his laboratory and we find out that this beast is Hank McCoy of the X-Men. No way!
00:25:21
Speaker
He returned to his lab just a bit too late to transform back He is now a big hairy beast forever. Whoa. This is the epilogue to this entire thing, Matt. This is i breathtaking.
00:25:35
Speaker
Flashback to Beast leaving the X-Men to take a new job at the Brand Corporation. He's choosing to put superheroing behind him and enter adulthood, which includes very suddenly dating some hot blonde babe named Linda Donaldson.
00:25:50
Speaker
From his new job. He also got himself a new rival, the angry scientist Carl Maddox. I bet that'll be his, like, foil for the rest of the series. Yeah, yeah, surely.
00:26:03
Speaker
ah Hank is working in the lab late one night when he discovers a chemical that can actually turn any human being into a mutant. And he gets so excited, he starts running in the halls, only to overhear Carl Maddox on the phone, planning some sort of midnight heist.
00:26:18
Speaker
oh He realizes he can't save the day as Hank or the Beast, so he decides his only option to disguise himself is to drink the chemical. this trans i well This transforms him into a big, hulking, gray, furry monster.
00:26:34
Speaker
Now we're caught up to the beginning. Apparently, the transformation affected his metabolic time sense. What? And that's why he was late. Anyway.
00:26:45
Speaker
and we just we just saw what
Secrets at Brand Corporation
00:26:47
Speaker
made him late. It wasn't his... It was that a bunch of stuff happened to him. Anyway, he rages and finds Maddox in the middle of his arrest and beats up the security guards to get at Carl and almost chokes him to death. At the last second, he changes his mind and runs away.
00:27:04
Speaker
But who's that in the shadows watching? It's Linda Donaldson. And if Maddox failed, she'll have to take matters into her own hands. And she shoots Carl Maddox dead. Oh.
00:27:17
Speaker
But not...
00:27:20
Speaker
But not like dead. but He's dead. Oh, fuck. Okay. Well, bye, Carl Maddox. we hardly Yeah, we won't. We'll never hear from this guy again.
00:27:33
Speaker
i wonder. Yeah. The last name sounds familiar. I wonder if we'll ever hear anything about Carl Maddox ever again in X-Men. The future of the X-Men ever. No, he's dead.
00:27:46
Speaker
Oh, okay. and You don't think he a family or anything?
00:27:52
Speaker
Well, why would that come up? It would be an insane coincidence if one of this guy's family members came up years later. that's ah Yeah, you're right. you're right that'd That'd be stupid. um So, okay.
00:28:08
Speaker
This is an interesting issue. First of all, it's written in the second person.
Unique Storytelling Techniques
00:28:12
Speaker
The whole issue like, you are a beast with anger pulsing through your veins.
00:28:19
Speaker
You look down the dark hallways and you see a figure moving about in the shadows. It's like, interesting. Yeah, they're definitely ah taking a chance by doing this. I think it does harken back a little bit to like the old strange tales and amazing adventures of like the forty s and fifty s where they're trying to they're trying to write a horror comic here for the first, uh, for the epilogue bit.
00:28:47
Speaker
And they are yeah using just some of those old sort of still experimental techniques. I think writing in the second person is such a cool way to, uh, just add a little chill to this creepy tale.
00:29:02
Speaker
And I think you're right. I think this is meant to feel a lot like a horror comic. The, the figures are all kind of ugly and they kind of move in these like inhuman ways.
00:29:14
Speaker
And there's a lot, you know, it's, it's very dark and shadowy and dramatic. um Yeah. It, it, it, it definitely feels not like a superhero tale feels like a horror tale.
00:29:25
Speaker
And it's, and this idea is scary because like the beast was the kind of, was like a happy go lucky weirdo. And now all of a sudden he's this angry murderous monster.
00:29:38
Speaker
Yeah. And you also for the first half of the issue or so, you don't know that this is Hank McCoy either. You're just watching a tale about a beast. Like if you picked this up off of shelves, you just assume this is some new character for this specific issue for the the amazing adventures relaunch.
00:29:57
Speaker
Right, right. What did how did you feel about it as an issue? I thought it was neat. There's some stuff that they don't fully explain. ah Beast being able to get shot and just kind of... Yeah, he takes a lot of bullets.
00:30:13
Speaker
yeah They still don't explain why Angel is wearing that damn costume that Magneto gave him in the brief time we see the X-Men in this comic. Right. There's some things that I don't understand, like Linda, who has formed a tight relationship with Hank, actually very quickly, very quickly.
00:30:32
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. They fall in love very quickly. And then it turns out she's got some nefarious plan. Like some of this gets explained in further issues as we go on. Some of them absolutely doesn't.
00:30:47
Speaker
Now, are we supposed to believe that this took place over a couple weeks or months? Because the way the issue is structured, it feels like it was two days, right? Yeah, that is the other consistent theme through these Amazing Adventures issues.
00:31:01
Speaker
The timescale here... doesn't make any it's like watching a sitcom where like you know somebody has a date that night that you're looking forward to but also another character goes through three days of plot ah before we get to character estate yeah yeah well look our metabolic time sense has been thrown off pat we can't yeah they explain it in issue one you really fault them here um but should i move on to amazing adventures 12 yeah let's keep moving we have a lot to cover and this one is crazy iron man d-o-a written by steve englehart so jerry conway passes the torch um immediately i hate this guy such jerry conway you take him uh artist tom sutton inker mike ploog
00:31:57
Speaker
oop It's like no disrespect to Mike Plougue, but that's an unfortunate name. ah Inked by... Oh, yeah. ink inquiry Sorry.
00:32:10
Speaker
Lettered by Artie Symec. ah This was released in February of 1972.
00:32:17
Speaker
Hank McCoy, now a fully hairy, hunched, beclawed and animalistic beast, is very upset about his new body. When the X-Men call him using telepathy, Beast tells them to leave him alone and hangs up on them with his brain.
00:32:31
Speaker
He then breaks into a library and a costume shop and steals a bunch of stuff so he can go through a Mrs. Doubtfire montage, transforming himself back into human using makeup and latex and a wig and some contraption that straightens his spine.
00:32:46
Speaker
You're right, Matt. This is almost shot for shot. The Mrs. Doubtfire costume scene. Yeah, exactly. We're just missing Harvey Firestein.
00:32:58
Speaker
Right. instead of Instead of him putting on like the boob contraption, he's putting on a spine contraption. Harvey Firestein should be a regular character in the X-Men. Like he just shows up and gives them advice on how to, what their new costume should be.
00:33:15
Speaker
He's friends with Hank. I think that would be, it would make perfect sense. You, if, if we did a movie of this early era, actually I would cast Harvey Fierstein as Bernard, the poet.
00:33:29
Speaker
Ooh, yes. Oh, Pat. um We're never going to see Bernard, the poet again. Maybe he'll be in a movie.
00:33:40
Speaker
Yeah, maybe. all right All right. Let's squeeze back to it. Iron Man DOA. So the next day or whatever, he goes into work to try and find a cure when Tony Stark shows up curious about buying the brand corporation or something.
00:33:56
Speaker
Hank's new girlfriend, who is also a spy, Linda Donaldson, thinks about switching targets to Stark, but ends up going out with Hank again, who can't kiss her because of his weird disguise.
00:34:06
Speaker
That night, as the Beast, he sneaks back into the lab to work only to find that Iron Man has also broken in. Tony Stark's personal bodyguard, Iron Man?
00:34:18
Speaker
Yeah. Why is he there? The two fight, and Beast has Iron Man on the ground, where, despite Iron Man's pleas for mercy, Beast strangles him to death, and he's dead.
00:34:29
Speaker
And ah we get a funeral for Tony Stark, and it's... No, no. But Beast does strangle him to death, overcome with regret. He leaps out the window and off into the night. Moments later, it's revealed that the last few minutes of the fight and the murder were the illusions of Mastermind.
00:34:45
Speaker
oh no. I guess he's Tony Stark's not dead. ah Mastermind's you reunited with Blob and Eunice into a new brotherhood of evil mutants to be continued.
00:34:56
Speaker
What's going on, Pat? Oh, that absolute prick. Such an asshole. You know, Tom Sutton's doing some work here as an artist. This is also a horrifying, like, it's starting to get a little less horror-y, but it's still really disturbing looking.
00:35:17
Speaker
A lot of these pictures of like panels with the Beast in them. And when he's wearing the Hank McCoy mask, it looks like the Beast wearing a Hank McCoy mask. Yes, it is not consistently like that through the at some point they give up and just start drawing Hank, but all through this issue, like it looks like a man wearing a strange costume looks like an homage to the invisible man almost.
00:35:46
Speaker
Right, right. Even like there's this scene where he pulls the straps to make himself stand up straight like a human on his little contraption. And it's fucked up. Like it feels like you look at it. It looks painful.
00:36:00
Speaker
It looks me realistic. Yeah. Yeah. No, it's also his eye his take on Iron Man is pretty cool. It's just like we're in an era where everybody that draws Iron Man has sort of a different take on what his costume looks like. And eventually that gets canonized by just saying like, oh, yeah, he just has a thousand costumes. But this take on him is really like it's classic design, but I think more dynamic than we're used to seeing him because he's often drawn by just like
00:36:33
Speaker
the old standard comic guys, the Don Hex of the world. Right, right. This is something I left out of the recap, but maybe interesting to point out. I don't, maybe it's not. Maybe that's why I left it out.
00:36:46
Speaker
Tony Stark's girlfriend has Esper powers. You is okay. Is it Esper or is it ESP or like, Oh, you're psychic. You're an ESP or,
00:36:58
Speaker
i think I think it is technically the second, but you pronounce it Esper. Like it is, it means... Because you don't want to call them peer.
00:37:10
Speaker
You don't want to say... Otherwise it sounds like you're saying he is peer. she I mean, because all we all of that does for us is teach us that Linda Donaldson is evil, but we already knew that. We watched her kill Carl Maddox.
00:37:26
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. It is very rude of her to tell Hank that she's evil. be like she doesn't She doesn't. She waits till Hank walks away. I know. i think you're thinking later on, Hank refers, I think, in one of the later issues that we cover, she doesn't tank Hank will refer to the fact that she said he was evil, right?
00:37:50
Speaker
Maybe she espered it to him.
00:37:55
Speaker
Yeah, off panel. A moment for Steve Englehart here, who, in my opinion, isn't like a super notable writer. He's a dependable, consistent writer through the 70s and 80s. He's done some fun stuff, but he is one of the young guys at Marvel at this point.
00:38:15
Speaker
He and Jerry Conway actually are like... Jerry Conway was 19 or 20 at this time. Englehart still pretty young and very new in comics. Like this is them saying, hey you want something strange to do? Take our amazing adventures reboot and make the X-Men useful again.
00:38:36
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's interesting. I mean, i don't know that the dialogue here and like the captions and stuff are great, but there's something really cool going on. And I think we'll talk about it when we wrap it up.
00:38:50
Speaker
Like when we're done this whole arc, but I think something really interesting is happening here. Like thematically and ah poet like um almost poetically, right? Yeah, yeah.
00:39:01
Speaker
So speaking of wrapping this up, do you want to move on to the, I mean, in a long, that, what a weird transition, man. ah Do you want to tell us about anything? No, go with it.
00:39:14
Speaker
Speaking of wrapping wrapping it up, do you want to step one step closer to that? In fact, it's even one step closer to death if we're thinking of the great scale of time. If you, I guess if you consider your life a series of tasks and not on a timeline, then yes.
00:39:33
Speaker
Amazing Adventures, so buckle up. Amazing Adventures number 13, Evil is All in Your Mind, release date April 18th, 1972, cover date July 1972. Smiling Stan Lee, editor, stainless Steve Englehart, writer, Titanic Tom Sutton, artist, friendly Frank Giacoya, anchor, and John, John Costa Costanza, letterer.
00:39:57
Speaker
So long, Artie Cymek. Having fallen for Mastermind's ploy, the beast is running around in a frenzy where the new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants find him and attempt to convince him to join their team.
00:40:08
Speaker
To do so, they take him to a circus. hi Hank, meanwhile, has lost his memories and so doesn't recognize any of these dudes. And because of his bestial form, they don't recognize him.
00:40:21
Speaker
Yeah. Back at the Brand Corporation, ambiguous military guy Buzz Baxter and his wife Pat arrive to investigate the recent spate of beast attacks at the labs.
00:40:33
Speaker
Buzz Baxter and Pat, Matt. Yeah, it turns out that's ah that's you and but and Buzz Baxter. No, it turns out that's Patsy Walker. Hellcat.
00:40:45
Speaker
And her high school boyfriend, Buzz Baxter. Do want some background on them? Yeah, please. So they both first appeared in Miss America magazine number two in 1944.
00:40:57
Speaker
um This was during the Millie the Model and Patsy Walker era of Marvel comics. was like all romance comics and stuff and some Westerns. um So when it was brought into the Marvel universe...
00:41:13
Speaker
It turned out like like they they they explained it away. It's like the original Patsy Walker was an in fiction comic book written by her mother, Dorothy. Like in the Marvel Universe, Dorothy wrote a comic book about her daughter called Patsy Walker.
00:41:29
Speaker
But her first actual appearance was in Millie the Model 103 in 1961 Patsy. and nineteen sixty one as patsy um you know, the daughter of the person who wrote blah, bla blah, blah.
00:41:39
Speaker
So both are going to eventually become superheroes. Patsy Walker becomes Hellcat. Buzz Baxter becomes Mad Dog. And we're not going to talk about them probably much ever again.
00:41:54
Speaker
Because they have almost nothing to do with the X-Men. I think. And have pretty short-lived careers, honestly. Yeah, I think there's a Hellcat crossover in, like, the AVX, the Avengers and X-Men era.
00:42:07
Speaker
But yeah yeah we're really not going to see these people ever again. So, like, this is our one this is our last chance to spend some time with Patsy Walker and Buzz Baxter in this arc. Yeah.
00:42:18
Speaker
Fascinating stuff. And in here, they are just civilians. Neither of them have become heroes yet. They just needed an Air Force captain and an empathetic woman. They discover that Hank McCoy is missing, which sends his girlfriend slash spy Linda Donaldson into a panic.
00:42:36
Speaker
At that same time, Mr. Grant, the company's owner, is worried that there may be espionage happening in his lab. So the Baxter's head to Hank's apartment to investigate. Buzz wants to break in, which we are reminded will cause him to discover the Mrs. Doubtfire disguise kit.
00:42:51
Speaker
But thankfully, Pat stops him. As they leave, a shadowy brown haired lady in glasses watches and worries about what this means for her life. Who did you think this was at first?
00:43:02
Speaker
Did you have any theories? I kind of guessed it right away. Yeah, exactly. actually It looks just like the person. Okay. Anyway. Meanwhile, the Brotherhood and the Beast are gearing up to steal the world's largest diamond from some mansion so Mastermind can sell it over and over to jewelers using his illusion powers to consistently steal it back.
00:43:23
Speaker
This is a bad plan. Okay. Yeah. Describe. Tell me how. Okay, so the plan is to show them the world's largest gem.
00:43:34
Speaker
Hand them the real gem, yeah. Hand them the real gem so they can check it for authenticity. Number one, you're dealing with criminals and you're trusting them not to use this as their opportunity to steal the gem, right?
00:43:46
Speaker
Right. But then, after they check it for authenticity, they say, okay, here's your money, please give me the gem. You give them an illusory gem. They take it home and...
00:43:59
Speaker
presumably when they're out of range of power discover that they've been had or uh maybe when the all illusion wears off well that yeah that he shows uh it shows a panel of them putting it in their safe because that's what mastermind assumes they'll all do with it is go home put it in their safe and not look at it for a long time right it depends on them not noticing also Not talking to any other shady characters in this jewel criminal underworld that claim they have the same diamond.
00:44:31
Speaker
Not looking. ah they They have the gem. They inspect it. They hand it back to Mastermind.
00:44:40
Speaker
Mastermind then holds on to it for a minute while they go get the money and they bring it back. And they're not going to inspect it again. This is Mastermind. Right. You're going to take one look at this fucking creep and go, let hold on.
00:44:55
Speaker
Let me inspect this diamond again. du But let's let's presume that he gets away with all of that. how long does he like How many times does he think he can do this before he ruins his reputation as a seller in the diamond underworld?
00:45:12
Speaker
ah did he None of them are going to come back after him. It's a small underworld, Matt.
00:45:19
Speaker
Yeah, it's just them and um that adam Adam Sandler. depression Right. Unis and Blob, who are also here, use their own powers of force field and fat to slam into the beast on either side, causing him to slip up into the air and I quote, like soap through a fist...
00:45:46
Speaker
Then swing on a flagpole and leap 50 feet into the air. He breaks in, steals the diamond. this Well, I'm just going to say this makes perfect sense, Pat, because if you and your friend charge at full speed into a third friend, both hitting evenly on either side, that friend ellie floppp that fred will fly up into the air.
00:46:14
Speaker
Like soap through a fist, Matt.
00:46:19
Speaker
So stupid. Like the grains of sand through the hourglass. These are the soaps of our lives. ah He breaks in, steals the diamond, and then suddenly has a change of heart.
00:46:31
Speaker
So, of course, the Brotherhood attacks him, which causes him to regain his memory, and he beats the hell out of them, calls the police, and leaves. I'll say... The Brotherhood attacking him is like turnabout is fair play, right? Like they're like, hey, you don't want to join the Brotherhood anymore. We're going to beat you up.
00:46:48
Speaker
The X-Men did that to everybody. Yeah, yeah. That's sort of a cruel twist of fate. That's a yeah is there. I think they're aware of the irony there. I also blob innocent. He's yeah, blob innocent.
00:47:02
Speaker
And then to cap it off, ah Mastermind apparently is driven catatonically insane simply because he lost. That's literally what the comic says. Beast leaves him mumbling to himself in a park.
00:47:18
Speaker
He's like, the the the combination of losing the fight and losing the diamond has driven Mastermind insane. And he's just like, yeah, he's just laying down drooling and mumbling to himself like psycho pirate at the end of ah Crisis on Infinite Earths. I think it's what they're trying to imply here is that he is stuck in his own illusions and it's sort of like...
00:47:42
Speaker
cyclical The more he believes in him, the more he kind of creates and intensifies his illusions. And that has just left him. OK, but that's not what they say. Yeah, well, they they simplify it. They got to they got to fit it in a few panels, you know?
00:47:59
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. They don't have a whole podcast to explain it. That's right. You know, they say. In this, there's a line of dialogue in this comic. It's always darkest before the dawn.
00:48:13
Speaker
Hmm. Which is the name of the epic collection that this is in. And so that wouldn't be weird all by itself. Right. Yeah. Like, Oh, they grabbed a good obscure quote.
00:48:26
Speaker
They picked a single obscure quote, a single line of dialogue that fit thematically with, you know, Oh, the X-Men's brightest era comes right after. It's a great grab.
00:48:41
Speaker
But what we'll we'll talk about it in the next episode. That's not the only time this phrase comes up who in this dark era. And it's that to me, that's really fucking weird.
00:48:55
Speaker
Like, why is everybody saying it all the time? Like, why is it popping up all the time? Never did before, and now it is. Calm down. i It seems to me like they know that they are bringing the X-Men back at some point, that this is like sort of a long term plan.
00:49:11
Speaker
i imagine financially they had to release it and they're trying to seed something because like, I don't know. I don't know if I believe that. Yeah, maybe not.
00:49:23
Speaker
they
00:49:26
Speaker
It's a good theory. it's breath i am hoping, I'm being optimistic and saying like, hey, they're doing this all with giant size X-Men number one in mind. Yeah. ah All right. what is yeah What else did you think about this issue?
00:49:42
Speaker
Unison blob. Besides the weird belly bounce. I love them. It's like two bros bro and out. Yeah. Peas in a pod. Absolutely. They're both just kind of like scumbaggy dudes.
00:49:56
Speaker
One i very fit. The other not very fit, but both extremely powerful. Not really smart enough to pull anything off on their own. Right. Right. I gotta say yeah every time I see Unis, I feel betrayed.
00:50:15
Speaker
You promised, dude. What was that? X-Men number four? Yeah. To Hank. To Hank McCoy. Hank directly that you will never... This is the the very specific wording of it. You will never use your powers to join the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants again.
00:50:37
Speaker
And yeah, every time he shows up, it's not just that he broke his promise. It's that it invalidates that story. Like as unbelievable it was at the time of it. it So is X-Men number eight, um as unbelievable as it was at the time to be like, to for us to buy that line.
00:51:01
Speaker
Like, okay, they defeated him so bad. He's just never going to do it again. Every time he does it, it's like, we were right. You were not only was Eunice lying to us.
00:51:15
Speaker
Stan Lee was lying to us. Yeah. And he's essentially daring Hank to build that machine again that curses him to never be able to touch anything.
00:51:28
Speaker
And why doesn't he? Why do they never do it again? Because it's because it's existentially terrifying. Like that is you're doing him to a slow death if you do it. And I think this knows that he's like, you're not going to do that again.
00:51:41
Speaker
you know how crazy I went when that happened. You don't want to me like that. You think the X-Men have sat around and been like, hey, um we really got to talk about that thing we did to Eunice. Now you've got me saying it wrong.
00:51:54
Speaker
um You know that thing we did to Eunice. weep We can't do that again to anybody ever, right? And then Hank's like, yeah. yeah Sure.
00:52:07
Speaker
No more curses.
00:52:12
Speaker
uh also i here's what else i'm pissed about okay i just hate mastermind he is just ah weaselly little pervert he is he's the he is the worst i can't I can't think of another villain who is as, like, viscerally disgusting and not even on a, like, not on a physical level. Just, like, makes my skin crawl that he has the brain he has.
00:52:41
Speaker
Yeah. Little creep. Anyway, he's being weasely and creepy. All fucking issue.
00:52:49
Speaker
Yeah. um It's one of my favorite things in this issue is when Beast breaks into the mansion and he goes to steal the diamond.
00:53:00
Speaker
It's supposed to be like an aspect of his agility that it's like, oh there's a laser grid protecting it. Right, and yeah, yeah. And he's so agile, he can reach his hand in and not touch... No, it's this his giant fucking hand!
00:53:14
Speaker
the What are the two most important physical attributes about the beast that have stayed constant? Giant hands, giant feet. Yeah, so his massive fucking hands fit through the holes in this laser grid!
00:53:30
Speaker
Why even have a laser grid? Me and you could be like... We could be hopped up on caffeine and and cocaine, right? And have our hands just like jerking wildly and still reach in and grab that diamond.
00:53:43
Speaker
It seems, I mean, ah it is the world's biggest diamond, Matt. You got to make the laser grid big enough that you can pull it out. No, that's the opposite of what you have to do.
00:53:56
Speaker
How are they going to get it out of there when they need it? You're right. You're right. Well, if that's the case, if they just like need that diamond a lot, like it's the key to their bathroom or something.
00:54:07
Speaker
yeah Yes. like Like when you're in an escape room and it's like and it's like, oh, you're in Sherlock Holmes' parlor. And it's like, you have to you have to turn the candle three quarters of the way around in order to, and like, this whole series of things to open the door. it's like Yeah, yeah.
00:54:28
Speaker
He has to do this every day. He has to do this every time. So if it's like that with the gem... You're telling me Sherlock Holmes has to do all this every time he uses the bathroom? yeah Every time he's walking from his bedroom into the bathroom and he has to pass him to study and he's gotta like figure out which colors are flashing but on the ah on but like the the light array on top of his ceiling so that he can input those colors in the right sequence on his piano.
00:55:04
Speaker
And he designed this himself? Or someone's breaking into his apartment? like this is this is how I imagine you arguing with the manager of the escape route.
00:55:17
Speaker
We do. So Hank loses his memories and we sort of watch him slowly recover them throughout the issue. And I think there's some really fun things they do to illustrate it. Number one, he grabs the gem and then he's like, is this the right thing to do? I can't really remember who I am, but I don't remember stealing gems being the rightest thing to i But, and here's what he says, there's no time for thinking now, which is just a great sign that Hank is still in there.
00:55:47
Speaker
After that, it's sort of a series of references he starts making. First of all, he calls mastermind Boris Badanov. You know who Boris Badanov is? Matt ah from Rocky and Bullwinkle from Rocky and Bullwinkle. That's right. So his cultural references are returning to him.
00:56:05
Speaker
Also sick burn on mastermind because they're both little creepy pervert looking dudes.
00:56:13
Speaker
He starts inserting themes from the Jungle Book just about his animalistic nature. And then finally, he makes a lot of very obvious references to Alice in Wonderland. Yeah. Which is an extremely comic book understanding of a smart person.
00:56:27
Speaker
Well, what they say when you're um when you lose your memory. the first thing to come back is your literary references. And right then, then you remember that stealing diamonds is wrong. And then you remember who your enemies are.
00:56:44
Speaker
Then finally, or you remember your name.
00:56:48
Speaker
Remember that episode of Full House where Michelle fell off the horse and had to go through all those stages? Right. She had to re-identify her enemies.
00:57:01
Speaker
okay so uh the next issue is amazing adventures number 14 the vampire machine ah
00:57:13
Speaker
great release date june uh 1972 written by steve engelhart artist tom sutton embellished by jim mooney lettered by john costanza edited by roy thomas Hey, Roy.
00:57:28
Speaker
Moving off the world a bit. Nice to see you again, I guess. Well, as long as you're not writing the dialogue. the Issue opens with Beast interrupting a weapons test at Stark Industries to ask Iron Man why he's still alive.
00:57:45
Speaker
It's a rude thing to ask somebody. Especially when they're in the middle of something as important as getting misss missiles launched at their head. He figures out his murder of Iron Man was all an illusion and goes home just in time for Linda Donaldson to knock on the door.
00:57:59
Speaker
Quickly throwing on his disguise, he pretends to be sick and throws Linda out. As she leaves, the mysterious lady from last issue walks into the apartment and rings the doorbell, telling us her life depends on Hank.
00:58:12
Speaker
But he's busy jumping out the window. Another very strong Mrs. Doubtfire parallel here with him rushing, only being able to get half his costume on and trying to use whatever he can find in his kitchen to i make the rest of it work.
00:58:29
Speaker
Yeah, yeah it's only shy of slamming his face into a ah into a cream pie. Right. He once again goes back to Brand and once again gets shot at by their extremely vigilant and aggressive standing military force.
00:58:46
Speaker
He breaks into his lab, gets into his disguise, and walks out in the middle of the beast hunt to talk to Buzz and Patsy Baxter. Like, oh, hey, I'm fine.
00:58:57
Speaker
Stop looking for me. but Linda shows up wondering how Hank got back here so fast, and Buzz starts to get suspicious, telling his wife to shut up and asking where Hank has been. Buzz.
00:59:09
Speaker
Buzz. He lies, saying he was with Linda, assuming she'd back him up, but Linda says, no, you weren't. Such a good moment. That's embarrassing.
00:59:22
Speaker
Thankfully, Hank is saved from this interrogation by another beast appearance on the brand grounds. What? Unfazed by this, he heads back to the lab to find a cure for himself, but he catches sight of this other beast and strips off his disguise to chase it.
00:59:39
Speaker
Turns out, Pat, who's the worst person this could possibly be? This a of an X-Men villain. Who's the one you want to see the absolute least? I'm going to say Quasimodo.
00:59:51
Speaker
Yeah, it's Quasimodo, the living computer from issue of X-Men 48, where ah he pretends to be a different computer named Computo.
01:00:02
Speaker
Yeah.
01:00:07
Speaker
He and Hank fight, all the while arguing about the nature of humanity. Quasimodo wants to steal Hank's life force and become human.
01:00:18
Speaker
It's the vampire workaround. Yeah. yeah ah But Hank argues that humanity comes from emotion and not logic. The beast begins to lose the fight as he suddenly realizes his powers are fading away and gets shot in the arm with a rivet gun.
01:00:34
Speaker
but refuses to give up seeing that act of futile humanity. Quasimodo realizes he'll never be human like Hank and leaps to his death. Good fucking riddance.
01:00:46
Speaker
They really are just, wow. wrapping up these villains pretty cleanly
01:00:57
Speaker
mastermind insane iron man dead quasimodo dead carl maddox dead Don't worry. Quasimodo kills himself.
01:01:09
Speaker
but it's There is... Quasimotivational... What is it? Quasimotivational... Organ of destruction? Something like that. destroy Quasimotivational destructive organ.
01:01:26
Speaker
I don't... i believe. I don't want to look it up. Here's what I absolutely love... about the approach to this issue. This is, again, them trying to explore some like sort of pop science fiction topics, but not wanting to go deep enough to really make you think about it. So Quasimodo's approach is saying like, Hank, it's actually good to die. Like, think about it.
01:01:56
Speaker
I'm a living computer. And if I have your life force, I'll basically be human and be able to do everything Like, I'll be so powerful, dude. And you just need to die. Like, it's almost selfish of you not to die and give you my life force.
01:02:14
Speaker
And it almost works. Hank considers it. But... In the end, Quasimodo makes it clear that he was dedicated. He really did think this was the best solution because he says, oh, I see that your humanity and your reliance on emotion and not logic makes you continue fighting. I i understand now that that's what's beautiful about humanity.
01:02:41
Speaker
I could never do that. So it would be more noble for me to die. yeah he's he's taking his own medicine here he believes the the stuff he's preaching at least and that's why he jumps to his death and that's why he's your favorite supervillain yeah he redeems himself a little bit there beast is starting to look a little bit look more like the beast each issue too right like he he gets actually a little more blue yeah yeah his face gets a little more humanity every issue too Yeah, he starts looking as like terrifying and starts looking kind of like a cartoon, which is like what a he'll eventually look like forever.
01:03:17
Speaker
It's kind of like a cartoon. How does nobody put this fucking simple-ass mystery together? what Okay, so the day the Beast shows up, Hank McCoy goes missing.
01:03:29
Speaker
Then the day Hank McCoy reappears, the Beast shows back up.
01:03:37
Speaker
Hey, have you noticed Hank's face is a little off?
01:03:42
Speaker
And that he won't kiss his girlfriend anymore? every like and there's little blue tufts of hair sticking out of his eyes sometimes.
01:03:52
Speaker
That's right. What's he doing about his eyes, which are clearly like animalistic. He's got contacts. I'm sure. I guess. Maybe he's, he's wearing glasses all the time. Maybe he's just painting the eyeballs on the lenses of his glasses.
01:04:07
Speaker
Like he's trying to fall asleep in class. I guess they do You know, now that I think about it now, like I'm going back through the issue, I guess they do show his glasses being tinted. Right. They have like a green. Yeah. Yeah.
01:04:20
Speaker
yeah He borrowed that from his his old buddy Slim Summers. But his eyes do look human through the glasses, sort of. um All right. Are you justifying or are you not justifying it? don't know. I'm just trying to be honest. We be honest here on this show.
01:04:37
Speaker
ah he i think you are also right. This is where he stops. He starts to not look like a man in a costume anymore. He starts to just look like Hank McCoy. My last thought about this issue is Linda, Agent Nine, has a constant inner monologue when she's talking to everyone that is just like, little do you know, i'm a spy, you absolute moron.
01:05:04
Speaker
Every time she's talking to Hank and she's like, don't worry, we're going to figure this all out. We'll take care of it. But then the thought bubble right next to those words is, until I kill you, you clown.
01:05:16
Speaker
pat have you ever had a secret in your life? Yeah, absolutely. Have you ever had a secret one that now isn't a secret anymore that you can tell me right now? i yeah like when a friend was pregnant.
01:05:31
Speaker
Okay, so every time you had a conversation with somebody else, were you not thinking, yeah, ah ah Janet is pregnant, you fucking idiot. Okay, that's a good point.
01:05:45
Speaker
That does run through. Oh, you have no fucking clue, do you?
01:05:54
Speaker
Uh, yeah.
01:05:58
Speaker
Do you want to tell me about Amazing Adventures number 15? Yeah, let's move on. Amazing Adventures number 15, Murder in Release August 15th, 1972. Cover November 1972. Yep. Yep.
01:06:13
Speaker
yep It's another winner from the new kids at 575 Madison Avenue. You have read it. As Stan Lee presents Steve Englehart's scripter, Tom Sutton, Frank Giacoya, and John Tartag, I assume short for John Tartaglione, are our artists. Gene Izzo is our letterer, and Roy Thomas is once again our editor.
01:06:35
Speaker
Struggling with his rivet gun injury, the beast stumbles into the apartment of Patsy Walker, whose natural empathy drives her to treat his wound rather than immediately turn him over to the authorities. Delirious, Hank recaps his own transformation into this monster to himself in clear enough detail out loud for Patsy to overhear it. Do you think do you think we just see that part?
01:06:57
Speaker
And in ah in actuality, it was what Hank always does, where he's like, it started when I was born, and my I came out and my feet and hands were much larger than another baby's.
01:07:10
Speaker
Yes, absolutely. He told his full life story. And we just see the clips of that are convenient to bring us up to speed here. With this information, she's able to persuade him to not run away. And instead, do they have an off panel chat, Matt.
01:07:28
Speaker
There is going to be that off panel chat actually is going to have like... huge implications one implication later in the story and then another implication way down the line and i'm just going to say it here because again i don't think we're going to talk about her again beast eventually is in the avengers uh when hellcat joins and what he promises to her here is that in order to do what she does later in i think this issue or maybe next issue and he will help her be a superhero because she's always been obsessed with superheroes.
01:08:02
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. It's very don't see it. We don't see that in this comic. You don't find out until like, uh, the eighties, right? Yeah. Like five, 10 years later when she becomes Hellcat.
01:08:15
Speaker
Yeah. Very cool stuff. Maybe it's like 15 years later. Cut to Westchester, New York, where Scott has blonde hair and Warren is outraged by another headline of a beast attacking Hank's new workplace.
01:08:29
Speaker
ah Despite x Xavier's objection, Warren rushes out to find his friend Hank. Hank is traversing through the city after his chat with Patsy Walker when he's accosted by not just a Griffin, but the Griffin. Peter Griffin.
01:08:43
Speaker
A man with a lion's mane and paws and wings. i the two different guys The two of them battle in the sky just as Warren arrives. Having not seen Hank's new form yet, Warren decides to watch this fight for a few minutes and figure out who the good guy is.
01:08:58
Speaker
Warren!
01:09:01
Speaker
Hank has the upper hand, which prompts Warren to try and save the griffin. and The griffin turns around and just knocks him out of the sky. yeah Hank is somehow able to save him and the two have a actually genuinely sweet reunion.
01:09:15
Speaker
Just as they're leaving, a mysterious woman hops out of a cab and tries to catch them. Who could that be? What's this woman? Cut to Linda, a.k.a. Agent 9, making contact with her boss. It's number one of the secret empire. Whoa.
01:09:32
Speaker
They disagree on best practices. Griffin shows up to the meeting and reveals that he was once a regular dude, but now he's an unnatural creation of the secret empire and thinks it kind of sucks.
01:09:46
Speaker
Hank shows up at Baxter's office in his human suit in time for his questioning. Apparently less than a day has passed in all this and has a fake alibi that's backed up by both Warren and Patsy, a result of this off-panel bargain.
01:10:02
Speaker
Hank and Warren go on the hunt for the griffin, but he finds them first. Unfortunately for him, he's no match for two X-Men. but a I should say he can take Warren very easily, but he's no match for the beast and he is handily defeated.
01:10:15
Speaker
Hank heads home, shares a heartfelt goodbye with Warren when he's finally confronted by the mysterious woman that's following him. Who is she, you ask? Who is she? We'll find out next issue.
01:10:26
Speaker
ah yeah This is the first appearance of the griffin. Did you know that? I did not know that. He's an established character throughout the Marvel universe, right?
01:10:38
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, he's one of those, he's one of these era of villains where it's like the unicorn or something where it's like, he's kind of ridiculous and he shows up. Some people try to make him cooler.
01:10:49
Speaker
um Most of the times he shows up and it's like, the it's a little bit of a play on how silly he is, but he becomes like a real, he becomes like an Avengers villain and stuff. I really thought. Daredevil at some point.
01:11:02
Speaker
I thought Griffins would be a lot more common in literature when I was a kid. And I think the Griffin is part of the reason why. was like, oh yeah, he pops up in comic books.
01:11:16
Speaker
I didn't know. He pops Greek mythology. He must also pop up in i detective novels. Yeah, i I didn't know the Griffin in the comic books until much later.
01:11:28
Speaker
Yeah, why don't we see more Griffins? I mean, they're extinct now, I'm pretty sure. Oh, okay. So in this issue, Beast changes color, right? Yes. And he loses the power to take gunshot wounds. said be super it It seems later in in a Hulk issue that we're going to read that later this episode, it seems like they changed it because he was too Hulk-like.
01:11:53
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. He was a little too invulnerable. Like, he was... Yeah. Before he lost his powers, he was shaking off bullets, so... So they change they change him back to just, like, the beast.
01:12:05
Speaker
All the superpowers of the beast, but now he's furry and has claws. You could argue that the other reason they started removing these powers is because we're soon going to meet another mutant who can shake off bullets pretty easily and kind of makes that his thing.
01:12:27
Speaker
Who's that? ah We'll find out. But here's the thing. So Beast changes color. And this is freaking me out, man. Because this is the same about the X-Men's uniforms.
01:12:41
Speaker
Oh, yeah. They were intended to be black and gold. Black and yellow. Not blue and yellow.
01:12:49
Speaker
And the Beast is intended to be black. He says in this issue, Patsy Walker says, your fur, it's black. Yeah. Beast is black, not blue. What? Wild.
01:13:00
Speaker
Wild. You can see it, right? You can see that the Beast and I guess the old X-Men costumes, like what they're drawing is black with light shining on it to yeah with sort of a bluish sheen instead of a ah pure white reflection because of the black on it.
01:13:19
Speaker
But it's not a thing that many people can draw effectively enough to not just make it look like it's blue. And I... and Both the X-Men and Beast look better blue with the blue than the black.
01:13:33
Speaker
and It's true. Yeah, yeah. Like, if if Beast was on screen as black, like, with black fur, I don't think he would be as effective as blue.
01:13:45
Speaker
This is the dress all over again. i think I've already made that joke on this podcast.
01:13:52
Speaker
I... Hank and Warren meeting up is legitimately really sweet. There is yeah a panel of Hank, even in his like weird, slightly more human, but still fairly inhuman furry face.
01:14:06
Speaker
You can see the love in his eyes and he's, he's saying, hi buddy. <unk> Man. Yeah. It's, it's, it's really sweet.
01:14:16
Speaker
It's like, you're starting to get a sense of who Beast is going to become. Yeah, yeah.
01:14:28
Speaker
And it's a lot like the original Beast, like kind of bubbly, kind of jokey, kind of, you know, using big words and literary allusions and stuff. Yeah, and not afraid of his emotions.
01:14:39
Speaker
Not afraid of him. Yeah, I think... So the Secret Empire thing that's coming out is kind of interesting. This is... I mean, I might as well just reveal now. I don't think there's any danger of spoiling this stuff.
01:14:52
Speaker
This is this plot that's going to run throughout all of the X-Men's dark era. They are being pursued by and on the run from the Secret Empire for the entire next three years in other people's comics.
01:15:09
Speaker
Like in Captain America, in the Avengers and stuff. They are fighting basically a war with the Secret Empire. Which also becomes like a big arc in Captain America. Like I think it it was like his first really standout arc was Captain America versus the Secret Empire.
01:15:24
Speaker
And it ties into the X-Men. Yeah, it's a very cool and I think pretty bold idea. the it does unfortunately mean that if you're just reading Amazing Adventures, you do not get any conclusion to the Secret Empire saga part of it. Right, which we're about to kind of find out.
01:15:41
Speaker
um Yeah, yeah. if if you If you're ready to move on to Amazing Adventures 16... I want to talk about one more thing because it's extremely funny. There are two panels of Warren standing around and watching Griffin and Beast fight, followed by him trying to save the wrong man. Hank gets the upper hand. yeah Griffin is falling to the ground, unable to to fly to get himself out of it. So Warren rushes in to save him.
01:16:09
Speaker
Griffin turns around and says... Thanks for the help, you idiot. And then just punches him in the face hard enough to knock him out. i i don't know. we never, one ever reconciles with the fact that Angel is the world's worst superhero.
01:16:25
Speaker
He's terrible. his's Are we the first ones to ever notice this? Because nobody ever, ever talks about how Angel is horrible at this. His superpower is really his ability to survive that and get back up, which they all acknowledge.
01:16:41
Speaker
ah durability is his big thing. You think it's flying, but it's actually, he'll get back up. This is the first time he didn't rush in without thinking. This is the first time he pauses to think.
01:16:54
Speaker
yeah And he's like, comes to the absolutely wrong conclusion. And then gets wrecked for it. Yeah. Yeah. and Okay. Now we can move on to amazing adventures. Number 16. What do you got, Matt?
01:17:06
Speaker
And the juggernaut will get you. If you don't watch out. That's what it's called. I wasn't talking about you. Oh, thank you. Released on October of 1972. Written by Steve Englehart.
01:17:24
Speaker
Drawn by Bob Brown. Inked by Frank McLaughlin. These ah credits are a little weird. ah Lettered by Charlotte Jenner in cooperation with caricaturist Marie Severin.
01:17:40
Speaker
I don't know what that is supposed to be. Colorist Glyn Ween and editor Roy Thomas. This is the first colorist credit we've seen a comic that we read during this podcast, Matt.
01:17:53
Speaker
Is it? Isn't that interesting? That is interesting. That's wild. So it is Halloween night. The beast stalks through the night, startling an oddly specific group of nerds driving an oddly specific beat up old Mustang down a country road in Vermont.
01:18:11
Speaker
He's rushing to a secret rendezvous in the woods with the mysterious woman that's been chasing him. And after donning his human Hank McCoy mask, we find out that this woman is Vera. Vera. Date from his younger days.
01:18:24
Speaker
Oh, They hitch a ride with the same weird nerds and their same shitty Mustang who can take them as far as the Halloween parade in Rutland, Vermont. Who are these fucking nerds, Pat?
01:18:35
Speaker
Matt, the Halloween parade in Rutland, Vermont? Yeah. the fuck The fucking nerds are Marvel writers. For some reason, they wrote themselves and drew themselves into this comic. Yeah, it's like Len Wein, Glynnis Wein.
01:18:51
Speaker
It is blowing Jerry Conway. canonical mind. I do not understand. So what they're doing here is officially establishing that there is a Marvel comics within the Marvel universe.
01:19:08
Speaker
Yeah. And that the actual writers of Marvel characters work there. Oh, yes. Steve Englehart is one of these guys, too.
01:19:19
Speaker
Yeah. The writer of this very comic is writing his own name.
01:19:26
Speaker
Yeah. hey yeah Logically, you could work that out. I guess you could say like, yeah, of course, there's still a Marvel comics that exists. They just don't write about the X-Men or even i know there's some interpretations where like Marvel comics are still comics published within the Marvel universe, but they are ah about like so embellished versions about real superheroes. Yeah. So I guess that's what they're doing, but it's still it's kind of what I want to focus on here is the Rutland Halloween parade.
01:19:55
Speaker
Okay. relatively frequent location or event in Marvel comics in the seventies originally, ah showed up in Avengers 83 in 1970. Shit. Really? wow Rutland is a real life town that holds a real life, huge Halloween parade. They've done it since 1960.
01:20:15
Speaker
Tom Fagan, who was involved with the planning of the parade, was a huge comic bird, was a huge comic bird, ah a huge comic book nerd in Rutland.
01:20:27
Speaker
And after the first one said, this was great, but it would work even better with Batman. And so the second one had Batman in the parade. And it worked. People went nuts for it.
01:20:38
Speaker
Fagin likely played Batman himself, but this is unconfirmed because he refused to disclose his secret identity all the way to his death in 2008. This guy's a true fan.
01:20:50
Speaker
So this started a huge tradition of including superheroes in the parade. And that has continued ever since. ah Fagin wrote to Marvel Comics about it. He actually bought ads in DC Comics and a Batman comic about the parade.
01:21:05
Speaker
He invited Roy Thomas, who eventually came to the 1964 parade. Now, unofficially, it sounds like there was i lot of DC and Justice League characters in the parade at that time.
01:21:20
Speaker
And Roy Thomas seems to this is my interpretation. Roy Thomas seems to have taken it personally, which is why he was like, OK, we're including this Halloween parade in Marvel Comics to get more Marvel characters into this parade.
01:21:34
Speaker
They also made Tom Fagan a character in the Marvel
Rutland, Vermont Comic Connection
01:21:37
Speaker
Universe. He is even in this comic. In 1980, just a couple more facts. In 1980, the Watcher explained in the letters page of What If? number 22, the nexus near Rutland is an artificial aperture that fluctuates in size and accessibility.
01:21:53
Speaker
For reasons that I have not investigated, it has not been opened in recent years. ah This is obviously a what if comic, so you have to kind of ah use your best judgment.
01:22:04
Speaker
But I do think that this is a very fun way to to make sure that that it's an official part of the universe. It does have super fun between Marvel and DC in the 1970s. It has 14 appearances of either the parade, Tom Fagan or Rutland, Vermont, ah and 19 appearances total throughout history. The last one was in 1997.
01:22:26
Speaker
ninety ninety so so since so between 1970 the 1970s and 1997 only five appearances everybody got sick of it exactly yeah yeah that's that's interesting i didn't know any of that you want to go do they so they still have this halloween parade they do still have this halloween parade i would absolutely road trip are you kidding me and you yeah this year so hank and vera have arrived at the Halloween parade in Rutland, Vermont, with a bunch of fucking comic book writers. Vera is helping Hank flee to Canada, not only to escape his own persecution, but, as it turns out, to ask for help with a mutant genetics project.
01:23:07
Speaker
If they don't arrive in Canada, within the week, the whole world will die! My gosh. Somehow, I... don't know if I believe those stakes. They've never been true in any comic before. Anyway, naturally Hank insists they hang around Rutland for the Halloween festivities. He, well, he's smart, right? He knows that this isn't true. He knows that they're just On the same desolate road, Juggernaut falls from a pink hole in the sky, declaring that he has returned to Earth bent on revenge. But before he can take a single step, he's sucked back up into that hole and reminded that he's here for revenge. And at this time, should be directing his revenge at Hank McCoy, who happens to be in the same town.
01:23:50
Speaker
This causes a problem for Hank, as he is Hank McCoy.
01:23:55
Speaker
Juggernaut shows up again and wrecks a few Halloween parade floats before and being sucked back into the pink hole in the sky, again giving Hank a chance to sneak off and remove his human costume. Juggernaut falls back out of the pink hole in the sky right in front of him, and the two fight through the woods and end up crashing Tom Fagan's party.
01:24:13
Speaker
They love just pulling Juggernaut through this pink hole in the sky. It's all they do with Juggernaut. like I'm glad they eventually threw this away because all we ever see of Juggernaut is I fell out of ah the hole.
01:24:26
Speaker
Oh, man, I'm getting sucked back up in the hole. Every issue. his first ah His first appearance in this comic, he gets dumped out onto the road from the pink hole. He says, i have returned to Earth. It's time to wreak havoc. And then gets just immediately sucked back up into the pink hole in the sky.
01:24:43
Speaker
Later, he's bragging about destroying floats made of papier-mâché, which even notes that it's made they're made of papier-mâché. Yeah, I don't care that they're papier-mâché. I'm still going to smash them.
01:24:55
Speaker
I think it's sucked into the big hole again. Oh no, the big hole. It is a really cool fight sequence. they're They're fighting like across the landscape of a dam.
01:25:05
Speaker
ah There's just these big, brilliant landscapes. You see a lot of Hank acrobatics out of it. And there is just like, there's a menace to Juggernaut being able to just consistently charge forward.
01:25:18
Speaker
There's a moment where Hank swims across a lake. Or a reservoir, I think it might be. And because his fur is wet, it slows him down enough that Juggernaut can catch up with him.
01:25:32
Speaker
So the fight ends with Hank putting his human suit back on to blend in at the party. He tears his mask off once Juggernaut shows up fighting him in a full suit and furry face. Shocking and disgusting Juggernaut so much that Hank is able to remove his helmet.
Hank McCoy's Dual Appearance
01:25:48
Speaker
it's fuck And as we all know, Pat...
01:25:52
Speaker
Juggernaut's helmet is the true source of his powers. So now he's helpless. Right. It's all in his helmet. Yeah. So this is, you know, um Steve Englehart surely read that comic book right when...
01:26:08
Speaker
Roy Thomas or whoever wrote that, uh, all the powers in Juggernaut's helmet. So Hank pounces and literally beats the youth out of Juggernaut. It turns out his dimensional travel has aged him horribly, but his driving revenge has restored his youth.
01:26:23
Speaker
Now that he's defeated, he has aged into a helpless old man and is sucked back up into the pink sky. He says, now I must return to that dimension to quickly finish aging and die.
01:26:36
Speaker
You couldn't know, but I die anyway. Very passive aggressive. he's You know, you couldn't have known, but i I'm still going to die.
01:26:50
Speaker
I'm going to die. And it's not your fault. you it's not You didn't do this. You had no idea that you could have caused this. But yeah, I'll be I'll be dying now. I will definitely be dead.
01:27:00
Speaker
So you'll never see me again. You'll probably fine. This juggernaut. This is a juggernaut that ah is speaking like a supervillain again, which, you know, ah do not like.
01:27:12
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. He's not. He's like, oh, but you puny mortals will be crushed under my heel and I will take my revenge upon the world. That's not juggernaut.
01:27:24
Speaker
Yeah, to be fair, he's gone through a lot in ah those dimensions. Yeah, apparently he turned out old man. he turned into He's aged a lifetime. Yeah.
01:27:36
Speaker
I don't have that much... to i mean, besides the... Like, Vera's back and the Marvel writers, there's not, like, a lot super, super interesting about this issue. I legitimately... When we saw Hank dating Linda Robinson,
01:27:49
Speaker
i ah wrote down a note that I had to later delete that said, I guess Vera's out of the picture.
01:28:00
Speaker
Yeah, well, I mean, he moved to LA or no, he moved to San Francisco. Him and Bobby moved to San Francisco. Remember? Yeah. I remember that they had to do that.
01:28:13
Speaker
Are they,
01:28:16
Speaker
Still living there? No, they moved back to New York right away. But if you were dating somebody in the nineteen sixty s and they moved to San Francisco, you'd be like, oh, I guess it's... Right, yeah, yeah. It's not like you're keeping up a long distance texting relationship.
01:28:33
Speaker
yeah I gotta say, Beast mask off, human mask off, so it's just his furry face, but he's still in a full suit. Looks incredible.
01:28:43
Speaker
I wish... I know he doesn't want want to wear the braces that make him stand up straight so he can wear a full suit, but... Hank McCoy knows how to dress and now that with a big blue cat's head coming out of it is fucking cool.
01:28:58
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. It is incredible. I just think kicking ass in a full suit is extremely cool.
01:29:07
Speaker
How do we want to do these next two issues? Because the next one is like, is literally two pages long. Yeah, I think we can, we can just talk through it real quick. This Amazing Adventures number 17 is just the Beast origin story reprinted. Yeah.
01:29:21
Speaker
i Angleheart. And there's... And actually, Jim Starlin put together two bookend pages where Blue Furry Beast explains his... we explains, just sets the scene as here's why we're watching my origin story.
01:29:39
Speaker
And it basically explains, you know, this got canceled. So, you know, look for me other places. I'll, you know, I'll be around, just not here. Right.
01:29:51
Speaker
Jim Starlin. So... Yeah, well, that was so fucking hard for us to figure out. took a while. That took me and you like 10 minutes before we started this recording to figure out because he's credited in the issue as just Starling.
01:30:07
Speaker
And we were like, so, so you know, and it looks like Jim Starlin's art. So Pat said, oh yeah, Jim Starlin. That's awesome. And was like, yeah, yeah, wait. It's not Jim Starlin. It's Starling.
01:30:19
Speaker
And then we were like Googling Starling. were like, was there a Starling that drew for Marvel? um There wasn't. And no, it wasn't.
01:30:30
Speaker
It was Jim Starlin. they just They just wrote his name wrong. the i Would have made it so much easier to discover if they'd put his first name in there. But no, they just wrote Starling. yeah Yeah. The reliable folks on the Marvel fandom wiki have gotten to the bottom of this and determined that this was just a miscredited Jim Starlin. Jim Starlin, of course, being inventor of Thanos, among plenty of other things, but that is his probably biggest.
01:31:02
Speaker
mean Yeah, he did like the death of Captain Marvel and the Infinity Gauntlet. Those are like his huge, huge... Yeah, this beast is extremely cool. That's the only thing I took away from this because there's not much to talk about. But ah he's bulkier. He's got like that crazy wide body instead of like the more slim cat like one we've seen in the rest of the Amazing Adventures.
01:31:23
Speaker
um Yeah, it's a he's got this like cool kind of like I guess he had these but he's got cool pointy ears and that like weird widow's peak thing that he had. Yeah, yeah. um It's fleshed out. It's a really cool interpretation.
01:31:35
Speaker
He looks like he's getting there. He's getting closer, much closer to the beast we know and love. And he's definitely 100% blue here. There's no way somebody could tell me this is black. Yeah, it is. The black parts are shadows, not the actual color of this fur.
01:31:52
Speaker
I mean, even the text that says the bludgeoning beast at the top is in blue font. So yeah, it's so fuck off trying to tell me is furs black. And then this next one's a bit wild, Matt.
01:32:06
Speaker
I thought he was canceled. I thought in Amazing Adventures. There's no more Amazing Adventures. There are no beasts more Amazing Adventures with Beast, but there is. So the story's over and we just are left on a cliffhanger. Almost.
Mimic's Dangerous Power Absorption
01:32:20
Speaker
What? Well, Matt, in Hulk number 161, I hope you folks like Hulk comics because we are going to be reading a lot of them in the dark era.
01:32:32
Speaker
In Hulk number 161, Beyond the Border, Lurks Death, we actually get a conclusion to this story. No way! Release date November 28th, 1972. Cover date March 1973. Steve author. Sal Trapani, inker. Artie Simek, letterer. He is back.
01:32:51
Speaker
Yeah! G. Roussos, colorist. Roy Thomas, editor. Hereby tender their heartfelt congrats to happier than ever Herb Trimp for finally taking the plunge and getting married, the son of a gun.
01:33:03
Speaker
okay that's the Those are the full credits for this issue. The Hulk is up in Canada, beating up Mounties for seemingly no reason and running off into the woods. Meanwhile, Hank McCoy and Vera are driving north when the Canadian Border Patrol refuses to let them cross because of Hulk sightings.
01:33:22
Speaker
So Hank nerve pinches Vera, rips off his Hank McCoy mask, and as the beast goes rushing across the border with Vera slung over his shoulder. When she wakes up, she's fine with the whole nerve pinching thing and leads him to. Yeah, she even she even says she even says, like, I'm glad you did this. Yeah, I'm glad you did that.
01:33:42
Speaker
It was the right choice. i <unk> So she leads him to a cabin in the woods where Cal Rankin, the mimic, is living. No way! He's this piece of shit in his back. He and Vera have started dating again, and now they need Hank's help to stop the Mimic from not only stealing nearby superpowers, but sucking the energy from the bodies of it everyone nearby him.
01:34:07
Speaker
They worry that his range is increasing, and he could end up killing the entire world. Okay. Okay, why? Why are they worried about that? Because he
01:34:21
Speaker
unclear Yeah, i okay. It seems like they just came to this conclusion one day. They were like, you know what? This is probably what's going to happen. He's going to... This is going to end. It's going to do it within the week. I'll kill the whole world with these powers.
01:34:35
Speaker
Pat, no one when you were growing up was like... Oh, he keeps getting bigger. He keeps getting bigger. where He's going to smash through the ceiling. No. like when may when my When I was a little kid, my adult teeth came in. I wasn't like, oh, no, I'm going to eventually have a head made entirely of teeth.
01:34:53
Speaker
No. but That would be crazy. Yeah, but if I had your superpower, it would be great. Right. If you're shooting. Just fire them off in all directions.
01:35:04
Speaker
A head of teeth. this strange new power of mimics has started affecting the Hulk who is prowling the countryside, trying to find the source of this mysterious illness.
01:35:15
Speaker
As Hank and Vera are doing some kind of experiment on Cal, the Hulk literally falls through the ceiling. Hulk and Beast fight for a while until Mimic hops up and absorbs so much radiation from the Hulk that he just dies. Hulk leaves and Hank tells Vera some fake story we don't get to hear.
01:35:35
Speaker
The end. Wait, sorry. um Sorry, you said the end. Yes. This is... no No, no, no, no, no. You said the end. You didn't tell me about what happened with, like, ah you know, Linda Donaldson and the Secret Empire and Buzz and Patsy...
01:35:56
Speaker
Right. Well, they're back in the U.S. The X-Men have moved on to Canada. All right. Yeah. But, you know, we're following their story. So, like, this isn't the end. Well, this is the Hulk, Matt. You're thinking of the Amazing Adventures.
01:36:08
Speaker
And whenever that picks back up, I'm sure we'll get more about Linda Donaldson. All right. Yeah. I think they're going to do that in twenty in October of 2025 Adventures 18. It's real shame.
01:36:25
Speaker
it's a real shape Yeah, Cal Rankin's in a nice cabin. He is. Like a really nice fucking cabin. And fucking ah Hank McCoy, so used to his his rich buddy Warren Worthington, is like, ah, you're taking me to a Lincoln Log set?
01:36:41
Speaker
but Where's the ski lodge?
01:36:47
Speaker
There's no greenhouse nor sauna. It is interesting, Matt, you pointed out that the mimic because the X-Men are just running reprints at this point, the mimic issue is actually just been reprinted in X-Men, what they're calling X-Men number 77. Yeah. Which is probably why he's got a cameo here, right? This is just this is what's going on in the world of the X-Men as the general public knows it.
01:37:18
Speaker
that's That's what I would assume. because like let's Let's see if I can flip through my epic. Okay, so Mimic showed up in April. um That's X-Men 75, so he must show up again in 77 because they say it.
01:37:34
Speaker
They say it in this issue. It's a three-story arc, isn't it? and the mimic story oh no it might just be oh oh okay and then the super adaptoid story yeah the super adaptoid story is reprinted in 77 um that's august what a mess and this is what no november um
01:37:56
Speaker
pretty average hulk issue Same deal. There's clearly some story around this issue that seems very interesting, but this issue itself is, uh, once again, not a great Hulk story, pretty good X-Men story.
01:38:15
Speaker
Yeah, I'd say, I'd say so. Um,
01:38:20
Speaker
Yeah, there's some other Hulk stuff that we just didn't include because it's just, you know, it's Hulk being Hulk. It's so boring. the The best thing the Hulk does in this issue, the most exciting thing, is calling Beast Monkey consistently. It's so good.
01:38:34
Speaker
He calls him Monkey bunch of times. Stop Monkey. Because what would you call that thing? You look at him... Yeah, yeah. yeah
01:38:47
Speaker
And why did Vera start dating the Mimic again? I know. He's clearly... He was such a dick to her. So to his credit, he seems to have matured a good bit. He is thinking of others. He makes a noble sacrifice at the end here. It seems like maybe he went through some shit, learned a lesson or two, and has humbled himself.
01:39:10
Speaker
All right. All right. Fine. I would believe that Vera believes he's changed.
01:39:17
Speaker
It's funny to me. So they were so... Vera and Cal were so worried about this. Where, as we see... They didn't need Hank at all. This would have taken care of itself anyway. Yeah. it is It is the radiation stored inside of the Hulk that... Which he was already sapping.
01:39:38
Speaker
He was already sapping before anyone got there. Right. he was And that is ultimately what killed him. Once the Hulk was so close, he was like, oh, this is why I've been feeling like shit. I'm absorbing the Hulk's gamma radiation, which most humans shouldn't be around.
01:39:55
Speaker
Right. So, yeah, this would have just like whenever his power, assuming that he's right in this theory. then, yeah this would have taken care of itself as soon as he hit the Hulk or any other radiation-inspired superhero.
01:40:12
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. ah What a... yeah what a great What a great issue of comic books. Hey, Pat, you want to hear about one last great issue of comic books? Wait.
01:40:23
Speaker
ah do you have Do you have something else? Yeah, yeah. So there is... Hank has cold-as-hell line here when he... rips off his mask knocks vera unconscious and hops by the police he says if you've watched the late show enough you can supply my dialogue for me at this point it's just so like casually i don't give a shit about these mounties go ahead and yeah insert your own joke make it clever He loves beating up the
Authority and Dimension Swapping
01:40:53
Speaker
U.S. police and military and the Russian police and military.
01:40:57
Speaker
He is he is nothing but contempt beneath his contempt. Not even worth his time. Yeah. It's like i hey I'm not even going to punch these guys. All right. Well, one we got one more issue to go through here.
01:41:10
Speaker
It's going to set up a lot of the stuff we're going to be talking about next issue, I think. Yeah. Yeah. ah This is number this is ah from October of 1973.
01:41:21
Speaker
So like a year later. It's Hulk number 172. And canst thou slay yeah the juggernaut? Canst thou? ah I canst.
01:41:35
Speaker
ah Scripted by Tony Isabella. Drawn by Herb Trimpey. Inked by Jack Abel. con Congrats on your marriage. ah Lettered by Kupferberg, colored by R. our gold word robert goldberg Goldberg, edited and plotted by Roy Thomas and military advisor General Ross. Is that?
01:41:56
Speaker
ah You read it. Is that like a bit? Yeah, I don't think that's real. I think they're referring to General Thunderbolt Ross there. Well, yeah, that's what I assume, but maybe they had a general that gave them military advice and they named Thunderbolt Ross after. Okay, you tell me what part of this issue seems like it's realistic to what the military does.
01:42:17
Speaker
I'm going to skip over so much of this Hulk stuff, dude. i ah I already have in the notes for you. A Hulk has been captured by Colonel John D. Armbruster.
01:42:29
Speaker
the new commander of Hulkbuster Base One. A bunch of government stuff happens. Transporter array is involved. ah Hulk is transported out of this dimension, but somehow Juggernaut's transported to Earth.
01:42:42
Speaker
And then Hulk is transported... Right out? There's some sort of short in the transport array that brings Juggernaut back to Earth. And I think that yeah is by design.
01:42:55
Speaker
But then david they didn't anticipate it bringing Hulk back to Earth as well. Juggernaut and Hulk trade places. They wanted to get rid of Hulk. And then the Hulk... comes back.
01:43:06
Speaker
yeah They were trying to get rid of Hulk, but they were playing with technology they don't understand. They didn't expect Juggernaut to show up. No, and they didn't expect the Hulk to come back either. Okay.
01:43:18
Speaker
All right. It's just a yeah just some narrative conceit to get the Hulk and Juggernaut in the same place, even though Juggernaut is supposedly dead and old and in the Crimson Cosmos. Right. So Juggernaut explains that after being imprisoned in the Crimson Cosmos, he fought Doctor Strange, gained cosmic power, was banished to another dimension by eternity, aged supernaturally in this dimension, fought Beast, met the consciousness of the dimension, and worked out a deal to return to Earth.
01:43:43
Speaker
Unclear why he ended up in the cell with Hulk, but they work together to break free. Some Hulk stuff happens in which we see an arm extended out a window pointed at the Hulk bouncing by and hear the following exchange. Do you want to, Pat, do you want to be voice one or voice two? I'll take voice one.
01:43:59
Speaker
Look, it's the Hulk. Can that tormented monster be connected with our mission here, sir? i doubt it. After all, would our portable Cerebro have reacted to his presence here? Cerebro?
01:44:11
Speaker
Cerebro? Who are these people? Juggernaut and the Hulk fight. The Hulk wins by being the maddest, removes Juggernaut's helmet in the process, and then wanders off looking for some peace and quiet. Juggernaut gets up to finish the fight, but at that very moment, who should appear behind him?
01:44:25
Speaker
But Gene, Scott, and Xavier! They defeat him easily with blasts, both optic and mental, and reveal the reason they're here in the desert.
X-Men Recruitment and Beast's Development
01:44:35
Speaker
To recruit Havok and Lorna Dane to help them find the missing angel.
01:44:40
Speaker
What?
01:44:44
Speaker
We also to see Peter Corbeau in this issue, who will show up but a bit in the Claremont run. He's just like a scientist guy. I think after reading through this, Matt, you should be allowed to cuss in Hulk comics.
01:44:59
Speaker
Because there's so many angry, very adult men who are just like, you can kiss my army. Yes, it's exactly that. They're like, what in fisting heck?
01:45:16
Speaker
yeah Just say fuck. They're military men. Of course they're going to curse at each other. And the Hulk would be better if he jumped around going, Piss!
01:45:30
Speaker
Fuck off! As he smashes stuff. Or just like stomping through a town and every with every stomp. Bitch! Bitch! Bitch!
01:45:41
Speaker
i We once again get full confirmation here that apparently this is just most Hulk comics... It sounds like a lot of exciting things happen in between.
01:45:52
Speaker
I'm not sure that they actually appear in Hulk comics based on what we've read. Yeah, it's just people referring to cool stuff that happened yeah that the Hulk did. And then he just fights army guys and runs so away and fights more army guys. Like that's all he ever fucking to And then again, obviously, then runs into some other super powered thing and then fights them and runs off.
01:46:13
Speaker
Oh, God. so I hate I hate the Hulk. I hate it. I don't enjoy this. I don't hate the the Hulk will go through a lot. he is just in his era bad era right now his terrible twos that's right i uh yeah i mean peter david will eventually oh also we should say this is our first episode we've recorded since the death of peter david rest in peace oh yeah david was um one of my favorite um one of my favorite comic book writers one of my favorite like comic bookie comic book writers right uh and he wrote x factor for a really long time and it was just a fucking incredible series um
01:46:55
Speaker
So rest in peace, Peter David. But also, so Peter David writes a really long Hulk arc, like 200 issues or something wild. yeah like year It's like five years.
01:47:07
Speaker
yeah That I really want to read at some point. Twelve years. He wrote a 12 year. round of yes My goodness. I know we're getting old.
01:47:20
Speaker
Wait, how does that? i I don't know if there's a break in between, but I think it's 331 to 467. Oh my goodness.
01:47:32
Speaker
Wild. How do you feel, Matt? We read through all of the X-Men content we could from 1972. This is the majority of all of this.
01:47:44
Speaker
happens in 1972 yeah i mean there's another there's like a team up with spider-man that we'll get to next um episode that i think also happened in the middle here but yeah i i don't know i it feels weird i like the beast story a lot i fucking i yeah i don't know i i liked the characterization of havoc and lorna dane but i don't yeah if this is what they're doing Like, if what we see at basically, like, the end of this Hulk issue is what we are looking forward to for the next, you know, what is it? at at At this point, it's going to be three years? The next three years, but really the foreseeable future if you're an X-Men fan at the time.
01:48:26
Speaker
Right, you wouldn't know. You would you had we would have no idea. Even if somehow it leaked early, oh, they are going to bring back the X-Men. They're just working on it. You wouldn't know that what was coming was going to be one of the greatest runs in comic book history. Yeah, yeah.
01:48:40
Speaker
This is... Right, you would be... You would be reading these things and thinking, oh, it's just going to be like this. Yeah. What has become of my X-Men? Yeah. ah I mean, it seems like regardless of what the actual plan was, Beast was somebody that they really wanted to start centering some things around because they put... He joins the Avengers. He joins the Avengers. They put a lot of young talent on him.
01:49:05
Speaker
Yeah. they're really they They had hope for this amazing adventure series spinning off into something big. Now, when do, um so I think the champions form in 1975.
01:49:18
Speaker
But when do Angel and Iceman join the Defenders? It looks like it's not till 1983. So yeah, so yeah, even Angel and Iceman who, again, so like they try to do some independent stuff with Angel and Iceman later on in Marvel Comics.
01:49:32
Speaker
It's not yet. It's just Beast. Yeah, he's probably the solo cover that sold the most issues.
01:49:42
Speaker
i So, ah yeah, how about how are you? I do want to talk about that amazing adventure series, but just like overall, how do you feel? I think i'm I'm with you that, like, if I were an X-Men fan at the time, i would be i would be thrilled that Beast got his own miniseries. i would be thrilled that the X-Men pop up in these other comics that I happen to be reading. But I would be pretty sad that this is what's happening to the X-Men. Like, it's just they're a footnote in Marvel history now.
01:50:14
Speaker
The Beast's pocket itself, though, you really feel... the emotional stakes of everything he's going to. I think that i in a vacuum is just a really...
01:50:28
Speaker
good and engaging story. You really feel his shame, his rage, when he feels like his life is spinning out of control. Even the joy he feels from seeing friends, like just between the art and the way that it's written, it feels so emotionally impactful.
01:50:44
Speaker
Like you're there for the ride, which I was really, i was impressed with. I really enjoyed reading those amazing adventures issues. Well, what what I like about it is it's like,
01:50:57
Speaker
it's really documenting Beast's transformation, and it's like a it's like a death and rebirth sort of thing. So, like... Each issue seems to tackle a different theme, right? In 11, it is a man full of hubris that leads to him being, you know, devolved. It's turned into this monster, turned into this something less than human and leads to issue 12 where he just turned, he gives into despair, right?
01:51:26
Speaker
He's like, fuck this, fuck my life. I fucked up. I can't cure myself. And, what is this what it's going to lead to? I'm getting hunted by superheroes and he kills, well, thinks he kills Iron Man. So he's like devolved. He's like, fine, I'm just a monster.
01:51:42
Speaker
That's all I am. And then issue 13. Now he's lost. He thinks he's a monster. So like not having any grasp on who he is any longer, he's taken advantage of. This is his, um, rock bottom.
01:51:57
Speaker
This is his, yeah, this is his like Pinocchio being taken advantage of by, uh, Yeah, the the circus guy. Yeah, this is the this is the Pinocchio moment, or the Oliver and like the Fagin, the like the Gang of Thieves. Tom Fagin?
01:52:14
Speaker
Yeah, Tom Fagin. You know Tom Fagin from the book Oliver Twist? Yeah, Tom Fagin from the Marvel Comics and also Oliver Twist. Um, that, that's, that's what he's, he's going, like running into at that point. Like, oh, he's just, he's just lost and helpless and somebody takes advantage of him. But that leads to when, when he finally does something that he feels is evil, stealing a diamond from a rich person. i don't know if that's like the most evil thing you could do, but whatever.
01:52:44
Speaker
It snaps him back and he's like, wait, this isn't me. And he begins to regain his memory. He begins to regain his humanity. Then 14, 14, He starts to reconcile the fact that being a beast doesn't make him any less human.
01:52:58
Speaker
Right? Yeah, yeah. So in 14, yeah, like, he loses his powers and he starts to regain his humanity because, you know, again, he's he's arguing with Quasimodo about what makes a person human.
01:53:11
Speaker
And it's his own humanity that wins him the day. So now he realizes he is human and... It is in that he starts remarking offhand how many people have referred to him as human.
01:53:24
Speaker
And then in 15, so now he's he's pulled himself out of this despair of, oh, I'm just a beast and oh I'm just ah a monster. And he's found his morality again.
01:53:35
Speaker
But this is where he starts to learn he can trust humanity again. He can count on both friends. Like he runs into Angel, right? And he reveals himself to Angel and Angel's cool with it, right? And he collapses on Patsy Walker's couch and she helps him.
01:53:51
Speaker
And so he sees that friends and strangers will, even though they, they don't just see him as a beast, they see him as a human. And so this is also when he starts to get comfortable with his new powers and a parrot says he reverts to his old speech patterns, but I just, I don't think Engelhardt knows the big words that some of the other writers like Mike Friedrich and ah Roy Thomas and stuff knew.
01:54:16
Speaker
But then 16 is just a real superhero story, right? It's just him versus ah Juggernaut.
01:54:28
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. and just And he's just, it's just, now we see Beast, he's come out of the other side of this trial. And now he's just, he's just a superhero. He's a superhero called the Beast who's blue and furry.
01:54:43
Speaker
He's back to old Hank again. And I mean, also, like, he also sees, like, the ah the, what could have happened the other direction, had he gone the other direction. He sees what happened to Juggernaut, when Juggernaut's powers are fueled by hate and anger.
01:54:56
Speaker
That turns him an old man. Yeah.
01:55:00
Speaker
that's ah That's a bit on the nose, that metaphor. but
01:55:05
Speaker
And all all of it is a little bit, right? Like, i think I think all of this was very intentional. I have a feeling that Englehart sat down and was like, and first he, you know, like sat down and wrote these out as chapters. Yeah, yeah. As like what the Hank has to learn.
01:55:20
Speaker
um But I still think i think it's effective nonetheless. I think it's cool. Yeah, I agree with you there, Matt. This was a... i This run was a lot better than I expected it to be. I thought it would be a little yeah a little more tedious, a little hackier, but it really does have an artistic spin to it.
01:55:41
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. All right. Let's get out of the fucking dumps here, Pat, and talk... Do you have a Pat Steals and Deals for us? Matt, I absolutely have a Steals and Deals for us.
01:55:54
Speaker
Yes! Now there's actually... The only thing that can lift me out of the Dark Ages doldrums. Now there's actually no price listed here, so ah we're just going to assume that this is some sort of deal. It's certainly a steal.
01:56:08
Speaker
Home study course in comic books. Now you can study comic books seriously for high school credit or for academic challenge. New textbook, The Comic Book in America by Michael Uslan, Indiana University instructor.
01:56:21
Speaker
For details, write Dr. William Driscoll, Continuing Education, Owen Hall, Bloomington, Indiana, 47401.
01:56:29
Speaker
Okay. All right. Well, all right. Hold on. Yeah. Is this about how to write comic books, draw comic books? Is this about the mythology of comic? Is this like, is this a literature course? is it What is, yeah what? So ah you might recognize the name Michael Uslan for a few different things. Number one, he famously in the seventies created a college course shortly after this odd, which,
01:56:53
Speaker
for credit around comic books as an academic subject so it it deals with like yeah the mythology parallels it deals with the actual literature side of it he is just teaching like a general course on comic books and their literary value like as a part of media studies and I'm still not 100% I believe you went to college man I did not so you would know better than me i very Only very recently.
01:57:21
Speaker
I still don't understand what I was doing. He actually gained notoriety for this class by calling the local news and pretending to be ah like a citizen filing a complaint, just saying like, this is ridiculous that they're teaching a course on comic books. So the news picked it up.
01:57:38
Speaker
It went national. That's a smart dude. I like this guy. i he also wrote some comics. His credits include The Shadow when it was under DC. DC did a Beowulf adaptation in 1975, I think. And then he also had a couple of Batman comics to his credit.
01:57:55
Speaker
Because he worked with DC once they got into the movie business, he was low level producer on the Swamp Thing movie. From there... ah no! That movie is so... Have you seen that movie? ah Not since I was, like, a child.
01:58:13
Speaker
It is... is wild. It is I...
01:58:18
Speaker
i We'll talk about it sometime. That's fair because he makes a big leap. From there, he collaborates with producer Benjamin Melnicker to purchase the film rights to Batman.
01:58:29
Speaker
This is in 1979, and he has been credited as a producer but responsible for licensing the rights to every feature-length Batman project since 1979.
01:58:42
Speaker
While every Batman movie you can think of post the like Batman 66 romp that they made. Yeah, including so it wouldn't be Batman the animated series, right? That's not feature length. That's a series.
01:58:56
Speaker
But when they made a movie spinoff, the Mask of the Phantasm or there's a Harley Quinn one. he's credited on that all that the dc universe went through like an animated movie renaissance in the aughts and teens uh he is credited on every single one of those that batman appears in he is the batman guy to go through if you want to make a batman movie okay so you're stealing deal
01:59:31
Speaker
is I can take a course with this guy for high school credit. ah Yeah, at this point, it was for high school credit. Shortly after this, he actually introduced it for college credit.
01:59:42
Speaker
Also, I don't know how high schools worked back in the 70s, but you there weren't many opportunities for me to go outside of school and earn credit towards graduation.
01:59:53
Speaker
Fascinating stuff, though, right? This guy... yeah At this point is like in his early twenties, he's just a big comic book fan and takes out this ad that eventually leads to him because of his fanaticism to being responsible for every Batman movie we've had.
02:00:12
Speaker
What a steal. And a deal. I'm doing it. I'm doing it. You sold me on this one. Here go. Pat steals and deals, everybody. Thanks, Pat.
02:00:23
Speaker
Listen,
02:00:27
Speaker
Thank you for listening. Thank you for being here. Thank you for listening to the episode. Listen. ah Thank you for listening. so These are going to be weird ones. The next few will be weird like this one because it does really feel like we're groping around in the dark just like looking for X-Men. Looking for X-Men in the piles of refuse by our feet.
02:00:47
Speaker
Even grosser. ah and i But I appreciate you guys being here. I mean, this is an important part of Marvel history. like right This is where Beast turned into the Beast that we know. And this is... yeah i mean...
02:01:04
Speaker
It's weird. We had to pull back the curtain a little bit. We had to do some last minute changes and we probably will continue to through the dark era because this is confusing and we should all be a little scared.
02:01:17
Speaker
But, but it's not going to stop us from the credits that we go through every week. Big thank you to Krils Wilson for the opening theme. ah Big thanks to Julia Selle for who I saw ah yesterday, by the way.
02:01:31
Speaker
She's doing well. well ah If listeners are interested, she's doing, she's doing just fine. i But big thanks. Reach out to her, reach out to and say, Hey, thanks I'm glad to hear you're doing great. Please don't say thanks. No, say thanks. Yeah.
02:01:43
Speaker
You email us. If you have a message for Julia, please mutant menace at mutant menace pod at gmail.com. You can also follow us on Instagram at mutant menace pod.
02:01:56
Speaker
You can either write us hey, Pat, tell Matt, or hey, Pat, tell Julia. Yeah, yeah. And i was we'll get it to her. And I think there's nothing left to do, Matt, except for close the show out the way we close it out every week.
02:02:09
Speaker
ah Yeah, even though we're in the dark ages, we're just going to say use the exact same goodbye we've always used. Yeah, yeah. Listen to me, and this still stands. I can't fly if you hold my wings.
02:02:21
Speaker
and And listen up. Wonderful, Mr. Wizard, but science says you're wrong if you think soap is mightier than the fist.