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37 - Uncanny X-Men #161-166 - THE BROOD SAGA
2 Playsin 5 hours
It's an epic tale of tragedy and heroism. Of good and evil. Of monsters and heroes. Of mutants and bugs. And it all takes place within these 6 issues. It's THE BROOD SAGA. The X-Men are shuffled off to space to fight a menace that legitimately proves too much for them to handle. It's a wild, emotional ride and we just absolutely loved it.
Topics discussed:
Was Illyana in Limbo a filler issue? Woke King Wolverine. Moira MacTaggert has Pikachu tears. The Xavier Stare. Xavier’s ethical failings. Following a mental map to a special African cave to find Hitler’s secret gold! A familiar man. WE LOVE WOLVERINE! The scale of Berzerker Moods. Punching VCRs. Illyana doesn’t know Xavier is a telepath? EFL without consent! Carol kills everyone by accident. So many bad cliff hangers! PAUL SMITH!“I have to tap that White Hole”. Trying to justify Storm’s powers in space. The X-Men are set on genocide. Greaser Cyclops. Come into my mouth, I swear I have a plan! The Acanti Baby Plan. A DRAGON!?
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Transcript
Introduction and Catching Up
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.
00:00:35
Speaker
Hey, everybody, I'm Matt Allcamp. And I'm Pat Reber. And ah say it with us, Pete, as soon as I find the button. Welcome to Mutant Menace.
00:00:49
Speaker
I've got him down. I've got his pacing down. Pat, how are you doing? Matt, yeah I'm pretty good. It's been a little while. I know. Well, not for the listeners. For the listeners, everything's been as ass. But me and you haven't recorded one of these in at least two weeks.
00:01:09
Speaker
I know. We got to disclose that because otherwise he just seems stupid with the way you did that intro.
00:01:18
Speaker
All right. Jumping right into it, folks, it Saturday morning. We got get this thing
Casting Choices and Mutant Powers (Q&A)
00:01:26
Speaker
done. Let's get right into Pat's email corner because of the delay. We actually do have quite a few emails to read. I'm going to skim through a few. We're going to start, though, with the listener favorite, Email Michael.
00:01:39
Speaker
Email Michael. He says, hey, Pat, tell Matt that since it seems like so many others are suggesting casting choices for Wolverine and Nightcrawler, I might as well, too. I've never been clear on how old Wolverine is supposed to look, but I figure at least his early 30s. So the actor should probably be about that old so they can be in a few sequels. They also need a lot of experience in films and TV, as well as enough raw charisma and range to show all the various emotions required for that role.
00:02:04
Speaker
For those reasons, I suggest the 32-year-old Ariana Grande as the best possible choice to play Wolverine. ah Very good. ah For Nightcrawler, you need someone who can be comedic but also experienced in action films, so I suggest Liam Neeson, who's proven himself in both, though he might have trouble with the German accent.
00:02:24
Speaker
Liam Neeson has trouble with his own accent. This guy this guy tries accents constantly and never gets it right. I will say... yeah Ariana Grande. areriannna grande She's 32 now? More like Ariana Venti.
00:02:41
Speaker
She's... and she ah oh Oh, my God. Matt, that's brilliant. ah All right.
00:02:52
Speaker
My joke pales in comparison. As coffee gets older, it gets bigger. is my It's apparently the world that I've set up. Email Michael goes on. Pat also mentioned Rolly droids from Phantom Menace and wasn't sure what they were called. My best guess is that he meant droidekas or destroyer droids. It is destroyer droids. Yeah, yeah.
00:03:11
Speaker
He says, before you say you didn't click on the link, I know.
00:03:18
Speaker
Lastly, Pat brought up one to you. I actually clicked on the link this time. Do you have a virus now? Oh! All of sudden, a rolly droi rolls into my room.
00:03:32
Speaker
Caught you. Lastly. Pat brought up wanting a no prize for pointing out that Storm could use her powers in outer space. I would like to propose a possible explanation. Storm's powers have simply increased since the last time she was in space and have grown from can manipulate the weather in Earth's atmosphere to can do literally anything she wants at all with no limits.
00:03:55
Speaker
If you don't like that explanation and you shouldn't, then yes, Pat gets a no prize. Your call. Email Michael has gotten so good at this dry delivery of like, of like, like he's explaining something and then says the most. Yeah.
00:04:12
Speaker
He's burning us left and right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And leaving us with a smile on our faces. We're thanking him for it. Good work, E-mail Michael. I do want to clarify, whenever I say give me a no prize, I really am challenging you to ah explain it for me. So if if you've got an explanation here, her her powers have evolved, then i don't get that no prize. And that's fine. I can leave with that because like because now I have peace of mind. Now you got peace and you got roasted a little bit, which you also love.
00:04:43
Speaker
All right. We got to keep
Listener Engagement: Fan Art and Physics
00:04:44
Speaker
moving up. Next is Simon from hell. Oh, Simon from hell. I love Simon from hell. Email subject line super Matt. He says, OK, you recently expressed jokingly or not the desire to be represented as superheroes. I'm sure we did. It sounds like something I say a lot.
00:05:01
Speaker
i Yeah, they wouldn't make this up from nowhere, but i I cannot remember doing this. Well, here's Matt wearing a costume of my design. I couldn't really decide on a set of powers, though, so that could be added if you give me ideas.
00:05:13
Speaker
Not that I am a portrait artist, so the likeness may be way off. Plus, I didn't get good reference material. Hope you still like it. He's making excuses, as all good artists do, for for his good art. I think he really nails your likeness here, Matt. I think he is he does good... Like a lot of people lately, my blonde hair has become more brown in people's eyes. i think I think when you see pictures of me it or video of me, the blondness doesn't quite – because you you need it to catch the light. depends the lighting. Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah but ah but i But I also think it's clear if you looked at this, you'd be like, this this is a person who has kind of blonde hair. You know what else he gets he gets slightly wrong here? He draws you with a four-pack and you have more of a six-pack. Yeah.
00:05:57
Speaker
but pretty tight. I like, okay, so he's got my ah my Roman nose also. Looks like a little ski slope. um he's got it He's got the shape of your hair just right.
00:06:12
Speaker
ah Yeah, depending on the depending on the time of year. And I like the kind of like androgynous uniform, right? Like up top, it's got, it's got real like male superhero energy, but then I've got like a, well, like a, like a mystique guy style skirt.
00:06:33
Speaker
Yeah. Wushy cape in a and kind of a skirt. And it's sort of like, I think that, I don't think I dress very androgynous, but I do dress kind of dandy-ish sometimes. And so I think this is it this falls under that realm. yeah Also, the cape is like, it drapes over one shoulder and it only goes down to your waist. So it's got this very like almost regal look to it.
00:06:57
Speaker
eat Which I'm not sure that I don't regal really suits me. What are my powers here, do you think? He doesn't know. I mean, if you're... oh If you're a listener to ah Save Your Game, like, I i run fast. And this is just... These aren't powers. This is just me as a human. Like, I run really fast.
00:07:19
Speaker
And you know this because you've been my friend for a long time. I jump yeah yeah i jump super high. I'm incredibly physically strong. But and those aren't superpowers. That's just me normally. So if I added superpowers, maybe, like...
00:07:34
Speaker
ah I'm like really good at math. Yes. You're like ah you're great with spreadsheets, like unnaturally great at spreadsheets. Yeah. Like so, so good at spreadsheets. The villains stop doing crime.
00:07:46
Speaker
Yeah. You've just, you've accounted for it. ah they there's no accounting for our robbing of this bank.
00:07:58
Speaker
Actually foiled again. ay He caught us through with formulas. Uh, says, ask, ask for Mr. Shakespeare. If you're on our discord, I go by Tom Shakespeare. won't.
00:08:15
Speaker
I can't find any reference. Is there any floating around the internet that I could find to give Pat the same treatment? Well, you could watch, there are videos of us on our YouTube. So you can go to youtube.com slash mutant menace pod or something like that. Probably menace podcast. ah But I do want to say, Pushing Up Roses discovered she can change your name she can change dad anybody's name as a moderator.
00:08:40
Speaker
And she almost changed you to Pat without your consent. No! And i i was like I was weighing between how mad you would be versus how funny it would be.
00:08:52
Speaker
it's i would It would probably take me a little while to to discover because I don't notice a lot of things. It is a D&D character, or not a d a similar role tabletop role-playing game character name that I came up with. It was my first time on Discord, and it is the coolest name I've ever come up with, so I'm keeping it.
00:09:12
Speaker
Okay, we've got to move on Let's go to Ink Master. The Ink Master, who we haven't heard from in a little while, says, Hey, Pat, tell Matt that to answer his question, you could throw someone in space, but you'd start floating in the opposite direction.
00:09:26
Speaker
Okay, but all right. We talked about that, and that where are you getting the Force from, is my question. Ink, please let us know your credentials in this matter, too, just like you're...
00:09:38
Speaker
that's i'm pretty I'm pretty sure we asked for a physics expert. So just, I'm sure you are, but but let us know. You could just show us your math. I'm really good at math now. Or I guess the problem we're having is where do you get the force, the leverage to push somebody back? Because I said a body could be strong enough, could have the muscular power to going in one direction in the void of space, use their muscles to push an object in the other direction.
00:10:07
Speaker
Right, but usually when you push something, you're sort of using the friction of like standing. Right? yeah like would As Would that affect your actual force as you were flying in direction a enough to stop you from just flinging off into space, I guess? is Would it be possible just to totally neutralize yourself? Or where does that force come from, I guess? Well, right, because if you could push somebody and it would throw you the opposite direction, you're right. If you're flying off into space...
00:10:38
Speaker
and you're holding something, you could throw it in the direction you're going and then you'd fly. Then you'd neutralize yourself. You'd stop flying off into space. And that's, I don't think that's true. Right. So and yeah think about it. Think about it Like if you try to push, like so when your car gets stuck in the mud and you try to push it, uh, if you like, you start pushing yourself backwards, which is proof that the friction of your feet on the ground has something to do with your ability to push.
00:11:08
Speaker
But i also but i I guess that I think about it, if I jump up in the air, I can push something. I think we can put this under questions still unanswered. You how sometimes you jump up in the air and you like push something onto a shelf? Like, that works.
00:11:25
Speaker
Yeah, you can place additional force on it, and you're just using the muscles of your body to do that. and So I guess or well that is the same as being in a vacuum of space, right? Like I'm not touching anything. No, because of the atmosphere and gravity would change.
00:11:43
Speaker
I don't know exactly how it would change it. Ink continues. Thank you for trying to answer that one. we We do get a better answer here, though, in regards to dinosaur coloration, which we must have been asking about.
00:11:54
Speaker
There have actually been some breakthroughs on that in recent years. It turns out that feathers and skin impressions that fossilized in certain conditions can actually have enough microscopic detail that scientists can analyze their melanin to see what colors they were.
00:12:10
Speaker
This gets a very soft... I know. is like... We don't have enough samples to know what T-Rex's entire body was colored like. We do know that it had orange ridges over its eyebrows and that the rest of it was most likely some share of dark some shade of dark brown.
00:12:30
Speaker
I'm going to take his word for this, though. Yeah. He says, I don't know if either of you will find this information particularly interesting, but as a massive dinosaur nerd, I think it's cool. I would say ah we both find it extremely interesting. We just.
00:12:46
Speaker
We're still I think we're still confused about it. Like that's why it's very soft. I know because like I've known that. Scientists have been able to analyze things and to determine the color of dinosaurs, but I still don't quite understand why how that works. It doesn't make sense to me.
00:13:02
Speaker
Does it make sense how they would? All right. Whatever. I believe you, Ink Master. I don't know. Any other listeners, if you are ah biologists, physicists, rocket scientists, let us know about any of them. We need experts. i We got another one Here's a new listener. His name was Dusk.
00:13:24
Speaker
Okay. Interesting. What is it now? ah hes He says, hi, Pat. Dusk here. Oh, it's still dusk. Okay. Can you tell Matt I said hi? That's i listen like the um Mitch Hedberg bit.
00:13:38
Speaker
I used to do drugs. I still do, but I used to do them too. I've been listening for a while and your last episode with Abby Denton was really good, but I did have a correction. I had to let you know that not everyone who lives in Philadelphia is a little baby man. I myself live in Philadelphia and I'm a big adult man and I hardly ever wet my pants.
00:13:58
Speaker
Okay. Okay. Well, we'll let Abby know. Yep. Every complaint that comes in we have sent directly to Abby. Uh, so yeah, well, so yeah, I'm just kidding. well We've actually gotten a lot of very good, uh,
00:14:11
Speaker
people very People love Abby Denton. People loved abbb and Abby Denton on the show. ending her return We loved Abby Denton on the show. Alright, one last email to
Comics Coverage and Themed Discussions (Q&A)
00:14:21
Speaker
cover here, Matt, from a new another writer in her.
00:14:25
Speaker
listener Listener Alex says... There's got to be a better word for that. No, I'm pretty sure there's not. Yeah, yeah. Hey, guys. Really enjoy the podcast. He's ignoring formatting rules, but he's a first-timer, so we're going to let it pass. I was wondering if you were going to cover New Mutants and X Factor when you reach the point those books start.
00:14:47
Speaker
Alex... absolutely of course yes yeah we're gonna cover it all man everything but deadpool we're gonna cover all of it and i think i like we'll probably also cover a little bit of deadpool but we're not gonna fucking read we're not gonna follow his full arc yeah no no no no um no we're i mean we're gonna be reading even all that weird shitty wolverine stuff that happens in the 90s and 2000s we're gonna read so much so much x-men the what in case this hasn't become clear to listeners, I have done a lot of this ahead of time.
00:15:22
Speaker
um I have been doing my own personal chronological X-Men read for about, what, a year and a half now? Two years? and Ten? decade, I think? that's not true. The entire life? No. I've been reading X-Men my whole life, but I've been reading this same way that me and you are for some time, and I have cast such a broad net That I like read Cloak and Dagger and Power Pack and Alpha Flight. and because of that knowledge, I can bring that to this podcast and say, Pat, we don't need to read Cloak and Dagger.
00:15:58
Speaker
We don't need to read Power Pack. We do need to read at least like the first 30 or 40 issues of Alpha Flight. ah Right. And the entirety of champions.
00:16:09
Speaker
ah So that's another thing is that me and you sometimes spin each other up about what we need to read. And like we decided we needed to read champions, which we really, really didn't. But ah new mutants will absolutely. say I've got sinus issues. So mutant is the hardest word to say for me right now. mut Mutants will absolutely be covered. I believe ah next week.
00:16:35
Speaker
What?
00:16:39
Speaker
And that's it. we'll We'll leave you on that. cliff Will it? Won't it? Next week be?
00:16:47
Speaker
We'll find out. But for now, Matt, yeah I gotta ask, have you done anything X-Men related this week? Oh, um well, I did actually, Patrick. You know, I did. You know how the X-Men sometimes travel?
00:17:03
Speaker
Yes. I traveled. the yo i went to London. I spent about nine days there. I was going to Adventure X, which is an adventure game convention in London.
00:17:14
Speaker
And it's really fun. It's really great. I'll talk about that elsewhere. But what I'll talk about here is, you know how when the X-Men travel someplace else, disaster always occurs.
00:17:29
Speaker
Yes. Right. Follows them. They can never enjoy a vacation. Yeah. Except for when they do. They try to get a vacation in and every single time disaster occurs. Well, um, for me, that didn't, uh, that didn't happen, but, uh, I thought, ah okay, here's a couple brushes with disaster. When I got there, um, I, my plane got in at 6 30 AM, but my hotel didn't open till three. and It was very cold and I was very tired and I was trying to walk around and like enjoy London.
00:18:01
Speaker
But, uh, I got so sleepy, I went to a park and tried to sleep under a tree in the muddy ground. Did it work? No. You've got beautiful parks. I rested, but it was so cold, man, and I was in the mud. I rested for a while, but didn't fall asleep. Another thing, I thought I lost my credit card.
00:18:20
Speaker
Oh, no. So I set up, I finally set up my phone so that I can pay stuff with my phone. Yeah. And then I found my credit card, so it was fine. Oh. Yeah.
00:18:32
Speaker
Where was it? Just for future reference. In my bag. It fell out of my wallet into my bag. Now I know where your credit card is. And then um i've but I've also had a sinus infection.
00:18:45
Speaker
So I did have to spend one day mostly in bed. You have some sort of almost like a virus infesting you and and keeping you. Like living in me like it wants to it wants to take me over.
00:19:00
Speaker
Yes. Making you not quite yourself. How about you Pat? Did you do anything X-Men related this week? I truly did, Matt. And this time i'm not even stretching. A long time ago, I think it was COVID.
00:19:13
Speaker
I picked up, it's called The Guide to Exceptional Baking. It is, i i'm sure there was a lot of work that went into this. It is a book of baking recipes, all with an X-Men theme with a ton of crazy X art into it. It's i edited by Charlie Davis. So i I believe that's who curated it. Layout and additional editing by Mikey Z. I believe i believe you can still find this. Are you about to recap this?
X-Men Recap: Leadership and Ethics
00:19:46
Speaker
uh we can what i need was scott and aurora's beginning of semester beer bread which is recipe by ediden of oh of uh jay and miles explain the x-men the podcast exactly yeah yeah so a podcast that uh i guess we compete with matt i love this plan sorry that's me just taking a little dig They're very good. They're fun. Yeah. Yeah. Someone I you absolutely.
00:20:16
Speaker
This is why we can't have nice things. ah Appreciate. sorry No, I'm again, I'm just taking the little dig. listened to so much of that podcast. Yeah, yeah. No, very good, very thoughtful guy. um And a really good recipe, if you like. I mean, no one understands Scott Summers more than Jay Edidin. No one in the world. Like, literally.
00:20:38
Speaker
But yeah, that is, i think, as X-Men related living as you can get. I made it to compliment my wife's butternut squash soup, and it went very well. ha Speaking of butternut squash soup, Matt. Yeah.
00:20:54
Speaker
Do you have anything to share with us ah this week after Thanksgiving about what the X-Men are up to? Huh. Huh.
00:21:07
Speaker
Huh. Well, you know, I i kind of thought you would you would you would lead the way into this one today, Patrick, because i kind of was hoping I'd sit back Put my hands behind my little head.
00:21:21
Speaker
Maybe sip some butternut squash soup. And listen to you tell me about ah Uncanny X-Men number 161. All right. all right You had to better transition that, so I will take it. Uncanny X-Men number 161, Gold Rush.
00:21:38
Speaker
Okay. Chris Claremont, writer, Dave Cockrum, penciler, and Bob Wyacek, anchor, Tom Orzakowski, letterer, Glynis Ween, colorist, Louise Jones, editor, and Jim Schutte, editor-in-chief.
00:21:50
Speaker
Release date June 8th, 1982. Cover date September, 1982.
00:21:56
Speaker
Following up finally on the cliffhanger from issue 159, Professor x Xavier has taken a turn for the worse. He lies comatose in a bed, his brain wrapped with images of the brood and monstrous forms of himself and his friends. These are scary.
00:22:12
Speaker
These are yeah legitimately scary images. They're very, well, some of them are, some of them are weird. You know, there's a image of, It took me a while to figure out who it was. It's Moira McTaggart.
00:22:24
Speaker
Yes. um and It's like a monster. It looks like a monster, like an angry man's face, but it's got bangs and like ah like bell-shaped hair.
00:22:35
Speaker
And it looks exactly like a person that, Pat, you won't know this person, but ah but an X-Men villain called Harpoon. And I was like, why is Harpoon here? No, it's Moira McTaggart.
00:22:48
Speaker
ah Xavier, attended by the star jammer Sikorsky, who talks like Yoda now. To be expected, it is. He's being looked over by Moira, Corsair, and the X-Men. When Moira explains what happened with Oracle, Scott storms away in a huff.
00:23:06
Speaker
Aurora follows him, prompting a lecture about the incident at the Pentagon. yeah when so Hold on. If Scott is just arriving now and just learning about Xavier now, yeah what was he where was he last issue? He was held up, Matt. That's... he like It was like, that was your explanation last time where when I was like, okay, they ended last issue on a cliffhanger and then didn't follow it up.
00:23:31
Speaker
You said, well, actually, there's a line of dialogue where they say Scott went ahead. yeah yeah. But they're all arriving at the same time. i and this, there's a lot in these this next arc that makes me think this.
00:23:46
Speaker
I think maybe the Ileana thing was a filler issue that they didn't know where it was going to fall. Yeah, an idea that they had that they were like, okay, we got to get this in somewhere, maybe even saving it for when they were running behind deadline. Exactly.
00:24:00
Speaker
and what And we know Cockrum runs behind deadline fairly frequently. Yeah. Especially when he's doing these big space operas. We're about to get to some really complex art for sure. Right. So i think they I think they had to quick edit it and be like, oh, all right, because there's all this like stuff jammed in about Ileana.
00:24:23
Speaker
Like, oh, yeah you know, well, Colossus in the other panel is still really upset about Ileana and we'll have to deal with that sometime. But right now we're focused on other things. Yeah, we get some interludes later just to break up the action where we check up on her and she's doing fine. yeah which is Yeah, and that's not even for like two or three issues from now. Yeah, yeah.
00:24:43
Speaker
Logan also has some interesting thoughts. I just love the idea that he's... Scott is going through it, and mainly because Professor X is a leader to him, right? He's a father figure to him, and ah seems beyond saving. And Wolverine trying to help Kitty understand his complex feelings is just like, hey...
00:25:03
Speaker
If he was better at sharing his feelings, he wouldn't be storming off in a huff right now. Like this is just what men go through before they understand ah if they until they ever understand how to be better at sharing their feelings. It's very cute. Wolverine knows, man. He gets it.
00:25:20
Speaker
He's got it. He's a woke. A woke king. ah When Scott suggests that he should take back over as leader in this spat with Aurora, Aurora begins to leave and Scott breaks down.
00:25:32
Speaker
He apologizes and explains how much x Xavier means to him, how his experiences with the orphanage and Jean still torture him, and finally asks her for her help. So this turns out well, but there's something funny about the fact that like Corsair tries to follow Scott and Storm's like, hey, hold on.
00:25:53
Speaker
I'm the one who is better suited for this. i'll I'll handle this. i I can understand Scott a little better than you. I'm his friend. So she follows him and and like knowing he's lashing out, like that's why she told Corsair not to follow him. like He's lashing out. He needs somebody who can be patient and understanding.
00:26:13
Speaker
And the moment she gets there, he lashes out and she's like, fine, whatever, and storms away. Well, honestly, honest worried went for her throat like that was i think i think it's two things number one storm knows how to handle somebody throwing a tantrum which is you don't give them the attention that they're looking for it but yeah at the same time that is scott knows how vulnerable she feels as a leader because he's been in this position and she knows that he's like he's leveraging that against her which is there's no way forward in that conversation and
00:26:51
Speaker
And he loves x Xavier. Oh, my God. Scott and Xavier. sitting you a tree sitting in a tree of being father and son to one another yeah it's it's touching i'm it is i'm sorry i'm sorry i didn't he no one deserved that meanwhile as lalandra cries over xavier's body his mind flashes back to israel 20 years ago sorry to interrupt again but do you remember do you remember in our pokemon podcast i think it was the first Pokemon movie where Ash Ketchum fucking dies.
00:27:29
Speaker
Literally dies. And he's a corpse on the ground. Yes. And Pikachu cries on him. And he comes back to life. And if Scott could cope with his feelings and cry a little bit over Xavier's body, who knows what would happen? Because they do. Because they they kind of pull something like that here where her tears drip on to so x Xavier and it puts him into this.
00:27:53
Speaker
this flashback we're about to talk about, but it made me think about Pikachu's tears bringing Ash Ketchum back to life. Oh, boy. Okay, 20 years ago, Xavier had come straight from Merking the Shadow King to visit his pal Daniel Shamron and help him care for survivors of the Holocaust, recovering from psychological trauma.
00:28:15
Speaker
Upon arrival at the hospital, he's introduced to a volunteer named Magnus, a survivor do say it like that?
00:28:23
Speaker
Why'd you say it like that? Because it sounds familiar somehow. mag No, I've never met somebody named Magnus. A survivor of Auschwitz with a head of white hair and whose mind x Xavier quickly discovers is closed to him.
00:28:38
Speaker
Why are you looking? Yeah. Why are you looking at me like that? Because this all sounds so familiar. no it's just a guy. What are you talking about? I've never met Xavier. Xavier wonders if the man is a mutant, but is quickly shuffled away. Daniel brings x Xavier to a catatonic survivor of Dachau named God. Gabrielle Holler.
00:28:56
Speaker
hoping his expertise can help her. x Xavier sits across from her and tries to psychically probe her mind, but instantly hits a wall. Monsters spring from the wall. And as he fights them, Xavier relives her trauma and her abuse until Gabrielle suddenly springs from her chair, crying and calling out for her parents.
00:29:16
Speaker
Daniel and Magnus are shocked and x Xavier waves off their questions, though he's puzzled by the last image in her mind of a magic wand transforming Gabrielle into gold.
00:29:27
Speaker
What? Why does everybody always? i mean, sometimes people question it, but then people accept, oh, he's so good at psychology. He can just stare at somebody and suddenly like this is not the first time this has happened in our read, right?
00:29:44
Speaker
This is so this reminds me a lot of the very first Sentinels appearance where i x Xavier is examining the scene to see how the where the Sentinels might have gone. And he's just psychically at this time, he could psychically probe machines. Yes. So he's just staring at the dead Sentinel on the ground when the cops eventually come in and are like, hey, dude, we gave you permission to explore a crime scene. You have to do something. You can't just stare.
00:30:17
Speaker
And then next thing they know, he's commanding a a fleet of police helicopters. While all this happens, a shadowy figure in the hall watches Haller's Awakening and runs off to tell his master.
00:30:29
Speaker
Gabrielle, no! Over the next few weeks, Gabrielle, whose mind is still stuck in childhood, begins to learn about adult life as she tours Israel with x Xavier and Magnus. Yeah, her mind is still stuck in childhood. Let's remember that. She's a child right now.
00:30:44
Speaker
Mentally. The boys discuss evolution and mutants. But finally disagree on the future of the species. Magnus believes that humanity presents such a threat to mutants that if they exist, wink, they will have to seize power to protect themselves.
00:31:02
Speaker
Hmm. what Why are you why do you keep doing that? I don't know. This all sounds familiar. I don't know this guy. Where have I heard this before? Then, x Xavier kisses Gabrielle.
00:31:15
Speaker
Oh, Jesus Christ. Despite accurately describing the phenomenon of transference and how Gabby thinks she loves x Xavier but doesn't really and how he shouldn't kiss her, he does it anyway. Jesus fucking Christ, dude. is We know that he doesn't draw those lines.
00:31:34
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. We've seen him be incredibly unethical and... So many times, but like still fucking Christ. Thankfully, they're interrupted when a big explosion throws them to the ground. Okay. I want to talk about it a little more actually, because okay you know what he does? He does that thing that fucking people do when they're doing something horrible where he starts justifying it to himself by like, like the thing he says, he's like, well, it's not hurting her.
00:32:02
Speaker
Which it probably fucking would, but it's not hurting her and it's not hurting me. And so if it's just bringing everybody happiness, then what's the problem? It's like, you're deciding that man, you're deciding that it's doing her no harm and bringing her happiness.
00:32:18
Speaker
Even though you know that you're fucked. Yeah. You can argue that, like, she has learned about adulthood to the degree that she's maybe caught up when this actually happens. But, is it like, there's it's an unspecified amount of time and education that passes, right? but And even still, she's his patient.
00:32:39
Speaker
Yeah, he's basically her warden right now. Not okay. Not okay! Jesus fucking Christ, x Xavier. So again, they are interrupted, thank God, by a big explosion. And what any Marvel fan would recognize as Hydra soldiers rush in, yeah attacking the hospital and abducting Gabrielle Haller.
00:32:59
Speaker
A bullet hits x Xavier in the head, but of course, only grazes his skull. Dude, this is what the third third time, right?
00:33:10
Speaker
Third time yeah like across, I think, four episodes. Four episodes? Yeah, okay. so But like that's five issues of the X-Men. Yeah. So it's it's three times in a year of X-Men.
00:33:23
Speaker
That Chris Claremont wrote a bullet grazing somebody's skull. yeah like At shoulder height, too. It's not like they're they're shooting from angles. The transport ship with Gabby escapes, but just as Xavier awakes, he sees the second ship burst apart magically, the shrapnel tearing the soldiers to shreds. This is wild.
00:33:44
Speaker
Magnus rushes to his side, and x Xavier confronts him about the use of what seems like magnetic powers. ah What? This just seems so familiar, Matt. I don't know what you mean. so okay Matt, he controls metal.
00:34:02
Speaker
Okay. This, the white hair, the... a lot of people have white hair. The thoughts on eliminating homo sapiens, putting a lot of homo superiors in control. I guess it lot describes a lot of people. its just a hat There's just a ring to it.
00:34:20
Speaker
I don't know. I don't know. Xavier confronts him. Did he have to kill those men? Of course he did, he responds, but no time for that now. They have to rescue Gabrielle. We cut to two days later at some military camp in Kenya where Hydra is camping out next to a pretty waterfall.
00:34:38
Speaker
yeah Their leader, Baron von Strucker, is informed of some special cave they found with directions from Gabi. Xavier and Magnus, who are undercover as Hydra soldiers, follow them to the cave where there's a bunch of gold bars that Hitler stowed away there.
00:34:53
Speaker
Okay. All right. Sure. Apparently, Hitler also used some weird torture techniques to hide the map to the cave deep in Gabrielle's psyche or something. What?
00:35:05
Speaker
Anyway, the boys rescue Gabrielle and confess that they know about each other's mutant powers while they use them to take out a bunch of soldiers. Magnus fights Strucker one-on-one, crushing the weird power gauntlet on his hand.
00:35:18
Speaker
I think you called it Satan's gauntlet? Yeah, he's like, ah, you can't escape the power of Satan's gauntlet. And then Magnus is just like, yeah, i can. He then creates a tunnel out of the cave, levitates Xavier and Gabby to the surface, steals all the gold for himself, and collapses the cave on Strucker and his men.
00:35:38
Speaker
He gives Xavier a lecture about how it's folly to trust the goodness of man and how Homo Superior will one day rule the earth. Again, strikingly familiar. I don't... Okay. Then he flies off with all the gold, but no time for that now. Gabby wakes up, and in turn, ex Xavier wakes up in the now time, and all the X-Men celebrate. Oh, oh, it's back to... Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah. So her tears did wake him up.
00:36:05
Speaker
Yes. So her tears did wake him up. She does have Pikachu tears. Lalandra
Brood Threat and Magneto’s Motivations
00:36:10
Speaker
has Pikachu tears. The Holocaust survivor. Okay. Cut to space where the Shi'ar are holding a big banquet.
00:36:18
Speaker
yeah The X-Men and Starjammers are invited, but Corsair turns the invitation down. He likes Lalandra, but still hates the Shi'ar. So the X-Men, wife minus Xavier, but plus Carol Danvers, go by themselves dressed in crazy costumes.
00:36:33
Speaker
Wolverine looks like evil Knievel. He really does. There's Dave Cockrum. One thing that I'm noticing in in this run of his is he loves just putting them in street clothes and then putting them in like fancy ball gowns and stuff. He's ah he's a fashion designer at heart. Fashionisto.
00:36:52
Speaker
Lalandra begins giving a speech but suddenly freezes catatonic. The X-Men leap up to help her, but are interrupted by Deathbird, who claims to be the new Shi'ar Empress. The X-Men try to attack, but are knocked unconscious by a bomb. What? there's a but There was a bomb there. yeah The whole time.
00:37:11
Speaker
Wow. but it Was it in the turkey? As the issue ends, their bodies are set upon by a squad of brood, determined to use them as hosts for the mother of us all. be be continued.
00:37:24
Speaker
Okay, now that the issue's over, what were you talking about? i think that was Magneto, Matt. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it was. But what are you... oh Why have you been... scheme That's confusing, though, because i feel like they did not know each other when they met. was When they met under the sea, when their astral forms... When their astral forms met in the sea. Crossed hands. Under the sea, both trying to find Submariner at the exact same time because they both had the same idea randomly. Yeah.
00:37:55
Speaker
And they were like, ah, meet you for the first time. i don't know if they said that, but still like they did not seem to know each other. They didn't seem to. but maybe they were just acting casual.
00:38:09
Speaker
Like I'm sure a lot has happened between those two points where probably they were like, it's best if I just don't don't acknowledge. like a Like a lover. Hello, sir. like ah Like a past lover who you meet when you're with like a new person and like all right that that lover is like somebody who you've known this whole time you'll be like hey how's it going like they're a friend but if that lover is somebody who you haven't talked to in like fucking 10 years you're gonna be like hi um yeah i'd like right yeah like a milkshake yes exactly yeah um you in this scenario you came out on top buddy i have
00:38:55
Speaker
Good news and bad news about this issue, I think. Okay. Bad news. This is a terrible conclusion to the cliffhanger they left us on. He just wakes up. What was going on there? ah Yeah, yeah.
00:39:11
Speaker
Good news. We actually get a really simple philosophy for Magneto here. I think it really kind of like it accounts for what he's done in the past. Like it doesn't make excuses for some of the crimes he's committed. But yes, it is very much based in like his experience with humans is the Holocaust.
00:39:35
Speaker
Mm And as a result, he doesn't believe that they are responsible enough to be in control. And that's where everything is born from. Like, even when he's sort of an innocent, white-haired 20-year-old or whatever he was here, he's... ah ah He still fully believes, like, it was in know in a much more pure form here, I guess. Like, humans just aren't meant to be in control. Homo sapiens are are done being in charge.
00:40:07
Speaker
And, I mean, like, it's not, he he survives the Holocaust, and then he starts working at a hospital for survivors, and some Nazis bomb that, too. Like, he, yeah and and he was he was driven out of, ah like, a small village, like,
00:40:20
Speaker
for i guess he him being jewish and his wife being romani right so like yeah i mean he's just a time after time after time experiencing the worst of humanity and the most the deepest pride like prejudice being deadly yeah it's a it's i surprisingly simple it comes from a from a genuine place it seems like which is And even with all that, he doesn't lash out until he he starts to become afraid of like the nuclear holocaust.
00:40:53
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Also, Hydra are legit like Nazis here. They are not fucking around with that compared... like It gets softened as time goes on a whole lot, and Hydra's just like a... They're like an AIM, right? They're yeah they're generic and bunch of goons, but...
00:41:13
Speaker
This comic remembers that they were straight up Nazis and they haven't faltered from that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Also, so fucking funny that their explanation for how Magneto buys so many bases is that he once stole all of Hitler's gold. All of Hitler's gold.
00:41:29
Speaker
It's great.
Wolverine’s Struggle and Surreal Experiences
00:41:30
Speaker
Magneto owns all of Hitler's gold and they bought an island and a volcano. but Built a lab on an asteroid. Yeah.
00:41:41
Speaker
for him oh man all right pat i want to tell you something yeah what is it it's a little story that uh i've been thinking about it's called one uncanny x-men 162 beyond the farthest star oh chris claremont writer bob wyachek inks and dave cockram pencils has switched them glennis ween colorist tom morsekowski letterer louise jones editor And Joby Gap Steers Editor-in-Chief. Release date, July 6th, 1982. Cover date, October 1982. Wolverine is shirtless.
00:42:21
Speaker
Of course. Running through an alien jungle as he narrates the scene. He narrates the scene, Matt. ah We'll get, all right, I'll explain in little bit. He's escaped, but something's wrong with his body, and he's overwhelmed by his enhanced senses.
00:42:37
Speaker
There's more than just brood on this planet, and all of it is just as dangerous. He dodges attacks from flora and fauna alike until he so finally succumbs to a spray of hallucinogenic pollen from a vine shooting up from the ground. Fucking killer opening. Ooh.
00:42:54
Speaker
He goes, we're completely lost. We have no idea what the fuck is happening. What? They were just in so in ah in space fighting Death Bird. Yeah. What the fuck is he doing on this alien jungle without his shirt?
00:43:09
Speaker
By himself. He's still in his like he's in a torn Evel Knievel costume. yeah He's got his gloves and his boots on still. He says, I'm a long way from home and I think I'm dying. Good fucking line.
00:43:22
Speaker
The opening line. Yeah, yeah. This might be the first issue narrated by a character in the series. Is that true? i I think so. it's not It's not the first like one character POV issue that we've gotten, but it is the first that they replace the actual narrator. I'm pretty sure.
00:43:41
Speaker
And, like, we're already getting this. He's fighting but a battle with the planet. Man versus nature. And yeah he's fighting a battle with him something inside himself. Man versus self. He's, like, he's fighting inside and outside.
00:43:55
Speaker
Yes. what What the fuck? Who... What is fighting at that point, right? You know what i mean? Yeah. That's so cool.
00:44:06
Speaker
It's very... It's such a i It's so literal and figurative at the same time. I know. It's like it's representing the wider circumstances. It's so like it's stupid, simple, stupid, good.
00:44:19
Speaker
And we so we don't we didn't talk. we We often don't talk about the covers, but this cover is amazing, too. Wolverine in like agony on the ground screaming and a brood sort of surrounding him.
00:44:34
Speaker
Yeah, it's saying get ready for a Wolverine issue. But it's not going to be a pleasant one. Okay, he this is where I think why I just said the word pleasant, because I just saw it in your recap. It formed into my brain like a brood. He dreams pleasantly at first.
00:44:50
Speaker
He and Mariko ride horses through the mountains of Japan, but they're interrupted by a swarm of brood warriors flying in from above and zapping Mariko into oblivion. It's really...
00:45:04
Speaker
It's bugs with guns is what it looks like. A bunch of flying wasps with guns in their hands. It's terrifying. ah Wolverine shoots awake still in the jungle, but now pursued by the brood warriors from his dreams. He slips under some cover and then starts doing what he does best.
00:45:23
Speaker
stabbing and slicing through the swarm, holding his own against an army, noting along the way that their guns are only set to stun. huh Matt, this is where we get, so we've gotten a lot of ah best at what he does.
00:45:38
Speaker
This is the first that we actually get, I'm the best at what I do, but what I do isn't very nice. Yeah. You finally said the thing. There's a lot of fucking, like, really cool...
00:45:52
Speaker
lines here. yes um He's describing the brood and how like they're stingers are full of venom and they have these grasping tentacles. They're super strong. Their hides are like like steel. And they... yeah Yeah. And he says, no deadlier beings exist in the universe.
00:46:15
Speaker
And then there's a so there's a ah page of like then it's... It pauses and there's an action page where he is tearing through them and it says, Seth, maybe me.
00:46:28
Speaker
So fucking good. its I love Wolverine. I love Wolverine. There's a reason he became this popular. Like, he did become overexposed and whatever, but fuck, he's so good. Yeah, yeah. It's because of these moments. Yeah, yeah.
00:46:47
Speaker
All right. Suddenly, the ground gives way underneath Wolverine. He falls several stories onto a spider web. all right, you could have been more creative at that. yeah The impact of that and a stun bolt knocking him back into dreamland. The brood, notably.
00:47:04
Speaker
are not willing to follow him. It's fucked up. well This is a planet that is so scary, the brood won't even, like... Won't pursue him beyond a certain point.
00:47:16
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And Wolverine is surviving not only that, but the brood also. Yeah. He is the, like, toughest being on the in the universe at this moment, right?
00:47:31
Speaker
All right. Um... ending And it's not unearned, right? He's struggling. He's suffering. Like, this is one of the problems with Wolverine later is he's the toughest thing on Earth and he doesn't care. Yeah, yeah. He's unbothered. Unbothered.
00:47:46
Speaker
This is Chris Claremont saying, this is the toughest guy in the universe. And this is how hard it is to be that guy. Yeah, yeah. They go into like pretty good detail about his healing factor, too. I think they attribute his heightened senses to his healing factor. Yeah.
00:48:07
Speaker
I think the reason they're focusing on his healing factor is also... like It's important. It's another one of these Claremont playing a step ahead for us. Yeah, yeah. He's reminding us of how strong Wolverine's healing factor is, and he's doing it for a reason.
00:48:21
Speaker
Yeah. When he comes two Wolverine takes note of his surroundings. In a stunning two-page spread, we see him as a speck on the landscape of a space whale's collapsed corpse.
00:48:36
Speaker
The skeleton extends over the horizon and the ribcage pierces the breathable atmosphere. This was a former brood warship left to rot and be eaten by scavengers.
00:48:47
Speaker
Holy shit, man. They do this thing where they show Wolverine in the spider web and he's small in the spider web. And then they pull out and they show the spider web small in like ah ah like a cavern.
00:48:58
Speaker
And then he does like a little arrow indicator to show you where on this full page spread that. And again, in that second thing where you see the spider web small, you can't even see Wolverine, right? he's not He's not even a dot on that.
00:49:17
Speaker
That's how far he's pulled out. And then he pulls out again. And you can't even see the cavern. It's so small landscape. There's like a, yeah what do they call it? Like an a map insert. the The magnified version of a map to see just the area that Wolverine's in. and It's really, the sense of scale is like, it's working. Yeah.
00:49:37
Speaker
this It's a zoomed out, that that it magnified spot is a zoomed out if it's zoomed out image of an image where Wolverine is still already a speck. So it's it's like, they're showing you this is how much of this landscape that Wolverine is barely surviving in, he has to cover if he wants to save his friends.
00:49:59
Speaker
Yeah. We get it. When those scavengers show up for him, though, he decides it's time to move, but is suddenly stricken with a painful vision of how he got there.
00:50:11
Speaker
After Deathbird took them all out, Wolverine woke up seeing himself surrounded by Brood and the rest of the X-Men standing beside him, but completely unbothered by what was going on around them. ah Suddenly, contrary to his senses...
00:50:25
Speaker
What he thought was the brood soldiers are actually the Shi'ar. And they're in the middle of a celebration for their victory over Deathbird from whatever, like a dozen issues ago or whatever. Logan tries to convince everyone that everything is wrong, but no one believes him. Carol is carried off by two Shi'ar warriors for examination. Only those warriors turn back into flying brood right in front of his eyes. This is legitimately terrifying here, where, like...
00:50:50
Speaker
Wolverine is sometimes seeing the brood, like he's going back and forth and he's kind of internally struggling. He's trusting his senses, but still can't quite fight against it. We already know there's a psychic element to the brood's attack here. The rest of the the X-Men are...
00:51:08
Speaker
smiling like they're grinning they're having a great time and wolverine just can't understand why no one else can figure it out and it's really like you get the sense of panic from wolverine and i don't know i was at reading this i was like i was getting tense about this it's really well done yeah yeah So Kitty is being honored by a strange figure standing next to Lalandra and suddenly starts losing her mind until she screams herself unconscious.
00:51:35
Speaker
Wolverine then does the same thing. Despite his best instincts, he can't seem to fight this. Again, in front of his eyes, this strange figure transforms into a hulking brood who pierces him through a chest who pierces him through the chest with a sharp tongue.
00:51:50
Speaker
Wolverine wakes back up, fights off the scavengers that are slightly closer now, and then moves on to reflect on how awful he feels. He wasn't that badly hurt, and he heals real fast, but for some reason, he's in incredible pain.
00:52:03
Speaker
He considers just giving up and dying. He passes out again, and we get one more piece of the story through his dreams. He wakes up in the dream and recalls pleading with Storm to believe him that they are being deceived, but to no avail.
00:52:19
Speaker
All she can see is a pleasant stay as honored guests of the Shi'ar. Logan decides he'll have to take care of this alone. He says goodbye to Kitty, but as he does so, sees a vision. In the in the dream the dream. In the dream. Dream vision. Dream in the dream.
00:52:33
Speaker
Of himself stabbing her and watching and putting her out of her misery. He sneaks off to find a brood lab where we watch Fang. Fang! Yeah, what?!
00:52:45
Speaker
He's back. He got his costume back. Yay. All right. Oh, Fang's back, everybody. This is going to be so great. We're going to have Fang and Wolverine teaming up. um so Okay. We watch Fang slowly and painfully transformed into a brood. Yeah.
00:53:00
Speaker
It's look gross. The embryo of an egg was implanted into him by the Queen Mother, and it takes over his body and his whole being. Wolverine realizes what's happened. he and the rest of the X-Men have been implanted with these same brood eggs.
00:53:15
Speaker
Ugh. He wakes up just in time to see the transformed Fang finding him. He leaps into action, but instead of killing him, he demands that brood Fang flies him over to the rest of the hive. He's ready to take them all out. But a sudden, unexplained pain takes over his body mid-flight, and he's at the brood's mercy by the time they arrive back at the hive. Or is he? Ah.
00:53:36
Speaker
Wolverine takes out the whole squad himself. think They're like, we're going to kill you, Wolverine. And he's and there's a a caption that says, they do their best.
00:53:48
Speaker
I do better. So good. It's very good. But victory starts slipping out of his hands when his own transformation begins. Oh. The metamorphosis is halted by his adamantium skeleton, which can't be molded so easily. Logan's will grasps onto this chance and uses it to fully fight off the embryo, trying to take over his body. He feels it die inside of him.
00:54:11
Speaker
yeah giving credit to his mutant immune system. His skin has transformed now. He's taken on the armored exoskeleton of the brood in his otherwise normal shape. This is for what it's worth, in the next five, six issues, this is only acknowledged once by Cyclops. The rest of it is just artist interpretations. And then it just kind of wears off as soon as the artists change. Yeah. Which I'm so i'm sure they meant for it to wear off eventually anyway. But still, it's like the artists change and it's gone.
00:54:45
Speaker
um Also, when he wakes up, it's like it's like sunrise. Another night has passed. And then it cuts to Wolverine. He's like, you lose, Queenie. I'm alive. Your kid isn't.
00:54:57
Speaker
ah Fucking so good. Logan knows what he has to do. If everyone's destined for this transformation, he'll put them out of their misery. I'll kill them all.
00:55:09
Speaker
My friends. Then, it'll be the sleazoid's turn.
00:55:15
Speaker
Dude, he's gonna take on the entire species himself? I know! there's a There's some maybe discussion to be had about destroying an entire species that actually gets had in the missions. We will have it. They have that discussion. But i but yeah, it's at first glance, it's like, oh shit.
00:55:39
Speaker
He's going to do some damage. he the The pacing in this this fucking issue is god tier. It's so good. yeah every Every moment that you are gripped with suspense.
00:55:56
Speaker
Claremont cuts away to something else. And when he cuts away, it gives you information that you are thirsty for. He doesn't reveal what's going on. You're confused for literally half the issue.
00:56:07
Speaker
He takes half the issue till he's like, all right, here's what happened. And then it's horrific when you find out what happened. Yeah. It's like, that's the, that is the big reveal. Every X-Man is now infected with this fucking embryo.
00:56:22
Speaker
Right. Right. yeah Pat, is this the best issue of X-Men so far? It really might be. It's so high up there. It was pretty unbelievable. It was engaging. it's a lot of action. it is a lot of really excitingly communicated exposition. a lot of show don't tell, even though... There are like Roy Thomas levels of words per page in this. But it's the first time I'm reading an issue and there's nothing that I'm like, this was, this part was stupid or this was stupid. It's like every line, every moment. I'm like this rule, this rules, this rules. Yes.
00:57:01
Speaker
Some other lines that we skipped ah is so after he, like he's stuck to the spider web and he passes out and he wakes up and he's like, I survived.
00:57:13
Speaker
Hooray for me. funny That's a funny line. Another point. ah this This made me laugh. he caught he's He calls it his berserker mood.
00:57:25
Speaker
Instead of his berserker mood. I'm just in a mood. yeah it makes me wonder if there's like, is that like is that a step down from berserker rage? it goes here's the It goes, I think probably, this is my this is just my interpretation. goes berserker mood.
00:57:44
Speaker
The Berserker Blues. he what's step um And then you could have a Berserker Temper Tantrum. And then it goes to Berserker Rage. Berserker Rage. And then find then you hit Berserker Can't Even.
00:57:58
Speaker
i'm i'm I'm having my Berserker Can't Even right now. I'm in a whole Berserker phase right now. I'm in my Berserker era. but It's getting berserker.
00:58:14
Speaker
ah All right, Matt. Yeah. Wolverine's ready to kill everybody. His friends, his foes. Let's. And he's covered in armor. He's got is covered in armor. He's already got an adamantium skeleton, but he's also now he looks like like steel. He looks like the thing.
00:58:34
Speaker
ah Let's get to Uncanny X-Men number 163. better. Rescue Mission. Also another cool cover. It's got um Kitty like ah hiding in the corner, just torn to shreds and a brood like coming down on her.
00:58:53
Speaker
Yeah. Chris Claremont, scripter, Dave Cockrum, and Bob Wyacek, artists, Joe Rosen, letterer, Bob Sharon, colorist, Louise Jones, editor, and Jim Stupid, editor-in-chief. Release date, August 1982. Cover date, November
00:59:09
Speaker
The issue opens on Carol Danvers, nude, spread out on a rack, screaming, being pummeled by two laser beams. Her entire body lit up in warm orange light. I don't remember writing nude.
00:59:21
Speaker
there She is You're right, she Two out of three issues in this series that have started with somebody mostly nude. yeah The brood find themselves confused by her physiology, not entirely human, but not mutant.
00:59:37
Speaker
Her body can be transformed into a brood host, but her mind remains aware and independent. This is like, it's very confusing to, I had to recap this one and it was very, very confusing to figure out what was happening here. Cause you see her change into a brood and then they cut away and then they talk about how like they can change her into a brood, but they, and then the next time you see her, she's just a human. It's really confusing.
00:59:59
Speaker
Yeah, they're kind of her changing her back and forth while Wolverine i figures out what's going on here. It's yeah odd. I guess, but we don't see them change her back. It's it's like, it it's a little, yeah.
01:00:12
Speaker
What we're establishing here is they're messing with her and she's still got full control of her mind. She's apparently, despite not having power, incredibly powerful. Yeah. when one of the brood texts wanders off to get some weird drinks we see wolverine in the doorway stalking the alien he tracked carol' sent to these labs and quickly picks off the tech and chucks him through the window of the lab his body is scaled still somewhere between himself and a brood but he's fierce as ever tearing through the scholars in the lab He reminisces about his past with Carol, and when he rescued her from KGB as a part of the Canadian Secret Service, defying orders.
01:00:49
Speaker
Is that the first time we found out about this? Or did they talk about that before? I hadn't heard about this before. I wasn't sure if it happened in yeah like a different comic somewhere. Maybe. like they ref Well, if it had been, Wolverine would have been in that comic, and we would have...
01:01:05
Speaker
read it, right? Sounds right. what
Escape Plans and Ethical Dilemmas
01:01:08
Speaker
ah Yeah, I don't know. um I don't remember it. Well, as he reflects on this, he trashes the device that's morphing her body, and she falls to the ground back to normal.
01:01:21
Speaker
Except that her scent is no longer human, and just for a moment, her eyes are replaced by a sea of stars. She describes herself as unexpectedly bursting with energy.
01:01:32
Speaker
But As the badasses they aren't, they pull themselves together. Carol grabs a brood weapon and the two push deeper into the complex. Yeah. Wolverine does. So he ah he's looking at the machine that ah Carol Danvers is trapped in. And he's like, this organic alien tech doodad is too complicated for me. Let me just take a whack at it and slices it open. This is how my dad fixed the VCR when we were kids. Something was going wrong. You just punch it and then it would start working. It works. It's a, it's a manly man's way of doing things. You know, that worked for VCRs because almost always what was wrong with the VCR, something got stuck in it.
01:02:14
Speaker
Yeah. But I don't think it works for other stuff. just see It works for this tech. Works in organic space tech. I guess so but Maybe stuff gets stuck in it a lot. Like our organic tech.
01:02:26
Speaker
I get stuck in my body all the time. ah
01:02:33
Speaker
Meanwhile, Lorna Dane and Moira McTaggart are in Westchester, New York, overseeing the rebuilding of the x Xavier Mansion. They finally acknowledge that the that the mansion was destroyed. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Corsair and Havoc teleport in to tell her about the X-Men and LaLondra's kidnapping.
01:02:50
Speaker
Havoc throws a little temper tantrum and we find out that Corsair has magic gloves that summon guns from midair. What the fuck? But really, this scene is just to let us know that Xavier is taking the abduction of the X-Men really hard and that Corsair is headed to rescue Scott.
01:03:05
Speaker
Yeah, um I think we'll talk about this and probably next issue, but I think Claremont had...
01:03:15
Speaker
expected the x-men were going to abandon the mansion and live on that island and then for a very specific reason he had to have the mansion come back and so really jammed it into this issue like oh they're rebuilding it and they're almost done it's going to be okay yeah eyes speaking of scott which we were before you interrupted yeah He's running around in some jagged edged panels fighting Brood on the weird alien planet from last issue. They're playing around with some panel formatting. It doesn't always work, but yeah i mean at least they're trying. their Jagged panels gives us a good, like, when we find out what's happening, it's not a surprise because of the jagged panels. Yeah, yeah.
01:04:02
Speaker
ah When the X-Men arrive, assumedly to help him, they all morph into Brood and he has to take them out with a massive five directional optic blast. Guys, why'd you do that to me?
01:04:14
Speaker
Why'd you make me split my the optic beams into five blasts so they can each hit you at the same time? And why don't I do that all the time to everybody?
01:04:26
Speaker
He catches a look at his reflection in a floating mirror, though, and sees himself as a brood who informs him that he's been implanted with an egg and he will eventually turn. While the brood X-Men close in on him, two giant green hands lift him into the sky and bring him face to face with a giant green Professor X. Huh? Just in my experience, not a good sign when Professor X turns green. Yeah, green Professor X. We know this.
01:04:52
Speaker
He screams for help, but is given the cryptic, such aid was given when I first trained you, Cyclops. Therein lies your salvation. Cyclops draws on his training to defend against psychic attacks and suddenly wakes up.
01:05:05
Speaker
It was all a dream. duh Oh, yeah. Duh. Doy. You wrote duh into the recap. Yeah. Make me say that. He wanders from his room to find Aurora kneeling in meditation.
01:05:20
Speaker
She seems to be fighting a similar dream and an energy outline of the brood forms around her to confirm this. When a lightning bolt cracks across the sky, she wakes up crying.
01:05:31
Speaker
The two hold each other as Wolverine and Carol emerge from around a corner and the group makes plans to rescue the others and escape on the Laundra's yacht. Yay! The X-Men! Back to... You can't... You underestimate the X-Men! They're gonna come and kick your ass! You did When they find the other X-Men, they're all still stuck in the illusion, but agree to follow the lead of their pals.
01:05:53
Speaker
Colossus, Wolverine, Cyclops, and Carol navigate the organic passages of the giant creature carcass that the brood made their base in, using Wolverine's senses. Colossus...
01:06:04
Speaker
at this time, still sees the corridors as palace hallways. They come to a fork where one path leads to Lalandra and the other leads to the queen. Wolverine, knowing that they're all already doomed, wants to take out the queen, but Cyclops, unaware of this fact, tells him to leave her. the X-Men don't kill.
01:06:22
Speaker
There's no time for that now, though, as they're suddenly attacked by a battalion of brood. Carol runs off to rescue Lalandra while Wolverine continues to push towards the queen. huh As they begin to become overwhelmed and Carol returns with Lalandra, Cyclops demands a retreat, but Wolverine refuses. As the two argue, the scene cuts to Storm, Nightcrawler, and Kitty. Storm flies them as high as she can outside the brood's carcass base. Lalandra's ship is just above the atmosphere, so Kurt teleports he and Kitty the rest of the way onto the yacht.
01:06:54
Speaker
He clings to the outside in the freezing cold and thinning supply of breathable air while she phases inside to find the airlock controls. However... Inside, she finds a brood soldier. It chases her into the airlock and she agonizes, not wanting to kill it by cycling the airlock and letting Kurt in.
01:07:12
Speaker
But when it tries to sting her, it hits the button itself, sucking itself out into the vacuum. Kitty is blameless as she pulls Kurt in, saving his life. God, they do this. wo Claremont does this so many times in this arc where it's like,
01:07:26
Speaker
the X-Men are like, we don't kill and i won't kill this guy. And then something happens. That's not their fault. And all of the guys die. it's It's so, it's such an interesting debate. Yes. Right. To have where it's like, we're about to go into war, but most of us are sworn not to kill. Right. How do you handle that? And then, yeah, just his solutions to it are fucking asinine. Whoops.
01:07:54
Speaker
I accidentally whipped myself out of the airlock. As if they don't, as if they haven't spent so much time on She-Are ships that they would know how to use airlock. Right.
01:08:08
Speaker
Like, they've been on She-Are ships the entire time we've known them now. Like, even the stab that he takes at Kitty, if she doesn't phase, he stabs her into the button that opens the airlock. Yeah.
01:08:21
Speaker
it'sre Oh, man. ah Back in the Queen's throne room or whatever, Lalandra joins the argument against Cyclops that they should kill the Queen Mother while they can.
01:08:32
Speaker
As Wolverine rears back to stab her in the face, the Shi'ar transporters from the yacht kick in and they all disappear in a flash of light. They begin to argue again aboard the yacht, but as the issue ends, we see the yacht in the crosshairs of some kind of gun about to fire.
01:08:49
Speaker
To be continued. Really... cool issue, really bad cliffhanger. Like, just like, all of a sudden, and they're gonna get shot out of the sky! Alright, man. Alright, cool. You needed a cliffhanger, we get it, but like, we knew they were already in danger. Like, I don't know.
01:09:08
Speaker
Well, it almost seems like... This almost feels like a conclusion, like the or maybe a midseason finale type conclusion where like everything seems lost.
01:09:22
Speaker
Finally, have the gang back together. Finally, they escape. We can get back to business as usual. But we know we know We know that there's this thing that they'll have to deal with, except for Wolverine.
01:09:36
Speaker
But at the same time, like it's the X-Men. what They can do anything. ah this sort of It yeah almost leaves you with a feeling of comfort, even knowing all this, until... Yeah, there we love to end issues on good guys in crosshairs, but it like it kind of pulls you back into the action there.
01:09:55
Speaker
Yeah, which I don't like. I think cut i think if they cut that... if I think if he cuts that... Cut it. Cut it. um I think if they had cut that and left him and left it like that, like the X-Men escape and then just like a wordless panel of Wolverine's eyes.
01:10:15
Speaker
right then we are like fuck like because we are excited right we spend that whole page excited like yes they're getting away fuck they they kind of mass they did it he did yeah yeah we they know with like wolverine fought his way through a fucking planet to save these guys and they they they they beat their psychic programming and they they won And then you cut to wolver just like Wolverine's eyes.
01:10:42
Speaker
And you're like, fuck, no, they're du they're doomed. They're dead. Yeah. And at this point, he's the only one that knows, too. Yeah, yeah. which And he's had some... the X-Men are are thrilled. Yeah.
01:10:53
Speaker
And that's such a good... Again, this this this crosshairs thing is so cheap. But everything else about the end of this issue is so... um Impactful.
01:11:06
Speaker
That... Yeah. Yeah. yeah It's chilling. I wanted to pause here for a moment and just say like, hey, what's happened so far is like is a story in itself. And it's terrifying. Like we know the brood problem isn't over. This leg of it appears to be.
01:11:25
Speaker
At least as far as the X-Men are concerned, like we know that the X-Men think that everything's over except for Wolverine. And we also know that it definitely isn't. And when is this going to come back into play?
01:11:38
Speaker
Right. um The answer is immediately.
01:11:48
Speaker
Uncanny X-Men number 164, Binary Star. binary star rimaking Written by Chris Claremont, penciled by Dave Cockrum, finished by Bob Wyachek, lettered by Joe Rosen, colored by Janine Casey, edited by Louise Jones, edited by Jappy Ships.
01:12:05
Speaker
Release date, September 1982. Cover date, December
01:12:16
Speaker
xmen We're under attack! Someone shouts as Lalondra's green dildo ship flees from a fleet of the Brood's living starfighters. Space sharks equipped with guns on their heads and rockets in their butts like ah fucking Mr. Burns would have come up with. Yeah.
01:12:36
Speaker
But these fighters are only firing warning shots at the ship. This is not a ship equipped for battle. It's actually a pleasure craft, Matt. yeah Yeah, we could tell by its shape. good So taking them out would be easy, but they're clearly after something.
01:12:58
Speaker
God, my dude, my eyes glazed over the whole first like five, six pages of the story. It's so much just like. Huntmaster, aim the proton torpedoes and hit their accelerator so they can't make the jump to faster than light. What do the bioscan say? We shall destroy them. be Be careful. We're about to get pulled into the gravity well. Take the gun and vid fire at their main thrusters.
01:13:23
Speaker
Jesus Christ. This is the shit that I live for, Matt. Chris Claremont had like, it seems it's very babbly. It's very like yeah a lot of just dumb, a combination of techno babble and alien words for things. And some like Air Force shit. It all makes sense. It all comes together. It's what they have to do is get out of the gravity well of the planet they're on before they can engage their warp drive.
01:13:52
Speaker
in the small country It would be foolish to do otherwise. We all know that because of you know all the um warp drives that we use on our daily lives. Look, we've all seen a warp drive. We all know how it works. You need to escape the well of the planet's gravity.
01:14:10
Speaker
this I don't understand why you would In the small weapons section to the ship, Logan, Carol, and Peter start manning guns. Carol and Logan are taking some joy in the experience, likening it to a video game.
01:14:22
Speaker
But Peter struggles with the idea of killing.
01:14:27
Speaker
The brood are evil, but there must be a way other than all-out war. Scott and Aurora, yeah. Colossus is very much ah going through the same thing I go through when I try to play video games, which is like, everything's moving so quickly. I'm not sure I want to kill this person. I'm i'm trying to be kind. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:14:53
Speaker
Scott and Aurora struggle with the same issues as they fire their blasts and bolts from the ship, doing everything they can not to harm the living organisms themselves. Storm's inexplicably unable to control her powers though. Huh.
01:15:07
Speaker
And a lightning bolt blasts the life out of one of the living ships. She's devastated, unable to continue fighting again. she Oh, I just, I killed everybody and saved us, but it wasn't my fault.
01:15:18
Speaker
Jesus Christ, Chris. Also, she mentions the solar wind again. She does. She says she can feel the caress of the solar wind, but she's far too, she's too far from the sun So she can't use it. It's Claremont just desperately trying to lock down some logic for Storm's powers. yeah He's like, okay, that one time I made her use solar wind, but that other time i wouldn't let her use powers because she wasn't anywhere near the earth. go maybe she needs to be beerers near sun and that's how she can control the solar winds.
01:15:54
Speaker
It's star powered. Yeah, ridiculous. But there's a there's a more interesting and logical reason why she's having trouble controlling her powers that is cool.
01:16:05
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. So the brood, meanwhile, land a a critical hit. They roll a 20, taking out the ship's warp drive. Brave as hell and against a few objections, Kitty phases into the bug suit and volunteers to go out and fix it her damn self.
01:16:22
Speaker
oh it's so cool it's good she with kitty in the bug suit is currently my favorite kitty outfit that she are bug space suit that they build that they use all the time yeah exactly yeah the one that before we knew what the she are were and it was just nightmares that professor x was having about a bug yeah yeah after him um yeah it's cool because she's like And Cyclops is like, I'm not going to put, you're not the one we're going to put in danger here because you're just a kid. she's like, I'm the only one who's like not going to be in danger. Yes. I'm the only one who should be doing this.
01:17:00
Speaker
And she's, i mean, she's right. Like this is, it it it brings into focus how clever Chris Claremont was. I don't know if this was thought through or this was just a happy accident to make the child's power.
01:17:12
Speaker
The power to not be harmed by anything.
Carol Danvers and the Power of Transformation
01:17:15
Speaker
Yes. Yeah, yeah. It's like a really clever idea. Like, again, I don't know if it was a happy accident or not, but it's very it's a very clever thing that keeps coming up.
01:17:24
Speaker
It is. Even if it's not, it's just putting her in this position of not able to go on the offensive, but still being... able to make use of that single power that she has that she just can't be harmed.
01:17:40
Speaker
And yeah, and I mean, and then everybody constantly always saying like, we don't want you to get hurt. And she's like, I'm not going to. Yeah. I'm the only one who's not going to.
01:17:50
Speaker
She's a hero. She manages to avoid the brood attacks, but is ultimately hit by a piece of shrapnel as she works on the warp drive. Carol, meanwhile, starts experiencing a spell of weirdness, a feeling she can't quite explain.
01:18:04
Speaker
She knows something's different, though, when she transforms into a brilliant figure of starlight. The narrator explains that despite losing her powers, her DNA still contains the hybrid Kree genes that turned her into Miss Marvel. And the Brood's attempts to evolve her seem to have unlocked these genes in a whole new way.
01:18:23
Speaker
um yeah ah You know, my ah my studded belt unlocked these genes in a whole new way. Well, they locked... I guess when you undo the belt is when they it. The light emanated from her body destroys all the surrounding brood ships just as Kitty fixes the warp drive and they take off. But uh-oh! They forgot to get Kitty back on board first.
01:18:44
Speaker
Whoops. They just... Kitty's like, it's fixed. and they're like, okay, bam! She's still she's still ah clinging to the exterior of the ship. It is like... Yeah, it is like if you...
01:18:59
Speaker
If I was filling up your tires at the Wawa. And I was like, and then like, I was like, ah ah, all right. The pressure set. And you just shot off.
01:19:12
Speaker
yeah Yeah. Ran over your foot in the process. yeah Exactly. um You were my ride. You wouldn't do this. All right. We cut to the Xavier mansion for a quick interlude where Charles and Ileana eat dinner. All right.
01:19:30
Speaker
He's wracked with guilt about the loss of Lalandra and the X-Men, but also perplexed by his inability to read Ileana's mind. She's got psychic screens up, no doubt placed there by Belasco.
01:19:41
Speaker
He's got no time for that now, though, as he wants to be left alone. That's only once. Fucking Ileana's like, hey, how come sometimes when you talk to me,
01:19:52
Speaker
It's in my head. And sometimes it's out loud. and he's like, oh, that's my psychic powers. And she's like, what? What is that? And he's like, oh, I'm a mutant like your brother. And she's like, you are? You haven't had this conversation? There's no way you didn't know. One of the guys you hang out with is blue and has a tail. Like, you know these people are mutants, right?
01:20:16
Speaker
She's like, am I a mutant? I can do weird things. And it like closes in on her eyes. Yeah, it's actually cool. Sure. That'll come back. Yeah, it is. Yeah, yeah. But again, another example of them just taking a break in the action to be like, oh, yeah, Ileana has some stuff going on, too.
01:20:35
Speaker
and And also, it' we you are really soon going to have to introduce some very big stuff to the X-Men because of an editorial mandate. So let me just remind you, there's a mansion and the Xavier's there. And, theyre like you know, actually, he he teaches kids.
01:20:53
Speaker
He also teaches Ileana English in one big info dump in her brain. Is that? you know I'm not talking about... Is that ethical?
01:21:05
Speaker
it's this is He does it while she sleeps without her knowing. She just wakes up one morning and like, oh, i'm I'm speaking in English now. Well, sort of. She says it's like while he's putting her to sleep, he like kisses her on the forehead, and that's when he does it. Yeah, yeah. And I'm not talking about his own personal code of ethics, but like in the psychic code of ethics, is it okay to just start putting knowledge in people's brains? Teaching people stuff. i i Man, it's so hard to think of why it wouldn't be, right? like It's non-consensual, but it's just teaching somebody something.
01:21:38
Speaker
Yeah, but then does it become okay if like if somebody is... If we were doing this podcast and so and you had information wrong and instead of editing it out, somebody just put the right information in your brain. ah Yeah.
01:21:56
Speaker
Right. Or or like i I suddenly educate, like, I know you're afraid of spiders, and I suddenly, I'm like, I'm going to help, and I educate you all about arachnids, and then you are twice as afraid of spiders because you know how many are arachnids.
01:22:13
Speaker
Also, it seems like he did this just because he was tired of hearing people speak in Russian. He's like, I don't know this language. shit Back to space as we find Kitty, hurt but conscious, with Carol's new angelic form standing over her. Everyone's okay, but Kitty needs some time to recover and now seems to be suffering more from ah like a flu-like virus than anything else.
01:22:36
Speaker
Yeah. Huh. Carol uses her new abilities to power up the repaired warp drive and starts reflecting on her next step. She's an open invite to join the X-Men, which, again, they don't seem to know what a mutant is. they Yeah. Now that you're mutant. You're a mutant now. Well, no, she's not.
01:22:54
Speaker
She already had powers. She's more like a Spider-Man or something. But with this level of power, shouldn't she be out battling more universal threats? Carol Danvers was her earth name. Now she announces she's binary, but she doesn't say it like that.
01:23:10
Speaker
She's just like, the X-Men would have been great for Carol Danvers, but not for binary. i think, I think it would have been so funny to see the rest of that scene, right? Colossus, like, what?
01:23:25
Speaker
Who? Um, binary, binary, sorry, it's it's my, ah that's my new name. I'm, But you're oh well your Carol.
01:23:37
Speaker
Yeah, no, i will i'm care you're right. I'm still Carol, but i like I'm also binary. Sorry, I should have, before I yelled that, I should have like explained. Are you still Ms. Marvel?
01:23:47
Speaker
No, I'm binary. Yeah, no, I'm binary. I stopped being Ms. Marvel. Oh. Yeah. I mean, so do you you like it, or...? do Do you like my... Yeah, yeah. Oh, get good. i don't understand. i don't I don't know where it comes from, but once this is all over, maybe you can explain. Yeah, I will. And i you're sure you like because you had a weird reaction.
01:24:10
Speaker
I didn't... I just didn't know you were talking about yourself. Oh, okay. I trying to figure out who binary was. It wasn't. Back on the deck, Cyclops confronts Wolverine. He's been cagey about something ever since they escaped the brood planet, and it's time to come clean.
01:24:26
Speaker
Logan... having a hard time facing the reality that he's going to have to kill his friends, remains cagey and storms off. He's kind of being a baby a little bit. It is, but there's also, there's a reason to be a baby, but he's being a baby. He's like, he's like communicating like a baby.
01:24:42
Speaker
They really, i think they do, ah see he is communicating like a baby. He needs to learn to share his feelings. But the the weight of it and the way that Wolverine carries that I think is illustrated really well here. ah Just the way that, like, if he tells them, there's there's no way to tell them without telling them, like, so I probably have to kill all of you.
01:25:08
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And like he's he under we've talked about this just last episode. That's his burden, right? That's what he expects to take on. That's that's the his cross to bear or whatever. But but he doesn't. like How do you? Yeah. Yeah. How do you have that conversation with? It seems like some of the closest family he's ever had.
01:25:29
Speaker
Right. He's li he's like. I don't think it's this episode or this issue, but like shortly he's going to call them friends like he's going to actually. Use the word. Like, these are my friends. Yeah, yeah. Which is... Very rare.
01:25:45
Speaker
Yeah. So in the shuttle bay, Storm argues with herself internally. Something inside her is wrong. She tries to identify the issue when she's stricken with an inexplicable pain. Again. As it keeps happening with one of them, when one of them is in distress, the other one just...
01:25:59
Speaker
immediately shows up cyclops is there and cyclops rushes into help and she breaks down she's been in space too long missing the earth and life and being surrounded by only metal and plastic something has changed and it seems to be changing in all of them kitty's miraculous recovery from mortal wounds herself falling ill storm doesn't get sick i know she says it again two episodes in a row I've never been ill a day in my life. And this strange feeling that something's inhabiting her body, that must be it.
01:26:34
Speaker
In some strange way, she's carrying a child. Then she suddenly has a realization. Without explanation, she gusts Scott out of the bay, slams the door shut, and takes off in a small sco scout ship.
01:26:46
Speaker
Apparently naked. Apparently made naked, yeah. She leaves her uniform behind. They're like she like, why did she leave her uniform behind? i I also don't know the answer to that, guys. And I am omnipotent here.
01:26:59
Speaker
That's enough for Wolverine to finally reveal what's going on with everyone. They're, as we know, infested with brood embryos and are doomed to be transformed. Everyone but himself and Carol.
01:27:12
Speaker
This is a really heartbreaking scene. it just kind of cuts to everybody's faces looking either angry or devastated. like Kurt's face is in his hands.
01:27:23
Speaker
Kitty's
Cliffhangers and Artistic Contributions
01:27:24
Speaker
crying. so ah Colossus is enraged. um Scott, like always, it's just kind of stoic, like accepting like, oh no.
01:27:34
Speaker
Okay. Yeah. I, I understand what's happening here. Carol, however, is incensed by the news. In a blind rage, she jets off to find the brood and destroy them, forgetting that she's on a spaceship, I guess. She blasts through the wall, and the X-Men start getting sucked out into space.
01:27:55
Speaker
She's like, how dare they? And then blasts through the fucking wall. What are you doing, Carol? You've had this power before. Yeah. You know not to do this. And even if it's not like it's not that she doesn't know the limits of her power because she clearly knew she could go through the wall. She didn't think she was going to hit the wall at top speed and bounce back.
01:28:19
Speaker
Don't and also kill everybody. What? Don't just not do this because you're in space. Don't do this in somebody's home either. yeah Well, superheroes don't know that.
01:28:31
Speaker
like To be fair, superheroes do this all the time. They've got a license to punch holes in buildings. You're in space. And like this is this scene has never made sense of It's not just...
01:28:42
Speaker
You know, me and you are part of our job here is to pick apart these issues for nuance and themes and ideas, but also for ridiculousness and jokes. Yeah. yeah But this is what the fourth time, fifth time in my life I've read the Brood Saga. And every single time I'm like, why did she do that?
01:29:01
Speaker
That's the stupidest thing. who no she would. No. What? What? it's It's her uncontrollable female rage, Matt. Oh, my. Oh, her. Yeah, she's having hysteria. Her uterus. Yeah. Inside her body.
01:29:18
Speaker
And that's, I don't know if we've mentioned it, but that's the end of the issue. The X-Men are being sucked into space. Just ends right there. And again, it just a stupid cliffhanger. Like, he's got this really good story, but he just can't nail cliffhangers. Like how to how to bring someone back the next is issue.
01:29:36
Speaker
Right. He's like. He's not, it's, it's, it's a lack of faith in himself, right? He doesn't have faith that this scenario just by itself, or this is Jim Shooter, right? Um, he doesn't have faith that this scenario in and of itself is, is like enough of a cliffhanger to make somebody be like, I need to fucking find out what happens. It is that, um,
01:29:59
Speaker
yeah And so he just keeps being like, and they're all about to die in space. Like, fuck it off, dude. Stop. Legitimately, you could have. And they've done this in the past. You could have ended the issue on those reaction shots from the X-Men learning that they're infested with a being that will overtake them. And instead of the next issue being them, like, having to, like, falling out of an airplane, but, you know.
01:30:25
Speaker
in space. In space. the The next issue could have started with Carol being like, I'm going to go destroy all of them. Right? Like, that would have been a powerful opening. and Yeah, yeah. Instead, they have to, like, wait to to do that because they, you know.
01:30:45
Speaker
And eventually we'll find out they have to create a double size issue to fit the rest of the story. ah All right, Pat. i Wait, do they get stuck out into space and die? What?
01:30:57
Speaker
One more thing before we move on. It's important to me that everyone knows that binary gets her powers from a white hole.
01:31:08
Speaker
Presumably the opposite of a black hole, but she keeps saying, i have to tap that white hole.
01:31:18
Speaker
um pat do you want to tell me about uncanny x-men number 165 okay uncanny x-men number 165 transfigurations okay not as dramatic as his other titles recently but i'm into it chris claremont writer paul smith penciler what who He's Paul Smith.
01:31:43
Speaker
Paul Smith is, there's not much to say about it this guy. He's ah he's about 30 years old. He's from Missouri. He's kind of green. he He worked in animation on like a Lord of the Rings ah movie or TV series or something. just um lord I think it's a movie. um And he's only on X-Men for a year. And supposedly he's only supposed to be on X-Men for a year. And he knows that this is um like his big shot.
01:32:10
Speaker
um because me and you have talked about this several times as yeah this as this has gone on the X-Men are at their they are a bestseller now like it's unclear whether it happened during the burn run burn says it didn't but I mean, come on. and of it it had to have. And every history of it says it happens like around the Phoenix Saga, but maybe right after the Phoenix Saga. It's like it's like hard to tell. But by this point, undoubtedly, the X-Men is like
01:32:46
Speaker
a is absolutely famous, best-selling comic. Everybody's reading it. And Paul Smith... I think comes on fucking swinging, but we'll talk about that in a second. um It's interesting that he starts because his short run is really like iconic.
01:33:07
Speaker
There's a lot of like really iconic scenes, but they're very personal and intimate. um I don't want to spoil any of them, but they there he does some of the most famous X-Men panels and covers of all time.
01:33:21
Speaker
And one of the best X-Men design costume designs of all time. um And like this ends up being just kind of his whole legacy. He does a bunch of other shit, but like when people talk about Paul Smith, they're going to be talking about the X-Men. and that's His short run on X-Men.
01:33:37
Speaker
Yeah. Interesting. Yeah. But yeah. ah So what does he do? How does he how does he start? Paul Smith. Well, he starts by enlisting Bob Wyachek for inks. Elle Varley is our colorist. Tom Orszakowski is our letterer. Louise Jones, editor and Jim, stupid editor in chief. Release date October 12th, 1982. Cover date January 1983. He actually starts with ah this line.
01:34:01
Speaker
Possibly the last stand of the uncanny X-Men. um I've never heard them say that before. Any other issue. Isn't that the case every time? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:34:16
Speaker
I guess and technically that's the case of all of us all the time. Every moment is ah possibly our last stand. Yeah.
Crisis and Character Reactions
01:34:25
Speaker
They are bandying about the phrase last stand a lot, though. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I agree.
01:34:32
Speaker
Okay, the X-Men are being sucked out into space. Due to the whole binary punched in the hole for no reason. Yeah, really high drama here that somebody for no fucking reason just killed the entire X-Men team.
01:34:51
Speaker
Cyclops, like he's falling from a plane, thinks quick and has Colossus block the hole with his body and Nightcrawler teleport Lalandra to the bridge to activate the ship's repair system. He then uses his I-beams to cut a chunk out of the floor, which instantly gets sucked to the hole and covers it, while Peter, having caught a hurtling Wolverine, pulls them both out of the way.
01:35:12
Speaker
it's ah So this is what I mean by Paul Smith comes in swinging. um There's this big splash page at first and it's incredible. There's it's like so Cyclops is front and center because he's the fucking leader and he is holding on to something and he's like fully in control.
01:35:35
Speaker
Right. um Fully in charge of himself. He doesn't look panicked like some of the rest of them. Nightcrawler. Concerned with others. Chivalrous has his hand reached out. He's holding onto Lalandra. Like his first thing is like, I got to save her. Yeah. Colossus.
01:35:50
Speaker
Strong. Simple. Stalwart. He's just holding himself in place because he can, because he's Colossus. um Bracing himself for whatever's coming next. Kitty. Childlike. She's just panicking. Um...
01:36:08
Speaker
And her hair is flying up out away from her body, making her look even even sillier. And Wolverine, nimble, animalistic. he's he's He's hunched over with his claws sticking into the ground.
01:36:24
Speaker
Like, that's how he's staying ah staying put. And he's, like, interestingly physically separated from the others. The others are kind of clustered in a team. And Wolverine's off by himself. It's is like, very well-designed panel.
01:36:37
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. It's so good. It's such a, it's the action feels real again. yeah It's a theme that we're seeing all through the Claremont run here with these different artists, but you can follow it. It feels cinematic. It feels like it's, yeah it's taking motion in front of you.
Xavier’s Hope and Storm’s Sacrifice
01:36:54
Speaker
Yeah. And yeah. And he's the first person to kind of draw Wolverine with like a human face, right? Everyone draws Wolverine as like this weird troll. ah Paul Smith draws him like a person.
01:37:05
Speaker
Like you could be like, Oh, I could, I've, I've seen a guy like that. Yeah. Yeah. He's he's a woodsman. a guy that you don't, uh, the guy you don't talk to at a bar is what he looks like.
01:37:17
Speaker
ah Back on Earth, it's been weeks since the X-Men and Lalandra were kidnapped, and the Professor has run out of hope. Stevie Hunter and Moira talk about it pull-side. They just needed to get some bikinis in here. Stevie feels a connection to Xavier because, like him, her legs were damaged, and it keeps her from performing, much as Xavier's injuries keep him from superheroing. Yeah.
01:37:41
Speaker
Moira talks to a brooding ex Xavier about... about Shen Kui Man, karma, and how she needs a mentor. When Xavier turns her down, Moira threatens to send her to Magneto or Emma Frost's Massachusetts Academy.
01:37:56
Speaker
Xavier, thinking the X-Men are dead, doesn't want to bring more new mutants into the school and risk their lives. But from Moira, he sees that he doesn't have a choice. You've been pronouncing some of these words in a little, like a weird, you said brooding Xavier. And you said bring more new mutants into the.
01:38:15
Speaker
They're in all caps in the recap here for some reason. Why? i don't know. I'll have to check. Maybe I need to update my ah Google docs. So what x Xavier sees is the new mutants will either struggle on their own, fall into the hands of evil mutants or join Xavier's school.
01:38:33
Speaker
So he decides to help. That is a fucked up thing, right? It's like you can't just leave them to their own devices. They are. They. Yeah. Things could really fall apart for them, right?
01:38:46
Speaker
Yes. Moira is like, hey, if you're not going to take care of her, then I will make sure that one of these other mutant leaders does. Right. The worst possible outcome is that they just go unchecked. We don't agree with those people ethically, but they are going to make sure these kids are okay.
01:39:08
Speaker
And if you won't do that, somebody needs to. I'd rather them be adopted by an evil person than adopted by nobody and suffering.
01:39:22
Speaker
She does all this in a bathing suit.
01:39:28
Speaker
In space, Storm is still flying off on her own in a Shi'ar shuttle, tortured by her revelation about the brood embryo inside of her. Allowing it to live means her own death in the deaths of countless others, but killing herself to destroy it means that she'll be breaking her vow to never take a life. Yeah. She starts metamorphosing into a brood, but just then she drifts into the galactic core of the universe. What? Why are they? What?
01:39:55
Speaker
Full of suns, she says, so it enhances her power by multitudes. So many suns here. She has a new idea and a third path. She explodes the ship using this power, and she and the embryo inside of her die.
01:40:11
Speaker
How that's a third path is unclear. yeah ah Yeah, she's like, okay, path number one, I let it kill me and become a brood and it might hurt others. Path number two, I kill it by killing myself and then I'm taking a life.
01:40:30
Speaker
Path number three, i kill it by killing myself and that means taking a life. what ah Wait, um shit, I'm already on path three.
01:40:46
Speaker
It's also, it's pretty obvious that originally she was drawn nude here. Yeah, yeah. And that they had to last minute go in and draw a dress on her. Like you can see, first of all,
01:40:59
Speaker
The dress she's wearing keeps changing in shape and color because it was thrown on at the last minute. But it's only covering the areas that you would... That would be suggestive. Also, you can see the piece the points in her hair where they had to, like, erase the lock of hair that comes down and covers her breasts.
01:41:19
Speaker
Right. And it's just kind of, like, kinked up instead. Yeah. Man. This is... this is it's I kind of forgot about the gym shoot jump Jump Stupid influence, um and now I'm thinking about it a lot more. And somehow your explanation of this storm change is making me believe the cliffhangers were Jump Stupid's idea.
01:41:50
Speaker
Yeah. Absolutely. It seems like it's it's such a tight story except for the very end of every issue.
Brood World Mission and Faith Discussions
01:41:57
Speaker
And it happened so quick that it could have easily just been drawn in at the last minute.
01:42:02
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's just like Chris to hand in a script ending on Wolverine's eyes. Right. And Jim stupid's like, uh, this isn't how superhero comics end. then hands it back.
01:42:18
Speaker
I don't even know what I was picturing. I think I was picturing like a big troll. Yeah, yeah. Sort of a did that like a toxic Avenger type. yeah i Like he's melting. This is how comics works.
01:42:32
Speaker
Wow. That's why his parents named him Jim Stupid. Back on the yacht, days have passed and the X-Men are almost finished repairing the damage. They begin to discuss what to do next and seeing that they're all doomed, they make the decision to go back to the brood world and destroy the sleazoid queen and as much of the brood race as they can. Wow.
01:42:52
Speaker
Like they are all set on genocide here, like full on destroy every remnant of this race.
01:43:02
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. Yeah. Wolverine comes across Kurt praying. They have a brief discussion of faith in which Kurt tries to get Logan to see the value of it.
01:43:16
Speaker
that Logan must be terribly alone in his atheism. Logan replies that he doesn't feel alone because he has Kurt. That's so sweet. It's so good. Every time they have a conversation on a on something they fundamentally disagree on, they're both just like, hey, I get where you're coming from. Have you considered this other position?
01:43:37
Speaker
It brings them closer together, right? Like they become closer friends when they disagree, which... which Man, there's a lot Chris Claremont doesn't understand about socializing, right? About about two human beings interacting with one another, right? But in...
01:44:02
Speaker
there's something he really does understand about friendship. Like what makes two people friends? And he puts it all into like the storm and Cyclops friendship, the Wolverine and Nightcrawler friendship later. Um,
01:44:19
Speaker
the kitty and iliana friendship um he there's some again he just he really understands something the the you don't know these people the sam and danny friendship like he's just really good no one that's he's really good at
01:44:38
Speaker
more than just we are drawn in the same comic book together Why are these two people friends? And are these two people, like, so like is Storm friends with Wolverine? Not really.
01:44:52
Speaker
But is Wolverine friends with Nightcrawler? Absolutely. Is Storm friends with Cyclops? Absolutely. Right? Yeah. He's not just defining characters. He's defining all of their relationships.
01:45:03
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And in a really mature way that you could look up to, that you could be like you could model your life on. It's actual good writing.
01:45:16
Speaker
ah Kitty Pryde is asleep and suffering from nightmares. She's in a graveyard in front of an open coffin surrounded by her parents and the X-Men. When she approaches the coffin, it's her body within. so...
01:45:30
Speaker
Can you imagine if they had viewings in a grave, in the graveyard? Like you go to, you go to your like grandmother's funeral and her car you go to the graveyard and she's just yeah there outside, coffin open, hovering over the ground. go see her, you go look at her and then they're like, all right, done. They close it and drop it into the hall.
01:45:54
Speaker
oh Her body in the coffin morphs into a brood and pulls her down, but she wakes up to Peter comforting her. Kitty is afraid of death and angry that Peter isn't accepting reality, but Peter is incredibly realistic about death. He sees it as inevitable and cherishes the life he's led.
01:46:14
Speaker
He actually goes pretty hardcore existentialist here. Yeah, yeah. Like, every moment we're dying, actually. Yeah, we're dying from the moment we start, and... We have to accept that if we're going to appreciate life.
01:46:28
Speaker
yeah Yeah, Really fucking good, dude. like Because she calls him stupid. And it's Claremont. She gets pretty mad. It's Claremont saying, like I want to say once and for all, so Colossus is not stupid. he's He expresses himself simply.
01:46:45
Speaker
And he has he enjoys life in a simple way. But it comes from a complex place. He's a smart complex. Yeah, yeah. Speaking of smart and complex, Kitty wants to bone. yeah.
01:46:58
Speaker
So does Peter. But though they kiss, he refuses. While it might be the end of the world for them, he can't square it ethically. No, yeah. It's it's a good. This is another Claremont being good. Right. yes like he And he's saying he's like, I wish you were older, which you're you you read that and you're like, fuck, fuck, fuck. mean i Don't say that to you. yeah And then and then she's like, well,
01:47:24
Speaker
hey it's the end of our lives it you know at things are there's no this is our last chance and he's like look yeah i know but first of all you never know what's gonna happen and second of all like this it wouldn't be right and i'm sorry and i i want to like that's a smart thing too is like peter being like being honest about this peter wants to Yeah, and but he knows that it's a line that he shouldn't cross.
Storm’s Connection and New Alliances
01:47:52
Speaker
Exactly. Which is what makes a person a good person, right? Like it's not that they don't have bad thoughts. It's that they control their behaviors. Anyway, sorry.
01:48:03
Speaker
Before the debate can continue, Storm appears. What? Wait, what? She's glowing and looks exactly like she did when she was in the thrall of Dracula. Fangs and all.
01:48:14
Speaker
They go to touch her and she disappears. Logan and Kurt are drinking some shitty beer they made with a food synthesizer. It's so funny. They're Nightcrawler's like, it'll get better with practice. They're clearly just like jamming their fingers on this food synthesizer until something like beer comes out. ah i But then Storm appears behind them.
01:48:41
Speaker
When they turn, she's gone, but they turn back and what is clearly a baby Aurora is standing in front of them. She's confused about why she's so small and frustrated that she can't get it right and disappears again.
01:48:53
Speaker
m The X-Men convene on the deck to tell each other of their experiences as Lalandra and Scott try to plot a course when Aurora appears again. She's a young thief with a blade and she's frightened, but then reappears as an old woman, exactly like she was in Limbo. Oh, yeah.
01:49:09
Speaker
Wolverine even tells them all that he senses her when she's here. It's not just a projection. What fuck? She's not exactly a ghost, but something else. And she apologizes that she just can't get this right. This is so interesting and cool. Like, every time she appears, you're like, whoa, what is she?
01:49:27
Speaker
She's trying something? What is she doing? This is... yeah It's a different version of Storm that we've seen before each time, too. It's so... And she's just like, dang it. Okay, hold on. Let me try again. And not explaining herself to anybody. yeah. yeah Very cool. ah Very cool.
01:49:43
Speaker
Very... I don't know. It's a little reminiscent of Dr. Manhattan reforming his body in Watchmen, except imagine that he was like, hey, am I... he Oh, no, it's just my bones. Ah, sorry. Sorry.
01:49:57
Speaker
It's just my circulatory system. Three years before that happens. Oh, o very good. Not reminiscent then. reminis Reminiscent.
01:50:08
Speaker
ah Sure. ah Guys, don't write an email for correcting Pat. That's ah perfectly fine. i believe i I decide it.
01:50:19
Speaker
At that moment, they're swallowed by one of the big red space whales that the brood uses ships. When they try to fight back, their weapons are disabled and Storm appears to them, looking like herself again, telling him that telling them that this space whale is something called an Akanti.
01:50:35
Speaker
And further, she's in control of it, for the Akanti and her are one. Whoa. To be continued. Whoa. They accidentally draw so ah color Scott's hair black.
01:50:49
Speaker
And he's wearing his sunglasses and he's kind of got like like ah like ah like ah a members-only jacket or something on. And he looks like a fucking greaser. a Greaser Cyclops. Very good.
01:51:01
Speaker
Danny Cyclops. Hey! Hey, I'm trying to save the universe here. I'll tell you, Matt, the rule that...
01:51:14
Speaker
If an issue starts with the X-Men falling out of a plane, it's going to be a good issue. Steel holds in space. This was terrific. It was good. It was a good one. um And it was it was quieter, right? Like, again, Paul Smith is known for these... he he's He draws really expressive faces. He draws kind of realistic people. Like, he turns superheroes into sort of, like, realistic figures. And...
01:51:41
Speaker
and Even though there's a lot of spacey stuff here, this is mostly a human drama issue. Yeah, yeah. that and the That combined with Claremont's sort of knack for building relationships between characters, it's just it's doing all the work you need here.
01:52:02
Speaker
And clearly having us take a short breath Pat, let me tell you about ah Uncanny X-Men number 166, Live Free or Die, and then let's get the fuck out of here.
01:52:12
Speaker
Live Free or Die. There was a a a cool hardcore band that I followed in high school called Live Free or Die. What a cool name for an issue.
01:52:23
Speaker
Like, we know where the X-Men are right now. And granted, there's a second sort of meaning to this that we're about to find out about. um But we know the X-Men are like, we are...
01:52:36
Speaker
about to become brood. So we are going to do this fucking suicide mission. And, and either they free themselves or die trying. Exactly. And it's, it's just a like, you see that as the name of the issue and you're like, like it's, it bumps you up. Fuck yes. Exactly. so All right, Chris Claremont is the scripter. Paul Smith is the penciler. Bob Wyacek is the inker. Tom Orzakowski is the letterer. Glynis Ween is the colorist. Louise joan is Jones is the editor. And Junk Stupid is the editor-in-chief. Release date, November 1982. Cover date, February open
01:53:18
Speaker
on the cold dead planet of madrazar Whoa. My favorite one. My favorite cold dead planet. I love my love the planet Madrazar. I'm always telling you. It's far from any sun. The brood found this planet long ago, burrowing into its surface for warmth and terraforming the environment before building a series of traps to hunt the Akanti.
01:53:40
Speaker
Quote, great, gentle, sentient beings who legend says have roamed the spaceways since creation. So space whales existed before Earth whales.
01:53:51
Speaker
Yes. Long before. okay Yeah, yeah. this I'll get into it later, but this concept is fascinating to me. We see one of these great beasts snared by the spikes of this trap planet as the brood prepare to prey on it and turn it into one of their living warships.
01:54:09
Speaker
Suddenly, a bright light. What could it be, the brood think briefly, before they're obliterated by binary tearing through the planet, laying waste to it. Once she's done, she connects psychically with the Akanti. It's a noble, wise creature that communicates through beautiful psychic song. This one's clearly in agony, though.
01:54:30
Speaker
And knowing he's beyond saving, requests Carol to put him out of his misery. She complies tearfully, lighting it up with the power of a star. It's so cool. It sounds so beautiful. They communicate through song psychically. And it's just carols like, you know, this is space whales that communicate in the most beautiful music you've ever heard.
01:54:51
Speaker
good i am revved up. And they're psychic. And they're psychic. And they're like bigger than fucking planet sized. Yeah. Yeah.
01:55:02
Speaker
Flying off the planet and into space, still swearing revenge on the brood. She happens to run into storm. She's just hanging out. Just hanging out. Oh, hey, fun fun to see you here.
01:55:13
Speaker
That must happen in the space in this the Marvel Universe sometimes. Like, Kwaezar is just flying through space and suddenly, like, Nova's there. he oh ah Oh, hey, man. Oh, Jesus.
01:55:26
Speaker
what what are you where are you off to small universe hey right storm's astral form at at least not storm really who speaks cryptically to carol and begs her to follow for an explanation of what's going on i am not quite the woman you knew they fly together to a baby aconti into its mouth you here come on carol come on into this mouth I swear i swear i have a plan.
01:55:56
Speaker
As Aurora explains that she and this creature are one in the same being. Fly into my mouth. I have a plan. It's okay. It's actually my mouth. Her body, badly damaged by the void of space, was recovered by the infant Akanti and saved, bonding the two together.
01:56:13
Speaker
Inside the creature's mouth, the X-Men greet Carol on board the green dildo ship, and she apologizes for putting them into a life-threatening situation earlier. Sorry it doesn't cut it, Carol! Apparently it does. The X-Men are like, What what do you mean? We're fine. They're laughing about it Everyone survived that. So yeah. Hey, don't do it again. And she's like, yeah you know I can't promise.
01:56:38
Speaker
um They start planning their attack on the brood mother queen, but storms astral form lets them know this would accomplish nothing. War vengeance is not the solution here. Instead, Aurora helps them plan to save the Akanti.
01:56:53
Speaker
She explains their complex reproduction process. All right, fuck. But here we go. Acanti are among the first life in the universe, roaming space, gathering knowledge, serenading the stars and doing no harm. They mate and create offspring with no consciousness. When they die, they fling themselves into the center of a star. The resulting energy reaction transfers their soul slash consciousness into their offspring to continue the pursuit of knowledge. No one knows how the brood got here, but it was eons ago, and they acted as the evil counter to the immense force of good that the Akanti represented. The brood found they could take over the Akanti and enslave them, using them as starships and keeping them alive while feeding from their living's flesh.
01:57:26
Speaker
The head Akanti was the prophet singer containing all knowledge of the Akanti in his soul. He was killed by the brood, but he was, but has not been flung into a star. So his soul remains in stasis. Storm has bonded with the consciousness list offspring of the prophet singer. Since his soul could not be transferred. This was all done with the help of the Akanti elders who found storm dying in space. If third path.
01:57:49
Speaker
They can send the Prophet Singer into a star and destroy his physical form.
Starjammers and Soul’s Light
01:57:53
Speaker
She didn't know that, dude. If they could send the Prophet Singer into a star and destroy his physical form, his soul can be transferred to this baby who can lead all the Akanti away from the Brood to safety. Without the Akanti, the Brood would be powerless to expand their empire.
01:58:08
Speaker
Unfortunately, the part of the Prophet Singer that needs to be thrown into a star is in the middle of the Brood's current home base. Whew. Okay, this is like season five Battlestar Galactica. So, okay, we have a plan. Beautiful.
01:58:26
Speaker
Aurora, a Conti baby, and Binary distract the brood, pulling them away from the Prophet Singer's soul, where the Prophet Singer's soul is being held. And this is, sorry, from here on out, they refer to it as the soul. They're going for an object that they call the soul. The soul. Mm-hmm.
01:58:44
Speaker
Wolverine points out the danger of working together when anyone but him and Carol could turn into a brood at any moment or even be a brood already. Scott, interestingly, challenges him on this and Wolverine almost kills everyone out of mercy. He pops his claws and he thinks about it. Yeah, and Scott's being a real brat about it.
01:59:04
Speaker
I wonder why. Until Kitty steps in. She's been the most afraid. But she isn't willing to give up yet. This is where he says they're his friends. Sweet. Yeah, yeah. no The plane goes into action and we see the Aconte baby maneuvering through the brood defenses, drawing them away from the Laundra's green dildo pleasure craft. The X-Men move out and Scott seems to be acting like a real dick the whole time. What's his problem?
01:59:32
Speaker
Cut to the brood hive where the queen mother receives a psychic message from a newly formed brood she doesn't recognize, who reveals that they're undercover, fooling the rest of the X-Men into believing they haven't transformed yet.
01:59:45
Speaker
Oh, shit. The X-Men, unaware of this, plunge ahead into the crazy jungle. Meanwhile, Binary kills off a ton of brood while Storm struggles with the concept of killing again.
01:59:58
Speaker
She manages to conjure a lightning bolt, risking her physical being to stun a full warship and all the brood aboard. it's pretty powerful there's we didn't mention it but there's a moment where cyclops is like are you able to use your actual like storm powers if necessary and she says i mean as a last resort like it it very well may kill me but uh yeah if needed i can do it and she manages not only to do it but control it to a degree where she's only stunning yeah stunning the brood she is stunning
02:00:34
Speaker
Cheers. The battle rages on. Peter struggles against the strength of the jungle. Kitty is flung into a nest of eggs, and Cyclops continues to antagonize Wolverine as he gets more and more erratic with his fighting style.
02:00:46
Speaker
Huh. Outside, Binary is finally overwhelmed by pure numbers, while Storm's baby Akanti is hit by a laser! All seems lost.
02:00:58
Speaker
Until a ship warps into battle and starts raging, the Starjammers are here! No way! Fucking so good. This was so good. this is And this is a ah real theme for me throughout this story, but this is something they told us was going to happen and then packed enough in between for you to forget that it was going to happen yeah until it happens at the essential moment. It's such such good storytelling. Good storytelling. Great storytelling. Amazing pace. Like his pace here is phenomenal.
02:01:29
Speaker
If he didn't have to do those cliffhangers, this would have been like one of the best paced. Yeah. Yeah. and Stories. Our excitement quickly fades though. As Wolverine finally figures out what's been bugging Scott so much.
02:01:41
Speaker
He's actually already begun transforming. Logan rips Cyclops's visor off and reveals two bug eyes firing powerfully, but recklessly.
02:01:52
Speaker
Behind them, more brood warriors start storming the area and the X-Men seem defeated. Even Kitty, running for her life yeah around the eggs, let's remember the eggs, runs out of energy and gets captured.
02:02:04
Speaker
Her death seems imminent. When the brood about to kill her exclaims, by the Black Nebula! It's a new one. With a massive roar, a dragon appears.
02:02:18
Speaker
What? Filling the height of the page, the brood try to flee, but as the flame, but the flame escaping the monster's mouth reduces them to cinders. Kitty stands amazed as the dragon flutters peacefully over to her, showing it's no bigger than a house cat.
02:02:35
Speaker
The small purple dragon, its plump body held up by impossibly small wings, is friendly. but their meeting is interrupted by a brood gun blasting a hole in the wall behind them, revealing a bright light.
02:02:50
Speaker
The brood screams in pain while Kitty is entranced by its beauty and both walk zombie-like into the light. Deep in the brood... Yes. What?
02:03:01
Speaker
What? Yeah. So, okay. Matt, you and I, I think this might have been... This was off air, but maybe around the time of episode one, when we were first talking about was first starting this podcast. I talked about one of the things I wanted to find out was why does Kitty have a dragon in some of the later stories X-Men that I have read? And you said, maybe we'll find out.
02:03:28
Speaker
And yeah. I still don't know why, but here it is. Yeah. I mean, it is it is like legitimately she is just, I mean, they're on a planet full of a bunch of strange creatures. It just happens that one of them is a fucking dragon.
02:03:44
Speaker
Yes. And then also they find the soul of this ancient, wise, all-knowing creature, and they're overpowered by it. Yeah.
02:03:55
Speaker
be is When I say what, I say that with the utmost respect because I am so thrilled about how deep we're digging into these concepts. We don't exactly know it's the soul yet, but it's I think maybe you could read between the lines, right? Yeah, yeah. yeah i I was reading this for the first time. I was like, oh, that's the soul. That's the soul, yeah.
02:04:12
Speaker
Deep in the brood hive, the X-Men strike team are locked up in a we in weird chess bands in front of the brood queen. As Cyclops continues to transform, He doubles over in pain and his optic blasts begin firing out of control. How many times does this have to happen to villains? where They didn't even cover his head this time. They covered his chest.
02:04:34
Speaker
Wolverine realizes it's because sleazoids have no islands. So he takes this moment to lunge forward in front of the uncontrolled force of Cyclops' blasts.
02:04:46
Speaker
For a moment, Scott thinks Wolverine is dead, but there he stands. Free of his shackled, bruised and bloody, he knocks Cyclops out in one punch and then presses his knuckles against the queen's head, using his threat to get the Sleazots to drop their weapons and release the X-Men.
02:05:04
Speaker
soon free and with a shackled cyclops and completely free brood queen. and so That's not going to bite them. ah Literally. They find their way into Kitty's to kitty's glowing room.
02:05:18
Speaker
She walks out telling the X-Men that the sleazoid that followed her into the light turned to crystal while she was completely fine. They follow her into the light, seeing a room made entirely of crystal.
02:05:30
Speaker
Kitty feels overwhelming love while the brood queen feels overwhelming hate. The X-Men look down and see that everywhere she and those implanted with embryos are standing is turning black, corrupting at their touch, distracted. Wolverine takes a stinger to the back, but cuts it clean off the queen.
02:05:55
Speaker
And then he collapses from the venom. As he struggles to stand, he watches the X-Men start to transform. When they transform, the Akanti soul within the room also begins to corrupt and Wolverine starts advancing, claws out on his friends.
02:06:11
Speaker
It's time to save them by ending their lives.
02:06:16
Speaker
But a moment before he reaches Kitty, Binary swoops in and lifts the little man off his feet. She places him a distance away from the soul and asks him to trust her as she moves to the center of the room. She focuses and her body glows until a bolt of energy shoots skyward out of her. The energy passes through space, connecting with Storm's Akanti in the sky, and the soul of the Prophet Singer is reunited with the Akanti, somehow freeing all the enslaved Akanti. Yes. Well, he's the prophet singer. He can lead them.
02:06:47
Speaker
yeah you can lead them. Okay. So they just... They just... They're free? Yeah. Now, that there he can restore their will to resist the brood. Okay. All right. Fair enough.
02:07:00
Speaker
And what did Binary do? yeah I've thought through this. And what did Binary do? I... she She is another one of Claremont having somebody stop shooting something into the sky and it doing something. She's destroying the soul, which transfers its consciousness into the infant that Storm has bonded with.
02:07:24
Speaker
Okay. You're right. That does make sense. But in that and now, okay. All right. The prophet singer is returned. The whales can. You're right. Once again, move freely. You're right. People, you don't need to email and say, Pat's right. I know Pat's right. Email mutantmenacepod at gmail.com. Please email and say, Pat's right. No, No, he's right. And I know he's right. And I already said he's right.
02:07:47
Speaker
I know. But. It does look like another one of those things that Claremont loves to do where somebody shoots into the sky and the big problem is solved. Yeah, yeah. um Okay. Carol, reverted to her normal body for a moment, stumbles over to check on Wolverine, who is still concerned with not allowing the X-Men to transform.
02:08:08
Speaker
Like, the problem's not over yet, dude. Yeah. He's still... Grilled and taken care of, but... We've still got a lot to deal with. He still needs to do the horrible work of ending their lives. And plus, the Brood Queen's still there. But they turn back and look and see their friends, X-Men and Lalandra, all back to normal.
Brood Queen’s Threat and Emotional Impact
02:08:30
Speaker
Good as new. And behind them, the Brood Queen, is a crystalline statue. As the soul was released, it purified the heroes, but it also put a lot of stress on the planet, which begins to quake. Carol contacts Corsair and the X-Men beam away just in time as the sleaze world explodes into pieces.
02:08:51
Speaker
Later, aboard the Star Jammer, Logan argues with Sikorsky and Kurt about his own treatment, while Scott confides in his father just how hard it was to end the lives of an entire race.
02:09:05
Speaker
Sikorsky is so he's talking like Yoda, but essentially is what he's saying is like, I am your goddamn doctor. if you're not going to listen to me, then you can't complain that you're hurt.
02:09:18
Speaker
um Corsair assures Scott that it's good that he feels that way. It's good that he is feeling remorse and um like emotional conflict. Because that means he's a good he's a good dude, but of course, they're also, it's like, you did the right thing. You saved a lot of lives. But then Hepzibah interrupts. Hey, Hepzibah.
02:09:38
Speaker
To tell them they have a surprise. ah Who walks through the door but Aurora Monroe! Yes. Alive, whole, and well, thanks to the prophet singer, the X-Men have made it through another impossible situation.
02:09:55
Speaker
All is well, and they begin to celebrate. Until Wolverine cuts in. The queen, before she died, was boasting and taunting him about a royal embryo that, if all else fails, will conquer the earth for her.
02:10:10
Speaker
Wolverine's been doing some thinking and he concludes that the embryo could only be inside one person. Charles like Xavier. That fucker.
02:10:22
Speaker
The end? and
02:10:28
Speaker
Dude, this – man. So, okay. I've told you before. I don't really i only't always love the space – keep saying that operas i know i know and then we read them and i'm like this fucking ruled this fucking ruled this fucking ruled like when i see like the space battles and stuff and the lasers and the like oh we've gotta get those x-men like that stuff my eyes glaze over it but when i look at the character moments this is so good and that wolverine issue still just maybe the best issue we've read so far uh of anything
02:11:04
Speaker
yes yeah yeah it was the escalation of the wolverine ah hellfire goons issue yeah like it's the next natural step and i think to that point that was maybe the best issue of x-men right he's like i'm it's him versus an entire planet it is So the whole thing, it's it's not at all written like a horror comic, right? We have come across plenty of X-Men comics that are trying to be reminiscent of horror comics and and set that same sort of tension for you. This does that without having to...
02:11:42
Speaker
try to emulate any other sort of format. It's just a terrifying, no win situation. ah the, the organic tech always makes me a little squeamish, I guess, like just the idea of a, a machine made of skin.
02:11:58
Speaker
um but So this setting itself is uncomfortable. And then just beat after beat, they keep adding these stakes that in my mind are like nightmarish. The the idea of this thing, not just infesting your body like alien and then popping out as a brute, but actually taking over your entire consciousness, corrupting you through the process, and then eventually popping out as a brood.
02:12:23
Speaker
And like kitty Kitty said this when she was talking to Colossus at one point. She was like, what we don't know what happens here. What if we still remain conscious and we know we're a brood? And we don't know if that's – we don't know. We don't know.
02:12:38
Speaker
She's right. We don't know. Yeah. it's um It's terrifying. And then the other side of this that i that I absolutely love, and I know I make a big deal of this all the time, but – This is the deepest we have gotten into some weird abstract fantasy science fiction concept um so far.
02:13:00
Speaker
Like they at first I was always angry that they would describe a situation like a cool sci-fi situation and then not even touch on it, not even try to dig into it.
02:13:12
Speaker
Since the Claremont era, they've been making a more of an effort to do that. But this, the whole Acanti story, as far as I know, is ah invented here, right? This is not a a character that already existed. And they are, they're essentially a form of God that has roamed the universe peacefully, just collecting knowledge and wisdom beyond our potential understanding.
02:13:38
Speaker
The moment at the end where they walk into this crystal palace and encounter the all-powerful being that is the soul of an Akanti.
Moral Themes and Artistic Legacy
02:13:50
Speaker
Mm-hmm.
02:13:51
Speaker
feels earned like this is also how uh the original shiar galactic battle ended right with them walking into some crystalline structure and it was a little ridiculous they fought uh what jomph and the uh The next guy that was a thousand times bigger than him. And then the guy behind him was a thousand times bigger than him. Was it Joff and Mott?
02:14:16
Speaker
Yeah, that's it. i Yeah, I mean, it's interesting. You brought up Alien a little bit ago. And sorry, I don't mean to interrupt your train of thought. So if you if you can hold on to it for a second, I just want to... I'm just saying it it feels earned.
02:14:29
Speaker
Yeah, it does. And yeah what else feels earned here is like, clearly Chris Claremont was super, super inspired by the movie Alien. He saw Alien... And he was like, fuck, I wish I had written this, right? yeah And um so he did the Kitty Alone story, right? The Kitty Alone fighting that, what a the Sidrian Hunter story. yeah And ah he clearly, he was like, he wasn't satisfied with that, right? He was like, ah okay, well, I just kind of ripped off Alien. But i i ah but he i'm thinking I've been thinking about it, and I'm thinking about it, and I'm thinking about what Alien, not just what Alien was, but what Alien means.
02:15:08
Speaker
And he came up with this story that isn't a ripoff of Alien. It is inspired by the ideas of Alien. Yes. And it's its own thing entirely. And I i find that really ah admirable, right? um A writer taking an inspiration a little too literally and then stepping back and going, no, I think I can do something more creative here.
02:15:34
Speaker
Yeah, like Alien doesn't own the concept of alien impregnations, but this is clearly drawing directly from the movie. Yeah, and this thriller in space, the horror thriller in space is also, you know, like he's drawing on that too.
02:15:51
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. it sets the It sets the same tone. It gives you that same chill of like, what if something was infesting your body and you just had to wait it out? But it's still, it's it's very own unique thing for sure.
02:16:06
Speaker
i think what I love here is that the X-Men already lost, right? Yes. and And like, okay, because that's the thing. The X-Men are underestimated and against impossible odds all the time, right? And that is, ah we always love that when that happens. And then they show how fucking cool they are by overcoming those odds. And you're like, hey, you entered you underestimated us and now you're fucked, right? Yeah, yeah. love that moment.
02:16:31
Speaker
but and that But that doesn't happen here, right? The X-Men are, they lose, right? Yeah. They get kidnapped. They get impregnated.
02:16:41
Speaker
And they they they absolutely lose. And then they they escape. And they think they had that moment. That, wow, once again, you underestimated the X-Men. And we beat you. And then Wolverine's like, okay, guys, fuck, I have to tell you.
02:16:55
Speaker
No, you didn't. No, you didn't. You lost and you're dead. You're actually dead. And you don't you're you don't realize it yet. um And then they have to stop and think like, well,
02:17:07
Speaker
Okay, ah we have no options. We are going to die. So let's go fight an entire fucking planet. Let's us, whatever, six, seven, six?
02:17:25
Speaker
Six, seven. Fight. That's, um yeah, that's like a fucking meme now, right? I just learned about it at Thanksgiving. um We have to go fight a whole fucking, we're going to go fight a fucking planet to avenge ourselves and maybe save the universe from these evil things. And then as soon as they're given a new another option, like Storm's like, hey, wait, guys, we don't have to, like, I understand that given what you knew, that was your only option. Here's another one.
02:17:55
Speaker
And it is a way to be selfless. We can save somebody. We can save a whole race, actually. And they go, all right, let's do that. we They threw away their lives to save one captive captive creature.
02:18:13
Speaker
Right. Yeah. Yeah. yeah Just to highlight the impact of that, like they as far as they know, their lives are forfeit. like This is the last thing they'll do with their lives. This is the last thing they'll ever They have the opportunity to get vengeance.
02:18:30
Speaker
And Storm comes along and says, like, hey, there is another way. And they choose that path. Like, they are none of them, not Wolverine, not Cyclops. Well, Cyclops is on a different page. But, like, Colossus, anybody known to have a ta temper or, like, sort of a streak of vengeance is here saying, you know what? You're right. We should make the choice that...
02:18:55
Speaker
ay That saves someone instead of satisfies our hunger. Yes. And they so they make that choice against impossible. Them versus a fucking planet, like a planet, an entire race of people to find one thing, one the soul and free it.
02:19:16
Speaker
And they do it again. is sort What they think is their last acts on earth. And it's like that, that they chose to do that. Is what saves them.
02:19:26
Speaker
Is what ends up saving them. Right. It's not the X-Men were stronger than the threat. They weren't. And it's not you underestimated us. you They did. The brood did underestimate the X-Men. They didn't think the X-Men would get this far. So there was an underestimate the X-Men thing. But it's not the X-Men win against impossible odds. They lost.
02:19:48
Speaker
Yeah. The Akanti. Yeah. saved them. They have to battle back from actually losing. Well, not even that. They lost, and at the end, it's they did they didn't win. there Yeah. yeah With their dying... they As they were losing, we're like, we are going to so get... We're going to do one thing. One good thing.
02:20:12
Speaker
We're going to pull one good like gem out of this this loss. And...
02:20:19
Speaker
that Their goodness is what got, I don't, it it fucking rules. I didn't love the space fighting. I didn't love all the metaphysical, like, oh, Storm is, her soul is in a creature and she's being reborn and rebuilt. Oh, come on, it was so good. I didn't love the, I don't love the Carol turning into binary and there's like a a star inside of her and now she's, like, I don't love that stuff.
02:20:42
Speaker
That is the sci-fi stuff that's like, okay, fine. It's not my favorite. I know you love it. That's cool. I don't think there's anything anything wrong with it. I just don't love it.
02:20:53
Speaker
ah On some level, I think Storm and Carol, they were just there to become deus ex machinas, right? But they were they were fine. I loved the the drama, the X-Men being X-Men. i Yeah, fucking great.
02:21:11
Speaker
love it.
02:21:13
Speaker
And it would be rude of us not to mention these space art. It's fucking incredible. it's fucking it's really ah incredible There's so many new concepts here. and ah And Paul Smith, man.
02:21:27
Speaker
fucking Good job, dude. I'm excited to see more Paul Smith. Although, once again, in the middle of a space opera, Dave Cockrum has his original characters torn from his hands and given to a new artist to conclude the story. I know. I know. that's Yeah, poor guy. um And so just to wrap up our final thoughts here, um it next up,
02:21:55
Speaker
new mutants.
02:21:58
Speaker
of the bio time
02:22:07
Speaker
ah Sorry, Matt. There's no time for that now. What we have to do is get to Pat's steals and deals. We got a doozy this week.
02:22:17
Speaker
Spider-Man video action game cartridge. um We have a little comic here that is adorable. it is sp the Green Goblin challenging Spidey to beat the Spider-Man game for, I believe it's Atari or Sears home console.
02:22:38
Speaker
Yeah, it's Atari. There's what it's both. There's also at this time a competing Sears. I think they just called it the Sears home console. This is ah famous for being one of the most difficult video games ever. Mm hmm.
02:22:53
Speaker
Matt, this is the one where you just climb a building and there are guys that pop out of the windows of those buildings and throw bombs at you. And you have to swing around to get them. And when they throw bombs at you, you drop a few stories on these big buildings. It's almost like Donkey Kong, but with Spider-Man. ah And again, apparently, I've never played it myself, but apparently impossibly difficult.
02:23:17
Speaker
Yeah, it it it is. Pat, do you do you not remember we talked about this? No, I don't remember anything that we talked about on this podcast. We talked about this and we played the advertisement.
02:23:31
Speaker
Oh my God. um No, that was for it that was for a different Spider-Man game. no it Because that was in like the ninety s That was in the 90s. And we talked about was this this one for Atari.
02:23:43
Speaker
Okay. It wasn't. So we haven't talked about this. well But it's the same. but it was But the ad was the exact same premise. It was Green Goblin challenging Spider-Man. Spider-Man was sitting on a building playing a video game and Green Goblin's like, I challenge you. um And we talked at that time about how I did play this game a lot as a kid and it was impossible. um There's a point. to you Oh, you were my source for that.
02:24:06
Speaker
So your're you're... So you are... so you are you are um you I am. You're shooting a web diagonally at every at all times. And it if you hit a part of the building rather than a window or an open space, um you will swing.
02:24:29
Speaker
And I think as long as you're also holding the button or something. Sure. And if you swing past... I think it's like if you swing past somebody in a window, you either you know beat them up or save them, whatever the fuck. It's it's impossible to tell because it's an Atari game.
02:24:45
Speaker
You actually don't know what's happening. There's eight bits here to work with. Exactly. And then you keep trying to climb higher. And you can also walk along the side of the building again until you hit a window or whatever. and then and Or a bomb. And then you just fall. But and then eventually, as you get towards the top of the tower...
02:25:03
Speaker
um it's scaffolding. So you're no longer just trying to grapple onto, you know, big chunks of building with windows in it. You're trying to grapple onto these, like, one-pixel-long-diagonal beams.
02:25:22
Speaker
And you have to actually aim where the web is going, right? Yeah. Or, like, you have to control where the web lands? The web will always go exactly diagonal. on ah And exactly the same length? On exactly 45 degree angle. ah No, I think the length can change. um Okay. and But you are holding down the button.
02:25:44
Speaker
and Oh, and that's it. And think you let go of the button and that's when he the the web attaches and he swings. Okay.
02:25:54
Speaker
man it's fucking hard there's there is i if this is a repeat i apologize to the listeners i've let you down i ah there is a moment i think we talked about it in a email pat's email corner actually okay yeah yeah that makes sense uh spider-man does say the forbidden phrase in this ad so i won't repeat it He also ends. Yeah, because they say it in the fucking commercial. We talked about the That's right. That's we talked about It's all coming back to me, Matt.
02:26:25
Speaker
Yeah. Spider-Man ends with this question, Matt. And having played it i want you to answer it. Is this more action than even Spider-Man can handle? He's got an eye out.
02:26:36
Speaker
that you could buy out. If you time machine. Is that okay? Are you done? Yeah, what I do. a
02:26:46
Speaker
All right. Well, that was Pat Steele's and Steele's Pat. Yeah. It's been a wonderful episode here with you. Yeah. But we got to fucking go.
02:26:56
Speaker
This is great. You've got places to be. I've got. I've got nothing really, but we should wrap it up. Hey, you guys can check out our yeah first thing I'll say we have a discord. You can check out our discord. It's there's a link in the show notes. It's a lot of fun people. There's a really cool community there. A lot of the emailers that you know, and then some other folks um and also some folks from the save your game community. mingle in there it's a lot of fun and pat's tom shakespeare uh you can find ah you can email pat's email corner at mutant menace pod at gmail.com you can find our instagram at mutant menace pod on instagram it's uh got there's original cover art for each episode it's mostly some shit i put together in gimp but uh it's still i think it's cute um share some pertinent panels there too and if we ever get back on videos we'll put them up there Yeah. And also if we ever get back to sharing pertinent panels. um Oh, and there were probably, we'll probably share the super Matt image from Simon from hell this week. Yeah. i
02:28:03
Speaker
If you feel so moved, please rate us, review us, like us, subscribe to us, talk to us, whatever. It's deeply helpful. Honestly, it is. deeply We never ask for like your money or anything like that. Uh,
02:28:17
Speaker
We may at one point, who knows? But no, we never asked for your money right now. write twenty bucks If you want to give us money, fucking, yeah, just message. No, um all we want is you to help share the show and help people who might like it and don't know it exists. Find it.
02:28:34
Speaker
Yeah. As always, huge thanks to Krils Wilson for the music and to Julius Ellie for providing the voice of Trish Tilby. Yeah, thanks guys. And with that, Matt, I think that's it for us, right? Is there anything left to say?
02:28:48
Speaker
I think just what we say at the end of every episode. you want to to and to fill them in? Yeah. As always, folks, when I use my power, I tap into a white hole.
02:29:00
Speaker
And remember, i win. Big deal.