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31 – Uncanny X-Men #147, ROM, Spider-Woman – Makin’ Friends!
0 Playsin 13 hours
Issues: Uncanny X-Men #147, Rom #17-18, Spider-Woman #37-38, Marvel Treasury #26
The X-Men take some time off of their regular title to hang out with some pals in ROM, Spider-Woman, and Marvel Treasury! The boys say goodbye to an old frenemy, hello to some new characters, and get a cool new poster.
Topics Discussed:
ROM. A murderous, yet agreeable, Wolverine. Bill Mantlo hates people with disabilities. Ham-fisting. “So there’s two Steves?” A 15-year-old playing with trucks. Breaking your vow to murder a child. How to communicate a complex situation without talking. THE SECRET, THIRD SETTING. Wolverine can smell evil. Nightcrawler and Colossus makin’ out. “Who Am I?” Spider-Woman’s unfathomable backstory! La Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine. Sleeping with your landlord. Mint is not candy shop it’s where they make money. SIRYN! My buddy, Benny D’Israeli. AN UPDRAFT! Figuring out Cerebro ONCE AND FOR ALL!!! Black Tom’s Bio-Beam. PLOP, PLOP Bub. Wolverine loves a bar fight. Matt is a better writer than Lee Forrester. Caliban’s Natalie Portman-eque crush. 5 identical cliffhangers.
Write in to Pat's Email Corner: mutantmenacepod@gmail.com
Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/fPv7hRgTeV
Instagram: @mutantmenacepod
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Transcript
Live Report from Westchester
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.
Podcast Introduction
00:00:34
Speaker
Hey everybody, I'm Matt Aukamp. And I'm Pat Reber. And say it with me, Pete. Welcome to a Mutant Menace.
00:00:45
Speaker
Hey, my headphone cord fell out. Did you and Pete do it good? Yeah, yeah, we nailed it. That's awesome. Too bad you'll never hear it. How are you doing, Pat? I'm good. i forgot to switch to my podcasting chair. Hang on.
00:01:05
Speaker
I'm doing good, Matt. Yeah. A little fun fact. i am wearing the undershirt that I got married in today. is that ah that's a fun That is a fun fact.
00:01:16
Speaker
Sorry, i was going to I was going to kind of make fun of you for it and say, oh, what is that a fun fact? But no, I'm i'm going to choose to but like feel as if that's a fun fact. Thank you. Yeah, let's be sweet today. i got three vaccines in my little arm.
00:01:33
Speaker
Whoa. Which ones? yeah I'm just kidding. That's a HIPAA violation to tell me. Well, I think I can volunteer it. Pat's no, it would be illegal for me to listen.
00:01:49
Speaker
Pat's got his fingers in his ears and he's going la la la. la la la la I've got my I've still got my headphones on. I've just slipped my fingers under them to cover my ears. Oh, who sound guy always trying to scare us. Always trying to get me.
00:02:08
Speaker
it's It's October. So it's, you know, spooky season.
Listener Contributions and Character Discussions
00:02:13
Speaker
ah Right into Pat's email corner this week, we are starting with... Oh, thought you meant like, hey, right into Pat's email corner this week, and then we'd be out of the segment.
00:02:23
Speaker
Oh, that's clever. Please, right into Pat's email corner in this week. But let's get right into Pat's email corner this week. Simon from Hell, one of our favorite regular contributors, hey sam know has provided us...
00:02:39
Speaker
With what we asked for, Matt, we got a pixie drawing, the first of the drawings that we requested. and simon it is brilliant it looks great it looks great i love pixie i love this drawing i also love how simon from hell takes a moment to let us know he's not actually from hell but that's what you would say if you were in hell that's not canon yeah that's if you were in hell you'd tell everyone i'm not in hell i'm just in uh french canada Should we start calling him Simon from French Canada? We really did.
00:03:14
Speaker
if if folks aren't familiar, we really... He said there's not really many places for him to ah leave Flyers as a member of our street team. we were We were then trying to figure out where he could possibly be from. And our decision was he was probably from hell.
00:03:30
Speaker
Because Flyers would burn up right away. and Coolest possible place to be from. He would also burn his little tootsies, is I think what we decided. but He's just in French Canada.
00:03:41
Speaker
Yeah. He would actually freeze off his little tootsies. So, so it's Simon from hell and or French Canada. Yeah. But very, ah very grateful, Simon. Thank you for the beautiful art.
00:03:56
Speaker
Moving on, though, to Weapon Jason, another regular contributor that we love. he gives us ah some insight into actually Scott's leaving at the time. I'm pretty sure we asked for this, but yeah, he is someone who experienced it live in person. He says at the time, the reaction to Scott leaving wasn't major.
00:04:19
Speaker
We'd had Banshee, Angel, Iceman, Sunfire, Havoc and Polaris all walk away. only to turn up in the comics later, so I remember just expecting we'd check in on him.
00:04:29
Speaker
What did feel major was the sense of movement and change in the book, though. Interesting. So there wasn't a there wasn't like a specific, like, oh my god, Gene's dead, or oh my god, Scott is leaving the X-Men. It was more just like, this book is nuts.
00:04:44
Speaker
oh yeah actually i will follow up on that uh weapon jason was gene's death as impactful or was it just assumed like oh well magneto's died a bunch he'll be back also what else what else happened in 1981 and let's let's get your opinion on those 19 yeah yeah look up a 1981 fun fact um And also, how did everybody feel about Buck Fizz's song, Make Your Mind Up, when it won the Eurovision Song Contest that year? Oh, yeah. Talk to us about Eurovision in the early 80s weapon, Jason, please.
00:05:19
Speaker
ah We also asked for a bit more insight on Henry Peter Geirich, knowing that he was established in the Marvel Universe, but we thought he was just some government suit.
Government Antagonists in Comics
00:05:31
Speaker
I'm paraphrasing here. He says that the Avengers were essentially at this point wired into S.H.I.E.L.D. and all government databases. Geirich was a government agent inspecting their security and multiple times found it lacking.
00:05:46
Speaker
Okay, so he was like a He was like not a villain, but like ah like a foil at the time. would like he would find his way into the Avengers Mansion...
00:05:59
Speaker
By subverting their security. And then he would just like, he'd be Avengers. So shaking his fist. So this is the first time he's appearing in the comics as a villain when he joins project wide awake.
00:06:13
Speaker
No. So okay weapon Jason says effectively the Avengers are operating as an unsupervised government agents at the behest of a techno industrialist with far reaching access to sensitive data and no government owns oversight.
00:06:27
Speaker
says, so not at all relevant to today. He ends up putting in a bunch of rules for the Avengers membership and becomes an advocate for limiting the power of superheroes, which culminates in him trying to end the Avengers through like a series of Senate hearings. Oh, so he had just come off of being a villain in the Avengers. Like there was a there was an arc which led to him being sort of like a government villain and now suddenly appears in the X-Men and as A government villain.
00:06:59
Speaker
Yes. And like, he's not the, he's never the main villain. It seems like other villains show up, aliens show up during the Senate hearing and they, uh, they get more concerned with that. But yeah,
00:07:12
Speaker
ah Yeah, he as we know, is a government antagonist two words to the Avengers. Wow. Okay. Thank you, Weapon she Jason. Yeah, the history lesson. Interesting information.
00:07:25
Speaker
We need it. Don't forget to tell us about whatever that song was I said from Eurovision.
Listener Emails and Humor
00:07:30
Speaker
Magic the dog. You remember Magic the dog? Oh, no. One of her one of our artists that likes likes writing in. She has written in with two new renditions of Matt and me. They are just as terrible as the last one. We have Matt Nito and Pode.
00:07:50
Speaker
If you remember, the former version was Pat Nito and Mode. Yeah. This is us in reverse positions. My face isn't as fucked up as he made yours in no the original. But you look strong as Magneto.
00:08:08
Speaker
I've got bulgy little muscles and you're riding on my back. And it says, Race and Weapon Jason at the bottom. Race and Weapon Jason. Yeah. A reference to Weapon Jason. And then, of course, we get another Patnito end mode. and Where you seem to be pounding on my head like like it's a drum.
00:08:29
Speaker
This one looks offensive to both of us. I am ah muscular but pretty fat with little tiny legs. And then and i you are just freak. Like a legitimate toad.
00:08:41
Speaker
yeah Like an actual animal toad. Except for my eyeballs. which are drawn with a different caliber paintbrush, which I mean Microsoft paint. He really captures your beady little eyes. have.
00:08:58
Speaker
Magic draws the entire picture in one size of brush, except for my eyes, which are a much smaller size of brush.
00:09:10
Speaker
We'll have to post this on Instagram. Yeah, yeah. Also, this one mentions email Michael, so shout out You won't say what it says. Weapon in chasing, yeah, says something inappropriate.
00:09:25
Speaker
We'll let you imagine what that means, email Michael. Yeah.
X-Men Adventures Begin
00:09:29
Speaker
It's not insulting to you. It's more insulting to us. Yeah, exactly. And then finally, we got Mikey Two Mails with, get this, Matt, two emails.
00:09:40
Speaker
ah ah he He starts with episode 26, where I think we first mentioned his issues with email formatting. And he says, hey, Pat, tell Matt I said hi.
00:09:52
Speaker
I have almost caught up on the podcast. It's been such a good distraction for me. Also, Matt was slow on the introduction this episode. Pete and you were on time. ah Well, he'll like this one where I fucking nail it.
00:10:05
Speaker
Welcome to Mutant Menace. And then his second email is subject episode 29. He says, hi Pat. Tell Matt that it's me again. I'm glad you all enjoyed the email of just my name. Also, regarding the lab explosions, I think some of my staff did develop superpowers.
00:10:24
Speaker
One of them got really good at juggling while working there. He could juggle three tennis balls at once. hu And then do you remember he mentioned something about bug suckers in that? Yes, I do remember. OK, the words bug sucker has stuck in my head like like a like a bug sucker.
00:10:42
Speaker
He clarifies and knocks some memories loose for us here. He says also regarding the bug suckers, they were lollipops that had a dead bug inside of them.
00:10:52
Speaker
Ants, crickets, and scorpions. You mentioned in an episode, if anyone could prove they were in a lab explosion, you would eat a bug.
00:11:04
Speaker
So I mentioned those as a way for you all to eat bugs, but it not be horrible. Cheers. Okay. Mikey T-Mails. Pat, it seems like you're going to have to eat some bugs.
00:11:18
Speaker
I don't, I don't remember. Can, can we get somebody to go back and confirm that we, that it was both of us that offered to eat a bug?
00:11:29
Speaker
yeah yeah Well, do you have any more emails, Pat? No. Me and the sound guy are on the same page today. We do.
00:11:41
Speaker
That is the end of Pat's email corner this week. I'll let the song play out. Are
00:11:53
Speaker
you mad at me?
00:12:04
Speaker
Okay, it seems like it's done now.
00:12:10
Speaker
Oh, Matt. Yeah? I gotta ask. Did you do anything X-Men related this week? I did, actually. I, in the county where I live in Pennsylvania, Chester County, there was a collectibles show um in a nearby college town.
00:12:26
Speaker
And I went and yeah had comic books and cassette tapes and trading cards and action figures, all sorts of stuff. And there were some there were some really cool action figures, a lot of stuff from the 90s.
00:12:41
Speaker
So there was like, I almost bought a strong guy action figure. There was a kingpin. It was just like normal height, but like the size of two action figures next to each other.
00:12:53
Speaker
Oh, man. That era of action figures is so, I think we've talked about it before, but They had action figures based on the cartoon shows. They had action figures based on movies that were coming out at the time. Yeah, they also had action figures based on the actual comics.
00:13:10
Speaker
It's wild. And i found at least two different Shatterstar action figures. Ooh. remember... Like two differently made Shatterstar action figures. Okay.
00:13:23
Speaker
And I found that there was one ah that I had as a kid, which was Cameron Hodge. And you ah could fill up this pump. Okay. And then stick it in his back and squeeze the plastic pump and he would shoot water out of his gun hand. Mm-hmm. I don't know what that was supposed to be, but yeah, it was it was a lot of fun. I bought a lot of comics. I actually didn't buy any action figures, but the one comic that I bought that I'm really proud of is, I'm showing it to Pat right now.
00:13:52
Speaker
Obnoxio the Clown. Versus the X-Men. Amazing. it isn't just it is just like it's a character who appeared in this one comic book written and drawn by Alan Kupferberg.
00:14:08
Speaker
who was just like I don't know, just like it like an inker and artist and sometimes writer. Yeah, yeah. In the time shot. And he just made this like disgusting little clown who fights the X-Men.
00:14:19
Speaker
So ah in 1983, we'll have to read Obnoxio the Clown versus the X-Men. Yeah, I can't wait. I'm very excited to have found this. ah But that's what I did. X-Men related. Pat, did you do anything X-Men related this week?
00:14:33
Speaker
Gosh, Matt, in the first time for the first time in a while, No. All right. Well, no, that's okay. Hey, buddy. Hey, look. Hey, hey, hey, look at me. That's okay.
00:14:44
Speaker
It's okay. It's all right. You know what? you Why don't you just kick back and you can, you can take care of yourself. You don't have to worry about anything.
00:14:56
Speaker
I'm going to read you a little story. Yeah, tell me a story, Matt. Called ROM number 17, Hybrid! Wait, wait, wait. What? It's called what?
00:15:07
Speaker
Okay, we are not reading X-Men this
00:15:13
Speaker
We're reading one X-Man. We're reading one X-Man towards the end of the... So at this time in 1981, the X-Men kind of go on a little tour across other comic books.
00:15:25
Speaker
Which is a sign of success, right? This isn't like... This isn't the dark era where they're just desperate for places to to be the X-Men. This is the X-Men's popularity...
00:15:40
Speaker
I hope so, because otherwise this podcast is going to run out of stuff to talk about. didn't But first they appear here in ROM.
00:15:51
Speaker
Pat, what the fuck is ROM? ROM, Matt. Yeah. There is, and this is a big part of the reason that I don't care for ah Jim Shooter, our editor in chief, but ROM. Never heard of him.
00:16:06
Speaker
Space Knight. Okay. Yeah. is jump shooper editor-in-chief oh yeah i know him rom space knight part of an era at marvel where they are doing a lot of consulting with toy companies okay and jump shooper is a huge fan of advocating for the toy companies so We get ROM Space Knight. We get Micronauts, both of which are just created to and released to coincide with the toy commercials going on television so that you can buy the toy and then. So this is invented as a toy.
00:16:50
Speaker
and then they were like, what if we also made made it have so any sort of content? Yes, to it exactly. there's Here's here's the story you need to understand why this toy exists.
00:17:05
Speaker
And both comics, Rom Space Knight and Micronauts were way more popular than they had any right to be. That's so interesting.
00:17:16
Speaker
Just being the product of a marketing ploy. But they were also I haven't read Micronauts, but what we've read of Rom Space Knight, because we'll get to more a little down the road is interesting not it's not great we can talk about it after we after we get through the episode anyway eventually this is going to lead us to secret wars because a toy company just buys marvel and jim super says yeah let's uh let's just make a big action figure play session into a comic book
00:17:54
Speaker
We will actually also be talking about Micronauts at some point on this podcast, but not for a little while now. okay Okay. I think like early next year.
00:18:05
Speaker
Anyway. Stay tuned. ROM number 17, Hybrid, written by Bill Mantlo. Bill, more like Bill, Bill Mantlo, no.
00:18:18
Speaker
Bill, me Bill Mantlo, Bill, oh man, slow. Oh, that's good. Bill Mono. Hmm. Bill Mono.
00:18:30
Speaker
Drawn by Sal Buscema. Lettered by Michael Higgins. Ben Sean is the colorist. Joe Duffy is the editor. Jom Shoopers, the editor in chief. And there's a consultant here, Pat. His name is Chris Claremont.
00:18:46
Speaker
release a yeah He's a space night expert.
00:18:51
Speaker
Yeah, he was he was going to go into the space nights, but but ended up moving to London, becoming a comic writer. um Release date, January 13th, 1981. Cover date, April 1981. Cerebro is going nuts!
00:19:07
Speaker
but As Professor X explains that ah a power of incredible proportions has just manifested itself on Earth in West Virginia. Oh.
00:19:18
Speaker
He sends the X-Men out to investigate as he stays behind and contemplates how useless he is because he's in a wheelchair. The X-Men are going to Clareton, West Virginia!
00:19:31
Speaker
Once again, fucking Bill Mantlo hates people with disabilities. He... Yes, this was upsetting.
00:19:42
Speaker
yeah ah This is also just... immediately drawing us back to like the 60s early 70s x-men everyone is woken up by cerebro detecting an incredibly powerful mutant force they have to go on a mission to go find him wolverine is just ready to kill him right as soon as yeah There's a very funny little sequence here where Professor X is explaining something like, oh, this is Cerebro. It finds mutants. And Wolverine pops his claws and he goes, yeah.
00:20:16
Speaker
And Professor X is like, Wolverine, please sheath your claws. It's yeah, it's very it's very funny, but it's also very Bill Mantlo to just be like, oh, yeah, it's Wolverine. He wants to just kill everyone.
00:20:29
Speaker
Yeah, and yell and excitedly yell, yeah. Yeah. i Everybody's worried that Magneto is going to try to recruit this new mutant. Have we had to worry about that in 10 years?
00:20:40
Speaker
No, he hasn't done this in so long. Professor X, of course, is noble but helpless because he's confined to a wheelchair. Yeah. And the other thing, they just... Explaining who the X-Men are and their powers, it's so...
00:20:58
Speaker
Ham fisted. Yeah, it's I don't think we're giving Chris Claremont enough credit for how subtly he introduces that in each issue. Coincidentally, ham fist is another type of disorder that Bill Mantlo hates.
00:21:13
Speaker
Do you ham fisting is actually ah ah like the pagan tradition of marriage? So as they as they leave, Professor X is like, it's different than any mutant you've ever faced before.
00:21:26
Speaker
This one is not human. yeah ah eat Yeah, dude. Yeah. Yeah, we know. It's yeah it's a mutant.
00:21:37
Speaker
yeah Yeah. You just said that. The other way in which we're taken back to the Roy Thomas era is that Bill Mantlo still doesn't know what a mutant is. which we'll find out more and more as this, he writes the fucking X-Men like they're the Ninja Turtles, right? Like, it's just like, it's Splinter and the Ninja Turtles, where Splinter's just like, my, my turtles, there's a threat above ground. And they're like, ah, don't worry, man, we'll get them. And then somebody else is like, oh, I don't know. It might be scary up there. And it was like, ah, kick his butt.
00:22:11
Speaker
Like, that is like almost legitimately how the X-Men are written here. Anyway, We're taken to ah that small West Virginia town where Dr. John Stennis, my favorite one, is making a house called a Jacob Marx's. for Oh, that's my favorite one.
00:22:28
Speaker
Jacob Marx's farm, taking note that all the livestock seems to have died. he enters to find Marjorie Marx. Oh, that's maybe my favorite one. A woman supposed to be in her late 30s withered away and seemingly aged 50 years.
00:22:43
Speaker
Jacob enters and in an attempt to calm the doctor reveals he is not human, nor is their son who has been the cause of all this trouble.
00:22:55
Speaker
The doc enters the son's room and flees in horror.
00:23:01
Speaker
It's a good, this is actually a very, it's a two page sequence where it's written like a horror comic of just something clearly wrong has happened here. There's some evil and we just see a man discovering it.
00:23:18
Speaker
Across town at the home of Jonathan and Sarah Clark. Oh man, I love all these characters. Silas Lane, another one, another one yeah arrives and is terrified to see Rom Space Knight.
00:23:30
Speaker
The toy in their living room. It's okay, though, John assures him. Rom didn't kill all their friends. He actually killed duplicates of them that were actually wraiths. Actually, ah pat I think you might be misunderstanding here.
00:23:46
Speaker
You're the one that said it.
00:23:49
Speaker
I might be wrong here, but I don't think they're duplicates of their friends. I think... These are, their friends were just always dire wraiths in disguise. Oh, okay.
00:24:01
Speaker
I might be wrong. We're not following, i don't know, we're not following Rom Space Knight. and There's a moment here where after they explain it to Silas, he goes, so there's two Steves?
00:24:15
Speaker
ah Maybe you're right. Just... Which I almost saved for my closing line of the show. but He's actually a good guy, Rom is. Rom explains that wraiths actually came here in 1945 in the confusion after World War II and assumed the form of humans.
00:24:33
Speaker
hello Oh. and They all have the same birthday. That's how you know who's a dire wraith, is like, they all have the same birthday. So they had this brilliant plan to take over the Earth and assimilate themselves amongst the people of Earth.
00:24:48
Speaker
but they forgot to pick different birthdays. Yep. That's their calling card, Matt. ah Something's wrong though, Patrick, because Rom, the toy senses the presence of a child in town created when a human made it with a wraith.
00:25:06
Speaker
Whoa. ah I'm doing that thing where I'm pointing to my, I'm opening my mouth and pointing my throat. is What's wrong with the wraith? ah Nothing. I just would prefer ah people not mate interspecies.
00:25:19
Speaker
and All right. let's not Let's not get on another tangent here.
00:25:24
Speaker
They all take off in the snow to the home of Jacob Marks, who isn't interested in keeping his secret anymore. He reveals himself to be a wraith, but one that was able to break his conditioning and learn to love.
00:25:35
Speaker
oh he explains that he did sire a child with his human wife, Marjorie, and that elders of the wraith community found them and corrupted their son. Now he's learned leaning into the evil teachings of the wraiths and has developed terrifying power, seemingly able to bend reality to his will. How did this guy manage to romance a human woman in all of his dialogue? He talks like a villainous alien.
00:26:04
Speaker
He's like, yes, it is i the dire wraith. ah hacker ah Hiding amongst the humans have I been. say he keeps it a secret from her entirely, too.
00:26:19
Speaker
Marjorie, now has come the time where one such as I shall ask you on a date. Leave not your clothes on, Marjorie, for I have the intent to make love, and so make love we shall.
00:26:33
Speaker
Matt? Yeah. To me, it sounds like he's an alpha. By the power of the dark nebula! Marjorie's like, what? and Nothing! Nothing!
00:26:45
Speaker
I didn't say anything. Oh, man. We skip over it, but there are a lot of by thes in this comic that get pretty nuts. oh By galaxy of gas!
00:26:57
Speaker
Ha ha ha! By the order of the Space Knights. Rom enters the farmhouse and confronts the child. Who's 15 years old and playing with a truck.
00:27:10
Speaker
Like a little toy truck. It's very, uh, that one Twilight Zone episode. Yeah. Where the kid has powers. But in the Twilight Zone an episode, they appropriately make the kid like five.
00:27:22
Speaker
Yeah. And this is like an angsty teen. What 15 year old kids do? They play with trucks, right? Yeah.
00:27:33
Speaker
So, uh, confronts the child only to find that he can't simply banish this child to limbo with his ray gun like he did the other wraiths. The child, of course, changes into a creature from the Black Lagoon demon and announces his new name, Hybrid.
00:27:49
Speaker
He rages out. hes We love this, Matt. When a supervillain announces their new name. I am my new name.
00:28:00
Speaker
He rages out, kills his father, and he and Ram fight. Ram decides to break his vow to never kill just this once because this boy is so evil.
00:28:12
Speaker
yes He's okay with it. He's like, I have vowed never to kill. And until this day, I've never broken that. But you, child.
00:28:24
Speaker
i When I took my vow to never kill, I didn't realize somebody could just be so ding dang evil. It's okay that I break it this time.
00:28:36
Speaker
I couldn't have imagined this. Just as he's about to murder this child, though, the X-Men burst in and hastily assess the situation. Rahm must be the bad guy. He's attacking an innocent child, but which they're not entirely fucking wrong. Even if he's evil, this kid's 15 fucking years old. Anyway. Yeah, yeah.
00:28:55
Speaker
Anyway, so now Rahm has just made enemies of the X-Men to be continued. oh okay. So the dialogue is bad.
00:29:05
Speaker
Yes, it's very much like everybody constantly repeating their motivations. Like, yes, I defeated all of his dire wraith tutors. They will no longer be coming here.
00:29:15
Speaker
Son, he defeated your tutors. They won't be here to corrupt you anymore. Even though you have defeated my tutors, I shall know my birthright. I shall defeat you now, just like I defeated your tutors.
00:29:27
Speaker
It's like like legitimately. Okay, man, we get it. And then as still another issue, then as they're fighting, they're just yelling like not even banter, just like like jargon.
00:29:41
Speaker
You monster superhero buzzwords. I shall end you in all of your kind. Hi, you will not end my kind before I end you. Ah, but to end me, you first have to best me and you won't be besting me for I am the best. Oh, I will best you and you'll be defeated by me.
00:29:59
Speaker
Yes. Okay. So that... I don't know that the decision-making is very good here, but there are some things... That Bill Mantlo does yeah do well enough to make me say, God damn it, Bill Mantlo. Why didn't you do this in the champions?
00:30:21
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. i continuing exploration of concepts that were clearly introduced in older story arcs, right? the They're just off this race thing.
00:30:31
Speaker
Now that here's an exploration of Oh, you thought the wraiths were pure evil, but here's one that learned to love. It turns out it's actually just conditioning that does this. There are some character based decisions here. Rom Space Knight doesn't make a ton of sense, but...
00:30:49
Speaker
The decisions he makes are at least consistent. Okay. And there's some slow burn reveals here. Like we very slowly learned that Jacob Marks is actually a wraith and why he's here, what he's doing, what the actual evil is here. i Very horror-esque pacing through most of the comic.
00:31:13
Speaker
Yeah, there's not there's not bad storytelling here. I agree with you there. It's just Bill Mantlo still has this need to fill up every space If a character, like we talked about this with Bill Mantle before, if a character's on a page, they have to talk.
00:31:29
Speaker
Yeah. Yes. Oh, I'm not forgiving him here. I am mad at him for not having done this earlier. Yeah. Yeah. This might be the Claremont consultant credit too. Weren't they like friends or roommates or something? He may have just been like, hey, maybe you should structure the story yeah like this outline I drew up for you.
00:31:47
Speaker
They clearly were friends because they they there's so much crossover between the two and their yeah comics, right? Pat, what what I'm so... i'm ah I'm on the edge of my f freaking seat. What happens?
00:32:00
Speaker
Well, I'll tell you, Matt, because it unfurls in ROM number 18, and a child shall deceive them. What a stupid name. You know that famous ah that famous quote?
00:32:15
Speaker
ah Bill Mantlo and Sal Buscema, writer, storytellers, and artist. M. Higgins Letters, Ben Sean Colors, Milgram, Inks and Ed, Gia Koya, Inks, Jay Shuper, Ed in Chief, Chris Claremont, and Joe Duffy, Inspiration and Assistance.
00:32:33
Speaker
Interesting. Yeah, they we find it's been so long since we got even somewhat goofy credits, so I'm glad they're they're getting a little silly here. Release date, February 17th, 1981. Cover date, May 1981.
00:32:48
Speaker
We pick up where we left off. The X-Men mistakenly believe Rom to be the mutant and that he's threatening Hybrid, who they believe to be an innocent 15-year-old boy named Jimmy. Rom, seeing no way to convince them otherwise, stands dumbfounded until the X-Men attack.
00:33:04
Speaker
so He says, he thinks to himself, how can I convince them that this is all a mix up? Try saying anything. You haven't tried even saying anything to them.
00:33:17
Speaker
he goes the next seven, eight pages without one line of dialogue. He's just thinking to be at two full pages of him thinking about what happened just in the last issue.
00:33:29
Speaker
And the very first time he talks to somebody, they're like, oh, OK, sure. yeah Yeah, we got it wrong. He just talked. OK, die he does refer to them in his thoughts as a mutant menace.
00:33:46
Speaker
Mutant menace. That's two. We didn't say it last issue, but that's two issues in a row. of mutant menace yeah yeah uh two episodes in a row too that we get shouted out so many mutant menaces people they love us really liked this podcast in 1981 okay so the x-men attack all of them except for sprite who is attempting to protect the boy and storm who is having trouble controlling the blizzard around her interesting We quickly discovered that this is because Jimmy is using his telepathic powers to control Storm's powers and wrest control of the weather away from her without her knowing it.
00:34:25
Speaker
Jimmy! This is a very cool use of psychic powers that we haven't seen before. Just like, instead of trying to take over somebody's brain or implant some sort of thought, he just finds the area of her brain that controls her mutant powers and starts using them. Yeah.
00:34:44
Speaker
yeah She has no idea either. it's to be It's great. I agree. that's it's really that's That is a very cool idea. <unk>m and the x-men fight for a while until rom reaches kitty and tries to warn her jimmy responds by turning back into hybrid right behind her and attacking rom tries to protect kitty but her phasing power fucks with his robot suit and he's almost killed until he summons his neutralizer from subspace and sets it to kill that's his that's his ray gun yeah he only had it set to uh banish before he has a banish setting and a kill setting But hey, wait, don't to don't count it out yet because there's one more setting, everybody. That's right. to ah He just misses Hybrid, though, and Hybrid knocks the gun out of Rom's hand.
00:35:35
Speaker
i I love the fight with the X-Men because Wolverine just won't stop talking about his claws. It is exactly like the the dialogue problems from last issue where in every panel, Wolverine's like, my claws will tear you up, bub. Wait till you get a taste of my claws.
00:35:50
Speaker
And they're like, oh, he's escaping. He won't escape my claws. Have you seen my adamantium claws? He keeps saying adamantium too. Yeah, it's true. um he also he can smell evil we learned bill mantlow seems to think wolverine can smell good and evil Right, and you kind of think it's like almost metaphorical at first, and no.
00:36:14
Speaker
No, he uses it enough for it to be very literal. It becomes very, very literal it's throughout this story. Meanwhile, the X-Men are all lost in the blizzard.
00:36:26
Speaker
Colossus stumbles upon the fight and realizes that it is Hybrid they are after, but Hybrid takes control of Colossus and turns him human again. ah Again, very cool. Very cool.
00:36:38
Speaker
He also expands Peter's throat muscles to cut off his oxygen, but Kurt is there to perform mouthto mouth to mouth. Yeah. They make out a little. Yeah, there's just a big long scene of them making out. And and it is implied at the end of the issue that they've been making they make out for the rest of the fight.
00:36:58
Speaker
Look, it's what we've all been clamoring for. Like he just doesn't stop. Yeah. Uh, mutant menace pod at gmail.com. If you have any fan art.
00:37:09
Speaker
ah Colossus and nightcrawler making out Wolverine still smelling evil, but not sure it's coming from wrong. This is where it gets super literal. Yeah. yeah no the evil scent is not on this guy. Yeah.
00:37:23
Speaker
yeah Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's like basically how he cracks the case for himself, but nevertheless, he attacks the robot man. Yeah. give me Kitty sees and attempts to tell Wolverine the truth, but Hybrid stops her. He now states that his new goal is to breed with Kitty.
00:37:39
Speaker
oh God. So she she drives a snowmobile at him, which doesn't work. This is we are immediately this is a 13 year old girl.
00:37:52
Speaker
Yeah. And yeah, old man low the first time he gets his hands on her turns her into a sexual object. And don't say it like that. OK. No, you're right. And it sucks.
00:38:07
Speaker
It's gross. Immediately. he's like and he wants to breed with her. He's such a bad writer. yeah Meanwhile, Rom beats Wolverine's ass and hops back into his fight with Hybrid.
00:38:22
Speaker
Kitty tells Wolverine what's up, so he tries to fire the discarded neutralizer, but it almost kills him. So Kitty picks it up and is able to fire it. it's doing mini It's doing minimal damage, so Rom tells her how to turn up the intensity and tackles Rom into it, and they both disappear.
00:38:46
Speaker
Yeah, I don't... Yeah, I don't know. I don't know, man. Hybrid is blasted to pieces and ROM is transported to limbo. I'll tell you why, Matt. Because... The gun did have a third setting.
00:38:59
Speaker
There's banish, kill... And the third setting, Banish and Kill. But luckily, luckily, Hybrid and Rom both take the Banish and Kill shot. So I guess it splits Banish from Kill.
00:39:17
Speaker
So Kills... Kills Hybrid, Banishes Rom. Banishes How does it know which one to do? to who? i am I have to imagine it's based on kitty's thoughts because that's how that's how she changed the setting it's also that that's why wolverine couldn't do it but kitty could because her thoughts are pure yep I don't know why. don't know what it actually says. Like, I don't know. The reasoning is not clear. No, it makes just as much sense. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The X-Men pick themselves up, acknowledge that Ron was a good guy after all, and wish him well wherever he is.
00:39:57
Speaker
Yeah. The end. They just kind of wander away. They have no concern. Nope. Guess that guy's dead. That's it. You remember when we learned he was the good guy?
00:40:09
Speaker
i mean cries Kitty cries, but Storm is just like, hey, it's all right. Sometimes people get murdered. Sometimes you murder a guy and it's fine.
00:40:22
Speaker
This is a so ah very strong parallel to when Gene killed somebody and Scott was like, hey, you know what? don't worry about it
00:40:33
Speaker
That guy sucked. if you thought If you thought killing somebody would disappoint me, it doesn't. So yeah then I guess there's no other negative side to killing somebody. you this is greed This is grooming, right? This is how you build a child army.
00:40:48
Speaker
Oh my gosh. Okay, this one was not good. It was just one long fight. That is my take. I agree with you. There's just nothing of substance here, I think is the problem.
00:41:01
Speaker
Here's what I'm learning about Bill Mantlo. Everything we said about him was right.
00:41:09
Speaker
But to his credit, I think the one thing that probably got him a job in comics in general is his general framing of actionless segments.
00:41:26
Speaker
Right. i think okay every time we see Bill Mantlo try to illustrate, figuratively illustrate a yeah tense situation or a big battle, it's terrible.
00:41:39
Speaker
His choices are terrible. All his characters' decisions don't make sense. But when we are watching rom explain that...
00:41:51
Speaker
he's not actually a bad guy and we get to see like that two page horror story where the doctor discovers the this horrible child that stuff is solid not the dialogue not the writing of it but like the the idea of it yeah i don't know man yeah trying to pluck a ah fresh mushroom out of this pile of shit I you know you're you're you're right. Like I didn't I didn't hate all of this.
00:42:22
Speaker
um There was about a third of it.
00:42:28
Speaker
I just I don't know that I also just don't know that I got anything out of it. Right. Like I think, it' you know, I you know, I i have this weird thing that when I take in any kind of art or writing, I like to like derive meaning from it.
00:42:46
Speaker
yeah right and i didn't here well it's it's rom it's rom space night yeah read only memory yeah it's rom space you're right it's rom space night that is why they called him rom by the way like legitimately it says it because you can't you can't upload anything new to him they just I think they just thought it sounded futuristic.
00:43:18
Speaker
Does it did that term exist? Yes. night Oh, yeah. I guess. Yeah. Right. we're yes we're We're in the age of the Apple IIe. ah All right, Patrick.
00:43:32
Speaker
Yeah, I'm frigging done with ROM. Yeah, me too. I think I don't ever again. don't want never talk to him again. I don't want to talk about ROM anymore. You know what I want to talk about?
00:43:43
Speaker
this might be uncon This might be unconventional. Hmm. But seems like somehow you already knew what I was going to say. That's strange. Was it Spider-Man? No. you did then yeah Now we weren't on the same page. Yeah, we weren't on the same page. Okay, well, I was going to talk about Spider Woman.
00:43:59
Speaker
oh yeah. All right. You don't have to hide how disappointed you are. Bit a radioactive lady spider, right? I don't know much about her backstory. I think it was something like that.
00:44:09
Speaker
So this is Spider Woman number 37. It's called Who Am I? You're Matt. No, it's called. What's called? It's called Who Am I?
00:44:23
Speaker
matt yeah you okay chris claremont writer steve le aloha uh layouts um okay there's a lot of people doing inks on this issue austin wyachek weiss milgram springer all doing inks i didn't notice this guess it's terry austin al milgram steve wyachek the ah Barry Weiss. Yeah, Barry Weiss, the opinion columnist, and Frank Springer.
00:44:51
Speaker
um Orzakowski, letterer, gaff, colorist? I don't know. Denny O'Neill, editor... And Jompshooper, editor-in-chief.
00:45:02
Speaker
Release date, December 30th, 1980. Cover date, April 8th, 1981. Nick Fury walks through the halls of a S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier as the narrator explains what a powerful man he is.
00:45:17
Speaker
Suddenly, aware that he's being followed, he quickly draws two pistols and turns around to find... spider woman hey she's here to ask for fury's help getting her private investigator's license and she recaps her backstory to him okay
00:45:35
Speaker
i didn't know any of this was spider this blew my mind this is crazy is this yeah walk is wild this is really really strange all right because you feel like you'd glean this right yeah All right.
00:45:50
Speaker
She doesn't remember her early childhood or her parents. Okay. Her first memory is waking up from cryogenic hibernation and meeting the high evolutionary. What? Who promised to raise her as his daughter.
00:46:05
Speaker
She was raised on Wundagore, where the high evolutionary was making manimals to try to recreate Camelot. These animen didn't like her and the high evolutionary became obsessed with his work and ignored her.
00:46:17
Speaker
She left and found love on earth, but accidentally killed her husband when she discovered her venom blast by accident. I did know about the venom blast. Just that she had it. Not that she me so killed her husband with it.
00:46:31
Speaker
She was accused of being a witch by the whole town, but Hydra rescued her from the mob and turned her into a costume super spy. Okay. This part I knew. Yeah. Just the costume super spy part.
00:46:42
Speaker
She was sent to kill Nick Fury, but realized how evil Hydra was and ah ended up assassinating her Hydra leader instead. One of the big reasons she realizes how evil Hydra is is that they don't like her costume.
00:46:59
Speaker
It's so with Bendis, Brian Michael Bendis loved Spider Woman and had her appear a bunch of the comics that he was writing at the time. and so, i yeah, I knew the double agent ah former Hydra.
00:47:17
Speaker
OK. Employee story. The rest of this is the high evolutionary match. Yeah. And how many Marvel superheroes grew up on Mount Wondagore? It's like every third one.
00:47:33
Speaker
that' since That is wild. Also, she was cryogenically frozen for 30 years, we find out. It's really, really insane. that that You feel like that would come up like a lot because they guess she has that in common with Captain America. This is all told through the lens of her being like, oh, Nick, you know how it is with me.
00:48:01
Speaker
I don't remember my childhood. I woke up after 30 years of cryogenic hibernation. The high evolutionary promise to be my father raised me on Wondagore, but the animen there didn't like me. Yeah, yeah.
00:48:13
Speaker
Really, really, really insane. So, all right. La Contessa Valentina Allegro de Fontaine. La Contessa Valentina Allegro de Fontaine. I can't.
00:48:23
Speaker
I can only read Contessa Valentina Allegro de Fontaine's dialogue in Julia Louise Dreyfuss's voice. Yeah, yeah. It really does define the character. It fits and it's like, holy shit, that casting was perfect.
00:48:39
Speaker
Yeah. Except here she, well, she is wearing... more skin tight and revealing clothing than spider woman is well you're not gonna get julie louis dreyfus to do that right where we're seeing her pubic hair like we're seeing the top of her her bush can is that an okay thing to say i have to pull that i have to pull this up i did not see the top of her bush
00:49:09
Speaker
It's her pants are just hanging down by like, like below her. Oh my God. You're absolutely right. That has to be her pubic hair. Yeah. What is that?
00:49:19
Speaker
they It's like her gun is pulling on her pants so hard. That. It's going across where the pubic hair would be. And there's like a bunch of black lines there.
00:49:31
Speaker
Yeah. The belt she's wearing is clearly just for show. It's not actually for function. that is That is nuts. that i'm so I'm surprised that made it past the... What if Julie Louise Dreyfuss had walked out in the middle of a thunderbolt's press like this?
00:49:50
Speaker
I mean, God bless her. I i wouldn't have been mad about it. Yeah, me neither. I've been like, oh, hey, that's Julia or Louise Dreyfuss's pubic hair.
00:50:02
Speaker
All right. Anyway, like a Tessa Valentina, Allegra de Fontaine shows up in an even more skin tight costume. And after some jealousy bubbles up, why a Spider Woman splits. Yeah, they just had to have a moment where.
00:50:16
Speaker
Two women get into the same room, are jealous of each other, and then the story just goes on. yeah yeah. That's the only thing that male writers in this era know how to do with female characters. I mean, it happens in this episode three separate times.
00:50:32
Speaker
Yeah. As Spider-Woman soars over San Francisco, we see a trolley below her carrying the dastardly black Tom, Juggernaut, and a girl named Teresa?
00:50:44
Speaker
Just their friend, Teresa, discussing their plans to rob the U.S. supply of vibranium. Just on public transit. Just talking about their evil secret criminal plans.
00:50:55
Speaker
On the famous San Francisco trolley. Going, ah, ha, ha, ha, ha. Cut to Westchester, New York, where Cerebro is indicating the presence of a powerful mutant in San Francisco.
00:51:11
Speaker
ah Xavier assembles the X-Men while across the country, Jessica Drew sneaks into her apartment and gets out of her Spider-Woman costume. Half naked. We have to comment. She discovers that her roommate, actress Lindsay McCabe, is throwing an impromptu housewarming party.
00:51:26
Speaker
Lindsay McCabe, Pat! Lindsay McCabe is here. love Lindsay McCabe. Matt, tell us Lindsay McCabe. She just wasn't going to see her for a while. She's just Jessica Drew's best friend. And she she'll be a big part of Wolverine.
00:51:39
Speaker
And when we finally get to that in what the... Mid 80s. I didn't know that. I thought this was just a person. Nope. It's Lindsay McCabe. All right. She's a she has she's a big she ends up being a big presence in Madripoor.
00:51:54
Speaker
So Lindsay McCabe's throwing a housewarming party. Also, we learned that Spider Woman's apartment is haunted. Pat, what? It comes up a lot. I have to assume that this will come into play in a later issue of Spider Woman.
00:52:11
Speaker
The party's in full swing and Jessica is getting steamy with her landlord, David Ishima. Winner. They're getting close. They are pushing the boundaries of the Comics Code Authority.
00:52:24
Speaker
He's like, I got you a little bonsai tree. And she's like, all right, come on and fuck me. this Well, she did he takes her to her guard his garden and he's he immediately starts massaging her and she's like, ooh, I like that. yeah, yeah. And they're about to.
00:52:45
Speaker
yeah She is very clear. <unk> great that she's down for it. But they don't get to even make out Matt. like I thought there was a kiss in there. Am I wrong? Their lips start getting close and then she goes, ah! That's right. So that that happens because her sensitive hearing picks up a piercing sonic scream. She ditches David and, as Spider-Woman, identifies the metro tunnel under the San Francisco Mint.
00:53:11
Speaker
Oh. As the source of the scream. It's not a candy shop. It's like where they make the money. Yeah, yeah. she She swoops down and sees a tunnel dug out. You knew that, right?
00:53:22
Speaker
the Yeah, the San Francisco Mint Factory. She swoops down and sees a tunnel dug out leading right into the vault. She dips in quietly and takes out Black Tom before he even knows someone's there.
00:53:36
Speaker
She continues following the sound until she comes upon a teenage girl wearing Banshee's costume? Screaming at the vault door. Until it breaks open. See if works.
00:53:46
Speaker
Yeah. it You can't argue with the results. She reveals her codename to be Siren. Siren? That Siren's here. Wow. And her powers are evenly matched with Spider-Woman's.
00:54:01
Speaker
But Jessica's wits and experience win the day until, of course, Juggernaut bursts in. ah He knocks Spider-Woman unconscious and the three bad guys escape with the vibranium. and Jessica comes to Cyclops style, surrounded by cops with their guns pointed at her, accusing her of robbing the mint.
00:54:20
Speaker
If only this was a museum, it would have been one exactly one to one. Yeah. So there's some. weird stuff in this issue um number one one of Spider Woman's house guests is called Ben Disraeli yeah you can't just call a character Benjamin Disraeli former prime minister of of England the founder of the British conservative party you can't just call somebody Benjamin Disraeli
00:54:56
Speaker
Wait, when what when was he prime minister? um Well before this? Yes. He's a he's historical figure at that point. Okay. and yeah that's It would be like naming a character ah Abraham Lincoln. Exactly!
00:55:13
Speaker
When she's flirting with ah her landlord, David Ishima. Yeah. he well He hands her the bonsai tree and you he's like, oh, no, ah there's a spider on it. I'm so embarrassed. I i didn't mean to give you something with spiders. And she goes, ah don't worry about it. I have a certain affinity for spiders.
00:55:35
Speaker
And I just imagine him responding. Wait, are you spider woman?
00:55:41
Speaker
No. why did he Why did you say that then? i jump with I like spiders. Okay. You said that in a really weird way. Can you, can you massage me? Can you massage my shoulder?
00:55:58
Speaker
Siren uses her powers in the most insane ways. She creates a bubble of sound around herself. Yeah, it protects her. She's also she's shooting like concentrated beams of sound.
00:56:12
Speaker
Yeah, she's she's she's a little better with these powers than bansshee ever was. Seems like it. Yeah, she's she gets a little more exploratory with them. Because i bet Banshee would be like, yeah, you can't make a bubble of sound.
00:56:26
Speaker
That doesn't make any sense. and she But she's not constrained by things like reason and science. Right. She can make a sound bubble. It is Like, sound is just a vibration, right? And if you have enough molecules vibrating at a high enough frequency in a concentrated area,
00:56:47
Speaker
it could Yeah, but that's you're just calling you're just saying a solid. If you make if you if you push so many molecules of the air together that it creates a solid. Yeah, you're right. that point So she's vibrating them in the it could work.
00:57:04
Speaker
do you see your your theory is that we could take a gas and shake it up so hard that it turns into a wall. No, what what she's doing is she's vibrating the micro materials in the air to form ah thin, invisible, but solid wall.
00:57:28
Speaker
Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Also, they keep they keep calling their apartment a flat because it's Chris Claremont. Yeah. Where the hell do you think we are? Anyway, that's that's all I have to say about this.
00:57:41
Speaker
How about you? I think we ah left one thing out intentionally just for the sake of the story. But oh there is a point where Spider Woman is falling to the ground, but about to plummet to her death. But she does find an updraft.
00:57:58
Speaker
She finds an updraft. And she manages to She also tells us she can't fly. She just glides. But yeah that's just flies constantly. She's just constantly flying. Yeah, she can take off from the ground. yeah she Yeah, we see her do it several times. So, okay, there is one more thing I want to talk about, and it's we have to fucking figure this out, Pat.
00:58:20
Speaker
How the hell does Cerebra work? So it identifies new mutants, right? But that's not true because it's often identifying mutants that have been that are like 40 years old.
00:58:35
Speaker
Right. Like from his what was it? Issue three. We saw identify blob who had been performing at a circus for years using his blob powers. Right. So doesn't identify mutants who are just discovering their powers, who's like right whose powers just manifesting.
00:58:50
Speaker
It doesn't necessarily identify mutants who are using their powers because every now and then. and Right. Yeah. It'll identify a mutant who their power is still latent. Yeah. it doesn't have a fake like Kitty, like Kitty.
00:59:02
Speaker
yeah Exactly. i mean, in that issue, it found Dazzler and Kitty, one who's who had been using her powers forever. Right. Yeah. And another one who had never used her powers.
00:59:13
Speaker
Right. and So he's going back to the blob example to like and Dazzler and Kitty are all proof that it's not just finding threatening mutants because none of them posed a threat until the X-Men got involved.
00:59:27
Speaker
Yeah, that's true. and if it just knows where every mutant is all the time, and then why do they ever have trouble finding they would know where Magneto is at all times?
00:59:40
Speaker
And Blob and Toad and... Right. Avalanche and Mastermind. that this the The fucking Dark Phoenix saga would never have happened. Because Professor X would have been like, oh, hey, ah Mastermind's been following you around.
00:59:55
Speaker
Maybe it's like precognitive. Maybe it says... Something interesting's about to happen with this. Yes, something will affect you.
01:00:09
Speaker
involving this mutant and it's like really fucks with your head when you think about the blob story and how it says like hey you better get involved with this mutant because being involved with this mutant is going to cause trouble for you and they become the actual it's like when neo knocks off the cookies in the matrix and the oracles like would you have knocked those cookies over if i didn't tell you about them that's fun to think about right So it's like half mutant detector and half Zoltan the fortune telling machine.
01:00:44
Speaker
Yes. Okay. All right. Pat, I would really love to sit back and just kick my feet up and sip on my water and hear about Spider Woman number 38, if you could.
01:00:58
Speaker
Okay, Matt, but I need you to pay attention I'll let you kick back a little bit, but you still have to engage. Okay.
01:01:08
Speaker
Okay. I will. Spider woman. Number 38 criminal at large. Chris Claremont writer, Steve Leah, Leah, Leah. Steve Lealoha, Wyacek & Co, artists, Tom Orzakowski, letterer, Sheil & Harfield, colorists, Denny O'Neill, editor, Jump Shuper editor-in-chief. Man, that was a rough series of names. Yeah, these are and tricky.
01:01:36
Speaker
Why do they have so many artists and colorists? I i have no clue, man. There was like 19 inkers in the last issue. Steve Lealoha rules.
01:01:47
Speaker
and Oh, yeah? He will appear in New Mutants later, and it's going to be a ah bummer because he follows Bill Sienkiewicz, so he's kind of like the, like, oh, sure. Yeah.
01:01:58
Speaker
But he's still great, and his layouts in this issue are incredible. Yeah, they're so much fun. There's like not he does like nine panel grids. He does these like he does these like long wide panels that show one bit of action while in the at the end of each one. There's a tiny little panel showing some correlated piece of action. It's really cool.
01:02:21
Speaker
Yeah. ah Release date March 3rd, 1981. Cover date June 1981. Spider Woman is being arrested for stealing the bulk of the U.S. government's vibranium supply.
01:02:35
Speaker
Until... it all in one bank in San Francisco. Until, that is, she bonks the arresting officer on the head and flies away. My one weakness!
01:02:45
Speaker
As she arrives home, we see she's being watched from a distance by the X-Men. The housewarming party is still going and Jessica settles in and starts flirting with David Ishma again. The doorbell rings and in walks Warren Worthington, who knows Lindsay through Ben Disraeli.
01:03:01
Speaker
Ha! The 1800s British Prime Minister. He brought his friends Peter and Aurora, who are immediately the hottest fucking people at this party.
01:03:12
Speaker
Full of actors. Already full of actors. yeah They ask to speak to Jessica in private and learn about the activity of Black Tom, Juggernaut, and this siren that no one's heard of.
01:03:24
Speaker
They all leave the party together, which David is a little bummed about. Aw, poor David Ishima. I wonder whatever happens with him. I don't know, Matt. We're not following Spider Woman. Cut to Suison Bay. Is that how you pronounce that?
01:03:39
Speaker
Suison. Suison. Suison. Cut to Suison Bay, just upriver of San Francisco, where we find Storm flying over an old warship graveyard carrying Colossus.
01:03:52
Speaker
War ship graveyard, not worship graveyard, right? War ship graveyard. War ship graveyard. Moira McTaggart at the war ship graveyard.
01:04:06
Speaker
ah Inside one of these ships, Black Tom is counting vibranium bars when the ship is hit by a missile-like force. ah Jessica Drew, acting as our narrator, says, the plan was simple.
01:04:20
Speaker
Storm dropped Peter.
01:04:23
Speaker
it's so good that's the narration is the boat just implodes it's it's it's claremont trying to do the like private eye thing yeah and he's he's like look i don't think this comic bet is bad i like it i kind of want to go back and read all of spider woman after reading these two issues i know but fuck he's not good at this ah yeah the plan was simple Water starts rushing into the ship and his juggernaut goes to investigate.
01:04:50
Speaker
He's hit by a bolt of lightning and knocked out of sight. Siren starts to fly away, but Spider Woman is in hot pursuit. Siren lets out a sonic scream and paralyzes Jessica, who starts plummeting to the ground until Warren does his one job and catches her.
01:05:10
Speaker
They're not out of trouble yet, though. That is here. Siren, Matt, this is wild. Siren uses her screams to create a hologram of a pterodact. Stop it.
01:05:21
Speaker
You can't do a a hologram out of sound. he said that They're two opposite things. They're doing it right here.
01:05:33
Speaker
she She creates a hologram of pterodactyl, and in his stupor, Warren allows himself to be mind-controlled by her screams. He drops Spider-Woman at Siren's command, but Jessica has come to and flies away.
01:05:49
Speaker
Back on the ship. If you can't fly, she can only glide, you know, upwards from a standing position. Right. While she's standing on the ground, she can glide upwards. Right. Back on the ship, the X-Men fight the bad guys.
01:06:02
Speaker
Colossus takes out Juggernaut, albeit temporarily, and kicks Black Tom's ass so bad that he starts regretting his life of crimes. but Warren punches storm.
01:06:13
Speaker
But after that, his brain gets fixed and he's a good guy. Again, this is i at the end, I'll recap all the dumb ass things that Warren does in this comic. But this is my absolute favorite where he's mind controlled, but it's that type of mind control that we've seen where he's He's got all his wits about him. He just seems to be himself. Yeah. Doesn't like that. Cause storm is like, Warren, have you completed your mission? And he goes, no, I'm working for the bad guys now. And then punches her.
01:06:43
Speaker
Exactly.
01:06:47
Speaker
Jessica outsmarts Siren and knocks her out with a Venom Blast. Preparing for Juggernaut's inevitable return, the gang finds two large metal poles in close proximity to each other on the ship.
01:06:59
Speaker
Colossus is the bait, standing between the two poles and challenging Juggernaut to a fight. Juggernaut charges in, locks him up, but Peter switches to human form to get smaller and wriggles out of his grip where Angel swoops in and flies him out of harm's way with Aurora's help. He can't do that fast enough by himself.
01:07:18
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Aurora conjures a lightning bolt to hit one of the poles. Jessica hits the other with a powerful venom blast, and it creates an electrical arc that meets on Juggernaut, who's standing right in the middle.
01:07:31
Speaker
The power required to stop him is so great that the ship explodes. But all the good guys escape.
01:07:41
Speaker
It really is. Jessica Drew is still narrating here, and she's just she just goes like. And then the ship blew up and then we all got off. We all escaped. That's all we get of it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:07:53
Speaker
Back on land, Black Tom feels a great guilt for involving a teenager in all of this, takes responsibility for the robbery, and asks the X-Men to take care of Siren. The cops tell Spider-Woman that they won't arrest her, but that she should fuck off, and we see her contemplate this as she opens her new private detective's office.
01:08:12
Speaker
The... Whoa. ah he did That son of a bitch did it again. So, all right. You at one point in this recap said Jessica outsmart siren.
01:08:28
Speaker
Her plan is just... get nude. Oh my god. Yes. This is... She's like, ah puts her clothes somewhere and gets completely naked and then when Siren blasts the clothes, she jumps out nude and blasts Siren. She just stuffs her costume with packing peanuts and hides it behind a half wall.
01:08:54
Speaker
It's so good. And here's why it's so good. Because listen, Matt, I'm not going to sit here and tell you that Jessica Drew isn't an attractive woman, right? She is clearly David Ashima sees it.
01:09:05
Speaker
But it's fun when she's nude because she clearly takes the same approach to being nude that the X-Men do, where it's just like, I don't give a shit. I'm nude. Who cares? Yeah.
01:09:16
Speaker
I'm fighting you. Worry about that.
01:09:21
Speaker
ah It's really, it's more of a carefree thing than like ah an overly sexualized thing to me. yeah Although it's also that they draw her in ridiculous poses, but yeah. Yeah. One of the things they keep saying when black Tom goes to blast people is they keep referring to his bio beam or his bio blast.
01:09:45
Speaker
That's just piss. That's piss. They're talking about, they must, they're talking about piss. I gotta go take, I gotta go. His body stream. gotta to go fire my bio beam into the, into the toilet.
01:10:00
Speaker
Hey, uh, guys, don't wait up. I'm gonna go bio blast behind these bushes. like Gotta go take a bio piss.
01:10:12
Speaker
He's, we've never been clear on his power set, but. No, no, he pisses out of staff.
01:10:21
Speaker
And it can knock people unconscious. We do. Sorry, I just saw the note. The plan was just to get nude. to Um, yeah. ah um Okay, a couple of things I want to talk about here.
01:10:35
Speaker
ah Number one, Angel, Warren Commission. Here's a list of things that happen. He gets hypnotized by an illusion. He drops Spider Woman midair.
01:10:46
Speaker
He tries to pursue her, but immediately loses her. He says to Storm, no, actually, I've switched sides before before punching her.
01:10:56
Speaker
Yeah. um Once he's a good guy again, he insults Spider Woman's appearance after dropping her out of the sky. He's talking about her tattered costume because she took it off and siren blasted it.
01:11:08
Speaker
Yeah. But you are the last person that should be telling her that she shouldn't have a damaged costume.
01:11:16
Speaker
He gets called out in another moment by Colossus for being rude. yeah He's calling Spider-Woman webs. And Peter very sweetly, like but sternly goes, she has a name, Tavarish.
01:11:30
Speaker
yeah Yeah, it's more of just Angel not fitting in right? that that is That is just like a theme that is so consistent in this X-Men run. It's like where Angel tries to rejoin the X-Men,
01:11:45
Speaker
No one likes him. He doesn't like anyone. They don't have the same sense of humor. They don't fight the same way. They don't have this like nothing fits. Everybody's just like, we don't we don't talk that way about people.
01:11:58
Speaker
We don't do that. Warren. Yeah. i And then finally, his one thing. which is to fly fast and save people by doing that.
01:12:10
Speaker
He can't even do in this situation without Storm's help. He needs her to create a gust of wind that he can ride to go faster. It it is Do you feel a little heartbroken when we realize just how bad Warren Worthington is? Like we didn't. Did you know Angel sucked so bad before we started reading this?
01:12:30
Speaker
No, I had no idea that he was awful. The more we keep reading, the more it's just like evidence piling on on top of what ah itself.
01:12:41
Speaker
And it starts to like hurt my feelings. Like, man, he really does suck. How did I not pick up on this? like I thought I like just kind of I thought I kind of liked it. Yeah.
01:12:55
Speaker
My other question about this is how do we feel about the term the weather witch? Something a lot of people are are using to refer to Storm if they either don't know her name or just don't care to refer to her by her name.
01:13:13
Speaker
They just go the weather witch.
01:13:17
Speaker
But I think it would depend on how Storm feels about it. um Yeah, that's fair. I think it kind of sounds badass. Yeah. Yeah, I think it sounds rad. But I could see it being offensive.
01:13:30
Speaker
Right. But like again, it kind of sounds badass. Yeah. All right. We'll leave it at that. But MutantMenacePod at gmail.com. Let us know how you feel how do you feel about the weather witch. And if you are a weather witch, let us know if that's offensive.
01:13:43
Speaker
Oh, yeah. I didn't even think of that.
01:13:47
Speaker
So, yeah, this is this was issue, what, 38 of Spider-Woman? It's going to go for about another 12 more issues, and then and then it's over, and then it ends. well um And I don't think Spider-Woman gets her own comic for a very I'm actually going to pull it up if that's okay.
01:14:05
Speaker
Yeah, no, she doesn't get, ah she has that this 50 issue series, and then it doesn't, appear she doesn't appear, she doesn't get her own again until 1993, where she has a miniseries.
01:14:17
Speaker
Then she gets one in 1999, then one in 2009. Oh, one in the 2010s, and then one very recently. Yeah. All right. So she she she does get a bunch. comes back.
01:14:28
Speaker
But she, you know, it'll be 10 Yeah. ten years until's another one She fits in so well with the X-Men. I hope she comes back because just like adding her to that teamwork dynamic made it it felt like a natural fit.
01:14:49
Speaker
I don't know, Pat. I don't think we're ever going to see her in the X-Men again. Sorry. Well, that being said. Look, I know all you want to do All you want to do in the whole world is talk about Uncanny X-Men number 148.
01:15:05
Speaker
But first, yeah I want to tell you a little story that I heard recently. Oh. It's called Marvel Treasury Edition number 26 at the sign of the lion. Script Mary Jo Duffy pencils Ken Landgraff inks George Perez.
01:15:21
Speaker
hey Lettered by Michael Higgins, colored by Glynis Ween, and edited by Jomp Shuper, released April 1980, covered Logan! date july nineteen eighty logan is drinking alone in the bar fuming about how big of a nerd cyclops is when a woman comes up and tries to hit on him he uses an ableist slur at her and then tries to tell her he's just joking when hercules bursts into the bar remember him from the champions yeah from the champions yeah yeah yeah yeah all the women flock to hercules hercules asks wolverine to move
01:15:57
Speaker
but Wolverine refuses, so Hercules picks him up and tosses him across the room. Wolverine yells about Scott Summers again and then tries to punch Hercules, but just gets swatted away.
01:16:08
Speaker
He plop... He plops his claws. Plop. Plop. Plop, plop.
01:16:21
Speaker
Why don't you come say that to my face, bub? Plop, plop.
01:16:29
Speaker
He pops his claws and they really start going at it, trashing the bar around him. Wolverine gets his claws stuck in a marble tabletop, which makes Hercules laugh. So Wolverine smashes the table over his head.
01:16:43
Speaker
Goddamn. Hercules decides this has been a good enough fight. So he offers Logan his hand in friendship. It's then that they notice the entire bar is cleared out, and they both drink, bummed that no one was around, to appreciate their big, cool fight.
01:17:00
Speaker
The end. Ugh. I heard that story ah from a guy outside the Wawa told it to me.
01:17:08
Speaker
So, I hope you enjoyed it. I had to remember the whole thing. This was so fun. This was ah so goofy and fun. There's so many... comics where it's just wolverine going to a bar looking for a good time ah there's a very memorable and i think it's from like 2008 or 2009 but spider-man wolverine comic where it's just wolverine's birthday and she invites spider-man out to the bar and i think they get into some fracas but it's uh
01:17:44
Speaker
It's more about just him being out looking for a good time and involving other supers. And he like doesn't, he doesn't, it doesn't bother him that he gets into a fight.
01:17:55
Speaker
You know what i mean? Yeah. Yeah. They're both like, you know, that was pretty good. ah And this happens to every time Wolverine goes to a bar gets into a fight. He's just kind of like, That was fun. Also, we get Wolverine in his civilian clothing, which is always a treat. He's wearing like a flannel and a jean jacket. He is blasting cigs.
01:18:18
Speaker
And this is, you know, he doesn't. Yeah, he doesn't change into his Wolverine costume at any point. So, like, I don't know. Do you think people reading this at this time? Like, do you think everybody knew who Wolverine was at this point?
01:18:32
Speaker
It's 1981. They must. He's such a popular character from the outset, and he's been the focus of marvels one of Marvel's most successful comics, right?
01:18:45
Speaker
Yeah, but, I mean, John Byrne talks about, I was reading, John Byrne... talking about how the comic was really more successful in retrospect.
01:18:57
Speaker
And it was really towards like the end of their run that it started to get, but then it's John Byrne. And sometimes a he just says shit. That's wrong and stupid. yep Um,
01:19:08
Speaker
Who knows? All right, Matt. Well, did you like i do you like that story I told you? No, it was a very good story. Thank you. know Whoever that gentleman that told you was, tell him. He was outside the good job. He was outside the Wawa and um he what he he forgot to mention that Wolverine was blasting cigs. He touched my hoagie while he was telling me the story and it just had to end up having to give it the whole thing to him.
01:19:31
Speaker
ah Yeah, yeah. He got you. yeah yeah Yeah, it was right and it was like right in the middle of the story when it was like Wolverine smashes the table over Hercules' head. And I was so excited. And he just slapped his hand on my hoagie. And was like, fuck.
01:19:49
Speaker
And then I think that was his whole plan. He spotted you as a mark. this guy This guy will love all good Wolverine in Hercules' story. Yeah. All right, Matt.
01:20:01
Speaker
Mm-hmm. Good night. Stretches in here because I. oh there's more. I'm about to tell you about Uncanny X-Men number 148. Cry Mutant.
01:20:12
Speaker
Chris Claremont, writer. Dave Cockrum and Joseph Rubenstein, artists. Janice Chiang, letterer. Glynis Ween, colorist. Louise Jones, editor and Jompshooper, editor-in-chief.
01:20:23
Speaker
Release date, 1981. date, August nineteen eighty one When last we left Scott Summers and Elitist Forester, they were shipwrecked on an island in the Bermuda Triangle.
01:20:34
Speaker
Scott had lost his glasses and was containing his I-beams with a blindfold, and Lee had just discovered a giant city that had appeared offshore. As this issue opens, we get a closer look at the two sexy ass babes in their ripped clothing and enter the city. Yeah.
01:20:52
Speaker
Yeah. Wow. yeah This first shot of the two of them side by side is like Rob Liefeld levels of ridiculous. Just the orange up, huh?
01:21:05
Speaker
is that what rob liefeld does for you man because look it is a beautiful study of the human body but the level of muscle on like the it's the tightness and the development it's like that that ninety s trend where everybody is just well their muscles are building muscles And it's thats like like Cyclops is super, super fucking jacked.
01:21:31
Speaker
And Lee has that thing where like ah legitimately looks like an hourglass on her stomach. I was going to say the figure of a literal hourglass. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
Futuristic City and Character Conflicts
01:21:44
Speaker
And those ripped jeans. Yeah, they're up there. They're like a... Above mid thigh. Yeah. Yeah. yeah Like there's like maybe 20% of that thigh left covered.
01:21:59
Speaker
The city is massive, seemingly carved out of green marble with futuristic spires, seashells on the freezes and giant statues of chthonic octopus faced creatures in front of the archways.
01:22:11
Speaker
Here's the thing, Matt. Yeah. Lee, when Cyclops is like, can you describe the city to me? She's like, I couldn't put it in words. You just did it. We just we described it really well. We did it. We got it. I mean, yeah, what's her problem?
01:22:29
Speaker
I also think Cyclops doesn't quite believe her because he's been blind this whole time and they've been stranded on an island. And she's like, no, I swear this city wasn't here before.
01:22:41
Speaker
And he's just like, okay, well, why don't you describe it to me? So, yeah, this is, ah this whole city, I believe, is based on actual Lovecraftian mythos.
01:22:57
Speaker
Sure, yeah, yeah. I believe this is from, oh boy, what's that? ah I believe it's based on Relia, Relia, Relia, Relia.
01:23:08
Speaker
li yeah You can't pronounce this fucking, this shit. I'm not even looking at it. From um Call of Cthulhu that, you know it's just like an island where the old one lived or whatever.
01:23:22
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, this has some very Lovecraftian vibes to it, right? the The big, almost emerald, like dark emerald city. It comes from out of the ocean, so everything's got like a little slime on it. It's it's decaying.
01:23:37
Speaker
Yeah, you can definitely feel that. Yeah, I think. Yeah. Yeah. And yeah, Lee pretty vaguely describes the city to Scott and leads the way for for a blind Scott until nightfall.
01:23:51
Speaker
But when Lee kisses him, he pulls back, still processing the loss of Jean Lee problematically. throws a temper tantrum at this and runs off leaving Scott alone.
01:24:03
Speaker
yeah Yeah. Blind. blind Because he wouldn't sleep with you. Fucking you run away and leave a blind man alone in an ancient Cthulhu Cthulhu Island city.
01:24:18
Speaker
Thankfully, after he blasts the ceiling with his eye beams, she comes back and they do a sweet hug. She apologizes. In Westchester, New York, Wolverine is hunting Nightcrawler.
Training, Team Dynamics, and Family Discoveries
01:24:30
Speaker
But it's okay, folks. It's just a training exercise and Logan wins, meaning Kurt owes him yet another case of beer. This is very cute. Yeah. In the mansion, Warren is yelling at Xavier about Wolverine's continued involvement in the team.
01:24:45
Speaker
When Storm confronts him about it, he quits the team and flies off. Good. Bye, Angel. but be an X-Factor in four years.
01:24:57
Speaker
Storm continues to discuss the matter with x Xavier and Moira after Warren flies off. She's adamant about his place on the team, while like Xavier isn't always so sure. Angels...
01:25:08
Speaker
His reasoning here is like, and okay, we'll see him in X Factor in four years, but but before, like, he'll be, he'll have cameos and stuff. But yeah his reasoning here is so thin, right?
01:25:21
Speaker
It's so clearly just, he doesn't fit in, he can't hack it, he's not as good as the other X-Men. like That is finding the one that doesn't want to pretend to be his friend. Right. Take that all out on. And he's like Wolverine. He's actually a psycho. And like, he did you see the way he cut through that storm robot? And OK, fine. He knew that it was not storm because of his extra senses. But it if it was a real woman and not a robot, do you think he would have killed it? Yeah, he probably would have.
01:25:53
Speaker
Well, it's like, no, he wouldn't have. That's the whole thing. He knew it was a robot. Yeah. And you're admitting that out loud. He says, ah I wouldn't want to be part of any team that has him for a member. and Storm fucking cold ass line says, and does that include the human race?
01:26:14
Speaker
Oh, nice, dude. Yeah, she got him. Got him. In the hangar, Banshee fixes the Blackbird's engine while Colossus holds it aloft and his little sister, Ileana Rasputin, claps with joy. ah she She says ah she asks Colossus if she's going to turn to steel when she grows up.
01:26:33
Speaker
Yeah, interesting. Very interesting. She asks in Russian, too. It's very cute. They're having a little Russian conversation. just want to keep that in mind. As they finish up, Kurt bamfs in and tells Sean that the professor wants to see him in the mansion.
01:26:49
Speaker
When he gets there, a girl with similarly colored orange hair named Teresa Rourke hands him a letter. Teresa? The letter is from Black Tom, and tells Sean that his first wife before she died had a child, and Teresa is that child.
01:27:07
Speaker
We know her, course, as Siren from Spider Woman. That's And what we didn't know is that she's actually Banshee's daughter. I thought she was just, like, a relative.
01:27:21
Speaker
Yeah, their daddy daughter. Now they're with each other. That's adorable. Yeah. The rest of the X-Men and Spider-Woman burst in and share in Sean's joy.
01:27:32
Speaker
She came all the way back from San Francisco just to be here. But Moira, feeling insecure, she wanders off. Aurora follows and Moira tells her that she's worried Sean won't love her because she can't give him a child after her first child became Proteus.
01:27:51
Speaker
Cut to the streets of New York where a strange gloved hand lifts a manhole cover and a cloaked figure called Caliban emerges. who He's lonely and afraid that if anyone sees him, they'll kill him, but senses his own kind in a nearby skyscraper.
01:28:08
Speaker
Within that skyscraper, Kitty Pryde, Aurora Monroe, Stevie Hunter, and Jessica Drew are all arriving in a club called Infinity to see Dazzler perform.
01:28:19
Speaker
In the lobby, Caliban absorbs the fear his emotions cause in the security guards and turns it into strength to beat them back. I don't remember him having this power later I actually, my only familiar familiarity with Caliban is Logan, the movie Logan. Oh, okay.
01:28:44
Speaker
and Feeling guilt about hurting the humans, he disappears into the elevator and emerges into the club in the middle of Dazzler's set. Seeing the commotion, Kitty disappears through the floor, changes into her costume, and promptly falls down an elevator shaft.
01:28:59
Speaker
What? No! But she realizes that she can use her power to walk on air everything's fine. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's right. I guess we all forgot that. As the commotion in the club increases, Dazzler notices and amps up the show of lights created by her mutant powers to distract the audience, giving Aurora and Jessica time to change into Storm and Spider-Woman.
01:29:22
Speaker
Sprite pops out to see what's happening in the club and Caliban grabs her. She's like him, you see, and she will come with him and be his friend. He fights off Storm and Spider Woman and absconds with Kitty down the elevator shaft.
01:29:35
Speaker
People are developing Natalie Portman-like crushes on Kitty. It's not uncomfortable. Chris Claremont's like, i and I introduced a 13 and a half year old girl to the team.
01:29:49
Speaker
Time for everybody to lust after her. Yeah, yeah. The crowd is panicking now, so Dazzler uses her powers to literally dazzle them, hypnotizing them with her light.
01:30:00
Speaker
Spider Woman and Storm converge on Caliban as he exits the building and beat his ass until he cries for mercy. They pull his mask off and see his pale, bald head and giant yellow eyes. He looks like ah like a skull.
01:30:14
Speaker
Yeah, looks kind of skull-like. He looks, I mean this complimentary to the artist. This is not an insult, but he looks like if you tried to make a realistic drawing of an Undertale character. Yeah.
01:30:26
Speaker
He tells them he just wanted a friend because everyone's hated him. He's a mutant and no one has ever treated him kindly. He has the power to sense other mutants and it drew him above ground.
01:30:38
Speaker
He tells them he's sorry and Storm offers him friendship to come with them back to the mansion. But then police sirens start and Caliban disappears. The women, all back out of costume except for Dazzler, reconnoiter in Infinity Club and talk about the prejudices mutants face and how they they themselves are sometimes guilty of it.
01:30:57
Speaker
Back in the Bermuda Triangle, Scott and Lee are talking about where to get food when a voice appears.
Encounter with Magneto
01:31:03
Speaker
Lee is excited to hear it, but Scott recognizes immediately who it must be.
01:31:08
Speaker
It had recently made this island its home and was surprised to find others there with it. We turn the page and finally see who it is. And it's Magneto. Magneto.
01:31:21
Speaker
Oh, God. be continued. Wow. Holy cow. How many times have we seen that cliffhanger? I want to say five i think it's five. I think it's five now. I think. Okay.
01:31:39
Speaker
Help me figure out if I'm missing any. Okay. Warren's parents opening a door to the mansion. Right. After ah Magneto filled it with traps. Yeah, yeah. Last page. Kevin McCallick. Splash page.
01:31:53
Speaker
um the that The Magneto robot being Mesmero's boss in the City of Mutants. Right. After they're stuck in the... Was that a final page reveal?
01:32:04
Speaker
Yes. Yeah, yeah. You're right Then the real Magneto being the creator in the Savage Land. Yeah. Then again with Mesmero in the circus.
01:32:17
Speaker
In Mesmero's circus. Yeah, yeah. circus These were all final page reveals, right? I think so, yeah. and these are all the ones that I can remember, too. I can't remember any others. I don't.
01:32:28
Speaker
You'd menacepod at gmail.com if you do. ah But we should keep there's this is not going to be the last one. I fucking guarantee it. Like I can't remember any others, but I absolutely guarantee this is not the last time that on a final page reveal we see Magneto full page.
X-Men's Network of Allies
01:32:43
Speaker
Kurt Ruppert. Kurt Ruppert. And I'm quoting the issue here. They're describing them. They're describing him. They say. whose indigo skin renders him virtually invisible in the pre-dawn shadows.
01:32:55
Speaker
They're already pulling, they're pulling back every time. They're pulling back a little further. Like, oh, he didn't have the power to disappear. He's just, sometimes you can't see him because he's... actually ah very dark. This color is indigo.
01:33:09
Speaker
So you see, in the indigo light of dawn... Yeah, you can't... You can't see that. So you see, i ah everything I wrote was consistent. Yeah, that's what time it was when the leprechauns grabbed him. Like when ah Wolverine kept trying to kill Nightcrawler. It's consistent because he was having his berserker rages.
01:33:30
Speaker
Right, ra ride right, right, right. How did you? Okay, so so all this all this making friends with Rom and Spider-Woman and Hercules, I guess. Even thinking backwards to them making friends with Angel, to them making friends with Kitty and Dazzler, making friends with Stevie Hunter.
01:33:51
Speaker
All comes to a head here in this issue, except for Hercules and Rom. How do you feel about this one? Overall, honestly, this little run that we read here, this little detour that we took, I really liked it.
01:34:03
Speaker
I thought the Rom stuff was just silly enough to enjoy. It doesn't make sense, but it doesn't feel like it has to make sense. It's just there to yeah to be a fun comic.
01:34:15
Speaker
The Spider-Woman stuff is... really good. i really enjoyed her interaction with the team. She seems like a really well fleshed out character interacting with other really well fleshed out characters. And then she sticks around. She comes back to the mansion with them and ah and just to hang out.
01:34:35
Speaker
And she gets tied up in this this whole Caliban thing. but I love that. I think this... Okay, so like the ROM stuff, inconsequential, right?
01:34:46
Speaker
Yeah. Whatever. But the Spider-Woman stuff really gives context to this issue, 148, that yeah I don't think I had the first time I read it.
01:34:58
Speaker
And this issue... There's a lot in this issue that feels very random. If you haven't read those Spider-Woman issues, like the fuck Banshee's got a daughter.
01:35:10
Speaker
What the fuck? Why spider? Yeah. yeah What the fuck? Yes. What the fuck is any of this? And once you've read Spider-Woman, it like it just it kind of flows really naturally. Well, yeah, I think it's really important that we see the X-Men in Spider-Woman's comic followed by Spider-Woman in the X-Men's comic. It's.
01:35:31
Speaker
It's about establishing a network of friends for them. Right. i And again, Rom kind of falls within that, but they're pretty sure they killed him by the end. So they really don't take anything away from it.
01:35:44
Speaker
But yeah, Spider Woman is just a friend. She's ah so another superhero that is a friend of the X-Men and it kind of recontextualizes their relationships with like...
01:35:56
Speaker
moira mctaggart or hank mccoy it's like dazzler or dazzler yeah these are these are just the people that the x-men know and can call in favors from or can even just hang out with and i think that's really uh really special thing about it where it's like clearly the x-men have some magnetism to them and where don't tell them that oh don't use the word magnetism around them Unless it's Polaris.
01:36:24
Speaker
Yeah, you're right. ah So they clearly have some magnetism to them where people want to be their friends, right? Like every they like they go, they meet people in other books or in their book.
01:36:36
Speaker
Those people just stay part of their social orbit. People are like, want to be close to Storm and Kitty. yeah yeah they even They respect Wolverine. They love Kurt and Colossus. Like, I think that's, i don't know. I think that's really cool.
01:36:50
Speaker
Yeah, they it's it's about the ones that stick around, you know, and Spider-Man didn't stick around. No, he hates them. Fucking who else did they try to team up with? Johnny Storm didn't stick around. i hates them, you know, but Spider-Woman.
01:37:06
Speaker
Johnny Storm likes Iceman. She gets it. And then Ice to Iceman and Angel hate the X-Men. And so that makes Johnny Storm hate the X-Men.
01:37:19
Speaker
ah just the is these three young upstart men just being like childhood ruined oh my god you're right they're like comics gators for real in in the real life world of this Bobby Drake Warren Worthington and Johnny Storm sitting around being like and they put a black woman on the team can you believe it Have you seen how short Wolverine is?
01:37:53
Speaker
ah Yeah. Doesn't make sense. It's not historically accurate. All right.
Episode Wrap Up
01:37:59
Speaker
Good run. Overall, good run, man. Very fun. Yeah, yeah. Hey, fat you're you're welcome.
01:38:05
Speaker
You're welcome. You're welcome. I guess we're done. We're done for today. No, we're not. <unk> got eye out of the buy out and time machines you like to try out and you feel
01:38:27
Speaker
That's right, folks. It's time for Pat Steals and Deals. Today, we got a good one. oo Dragon Poster. Ha!
01:38:39
Speaker
Huge. 21 inches high and 38 inches wide.
01:38:47
Speaker
Color it yourself or leave it black and white. Scent rolled in protective tube. just says dragon.
01:39:01
Speaker
fucking that's a really good one. Here's the kicker, Matt. Yeah. $25 each. No fucking way No way. 21 inches high. 38 inches wide. Yeah.
01:39:17
Speaker
So it says huge, but it's really like a foot and a half by three and a half. Yeah. A little more than three feet. And let's look up the That's pretty big though. For a dragon poster. one comes out to about $89. $89.
01:39:32
Speaker
eighty nine dollars would you spend 89 for dragon poster huge well okay hold on it says all right i'm looking at it now says send 575 check or money order with name and address so here's what i think i think the regular dragon poster is 575 which is how much in today's money i'm doing the math hang on i'm a human calculator it just takes me a very long i think like 16 to 20 bucks
01:40:02
Speaker
twenty dollars and forty seven cents okay all right all right um and then if but if you get the limited signed print oh that's 25 dollar and there's only 200 of those signed by whom dragon yeah it's dragon poster so it's signed by dragon well don't forget that you can color it yourself
01:40:29
Speaker
But is it rolled up in a protective tube? it is. It's sent to you rolled up in a protective tube already. Oh my goodness. Was the problem that think people used to try to stuff posters in envelopes?
01:40:44
Speaker
Why is this a selling point? They fold it 500 times. got an eye out. you had time machine that you would He can't steal. Sealed.
01:41:01
Speaker
Oh boy, Matt, I guess that's it. As always, please, please, please find us on wherever you're listening to this episode on and listen to other episodes. Find us on Instagram at mutant menace pod. Find us on YouTube. You can follow us. You can subscribe to us.
01:41:20
Speaker
Leave some comments. Join our Discord. We'll put a link in the comments to this show. There's just so many ways that you can interact with can email us at mutantmenacepod at gmail.com. Did you say that part?
01:41:32
Speaker
No, I didn't. You can. Thank you for the reminder, Matt. Email us at mutantmenacepod at gmail.com to be featured on Pat's email corner. Did you tell the people that ah you want to thank Krils Wilson for creating our music and that you want to thank Julia Selle for the voice of Trish Tilby?
01:41:50
Speaker
No, i I didn't say that. Huh. Oh, okay. Well, did you, um, and there's nothing else to tell them, I don't think. That's right. I think all we can do here, Matt, is close the show out with the line we close it out every single week.
01:42:03
Speaker
Okay. Always remember, let's pack the booty and be on our good glory.
01:42:12
Speaker
And as always, I will not eat your soups well now, mother, or ever again.