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3 - X-Men #13-17
37 Plays9 days ago
Welcome to another episode of Mutant Menace ...!
Sorry we left you on a cliff-hanger last time! we certainly won't do it again here... !
Matt and Pat say goodbye to the pencils of Jack Kirby and say Hello to Werner Jay Roth Gavin as the X-Men encounter, for the first time, the dreaded SENTINELS and their perfectly molded butts!
We also talk about:
A baffling Human Torch cameo. Bolivar Trask is the worst anthropologist ever. Licking neanderthals. The dating life of Hank and Bobby. How do you pronounce "...!" ? Telling an interrogator your entire life story. Steel Gondolas. And a mysterious villain!
Email us: mutantmenacepod@gmail.com
Instagram: @mutantmenacepod
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Transcript
Introduction and Host Background
00:00:01
Speaker
I'm Trish Tilby 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.
00:00:33
Speaker
Hey everyone, I'm Matt Aukamp. And I'm Pat Reber. And we are the Mutant Menace. I thought I was saying it first. Oh, okay, you can say it first.
Life Updates and D&D Adventures
00:00:44
Speaker
Hey, I'm Pat Reber. And I'm Matt Aukamp. And welcome to Mutant Menace. Ah, yours was better.
00:00:53
Speaker
What's going on, Matt? Not too much. I got a new teapot, and i am I've been... ah There's nothing that interesting. Like, I don't have a cool... I wish I had a nice, funny observation about owning a teapot.
00:01:08
Speaker
I've had a tea kettle for a long time, yeah but never a teapot. Nice. It's a step up. How about you? what's What's new with you? Playing a lot of Dungeons and Dragons.
00:01:21
Speaker
Oh, what's that? ah It's like a tabletop role-playing game. You know your graphic adventure games? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. yeah yeah Imagine that, but in your imagination.
00:01:34
Speaker
Whoa. So you're been playing pretend. Yes, yeah playing pretend with my friends. We haven't talked about it on this show, but me and you actually are part of a D&D podcast called Adventure Services.
00:01:47
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Run by, ah his name was Dusk. is Is it was? i thought it was i thought it was is. How is he still releasing music then? i hope he's thrilled at the mention
00:02:01
Speaker
Okay, so you run your own session. Yes, I do. I DM a campaign for a handful of honestly talented comedians. ah Well, excuse me.
00:02:14
Speaker
And I'm trying to design this campaign from scratch, and i named a nearby town, Stars Hollow. And as I named it, I thought to myself, boy, that sounds familiar, but probably just because I just invented such a natural sounding name.
00:02:29
Speaker
Introduced it to my players, who it turns out are all huge Gilmore Girl fans. A show I've seen maybe a total of five episodes. So now I'm forced to find a way to sneak Gilmore Girls Easter eggs into my campaign.
00:02:47
Speaker
Right. if If you, listener, don't know what Stars Hollow is, it is the town in which Gilmore Girls takes place. And it is it is important enough to the show. Like, it is...
00:02:59
Speaker
You know that pretentious thing that um screenwriters, or like writers sometimes say like, oh, the ah the town or the city is another character in the story.
00:03:10
Speaker
It's one of those. Yeah, this is New York City and Sex and the City. It is Baltimore and The Wire. Yes. Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, i I know I've watched all of Gilmore Girls multiple times and I've played a very lot of D&D. So don't worry, Pat. I can help you out. You can make them. ah They can visit Luke's tavern and you can spell Luke with like a Q. L-U-Q.
00:03:40
Speaker
Oh, that's very clever. They can, uh, uh, that's all I have. All right. which thirty That's enough. That's farther than I got.
00:03:52
Speaker
I think I'm just going to kill off the Gilmore girls. think That's a good idea.
Integrating Gilmore Girls into D&D
00:03:57
Speaker
ah Yeah, actually to to put our cards on the table, we talked about this. I love the idea of there being like a a famous Gilmore girls murder, like the towns and trauma because of the the murder of the Gilmore girls.
00:04:10
Speaker
Yeah. Like Taylor Dosey is what's like, like tyrant style locking the town down to find out who killed the Gilmore girls. Is that good or bad? Is Taylor Dosey?
00:04:22
Speaker
You know, he's complicated. He's a complicated man. Okay. Yeah, that's what I've got going on. That's the most exciting thing in my life at this time. I was also sick.
00:04:33
Speaker
I also spent the last like week and a half getting over some sort of I don't even know what it was. It was actually after a night that we played D&D and... d and we I took off my headphones.
00:04:48
Speaker
I stood up from the computer. like i I felt fine. And then all of a sudden I was like, oh my god, I'm going to die. And it just like rushed into my fucking body.
00:04:58
Speaker
And I had to take like a day and a half off work. and then i've been ah So if i if listeners, if I sound a little different, it's because I'm still um still muting the mic to cough every few seconds.
00:05:13
Speaker
Like that. Yeah, exactly. What are we talking about today, Pat?
X-Men Issue 13 Discussion
00:05:18
Speaker
Let's go, bub. i I mean, we can start by talking about X-Men issue 13, Where Walks the Juggernaut.
00:05:28
Speaker
Should we do a little recap of what happened last episode? I can, or I should say Stan Lee has already done that for us. Oh my God. Okay. All right. Let's hear it. To quote Stan Lee.
00:05:40
Speaker
Last issue, we saw how Cain Marko, the sinister stepbrother of Professor X, stumbled onto the long-lost temple of Citrak during the Korean War, daring to touch the forbidden ruby, thereby transforming himself into a human juggernaut.
00:05:54
Speaker
And now, obsessed with a burning desire to destroy his stepbrother, he has found Professor X at last.
00:06:02
Speaker
but What is that when they do... Three dots, the ellipses, followed by an exclamation point at the end of a sentence. How do you read that? Is that an intero bang or is that a question mark and an exclamation point together?
00:06:19
Speaker
I don't know. How do I read it? i read i read it like he has found Professor X at last.
00:06:29
Speaker
Oh. All right. Yeah, that's that makes a lot more sense. you could do this. You could go, he found Professor X at last.
00:06:43
Speaker
See, that's how it appears visually to me. The first one sounds a lot better. In fact, they do it in the next the first panel on the next page, too. ah Slowly recover from the staggering impact and relentless attack.
00:07:00
Speaker
Oh my god, they do it over and over! Then Professor X, lying on the ground, says, still have a weapon. The supreme weapon! Okay.
00:07:15
Speaker
you Confirmed. Okay, I think, well, yeah, the more we add it, the more I think it's definitely true. Later, Juggernaut says, ah everything must give way to the Juggernaut's attack, even a solid wall of Earth!
00:07:29
Speaker
And then two panels later, he says, he'll get his answer in exactly two seconds.
00:07:36
Speaker
Okay, so tell me what happens in this issue. but All right, so we open with that Stan Lee recap as Juggernaut stands menacingly over Professor X while the professor asks the beaten X-Men to stay back and let him deal with it.
00:07:52
Speaker
Professor attempts to hit him with his mutant brain. Juggernaut reels for a moment, but reveals that Sidorak also gave him a psionic helmet. The professor needs a new gadget that will increase his mental powers. He asks the X-Men to hold them off, and Scott blasts a hole under Juggernaut to bury him in the ground, ah
Juggernaut's Powers and X-Men Strategies
00:08:11
Speaker
understanding that will only delay him and won't fully stop him.
00:08:15
Speaker
The professor puts on what he calls his Mento helmet and needs to discharge... Some mental energy. This is a device that will increase his brain power, but I guess it's overcharged right now. So he needs to release it sending brainwaves out into New York City.
00:08:34
Speaker
ah Meanwhile, the juggernaut tunnels out of the trap, unfazed by Cyclops' eye beams, and is too fast for the angel and is able to catch him. Down the hall, the Professor's mental waves reach out for a few Marvel cameos.
00:08:47
Speaker
Meanwhile, the Professor sends Hank and Bobby to help distract Juggernaut. Professor X makes contact with Johnny Storm, who shakes him off as a potential trap. Bobby and Hank shoot down the hall and are able to occupy Juggernaut after he takes out Cyclops and Angel.
00:09:02
Speaker
Bobby is taken up by the explosion of the ice cube he's trying to keep Juggernaut in. Hank very cleverly is able to trap Juggernaut in the danger room, but eventually loses the fight and gets knocked out when a five ton block of steel gets shot at him.
00:09:20
Speaker
The professor convinces Johnny to come help after getting in touch with him a second time. He and the X-Men are able to work together to distract the Juggernaut and daze him long enough for Angel to swoop in, grab his helmet off his head.
00:09:33
Speaker
Professor X then mentally cripples him, unclear how, but defeats the Juggernaut, then erases Johnny's memory of the whole incident and sends him back home to the Baxter building.
00:09:44
Speaker
The X-Men recover in little beds all next to each other while the Professor and Jean tend to them. And that is the end of this Juggernaut saga. He loves to wipe people's memories.
00:09:57
Speaker
He does. say thing to do He, one of my notes here immediately is that he's acting like an alpha and not like somebody that would call himself an alpha at the very end.
00:10:11
Speaker
Earlier in the issue, he's just pointing at people and saying, injure him. He's pointing at Juggernaut specifically, but his command is injure him. And then,
00:10:23
Speaker
He humiliates Juggernaut at the end and then immediately is just like, great job, Johnny. I'm going to erase your memory, idiot. And then he does it and Johnny goes home like an idiot. He just gets back to the building like, huh, whatever I've been all this time.
00:10:37
Speaker
And Professor X then tells the X-Men they're going to have to clean up the mansion Like, that was a good singer. But it's his fault.
00:10:50
Speaker
He's the one who trapped his brother in an ancient temple and then fled. And then, like, his
X-Men Issue 14 and Social Commentary
00:10:56
Speaker
chickens are coming home to roost. And now he's like, I need you guys to clean up all these feathers.
00:11:01
Speaker
Bye. He's being so kind and fatherly to them as they recover in their little twin beds. And he says, now recover quickly, my X-Men, because once you're recovered, i have a gift for you. And they all say, oh boy, a gift. What is it, Professor? And he says, a broom. This place is a mess.
00:11:22
Speaker
And that's the end of the the issue. He gives them two middle fingers and wheels away. If it were a TV show, the it would condense into a small circle until it disappeared.
00:11:34
Speaker
And he'd wink at us. And I mean, like, that is what the panel looks like. He looks like he's about to wink at us. Now, speaking of, his eyes are beautiful. Because this, this is a new artist.
00:11:47
Speaker
We still have layouts by Jack Kirby. ah i'm I'm not, I think we can kind of assume what that means at this time. But I'm not entirely sure how.
00:12:00
Speaker
It's hard to tell how much. Artists relied on layouts in this era, and it's also hard to tell when Marvel's being honest or when it's just trying to attach a name to a book.
00:12:10
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. But the penciler is a guy going by the name of Jay Gavin. Do you know who that is? No, is that not his real name? ah No, it's Werner Roth.
00:12:22
Speaker
Okay. You might not know that person, but what made him legendary basically was his run on the X-Men because he's just really good. He was at the time working for DC who did not like their artists to work for both companies.
00:12:39
Speaker
So he worked for Marvel under the name Gavin. So yeah, this is Werner Roth who will draw the X-Men for I think like 20 issues or something. Speaking of, holy shit, are the X-Men good now?
00:12:57
Speaker
You mean that like as as a comic or as superheroes? As a comic. For this run that we go through on this episode, these are like exciting, engaging issues. They're stories and even some dialogue that would hold up as a modern comic.
00:13:15
Speaker
Some, yeah. I mean, yeah, the fight here is like, and I think this is partly due to Werner Roth's art, is really good. It looks like visceral, like you have Scott on the ground as Juggernaut is advancing on him.
00:13:32
Speaker
He looks vulnerable. He looks like he's about to get fucking stomped and he's blasting at the Juggernaut and the like Juggernaut is just not budging. Later, there's ah the fight the between Juggernaut and the Beast is just really physical.
00:13:47
Speaker
In the Kirby era, at least of this comic, there would be like one punch and that would be a fight. There's like yeah yeah a punch and then a bunch of people jumping around or like a bunch of weird gadgets being used.
00:13:59
Speaker
But this is like... Juggernaut grabbing Beast by the foot and slamming him on the ground and like Beast getting his legs broken and crawling to the button to trap Juggernaut in the danger room.
00:14:12
Speaker
It's really, again, kind of, there's a point where ah Beast gets clonked on the head by a like big metal, what what would you call this thing? Just like a cylinder.
00:14:24
Speaker
Yes. And Five ton metal cylinder. And you read you when you read that thud, you like feel it. Yeah. yeah And that's through the whole issue.
00:14:35
Speaker
The action is really, I think you said visceral earlier. That's a really good word for it. But the the exposition, too, it's it's very complimentary because the art has taken a step up in showing the action that's taking place.
00:14:51
Speaker
I do want to talk about what's ridiculous here, though. First of all, again, Professor X invents a machine in 10 minutes, which, like yeah yeah, what does it do? It siphons all his extra brain waves off so that he can be a stronger telepath. It doesn't, that doesn't make sense.
00:15:10
Speaker
Well, there's no, please tell me about the science here. No, you're right that that doesn't make sense. What makes even less sense to me is if he has a device that he's going to use to somehow charge up his mental powers.
00:15:27
Speaker
Why does
Sentinels' Base Infiltration and Realization
00:15:28
Speaker
he need to discharge his mental powers? Well, that's what I'm saying. What is he doing with this? He says it's to discharge his mental powers, but he also says it's to charge them up. I don't understand what's happening. He's like, oh, this is going to charge up my mental power so much that I have to dis, like I have to siphon off some of the extra energy.
00:15:47
Speaker
Well, then just turn it down. Just don't turn the device up that high. I think it's the trade-off for the better storytelling and action that we get in the next few issues is that Professor X becomes even Less coherent, right, yeah.
00:16:03
Speaker
There's also a lot of geometry in this, right? Like you you mentioned before, Cyclops shoots a hole beneath Juggernaut's feet. Then Juggernaut starts like making handholds in the side of the hole.
00:16:19
Speaker
to climb his way up at one point he dodges cyclops bursts by tunneling sideways like a like a game of dig dug which is kind of cute but also completely not how digging or or the geometry of dirt works yeah i don't know he's uh i mean have you ever played dig dug it's it seems like it would work ah You know, I've played Dig Dug, but I've never read any scientific papers about Dig Dug.
00:16:50
Speaker
So maybe i should I should do my fucking research before I go spouting my mouth off. ya Yeah, yeah. And then, I'm also unclear, maybe you can tell me, why does he need Human Torch at all?
00:17:04
Speaker
Flight. It seems like the answer is A second person that can fly. we need two need one person to fly and distract him and so the other person can fly in and remove his helmet.
00:17:17
Speaker
but the ah But he also has angels fly around him over and over and over to make him dizzy before he pulls the helmet off. It seems like they just, I mean, obviously, they just wanted a cameo.
00:17:28
Speaker
And i think I have a feeling that Kirby and Roth came up with this idea of... human torch hearing professor x's summons without themselves coming up with like a reason for it and jack or and stan lee is just like sitting there with these pages going what the fuck is going on here and then has to come up with some justification yeah that's very possible i think that it's it is probably a lot of jack kirby wanting to include the human torch one of his absolute favorite all-time characters and
00:18:03
Speaker
He also blinds the Juggernaut for like a second, which is a vulnerability the Juggernaut has. Dazzler does it to him a couple times. Like, blinding him seems to be a good strategy sometimes. Yeah, he's got eyes.
00:18:19
Speaker
ah Tell me how Juggernaut's powers work. He can always move forward. That is the... Which it begs the question, why not attack him from behind?
00:18:34
Speaker
well also well like that's how cyclops dealt with the blob but ah few issues back is while he was already moving forward shot him in the back so he fell into a furnace
Resolution of Sentinel Threat
00:18:45
Speaker
yeah but he also it also in this issue says not like he's super tough not like he's like actually invulnerable like his skin or his muscles are invulnerable or even his armor he has a tiny energy field that surrounds him that makes him impervious to harm.
00:19:06
Speaker
Yeah, it pushes things away from That ends up not being how Juggernaut's powers work after the 1970s. He is just constantly being charged up, it seems like. He is just, or the aura of Sidorak just constantly pours down upon him at some points. If he's not using that power, it gets so intense that it starts to push things away from him.
00:19:31
Speaker
So why didn't Beast just use that Eunice gun on him? o Yeah, wait, can Juggernaut smoke a cigarette, or does he just...
00:19:43
Speaker
I mean, he apparently doesn't need food or water, because he was trapped in the Temple of Sidorak for a decade? Ages. it's i Or, yeah, I guess that's where we... where professor X last saw him. Right.
00:19:57
Speaker
And that was the Korean war. It's currently 1965 ish. Yeah. It's hard to say.
00:20:08
Speaker
I want to talk about a couple other things. I was thrilled with the cameos that we got. Aside from Johnny Storm, who, yeah, is a classic character.
00:20:19
Speaker
We get the Teen Brigade. First, we just get an airplane. Unless there's a famous Marvel pilot that I don't know about, this is just... Like, just Cyclops. Like, the famous Marvel pilot is Cyclops. So, no.
00:20:35
Speaker
We come across the Teen Brigade, which is so exciting to me. i think the Teen Brigade is the funniest possible concept in Marvel Comics. Just a bunch of teenagers that sit around listening for danger on the radio.
00:20:50
Speaker
And then they have a direct line to call the Avengers when they find out about that danger. i did not know that. Founded and led, of course, by Rick Jones, who is, you could argue, responsible for founding the Avengers ah through his team brigade. This is how they decided to all come together.
00:21:12
Speaker
i mean, he he's also... the person who's responsible for the existence of the Hulk, right? Uh, he, so, uh, yeah, Bruce Banner saved him in the accident that ended up turning him into the Hulk, and also he, in the early days of the Hulk, he has a very close bond with the Hulk, and even at one point i think controls him mentally but um basically friend fuck friend of the hulk until it's very funny the hulk makes a few decisions and rick jones is like the maybe i should distance myself from this guy i'm i'm more of an avenger
00:21:53
Speaker
I'm going to get canceled if I stick too close to this guy. Anyway, a bunch of teenagers that the Avengers depend on receive Professor X's mental message and decide to do nothing about it. They don't think that it's an Avengers issue.
00:22:09
Speaker
And then it reaches Matt Murdock. He's in court. This is very early. This is like a they Everybody knows the Teen Brigade at this point. Matt Murdock is i fairly new character. you would actually probably had to have read a comic to understand that...
00:22:27
Speaker
This is Daredevil in court. I guess at some point mentally he says, I would put on my Daredevil costume if I wasn't in court. So it's not hard to figure out.
00:22:38
Speaker
But yeah, it's just, this is sort of like a cross comic marketing for Daredevil, I think. And that's that's my guy. Matt Murdock mentioned. That's, yeah, that is, it is a fun little one.
00:22:51
Speaker
There's a couple of lines that I'm really obsessed with from this issue. Number one, the professor and Juggernaut are at their final showdown and Juggernaut says that he's going to destroy the professor. And the professor says, you forgot about one thing, my mutant brain.
00:23:10
Speaker
and that's the line. That's his like, that's his cold killer line. He then just cripples Juggernaut. Yeah.
00:23:18
Speaker
Do you think that's supposed to be, that's going to be his catchphrase from here on out? When Professor X shows up, he yells, you forgot about one thing, my mutant brain.
00:23:29
Speaker
It's the last thing Juggernaut hears. The other line that I absolutely love is Beast calling himself my favorite X-Man. There's a five ton steel cylinder rolling at him. He's not sure he can get out of the way in time. So he says, oh, could this be the end for my favorite X-Man?
00:23:53
Speaker
Pretty good, Beast.
00:23:56
Speaker
And I think that is it. I think that takes us pretty cleanly into the next is issue. Matt, you want to take this one? Okay, issue 14. Among
Magneto's Return and Cliffhanger
00:24:06
Speaker
Us Stalk the Sentinels. It's Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, J. Gavin.
00:24:10
Speaker
ah A new, inker, a new letterer, but... same Same big three. We open on the X-Men. They're in like a combination of testing and recovery, right? Like they are testing their powers after recovering from their injuries, from their battle with the Juggernaut.
00:24:31
Speaker
ah Iceman's in a giant block of ice. Cyclops has some weird space helmet on that they never explain. Angels flying up in the air with like a weird harness that i like...
00:24:43
Speaker
yeah it's really hard to tell what's going on here. But anyway, they have, uh, based on their good work against juggernaut, they've earned a vacation and they all get excited about this in preparation for their vacation. We get to see, interestingly, them all kind of prepare their civilian identities, and the various ways that they hide their mutant abilities from the world.
00:25:10
Speaker
And then, We see a bit of a romantic rivalry between Scott and Warren for the affections of Jean Grey as Warren and Marvel Girl take off and Bobby and Hank, best friends till the end, head into the city and Scott decides to take his vacation all alone. and In the meantime, in anthropologist named Bolivar Trask has been hyping up this mutant hysteria.
00:25:41
Speaker
This is your classic mutants are mutants are the walking among us and they need to be hunted down because they're dangerous.
00:25:52
Speaker
And we see the first actual mention of the mutant menace. Mutant menace. Yeah. on the front of the Daily Globe, which ends up in Professor X's hands.
00:26:03
Speaker
And deict it has a bunch artist renditions of what the world would look like if we were all mutant slaves. So Professor X gives... ah You know, whatever, the president of TV a call and says, I want to debate Bolivar Trask on TV.
00:26:19
Speaker
TV says, OK, and they have their debate. We also get like a cut to a bunch of just civilians watching this debate and arguing with each other about whether mutants are cool or dangerous.
00:26:34
Speaker
In the middle of the debate, Bolivar Trask has his giant mutant hunting robots that he invented appear on stage.
00:26:45
Speaker
And he demonstrates that they are the solution to the mutant menace. These guys will do anything he says, including hunt down all mutants. So he tells them, I need you to hunt down all mutants. And they say, hey fuck you. You can't tell us what to do. And they zap him.
00:27:03
Speaker
ah He apparently, as Professor X tells us, he's an anthropologist. He's not a roboticist. He has no idea what he's doing when it comes to programming sentinels. So they attack him and then flee with his unconscious body.
00:27:18
Speaker
In the meantime of this, we got Bobby and Hank. They're back at the coffee a go-go watching Bernard Reed poetry. And a dude played bongos in a lady dance. They get Professor X's summons and they...
00:27:31
Speaker
dip, which makes Bobby's potential girlfriend, Zelda, really mad. Warren Worthington leaves it leaves in the middle of a dinner with his parents, and they all arrive roughly at the same time to the TV studio, where they start fighting the Sentinel. They realize he's super tough.
00:27:52
Speaker
ah Scott is a little bit later. ah He first needs to blast a hole through the roof of a taxi cab. Not exactly sure why oh he drops his glasses he drops his glasses and shoots hole through the the ah roof of a taxi cab then gets out runs to the tv station they continue fighting the sentinel until it just suddenly seems to have it clutches its chest and falls over as if it had a heart attack nobody knows why ah so angel starts trying to chase down the sentinels that took bolivar trask
00:28:29
Speaker
And he's getting his ass kicked when he gets seemingly magnetically pulled to the top of a train. Turns out it was Marvel Girl who was trying to save him from getting his ass just totally beat. She's on the train and she joins Angel. They head back to meet up with Professor x Xavier and start planning on how they're going to defeat these Sentinels.
00:28:49
Speaker
cut to the sentinels arriving back at their secret base with bolivar trask and it turns out they want to use him to make more sentinels the x-men arrive on the scene of where they think that the sentinels disappeared to but there's nothing there there's just like a grassy little hill Or is it the grassy hill raises up and a bunch of lasers shoot out from beneath it and we get a to be continued?
00:29:23
Speaker
Oh, Matt. Yeah. So much going on here. Like, ah why does an anthropologist build mutant hunting robots? No, no, I think that actually makes sense. He is an absolute fanatic.
00:29:40
Speaker
Okay. Okay. Okay, so I think there's a lot to talk about as far as parallels to things happening in society at the time with the mutant menace thing, but I want to talk about some silly stuff first. i You mentioned it, but what the hell is Cyclops' physical therapy? They...
00:30:00
Speaker
They justify everyone else's. Warren is wearing a harness so that he can like properly stretch his wings back to their full strength as he tries to fly around.
00:30:11
Speaker
Hanks on crutches and till his foot heals. okay Cyclops is wearing an old-timey scuva-diva helmet and just sitting in a chair. It's hooked up to a giant machine. And yeah, he is smiling. And I don't remember...
00:30:29
Speaker
I think he just had like a mild concussion. but The best I can tell, they are just gas mask bonging him with the painkillers. I don't know.
00:30:39
Speaker
Based on his smile, it seems as if he's on drugs. there's There's a fun, quick mention of Kesar. I don't even remember why, but I just love hearing that guy's name. Beast says, and so I'll say here, and I guess I won't, you this was possibly going to be. my um closing line of the episode, but he says, I feel I could lick my weight in Neanderthals.
00:31:03
Speaker
and Marvel girl it says, for your sake, I hope Kesar doesn't hear you. Brilliant. It's a great comeback. I really like them getting prepared. for like going out in their civilian clothes.
00:31:16
Speaker
Because what we have is like we see Cyclops, ah i mean, clothes, but we see Cyclops' eyes for the first time um as his visor lifts up and he prepares to put his glasses on. We see Warren, well, Bobby's helping Warren strap his wings flat against his body so they can hide underneath his suit.
00:31:37
Speaker
That has to be so painful. ah Well, yeah that's what Bobby says. It must be like wearing a girdle. And he's like, Hey, it's better than giving away my identity. And then we see Hank wrapping up his feet and putting on shoes that have a hinge to let his toes breathe. Hard to tell.
00:31:56
Speaker
Cause the hinge always stays closed. So what the fuck? I can sympathize with this a little bit. I have very wide feet and I have to buy special shoes unless I want to buy shoes that are like a size and a half too large.
00:32:08
Speaker
Right. And I thought he was being sensitive about it when he was explaining it. Like there, I have to buy special shoes. They're very expensive. And it's almost like I wish I didn't have this problem thing.
00:32:22
Speaker
But then Warren, after a sweeping Jean off his feet and riding off, Hank looks at him and says, Warren would be a perfect ladies man if only he had a pair of feet like mine. He takes incredible pride in his large, freakish feet.
00:32:40
Speaker
That was a ah beautiful moment. i There's a changing scene with Hank and Bobby where they they get Professor X's urgent mental call. They're both in New York City and they jet into an alley to change.
00:32:54
Speaker
Hank says they should be changing inside a phone booth. the Where do you think he picks that up?
00:33:04
Speaker
Okay, before we get there, though, when Professor X... I'm concerned about the ethics of the Daily Globe. but Because what sort of respectable newspaper, and it seems to be a respectable newspaper because everybody's reading it and it leads to a TV appearance...
00:33:20
Speaker
What sort of respectable newspaper has people just illustrate somebody's vague idea of what could happen based on their own, like, paranoid thinking?
00:33:32
Speaker
So cartoonishly, too, they have, it looks like a grown-up evil astro boy with a whip just commanding humans around. Yeah, like, it could it? It'd be like if today somebody's like, what if Russia, ah Russia threat?
00:33:51
Speaker
And then it's like, what if Russia took over the United States? And there's just's just like a bunch of pictures of ah ah Vladimir Putin, like smacking people on the head as they like, as they like shine his shoes. And then there's like this gladiatorial arena that they show. So I can't understand the journalistic...
00:34:11
Speaker
value of publishing this it's pretty uh it's pretty low also that's such a sensationalistic headline it's just mutant menace
00:34:24
Speaker
But to our benefit. Also, so, ah man, so much about Bolivar Tresk doesn't make sense. How does an anthropologist learn to build a bunch of giant robots?
00:34:35
Speaker
How does he program them with enough of artificial intelligence that they can ignore their programming and beat him up and then enslave him? How is he allowed to bring ah score of giant robots into the TV studio?
00:34:51
Speaker
And this is something that's never made sense. Why are independent contractors constantly able to create mutant hunting robots without the government's permission?
00:35:05
Speaker
Matt, this is a science fiction cautionary tale as old as time. right? He he develops ah some form of artificial intelligence that comes to the conclusion that the only way to save mankind is to enslave it because mankind will eventually destroy itself.
00:35:26
Speaker
Sure. That is a storyline that gets echoed over and over again throughout Marvel. it I think the idea of a man with resources, being able to take over tech companies or ah tech services that are well out of his level of experience and start ruining the world with it is a very relevant story.
00:35:50
Speaker
That's without approval of most of the branches of government. Exactly. Yeah. Just unilaterally saying I'm creating my own police force of ah technologically advanced technology.
00:36:05
Speaker
They're just robots. They're very powerful robots. Yeah. ah They are scary, I think. I don't know that it's actually a Kirby design, but a classic Kirby villain design. It is a very, like, eerily human fey. You know what a Sentinel looks like.
00:36:21
Speaker
But still, even in their first appearance, a very, like... Uncanny Valley type humanoid face on a giant eight foot robot body.
00:36:33
Speaker
It's a really intimidating sight, especially their first introduced grabbing Professor X and lifting it out of his yeah chair. Yeah, if you know any of other Kirby's other work, like The New Gods, or any of his, any especially any of his sci-fi space adventure work, yeah, this idea of combining human features and like boxy, robotic technological features is a thing that he's like incredibly good at.
00:37:00
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. And then was getting into it, I think there's two parallels that they're trying to draw here with panics at the time, right? There was a big gay panic with the free love movement starting to pick up.
00:37:18
Speaker
And I think this mirrors that pretty well. Someone just saying, hey, they walk among us. They're corrupting us. They are the end point of human existence.
00:37:30
Speaker
We need to destroy them before they destroy society. There's also a very strong parallel to how newspapers were interpreting what Malcolm X was saying.
00:37:43
Speaker
It's not at all what Malcolm X was saying, but the interpretation of his message that black people should be able to defend themselves against oppression was ah Malcolm X wants black people to overthrow white people and ah turn this into a white slavery country.
00:38:03
Speaker
Well, yeah, and and I mean, like, that was the, that was, this was sort of the fear mongering that was happening around Black Americans at the time, was this idea that, and this continued all the way up until, I mean, continues today, but it didn't start getting really called out on a besides, you know, in activist groups, didn't start really getting called out until the ninety s or even two thousand s is this idea of using words like predator or criminal or whatever as this dog whistle, so right? Saying like, yeah, in poor communities, there are these predators that have no morals and they they'll just they'll rob you and stab you for no reason at all.
00:38:48
Speaker
And it's like, What the implication is, what the image they're trying to build in your head is that black people are scary.
00:38:58
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. like, oh, we need these, we need these policies that just happen to be extremely racially inequitable because we're just trying to target the super predators, right?
00:39:16
Speaker
Right. And this was a bipartisan issue, right? Like even... Yeah, yeah. This was a big Republican... Like Ronald Reagan was a big ah proponent of this kind of rhetoric. And then the Clintons and Biden were both proponents of this rhetoric in the 90s.
00:39:35
Speaker
ah That's an important um metaphor they're drawing, but it also displays the weakness of the metaphor. Because... the thing that makes the predators argument or the thugs argument as it would be in the two thousands, um, the arts on podcast, we say the arts. Okay. I'm sorry. The arts.
00:40:02
Speaker
I didn't mean, please don't cancel me for saying the two thousands. yeah Um, I, I think the thing that makes that rhetoric so dangerous Or so ridiculous, i don't, ah this isn't going to come out as elegant as i eloquent as I wanted to but is that there is no difference, right?
00:40:24
Speaker
There is no difference between a white criminal and a black criminal and a Hispanic criminal and, and i you know, a criminal of any race or nationality, right?
00:40:37
Speaker
But with the mutants, there is a difference. They are a little scarier. They do, if if a mutant decides to become a criminal, it can blast you with its eye beams. Whereas if a black person decides to become a criminal, they are no scarier than a white person who is a criminal.
00:41:01
Speaker
It's... i who this I mean, this is the debate, right? That, yeah, mutants have capabilities beyond humans, but at the same time, that's not their fault if I shoplift but I happen to be able to shoot flames out of my fingers should I be locked up in a you super prison am I in the raft Sure, right.
00:41:31
Speaker
But there is an argument there's an argument for that, that is not just racist. i mean, it is racist in the world of yeah yeah Marvel Comics where these things exist.
00:41:42
Speaker
But it also is reasonable. To have that discussion, to say, well, how do we deal with criminals that can burn their way out of, burn their way through the bars when we put them in jail?
00:41:53
Speaker
That is not reasonable when we talk about that perception that somehow some people of certain are certain races are more dangerous than other people is why black people get sent to solitary confinement so more often than white, you know, white inmates.
00:42:10
Speaker
Or get a longer sentence for the same crime. Exactly. Exactly. so And I think that is a weakness in the mutant metaphor. it's It's also, we should mention, done pretty clunkily here. It is five total panels.
00:42:25
Speaker
We are ah extrapolating a bit here. We're extrapolating because we know what it becomes. Yeah. ah Yeah. Yeah. And we we said we would talk about this stuff because we frankly would talk about this stuff even if ah mean it wasn't on a podcast.
00:42:41
Speaker
This is fascinating. It's fun to watch them try. And it's fun to see, like, this this is the mid-60s. So... with they're gonna get it wrong. They're trying their best, but they are gonna get it so wrong. And this is actually, there's, I don't want to keep going on about this, but the one other point that I want to make about vulnerability here is his point that this is the end of the human race, which is in a rational point. There's no evidence to suggest that. It is just a ah different evolutionary branch.
00:43:19
Speaker
But That is the type of propaganda that like that is I mean, it's similar to the current like the great replacement theory sort of thing. Like, oh, well, if you don't care about it's pithy and emotional enough to seem sensible as a flyby argument.
00:43:39
Speaker
Yeah, what they do understand here is the the function behind the propaganda that goes out. And they explain that, I think, really well and really concisely in this this one page.
00:43:50
Speaker
Right. So why don't, I mean, if we have more to say about this, it's going to come up because there is, we're still going to be talking about the Sentinels. We're still going to be talking about Bolivar Trask, the worst anthropologist in the history of the world.
00:44:04
Speaker
ah in the next issue, issue 15, why don't you tell us about it, Pat? Wait, before we move on to issue 15, there is one more thing I want to mention about this issue. by Warren is rich.
00:44:18
Speaker
That man, we already knew he was rich, but like when we get to see his home life and his parents who just are extremely loving and supportive and have live in this huge mansion where they pamper him with these, he is like, he's that you don't run out of money type of rich. It's really, it's really put on display here.
00:44:42
Speaker
I mean, and that, that will come to bear for 50, 60, I guess, years of the X-Men because Warren stays rich.
00:44:55
Speaker
even though we never see him work. We never see him. I guess every now and then we see him at a board meeting or something, but often we see him in a board meeting when he's deciding to do something stupid with his money and everyone's mad at him. He's like, I'm going to give not, not a stupid things with his money, but financially unsound things with his money. Like, Oh, I'm going to give a billion dollars to this soup kitchen. And then they're like, you can't do that, Mr. Worthington. And then, you know, 10 years later,
00:45:22
Speaker
of him giving billion dollars to soup kitchens he's still a billionaire or the time in the uh 2000s when he has a bunch of kids run his company oh i can't wait i know that's like six years from now but i cannot wait six years of this podcast yeah okay all right Issue 15, Prisoners of the Mysterious Master Mold.
00:45:47
Speaker
Ew! Written by Smiling Stan Lee, designed by Jolly Jack Kirby, penciled by Jovial J. Gavin. inked by darlin dick ayers and lettered by adorable arty simek i do want to mention that i really actually wacky werner roth fair enough i do want to mention that i really appreciate i meant to mention this last okay we're going back again to issue 14 arty simek oh my goodness his lettering is an improvement I love.
00:46:18
Speaker
i absolutely love when a comic letterer uses bold to point out inflections in a sentence, the way that he uses the bolding of words so that you could deliver a line read. Like you can actually read the line in your head.
00:46:36
Speaker
It is worth looking into lettering. Letters don't get a lot of appreciation, but... there are some that do it really really well issue 15 prisoners of the mysterious master mold so we open right where we left off in issue 14 on the x-men stumbling as the ground rises up beneath them they're dodging the elements and trying to help each other but none of them really need help they offer help to each other and get turned down and told to help themselves the fortress defenses rise out of the ground the
00:47:12
Speaker
plan is to create They come up with a plan, plan G, which is to create a glider out of Bobby's ice, have Cyclops blast to propel that glider into the air, and have Warren fly alongside them and steady them.
00:47:25
Speaker
It goes wrong. um Bobby and Hank are grabbed by metal tentacles as they fall from this glider. Warren tries to follow them but can't keep up due to the fortress's defenses.
00:47:36
Speaker
Bobby and Hank get captured, placed in a glass cage, and dosed with sleeping glass. Meanwhile, Trask pleads with the Sentinels to listen to him to no avail. He really begins to reflect on his actions. He does not want to create more Sentinels, and he's worried that his actions are going to harm humankind rather than just mutantkind, which is what he wanted.
00:47:59
Speaker
We finally see Master Mold. He is a very large Sentinel in a throne with a Pope hat. He is demanding Trask's compliance, or he'll start taking out entire cities.
00:48:12
Speaker
Professor X on the ground outside is able to detect mechanical minds behind the laser guns that are shooting out of the ground and sends a mental blast that disables those sentries. The other sentinels in the room need to find their section leader for permission to take over the guns that these other sentinels i were disabled from, which gives the X-Men their chance to enter.
00:48:35
Speaker
The section leader they're looking for is busy dragging Hank to Master Mold, where they put him under a psychoprobed beam that will have him reveal all of his secrets, which means he begins at the beginning by describing his childhood and explaining that his name is Hank. He goes by the Beast.
00:48:54
Speaker
i He's a member of the X-Men, which are the protectors of humanity, which shocks Bolivar Trask. He had them pegged wrong the whole time, he realizes, and he really starts to regret his actions.
00:49:07
Speaker
He thought they were here to harm humanity. The X-Men gain entry to the base where a Sentinel finds them and commands them to follow him while he finds his section leader for permission to deal with them.
00:49:19
Speaker
They decide to play along so they can find this section leader and take him out. And then we flash back to Beast's childhood where he's bullied for being agile and oddly shaped.
00:49:30
Speaker
And then we come back to the present where one Sentinel finally finds a section leader while the X-Men ignore the instructions of the other and find an unconscious Bobby as the Sentinel says, stop, I didn't tell you to find.
00:49:44
Speaker
this They are really weighed down by bureaucracy here. They end up beating up that Sentinel that's chasing them and free Bobby. We flashback again to Hank excelling in athletics, but accidentally revealing too much of his ability by hanging from the goalpost by his feet once he scores a touchdown.
00:50:03
Speaker
The community starts to question his humanity and gives him the nickname Beast. He meets, quote, a very special guest who offers to train him, but he stops short of revealing that it's Professor X or the location of the school that he went to to be trained.
00:50:17
Speaker
Of course, the Xavier Academy for...
00:50:23
Speaker
gifted children, higher learning, just it's higher learning, gifted children. if doesnt It changes, right? Maybe, but we should know it at this point. Cause I think it's, what we had but in the present, the professor has created a mental projection of himself and,
00:50:39
Speaker
to find hank inside and sends sharp thought particles into his mind that will temporarily deaden his own thoughts the mental image of the professor tries to then probe mastermold's mind but is detected and shooed away with electric beams and struggles to make it back to his body on the outside Meanwhile, the X-Men take out one Sentinel with teamwork, but get hit with a gravity ray and are stuck to the ground.
00:51:04
Speaker
Trask is commanded to create more Sentinels for Master Mold with no hope of being rescued by the X-Men now. To be continued. Hmm.
00:51:16
Speaker
All right. So it is called Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. It eventually becomes Xavier's Institute for Higher Learning.
00:51:31
Speaker
Also becomes later ah the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning. ah Eventually becomes the Xavier Institute for mutt Mutant Education. At one point, it's called the x Xavier School for Gifted Children. It changes its name a lot. But I think at this point, it is Professor Charles x Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters.
00:51:53
Speaker
What sex toy but is it that Iceman makes for him and Beast to hold on to and Scott to blast into the... Yeah.
00:52:08
Speaker
Is it like a dual butt plug? Like you and your friends sit back to back on this thing? so for the listener...
00:52:19
Speaker
This is It's horrible looking. This is an ice disc and towards the... If you pick a side to be the front, a two phallic mounds pop out right next to each other that you are meant to wrap your arms and legs around as this thing flies through the air.
00:52:44
Speaker
Beastie! So, and Okay. So you could say... Oh, you're looking too much into it, Matt. Like, you're you're looking at it through, like, a cynical lens. It's just a little vehicle. But, oh no no first of all, when Beast holds onto it, he says, this doesn't seem very dignified.
00:53:04
Speaker
and second of all... yeah when they launch it, it immediately starts going wobbly. And they're like, ah this design isn't aerodynamically accurate. So he didn't even need to make this. like And this is plan G. They practiced this.
00:53:20
Speaker
Plan G for glider, I'm pretty sure.
00:53:26
Speaker
it it's but It's really, ah it's a really unfortunate looking panel. there's There's a very, so there's a splash page in the beginning where they refer to the Sentinels as unhuman monsters.
00:53:40
Speaker
It is ah just a fun little Marvel fact. Very funny that they have to call them unhuman Sentinels because the Fantastic Four just this month introduced the Inhumans and they don't want to no confuse anyone.
00:53:55
Speaker
No way. Yeah. i bet So i bet the script said one thing and then it was like, ah we got like, and then Artie Simic was like, hey, we got to change that. I think Stan Lee said it. And then Artie was like, no problem. I just turned the eye into a U. There's also a thing that I don't know why Cyclops doesn't do more, which is he climbs a sheer cliff face.
00:54:19
Speaker
He will shoot a handhold above him. And then grab that handhold. yeah he really... yeah And continue to do so. He loses a lot in this.
00:54:30
Speaker
Or not loses. he He talks a lot about having to win and then just doesn't really have much of an impact. Cyclops does? Yeah. You mean he doesn't have an impact throughout the issue? He doesn't do a lot?
00:54:44
Speaker
Right. It's a lot of him thinking about what to do and not actually doing it. he does you He does release an extremely powerful blast to send the ice glider into the air.
00:54:57
Speaker
And he does free Bobby from his glass prison. Also, there's a lot of glass prisons in this era. I guess because then you can still see the heroes being trapped, but a lot of people are going to be trapped in or impeded by glass in this run of issues.
00:55:21
Speaker
Well, we're not in the age of plastic yet, so there's there's really only a few options for materials. It is very funny that when the whatever psycho ray is psycho probe is put on the beast that he just he's like, okay, I'll tell you everything.
00:55:37
Speaker
If you were torturing somebody. Which, you know, I know you do. If you were torturing somebody for like state secrets and they're like, okay, I'll tell you everything.
00:55:50
Speaker
My mother birthed me on a stormy night in July. You're like, oh, fuck. Okay. Well, unfortunately, the psychoprobe doesn't have the capability to narrow in on a specific memory.
00:56:07
Speaker
It says, tell me all your memories. So he does exactly that. Which, it makes sense that they cut out a lot of that and just keep cutting back to pertinent parts of his origin story that he's explaining to Mastermold. But there is a point where they cut back and they have to clearly explain, like, okay, remember a few pages ago, this is Beast talking to Mastermold to explain his whole history.
00:56:33
Speaker
So, in order to... squeeze that exposition in they have master mold talking to beast and saying oh and then you won a scholarship to college please continue your story that's so that's so funny yeah that is right before yeah that's that's very awesome right before it's right before beast does the absolutely natural thing of scoring a touchdown removing his shoes and flipping upside down to hang from the field goal
00:57:04
Speaker
He just got too excited. Do you ever get so excited you just fling your shoes off in front of your bros? Yes, but oh I do it in a very human way.
00:57:17
Speaker
Matt, you've seen me kick so excitedly into the air that my shoe flies off. Yeah, I mean, we did, me and you did comedy on stage for a long time, and after a good show, you would just fling your shoes off into the crowd.
00:57:31
Speaker
but you then wouldn a lot of kicks. you wouldn't then like hang upside down from something. You would just, uh, plop around the stage in your bare feet. Believe me, if I could have, I would have.
00:57:48
Speaker
Uh, you were talking about the lettering before we started this issue. And I think there's a really cool example. um and I actually, I'm not sure in this era, is it the artists or the letters who do sound effects?
00:58:01
Speaker
Um, I think if you see it in panel, it's the artist. If you see it in a bubble, it's the letter. Well, then it's Werner Roth, I guess, who does this, like, he he does these sound effects that are, like, tumbling into each other.
00:58:18
Speaker
They sort of visually represent what's happening. So when the Sentinel crashes through Iceman's ice wall, it says Bacow, but there's, like, all the letters are kind of tumbling on top of each other and like leaving shadows.
00:58:34
Speaker
It's very so good. but Yeah. Is there, do you have any other big, uh, observations about this issue? You know what, Matt? I do. I have a few. Number one,
00:58:45
Speaker
I am sick of this inconsistency. Can the professor or can the professor not affect the damn robot minds?
00:58:55
Speaker
Yeah, sometimes he can like probe machines and stuff and other times, nope. It just, it's too mechanical. Yeah, in this is issue, he does both things happen. He's like, he knocks a bunch of Sentinels out.
00:59:11
Speaker
And then later in the issue, he's like, I can't do anything about Master Mold because he doesn't have a brain. Yeah, it's annoying. i I am dying, though, at these Sentinels being weighed down by bureaucracy. This whole...
00:59:27
Speaker
rescue mission works because the Sentinels need permission from their section leader to do anything. And the section leader is currently busy because the X-Men have are attacking the station.
00:59:41
Speaker
It is unbelievably realistic. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, ah speaking of Ronald Reagan, right? Like, thats that seems to be the that seems to be the point that Stan Lee's making is like, oh, isn't all this red tape of government so inefficient?
01:00:01
Speaker
um they deploy a heavy gravity ray which is sick one of my i think it's just a thing that comes back to haunt the x-men in the future too if i'm correct but one of my favorite sci-fi concepts is just a ray that increases the gravity of the area it's pointed at to a point where the targets are stuck to the ground they can't move very cool concept What do you think philosophically about Bolivar Trask's turning point here?
01:00:32
Speaker
He is like he's proven wrong about that. ah You know, mutants are evil and they want to take over humanity when, you know, under a truth ray beast is like weird. We want to save the human race.
01:00:45
Speaker
But a person shouldn't need to want to save the human race to have rights.
01:00:51
Speaker
Yeah, it's... So, he's doing a lot of reckoning when he should be doing a lot of realizing. Like, he is about to cause a robo-apocalypse, and he's thinking, like, this is kind of my fault.
01:01:07
Speaker
So, ultimately, I mean, yeah obviously, Bolivar Trask saying... i Bolivar Trask is still clouded by his hate for mutants, even though he thinks he's overcome it.
01:01:20
Speaker
Does that make sense? like he and He's the guy that's saying, oh I'm not racist, I just... Right. Oh, right. So he's still saying, oh, I thought mutants were dangerous because they wanted to kill humanity, but they want to use their freaky powers that separate them from us to protect us.
01:01:41
Speaker
Maybe they shouldn't to all be killed. And rather than saying, oh they're just like us. It's not their fault that they were born with this extra gene and i shouldn't treat them differently because of it.
01:01:52
Speaker
Exactly. Which, right to be fair, is the first step of a recovering bigot. Right, I guess so. Right, yeah, the way that legitimately there is a strong media studies connection between the premiere of Will and Grace and gay rights.
01:02:13
Speaker
Wow.
01:02:19
Speaker
Let's just let that sit for a moment. It's embarrassing. but so Okay. i One more thing. Just one final thing I want to mention about this issue. There is a scene where the X-Men have defeated one Sentinel and a whole fleet of Sentinels enter behind him to take on the X-Men.
01:02:44
Speaker
And Warren, not Bobby, mind you, but Warren says, uh-oh, the Happiness Boys are back.
01:02:55
Speaker
ah Oh, there's also a fun scene where a sentinel falls on its face and you see his butt crack. they draw buttra say They were made with butts.
01:03:06
Speaker
ah yeah Well, got it. Thank you, Bolivar Trask. This is one of the things about inventors in media and stuff, ah like in sci-fi and superhero stuff, is he had to sit there and craft stuff.
01:03:22
Speaker
the bodies right like he's got to sit like as part of his invention he's got to sit there and mold big plastic or metal butts and be like mm yeah that's what i want this to look like it's just like watching iron man and he's got this incredibly complex computer system that's you know saying these specific things to him and talking to him and whatever like he's had to program all that in He's had to sit there and like graphic design those menus where where there's all that stuff that he like he like pulls apart with his hands and you're like, oh, that's so cool.
01:04:02
Speaker
A computer doesn't just do that on its own, right? like He's got to sit there and draw that in fucking Photoshop and then put it or Canva and put it in his app.
01:04:13
Speaker
Right. He had to invent Paul Bettany's voice.
01:04:19
Speaker
Right. And so, yeah, so Bolivar Tresk had to, like, sit there and go, oh, I want these guys to have human faces. So let me, like, hammer on this big sheet of metal until it looks kind of like a light.
01:04:32
Speaker
And also, i want him to be caked up. Yeah, I want them big, dummy-thick butt and thighs. ah Alright, issue 16.
01:04:45
Speaker
The Supreme Sacrifice. In which a life is lost? A battle won. That's been Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Jay Gavin, Dick Ayers, and Artie Simak.
01:05:00
Speaker
We open... with Professor X on the ground. He is The last issue, he had his astral form disrupted by microelectric blasts.
01:05:15
Speaker
And he told us, and it was like a cliffhanger. Can his astral body get back to his human body in time? ah Yeah, he just, he does. The answer was yes, he can.
01:05:26
Speaker
Yeah. um And he comes to consciousness just as that hill fortress retracts within itself. And he's cut off from the X-Men. So he crawls his way. His wheelchair's right there. Maybe it's broken.
01:05:43
Speaker
maybe he can't you know Maybe he can't turn it upright. But he crawls his way to the... ah I don't know. like We only ever see him being placed in his wheelchair.
01:05:54
Speaker
But I grew up with a sister in a wheelchair. i think he should have been able to climb back into his wheelchair. Especially because we know he's a star athlete and super buff. But whatever. He maybe i don't want to get too mired down in it is during the recap, but maybe he just couldn't move his wheelchair without assistance.
01:06:13
Speaker
Like he could get into it and then he's just sitting up on that hill. Yeah, but then he could. Why wouldn't he just turn the wheels? Oh, maybe there's like mud and his wheels get stuck. so Yeah, they're on grassy terrain. It would be. Yeah.
01:06:26
Speaker
sorry please please resume your recap no i think that's a very good point and uh i'm glad you made it okay so he crawls his way to the road where some dudes you know grab him and he's like ah no time to explain you must drive me to the city so meanwhile the x-men are trapped in a gravity globe which increases gravity on them they they have trouble like Cyclops can't blast out.
01:06:53
Speaker
Marvel girl is exhausting herself, trying to lift herself up against it. Uh, Iceman tries to build a bigger and bigger ice, uh, pillar.
01:07:06
Speaker
until it shatters the thing, but his ice, you know, a heavy glass dome is probably stronger than a pillar of ice. um So Cyclops develops a plan and he, he has them stop resisting because he he's got a plan for the next time they have an opening.
01:07:27
Speaker
ah Meanwhile, Master Mollet's like, alright, I'm done with this beast guy. I've heard his whole life story. Take him away and weall we'll kill them all when we get a chance.
01:07:38
Speaker
He disintegrates little machine just to show Bolivar Trask what he could do to a city. And Bolivar Trask is like, oh no! I guess I will help you make more sentinels meantime professor x makes it back to the tv studio where the police are examining the sentinel trying to figure out what the hell happened and professor xavier starts using his mind to probe it and the police get confused because he's just They let him onto a crime scene to just sit in a chair and stare really, really hard at a robot.
01:08:12
Speaker
And they're about to kick him out when he's like, I got it. it's a There's a crystal factory next door. And it's the crystal that disrupted him. We've got to we've got to bring the crystal to Master Molde.
01:08:27
Speaker
So we cut back to the X-Men who, in their in their gravity crystal, just before the Sentinels are... like They're opening the globe to put Beast back in, and the moment they do, Cyclops... zaps one in the head they all get out they start trashing all the mis machinery um they start shooting their ice beams and making the sentinel slip all over the floor and just as they're about to escape they get hit with a stun ray and they all fall over so oh no they're about to all die
01:09:11
Speaker
And then the Sentinels all fall over. So everyone's fallen over. Cut back outside. ah Three helicopters are dragging a giant crystal through the sky towards the fortress. That's what made the Sentinels all fall over. The X-Men rally. They get up.
01:09:28
Speaker
They charge Master Mold. But I don't think... Are they charging Master Mold or are they theyre just trying to escape? No, they're charging Master Mold. They say, all right, it's time.
01:09:41
Speaker
ah Master Mold is in the meantime making more Sentinels with the help of Bolivar Trask, who... and Finally, his conscience becomes too much to bear and he starts beating his machine with a wrench and trying to smash it.
01:09:58
Speaker
It explodes right it right as the X-Men are getting there to beat up Master Mold. The room explodes. So they you know they're completely ineffectual in this issue. All they do is get hurt and flee.
01:10:13
Speaker
um They narrowly escape the collapsing fortress where there's like a little, you know, another one of these. oh here's a specific obstacle for each person's specific power ah situation.
01:10:26
Speaker
Iceman gets real fucked up because of the earlier explosion. The heat was too bad and it made him pass out. So. ah The X-Men escape, passing Iceman from one person to the next as they get out of this fortress, and then it explodes behind them, leaving Bolivar Trask dead on the body of Mastermold.
01:10:50
Speaker
ah Right before we finish the issue, we see an ominous shadow cast over the x Xavier mansion.
01:11:01
Speaker
A shadow of menace, Matt. Oh, sorry, an ominous shadow, and it is a shadow of menace.
01:11:10
Speaker
Matt. Yeah. Matt. Yes, i mean, yes. Another beautiful issue. This is really... Can I mention a few things up top that I think just really level up the X-Men storytelling here?
01:11:29
Speaker
Number one, another beautiful splash page. Why ask if you didn't want my answer? Oh, sorry. is Yeah, can I? Please? ah I was going to say no but now now hearing and it's good to say no, but now hearing your enthusiasm, I think, yeah, yeah, go ahead.
01:11:48
Speaker
Okay, number one, we've actually seen this before. This isn't a level up, but there is a beautiful splash page at the top. it is just a big sentinel head in the center with the X-Men splayed out and in distress in a circle around it. They're all in like poses of pain or unconscious things.
01:12:04
Speaker
Except for ah Angel, who looks like he's posing for ah a nude magazine. i mean, he's fully clothed. Yeah, sure. But what i was what I was really impressed by was the three-panel recap at the very beginning.
01:12:20
Speaker
We left the last issue. Professor Xavier struggling to get back to his body. The X-Men trapped inside. Trask, not sure what he was going to do, but looking like he was going to create an army of Sentinels.
01:12:33
Speaker
We are unsure what's going to happen. So in the past, what the X-Men would have done is this long rambling exposition, maybe a few characters just explaining the plot beats of the past. But they do this in the first three panels perfectly.
01:12:50
Speaker
Panel one, I'm Professor X. Look at me. I made it back to my body. Panel two, the X-Men are still trapped inside. Here's what they were doing in last issue. Here's where we left off in case you don't remember.
01:13:02
Speaker
Panel three, oh yeah, here's the X-Men's whole deal if you're not familiar. And then they launch into story. Like it's it is a ah perfect way just to bring you in, even if this is the first issue of X-Men you're ever picking up and it's the end of a three-parter.
01:13:21
Speaker
It's just a really it's a really great example of comic storytelling that they were still developing at the time, right? This is also, this is an issue where they really employ... like page reveals pretty well it's it's really broken down into in the past it's been sloppy with the big panel that reveals the information just being in the middle of a page somewhere rather than turning the page in an issue like this and seeing what the next big thing they have to deal with is or taking you to the next scene when you turn the page
01:13:53
Speaker
Right, like the moment when the ah when the Sentinels all collapse, you have no idea why. We have no idea why. They just defeated the X-Men. You're like, oh, this is the part where the X-Men fail their escape attempt.
01:14:07
Speaker
And then all the Sentinels fall over and you're like, what the fuck? It's like ah it's like a mini cliffhanger. And then cut to the next page. Three helicopters heroically dragging a giant crystal through the air. Exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:14:21
Speaker
Uh, let's, let's talk about that crystal. Uh, I don't know how we will. It doesn't, there's nothing about it this that makes sense. yes So, okay.
01:14:37
Speaker
We're talking about, like, the 50s was the... sort of modernization of cities right that's when but i guess maybe the 30s and 40s are when but the 50s was the nuclear era it was yeah everyone got electricity everybody was every yeah all these these modern conveniences were becoming more affordable people were getting yeah air conditioners and washers and dryers like all that stuff yeah Right. And there's like this art deco takeover in the 60s and 70s, even in the 50s, maybe where the buildings that they're building have these sort of I'm going to get the art architectural terms incorrect, but they've got sort of this like bleak look to them with these big, fancy features about them. So is that brindalist? How's that for architectural terms?
01:15:30
Speaker
So I think the the idea of someone building what we see is a factory and then it's just got ah like a steeple coming off the top that is empty in the middle. It's like a big frame that holds a giant crystal.
01:15:45
Speaker
Is that a thing they did? No, of course not. Patrick, there's no way. i know they got some weird buildings in New York. Only in New York, man.
01:15:58
Speaker
Also just the concept of yeah a crystal.
01:16:03
Speaker
ah ah there's and There's another brilliant piece of art here, though, where they first introduce Bolivar Trask again. Well, we see him from afar in the panels before it, and he's he's complaining about...
01:16:16
Speaker
what's happening and then we see him up close and he looks so bedraggled his suit is rumpled his hair is coming out of his slicked back do and he's he's mentally sort of thinking about how bad he fucked up it's it's really really expressive art it's another great example of just like the storytelling here leveling up yeah yeah i Another very unintentionally funny thing is the police. he's so
01:16:55
Speaker
Professor X arrives back at the TV studio. The police are just scratching their heads about a giant robot. They don't know what to do. There's so many of them. This makes sense. This is very realistic. Just a a ton of cops standing around scratching their butts.
01:17:09
Speaker
Professor X shows up and they're like, oh, yeah, I heard you're some kind of genius. You should be here on this active crime scene checking this out. So he does. And then they immediately start complaining. Like, yes, he is just sitting there staring intensely at a deactivated robot.
01:17:26
Speaker
But... they are really getting on his case like hey mister i brought you in here to work not to sit around and stare at things you're just going to stare at stuff just uh go do it somewhere else and then i think there's the cherry on top of this story is the the helicopters are being piloted by those same police professor x was like Inspector, gather your best men in three helicopters and go confiscate the crystal off of that building.
01:18:01
Speaker
It is the exact same set of police still expressing their skepticism to on these That they agreed, that they said yes to it is ah hard to hard to fathom.
01:18:14
Speaker
And also just that they can stop what they're doing to go join a helicopter mission into the woods. Yeah.
01:18:23
Speaker
Anything else you want to mention? I have one more thing that I think is very cool about this, but... ah You don't know, no. Besides some of the stuff that I already pointed out was ridiculous or cool, there wasn't... that I didn't have a lot... This is just kind of a cool ah ending.
01:18:40
Speaker
to the issue and except for i guess it is funny how ineffectual the x-men are here right um they're just like oh i guess we'll never know who blew up the the master mold for us they can't break out of the globe and then eventually they do immediately get knocked out it's by no efforts of their own ah that Sentinels fall over and they get free. They go to fight Master Mode. Somebody else is beating them by the time they get there. and they just run away. They've done nothing this is issue.
01:19:17
Speaker
They're very good at saving themselves. i Beast makes a very good point that they would actually make splendid firemen.
01:19:29
Speaker
Could be a route for them if they continue to just run into this sort of luck. And then there's the tragic end of Bolivar Trask. Yeah, he's dead.
01:19:40
Speaker
Yeah. So is Master Mold. Neither of them will ever return. did you What was your last one This an extreme Stanleyism.
01:19:51
Speaker
But for all the deliberating that we did earlier about societal politics, I think this wraps their moral up really nicely. He says... Beware the fanatic. Too often, his cure is deadlier by far than the evil he denounces.
01:20:06
Speaker
That actually is, yeah, that's really good. If that's the only moral that he intended to convey through here, yeah, fucking nailed it, dude. If you didn't mean any sort of ah social metaphor here and all you were trying to do was say, don't be a fanatic or you might it be dangerous.
01:20:26
Speaker
Yeah, you did it. Hell, I can't complain about this if that's all you meant to do. I don't think that's all you meant to do, dude. But that, hey, yeah. No, no, no. There's some very clear parallels along the way.
01:20:39
Speaker
But if you are going to extract a message that you can, that anyone can understand out of this, it is. and I mean, the fanatics, they're fanatics, you know, not all of them. Some of them aren't.
01:20:55
Speaker
How's that for insightful point? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Clip that, clip that, just share that with your, ah your local ah philosophy group. All right. Do we want to get to our last issue?
01:21:08
Speaker
i really, really badly want to get to our next and final for this episode issue. I thought you were going to say no. I thought you were going to say nope and then hang up the call.
01:21:20
Speaker
You've surprised me. Don't pull back the curtain, Matt. We record in a room together that we that's attached to the house that we live in together.
01:21:31
Speaker
Okay. I wouldn't hang up a call. Issue 17. Okay, issue 17. seventeen dot Dot, dot. And none shall survive. Story by Stan Lee. Layouts by Jack Kirby. Pencils by Jay Gavin. Inks by Dick Ayers. And lettering by A. Simec.
01:21:47
Speaker
We open on the army and a first aid team showing up to clean up after the X-Men's big fight with Master Mold. Iceman and the Beast are taken to the hospital. Iceman's condition appears to be critical and Professor X seems to feel guilt, maybe for the first time, about their condition.
01:22:04
Speaker
ah He does beg them not to reveal their identities as they go into the hospital, urging an unconscious Iceman somehow to not let go of his ice form and reveal who he actually is.
01:22:17
Speaker
Yeah. um Meanwhile, Angel calls the school and finds out that his parents are on their way for a surprise visit via their phone messaging review service because he hasn't been in contact for a few days. All of a sudden, he just left and and hasn't been in touch.
01:22:33
Speaker
Professor sends Angel home to catch them because he senses danger. There's some sort of dread he has about the mansion that he didn't mention that he just, well, I guess he's mentioning now.
01:22:46
Speaker
Angel gets to the mansion. The door is already open. They usually lock it. Angel goes in and a battle axe flies from a decorative set of armor, almost kills him. There is a voice taunting him, making him run through or i guess glide, fly through the mansion where he runs into a pane of glass placed in the middle of the hallway, which knocks him out.
01:23:10
Speaker
There's a doctor trying to give Cyclops in eye exam. So he objects and leaves. And he and Professor X drive home because Professor X has lost his mental contact with Angel.
01:23:23
Speaker
Feels it's very unusual. They get to the mansion. Cerebro is going nuts. It's like a haunted house story. Its wires rise up behind Professor X, wrap around him and zap him.
01:23:36
Speaker
And then there's another transparent shield that raises between them that projects Cyclops' eye beams back on him. Building goes dark. All of the sudden, the lights go out and someone beats up Scott, just starts punching him from every angle in the dark.
01:23:51
Speaker
Beast shows us that he is healed. He no longer needs the hospital. He starts bouncing around. He and Marvel Girl go and check in on Iceman, who is in a coma, might die. keep...
01:24:04
Speaker
they keep it's It's like watching a TikTok story. They don't want to say death or die or kill. They just keep avoiding the word. Anyway, trusting the doctor that they are leaving with him, leaving him with, they decide to run home.
01:24:21
Speaker
As soon as they get there, Beast's idea is to run in first at full speed, just in case there are any attackers waiting to protect Gene. The hallway, unfortunately, coated in a slick surface, fully frictionless surface, which means means Beast can't use his eye agile, tactile...
01:24:44
Speaker
fingers and toes to grip onto anything, and he just goes sliding. ah door opens up and he gets thrown into a secret room. Marvel Girl finally sees the intruder.
01:24:55
Speaker
and She recognizes him, tries to use her telekinesis to push the intruder out, but her powers aren't working because she's being dosed with a invisible sleeping gas, which is weakening her powers, and eventually she passes out.
01:25:11
Speaker
Meanwhile, at the hospital, there are some reporters harassing the doctor, trying to find out Iceman's identity. The doctor kicks them out. We know that we can trust this guy. ah The intruder puts all the X-Men into a steel gondola attached to a balloon and sends them up into low orbit where they will slowly run out of air.
01:25:32
Speaker
The perfect way to kill someone. And then Warren's parents do show up. They knock on the door. A purple glove reaches out. twists the knob, pulls the door open, and who is on the other side but Magneto.
01:25:46
Speaker
Oh. to Oh, no, no, no, no. It was Magneto. Sorry. No, it was Magneto to be continued.
01:25:56
Speaker
Yeah, it's a pretty good cliffhanger. We thought Magneto was dead. Like, last we saw Magneto... He had been taken to space by this stranger to never return, the stranger said.
01:26:10
Speaker
But there, here he is. Their arch foe back again and in their house. And as this apparently, like Kevin McAllister, spent a lot of time setting up a bunch of traps around the mansion for them to fall into.
01:26:26
Speaker
The pain of glass one is the one that gets me. That is just... The amount of time would have had to stand there polishing that pain of glass so that Angel couldn't...
01:26:39
Speaker
And like everything else is his powers, right? The cords of Cerebro rising up and wrapping around the professor, an invisible force field appearing that Scott can't break out of, even the control of the electronics, like the the manipulating the surface of the walls and floor of the mansion to be fully smooth metal.
01:27:01
Speaker
That's reasonably within his power set. I don't think that he's doing it with his powers, though. I think he set these things up like they make it look physical. They make the barrier between Cyclops and ah Professor X look like a physical another pane of glass.
01:27:18
Speaker
They make the hallway that B slips down look like a a hallway covered in glass. Right. Like and again, he has sleeping gas. all Glass stuff now.
01:27:29
Speaker
He just loves glass now. He doesn't have his powers? I don't know. i don't
Comic Absurdities and Villain Strategies
01:27:34
Speaker
know. I guess we'll find out next issue, but... What if he yeah what if he's Glassnido now?
01:27:41
Speaker
I think he would have said, I i am power. Men call me Glassnido. why this is such a this the x-men have not done this uh batman villain ass thing where it's like oh i'll put you in a slow trap to die until now when why why why doesn't he just kill them you just take a knife stab them to death everybody gets one if they haven't done it yet they're entitled to do it here okay it is i think
01:28:15
Speaker
more absurd and we laughed about this while explaining it but he puts them in a steel ball and attaches it to a hot air balloon yeah and just has them floating away a steel ball with five bodies in it what how big would that balloon have to be that's got to be like five six hundred pounds and he's got a pretty big balloon yeah i guess so Also, that is not a gondola. He calls it a gondola. It is just a big metal ball. Yeah.
01:28:49
Speaker
Gondolas suggest some sort of luxury, you know?
Professor X's Humor and Predictions
01:28:52
Speaker
Here's something I love. I love how ah Professor X is like Do not reveal your secret identities. Make sure you don't reveal your secret identities.
01:29:00
Speaker
And then he goes into Beast's room and he's like, oh, hi, McCoy. Like, he just starts talking. He uses his last name immediately. i also love ah when ah Angel's on the phone with his parents. He's just flying in circles around the hospital waiting room with the phone at the end of its cord so that they can't see what number he dialed. but And the nurses are all jumping up at him, trying to grab him, saying, you can't do that.
01:29:29
Speaker
This is against policy. Stop it, sir. Stop it. He's just flying around in circles. It's also remembering. That's the real mutant menace.
01:29:40
Speaker
yeah The mutant Dennis, the menace. ah There's also, so what he's doing in that scene is, and remember, this is, it's officially 1966. I looked.
01:29:56
Speaker
This is a technology no one's ever heard of, which is calling home to electronically check your messages. This is, like, this is maybe the dawn of the answering machine. i don't, I don't, ah Jamie, can you look that up for us? Yeah.
01:30:12
Speaker
he
01:30:15
Speaker
This is another one of their gadgets and they nailed this one. This is a future technology that comes to be Yeah, i I mean, I guess you have two fucking millionaires living together, ah right? They're going to have the most updated technology. I mean, this could be this could even be ah right before answering machines were invented and ah Professor X just invented it because he invents shit all the time.
Cyclops' Injury Discussion
01:30:43
Speaker
Hey, why are they trying to give Scott an eye exam? it isn't What? it His injury is once again pretty unclear to me. i can only assume it's a concussion.
01:30:56
Speaker
I don't know why, but I just imagine Scott always having a concussion. Well, I mean, well, as we'll find out one day, that is that is his origin. but Oh my god.
01:31:09
Speaker
He's just concussion prone now. The scene where ah Magneto beats up Cyclops in the dark is a pretty cool one. It's like, it's that sort of black and white, but with the white colored in as blue, like black and blue, except for when Cyclops is shooting his beams and then the room is lit up red in the panel. And,
01:31:31
Speaker
I don't know. It's just it's just cool. And like it seems obvious, but things aren't always that thoughtful in this era of comics. So it was a really cool scene.
01:31:42
Speaker
Okay, so I'm learning. i agree with what you just said, Matt, but I'm learning that the answering machine was invented in 1935. So it first gained popularity with Orthodox Jews at that time because they weren't allowed to answer the phone on the Sabbath.
01:31:59
Speaker
Whoa. I'm scanning headlines in article summaries. I'm not actually reading as we go.
Exaggerated Art Style in Comics
01:32:06
Speaker
Well, you know, the other thing is that Iceman is literally dying.
01:32:11
Speaker
And Professor X won't let him ice down. Like that might save his life, dude. Yeah. The doctor does keep saying like, I don't think you understand me.
01:32:22
Speaker
I don't know how this ice body works.
01:32:28
Speaker
Yeah. And the professor just keeps going. Well, figure it out. In the first panel, somebody's taking Iceman's pulse and says, your pulse is impossible, son. Which is a very good line.
01:32:39
Speaker
yeah yeah and And I love the final panel with Magneto because it really speaks to what you say, which Magneto always has the craziest eyes in this era. He just looks insane by from the way they draw his face.
01:32:54
Speaker
Magneto's got his crazy eyes back. This is... I don't know if it's intentional or if it's just the shading, but one eye is much bigger than the other.
01:33:06
Speaker
Whatever it is, it's very effective. For the whites of the eyes, at least. He looks unhinged. Fucking menacing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a good Magneto. What an iconic costume, too. It is just... It's unchanging, and it doesn't need to.
01:33:20
Speaker
um Even the little skirt.
Intense Storytelling and Claremont's Influence
01:33:22
Speaker
So how do you feel about this run of issues? i Intense. They're really... So we've talked about like what the other runs we've read through represent in just the evolution of the production of the X-Men. And this really focuses on storytelling and how to how to make the X-Men compelling.
01:33:49
Speaker
It really focuses on their teamwork, too. There's a lot of focus on making sure... the moves that they execute are involving as many team members as, as is feasible to pull off whatever they're trying to pull off.
01:34:06
Speaker
they are extremely disrespectful to Bobby and they should be because he says a ton of corny shit. Like he calls his snowballs, forget me knots.
01:34:17
Speaker
Uh, but they call him, they call him son, sunny. They call him boy. They call him kiddo. Even when Scott is acknowledging that like, Hey, you're one of us. You're a man. You're not a child anymore.
01:34:31
Speaker
He calls him boy. Right. I, I think, I mean, this is very cool. It's the introduction of Juggernaut. It is the introduction of the Sentinels. It brings in this overarching theme of the X-Men, them ah trying to protect humanity, even as humanity's trying to destroy them.
01:34:50
Speaker
yeah And then bringing back their arch foe, just as you know, just as they thought they had tried. Like, actually, I'm not saying just as they thought they were trying, but in their lowest moment, one of their members might be dying.
01:35:03
Speaker
Yeah, and theyre they're barely recovered from yeah their previous lowest moment. It's almost like this this might have been the beginning of what inspired Chris Claremont, right? Because later, clare Chris Claremont, he's known for just these cascading, overlapping plots that never let up. and that's how this run of issues feels.
01:35:25
Speaker
It is just not letting up. They don't get a second. They're recovering from Juggernaut when the Sentinels appear. They're recovering from the Sentinels when Magneto appears. It's so good.
01:35:38
Speaker
Well, here's... I agree wholeheartedly. I think these are exciting, fast-paced, and and really easy to chew through. Here's what i'm missing, though, is the lifestyle stuff.
01:35:52
Speaker
I love just watching the X-Men hang out and goof with each other. There's so little of that here because they're in these long, yeah painful stories. Painful to them, not painful to read.
01:36:04
Speaker
There was that, yeah, there was that little bit at the beginning where um ah they were on vacation. And they were watching Bernard in the coffee. But that was about it. Like, that was it. That was just, it was just a couple panels.
01:36:17
Speaker
Is there any Pats, Deals, and Steals this week?
Marvel Merchandise Ads
01:36:20
Speaker
Oh, my God. God, are there steals and deals. So I'm going to mention my honorable mention first, because this was it until I saw the main one.
01:36:29
Speaker
There are frequently pages that have, i don't know, 20 to 40 ads on them, little block ads, like a classifieds page. And one of them, there's very little detail, but if you send them 50 cents, they will send you a list 1001 that you can get for free and like a blast a gamble a i am trying to figure out if it is like a list of services that they know that you can attain for free or if it's like here's how to go to friendlies and tell them it's your birthday right or like stuff you can get you can get for free you can get ketchup packets at McDonald's you can get sugar packets at ah at was there a coffee chain at the time at coffee a go-go
01:37:19
Speaker
Yeah, there you go. So conversion from 1965, 66, 50 cents is about today. so under you can get thousand and one things you can get for free.
01:37:34
Speaker
So it'd be buying like a, it'd be like buying one of those cheap books with the guy with the exclamation points all over his suit where he's like, these government programs will give you this stuff for free. Like I pay, like not I, I wouldn't, but somebody a police pay $4 and 50 cents for a book that says that a book of that, that guy's that guy. Yeah.
01:37:57
Speaker
That guy sells those for like $20, those books. he has to wear that dumb question mark suit. But okay Matt, this is not my primary steals and deals. My best steals and deals we have is actually Marvel specific this week.
01:38:14
Speaker
We have a terrific set of three items that you can get regardless of if you're a member of the Mary Marvel Marching Society or not. But if you are a member of the Mary Marvel Marching Society, remember, it costs $1, comes with a bunch of free stuff. Yeah.
01:38:30
Speaker
There is also a mysterious free gift that gets included with each order. I don't know what that free gift was, but the actual items they're selling. Okay, for $1, about money.
01:38:42
Speaker
ten maybe nine dollars in today's money yeah you get this set of swinging superhero stationary complete with its own now famous nifty nutty portfolio. It's just the thing for writing letters into the white house, Buckingham palace, and even a brand X.
01:38:59
Speaker
It's a blast. They want you to write to DC on Marvel station. That's very petty. I really, really love that. Number two for $1.50. You can get the greatest fashion sensation since Lady Godiva. Colorful, crazy, and coming on strong. Welcome to the Marvel age of t-shirts. There's a few ads for these and they keep hyping up the age of t-shirts. But this is a t-shirt with... Yeah, yeah.
01:39:24
Speaker
That t-shirt looks incredible. just Yeah, describe it. Yeah, this is a t-shirt ah orange circle within this orange circle, but slightly popping out of it as if they're coming out of the shirt at you are the X-Men and then Professor X's bald ass head right at the top.
01:39:41
Speaker
ah These are Kirby drawings. They're all in really cool poses. It is a sick sweatshirt that is $1.50 while supplies last. There's also a picture of Juggernaut saying, face front.
01:39:55
Speaker
I can't read the rest. You're on your honor not to wear it while reading brand X. So this one cuts at them as well. And then finally for $1.99, you can have a giant six foot high pinup, big as life in living color of your friendly neighborhood, Spider-Man others in preparation. So there are more to come in the future, but a six foot poster of Spider-Man. They say great for decorating your Mary Marvel marching society, clubhouse, college dorm, or for breaking your lease with
01:40:27
Speaker
Interesting. That's very good. So we're saying $1 plus $1.50 brings to $2.50 plus $1.99 brings us to $4.49. In 1966, this can all adds up about $40, but get more. think it's the stationary that's overpriced, right?
01:40:38
Speaker
The...
01:40:42
Speaker
all be yours all adds up to about forty dollars but you get more i think it's the stationary that's overpriced right the so like yeah T-shirt what comes out to about $14, $15. That's a fair price for a T-shirt. It is the age of T-shirts. So like half a day half a day working at minimum wage?
01:41:02
Speaker
ah Yeah. Okay. Yeah, yeah. To get all this stuff, you put in a half day's work. The stationery comes out to about $10, though. I don't think that's worth it. Yeah, let's just leave that off. Let's leave that off. Let's just get the T-shirt and maybe the giant Spider-Man. And then it's only $30. Well...
01:41:18
Speaker
well that's a That's a pretty good deal and a pretty good steal. ah Thank you, Pat, for your report. Oh, God, Matt. Whoa. Yes. One more thing. I'm sorry. Unrelated to steals and deals, I am breaking the segment because I forgot to mention all the way back in issue I want to say 16. Okay. You know what else happened this same Yeah.
01:41:43
Speaker
ah 1966, what, March? um Okay, yeah, no, of course I know. I know that Operation Jericho, the Mizo National Front Uprising, became began in the Assam state of India when insurgents made simultaneous attacks on government installations at Iswal, Lunglai, Champai, I don't know how to pronounce these, and I'm making an idiot of myself. So yeah, that's I know that. No, you're right. It was a yeah it was a scary time, but...
Famous Spider-Man Scene and Closing Comments
01:42:09
Speaker
Oh, i know what you're referring to. Dave Pilkey, who made the Captain Underpants books, was born.
01:42:13
Speaker
Yes, it was a scary time, but that is not what I'm talking about. What? Spider-Man, friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. Crushed by a giant machine.
01:42:24
Speaker
Oh, the famous issue. Iconic sequence where yeah ah a giant piece of machinery in half a building falls on top of him and he has to summon his strength and think about all of his loved ones to lift himself up from under this giant rubble and get out to save the day.
01:42:44
Speaker
Holy cow. Iconic stuff.
01:42:48
Speaker
Well... that's a great deal in steel pat and thanks for that uh and people at home can get their wallets together to go a trap spider-man under a building guys thank you so much for listening to mutant menace you can find you can email us at mutant menace pod at gmail.com you can find me anywhere on the internet at matt all camp a uk amp mostly on blue sky you can find pat arguing with people on social media uh As Pat Reber.
01:43:19
Speaker
Sometimes as Pat Reber. Sometimes as Professor Tom Shakespeare.
01:43:27
Speaker
um yeah i do another podcast called Save Your Game. Check that out wherever you get podcasts like this one. In ah addition, you can find us, I think by now we should have an Instagram up.
01:43:40
Speaker
Why, yes, Matt. It's at mutantmenacepod. That's right. And please email us about literally anything you want. We just love ah contact.
01:43:52
Speaker
So mutantmenacepod at gmail.com anytime. Send us a calendar in invite. so We want to thank Krils Wilson for our intro and outro music and ah be back next week where we will discuss issues 18 through 22 and and As we say at the end of every single episode, cool it, chick, you're melting my bongos.
01:44:20
Speaker
And as always, my brain has been fortified to the maximum degree.