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38 - The New Mutants Graphic Novel, New Mutants #1-3, Uncanny X-Men #167 - NEW MUTANTS
2 Playsin 9 hours
Issues: Marvel Graphic Novel #4, New Mutants #1-3, Uncanny X-Men #167
It's a brand new day on Graymalkin Lane! Where a rebuilt Xavier Mansion hosts a brand new group of young mutants - you might even call them The New Mutants! Join us as we meet each member of this future-star-studded team and watch them write their own origin story, define themselves and their villains, and even take on the freakin X-Men themselves! Plus, a conclusion - FINALLY - to the final cliffhanger of the Brood Saga! Tune in!
Topics discussed:
Matt does his best. Al Jolson. You can’t trick us and you can’t derail us. Egg nog. No one wanted this. Bob McLeod. Torch-wielding mobs. Ruffled sleeve = Hellfire Club. White men. The scariest Wolverine possible. Wolf to werewolf to girl. Mind Tap. What file type is a thought? Superheroes with rifles. “Nossir.” Stevie Hunter is in over her head. “I can’t be hurt while I’m blastin’.” Psyche! ET at the Salem Center Mall. Col. Michael Rossi. Frigi-Beam. Sentinels! Magnum P.I. New Mutants vs. X-Men. Professor Xavier is a prick!
Write in to Pat's Email Corner: mutantmenacepod@gmail.com
Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/fPv7hRgTeV
Instagram: @mutantmenacepod
Recommended
Transcript
Live Mutant Menace Report
00:00:01
Speaker
I'm Trish Tobey with W.A.R.C. reporting to you live from Westchester, New York, where there appears to be some sort of mutant menace on the loose.
Podcast Introduction and Banter
00:00:36
Speaker
Hey, I'm Pat Reber. And I'm Matt Allcamp. And say it with us, Pete. welcome Welcome to Mutant Menace. Not our best.
00:00:47
Speaker
um It's my best. It was real good my part. I did real well. i don't know about you. i don't know about you. I don't know about you. I was too busy paying attention to my own and how good I was doing.
00:01:01
Speaker
Yes? How are you?
00:01:05
Speaker
I'm doing okay. How about yourself? No time for that now, Matt. Welcome.
Listener Feedback and Email Discussions
00:01:12
Speaker
We have so many emails to cover, Matt. We are now...
00:01:17
Speaker
Filthy rich with emails. Yes. Yeah, yeah. We've got some old standards. We've got some new ones. If I'm missing your email, I'm sorry. We were at the point where we discussed where we have just so many, so many emails. If if ah emails was eggnog, we'd have the best Christmas ever.
00:01:36
Speaker
I'm also... What I'm doing today... Okay, there are a couple of consensuses. Number one everyone agrees we should just use old ads. You can stop sounding off about that. Thank you, everyone, your opinions. But yeah, we'll make sure there's a Pat's Steals and Deals in every episode. Do you think that some... is Was it all different people or where they were there emailers who emailed multiple times to say you should do old ads? No, no. no Everyone has had one take and the vote has been overwhelming. It's unanimous. Also, they don't get a vote.
00:02:12
Speaker
That's true. It's ultimately our decision, but in our opinion poll, the other consensus is that Abby Denton was a terrific guest. yeah So we, we know she got plenty of shout outs. The other thing a lot of people do is ask us hypothetical questions or like, i what do you think about this questions? I am excluding those, not because they are bad. A lot of them are very good questions. Some of them are stinkers, but a lot of them are really good questions. The problem is that you're trying to, you're trying to derail us and I see what you're doing.
00:02:49
Speaker
We've got to be able to get through this. So, Pat's email. can You can't derail Pat is the thing.
00:02:58
Speaker
That's the thing. is Exactly. You can't derail Pat. He's always going to be totally focused. He's always going to keep on. He's going to keep on yeah like a thing Like a bullet. You cannot derail. Wait, in what ways? What what ways and are you like a bullet? in i and as in like i move forward i guess there's no other ways do you like a bullet yeah like what other similar to a bullet other than that if you think about it like yeah like what i'm pretty calm i'm not very explosive uh i'm fairly round i guess we share that you and a bullet me and a bullet do you feel like you're as round now as you always were
00:03:38
Speaker
and No, no, no, no, no. i yeah I've changed shapes. I've been fitter. i've I've always been this stout, though, and sort of like, yeah, stout is a good word for it. So if you identify with the
00:03:53
Speaker
The point is that you can't derail Pat. Yeah, yeah. So stop trying. yeah Okay.
Fun with Nicknames and Guest Suggestions
00:03:59
Speaker
Email number one is from Gregor. Matt, you remember Gregor? We were having a hard time assigning him a nickname.
00:04:04
Speaker
yeah We asked for his opinion, not his choice. But he says, hey, Pat, tell Matt I'll take Pirate Gregor. Sure.
00:04:15
Speaker
Why did we call him Pirate Gregor? I'm not sure. But if that's his attitude about it, I don't think that's the the course we want to go. Well, I almost want to call him Pirate Gregor out of like, ah like sarcastically.
00:04:31
Speaker
yeah pirate gregor because he's like thinks he's a pirate fine i'll take pirate gregor well fucking fine then you're pirate gregor yeah you're gregor that thinks he's a pirate pirate in quotes gregor uh okay thank you pirate gregor ah Up next is Ink Master writing back in. hi Pat. Tell Matt that I loved Abby as a guest and would love for her to come on again sometime. Okay. Also, i think We Are the Mutant Menace, as she's mistakenly thought it was, is actually a much catchier intro.
00:05:11
Speaker
Huh. Hard disagree. I'll say i agree, but we're not changing it. You have to fly Pete all the way back in from Australia to re-record.
00:05:24
Speaker
It's episode 38. You thirty eight you can can't. We're still workshopping the intro. All right, moving on. Email Michael wrote back in. He says, hey, Pat, tell Matt that my response to Pat's response to my email about episode 33, which you guys read in episode 35, in which Pat said my email was fine and you, Matt, asked how I feel about that is I'm fine with that response.
00:05:51
Speaker
It wasn't my worst work or my best. As a reminder, I asked if Wolverine could defeat a downdraft in a one on one fight. And everyone decided that if his claws could cut psychic energy, then they could probably defeat the wind. Seems fine to me.
00:06:03
Speaker
Hey, seems fine to me to email Michael. I'm I'm totally with you. I'm I don't know how I felt about your last email. I can't remember. Pat also asked anyone from Pittsburgh to write in saying they were from Pittsburgh. I'm not so I can't. That's
Storytelling and Humor in the Podcast
00:06:19
Speaker
just how it is. There are lots of places I'm not from.
00:06:24
Speaker
Another home run email. Michael, thank you. Up next, we have sign wave Sean. posts same trick. posts the same trick every email and every email against me. Every single time, i don't i don't see it coming. He just convinces me to make fun of myself.
00:06:44
Speaker
Uh, sign wave. Sean has written back in. I believe we sent out the sign wave. Sean signal in our Dracula episode. He says, Hey Pat, tell Matt, welcome back. Also. he is pronouncing Sinkiewicz, right?
00:06:56
Speaker
Sinkiewicz. I know. He knows. He goes on to say, I don't believe Lilith is a figure in Irish mythology, as we might have speculated, but she does show up in the Capcom fighting game Darkstalkers, where she's linked to a character named after the Irish triple goddess Morrigan.
00:07:14
Speaker
so that's fun.
00:07:18
Speaker
Well, OK. OK. Thank you, Signwave Sean. ah We have a new emailer, Kaz. Kaz?
00:07:29
Speaker
cat Maybe Kaz. Hey, Pat. Hey, Matt. so Oh, sorry. Kaz opens up saying, sorry, IDK the format, which is very clear.
00:07:40
Speaker
If you know there's a format, then you know the format. It's not hard. as I'll tell you what. Back up about three minutes in this episode, back to the start of Pat's email quarter. See if you notice a theme, and then...
00:07:54
Speaker
you can't trick us you know there's a format thus like you can't know there is a format if you don't right right you can't derail us and you can't trick us i'm kaz says hey pat hey better syllables than you have tried
00:08:17
Speaker
ka Kaz says, Hey Pat, Hey Matt, Kaz here. And I wanted to say, love the pod and y'all's breakdown of the stories. oh Thank you, Kaz. Yeah. Sorry for making fun you. My would you rather is, would you rather have Wolverine's healing factor, but your visible age isn't slowed. So you still end up looking old as hell after 70 to 80 years or gambits powers. But the only thing you can charge to explode are dildos. And you have to say, take discharge here, mon ami, in his accent, of course.
00:08:47
Speaker
Love the pod. Can't wait for the next step. I did leave this one in. Would you rather Wolverine's healing factor, but your age, you show your age or Gambit's power, but you have to say you have to do dildos and say discharge here, Mona me. No.
00:09:04
Speaker
No, I wouldn't rather that.
00:09:07
Speaker
All right. Great answer. What about you, Pat? No, what about you? No, I agree. I rather wouldn't. Very good question, though. i really appreciate it. Up next, Dany writes to us, also ignoring formatting rules, saying, long-time listener, first-time emailer, I'm binging the show and
Origins of the New Mutants
00:09:28
Speaker
revisiting my love of X-Men.
00:09:30
Speaker
I guess they found us on Bing. vision yeah Pat, to correct you in your segment. Yes? i don't want to i don't want to correct you here in your segment yes But I really think that the the word is binging.
00:09:49
Speaker
I'm pretty sure there's an E in binging.
00:09:53
Speaker
okay You think there's an E in binging?
00:09:59
Speaker
Yes. i I don't think there is. Youmenasepod at gmail.com. Is there an E in the word binging? i Anyway, Damien has volunteered to join our street team. Oh, yeah. We haven't had somebody join our street team in a while, but we did not that long ago send out our first very, very late.
00:10:25
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Packages. If you're listening and you're part of the street team, please, we forgot to take pictures of the drawings we did. Can you take pictures of them for us and send them? know they're bad.
00:10:36
Speaker
We know they're bad. That's why we want the pictures. Anyway, Damien goes on with some interesting information here in the Pat Steals and Deals segment that Toot Toot Tootsie Hello advert was a take on an old 20s standard to Toot Toot Tootsie Goodbye known to be performed by Pearl Bailey, Al Jolson, and even Betty Boop.
00:11:03
Speaker
Hey, Pat. Yeah. What the fuck are you two talking about? No, no, no, no, Matt. You don't remember this? It was... No. What the fuck are you talking about? We found a Tootsie Pop ad that just said toot tu Tootsie Hello, and we were baffled by it. We couldn't figure out what that meant. If we saw something like that, I would remember it.
00:11:23
Speaker
Thank you, Davey. This is really ah good Al Jolson, Matt. First Al Jolson mention on the podcast, I believe. first of many, many in the future.
00:11:35
Speaker
Just wait till we get to the Jim Lee era. That guy. i ah Finally, we have Mikey Two Males wrote in his traditional two males. i have condensed them into one here. Hey, Pat, tell me I said, welcome back.
00:11:50
Speaker
My wife and i absolutely love Stardew Valley and both have put a lot of hours into it to the point where between us, we have married every bachelor and bachelorette.
00:12:01
Speaker
This is... Thank you, Mikey. I am so relieved to learn that two partners can get into Stardew Valley at the same time and and the relationship can last.
00:12:13
Speaker
I think most couples do. Right. like it's it's Stardew Valley is for couples. It is for...
00:12:24
Speaker
A video game partner and a non-video game partner to finally connect for the first time in their lives. Right. Gives us something to talk about in our... Bed. you know are the dinner table.
00:12:38
Speaker
Please don't talk about me and my wife. Mikey Tumales also puts his hat into the ring to host our Story So Far episode coming up.
00:12:50
Speaker
You know, I forgot if I was going to bring that up this episode. I forgot if we had ah we had started soliciting. But we either did or Mikey Two Mails is just ahead of Volunteering anyway, yeah.
00:13:06
Speaker
But yeah, please, if you are interested, if you, I believe we said have somewhat of a mic presence, pretty minimal. But, you know, you you know how to talk to people. Yeah, yeah.
00:13:18
Speaker
And... are pretty familiar with the show. We just want someone to help us remember everything that's happened over the last 20 episodes. Right. As you can tell from this episode, we don't remember fucking anything we say on this podcast. Granted, it's a little worse for me right now because Pat edited the past three episodes while I was away in London. So i im I'm remembering less than usual. but Not exactly the past three. The last one they heard was edited by you.
00:13:48
Speaker
All right, man. Just to be weird. You want to embarrass me in front of Mikey two males? If they're trying to... Is that what you want to do? that what you're If they're trying puzzle out, I don't want to give them any false information.
00:14:03
Speaker
Oh, Matt. That is for Pat's Email Corner. We finally got through that big pile of mail that's been ah building up. Yeah, there's... ah it Number one, it's a fire hazard. Number two, you don't take good care of the male. So there's like cockroaches in it and stuff. There's like fruit flies flying around. Yeah, now it's like butcamp it's damp.
00:14:27
Speaker
Please stop sending us food. It's I appreciate the gesture, but it's it's creating some some hazards because you can't eat all of it fast enough. You do eat some of it. Matt, what are we doing today?
00:14:44
Speaker
we're gonna you're throwing me off pat about it because i i don't even know if you've done anything x-men related this past week oh fuck shit fuck god matt hey yeah have you done anything x-men related this week um no No, I don't think so. I returned from... um You know what? you know what
00:15:16
Speaker
Here's something X-Men related. It's the beginning of eggnog season! Whoa! It truly is. I bought my first eggnog of the year. I actually got the... You know I ah you know i like a good local nog?
00:15:34
Speaker
Yes, yeah, yeah. This year I started with a Southern Comfort. The Southern Comfort eggnog? Not an alcoholic eggnog either. The sub Southern Comfort, just like regular old eggnog, spiced eggnog. I'm familiar. It's real good.
00:15:47
Speaker
It is real good. i' They make a pumpkin one too that's actually pretty good. And they make a vanilla one. Yeah. Yeah. And all of all of them, all of them, good eggnogs. As far as national brands go, yeah, really solid.
00:16:01
Speaker
So that's that's the X-Men related thing I've done. Pat, have you done anything X-Men related this week? I... No, kind of the opposite. I've done, is to be clear, it's been about 56 hours since we last recorded an episode. ah And I've done a lot of relaxing.
00:16:22
Speaker
okay. The X-Men never relax. No, no, no. And hanging out with friends without disaster striking. thus Must be nice.
00:16:33
Speaker
Yeah, it was nice, but it wasn't X-Men related. So, again, no. To answer your question, Matt. Thank you for asking that. So this week, we are we're going to be talking about something brand new to us.
00:16:47
Speaker
In fact, we've we've never even heard of it. It's something called the New Mutants. New Mutants? Now, I know what a mutant is, Matt.
00:16:59
Speaker
What's a New mutant Imagine one that you haven't met before and like a couple of them that you haven't met before. So it's plural. Ooh. Like when we met Kitty Pryde and Dazzler in the same issue.
00:17:12
Speaker
Very much like when we met Kitty Pryde and Dazzler in the same issue. And I'll explain why in a minute. So the new mutants were, okay, this is how they were born.
00:17:25
Speaker
There's some of this that's clearly apocryphal because there's some argument amongst the the people who worked at Marvel at the time about this.
New Mutants' Initial Challenges
00:17:36
Speaker
Supposedly, Jim Shooter wanted to do a third Spider-Man book. And Tom DeFalco and Mark Grunewald, who were handling the Spider-Man books at the time, were like, what what why are we doing a third Spider-Man book?
00:17:53
Speaker
Look, actually, Pat, it might have even been a fucking fourth. And he and Mark Grunewald were like, why are we doing another Spider-Man book when X-Men is by far the highest selling title?
00:18:05
Speaker
And Jim Shooter agreed. So he was going to, supposedly there was going to be a second X-Book that took place on the West Coast. But Chris Claremont and Louise Jones at the time ah found out.
00:18:22
Speaker
And we're like, no no no no no no, no, no, no. You're not going to do that. X-Men is ours, and we're going to figure out what to do. And they came up with this idea of bringing the X-Men back to the idea of students.
00:18:35
Speaker
Yeah. Now, there is some argument about this because they, even in in interviews at the time, they called the New Mutants the X-babies.
00:18:47
Speaker
They seemed to not want to do the book, to be honest. Yeah. So that was in interviews at the time. Again, in this comic creators on X-Men book from the early 2000s.
00:18:59
Speaker
That's not how Chris explains it. But in the old X-Men companion books from Fantagraphics, but like way back in the 80s, they are clearly not very happy with doing this new mutants book. Yeah, yeah. The way... ah John Byrne puts it, and granted, as we know, Byrne fucking ah claims to have invent invented everything, right?
00:19:30
Speaker
But Byrne claims that throughout his time, and this is how Kitty Pryde and Dazzler tie in, throughout his time on the X-Men, Jim Shooter kept, like, he had a philosophy, like, we are going to bring everything back to day one, whatever Stan and Jack wanted. However they conceived of these characters is how we're going to do the characters. And thus the X-Men should be a book about kids.
00:19:57
Speaker
That's interesting. Yeah. Yeah. and they created Kitty pride or John Byrne claims he created Kitty pride specifically to get Jim Shooter off their backs to be like, here's a child that can be a student and also be a part of this thing that we've built.
00:20:15
Speaker
But Jim Shooter apparently just kept pushing. And also, apparently, the the according to John Byrne in that same story, Dazzler was totally foisted upon them in that issue.
00:20:26
Speaker
yeah Okay. Anyway. so That checks out. Supposedly, then, when this happened, it was Jim Shooter who was like, hey, remember John Byrne's idea? we need you guys to i need you guys to do that. And Claremont and Louise Jones were like, fine.
00:20:43
Speaker
Fine, we'll do it. Like, it basically, Jim Shooter was like, if you aren't going to do it, somebody else is. So they're like, fine. Yeah, yeah. you've also supposedly, occurred according to Byrne, called him up and was like, hey, you're not going to make trouble about this, are you?
00:20:58
Speaker
And Byrne was like, fine, I'll sign away rights to the new mutants concept. which the The concept that there'd be more mutants? What are you talking about, John Byrne? This didn't happen.
00:21:14
Speaker
That couldn't happen. Anyway, he's like, I'll do that if you make Chris sign a thing saying he didn't come up with the Alpha Flight because he didn't.
00:21:27
Speaker
So anyway, whatever, man. um So at the same time, Marvel had just launched their graphic novel series. They were trying to mimic that like French high quality comic book format with like full color art and glossy pages and heavier stock covers.
00:21:46
Speaker
And they had commissioned a bunch of artists and writers and given them advances like you would. in a normal publishing company.
00:21:57
Speaker
And comic book writers and artists aren't used to working that way. So they took the advances and then started doing monthly work to keep paying their bills.
00:22:08
Speaker
And so the graphic novel line fell really far behind. So by that point, Chris Claremont and Bob McCloud had already started working on new Mutants number one and Jim Shooter was like, no, this is going to be, we're going to debut them in a graphic novel format. So they had to just elongate the thing.
00:22:33
Speaker
just Just make it an extra 20 pages. Exactly. Wow. Now, there's, again, some argument about this. Was it 22 pages and they made bob they made him stretch it all the way to graphic novel size? Or was it a double-sized issue and they made it They made him stretch it another like a graphic novel, 10 pages or something that turned it into a graphic novel. Again, it's some conflicting stuff on that. But either way, agree. The agreed upon story is they didn't know it's going to be a graphic novel. And Claremont was always upset that it happened this way. He says he would have done it differently if he knew.
00:23:15
Speaker
and So thus is born. The New Mutants, a.k.a. The X-Babies. It works. All right, so all that wow history aside, you want to talk about Marvel Graphic Novel number four, a.k.a. The New Mutants, a.k.a.
00:23:39
Speaker
Renewal? Yes, Matt. they see I think it's it all comes together quite nicely. Written. by Chris Claremont, penciled and inked by Bob McCloud. Pat!
00:23:52
Speaker
Who's Bob McCloud? Bob McCloud, aside from being the co-creator of The New Mutants, is mostly just a bullpen guy. He's a yeah he's mostly an inker.
00:24:05
Speaker
He inked Kraven's Last Hunt, which I know it pretty iconic, but this is one where he was given the pencils as well. He... ah insisted on inking his own pencils louise jones uh granted him that right and as a result it pretty consistently ran behind deadline uh i also don't think he's a very good inker which we might be yeah yeah i was we'll let weapon jason weigh in on that
00:24:39
Speaker
guy He's gonna say no. He hates inkers. He hates inkers. He actually, shortly after the graphic novel was released, went on his honeymoon. And because he was inking his own work, ended up having to do a lot of inking on his honeymoon just so that they could catch up to the deadlines that they had been missing. Romantic. so he eventually has the pencils taken away from him. And it's probably for the best because it results in some beautiful things. But he also describes this as a miserable experience for him.
00:25:16
Speaker
Oh, my God. Really? Like he he hated this. Yes. I love that every single person involved has so many complaints about what is just one of the absolute best. Let's get into it.
00:25:30
Speaker
Like, it's good. It's good. It's a good thing that they made, and they all hate it. Yeah. um That's... Wow. But here's the thing, fucking... Pat, you're saying he was angry because of a thing he demanded.
00:25:45
Speaker
He demanded, i need to ink my own stuff. And then... yes He left the project furious that they made him ink his own stuff.
00:25:56
Speaker
wait He's an artist. Yeah.
00:26:00
Speaker
It's burn syndrome. Yeah. All right. That's the penciler and the inker. Colored by Glynis Ween. Lettered by Tom Orszakowski. Edited by Louise Jones. Release date September 7th, 1982.
00:26:16
Speaker
Covered 8 November 1982. Scotland. Moira McTaggart is chilling on the moors in her family estate when a giant wolf leaps over her, collapses on the ground, and turns into a nude girl.
00:26:31
Speaker
Moira recognizes the girl as 14-year-old Rain Sinclair, suffering from a gunshot wound. my god. She's being pursued by a man named Reverend Craig and a torch-wielding mob, but Moira shames them into turning away and carries the girl off to see Charles x Xavier.
00:26:49
Speaker
Was Scotland in
Cultural Heritage and Personal Adversities
00:26:50
Speaker
the 80s stuck in like turn-of-the-century Frankenstein-style monarchy? What's going on here?
00:27:00
Speaker
Every European country, according to besides England, according to Chris Claremont, is torch-wielding mobs. Torch-wielding mobs just roving around the countryside waiting for a leader. And a peasant clothes. And a victim. ah Also, it clearly...
00:27:20
Speaker
bob mcleod got the moira mctaggart has a giant boobs note os yeah her her form she has been changing quite a bit over the last few artists but do you think chris claremont writes that it is script he's like moira who has giant boobs is sitting on the highlands of scotland Yeah. Hey, ah Paul seems to have forgotten this important note about Moira McTaggart. So please make sure, Bob, that you include it.
00:27:53
Speaker
Looking past her huge boobs, she sees Rain Sinclair on the ground.
00:28:00
Speaker
All right. Brazil. Roberto da Costa, high school soccer superstar in football, actually. but it's soccer, but it's football, is cheered on by his father and girlfriend in a crowd of hundreds as he makes a stunning goal.
00:28:17
Speaker
Some racist boys from the opposing team start beating him up, and suddenly, he changes. His skin becomes black as a void, Kirby crackle popping off him in a yellow glow, and he throws a racist boy across the pitch.
00:28:33
Speaker
He calls for help, confused and burning hot as the crowd flees in fear, all save his girlfriend, Juliana, who reaches him just as he collapses back in human form.
00:28:44
Speaker
And we pull out to see a ruffled sleeve watching the scene on a fancy comic book computer, its owner vowing to destroy all mutants. Okay.
00:28:55
Speaker
I'm going to spoil a couple of things here. Number one, you see, as this will not be a spoiler by the end of the novel here, but ay you see a frilly white sleeve under some sort of suit jacket.
00:29:09
Speaker
Yeah. This is the Hellfire Club. Too obvious. Are you supposed to not know? Are you supposed to be like...
00:29:21
Speaker
god who could be wearing a frilly white sleeve uh number two yeah roberto da costa i know debuts as an afro brazilian right he i clearly has very dark skin here yes and in future issues he does not and i'm sure when we get there it's going to be quite a shock But i not to I hope it's not too much of a spoiler that he just um is no longer black in future issues or in at some point in the future. Yes.
00:30:01
Speaker
I did not realize. Sorry. No, sorry. I was just going to say it changes um several times, like depending on.
00:30:12
Speaker
who the artist is and who the editor is fucking, which sucks. Yeah. He's, he's various levels of black.
00:30:24
Speaker
Which is egregious, but I didn't realize it it was this egregious because the racism is built into his backstory. like Right. the The fact that he is dark skinned is what they're focusing on. It is bizarre. His girlfriend, by the way, is in Brazil in the 80s and has ah blonde hair and blue eyes. raise Where do you think she got this? Yeah.
00:30:55
Speaker
So, we move on to Kentucky. It's 16-year-old Sam Guthrie's first day in the mines. His father recently passed away from black lung, and he's given up his college scholarship to feed his mother and many siblings.
00:31:11
Speaker
In a bad turn of luck. The mine collapses. The miners flee, but Sam stays behind to save a coworker as rocks fall on top of them. Suddenly, his body begins to glow and he shoots out of the ground like a rocket, saving the man. They fall to the ground unharmed while Rufflesleeve watches and wonders if the boy can be useful to him.
00:31:34
Speaker
Colorado. Danielle Moonstar is hugging a mountain lion.
00:31:42
Speaker
Moving on. ah Westchester. nocom Danielle Moonstar is hugging a mountain lion when her grandfather, Black Eagle, climbs up the mountain to talk to her. He's invited a man named Charles x Xavier, who was apparently her father's blood brother.
00:31:57
Speaker
no They don't explain this in the book, but they talk about it. He talks about it in interviews before this book comes out. yeah Apparently, danny Moonstar's father and him served in Korea together.
00:32:12
Speaker
Got it. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Not brother by blood. No. Blood brother. Okay. Yeah. Blood brother. So black Eagle calls Charles x Xavier to take Danny into his tutelage. She's incensed. She can't go learn from a white.
00:32:26
Speaker
She hates whites. That's what, that's what she says. Uh, but in her anger, she conjures an image in thin air of her grandfather being beaten by men in weird armor. Yeah.
00:32:41
Speaker
as you do when you get angry it's once we learn a little more about her powers it makes a little more sense but it just kind of seems like this is what she does when she throws a tantrum is conjures image of that person getting beat up just getting punched in the stomach if anyone may yeah anyone makes it's just like this doesn't look like if you got beat up by robots sorry go on ah ah He points to the incident to show her that she needs to learn things that he can't teach her.
00:33:17
Speaker
She agrees as we pull out and see the ruffle sleeve belongs to a revolutionary war dandy named of course Pierce. We also always anytime it's Hellfire Club stuff, we learn their last name first. I don't know why. ah Except for here's the one exception to this, which is Tessa.
00:33:36
Speaker
Yeah, we also meet Tessa. Well, it could be a last name. We've seen her as Sebastian Shaw's assistant. Ah, okay. And anyway, she's in captivity behind Pierce yelling at him, and that's how we find out his name. He plans to take over the Hellfire Club and use it to kill all mutants. Plus, he's ah racist against Native Americans, too. This, I wonder, is why he watches all these...
00:34:01
Speaker
ah diverse mutants and he looks at Sam Guthrie and he's like, well, this boy I can use. Look at that blonde hair. ah So speaking of being racist against Native Americans, we cut back to a sleeping Danny who wakes up at the quote, hour of the wolf.
00:34:19
Speaker
That's what Chris Claremont writes in the in the book. sounds Sounds scary. To a
Confrontation with the Hellfire Club
00:34:26
Speaker
psychic scream. She races on horseback to find her grandfather dead on the ground. She remembers her projection and realizes he knew this was coming.
00:34:36
Speaker
She swears vengeance. Westchester, New York. Moira and x Xavier are doing some experiments on her old pal, Shan Khoi Man, in the rebuilt mansion basement.
00:34:51
Speaker
Karma. Karma, yeah. She possesses people. Yes. Well, Rain Sinclair ah sits and watches. Xavier notes that Shan is a powerful psychic, but in a specific way.
00:35:05
Speaker
She gives a demonstration by possessing Moira and shows that while she has complete control of her host, she can still control her own body. Moira is like weirdly willing to volunteer for this. Please, but ooh, ooh, me.
00:35:24
Speaker
I also love Professor x Xavier here because
00:35:30
Speaker
Bob McCloud draws Xavier's face like a shaved Santa Claus. Yes. he's he' so He looks like a Dr. Seuss character. He's all plump and jolly. ah Okay, so this experience of shan possessing Moira, it it freaks out Rain, who transforms to a werewolf and begins to growl.
00:35:54
Speaker
The professor calms her and Karma relinquishes control to Moira, who remembers nothing of the possession. Cool, they all think. Let's get some lunch. Okay.
00:36:04
Speaker
On the way, Sheehan retells her origin story and Rain asserts that mutant powers are gifts from Satan. But like Xavier doesn't think so. He talks psychically with Moira about how the X-Men are dead in space and he doesn't want to sacrifice any other mutants for his dream. Moira convinces him that despite this, he's the best chance these girls have.
00:36:28
Speaker
He agrees to help them and even to allow shan to take a job at the mansion to raise money for her siblings, Leong and Nya. Just then, Black Eagle's telegram appears for x Xavier.
00:36:43
Speaker
They have this whole conversation psychically. Yes. By the way, it is just, uh, Shan and Ray just have to sit there for, it must take about 90 seconds based on the dialogue that's written there and watch them stare real hard at each other. Well,
00:37:01
Speaker
Then again, remember that time Cyclops had a whole conversation with himself while he was midair trying to dive into a closing door? So maybe in the Marvel Universe, people just talk really, really fast. Like, heal more girls on fast forward.
00:37:19
Speaker
The following day, they gather around Black Eagle's corpse laying on a wooden bier. They're too late to save him, but where is his granddaughter? The scene around them suddenly changes to the horrors of Vietnam pulled straight from Jeanne's memory. And before they can reorient, an explosion erupts behind them.
00:37:39
Speaker
Fuck. Danny Moonstar is running from two men in chunky robot armor like from her grandfather's vision. They're bragging about killing Xavier and riding Jetson-style hover scooters when Danny's mountain lion leaps onto one of them.
00:37:52
Speaker
The man kills it like right away, no problem, and grabs Danny by the arm, but Karma takes over his mind and makes him shoot lasers at his friends. Oh, man. Professor X then takes over and paralyzes him. Danny keeps trying to kill the guy as Xavier keeps stopping her and trying to calm her down and get her to come with him.
00:38:11
Speaker
He was a friend of her parents, and he can't leave her alone on a mountain with dangerous powers she doesn't understand. We also learn that Danny is Cheyenne. Rufflesleeve's name is Donald Pierce, and he has two other targets, one in Brazil and one in Kentucky. hey that sounds familiar.
00:38:32
Speaker
Danny agrees reluctantly to join x Xavier, but only to exact her revenge on Pierce. The next day in Brazil, the girls and Moira are in a hotel room when some cops break in and start slapping Moira. He just come in and slap her like right away.
00:38:49
Speaker
fucking cops They think the group has something to do with an attempted abduction of Roberto DaCosta and the disappearance of his girlfriend, Juliana. Karma possesses one of the cops' minds, but intuits that Moira doesn't want them to escape yet.
00:39:03
Speaker
So she has the cops put unlocked cuffs on her and Danny, and when they're out in public, she makes the one cop punch the other. Pretty good revenge. Good job. In the chaos, she and Danny lose themselves in the crowd. Moira stays behind, but tells them to find Roberto and Juliana. This also has never explained why these cops think they have something to do with it, right?
00:39:29
Speaker
i It's because they called, I guess, the ah embassy and asked about him specifically ah hours before the attempted kidnapping. Oh, how?
00:39:41
Speaker
Okay. i They're grasping at straws, right? They're just saying, well, here's here's a possible lead. let's okay Let's go slap them.
00:39:53
Speaker
Hey, Donnie. Yeah, Bill? You want to go slap a woman? Yeah, let's do let's go. i mean, is this some sort of commentary of how Chris Claremont sees Brazil? Yeah.
00:40:10
Speaker
Maybe. Or it's how he sees the authorities. Yeah. ah So Moira stays behind, letting the cops arrest her, but tells them Danny and Jeanne to find Roberto and Juliana.
00:40:23
Speaker
That night, they do. With a portable Cerebro, they watch Roberto sneak out of his family estate and follow him to a warehouse. At this warehouse, some Hellfire goons are inside and they start slapping him around.
00:40:37
Speaker
lot slapping. He changes
Internal Conflicts and Team Dynamics
00:40:40
Speaker
into that crackling black form and punches them. But they, however, are those guys that Wolverine tore up. So they're cyborgs and can handle a super strength punch. Yeah.
00:40:51
Speaker
These guys hate their jobs. But what choice do they have? they Otherwise, they're dead. Right, right. just left for scraps by Wolverine.
00:41:02
Speaker
I mean, is that is that it Like... They're in too deep at this point. You'd think they'd just be like, all right, one time I got carved up by a man with knife hands.
00:41:14
Speaker
i'm I'm going to go get a job at Target. Yeah, yeah. Now I'm super strong. Maybe I'll go work in construction. Right. But no, they they keep getting... They're committed. They keep getting punched by mutants.
00:41:28
Speaker
Roberto's form unexpectedly fades and he's overcome with exhaustion. But thankfully, Karma and Moonstar are here. Yay! Karma possesses a goon but has trouble using his cybernetic body. So instead, Moonstar summons an image of their deepest, most primal fear, Wolverine.
00:41:50
Speaker
As the goons panic, things start to go comically wrong for the kids. Danny accidentally flying kicks the guy Karma is possessing. Roberto transforms and punches Karma in the stomach. The goon recovers, calls everyone bunkies, and shoots all around the room, grazing Karma. Another graze. also Also, he calls everyone bunkies. This issue, Pat, I don't know if you noticed, is just full of people calling people weird stuff.
00:42:19
Speaker
Yes. They've got so many nicknames for each other. They call... Yeah, there's Bunky. um Rain calls people Spalene. i don't... Yeah, that's gotta be a Scottish thing. It's gotta be a Scottish thing. Spalene.
00:42:34
Speaker
they call They call Roberto a boy chick? do Do you know what that is? Is that... he's Is that transphobic? I don't know. i don't know what it is. i don't I've never heard of it before. i don't know if it's something...
00:42:50
Speaker
I imagine, like, an effeminate man is what they're going for. The meaning of boy chick is young man. Oh, like little boy. Like a chicken chick.
00:43:02
Speaker
Boy chick. Like a baby rooster. Like a baby, yeah. and Also, you know, swine, punk, goon, brat, mutie, Anglo, o half-breed, o animal. Like, just...
00:43:18
Speaker
All throughout, nobody, everybody's just calling people names nonstop. And some of them are weird and some of them are racist. Juliana tackles Roberto to the ground to save him from the rest of the gunfire.
00:43:32
Speaker
Danny Moonstar puts an end to it by conjuring an image of Wolverine so strong that the last goon curls up in a ball on the ground shaking. Yeah, it's like when um John Cassidy drew that picture of Wolverine in like the 2010s.
00:43:49
Speaker
Danny tells Jan that when she uses her powers, it creates a psychic rapport between her and her target, and his terror was overwhelming. To this, Roberto replies, good, because in the fracas, the man shot and killed Juliana.
00:44:06
Speaker
He blames himself, but swears vengeance, and so joins the group. I do love that at this point, him and Danny are both like, sure, we'll join this team because we're going to fucking kill this guy.
00:44:21
Speaker
ah Right, right. Meanwhile, in Kentucky, Xavier and Rain are driving a Jeep through the woods when a boy slams into it head first. That boy is Sam Guthrie in his blasting form, the one that shot him out of the mine safely.
00:44:38
Speaker
The car tips over and catches fire as rain turns into a wolf and leaps to safety. Sam, dressed in a hellfire goon uniform, seems upset and pulls Xavier from the Jeep.
00:44:49
Speaker
He could have sam i' sworn he saw someone else in the car and tells this to the other hellfire goons that show up and put x Xavier in a helicopter. He's worried about the missing girl because the woods are dangerous, but the other goons tell him to shut up and do as he's told or he won't get paid.
00:45:06
Speaker
So they take off and leave rain in the woods alone. As a wolf, though, she picks up Xavier's scent and follows him to a pseudo military compound. We get a good display of her powers as she shifts from wolf to werewolf, leaps a fence back to wolf to scare off some attack dogs and back to werewolf to leap another fence.
00:45:25
Speaker
in werewolf form again it's very it is it's very it's incredible it's also what a revelation that she just doesn't just go from girl to wolf she can also be a fucking hybrid werewolf girl yeah girl and like she changes mid-jump like mid-air because she sees that like they it's i don't know it's fucking cool and the way bob mcleod draws it is very like i medieval drawings of cats and dogs.
00:45:56
Speaker
Like, it's it's got this eerie sort of feeling to it just because it looks a little bit wrong. Right, right, right. In werewolf form again, she watches Donald Pierce taunt Xavier and Tessa who are strapped to a device called a mind tap that sucks information out of brains.
00:46:16
Speaker
Wait, what? A mind tap that sucks information out of brains. Okay, hold on. I don't know that that clears it up. It's a mind tap. It sucks information out of brains. Yes. You're telling me? it dampens his psychic powers and, more importantly, pulls the data from his brain into their computer.
00:46:37
Speaker
how what How do thoughts just turn into... Pat, what is the conversion form matt of thoughts? are they is it pdf is it is it Is it image? Is it a PNG? I imagine it's like a Word doc and then it's got some images sloppily copy-pasted into it.
00:47:00
Speaker
Okay. That's what Thoughts is. At that moment, the other kids arrive. Dani discovers that her psychic rapport with animals extends to Rain's wolf form.
00:47:15
Speaker
So she says, Dani, into her mind. Why did that happen? she just sends her own name it right danny and but it's like what if i got psychic powers and the first thing i i did was contact you to say pat reaper
00:47:42
Speaker
uh you but that is what you would do so They discover this rapport and they begin to form a plan when Sam Guthrie rockets to the roof to stop the intruder, but falls to the ground in shock when he sees a werewolf.
00:47:57
Speaker
that
00:48:06
Speaker
going to be an X-Man. they had to face Frankenstein. Oh, man. Yeah. oh man You know what? we didn't We didn't mention it either. It's just like fucking the... How? Why was Moira McTaggart like, all right, kids, you go off on your own. Yeah, they are forming squads.
00:48:27
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Moira had to fly them here. Yes. Right? Yeah. And then she's just like, all right, ah you guys you guys go save the day. I'm gonna chill. I'll talk to the police. You guys go and i fight the superhumans.
00:48:46
Speaker
Yeah, I've had... ah I had one too many cocktails, so I can't go be superhero today. But you guys, man, you guys are going to do great.
00:48:59
Speaker
While Sam starts to piece together the connection between the werewolf on the roof, the wolf who has just leapt down in front of him, and the girl from the car, suddenly he sees the mine cave in form him around him again and goes blasting off in terror.
00:49:14
Speaker
While he's out of the way, Rain starts biting Hellfire goons and Roberto punches a hole through the wall of the facility. Sam Guthrie blasts back in to stop them, but Roberto casually dodges and he goes barreling into the ground, protected by his blast form.
00:49:30
Speaker
That's so funny. can't you Sam's like, oh, stop you. and Roberto, without even just like, yeah, you just like ducks his head.
00:49:45
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. Jan tries to possess him, but she's too distracted to use her powers. So instead, she grabs a gun and fires wildly, scattering the goons.
00:49:58
Speaker
I have a little,
Identity and Character Growth
00:49:59
Speaker
it's never funnier than when you see a superhero wielding a rifle. It's just, it doesn't make sense. Inside, Roberto starts tearing up every machine he can see and rain leaps onto Pierce, biting his ruffly sleeve and finding bionics inside instead of flesh.
00:50:19
Speaker
He kicks her across the room and with his bionic brain laughs off an attempt by Danny to summon his fears. Despite recognizing that Rain has a pierced lung, Xavier nevertheless psychically orders her to come turn off the mind tap while Roberto bursts in and distracts Pierce. there are There are five other people in this room. You piece of shit.
00:50:42
Speaker
How is he still bad? How is he still this bad? how is he still this bad Roberto's only able to distract Pierce for a second, though, as Sam, named Cannonball by Pierce, rockets into the room and slams Roberto into the far wall. x Xavier notes that he's literally killing Rain and she begs for mercy, but still he forces her to climb the machine.
00:51:06
Speaker
She's like, this is, I'm dying. This is killing me. I can't keep doing this. And he's like, you are going to, and I'm going to make, I'm making you with my powers. Karma hops in and tries to possess Pierce, but he zaps her with cybernetic electricity powers.
00:51:23
Speaker
Holding Roberto captive, Cannonball asks if Pierce wants him to throw them off the property or call the sheriff. Pierce, in a rage, demands that he kill them. Nasser is all Sam Guthrie says.
00:51:36
Speaker
hold on. I'm pretty sure it's no, sir. It's N-O-S-S-I-R. It's one word. Yeah, it's definitely no, but it's no, sir. And you just killed, you just ruined one of the best moments that Sam Guthrie has in this entire thing. It's so good. It's so fucking good. He's like, yeah he's like, oh, do you want, what do you want me to do? You want me to throw him off the property? And he's like, you're going to kill them. And he's like, no, sir.
00:52:06
Speaker
Just like straight straight up. It's cold. Good old boy. With ah is ah a period at the end. No, sir. Pierce pulls a gun on the boy and Sam finds that he's out of energy to blast. So it seems all is over.
00:52:23
Speaker
But Pierce can't pull the trigger. x Xavier is free and controlling his mind. Pierce turns the gun on Professor X and the two lock into a mind battle until Pierce goes slack and he's zombified.
00:52:36
Speaker
yeah There's a very ah i Wolverine-esque series of two panels where they just show the two of them staring real hard at each other. And the narrator's like, at one point, the battle could go either way. And then the next panel is like, but it doesn't. And Pierce is clearly defeated.
00:52:59
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. The kids pick themselves up. Tessa tells Xavier that the Hellfire Club will take care of Pierce, and all that's left is the tall Kentucky boy with the blonde crew cut and dumb Hellfire Club uniform on, standing in the middle of the room, looking confused.
00:53:16
Speaker
Sir, what do I do? He asks the only authority figure left. Before Xavier can answer, Roberto tells him to fuck off and the gang roll out, leaving Sam alone in the wreckage.
00:53:29
Speaker
Sam Guthrie. Oh man. He's such a good boy. Yeah. He just, the first guy that told them what to do. He, he was like, absolutely. i got you. awesome ah But I mean, it's like, he's like, oh wait, this is a bad guy.
00:53:50
Speaker
i I'm not going to listen anymore. And then when it's all over, he's like, um Hey, what do, What do I do? Yeah, yeah.
00:54:01
Speaker
what Excuse me, sir? Essentially, if if we're considering this like a ah war, essentially the general of the opposing army, he's like, you you got a job? You got a job for me?
00:54:14
Speaker
But he's like, well, he's, he's, but he's so good. yeah yeah Right. Because he did this to take care of his, his family. And then again, as soon as he's like, oh wait, this is a bad guy.
00:54:26
Speaker
he he switches sides. Right. And then. yeah And then he doesn't know what to do. And then he's all by himself. And he's like, uh, I, hey yeah yeah if we're I don't know how to make choices. We're rebuilding the X-Men from square one.
00:54:41
Speaker
You need a perfect soldier, right? And I i think this is a perfect way to illustrate that this is a guy that's going to listen to orders. Right. This is a new Cyclops. Exactly. Yeah, yeah.
00:54:53
Speaker
We do get an epilogue, Matt. Oh. Two weeks later, Professor X stares at some pictures of his first and second teams of X-Men and says to himself, it's time.
00:55:06
Speaker
Oh. Jeanne pulls on her boots as she thinks of how Liang and Nha will be provided for and her powers may do some good for the world. Roberto checks himself in the mirror next to a bikini calendar at a framed headshot of Wolverine. Think of how he'd if he'd killed Pierce, he'd have been just as much a monster as him.
00:55:26
Speaker
Danielle stands topless, looking at her new uniform and hoping that her decision to help Rain, rather than murdering Pierce while he was helpless to avenge her grandfather, was the right one. Rain worries that her new uniform is too scandalously form-fitting as she practices changing back and forth from wolf to girl while it stays on her body.
00:55:46
Speaker
yeah ah That's very cute. She's just like, like she hey, look at this. I'm wolf. I'm girl. Look. She got shot. She almost died. She's allowed to have a light moment here while everyone else has heavy ones.
00:56:01
Speaker
Soon, all four new mutants are in front of the professor in the traditional yellow and black X-Men uniforms with bright red belts buckled with a big X. All except Danny, who wears fringed leather boots and a big old belt.
00:56:16
Speaker
x Xavier tries to lecture her on being out of uniform, but she tells him she'll never abandon her heritage. Yeah, I fucking, I guess fuck everyone else's heritage.
00:56:27
Speaker
Right? Like, I guess, like, oh, man, well, these Native Americans, they must honor their heritage. But Brazilians, nah. Vietnamese, nope. Scottish, no. It just...
00:56:40
Speaker
Just Native Americans, because that is the only culture that fucking Chris Claremont seems to respect. it's You could argue that this is a good character moment for Danny, just being like, hey, yeah i am not I am not the perfect soldier. I am somebody who's going yeah to dress up my uniform a little bit. It's the drawing a peace sign on your helmet in... um Full metal jacket, right? It's the like, it's just the, yeah, I'm here. I'm fighting your war, but I'm doing it for me. Except that every time Chris Claremont gets his hands on a native American character, this is their exact philosophy.
00:57:21
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, even this, like she, she can commune with animals, right? Like she's like, he he just, she's lived In the mountains all by herself with nobody but her spiritual grandfather for all the... Like, it's just... Yeah, yeah. He doesn't... he clear Like, honestly, this is so... He doesn't see the Native Americans as people.
00:57:47
Speaker
Like, just to be frank about it. Yeah. He sees them as these, like, other this other sort of... creature who he finds noble and beautiful like a gazelle yeah it's it is a step up from what he did with john proudstar but yeah that's true but yeah it's still still a bit problematic here um I suppose you would rather have Sam Guthrie, Kentucky white boy, representing his heritage and and talking about how it's it's what do you mean part of his identity.
00:58:24
Speaker
What do you mean? Sam Guthrie isn't here.
00:58:30
Speaker
Xavier ponders to himself about how quickly rain healed and how he'd have been stricter on Danny in a previous life, but is interrupted by a visitor at the door. It's Sam Guthrie dressed in full suit and tie about to ring the doorbell. is Very sweet. He showed up in suit and tie.
00:58:53
Speaker
Just like your parents tell you to. Yeah, exactly. Show up suit Ask him if they got a job. Shake his hand. ah They all greet him warmly except Roberto who doesn't trust Sam. But because Professor X is the leader and because Rain, a pretty girl, asked him to, he decides to trust Sam.
00:59:10
Speaker
Professor X smiles as his new mutants laugh. The beginning. Did you cry? no you I know you're a sucker for the beginning.
00:59:23
Speaker
I do love the beginning. I gotta chill. okay Okay, you gotta chill, no crying. Oh, wow. That's the beginning of the new mutants. What do you think, Pat?
00:59:35
Speaker
i I think this was really, really good. i I had so much fun reading the story. And this is like you you don't necessarily realize it until you get to the end. But this is an X-Men origin story.
00:59:54
Speaker
This is how an X-Men team forms. And I know we're talking about like they didn't necessarily want to have to go back to basics to focus on the school aspect of it. What is clear, what they are focusing on from the original Kirby Lee vision, which I think is more important than the idea that their students is the X-Men are weird. The things that they can do are really strange and they have to solve problems using these strange powers. And like, yeah, it should
01:00:29
Speaker
blow your mind or it should have you say like why the hell would that happen because that is right where the X-Men have come from and that has been the core even through them graduating from the school that's been the the core theme right right I think like it's it's not it's not necessarily they didn't want to go back to basics though I think it was i think it's more like they didn't want to write kids Sure.
01:00:59
Speaker
But Claremont's actually really good at writing kids, right? ah he He sort of understands their petulance and their silliness.
01:01:11
Speaker
He sort of understands the the the times and ways in which either absurdly or meaningfully they'll stand up for their own beliefs. um he He's got a real good feel for it. Yeah, he really nails the...
01:01:28
Speaker
confidence of thinking you're going to live forever uh right especially the way that he adapts it to these actual life-threatening situations like yeah them having to kind of grapple with that but still have that confidence it's uh yeah it's just something he's really good at and i think you're think you're right about That moment, the cultural heritage thing setting the setting Danny's character, right, that she is a defiant person. She is a proud person. um
01:02:02
Speaker
And she she is a person who's going to make her own decisions regardless of the other things around her. She's going like she's going to do what's best for the group, but her own way.
01:02:14
Speaker
So if you divorce it from Claremont's weird sort of noble savage trope yeah that he he he sort of grasps onto, it does say a lot about Dany.
01:02:29
Speaker
And so, yeah, I mean, what do you think of these What do you think of... these characters what do you think of how do you How do you feel about them? Just like first impressions.
01:02:40
Speaker
I you like them very much. I think that they're all pretty well defined. They've all got unique personalities. They've all got flaws. They've all ah see I love... we's First impression, i love Rain.
01:02:57
Speaker
think that she has a cool power. I think she is cool person. She's
Summary of New Mutants #1
01:03:02
Speaker
just so... You've got lot different... you've got a lot of different archetypes happening here like rain is so innocent and pure and that's juxtaposed with this idea that she's literally animalistic yeah yeah that she's a wolf of all things yeah yes exactly and you've got roberto who is arrogant as as all hell and He he already his like flirty side is coming out when he's like, oh, if a pretty girl tells me yeah tells me to do it, I guess I'll do it.
01:03:38
Speaker
But but still like. But there's heart there. Like he's he's he's still a hero. Right. Like he's still like like when he he wanted to. Well, there's there's this thing that happens towards the end of the issue that I think is a little.
01:03:54
Speaker
They all talk about how they could have killed Pierce, but Claremont doesn't really give them that moment. Yeah. Danny is like, I chose to save rain rather than avenge my grandfather by killing Pierce. There wasn't really a moment where she made that choice.
01:04:11
Speaker
It was just kind of a rough in a reflection afterwards. Right. And same with sunspot. There wasn't a moment that he like had to Pierce in his hand. Same with Roberto. There wasn't like a moment when he had Pierce in his hand and ah could have killed him but decided not to. It's just sort of like in retrospect. What if I had what if i had gone straight for Pierce instead of being part of a team?
01:04:39
Speaker
Exactly. but yeah So, yeah. yeah And then there's Cannonball, Sam Guthrie, who's just a sweet boy. Yeah. Very humble. Very... ah ah Right.
01:04:54
Speaker
you right And of course, Shan, who we are, I mean, we met before. I don't know what sort of archetype she feels, and I don't know. ah She almost feels like the odd person out.
01:05:07
Speaker
I don't know if you get that sense. Yeah. At first, she takes sort of the, like, almost the Jean Grey role, the one where it's like, okay, you have...
01:05:18
Speaker
a power that we're going to figure out how to use. But for now, let's just, let's keep you as like a support character. And maybe that's it because it all is. And I know we say this about Chris Claremont all the time, but it all kind of reminds me of a D and D party where okay yeah yeah yeah you've got your, your druid rain.
01:05:41
Speaker
Um, ah you've got your druid in rain ah Someone who can transform into an animal and absorb its qualities. You've got your wizard, which is Danny. Yeah. Your sort of area of effect wizard who can fight a little bit. So maybe more of like a yeah a cleric or a paladin. But I mean, you've got two tanks in the form of Sunspot, who is a an up close physical fighter. Sorry, Roberto.
01:06:12
Speaker
Roberto. ah And then you've also got the sort of ranged fighter in Sam Guthrie. I think Sam Guthrie is kind of like your paladin. While son Roberto it's like is like, ah I think he's like your barbarian. Yeah, right yeah.
01:06:32
Speaker
And then, yeah. So karma. So, yeah, in this, karma is is what to you? Sort of a bard. ah Offering encouraging words. Able to... take one person off the board really effectively. Okay.
01:06:49
Speaker
And very supportive. Yeah. Yeah. And she's like fucking 20. Yeah. She's also the oldest. So they, we they offer her a job at the mansion rather than being a student.
01:07:02
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, it, it feels like we just read this. But Pat, do you want to hear about new mutants? Number one.
01:07:17
Speaker
Uh, yeah, let's find out what else we can begin.
01:07:23
Speaker
All right, New Mutants number one, Initiation. Chris Claremont and Bob McCloud, writer, co-creator, and penciler, Mike Gustavich, inker, Tom Orszakowski, letterer, Glynis Ween, colorist, Louise Jones, editor, and Jump Stupid, editor-in-chief. Release date, November 1982. Cover date March Whoa.
01:07:50
Speaker
We open with a bizarre scene in the x Xavier Mansion bathroom where Stevie Hunter is giving Shan's hair a wash and cut while the entire rest of the New Mutants team watches. Why? she's Yeah. First of all. Why is everyone watching?
01:08:09
Speaker
she She asks that. And Stevie's like, well, I couldn't keep them out. Close the door. Well, we're about to see that Stevie Hunter is not equipped to take care of a pack of teenage mutants.
01:08:27
Speaker
I don't know how she got a teaching job. She's apparently a teacher at the at the mansion now. Plus, Shan is about. OK, in in that interview in the ah the X-Men Companion by Fantagraphics, Chris Claremont says shan is about 20.
01:08:45
Speaker
At this time. Okay. She's a 20-year-old woman who needs an adult to wash her hair and cut it?
01:08:58
Speaker
Well, okay, to cut it. Okay, yeah, all right, fine. Yeah, they're being clear that she had a very out-of-date haircut, which she did. she had like a She had the female bowl cut. That's her...
01:09:11
Speaker
Right as an adult. ah Matt, it is 1983.
01:09:18
Speaker
get with Get with the times. Okay, so they're all having a goofy good time when suddenly the images of Shan's worst traumas, losing her parents, her painful escape from Vietnam, the pirates that kidnapped and abused her and her mother, appear. She instantly recognizes this as Danny's ability.
01:09:43
Speaker
Shan leaps up and tackles Danny, swearing to kill her or to force her to kill herself. Yeah. For making her relive those moments. Danny tries to explain this was an accident, but that doesn't quell karma's rage. Stevie tries to separate them, but karma quickly stops her.
01:10:00
Speaker
Karma possesses her and has her like back off. That number one, terrifying, but number two also just proving Stevie Hunter is not equipped to yeah to to be a supervisor here.
01:10:18
Speaker
It's nothing against Stevie Hunter either, right? It is, these are fucking superheroes. These are superhumans. And they're also hormonal. They're so mad. Full of emotion. Yeah.
01:10:35
Speaker
Only a firm forehead slap from Roberto is able to break through and interrupt her. God, so much slap in the day again.
01:10:47
Speaker
Giving Danny a chance to run off. Danny alone starts exploring the mansion and stumbles across the X-Men's bedrooms. She knows they were all former students, but Xavier doesn't really mention them.
01:11:01
Speaker
Who are they? Why aren't they here? Are they dead? Are these new students
Dani's Internal Struggles
01:11:06
Speaker
meant to replace them? And if so, will they share the same fate? There's a moment where she finds Kitty's room.
01:11:14
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. And there is a picture of Kitty and Peter and Ileana all playing in the ocean something. Playing in the ocean together.
01:11:27
Speaker
In the ocean. And iana Is it definitely a grown-up here. Like a teen. She's definitely not a teen-year-old phase.
01:11:39
Speaker
Exactly. ah She turned into a teen like a day before they all got kidnapped. Like immediately before they all went to space. When did they have time to take this picture? The first thing they did was make her a bikini.
01:11:55
Speaker
yeah yeah Like, well, we need to show these off. Like, that is...
01:12:05
Speaker
Oh, God. So, Danny finds Storm's attic room filled with plants that haven't been watered in some time and chews this all over while she waters them until she's summoned to the danger room with the rest of the gang.
01:12:19
Speaker
Cut! To London, England, where Moira and Ileana have a meeting with Gabrielle Haller. do you remember her? Yeah.
01:12:31
Speaker
She explains that she has a son. Not only that, but he's got psychic and possibly telekinetic powers ah that she's not equipped to help him with. And not only that, but also that the boy's father is Charles Xavier. Whoa. ah Okay.
01:12:53
Speaker
She leans on the fact that this boy is, quote, autistic. Yeah. Yes. This is the 1980s version of the word autistic, where it was used to mean anybody, like any um younger person with any sort of like... um Neurodiversity.
01:13:17
Speaker
Yes. So no matter how much, if you are catatonic or if you are... If you have any sort of developmental disability, like on anywhere in the range, they just call it autistic.
01:13:31
Speaker
and And that'll become important here, but... yeah Yeah. I was going to say it's unclear here because I don't know. yeah i don't know what this is. It's unclear if there is actually something wrong with the boy or if she's just using autistic as a cover to say like, Hey, I need to talk. I need to talk to you about my special son.
01:13:58
Speaker
right um I think it's important that we just address it here now because we will meet this boy eventually. So I think it's important that we address right now that autistic here ist is is an outdated use of the term. and God, what what did Charles x Xavier do to Gabrielle Holler? She's a fucking mess. I know. She's a Holocaust survivor. Let her live her life.
01:14:26
Speaker
She looks horrible. She's like chain smoking. She seems she looks miserable. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And she's like, I don't want Charles to have anything to do with this kid. Yeah. yeah To be clear, Charles doesn't know he has a son. Yeah. It's just that this happens to be his son.
01:14:47
Speaker
Knowing what we know about their relationship, like this is a disturbing moment. Yeah. Yeah. What a crazy cutaway, too. This is like this is an interlude for us.
01:14:59
Speaker
And if you weren't reading the X-Men, you would have no idea who this person was. It's so interesting. It's so interesting that this is happening in New Mutants. But all right. Back to the mansion where that same Charles x Xavier is introducing the New Mutants to the concept of the Danger Room. After showing them the advanced courses he built for the X-Men, he reverts the room back to its minimal form and challenges each kid to simply cross the room and walk to the other side.
01:15:28
Speaker
Roberto asks if they're supposed to be the new X-Men and Xavier snaps at him. He will never again form the X-Men. Yeah, that was i that he was triggered.
01:15:40
Speaker
I'm sick of forming the X-Men. I don't want to form the X-Men. And at this point, it's important to remember that at this point, he's pretty sure they're dead. They've all been kidnapped by the brood. Yes, exactly. He also lectures everybody ah psychically on. wandering the house which clearly is just for Danny and he's like he's doing a he's doing a beast from Beauty and the Beast yeah yeah stay out of the West Wing exactly and here's and just another stupid thing Roberto brags about his gym like his the gym and his rich dad's house impossibly Pat this comes back up
01:16:26
Speaker
In like eight, nine years. Oh, I can't wait. Not like yeah anyway. Remember, file this one away. File this away. His his rich dad has a sick gym in his house.
01:16:44
Speaker
So naturally, one by one, they all embarrass themselves trying to cross the danger. Remind me, was this did this happen to the other X-Men, too? Cross the room?
01:16:55
Speaker
i it with Not the original class, but I'm pretty sure he did it with the... I yeah i think he did cross the room. Oh, you know what? It was Kitty. It was Kitty's first danger room challenge was cross the room.
01:17:09
Speaker
And she freaks out and closes her eyes and just... And just phases through everything. yeah yeah Yeah, yeah. Yeah. All right. So they all embarrass themselves trying to cross the danger room foiled by obstacles crafted for each of their unique powers, except for Danny, who embarrasses herself by running away from the danger room and out of the mansion. Yeah.
01:17:32
Speaker
She's wrought with anxiety about the challenge, about her lack of control of her powers, about that threat karma made on her life earlier, and if she even deserves to live if she can't control her power.
01:17:44
Speaker
It gets dark. She's really like, this is this is really powerful reflection that she's doing. It's not just like lighthearted. Like the early Cyclops. I wish I could control my power stuff. This is so much ah more complex and yeah dark.
01:18:03
Speaker
i love I love each of their challenges too. First of all, I want to keep track of these. This Sam's second time saying, i can't be hurt while I'm blasting. This is the second time saying it. Yep. In in two issues that he's appeared. and Also, they beat can yeah the Danger Room beats Cannonball by sucking him into a vacuum cleaner. A pneumatic tube.
01:18:30
Speaker
Sunspot is like, I'm going to take this. like He's thinking to himself like arrogantly. And he's like, but wait, Professor X is going to be reading my mind. And he's going to know how to.
01:18:41
Speaker
how to counter what I'm thinking. So I'm going to embarrass him. So I guess he's just walking through thinking about like boobs and vaginas. Yeah. yeah He's, he's like, uh, yeah. yeah Good for him.
01:18:54
Speaker
Good for him. Uh, and Shan is like, how can I not beat this? I've fought against, ah and besides Spider-Man and the FF.
01:19:08
Speaker
Shan. Calm down. Yeah. Not barely. You barely did what you're saying. Also, I don't think they're too thrilled about that. Maybe maybe stop bringing that up.
01:19:22
Speaker
um
Challenges in Integrating New Mutants
01:19:23
Speaker
It's not in the description here, but this another thing that we find out here, we get all their names. Roberto DaCosta. His name is Sunspot.
01:19:35
Speaker
Sam Guthrie's name is Cannonball. We know that. We know Shankoy Mann's name is Karma. She possesses people. Rain Sinclair's name is Wolfsbane. And Danny Moonstar, the coolest name in comics, Danny Moonstar, is called Psyche.
01:19:55
Speaker
Psyche? Are you sure it's not Psyche? Like, Psyche? Psyche? but Maybe that would be a cooler name. Like, what is a cooler name than Moonstar? Psyche, isn't it? But Psyche, it kind of is.
01:20:11
Speaker
Might get confused for a yeah a nickname for Cyclops. Oh my god, what if that's what Professor X is trying to do? He's like, i can't just name her Cyclops, but... Psyche.
01:20:25
Speaker
Psyche. My pet name for Cyclops. site So um Rain Sinclair, you'll be named Reen. Sam Guthrie, you'll be named ah Crawley.
01:20:40
Speaker
um ah Roberto DaCosta, you'll be named Sunverine. They're all Wolverines. Yeah.
01:20:53
Speaker
sunbuee except for Psyche. He's like, he's like, Carmverine? Sunverine?
01:21:03
Speaker
Wolferball?
01:21:10
Speaker
Rain finds Danny at the edge of the property and the two have a long heart to heart about their powers. Rain loves hers to a degree that almost scares her. Sometimes it's better being a wolf.
01:21:22
Speaker
Dani considers hers a curse and talks about how her powers showed her parents their deaths in the form of a giant bear shortly before it happened. also reminds us that she did the same thing to her grandfather at the beginning of the New Mutants graphic novel, showing him being beaten by the same armored goons that tried to kidnap her.
01:21:44
Speaker
It is actually very reasonable right now that Dani thinks that part of her power is showing people their own deaths. And... I think it'll be a while.
01:21:57
Speaker
that We know. We know because the narrator tells us. Her power is to show people their fears their deepest fears.
01:22:07
Speaker
But... it it's reasonable given what she's experienced that she thinks part of her power is that sometimes she shows people their own deaths. Yeah. Like her grandfather knows that they're being pursued by these armored goons. So of course his greatest fear is them being killed by these armored goons.
01:22:29
Speaker
Right. And so that raises the question, what is this bear story? She talks about how her, Her parents, she pulled a a a image out of their heads about being killed by some giant bear, right? And then shortly afterwards, her dad left on some trip with a bunch of, like, hunting equipment.
01:22:58
Speaker
And her mom sort of begged to go with him. And she never saw them again. Yeah. So she assumes they were killed by a bear. But it it it raises the question to us. If we know that she doesn't actually show people their deaths, what the fuck was this?
01:23:16
Speaker
Yeah. it's also It's so cool to to show us this level. This is what we missed from the original X-Men is like these characters not understanding their powers on the same level that we do. What ah what a wild concept to to introduce in their in the beginning of their story. Yeah. Yeah.
01:23:38
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. So, um the two also express that they already care a great deal for each other and that the whole gang is already already starting to feel like a family. oh A car horn from out of sight interrupts them.
01:23:52
Speaker
And Rain runs off to hop in the car, driven by Stevie, transporting the rest of the team. She lets them know that Danny's okay but would rather stay behind while they head off to Salem Center Mall. Salem Center Mall mentioned...
01:24:08
Speaker
Also, um Roberto makes some sort of comment about Rain developing as a woman. And Rain's like, I beg your pardon? like Yeah, yeah.
01:24:22
Speaker
She's mad. It's just, yeah, very cute a little interaction. So two men parked discreetly in a car on Graymalkin Lane report this activity to their superior, Henry Peter Gyrick. Oh, shit.
01:24:34
Speaker
who reminds them they are only here to observe and report.
01:24:41
Speaker
Despite being told to never try to enter or operate the danger room without adult supervision, Dani takes her solitude as a chance to attempt the danger room challenge without everyone watching her.
01:24:53
Speaker
She engages the program made specifically for her, relying on her natural speed and agility from a lifetime of hunting and playing with wild animals. sure She says her only friends were animals. sorry.
01:25:06
Speaker
Damn it. Okay. okay
01:25:10
Speaker
To evade robots that try to close in on her. To her surprise, albeit with great effort, she makes it across the room and out the door on the other side. She's the only one to do this. Nice. The victory is fleeting, though, as a stun bolt hits her and knocks her right back through the door into the danger room. A mysterious hand at the control board engages a new program, and suddenly, Dani finds herself in the advanced X-Men training that x Xavier originally showed them. A strange jungle with a giant lizard-like predator bearing down on her. To be continued!
01:25:49
Speaker
Danger room got some upgrades. Yeah. it's ah It's fully holographic now. It's got like... It's got a mix of physical objects and ah projections.
01:26:02
Speaker
Yeah. Is this... So I think it was last episode we noted that they had a scene where they were rebuilding the mansion and you said there's a very important reason that they need the mansion to exist again.
01:26:17
Speaker
Is this that reason? the Yeah, just to have the new mutants. So... what They need a school again. The X-Men. Last time we saw the mansion, it was the frame of the mansion. it was still being built. It was not rebuilt yet. yeah The X-Men were in space and continue to be in space, but the X-Men or the X-Mansion is now complete. Uh-huh.
01:26:40
Speaker
Does this mean they restored everybody's rooms to as messy as they were? Danny specifically comments on how messy Kitty's room is.
01:26:53
Speaker
Oh my god, yeah. And they rebuilt Storm's attic with all the plants and then chose not to water them. Just so she wouldn't she would come back and feel like it was exactly as she left it.
01:27:09
Speaker
That is so fucking crazy, dude. ah What a weird thing to to have the construction workers do. I think so. I think specifically like I, I, I, my belief is that they didn't.
01:27:25
Speaker
That Claremont wanted them to move to this other Island and get away from the mansion and then Had to bring a school back.
01:27:36
Speaker
So it's like, fuck, fine. I'll rebuild the mansion. But yeah, there's so these things that just don't make any fucking sense. A lot of times it seems like they just forgot that the mansion was completely destroyed. Yeah.
01:27:51
Speaker
Oh, man. Yeah. Good stuff. Should we keep moving? Please. Do you mutants? Number two.
Mall Outing and External Threats
01:28:00
Speaker
Sentinels.
01:28:01
Speaker
Yeah. Do it already. Ooh. Claremont, writer, Bob McLeod, penciler, Mike Gustavich, anchor, Glynis Ween, colorist, Tom Orzakowski, letterer, Louise Jones, editor and him, Hooter, editor in chief. Release date,
01:28:18
Speaker
april nineteen eighty three Within the danger room, Danny Moonstar runs from a weird dinosaur monster thing. She climbs a ledge to get away from it and thinks she's safe.
01:28:29
Speaker
She just has to follow the edge of the cliff, which is likely the wall of the room, to the door. But still, she can't help but think that someone has activated this trap for her and is trying to kill her.
01:28:41
Speaker
As she realizes this, a large brood appears and tells her that she's the only one who presents a danger to her and therefore she must die. It shoves her from the cliff and she collapses on the ground, losing consciousness and possibly her life.
01:28:57
Speaker
h Meanwhile, the new mutants are hanging out at the mall with their teacher. Very cool. They just walked out of ET with Stevie Hunter and go to grab some ice creams when some public school kids start to harass them for being elites.
01:29:14
Speaker
One of them, Diana, settles down her pal Frank, though. And the two groups of kids start to make friends. This is all monitored in a high-tech government building by Sebastian Shaw and Henry Peter Gyrick. AJA Project Wide Awake.
01:29:30
Speaker
h Why did you say AJA? Oh, did I? Aha! Aha! Project Wide Awake. i had to click, I had to scroll up to see if I had written AJA and you were making fun of me.
01:29:47
Speaker
Terribly frightened by these little kids, the two men discuss the imminent threat of mutants and how Roberto's public manifestation led them to the rest. His father, Emmanuel DaCosta, is a member of the Hellfire Club, but unaware of its secret inner circle, and Shaw wonders if he might be manipulatable.
01:30:06
Speaker
Manipulable. I don't think that's the word. that is We also discover that he and Gyrich are working at cross purposes. Gyrich believes that their mission is to capture and examine the young mutants with a small secret strike team, while Shaw's plan is to use Project Wide Awake to launch a public attack on the mutants, scaring them into abandoning Xavier's dream and fearing the world so the Hellfire Club can scoop them up.
01:30:30
Speaker
it's kind of a complex plan right it is but it's it's that's the hellfire clubs mo right yeah yeah just like manipulate people into i i guess helping them be more powerful there's also there's a moment here that i think i i don't know if it's prescience or if it's just that history repeats itself every 10 to 20 years in this country but This is 1982, Roberto...
01:31:05
Speaker
very jokingly refers to himself as a terrorist. Uh, not even, right I forget why, not even because he's a mutant. It's just like, they're telling jokes. And then we cut to this government building and they're like, oh, it's sure. He thinks it's funny that he's calling himself a terrorist, but realistically he is, uh, he's a mutant, which means he's inevitably going to be a terrorist.
01:31:30
Speaker
And, If it falls under terrorism, then we should use the full resources of the government to create ah is a campaign of racial law enforcement.
01:31:42
Speaker
Right, right. Which, again, in this country happens every 10 to 20 years, specifically with the word terrorist. Right, right. Like, it's just the... i guess it...
01:31:54
Speaker
obviously this is this has bearing on something that was happening at the time uh with the word terrorism but it's crazy that it happened here it happens in the early aughts it happens again in the teens like right anyway on a on a lighter note when the the kids are talking to rain they are asking about her incredibly short hair because we haven't described the kids but rain um sinclair has really short like like brillo pad hair yeah yeah um and she complains about it like she can't it won't grow more than that she just has this fuzzy little head and one of the kids says like i love your hair is it punk or new wave Or are you punk or are you new wave? And she goes, I'm Scots.
01:32:48
Speaker
so She's adorable.
01:32:54
Speaker
Back in the mall, Stevie is having trouble raising Danny on the phone, but doesn't get to act on her fears before a man covers her mouth and drags her into a closet. What the fuck? That man is Colonel Michael Rossi. Remember him?
01:33:09
Speaker
Colonel Michael, do you remember him? is he the guy that called Cyclops called a skin flint? ah I don't know, no, no, no, no. He is. all right. In X-Men number 96. Okay.
Government Confrontation and Sentinels
01:33:27
Speaker
So like way long ago. um Remember, remember when Steven Lang had project Armageddon, which was just sentinels. And there was one guy who was like,
01:33:43
Speaker
He was like showing him the facility. And one guy was like, hey, wait, this is illegal. I'm going tell everybody about this and I'm going to pull your funding. And then his helicopter exploded at the end of the issue. Yes.
01:33:59
Speaker
That was Colonel Michael Rossi. ah
01:34:03
Speaker
ah Incredible. Well, he's not dead and he's here to help. And he's going to tell you how. But first, the kids are all eating ice cream with their new pals when some feds show up to arrest the mutants.
01:34:17
Speaker
Frank, the bully from earlier, tries to fight the cops and Roberto refuses to go. But she advises they go along. They follow the feds to the parking garage when Stevie and Rossi ambush the police with a single gun and yelling.
01:34:33
Speaker
Rossi takes out. Rossi has a gun. Stevie is yelling. Stevie can project her voice. Yeah. ah Rossi takes one out and Cannonball topples a car into another. When a third tries to flee by car, Sunspot smashes with a cool punch while Karma possesses a fourth. is cool And Wolfsbane transforms and attacks the fifth and final guy.
01:34:57
Speaker
While Rossi tries to arrest the men claiming they're from an illegal outfit. Suddenly a sentinel bursts through the ceiling, a giant blue and gray futuristic looking version of the sentinels who knocks out Rossi with some kind of gas.
01:35:12
Speaker
least I love just the juxtaposition of a giant robot tearing open the ceiling, reaching its arms in and then just shooting a little tube out. It's like, yes, yes.
01:35:29
Speaker
ah Sam blasts off into the Sentinel's stomach, pummeling him back through the ceiling. So cool. Only to discover two more on the roof.
01:35:39
Speaker
One's hands start punching through the garage, trying to grab Roberto, who feels tired from using too much energy. As he draws his power from the sun, he realizes he's got to get outside. So he smashes through the wall only to fall three stories to his death. He goes, oh, right. This is three stories up.
01:35:57
Speaker
ah And he's dead. And it's weird that we we never see him again. he's Yeah, yeah. In abrupt death and not even like a heroic way.
01:36:08
Speaker
Okay, well, he lands on a car and he's actually fine. The Sentinel underestimates Sunspot's strength and finds himself thrown through the fucking mall by its foot. Roberto climbs its fallen body and rips its fucking head off.
01:36:28
Speaker
Roberto kicks ass here. Yeah, yeah, he wrecks the thing. He's like a Warren Worthington that can fight.
01:36:39
Speaker
Outside, Cannonball streaks towards this chosen Sentinel, but finds himself frozen by the robot's frigid beam. guesting Oh. thomas guest appearance And carried unconscious off into the sky.
01:36:52
Speaker
Karma, who feels useless against the Sentinels, has an idea. She possesses Sam and turns on his blasting ability, sending he and the Sentinel flying high up into the air.
01:37:03
Speaker
The third Sentinel disintegrates a huge hole in the skywalk between Rain and and jan Rossi wakes up and tells the gang they'll never beat the Sentinels the same way twice as they learn from their mistakes.
01:37:16
Speaker
She sends Wolfsbane back to the garage to find the head government guy so he can call off the Sentinels and tries to shoot the last one with a gun.
01:37:27
Speaker
How terrifying is it to have Sentinels like... we have read every Sentinel story so far and every time they are foiled by their own inability to adapt when things don't go according to their programming.
01:37:43
Speaker
Right. And now, and now we have Sentinels that like, that see Sam Guthrie and they say yeah out loud, like, Oh, I didn't account for your power set calibrating. And then within a few minutes, they have what they need to take out Sam Guthrie.
01:38:01
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's pretty rough. um So the the way you defeat them, though, like Rossi shows, is you shoot them with a gun, just like a normal gun. Yes. Yeah, they are vulnerable to bullets.
01:38:16
Speaker
I mean, we haven't met an X-Man that shoots bullets. yeah
01:38:23
Speaker
Up in the air, all the ice is melted off of Cannonball, and he wakes up high over the mall with the Sentinel still holding on to him. He uses the momentum of his blast to spin around and head straight for the ground, gambling that his blast force will protect him, but the Sentinel will be shattered when it hits the ground.
01:38:42
Speaker
But he doesn't hit the ground. He hits the other Sentinel and the two explode into pieces. Yes. Matt, does he mention that he can't be hurt when he's in his blasting form? here Invulnerable while blasting.
01:38:54
Speaker
Count number three. Soon the police come and take the federal agents into custody. They call the police. and I love when the bad guys get taken away by the police at the end of an episode where they're literally tearing buildings apart.
01:39:13
Speaker
Soon the police come and take the federal agents into custody while Jan uses her powers to force them to confess everything using words Rossi dictated to her. She has some moral misgivings about this, but Rossi warns them that this is just the beginning and they need to be careful.
01:39:29
Speaker
Back home, they find Danny on the ground in the danger room, hurt but not dead. They wake her up with ammonia and she tells them what happened. Why couldn't they just wake her up here, by the way? They they have to do like rub smelling salts under her nose. Why is that relevant?
01:39:47
Speaker
Yeah, they don't. They don't explain it at all. Stevie realizes there were only three people who could override the danger room safety codes. And the only one in the mansion at the time was Charles Xavier.
01:39:59
Speaker
What the fuck? Finally, we see x Xavier asleep on his desk with the image of the brood queen hovering over him.
Xavier's Brood Infection and Continuity Issues
01:40:09
Speaker
To be continued.
01:40:11
Speaker
Whoa. A mall issue. Oh my God. This is so fucking good. Mall issue. There's a there's a comic book store called the fandom zone in there, which I'm, I'm, I'm guessing was a real comic book store, right? Probably. That's such a silly name.
01:40:33
Speaker
They go get ice cream and the ice cream has store has a big sign that says, sorry, out of vanilla. How do you?
01:40:44
Speaker
How does that happen? They're walking out of E.T. at the beginning. Man. Love a mall episode. Yeah, yeah. This is our, I think this is our first X-Men at the mall.
01:40:58
Speaker
was Because this is when malls are starting to take over, right? Oh, right. You're right. You're right. So this is, yes. i Also, finally, finally, after several issues of the X-Men of varying size...
01:41:19
Speaker
ah Here in New Mutants number two on the very last page in the very last panel, we get some follow up on the Xavier Brood storyline. Yeah. Well, this was OK. So when did the x Xavier Brood issue happen?
01:41:40
Speaker
i ex Xavier went goofy. back in, I think it was in like the 150s, wasn't it? um Like when he first goes catatonic, I assume that that's the brood infesting him somehow. And then, but it because he just wakes up from his coma and everybody's like, ah, it's fine, let's move on.
01:42:04
Speaker
I think we're supposed to have thought he defeated the brood at that moment, right? And we're supposed to have kind of not thought about it until... Uncanny X-Men 166.
01:42:18
Speaker
At the very end. Which would have been in November 1982. of nineteen eighty two So the very, the the month before.
01:42:31
Speaker
at the very end. Yeah, that's the big cliffhanger. And so there they have these release dates worked out pretty well, too. Where, like, you're you're reading these side by side if you're buying both comics.
01:42:44
Speaker
Right, so there it's close because then the next... 167 comes out before Mutants number 3 that we're about to read.
01:42:57
Speaker
It also comes out before but before New Mutants number 2, which we just
Setting the Stage for the Next Story
01:43:01
Speaker
read. so oh Uncanny X-Men number 167 came out like two months too early. i guess fucked up. guessing because of...
01:43:13
Speaker
Well, maybe Bob McCloud fucked it up. Yeah, yeah. That is that is his claim to fame on these new mutants comics. He could not meet deadlines.
01:43:26
Speaker
ah um Well, Pat, I think there's a lot more to say about these new freaking mutants. Yeah. And I want to tell you about them in New Mutants number three, Nightmare. Ooh.
01:43:42
Speaker
I'm loving these one word titles. Yeah. With ah without exclamation points. Yeah. Fundamentals. Chris Claremont and Bob McLeod are the writer, co-creators and penciler. Mike Gustavich is the inker. Tom Orszakowski is the letterer. Glynis Ween's the colorist. Louise Jones is the editor and Jump Smoopy is the editor in chief.
Dani's Nightmares and Team Tensions
01:44:04
Speaker
Danny. wakes up in the middle of the night to one of the fiercest storms she's ever heard. She peeks out the window, only to see a horrible, monstrous face staring in at her, bearing sharp teeth and glowing eyes.
01:44:18
Speaker
She pulls out her knife and opens the window to investigate, but nothing's there. Until she turns her back to the window, suddenly a living silhouette bursts through her window and wraps around her, bearing those same sharp fangs and glowing eyes.
01:44:32
Speaker
Danny notes that this creature has a physical form unlike her visions and stabs it real good. She runs to warn the others, but only finds all of her friends dead, each killed by their greatest fear. Ugh.
01:44:45
Speaker
The creature catches up to her and grabs her again, too strong for her to escape as she flails. She rips a mask off of the creature, revealing the terrifying great bear that killed her parents.
01:44:58
Speaker
Pat that bear again. Fucking bear. it's It is a scary bear, too. Scary Barry. Just a quick rundown what killed all the new mutants. it's Sunspot was killed along with Juliana by the by the gunfire.
01:45:16
Speaker
Sam obviously died in the cave in Rain is being burned by the torch-wielding mob that was chasing her. And Reverend Craig, yeah. and um And obviously Shan died in Vietnam. Vietnam. Or in her travel from Vietnam. Or probably, yeah, by the pirates.
01:45:39
Speaker
Anyway, so everybody's dead and um Danny's about to be eaten by a bear and then she wakes up! who Her night screams got everyone's attention and she's relieved to see everyone alive.
01:45:52
Speaker
But the dream felt so real. Xavier assures everyone she's physically fine, leaving Danny to start questioning her own sanity once she's alone again until she sees that her knife still has the creature's blood on it She jets down the hall to warn x Xavier, only to overhear him on the phone with Moira. He's explaining that Danny has psychopathic tendencies.
01:46:17
Speaker
Again, this is like... I mean, it's very...
01:46:21
Speaker
devastated by this and worried everyone else feels the same considers just ending her own life again this is like i mean it's very ah through I don't mean this lightly at all, but this is like very teenage suicidal mentality. This is right. He really nails like the difference between an an adult having lost hope or having ah some form of mental illness that leads them to suicide. Like the sort of the depression that just comes along with being a teenager and how that can drive you to to a low point like this.
01:47:01
Speaker
Right. She runs into one to two fairly complex issues. Yeah. And it's like, my life is over. There's no reason for me to live. Right. And like losing the trust of her mentor going through all this torment. Like it's still, it's just a, there's a very unique experience to being a child and being suicidal. And this is really,
01:47:26
Speaker
um from my understanding of it. lets see nailing it. Yeah. um What Danny doesn't hear and we do is Moira's end of the conversation on Muir Island.
01:47:40
Speaker
She outright dismisses x Xavier's claims and after the call vents her concerns about his behavior to a very well-dressed Sean.
Ileana's Dark Past
01:47:47
Speaker
He looks so good. He's got the coolest fucking sweater on. Sean frustrated by all this and sporting another sharp outfit goes for a walk and finds Ileana singing some sort of prayer out on the cliffs.
01:48:00
Speaker
She explains that Aurora taught her this prayer, to honor the memory of her late best friend on her birthday. Sean, recalling that today is Kitty's birthday, tries to reassure Ileana that the X-Men could very well still be alive. Ileana privately thinks to herself that while she was thinking of the X-Men, the one she was thinking of died a long time ago, some by Belasco's hand, some by her own.
01:48:26
Speaker
What?
01:48:29
Speaker
What a fucking ah she's just she is dropping plot bombs. These are no longer seeds. She killed several X-Men.
01:48:40
Speaker
yeah From alternate time space areas in her seven years in limbo. Absolutely wild. Jesus Christ.
01:48:52
Speaker
we will i mean I mean, this is stuff that's set up and we won't. Yeah, this is an interlude. This is them saying, hey, let's take a breather. Let's take a break from the action. Ileana killed several X-Men.
01:49:05
Speaker
ah Also, Kitty's 15. Kitty had to do the brute thing on her birthday. She killed several X-Men and Kitty's 15.
01:49:16
Speaker
All right, ah moving on. Also, they do the ah Proteus was conceived from hatred thing again. Oh, yeah, yeah. yeah Yeah. that So she's actually jealous of what Gabrielle Haller is going through.
Alien Landscape and Brood Battle
01:49:32
Speaker
is That's so fucked up. It's... Oh, man. Every woman is mother, and every woman is jealous of other woman. Yes. um And depending on how your child was born...
01:49:47
Speaker
is whether it's going to be good or evil yeah and it man there's like a lot a lot not good happening here all at once but moving on um back at the mansion danny opens up to shan a bit the professor thinks she's crazy and that very well may be true but she's also sure that there's some sinister force that's been trying to psychically drive her away from this team and She's also got a horrible feeling that Xavier is somehow involved with the sinister force.
01:50:20
Speaker
A bit later, we see Sam shaving his face. The panel goes black and suddenly his hot lather is cold. Written in shaving cream on his mirror is the message, meet us in the boathouse.
01:50:32
Speaker
There's a boathouse? The new mutants gather together in the boathouse. A debate whether or not x Xavier could be up to something. When a skeptical Sam turns to leave, though, he and the rest of the gang see that the land outside the boathouse has transformed into an alien planet.
01:50:51
Speaker
Instead, they dip into the tunnels that apparently run all throughout the property underground only to find a brood queen mother. It grabs Danny and tries to separate her from the group.
01:51:04
Speaker
Symbolism.
01:51:06
Speaker
Karma tries to possess the brood, but the evil in its mind is more than she can bear. Rain transforms into a wolf and gets a good bite in on the sleazoid, slowing it down enough for Sam to ignite and rocket himself into the damn thing. Invulnerable by blast count number four. Yes.
01:51:24
Speaker
It disappears. But at the spot of impact, the tunnel has transformed from a sterile metal tube to an organic fleshy cavern. Ugh.
01:51:35
Speaker
Ugh. Despite their fear, they push forward, trying to brace for whatever they're facing. The broodmother swoops in again. She's got a weird long neck. It's not as scary as either Cockrum's brood or Paul Smith's brood. It's kind of like silly looking. It's a little weird. It just looks like a big bug.
01:52:02
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. um Without like a smiley face. Yeah. ah The Broodmother swoops in again, stealing Danny and sending a fleet of monsters at the rest of the team. Danny wakes up, wrapped in some sort of substance, with the Brood reading her thoughts. You see, the Brood initially tried to get rid of her because her psychic abilities would eventually expose it. Why not karmas, by the way?
01:52:25
Speaker
Well, every time she tries, she's she recognizes the great evil inside of it. And isn't capable of...
01:52:36
Speaker
I don't know. She possesses people.
01:52:42
Speaker
But after seeing her true power, decided that she would make an ideal brood queen along with the rest of the team. It's been psychically manipulating her power without her knowledge while also augmenting it to bring out its full potential. To this point, Dany's powers were only illusions, but the brood has discovered she's capable of making them physical.
Team Bonding and Power Discoveries
01:53:03
Speaker
What the fuck? Once the explanation is complete, the rest of the team bursts in ready to fight the monster. They all have a good try, but they don't realize that this is not a being they can defeat. It's a physical, psychic being that will just keep coming back. Danny is the only one that understands this and demands that Sam take her out as the only way to defeat it.
01:53:28
Speaker
He does so reluctantly, and as predicted... The threat has ended as soon as Danny is unconscious. Yeah, he just punches her in the head. Yeah, he rocket punches her. Mm-hmm. A bit later, Danny and Roberto share a tender moment out on the porch.
01:53:42
Speaker
She's relatively unharmed by Sam's rocket punch, just feeling like a weak link on the team and wondering if she should leave. Roberto assures her that he and the rest of the team are her family now, which is exactly what she needed to hear, and they go off to watch Magnum P.I. i together. Mm-hmm.
01:53:59
Speaker
They do. They end this issue and start the next issue talking about watching Magnum P.I. They love Magnum P.I. Magnum P.I., of course, is Tom Selleck as a Hawaiian private investigator.
Cultural References and Story Integration
01:54:13
Speaker
OK.
01:54:15
Speaker
It hit number three in Nielsen ratings in its 82 to 83 season. So right around when this was being written and coming out. And the theme song itself. about a year before this hit number 25 on the Billboard charts.
01:54:31
Speaker
Look up the theme song if you get a chance. It is an all-time great TV theme song. It's up there with, like, Night Court and Hawaii Five-0. Man, this is something I... This is something that's really great about... um Especially Sunspot.
01:54:50
Speaker
Is he fucking loves... He fucking loves...
01:54:56
Speaker
magnum pi i of course he does it's his favorite thing his two favorite things are magnum pi and wolverine it's you know his behavior up to this point is explained so well by those two influences ah
01:55:18
Speaker
All right, Pat, I'm done reading The New Mutants. I don't want to read any more New Mutants. Ooh, we might have to make some adjustments to our podcasting schedule then, Matt. Oh, and no, i'll read it in the future. I don't want to read any
X-Men's Return and Brood Battle
01:55:31
Speaker
more today. Can I never read any more today? Today, we're a damn X-Men podcast.
01:55:37
Speaker
I am not leaving until we read at least one X-Man. Okay, read me an X-Man then. If you are so smart, let me pull one out of my stack here.
01:55:52
Speaker
Let's go with Uncanny X-Men number 167, The Goldilocks Syndrome, or Who's Been Sleeping in My Head. Stan Lee presents the usual assortment of clowns. Chris Claremont, writer. Paul Smith, penciler. Bob Wyacek, inker. Yankus and Ween, colorists. Tom Wurzikowski, letterer. Yankus and Ween.
01:56:19
Speaker
Attorneys at law. Oh, yay. Hey, i I'd like somebody to yank us my ween if you no name know what I'm saying. Louise Jones, editor.
01:56:32
Speaker
the Jesus Christ, man. What did I do? What did I do? What did I do? What do you think I did? Louise Jones, editor, Dim Cooter, editor-in-chief. Release date, December 7th, 1982. Cover date, March 1983. The new mutants are enjoying a quiet night at home watching Magnum P.I. when all of a sudden, the X-Men burst in through the windows and doors.
01:57:00
Speaker
Jesus. Why did they have to break down the door to get it? know. I know. Maybe they're like, maybe they're like, this can't be the real mansion because when we left, it was destroyed.
01:57:14
Speaker
Also, why did they come back to the mansion? Why didn't they go to the the island that they thought everybody was staying on? Exactly. Well, because no time to explain that now, they don't stop to explain. So the kids panic.
01:57:27
Speaker
Cannonball takes charge, blasting Colossus straight back out through the wall across the yard. Cyclops hits the living room with a wide beam, telling the kids he means no harm, but demanding they stay out of his way.
01:57:40
Speaker
Danny pulls an image of himself transformed into a brood out of Scott's head while Wolfsbane, seeing Nightcrawler go for the second floor, turns Wolf and pounces on him. Sunspot in sun form gets knocked out by a single punch to the back of the head from his hero Wolverine. Truly is the new Warren.
01:57:59
Speaker
The Wolverine is slowed momentarily by Karma, who can't quite control him. All the while, Shadowcat is phasing through the walls to get to who?
01:58:10
Speaker
o Sprite. All the while, Sprite is phasing through the walls to get to the professor's study with a brood gun strapped to her back in a brand new pink jazzercise outfit. It's pretty cool.
01:58:23
Speaker
It's cool. It's cool. And she's got like a headband and everything. she managed I guess she had the Shi'ar ship make this for her. Yeah, yeah, she must have. yeah She manages to sneak up on the sleeping ex Xavier, but in the last minute, she hesitates. He wakes up and she fires.
01:58:39
Speaker
Back downstairs, Roberto has recovered and leaps back onto Wolverine, giving him a good punch to the jaw. But Wolverine punches back, knocking the poor boy down the stairs.
01:58:50
Speaker
Nightcrawler bamfs out of Wolfsbane's claws and knocks Danny and Jan's heads together, taking out the last of the new mutants. So brutal. Just a clonk.
01:59:01
Speaker
But suddenly Kitty's limp body comes flying from the balcony to land on the first floor. Jesus Christ. Behind her, Charles x Xavier transforms into a terrifying brood creature and charges.
01:59:14
Speaker
Cyclops lets loose a massive optic blast and sends the brood flying through the fucking wall into the yard past Colossus who is carrying an unconscious Sam Guthrie by the shirt.
01:59:25
Speaker
This is so fucking cool. It's all right. Yeah. Fucking. All right. First of all. We get like the initial encounter. these This is it's probably 10 seconds that actually pass in real life. Right. But we see the new mutants for the first three or four seconds actually hold their own.
01:59:48
Speaker
i Yeah. They are a powerful fighting force. But it becomes very quickly clear. They are not the X-Men. The X-Men are elite. And Sam takes charge immediately. yeah he's like He's like, mutants, pick your targets. And then fucking he aims for what he what looks like the toughest one and just blasts him out of the mansion. Like, I got to take this guy out of here.
02:00:13
Speaker
And that fucking line, mutants pick your targets, so good. Roberto fighting Wolverine is so cool. He just, like, charges for Wolverine, gets knocked out immediately. Yes. Picks himself up, charges at Wolverine, gets knocked out.
02:00:33
Speaker
Colossus taking out Sam off panel, like you said, like, they are formidable. They are not X-Men formidable. Yes.
02:00:45
Speaker
Kitty thrown from the second floor, like her body just like limply falling. Like that's so horrifying. And then Cyclops just blasting that brood just straight through the wall. Like immediately. Instinctively.
02:01:01
Speaker
Yes. So good. It's so good. Also. But it also starts with the most absurd thing, which is them just bursting in. and Yeah. This also so with Kitty is also read like she's struggling with it internally, but she's ready to kill like Xavier. She's the one that manages to get through. She's got the gun.
02:01:23
Speaker
yeah this is the outfit she chose to assassinate her mentor. It's spying, savior-killing outfit. It's bright pink. It's a Jazzercise outfit. It's got a got a big and nice blue headband. Yeah, in case it gets in case things get sweaty.
02:01:43
Speaker
It's like, um yeah, like ah like like this there's like a suiting up scene where she's pulling on her giant blue boots and straightening her big ah pink collar. Big, toughy pink collar.
02:01:58
Speaker
And tying her headband over her hair. And finally, just before we move on, the scene of Colossus just like... slowly but dutifully carrying an unconscious sand back like it's a wide shot when the brood goes flying out of the building propelled by scott's lasers and you just see this little colossus going like oh as he as he wanders back into the battle it's it's that cool thing that sometimes the x-men are uh so that rules but it's the there's a cool thing happening there too where sometimes the X-Men are amazed by each other's powers. And ah as he sees the brood flying from Cyclops's blast, he he yells, he gives a, ah by the white wolf! Yeah, yeah.
02:02:49
Speaker
Which is dumb, but, like, still, it It's that sense of sentiment. Yeah. Yes. The X-Men have for each other that makes them. Exactly.
02:03:01
Speaker
Which they they constantly they're just like, I can't believe these people are the my my co-workers are this fucking powerful. Yeah. Yeah. It's very it it's awesome. You'll hate this comparison, Matt, but it's very much like watching the sidelines on a in a football game or in any sport. Really? The dugout. I don't think it is. I probably that's probably not true.
02:03:24
Speaker
Colossus already outside charges the brood and gets thrown back towards his charging comrades. Wolverine takes a flying leap, hopping off the hurdle in Colossus. So cool.
02:03:35
Speaker
And slices the stinger from her tail. carme it's Oh, didn't include this in the fucking recap, but it's he he acts like he's go. The narrator explains this. He acts like he's going for her head. So she guards her head and then he changes his target at the last second and slices her tail off so she can't defend. Yeah, yeah. Incredible stuff.
02:03:59
Speaker
Yeah. Taking out like her primary weapon. Yeah, yeah. Karma rejoins the fight, realizing that she was on the wrong side all along. She tries to possess the brood, but her powers rebound on her, causing her pain.
02:04:14
Speaker
The brood escapes into the air only to be met by the fist of binary. Remember, she's with them. Wow. And they positioned her up there. Yes. And again, they're just good at tactics. If it starts to get cosmic, if he starts shooting off into space.
02:04:33
Speaker
We've got my Mary up there. Let them escape. Yeah. Yeah. As it falls, a blizzard kicks up around it and storm hurls it back to earth.
Xavier's Cloning and Team Reflection
02:04:42
Speaker
The X-Men and new mutants converge on the crippled brood queen. Wolverine and Cyclops briefly argue over whose responsibility it is to kill it.
02:04:52
Speaker
But the professor begins speaking through the alien. He asks his former charge to kill him as there's no other way. This convinces Cyclops to wait and see if they can save the professor. Challenging anyone to argue, object. Wolverine... He's like, yeah, I am going to kill Professor Xavier.
02:05:14
Speaker
And then Professor Xavier's like, yeah, good, this is true. You need to kill me. And he's like, ah wait a minute. You don't tell me what to do anymore.
02:05:24
Speaker
mean, Professor... dad i mean professor i He challenges anyone to object. Wolverine does. Storm doesn't.
02:05:36
Speaker
And the new mutants are just in fucking all Yes. They're just like, oh, my God, that's Cyclops. Later, aboard the Star Jammer, Sikorsky is trying to clone a new body for Xavier with Moira's help while Kitty heals from the battle. The plan is to clone his body, take his consciousness out of the brood body, and put it in a cloned Xavier body.
02:06:02
Speaker
Yeah, you're you're so speaking incredulously. Why? if Kurt comforts Storm as she mourns that their relationship with Kitty is being supplanted by Kitty's relationship with Ileana and Peter.
02:06:16
Speaker
yeah While Storm comforts Nightcrawler for his worries that the new mutants won't accept him for his looks. While Scott worries about x Xavier, Corsair and he have a heart to heart.
02:06:27
Speaker
Corsair no longer belongs on Earth, so he intends to return to space. But before he does, he wants to introduce Scott to two people he never knew existed. His grandparents.
Shi'ar Political Intrigue
02:06:39
Speaker
Whoa. The touching moment is interrupted when Gladiator of the Imperial Guard arrives asking to see Lalandra. Deathbird has taken the Shi'ar throne and Gladiator or believes her unfit. But first...
02:06:51
Speaker
He's upset at the Fantastic Four. Oh, Jesus Christ. It seems they've recently helped a dying Galactus heal and giving him a new Herald. she whos what They gave him a new Herald? Pat, what's this all about?
02:07:03
Speaker
I don't know, man. I'm not following the Fantastic Four. Okay. So then why are we watching this scene? Lalandra projects herself into the Richards' room and yells at them while they're asleep and nude.
02:07:15
Speaker
Why is this happening? Why is this here? is I don't want know. Claremont like a guest pen on Fantastic Four maybe? There's like a good, this is such a good issue if you take out this whole scene. Okay.
02:07:30
Speaker
To be fair, there's a really cool moment where Corsair cucks Gladiator. Gladiator's like, I demand to see Lalandra. And he's like, hey buddy, you're on my ship.
02:07:44
Speaker
You don't make demands. You ask. You ask. And he rages and somebody has one of his ah companions has to be like, man, he's got you. Corsair has you by the balls right now.
02:07:57
Speaker
And he's like, fine. May I please say your mantra? When Lalandra gets back, it's to some good news. Sikorsky has successfully cloned x Xavier a new body. They wheel it in.
02:08:12
Speaker
They wheel it in. And the surprises keep coming as he stands up from his wheelchair. oh Though he does collapse again immediately because while his legs are fine, his brain isn't used to walking yet.
02:08:24
Speaker
This is what's the point? Just tell us that x Xavier hasn't been doing his physical therapy. like It's just Claremont obsessed with these little like minute details of like, actually, he wouldn't be able to stand up yet because... Because he he doesn't remember how to walk?
02:08:45
Speaker
yeah Yeah. I mean, it's I think it's like phantom limb pain. It's like... they That's not what they describe. Yeah. They say that his muscles work just fine, but his brain hasn't connected to them yet.
02:09:03
Speaker
Yeah. Well, I... And it puts him in immense pain. I do think that's the description of phantom limb pain, but... I think that's how it works, right? x Xavier is happy to see his old team alive and well and introduces them to the new team, instituting one small change.
02:09:21
Speaker
Kitty is leaving the X-Men and joining the new mutants. The end.
02:09:30
Speaker
the and The end. end. What a prick. He's. Yeah. He is back for not five minutes after being transformed into an alien creature. He's in a brand new body.
02:09:45
Speaker
And the first thing he does is tell kick kitty. kick kitty out kids He does this all the time. He sees everyone getting a happy ending and he says, i can bring some bad news into the situation. Actually, I've got a letter here.
02:10:04
Speaker
And it will change the fate of the X-Men forever. kity you're on the other side now. We're switching from a blue mailbox to a red mailbox.
02:10:17
Speaker
Um... No, fucking, yeah. Pat, you you called him a prick, but would you say maybe he's, would you say he's like, would you say he's a jerk?
02:10:29
Speaker
You know what? Professor x Xavier is a jerk. Whoa, Pat! Calm down there, buddy. i don't think anyone else feels the way you do.
02:10:45
Speaker
Wow. All right. ah Holy shit, man. What a fucking story, man. and i So that's like, I mean, I guess the real end to the Brood Saga, right? But you need to introduce the new mutants before you get there. And...
02:11:05
Speaker
man what an introduction to the new mutants yeah this was so good i not just i think because we are introducing new characters like these are these are very cool new characters right but it's we sorely needed at this point of the podcast yes we were we were just too busy fawning over kurt wagner Yeah.
02:11:30
Speaker
But not only are we getting these new characters, this is essentially like the... like the, was 1999, 2000 ultimate run almost where it's like, okay, if you could start this hero's origin story, if you could start the X-Men's origin story over, how would you do it?
02:11:52
Speaker
And yeah, I think they, they do exactly you what you would want to see, right? They, you they, uh,
02:12:04
Speaker
Instead of centering it on some like, oh, these are the good mutants. These are the evil mutants. Or here's some like bizarre threat that you're just uniquely equipped to handle. It's right. Their antagonists are themselves and.
02:12:22
Speaker
racism like they're victims of their own powers they're victims of the hellfire club motivated by anti-mutant sentiment uh the sentinels are immediately introduced as a very high level threat like yeah if you were to condense the first 30 issues of the x-men into a graphic novel and three issues it would be It would be this. these are the These are the high points. These are the things that like make the X-Men the X-Men.
02:12:58
Speaker
Yeah. um There's a thing. and So this is a really good example of this. and and An example of it working. But this is a thing that happens sometimes where a creative person is part of something that becomes amazing.
02:13:18
Speaker
An example of this might be Adventure Time, the TV show Adventure Time. Yeah, sure. um it It started out as a silly little cartoon that but that had some sort of, like, you know, what's the word? Satirical commentary on Saturday morning cartoons and D&D. And, like, it it it was it was a mature... But also stupid and immature cartoon.
02:13:43
Speaker
Yeah. From the very beginning. But it grew into something really mature and maybe one of the best shows to ever be on television. It grew into something just like epic and amazing and um really like explores a lot of deep themes and and um fleshes out its characters in this world. Right.
02:14:04
Speaker
And then you have all the creators from Adventure Time go on to other shows like Steven Universe or Infinity Train or ah Owl House or whatever. yeah. yeah And when they so when they start these new shows, I think Steven Universe is one of these that I think this is the strongest about. yeah You have these creators who are like who start with like, okay, I'm going to tell an epic story.
02:14:35
Speaker
And I'm going to set things up from the very beginning. And I'm going to really build these characters. And I'm going to really build this universe. And and it just doesn't hit as strongly.
02:14:46
Speaker
Sure. Yeah. It misses some of that authenticity that you get from trial and error in the beginning. So this is a phenomenon that I've noted a lot of times throughout culture. And I'm always frustrated by.
02:14:59
Speaker
yet. Here and yet here it is 30 years before these examples I'm talking about. 40 years in some cases. Yeah, yeah.
02:15:12
Speaker
And it's done so well, right? The amount of shit that Claremont, not only is he refreshing the franchise, not only is he setting up new characters and new relationships, he's doing it organically and he's making it, making them earn it. And he's setting up these long stories that,
02:15:31
Speaker
From the very beginning, what's up with this bear? How does Ileana tie into this? Who is Gabrielle Haller's child? And how do these things tie together? Even fucking from the very beginning, something was off about Xavier. Yeah.
02:15:48
Speaker
But not not so off that he wasn't still a Xavier, but off enough that, like, hmm, something's a little weird. He's, like, being a little snippy. Yeah. You're uncomfortable. Yeah. He this is it's just such a good example of something that's done so poorly so often and done with with expertise here.
02:16:11
Speaker
Expertise, huh? ah ah Is that is that taken? That should be an X title. Experts. He's got an eye out, stuff that you could buy out.
02:16:22
Speaker
If you had time machine that you'd like to try out, it's Pat Steals and Steals. that's the buzzer, folks. That means that it's time for Pat Steals and Deals. We got a good one for you today, Matt.
02:16:39
Speaker
Ooh, all right. I like a good one. Basic nunchaku kata. Learn unbeatable self-defense.
02:16:50
Speaker
Free with course. Here's the deal, Matt. Or maybe the steal. Free with this course. Nunchaku sticks. This is nunchaku kata, you're telling me. That's right.
02:17:02
Speaker
but He's grave for the uninitiated. That is fighting with nunchucks. And the course itself, $7.95.
02:17:15
Speaker
The value of the dollar has dropped officially in the US. So comparing $1983, about bringing the whole thing,
02:17:26
Speaker
this course to in today's money about twenty five dollars and eighty four cents Now, you may say for a self-defense class, maybe that's a little expensive, like a mail-in course on self-defense. That's expensive. But it also comes with a pair of fucking nunchucks.
02:17:45
Speaker
Yeah. Now, do you think this is just a book? Or do you think this is a VHS? No, I think this is just a book. I think this is like a pamphlet that you get. okay You get three pages on how to use nunchucks and then also a pair of nunchucks.
02:18:04
Speaker
You're undoubtedly going to hurt yourself. Probably very badly. No. ah oh What is this company?
02:18:16
Speaker
ah This is the Hughes Company, Matt. What the fuck is that? I don't know. i tried to look up Hughes Company Nunchaku, but ah apparently there's too many people named Hughes offering nunchucks lessons on the internet right now. I can narrow down where this is coming from.
02:18:39
Speaker
oh man if you are a person named hughes offering nunchuck lessons mutant menace pod at gmail.com please let us know um man um all right this is actually a deal i mean a steal yeah it is both this is pretty good you'd get this one i think i'd get this one i think i'd buy nunchucks and nunchuck lessons for 25 mission accomplished He's got an eye out,
02:19:16
Speaker
Oh, Matt, this was a good one. I can feel it in my bones. Yeah, this was so, it was so fun to meet the new mutants, and I'm excited to get to know them better over time, though it'll be a minute.
02:19:28
Speaker
Right, because we got some, um we're going have some special episodes over the next few. Yeah, um we have a holiday feast through then through the rest of the month here. It is nuts, some of the stuff we're getting into.
02:19:45
Speaker
God, yeah man, Wolverine. Killing Wolverine. Yeah, I i mean, it's it's wild that this was all happening at the same time. then Brood saga, new mutants being introduced. the graphic novel, God Loves Man Kills, the Wolverine miniseries with fucking Frank Miller.
02:20:05
Speaker
but You know, good Frank Miller. Yeah. And then, and then we come back to the New Mutants and to the X-Men and find out whether or not Professor a Xavier is a prick or a jerk.
02:20:20
Speaker
Which one is he? Well, i guess we'll find out. can't wait to read the famous X-Men issue. Professor Xavier is a prick.
02:20:31
Speaker
If we ever make merch, that is our first shirt. That is our first shirt. is ah One of us.
02:20:44
Speaker
yeah i don't I don't even know what's on the front of it. like That'll let me have to be something we think of. But like, Professor Xavier is a prick. Professor Xavier is a dickhead.
02:20:57
Speaker
Very good. um Also, ah you guys, we have gone through so much story in the past, what, 20 episodes? And don't remember a lick of it.
02:21:13
Speaker
And we've got new characters. We're we're entering so like a new era. We're going to see a bunch of new shit. So...
02:21:23
Speaker
We've got another story so far bonus. That's right. um ah a Previously on Mutant Menace podcast. And we need one of you. So this is your last chance to email mutantmenacepod at gmail.com. And um what was what's the subject line?
02:21:41
Speaker
The story so far. story so far nobody that's volunteered so far has followed that rule though and uh volunteer yourself um if you volunteered last time you will be put in the drawing this time and we will pick at random that's exactly two of you you're right yeah so uh but if you yeah if you feel like uh guesting with us um you know we want to have a fan on to help us remember all this shit please do
02:22:14
Speaker
All right, folks, as always, please like, subscribe, follow, comment, rate, comment. Review. Review. Review. Thank you. That's what I was missing. Tell your friends. You're going to be at Christmas. You're going be at Christmas with all your family and friends. Tell them about this podcast you know about. Tell family.
02:22:36
Speaker
Tell your family about us. Finally, after all this time, stop hiding us from them. That's our key demographic. nerd Nerds family. You don't... it's It's actually insulting that you haven't told your family about us after all this time. Also, what if you've got, like, a cousin that's really into it, you know, into this podcast, but you're too ashamed to talk about it at Christmas, and so were they, so neither of you get to have that conversation? Yeah.
02:23:05
Speaker
How many of you haven't been friends with your cousins since you were little kids? Right? You're friends with them when you used to go to the beach? Yeah. With your with your family as little kids and then like you drifted apart?
02:23:18
Speaker
Let us bring you back together. Take it to take the damn opportunity. You know? Stop being embarrassed. You only get one family. if you're If you're estranged from your family, then just tell your friends and that's totally okay.
02:23:31
Speaker
Yeah. Or... You know, say, please don't contact me, but I need to tell you about this podcast. No, yeah youre sent him an email if you're estranged from your family, fuck them. They don't deserve to listen to this podcast.
02:23:46
Speaker
That's that's true. All right. No, that's fair. Tell us about that. Maybe send them an email and just say, don't contact me. I don't want to hear from you, but I do need to tell you about this podcast.
02:23:59
Speaker
Don't forget that last part. Otherwise, it's really weird. All right. Mutant Menace Pod on Instagram. Follow us there. We do, you know, episode art for the original episode art for each episode. One day we'll put videos back up on there. Yeah. Clips of funny stuff we said during the episode. Mutant Menace Pod at gmail.com to be on Pat's email corner. Please join our Discord. We'll put comments we'll put note through link in the comments in a link in the notes in the comments a link in the comments in the notes in the comments in the links so that leaves just one thing we left no two things left first thank you to um krill's wilson and uh for the music and julia selley for the voice of trish tilby and
02:24:50
Speaker
one, I just have one more thing to tell you, Pat. What's that, Matt? It's the thing I tell you at the end of every episode. Oh yeah. The thing to just like keep you, inspired and, uh, and keep you coming back. Keep you, keep, keep you hanging on until next week. And that thing as always is all white men are our enemies.
02:25:14
Speaker
That's right folks. and as always, your powers have nothing whatsoever to do with Satan.