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11 - X-Men #54-57 - The Roy Thomas/Neil Adams Run Begins!
0 Playsin 5 hours
We're coming now to the end of the long, epic, generational Arnold Drake run and things start getting good!? Legendary artist Neal Adams joins the book with past writer Roy Thomas, and the two immediately revive THE SENTINELS. Plus, the first appearance of Alex Summers and Matt and Pat absolutely lose their minds at a Cyclops moment.
We also talk about:
Scott Summers is a bad brother. Why is Cyclops always waking up in museums? WHO IS THIS PHARAOH GUY? The Angel loses the same fight twice. Waiting in a sarcophagus for my boss to need me. The LIVING Pharaoh. Cyclops smashes-- well, actually, you should just wait and listen to this one. "NOT RAYS!" Searching the whole Earth for a super-villain. NEAL ADAMS joins Marvel's worst-selling book. Scott is immune to (further) brain damage. "My son... the Super Hero!" Beating up cops in two countries. A very unfortunate and offensive slur (like seriously, not joking, this sucks). X-Men on the run from the law. LARRY TRASK AND THE SENTINELS REBORN.
Write in to Pat's Email Corner: mutantmenacepod@gmail.com
Instagram: @mutantmenacepod
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Transcript
Introduction & Podcast Launch Challenges
00:00:01
Speaker
I'm Trish Tobey with W.A.R.C. reporting to you live from Westchester, New York, where there appears to be some sort of mutant menace on the loose.
00:00:35
Speaker
Hey everybody, welcome to Mutant Menace, a podcast about the X-Men. My name's Pat Reber. My name's Matt Allcamp. Matt, what was that look about? You usually do it the opposite.
00:00:49
Speaker
But no, i last time we did it this way, we said that was the right way. oh okay. Right? I don't remember. i don't remember. Almost every time we start this podcast, I'm confused about how to start this podcast. you don't remember, then how did you know last time was the right way to do it?
00:01:05
Speaker
I don't know, it probably felt right at the time, and then I probably instantly forgot it.
Comic Book Discussion: Tom King's Works
00:01:10
Speaker
Because you started? Yeah, that's probably it. and Now that I'm starting. ah What's up, ah Matt?
00:01:17
Speaker
What's up? It does make sense, because... and
00:01:25
Speaker
Because if you say, welcome to Mutant Menace after we say our names, then that leaves this gap of question. Whereas if you say welcome to Mutant Menace podcast about the X-Men first and then we say our names, then the gap doesn't matter as much.
00:01:42
Speaker
So what did you ask me? What's up? Nothing. Yeah. ah How's your week been? Did you do anything X-Men related this week?
00:01:57
Speaker
I don't think I and don't think i did. I'm trying to think, and I don't think I did. I did some comic book-related stuff. I read Strange Adventures by Tom King and Mitch Gerads.
00:02:11
Speaker
Ooh. How did you find it? It's incredible. It's really good. i don't know if you've ever read any Tom King, Mitch Gerads books, but they basically do these deep deconstructions yeah yeah have secondary and tertiary characters, right? Like they did a run on Vision.
00:02:28
Speaker
They did 12-issue Vision series. Oh, right. well Yeah, yeah. They did a 12-issue Mr. Miracle series. They did a 12-issue Adam Strange series called Strange Adventures.
00:02:38
Speaker
And Strange Adventures was all about, you know, what if the war between ah Ran and the Picts Piked?
00:02:50
Speaker
The Picts were a real thing. um You know, Adam Strange was the man of two worlds. Zeta beam transported him to the planet Ran, which was in the middle of a war for their survival against sure alien invaders called the Piked.
00:03:04
Speaker
Right. um What if that war wasn't exactly as we ah were led to believe? And what if Adam Strange returned to Earth as a war hero...
Vision Series & Actor Insights
00:03:17
Speaker
I mean, we have only his word and the word of the triumphant Rainian government to trust. And so the story is some allegations are made against Adam Strange and then Mr. Terrific who ah begins to investigate them because Batman refuses because he's too close to Adam Strange.
00:03:40
Speaker
um It's fascinating. It's so good. I know Batman.
00:03:50
Speaker
I really I'm basic B when it comes to reading comic books. I am almost exclusively ah superheroes. They are almost exclusively marvel or dc ay When you asked if I've read Tom King, the only thing I could think of was he wrote Batman.
00:04:10
Speaker
Yeah, he did. I do want to read his Batman, though, now, ah because everything I've read of his has been great. Yeah, I did read that Vision run and it is very good.
00:04:22
Speaker
Right. Yeah, it's about, you know, the idea of Vision, you know, questioning the level of his to which he is human and swaying too far in either direction may prove problematic.
00:04:38
Speaker
I don't think the ah producers of the Marvel movies ever read that version of Vision, but I do think that Paul Bettany did. I think that's playing in his head.
00:04:51
Speaker
Even though he's not given the direction.
Batman Writers Collaboration
00:04:53
Speaker
I could see Paul Bettany in... that role in the role that Tom King created for vision. yeah Yeah. But again, like his Mr. Miracle, his vision, his Adam strange are way different depictions of those characters than we've ever seen, like way deeper, way more interesting ah than we'd seen outside of those depictions. I, I think, and now I, want again, I want to read his Batman and,
00:05:22
Speaker
yeah You know, there's been such a this is we're falling off of X-Men so hard here, but there's been such a great run of writers on the back on Batman like Grant Morrison and Scott Snyder and ah James Tinian.
Personal Updates & X-Men Analogies
00:05:36
Speaker
And who else? Tom King. Tom King. his name? Did a run on um Detective. Who were you going to say?
00:05:48
Speaker
Zdarsky, Chip Zdarsky. Those six are the runs that I want to read, but that's like 200, 300. two hundred three So much Batman. So did you have you done anything X-Men related this week?
00:06:03
Speaker
I was thinking about this earlier today, Matt, because okay I went to the dentist for ah real fans will know. Some more teeth stuff. Man, every podcast I'm on, I just have to hear about everyone's teeth.
00:06:17
Speaker
I can't help what's happening with your other podcast's teeth. but All right, let's keep hearing about teeth. podcast's teeth are finally fixed. I have my final dentist appointment today.
00:06:30
Speaker
i also got a job. I know I mentioned a little while ago that I was unemployed. I really feel like that moment in an X-Men comic before everything goes horribly wrong. Yeah.
00:06:41
Speaker
ah Everything's finally settled down and now something's going to burst through your wall.
X-Men Issue Highlights
00:06:46
Speaker
Yes, exactly. I do want to address so just one little word you used there, which was last when you said my last dentist visit. i Pat, I don't think that should be your last dentist visit.
00:07:02
Speaker
ah You're right. Inevitably, he I'll have another blinding pain in one of my teeth and that I will probably return to the dentist.
00:07:10
Speaker
You know, an ounce of prevention. What's happening? Do you want to talk about the X-Men with me today? Yeah, I want to talk about ah there's a few specific issues I think we should talk about.
00:07:27
Speaker
I've been meaning to talk to you, Matt, about before we start talking about the issues, we should talk about the significance of this. This will be the end of Arnold Drake's run. He's got. Yeah, he's got one more issue.
00:07:41
Speaker
Then it is the return of Roy Thomas. Oh, boy. Which, hey, don't worry too much about it.
00:07:50
Speaker
Because guess who joins him?
00:07:56
Speaker
Neil M.F. Adams. Hell yeah, buddy. And this is like, okay, we'll get into it as we get there. But I'm very excited about this series of issues. What one are we starting with, though?
00:08:11
Speaker
Well, Matt, we're starting with issue 54 titled Wanted, Dead or Alive, Cyclops. That's dramatic. These pyramidal pyrotechnics by Stan Lee, Chief Pharaoh, Arnold Drake, scroll writer, Don Heck, mummy designer, Vince Greta, hieroglyphics perpetrator, and Gene Izzo, graffiti letterer.
00:08:33
Speaker
don't like this. I'm really confused about who did what on this issue.
00:08:39
Speaker
We open with Cyclops on the ground, two police pointing guns at him, telling him he's under arrest for murder. Whoa. Murder, he says. Cyclops has in I bet you're wondering how I got here a moment. We flash back to earlier that day at the campus of Old Landon College.
00:08:55
Speaker
The X-Men are attending the graduation of Scott's brother, Alex. Scott observes that he's very smart and athletic and wonders if he's also a mutant. Alex goes to change out of his graduation robe after the ceremony, but when he gets to his room, two white men dressed like hieroglyphics characters knock him out and capture him.
00:09:14
Speaker
The X-Men arrive shortly after to see that Alex is missing. They spring into action with Jean reading the psychic energy of the room. huh We cut to the local museum, I think, where another white man dressed as a serpent-themed pharaoh has put Alex Summers in a skirt and is preparing to kill him.
00:09:34
Speaker
Just before he can plunge his dagger into Alex's heart, though, it's shot out of his hand by a powerful beam of force. The X-Men have arrived to save him. Whoa! A battle ensues. Angel is immediately taken out, and the rest of the X-Men team up and beat up on the Pharaoh.
00:09:50
Speaker
But he escapes through the use of magic, which is really just a combination of his mutant zap powers and a smoke bomb that he was keeping in his pocket. The X-Men continue on fighting the Egyptian-themed henchmen. Warren loses again, twice in the same fight, but the rest of the gang have no problem taking the henchmen out.
00:10:09
Speaker
Scott and Jean chase down the Pharaoh, chase him off, ah locating Alex during the action and being and freeing him. Scott refers to Alex as his brother while in his full ex-garb, leading Alex to realize Scott is Cyclops, which he's totally okay with.
00:10:26
Speaker
yeah The rest of the X-Men give the Summers brothers a moment alone to talk through this, but at that moment, the Pharaoh reappears and uses a strange Ankh device to knock them both unconsciously.
00:10:39
Speaker
This brings us back to the first panel. Scott is coming to the police are trying to arrest him and it's the Pharaoh's dead body on the ground next to him. What's worse. Alex is nowhere to be seen.
Cyclops & Egyptian Mythology
00:10:50
Speaker
Scott beats up the police like really whales on him so he can run off and find his brother. The X-Men, who apparently we went back home without Scott, i are distraught to hear that he's wanted for murder and set off to find him.
00:11:06
Speaker
Meanwhile, in his search for Alex, Scott crosses paths with supposedly dead Pharaoh, who's actually alive and well. He explains that he's immortal and the Pharaohs have a thousand lives and that Scott has but one life that he's about to lose.
00:11:20
Speaker
To be continued... How did Scott Summers end up in this exact same position two different times? this is For the second time in three years.
00:11:32
Speaker
The second time in three years, he ends up waking up unconscious in a museum with a police pointing police officer pointing a gun at him. And that happened in the El Tigre issues too, which were also written by Roy Thomas.
00:11:47
Speaker
was In both times, Cyclops just beats the hell out of the cops. ah Wait, this actually, okay, this one's written by Arnold Drake. then Roy Thomas doesn't come until next issue, so he's off the hook.
00:12:01
Speaker
Yeah, you're forgiven. Everybody gets one cyclops coming to being arrested. Hey, Pat. Yeah. Who is this guy?
00:12:13
Speaker
This is a pharaoh. Yeah. He explains that he is a direct descendant of the immortal Pharaohs. Yes, but he's speaking figuratively. He's like, oh, I have Pharaohs have 10,000 lives.
00:12:29
Speaker
He's clearly speaking figuratively.
00:12:33
Speaker
Who is this guy? Yes. yeah but So he's a mutant for sure.
00:12:42
Speaker
He's who didn't know other mutants existed. Except for Alex, who, you know, doesn't even know he's a mutant. Right. He's, he i guess i I neglected to mention this, but he is on a mission to kill Alex Summers.
00:12:58
Speaker
because he sees Alex as the potential to also be a Pharaoh because he's a mutant. The only other one that the Pharaoh has ever seen until the X-Men storm in. And he goes, five more mutants.
00:13:14
Speaker
Who is this guy? All right. It's fine. isn't I am sure they'll explain it next issue. this is the beginning This is the beginning of a story arc with this pharaoh man who at this point doesn't even have a name.
00:13:28
Speaker
He's okay. Here's another maybe if we're poking holes in this guy's backstory. What backstory?
00:13:37
Speaker
i He's quoting Greek mythologies. At the X-Men. He beats the hell out of Warren. He tells him that he's taking him down, melting his wings like Icarus.
00:13:48
Speaker
Yeah. So either Arnold Drake doesn't know the difference between Greek and Egyptian cultures, or this man ah is something other than just a...
00:14:05
Speaker
Like what he appears to be, which like it seems like almost they're implying, oh, he's a long dead Egyptian pharaoh or something who came back to life. Right. But anyway, well, again, I'm sure they'll explain it next issue.
00:14:22
Speaker
We don't have to worry about it. Hey, here's another question. ah Yeah, yeah. Go ahead. This isn't a question. This is a statement, but it will be followed by many questions. First of all, like statement.
00:14:34
Speaker
Alex Summers is here. Yeah. The future. ah i won't spoil it. Whatever's going to happen. Whatever. This might be this guy's only appearance.
00:14:48
Speaker
Yeah, what if he dies?
00:14:52
Speaker
We never see Alex Summers again. He's very sweet about finding out Scott is Cyclops, right? Yeah, yeah. He discovers Scott's a mutant and that Scott is the leader of the X-Men and he's like, hey,
00:15:09
Speaker
you're so You're the greatest. You rule. You're awesome. Man, I thought you were awesome before. Now I think you're so awesome. but like what What a sweetheart this jock is. Wow.
00:15:20
Speaker
My brother, the leader of the X-Men. What a guy. But... but guy but I here's my question. Why is he not more angry at Cyclops? Because number one, Cyclops is never mentioned to anyone that he has a brother.
00:15:36
Speaker
Number two, we've seen the X-Men get vacations and go home to see their family five different times. And every single time Cyclops is like, I have nobody, so I'll stay here. Or. I'll go sulk by myself in the woods.
00:15:51
Speaker
And he's thinking it to himself. It's not like it's a secret that he's trying to cover for out loud. So like his brother has to be at college going, God, why does my brother never visit me? That guy must hate me.
00:16:07
Speaker
Or he just, he doesn't even know that Scott gets vacations. Like, oh, I guess he's just so He's so busy. We find out some lore here, which is that apparently all pharaohs are mutants.
00:16:24
Speaker
Yeah. Now does that... Now does that... Okay, so every Egyptian pharaoh in the, you know, golden age of Egypt was a mutant.
00:16:36
Speaker
Does that explain... Apocalypse or contradict apocalypse? I don't know who that is, Matt. So we're going to jump ahead and talk about apocalypse for a second because apocalypse is we'll meet him in like 15 years, right? He is this immortal mutant who is obsessed with ah survival of the fittest and testing mutants against each other. So the only the strongest survive and he
00:17:08
Speaker
So...
00:17:12
Speaker
who because of his powers resvered as a god it name is en saba no so Either what the living Pharaoh says confirms this.
00:17:23
Speaker
Oh, yeah, because all Pharaohs were mutants. yes so Apocalypse is just another one of them. Right. Or it contradicts it directly because it's like, well, then Apocalypse wouldn't have been that big of a deal. it make special.
00:17:36
Speaker
Yeah. Except that we see this other one who is kind of a doofus.
00:17:44
Speaker
Well, we don't know anything about him yet. They'll reveal all of his origins next issues, I'm sure. I'm sure. i one last thing. i please Yeah, there's got to be more than one last thing. there's The whole the entire gimmick.
00:18:03
Speaker
just Number one makes me think that he isn't really a pharaoh, that this dude is just nuts. Yeah. But number two, i am absolutely in love with. ah Number one, the magic.
00:18:17
Speaker
the The fact that he's got mutant powers, he's also got just smoke bombs. Like, you can buy them in a toy store in the 60s in his pockets, and he's doing these things and calling them magic. That's very, like, Egyptian magician, right?
00:18:32
Speaker
ah It's very Maha Yogi of him. ah Yeah. um
00:18:39
Speaker
And then he's, look, this is clearly an Italian-American man. LAUGHTER As are all of his henchmen. His henchmen who he keeps in sarcophagus. Sarcophagi.
00:18:55
Speaker
And he's like, he presses a button, all the sarcophagi open and his henchmen rush out. They've just been sitting in there? They've oh just been hanging out in there. When they pop out, they're all dressed like Steve Martin as King Tut.
00:19:16
Speaker
this is This is not someone that's familiar with Egyptian history. This is somebody that has seen a few movies and was like, yeah that's going to be my supervillain thing. That must be the origin we get later in. the Why did the X-Men go home?
00:19:31
Speaker
Why did the X-Men go? They beat! They're like, oh, Scott, we'll give you a minute with your brother here now that he knows that you're Cyclops. I want to be very clear about the order of events here. They're fighting the Pharaoh.
00:19:44
Speaker
The Pharaoh releases his henchmen. They defeat the henchmen. They don't touch the Pharaoh. They defeat the henchmen. And then Scott, in a hurry, is like, oh I have to free my brother.
00:20:01
Speaker
Freeze him. The two start talking. Pharaoh must be, like, in the room. which And the henchmen are there, too, just unconscious.
00:20:14
Speaker
The X-Men are like, we'll give you guys a minute. We're gonna go all the way home.
00:20:20
Speaker
was like, what? What about the Pharaoh? And how is Scott getting home? What are you doing? I like to picture that they were like, okay, we'll give you guys a minute to talk through your your brother issues. They step out of the room. They stand around for like five minutes and then say, what were what were we doing?
00:20:45
Speaker
Angel was probably the first one to completely forget what he was doing. Yeah, and just start complaining that they're standing around. Bobby and Hank were off smoking pot in the corner. yeah Yeah, exactly. And Gene's like, no, we have to wait for Scott. And all of them like, oh, oh girl one you're always being You're always saying the weirdest stuff.
00:21:07
Speaker
Whatever you say, female. And I picture Warren saying like, Well, I'm flying home. So if you want to stay together as a team, you guys should get in the plane and fly home.
00:21:24
Speaker
Yeah, it's a very strange moment because Scott even says, i have to free my brother and then we'll chase after those. The henchmen aren't unconscious. They ran away. i just remembered this.
00:21:35
Speaker
So Scott even says, I'll free my brother and then we can go get those henchmen. And then the moment Alex starts talking, everyone's like, okay, we're gonna we're actually going to go home.
00:21:47
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. date I think even Angel was like, we have to go chase those guys down. They're getting away. And Cyclops is like, wait, okay, let me free my brother first, and then we'll go get him.
00:21:59
Speaker
And then I guess, yeah, then Angel forgot what he was doing. Because it's Angel. They're at home panicking. They get too panicked. They get two panels where they're listening to the news and the news is like, Scott Summers wanted for murder. Or they were saying Cyclops, not Scott Summers. they dont they're And they're just like,
00:22:20
Speaker
oh oh that guy. That's what we were forgetting. right pat do you want me to tell you about issue 55? The living Pharaoh.
00:22:34
Speaker
i Only if Roy Thomas returns for it. he He will. With Don Heck doing layouts, Werner Roth penciling, Vince Coletta is our inkerer, inkerer, and Gene Izzo is our letterer.
00:22:50
Speaker
The inkerer. Do you know about Vince Coletta?
00:22:56
Speaker
Uh, no. Vince Coletta is a very strange figure in Marvel Comics. He was known for getting work done very, very quickly. And he got it done very quickly by just absolutely savaging the artwork.
00:23:13
Speaker
Oh. Just not doing certain lines, covering over people in shadows. Okay. Like, that that was a thing he used to do. i think Was it to Jack Kirby?
00:23:24
Speaker
Where Jack Kirby would draw, like, a whole background. I might be wrong about this being Jack Kirby, but the artist would draw a whole background, and Vince Coletta would just ink over the whole thing.
00:23:36
Speaker
Instead of trying to trace each translated line. Exactly. And Vince Coletta used to tell everybody that his family was in the mob. And dress like a mobster.
00:23:50
Speaker
Oh, no.
00:23:53
Speaker
What a nerd. So he'll be coming after this podcast pretty soon, I'm sure. Okay, so the living pharaoh... Which, with a title like that, they're definitely going to get to his origin. So don't worry about it, Pat.
00:24:07
Speaker
I knew you were worried last issue. So we open where we left off, where Scott names this pharaoh guy the Living Pharaoh. No, he's never used that term before.
00:24:20
Speaker
Somebody had to give him a name. it's been This his second issue. It's because he's a pharaoh. He said he was a pharaoh and he's not dead. so he's the living pharaoh. He's stunned to find him still alive while being wanted for his murder.
00:24:40
Speaker
The pharaoh attempts to kill Scott, but as Scott points out, ah the pharaoh is too used to killing the weak and hasn't had a challenge like Scott before. ah Scott gains the upper hand after a sick fucking ricochet shot of his optic blast, but Noah's he needs to keep the Pharaoh conscious if he's going to find out where his brother is.
00:25:00
Speaker
Meanwhile, The X-Men are flying around New York having Jean send out mental signals for Scott. Like it's a key father in a car she forgot where she parked. Scott and Pharaoh trade blows, but because Scott's holding back, the Pharaoh eventually knocks him unconscious.
00:25:17
Speaker
Jean loses Scott's mental signal just as quick as she finds it, but explains to the rest of the gang that she sensed a mental pattern just like Scott's, but incredibly evil!
00:25:30
Speaker
This does not come up ever again. Nope. The Pharaoh and his henchmen pack up the unconscious Scott in a box and the unconscious Alex in a sarcophagus, and they head for Egypt.
00:25:42
Speaker
Scott is also equipped with another new helmet device that keeps him from using his eye beams. This one's pretty sleek. Yeah. if Hey, it didn't work the first time.
00:25:55
Speaker
It didn't work the second time. Hasn't worked the third time.
00:26:00
Speaker
This one's got to stick. I don't think so. The X-Men still... one look like a ninja. The X-Men still flying around, pick up Scott's mental signal when their planes happen to cross paths, but Pharaoh uses his Ankh device to shoot the X-Men's jet out of the air.
00:26:19
Speaker
We've got another, another, ah the leitmotif. All the X-Men's vehicles get destroyed. put it let's Put another tally on the board. Bobby and Warren team up to prevent them all from crashing to the ground, but they can't follow Scott and Alex any further.
00:26:36
Speaker
We, the readers, arrive in Egypt where Scott is slamming his forehead against the sarcophagus that
00:26:47
Speaker
god sarcophagus that Alex is trapped in as hard as he can over and over and over. This serves two purposes. One, loosening his helmet, and two, freeing Alex.
00:26:58
Speaker
It works.
00:27:03
Speaker
A master strategist.
00:27:09
Speaker
And he's just smashing his face it into a stone box.
00:27:21
Speaker
Someone wrote this. Someone was like, oh, here's a great idea. came up.
00:27:31
Speaker
when Don, when Don Heck drew it, he was just like, yeah, and then he slams his own face into it. He's not even centering his forehead. He's just waving his head around.
00:27:48
Speaker
also, the pharaoh told him this was a cloth. but
00:27:55
Speaker
It's It's a hood.
00:28:04
Speaker
Oh my god. It works. Sorry everybody. We've never laughed that hard on this show. Oh my god. Okay. Oh, here was.
00:28:15
Speaker
Alright.
00:28:19
Speaker
Fuck. Okay. So Alex and Scott are both free. They start tearing through the henchmen, but the Pharaoh is informed they've escaped and shows up with his onk device to finish them off.
00:28:31
Speaker
But before he can bring down his wrath, Warren appears, lifts him into the air, spins him around really fast, and then tosses him down on top of the pyramid. Unclear.
00:28:43
Speaker
Oh, yeah. another fun fight between them and the henchmen with alex even tossing a few punches alex notices that the pharaoh is channeling some sort of energy into his octa device at the top of the pyramid acting on instinct suddenly a burst of energy flies from alex's hand and topples the pharaoh off the top of the pyramid The Pharaoh is suddenly powerless and commands his henchmen to flee. He is defeated.
00:29:11
Speaker
Meanwhile, Alex is coming to terms with this new reality. You, Alex Summers, are a mutant. Whoa. The funniest part of this issue in my, well, besides ya is when Angel shows up to defeat the Pharaoh.
00:29:33
Speaker
First, we don't know what's going on. But the Pharaoh says like, wait, something is holding me back. What could this possibly be? he says that he starts, he starts being lifted in the air and he says, and now I am lifted into the very sky.
00:29:51
Speaker
Such a thing is impossible. Angel is just holding on to the back of his cape. Pulling up on his cape. Thomas is back, baby.
00:30:06
Speaker
He's so confused. This is a theme with the Pharaoh is every time anything happens, the Pharaoh is just mortally confused by it. And has very Shakespearean monologue about it.
00:30:24
Speaker
Oh, man. how did What did you feel about this issue? i i thought we got nothing more about the Pharaoh. Yeah, who the fuck is this guy? Seriously.
00:30:37
Speaker
i' I'm sure we'll get to it next issue. It seems like they're building to something here. You're right. Yeah, they're building to like a... You're right. You're right. They will definitely explain it in the next issue. But it's starting to really get to me.
00:30:51
Speaker
But again, you're right. I'm sure it's i I thought this issue was better than the last one.
00:31:02
Speaker
Mm-hmm. yeah don' I don't think that makes it good. I think it's still very confusing. i but The plot is getting lost in the pursuit of character development and not in a fun way.
00:31:18
Speaker
Yeah. And I really like the idea that like, yeah, hey, here's another... here's us expanding the world of mutants even, even more.
00:31:28
Speaker
Scott has a brother. You didn't know because he thought he was an orphan, but he's, he's got family and that family can do things too. Like they, over the course of these last two issues, they drop seven hints that, uh, Alex is going to have mutant powers. Right.
00:31:48
Speaker
Right. Because one thing that we kind of know is that, being a mutant heightens all your other physical attributes to some extent.
00:32:00
Speaker
Mutants are a little more rugged, like a little more, um their health bar, their strength and deck stats are just a little bit bigger than a normal humans.
00:32:11
Speaker
You know, I think they often say like, um, uh, your average mutant is like your, is like your peak athlete or something. And it's also how they can constantly explain why mutants are taking just mortal blows ah from their enemies and not dying. punishmentish Yeah.
00:32:32
Speaker
It's like, oh, their skin's just a little tougher than yours, I think. So we see, you know, again, Havoc being like a peak athlete and them talking about how like, oh, wow, he's actually really good in a fight. And like, they're talking about how.
00:32:47
Speaker
It seems to be his ah relationship to mutants that is making him so athletically adept. and But Scott's like, but thank goodness he doesn't have any other powers.
00:32:59
Speaker
And then, yeah of course. Scott's in denial. That's all it is. i What's up? there's there's just There's not much more to talk about here. Yeah, it's all little stuff.
00:33:14
Speaker
Yeah, it's ah it's mostly about Scott's relationship to Alex through action, through like some long, detailed fight scenes. And the fight scenes are pretty good. like There's some really cool moves between them.
00:33:28
Speaker
I guess. But then it starts to devolve. Maybe this is where you were going, but like they are... ah taking some very strange angles on some of the fights here. yeah And they're doing this thing where they're trying to... they're They're kind of trying to do that same thing that Jim Sturanko was doing in the issues we talked about last episode where they're playing around with like panel layout and yeah even the shape of panels.
00:33:59
Speaker
yeah Sort of trying to do cinematic angles, but they are... not hitting the mark you know just it's uncomfortable to look at it's like it's annoying yeah especially there's a yeah there's a fight scene early on where it's just you have a hard time seeing what's going on there's just like feet or as a head or like a fist i don't know i think this might work a little better in a more modern comic
00:34:30
Speaker
Where all you need to know is a fight's happening. But because it's an older comic. Everybody's talking the whole time. So you kind of want to know Who's who and what just happened. To make sense of what they're saying.
00:34:42
Speaker
Yeah yeah. yeah And they're not even attributing the dialogue bubbles to people. Like you just kind of have to figure it out. It's supposed to be implied. Who's saying what. Right. This is I think.
00:34:55
Speaker
And I hate to say it Because I love the guy. This Werner Roth's worst art. Hey, there's nothing wrong with a one hitter. Right? i he's I'm mixing my metaphors here. He's no longer batting a thousand, which is yeah shame, but ah still an incredible average.
00:35:20
Speaker
Especially because, i mean, this is the end of his run on X-Men, right? he'll do it He'll do backup features ah for the rest of...
00:35:31
Speaker
um like the next two issues, I think. Which we'll get to Everybody relax. We'll talk about the the backup feature issues.
00:35:42
Speaker
Yeah, just chill out. i know Slow down with the emails. Mutantmenicepod at gmail.com. ah he also This is also his last work at Marvel, I believe. he was writing king or He was drawing Kid Colt at this time, but then he only works at DC until his ah unfortunate passing in 1973.
00:36:02
Speaker
Oof. Yeah. yeah Unfortunately, it was gruesome, or just we're sad that he's dead. We're sad that he's dead. I don't know.
00:36:14
Speaker
I don't know how he dies. I say that like it's like like he's a comic book character. I don't i don't know how he died. No, I died just don't know. I don't know what happened to him. Okay.
00:36:26
Speaker
So he might have exploded. but We don't know. Yeah, he might have ah eaten his own pencil in the middle of drawing a comic.
00:36:37
Speaker
ah Come on now, that's disrespectful. Okay, there are... ah okay two with there there are Two great Scott moments. One is just worth mentioning again.
00:36:50
Speaker
Scott really just slams his head against that sarcophagus. He has massive brain damage. There's no doubt in my mind. ah Oh, yeah, yeah.
00:37:01
Speaker
Number two. This with a guy who already has brain damage. Like, already. Yeah, undoubtedly. starts with brain damage, and now he's giving himself even worse brain damage. Maybe he's immune to brain damage now.
00:37:15
Speaker
He can just take as much brain damage as he wants because he's already got it. yeah It's like chickenpox. Okay, so what's the other great Scott? Another great Scott moment here is that in the presence of an ancient historic being, he's sarcastically calling him Mr. Oh yeah, Mr. He's...
00:37:40
Speaker
oh yeah mrter he's Oh, yeah. p The Pharaoh's threatening him. And he goes, oh, yeah, mister. ever hear of a guy called Magneto? ah This is a personality trait of where this is just like a verbal tick of Cyclops is that happens forever is he calls everybody. Mr. Every writer seems to pick up on it. So every writer seems to do it. He's just always calling people. Mr. It's so disrespectful. and love it.
00:38:13
Speaker
This is a king. We think. We don't know who this guy is. Also, I love when um the pharaoh is shooting his onk device at the X-Men.
00:38:26
Speaker
They start shouting, oh, no, he's bathing us in rays.
00:38:32
Speaker
so no. Not rays. It's anything but rays. My one weakness, rays.
00:38:41
Speaker
Watch out. There's rays around here. all right well all right no one more thing one more thing i love the idea of the x-men just cruising around in a jet like they they are just this is their search plan is they're going around new york eventually they just happened to cross paths with a private flight out of JFK to Egypt and make a connection. But their plan is just to fly around all of earth until they find the person they're looking for. And it works. This is what they love to do. X-Men and their villains. They're just like, I know there's somewhere around here by which I mean an entire state or an entire city or the entire world.
00:39:32
Speaker
All right, Pat, I i want to hear you tell me about issue 56. six We'll finally get the origin of this fucking guy. We don't even know his name. and Before I do that, can I ask you a question?
00:39:47
Speaker
Yeah. What is the power?
00:39:53
Speaker
Okay, well, um there's a couple different definitions. Wrong. and It is the name of this issue, issue 56. What is the Power? a five-star feature by Stan Lee, editor, Roy Thomas, scripter, Tom Palmer, inker, Herb Cooper, letterer, and introducing the penciling wizardry of Neil Adams.
00:40:16
Speaker
Neil Adams is here! Holy shit, dude! Who's this guy? Okay. Okay. Neil Adams was an artist who ah worked for DC. I'm not going to go all the way into him. I think we can get a little bit more into this starts the great Neil Adams and Roy Thomas run on X-Men, which we'll cover more in depth next issue.
00:40:40
Speaker
But I want to tell one little story about Neil Adams. It is the... tale of how he started drawing the X-Men. He was working for DC. He was doing a ah ah book called Dead Man, or at least a Dead Man feature in another book, and doing these like really interesting experimental panel layouts, and kind of like Steranko, but a lot more cinematic and less... What is Steranko's like?
00:41:09
Speaker
Or I guess Steranko's more cinematic and... Adams is sort of using the medium of comic books to its full extent, right? ah Yeah, he's a little less grounded, but without sacrificing the the realism.
00:41:24
Speaker
Right, right. So he went to, he was working for DC, and then he went to Marvel looking for work there, and allegedly had a meeting with Stan Lee where he said, what's your worst selling book?
00:41:38
Speaker
And Stan said, oh, that's the X-Men. We're going to cancel that soon anyway, which Roy Thomas disputes. He's like, Stan wouldn't know what books we were canceling. But he said, what's your worst selling book? Stan said X-Men. And Neil said, I'll take that one.
00:41:55
Speaker
He also used his own name, Neil Adams, which was anathema at the time. You remember Werner Roth used the name Jay Gavin so that he could keep his DC work because DC paid better than Marvel.
00:42:09
Speaker
But Marvel were like the cool guys and DC were like the uptight businessmen. So everyone wanted to work for Marvel, but they had to work for DC because DC ah paid better.
00:42:20
Speaker
Actually paid a living wage. Exactly. So Neil Adams was just like, I'm just going to put my name, Neil Adams, on this book. And then when he was called into, who was who was the editor at that time? It was either Julie Schwartz or that guy that everyone hated that was before Julie Schwartz.
00:42:40
Speaker
But he was called it into his office and it's like, who was like, hey, is this you? And Neil was like, yep.
00:42:49
Speaker
And the guy, Neil Adams, knew he was the best guy going. He knew he wasn't going to get fired. and so Yeah, yeah. He's just daring them to do it.
00:43:00
Speaker
Exactly. DC's editor-in-chief is like, get out of here. they like Kept his job. And so from then on, artists didn't have to use pen names anymore.
00:43:13
Speaker
That's sick. Yeah. What a story. It seems like a, let's we let's see what he can do. Okay, all right, all right. The X-Men are cruising around Egyptian excavation sites in a flying car looking for some sort of authority that they can leave the defeated Pharaoh with.
00:43:30
Speaker
They have no idea what to do with this guy. i They stop off at a Sphinx to look around, but it's empty. Or is it? a powerful blast shoots out from the wall and stuns the X-Men while more Egyptian-themed henchmen start pouring in. Where does it get all these guys?
00:43:48
Speaker
The henchmen... rescue the Pharaoh, recapture Alex and fly away. The X-Men are defeated, but Angel pushes through and manages to follow the Pharaoh and his crew for probably like 10, 15 seconds before they shoot him out of the sky.
00:44:03
Speaker
The rest of the X-Men come to, and Jean goes into a very cool, intense psychic focus to locate Warren and establish a mental connection with him. We'll come back to this.
00:44:15
Speaker
Warren, meanwhile, has managed to pick himself back up and follow the Pharaoh at a distance to an identical temple miles away from the last one. He is stunned.
00:44:25
Speaker
He hangs up on Gene. In this new temple, the pharaoh explains to his captive, Alex Summers, that the two of them actually share a cosmic power. When Alex discovered his power in the last issue, it actually left the pharaoh powerless.
00:44:41
Speaker
The pharaoh has known this all along and plans to kill Alex so he doesn't have to share this power with anyone. ah So he locks Alex in a glass chamber that zaps all the cosmic rays from his body. What?
00:44:53
Speaker
At full power, the Pharaoh now transforms into the living monolith. He finally gives himself a name. A 40-foot goblin with an absolutely ridiculous hat.
00:45:03
Speaker
He keeps the name living. He's like, I like living. i hate, i hate i hate. He trans the now transforms into a 40-foot goblin with an absolutely ridiculous hat.
00:45:19
Speaker
ah The X-Men do their best, but they are no match for this new form. As he gains the upper hand, we cut to Alex desperately trying to escape his glass chamber. He wonders if he can still access this cosmic power he just discovered.
00:45:34
Speaker
Back outside, the X-Men are surely doomed, but suddenly the living monolith starts losing power and shrinking while the temple behind him crumbles to the ground with Alex still inside.
00:45:46
Speaker
But as the smoke clears, we see Alex still standing among the debris, bristling with power he can't control. To be continued.
00:45:57
Speaker
all right, Pat, who in the fuck is this guy? Seriously, who the fuck is this guy? Oh, Matt, he's the living monolith. Who the fuck is this guy? We know nothing about him.
00:46:08
Speaker
he a human? is he an ancient god? is he able to What's he been doing? Where's he from? What even his name? Here's one for you, Matt.
00:46:19
Speaker
What's ah his goal?
00:46:26
Speaker
Who is this guy? I'm so they have another issue. He's clearly they just defeated him. He's there. They're going to interrogate him.
00:46:37
Speaker
We're going to find out next issue. We're going to find out all about his backstory. I'm sure. Yeah, I'm sure we'll get to it. He didn't seem surprised by this living monolith thing where he transforms into a giant, which makes me ask, why didn't he just do that before alex Summers was born?
00:46:55
Speaker
If he was alive, we don't know. This guy could be 21 for all. That's true. Why did ah also ah so Alex got his he got a new power, right? Like he developed his mutant powers.
00:47:08
Speaker
That's the big difference between him. Last issue and this issue. Also, oh, he's blonde now.
00:47:15
Speaker
Right. This happened to Lorna, too. Well, said she was she always had green hair. ah She just had to wash it, and she just washed out her hair dye, her brown hair dye.
00:47:27
Speaker
But I guess the same thing happened to Havoc. I guess he was always blonde and embarrassed about it. So he was dyed his hair brown, but when all the solar rays came out of his head, it knocked the hair dye out. So did the inside of his like glass sarcophagus that he was kept in just has spatters of brown hair dye.
00:47:54
Speaker
Warren gets caught again. yeah You can fly. ah giant shouldn't be a threat to you because you can just fly higher than he is. yeah Why don't you do that instead of just flying in front of him so he can grab you?
00:48:10
Speaker
It's when Warren gets shot down from the sky when he's when he's chasing after whatever. Yeah. This guy. Yeah. whatever yeah this guy Yeah, he's chasing after this guy, whoever the whoever this guy is.
00:48:25
Speaker
He says, I'm going to make sure I get it right here. So they fire concussion missiles at him. And as he's falling from the sky, he says, my son, the superhero.
00:48:38
Speaker
Pat, why does he say this? I think this is a take and maybe our listeners can help us here, but this is a take on the name of a TV show from the seventies or maybe a popular book.
00:48:52
Speaker
My son, the something. and he's doing his take on this. I don't know if that's a Googleable phrase without the, the context without like the rest of the sentence. Yeah.
00:49:09
Speaker
Huh. My son, the superhero, as he's falling from the sky. ah yeah I mean, like it sounds like he's talking from the perspective of his dad or something, or his mom, sarcastically.
00:49:22
Speaker
beat Like, oh, there's my son, that great superhero getting shot out of the sky again, right? like But why would he be talking about that? Why would he be saying that at this moment? I think it's more of i like a distressed parent than a disappointed parent.
00:49:39
Speaker
My son, the superhero! No, just like my son. I have to live with the fact that this sort of thing is going to happen to him and Because he's a superhero.
00:49:49
Speaker
It's just a weird perspective to suddenly start speaking from. But you're right. Maybe it's a cultural reference. He also just, this is a thing he didn't used to do, right, Pat? He starts, he just, in these past few issues, he just keeps talking about how he's a bird.
00:50:05
Speaker
He didn't used to do this, but he's just constantly talking about how he's a bird and comparing himself to a bird. I think that's a confidence thing. i think They're squishing me like a canary.
00:50:17
Speaker
Yeah. He's just like, you know what? I'll make the bird comparisons to take the power away from other people making bird comparisons. some point, he says he's molting.
00:50:29
Speaker
He calls himself a canary. calls himself like all sorts of different bird names. Maybe you're right. Maybe he's he's finally coming into himself. He's like, you know what? I am a bird guy. Embrace it. This issue is beautiful, dude.
00:50:42
Speaker
Oh my God. The, uh, I told you we'd come back to it, but the visual representation of Jean concentrating hard enough to be able to establish mental contact with Warren.
00:50:53
Speaker
Right. ah half page panel, a brilliant spread of color ah with, uh, Neil Adams's interpretation of psychic power being used, being her mask sort of like magnifying and, ah changing shape.
00:51:12
Speaker
It's really you. I don't know if my words are doing it justice here. It's sort of it's also the. it It's like her eyes become.
00:51:23
Speaker
The. ah Her eyes like separate from her. Well, no, she's in the center I can't do it justice either. But it's it it feels like the beginning of this idea that like floating eyeballs are a symbol for making psychic connections.
00:51:44
Speaker
and Yeah, yeah. Sort of like the translucent eyes appearing over somebody's head. Is this the beginning of the you know the the symbolism of pink for psychic powers? Yeah.
00:51:57
Speaker
Yes. Yeah, I don't think we've seen that before. if we have, it's in a very different way. This is one of the first few times that we're seeing a representation of psychic powers that isn't just like some weird beam shooting out.
00:52:12
Speaker
Yeah. Some of these, yeah, some of these images are great. i The moment where... whoever that guy is turns into the living monolith and bursts out of the pyramid and grabs Warren.
00:52:29
Speaker
He looks massive. Like we've seen giants in this, in the X-Men before, but they're generally just like, They'll put them side by side with the X-Men and just be like, look, they're twice as tall or something.
00:52:45
Speaker
This is, he's taking up the whole page. It feels like he's going to burst through the panel. And the X-Men who are kind of normal size still look tiny, right? Like they're not drawn super tiny.
00:52:59
Speaker
They're drawn at normal sizes, but monolith is just so big. You get this just sense of scope that we haven't gotten in the art before. Yeah, not just that, but the the intimidating nature of it, too. Like, it's not just here's a big thing, here's a small thing. It's here's a big thing that's going to fucking overpower you.
00:53:20
Speaker
Right. It's like a tidal wave coming at them. It's crazy. In comparison, there's a very funny, like, blink and you miss it moment where, so the living monolith starts shrinking, as you said, but wherever he got this armor...
00:53:38
Speaker
i We don't see him put on this weird armor. No, he must have had it lying around somewhere, right? Because he's not wearing it before he transforms. He's wearing it after he transforms.
00:53:49
Speaker
And when he bursts out of the pyramid, it must not be, oh he's grown so big the pyramid can't contain him. He must have grown that big, put on the armor, and then ran and jumped out of the pyramid, right? Right. There's ah there's a frame missing here because... When he gets small again, there's this tiny little image of his, like, steel underwear lying on the ground just a naked human body draped inside of it.
00:54:19
Speaker
You just see, like, his feet and his upper chest and... On either side of these big metal underwear. New little legs, said bit and then he's resting in it like a tent.
00:54:31
Speaker
Matt, what's the deal with his hat? like don't I don't know. it is it is It's just... So picture a helmet, but then two spiky ears shooting out of the side.
00:54:45
Speaker
And then...
00:54:48
Speaker
It seems like just a useless piece of sheet metal bent in half resting on top. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So it's like a Roman centurion helmet, but the the bottom halves are spiky and facing like outward, like you said, like ears.
00:55:06
Speaker
And behind it is almost like a cobra hood of metal. Yeah. But it's not a hood that goes around the sides at all. It just kind of like, it looks like he's got a spring on top of his head.
00:55:19
Speaker
And if you look closely, there's some like weird metal bands extending from it just out into nowhere. And then, of course, i metal underwear.
00:55:32
Speaker
And then big metal underwear. Big shiny metal underwear. And, yeah. It's a very weird design, but... He still looks cool when he bursts out of the... And, like, he's got Kirby crackle for ah his mouth and his eyes.
00:55:49
Speaker
Really good. Really good stuff. Yeah. Also, the last two pages of this issue were... Alex starts to feel his power and then we cut back to the X-Men fighting the living monolith. And then we see the temple crumble. Yeah. You see Alex sort of like standing there as the smoke clears.
00:56:08
Speaker
This all absolutely gorgeous. Like just the the sense of scale and then the sense of emotion, the fear in Alex's Summers eyes as the the energy is crackling out of them.
00:56:22
Speaker
Yes. It's really, uh,
00:56:26
Speaker
you can feel it. It's really impressive stuff. Yeah. Neil Adams has a way of making this sort of, uh, the amazing feel palpable, feel tangible.
00:56:38
Speaker
Another really good Scott moment in this issue. i he gets hit in the back of the head with a flying car.
00:56:46
Speaker
It's going damage. It's going like 30 miles an hour. He's a head of steel. This man, ah Pat, do you have anything else to say about this issue before I tell you about issue 57?
00:57:05
Speaker
Yes. Don't say the title yet. Okay. We also get a good Iceman moment. Okay. i Bobby, when he is wrestling with the Pharaoh, says, here's where Iceman makes you holler, uncle.
00:57:24
Speaker
Extremely Bobby. That's a very Bobby thing to say. All right, I'm going to say the name of the title now. Issue 57, The Sentinels Live! Or The Sentinels Live!
00:57:37
Speaker
i think I think it was the first one. Stanley presents a mutant masterwork by... Roy Thomas and Neil Adams with Tom Palmer inking and Sam Rosen lettering. ah our issue opens with Lorna Dane. Lorna Dune. At her du her new Manhattan apartment. I guess she moved from San Francisco or whatever was.
00:58:02
Speaker
um She's wearing her full costume, ah lamenting the fact that her powers seem to be fading when she hears a knock at the door before she has time to answer it. In burst two sentinels.
00:58:15
Speaker
Hard cut. Oh, shit. to egypt where the x-men are gazing upon the mostly nude alex summers who just blasted apart an entire fucking pyramid alex is in anguish because he's afraid his powers will only cause harm and chaos uh would you say havoc maybe and he doesn't what what is what do you mean by that i just mean that's a good word for Yeah, I thought harm and chaos were also fun.
00:58:45
Speaker
Okay, well I thought havoc might be. i Just in case people wanted clarification, I think. Anyway, he doesn't want anyone to come near him. Some Egyptian authorities, I guess, ride up on camels and recognize the depowered living pharaoh slash monolith at once as Professor Abdal, the archaeologist. All right, we're going to get some origin here. I'm sure I can feel it, Pat. okay Yeah, yes. All right.
00:59:12
Speaker
So, Abdaal slash Pharaoh slash Monolith immediately rats out Alex to push the blame off of himself. When the X-Men argue that, no, it was in fact Abdaal who did all the villainy, the authorities take Abdaal's side. They turn their guns on Alex, who immediately blasts them, but the guns, with his new power, and the X-Men rush in to subdue the authorities.
00:59:39
Speaker
Alex, frightened, runs away into the desert and takes refuge in a cave where another sentinel finds him. shit. Meanwhile, Scott yells a racial slur at the Egyptians and blasts them all with a wide optic blast, deciding he doesn't care what damage he ends up doing to them because they made his brother run away.
00:59:59
Speaker
The X-Men begin to search the desert for Alex but have no luck when they remember that Cerebro exists. They call Lorna on a video phone in their weird hover car and see that she is missing and her apartment's been trashed.
01:00:17
Speaker
The X-Men split up with Hank and Bobby heading home to check on Lorna and Gene, Scott and Warren staying behind to search for Alex. Also, there's a moment where a man in a weird helmet is angry. Iceman and Beast arrive at Lorna's house only to find the police there.
01:00:33
Speaker
no time for that nowing Iceman freezes their gun and one of the police Pat this is wild one of the cops throws a chair one handed because his other hand is frozen to a gun Oh, I can't shoot you?
01:00:52
Speaker
Throws a chair at the Beast hard enough to knock him out of a window. strip He's got super strength and super balance.
01:01:04
Speaker
And this human cop picks up a chair with one hand throws it so hard it knocks Beast out of a window. Probably roided out.
01:01:13
Speaker
fucking cops uh so he falls to his death and he's dead and um that's the end of hank mccoy no at the last second a pillar of ice appears an iceman and beast take it on the lamb i should be more clear and a pillar of ice appears and you know a beast swings down it and then iceman beast take it off and it was iceman that did the pillar of ice we Who knows?
01:01:38
Speaker
No, yes, of course it was. um So they the two break into Scott's New York apartment and turn on the TV only to find that Larry Trask, son of Bolivar Trask, remember him? Son bitch.
01:01:53
Speaker
Bolivar Trask was the inventor of the Sentinels from like issue, was that 12 through 14 or something? Something like that. Yeah, way back. he' Larry has taken up his father's crusade against the...
01:02:06
Speaker
Mutant Menace! Yes. He believes that the X-Men killed his father and has restarted the Sentinel program. Bobby and Hank stare at the TV in disbelief as we see a Sentinel stalking them through the window.
01:02:21
Speaker
To be continued next episode. We're not going to get to that this episode. Yeah, yeah. It is worth pointing out before we talk about this that there's also a little one-off featurette for Jean and her strange ah female ways.
01:02:43
Speaker
Yeah, I'm sure this isn't going to be sexist at all. i What is it called, Pat? It's called The Female of the Species. Oh my God. Okay. Yeah. Probably written by some chauvinist Marvel.
01:02:56
Speaker
Oh, uh, Linda fight.
01:03:01
Speaker
Who's Linda Fite? Linda She was largely like an associate editor at Marvel. She was put on a few Roy Thomas projects. Apparently she was sort of tight with him. And I guess this is an era where he was getting a little more editorial power. okay So he was throwing her on second story features like this one.
01:03:23
Speaker
ah Eventually, she got thrown a series called The Cat. It was Marvel's very short-lived attempt to appeal to women by writing superheroes that they thought would appeal to them. So the first thing editorial thought of was The Cat and said, find a woman to write this. is that who That's who becomes Hellcat, right? Yeah.
01:03:46
Speaker
I don't think it is the same person. I think it is, yes, very ah essentially the same costume design as Hellcat and the same power set as well.
01:03:57
Speaker
That's so interesting well because, sorry. no, no. Hellcat is also, like Hellcat's also an interesting piece of Marvel history because Hellcat is Patsy Walker.
01:04:09
Speaker
who used to be a ah like a Marvel character. Like a romance comic. Yeah, right. um She was a Marvel character in her own right, and then became Hellcat, which I guess was based on the costume, the cat.
01:04:26
Speaker
Sort of the same. So we're just speculating here. But Linda Fite did mention that like yeah So they the cat yeah is filled with what were pretty progressive women's lib messages at the time. and They don't necessarily hold up now, but at the time, it was they were very ah progressive things to say.
01:04:48
Speaker
But... She didn't choose that character, right? It was some editor said, how do we appeal to women? yeah Women are like cats. Let's make a comic called the Cat and then gave Linda the opportunity to write it.
01:05:05
Speaker
Right. And then canceled it after its fourth issue. It seems like Hellcat was the same sort of attempt of like, hey, we need a way to bring our female readers into the superhero world so we can keep appealing to them.
01:05:21
Speaker
Why don't we take an existing character that does do well with women yeah and make her a superhero and have a woman write her? Right.
01:05:32
Speaker
These are, not to ae harp on it, but these these are the decisions of men about what women will like. Yeah, I mean, I've read...
01:05:45
Speaker
a couple different histories of Marvel comics, and this isn't even, like, a footnote. Right. Yeah. um This does not get mentioned. yet Yeah, exactly. This is interesting stuff.
01:05:57
Speaker
um Sad, but interesting. It is, honestly, I think a pretty cool and creative display of Jean's powers. They they do start her off by doing housework. yeah and Yeah, they're like, oh, she can lift up a couch to vacuum under it and she can...
01:06:15
Speaker
appeal an apple for an apple pie really well. Right. But that is to say you that the immediate page reveal. So that's your first page of it is her like being a domestic sweetheart with her mutant powers. And then you turn the page and she's like, what I really like to do though is kick fucking ass. And then she, she shows off like just she, uh, they make her levitation powers official. They show some other just cool stuff she can do with her telekinesis. It's neat. It's a nice little creative exploration. It takes three pages. Uh, I think that's all we need to say about it. Yeah.
01:06:55
Speaker
Yeah. I think so. I mean, they do also end with, And she's a hot woman and men look at her all the time. Yes, that's true. Back to the main story though.
01:07:06
Speaker
Pat? Yeah. Who the fuck was that guy? He was Professor Abdul, a famous archaeologist.
01:07:17
Speaker
Who was that guy? What is he doing? What was his goal? Where did he come from? Why was it like, oh, any pyramid will do? like yeah what is this What's his last name?
01:07:31
Speaker
what's his Where did he come from? Oh, I thought that was his last name. Okay, what's his first name then? Oh, no, I don't know. What is his deal? He did, to be fair, in his debut, he did mention that he's also an archaeologist and that he was doing some excavations as a cover for his pharaoh business.
01:07:58
Speaker
Maybe they'll explain is also still unclear. Maybe they'll explain it in the next issue. No, I'm kidding. This is the end of his story. Yeah, he's done. i think he... What if... I think he he comes back in like... I don't know when. I don't know when. it's This isn't the last appearance ever of this guy. You could go to a wiki and learn about him.
01:08:21
Speaker
But it's still... It's like a classic. It's so frustrating. That they just bring this guy in for nothing. It's so clearly just like the last shred of an idea that Arnold Drake had. And then Roy Thomas was like, I don't know what the fuck this guy was doing.
01:08:38
Speaker
What is this? here's i Here's a thought. Here's a wild theory, Matt. he His face looks a little familiar.
01:08:50
Speaker
What if this is Porter Mack? Cowboy.
01:08:57
Speaker
Seeking revenge on X-Men. Yeah. Yeah. What if it's that? Shaved his mustache. Some cool things here, though. Yes. We get X-Men on the run from the authorities. That rules.
01:09:10
Speaker
We get him beating up cops in two different countries. Iceman even says this time we get to do it American style when they're beating up cops back in the US.
01:09:21
Speaker
We get the introduction of Larry Trask and the return of the Sentinels. Yeah. What a fucking thoughtful way to pull him out there, right? Last time we saw Bolivar Trask, he had forgiven the X-Men. He was sacrificing himself up yeah to blow up the Sentinels and stop the threat.
01:09:44
Speaker
Uh, his son wouldn't have known that the last time he spoke to his son, he was like, all right, son remember mutants are the ultimate menace to this world. They will destroy us all. So I'm off to destroy them.
01:09:58
Speaker
If I don't come back, it's because the mutants killed me because they're evil. So of course, so this is just generational. Of course, this is gets passed down to his son yeah just takes up the same mantle and,
01:10:11
Speaker
uh, builds frankly, some pretty intimidating sentinels. It's a great take on them. They're big, they're fluid. They've got the same sort of like scale and intimidation factor as the living monolith did. Yeah.
01:10:26
Speaker
They, stuff they do still, uh, have numbers written on their chest. Yeah, that's true. Which is funny, but yeah, I mean, this is,
01:10:37
Speaker
This is the introduction of some really cool stuff, right? Like, i like this is why we split the episode here. Because we are about to just be launched headlong into, like, a roller coaster of cool Neil Adams, Roy Thomas shit.
01:10:53
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. even though, you know, we split, like, and obviously this was one. It's so strange ah because, you know, there's...
01:11:06
Speaker
It's so strange that what led into this was the story about the living Pharaoh. Yeah, which we didn't we didn't know that was his name at the time. Right! And the like that's the introduction of Alex Summers, right?
01:11:22
Speaker
This is the reintroduction of the Sentinels. This is the beginning again of the Roy Thomas Neil Adams run. And it all starts with Professor Abdul. This a weird little...
01:11:36
Speaker
He's just like, okay.
01:11:39
Speaker
I think he is and archaeologist. I think that part is true. i think he's a reputable archaeologist yeah in Egypt. He's known by the government authorities in the area. huh And he just got so deep into He also happens to be a mutant. Okay.
01:11:57
Speaker
He just got so deep into it. That he started believing he was a pharaoh or started believing that he could convince people he was a pharaoh. Right.
01:12:10
Speaker
I think that's right. I think it makes a lot more sense for him to be a contemporary archaeologist, a young man, and not like an ancient in yeah pharaoh that's been existed it has been in existence since the Golden Age of Egypt.
01:12:26
Speaker
He just three years ago he lost his mind a little bit. Yeah, yeah, maybe a little bit. Why does Cyclops say a racial slur? Oh. We're not going say it on this podcast. It's not... It's a racial... not None of the words he uses are slurs, but it's a racialized term.
01:12:45
Speaker
Yeah, and there's plenty of articles written about it if you want to ah read it for yourself. Right, but... It is... Shocking. I really like... Very uncomfortable.
01:12:58
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. And it's just because he's mad. Apparently, Cyclops, when he's... When he's worried about his brother, he gets racist. Prone to using racial slurs, which...
01:13:10
Speaker
means he just uses them in his everyday life, right? if he's If he just tries to control it, and this time he lost control. If you have them to hand, this is the thing that sometimes people say, that's like, oh, I just, you know, I said this racial slur, I was in a bad place, I was really, I really, like, I lost my temper, i wouldn't have normally said it, and it's like, well,
01:13:30
Speaker
When I'm mad, i don't have racial slurs in my mental Rolodex to use. Yeah, yeah. I'm going to say something. I might say something inappropriate.
01:13:41
Speaker
But it's not going to be about the person i'm mad at's race. That would be the last thing I would think Well, hopefully, Matt, this is the last time we will ever see a racial slur in an X-Men comic. I am sure because it's a metaphor about it's often a metaphor about racism. I am sure no other writer will ever write a very explicit racial slur into the mouths of the X-Men. Never.
01:14:08
Speaker
Yeah. Certainly not one of their most famous and time-tested. Yeah, and certainly not in some of the most ah well-regarded and famous X-Men stories of all time.
01:14:25
Speaker
With the most popular character at the time, a white woman. I'm sure she won't say about the worst racial slur you can in those moments.
01:14:36
Speaker
And try to lessen the impact of it. So i this have this issue, also beautiful, really good artwork. Yeah, that was falling sequence when Hank gets knocked out of the window and it's just a full page panel by panel of him tumbling until that ice pole appears. And Roy Thomas doesn't feel like he needs to fill it up with words.
01:15:02
Speaker
Yes, he's like this. This tells the tale. This is great. Also similar, like when the Sentinels burst in on Lorna, there is dialogue, but very little. And you see they dwarf her in the in the like full page.
01:15:19
Speaker
Yeah, and the art really does the talking. Exactly. When Alex's powers come on him and start exploding out of him, if feel like you can feel it. It like crackles off the page.
01:15:33
Speaker
as I'm just flipping through and like moment moments of great art here. like ah Alex, racked with anguish in the cave that he finds to hide out in, he's bent over, gripping the back of his head with both of his arms.
01:15:47
Speaker
And he's, you know, he's fucking jacked. So he's this big, muscly guy who's just collapsing in on himself. Iceman freaking out when he finds out that Lorna is missing.
01:15:58
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. He's may And even like his ice face, which is usually kind of hard to read emotions is pretty expressive. Yeah. at First, he's like panicked and then he's angry and you get it it fully comes out.
01:16:13
Speaker
Really and then good artwork. The last two pages, once again, Neil Adams doing some crazy stuff. Roy Thomas writing some really like thoughtful dialogue. Yeah, it's really you.
01:16:26
Speaker
It's just beautiful. This might be Roy Thomas at the best we've seen him. He's right. Finally, so finally starting to get it. He gets it, right? Like, now he gets what the X-Men are and what is unique and important and cool about them. It's it's like it's like it took Neil Adams' art to bring...
01:16:47
Speaker
To Roy Thomas. Yeah, yeah. Neil Adams' big swinging dick saying, hey, quit filling my beautiful, artful pages up with all this nonsense.
01:16:57
Speaker
Yeah, right. like And Roy is having a conversation with him and like, hey, how about we bring in like a clown who shoots daggers out of his eyeballs ah because of a chemical accident? And Neil's like, no.
01:17:09
Speaker
we're gonna do Shut up, nerd. We're going to do sentinels, you dick. How about we do... A man who wants to be an orangutan, so he makes a big metal suit called his orangutan suit. No, fucker.
01:17:27
Speaker
He does, to be fair, we to be unfair, I guess, Roy Thomas does still portray Alex's powers as cosmic rays that yeah he's absorbing. Yeah.
01:17:41
Speaker
Yeah, he absorbs cosmic rays and then they burst out of him. Yeah. He still doesn't quite have a grasp on what a mutant is, but he's getting there.
01:17:52
Speaker
Yeah, i i and I just I think it's interesting the sort of havoc that ah Alex causes when his powers manifest, don't you? i Yeah, I mean, it's pretty it's pretty chaotic. it's That's not the word It causes a damage.
01:18:07
Speaker
not That's not the word I used. Wouldn't damage be a cool superhero name? Maybe that's the name. Yeah. what if yeah mean What if that's the name that Alex takes on when he be when if he becomes a superhero?
01:18:22
Speaker
He's like, I'm damage. I'm chaos. You think it'll be a super? I don't think he has it in him. Yeah, probably not. This was good. I i don't think... Pat, I don't think there's a single flaw in this issue. Okay, the racial slur. But there's not a single other flaw in this issue, is there? Matt, I'm going to stop you right there. Wait, what?
01:18:46
Speaker
There is unfortunately... A moment where Scott says, holy Hannah. No, he doesn't. No, he can't. He does. We haven't seen them say holy Hannah in so many issues.
01:19:00
Speaker
I know. I thought it was gone.
01:19:05
Speaker
I thought we were done with that. But he does look right at the right into the video phone and says, holy Hannah. And he's upset. Like, it is accented speech. yeah he's not He's not saying it to be cute. He's saying it.
01:19:21
Speaker
ah Once again, get in the same way that he said the racial slur, just fully out of control of himself. This is just what spurts out. It seems like they should have just erased all Cyclops' as dialogue in this issue. In fact, I think we need to erase all Cyclops' as dialogue in this issue from our brains. This is not a good issue for Cyclops.
01:19:43
Speaker
Matt, you might be comfortable with it. I'm not going to forget that Cyclops said a racial slur. But you will forget that Cyclops said Holy Hannah like 19 times in this run so far. Look, I'm mad at everybody for the Holy Hannah thing. So how do you feel about this run, this this short run of issues as a whole?
01:20:05
Speaker
Man, I... And I know this is kind of the theme of the episode, but I really thought we were in for another goofy fantasy tale that the X-Men just get inserted into with the appearance of a pharaoh and all these ridiculous, ridiculous men in costumes.
01:20:25
Speaker
But... It ends up establishing some really important X-Men lore and it puts emotional dynamics on full display here. Like it is wild. The quick relationship that they're able to build between Scott and his brother and the way that they are able to immediately you work that dynamic through what the the situation they get stuck in.
01:20:51
Speaker
Yeah, it's weird that it takes a like a half-baked villain to usher in the X-Men's first good era. Yeah. Yeah, a half-baked, unnamed villain. Yeah, it's just... Again, this is just an unthought-through idea.
01:21:12
Speaker
but if But it all works out. Yeah, it brings us havoc, and it, again, brings us this really... i'm I'm really happy about where we are. And I think it's it's really clear that I think like the Steranko-Drake issues really inspired what came next.
01:21:32
Speaker
Right? Steranko and Drake wrote some really interesting or put together some really interesting issues, some really dynamic issues that led to him trying to do kind of the same thing.
01:21:45
Speaker
with Don Heck and Werner Roth, and it's sort of failing, but then Neil Adams and Roy Thomas pick it up, and they're like, yes, this is what... That little taste we got with Steranko is what the X-Men should be.
01:21:59
Speaker
And yeah again, now they're just off and running. And I think, honestly, this is what's going to inspire Chris Claremont. Yeah. I mean, it's really clear that like Steranko kind of set the tone or set the bar for what the art in the X-Men can be yeah and how elevated it can be. And I want to say, I like Werner Roth for what he is.
01:22:22
Speaker
Yeah, this is so much that the Starenko, then Neil Adams. That's so much more X-Men. Yes. Werner Roth, you Marvel legend, but i life must go on, right? We all age out of the game.
01:22:36
Speaker
Right, right. And I would have loved. And yeah, he exploded.
01:22:44
Speaker
What can you do about that?
01:22:48
Speaker
Oh, boy. So, next episode, we're going to get ah lot more Neil Adams, Roy Thomas. I can't fucking wait. In the meantime, Patrick. ah Yes.
01:22:59
Speaker
Do you have a Pat's deals and deals for us this week? Matt, would you believe that I have two? Wow. This guy's getting bold. I know.
01:23:10
Speaker
One steal, one deal. Okay. You decide which one's which. These were... right next to each other and both are things that if i were a
01:23:22
Speaker
ah frankly 35 year old man i would buy immediately but now that i'm 40 i need to restrain myself and what happens number one what happens that i'm in between the two yes you uh have some important decisions to make about what path you're like you're going to go down in life matt okay all right Number one, monster-sized skeleton.
01:23:45
Speaker
Glows in the dark, full five feet tall, only $1.75. So in today's money, about $17.50. This five-foot Mr. Bones is scary enough at any time.
01:23:58
Speaker
But wait till you see him in the dark in all his horrible spine-chilling grandeur, eyes glowing like fiery coals. Shake him and his arms, legs, and head move. You'd swear he's alive.
01:24:10
Speaker
If you like to haunt houses and frighten friends, this is for you. Or hang bones in your room and you'll never be alone. Great fun at parties, too. Just send $1.75 plus 25 cents postage and handling for each skeleton you want.
01:24:25
Speaker
Money back if you are not sufficiently horrified. He's made of cardboard. Or the cheapest plastic ever, right?
Humorous Tangents: Skeletons & Book Safes
01:24:38
Speaker
And then he just has two fake gems where his eyes. We have not ah yet reached the age of cheap, commercially available plastic.
01:24:52
Speaker
So this is probably yeah cardboard, styrofoam. At that price, I wouldn't think it's like any sort of fiberglass or anything like that.
01:25:03
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. All right. Number two, you would buy that. I would, I would buy that. Absolutely. five foot skeleton. you kidding me? Five feet, 1750. That's like three. That's like 350 a foot.
01:25:15
Speaker
Hold on. Hold on. It's a good deal is what I'm saying. Okay. So if I'm supposed to choose a path, My path goes ah is not don't buy the skeleton.
01:25:26
Speaker
What's your next deal and deal? Okay. I'll tell you the next one and you'll probably like it. This is something that as a child, I always, always, always wanted. Okay. Secret book safe with combination lock only you can open.
01:25:40
Speaker
Matt? Yeah. You're laughing. It's only $1. Okay. Hear me out. The secret book safe looks just like any book, so no one would think to look for valuables in it.
01:25:51
Speaker
But even chance discovery leaves your possessions safe, securely locked by a combination only you know, because you yourself have said it. Simple instructions show you how. Tough understructure is covered with simulated leather binding to look just like a real book.
01:26:07
Speaker
Just send a dollar plus 25 cents postage and handling for each book safe you want money back if you are not satisfied. So this one doesn't give you the money back if you're not horrified, which I think was a better copy, but It looks like a book, but it's actually a safe. But if I knew that you had a book safe and I found it, I still couldn't get in because it's got a combination lock, not just a random combination lock, one that you set yourself.
01:26:34
Speaker
Here's the thing about this, Pat. This sounds real. Like this sounds like an actual object, unlike everything else that's ever been on Patch Steals and Deals. Isn't this great? yeahs i Okay, I'll pick my path. I'm going to buy this one.
01:26:48
Speaker
okay Okay, $1. Actually, I have nothing to keep in a safe. ah I'm picking the other path. I'm not buying it You should get some valuables. Maybe a five-foot skeleton. ah Secret book safe. I would have loved that as a kid, but again, had nothing to keep in it.
01:27:06
Speaker
I would have kept something in it. would have kept like my quarter collection. Yeah, like some rocks I found, like a pen cap. All
Engaging the Audience: Social Media & Listener Involvement
01:27:15
Speaker
right. Well, those are some good Pat Steals and Deals.
01:27:18
Speaker
Thank you. I curated them. Everybody, thank you so much for being here with us to talk about the X-Men. Thank you for listening. Why don't you follow us on Instagram? It is mutant at mutant menace pod. Why don't you please hang on? Wow. Why don't you? see How about what if you would you like to like maybe follow us on Instagram?
01:27:42
Speaker
Where would I do that? i I mean, if you... There's no pressure, but if you wanted to, you could go to at mutantmenaspod, hit the follow button, and then see our cute little pictures and stories. And look, if this offends you, we're sorry. We didn't we didn't mean to be pushy or anything. We just had a thought. was just a little thought.
01:28:02
Speaker
Not a big deal. But while we're apologizing for it, we should also mention that you can email us at mutantmenaspod at gmail.com. If... If you want to. Hey, Pat, actually, I'm going to do something right here, right now, without your permission, without talking to you about it first.
01:28:18
Speaker
Fuck. We are coming up on ah the end of this era, right?
01:28:29
Speaker
The end of an era. The end of the original X-Men era. In a couple episodes here. And one of the things we are going to do is we're going to release a... going probably do this at the end of what we feel are like the various eras of the X-Men.
01:28:48
Speaker
or sub-heirous, we're going to do a bonus episode ah where we we tell you guys all about, we catch you guys all up, like, what is the story so far? So that new listeners can come in and, or, you know, previous listeners can, you know, catch up on what's happened the last several months in the podcast.
01:29:10
Speaker
Yeah. just And also so we can just like sit back and reflect. We just read, we'll have read about 60 issues of X-Men that's covering about five years time. Like let's take a, let's take a deep breath.
01:29:23
Speaker
Yeah. ah cool thing for us to do while we're giving out the email is what if, because these are going shorter episodes and there's going to be a lot that,
01:29:36
Speaker
we might forget and a lot of bits that we're not going to be thinking of, but maybe our listeners are going to Oh, if you listen to this podcast, you might want to you might want to know about these bits.
01:29:48
Speaker
What if we bring a listener on?
01:29:53
Speaker
You didn't ask my thoughts on this. What if, what if we just do like sort of like a, a raffle, a random drawing and we bring a listener on to chat with us about it.
01:30:08
Speaker
Uh, yeah, I think we'll make some rules maybe about. Yeah. Don't yell, uh, Cyclops. Don't yell anything you've heard Cyclops say. Yeah.
01:30:21
Speaker
Yeah. We'll bring a, we'll bring one listener on. You, uh, are subject to heavy editing if we deem it necessary. I think that's fair.
01:30:33
Speaker
and Why don't you guys, if you want to do that, and also this is a very strong called shot because we don't have that huge of a listener base at the moment. So this is just an experiment.
01:30:47
Speaker
If we get nothing from this, then we'll just be a little embarrassed and you guys can forget when we ever said this. We have friends. We have friends that we can bring on the podcast if we want to.
01:30:58
Speaker
ah we We do. People, have friends. we have friends Every day, somebody says, hey, can I be on your podcast? And we're like, well, maybe. Have you listened to it? And they no.
01:31:13
Speaker
No. Why would I? So email us, mutantmenacepod at gmail.com. If you would be interested in that sort of thing. And if we get some respondents, well,
01:31:30
Speaker
You know, we'll do like a random number generator kind of deal and pick somebody at random. All right. Oh, maybe they should write us an essay. Write us an essay on why you deserve to be on the Mutant Minutes podcast.
01:31:44
Speaker
It only has to be like three sentences long. All right. In addition, find us on YouTube. Leave us reviews and ratings everywhere you can find to do that and tell your friends about the show.
Closing Remarks & Gratitude
01:32:00
Speaker
Yeah. Big thanks to Krils Wilson for all the music. ah Big thanks to Julia Selle for providing the the voice of Trish Tilby. And Matt, what do we always say at the end of the show?
01:32:13
Speaker
Well, Pat, ah as I always say at the end of every show, hold it, Pyramid Papa. You're about to get drowned by a brainwave. What?
01:32:25
Speaker
What? Well, as I always say at the end of every show, I'm just closing the show is all in my own lovable fashion.