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Episode 21 - X-Men #109-113 - The Return of Magneto
66 Plays6 days ago
Issues: X-Men #109-113
Pat won’t stop getting horned-up for the X-Men, but it’s hard to blame him when we’re reading comics as hot as these ones! With John Byrne fully on board the book, this chunk of issues sees the return of some major villains, and a robot spoon-feeding Wolverine.
Topics Include:
Pat’s fuzzy. John Byrne is HERE! NUDITY. Lilandra’s struggle with government bureaucracy. Kurt and Scott have a tough conversation. Piotr, the oblivious unicorn. Captain Alpha! “By Lenin’s Beard!” The X-Men are playing baseball! WARHAWK and his mysterious superior. Cyclops owes Wolverine one. Captain Delaney and his friends are sick of the X-Men. The circus comes to town. The “Hey Rube” debate continues. Mind control? Bruno and Jukie: Our Favorite Ones! We don’t talk about Jim Shooter. Cockrum still on covers. “The gentleman’s name is Magneto.” The circus leaves town – flying! Antarctic volcanoes. Too many bases for one man. Babying the X-Men. Matt explains how magnets work. The book’s monthly now! Storm is a dangerous baby. New psychic comms! What will the X-Men do?? Jean’s Different. Magneto looks great. Free & Weird.
Write in to Pat's Email Corner: mutantmenacepod@gmail.com
Instagram: @mutantmenacepod
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Transcript
Street Team Promotion Strategy
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey, Pat. Hey, Matt. How are you doing? I'm actually. This isn't about you. This is about the listeners. Hey, listeners, we have had an idea. Yeah, we had a very good idea, Matt.
00:00:12
Speaker
We were thinking about old forms of promotion, forms of marketing for people who can't afford marketing teams. And we we're thinking about how crowded of a field the podcast world is. And we have a bunch of flyers.
00:00:24
Speaker
We thought maybe it would be fun to rely on you, our listeners, to get those flyers out to places that we can't reach. We're going back to paper. Matt, you and I have been visiting comic book shops in the American Northeast. We've covered about a 30-mile radius to this point.
00:00:42
Speaker
Right. It's slow going. And we know that you guys are spread out across the United States, even sometimes other countries. So what can they do, Pat? What they can do is take some of these flyers that we printed up and leave them with local comic book shops. Just say, hey...
00:00:59
Speaker
ah My friends, you can call us friends. My friends run a podcast. And would you mind just leaving some flyers in your flyer area? If that sounds interesting to you, send us an email at mutantmenacepod at gmail.com with the subject line street team.
00:01:15
Speaker
Leave us your address and tell us your favorite ex X-Man.
Podcast Introduction and Listener Interactions
00:01:19
Speaker
And me and Pat, neither of whom can draw, will draw you a picture of her of your favorite X-Man as a thank you.
00:01:27
Speaker
Drop us a line. Become part of our street team if that sounds fun to you. Thank you so much. Yeah, thank you. Let's play let's play the show, Pat. Play the song. I'm Trish Toby 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.
00:02:09
Speaker
Hey, everybody. I'm Matt Allcamp. And I'm Pat Reber. And say it with us, Pete. Welcome to Mutant Menace.
00:02:20
Speaker
Holy shit, that was good. Yeah, yeah. I'll i'll take it. I feel like, though, the timing is such... that we should click the button as we say, say it with us, Pete.
00:02:34
Speaker
Yeah, there is, there's a little pause that I'm, I'm noticing. Yeah. yeah and we should Again, we should speed it up a little bit. Can we put Pete on like 1.25?
Listener Engagement and Parasocial Relationships
00:02:44
Speaker
Let's go, bub. Oh, Jesus. Matt, somebody's got to talk to this music cue. It's just it barges in when it fucking wants to, man. I don't know. I was still talking, but that's OK.
00:02:59
Speaker
It is Pat's email corner. Welcome. We do have one email today from a familiar listener. Oh, Mr. Email Michael. Email Michael writes in following all the rules. He says, hey, Pat, tell Matt I haven't seen any of your flyers here in Ohio, but I'll keep my eyes open. We haven't been to Ohio.
00:03:19
Speaker
I do know what a shoulder on the road is. think that was directed at Sinewave Sean, right? That was directed at Sinewave Sean, but anybody can answer. and Anybody can email us and tell us whether they know what a shoulder is. Right. Okay. Okay. Thank you.
00:03:35
Speaker
Thank you, Michael. ah He says, i am not Pat's wife and therefore can't give my opinions of his new fetish or anyone else's fetishes. Thank you, Michael, but I already knew that you were not my wife.
00:03:46
Speaker
well I didn't. He goes on to say, I was not horned up by any of this, but I offer no opinion of anyone who was. See above. Also, I want to clarify, it wasn't a horned up thing for me. None of this is... this is Pat, last episode, was that two episodes ago? Pat was so horny. Like, it was two episodes ago. wasn't horny.
00:04:07
Speaker
Deeply horned up by, like, everything we were talking about. I have an appreciation for all forms of love, including sexual. It's not in sexual way. Okay, right, yeah, of course. appreciate when there is sexual net positive in the world.
X-Men Comic Discussion: Character and Plot Analysis
00:04:25
Speaker
This guy is just horned up to a state where he can't be horned back down. And this... Episode is going to be no ah exception to that. Pat is going to, we're going to have to put this guy in some sort of icebox.
00:04:39
Speaker
All right. Let's not put this on email Michael's shoulders, though. He has plenty more to say. He says, also, try to put this one to bed. I never said I felt neutral about the nickname email Michael. I said the name itself was neutral, as in it is not insulting or flattering. I personally feel fantastic about it.
00:04:56
Speaker
And then finally, I'll try not to turn these emails into any more back and forth conversations in the future. i guess maybe we should stop trying to do that. It's our fault. Like, Michael, you you are. Yeah, yeah. This is a thing I've noticed with Michael. He really takes on all the bullshit we put on him.
00:05:12
Speaker
right Like, we behave badly, and then Michael feels like, oh, no, I better address this. No, it's us. We're that we're the shitty ones. You you you are great.
00:05:23
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Email Michael, we are... I'm almost insulted that you want to stop having a conversation with us. He goes on to... refer to it as maybe a parasocial relationship? I don't think so.
00:05:34
Speaker
I feel like I know you. i but Okay, that's parasocial, Pat. i used I am the one with the parasocial. Again, yeah, you don't have to take on our flaws.
00:05:45
Speaker
I read that that email. He wasn't saying that he feels like it is a parasocial relationship. He's saying that if we continue this, like, it is a conversation, other people will feel as if he is being parasocial. Oh, well then, yeah, let's clarify it for the other for the rest of the people.
00:06:02
Speaker
He's doing exactly what we told him to do. We are yeah yeah yelling at this poor man. He's just trying to stay afloat in the world. Here's everybody's call to action this episode.
Comic Character Dynamics and Development
00:06:15
Speaker
Just tell us how you're doing. We're curious. We want to know. Especially you email Michael. How are things, you know? Yeah, I think that would be... email corner mutantmenicepod at gmail.com.
00:06:27
Speaker
I think that is a good idea. i think like people writing us about non-X-Men related stuff. Seriously, please just write into us about anything. We want to know how your day is going when you listen to this podcast or how you how your week's going.
00:06:41
Speaker
Pat, why are you still talking? Pat's email corner is over. Uh, okay. Yeah. I'm sorry. music makes the rules. I'm sorry.
00:06:52
Speaker
It's a good time to ask Matt, are you up to anything X-Men related this week? No. Pat, I just talked to you two days ago. yeah See, here's the thing. And the emailers actually should probably know this too. And probably shut up.
00:07:07
Speaker
Look, I'm just mentioning emails. say Yeah, it doesn't have to do this. Okay. The email should know that we for a period of time became current.
00:07:22
Speaker
Like, we fell behind on our recording schedule, so we were recording, like, days before an episode came out. We have now gotten back ahead. So if you email us, we'll always be responding, like, two weeks prior.
00:07:36
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. It's going to be a little while, but please keep listening to find out if we read your email on the air. We get so many emails, there are only there are only so many we can read the music kicks in.
00:07:49
Speaker
ah How about you, pat Have you done anything email related? Oh my god, my whole life is fucking email
Wolverine's Backstory and Canadian Connections
00:07:56
Speaker
related. Did you do anything X-Men related? Yes, in fact, i noticed just this morning how exceptionally furry I've become.
00:08:05
Speaker
I... ah I very badly need a haircut. And also, i tend to get my seasonal depression in the summer just because I hate the heat. I will not go outside.
00:08:17
Speaker
And so I've stopped grooming my beard and I've just kind of let it grow out. I'm a man who's not to, well, I guess to brag, but it's something that i i feel justified in bragging about. I'm a man that grows a very powerful beard and it is...
00:08:35
Speaker
at its peak right now. hu Yeah, I mean, it's it's looking lush. I look like a... What was that kid? Who's that kid? Eddie Munster. You look like Eddie Munster because you have a beard. Yeah, because my face and my... Oh, I guess he was. Yeah, he was a little werewolf boy, right? Yeah, yeah.
00:08:58
Speaker
Eddie Munster. Let's look at this little freak. No, no, Eddie. Sorry, you're wrong. ah Eddie Munster.
00:09:08
Speaker
No, you're right. i know. I'm confused. Hold on. Let me let me let me let me pull this back. Okay. Eddie Munster generally doesn't have a hairy face, but he would become a werewolf and then he'd have a hairy face. He looks kind of like a vampire more often.
00:09:23
Speaker
Sorry. I am thinking of wolf form. Yeah. Was he vampire? Yeah.
Secondary Characters and Plot Choices
00:09:30
Speaker
werewolf vampire No, I think he's just a wolf man.
00:09:35
Speaker
But he looks like a vampire because he's got vampire in his family. His mom is a vampire, yeah. but Yeah. Right? Mom is a vampire? Did anybody see me? Jesus, what? but All right.
00:09:50
Speaker
He's playing us off. We got to keep this thing moving.
00:09:56
Speaker
We're being bullied by our own soundboard.
00:10:01
Speaker
That's all I did X-Men related this week. So it is a, it's a fine time to, uh, to move on to Matt. I want to say X-Men number 109.
00:10:12
Speaker
Home are the heroes. Oh, give it to me, Patrick. Chris Claremont, author, John Byrne, artist. Mm-mm. I guess we now is when we should talk about John Byrne, right? I think so. Yeah, yeah. It's been long enough.
00:10:27
Speaker
Because now he's here. He's here, here. So John Byrne was he was just like an artist kicking around Marvel. I don't know much about his like origin origins, but I know that he was a fan of the original X-Men.
00:10:45
Speaker
Like the ones we hated.
Evolving Story Arcs in X-Men Comics
00:10:48
Speaker
Okay. Yeah. Which Claremont wasn't. Claremont only read Roy Thomas and Neil Adams' run. And it constantly made John Byrne mad when Claremont was like, oh, I have an idea for Cyclops' origin. And John Byrne's like, Cyclops already has an origin. And already happened. Exactly.
00:11:04
Speaker
That's justifiable, I think. He got the gig because he apparently would tell everybody in the Marvel offices that if Cockrum ever left the book and they didn't pick John Byrne to replace him, he would beat them up.
00:11:20
Speaker
He's big guy. He also, I don't know. He also ah pitched an X-Men series during the time that X-Men was on hiatus. And it didn't get picked up, obviously.
00:11:32
Speaker
But ah eventually in the, I think it's the 90s, he would do 2000s, he would do a series called X-Men The Hidden Years. It's pretty universally panned. Okay.
00:11:43
Speaker
Well, that's a shame. We could have potentially read it. in the dark ages but i feel like let's save it till the 2000s because again i hear it i hear it fucking yeah yes let's get it in context let's get it in historical context if not continuity context yeah but yeah it's an incontinuity like fill-in what were the x-men up to during that time anyway apparently when he started Chris Claremont was known for giving these incredibly long plot summaries. Like, he wouldn't with Dave Cockrum, because him and Dave plotted things out together.
00:12:19
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. With John Byrne, he would give apparently, like, 15-page summaries for 17-page long comics.
00:12:28
Speaker
Let's see. I mean, that tracks with the way that he writes. John Byrne was a big... Big man. He was beating people up. He's a big man. he was a he was a
Motivations and Historical Influences of Characters
00:12:39
Speaker
ah big Wolverine fan, so that's why the series starts to ah gravitate a little more towards Wolverine in this time. Yeah, sure, sure.
00:12:47
Speaker
And he and Chris had all these ideas for who Wolverine was that didn't end up – they didn't end up being able to make happen because some other people kind of took the reins at different points. But, like, for example, he once drew Wolverine's face not knowing that Dave Cockrum – like, the issue where Dave Cockrum revealed Wolverine's face hadn't come out yet.
00:13:06
Speaker
Mm-hmm. So he drew Wolverine's face and sent it to Chris. And apparently this made like everything makes John Byrne grumpy. It made good John Byrne grumpy. Chris was like, ah, you blew it. We already did this. And even in an interview years later, John Byrne was like, i didn't blow it.
00:13:22
Speaker
I just didn't know. And this is an interview in like the two thousand like 20 to 30 years later. Exactly. And his interviews are all like that. They're just full of him being grumpy. Like this is so basically this is what John Byrne is known for in the comic book world is his weird political stances and how fucking grumpy he is.
00:13:43
Speaker
yeah I'm going to dive a little bit into his weird political views because I think they're important. And I think people are probably like, do I, should I like this guy? know He, okay.
00:13:56
Speaker
He views himself as a progressive conservative. ah you Yeah, it doesn't make a lot of sense. And when you're reading Alpha Flight, you get the sense it doesn't make sense. Like, he'll be talking about fucking the tyranny of the prison system in one sentence.
00:14:17
Speaker
And then the next sentence, he'll be talking about, like, how ah somebody deserves to rot in jail for not following the letter of the law. Yeah.
00:14:28
Speaker
it's It's very strange, especially, again, when you're reading Alpha Flight, you're like, what does this author fucking believe? Like, there's clearly social and political commentary, but I can't put it together. That said, he did introduce one of the first gay characters in comic books.
00:14:42
Speaker
He knew North Star was gay when he introduced Alpha Flight. Okay. ah No, not when he introduced him.
Storytelling Techniques and Character Powers
00:14:50
Speaker
North Star will appear in the X-Men in a few issues, but when he starts Alpha Flight number one,
00:14:56
Speaker
Heavy spoilers, man. Sorry. He's of an avowed feminist and anti-racist, but he has been known to say both a misogynist and ah racist things online.
00:15:08
Speaker
Oh, boy. So um he said some horrible anti-trans things in 2015, like talking about people's genitalia and stuff. Fucker. But in 2021, he came out on his message board in a very strong pro-trans rights stance, calling out people on his message boards for being anti-trans and calling out the Trump administration for being anti-trans or the MAG movement for being anti-trans. Yeah, yeah. um So it's impossible to endorse this guy's social politics. Like he's clearly super reactionary, but then pulls back and thinks about it for a while, which is –
00:15:44
Speaker
The second part is what you want from somebody, even if you don't agree with them. You want them to be thoughtful. Yeah, they're growing and learning. And empathy always wins out with John Byrne, but his reactionary side...
00:15:59
Speaker
is really shitty. That's so bizarre. I'm trying to map this to like a person I know. And I can't think of anybody. Right. i in my head, I try to imagine him as like an, like, like as if he romanticizes Ernest Hemingway.
00:16:15
Speaker
And so ah he's like, I'm a tough guy, but also I'm a sensitive artist and I'm a rugged individualist, but also I'm a sensitive ah human rights advocate. Don't call me a baby.
00:16:28
Speaker
And I beat my wife, right? Like this is the exact sort of thing that I imagine. I don't know. John Byrne, I'm sure doesn't beat his wife or his family. Yeah, yeah. That's the, yeah. But it's
Hosts' Personal Reflections on Comic Themes
00:16:40
Speaker
he's got this just this weird dual identity that I'm sure in his head is completely reconciled, but from an outside perspective, it's like, who the fuck is this guy?
00:16:51
Speaker
John Byrne, fucking weird. I'll say this, though. And not an incredible writer, like a fine writer, but... A great artist. who's Like really good. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. his Superman stuff is really iconic. Right.
00:17:09
Speaker
i haven't read his Superman. Have you? I've seen the art from it. I haven't actually sat down and read it. Yeah. What. Yeah. What's your. ah so What are your associations with John Burton?
00:17:20
Speaker
uh john burn i know for x-men i know some of this x-men that we're reading and uh for his superman yeah okay yeah he also did some justice league with chris claremont he did uh obviously alpha flight he did iron fist with claremont yeah yeah um he did fantastic four for a long time which caused some stress between him and uh We'll get to it eventually.
00:17:46
Speaker
Sure, yeah, yeah. It's pretty funny. so A lot of the fights between him and Chris Claremont are really funny because it's clear that John Byrne's just a big baby. yeah yeah but But also that Chris Claremont is kind of like a diva.
00:18:02
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. And you need that big baby and you need that diva. When you gather a big baby and a diva together, i guess they make really good comic books.
00:18:13
Speaker
I was trying to map that to someone I know and I i can't. I can't think of John Byrne is a one of a kind human being in this world for better and worse.
Humor in X-Men Comics
00:18:25
Speaker
Okay. Now, what can you tell me about Terry Austin Inker?
00:18:28
Speaker
I fucking don't know, man. i Didn't Terry Austin, he started. Yeah. Wait, I do know about Terry Austin Inker because post to he eventually starts writing comic books and he sucks at it.
00:18:41
Speaker
Okay. i Joe Rosen, letterer, Andy Yankus, colorist, Archie Goodwin, editor. Release date November 1977. Cover date February
00:18:54
Speaker
The X-Men return home and all go about their home life things. Logan's in a rush to change out of Fang's costume. He hates that costume now. he hates Charles x Xavier is eager to show Lalandra around her new home. Sean makes out with Moira.
00:19:07
Speaker
Aurora heads to a room in the attic to shower herself and her plants with a nice indoor rainstorm. Why does she get a whole... Everyone else gets a room. She gets a whole attic. She does. it's I think it's her claustrophobia.
00:19:19
Speaker
She loves to be nude in it. She gets a little sunrise. She likes to be nude generally. It seems like her comfort place is being nude, which I can very much relate to. It's so funny. She'll have, we'll get to it. She'll have a conversation about how much she loves being nude later in this issue. Yeah, yeah.
00:19:35
Speaker
I absolutely get it. Kirk calls up Amanda Sefton. That's the strawberry blonde Amanda you told us to look out for in the future, Matt. Absolutely. Yeah. He meets the one that he met on Christmas by catcalling.
Historical Context and Continuity in Comics
00:19:48
Speaker
And they make a date to see Star Wars. Kurt Rupert. yeah. Kurt has already seen Star Wars. He is taking Amanda to see it because it's his now his favorite movie.
00:20:01
Speaker
ah He invites Peter, who is in his own room, writing a letter to his parents and missing home to join Kurt on a double date with Elizabeth. But Peter has plans to join Sean and Moira on a picnic.
00:20:15
Speaker
Meanwhile, he's he's the unicorn of the X-Men. Everybody, every couple's like every couple. Yeah. Good for him. Yeah. Meanwhile, Jean's parents are anxious to learn exactly what happened in space, and we get filled in on what happened between the last few panels of last issue.
00:20:33
Speaker
There's a a really funny three panel sequence where I think Cyclops is thinking to himself, but in the background, we see Jean taking her parents outside and explaining her Phoenix powers. And it's just peaceful scene in the garden.
00:20:47
Speaker
Jean surrounding everything in flames and her parents being knocked off her feet and then returned to peaceful scene in garden. ah Very good little too. Very good.
00:20:58
Speaker
After the crystal incident, the Imperial Guard was about to kill the X-Men, but Lalandra stops them by claiming her right to the throne. Her minister stops her, though, to tell her that the paperwork will take a lot of time. it Just bureaucracy of the Empire.
00:21:12
Speaker
Corsair tells Jean he decided Scott would be better off not knowing his father is alive and fucks off. We have to just sit on the secret, Matt. Yeah, we don't know if we'll ever see this fucking guy again.
00:21:25
Speaker
Yeah, and it's just lingering in our heads. Cyclops, sorry, I can't tell you, my friend, my dear leader, that your dad they'll reveal it. Maybe they'll tell him next issue.
00:21:35
Speaker
Maybe it'll come up real fast. I doubt it'll ever come up again. ah Storm does overhear this conversation, though, and she and Jean both decide to keep Corsair's secret.
Character Relationships and Narrative Progression
00:21:45
Speaker
Do you feel like this, there was a, knowing what pretty much everybody knows about what's coming up, do you think Chris was like, oh, fuck, we've got to make somebody else have this secret?
00:21:56
Speaker
Oh. Just in case. Yeah, interesting thought. Then again, he doesn't know. Actually, with what we know is coming up, he doesn't know. He has a completely different plan.
00:22:08
Speaker
This is so. but Yeah, you're getting this is a blind item. OK. ah Scott himself is upset about the ways that Jean is changing in the distance that's growing between them. Plus, he knows something is up about Corsair.
00:22:20
Speaker
He asks Moira where to find his brother. And we find out that Alex and Lorna were freed from their mind control and are out on Muir Island helping Madrox in the lab. They're fine. Yeah.
00:22:31
Speaker
What happened to them? They like didn't they get like blasted in outer space or something? They got blasted out in the desert by Fire Lord. Scott is sulking about all this ah when Nightcrawler comes in to lecture him on feeling sorry for himself when other people have to make an effort to be happy by accepting themselves and their lots in life despite difficult circumstances. It's an interesting little thing. It's like Nightcrawler's like, do you think that I'm just like a happy clown because I'm insane? No.
00:23:03
Speaker
ah like this is a yeah This is like a choice. I do this on purpose. like My life is also bad, but I make the most of it. You should be too. It's like really fucking smart. the He also, they quickly get interrupted, but he goes on to say like, that wasn't the end of my point. If we had been able to complete our conversation, i really feel like Scott would have come around. Like he's he's yeah applying a little tough love and hasn't been able to apply the love part of it yet.
00:23:32
Speaker
That's your Kurt Rupert. Kurt Rupert. They do get interrupted by Sean who comes in and invites them on the picnic as well. I guess they've declined Colossus's generous offer.
00:23:45
Speaker
You would be, if you were, colossal like, okay, if you knew Colossus, you have Colossus in your life, you and your partner are thinking just vaguely about a
Pacing and Action Sequences in Comics
00:23:56
Speaker
threesome.
00:23:57
Speaker
You're like, there's this handsome, beefy young man who is so sweet. He would be not only a tender lover. You wouldn't be jealous.
00:24:09
Speaker
Because it's just Peter. And he's fucking hot. So, like, of course, anybody is going to invite this man into their bed. But then why are they also, why are they inviting everybody else?
00:24:21
Speaker
Maybe they, maybe they were like, hey, Colossus, you want to come on this picnic? And he's like, sure. Oh, we should invite our friends along. And they're like, uh, we did. Oh, okay. Uh, yeah. Let's go invite everyone else. Fuck.
00:24:37
Speaker
Well, as they ah do start gathering ah their crew, it ends up Moira, Sean, Peter and Aurora and Wolverine, who shows up in full costume to tell them he wants to come along.
00:24:50
Speaker
What's he doing out there? There's a this is an interesting scene, too, because he's like, i want to go hunt. And Storm's like, oh, yeah. How could you possibly do that, you monster?
00:25:04
Speaker
And he's like, I don't kill them. The challenge is sneaking up and touching them. He's like, I respect animals. And she's like, oh, I've misjudged you. And he's like, yeah, fucking everybody does.
00:25:16
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. It's a little hint that he has more to him than just the the gruff bully that we've seen. Now, him hunting by going up and touching things is a little ridiculous. It's strange. Yeah.
00:25:28
Speaker
But what really speaks to Wolverine's character here to me is the yeah, I mean, it was when Storm's like, I've misjudged you. And he's like, yeah, everybody does that.
Thematic Elements in X-Men Comics
00:25:38
Speaker
To me, that's the kernel here that hints at.
00:25:43
Speaker
There's so much more inside Wolverine than we've seen. Very funny to think of him running up to like a little rabbit and just slapping it on the behind. Been giggling and running all away.
00:25:59
Speaker
So, yeah, it turns out he just wanted to live to the woods outside of Woodstock where he wanted to do some hunting, some gentle hunting. As he tracks a doe, it suddenly runs off just before James McDonald Hudson, a.k.a. a Weapon Alpha. Who? Drops from the fucking sky almost on top of Wolverine.
00:26:18
Speaker
Whoa! Holy shit! Turns out this is an old friend of Wolverine sent to retrieve Canada's Weapon X. That's... That's Wolverine. That is Wolverine.
00:26:28
Speaker
Did we know that already? Yes. That he was weapon. Okay. ah He's wearing a cybernetic suit that looks like a half Canadian flag and allows him to create force fields and fly, which we learn in a short fight sequence with Wolverine.
00:26:43
Speaker
They're both impressed by how much each other have improved since they last met. This is cool, right? Like there's this character that appears that has this whole backstory that phil fits into Wolverine's secret backstory that we know nothing about.
00:26:56
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. And this character looks stupid, but also rad at the same time. Yeah. And he's got like, he's got an attitude, but it's different from Wolverine's.
Artistic Influences and John Byrne's Impact
00:27:05
Speaker
We have an immediate characterization for this guy.
00:27:07
Speaker
Yeah, he's like mean Captain America or like. Yes. Yeah. like proper arrogant, k not gruff arrogant. So this is a burn creation. ah John Byrne had a bunch of what he called fan characters that he had done nothing with. They all eventually make their way into Alpha Flight. But this is one of them.
00:27:27
Speaker
He was named Guardian because of a line in the Canadian National Anthem or some weapon Jason. You can. confirm that but he wasn't allowed to use it because they had just introduced the guardians of the galaxy oh yeah i guess that would have caused a little confusion right so claremont named him weapon alpha next time we see him he'll be named vindicator but when john burns started alpha flight he changed his name back to guardian because he's canada has nothing to vindicate why is he vindicator
00:28:01
Speaker
Uh, weird. Yeah. Okay. After that, we cut to a few miles away where Moira and Sean are roughhousing in the lake.
00:28:12
Speaker
And Peter and Aurora are sitting on the banks talking about their homeland and how much Aurora likes to be nude. Yes. Yes. This is the conversation where she's like, I don't get why you all cover yourself with cloth.
00:28:24
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Again, i yeah can fully relate to this. If I am inside my home, nobody's, the the blinds are closed. I'm Probably nude. At the very least in my underwear. But yeah. No, I never walk around nude. Like I sleep i sleep shirtless with my breasts out.
00:28:45
Speaker
but I'm in the buff.
Engaging Podcast Listeners
00:28:48
Speaker
you gotta I gotta to keep these things hidden. I gotta keep these the goods. Oh no, there's no mystery about me.
00:28:56
Speaker
All of a sudden... In the midst of this conversation, their good pal Wolverine comes flying past and collides with a tree. This brings the rest of the X-Men into the fight with Weapon Alpha, who we now find out has super strength and can fire beams from his hands. Okay, everyone can fire fucking beams.
00:29:14
Speaker
When one of those beams strikes Moira, Sean lashes out, causing Weapon Alpha to give up his mission. With a pop, he disappears. That's how I read that sound effect. Pop!
00:29:25
Speaker
He disappears. vowing in his head to return with the rest of Alpha Flight. The end. Whoa. When Wolverine hits the tree. Okay, I gotta tell you this, Pat. When Wolverine hits the tree.
00:29:38
Speaker
yeah Colossus has all these exclamations like Lenin's ghost and Lenin's beard, which I was reading. Apparently those go away when the Soviet Union dissolves, when the USSR dissolves. And the only catchphrase that's left is when he yells, by the white wolf.
00:29:57
Speaker
All of these appear to just have been made up by Chris Claremont. police like This is not something Russian people say. and This is not a Siberian thing. This is just Chris Claremont's. Well, I know one thing about this. We have to keep reminding everyone he's Russian, so he's going to yell, let us go. So I went looking I went looking through like databases of the first mention of any specific word or term or whatever in any, you know, scanned literature on Google. they Google has this thing. And I searched for the term Lennon's ghost and I looked through a lot of fucking books that had the word Lennon and the word ghost. But the first time
Plot Twists and Character Arcs
00:30:41
Speaker
outside of the X-Men that somebody exclaims Lennon's ghost was
00:30:46
Speaker
is in a 1983, so after Claremont, a 1983 play by somebody named Nancy Manera and a guy named Simon J. Donahue about just a wacky group of people in New York, and it's called Mixed Nuts.
00:31:04
Speaker
Oh, ni no. No.
00:31:09
Speaker
sure they're not Are you sure they're not in an improv team? There's a Soviet woman who speaks in like broken English and at some point she's like, Lenin's ghost.
00:31:21
Speaker
yeah um Which means that it's officially a coined term, right? Yeah, it means that fucking they read or they taught knew somebody who read ma man And yeah Chris Claremont made it into a fucking thing that if you want to be weirdly ethnically stereotypical against people from the Soviet Union, you have them yell Lenin's ghost or Lenin's beard.
00:31:49
Speaker
Lenin's ghost. By the White Wolf is pretty good, too. By the White Wolf is good. Also, I couldn't find any. And I also checked. I didn't just check that Google literature thing. I also checked ah two different slang dictionaries.
00:32:01
Speaker
Neither of these were in there. But By the White Wolf. ends up in Skyrim. and Nords in Skyrim say it. Oh, hell yeah. That has to be intentional, right? Yeah, i i know fuck not nerds I do not think that any of these exist outside of the X-Men. as And as far as I can tell, I've confirmed that for myself at least.
00:32:24
Speaker
if If listeners know differently rather than just anecdotally, like, oh, I knew somebody who said they knew a Russian person who said it. Like, if you if you can give me any fucking real evidence, I would love to find out.
00:32:38
Speaker
ah Same with other shit everyone says, like what Storm says by the gods of land and air or whatever. Oh, yeah, yeah. It's a thing that they seem to just love to do.
00:32:50
Speaker
Yeah. Or when when Iron Fist said, Holy God of us all.
00:32:57
Speaker
ah Holy Christ, the Redeemer. Holy, the chosen one who died for our sins. i Anything else about this issue, Matt? We did a lot of ah chatting throughout the recap here. Yeah.
00:33:14
Speaker
No, how did you feel about it? I thought this was fun. This is yeah
Narrative Structure and Character Depth
00:33:19
Speaker
mostly just character drama. Yeah, yeah. A lot of them just chatting with each other. The fight is kind of silly. It's very funny that it ends because this guy's like, oh, no, it's the e X-Men. They'll kick my ass.
00:33:33
Speaker
It's so fast, too. And he didn't know about the X-Men. he's He says to himself, like, who are these people? The fucking X-Men? They seem really tough. they're gonna And then, yeah, like you said, they're going to kick my ass. I better get out of here.
00:33:46
Speaker
Don't beat my ass, he yells. you if scar Yeah, there's not much to it. I think it's very funny that Wolverine is, he doesn't just ditch the costume. He's like, I'm sick of these alien threads. Yeah.
00:33:59
Speaker
He doesn't like the way they feel against his hairy skin. Why have you been wearing it for two weeks, it seems? Right, because we've seen them on other adventures.
00:34:12
Speaker
And him in this costume on other adventures. So like they're acting like, ah, we just got home from space. doesn't appear so. It appears like they've been hanging out for weeks and then doing other stuff and then they this is the just them getting home from dinner or whatever and they finally had it.
00:34:31
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, we see Wolverine change back into street clothes. It's it's very weird. It's very weird. it's I think it's just a mistake that he was wearing the Fang costume in that Iron Fist issue. Yeah, probably, but... It's nice to imagine it.
00:34:49
Speaker
We got an extra issue out of it. Matt, can you please tell me about the next issue? You mean X-Men 110, the X-Sanction? Yes. All right. Yeah, I'll tell you about it. It's um written by Chris Claremont, drawn by guest artist Tony DiZuniga.
00:35:07
Speaker
o um Lettered by Annette Yowiecki, colored by some Yankus, edited by Archie Goodwin. and with it an art assist by Dave Cockrum, he draws the first page.
00:35:22
Speaker
He draws the ah prototypical, iconic X-Men baseball game. Oh, it's very good. I think...
00:35:33
Speaker
The fact that Byrne is not involved in this one is kind of a apparent. I think this is one of the weaker issues we'll see. We'll talk about it. ah Sure. Yeah. it's a I think it's very self-contained.
00:35:46
Speaker
Yeah. And it just doesn't have the dynamism that Cockrum or Byrne brought to the plotting of the of these issues. Yes. Yeah. I think the action. Well, we we'll get into it. Let's. say The X-Men are playing baseball.
00:36:02
Speaker
In their front yard. Adorable. By the way, this was released on January 17th, 1978. Cover date April 1978. It's an adorable thing until Wolverine decides to pop his claws and threaten to kill Colossus because he made it to first base.
00:36:20
Speaker
Matt, it's... First of all, it's that he's hit two home runs so far. I think you're... This one's not a home run, though. This one's not a home run. They catch it, and they throw it to Wolverine. Wolverine's standing on first base.
00:36:34
Speaker
Well, yeah, that makes it in so He's hit two home runs already, which Wolverine is mad about, and he's taunting Colossus about. Colossus hits the ball. It's another home run, except Jean uses her powers to put the ball in her glove.
00:36:49
Speaker
But the house rules of X-Men baseball is you have to touch yeah the person. You have to tag them. They call it baseball. ah So it becomes...
00:37:00
Speaker
The scene where Wolverine and Colossus collide with each other and then it's normal. The dust kicks up and then as the dust clears, Colossus is sitting on top of Wolverine, which honestly makes me think that Wolverine
Legacy and Influence of X-Men Comics
00:37:16
Speaker
tagged him out.
00:37:16
Speaker
Like it seems like. But Wolverine popped his claws before this. So if you're going to say like Wolverine is mad because of that. he's His claws were already out. And the professor is mad, not because they're fighting, but because he wants them to play ball. Not debate.
00:37:34
Speaker
What are you doing? Play ball. This isn't a debate. Play ball. Anyway, they decide to take a break to drink soda. Wolverine just broods on how he's a loner and in love with Jean.
00:37:47
Speaker
i have Moira steps away to let the, quote, man from the phone company. Into the house. She got a hookup appointment. Sean, keep, uh, keep watching on your lady.
00:37:59
Speaker
But when she does go inside, the guy shoots her with a tranquilizer gun and starts snooping around inside the house. As he starts to do something to their computer system, a telepathic message floods into this man's mind. It's not Jean Grey.
00:38:18
Speaker
We find out his name is Warhawk and the unknown telepath saved him from insanity and will not tolerate failure. We find out that even he doesn't know who this person is and yearns to be free of them as he gets back to work. Do you know who this person is, Pat?
00:38:37
Speaker
No, I have no idea. You don't even have a guess.
00:38:43
Speaker
No, I have no idea. I truly like, I've racked my brain and I could not think of who this was.
Fan Culture and Comic Creation
00:38:53
Speaker
ah Soon the X-Men give up their ballgame and head inside to train in the danger room.
00:38:58
Speaker
is it evil Professor X?
00:39:02
Speaker
It's somebody we haven't met yet. I'll say that. Ah, okay. The professor and Gene decide not to join them, but encounter Warhawk in the hallway, who shoots them both with tranquilizer darts.
00:39:14
Speaker
Scott loves it. ah Cyclops instantly learns this through Gene's telepathy and commands the X-Men to run upstairs, but the danger room locks them in and begins attacking them.
00:39:26
Speaker
When Storm and Nightcrawler get caught in the net, the Angel Special... Colossus fastball specials Wolverine up to free them. As he comes back down, he sees Cyclops in danger and almost just lets it happen.
00:39:40
Speaker
But decides to save him instead, prompting Cyclops to say, that's one I owe you. Pat, we have to keep track of these. Yeah, yeah. this sound of This is an ongoing Wolverine Cyclops thing forever. It's like this is going to get great.
00:39:55
Speaker
Like now I owe you one. Well, now I owe you. Now you owe me to like, i don't know if they keep track of it. So we'll have to keep track. We will. And i do not remember it. Like, this might go away for 20 years and then get brought back up.
00:40:11
Speaker
that' so like At point, it'll come back up. We just have to really keep this in our heads. Like, cement it in your head. owes you?
00:40:22
Speaker
Okay, Cyclops realizes the safety systems have been bypassed. So he orders Nightcrawler to teleport himself outside ah with Wolverine. To disconnect the power. The strain, however, is too much. And after getting outside, they both pass out.
Comics' Cultural and Societal Impact
00:40:36
Speaker
Yeah. This is great. I love that they are starting to build on Nightcrawler's powers here and just like give us more insight into like this is what happens when he teleports. This is what happens when he teleports another person. Yeah. ah This is what happens when he teleports a heavier person.
00:40:58
Speaker
Right, right, right. There eventually will be yet a lot of rules about Nightcrawler teleporting and what's hard and what's easy and like how what direction he can go, how far he can go, what a ah how frequently he can do it.
00:41:14
Speaker
They also just start calling it bamfing, which I love. Wolverine's like, i didn't know it was so difficult getting bamfed. instance So inside, the X-Men continue fighting the danger room, but Storm gets trapped in a box.
00:41:29
Speaker
Colossus gets trapped in goop. ah Oh, my God. Banshee gets knocked out ah by a fall. Only Cyclops is left standing. Thankfully, Wolverine has gotten to his feet outside the danger room and slices through the power supply.
00:41:44
Speaker
Just then, he's ambushed by your favorite guy, Warhawk. Don't start. Don't start with that. Turns out your favorite guy, Warhawk's skin, is made of metal. And the two fight until they stumble to the danger room door. Just as the X-Men burst out.
00:42:01
Speaker
o They knock the dude out and the police come to arrest him. That's the end of Warhawk. I think that's the end of Warhawk forever. Good. Wait. Pat. what
00:42:15
Speaker
white
00:42:18
Speaker
pat Does he come back? This was not the first appearance of Warhawk. Oh, that's dumb. apparently first appeared.
00:42:31
Speaker
He apparently first appeared yeah in Iron Fist. Oh. Or Marvel premiere in an Iron Fist. In an Iron Fist story? Story. don't know if that Yeah.
00:42:44
Speaker
But he's created by Chris Claremont. So Chris Claremont loves this guy. You and Chris Claremont love this guy. don't like him. I think we don't see him again. We do see him again an X-Men in 20 years.
00:42:59
Speaker
Okay. All right. Well, he's out of the loser league. Yeah. Good, we don't have to deal with him ever.
Comic Book Industry Insights
00:43:04
Speaker
We don't have to deal with him again and for a very long time. Anyway, afterwards, Gene officially rejoins the X-Men. Hey. And Professor tells them that your favorite guy, Warhawk, must have been sent by someone who is great and powerful and knows a lot about the X-Men.
00:43:20
Speaker
And Wolverine says, bring him on. Hell yeah. Okay, so now that you know that he was sent by an organization that includes... That is powerful itself and includes powerful people. Do you know who he was sent by?
00:43:37
Speaker
I have some guesses now. Yeah. Give me. I'll beep it out. I'll beep them out. i
00:43:47
Speaker
Do you want me to tell you if you're right or wrong? I should also. Sure. at first okay That is correct. Hey, I'm going to beep it. Oh, I can't wait. What do you think about this issue? I think it was fine. i think i i honestly, i expected a little more out of the X-Men playing baseball. And I know that that is my preference when reading X-Men, not maybe everybody else's, but I would love to see more powers on display. I'll, uh, the Twilight vampire baseball game.
00:44:18
Speaker
Yeah, I think this is basically how these, I'm trying to remember the, Like usually this is how it goes. There's a couple panels of them playing sports together.
00:44:32
Speaker
I'm trying to think if there's an issue where it gets real into it.
Emotional and Psychological Depth of Characters
00:44:36
Speaker
Yeah, I would love to see just like a six page sequence of them playing backyard football or something. Full powers on display.
00:44:46
Speaker
They do play a lot of baseball. They sometimes play basketball. Yeah, in the 90s, they get really into basketball, right? Yeah, well, actually, i think we're going to see some basketball in just like 10 issues or something. Oh, I can't wait.
00:44:59
Speaker
There are two moments back to back here that had me laughing out loud. Number one, they're in the danger room. We mentioned that Colossus gets covered in goop, which is funny on its own. But what happens is out pops. If you remember from i think it's single digit issue X-Men. I don't remember exactly which issue, but Professor X built a robot to help train them in the danger room. Colossus. Oh, yeah. Yeah.
00:45:28
Speaker
And it pops back out. We haven't seen it in 90 some issues, but here it is popping back out. And Scott says, Colosso, he's all yours. ah Colossus.
00:45:42
Speaker
ah yeah
00:45:45
Speaker
ah So stupid. And then you think you're going to see a show showdown between a robot and a metal man, both of whom are extremely powerful. Yeah. And instead this robot just shoots out paste.
00:45:59
Speaker
He just, just goops him up. Covers poor Peter in, ah Yeah, a goop, of a paste, some sort of gel that just glues him to the ground as he tries to wrestle his way out of it. It's so gross and weird. and well that was that was the point of Colosso, right? Like ah he neutralizes all the X-Men's powers.
00:46:21
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Just it's very ah it subverted my expectations for sure. I thought we were going to get a couple of big punches. Yeah. There is some big Colossus punches in this issue that we punches out Warhawk.
00:46:35
Speaker
Yes. that's It's a very fun two panel moment because they have Warhawk dead to rights. So Kurt comes in and tries to punch him to knock him out. But his skin is made of metal. So he's like, ow, my hand says Colossus. His skin is made of metal just like yours. He hurt my hand. Colossus says, ah well, I could solve that problem and just bam. Yeah. yeah I did. So at at one point reading this, I typed into the notes like, how the fuck did they explain this to the police? Like they call the police and have the police come.
00:47:07
Speaker
And then Chris Claremont is there, this son of a bitch. Oh, not again. and he's like, okay, how did you defeat Warhawk? This guy who's supposed to be undefeatable.
00:47:23
Speaker
And they're just like, I don't know. We got lucky. And he's like, all right, well, I guess that's all the explanation I'm getting from you folks. Yeah, they're used to incidents at the x Xavier mansion. And they're like, all right, these guys are keeping some sort of secret. And we're better off not knowing what it is.
00:47:42
Speaker
Do we have we seen this man before? Captain Delaney? I know they mentioned him by name, but yeah. Well, Claremont loves to do this. He loves to give everybody names.
00:47:53
Speaker
That's true.
00:47:58
Speaker
No. No. This is his first and only appearance. They say his creator is Dave Cockrum, but this issue is drawn by Tony DiZuniga. Well, maybe he drew the last page, too. Not not according to an interview with him.
00:48:17
Speaker
All right. How do we transition out of this, Matt? I don't know. with Warhawk is stone flummoxed. I know he's he's your favorite guy.
00:48:29
Speaker
Alright, I'm nipping this in the bud. Maybe you... When see him again in 20 years, if you refer to him as my favorite guy, i'm going to be very upset. he's here He's your favorite guy, so you get to have ah your cake and eat it too by telling me about X-Men 111.
00:48:48
Speaker
Alright, let's... with the Why don't we say i said, let's move on. LAUGHTER To X-Men number 111, Mind Games.
00:48:58
Speaker
Mind Games. gave Chris Claremont, author, John Byrne Penciler, Terry Austin Inker, Tom Orzechowski, letterer, Mary Titus, colorist. So long to that Yankus.
00:49:12
Speaker
So that probably because we made fun of him so much. yeah And finally, Archie Goodwin, editor. Beast, Hank McCoy, is at the circus in Sullivan County, Texas. And he's astonished as he looks up and sees that all of the featured performers appear to be the new X-Men.
00:49:31
Speaker
Plus, he recognizes the carnival barker, Sean Cassidy, a.k.a. Banshee. Since he's never met them, so he claims, he decides to do some detective work and wander around the carnival looking at the acts.
00:49:45
Speaker
I do have to say, Beast. You don't remember maybe meeting them on the video screen when you talked to Professor X about 15 issues ago? does say he's only seen their pictures, so maybe that's what he means. That's more of a video of them. i
00:50:02
Speaker
He gets hit a lot. he gets hit a lot. That's true. A lot of blows to the head. Please know Scott Summers. Among the circus, we do recognize Wolverine chained up and naked under a sign that says Man Beast of the Yukon, Nightcrawler as the demon, and Storm as the goddess in a leopard bikini and tooth necklace in front of a generic African backdrop.
00:50:26
Speaker
Great. and uncertain of whether he's on the right track, Beast flashes back to how he got here in the first place. I do... In Beast's... To Beast's credit, he does point out, like, this...
00:50:41
Speaker
this poor woman, nobody should be subjected to this. He is pointing out like this is racist. is shitty does Yeah. Yeah. But it is right there on the page. Yes. We are looking at it. Yeah.
00:50:53
Speaker
Apparently, Dane called Hank in a panic as Havoc had been kidnapped. Wait, what? Yeah. Well, I'm sure we'll find out about that at some point. Maybe next episode.
00:51:06
Speaker
Maybe. I'm not going to spoil anything. Okay. When he arrived, the mansion was deserted. Using the computer, he found the X-Men at Mr. Mike's one ring traveling tent show in Texas.
00:51:18
Speaker
Why is it called Mr. Mike's? We now, we read the whole issue so we know who's in charge. why is it called Mr. Mike's? It's a good cover. Nobody suspects a Mr. Mike. Nobody knows that I'm mr Mike.
00:51:32
Speaker
As Hank reminisces, he makes his way into the big top where he sees a redhead acrobat named Ms. Destiny miss a catch and instead of falling, float her way back down to the earth.
00:51:43
Speaker
but I own not have have to interrupt you again here because Beast says she's falling to her death. I got to get out there. And then the narrator says she doesn't start floating to the last possible second.
00:51:57
Speaker
So it's not like he saw, oh, she's fine. He must have just decided, never mind. I guess. Yeah, he didn't actually make a leap towards it. Yeah, yeah he's like, oh, I better go save her. Maybe I don't want to. Oh, Hugh, thank God she has telekinesis at the last second.
00:52:17
Speaker
Well, he notes how different she seems, but he's now sure that that's his buddy, Jean Grey. well He follows her back to her trailer, but when she doesn't recognize him, her bouncer comes in. It's Slim Summers, a.k.a. Cyclops. Whoa!
00:52:33
Speaker
Beast boots him out of the trailer and Scott Hey-Rubes, the rest of the circus after Hank, who flips and punches his way to the safety of the freak show tent. We're back to Hey-Rubes, Matt. Yeah, Hey-Rubes.
00:52:44
Speaker
This was the biggest argument we've had on the podcast so far. Yeah.
00:52:51
Speaker
Apparently, if you haven't listened to the earlier episodes, Hey Rube is a common carnival call for support. But the only source we can use to verify that references the X-Men's use of it as... That's not so true. It certainly is.
00:53:07
Speaker
yeah In the canon of this podcast, it is. In the in the in the real ah real world, it's like it was first recorded back in like the 1800s. But that's it's fine.
00:53:19
Speaker
This Hey Rube call calls the rest of the circus in. on Hank who flips and punches his way to the safety of the freak show tent when a metal arm punches through the canvas and knocks him to the ground.
00:53:32
Speaker
The rest of the carnies pile on and drag him to the boss's tent. The boss who turns out to be Mesmero. It's Mesmero? It's fucking Mesmero, Matt. We haven't seen that guy in so long. When he got beaten up by sentinels.
00:53:49
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Very easily. And then he was left in the care of, uh, Superintendent Chalmers. Yeah. And then he went from Judge Chalmers to the circus, I guess. I guess.
00:54:01
Speaker
Having watched Beast get taken, Wolverine shakes out of his mental hold and through extreme exertion and force of will, snaps his steel chains. It's wild.
00:54:12
Speaker
He proceeds to make his way through the carnival and slaps Cyclops and Phoenix back into consciousness. He is... This... this go Yeah, go ahead. He is just going back and forth.
00:54:25
Speaker
Backhand, fronthand. Backhand, fronthand. Until Gene snaps out of it. So are we meant to think that he snapped Scott out when he backhanded Scott?
00:54:38
Speaker
I think so. Yeah, it only took one backhand for Scott. But we don't hear Scott talk until later. So like, is it just Jean that he snaps out and then she mentally frees everybody else?
00:54:50
Speaker
I like to think he freed Scott with a backhand. And then Jean is just in such a difficult place right now. She's so mentally fragile that it took so many fucking slaps.
00:55:02
Speaker
So then do you imagine Wolverine walking around slapping all of his friends? Like, that he they take him to Banshee and he's like, slap! And then they take him to Storm and he's like, backhand! I think he's so happy that he finally has a purpose.
00:55:17
Speaker
Just to walk around slapping all his friends. Yeah, he's got a place on this team.
00:55:25
Speaker
Now two scenes unfold at once. First, Beast resists Mesmero's control long enough for him to get distracted by the escaping prisoners and then lifts both men holding him into the air and bonks their heads together.
00:55:39
Speaker
Then some strange figure from out of panel knocks Beast out and causes Mesmero to recoil in horror. In the other scene, the X-Men beat up a bunch of carnival folk again. ah Again, yeah, they always, why are they doing this all the time? And make their way to Mesmero's tent.
00:55:55
Speaker
He stands stoically in front of the door and then suddenly collapses as if his strings had been cut. Beyond him, a man in a red costume and a horned helmet rises from behind a desk. It's Eric the Red.
00:56:09
Speaker
Wait. No, I'm just kidding. It's Magneto. ah Do be continued. I would have quit the podcast. Wow. i I don't know.
00:56:23
Speaker
this happen more than twice? That the X-Men join a carnival? is Or is it just twice? They say it's been weeks.
00:56:34
Speaker
they've It's been weeks that they've been working this traveling tent show. I always, I think of this, actually I didn't dislike this, I think of this as one of my least favorite issues of this run, but then I read this and I was like, okay, I really like it.
00:56:50
Speaker
I don't know why, i don't know why, i think mind control stories bug me, when characters, same reason that alternate universe stories bug me, like I want to see my characters, I want to see them be in themselves, yeah and when they're being other people, I'm just kind of like, i like I'm a little bored, I think, but This one was actually pretty cool. it was cool to see Beast.
00:57:12
Speaker
It was cool to see Wolverine slapping people. it's such a It's such a dynamic setting too. Like if you're going to if you're going to implement mind control, like we saw Magneto do it a few episodes back and like, fine, that was a little boring. He just mind controls the X-Men. But what they're doing here is creating this like weird alternate reality for the X-Men to live in.
00:57:40
Speaker
Yeah. I assume it's just for a dollar, just like for Mesmero to make some money with a a legitimate freak show. It's hard to tell. It was hard to tell what Mesmero's motivations were the first time.
00:57:53
Speaker
It's even harder to tell this time. Or he he just wants to, ah he just wants to embarrass them. There's something that wasn't, we left out of the description that It's just ah one line where Jean says she's got a date with the boss.
00:58:10
Speaker
And it makes me wonder if there's something a little grosser and more nefarious going on with Mesmeral. And if he gets some sort of like sick thrill from doing this to people. There's something so weird and kind of creepy about them being trapped in a carnival and like living this happy-go-lucky life, having no idea that they are actually superheroes.
00:58:33
Speaker
With Bruno the Clown and his friend Juki with a chain. Yeah, they just fight clowns in this one.
00:58:40
Speaker
That's the action that we get. Bruno and Juki are the first two. It's also, i think the like noir detective mystery unravel to it is really fun.
00:58:52
Speaker
Maybe I'm just saying that because Hank's in a trench coat and hat. He's in a trench coat and a hat. And like, it's not a mystery to us, but I guess it is a mystery to him because he just keeps going like, this doesn't seem like what I know about these people. They don't seem like they do this.
00:59:07
Speaker
Why didn't think, oh, it might be mind control, which I've seen a dozen times before Yeah, yeah. Could be Mesmero who I've met and battled. There's there's ah a thing that happens with Beast a lot where he's wearing a hat and a trench coat and nobody recognizes he's blue and furry. Until the hat falls off.
00:59:27
Speaker
And then they're shocked. They're like, oh my God, who is this freak? that This happens with Ms. Destiny and Slim Summers. Yeah, yeah. And it's like, I would definitely notice if someone was blue and furry if they were wearing a hat and a trench coat.
00:59:42
Speaker
They're looking at him in the face. She's talking about him staring at her. She's looking at him in his eyes. His cat eyes Yeah, exactly.
00:59:53
Speaker
There's a couple of things about Wolverine's... escape here that I want to mention. Number one, okay they do this really good thing. Comic books forever and ever have always had this habit of being like, okay, this character's not strong enough to do this thing until he summons the strength to do it.
01:00:10
Speaker
And... It's done here, but it's done in a way where Chris Claremont's poetic narration of him, like yeah summoning strength from within that he's never had before to break these chains that are supposed to be 100% unbreakable.
01:00:27
Speaker
It covers for the fact that he just needs to be stronger. So he is stronger. It's like, it's really well written and you... kind of forget to it makes it very easy to suspend your disbelief because he's, ah because he's writing so, so flowery.
01:00:45
Speaker
This was the biggest, plot point of every time I played with my action figures as a kid. ah They would get into a really, they yeah, the villains would show up, put the heroes into an unwinnable situation. They would like, because that was the fun of it, right? Being clever enough as a little boy to think of how do you subdue all these superpowers? yeah yeah So it's like it's just this like little creative factory of like, oh, and then you could stop Cyclops by doing this. Oh, and then you could stop Wolverine by doing this.
01:01:16
Speaker
But then it's like, well, now all the heroes are stuck. How are you going to write your way out of this one, all camp? Unwittable situations. And it's always just like, but then he summoned the extra power from deep inside of him. and but Yeah, I mean, this is Cyclops blowing every everything anyone ever puts over his eyes off of him.
01:01:38
Speaker
ah My other strange thing about Wolverine's escape is he's naked and chained up. He escapes and then immediately pops into the tent in full costume. Did he stop by the evidence locker?
01:01:54
Speaker
Well, so I mean, so do all the X-Men as they charge Mesmero, right? It's Mesmero must have like just carefully packed away their uniforms in an easy to reach location.
01:02:09
Speaker
we i We're picking out details here because this is actually pretty tightly written for such a unusual and sort of foundationless story.
01:02:25
Speaker
ah Yeah. um i In fact, I want to know what happens next. Well, why don't I tell you about it, Yeah. How about tell you about it, now Pat?
01:02:38
Speaker
X-Men number 112, Magneto Triumphant. No. Chris Claremont, author, John Byrne, penciler, Terry Austin, inker, Bruce Patterson, letterer, M. Titus, colorist, what?
01:02:51
Speaker
Jim J. Shooter? Jim Shooter is here. Matt, I don't want to talk about Jim Shooter unless we absolutely have to. Okay, let's not talk about Jim Shooter.
01:03:04
Speaker
um I also think it's funny that at this point, Dave Cockrum is doing the covers of all of his issues, even though John Byrne is doing, even though John Byrne is penciling them.
01:03:18
Speaker
And it is because... there're There are two things. When John Byrne talks about it, he's like, ah, these friggin' editors didn't think I was good enough to do the covers. And when Dave Cockrum talks about it, he's like, I made them let me do the covers.
01:03:35
Speaker
Or, like, he was working. Like, this is... Okay. This is why Dave Cockrum stopped working on the X-Men, is because he started being, like, the cover guy in the Marvel bullpen.
01:03:45
Speaker
Okay, yeah, yeah. And so he was like, I can't... make the commute all the way to New York, work eight hours a day, and then draw a comic book. So anyway, so Dave Cockrum had a little bit of control over this and was like, he made sure he drew all the X-Men covers because he had a rivalry with Byrne.
01:04:06
Speaker
yeah And it's like, it was his way of sticking it to Byrne. Like, you get to draw your own covers. Byrne gets to play with all the characters that he invented. So now he's got to get some measure of revenge here.
01:04:19
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Alright, release date here is May 16th, 1978. Cover date August 1978. The gentleman's name is Magneto.
01:04:30
Speaker
A man the new X-Men have fought once before in their brief careers. He beats them hands down. The narrator sets the scene for us. Magneto lords over the X-Men inside a circus wagon, daring them to attack him.
01:04:47
Speaker
when wolver Wolverine almost does, but defers to Scott's command to back off. Interesting. Cyclops sends Nightcrawler to go outside and scout the area instead to see what Magneto's got planned.
01:05:00
Speaker
But outside, to Kurt's surprise, he finds they're actually flying through the air in this wagon already miles above the earth. Holy cow.
01:05:11
Speaker
How would they not notice that? why couldn't Gene just put it back down? ah Wolverine tries to attack him again, then Scott reminds him that Magneto is keeping them in the air right now, and if he kills Magneto, they'll fall.
01:05:28
Speaker
And he won't, because Gene's there, but whatever. yeah Magneto explains that, looking to finish the job against the X-Men after Muir Island, he followed Beast as Beast hunted down the X-Men at this traveling circus.
01:05:44
Speaker
Magneto confirms that he was happy to zap Mesmero and take control of the situation as he has no relationship to Mesmero. Mesmero's Magneto was a fucking robot. The entire time, Matt.
01:05:56
Speaker
we Yeah. It was up in the air whether the Lorna Dane is my daughter incident was robot Magneto or real Magneto. Turns out.
01:06:06
Speaker
Yeah, he's confirming here that for some reason, Robot Magneto was like, I think this woman's my daughter. Right. He even points that out. He's like the guy who said he was Lorna Dane's father was a robot. Just for some reason.
01:06:21
Speaker
And he like lectures Scott. He's like, you haven't been paying attention. We have. We have. You motherfucker. We pay attention to way too much.
01:06:34
Speaker
After a brief interaction with the, what appears to be the Mexican Air Force. Fucking Chris Claremont loves brief interactions with the Air Force. And it it doesn't matter who. Like, okay, we didn't talk about this, but a couple issues ago we saw the Canadian Air Force. Right.
01:06:52
Speaker
And they were just like this secretive, it's so funny because it was just like this secretive, like. They're all cloaked in shadow. But they all have Canadian flags on their helmets. Yay. And this one, it is looks like the Air Force, but they all have Hispanic names.
01:07:09
Speaker
They call each other by Hispanic subroquets. Yeah. And they they use Spanish expressions. So it could be the Spanish Air Force.
01:07:21
Speaker
Could be Spanish Air Force. Could be. No, because um he drops. He's dropping them in the Amazon. So it's some South American. oh Could be the South American Air Force. Some Air Force.
01:07:33
Speaker
um
01:07:37
Speaker
There's a thing that might be a little quasi racist there, but I'm not going to bring it up because I don't know. But if anyone is like from the X-Men, from the X-Men. But if anyone's like, why don't they mention that thing? It's because I don't know if it was intended to be or not.
01:07:51
Speaker
right I'll say it to you, Pat. yeah Okay. yeah Anyway, all it's probably a little racist.
01:08:01
Speaker
After a brief interaction with a some South American country's air force and what must have been hours of awkward silence, the circus wagon arrives in Antarctica.
01:08:12
Speaker
They're just flying around in a circus wagon. Antarctica. They're just flying around in a circus wagon. It's so weird. In low orbit.
01:08:23
Speaker
All right. So they arrive in Antarctica ah again, where it descends into one of the rare active volcanoes of Antarctica. But Magneto's powers keep them safe as they plunge through the hot lava and into a giant underground complex.
01:08:40
Speaker
One of many that a Magneto has apparently constructed around the world. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Remember when he was underground and he found what we thought we thought might have been grotesque civilization. Yes. Maybe and he made a base down there.
01:08:57
Speaker
Take it over those bases. This is just a guy who loves to build forts. He's been a busy little baby. Let's just let this guy build some forts, build some base because he's got his island base.
01:09:10
Speaker
He has his asteroid base, right? He has his underground base that he made weapon alpha in. He's got his underground up volcano base.
01:09:22
Speaker
He's got his Savage Land base that he made the mutates in. and It matter mentions that he has these built all around the world, too. These little these weird underground lairs.
01:09:34
Speaker
Right, so this one counts for a bunch of them. Yeah. and But these other ones are just there. like the There's just a laboratory in the Savage Land. There's just a i secret island base out in the middle of the, what was it, the Atlantic?
01:09:52
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. There's an asteroid... Filled with machinery that he resides in sometimes. So strange.
01:10:04
Speaker
But as Scott notes, their attacks aren't coordinated at all. They're all acting individually and getting their asses handed to them. Beast, Nightcrawler, and Colossus are all tossed easily aside. Storm shows she's powerful enough to beat Magneto, but her resistance to killing him gives him the opportunity to take her out.
01:10:23
Speaker
He's prepared for Cyclops and Banshee, the two X-Men that have proven to be individual threats in the past. Phoenix's power cuts out on her mid-blast. Wolverine is quick enough to get one good slash in, but only catches Magneto's cape before getting knocked out by his own fist. It's a good scene.
01:10:42
Speaker
Magneto pulls a why are you hitting yourself? The X-Men are defeated. Oh. And when they awake, they're all shackled into metal chairs by the legs, wrists, and neck.
01:10:56
Speaker
Magneto, once again lording over them, introduces a robotic nanny that will be their caretaker in their new permanent home and prison. Imagine if somebody got ah Rosie from the Jetsons and said, she's too fat.
01:11:12
Speaker
LAUGHTER
01:11:16
Speaker
That's true. yeah He invites them to try to use their powers or to even just try to reason with him, but they all find that they cannot. Magneto explains that he has no wish to kill them.
01:11:29
Speaker
We know. He never does. You can't kill anybody, dude. Well, no, that's not true. You can kill... Military guys, I guess. Yeah, yeah. But and you can't kill the X-Men. You just love them much. Innocence.
01:11:41
Speaker
yeah Exactly. He wants them all to suffer the same fate he did by being turned into a baby. But since he can't just turn them into babies, he allows them full mental awareness, but the coordination and communication skills of an infant forever to be continued.
01:12:02
Speaker
It's actually when we talk about some of the horrifying fates that we find people in through X-Men comics. This one's pretty upsetting. This is some really cold villain shit.
01:12:15
Speaker
Yeah. Yes, it is. Like the idea of trapping you in your own mind. Yeah, yeah. and But not while your body body, nothing. Exactly.
01:12:26
Speaker
And i mean, to be fair, this is revenge for him because he said that's exactly what happened to him as a baby. He retained all his memories of Magneto's life. He just couldn't communicate or even coordinate himself enough to use the powers he knew he had.
01:12:43
Speaker
OK, but.
01:12:47
Speaker
None of these guys were responsible for that. That's true. Yeah. First of all, i don't think most of these guys weren't even there, right? It was Professor X and the Defenders? Yes.
01:12:58
Speaker
And on top of that, Professor X didn't even do it. Alpha did it. The guy he invented. It was his own fault he got turned into a baby. Yeah, it was.
01:13:10
Speaker
he He didn't. Why does he need to get revenge on the X-Men for something that they none of them had anything to do with?
01:13:20
Speaker
He's just a meanie. Yeah. he just with He wants to spend time with the X-Men. He wants to be their father, just like he knows Charles x Xavier is. Yeah. Do you think as as a baby, he was just spending the entire time thinking about how he wanted to hang out with the X-Men? I used to be older than them. They'll probably think I'm so lame now.
01:13:42
Speaker
Maybe when I grow up, i they'll hang out with me. Maybe I can be their student. Magneto does some cool stuff here. He calls Wolverine. He refers to Wolverine just as Madman. Every time he talks about Wolverine, he just calls him Madman instead of Wolverine. Yeah, yeah.
01:13:59
Speaker
He's like, what are you going to do now, Madman? What are you? Oh, Madman is coming at me. Also, there's another moment. There's the moment where Phoenix's powers unleash and Magneto is not ready for it.
01:14:12
Speaker
Yes. He just he's like lying on the ground and he's just like, good lord. Which echoes some other characters we've seen watching Jean use her powers ah since she's become the Phoenix.
01:14:27
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. He was not ready for it. No, no, no. He also, this is a very fun moment, he's just wandering around the circus in his...
01:14:38
Speaker
full Magneto costume. Okay, Pat, but he told us he could do this before. He did in the past. We already know in the blob issue, I think it's issue, what, three of the X-Men.
01:14:51
Speaker
He specifically told us. No, it's it's it's much later.
Humorous Discussions on Comic Characters
01:14:55
Speaker
because Yeah, yeah. It's when joins they try to recruit Blob for the Brotherhood. So it's like issue seven or eight. ah He told us, I love the circus because I can just walk around in full costume and nobody looks twice. And notices. It's great.
01:15:10
Speaker
And so now this is just a thing he does sometimes. He's living it out.
01:15:17
Speaker
There's a moment that I don't entirely understand where there's a scene where Storm is using her powers. She uses the full force of a blizzard to try to defeat Magneto. Only stops short because she doesn't want to kill him. He takes the opportunity, knocks her out, and then says, little did you know that the cold actually enhances my magnetic powers.
01:15:41
Speaker
This raises two questions. Number one, how?
01:15:47
Speaker
ah Number two, if that's true, why are you set up in the middle of a volcano? Yeah. for Nobody knows how magnets work in all of Marvel.
01:15:58
Speaker
No one knows. None of these Marvel people know how magnets work. Why don't you tell us that? How do magnets work? ah I don't know how magnets work, but I'm also not writing about it Also not sitting here like, oh, and then he used his magnets to control people's brains by by moving the iron around in their blood. Again, I don't know. I don't know why. Yeah, why would he go to a volcano? Why wouldn't he just be cool all the time? Yeah, why wouldn't you stand up slightly higher in Antarctica?
01:16:34
Speaker
Or away from the volcano? Yeah. um there's a moment here where magneto kind of says what he's been up to since muir island and i think he he gets he's hung out with captain america or something uh but then he apparently got in a fight with the champions and don't know if we announced this yet pat did we last episode we did that yeah we'll be uh Yeah, the champions.
01:17:03
Speaker
like So not only next issue are we going to be catching up with what Havoc and Polaris have been up to outside of the X-Men in, i think, five episodes.
01:17:16
Speaker
We'll be reading through the champions, and I guess we will find out what Magneto was up to. Okay.
01:17:24
Speaker
That'll be a lot of fun. There's i well we'll make it fun. Really interesting sequence that we sort of simplified as Magneto doing a, why are you punching yourself on Wolverine?
01:17:36
Speaker
But what he really does is Wolverine goes to slice him, slices his cape. Magneto notices him, starts controlling his arm and forcing yeah his claws towards his eyes.
01:17:49
Speaker
pulls him away at the last second because he doesn't want to kill the X-Men. But in the ah last moment that his claws are heading towards his eyes, Wolverine has pupils on his mask.
01:18:01
Speaker
If he's scared enough, his pupils burn through his mask. Anytime you see a mask that has eyes whited out and then you just draw two little black dots on it, it makes everything look so different.
01:18:16
Speaker
Yeah. I imagine... What's happening there... This is how I imagine it. might be wrong. Is that imagine that all bright white eyes on a superhero costume are little panes of glass.
01:18:29
Speaker
Okay. And so generally, you're just seeing light reflected off of them. I got you. every now and then, if you get close enough, you can kind of see their eyeballs through it.
01:18:43
Speaker
That's interesting. That's how I've always imagined it. But... I just thought when they put their mask on, their eyes turn white.
01:18:55
Speaker
That's another very valid theory. Oh, the thing he did with
Anticipation for Upcoming X-Men Issues
01:19:00
Speaker
Wolverine. So it's this thing Magneto does. He does also does it with Colossus, where it's like he's putting people in this situation where it's like, I'm going to use this against you, so ah you choose what you want to happen here.
01:19:14
Speaker
When he's making Colossus fly in the direction of Nightcrawler. Oh, right. And it's like Colossus has to choose. Okay, I guess I have to power down. Like I this is going to knock me out if I power down. But if I don't, it's going to kill Nightcrawler.
01:19:33
Speaker
So he drops out of metallic form. Yeah, yeah. It's a really good Colossus moment.
01:19:40
Speaker
ah Yeah, so Pat Why don't you tell me a little bit about ah the next issue? next issue? Because I'm i so excited to find out how the X-Men get out of this one, which they definitely will. Because they're the X-Men. They're going to win. Yeah, yeah. Let's read this in the exciting conclusion. X-Men number 113, Showdown.
01:20:04
Speaker
showdown Chris Claremont and John Byrne, Rock on Tours, Terry Austin, Embellisher, A. Koweki, Letters. Stop! Stop! Stop it!
01:20:16
Speaker
So, starting this issue. Yeah. is where Byrne and Claremont would plot issues together over the phone. Oh. And have co-creator credits.
01:20:29
Speaker
Excellent. Because instead of the very long plots, Chris would call John and they'd talk, and then they'd call their editors and talk. And John Byrne has a lot of complaints about which editors would side with Chris and which editors would side with John.
01:20:42
Speaker
And Roger Stern... but I wonder when he becomes editor. Roger Stern... will take burn side more often than arguments and this kind of sets them up for failure eventually oh because when somebody else starts taking chris's side john burns like i'm sick of this and get and runs away because he's a baby also the book's monthly now which i so we don't have to interrupt you later i'll just say it now yeah thank you now try not to interrupt me again Chris Claremont John Byrne, Rock and Tours. Terry Austin, embellisher. A. Kowecki, letterer. G. Ween, colorist. Glynis Ween is back.
01:21:22
Speaker
Hey, Glynis Ween. Roger Stern, editor. I guess ah he's editor now. Oh, okay. And then Jim Shooter, editor-in-chief. Release date, June 20th, 1978. date, September 1978.
Magneto's Plot and Character Development
01:21:34
Speaker
september nineteen seventy eight We open with Magneto storming through an Australian aerospace research facility in Wulmara for something. We see that he's been attacking several research and military facilities through New Zealand and Australia, as BBC News' John Cheever explains that the Fantastic Four, the Defenders, and the Avengers are all as unavailable as the X-Men to do anything about it.
01:22:02
Speaker
Often Claremont uses real life reporters. but yeah Yeah. As far as I could tell, John Cheever wasn't one. There's a John Cheever who's an American novelist, but doesn't appear to ever have been a John Cheever.
01:22:15
Speaker
Yeah. at be your Yeah. I wonder if we'll see this John Cheever again. It's it's interesting. He says the Avengers are under house arrest.
01:22:27
Speaker
I wonder what's happening there. I don't know, Matt. We're not following the Avengers. He says the Fantastic Four are disbanded. wonder what's happened there, Pat. i Oh, you know what? We're not following the Fantastic Four.
01:22:39
Speaker
Oh, okay. He says the champions just disbanded. What's happening there?
01:22:45
Speaker
I guess we'll find out in a few episodes, Matt. Oh, damn it. Okay. ah Meanwhile, Charles Xavier is on a lover's getaway in the south of Greece with his new girlfriend slash soulmate Lalandra.
01:22:59
Speaker
Xavier is concerned that he can't sense the X-Men, but Lalandra assures him that they're probably perfectly fine. Seems like this was good enough for him because we do not see him again in this issue. That's true.
01:23:11
Speaker
Back in the underground lair, the nanny is employing her unique form of torture, babying the X-Men as their fully formed brains suffer inside their inert meat prisons. It's like feeding Wolverine mush. Yeah. And he's going. She's like, oh, you spit up a little bit, scraping it off his chin.
01:23:32
Speaker
But Magneto's plan has a fatal flaw. Storm may you only have the agility of a six month old. But if you remember, Matt, at six months old, Storm was already as coordinated as a child.
01:23:46
Speaker
she's able in this trap to wrele her head band loose inside which are her trusty lock ps we see her reflecting on her time spent with ahmed al- jabbar her childhood master thief mentor and remembering the lessons he taught her storm comes so close but ultimately drops the lockpi on the floor which brings nanny rushing in where she reaffixes storm's head band back on her head storm for only the third time in her life cri Hmm.
01:24:16
Speaker
It's. She wasn't six months old when that happened, right? Like she was up and walking and stuff. We not for the, her parents were killed.
01:24:27
Speaker
Well, so I think I've thought this through Matt. The, okay. Number one, there is one panel in her origin story. What was this? 10 issues ago. Yeah. Where we see it's, this is absolutely true. It's six months old.
01:24:42
Speaker
Canon to her backstory. She is up and walking and has full coordination. She also was mentally drilled by her master thief mentor to be able to pick locks in any condition, no matter her mental or physical condition. So with her full competence left, she's tapping into that ability And with her coordination as a six-month-old, she has just enough to try to pick a lot.
01:25:14
Speaker
That's interesting. Okay, I get it. Yeah, i because I was like... She was like eight at least. Maybe six. She was between six and eight when she met Ahmed Al-Jabbar.
01:25:25
Speaker
But... right It seems like it's it's pretty well thought out here. It's really... um It is. I did not expect that first panel of Storm's origin story. is a baby to come back.
01:25:39
Speaker
This is what year and change later. Wild. ah We find Magneto up in space on asteroid M, which he explains. Whoa, whoa. He's been able to reconstruct ever since being restored to adulthood by Eric the Red.
01:25:57
Speaker
He's pinged by an alarm from the underground lair and being so close to his goal of world domination, he decides to go investigate. Immediately upon arriving back at this volcano lair, Magneto sees signs that the X-Men have escaped their bindings.
01:26:12
Speaker
The lights are out and Nanny is on the fritz. Bracing himself for an attack, Magneto suddenly finds himself peppered by four different kinds of blasts. The X-Men are free and ready to fight.
01:26:25
Speaker
We see, I absolutely love this moment, Matt. We see that Phoenix has linked the whole gang in psychic communication and has Scott calling the shots. It's teamwork time.
01:26:36
Speaker
yeah We've seen psychic communication before. This is the first time we're seeing them use it like walkie talkies to each other. Yeah. Yeah, which is now how they'll use it forever.
01:26:49
Speaker
Forever. i don't know if there's like a gap between them using it here and them using it forever. But so cool. But it is cool that we're seeing it. Yeah. ah So the battle begins. Despite his bracing for the attack, Magneto is still stunned from all that power.
01:27:07
Speaker
Storm, i love this as well, starts draining the humidity from the air around him to start slowly dehydrating him. So what a weird choice, but super cool. Yeah, yeah.
01:27:19
Speaker
Banshee comes in with a a direct scream to the chest. This opens up Wolverine with enough time to get one good slash in. And this time he does not miss. Yeah. the phoenix steps up and telekinnetically backhand magneto across the room crashing him into the control panel colossus against scott's orders seize his opportunity while magneto starts to feel hot and woozy from the dehydration peter rushes in in his metal form and starts beating the living snot out of magneto powerful blow after powerful blow yeah
01:27:52
Speaker
Beast grabs Nightcrawler by the tail and throws him forward at a high speed. Kurt saying, there's got to be a better way. There's got to be a better way.
01:28:04
Speaker
Kurt teleports midair at full speed from there to only a few feet from Magneto and maintaining the same momentum as he's explained to us before, zips by to remove Magneto's helmet.
01:28:15
Speaker
This allows Colossus to land what would be a killing blow on any other man. Wild. So I don't. Okay. A couple of things. The heat. This is very interesting.
01:28:26
Speaker
The heat is not coming from Storm. And Magneto notes this. He's like, is this the heat? I'm starting to feel hot. Is this part of their plan? Yeah, yeah.
01:28:37
Speaker
Which is about to come back up, I think. Oh, I thought it was because he was dehydrated, but it might be because of this very next moment here. Yeah, he mentions it. He mentions the heat being separate from the humidity and wondering, is this part of their plan or not?
01:28:51
Speaker
But the other thing... Why does Colossus's blow to Magneto's naked head not kill him? Because he's a mutant, Matt. Magnets. Right.
01:29:02
Speaker
and Oh, okay. i Sorry, sorry, sorry. He's got magnets in his head that stop anything from killing him. I do think he keeps up like a slight, it's a small sustained force field of metal at all times.
01:29:15
Speaker
I guess that's what we're supposed to yeah yeah take from this. Either way, the X-Men appear to be cruising to victory when Kurt notices that molten rock is starting to drip from the ceiling. yeah Magneto, between taking blows, explains that Phoenix's reckless use of powers earlier destroyed the controls and cracked the walls that were keeping the hot lava out of the facility.
01:29:36
Speaker
He zips off before anyone can catch him, barely making it back to the surface with the injuries he sustained. But what would the X-Men do?
01:29:46
Speaker
I don't know. Above ground, for a moment, there's only silence. But then we see a bird of flame shoot up from the snow and light up the sky. It's Phoenix carrying Beast with her to the surface.
01:29:59
Speaker
This seems to have sapped all her power, though, and she immediately passes out. Hank, unsure what to do, stranded in the middle of Antarctica, doesn't last long before passing out, too. Once again, there's only silence.
01:30:14
Speaker
To be continued. So I want to stress here how desperate this looks. Yeah. they The X-Men are in the deep underground facility being covered in lava.
01:30:30
Speaker
The last thing we hear from Cyclops is like, oh, I've been cut off. He says to some of the X-Men, there are these other X-Men on the other side of this lava. Help me blast my way through yeah the magma to get to them. Like, that's the last we hear from Scott.
01:30:48
Speaker
And then Magneto escapes and the lava fills the thing up and the place explodes. I thought for sure what we were going to get was ah what you were saying about that flying circus wagon.
01:31:01
Speaker
Like, sure, Magneto can't do it, but seems like the Phoenix probably could. Why don't they just let her handle it? And then we see her pop up through the ground in this burst of flame into the snow.
01:31:12
Speaker
And the only one she's carried with her is Beast. Where are the rest of the X-Men? What seems like she was separated from them. And like she was on the verge of like death herself. Right. Because she passes out. in Yeah. Yeah.
01:31:26
Speaker
And Beast is talking about how he can like barely hear a heartbeat. Right. Yeah. And where's he going to find a hospital? They're stranded in the middle of Antarctica. Yeah. Exactly. And he he lays down and he's like, es strange, I thought it was supposed to feel cold.
01:31:40
Speaker
That's how people freeze to death. Yeah, yeah. That's why you often find people who have died of exposure nude because they got too hot.
01:31:51
Speaker
Yeah. Their bodies, in order to, I don't know how it happens, but they their bodies send the wrong signals to their brains and... Or maybe just like me and Storm, they love being nude.
01:32:07
Speaker
It's if I'm going to die, I'm going to go out with my dingle hanging out. That's right. Going out the way I came in. Dingle out. Um... dingle out um
01:32:20
Speaker
This is a good issue. There's this thing about Phoenix, right? Where, like you said, Magneto points out that she's been reckless and she, she is right. Like she is being absolutely reckless.
01:32:35
Speaker
And this is not like Marvel girl. This is not what Jean Grey was like in the past. There's a moment a couple issues ago that we also skipped over, which is as soon as she pops out of Mesmero's hold, she unleashes on Wolverine, knocks him back so fucking hard. And she says, like, don't you hate me ever again, you little man.
01:33:00
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. And then comes to and apologizes. like Right. Like Jean Grey Says, oh, I'm so sorry that I did that. Like there's something going with as we're seeing there's something fucking going on with Jean that she will what Cyclops says she's different.
01:33:18
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, there's something very different about her. um And that is a that is a cool moment. Also, so Magneto looks great in these issues.
01:33:30
Speaker
Yes, he is back to like, I think he's more menacing than he's ever looked. i'm not Yeah, I was going to say not even back. He is for the first time. He looks regal.
01:33:41
Speaker
He looks dignified. He looks menacing. he looks like you would be awestruck. to see John Burns Magneto. And it's all, it's small tweaks. Again, it's just like the, he looks a little more regal because like he's, he's a little more filled out and his, what is shoulder pads? The other accents are just a little, a little more finely done.
01:34:05
Speaker
His head's a little smaller in his helmet. So it casts this shadow over his face as he's talking and kind of, they they understand the madness that needs to be in his eyes. It's really, yeah.
01:34:16
Speaker
The madness that's in his eyes without him completely losing control. Like, he'll stand there. His eyes will look mad, but he'll just stand there clutching his cape or with his arms folded.
01:34:30
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. and he looks, but again, maybe for the first time, scary and dangerous. As he's walking through that Australian ah research facility, he's just...
01:34:45
Speaker
He seems to be walking calmly with his just arm extended and things are just happening around him. I agree, man. This issue was just, it was so good. Not just because of Magneto, but Magneto getting such a range, ah like he's at his highest, he's at his lowest in this run. It's really wild to watch, especially with someone that's like,
01:35:12
Speaker
not Don Heck drawing the emotion on his face. it really, it brings out just how much of a person he's become. He's not just this, this menace. He is really a, a man with motivations.
01:35:30
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And weaknesses and, and faults. Right. also love Nanny. Yeah. Yeah. I love her feeding Wolverine. I love her talking about how she's going put bows in Beast's hair. I would have liked to imagine that.
01:35:47
Speaker
Do you think that's where they got the inspiration for ah in Beauty and the Beast when he has a bunch of bows in his hair? o Maybe. I guess we'll find out when we read Beauty and the Beast.
01:36:02
Speaker
i'm Wait, I mean i knew mean the Disney movie Beauty and the Beast. Oh. Is he not an X-Man?
01:36:12
Speaker
Oh, also, ah Lalandra finally, we can finally use this word. Lalandra finally calls her race the Shi'ar. The Shi'ar avian kings.
01:36:24
Speaker
Shi'ar avian bird rulers. What the fuck? Why did they not mention the name Shi'ar until after the saga was over? There was a whole war.
01:36:36
Speaker
said their names until later and she's like oh yeah the she are just casually wait Chris Claremont must have known he didn't write their name in yeah was he just right was he just like beating himself up for what a year like what the fuck call these people I should have mentioned a name
01:36:58
Speaker
yeah yeah what is what are your thoughts on this run Matt how'd we do Again, I think it's the story that they're building with Gene is really interesting. Yeah, yeah.
01:37:11
Speaker
I think we're getting a bunch more little threads. Like, oh, there's some organization that sent Warhawk
01:37:21
Speaker
yeah to the X-Mansion. Alpha Flight is now a concern, right? Yeah, who the fuck is Alpha Flight? Even more than with Cockrum.
01:37:34
Speaker
these people, these characters feel like people all of a sudden. right With Cockrum, it was like, it feels like everything that is happening is an extension of the characters.
01:37:48
Speaker
But with Burn, it feels like we are just looking at people. Yeah, yeah. I'm in the same place. i think I love how much characterization we're getting from diverse sources. Like it comes from the story choices they make. It comes from the things that they say to each other, the way that they say those things, their body language, even just like. Yeah.
01:38:09
Speaker
the way they fight all puss characters on display here. It really, everything they do. I know I've said this before, but like not a wasted pen stroke, every line of dialogue, every action, been very deliberate. It's really, yeah they're, they're using these panels.
01:38:29
Speaker
And Magneto was cool. Like Magneto himself was cool, but i I do think this was a little bit of a, under usage of him, right?
01:38:43
Speaker
Really? i thought, again, was just... He was so much more menacing. And also, this is sort of a new approach to him where he's he's more... i don't know, psychotic?
01:38:56
Speaker
And and is they return him to his roots. They have him just taking over military installations, trying to like start his gradual takeover of the world. But they still give him more depth and more...
01:39:11
Speaker
it seems like tact in doing it and it makes him more threatening villain. I think, like like I said, I think as a character, he comes across really well here. And I like the building of his character, but this plot to just make the X-Men babies, like act like babies or look like, feel like babies. It's like, it's a fine plot for a villain. It isn't, it it feels like Magneto.
01:39:37
Speaker
you're going to bring back Magneto, It's like Chris Claremont doesn't believe in Magneto because he's brought him back twice now. And both times he's been kind of like, uh, it's the same as any other villain villain of the week story. It doesn't feel like an event.
01:39:55
Speaker
It doesn't feel like this is something that's been being planned for months or years. And we're building up to this huge conflict with Magneto.
01:40:07
Speaker
And I, I kind of feel like it should,
01:40:12
Speaker
I felt like Miura Island was our buildup to this. I thought that his sort of... you You can't call it a return of Magneto as much as it's just like... He's now back. he's Yeah, yeah. Because he's he has returned. We got the surprise reveal that he's back. And now...
01:40:33
Speaker
We have to deal with those consequences. We have to deal with not just him being back, but him feeling a little spited by the X-Men, maybe jilted after they just ran away from the fight with him. And I think that this really is like, we know that he doesn't want to kill the X-Men.
01:40:49
Speaker
What we're seeing here is his next best option, which is imprison them and torture them for the rest of their lives. Sure. Yeah. But I don't feel him as this lingering threat now.
01:41:02
Speaker
I'm like, okay, they beat a villain and now they'll fight another villain. Right? Like, I don't see, I don't see, I don't feel Magneto is like, oh man, and now they have to worry about him. They have to watch him at every turn. Like, that's not, that is not how he's coming across to me.
01:41:17
Speaker
I think he seems more diabolical than that. I think it seems like a yeah he'll probably go away for a while and then come back again, even more powerful with an even bigger threat. And I, I'm just, I'm getting psyched for that. I love that they, they brought him back.
01:41:33
Speaker
They gave him this sort of vengeful angle. And now he's just, he's back in the world. I agree. I'm also excited.
01:41:47
Speaker
To see him come back. I'm hoping. I'm hoping it takes a bit. Right. And I'm hoping that when he does. It is something.
Conclusion and Listener Engagement
01:41:58
Speaker
It's not just like. Oh I had a little plot.
01:42:00
Speaker
I have a little idea of how to get him. I'm hoping it's something big. Right. Yeah. I'm hoping something explosive. Where you're like holy fuck. Because again, I feel like that's the best way to use Magneto rather than just like a recurring villain.
01:42:16
Speaker
One of the few people who'd come back every now and then to beat up the X-Men and then get beat up by the X-Men. Yeah, I think we're we're finding common ground here, which is this is an extremely good setup for Magneto.
01:42:30
Speaker
But the next thing he does better be fucking huge. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I don't think this is going to be the case because it feels like, but it if it turned out that somehow even this loss was part of his plan, right? Like if he had this super master plan, that would be, I don't, that's not what's going to happen, but it would be cool if it was like, that's what I'm looking for from Magneto, something that big where it's like, you don't realize that ah all this time, all this stuff that happened was all me. he He's had the upper hand.
01:43:03
Speaker
Yeah. Well, I guess we just got to write that X-Men comic, Matt. Or Grant Morrison did in the it's One last thought on this run generally is that it did feel a little self-contained, I think, or like each, they're fairly short stories that they're telling here where they're dropping little threads, but we're not getting, and we're not pulling on any of them, really. We just kind of deal with the Mesmero and Magneto stuff here.
01:43:31
Speaker
It almost feels like it's a run to warm us up. Like they're saying, hey something big is about to happen. So here's some issues just to like keep your interest in the X-Men while we plot out yeah this ah big, crazy event.
01:43:48
Speaker
I could see that. And like we said, they're introducing these new things like oh Alpha Flight is... on the horizon and there's this secret organization after the X-Men on the horizon. We still have to deal with God. Some of the shit we listed last episode. I don't even remember.
01:44:06
Speaker
I don't even remember it all. There's a lot of threads just hanging out there, but yeah.
01:44:14
Speaker
Frigging cool, man. Frigging cool. Well, I'm about to hang up the call. So as long as there's nothing else, no, Matt, what you forgot. My segment.
01:44:26
Speaker
What segments to that? Pat Steals and Deals. Oh, yeah. Let's get a steal and a deal. All right, Matt. We got a good Steals and Deals for you this week. Number one reason it's good is it's free.
01:44:40
Speaker
Oh, absolute. So already a deal. It's already a deal. i Number two reason. It's weird. Okay. All right. I like weird stuff.
01:44:51
Speaker
This is a very small, again, one of the personal ads on a collection of where about 30 personal ads on a full page in the comic book. We have two very big and red words that say free weird.
01:45:05
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. And then if you do read the fine print, it says free catalog of the weirdest records in the world. Write to Ralph Records, Department C, 444 Grove, San Francisco, California, 94102.
01:45:19
Speaker
Okay, so it's just right to us for a catalog of things you can buy. It is. Matt, you know who Ralph Records is? Um... I know it was an independent record record label active between 1972 and 1989. Yes. Yeah, exactly that.
01:45:36
Speaker
Okay. What else? Well, so they are sort of an underground music collective. There was a group called Residents in the 70s that...
01:45:51
Speaker
They weren't necessarily a band as much as they were just a group of weird musicians. They got came together as a collective. They formed this record label and produced the albums by...
01:46:07
Speaker
i don't know how to describe this. Avant-garde music? Strange? Like... I'll bet i Ween listened to a lot of these guys. okay all right They might be giants probably listen to a lot of this. It is.
01:46:24
Speaker
ah theater of the absurd in music form. It is a lot of fun to listen to, but not something that you would ever put on to listen to for your own enjoyment.
01:46:35
Speaker
Does that make sense? Yeah, yeah. Not, not, not, okay. Not good, but interesting. If you, you can find it on YouTube. You can find The Residence. You can find Schwump, S-C-H-W-U-M-P.
01:46:47
Speaker
You can find Snakefinger, three very distinct artists making, Very strange music in the same vein. You had a weird afternoon, I really did. It's also fun fact. So when Ralph records celebrated, i want to say it's 10th anniversary, they had Penn Jillette, a young Penn Jillette of Penn and Teller lock himself in a hotel room for 10 days, doing nothing but listening to their collection of records. And he wrote the a very long article about it that you can find online too.
01:47:24
Speaker
I had a wild afternoon, Matt. They had a lot of records, too. Yes, yes, they did. a bunch of fucking mathematical music nerds just making as much product as they could before the record went.
01:47:40
Speaker
They did a record called The Beatles Play the Residents and The Residents Play the Beatles, in which they... Somehow they got a song by John Lennon on here, but most of them are just them taking clips of Beatles songs and looping them into new songs.
01:47:58
Speaker
It's so strange. It's very like... I didn't i haven't heard it. I'm just reading this on Wikipedia. Very... ah is I'm trying to put this into comic book terms. Who was a... It's like the Howard the Duck of music. How's that?
01:48:15
Speaker
ah The spider ham? Yeah, there you go. Well, that is a steal and deal. So I guess you can write to Ralph Records and get this anymore, they've gone out of business.
01:48:26
Speaker
Oh, damn it. Well, you can write into Pat's email corner at mutantmenacepod at gmail.com. I'll send you some weird music. For ah some weird music recommendations. Yeah, there's something you can do.
01:48:40
Speaker
Write in and ask us for recommendations. Music, movies, whatever. but Tell us just a little bit about your tastes. Or give us some. Give us recommendations and we'll make fun of you for your tastes.
01:48:53
Speaker
um You can also follow us on Instagram at mutant menace pod. de right and You can find us on any podcasting platform and it would be so fucking cool of you if you left us reviews or shared the show on your social media accounts.
01:49:13
Speaker
I leave reviews on the show all the time. So, you know, it's a thing that cool people do. You're not supposed... ah All right. Huge, huge thank you, as always, to Krills Wilson for our opening theme. Huge, huge thank you to Julia Selle for providing the voice of Trish Tilby.
01:49:31
Speaker
And next week, we're not reading the X-Men. Ah, shit. We're seeing what Havoc and Polaris are up to. Oh, cool. Yeah, yeah, I'm excited.
01:49:41
Speaker
And... I guess that only leaves one thing, and I guess that's just, I'll i'll say our, you know what I'll do I'll say our standard send-off, and then we can get out of here.
01:49:52
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Like we always say. Willis, you dumb cluck, you went and left the go gorilla cage open again. That's right, folks. And as always, Vahoo!