Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
64 - X-Men and Alpha Flight #1 & 2 - Asgardian Wars
45 Plays1 hour ago
ISSUES: X-Men and Alpha Flight #1 & 2,New Mutants Special Edition #1, X-Men Giant-Sized Annual #9
With everything going on these days, wouldn't you like to take a trip to Asgard and party with gods? Or bring Asgard to earth?? What would you be willing to give up? Find out what the X-Men, New Mutants, and Alpha Flight are and aren't willing to in this really rad crossover story! Plus, a bunch of stupid jokes!
TOPICS DISCUSSED:
Snorey Snorelson. Seinfeld impressions. Locke Box. Getting yelled at in a bar. “Humping.” Gods’ gods. Artificial intelligence and free will. Scott’s really dumb question. Andy Kindler. “Looks like I’m crazy again.” Brightwind is here! Warlock in a bikini, Sam in jean shorts. Rogue is like electricity. Thtorm. Dude.
TIMESTAMPS
6:03 - Pat’s Email Corner
22:58 - X-Men-related things we did
29:50 - X-Men and Alpha Flight #1 : “The Gift”
1:06:36 - X-Men and Alpha Flight #2: “The Gift Part II”
1:46:18 - New Mutants Special Edition #1: “Home is Where the Heart is”
2:14:55 X-Men Giant-Sized Annual #9 : “There’s No Place Like Home”
2:49:31 - Pat’s Deals ‘n’ Steals
Join our Patreon! Free, or pay-what-you-want: patreon.com/mutantmenace
Write into Pat's Email Corner: mutantmenacepod@gmail.com
Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/fPv7hRgTeV
Instagram: @mutantmenacepod
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Welcome
00:00:01
Speaker
I'm Trish Tobey with W.A.R.C. reporting to you live from Westchester, New York, where there appears to be some sort of mutant menace on the loose.
00:00:35
Speaker
Hey everybody, I'm Matt Allcamp. And I'm Pat Reber. And say it with us, glib.
00:00:43
Speaker
Welcome to Mutant Menace. Patrick! Matt! How the H are you? How the heck am i Wow. Wow. I got you. Wow. Wow.
00:01:02
Speaker
What a... Your foul mouth knows no bounds. Yeah, sorry. Fuck it. I meant... Pat, now I don't care how you are. Now I just want to talk to you about... Pat, what are we talking about today?
Exploring Mutants and Menaces
00:01:20
Speaker
Today? I don't know if we have a lot of history to cover. We're talking about the interaction of... mutants and... and Menaces.
00:01:32
Speaker
Menaces. As guardian gods. Yes! this So there was this fucking period of time that must have ruled if you were going to the comic shop every week from September ah to October of 1985 where the X-Men team up with Alpha Flight ah for a ah a story that involves Loki.
00:01:56
Speaker
And then... Overlapping. Overlapping weeks. The New Mutants go to Asgard. And then the X-Men go to Asgard. And team up with the New Mutants. And it technically the New Mutants X-Men story is is like like a sequel to the X-Men Alpha Flight story, but they were being published at the same time, or released at the same time.
00:02:21
Speaker
Right. we We have put them in... Chronological... If not temporal order. was Exactly. But pay close attention when we read those release dates, folks, because that'll reveal the secret.
Comic Book Storytelling and Influences
00:02:38
Speaker
How, how, ah and this was, so this was the time when Walt Simonson was writing Thor, right? And everyone is fucking loving Thor.
00:02:45
Speaker
Yes. Yeah, absolutely. Did you ever read any of Walt Simonson's Thor? Yes. And it's it's it's good. It's as good as people. Really? I haven't read it start to finish, but like the arcs that I have read are brilliant.
00:02:59
Speaker
And he's doing not Claremont level seeding, but he's doing the same thing where he's like seeding stories that don't actually open up until a year later. Maybe not a full year, but it's it's just really well done.
00:03:16
Speaker
Did you read the whole thing? no i I just said that. i Look, I pick out every couple words.
00:03:27
Speaker
But with neither Walt Simonson nor Thor are anywhere near these books, just to get that out of the way up top. But I guess my point is this all takes place during a Thor craze.
00:03:41
Speaker
Which is, I think, why it says based on a premise by Jip Schuber and Nocenti and Denny O'Neill on these books. Sure. They're like, you have to tie into Thor. We have to smash these two hits together.
00:03:55
Speaker
Right. And the background of these both of these books is reliant on... like You can get a full story without knowing this stuff.
00:04:08
Speaker
But it takes place in the tapestry of whatever's happening in Thor. Yeah, yeah. they They drop some hints, but if you want to understand like the relationship between Loki and Enchantress, then you have to have some background. Do you think Walt Simonson is considered... Do you think a amongk like amongst like Norse mythologists and stuff, do you think they count Stan Lee and Walt Simonson as some of the... like As some of the, like, important writers in- Absolutely not. no
00:04:43
Speaker
Like, they're like, well, Snorri Snorrison, Snorri Sturrelson, what's his name? story sno stlson Snorri Snorri Sturrelson, Stanley.
00:04:57
Speaker
No, that would be nuts. They're just making it up. Walt Simonson. Which isn't... Well, I guess Story Snorrelston was, too. what Wait a second. We don't know that those stories aren't true. That's true.
00:05:14
Speaker
But also... But, like, he was a... If he was, it's withstood the test of time at this point. He was like a Christian monk, though, who was like... How... Do you think people laughed at his name back then? Snorri Snorrelston?
00:05:29
Speaker
Yeah. I don't know. I don't know. Snorri was a cruel nickname from the other months. ah Can't get any damn sleep because a Snorri over here.
00:05:41
Speaker
write it Put it in the book. Put it in the book that his name is Snorri. Cross out whatever he wrote. His name's like Jeff. Cross out Jeff and write Snorri.
00:05:53
Speaker
Snorri Snorrelson. Nobody will ever believe his name is Snorri Snorrelson. Because his real last name is actually Snorrelson. Jeff
00:06:10
Speaker
Oh, Matt, it is about damn time.
Listener Emails and Community Engagement
00:06:15
Speaker
We have... So many emails to get through. They're pretty brief. Okay.
00:06:20
Speaker
But there's a bunch of them. You ready? We're going to start with someone we haven't heard from in a little bit. And I think we may have wondered if he was dead. Ambitious Eric. Oh, ambitious Eric.
00:06:34
Speaker
embarrassing agent Embarrassing Eric. Embarrassing Ambitious Eric says, Hey, Pat, tell Matt reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.
00:06:45
Speaker
he He lets us know he took a little break, but he is back and caught up. He says, before the break, while there seemed to be a lot of nitpicks, I could have bothered Matt over or at least gotten him to pretend to be bothered over. He doesn't think your anger is authentic, Matt.
00:07:02
Speaker
Oh. When I looked them up, it almost always turned out to be regional pronunciation differences or meanings of words that have changed back and forth over time. So Matt and I were both right, and we can't have that.
00:07:16
Speaker
But that's a good reason to take a break from the podcast. He really appreciates being reminded of Juggernaut and Black Tom's bromance. They were some of my favorites for a while, and I forgot their weirdly earnest dynamic was the big reason why. Juggernaut and Black Tom are the kind of homies who tuck each other into bed and kiss each other goodnight. And I'm here for it. I'm always here for it.
00:07:38
Speaker
That's very good. Yes. I, they, they do. They just, they roll. They do. They do. I mean, it's they are ah adorable together. It is the only interesting or significant thing about black Tom Cassidy, right? There's nothing interesting about him as a villain, as a character, as a man, but except for his bromance with Juggernaut.
00:07:59
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. He's got terrible powers and his ideas are so bad. They hired a hit man. yeah But his power is I can make a blast come out of a stick.
00:08:14
Speaker
Yeah, I need my stick to do it. ah But, you know, Juggernaut is not a smart man. And this isn't a slight at him at all, but he's just he's not super smart. And Black Tom is smarter than him. I think Black Tom's other power is convincing people dumber than him that he is a smart man.
00:08:37
Speaker
yeah because Yeah, because he is ah equally, almost as dumb as Juggernaut. At the end of the Dazzler episode, Ambitious Air continues, you guys talked a bit about Hostess fruit pies.
00:08:49
Speaker
My favorite was the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles vanilla pudding pie. What? It was vanilla group in radioactive looking green shell, if y'all don't remember. Do you remember these things, Matt? Not at all. So I vaguely remember them. The...
00:09:07
Speaker
i but gone i know. Yeah. Yeah. It's I just looked them up. Holy shit. The reason that I remember them more vividly now is because there's a ah pretty recent episode of it's always sunny in Philadelphia where they legitimately bought up. I think most of the rest of the existing collection of these on earth.
00:09:32
Speaker
and ate them on television. Like, you can find them opening up. It's very real. It's a very real thing. They did it in in the sitcom, a scripted sitcom.
00:09:44
Speaker
They did it for real. Yes. Like, it's clear it's very clear in the episode that these are real Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle pies, and they are incredibly hard to find. Like, these very well may be the last existing ones on Earth.
00:10:00
Speaker
And do you think they... preserved well there must be so much preservatives it's it is nothinging sugar like there's yeah probably a little bit of flour in the dough and maybe some vanilla extract but like there's but you don't think there's actual custard in that pudding no no no so i mean i would have fucking loved this as a kid but like i'm like legitimately gagging looking at these He suggests a nickname for Daniel. You remember that guy? Daniel the email that doesn't have nickname. Oh, yeah, we should come with nickname for him. does have a good one? He says Daniel the Nameless, and he assures us it's funny if we think about it.
00:10:41
Speaker
Okay. I mean, I get it conceptually. Here's the problem. You're saying he's nameless, but he has a name, but I don't get why that would apply to – I don't get what that means about Daniel. Like, why does that – What does that have to do with Daniel?
00:10:56
Speaker
Here's the problem I'm having is i have to think about it in order to get it. i I presume if I think about it, I can just went through this last week. If we think about it, then we're going get thrown so off our game in naming Daniel here. It's I can tell you're not thinking about it. I can see it in your face. And I, I did think about it. So actually it's kind of too late, but also I don't know what nameless has to do with Daniel.
00:11:23
Speaker
I assume it's very funny. But thank you, a the Ambitious Eric signs off. Future Loser League candidate, Ambitious Eric. never, Ambitious Eric. You are...
00:11:35
Speaker
you're You're part of the Winner League. We should call our emailers the Winner League. The Winner League. Ooh, that's our new listeners, what listeners should call themselves. Yeah. Winners. You guys are the Winner League. you're but You're a member of the Winner League if you you're listen to Mutant Menace. We got to make membership cards.
00:11:54
Speaker
Cut that out because we can't afford to. But... ah I weapon Jason has thoughts on 63 winter league member weapon Jason.
00:12:05
Speaker
Hey Pat tell Matt. I feel like Leia Loha was invited into new mutants because of the relationship he and Claremont likely built on the spider woman. All right. Good point. He was someone Claremont could work with and likely trusted to put on the page what Claremont intended.
00:12:20
Speaker
It's still wild how so much stuff is developing through New Mutants and X-Men together here. It really did feel like a shared universe of storytelling, but somehow even if you weren't reading one of the titles, you could still keep up with events. You could?
00:12:35
Speaker
that's what That's what I'm not, I'm wondering, I've been wondering if it's possible to. In what we read here, if you skipped the X-Men and Alpha Flight issues, you'd have no idea how anybody got here, but you can, as an avid comic reader, assume they're here for a reason, and there's enough to kind of keep you afloat through the rest of the story.
00:12:57
Speaker
He goes on Secret Wars 2 was such a terrible, terrible idea. Agree. Hard agree. Haven't read it yet, but definitely agree. going to be so bad, dude. Really hoping no nickname Daniel gets a couple more roles next time, though. people keep calling him this? I know. People are concerned. Well, the...
00:13:14
Speaker
We'll get him a nickname. It won't be an issue anymore. But it's not like ah it's not like that's his identity is a guy without a nickname. We just haven't come up with it yet. That's normal. Yeah. Yeah.
00:13:25
Speaker
It looks like weapon Jason is asking that we roll more than two random numbers for him. He says interesting getting his perspective.
Feedback and Anecdotes
00:13:33
Speaker
OK. Yeah. i would Yeah. Let's do it.
00:13:36
Speaker
And then super looking forward to the specials weapon Jason. Great. The specials the ska band. yeah yeah yeah he's ah He's a big ska fan. That's why he hates punk so much.
00:13:50
Speaker
Up next, Matt, we have a new listener, not a new listener, a longtime listener, first time emailer who, were i first of all, just sent us their name, Glib.
00:14:03
Speaker
Hey, Glib. Glib, I hope, i better have I swear to God, I hope at the beginning of the episode, you said it with us because you're in the rotation now. Glib also wrote in just to separately, which is how we requested to say, hey, Matt, tell Pat that I have been here for a while and his begging for emails has finally got me. but Ah, yes!
00:14:28
Speaker
Oh, I know it on somebody. I got into comics through Dazzler and agree completely about her eras. Love to the stuff prior to the movie. Have bought multiple multiple copies of the movie because I black out every time I read it. Ha ha ha ha ha.
00:14:45
Speaker
I, they say, hopefully my name is dumb enough to not get a nickname. I chose this and am very attached to glib Grendel. Thank you, glib Grendel. That was, I, please keep emailing. That was, so that's a very good email.
00:15:00
Speaker
Very sweet. A few more to get through here, Matt, but they are exciting. Up next is Ink Master. Ink Master. We the Ink Master. Winter League.
00:15:11
Speaker
Ink Master says, hey, Pat, tell Matt that I know nicknames aren't open to public vote, but I really like Daniel Summers as nickname for Daniel. the fuck is going on? What is happening? Everybody's... What is happening? Daniel is going to be listening to this fucking jizzing himself. Mind blown. I can't cannot believe so many people are talking about me.
00:15:34
Speaker
Funnily enough, I've also been having laptop troubles. You remember, Matt, last week you talked about your laptop troubles. I disassembled my laptop and put it into my computer put it into my TV, and now I have a TV laptop. One of the hinges broke back in December, which led to the LCD cable being damaged and the monitor losing video input back in February. That sucks. Sorry, Inc.
00:15:54
Speaker
I won't go into the whole... What can do, Inc, is you can disassemble it and take the whole top lid off and the screen off and plug it into your TV. i don't think everybody does that, Matt. You can, though.
00:16:06
Speaker
I learned. Disassembling their own computer. I did. I can. You can. I with any luck, though, finally, I'll have it back fixed by the time this email hits air.
00:16:18
Speaker
Or you can't listen days. You can't listen. It's the only way you need the computer to to listen. The only fat hero in Marvel I'm aware of is Big Bertha, but she's not really done in the best taste. If you know, you know.
00:16:31
Speaker
Yeah. Great. Like a great like Avenger Big Bertha. i think she's a mutant. Right. She is not the woman that
Critiques and Requests
00:16:40
Speaker
kidnapped Aurora. She looks exactly like Pink Pearl.
00:16:43
Speaker
oh Except for she wears she wears she wears yellow instead of pink. yeah Okay. ah Lastly, here's an interesting one. This episode has convinced me that Warlock deserves his own curt reperd.
00:16:58
Speaker
Oh, man. We'll get there. Yeah, I can't think of a rhyme off the top of my head. The lockbox. come on man come on man i and then inc apologizes for the long email um this is extremely short compared to most of the emails we get thank you Ink Master
00:17:22
Speaker
up next just two more Matt okay one of them Sweet Douglas Sweet Douglas it's been so long Douglas says hey Pat tell Matt that he had the better karma laugh impression that's I didn't realize it was a competition.
00:17:39
Speaker
Well, I beat you. He says, i don't know why you decided to go weird racist route and say tiki tiki in it. with Pat, why did you say tiki tiki?
00:17:51
Speaker
I thought that's that bird. That bird says it. In the tiki, tiki, tiki, tiki room. But that's that many tikis. You only did two. So when you did it, it was racist. I sincerely hope I didn't say anything racist if I did. You have to do five tikis or it's racist. I'll have to Google that.
00:18:10
Speaker
I think maybe he just means that idea of like treating other languages differently. like their gobbledygook, but I don't necessarily think that's what were doing. this is a laugh. This is a laugh.
00:18:25
Speaker
As Pat slowly gets canceled, these are the things he yells. I'm not canceled. I'm not canceled. It's a laugh. Anyway. Like the birds. It's like the birds. We both sound like Jerry Seinfeld.
00:18:41
Speaker
it's like It's like the birds. No. It's just a laugh. The birds say it all the time. The birds can say it, but I can't say it.
00:18:55
Speaker
The left is ruining comedy. It's like you can't say anything anymore. Anyway, they could say it, why can't I say it?
00:19:06
Speaker
Jerry, Jesus.
00:19:15
Speaker
Sweet Douglas goes on. Anyway, almost emailed a few times about why you two seem to hate Kling Drooper
Listener Demographics and Personal Stories
00:19:22
Speaker
so much. I wasn't sure if I forgot about you expanding a lot on that in earlier episodes, but then you laid it all out last week.
00:19:29
Speaker
Knowing that he's also explicitly responsible for the Beyonder makes me dread his name even more. I've been reading ahead, that's dangerous, and made it through eight issues of Secret Wars 2 before tapping out.
00:19:41
Speaker
How many issues? Wow, dude. I think it's 12. It's the same as Secret Wars 1, only they are, it it'll feel like 24.
00:19:51
Speaker
Finally, i want to. Oh, there's Denny closes out with some compliments. We're not going to read them on air. Thank you, Douglas, for sending us. constant You are a sweet Douglas is what we've learned. What a sweet man trying to cancel me.
00:20:03
Speaker
Well, I'm I'm on his side about this one. You are you are canceled. And then finally, Matt. We have another new emailer, a new listener this time.
00:20:17
Speaker
canadian dan Canadian Dan Canadian Dan we don't even need to come up with a nickname well you don't Dan we've said this before you don't if you if you email in a nickname nickname you don't get a nickname but if you start emailing without a nickname and then you add a nickname later we won't read it that's true yeah yeah you can't designate it after we already know who you are but Canadian Dan winners winners league member winners league welcome to the winners league Canadian Dan Hello, Pat. Could you please tell Matt that I am a new listener just catching up on the back issues of your pods? I want everyone to be this polite when they email Can you please tell Matt? Yeah, new format. Not hey, Pat, tell Matt. Hey, Matt. You to start being nice to me. Can you please tell Matt?
00:21:02
Speaker
Hey, Pat, I'd love to talk to you. But first, can you please tell Matt? I was also wondering if you could increase the Canadian content of the show as I'm from the same neck of the woods as Logan, a.k.a. Wolverine. Okay.
00:21:15
Speaker
Can i ask?
00:21:19
Speaker
We are overrepresented in Pat's email corner by the nation of Canada, right?
00:21:27
Speaker
Yeah, the Winners League very Canadian. There's like seven Canadians in the world. Right, and have plenty listeners. And the rest are all from the Midwest, but it seems to be grouping then...
00:21:43
Speaker
yeah it's just a few folks across the pond it's the plains emailers they're just all in this central section of the yeah yeah folks if you are from i somewhere that's not canada or the midwest united states mutant menace pod at gmail.com just let us know you're out there just let us i'm so curious by our like uh when you look at our numbers by country, right where some of these listeners are coming from, or if it's just like somebody's VPN,
00:22:16
Speaker
that I mean, that could be. Yeah, it is very likely that that rather than a listener in Ivory Coast. But who knows if you live in Ivory Coast? live in the Ivory Coast, if you live in Cote d'Ivoire, Cote d'Ivoire, I'm butchering that pronunciation. Yeah, yeah. But that's why I didn't go for it. But Senegal, if you live in Senegal or Morocco, there's somebody there's somebody in somebody in Morocco. There's somebody in Gabon.
00:22:43
Speaker
gabonne What a colorful tapestry we weave here in Pat's email corner. But mostly Canada.
00:22:57
Speaker
Well, Pat, now that we're back from Pat's email corner. Yeah. It was a very fun time. Very fun little sojourn in Pat's email
X-Men and Alpha Flight Collaboration
00:23:06
Speaker
corner. But now that we're back, now that we've returned.
00:23:11
Speaker
Yeah. I gotta ask. Oh, what's up? Have you done anything freaking X-Men related this week? Matt, I'm sorry to use the same answer as either last week or the week before. I don't remember which. Oh, no. But no yet again, I attended a Pride Festival. they do They did. This is very cool. Philly Pride, like the official Philly Pride, moved from its current location to a location that's, I think, a little more wide open, a little more accessible. It actually ended kind of negatively. You can look that up. We don't need to talk about that part. But... Because the location was moved. Yes. Pass Yunk Avenue, which is ah just like an a nice popular section in South Philadelphia, little neighborhood. They threw their own pride festival and it was extremely cool. There were zero police, which was.
00:24:14
Speaker
That's. Nuts. Yeah, its it was very cool. There were a ton of really neat, like, independent little vendors. A lot of the festivals they throw can be kind of shitty vendors or people that just read Goodwills and then sell the t-shirts they find. But, like, these were real artists and, like, a lot of programs built around community support and queer health care and stuff like that that you can just...
00:24:44
Speaker
like get information for, right? Okay. It was it was beautiful. it was a blast. There were some big shows, music acts, drag shows. I drank a lot of iced coffee.
00:24:57
Speaker
ah Okay. It was a good time. That's fun. How about you, Matt? Did you do anything X-Men related this week? um I was at a bar the other night and okay i got yelled at.
00:25:13
Speaker
Ooh, that happens to Scott Summers and Wolverine a lot. Yeah, so I was... um We just, like, we went out. There was, like a patio to this bar. was in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and there was a patio to this bar, and we went out to the patio and started...
00:25:30
Speaker
had butre We're having our drinks out there, and I guess the staff forgot we were out there, and it was past 2 a.m., so they closed up. No. And then suddenly, it was like after 2 a.m., and two employees walked out, and they were like, oh, hey, ah you were closed up, and...
00:25:50
Speaker
It's like, oh, fuck. Okay, well, then I guess i guess we'll get going. um Should we bring these drinks inside, like our our empty glasses inside? And they were like, no, no, no, you can't. You're not allowed to go back in. And i was like, okay, but I didn't i didn't settle my tab.
00:26:02
Speaker
And he was like, okay, for that, you can go back in. I was okay. So I went, and I walked right in, and the lady was like, you can't come in here. And I was like, oh okay, but the guy just out, and she was like, I don't care. You can't come in here. and Okay. right. Okay.
00:26:18
Speaker
ah all right but I just, I don't know about my, and she's like, we probably assumed you left and we wrapped it up for you. And okay, fine. And I was thinking afterwards, like, number one, we were your customers and we were in your bar. Like the patio is still part of your bar. We were at your bar. It's kind of your fault.
00:26:38
Speaker
Number one. number time Yeah. Number two, your door is um completely unlocked. Well, and number three,
00:26:49
Speaker
Your employee told me to come inside. So it is probably a legal thing for them, right? After after the bar is closed. Lock your damn door.
00:27:00
Speaker
yeah I guess. but when i Whenever I've worked retail or anything like that, the moment we don't want customers coming in, you run over and lock your door as quick as fucking possible. Yeah,
00:27:11
Speaker
Yeah. I don't know. Okay. Bad restaurant. Nah, that place is i'm good cool. It's a cool little dive bar, and I like it. But man, it got me all fumed.
00:27:23
Speaker
I'd be humiliated. You'd be humiliated, really? Yeah. I'm surprised do you weren't. I guess you're going back. No, I'm sitting here ah justifying my actions and deciding that they weren't my fault. They were that that were that they were that person's fault.
00:27:38
Speaker
Yes, that would humiliate me even further. It would humiliate you to make yourself non-humiliated. To go in there with the confidence that it was their fault when it was mine? Yeah. that's It was not my fault. I was the customer.
00:27:53
Speaker
I was in their bar. That'd be like if somebody, you're like you're like at the at the at toy store. I don't know why you're at the toy store, but you're at the toy store. don't need a reason. And you're in the here in the action figure section.
00:28:05
Speaker
And they don't like they don't go in the action figure section very much. So they close the toy store with you in there. It's like, well, then you should have fucking gone to the action figure section. That's not my fault that you don't go to the spots in your own business before closing your business to make sure people aren't there.
00:28:24
Speaker
It's your business. I was on your business. prop I was in the part of your business that is open to being businessed at. Yeah, yeah.
00:28:35
Speaker
it's that or my yeah Is there another way that we're tying this back to X-Men or is it just getting you about while you're at a bar? That was it. So, Pat.
00:28:45
Speaker
Matt, we already told people what we're talking about. We told people we were talking about. i don't think there's much background. um The only background you really need to know is that is who is part of each team. And that'll become clear as the story goes on. And that also karma is...
00:29:04
Speaker
very kar is back large. She's back and she's very large right now. She's very large and they just battled, i don't think, I always want to call him Kulan Goth, but that's not his name. His name is Amal Farouk. Amal Farouk. The Shadow. He is called the Shadow King now yet?
00:29:22
Speaker
have Have they used the term Shadow King or did we just start using it because we got sick of saying Amal Farouk all the time? I don't think they have gotten there yet. I just like, I love that title. Amal Farouk, the Shadow King. But the they it is worth remembering that the New Mutants just wrapped up a battle with Amal Farouk in which they got Karma back and are recovering from it.
00:29:49
Speaker
Okay. Yeah, with that, Matt. Do you want me to read you X-Men and Alpha Flight number one? The Gift. The Gift. by chris claremont writer paul smith and bob wyachek artists tom orzikowski letter glennis oliver colorist and no sentient denny o'neill editors uh i can't read this name but it's the editor-in-chief and then it's based on a premise by i still can't read the name it's the same thing down here uh can you read it all smudged up yeah it's all smudged up just smudge how about jim smudge since we can't read it
00:30:23
Speaker
uh yeah jim's a ah pretty nondescript name so he's just picking one out of here and nusenti and denny o'neill they they came up with the premise so it's released on september 10th 1985 the cover date is december 1985 hi in hold on already i was being dramatic okay ready hi
00:30:51
Speaker
high you really did again all right high in the air above alaska scott summers remember him yeah he checks on the passengers of his lockheed l100 hercules workhorse that's an airplane there's a lot of airplane shit in this fucking car he's back ah They say that it's humping.
00:31:15
Speaker
They say it's humping the air around the mountains or something. They like, apparently that's an airplane term. I guess. Whenever I've been in a plane, they've called it turbulence. You could say fucking anything, and I'll just be like, okay, guess it's an airplane term. Okay, aboard the plane are Paul Dominic, an architect that wishes he could build with magic.
00:31:38
Speaker
He's got a sketchbook and everybody's like, oh, these sketches of buildings are so good. And he's like, thanks, but they won't work without magic. He's like, they're beautiful. He's like, not really. Paul, be chill for once in your life. He's also, to ipsy I would be so much better at my job if I could suspend the laws of physics. All right.
00:32:04
Speaker
all right Dr.
00:32:08
Speaker
I don't know how we to actually pronounce her name. It's like G.N. Chrétien. Chrétien. She's a geologist. Right. She's with Paul Dominic. Mr. Descartes, botanist.
00:32:20
Speaker
Nice. Carla Ballinger. She's sleeping. She's an excellent cook. Excellent cook. Dr. Boyd Wilson is, ah Pat thinks he's a zoologist.
00:32:31
Speaker
I think he's a zoologist. Okay. pat thinks he's zoologist. He's talking about animals. Yeah. And he hates mutants. um well Do you want to describe his argument real quick? Yeah, it's essentially just like, we can't trust him He does this thing that is very annoying and popular among racists called, where he he says, it's survival of the fittest. They're just going to...
00:32:58
Speaker
kill us all yeah like that's not what survival of the fish it's not a big fight it's not like all the animals had a big fight and the strong ones what ah got scott to live no it is who is best adapted to their environment happens to live longer and breed more Exactly. But his argument is like, so because they are the next step in human evolution, they are going to wipe us all out. Unless the world becomes dangerous for people who can't blast rays out of their eyeballs. Unless it becomes a hard to get food if you can't blast rays out of your eyeballs. I think you're fine, Boyd.
00:33:39
Speaker
ah he ah also... he's like, what's so bad about them is they're they're dangerous and any one of them could kill us in a second. And Scott's like, oh yeah like in thinking in his head, he's like, oh yeah, bitch, I could kill you in a second. Scott, and you're brewing. He's like, if I took off these glasses, I'd blast your fucking face off. It's like, that's his point.
00:34:03
Speaker
You're not dispelling... If somebody was like yeah if somebody's like, I hate all pats because ah they always use dirty language. And you're like, hey, fuck you, pal. Like, okay, he's right then.
00:34:19
Speaker
that That is how I would react. All right. Then there's a guy named Moreau who's a so mysterious Frenchman. Yeah, we don't get an occupation for him, but he is French.
00:34:31
Speaker
And he's got like mysterious facial hair. And then ah Sam Ross. Sam Ross. So Sam Ross is a crew member. He's attending to the cargo.
00:34:42
Speaker
He loves reading books. He does. He's reading. He's reading Ulysses by James Joyce. And he's recommending it to Scott like a like a modern feminist.
00:34:56
Speaker
The designer, the designer of the cover was really was kind enough to design the cover around his big fat thumb so that you can still read all of it.
00:35:07
Speaker
More books should do that. put Yeah. You have to hold a book to show it to someone. And then there's some other guy in the cockpit who Pat guesses is a navigator. And i think I think that's probably true because he turns into Pathfinder. Well, i'm getting ahead us. Spoilers.
00:35:26
Speaker
Suddenly, Madeline demands Scott return to the cockpit as she's never seen the type of weather they're in in all of her years of flying. Scott has, though, when Shaman of Alpha Flight used his mystic power to force the X-Men's plane to land in Calgary.
00:35:42
Speaker
As they discuss, though, a blinding flash of light stuns the cockpit and...
00:35:49
Speaker
ah We cut to Westchester, New York, where the X-Men are having a pretty standard danger room session until Rachel receives a p sigh flash, driving her nuts and forcing her telekinetic powers to commandeer the controls.
00:36:03
Speaker
Suddenly, the X-Men are fighting a bunch of sentinels in Rachel's future while she is used as a hound to track them down. x Xavier ports in to calm her down and see what caused the psychic freak out.
00:36:13
Speaker
She saw Scott's plane crash happen. Oh, no Why did they have... why did they have this programmed in to the danger room?
00:36:25
Speaker
i So my understanding was that Rachel's telekinetic panic attack was so powerful that it reprogrammed the danger room itself from her memories. She learned programming real quick.
00:36:42
Speaker
Yeah, she had changed the code. Absorbed it from this is all so unconscious. but Oh, she took it from Kitty's head. She took it from Kitty and then used her telekinesis to.
00:36:52
Speaker
OK, yeah, I mean, she's got two top class hackers who can hack into the government computers. That's true. In in the house with her. Well, anyway.
00:37:03
Speaker
Cut. to Calgary, Alberta, where Alpha Flight are hanging out at Michael Two Young Men's Hospital when Snowbird limps in dying, muttering about Ungava Bay.
00:37:16
Speaker
No time for that now, though, as a big psychic claw grabs Michael and pins him against the wall, tearing his medicine bag from his waist before he can cast a spell. Aurora tries to leap into hell, but Rachel psychically switches her personalities. Don't.
00:37:32
Speaker
Don't do that. Oh, yeah. Do not. This is not an okay thing to do to someone that's that's mentally ill. Please don't do this. Let a professional do this. Yes. And Jean Marie runs off in fear while the medicine bag tries to eat Heather.
00:37:52
Speaker
couple things here. Number one, this is, I think, the first time that we've seen, like, Rachel's unchecked power, where she yeah conjures a giant hand that grabs Michael Two Youngman, shoves him up against the wall. It looks like a phoenix claw. And while he's restrained, she digs through Aurora's mind, changes her personality,
00:38:20
Speaker
Which cannot be as simple. Cannot be that simple. Like flipping from one to the other. like and like she They act like it's simple. Anyway, go ahead. ay And then to top it all off, ah Walter Sasquatch tears through the wall and bursts in and threatens her. And she says, well, if I were a wall for a ball, I'd be scared stiff.
00:38:45
Speaker
ah Very, very, very good. Do you think so? This is Claremont writing Alpha Flight for the first time since like Burn has actually started defining them. Do you think he's pissed? Yeah.
00:38:57
Speaker
do Do you think he's like, because he he broke off from Claremont, right? Oh, like, do I think Chris Claremont is approaching this with some spite and being like... No, I'm saying, do you think Byrne is pissed that Chris Claremont is getting his hands on, his grubby little hands all over his character? oh that I would imagine, yeah, because they did not end on great terms, right, according to to later interviews? seems like it. I mean, then again, i think Byrne gets grumpier as time goes on. as of Sure. Sure.
00:39:26
Speaker
Well, also, as all the um all the other Alpha Flight people, they rush down, like, they rush to their aid. And Puck's, like, cartwheeling down the hall the the the hallway.
00:39:40
Speaker
He's like, oh, my something bad is happening. We better get there quickly. i better do a bunch of cartwheels there. Is that faster than running? Yes. That is his fastest way to move. Imagine if you were just a wheel. He's a human wheel. Yeah.
00:39:55
Speaker
when he does that ah okay he just gains momentum as he goes you think he gets faster um up above we learn that rachel just kind of went rogue here so they send rogue flying down to make sure she doesn't hurt anyone north star sees and tries to intercept her but a quick kiss knocks his ass out Barking up the wrong tree there, Rogue. Yeah, whoops. But now she knows, which she kind of like implies and will keep coming back in a really weird way.
00:40:32
Speaker
yeah, yeah we'll we'll get there. Rachel seething demands to know where her father is, but shamish but Shaman doesn't even know who her father is.
00:40:44
Speaker
x Xavier finally shows up and stops her, pulling her into the astral plane to chide her as the rest of the X-Men help clean up the damage. Fucking, I like this because this is that trope of if Marvel characters team up, they first have to fight.
00:41:01
Speaker
There first has to be a misunderstanding, they fight, and then they figure out they're on the same side and like team up to fight a villain. yeah But this is Professor X being like, this was fucking inappropriate, a dude.
00:41:12
Speaker
Yeah. He's pissed. How dare you do this? Like, I'm going to kick you out of the school if you do shit like this again. He like makes himself super big and her super small. And he's like, how dare he's like screaming in her face. um ah Yeah.
00:41:31
Speaker
I got to admit something, Matt.
00:41:34
Speaker
During the sort of cleanup here, the X-Men come in end just help. ah clean up the damage Rachel caused, which included the medicine bag starting to eat Heather. Right. And Kurt grabs it, pulls it off of her. But in that moment, there's a, there's a frame where you can see right inside the medicine bag. And Matt, i was, I'm so sorry, but I looked inside of it.
00:42:04
Speaker
All right. I'm glad that you are addressing this because I looked inside of it too. Yeah. I don't know why they did this to us. I know. Why would you put that in a comic? Why would you put in comic book?
00:42:18
Speaker
Looking inside Shaman's Medicine Bag makes you go insane. Catatonically insane. This is probably why this doesn't have the comic book authority seal of approval on the front.
00:42:30
Speaker
Matt, I just realized something. No wonder we have new emailers telling us they're a fan of the podcast today. Because we're insane. We're dreaming. We're catatonic right now. None of this is real for us. yeah we We must be. If you focus real hard, we could hear the beeping of our heart monitors, I bet.
00:42:53
Speaker
Yeah. We're insane now, and we're just going to have to keep going. Okay. So once the two teams have a chance to talk, they realize that Scott and Snowbird were both affected by the same surge of mystic power originating in Ungava Bay.
00:43:12
Speaker
And they set off for a rescue in Puck's De Havilland Otter. That's an airplane. Yeah, that's also an airplane. It's an airplane. lot of airplane shit.
00:43:24
Speaker
We get a brief interlude for some fucking reason where Loki stands ah stands before a tribunal of hulking figures that we're told he considers gods. Like these are the gods gods.
00:43:37
Speaker
yeah yeah You know how they say like like um certain guys are like the comedian's comedian. Like Andy andy Kindler. He's the comedian's comedian. right These are the God's gods.
00:43:50
Speaker
Like if you and i saw these gods, we wouldn't think they were that funny. Yeah, we'd be like, i don't really get it. If we knew what being a god really entailed, they're fucking hilarious. We'd be laughing our asses off. They're doing like anti-god stuff. they're sort of commenting about like what if i was a god that was like this so uh he's trying to strike some kind of deal with them proving to them that he's humble enough to show compassion to the people of midgard don't appreciate being called midgard i kind of like it you like it yeah we're not low guard
00:44:31
Speaker
All right. If you say so. Better than fucking Logard. What's Logard? New Jersey. All right. He's done a good deed for them, the panel acknowledges, but still needs to prove that he did it for selfless reasons. We don't know what the fuck that means.
00:44:48
Speaker
Yeah, but apparently he's done a good deed for the people of Earth. Which it seems like. But maybe not selflessly. And it seems like he did that in another comic.
00:45:00
Speaker
I don't think they're referring to the thing he's doing now. Oh, okay. Interesting. Cause he's asking for something that we never find out. So I'm assuming he asked in another comic, did something in that other comic and it wasn't enough. I'm guessing there was a lot of Thor crossovers this, this, this much. Sure. Yeah. Yeah.
00:45:19
Speaker
Loki's frustrated with the judgment as Loki is with all things ever, but he sets out to try to meet their
Ethical Dilemmas and Magical Powers
00:45:25
Speaker
demands. Yeah. You know, that's the thing. all right. So Loki's a character like this where like, okay, occasionally he gets these moments of being cool, but generally he's just a guy who's whining about shit all the time.
00:45:37
Speaker
Makes it hard to know why you're supposed to like Loki. But I bring this up because I think at this point in time, how how can anybody, this is what Rachel Summers is. How can anybody like Rachel Summers at this point?
00:45:51
Speaker
All she's done so far in every appearance is freak out, cry, scream, run, attack people for no reason. you know like imagine she's a fun hang like between the panels. but Right. Maybe I get why the X-Men like her. We could guess that. But if you are a reader at this point in time, there's no reason to like this character.
00:46:20
Speaker
Like, this is her very beginnings, and she has done nothing to ingraate like ingratiate readers to her at this point. You know? Yeah. Uh...
00:46:31
Speaker
ay i think I think we are supposed to sympathize with her. I think we're supposed to see like a person who's been through tragedy on a scale that we can't really understand and just ah feel bad for her and hope she figures it out.
00:46:49
Speaker
I agree, but yeah it's it's just it's hard for a character whose entire personality is trauma to be...
00:47:00
Speaker
enjoyable well it's until you get down with him until it's time to party yeah i guess oh yeah then they fucking break loose right all right scouting ahead rogue and north star share an initially tense exchange which calms as rogue lectures him on arrogance and privilege
00:47:21
Speaker
she's like taunting him She's kind of like, hey, ah just so you know, I know your secrets. It was pretty weird being in your head.
00:47:33
Speaker
To me, yeah it seemed like what she was saying was like, hey, you you're like famous. Why do you have all this internal pain? Like, what do you have to complain about?
00:47:45
Speaker
she She does say that, yes. And I guess in the comic itself, she's not allowed to say, you're gay. But is what I'm confused about is, does she understand his sexuality here, or is she...
00:48:04
Speaker
And this isn't the last we'll deal with it. she just confused about what's going on in there? Is she like, huh? She's like, I saw having sex with a man, but that must have been an accident.
00:48:20
Speaker
That's maybe that's where my memories are coming in. No, because she can't have sex with him. Yeah, right. Right. And she wouldn't do it that way. oh yeah that's true
00:48:34
Speaker
so she but she's smiling at him and she's like you uh uh back in the hospital i was you it was quite an experience i know i i saw every memory hmm It is. She's like not to.
00:48:51
Speaker
Yeah. Not to digress too much, but it really is fascinating how not being able to mention that someone is gay.
00:49:01
Speaker
Kind of obscures the story that's being told here. Yes. It's a very obvious thing, but it's still. And he's crazy. He's mad, but he has to let it go like right away because he can't address it He's like, you had no right. and she's like, I had no choice. And then she starts lecturing him about being arrogant and having all this privilege. And he's like, he's like you don't you don't understand.
00:49:27
Speaker
Which is basically what he says to everybody all the time. About everything. So this is all interrupted when he notices she's chewing on a piece of fresh hay that she found growing nearby in the middle of a frozen tundra, which she didn't think was weird. Which we'll get to. We'll have to revisit that in a second, too. The team brings the plane down in a big, summery, grassy field as snowbirds condition worships, and shaman starts to notice his magics aren't as powerful as he's he'd expect.
00:49:57
Speaker
This is where it's weird that she didn't notice. It was weird because ahead of them stands a sprawling golden fortress with high colorful spires intricately decorated, intricately decorated with color and whimsy.
00:50:10
Speaker
You didn't think that was weird, Rogue? Yeah, we first of all. Why did you just pick a piece of hay and then leave and not say anything about it? And you know you're looking for something weird up here. Yeah. That's why you're here. What do you think you're doing? i mean, that I guess that part is not Rogue's specialty, right? she's She's more action than recon.
00:50:35
Speaker
Right. she's She's not here for her intelligence. Right. Oh yeah, you didn't say that? But she but it's not she's not a dumb person. She's a smart person.
00:50:48
Speaker
So like, don't it's bizarre. It's bizarre. It's all bizarre. A man in a space age hooded cape and armor runs from the entrance to greet them. It's Scott.
00:51:00
Speaker
He welcomes them to paradise proclaiming a miracle and inviting them inside. Aw. What's weird about this, Pat? He's got no glasses on. Whoa. He's got bright blue eyes. Look at the baby blues.
00:51:14
Speaker
He has complete control over his powers and brings them into the fortress to show them how. Meanwhile, Rachel broods as to whether or not she should tell Scott she's his daughter from the future. Okay. It's not that I don't understand. It's just like, that's all you have right now, dude. That's all you are. All you are is a series of bad emotions about stuff.
00:51:34
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. So, It's so funny. Scott has such bad taste in clothes outside of like, when he whenever he goes on vacation, like he finds these gaudy Ren Faire outfits to put on. Like, first of all, when they went to Archon's house,
00:51:55
Speaker
he wore a crazy outfit. When they went to the real Shi'ar Empire, he wore a crazy outfit. When they went to that fake brood Shi'ar Empire in their heads, he wore a crazy outfit. When he went to Magneto's Cthulhu Island, he wore a crazy outfit.
00:52:08
Speaker
Any fucking excuse, this guy. He just wears these big, usually with a giant cape, usually with two big, big, like, clasps on the front. Like, what is... you...
00:52:22
Speaker
Let your freak freak flag fly, I guess, but man, it's fucking tacky. Yeah, this is, it's not a good look, man. So inside the fortress is just as decadent as Madeline, also wearing space age clothing and a helmet.
00:52:39
Speaker
calling She's calling herself Anodyne now What does that mean, Pat?
00:52:46
Speaker
That's a word that I've heard a thousand times. I don't know what it means. Let's look it up real quick. Capable of soothing or eliminating pain. Relaxing. But it's got to be a contextual thing. Because you probably can't be like, I'm putting on an anodyne band-aid.
00:53:03
Speaker
Or I'm going to go take an anodyne bath. It's got to be more like... Why not? why not Like, oh, this anodyne countryside. Helps relieve all the stress, right?
00:53:17
Speaker
Mutantmenacepod at gmail.com. Can you use the word anodyne in a sentence to just to describe Tylenol? She promises she can heal everyone and starts with Puck. She grabs his hand. They're both enveloped in a painless flame and suddenly the pain of Puck's dwarfism is gone. How did you interpret this, Pat? i Read the next sentence and then ask Not only that, but he grows six feet tall. so
00:53:50
Speaker
i at first was like, oh, what a cool, tasteful way to deal with this, where puck Puck doesn't need to be healed of his stature. He needs to be healed of the pain from the condition that causes his stature. So at first he relieves his pain and he's like, wow, I felt better than I've ever felt in my life.
00:54:15
Speaker
This is terrific. And then he also just grows out of his dwarfism, which I mean, if you're healing a condition, yes, I suppose that would be. but you don't have to do that. Like there's this there's it sucks when you always see people with a disability in comics get healed of it as if that is the the only option for them.
00:54:37
Speaker
Like, right. puck is an incredibly powerful what three to four capable smart well experienced yeah yeah and like he's not physically limited by his height there's not yeah he kicks ass so again it it makes sense that they're they're healing a condition that he has so it goes away but At the same time, you could have just you could have left it where it was. i don't think folks would have. Well, maybe they would have questioned it. i don't know. think People ask a lot of questions. She also heals his cauliflower ear, which is nice. But oh so let's let's she says, Puck, dwarfism is a disease. And in your case, a terrible curse.
00:55:24
Speaker
And he thinks, how how can she know?
00:55:30
Speaker
and i just without me implying anything else how do you take that like it's it's all pity which is i think what what i'm getting at is like it's all oh isn't this terrible don't you wish you weren't the person you are right now okay so i'm gonna imply a little more because i don't think i'm getting exactly what i need from you here um okay When she uses the word curse and when she says, when she says in you and in your case, a terrible curse, and he says, how can you know?
00:56:05
Speaker
What does she mean? Just tell me because I'm not getting there. I know i don't need you to get anywhere. you just take that as metaphorical.
00:56:17
Speaker
you Do you think there's absolutely no way a person could read that and say, oh, Puck doesn't have dwarfism. He's got a curse on him. oh I see what you're saying.
00:56:29
Speaker
Yeah, that it's not a it's not actually a physical disability. it is It is like a magical curse or something. Like that would be insane to believe that when you read that line. Is that that's how you take it?
00:56:42
Speaker
I don't think it would be insane to read it that way. That's not how I read it. but Okay. Okay. Okay. Again, people people ask a lot of questions. All right, let's move on then. Next is Sasquatch, who's pretty sure his mindless rage is gone, followed by Aurora, who finds her two personalities perfectly merged and her thoughts clear for the first time she can remember.
00:57:03
Speaker
We also see the rest of the flight's passenger and crew all alive and wearing the same sort of funky regalia. Yeah, everybody everybody from the flight is alive and they're all wearing clothing as tacky as Scott's.
00:57:17
Speaker
There's also, yes there's a new thing they're doing here where scott Scott starts it and then everybody just goes with it. where They're calling the members of Alpha Flight Alphans.
00:57:30
Speaker
A-L-P-H-A-N-S. I believe Heather has done that in Alpha Flight, but also it sucks. Yeah, I don't like that. Yeah, it's no good. I hate it so much.
00:57:44
Speaker
Just say Alpha Flight members. Yeah, yeah. it's it's It's actually quicker. It's actually quicker because it doesn't make you stop and throw up. But yeah. Shaman immediately thinks of Snowbird to be healed next, but notices she's not here.
00:58:01
Speaker
Nor is she back on the plane. Oh, no. Wolverine rushes out to track her, followed by Pathfinder, the navigator from the plane, and Boyd Wilson... who is now who now has dominion over the entire animal kingdom. He's called Beastmaster.
00:58:15
Speaker
Okay. ah Why does she get the name Anodyne and everyone else's names are like Earthmover, Beastmaster, Pathfinder, Brawler?
00:58:28
Speaker
I imagine they named themselves and Madeline's just a little more tasteful about it. Yeah, yeah.
00:58:41
Speaker
we meet a few of the other passengers from scott's flight and their new powers car lie is now cornucopia she can produce any food and clothing she imagines it will so all these bad clothes are her fault yeah yeah Paul, the architect, can now assemble buildings with a thought. He built this whole fortress. Moreau, the mysterious Frenchman, is some sort of elite brawler now named Brawler. And Sam, who now holds all human knowledge of the written word in his head.
00:59:08
Speaker
i didn't i didn't catch what his name is. It's probably something like Bookman. bun gun book Bookful. He calls himself a living library, but not the living ro library.
00:59:21
Speaker
Rogue gets healed and can control her powers, proving it by planting a kiss on Northstar to his dismay. You know So, ah I think this tracks with my theory that Rogue just doesn't know what a gay person is. Saw this and was like...
00:59:39
Speaker
That's weird. Anyway, I kind of like this guy. ah Yeah, she's like, I'm suddenly picture. I when I touched North Star earlier, I suddenly started picturing a bunch of naked men.
00:59:54
Speaker
I must really be horned up for North. Yeah, now it's all I can think about. Naked men, naked men, naked men.
01:00:04
Speaker
in a separate room xavier catches up with scott and madeline and with their permission probes their minds for a better understanding they're not being controlled and as far as they know everything they've told the x-men is true but wait there's another presence here a third mind that can't quite be seen because madeline is pregnant woa And Professor X just fucking says it out loud. Yeah.
01:00:35
Speaker
Dude, that is so deeply uncool. Unethical. Yeah. Don't do this. She just found out herself. Yeah. She blushes so hard here.
01:00:46
Speaker
It's control. It's intentional on his part. It is to control the conversation so that he can be the one giving Scott good news. Yes. Yes. This fucking. This guy.
01:00:58
Speaker
Kitty and Rachel, who I guess were watching from the wings, overhear it and Rachel freaks out. She was supposed to be Scott's firstborn, but this will be a boy. Does she just not exist here?
01:01:12
Speaker
No, I think she's right to freak out about this. I think this is okay to get really upset about of like... Do I not exist? i but When i was yeah ah when i was a kid, I remember this is ah a core memory of mine. When I was like, I don't know, seven, eight years old, I just started, i burst out in tears and my dad couldn't figure out why until I was calm enough to explain that I was so upset by what I considered to be the fact that
01:01:47
Speaker
that there are endless versions of me in other universes. I was like, I like being me. I don't want anybody else to be me. And my dad, ah who is not a comic book guy, it's actually a pretty good job of being like, well, that is you in that alternate universe.
01:02:08
Speaker
That's still you being you. Like you these these are all, You and you are the one experiencing all of these. It's just you're the one in this timeline. and Wow, Pat. ah Okay.
01:02:24
Speaker
This is why we're friends. I haven't cried about it since. This is we're friends. I had so many similar existential terror experiences as a kid where I was just like, how do even know I'm real? How do I even know I exist?
01:02:36
Speaker
And then just like freak, start fucking freaking out. It's fun when the only thing you know to do about it is cry. I'd be like, just... I'm the only person who I can know my experience of. So how do I know that every other person in the world isn't switching every day?
01:02:55
Speaker
How do I know that they're not all like aliens and doing some sort of weird experiment on me? What if somebody is dreaming powerfully enough to give me my own sense of consciousness?
01:03:05
Speaker
Right. Yeah. These were these. Yeah. It's terrifying kid thoughts. Yeah. Meanwhile, the rest of the party is brought to the Miracle Chamber where everyone got their new powers.
01:03:16
Speaker
A fountain of light pours from the sky like a waterfall, seemingly endless from top to bottom. It's called the Fire Fountain. Yeah, and just to clarify, sometimes it's that, sometimes it is horizontal and they walk on it. ah ah Yeah.
01:03:34
Speaker
Heather, feeling called by it, walks into the fountain and emerges seven feet tall in Valkyrie armor. Her new power, as far as she can tell, is to lead. and i've got super lead powers i can just this is just like when sasquatch comes out and he's like oh yeah i'm pretty sure i'm not gonna rage the next time i transform and how do you know that are you talking about i can feel it in my brain i have the power to lead
01:04:08
Speaker
but she's She takes her late husband's mantle, calling herself Guardian. Everyone starts to realize what this all could mean. The end of famine, disease, homelessness, lack of lead.
01:04:19
Speaker
But that's interrupted when they notice that shaman's in danger. Dozens of demons are pouring out of his medicine bag and attacking him. Northstar and Aurora work together to dash the bag out into the middle of nowhere as the demons follow it.
01:04:32
Speaker
But back at the fortress, Madeline's power seemed to be unable to heal the damage shaman took. Michael, two young men, is dying.
01:04:42
Speaker
So it seems that the fire fountain only affects humans. It won't affect mutants because mutants already have powers. Yeah, yeah. Scott's eyes were healed by Madeline, not by the fountain.
01:04:55
Speaker
Correct. So why didn't it, why not Puck? Puck's just straight up human. didn't call the Puck? Yeah, why didn't Puck?
01:05:07
Speaker
I guess he's not. I guess he's not a regular human. think he is. I think he is. I think.
01:05:18
Speaker
Okay. Well, then you answer the question. and And how does the fire fountain distinguish between like Sasquatch, who's totally human? It's like, yeah, but he has some gamma in him.
01:05:31
Speaker
Yeah, I guess it's just powers. If you have powers. Yeah. but Puck doesn't have powers. Imagine if you were one of the mutants that could just, like, grow your hair fast or something. yeah Fuck!
01:05:45
Speaker
And you're like, I get nothing out of this deal. So, I mean, unless they're saying, like, Usain Bolt wouldn't get granted powers, because...
01:05:57
Speaker
He's a super fast guy. Like, that's what Puck is. He's just a guy who's really good at shit. Yeah, he's just very agile, but not super humanly so. No, no. If I worked hard enough, I could turn myself into a wheel.
01:06:13
Speaker
And I can, and I do every day. Yeah, but do you go faster and faster as you spin? When I go downhill. Oh. Yeah.
01:06:26
Speaker
when there's a lot of snow and then I end up in a big, big snowball.
01:06:35
Speaker
All right, Matt, anything else about X-Men and Alpha Flight number one, the gift, or should we move on to X-Men and Alpha Flight number two, the gift part two?
01:06:46
Speaker
I just hope that in the next one, Rogue doesn't continue taunting Northstar about the fact that he's gay by doing weird romantic stuff. him and i hope I hope not as well that. um But also, we didn't really talk about this. It's Paul Smith is back, which rules.
01:07:05
Speaker
Paul Smith is back. his his His art has been so good in this. ands Yeah, yeah. god He is the best X-Men artist. Refreshing. He's very good.
01:07:17
Speaker
ah This was written by Chris Claremont, Paul Smith, Pencils, of course, Bob Wyachek, and Friends, inkers. Tom Orzakowski, letterer, Bob Sharon, colorist, and Nocenti, and Denny O'Neill, editors, Tin Cooter, editor-in-chief, based on a premise by Tin Cooter, and Nocenti, and Denny O'Neill.
01:07:36
Speaker
Weird. my um My copy, it's just smudged. I can't see that. Yeah. just a big but we were way off. It's tin cooter. Oh, yeah. It's just smudged in my copy.
01:07:49
Speaker
Talisman. Remember? Yeah. Her power is to make magic go away. Makes her way through the cavernous underground of the magic city looking for Kitty, who in turn is looking for Rachel.
01:08:04
Speaker
don't think he even mentioned, but Talisman is also here. Chris Claremont is digging at John Byrne here and doing a thing that I love when character female characters do when they comment on how impractical their outfits are.
01:08:18
Speaker
She's like, I look keen, but I can't... Get around in this fucking thing.
01:08:27
Speaker
and John Byrne is reading this and he's like, I knew we would do this. I knew we would do this. She's got a great fucking outfit. I knew we would do this. This is why I said, don't let him have my characters. Because I knew we would fucking do this. Does it every time.
01:08:40
Speaker
So before a Talisman finds Kitty and Rachel, she finds a few other things. First, oh Paul Dominic's sketchbook from the plane. But... After his brilliant architectural designs, the drawings devolve into children's level scratches. Not only is it just like the rectangular houses with a triangle roof, he draws a little cat.
01:09:02
Speaker
Yeah, he's like an a dad waving a high from the door. Like, why are you doing that? you You know that that's not why you're drawing. like You know you're trying to draw architecture stuff. Why you drawing cats and dads?
01:09:18
Speaker
Next, she finds a Viking city immaculately preserved and buried underground. And finally, a runestone with runic writing on it.
01:09:30
Speaker
Oh. When they find Rachel. It's very much like... for Okay, a couple things. Kitty Pryde keeps calling her Beth. You don't know her. Chill out.
01:09:43
Speaker
Her name is Elizabeth. You don't know her. can call me Talisman. not Not my name. Not a nickname for my name that I never use.
01:09:53
Speaker
My name is Talisman. I'm doctor. I'm Talisman to you. So, well, the thing, she's an archaeologist. archaeology student. And it's just like scientists in the Marvel universe. She's like, I'll take this back so I can translate it. You can translate runic.
01:10:09
Speaker
You were studying indigenous ah Canadian, like North, North American cultures last we saw you. And now you can translate runic.
01:10:21
Speaker
When they finally find Rachel, she's still flipping out. But as they talk her through it, the stone around them starts to collapse. Using Kitty and Rachel's powers.
01:10:32
Speaker
That's impossible. Talisman's like, that's impossible. This is geologically, so the structure's geologically so stable. Yeah, there's no fault lines here.
01:10:45
Speaker
ah Using Kitty and Rachel's powers, they escape, certainly not Talisman's powers, they escape and make their way to the fire fountain. Although when Talisman touches it, it disappears and throws her and Rachel into the cliffside like Wile E. Coyote. Yeah, like human-shaped holes in the wall that they have to pry themselves out of.
01:11:06
Speaker
All this makes them just a bit suspicious of the New God people, and they decide to go back and figure it all out. In their haste, though, they leave Paul Dominic's sketchbook behind. Can't leave the sketchbook behind.
01:11:20
Speaker
Back in the Citadel or whatever, Madeline, a.k.a. Anodyne, pauses her celebration with Scott to check on Earthmover. Earthmover. Who's straining her powers and tells her she's worried about something. Wait a minute. This is the geologist. We didn't see her earlier, but the geologist is now Earthmover.
01:11:38
Speaker
And she's she's wearing like a... She's wearing like a... um A Red Ronin helmet. Like the character Red Ronin. Yeah, yeah. So wait, Pat.
01:11:50
Speaker
Yeah. You're telling me that they just had a ah geologically stable cavern collapse on them. Yeah. And Earthmover is up here sweating and looking like she's concentrating really hard on something?
01:12:05
Speaker
Yes. Have you not been listening? And her name is Earthmover.
01:12:09
Speaker
I just think it's strange. I just think that's a strange coincidence. I think that's a weird coincidence. Okay. Well, now you just repeated it for all the listeners. I'm sure i did they really enjoyed that. Well, i wanted them to know what a weird coincidence it was.
01:12:24
Speaker
i Anodyne disappears. Next, we see her. She's standing over Wolverine just as Kitty is about to go tell him that she's suspicious of these god people.
01:12:36
Speaker
After Maddie leaves, Kitty rushes in and Logan tells her that Maddie burned the berserker rage out of him. Whoa. But he agrees that something's weird. He realizes he can't remember what happened when he went with Beastmaster and Pathfinder to look for Snowbird.
01:12:52
Speaker
Like, yeah, he's like, uh, I went looking and... Huh. I don't know. Not happened. Kitty... posits that he was using his animalistic side, which might have allowed Beastmaster to control him.
01:13:06
Speaker
Whoa, don't act like an animal around Beastmaster. can control you. Don't eat your food with your hands or Beastmaster start controlling you. But, Logan counters, now that Anodyne's healed his mind, he'll be immune to the Beastmaster's power, which gives him an advantage.
01:13:25
Speaker
Wow. I... Yeah, this is all very spurious. Logic is a little shaky, but okay. They summon... yeah there's a There's a moment a little earlier where ah ah ah when they're in the Citadel or whatever, and Aurora is like talking to Cornucopia, and she's like, I can't believe these clothes you've made us. These are the loveliest clothes I've ever worn. She's still wearing her own fucking costume. she's just She's just complimenting herself. She's just like, she's like, oh, you can make clothes cool. Well, this is the best costume I've ever worn. or she's waiting for cornucopia to be like, oh, I didn't make that. And she'd be like, oh, that's right. I made this beautiful costume. That's the best I ever wore.
01:14:10
Speaker
They summon Aurora so she can fly Logan around as he tracks his own scent. And it leads him to the valley where the twins threw shaman's medicine pouch. now full of monsters and demons that have escaped it.
01:14:23
Speaker
It's here that he sends Snowbird, and he finds her curled up and dying in a cave. She tells him to leave her, but he assures her it's not her time. Just then, Beastmaster and Pathfinder converge on the cave. This new world has no place for people like Snowbird and Shaman.
01:14:40
Speaker
They want Wolverine to just walk away. But this is Wolverine, and he's got Lockheed with him. They're not going to just walk No. Wolverine and Lockheed just being like, all right, fine. Fine, killer. Yeah. yeah it's It looks pretty badass. It's Paul Smith drawing Wolverine standing there with Lockheed on his arm. And he's like, you got to go through the dragon and me. It's so good.
01:15:05
Speaker
Fucking fuck, man. Meanwhile. All the X-Men and God people celebrate their new powers and healed ailments, but worry about Shaman and Snowbird. And Heather wonders if she's lost something in her transformation.
01:15:20
Speaker
Also, ah ah Rogue makes North Star dance with her. And North Star's like, no. And then Walter makes fun of him. Like, he won't even be what's matter? You don't like girls? Yeah, and he's like, yes, I'll dance with you.
01:15:35
Speaker
And she's like, good. we See, you're taking it as a in a taunting tone. i think she's like, whew, thank God he once did. I was worried there that he didn't actually like me romantically.
01:15:47
Speaker
I think that she's doing like being playfully taunting. I don't think she's like being homophobic. i think she yeah Well, I mean, I think she is, but I don't think she's being like hateful. I think she's being like...
01:15:59
Speaker
Hey, come on. You don't, you don't, you're, this is not threatening to you because you're gay. So just dance with me because I want somebody to dance with. Like, I think she's being okay just kind of like weird about it and not sure.
01:16:12
Speaker
Or completely oblivious to it. One of the two. Mutantmenasepod at gmail.com. Which one is it? There's a lot of evidence for both. And they're all the same evidence.
01:16:28
Speaker
a Talisman takes the runes the rune stone she found to Sam Ross in his big crazy library why does he have a big crazy library if all of the written word is stored in his head yeah did he just sit down and write all of these and it write it all into books just so fast yeah there's nobody here give me another one give me another like fucking ah ah will making the drawings in stranger things season yeah just like give me another piece of paper give me another piece of paper ah He discovers something strange.
01:17:00
Speaker
It's a dedication stone to the cult deity of the Viking town. That's not strange. But it's not Thor or Odin. It's Loki. What? Whoa. This must be why we saw him last issue. Who would dedicate? That's so funny, though. Yeah, we haven't seen Loki again. We like if you're reading this. You have no idea.
01:17:24
Speaker
Well, cut to Loki, super pissed that his plan is unraveling. Cut back to Wolverine, bursting into the feast hall. It's just like four panels.
01:17:36
Speaker
i Cut back to Wolverine bursting into the feastfa feast hall. He's bloody, torn up, and he has Pathfinder draped over his shoulders. Oh, it's so cool.
01:17:47
Speaker
He throws the man barely alive on the table and tells them all that he killed Beastmaster before revealing a bundle he's been dragging behind him. It's Snowbird dying rapidly. It's a really great Paul Smith sequence. where He's at the door and it's a bunch of small panels and th throws Pathfinder on the table, grabs water, swigs it down, cuts the straps off his chest,
01:18:20
Speaker
puts the bundle on the table, unwraps it. It's Snowbird. He pours the water on his own head. He wipes the blood off of his forehead, hands the water jug to Sam. It's like,
01:18:31
Speaker
this i this thing that Paul Smith can do where he takes these very small moments and makes them feel like every so every movement feels dramatic the way that a great animator does like when you're watching um a Studio Ghibli movie and every tiny little movement that a person makes you're like in awe because like how did it all so calculated And it's the same thing here with Paul Smith, where every move Wolverine makes, there's an emotion in it, even when it's just, I'm rubbing my eye, am my brow.
01:19:03
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Wolverine has figured it all out. This fire fountain that gave them their powers is magic, but it's powering itself by sucking the magic out of the rest of the world. This fire festival's a scam!
01:19:17
Speaker
then Sam Ross confirms this. The cost of their gift, which could end all human suffering, is the lives of all magical beings.
01:19:28
Speaker
i I wrote that weird, but like what I mean, i hope it's clear, is like you have to...
01:19:36
Speaker
you're they're gonna the only way for them to keep these powers is to is if all magical people die. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Essentially, all magic is in the world is going to be focused on allowing them to end famine and disease and pestilence. But I guess pestilence, right? That could still happen. know, none of them have a bug power.
01:20:02
Speaker
you You don't know that. Oh, I guess, no, it's the Beastmaster. He could stop the locusts. But he's dead. You're right. Remember, he's he's he's dead.
01:20:12
Speaker
Damn it, Wolverine. Now we're going to get pestilenced. But itll apparently if somebody is a magic being, they mentioned Doctor Strange specifically as somebody that would die if if this happened. And Kitty mentions Ileana Rasputin because she's standing up to Colossus. Colossus, ah Rachel and Colossus are like,
01:20:38
Speaker
hey yeahre this is worth it we're saving the world right and then north star and kitty are like at the cost of our fucking friends dude yeah and kitty's like at the cost of your little sister and he just gives her a side eye and then others like like wolverine and xavier are like look You don't get to make this fucking choice for every, for everybody. so you Yeah. Yeah. You get to make this choice.
01:21:10
Speaker
Yeah. That I think is the most salient point here is just like, Who the fuck are we to decide who lives and dies? Which is Wolverine's point all the time, right? Wolverine makes this point all the time where somebody's like, but I like, like, it's like, ah okay, ah well, the the world's going to explode. And ah somebody's like, well, I hate the world and I want to kill it. Wolverine's like, hey, that's your right.
01:21:35
Speaker
You can hate the world and try to kill it, but you can't decide that everybody else wants the world dead too. Yeah, yeah. Which is fucking so... he's He's got this really consistent and complex, but also so simple morality. I fucking love Wolverine! God damn it!
01:21:55
Speaker
Matt, if I didn't know better, I'd say you love Wolverine. He's so good in this era, right? So these two groups face... Yeah, absolutely. These two groups face each other down, ready to fight. And of course, Cyclops strikes first, taking down Colossus, Sasquatch, and...
01:22:15
Speaker
brew brawler is it's brawler bruiser i might forget brawler in one blast he this turns yeah he's the ash ash ketchum of the fucking he's the ash ketchum of the marvel universe oh we disagree punch exactly huh this situation seems tense punch punch This turns into an all-out brawl with one side trying to get to the fire fountain and the other side trying to stop them.
Debate on Creativity and Authority
01:22:48
Speaker
Eventually, Northstar and Talisman make it through but are stopped mere yards from the flame by Paul Dominic, who builds a dome around them. Northstar is like, well, because Talisman's like, we can't let him do this. And Northstar's like, hey, just chill for a second.
01:23:05
Speaker
This guy sucks, first of all, and second of all. You can negate magic stuff. We can get out of here at any second. So let's just chill for one second. we're we're We're not actually trapped.
01:23:20
Speaker
This guy's an idiot. Yeah, see yeah yeah. He is. i Through this arc, I started... Because so far, he's just been kind of like a bitchy Kind of a dip noise. Yeah. And through this arc, I was like, oh, man, this guy's got depth. This is...
01:23:38
Speaker
Yeah. This is a side we haven't seen. I love North Star. Sometimes I think I love North Star just because of how cool he looks. He's like always wearing cool outfits and I like his costume so much.
01:23:49
Speaker
Sure. But I don't. But sure.
01:23:55
Speaker
this is It's crazy that this is where we're going to fissure. Is that I like North Star because of his depth of character. I like North Star because of his cool costume. Yeah.
01:24:07
Speaker
This is our schism. Our podcast breaks up.
01:24:14
Speaker
I'll call mine pat Pat in the mutant menace. Mutant Matt-ness. yes Aurora arrives seconds later and happens to find Paul's sketchbook.
01:24:28
Speaker
Oh, Chekhov's sketchbook. Yeah. why did Why did we need a character to lose it? I guess just to give us a few extra minutes of confusion. I guess otherwise the fight wouldn't have happened, right? Because they would have...
01:24:43
Speaker
resolved it. Sure. They would have gotten to what this is next when Paul sees the sketchbook, he goes nuts and hurls it into the chasm below. He's devastated because as his power to build things grew, his creativity to invent new designs faded.
01:25:00
Speaker
And this is what he valued most in the world, his creativity. The gang makes a huge logical leap here that one of the pieces of magic that the fire fountain is sapping from the world is the magic of human creativity.
01:25:13
Speaker
It's taking away, Matt, each of our inner magic. I get why you would make fun of this. And you're not wrong. But I think that is the key. You don't need a butt. I do.
01:25:27
Speaker
i Well, I do. I do for lots of reasons. yeah there but You got me. Like a butt. Like a butt like a like a yeah human butt. um no but I concede.
01:25:40
Speaker
the the the real The real thing I want to say is, um no, I think this is the key to why this story works on a thematic level. And we we'll talk about it later, but I think like without this kind of corny conceit, I think this story is way too surface level. is Yes. Yeah, absolutely. It's super corny because they use the words inner magic. yeah yeah But yes, this is if you can get over that hump, it really pulls the rest of the story together. Right. Because again, up until then, the conflict here is, do we let magic people die in order to save the world? And now the conflict suddenly becomes, do we allow humans to have free will? And is um is safety and wellness and order worth...
01:26:36
Speaker
Worth humanity. Worth humanity, right. And that is the that is the constant discussion about ah fascism, right? And I mean, that even filters into the discussion about AI, right? um But, all right.
01:26:51
Speaker
Well, it's kind of funny that you put that... ah you You took that position and applied it to AI because... Obviously, they they quickly rush back to the rest, still mid-fight, and tell them what they found. But before everyone can fully absorb it, Loki shows up and tells them exactly that.
01:27:12
Speaker
Is human creativity really worth the suffering of all humanity? h So, am I right? I mean, in this... Right.
01:27:23
Speaker
instance loki represents the people behind ai saying like why won't you just accept my gift that makes everything better at the price of human creativity right Or I'm doing you a good deed. You need to accept. And like we know that the conflict he's come across, whatever it is that he's after, right he can't get because he's doing good deeds, but he's not doing them selflessly.
01:27:51
Speaker
i think that encapsulate encapsulates AI perfectly. They think that they're doing something great for the world. It's absolutely not worth the cost, but...
01:28:03
Speaker
they are boled Their minds are boggled and they're yelling at us because... We're trying to be selfless here. and it's Exactly, yeah. We know they're not. they They might not know they're not. Like, I think some of them know they're not, right? But I think with the dudes who will yell at you on... on on blue Not Blue Sky. Well, I guess sometimes on Blue Sky. Sometimes Blue Sky.
01:28:24
Speaker
But the the dudes who will yell at you on... um you know I imagine Twitter. Twitter or threads or whatever will be, some of them think that they are like, no, this is actually good for people. This is going to be good. and whoever, like, here's how delusional they are.
01:28:43
Speaker
So not to get way too off subject here, but like there was that ad, ah there was that bus ad that was like, stop hiring humans. The idea that somebody thought that that ad campaign wasn't going to make everyone furious means that they have just completely lost... like they're it it doesn't it's It's like they they don't realize that that's evil.
01:29:07
Speaker
You know what i mean? They do think that that's somehow good. they So the thing that every tech leader or CEO or whatever...
01:29:19
Speaker
constantly prepares themselves for is nobody's going to like it. I'm going to make a very important decision. Nobody's going to like it, but they'll get used to it and then realize that they love it.
01:29:32
Speaker
Right. that's that's That's every feature that your favorite app puts out all way up to... Windows updates, iPhone changes. Yes. The tech leader is always in his head saying, no, the people are wrong about this. They just haven't.
01:29:50
Speaker
They just don't understand it yet. Right. um sorry makes me makes me so mad just the concept oh yeah um yeah uh it it it is it's it's horrible um but that's but that's also fascism right that is what fascism that is why um big tech is now holding hands with fascism because it's that same sort of thing it's look i know what's best for you you think You should decide. But you're too dumb. You're too dumb to decide.
01:30:23
Speaker
We're smarter than you. We know what's best for you. And what's best for you often involves killing entire ethnicities. Yeah, yeah. but But even if it didn't, it's like what they're saying here is what would like Wolverine's point is. It's like it doesn't fucking matter if you're right.
01:30:44
Speaker
We can't make that decision. Us 15 people. I guess there's like 25 in that room. Sure. At this point, there's three teams. We can't make the decision for all people.
01:30:57
Speaker
And Loki, who is a fascist, is like, why not? use that I mean, that's Loki's motivation, right? Like, this is almost almost word for word what he says in the Avengers movie, ah where he's, like, where he's the major villain, where he's saying, like, people don't actually want freedom. Making choices is tough. Let me make those choices for you, and you can just be dumb and happy all the time. And a lot of people believe that. Like, that's not just a supervillain premise. That is a
01:31:30
Speaker
real world thing that people think and argue all the time and have for thousands of years. Just not in quite so i bold terms. they don't They don't often say, don't you hate freedom? ah Well, I don't know. Sometimes they do, right? i Cyclops.
01:31:54
Speaker
notes a completely tangential point here that if mutants don't get these gifts, then mutants will still be outcasts because they'll be the only ones who still have creativity.
01:32:08
Speaker
Classic Scott being an ally, realizing that this is actually going to affect him and that he should do something. Buddy, the conversation is so much deeper than that. Keep up. Keep up. like Where do I stand in all of this? Right. Hang on a second. the People that arguing about democracy and somebody saying, and if we open up the school for people to vote at then the kids won't be able to go to school that day so probably we shouldn't do democracy my kid but my kids won't be able to go to school yeah true true i just think there's something so funny you're right that he's making this selfish argument but also there's something so fucking funny about it being such a deeply dumber argument than everybody else is having yeah
01:32:58
Speaker
He also makes a more salient point, though. a gift isn't a gift if it's not freely taken as well as given. Okay, now you're back on our like level, buddy. So, Loki, considering this, sicks a bunch of giants on everyone. ah Counterpoint.
01:33:22
Speaker
Cyclops is so well characterized here. he calls Loki mister. Yeah, he does. To a god. To a literal god. Love a good Cyclops. Scott Summers mister.
01:33:33
Speaker
Listen here, mister. During a big giant fight, the big giant fight.
Battle and Resolution
01:33:44
Speaker
Rogue Rogue tries to steal Loki's powers, but it's too much.
01:33:48
Speaker
Pathfinder regains his morality and helps Shaman and Snowbird escape the crumbling Citadel or whatever. Anodyne rejects her powers and Sam Ross gets batted over the mountains by a giant with a home run s swing, Matt. I guarantee. Looking at this picture, the reference is for a a major league baseball player, the follow through of their swing after hitting a home run. Yeah. It is that exact stance. So good.
01:34:18
Speaker
North star rushes Anodyne to Sam side and she tries to heal him. But Loki pops up like, Hey, you rejected your powers. Remember I can give them back, but you have to promise me you will stop defying me.
01:34:33
Speaker
She's got, shes he's got her there. yeah She reluctantly and tearfully agrees for the sake of Sam and her unborn child. After she heals Sam,
01:34:44
Speaker
Loki takes her back to gloat, but suddenly the gods who live above in shadow, that was the name of that. Oh yeah. Those guys, the gods, gods, the gods, gods are the gods who live above in shadow and the kindler.
01:34:58
Speaker
They go, look, dude, this is not what we meant by doing things selflessly. Fucking stop it. We deny your petition. And also if you ever fuck with these guys again, we will end you.
01:35:13
Speaker
so It's such that rules. It rules that they did that. Yeah. They came in and they were like, did you hear what Cyclops said? And it's it's not. They'll be the only ones with creativity and they'll be outcast still. No, no. About the gift freely.
01:35:35
Speaker
So, I mean, it's like they're not allies of the mutants or whatever. They're just like, I don't like to see a guy being a real dick. It's like your whole point. Yeah, yeah. It's like you're just being a real dick and we don't like big dicks. Well, all right. Hold on. Let me take that again. We don't know. We don't know that part. Yeah.
01:35:56
Speaker
About the gods of Wibblepuff and Shadow. So, Loki, as instructed, promises to stop fucking with them, but also takes all their powers back and the things that they did with their powers.
01:36:10
Speaker
So... right back to square one where we started the conversation. Wolverine's like, I'm crazy again. Well, I'm crazy again. Cyclops has his brain damage back. Puck is small again. Rogue's powers are back to normal. And Wolverine, Sasquatch, and Aurora are all mentally unwell again.
01:36:31
Speaker
Loki's like, looks like I'm crazy again. Loki's like, one last time, like, give it all back. yeah And Puck's like, nope, fuck off. Yeah, he does. He speaks for everyone. He's like, hey, do us a favor and take off.
01:36:49
Speaker
Puck rolls. Puck rolls. Wolverine rolls. These guys roll. North Star rolls. I like the X-Men. Well, some of those are alphans. Don't tell me.
01:37:01
Speaker
Loki... disappears and Shaman and Snowbird are back to normal. Everything is back to normal. Even Northstar who flies off again rather than going back with the team. Yeah, yeah, yeah. he like It doesn't make sense why he was here to begin with.
01:37:17
Speaker
And Claremont like kind of addresses that at the end. He's like, I was here because somebody needed help and whatever. i'm There's no reason for me to hang out with you idiots, bye. It's like, yeah didn't you say that to them just like like months ago?
01:37:34
Speaker
i Whatever, it's cool, it's cool. I like North Star, it doesn't matter. The only thing wrong now- do anything wrong. he' He's my perfect angel. The only thing wrong now is that Rachel is missing.
01:37:48
Speaker
Cyclops heads back into the crumbling citadel or whatever to find her. And she wonders if she should tell him about their connection. He asks a bit about her future and tells her she reminds him a bit of someone. one The love of his life, Jean Grey.
01:38:06
Speaker
She decides not to tell him and they head back to the airplane. Okay. Left behind where Cyclops found Rachel, though, is a single red rose, a monument to human creativity.
01:38:21
Speaker
The end. She can do that? She can just make a rose? Oh, I thought that was like the... um
01:38:30
Speaker
symbolism she was bending over it and there's like a glow where her hand she's bending down and there's a glow where her hands are and then he comes and talks to her and she's and they whatever it's all emotional and then they walk away and then it cuts back to the spot where she was bending down and there's a rose there's a rose that's glowing the same color as her hands were yeah you're right i don't know i think there's God, I can't get over. I'm crazy again. I've been thinking about it non-stop. What a line.
01:39:06
Speaker
issue There's one really funny moment during the giant fight. I think it's Walter who, like, punches one of the giants real hard or whatever, and Rogue, seeing it, says, you think that's something fuzzy? Watch this. And she...
01:39:25
Speaker
zaps up to try to take Loki's power and just gets clobbered. Like she just comes flying back into the snow. ah and So I think there is, we we already talked a lot about this moral and we talked about it in terms of fascism, but I also think, and AI, but I think it's also, there's also an atheistic, like humanistic moral here, right? It's this idea of like, yeah, you could have this perfect, idyllic heaven existence right you could live in peace and harmony forever you just have to submit your will over to this other power this magical force right yeah yeah and they're like well no we're humans we're being a human is worth it right and we're gonna fuck up
01:40:18
Speaker
trying to make this perfect reality without these powers. We're not gonna do a good job. But that's like part of it, right? Like that is that is part of being a human is that we have the ability to try and we have the creativity to think of these ways. And it is more worthwhile to do that than to allow everything that is interesting about being a human to be taken from us just for this. It's the same, i think about it as the same as like the moral of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials books, right? it's like
01:40:53
Speaker
It's this idea of we can still try and build heaven on earth. It is not worth giving up all the things that make life worth living.
01:41:04
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
01:41:07
Speaker
Yeah, deep stuff. What was your thought about these? I thought this was fucking cool. Yeah. Yeah. No, it's very like it's it is a little high minded. Right.
01:41:23
Speaker
But h it is fun. It's i I don't know if you mentioned, but both of these are like triple size issues. These things are fucking yeah they huge. And it didn't feel like a slog to read through. It was really yeah an engaging story. It kept turning, if you haven't noticed by the length of our recaps. Like, there's so much stuff packed in here. And for the most part, it's ah cohesive.
01:41:51
Speaker
Right. Yeah, I agree. I i think, as like you said, as deep as it is, it's also just so fucking fun. And the art is beautiful.
01:42:03
Speaker
Paul Smith. Yes. God damn it. Yeah. It's such a shame that he doesn't stick around for longer. now Unless he comes back. I don't know. Maybe. It's the sort of thing where I'll say, no, he doesn't. And then he will. And then he does next week. This is like Toad all over again. Yeah.
01:42:23
Speaker
Hey, we haven't seen Toad in a really, we're never going to see again. Right. We'll see him in the ninety s
01:42:31
Speaker
Alright, wait, okay. Couple questions. Number one. Yeah. Why did Heather join the bad guys? Like, I know she had the powers or whatever, but that's not Heather's personality. Heather would not have been on that side of things.
01:42:48
Speaker
Right? I guess they they tried to paint her... So, okay, here's my... Here's where I think they were trying to go with Heather was up top yeah and this isn't uncommon but they gave her a lot about like i'm just some lady why am i leading alpha flight like what is it that gives me any right to be here so i think that's meant to be so important to her that when she finally has that power the the ability to be yeah i guess just confident in her leadership skills yeah uh
01:43:28
Speaker
She doesn't want to give that up. She's like, my life's work, or I guess my my destiny is to lead Alpha Flight, and I need this power to be able to do it, because she doesn't believe in herself.
01:43:41
Speaker
She's like, she's probably thinking like, earlier i almost died by getting sucked into a bag. i don't want that to happen again. Yes. But also, like, if you think, i think that's, we it's, she's clearly on the wrong side of things here, because if they make a perfect world, then there's no reason for alpha flight. Like she thinks she's doing it for self or selfless reasons because the world needs alpha flight. Yeah. But she's, she's making this move to create a world that doesn't need alpha flight. So she's just right back out of a job.
01:44:16
Speaker
Do you, who do you think would have won all the, all the God people plus Colossus Phoenix, sorry, Colossus, Rachel, Sasquatch, and Aurora. or the good guy side, which is Rogue, Cyclops, Xavier, Kitty, North Star, Wolverine, Lockheed, and Nightcrawler.
01:44:34
Speaker
I think the good guy side. Yeah, I mean, Cyclops knocked out Sasquatch Colossus and one of the god people in a fucking second. Wolverine yeah already killed one of the god people and put another one in the hospital. it's You've got Wolverine and Lockheed there, and I think that that is going to do the most scale tipping. Plus you have a tipping you have x Xavier.
01:44:58
Speaker
like Xavier's going to just start shutting brains off if he things could start going poorly. That's true, yeah. yeah last question before we move on ah why was there that random scene we didn't talk about it why was there the random there was a random scene in the first issue where it cuts to Doug Ramsey and Ileana Rasputin in a diner oh yeah and he's he's like I'm the mutant man he says mutant menace he's like I'm the dreaded mutant menace fear me and he bites the girl a bites a girl
01:45:34
Speaker
Playfully, not violently. And she throws him on the ground. And then a guy's like, I should beat you up for that. And Ilyana's like, you won't. Ilyana steps in and gives him a dirty look. She's just like, no, you won't. He's like, I'm sorry, minimum Miss Ilyana. And then they they teleport home. Why? Why did that happen?
01:45:54
Speaker
i oh um Doesn't tie in thematically. It didn't tie in plot wise. Those characters weren't in the rest of the story. Yeah, it's true.
01:46:06
Speaker
i that's a good That's a good point. Maybe it was just to drop the phrase. Mutant Menace! And speaking Mutant Menace, are we ready to move on to New Mutant Special Edition number one Home is Where the Heart Is?
01:46:23
Speaker
Matt, what the fuck is a special edition number one? It's this it's the number one special edition. You know, they had so many fucking weird rules about comics that Marvel did in this era.
01:46:39
Speaker
It was like, if if a comic is more than this length... It can't be in normal issue, but if it's less than this length, it can't be an annual. And if it's more than this length, it can't be an annual because an annual is only this length. And if it's less than this length, it can't be a graphic. now like They had all these weird rules. And I think New Mutant Special Edition is one of those ones where it's like, because it doesn't fit the rules.
01:47:04
Speaker
they have to come up with another way to yes to title it. They can't just also change the rules a little bit. Isn't this also the start of i Marvel realizing that they can cash in on anything by naming it a special edition or a number one?
01:47:23
Speaker
i don't I don't know. i don't know. I don't think it happens much in X-Men, at least for a little while. but Okay. All right. Chris Claremont's the author. art Art Adams is the illustrator. Terry Austin's the embellisher. Buhalas and Orzakowski are the letterers. Christy Shields, the colors. Ann Ucenti's the editor. And dude, this is so weird. There's a smudge over where it says editor in chief.
01:47:49
Speaker
Huh. I can't read it John Smudge. Okay, it's John Smudge, I guess. it's Yeah, it's just my copy, my my ah New Mutants classic number five has just a big smudge in it.
01:48:02
Speaker
All right release date September 17th, 1985. Cover date December 1985.
01:48:11
Speaker
Loki ponders over his scrying orb in Asgard. This this guy again. Nice fucking guy. um watching aurora fight off hordes of warriors with a sword enchanted by her beauty grace and ability to kick fucking ass apparently this is some so thor story but yeah yeah i there they have no absolutely no context for it i think there yeah i think it happened in thor and they have beta ray bill in the background beta ray bill sighting It's also just another another example of a man seeing Storm for the first time and saying, she's beautiful. i love her. use
01:48:54
Speaker
Every power within my control to kidnap her and force her to be mine. Yeah. It's crazy. All right. It's just it's Claremont's horny for Storm, and we know this.
01:49:05
Speaker
Yeah. He wonders if she would consider becoming his queen. If he bestowed her with the goddess of thunder title and they could rule Asgard together. Give her her powers back. hmm.
01:49:18
Speaker
He beckons Enchantress to his throne, requesting she journey to Midgard and bring him his this aurora, while inflicting as much pain on her companions, the X-Men, as possible. He may be sworn to leave the X-Men in peace, but she isn't.
01:49:31
Speaker
And if can't convince Storm to rule by his side of her own free will, he hasn't broken any rules. Yeah, there's a lot of, there's nothing in the rulebook that says he can't do this. Air Bud rules. Yeah, nothing in the rulebook that says ah ah a dog can't be the God of Thunder.
01:49:55
Speaker
Cut to Kyranos, Greece, where Aurora has brought the new mutants to recoup from their battle with Amal Farouk. The Shadow King. They're having a grand old time at the beach, except for Karma, who still wants to die. Okay. And Warlock is just trying out bodies and outfits.
01:50:16
Speaker
He's like, yeah he's wearing a one piece piece ladies bathing suit. Then he's wearing the biggest pair of jean shorts anyone's ever seen. Then he switches to a bikini.
01:50:28
Speaker
Lockbox. Lockbox. warlock war report i like lockbox now i've changed my mind lockbox is pretty the lock lockbox uh what's in the lockbox today pat honestly he looks good in a bikini he's as he pulls it off because he's got this like clark kent body yeah yeah every okay Despite the fact that these are supposed to be children, which obviously they're not, everyone looks fucking good in their bathing suits, right? Like, everybody's got a bathing suit that fits their personality, right? Uh...
01:51:06
Speaker
uh, Danny has this like one piece on and her hair's all tied up in this like, but like it braids that circle her head like a tiara. And she's got these big ass sunglasses and she looks so fucking sassy.
01:51:20
Speaker
and rain is like all covered up. She's like wearing a jacket and pants. i And Sam's just wearing jean shorts, like Daisy Duke cutoffs. Yeah.
01:51:33
Speaker
They look good. And, uh, fucking, um, Sunspot's wearing uh, just like a black Speedo. Sure.
01:51:43
Speaker
Everyone looks great. They look great. They look like our pals. They're our best friends. Anyway, but it's all all this revelry is interrupted when a horde of mounted as guardian warriors appear and throw the island into chaos.
01:51:58
Speaker
Aurora is teleported to Loki's chambers and immediately encased in crystal in a new outfit. Didn't fucking Dr. Doom already do that to her? Yeah. we the Beat for beat.
01:52:08
Speaker
While the new mutants are no match for the warriors and get easily kidnapped. e in an asgardian cell and chantra stands over her captives wondering how a group of human teenagers could have the reputation of the x-men iliana tries to yeah a funny little bit of confusion where she's like he said storm's companions are the x-men and that the x-men are very dangerous but this is just a group of children it' cute
01:52:40
Speaker
Also, Sam kind of half changes into his uniform. Yes. But he's still wearing the jean shorts. He's wearing the uniform top and the jean shorts bottom. it's Honestly, it's a good combo. And telling us for the 13th time that he's invulnerable while blasting. Number 13, baby.
01:52:57
Speaker
Ileana tries to teleport them all out of the Enchantress's cell. But her magic disrupts teleportation spell spells, scattering the team throughout space and time. Ileana's like, ouch.
01:53:09
Speaker
Oh, no. Not space and time. Ileana's at the feet of Enchantress, who wraps her in vines and restrains her against the walls with these like vines that turn into hands.
01:53:21
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. It's creepy looking. It's very creepy. So restrains her against the wall and Enchantress sends her lackeys out to find the rest of the team. We find karma in the desert.
01:53:35
Speaker
Absolutely nothing around her but sand to the horizon. Why go on? She lays down and closes her eyes, waiting to die. Doug, meanwhile, finds himself in a Viking mead hall and is very quickly made into a kitchen wench. there're is this Yeah, this is the guy. where there's There's a Harald Einarsson who is just Popeye.
01:54:02
Speaker
Yes, he looks just like Popeye. He's got a pipe like Popeye. Down with a pipe in the weird forearms. And his his he's got the same color scheme. He's color blocked like Popeye. Yeah, yeah.
01:54:13
Speaker
Rain finds herself in a land of giants who are hunting her for fun until she's rescued by another wolf who can speak with her What?
01:54:24
Speaker
She follows him to safety, noting some unfamiliar feelings she has for him. She calls him handsome. it's just She's looking at him as ah she's looking at a dog and she's like, he's handsome.
01:54:35
Speaker
Yes, but she's also dog. She's a dog at the time. Guys, settle down. Warlock finds himself deep underground, face to face with a giant monster that he promptly transforms and eats. He eats a dragon! Yeah, it's basically a dragon. And he just eats it before being confronted by Hela.
01:54:55
Speaker
Hela. Hela. Goddess of death and running away from her. Bobby, on the other's hand, finds himself the envy of a tavern full of Asgardian warriors after beating them all in an arm wrestling competition and then barfighting.
01:55:11
Speaker
He's surrounded by beautiful women. Amara finds herself in the presence of the fae, chowing down on a feast they prepared just for... don't Guys, if fairies give you food, don't eat it.
01:55:22
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. It's a bad idea, but she doesn't know. She doesn't play D&D enough. ah Yeah, but she's from ancient Rome who wrote the stories about how you told me...
01:55:38
Speaker
food prepared. Anyway, so it's prepared just for her until she passes out. Sam is also deep underground, being confronted by a clan of dwarves. Eitri... Huh?
01:55:49
Speaker
Eitri. Chief among them. He's the one who made Thor's hammer, everyone. They don't seem too keen on him until he rescues their village from a dark elf attack, but he takes a mystical spear in the back in the process. No!
01:56:05
Speaker
danny finds a winged horse trapped in mire, tangled in yards of barbed rope. She manages to work it free just in time for the Asgardian warriors that were hunting it to catch up.
01:56:21
Speaker
She stands in front of it, ready to fight an army for this winged horse. When a warrior riding another winged horse drops into the rescue, scaring all the hunters away, she introduces herself as Mist and invites Dany back to her and her sister's place. We should describe this horse because it's a major character in New Year's. Yeah, it's pegasus. it scott It's a pegasus. It's bright white with like white eyes, too, so it just... it just Looks like it's carved out of marble. It's got a big mohawk. Yes. And big wings. Big wings.
01:56:56
Speaker
Beautiful tail. It looks great. Back in Enchantress's chambers, Ileana refuses to join forces with her. So Enchantress pulls the dark child out of her and gives it... That's the demon form that lives inside of her, remember?
01:57:13
Speaker
First, she turns her into a baby in a bikini. That's a very funny visual. And then turns her back and then takes it. Any harm bestowed upon this dark child will affect Ileana, she explains, as she tells it to go out and hunt down the rest of the team.
01:57:30
Speaker
Back in the desert where Karma is impatiently waiting for death to take her. she So with the first time, there's a lot of jumping from place to place and...
01:57:43
Speaker
At the end of her the first section of her story, she's like, okay, no one here. I guess it's just time to die. And she lies down and closes her eyes. And then when next see her, she's opening her eyes going like...
01:57:56
Speaker
I'm not dead yet? How damn long does this take? ah She hears a child scream. A giant horned worm is chasing a little girl through the desert. With all her strength, Karma possesses the worm and drives it away, choosing to stay alive to keep the child safe. Does this sound familiar to Karma's story at all?
01:58:20
Speaker
A monstrous force chasing a small child ah trying to harm it and she has to take responsibility for it? No. No?
01:58:33
Speaker
Dark Child finds Doug in the mead hall first. Also, Doug, ah he he gets to this mead hall. Somebody shoves him, and he's like, hey, put buddy, and he shoves the guy back, but then finds himself immediately outmatched. Like, his bravado is countered by the fact that he is kind of powerless, and so he's immediately turned into the lowest status person in the place. Does that sound familiar for Doug Ramsey at all?
01:59:01
Speaker
No, but I don't remember really Doug Ramsey. Who's this guy? um But Warlock shows up just in time to save Doug. Warlock, remember he got placed in front of a character who is incredibly powerful and immediately was like, I'm going to kill you. And he's like, no, and runs away.
01:59:20
Speaker
yeah yeah. Does that sound like Warlock? Story you at all. Lockbox. Who's Warlock? Meanwhile, Rain learns her new friend is a wolf prince. Hrimhari is his name, who can shift to wolfman form, but not to human form.
01:59:36
Speaker
Interesting. They nuzzle for a bit before she runs off to find her friend. So... Now she's sort of torn between this idea of like, well, should I go save my friends? Or should I embrace the wild animalistic side of me and an emotion that I'm scared of, like love?
01:59:58
Speaker
Is that familiar to Wolfsbane at all? No, but it is a cute moment. they are They're really nuzzled. They're like dog nuzzled. I guess the the prince is like...
02:00:12
Speaker
shoving his dog nose into her dog neck and it's it's just cute it's rain being like what is this feeling i really you you actually like it just like her i don't know growing up a little bit it's really right well that's it's very nice and that's the thing is she's always been torn by and this is what i'm pointing out um over and over is just this idea of like this is just all these metaphors forically rendered situations about what, where these people are in their lives. And with rain, it's like, she's constantly, her religious guilt keeps her from feeling the emotions that she actually feels. And like growing up, she considers that this, she considered, she equates that with this animal side of her that she also believes is evil.
02:00:58
Speaker
And so she's always trying to like tuck those away, even though she, they just feel so much better to her than, her human form where she has to be religious and in control of herself. Chased.
02:01:14
Speaker
Meanwhile, meanwhile, Bobby is so strong that he impresses the Warriors three and goes out for a night of drinking with them. Again, he's getting the recognition he always wanted. Yeah, he's living the high life. This is everything he's ever wanted. Beautiful women winning all contests and i the most respected people in town want to take him out for drinks. He thinks that this is like he thinks this is maybe happening because he because maybe the Asgardian son is stronger than like Superman logic. Yeah, yeah. hmm.
02:01:51
Speaker
Sam is being attended to and flirted with by Eitri's daughter, Kindra. Remember, Sam would found himself deep underground in like a mine and had to save the lives of a bunch of people that were about be... Right, all his fellow miners. Yeah. Who?
02:02:10
Speaker
When magma burst through the wall, attacking the dwarves and promising to conquer Niflheim, not even recognizing Sam...
02:02:20
Speaker
They douse her with a fire extinguisher. They do. It's so disrespectful. it just First of all, you have a fire extinguisher down here. It's E-Tree.
02:02:31
Speaker
he can do whatever he wants. guess he can make, but like, did he come to Earth and he was like, oh, I absolutely love the shape and color and function of these things. Let me go back and make one.
02:02:43
Speaker
Two motorcycles with a house in the middle? No.
02:02:49
Speaker
But also, does that work?
02:02:53
Speaker
i don't think my fire extinguisher here at home would work on a volcano. How did he know the chemicals that he needed to put inside for it? Sam is also wearing basically just like a cape and a diaper.
02:03:08
Speaker
Yes, because he's hurt. this is his These are his bandages. And a cape. And a cape. Magma, her the metaphor there is right like she's she finds herself in this magic realm surrounded by people that are disassociated with the culture that she's trying to integrate with. And there's some deep, deep darkness hidden behind them.
02:03:34
Speaker
I think this actually might be the one that's not a metaphor. Yeah. Yeah. There's always one, you know? Okay. um And then it turns her into a person who's slightly different than all her friends. And um yeah. Anyway, Danny.
02:03:53
Speaker
Danny's is a little more complicated and I think it's a little bit of more um fetishization of... Native Americans. Because I think you know she kind of like finds a tribe of... What's what's your thoughts?
02:04:07
Speaker
it's It's one of those things where like if we didn't know that she's already got like a psychic connection to animals due to racism or right is a naturally like if you standalone read this, you'd be like, Oh yeah, she just met a group of sisters who all have magical horses. Like this is Asgard. Of course there's a magical horse family. Right. But again, knowing what we know about how Danny was created and treated, it's, it's probably,
02:04:44
Speaker
It's probably him racially coded, trying to draw some sort of metaphor about her finally finding her tribe and her connection to animals. but It's not like out there. it is You have to know where he's coming from to say, hey this is racist. i I think you're right. And I and i also i love this arc of Dany's. I love the Dany as a Valkyrie.
02:05:08
Speaker
concept and I love the what damn it and I love Bright Wind but but yeah I mean it's just if you're if you're sitting there like if you even if you don't because here's my only counter argument is like If you don't know that yet about Claremont, but you are trying to track down the metaphors of everybody's situation, you would think, oh, well, the only thing that the only thing that this could symbolize for Dani is her Native American roots.
02:05:45
Speaker
Because what else would it be? Otherwise, it's just like, like you said, that's the one. Otherwise, you'd be like, okay, well, there's one that doesn't at all. Yeah, sure. um All right.
02:05:56
Speaker
I think that's all the metaphors so we can stop talking about that thread. So she flies high she she flies high through the sky with her new winged horse riding girlfriends, recognizing that everyone else they come across runs from them in fear.
02:06:10
Speaker
She eavesdrops on a conversation between sisters about inducting her into their family, which startles her and she flies away to find her friends. Karma, meanwhile, continues to find the will to live as she treks through the desert for weeks, protecting the child with her.
02:06:27
Speaker
Darkchild next finds Bobby drunk with pleasure and easily transforms him into another servant of the Enchantress. The dwarves manage to restore Amara's mind back to normal, but she's ultimately stuck as a fey creature who are forbidden from being on Earth.
02:06:44
Speaker
Loki appears to Eitri at that moment requesting a special new hand hamster. Requesting a special new hammer for his new goddess of thunder and he agrees to forge it.
02:06:56
Speaker
He has a plan and it involves Sam and Amara. I'll just, I'll spoil it here. The plan is just to make sure Sam and Amara are in the same room as Loki so they can try to attack him. It doesn't go deeper than that.
02:07:14
Speaker
Ileana finds Rain and converts her to Enchantress's side, while Warlock and Doug find Karma, now perfectly fit after months of desert survival.
02:07:27
Speaker
Huh. So... It stands to reason. yeah They were scattered through space and time. Yes, it took months for her to, like, searching through the desert. Why is she so toned and muscular? Shouldn't she just be, like, gaunt and starving?
02:07:45
Speaker
And shouldn't her skin be all stretched out and draping off of her? Shouldn't she be... but i mean, that would... he would have to be pretty rapid weight loss to have, like... I think losing...
02:08:00
Speaker
400 pounds in a month is pretty rapid weight loss Matt it's been like slightly more than a month oh I'm sorry but for Locke and Doug it's only been about a week and also they don't see a child with her all she has is this string tied around her finger that she doesn't remember being there Dark Child shows up with a horde of warriors just then then to let them know it's a sign from one of the three Norns, the ultimate form of god in Asgard.
02:08:33
Speaker
yeah before Not the gods that live above in shadow. No, another ultimate. Different ultimate form of god to Asgardians. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But then she attacks them. Warlock forms a mech suit around Doug.
02:08:51
Speaker
Sam bursts in with Amara and Danny descends from the sky on a winged horse, shooting Darkchild three times in the chest with arrows. Remember, every injury that Darkchild takes happens to Ileana. So she's just hanging there and suddenly she has three fucking arrow wounds in her chest.
02:09:13
Speaker
we We don't see it, but fuck, man. Together, they turn the tide against Ileana, Darkchild, and when Karma tries to possess her, and Enchantress's scrying screen bursts into pieces. hu No matter, though, as a short time later, her warriors are marching back through the gates, all of the new mutants in tow. This is very funny. There's this one panel where they go to wake up Enchantress, and there is a man in bed lying next to her.
02:09:42
Speaker
so to Like just stone stat like statue still arms at his side, lying on his back face up. His mouth is draped open like he's suffered some sort of shock, some sort of trauma.
02:09:56
Speaker
We don't hear or see anything else about it, this man. Just in bed next to her is this traumatized man as if ah Art Adams is trying to tell us like, this is what it'd be like to spend a night with the Enchantress. You would never be the same in a bad way.
02:10:16
Speaker
this is i mean This guy gets a better deal than being turned into a tree. The guy from Dazzler. ah Fucked into insanity. Yeah. yeah So they're the they her warriors are marching back through the gates, all the new mutants in tow.
02:10:33
Speaker
or are they The team bursts out of their restraints with a jokes on you and kick absolute ass while Karma, using all her strength to possess Darkchild, marches her down to Ileana's chamber and returns her to her body.
02:10:53
Speaker
Enchantress tries to have a last stand, but Karma manages to possess her long enough to remove all the anti-teleportation wards. They teleport her to Limbo, leaving her in the hands of Sim with a promise not to physically harm her.
02:11:09
Speaker
i I have done a complete 180 on Sim. i love this guy. yeah Yeah. They show up, the New Mutants, with Ileana, and Sim says, G'day, boss. Hiya, kids. It's just like a weird uncle they run into now. Who sometimes will show them a dead body, but other times will just give them piggyback rides. you' Right.
02:11:39
Speaker
They... Let me ask you this. Yeah, buddy. The New Mutants are in full battle with Enchantress and her forces. Doug Ramsey...
02:11:51
Speaker
is inside Warlock. Warlock formed a mech suit around him, and yeah he is punching guys and going, this is so much fun! yeah Is Doug Ramsey doing anything there, or is that just Warlock punching people while he forms suit of armor? It's like giving a child a disconnected video game controller and letting them pretend they're playing with you. You're doing it, Doug! You're really doing it!
02:12:22
Speaker
Lockbox. Another one for the lockbox.
02:12:28
Speaker
that's The scene where Karma finds Ilyana is brutal. she's like She's got two black eyes. She's gushing blood. You can actually see one of the arrow holes in like her clavicle. It is fucked up.
02:12:42
Speaker
A lot of, in both this and the next issue, they turn, they color a lot of blood to look like sweat or just invisible.
02:12:53
Speaker
But you can kind of tell when the implication was blood. Because there's even a scene in this where Enchanter scratches Ileana down the face. and Yeah, yeah. And it's like white. And it's like, no, that's that's supposed to be blood, I think. Clintus.
02:13:09
Speaker
um Anyway, what's next? They've escaped, but Aurora hasn't. Plus, half of them actually love it here in Asgard. Maybe they'll stay. They debate this for a bit and don't settle it. Only putting it aside for the priority of saving Storm.
02:13:23
Speaker
To be continued... and an entirely other comic. Yes, which we will read next. But first, yes one thing I want to mention i about this issue, more more of a humble submission,
02:13:42
Speaker
for the For the approval of the Midnight Society. For the approval of the ah Winners League, I would like to sub submit Throff the Terrible.
02:13:57
Speaker
As a loser league candidate. Throff the Terrible is the dark elf that comes in and attacks Eitri's family. Yeah. And Sam just rockets in, mentions that he's invulnerable while blasting and smashes him into the wall. Like this, this guy is, he is monologuing about how terrifying is. And then Sam just on a whim takes him out of the equation. That,
02:14:26
Speaker
that's a good loser league candidate i think he's big and ugly too so naturally oh and we get a scene of sam with stubble it's been long enough he doesn't get to shave he's got a little peach fuzz coming out oh ah look at this guy just in the goatee areas he's still a kid i mean he it it comes out way more in this next issue he's just has it the whole time he looks like a medieval warrior throughout the rest of the next issue well let's get to it what is it called X-Men giant sized annual number nine.
02:14:58
Speaker
There's no place like home. Okay. Chris Claremont writer, Arthur Adams, Penciler, Alan Gordon and Mike Mignola and Art Adams, Incers.
02:15:10
Speaker
Say Mignola. What did I say? I say Mignola. I say Mignola. You say Mignola. say Mignola. Mignola. think it's Mignola. I'm reading it phonetically. You read it however you want. Tom Orzkowski, letterer. Petra Scotese, colorist. And Nusenti, editor. And Pimple Popper, editor-in-chief. I don't know why. Mine's smudged here.
02:15:36
Speaker
Let's go with Rick Smudge. Okay. Release date, October 1st, 1985. Cover date, December 1985.
02:15:46
Speaker
The X-Men all awaken in the middle of the night to a scream from a sleeping kitty pride. I love them. When Rachel scans her mind, they see a visual recap of the new Mutant Special Edition, plus some images of the Dark Child fighting Storm in Thor's clothing.
02:16:04
Speaker
Does that happen, by the way? i don't think that happens. Uh... No, this is a dream she's having. Okay, but they treat it like it's significant, but I don't think it's going to happen.
02:16:16
Speaker
We did not see Dark Child fighting Storm in Thor's clothing. Ever. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. They quickly discover that the new mutants and Storm may have disappeared off an island in Greece, and Wolverine remembers Loki's promises of revenge from their team up with Alpha Flight.
02:16:35
Speaker
So they decide to give chase to Asgard. who's there with Madeline at that moment. I guess they stuck back to hang out with the X-Men for a little bit i guess they're just like, hey, let's hang out with the X-Men for a bit.
02:16:48
Speaker
Remembers those dimension teleporting arrows that he got from Archon way back in Mutant Menace episode 25. Remember that? And figures he can use them to get to Asgard. Can you believe this comes back?
02:17:05
Speaker
I know. As soon as he pulled those lightning bolts out of that. thing You've been carrying these around you find an airplane for a living this is incredibly dangerous is he like yeah like does he keep them out of his house or did he leave them in the mansion somewhere he's like oh i hope they're still there oh he was digging them up i hope nobody found them and you like hid them in like a back of the a cabinet somewhere i hope so because you should not be allowed to bring those i'm sure in a post 9 11 world you're not allowed to carry magical teleporting lightning bolts onto an airplane
02:17:40
Speaker
But first, Rachel Summers finally picks a name and costume. She comes out wearing red and gold costume shaped like the Phoenix and is going to go by the name Phoenix from now on. And everyone's like, what are you doing, Everyone everyone is like, bro, that sucks. What fuck? You haven't even told him yet.
02:18:02
Speaker
ah Of course, Cyclops is like... uh young lady this is a little uncomfortable for me and she's like you don't get to decide you're not in the x-men and yes she's like you have no right you're retired you can't tell me you're you can't tell me anything and madeline's like she's right well she's got you there she's got you there you're just gonna have to live with the trauma and madeline and scott open mouth kiss in front of everybody yeah
02:18:33
Speaker
Well, I mean, they're going to have a baby, Matt. Everybody knows they're having sex. But that doesn't mean they have to watch. Anyway, they leave Lockheed and Madeline behind and the X-Men are going to Asgard. Going to Asgard.
02:18:51
Speaker
Cut to Nidav'leir, the realm of the dwarves in Asgard, where the new mutants are hanging out with Eitri, the weapon makers. Abara Akilo awakens from a dream in which, thanks to her new status as a fairy, she's able to see into the deepest insecurities of all her teammates.
02:19:08
Speaker
It's weird. It's just like it it's just cuts between each member of the New Mutants all saying they're saying the subtext of last issue out loud. see Yeah, yeah.
02:19:20
Speaker
Like, I am worried about my status as a leader. And what if I fail everybody and they all die? I am afraid of everything. Like, Warlock's like, I am afraid of everything. And I thought coming here would make me safer. like Yeah. I mean, it's be it's because we are cutting from a New Mutants comic to an X-Men comic that they have to say, like...
02:19:42
Speaker
Here's what you missed last issue. But without saying it, by just saying the subtext of last issue. Yeah, that's comics. Comics? You know comics? No, I never did one. that's That's comics. Where do you get them?
02:19:55
Speaker
The sad thing here is everybody's just like... Yeah, sorry, Amara. That's just fairy's thing. they They know everybody's innermost thoughts. Sorry. Sorry. Good luck.
02:20:06
Speaker
bo yeah Have fun. She and Sam are helping Itri to forge a new hammer worthy of a god. Itri tells them that Amara must escort it to Asgard as it must stay liquid hot in its mold until it reaches reaches Loki's throne room.
02:20:23
Speaker
Amara balks as iron is deadly to fairies. Yeah. But Eitri has her surrounded with a cocoon of rock to protect it. That seems like that seems like a loophole.
02:20:36
Speaker
Like magic people can't interact with iron, but they can create magic things around iron to keep them from touching the iron. Yeah, he had to do something.
02:20:47
Speaker
It's like like if Green Lantern can't affect things that are yellow, Buddy can make a big box around things that are yellow with his green yeah stuff. Using his Green Lantern powers. Exactly.
02:20:58
Speaker
ah As a parting gift, he gives Sam armor that cannot be pierced and a sword that can cut through anything but living flesh. OP. p OP. p and sends them to deliver Loki's weapon and confront him in the hall of heroes. Great. Now we have two heroes with swords that can't stab people.
02:21:26
Speaker
The rest of the new mutants are the enchantress's castle. Doug's translating all her books so Ileana can learn their magics while they watch a video feed of Warlock in bird form tracking that weird falcon from earlier. Matt, you probably should have mentioned there was a weird falcon earlier. There's a weird falcon. It has blue eyes, black fur, or black feathers and a white mohawk. I wonder what that could be.
02:21:50
Speaker
He watches the falcon arrive at Loki's palace and Loki, seeing him as an unfamiliar bird, shoots Warlock from the sky. gee Danny takes off on Brightwind, her horse, to check on Locke, and Doug, who feels he owes him his life, demands to go along.
02:22:09
Speaker
In Loki's palace, the Falcon, of course, turns back into Storm. It's Storm, the Falcon Storm. She's elated at all Loki's new gifts, and while she misses the X-Men, she knows that Asgard is in need and wishes to stay.
02:22:25
Speaker
Hey, Pat, you ever notice this? Ass guard. yeah Ass guard. The ass guard. This is just a good comic. It's hard to find stuff to poke fun at here.
02:22:39
Speaker
Loki's Loki's thoughts reveal he's been using a mix of gifts and magic and lies and truth to manipulate Storm into staying and becoming the new God of Thunder to succeed Thor and help him rule Asgard.
02:22:55
Speaker
o She is of her own free will saying, i need to stay behind and help Asgard. Like, my powers, my restored powers are best used here. Mostly of her own free will. He's saying he's used a little magic to nudge her, but mostly he's telling some lies, like, people aren't here to save you. And um i'm not...
02:23:21
Speaker
going to violently take over Asgard but he's telling a lot of truth true like you are going to get your powers back I you were going to help me rule so we can bring peace to Asgard like he probably believes that like Loki if Loki rules Asgard he doesn't want it to turn into an evil place where like everybody gets punched in the face every day like he will want to rule it well he just wants to be king he just wants to be king the problem is he wants it too bad and he probably also like will take a bunch of liberties with his power or whatever but yeah i don't i like i don't think he wants to just like be a evil guy i like ah yeah he's he he would be
02:24:04
Speaker
naturally an evil ruler but not because he wants to be just because yeah he doesn't really have a good concept of good right and for most people i'm sure theyre their lives would be either exactly the same or even a little better but for some people they'd be immeasurably worse yeah yeah yeah elsewhere The X-Men arrive just in time to save Ramari, the Wolfman God, from a band of trolls and meet Hela, the goddess of death.
02:24:33
Speaker
She taunts Phoenix about how many people her mom killed. Yeah, what a weird moment. Ramari informs them that Odin is dead. Hela roams free and he's been tracking his beloved Wolfsbane since she was kidnapped by the Enchantress.
02:24:49
Speaker
m Cyclops decides to split the team. Half will stay with Ramari while he recovers from his troll attack while Wolverine, Shadowcat, and Phoenix head to Asgard to gather information and try and find Thor. All right.
02:25:06
Speaker
They are convinced Thor is going to help him out here. Yeah, yeah. Rogue steals them some weird Asgard outfits and the three go undercover in the city. God, it's so weird how Wolverine has so much body hair, it's like he's wearing clothes.
02:25:22
Speaker
Like his his his arms, his legs, his chest are all bare, but he's got so much body hair. Yeah, he's got a natural sweater. Yeah.
02:25:35
Speaker
Danny and Doug arrive in a tavern, find Bobby surrounded by girls fawning over him, and demand he come help them. Strangely, everyone in the tavern seems terrified of Danny.
02:25:48
Speaker
No time for that now, though, as Danny senses Warlock nearby. They find him on the edge of death, but instead of being happy to see them, he freaks out when he sees Danny, tries to kill her and takes off running with Doug. What?
02:26:02
Speaker
Poor Doug. Doug's still wearing his slave collar, by the way, from when he was in the. It's right. He's still wearing the the kitchen wench gear.
02:26:15
Speaker
When they stop running, Doug is baffled. Warlock would have been fine, but now they're stranded in a dead part of the city with no life around for him to absorb. Warlock wonders why Doug can't see that Danny is wearing the mantle of the destroyer, the one who claims all life.
02:26:32
Speaker
That's why he had to run. But still no time for that now, as Doug suggests saving Warlock by sharing his own life glow. The two then seem to merge into one being.
02:26:46
Speaker
Yeah. Just for a second. Like next time we see him, he's just wearing a warlock suit again. But in this yeah one panel, he is. They are like half transformed. And somehow he's able to give part of his life glow over without turning into like the techno organic thing and being consumed. Right. Um,
02:27:09
Speaker
it this through this entire issue people keep explaining what's happening to danny directly to her or to each other and everybody's like i don't know what that means anyway we've got to go do something like it just non-stop through this issue people are like oh my god it is the harbinger of death and she's like i don't know what you're talking about anyway i gotta go and she's like i wonder what that was no time for that now like Warlock just totally explained to us what is happening. And Doug's like, ah you're crazy. Anyway.
02:27:43
Speaker
Meanwhile, Ramari leads rogue Cyclops, Colossus, and Nightcrawler to the Enchantress's castle. They expect to fight, but instead find Wolfsbane magic and karma doing just fine.
02:27:57
Speaker
Rain in wolf form starts doing dog stuff with Romari, but transforms back into a girl and feels immediately a ashamed. They're like chasing each other's tails. Yeah, yeah. They're being real cute. They're being teens in love. It's sweet, but also their dogs. Also their dogs.
02:28:16
Speaker
They have arrived just in time for magic to cast a spell to locate Storm, which she does only to be instantly discovered by Loki and all captured in one fell swoop.
02:28:27
Speaker
He bounds them all up and summons some rock trolls to go get the rest of the mutants while transforming the two wolf people into weird evil wolves he calls Grimfang and Bleakheart to help the trolls to track them down. He's been listening to a lot of nu metal.
02:28:45
Speaker
What if Thor... Doesn't Thor have dogs that have crazy names? I don't know. That have like really funny...
02:28:55
Speaker
mutant menace pod gmail.com tooth nasher no he's got two ah magical goats one named tooth nasher and one named tooth grinder incredible yeah just then nightcrawler teleports from his bonds and kisses rogue allowing her to absorb his powers and cyclops who he is also touching, i guess.
02:29:19
Speaker
Yeah, she's like, I was able to touch. Okay, you see him wrap his tail around Cyclops and then kiss Rogue. is that i don't i don't know that that's how Rogue's powers work, and I don't know if they ever worked like that before or again.
02:29:31
Speaker
it's like It's like electricity. oh they run Her powers run through your body and into any conductor you happen to be touching. Oh, okay. It's like electricity and like conductor.
02:29:47
Speaker
and It is very cool for Nightcrawler to be like, it was number one for nobody to account for Nightcrawler's teleportation. No one ever does. This happens all the time. yeah i It's consistent. And also, what does Loki know about these guys? Like, I guess he kind of fought them earlier this episode, but...
02:30:07
Speaker
you You assume he's harmless. His thing is just being a weird little blue guy. But he's like, you didn't account for this. i can teleport. And then he pops out, pops in right in front of Rogue and just gives her a kiss. It's like the...
02:30:23
Speaker
he shouldn't He shouldn't have just grabbed a restrained woman and given her a kiss, but... But it's also like, they have to... You have to keep showing off the X-Men's powers because that's what the comic is about. And so you have to keep coming up with scenarios. Like, you have to just... You have to buy that sometimes people just aren't prepared for the X-Men to have powers, which is a little stupid, but it's just... That's how superhero comics, right?
02:30:51
Speaker
zi Yeah, yeah. But if we accept that this is all happening, this fucking rules. She charges forward. She's blue. She's got blue fur coming off of her. She teleports out of her bonds, and she's also shooting lasers out of her eyes. Knocks them to the ground. Hell yeah. Because she's got super strength. She can fly. She's got all of it.
02:31:12
Speaker
But... Rogue pauses when Storm appears. Aurora can't quite grasp why a friend would attack a friend and figures that must not really be Rogue, but some demon trickster that gives Loki just enough time to regain himself and bound Rogue up again.
02:31:32
Speaker
I guess that is that slight magical push that he was talking about because Storm's not that stupid. Yeah, yeah. Storm would would pause a moment longer to to figure out what's going on.
02:31:43
Speaker
Yeah. Wolverine, Kitty, and Phoenix discovered that Thor is off-world and arrive at a hall of heroes just as Cannonball and Magma arrive with the hammer.
02:31:54
Speaker
Also at the same time as Mirage and Sunspot riding Brightwind. When she sees them, Dany also sees a big scary skull hanging in the air over Wolverine that no one else can see.
02:32:08
Speaker
She takes it as a portent and then the ground collapses and it's time to fight the rock trolls and evil wolves, Grimfang and Darktooth or whatever. i Remember them from earlier? Yeah.
02:32:21
Speaker
They sweep up Amara in a fucking bulldozer. What the hell? They're like, and then this is made out of iron. We've got her. And then a dragon thing bites Wolverine, who collapses from a poison too strong for his healing factor to handle.
02:32:36
Speaker
From the dragon thing. Yeah, the dragon thing's poison. Okay, got it. Cannonball swings his fancy new sword at the evil wolf and hits its magic collar.
02:32:47
Speaker
which is the the thing that was turning them into evil wolves. Yeah, I guess so. Cutting rain free from her enchantment. Yeah, so she's rain again, and she's so happy. Thank God he's got a sword that can't harm living things, but can harm inanimate objects. Yeah, and he uses it this one time for this one op one thing.
02:33:10
Speaker
Just Cypher and Warlock swoop in as the Star Trek Enterprise firing lasers everywhere. The bad guys retreat with Amara in tow. right now every but ah All the lost new mutants are together.
02:33:28
Speaker
Well, for amara they decide to split up again. Most of the team will go confront Loki at the ceremony where he's doing whatever he's doing to Storm, while Kitty, Sam, and Rain will go free the prisoners.
02:33:40
Speaker
okay Karma starts trying to possess magic, but just makes them both pass out. yeah the you know room this This is in the basement where where ah the some of the X-Men and New Mutants are like chained up or whatever. yeah yeah These are the guys who got captured by Loki.
02:33:57
Speaker
It interrupts the spell that magic is making to make all the X-Men evil, so it only works on Colossus. When Sam and gang make it to the prison, Colossus tries to clobber them, but Cyclops knocks them out.
02:34:11
Speaker
It's so funny. Colossus appears before Sam and is like, I'm going to brush you and then just takes a a laser blast to the back of the head the cyclops just following possessed colossus around waiting for the opportunity if he does something mean all right i got a clean shot ah Wolverine is dying from poison, but he's determined to free storm first. He man, there's a scene here where Bobby is like, is like being a showboat. Right.
02:34:46
Speaker
And Wolverine like slams him up against a wall. And he's like, do you think this is a fucking game? Like, yeah okay, great. Yeah. You're an Asgard here and people are treating you like a, like a hero or whatever. But that's what, is that all that this is for? You're just doing this for the glory.
02:35:02
Speaker
Remember, this is one of Bobby's number one heroes. Him and Magnum P.I. are Wolverine and Magnum P.I. are Bobby's two heroes. And Wolverine is slamming him against a wall, telling him he's acting like a baby.
02:35:18
Speaker
yeah and that hes it's naical And that he's not a real hero. And he's going to save Aurora. And fucking Bobby can do whatever he wants. He's done. Yeah, yeah.
02:35:31
Speaker
It's a good speech. Yeah. Loki introduces Storm to the crowd as Thor's replacement, but his cape tangles around his face at the last second because of Phoenix's telekinesis. Man, unspipath telekinetics are always doing that to people. yeah I would do that a lot if I had telekinetics. Just make people look stupid.
02:35:55
Speaker
Sunspot, Wolverine, and Warlock charge, so Loki summons rock trolls to stop them, which makes the crowd turn on Loki. Like, I can't believe he's summing rock draws summoning rock trolls in this sacred place.
02:36:08
Speaker
This is disgusting. they' just you I'm going home. He cracks open the rock, and Storm takes the new hammer, becoming Storm Thor.
02:36:20
Speaker
Thor Storm. Thor Storm. storm dude Storm. Storm. Storm. That works, actually. Yeah. Storm blasts Wolverine, who Loki convinces her is a shadow being, but she pauses when she sees how much courage he shows.
02:36:36
Speaker
Dying Logan's like, dude, he's the god of lies. That's all he does. Yeah. She's like, but Loki is my friend. He would not lie. Wolverine's like, Storm.
02:36:50
Speaker
He's the god of lies. That's all he does. And that would have been, like, that would be Wolverine's last words if if if the good guys don't win here. Yeah, yeah.
02:37:03
Speaker
Hila shows up to claim Logan's soul and Storm realizes she fucked up, but Mirage shows up on Brightwind like, leave him alone! And Hila- It's so cool.
02:37:16
Speaker
And Hila reveals that Dany has accidentally become a Valkyrie, chooser of the slain. Whoa. She attacks Hila and Hila drops her from the fucking sky. Danny's being a badass, but also she's being an idiot. She shows up and she's like, you back away. I won't warn you again. And Hila's like, dude, you don't understand.
02:37:38
Speaker
You're on my side. You are the one who chooses who I, whose souls I take. And she's like, okay, then I choose you and shoots her with an arrow. arrow And Hila's like,
02:37:49
Speaker
that's dude no that's not how it works you think people haven't tried that before i'm and then just and then like shut up and then drops her onto the ground it's like it's badass for danny but also like you're a child that you don't yeah really understand which is the new mutants m mo right they are so extremely badass but extremely naive about being badass it's great it's a great moment Wolverine finally snaps the storm out of it and she attacks Hila with all her new Thor powers, Cyclops, Phoenix, and the rest of the goddamn Valkyrie show up and join in causing Hila to retreat.
02:38:27
Speaker
And the storm attacks Loki. Yeah. He fights back until shadow cat pops up and is like, dude, stop. You're fucked. The X-Men are here. The new mutants are here. The Valkyrie are here. It's only a matter of time till you're defeated or Thor returns. Just give up.
02:38:47
Speaker
And so he does. Yeah. But only on the condition that all of them leave or none of them can. So first of all, Number one, is it clear how tired I was getting writing this recap that I've just turned into? Everybody's like, dude. Everybody's calling each other dude. Dude, come the fuck on, dude. Dude, what's going on? Dude, stop it, dude.
02:39:13
Speaker
Like, everybody's just turning into me. Number two... um there's It's hard to explain. we haven't seen Storm use her powers in a while because she's been powerless, right? So her using these lightning bolts and being super emotional in it because she feels like she's fucked up and she hurt her friends is really cool, really a really strong visual.
02:39:39
Speaker
iss At this point, we can feel what she's feeling here. It's really... yeah It's a good moment for the energy's crackling off the page and like she's throwing Thor's hammer. She's using her lightning. She's like, and Loki was hiding under a tablecloth. Yeah. and they were Fighting. gila But also then this bad-ass moment where shadow cats just like, buddy,
02:40:07
Speaker
It's man. You are outclassed here. You might be a god, but you're not going to capture... there's She says there's a score of X-Men and New Mutants here, plus the Valkyrie now know that you are fucked up, like that you are... Yeah, and you're making a plea for the throne.
02:40:23
Speaker
It's only a matter of time until one of us goes and gets Thor or Balder or Odin comes... Like, it's only a matter of time. you're You cannot win here. And he's like...
02:40:36
Speaker
Fine. Fine. But. Yeah. Here's my condition. Either because everybody gets the fuck out of my house or everybody stays forever.
02:40:48
Speaker
If one of you doesn't, then all of you stay forever. And because he knows at that point, like. Some of these people have gotten their only wish, like their like their life's wishes. Some of these people have had their lives ruined by being in Asgard and others have like this is cured everything for them.
02:41:06
Speaker
Yeah. Rain is heartbroken because she loves Romari. Sam is bummed because he has to leave his cool armor and sword behind. a little less dramatic. Well, also, he and that dwarf daughter were getting along pretty. Oh, OK.
02:41:23
Speaker
Amara will return to human. He's like, you'll stop being a fairy so you can go home. So it's good for her. Storm will lose her powers again. Iliana will forget all her cool new spells from Enchantress. A little contrived. A little bit of a contrived one. We didn't really get the sense that a mar that Magic was like, this is completing me. I thought she learned a lot. Yeah, but she was also at the end.
02:41:50
Speaker
I thought this was... Okay, all right, right. The only changes that will stay are that Dany will remain a Valkyrie and keep Bright Wind because... They can't be separated after. There's like an Asgard-y... I don't know if it's of like a rule a natural order of things, but they're bonded now. Like, she is she'll have some weird Valkyrie powers, but she won't be like part of the Valkyrie and have to go choose people to die or whatever.
02:42:16
Speaker
But she can't. She'll keep Brightwind, yeah. And then, of course, Jeanne won't regain her weight because... you can't have a fat superhero. It's like they did this whole story just for that purpose. ah so Yeah. Yeah. Loki is Loki echoing all the creators in this is like, it would just be too cruel to let you stay fat.
02:42:39
Speaker
Oh my God. Come on. know. Come on, dude. He's like, I will do every cruel thing to everybody except. Well, look, he's really skinny. I wouldn't expect him to understand.
02:42:52
Speaker
In return. The mutants promised not to tell the ones above in shadow or whatever of Loki's treachery against them. Yeah. They head home and Loki is heartbroken over storm.
02:43:05
Speaker
The end makes a little storm action figure for himself. he does actually it's it's all It's a storm action figure storm. That's right. Yeah. Okay. I'm i'm tired. Cause it was long. Like that was a lot of content. There was a lot of stuff.
Storyline and Art Critique
02:43:24
Speaker
in these issues we only read four issues but we read like twice the amount that we usually do because these issues were so long yes but number one they had to all be together right like these are i mean this is all just this is one continuous story um and number two it was all so good yeah my so you very good story i i know we do this all the time we say i don't like it when the x-men do this sort of thing and then we read a story when they do it but like i don't want to see the x-men go up against uh magical gods like what's the where's the fun in that and who gives a shit about thor's world and all this yeah funny way that they talk and shit we'd read the avengers if we want that stuff
02:44:15
Speaker
Then we sit down and read it, and it's one of the best fucking combo X-Men New Mutants stories we've gotten to read so far. But it's because Claremont is like, he doesn't he he knows he's writing an X-Men story, not a Justice League story or an Avengers story or whatever. He knows he's writing an X-Men story, so even though it's big superhero action that we don't generally like to see from the X-Men,
02:44:43
Speaker
All of it is rooted in this human experience, right? Everything they fought was like a metaphor for the struggles that they were going through internally. Because that's what the X-Men is more about.
02:44:57
Speaker
I will say, these last two issues, and if I'm finding a flaw... I've got some, yeah. With...
02:45:09
Speaker
i specifically home is where the heart is and there's no place like home not the gift or the gift part to not the x-men alpha flight crossover i've i don't love adams's art okay interesting perspective okay i think he is very good at close-ups when you get like when you dig into a character's face, like there just has to be this big show of emotion. He puts a lot of love and detail and attention into it. i He draws, I think, serviceable action. i don't mean that as a slight at all. I think he does just fine with it. okay But there's so many scenes that are like wide shots that are...
02:46:00
Speaker
just so strangely over detailed and some of this you can say is like over inking right maybe they're just they're drawing too many details but it's maybe but that's how all of hard adam's stuff looks exactly and also like the ah the way that the muscles are drawn on these characters right it would be pretty bold for an inker to say oh, let me just, let me multiply this muscle structure by four for you since you didn't do it in yeah in your original drill. Like he is just putting like too many wrinkles on things, too many. It's it's every wide shot panel is very distracting. Yeah.
02:46:44
Speaker
i i I get what you're saying. i don't I don't disagree with your criticism. i just I like the look of it. I think it looks cool. um At the same time, he's doing the long shot miniseries. There's a moment where ah Warlock transforms into long shot. Yeah, there is. But he's doing the long shot miniseries, which we'll we'll get to eventually. And ah there's some problems there with the, but I don't know. I think it's,
02:47:11
Speaker
It's very, very, very detailed. And the faces that you're talking about, like the close-ups are very anime-inspired or like manga-inspired. Yeah, sure.
02:47:21
Speaker
But I don't... I like art. i don't I don't know. I don't know what specifically I can say. Like, I don't have any arguments against what you're saying. I just... just ah There's no... like You know... it's taste isn't an argument i just like it i think my maybe what's throwing me off most about it is it reminds me very much of like that ninety s sort of rob liefeld style that we're about today about to sink into that is like just it's you don't need this many lines on a person
02:47:57
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, i think that we'll have to say a lot 10 years in the future. I think, uh, I think this is one of the people who inspires that. Yeah. Like Neil Adams is also a person who inspires that. I think we're seeing a lot of what inspires that. Um, you could draw a straight line from Neil Adams to art Adams to Rob Liefeld. Um, but are they related?
02:48:24
Speaker
i do not think so. Um, But I don't know. these stories were really These stories were really good. They were really fun. um I guess my one complaint is that I felt Storm was more of a prop in this whole story where I would have liked a little bit more so to dorms Storm story.
02:48:47
Speaker
Yeah, she's going through the most difficult time that we've seen her go through. And i think, yeah, saying that she is used as a prop here is a really good way to say it. She doesn't get...
02:49:00
Speaker
In arc, she just gets to be the problem. Yes, yes, exactly. And, you know, I think this is probably a very significant moment for Storm.
02:49:10
Speaker
And, but yeah, we don't we don't see how it affects her at all or the sort of mental journey she goes through. So... That's my only real criticism of this. Other than that, I i love it. I think it's great. Yeah.
02:49:25
Speaker
Really, honestly, great stuff. the The all four issues. He's got an eye out. Stuff that you could buy out. If you had a time machine that you would like to try out.
02:49:38
Speaker
It can feel sealed.
02:49:42
Speaker
See, Matt, we don't always have to start Pats and Steals and Deals on a joke. Like, we don't have to close it out. Sometimes we just say something nice and serious, then play the Pats, Steals and Steals theme song, and then acknowledge that we didn't make a joke about it.
02:49:59
Speaker
You're right. all right. We will do that. We can do that from now on. Oh, boy, folks, it is time for Pats, Steals and Deals. This one.
02:50:10
Speaker
opens up with Matt, a phrase you might find a little familiar. Lions and tigers and bears. Oh, my. Oh, my.
02:50:21
Speaker
Boy. You really love these. This is your favorite new... this is This has become your favorite kind of advertisement. If you see a Saturday morning cartoon lineup, you are all over it. So these aren't Saturday morning cartoons, Matt, despite initial appearances. What we're actually looking at is the three new star comic sensations.
Nostalgia and Closing Remarks
02:50:46
Speaker
These are comic books? These comic books. We have Thundercats. care bears we have and meet misty what do you okay what all right first of all thunder let's take them one at a time thundercats what do you know about thundercats i i am believe believe it or not just a little too young for thundercats to have really had an impact I know there are people our age that went and sought out Thundercats and have formed like some niche ah yeah interests around it. But I really have like no familiarity with them.
02:51:29
Speaker
I feel the same about that. I feel the same about Thundercats as I do ah Transformers, where it was like, if I had chosen it as a kid, like it wasn't right in front of but I could have chosen it. I didn't choose it. And then at some point when i was into nerd stuff again, and every other nerd was like, had an affection for Thundercats and Transformers.
02:51:53
Speaker
It was too late. It's too late. It's not that it's only for kids, but you need to start when you're a kid. Also, it felt a little performative. You can't start Thundercats or Transformers as an adult. Yeah, yeah.
02:52:07
Speaker
They also... um like and Not to... If there are any Thundercats kids out there, God bless you, but... the same time that people our age started getting into transformers and thundercats and shows that were like just before our time hot topic also started selling merch for all those things.
02:52:28
Speaker
And I think a lot of, a lot of, when I say performative, I mean that sincerely, I think people were like, Oh, hot topic thinks it's cool. And listen at the time, hot topic determined a lot about what was cool.
02:52:43
Speaker
And people were like, not like I was a huge Thundercats fan as a kid, but I remember Thundercats. And the in their brain, they were they the two merged and they became they thought, oh, I'm a big Thundercats fan. And none of this is to say that there aren't real Thundercats fans out there. Like, my understanding is that it's just like we are with the X-Men. Generally, it was just like it was a sensation at an age that tends to stick with you for life.
02:53:14
Speaker
That all to say, do you know the name of the guy on the left here? ah Lion-O? Lion-O? Lion-O is holding his sword exactly at crotch level like it's a big dick.
02:53:25
Speaker
Yes. Okay. All right. I imagine that's pretty common. what All Next. And then, of course, we have the Care Bears. You know the Care Bears. Everybody just knows Care Everyone knows the Care Bears. You don't need... i don't I don't... No. They just look like Care Bears...
02:53:41
Speaker
And then, of course, there is i Misty, who had absolutely no cultural impact. is that According to the ad what Misty is the soap opera superstar who's setting the world on fire.
02:53:58
Speaker
um So that's who.
02:54:03
Speaker
It seems like ai like ah a drama comic, a comic about ah a young actress who is able to ay live her life.
02:54:16
Speaker
So created by Trina Robbins, who was the partner of Steve Lealoha. Oh, Until she died in 2024, 1977 to 2024. So years of marriage. Damn. That's pretty good.
02:54:33
Speaker
Yeah. Misty looks kind of like these Misty comics look kind of like ah and she she wrote and drew them and they look kind of like the Barbie comics. i Yeah, I can see that from the the ad I'm looking at here.
02:54:49
Speaker
Yeah, I'm looking at some like covers, and they they very much look like Barbie comics. I guess Star Comics was an imprint that began in 1994 that really it did this. it like Toys, television wait series, animated series. 1994?
02:55:06
Speaker
1984 okay I was but it did just blew my mind for a second it did do Peter Porker the spectacular spider handle and then some of its original titles Misty Planet Terry ah Planet Terry is like um ah a outer space boy who looks like he's from um what were those comics with like like Casper and Richie Rich where everybody looked kind of the same Harvey comics Yeah, yeah, he looks like a Harvey Comics character. Wait, are you telling me that Peter Porker's Spider-Ham was not originally a Marvel character?
02:55:44
Speaker
Yeah, he was a Star Comics character, apparently. Here's the, do you want to know, here's all the licensed types. Okay. Rocky and Bullwinkle Care Bears, Chuck Norris Karate Commandos, Ewoks, Flintstone Kids Fraggle Rock,
02:56:02
Speaker
The Get Along Gang. Right. Of course. Heathcliff. I'm skipping some that I don't know what they are. Master the Universe. Muppet Babies. I remember having some Muppet Babies comics.
02:56:15
Speaker
The Popples. Remember those? No. they were like a little They were like little ah kind of like teddy bear toys that would fold into a ball. So you could kind of unfold them to their breaking point and then let them go and they would sort of pop out.
02:56:33
Speaker
But they were just teddy bears that folded into a ball. Star Wars droids. i remember those. Strawberry Shortcake. um And then Thundercats and some other stuff that I don't know what the fuck it is.
02:56:48
Speaker
Star Comics. um And Royal Roy, who is a who is a blatant copy of Richie Rich, the ah the ah Wikipedia. Got sort of a Swamp Thing, Man Thing thing going on. Yeah.
02:57:01
Speaker
Except for if swamps a if Man Thing came out 60 years after Swamp Thing. Oh, okay. Actually, I don't know when Richie Rich was. He was probably the 50s, right? I had no idea. Anyway, that's a fun Deals and Steals. Thank you.
02:57:22
Speaker
There's nothing really to buy here. but you could buy Misty Comics. Okay. You've got an eye out of stuff that you could buy out. If you had time machine that you would like to try out.
02:57:35
Speaker
Deals and Steals.
02:57:40
Speaker
Okay. Everybody, thank you so much for being here. Thank you for listening. Thank you for, you know, for being in the, what are you called? What do they call We already, I already forget. The Winner's League.
02:57:53
Speaker
The Winner's League. Thanks for being a member of the Winner's League. um if you like the show, some things you can do is you can share it with a friend. Our Instagram is mutantmenacepod.
02:58:07
Speaker
You can find us on YouTube, mutantmenacepodcast. You can join our Discord, which is in the show notes. You can join our Patreon, patreon.com slash mutantmenace. Also in the show notes.
02:58:19
Speaker
Also in the show notes. um If you want to be a part of Pat's email corner, mutantmenacepod at gmail.com. exactly and then huge thanks as always to krill's wilson for all the music to julia selley for providing the voice of trish tilby absolutely we will be back next week what are we talking about next week uh yeah we're gonna come back next week and we got we got some x-men we're getting like we're gonna do a lot of x-men coming up soon a little bit of alpha flight and a lot of regular old x-men
02:58:55
Speaker
What could go wrong? so And a little of power back. If you want to know what exactly we're going to be reading, you can join our Patreon at any any level, including free, and you'll get that part.
02:59:09
Speaker
um That leaves one thing left to do, Pat, which is to say ah the phrase that we say at the end of every single episode to close out, that leave our, an inspiring message to leave everybody.
02:59:21
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Holding on until next week. I almost forgot. Do you want to start it out or me? No, I'll take it, folks. As always. We better get a wiggle on.
02:59:35
Speaker
And remember, query, is this humor?