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46 - Uncanny X-Men #177-179 - Brotherhood Triumphant!
85 Plays4 days ago
Issues: Uncanny X-Men #177-179, Moon Knight #35, & Marvel Fanfare #24
Happy February, folks! Bundle up with us as we dive back into the X-Men and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants...gets away with it? We worry as every X-Man seems to die more than once, and Kitty marries a Morlock?! Oh yeah, and we swing by Moon Knight, the ballet, and the Avengers Mansion, too.
Topics discussed:
A lot of emails. More milk discussion. Wonder Man. A dog named Psylocke. Ken Griffey Jr. and Sr. All of the X-Men are dead. Carnival vs. Circus. Kitty's problems. Fire can't DO that! White hot to absolute zero. Seems pretty hopeless, honestly! Who took this picture?? The Baxter Building. Probable fatality. Morlock wedding. Leech is here! Fully metal man. The Fly. Dancing for your life. Moon Knight at the ballet. The floating Marvel Universe poker game! Carol tells an inappropriate joke.
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Transcript
Live Report from Westchester: Mutant Menace
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.
Introduction and Show Banter
00:00:34
Speaker
Hey, everybody. I'm Pat Reber. And I'm Matt Allcamp. And say it with us, Pete. Welcome to Mutant Menace. Oh, I don't think any of us were on there.
00:00:46
Speaker
Are you kidding me? We were dead on that time. No, I don't think so. That is up to our listeners. I'll take the loss on my side as long as you and Pete are comfortable taking the loss on your side. We were absolutely on. That was the most on. I think that was honestly, I'm going to say this.
00:01:01
Speaker
That was the most on we've ever been.
00:01:16
Speaker
Argument over, Matt. It is time. i was so close to winning that one.
Humorous Emails and Listener Interactions
00:01:21
Speaker
To get to Pat's email corner. We have, Matt, we have so many emails today.
00:01:28
Speaker
Come on. Stacked. Our mailbox is overflowing. and i don't mean that And I don't mean that in the way it sounded. I mean, come on. yeah Come on, emailers. Get in You know how the British say, get in.
00:01:42
Speaker
They say that? Yeah, it's like our in. It's I guess I could have done the American one, which is like, let's go. get go. They say get in I think so.
00:01:54
Speaker
I love it. Get in You love to get in. Not when you say it. Get in. Hey, get in. Everybody get in Let's go.
00:02:11
Speaker
Up first, Matt, we have Ambitious Eric. o Remember him? Ambitious Eric. Ambitious Eric is back. He says, hey, Pat, tell Matt I am proud of him for lying.
Artificial Amplification and Snack Debates
00:02:22
Speaker
I thought the Christmas Jazzman sounded artificially amplified. Remember the ah the saxophone man playing in the background the Christmas episode? yeah, Well, is that lying?
00:02:35
Speaker
is that lying? did i ever honest Did I ever say that it wasn't? Did I ever... Was I like... And I won't turn up the volume when you hear the Christmas Jazzman. Yeah.
00:02:45
Speaker
I did?
00:02:48
Speaker
You needed to hear the Christmas Jazzman. You did. Because yes I didn't hear it. It the right decision to make. I only heard it very faintly in the background. And then when I was editing and I could actually hear it, I was like, fuck you people need to hear this Christmas Jazzman.
00:03:05
Speaker
It was pretty wild. I think you made the right choice. I'm just saying it was it was dishonest in the moment. it I don't, you know, i can't agree with either of you. Ambitious Eric goes on. He says, with that out of the way, ha ha, it was my intention to make sure last week's email corner was sparse by waiting to send something in and I was proven successful. a Quake with fear at the terrible cost of my ambition.
00:03:31
Speaker
That's really ambitious to be like, i i I'm going to control the show.
00:03:41
Speaker
I don't know how he explains last week's overflowing email inbox or the strange conversation it inspired, but he's back. Son of a bitch, he did it again. Anywho, as an ice cream update, if you recall, we were...
00:03:56
Speaker
giving him the bad news that most ice cream has eggs in it. He says, as an ice cream update, I've looked into my usual brand and found they do, in fact, use alternative thickeners and not eggs.
00:04:07
Speaker
Oh, that's great.
00:04:21
Speaker
he goes on he says but i must concede i likely consumed eggy ice cream at a home where i was not in charge of buying frozen treats or at a fancy ice cream parlor when i have had the occasion to visit you win this time but only because my victory was not absolute And then per our request, I would consume everything in this email if I thought I could get away with it.
00:04:43
Speaker
Justice for Colomac, ambitious Eric. Next email, listener Douglas, who is writing in for the second time, Matt. He doesn't have a nickname yet, but it might be time to start thinking about one.
00:04:55
Speaker
That he's got to. Yeah, if he's written in twice, it's time. It's not necessarily two times does not a nickname earn. Yeah, right. It's on it gets the back. It gets the gears turning. it gets us thinking. the turning. So let's pay really close attention.
00:05:13
Speaker
If you recall last time, Douglas just sent us a long string of compliments and we refused to read them on air because we don't take compliments well. Even though we love them, please keep sending us compliments. Douglas says, hey, Pat, tell Matt that though I've never...
00:05:30
Speaker
Though I've never specifically had milk with ice in it, one of my favorite snacks is frozen berries in milk. I eat it like a bowl of cereal, and it's great, especially when you get to the bottom and there's partially frozen milk to drink. What do we think about that?
00:05:45
Speaker
The partially frozen milk part is weird, but frozen berries in milk I don't think is that strange. i' have often, i've not often, i have many times. All right, you take a bowl of milk, and you have to be a child.
00:05:58
Speaker
Sorry, let me re let me rewind. You're a child. Douglas the child. You take a bowl of milk. You put sugar in it. You put blueberries in it.
00:06:09
Speaker
You put yeah any type of berries. You just berries. You put berries in it. You put bananas in it. Chopped banana. and just eat it And then you eat it like cereal, like he's saying. With Yeah, take away the frozen part and add sugar, is what I'm saying. And add bananas, is what I'm saying. And make yourself a child. That's strange.
00:06:30
Speaker
No, it's good. It's strange. Maybe with yogurt, I could understand it. I just i don't think it's disgusting. i don't think Yogurt and fruit by itself, I find pretty yucky. Because it's too mushy and wet.
00:06:43
Speaker
But you throw some granola in there, mmm. bud Well, then you're just having cereal. That's just like putting things on your cereal. Granola is cereal? Well, technically. Granola is cereal.
00:06:55
Speaker
Technically, but not in the sense that <unk>re not in the way that we call it cereal cereal. Sure. You just pour granola in a bowl. You pour milk over it. Ew! Are you kidding me? No, the oats get so soggy immediately. That's why when they have clusters of oats in cereal, they put like a coating on them.
00:07:16
Speaker
They don't get, way to have you done it? Yes! Recently, granola technology has come a long way.
00:07:28
Speaker
okay Douglas goes on. He says, also, i don't know whether or not I was the Douglas you guys were referring to in episode 41 or 42 who was complimenting you. But I guess if that's going to be my gimmick, then here we go. ah Douglas, it absolutely was.
00:07:43
Speaker
You are the same person. what about He then goes on to compliment it, just as demanded. We said, Douglas, send us a compliment in every time. And he does. What about us what about sweet Douglas? Sweet Douglas. Oh, sweet Douglas. Because that captures the... The childlike energy of him, too, because of the berries and milk.
00:08:02
Speaker
It's condescending enough to capture the berries and milk, but it is ah it is descriptive enough to capture the compliments. Sweet Douglas. Keep writing in, Douglas, and I think we got I got one for you. Don't stop writing in just because we're going call you Sweet Douglas. Sweet Douglas. Douglas.
00:08:22
Speaker
Moving on, we got another one, Matt. We have one from ah faithful listener Ink Master. Ink Master! The Ink Master says, Hi, Pat. Tell Matt that warm chocolate milk is basically just slightly cool hot chocolate without the water.
00:08:37
Speaker
So it's really not that disgusting when you think about it. What you just described is disgusting. What are talking about?
00:08:46
Speaker
It's disgusting what you've said, Ink Master. It's horrid. Slightly
Discussion on Inclusivity and Terminology
00:08:51
Speaker
cool hot chocolate without water sounds gross. ah They also have something kind to say, something not disgusting to say.
00:09:02
Speaker
i They say also, while I'm by no means an expert, I thought you guys would probably want to know the current accepted terminology for those with multiple personalities, since I know you guys try to be inclusive. The current accepted name for the condition is DID, Dissociative Identity Disorder.
00:09:19
Speaker
Those who have DID are generally referred to as systems, while each personality within a system is called an ALTER, short for alternate identity. Oh, I mean, yeah hearing that's super helpful.
00:09:32
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. It's good to know the official terminology. Marvel is not going to get it right. so it will be it will be helpful for us to when we can. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you, Ink Master. Keep on writing in.
00:09:46
Speaker
Speaking of keeping on writing in, we have another one from email Michael. Hey, email Michael. Hey, Pat. Tell Matt that while I can't speak to whether or not him kicking a rock is Canadian, I can say it's a good and positive hobby.
00:10:02
Speaker
I used to carry a rock in my pocket during my college days to kick down the path as I walked between classes. good kicking rock is hard to find. Matt, cherish yours. That rules. That rules. is In your pocket, that rules. All right.
00:10:17
Speaker
Email Michael has just leveled up in yeah my respect for them. He's playing a whole different game. Do you... You saw my kickin' rock. I finally sent you a picture of my kickin' I did. You sent me a picture.
00:10:29
Speaker
it's It's a good-looking rock. it's The shoes that you were wearing in that picture, because it was placed by your feet, ah don't look like shoes you should be wearing to kick a rock. Yeah, they got fucked up. You were with me when I bought those shoes, actually. And they've gotten fucked up.
00:10:43
Speaker
ah they They're like these bright orange vans. And honestly, I kept them in really good shape until I started kicking the rock. Yeah. It's not even that, man. It doesn't look like they provide the protection you would need to kick a rock.
00:10:57
Speaker
No, they don't. yourself It hurts sometimes. i was oh Oh, my God. So because of the snowstorm, I wore boots to work the other day. And it the rock was frozen under a giant pile of iced up snow.
00:11:13
Speaker
Yikes. did I walked all the way to Duncan with no rock. Jeez, what'd you do? i kicked some ice. Got some practice in.
00:11:29
Speaker
You folks, I guess if you're on the Discord, you would know, but otherwise ah you might not know that we cut a full two and a half minutes out of... the episode of Matt just talking about kicking the rock.
00:11:42
Speaker
I like more rock and why people respect him because he kicks the rock. Well, because said people would think I was weird for kicking the rock. No people i think would love me for kicking the rock. We will be releasing a blooper reel where we'll, we'll make sure the rest of that gets out there, Matt. So your message is heard. Thank you on the paid Patreon, by the way.
00:12:05
Speaker
Email Michael goes on. Both of you seemed shocked at the idea of mixing cola with with milk, but Pepsi had a whole campaign for Pilk Pepsi plus milk in 2022 with Lindsay
Beverage Phenomenon: Pilk
00:12:17
Speaker
Lohan and everything. Maybe some other listeners or discord members have already shared their tales of Pilk. They have not. Michael, email Michael. Congrats for being the first person to say the or to, I guess, write in the word Pilk on the Mutant Menace podcast.
00:12:32
Speaker
All right, we just came back from 30-minute break where me and Pat had to go throw up. yeah Folks, if anyone else wants to write in ah the word pilk to us, it's mutantmenacepod at gmail.com.
00:12:49
Speaker
The thing is, so i do remember this advertising campaign and I was mad about it was at the time too. And I'll tell you why, because like I mentioned, cola for the most part contains a lot of citric acid and,
00:13:04
Speaker
dairy, milk and citric acid don't mix. The milk reacts, it immediately curdles. So if you were to pour milk into a Pepsi, if you were to actually do that, you would be drinking instantly spoiled milk.
00:13:22
Speaker
You say, okay, I'm not going to go as far as Pat because I feel like he could be disproven like literally in one second. I feel like any of you could literally disprove him with a camera on your phone, a glass of Pepsi, and a glass of milk in one second. ah did she com I'm not going to go as far as saying that you would definitely be drinking spoiled milk if you did that, but I can see the logic.
00:13:47
Speaker
Hey, i so if you want to try it, go ahead. Please let us know how it goes. It sounds like Matt Allcamp and Lindsay Lohan endorsed this.
00:14:01
Speaker
I email Michael keeps going. He says you asked if you'd covered alpha flight in episode 29. So even though I'm sure you've been told this by others. Yes, you did. Thank you. You also said that part of the new format of emails was to say if I've consumed any of the things I've written about in order. I've never eaten a kicking rock, never drank pilk and never eaten or drank anything of alpha flights.
00:14:24
Speaker
We gotta suspend this rule. I hate it. When did we say this? I don't know anything. I don't know anything I've ever said in a podcast. It was a couple episodes ago and I forget why, but we told people that they are now required if they're going to write in to tell us if they are eating or drinking the subjects of their email.
00:14:46
Speaker
I think this is still a good re yeah good rule. I think this is still a good rule. yeah I with email Michael also lets us know that he was down for a little bit, ah but he is feeling much better as he signs off.
00:15:01
Speaker
Email Michael. Email Michael. We're so happy to hear, even though we didn't know anything was wrong, that everything's better now. I'm glad you're feeling better. That's great. You sincerely you rule you. um We love getting your emails. Absolutely. I'm going.
00:15:18
Speaker
ah Magic the dog writes
Fan Art Reactions and Character Discussions
00:15:20
Speaker
in. Remember Magic the dog? Yeah, he's exclusively sent us pictures that I've hated. Yeah. ah He also he has a habit of just replying to the same single thread from the first time he wrote in in July of last year. So these are all one long email thread.
00:15:39
Speaker
She's a dog, so does you can't expect her to understand Yeah. Email etiquette, but it is strange. i good evening, Pat. Please show Matt my rendering of the new live action Wolverine casting.
00:15:54
Speaker
And then we get a beautiful picture of Bowen Yang as Wolverine. Oh my God. all right. I got to go see it. I guess I got to go look. We get another email as you're looking that up, Matt. She says, hello again, Pat. Matt should also see this new image for the live action Professor X. And here it is. True carry as Professor X.
00:16:13
Speaker
Bow wow, magic, the dog. And then finally, last one for the night. I swear, Pat, these were all sent within a few hours of each other. Could you also share below the picture of the new live action Nightcrawler?
00:16:27
Speaker
This just looks like a drawing of Nightcrawler. I think that's Timothy chao Chalamet. We didn't do that casting. Well, it's canon now. Okay.
00:16:39
Speaker
Bowen Yang as Wolverine looks... terrible. Carey as Professor X. Okay, I'm going to say these are great renderings. Yes. yeah yeah this is this is a these This is the absolute most I've liked one of Magic the Dog's submissions.
00:16:59
Speaker
This Drew Carey as Professor X is pretty solid. It's incredible, but also horrifying. Yeah, yeah. It's pretty disturbing. Yet I'll say Timothy Chalamet as Nightcrawler looks fucking incredible and makes me want to see Timothy Chalamet as Nightcrawler. Yeah, we might have to do this here. let him Let him play ugly, right? This is where he gets the Oscar.
00:17:25
Speaker
Right. not depending on his looks. He's playing a little freak. Oh, we're going to keep going. His name was Dusk wrote in a again. Oh, hey. Hey, Pat, can you tell Matt that I'm still listening to the back issues and I've noticed that Pat keeps on talking about how much he loves Daredevil. Uh-oh.
00:17:43
Speaker
But if that's the case, then how come he doesn't ever talk about Daredevil on this podcast? Damn it. Because we're not following Daredevil. We're not following Daredevil. Are you listening?
00:17:54
Speaker
And he may not have gotten there yet, but we have talked about Daredevil on this podcast. He has made, I think, like two to three, ah well, cameos and then one actual appearance where he's. yeah Anyway, and how come he doesn't have a Daredevil podcast? That's a good question.
00:18:11
Speaker
In fact, I'm beginning to think that maybe he doesn't actually even like Daredevil at all. He's just saying he reads it to seem cool and edgy. Could you maybe ask Pat to prove that he knows Daredevil by asking him what Daredevil's secret identity is?
00:18:26
Speaker
Thanks. Okay, here's the thing. i will All right, Dusk, I will. But you know what he's going to say. He's just going to say, he's going say, oh, actually, I know for a fact And he's going to say that rumor about how Matt Murdock is Daredevil.
00:18:42
Speaker
And everybody knows the rumor. Matt Murdock is Daredevil. Everybody's heard it before. And Pat's going to go ahead and say, oh, it's Matt Murdock.
00:18:52
Speaker
That's you can't do that. But I think I'll surprise you. OK, who's Daredevil? i I can't really say it would be against my code.
00:19:05
Speaker
to say I'm sitting on a Pulitzer Prize winning story. About it, but it would truly be unethical, not as a journalist, but as a person to share it with the world.
00:19:18
Speaker
I am man enough to know when it's time for me to apologize. And I'm sorry. Pat is clearly a Daredevil fan.
00:19:31
Speaker
yeah All right, we're going to keep moving. We have a few more to get through, matt even Even few more. And even few more. Including Mikey Two Mails. He writes in, he says, he wrote two emails, but I'm only going to read the one for now. The X-Men related email. Hi, Pat. Tell Matt, I think that Willem Dafoe would be a fantastic actor to play Toad for your X-Men casting.
00:19:55
Speaker
Cheers, Mikey Two Mails. I am so in the fucking weeds about this X-Men casting that I cannot answer this. I can't believe you don't see it by now, Matt, but I would say you if we could go back in time, yes, Willem Dafoe is toad. Absolutely. Although i don't know that that would do justice to his acting ability. He's a he's a brilliant actor. But either way, at this at this point in his career, he's um he's playing old man roles and that's fine. He should, but...
00:20:26
Speaker
a I appreciate the effort. Mikey, two males. We haven't seen Toad in so fucking long. That's true. you It finally came true, Matt, that we haven't seen Toad for a long time.
00:20:42
Speaker
We just haven't seen Magneto in a bit, right? I wonder if either of them will ever come back.
00:20:50
Speaker
Up next... Email corner response episode 45 from listener Daniel, another second time emailer, Matt. So, you know, there's some things in the works here. i He was, by the way, he's still listening through old episodes slowly but surely. So who knows if who knows when he'll hear this response. but So again, we're going to think, we got to think, listen to this email carefully.
00:21:17
Speaker
Think real carefully about a Daniel nickname. But he doesn't get one yet. Yeah. Could be Daniel from the past. Something about time travel. He's writing to us from 2025. Daniel Summers. i willll get We'll get there. We'll get there. then We did let Daniel know that we replied.
00:21:35
Speaker
and So I think he listened in just to hear us reply to his email. He said, you guys know how many times I heard that damn Daniel shit when it was popular? Basically activated my high school PTSD right there. Hey, Pat.
00:21:49
Speaker
Please don't. Damn Daniel. Damn Daniel. Please, please, Daniel. Damn Daniel. Damn Daniel. Damn Daniel.
00:22:01
Speaker
Damn Daniel back at it again with the white fans. He says, if you're going to wait to respond to all my random comments in the story so far episodes, then you have a lot more responses coming. So I'll make sure to get cracking on that for you.
00:22:14
Speaker
P.S. I know you guys are probably already past this point in X-Men continuity, but I have the X-Men Teen Titans crossover that I think you guys should read. And if you want to discuss it with me, I'm game.
00:22:26
Speaker
It's a fun little what if story about Dark Phoenix and Darkseid teaming up. And I feel like it would make great filler for a story so far episode. Hey, that's so interesting because at the time of recording, I think our Patreon subscribers already know whether we've hit Teen Titans and... Yeah, they just found out.
00:22:48
Speaker
But... What if they just found out that we didn't? What if we just made a post for paid Patreon subscribers that was like, we're not going to cover that. But at the time of release, everybody knows. Everybody knows we did it already.
00:23:03
Speaker
Otherwise, we would have discussed it with you privately. So listen in when you get a chance. Also, he provides a photo of this. It is sick. he has ah He has a cased um and sitting on top ah of an old Adventure Comics Aquaman.
00:23:20
Speaker
35 cents. Jeez, that must have been like. Oh, yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, yeah, it it rules. And he's got a few cool comics very slyly sitting around on the outskirts of the photo, too.
00:23:35
Speaker
One last email, please and it is a good one, Matt. It's from loyal listener, Weapon Jason, commenting on episode 45.
Humorous Meditation Exercise
00:23:44
Speaker
Hey. Hey, Pat, tell Matt, of course I feel the blood in my veins. No, you don't.
00:23:53
Speaker
Do you remember what that's in reference to? Because that is a strange thing to say. i think I think somebody in the comic said, like, I feel like the blood in my veins or something. And we were like, you can't feel the blood in your... Do you feel the blood in your veins?
00:24:09
Speaker
Do you not? Definitely neither of you feel the blood in your veins.
00:24:17
Speaker
Everybody sit here and concentrate for a second. Everybody... Everybody. Well, ah this is a guided meditation now. Everybody listening to the sound of my voice. Just sit, breathe.
00:24:28
Speaker
Think about the warm sun beating down on your body. Think about having eaten a lot of iron earlier in the day to make your blood really thick. Think about the veins in your arms and your neck.
00:24:42
Speaker
Your donger, if you have one. If not, try to think about it in your... ah yes ah Face
00:24:56
Speaker
And Still Calm Do you feel the blood yeah feel the blood footot No you don't You're lying You're lying and I know it You can't end a meditation session like that Sorry I know I know My boss at the gym tells me this all the time
00:25:24
Speaker
i weapon Jason goes on he says sadly you're and this is true you're coming around on Sal's art coincided with his passing right that is a heartbreaker rest in peace obviously Sal Bishama great dude like you know 80 years old Yeah, yeah. He was working in comics for like 50 years, right? Sorry. More than that. He started as like a Fucking 90 years old, actually. He started in his teen years.
00:25:57
Speaker
Yeah. Picking up work from ah from his brother. i mean, he he was, you know, he was a part of that old school sort of... Not necessarily me and your favorite type of art, but the way that he adapted with New Mutants to the newer, you know, cleaner styles of inking and um more cinematic slightly.
00:26:20
Speaker
Not quite like the way it is today, but the slightly more cinematic styles of storytelling was really impressive. He's a guy who continued to learn his craft throughout his life, and that's really fucking cool.
00:26:31
Speaker
Yeah, it's by all accounts a really good dude, too. Yeah. yeah And apparently a terrific ah community theater actor. Really? Yeah.
00:26:41
Speaker
He won. I think we covered this a long, long time ago when he came in for a guest pencil that he won an award for his portrayal of Tevi in Fiddler on the Roof. Damn, Daniel. That's yeah.
00:26:58
Speaker
I will keep moving. Very sad, but also ah life well lived, I guess.
Listener Insights on Mutant Powers
00:27:04
Speaker
Generally, says Weapon Jason, when you see someone credited as finisher, it means the artist, Sal in his case, did basically a storyboard-like breakdown with limited details.
00:27:15
Speaker
ah There was a time there where Sal was doing a lot of those breakdowns to help keep books on time, but I think when he takes over on the Simonson Thor run, he's asked to do full art again. Wow.
00:27:27
Speaker
Selene is an immortal psychic vampire who drains the life force from others to rejuvenate herself and enhance her physical capabilities. On top of that, she's also a telepath slash telekinetic with pyrokinesis as the sprinkles on her power Sunday. But that's not all.
00:27:43
Speaker
No, as well, she's a Sorcerer Supreme level magic user as well. Also, I think she's supposed to be one of the indigenous Incan folks married to the white Nova Roma fellow, which is why he's involved in the plot to take over and set up the tyranny.
00:27:59
Speaker
Do we... Is this something we find out in like 20... Like 2007 or whatever, when in like X Inferness happens or whatever?
00:28:11
Speaker
Funny you should ask, Matt. He says, of course, we later find out redacted for Pat's sanity. So we'll never know. Okay. Necrocia X is what I meant. No, I said X in furnace.
00:28:24
Speaker
The anachronistic columns and the fact that the Nova Roma folks know English is a wonderful setup for the later retcon to come about Nova Roma in gosh knows how many comic books you'll need to cover first. Keeping this one short, weapon chase. We kept it short, but we still talked for a while.
00:28:43
Speaker
Are we done? He's doing his part. That's it. That's the end of Pat's email corner. Somebody play the damn song. There we go. Is that the first time in the history of Pat's email corner you got to end it?
00:28:57
Speaker
Like your damn self? Yeah, it might be. No, I'm sure in the early days before we had much of a structure to it. Yeah, I've got a question for you. what did What was so important that you needed to interrupt me?
00:29:09
Speaker
I was just sitting here the entire time you're reading emails. I couldn't pay attention to because I was wondering, have you done anything X-Men related this week? Matt, I have.
00:29:20
Speaker
i have. Oh, okay. I have.
00:29:25
Speaker
i Yes, Matt. i sat my ass down and watched the new Disney Marvel series, Wonder Man.
00:29:37
Speaker
Starting Yaya Abdul-Mateen. And that had that's X-Men related. Well, I'll tell you how it's X-Men related. Not just because it is a Marvel product, but... First, I want to let you know that it was not a fun watch.
00:29:52
Speaker
ah But you will watch any Marvel okay you live action product. So i know I said how bad it is. I don't feel that invested in them. i and don't go to the theaters to see them anymore. I don't care for Wonder Man.
00:30:10
Speaker
But I am still a sucker. As soon as it's easily accessible to me, I will watch it. So, right. It's on Disney Plus, the entire series, all at once.
00:30:23
Speaker
not What they're trying to do, so i don't want to spoil I don't want to spoil it for folks that are hoping to watch it, so I don't want to give away too much. But theme-wise, thematically, what they're trying to do is sort of make like a buddy comedy, but in the style of...
00:30:43
Speaker
okay like a heartstrings sort of Wes Anderson comedy, something. And I'll tell you that the actors get it. It's, it's primarily Abdul Mateen and Ben Kingsley
The Nature of Colossus
00:30:58
Speaker
bouncing off each other. They have great chemistry. hate both of them.
00:31:01
Speaker
No, I don't stop. That's not where i'm going with this. I misunderstood. They are doing a great job with it, but the entire show has that like really bland Disney tone to it. That's sort of,
00:31:14
Speaker
I guess, cinematography and scoring that they use that just doesn't evoke emotional response. Right. Which they do intentionally to make sure that it appeals to as wide a market as possible, but you can't take the emotion out of a Wes Anderson movie, right? That's what it stands on, not the pretty pictures and and goofy jokes. Right.
00:31:40
Speaker
So, what I think we should do And I realize it just came out this this week, probably a week ago by the time this episode comes out. But I think we should decanonize that show.
00:31:51
Speaker
Okay. And recast Yahya Abdul-Mateen as our Scott Summers. Yeah, okay. I mean, I don't know this person. if Tell me what else this person has been in.
00:32:06
Speaker
i He is the bad guy in the Aquaman movies. I did not see Aquaman movies. Manta. he is also, if you saw the HBO Watchmen series, plays Regina King's husband, who ends up, again, I don't want to spoil anything, having a huge heart. looked him up. He's a very handsome, muscular
00:32:34
Speaker
masculine man much like Scott Summers
00:32:40
Speaker
also very brooding oh is he okay yes he can brood with the best of them dude all right look I'm gonna take your word on this I will just I'll believe you it's coming together so I'm gonna start a petition to decanonize and new Wonder Man series because we don't need a Wonder Man no Matt.
00:33:02
Speaker
Yeah. Did you do anything X-Men related this week? I did. I did a surprisingly X-Men related thing this weekend. Whoa. So during the massive snowstorm that hit the eastern seaboard, I decided to get snowed in with a friend of mine who was um part of the reason was she was adopting or yeah fostering a dog.
00:33:23
Speaker
Um, apparently during big snow storms, rescues need, ah extra people to foster dogs, even if just for the week, like a week or two, even just to get them out of the, the rescue for the duration of the snow storm. So she fosters a dog or so she goes, she has a couple of dogs in mind,
00:33:46
Speaker
um She goes to the to the place. She meets a dog who has just had surgery, has a big like gash in her side um from from the surgery, not not like somebody stabbed her, and has a big cone on her head. and she falls in love with this like pit bull bulldog mix. um Beautiful, adorable dog with ah like a big, stupid underbite.
00:34:10
Speaker
And she Just like immediately like, all right, this is the dog I need, I guess. I can't see this dog and walk past them.
00:34:20
Speaker
So she messages me. And she's like, I just got this dog. And they told me her name is Betsy. OK,
00:34:34
Speaker
Braddock. heard and they gave her a first and last name yes the dog's name was betsy braddock aka psylocke the x-man and she of course when adopting the dog had no idea it was an x-man yeah yeah and so of course we referred to the dog as psylocke and she was an adorable sweet little girl oh that that's a great story right A dog.
00:35:06
Speaker
A dog named Psylocke. A dog named Psylocke. Well, now that that bullshit is out of the way, Pat. Thank God. Here's what I want from you.
00:35:16
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, I'm listening. All I've ever wanted from you is a friend and a human being on this earth. I'm here, bud. Can you tell me about Uncanny X-Men number 177? You mean sanction? Mm-hmm.
00:35:29
Speaker
Yes, can.
00:35:32
Speaker
yes i can Chris Claremont, writer, John Romita Jr., penciler, John Romita Sr., inker.
Family Collaborations in Comics
00:35:41
Speaker
have they are Have they worked together before? Not not on the X-Men.
00:35:48
Speaker
um and Not that I've seen. Not in any of our, yeah. This is like Ken Griffey Jr. and Ken Griffey Sr. had like a year or two where they got to play.
00:36:01
Speaker
On the same team? Yeah. What the fuck? Yes. Yeah. They both played for the Mariners for two seasons. I want to say that's unbelievable. Just like John Romita Jr. and John Romita Sr. here.
00:36:20
Speaker
Tom Orzakowski, letterer, Gwyneth Swin colorist, Elliot Brown editor, just shoot me editor in chief and Virginia Romita traffic manager. What do you think that means?
00:36:32
Speaker
yeah i Maybe she resolved conflicts between the the two Ramitas. I guess it was enough to warrant her in actual credit in this comic. Yeah, she got paid for this.
00:36:45
Speaker
ah Release date October 11th, 1983. Cover date January 1984. We keep creeping into the it's the book year. The book year.
00:36:55
Speaker
Yeah, 1984. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. That is a book.
Dramatic Covers and Strategic Battles
00:37:01
Speaker
this is This has an incredible cover, by the way. Oh, yeah. This is Wolverine standing over like what looks like a dead Kitty Pryde in her Jazzercise costume.
00:37:13
Speaker
Yes. And it's like a it's an angle of Wolverine that we don't get very often. It's like a top-down angle, like slightly in front, but extremely high angle of him. And the proportions of the suit just look a little different. It's really neat.
00:37:29
Speaker
Yeah.
00:37:31
Speaker
Mystique walks through a deserted circus, musing on her younger desires for an interesting life. When Wolverine springs up behind her, claws out. She dodges, but takes a cut in her side, throwing a wild kick to his jaw and eventually slitting his throat with a hidden stiletto in her palm.
00:37:48
Speaker
Wait, the last issue of X-Men ended with the Summers, with Scott Summers marrying Madeline Pryor. And then, the then there well, okay, two issues ago ended with Scott Summers mayor and met marrying Madeline Pryor. And last issue was just everyone hanging out.
00:38:07
Speaker
Yeah, kind of getting themselves together. Okay. So we have no context for what the fuck is going on here. No idea. Okay. ah But she slits his throat. His mutant healing factor won't be enough to save him bleeding out.
00:38:23
Speaker
So when kitty pride happens upon him, he's still dead, slumped against a ticket booth. and Wrong. and Wrong, Chris Claremont. He could definitely survive getting his throat slit.
00:38:35
Speaker
He can. I don't know how you missed this. I don't know how you screwed this one up. Examining the body, Kitty notices that he's got no mark on him when suddenly she collapses in a pool of blood.
00:38:49
Speaker
This Wolverine rises and morphs back into the form of Mystique. It was a wolf. Oh, man. Suddenly, the wall behind her explodes as Colossus rages toward her. she grabs us She grabs a skull from her belt and ignites it in his face. She calls it a flash skull. Blinding him.
00:39:13
Speaker
I think has flash skull on her belt. Blinding him and melting the armored skin on his face. The next moment, Mystique is hit in the back by one of Cyclops' optic beams and retreats into the Carnival Funhouse.
00:39:26
Speaker
Why is he here? Why is Cyclops here? Yeah, he's not even on the X-Men. The X-Men are in trouble. Okay, but he's not on the X-Men anymore. Colossus and Cyclops chase her into the Hall of Mirrors, and Cyclops takes his shot, but it passes harmlessly through a hologram of her, bounces through some carefully placed amplifier modules, and punches through Colossus's chest.
00:39:51
Speaker
Amplifier modules, you' you're telling me. ah Yeah. yeah So she just invented these amplifier modules that increase the power of Cyclops's optic blasts.
00:40:04
Speaker
Yeah, we are getting a lot of terms here. Okay. right So remember these flash skull amplifier module. It will come up later. It won't.
00:40:16
Speaker
So laser punches through Colossus's chest. Lastly, Mystique garrots a shocked Cyclops from behind and walks out of the funhouse wearing a weird purple suit.
00:40:29
Speaker
There's no way. All right. So you're telling me Wolverine is dead. Kitty Pryde is likely dead. Colossus has a hole through him and Cyclops has just been murdered.
00:40:42
Speaker
Strangled to death. Yeah. Dial back the skepticism a little here.
00:40:49
Speaker
It's then that she's swept into the air by a gust of wind and hit with a lightning bolt from Storm's fingertips. Mystique's weird suit, however, absorbs and redirects the lightning into a beam that strikes a fuel truck behind Storm, flash frying her.
00:41:05
Speaker
I also, so now Storm's dead? What the fuck is happening here, Pat? yeah I also want to mention, Storm's wearing her old outfit as she's got her long hair. Something's up here.
00:41:20
Speaker
Mystique, from high in the sky, falls through the big top tent using incredible acrobatic skills to catch the trapeze. She lands on the ground, belt skull in hand as Rogue appears, lifting a massive tent pole to swing.
00:41:35
Speaker
Mystique fires a gun that vaporizes Rogue, letting out a howl of grief for her adopted daughter as she disintegrates. she says that She just has a disintegrate a superhero gun.
00:41:48
Speaker
Yep. Okay. The distraction allows Nightcrawler, though, to grab her from behind and teleport her all over the tent, expecting to disorient her, but it doesn't work.
00:42:01
Speaker
Mystique raises her stiletto, but hesitates, and a punch from Nightcrawler sends her into blackness. Phew! Thank God her killing streak is over! We don't have any characters left!
00:42:15
Speaker
She awakens in the arms of her partner, Destiny, whose precognitive abilities warned her she wouldn't be able to kill Nightcrawler. Of course, as it turned out, none of this was real. It was a training exercise set up by Arcade,
00:42:31
Speaker
who arrives with a celebratory bottle of champagne in hand. Now I feel stupid. our Arcade agreed to train Mystique for his usual price, entertainment.
00:42:43
Speaker
One of the X-Men robots was programmed to kill instead of stun. She wants him to thusly train her entire brotherhood in the same way, and he agrees, telling her as he walks out that the robot who could kill was, in fact, rogue.
00:42:58
Speaker
What a little twerp. Pat. Alone? Yes. What's the difference between a carnival and a circus? i You want a fact-based answer answer or an opinion-based answer?
00:43:14
Speaker
Both. I don't really do fact-based answers. Okay, let me get an opinion-based answer. In my opinion, yeah I think that a carnival is more of an umbrella term for an event. Like a circus is a specific thing that can take place in a carnival, or you could even potentially call a circus a carnival because of all that. But I think a carnival is a general term for that sort of Big community party and freak show.
00:43:50
Speaker
Okay. I don't believe this answer, but I like it. isn That's what I aim for.
00:44:01
Speaker
Alone again, Irene and Raven, a.k.a. Destiny and Mystique, if you've forgotten. Yeah, I know. Talk about her vendetta against the X-Men. Irene warns against it, but Raven is sure that Rogue left her and joined them because of x Xavier's mind control.
00:44:19
Speaker
Irene has doubts about that and about whether Raven could really kill Nightcrawler for real. Not for a lack of skill, for a, ah that hesitation, right? Yeah, which we have no idea why. And why was she so, ah ah why wasn't she disoriented by the teleportation? That's another question.
00:44:41
Speaker
This opening was crazy, man. Yeah. What the fuck? There's the so, okay. Now we know it wasn't real, but there's a moment in those first couple pages where I'm sure no matter what kind of X-Men reader you are, you're going back to look at the previous issue and you're like, what?
00:45:05
Speaker
i don't remember this. Yeah. Yeah. She also, i mean, it's it establishes just how much of a threat she is, like not just as a shapeshifter, but,
00:45:19
Speaker
These were told that these robots mimic the abilities of the X-Men. Like they're actually, do they have the same capabilities and sort of strategizing mind? She can take any of the X-Men one-on-one. And a lot of it is just through her physical acumen.
00:45:38
Speaker
Right. She's an assassin. She's a highly trained assassin. Right. And like she mentions to arcade like, hey, in a real scenario, you know that X-Men wouldn't attack one by one like that. Yeah, they would use teamwork.
00:45:52
Speaker
But still, it's it's scary. I love that she she says that and they no one addresses it. It's just like, what do you want me to do? They're robots. It's a comic book.
00:46:10
Speaker
ah We cut to Stevie Hunter's dance studio where Kitty is distracted. She asks Stevie what to do about Aurora's seemingly total change of look and personality when Aurora herself walks in.
00:46:25
Speaker
stevie tries come on it's just a haircut and kitty's like no it's not just there it is it's very funny and very kitty pride that storm's going through like an identity crisis that's what this is and to kitty this is the worst thing that's ever happened to kitty right it's the same as when her parents were getting divorced and yeah Or when she had to go to the new mutants. Like, it's just nobody cares. Right, right. Real problems out there.
00:46:59
Speaker
Yeah. But Aurora tries to reach out, but Kitty walks away. Stevie tries to comfort her, but Aurora was afraid Kitty may be right. This was such a silly.
00:47:14
Speaker
Kitty says something like, yeah. she's she's acting like a real and then ah aurora's like what a monster and kitty's like i don't know maybe and then storms away and aurora says to stevie's like she doesn't mean it and
Lalandra's Departure and Colossus' Trials
00:47:30
Speaker
always like but monster you said monster you said monster this is self-fulfilling prophecy Yeah, if you if you ask every person you meet if you're ugly and somebody says like, and I'm sure i don't know.
00:47:47
Speaker
You're going to be like, they called me ugly. let's You did this. Up in Earth's orbit, the interstellar gang are ready to take off again. Lalandra, she's still here.
00:48:01
Speaker
She hasn't left Earth's orbit. It's been a how many issues. So in New Mutants, she's already gone because we read we're a little desynced. But like, yeah, yeah.
00:48:12
Speaker
Yeah. In X-Men, it's been how many issues that this has been to two weddings. since She found out that she since she found out that she urgently needs to return. ah
00:48:25
Speaker
People's lives are at stake. But i already RSVP'd. Lalandra. Because the weddings hadn't been planned yet. All right. Anyway. Lalandra, determined to take her throne back from Deathbird, says a tearful goodbye to ig Xavier. Finally.
00:48:42
Speaker
Alex and Scott, both decidedly not joining Corsair in space, say a loving goodbye to their father. Hmm. Their friends and family gone, Lalandra and Corsair reckon with the reality of their situation. It's six beings up against the might of the Shi'ar Empire.
00:48:58
Speaker
Failure is surely inevitable, but they blast off anyway. Cool shit. In Lincoln Center in Manhattan, Peter Rasputin and Kitty Pryde drop Kurt Wagner and Amanda Sefton off at the ballet.
00:49:12
Speaker
Kurt tells Amanda how he worries about his heritage, who his birth mother and father were. Amanda repeats that he was found in the black forest, barely alive in a roadside shelter by her own mother, Margali Sardos.
00:49:26
Speaker
Remember? Kurt's been thinking about this ever since he met Mystique, asked her why she looked like him, and she told him to ask Margali.
00:49:39
Speaker
It's just because they're both blue. Yeah. I mean, yeah, like right of him the premise of 90% of this issue is Mystique and Nightcrawler are both blue. Weird, huh?
00:49:52
Speaker
After parking the car, Kitty and Peter walk arm in arm toward the ballet. She begins to tell him about her new friend Doug Ramsey. What? When an explosion erupts from the top of a nearby building.
00:50:07
Speaker
Peter Colossus is up and charges into the building and up the stairs only to come face to face with the blob. Dude. Remember him? Yeah. Blob has really let himself go. Remember he was just kind of like a big guy and now he's like impossibly fat. Yeah. He doesn't look great.
00:50:29
Speaker
The explosion, it turns out, was an illusion, and Blob knocks Colossus out of the window where he's caught by a living bird of fire.
00:50:40
Speaker
Wait. Okay. Dark Phoenix 2, baby, here we go. Phoenix is back. She's back. ah Never mind. It's a bird conjured by Pyro's fire controlling skills. No, it can't be, Pat, because it caught him because it held him in its arms. This makes me so, so mad. Yeah. Fire can't be solid.
00:51:00
Speaker
but It's not tangible. it's And they're even like, oh, it's just tangible enough to hold Colossus, but not tangible enough for him to punch it. here Fire isn't even fire isn't even a form of matter. It is a chemical reaction.
00:51:16
Speaker
It's a plasma. Isn't it a plasma? isnt No, I don't think it's even a plasma. It is a chemical reaction that can create plasma, I believe. Mutant MenacePod at gmail.com. But yeah, it's it shouldn't be able to hold anything. That's just not how how fire works.
00:51:34
Speaker
Shaping it is is what I'm suspending my disbelief for here. I also don't think he should be able to do this next thing he does. Colossus's metal skin becomes white hot.
00:51:47
Speaker
And he wonders if he'll melt when he's dropped to the ground, creating a flaming crater in the middle of a huge parking lot.
00:51:57
Speaker
That I don't think you should be able to. He has so much control over fire that he can turn. so He can melt steel white hot. Pat, I guess so sick of this pyro can't melt steel beams thing on about this since 2001. Look, I've done my own research.
00:52:16
Speaker
ah I, yeah, it is. I will say it's, it is a cool idea too. And they, they keep going from here. So I don't, but at the time I thought the plan was to just drop Colossus as like a flaming missile into a battlefield and just create pure chaos by like,
00:52:42
Speaker
Right. But this next this next step is a little more dastardly. It's fucking wild. I do think it's interesting. I do think this teaches us a little something about Colossus, which is that when he's Colossus, there's nothing flesh about him.
00:52:58
Speaker
Right. It's not a quote unquote organic steel casing around a fleshy body. Yes, he turns into a metal man. It's not armor. It is. He is metal, right? Yes.
00:53:13
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. But here's the here's the wild part. They drop him into the middle of a huge parking lot, a huge parking lot with five trucks of liquid nitrogen parked along its borders.
00:53:25
Speaker
Mm-hmm. avalanche appears and uses his seismic powers to sink colossus' crater into the ground making the trucks roll toward him when all five hit him at once the liquid nitrogen tanks explode they're taking them from whiteho to extreme cold i think is absolute zero yeah absolute zero Kitty runs to the scene and phases through the wall just in time to see Colossus frozen in place and transmuted into a fused, brittle, metal statue of himself.
00:53:57
Speaker
He appears dead. To be continued.
00:54:03
Speaker
Okay. Yeah, you read this and you're like, how could he possibly survive this? He's not. There's nothing organic about it. Like,
00:54:15
Speaker
How could he possibly survive that?
00:54:20
Speaker
Yeah. It's... i It is a terrifying image. He... He's like... He's got like a scream.
00:54:31
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. He's got a look of pain on his face. Yeah. And he's like like... Merged... With the ground around him.
00:54:47
Speaker
It's wild. It's a wild idea. and Yeah, yeah. Okay, yeah. And it seems pretty hopeless, honestly. Yeah, yeah. It was not fun to watch ah Colossus just get the shit beat out of him.
00:55:01
Speaker
Right. But they've done it. And Claremont does a really interesting thing here in the dialogue during the end fight. He has these characters having personal discussions with each other, like disclosing details about their lives and their everyday interactions just to be like, hey, these aren't robots imitating the X-Men. These are people that are... These are the real X-Men. They're living the life.
00:55:26
Speaker
So this isn't another fake fight. Colossus has really sustained this damage. Right. That's an interesting point. Yeah, I hadn't even considered it wasn't the real X-Men, but I guess that's why. Yeah, because they had...
00:55:41
Speaker
Yeah. um The art style in this issue is interesting. It's kind of throwbacky. Do you feel that way? Yes. Yeah. it's v It had a very ah ah classic feel to it, for sure. Almost like that curviness that everything had in the...
00:56:01
Speaker
In the 60s, where like the muscles were a little less defined, the okay concept of a muscular man looked a little different at the time. So. Right.
00:56:12
Speaker
There was something like that. And also just like rounding some of the hard corners off stuff that they just did a lot in classic comics. I'm guessing it's John Romita Sr.'s inking, right?
00:56:24
Speaker
That does it. He's the old school one. Yeah. Yeah. um But it reminded me a lot of Werner, Werner Roth, actually. Oh, really? Yeah. Oh, that's interesting. Yeah.
00:56:35
Speaker
I thought it was a little more reminiscent of Jay Gavin's art style. Well, hey, man, agree to disagree. Look, Pat, I don't want to argue with you.
00:56:48
Speaker
Instead, okay I want to tell you all about Uncanny X-Men number 178. Would you like that? Oh, I would, Matt. Tell me about it. About Hell Hath No Fury?
00:56:59
Speaker
Yes. Chris Claremont, writer John Romita Jr., penciler Bob Wyacek, Brett Breeding. Inkers.
00:57:10
Speaker
I don't know why we need to know that about Brett. Glunis Ween, colorist, Tom Orszakowski, letterer, Louise Jones, editor, and jam scooper chief.
00:57:21
Speaker
Kitty, release date November 8th, 1983. Cover date February 1984. Kitty wo stands horrified by the statue of Colossus that stands before her.
00:57:37
Speaker
Surely he's dead.
00:57:41
Speaker
Surely the extreme heat followed by extreme cold has killed him. No, she thinks if there's a chance he could survive, then she's got to do everything she can to save him.
00:57:52
Speaker
She starts with a desperate mental plea to the professor, hoping he can hear her cut to the mansion where Xavier is catching up on some mail. gets a letter and a picture from Scott, who seems to be very happy in his new life. It is a, Pat, explain what this picture is.
00:58:09
Speaker
i It is Scott and Madeline in heart shaped bed, nude and only covered by the sheet.
00:58:22
Speaker
OK, first. I don't know which one to get. you ah Let's start here. it is a full frame. Like you can see their full bodies draped in a blanket.
00:58:40
Speaker
But if you, yeah, I mean, is it's not a selfie. These aren't digital photos. If you look closely, these are analog photos. So if you look closely, you're going to see Scott's bone bony in the folds of the blanket.
00:58:59
Speaker
Who's taking that picture? That's the other number. Okay. So who's taking the picture? Why would you ever send a picture like this to your professor dad?
00:59:13
Speaker
yeah Unbelievable. A nude honeymoon photo. And he's just sitting there staring at it. We don't know how long he's been there. It's a power move, honestly.
00:59:27
Speaker
to go hey here's me fucking my wife yeah you doing that how's it uh how's your bird lady who's off in space uh what does she have a cloaca or something under there today you hope you having fun how's your wife's cloaca how's your wife's cloaca
00:59:54
Speaker
Okay, so he as he's looking at this photo, he receives Kitty's mental call and she fills him in. The Brotherhood left the scene without bothering with Kitty and are likely on their way to Lincoln Center to attack Nightcrawler and Amanda.
01:00:10
Speaker
Ooh. Downstairs, Storm and Wolverine wrap up a danger room session and talk about Storm's new daring approach to battle scenarios reminiscent of Yukio's.
01:00:23
Speaker
Yu-Gi-Oh mentioned. Yu-Gi-Oh mentioned Wolverine's mask looks so silly when drawn by Buscema. it does he's He's popping it out on the sides a lot, so it looks like... um Like old-timey sideburns when you when you brush them out real far. Also, like the way that he curves it upwards, it it it it evokes the word scoop.
01:00:47
Speaker
yeah It's scoopy.
Battle Strategies and Climax
01:00:49
Speaker
Instead of snicked. Scoop? Three curved claws come out of his hand and they go, scoop? They cut the discussion short, though, wasting no time to fly to Kurt's rescue as soon as they receive is Xavier's call. Xavier...
01:01:05
Speaker
ops not to tell Rogue anything that's going on. Oh, God. Here he goes again. He's getting bad. He's getting bad. he did this to the New Mutants. He's doing this to Rogue. It's... He's reverting.
01:01:18
Speaker
I hope he does something like disappears into space for several years or something soon. We can only hope. Back in the city, Kitty has a plan. Reed Richards just published an article in Scientific American about a device he invented that can thaw organic matter without causing any harm.
01:01:37
Speaker
This could be precisely what Colossus needs, she thinks. As she runs off to the Baxter building. how how can which see the The operative word here is could.
01:01:49
Speaker
i think that's doing a lot of heavy lifting. He's like, oh, this is how we can unfreeze a caveman who's been dead for, you know, 30,000 years and frozen in ice. And she's like, oh, it could work on my metal boyfriend.
01:02:09
Speaker
As she runs off to the Baxter building, she notes that the cracks in Peter's organic metal skin could still be fatal to him once unfrozen. But they'll deal with that when they have to. One problem at a time.
01:02:21
Speaker
She hops in a cab and scares the hell out of the driver.
01:02:26
Speaker
She doesn't have to be phased. I understand phasing into the cab, although I don't think it saves critical time opening and closing the door. Right. But she does not have to phase through to the front seat to say, get me to the Baxter building. Right, right, right. She's just showing that you can do that from the back seat. He's got the window open. He's going to ask. Yeah.
01:02:49
Speaker
Back in the mansion study, Xavier is struck with a bolt of psionic force, ignoring his psychic defenses and forcing a scream of pain out of him. o Remember this same thing happened to him in the new mutants.
01:03:03
Speaker
Yeah, it happened in the x a few issues of the X-Men ah back too. Pat, what do you think is happening here?
01:03:14
Speaker
either to the week I'm lost on this. I think this is maybe a new threat, something that we don't know about. It is Well, we'll get there in a minute. There's some strange... So you don't think it's Mastermind, because that's already passed.
01:03:29
Speaker
Right. You don't think it's whatever popped into Karma's head? no I do think that. Oh, you think it's whatever popped Karma's head? I Karma's head was also popping into Xavier's, because he was telling Karma that...
01:03:43
Speaker
it was going to destroy Xavier. Right. And then Xavier got attacked. And then it happened again in the X-Men, but they didn't come back to it.
01:03:54
Speaker
But we could have assumed it was like any number of threats the X-Men have faced since. Right. Jason Wingard or I guess that's mostly what they've been doing. So it's it's it's what's interesting about it, though, is that he says it's not an attack. It's a scanning. It's it he feels like it's scanning him, not attacking him.
01:04:14
Speaker
So like. Whatever was in Karma's head seemed to be angry and aggressive, right?
01:04:23
Speaker
I guess. ah i I don't know, man. You keep asking and i I keep... I'm just elaborating on the question. I'm not repeating the question. Look, he just doesn't fill Rogan. He just goes to get an aspirin. He's familiar with this feeling, but he doesn't quite know what's going on. Anyway, cut to a dark alley on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
01:04:48
Speaker
Callisto, Mask, and Sunder all stand over the body of a dead woman. clearly a victim of homelessness and heroin addiction. This is exactly what they need. Callisto explains this. It's a young woman that no one would think to look for. She has Mask rearrange the face on the corpse, transforming it to look identical to Pretty Kitty.
01:05:14
Speaker
Yeah, sometimes Mask talks like... ah an alien and sometimes mask talks like a regular person sometimes yeah sometimes he's got a normal and sometimes he's like yoda he's like a little goblin yeah yeah yeah this will look exactly like the pretty kitty across town yeah maybe not yoda he talks exactly like smeagol Yeah, there you go.
01:05:43
Speaker
Across town at Lincoln Center, Amanda and Kurt make out for so long that the plaza has emptied out entirely. I i wonder why. didn They're interrupted, though, by a giant dragon made out of fire in the sky.
01:05:59
Speaker
Whoa. The colorist whiffs on this one and makes it pink.
01:06:06
Speaker
But it's supposed to be fire. Yeah, yeah, sure. Kurt manages to teleport them to the roof before a tower of flame falls on them. But Avalanche is right there waiting for them.
01:06:19
Speaker
Fucking destiny. He manipulates the concrete and steel in the roof to send the two flying off. Kurt teleports them back to the ground and Amanda whips up a magic shield to protect them from the fire. But Blob lands behind them with a big thume and manages to grab them by the throats.
01:06:35
Speaker
It was here that I think for some real reason I realized that Kitty could beat the fuck out of Blob. like kitty seems Kitty is the only X-Man who could just beat the living fuck out of Blob.
01:06:48
Speaker
She could, given him the energy, just phase him yeah halfway through whatever he's standing on, right? Exactly. If he's immovable... Fucking not for somebody who can make him... Intangible. well Nothing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. yeah Interesting.
01:07:06
Speaker
Things seem hopeless until a lightning bolt shoots right up Blob's butt as Aurora flies above. Wolverine in hand, demanding Kurt and Amanda's release. They hop into action and the fight evens out a little.
01:07:20
Speaker
The artist is very explicit about this lightning bolt going right into Blob's butt. ah in right you don't see the end of like he doesn't draw the little like explosion that happens when a lightning bolt hits something yeah yeah it's going through is his his onesie kitty meanwhile arrives at the baxter building with no one home but the robot receptionist she phases her way in and bypasses security carefully looking around for the device yeah
01:07:51
Speaker
She, of course, manages to find it just as the robot receptionist regains her facilities and initiates a stage one security alert for the building. This is an interesting thing. Because Kitty disrupts the receptionist, she as she does, she's like, when you no time for this now. Tell Reed Richards that Kitty Pryde superhero, and member of the X-Men, is here.
01:08:11
Speaker
And when it comes back online, it's like, computer no memory computer disruption last 30 seconds of memory erased yeah so with the security alert going off kitty's only option is to escape through the roof she begins to walk off the side of the building thinking about how she must concentrate to walk on air or she could fall as she takes the first step she hears a sound behind her and screams as she loses her balance
01:08:45
Speaker
Back at the Lincoln Center Plaza, the X-Men and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants ball the hell out. Yeah. Storm summons an intense monsoon to douse Pyro's flames. And he's like, I never imagined she would... what's his He's got an Australian accent.
01:09:03
Speaker
Oh, ah I never imagined she would do this. You never imagined Storm would make it rain.
01:09:16
Speaker
do you know do Do you know who this is?
01:09:21
Speaker
So douses Pyro's flame. Wolverine leaps at Blob, claws first, but then guess decides to kick him instead, bouncing off of him harmlessly. Kurt is moving too quickly for Destiny to communicate his next move to Avalanche, and as Avalanche tries to initiate a landslide, Kurt grabs him and teleports him to right in front of Blob. This is a fucking, like, strategy... It's brilliant. Strategy PC game move.
01:09:46
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah. landslide takes out Blob instead and the fight is over. So why is Blob laughing? Can we... For just a moment, I want to ask.
01:09:59
Speaker
I'm not missing something here, right? If Wolverine went at the Blob with his claws, yeah he would tear him up into ribbons. There's nothing about Blob's powers that would stop him from just being stabbed.
01:10:12
Speaker
You'd think that, yes.
01:10:16
Speaker
like Just making sure, because Wolverine kicks him instead. And for, you know, 70 years, Wolverine never steps above.
01:10:29
Speaker
But he could. he could. he could if he really wanted to. Back at the mansion, Xavier starts putting the pieces together about where he's felt the psionic scan before as Rogue finally returns with the damn aspirin.
01:10:43
Speaker
Or does she? Oh. As za Xavier recognizes the psychic attack is the same one Mystique attacked him with during days of future past. Rogue pulls out a gun and shoots at the professor, knocking him out of his chair unconscious. Hold on. oh no This is not the psionic scan.
01:11:02
Speaker
This is something entirely separate where he suddenly doesn't doesn't have his psychic powers. And that is what mystique happens with Mystique. The psionic scan that he's felt a couple times before is something different.
01:11:15
Speaker
Well, see, now that's confusing. ah Look, I'm not going to argue with you. But once you find out what the psionic skin is, you're going to understand why it's so confusing and you're going to be mad about it.
01:11:32
Speaker
At that moment, the real rogue finally returns with the damn aspirin, shocked to see herself standing over the defeated x Xavier. The fake rogue slowly shifts back into Mystique and tells Rogue that she's here to take her home, freeing her from x Xavier.
01:11:48
Speaker
An argument ensues. Rogue is here of her own free will. She doesn't want to go home.
Mystique's Deception and Kitty's Dilemma
01:11:55
Speaker
But how could she know that? x Xavier could be using his power subtly. It doesn't matter.
01:11:59
Speaker
He's her last chance. Her powers are out of control, and who's going to teach her to use them, Mystique? Raven looks shocked and hurt. The next we see her, she's a holographic projection in front of both the X-Men and the Brotherhood, standing over x Xavier's unconscious body.
01:12:16
Speaker
If they don't let her team go, Xavier gets it. No. The X-Men are angry, but helpless. Blob gloats, but Destiny gives a warning. There is a chronal interface.
01:12:31
Speaker
Pat, you hate these. Another chronal interface. I know. i told them to stop. There's a chronal interface between Kitty and the Baxter building where timelines cross and end. She asks them to heed her warning as a police radio squawks that a young woman has jumped off the Baxter building.
01:12:52
Speaker
yeah Our last shot is Kitty Pryde lying broken in a pool of blood surrounded by the parts of the device she was carrying and the words... Probable fatality.
01:13:07
Speaker
To be continued. Hmm. All right. So Kitty's dead. Colossus is dead. All the X-Men are dead, killed by Mystique. Who else is dead? I would argue probable fatality is...
01:13:23
Speaker
Maybe the most sure phrasing in comics. I feel like not dead. Yeah. i But here's the fucking thing, though, Pat.
01:13:34
Speaker
This person is dead. e They should have just said. This person is full on graveyard, dead, unbreathing, been dead, dead, dead.
01:13:48
Speaker
No heart function, no brain function, dead. They should have said that. that would have made this hit harder, right? yeah Yes, very much.
01:13:59
Speaker
It's because when you see probable fatality, you exactly and they maybe they can't, maybe like they've pulled this card too many times or maybe editorial is just saying like, hey, we can't, we can't show Kitty dead. People stop reading the comic or something to that effect.
01:14:19
Speaker
I don't know. But I don't There's... Jam Scooper is a really shitty editor, so who knows? There's one really great moment here after, like, the X-Men are basically...
01:14:37
Speaker
They won the fight, but have to walk off and let the the brotherhood walkoff walk free. So they're all yeah a little frustrated about it. And Amanda is like, I wish my mom had taught me some of her death spells. ah Like a bratty teenager.
01:14:54
Speaker
oh Mom would give me your gun. wish you'd teach me how to transport everybody to limbo. who Or actual Christian hell, right?
01:15:06
Speaker
Right? Yeah, yeah. it was Dante's hell. Yeah, the Inferno. Loosely. Pat. Yeah. Tell him to read me some X-Men, why don't you? I'm going to read you, Matt, Uncanny X-Men number 179. I think it's called. okay What happened to Kitty?
01:15:26
Speaker
That's what I want to know. Chris Claremont, writer, John Romita Jr., and Dan Green, artists. We're splitting artists on this one. Okay. Tom Orzakowski, letterer, Glynnis Ween, colorist, Louise Jones, editor and toilet paper editor in chief.
01:15:42
Speaker
Release date December 6th, 1983 cover date March 1984. Deep in the tunnels beneath Manhattan, the Morlocks are gathered for a wedding.
01:15:53
Speaker
When they prop up the dazed and limp bride in her tattered wedding dress, we see that it is none other than Kitty Pryde. Cut to Bellevue Hospital, where Rogue, Storm, and Wolverine are there to identify the body of Kitty Pryde, who was found dead after a fall from the top of the Baxter building.
01:16:13
Speaker
Wolverine, however, notes that while this body looks like Kitty down to the retina and fingerprints, it's not her. I have doubts about that. But, okay, anyway. that's yeah I don't think Wolverine can scan retinas. And I don't think this...
01:16:28
Speaker
I don't think whatever's happening here could have changed her retinas or fingerprints either, but whatever. But it's not her. The smell's wrong. This means that some foe wants them to think Kitty is dead, but that somebody has never met nor reckoned with Wolverine.
01:16:47
Speaker
Storm... comes up with all of this, right? She's, I absolutely love detective mode storm where she's like, okay, they don't want kitty dead, but they want us to think she's dead. So we don't go looking for her.
01:17:03
Speaker
And also they clearly don't know about Wolverine's powers. So it's somebody that we encountered while Wolverine was gone. I'm pretty sure I know who this is. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. yeah yeah it It does rule. It's great.
01:17:19
Speaker
At the X-Mansion, Kurt is examining the brittle statue that was Peter Rasputin. Amanda, x Xavier, and Ileana. Poor Ileana, can you imagine? it means Well?
01:17:33
Speaker
Look on with concern as he reports that there is no heartbeat and all bioscans are negative. I do just further lead lending to the idea that Colossus is just a a fully metal man. Kurt's like, he doesn't have a heartbeat, but I'm not sure if he does when he's normal. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah. I love that they've just never bothered to check. Yeah.
01:17:58
Speaker
Further, x Xavier can find no thoughts within him. While these all indicate Peter is dead, they note that his Colossus form makes this impossible to determine. Yeah. He may have no heartbeat and metal form at all. He is truly inorganic and he may simply be in shock.
01:18:15
Speaker
Even alive though, it's inconceivable that they could turn him back to human without the deep cracks in his body killing him anyway. While everyone worries for Ileana, she worries for the rest of them as her time in limbo accustomed her to death. Yeah. Yeah.
01:18:33
Speaker
Just then, Storm contacts Professor X to tell him their findings, but then an alien entity overrides her, scanning Xavier and causing him extreme pain.
01:18:43
Speaker
They have no idea what this could mean.
01:18:48
Speaker
Back underground, Kitty Pryde is blissfully walking down the aisle in a beautiful wedding dress attended by all the fanciful lords and ladies of her people, the Morlocks.
01:19:00
Speaker
When her handsome prince walks down the aisle to meet her, she looks up only to see Caliban's face. The spell broken, she shoves him and tries to escape, but she can't phase.
01:19:14
Speaker
I love that there's something here where it's like somebody is. One of these Morlocks is messing with her head, right? Yeah, yeah. Somebody is like.
01:19:26
Speaker
psychic and and but caliban is so ugly that it breaks the entire illusion exactly
01:19:39
Speaker
sunder holds kitty in place as she yells at callisto how could they do this storm demanded they leave the surface dwellers alone callisto has an answer though kitty is not a surface dweller She made a promise to stay with Caliban forever if he helped the X-Men back in Mutant Menace episode 42. Oh, I remember that.
01:20:01
Speaker
Kitty suddenly finds herself conflicted. She did promise, but she was desperate, and Caliban disgusts her, but she doesn't want to hurt his feelings. Then she remembers Colossus.
01:20:13
Speaker
He's hurt, and she may be the only one who can help. She begs Callisto to let her go, and Callisto seems amenable, asking her if she promises to return. Yes. Oh, yes, says Kitty. But Callisto shoots back that she broke this exact promise once before.
01:20:30
Speaker
Why should they believe her?
01:20:34
Speaker
Kitty panics and takes off running through the sewers. She notes that no one stopped her, but also that she doesn't know her way out. As she runs, she sees beady eyes from the dark and loses her footing, twisting her ankle.
01:20:47
Speaker
She lays in her tattered wedding dress in the disgusting water, overwhelmed by the truth of the situation. This was all her fault. And if she breaks her promise, what does that make her?
01:20:58
Speaker
How can she still claim to uphold the values of the X-Men?
01:21:03
Speaker
At that moment, she sees a small green mutant dressed in long rags with small yellow eyes and an elongated warty forehead. Warty. Warty. Not Warty.
01:21:14
Speaker
Warty. He's lost, lonely, scared. Or so he says. Kitty takes his hand and mournfully leads him back to the Morlocks.
01:21:25
Speaker
She agrees to stay and keep her words so long as they help Colossus. She begs, but Callisto stops her. The Morlocks take care of their own. She sends the little green boy named Leech off to find the healer, and they send Kitty to mask to get her ready for the
Morlock Characters and Kitty's Predicament
01:21:42
Speaker
wedding.
01:21:42
Speaker
Leech is here, Patrick. Leech. A little green boy named Leech. A little green orphan boy named Leech with a weird alien head Love him.
01:21:53
Speaker
Real funny looking. He's really funny looking. we we If there's anything we love on this show, it is a funny looking man. It's funny looking green man. Funny looking green little boy.
01:22:05
Speaker
Mask, full of contempt, begins to display his power. He rearranges her face into an array of different looks until she lashes out. He can't do this to her. She's a human being.
01:22:18
Speaker
But Mask asks, what does that make him? That's not inappropriate response, by the way. She's not saying you're not a human being. She's saying you shouldn't treat people like this.
01:22:28
Speaker
And why did they send her to Mask in the first place? Hey, we're going to send you a mask to get you ready for the wedding. And then he's like, all right, i'll fuck with her face for 20 minutes before you come stop me.
01:22:41
Speaker
It seems like that was the point because because now he lashes out and begins distorting her face even more until Callisto steps in to stop him. Yeah, she's like, so why are you doing this? Stop it. she's like That's enough.
01:22:54
Speaker
You had your fun. This is your whole fucking... Why did you do this? Why did you send it You...
01:23:02
Speaker
Mask looks defiant, but he complies. We're back to regular Kitty's face. i'm I'm kind of on Mask's side here. You don't send somebody to Mask and then be like, but don't fuck up their face. Yeah. <unk> for for To be fair, the point that she tells him to stop is when he erases all of her breathing holes. That's true. Okay, that's a good point.
01:23:24
Speaker
You're right. Later, Kitty with her whole face and Caliban stand at the altar. It's time for the wedding vows. When Callisto asks the congregation to speak now or forever hold their peace, a voice calls out from the crowd.
01:23:38
Speaker
Storm objects, and she's got Wolverine and Rogue there with her to enforce her objection. This is funny because this this starts like six pages of people starting to do something and immediately getting interrupted.
01:23:53
Speaker
yes yeah, yeah. It's just go to be back and forth. Yeah, it's so good. Wolverine wants to kick some ass, but Storm stops him. but She leads to Morlocks. Sorry, that's that's interruption number two, because first is the... No, three! Because it's Mask interrupted, then the wedding interrupted, then Wolverine interrupted. Okay.
01:24:13
Speaker
Storm leads to Morlocks, but wait, Kitty stops her. Four. She's here of her own free will. Storm ignores her and attacks Callisto over the dead girl made to look like Kitty.
01:24:27
Speaker
Callisto sends Leech after Storm, though, and when he touches her, Storm's powers disappear. Six. Callisto takes advantage of the moment to leap at her. Rogue and Wolverine rush in, but as they get close to Leech, their powers also shut off. Seven.
01:24:42
Speaker
Wolverine still has claws, though, and he advances on Storm and Callisto as they wrestle on the ground. The Morlocks are thrown into confusion. Do they help their rightful leader, Storm, or their chosen leader, Callisto?
01:24:54
Speaker
And how do they stop Wolverine? If they get too close, Leech will sap their powers too. But Kitty makes her choice.
Kitty's Independence and Wedding Resolution
01:25:01
Speaker
She rushes in and grabs Wolverine's arm. a No one is listening.
01:25:06
Speaker
She's not asking to be rescued. This is her responsibility. And besides, Colossus is what's important right now. The Morlocks can help him if they all just stop fighting.
01:25:18
Speaker
Everyone stops and storm apologizes nine.
01:25:23
Speaker
that's no That's fucking nine interruptions in a fucking row in. Yeah, ah less than a quarter of the story. i Callisto also is very smarmy about Storm's apology. Yeah. It's like, oh, what did you did you lose your temper?
01:25:42
Speaker
it happens. it happens to the best of us. and are you ah Soon they're back at the X mansion with a weird D&D wizard man, a healer named Healer. Did I told you.
01:25:58
Speaker
i said, wait till you meet this healer. he is absurd does look like a knight of the round table but with a maybe a pope's headdress on yeah he's got he's got like a ah merlin-y beard but he's got like these robes and wrapped feet and then like a then like ah a so a weird skull cap that comes to a widow's peak in the middle of his head i am a healer
01:26:27
Speaker
this guy apparently feels like he should have a staff This apparently is how Callisto survives Storm's stab wound back in Mutant Menace 42. The plan is for Rogue to touch Colossus and absorb his power, hopefully turning him back to the human Peter form, where Healer will be waiting to close all the wounds all over his body.
01:26:50
Speaker
The plan works, but Rogue's powers absorb Colossus' form as it is, rather than just his usual organic steel, putting her through immense pain. And Peter survives just barely. How does it have how does that happen? How does she absorb what that it doesn't it doesn't make any sense?
01:27:10
Speaker
This is the this is the idea of like um like if I dye my hair blue, that doesn't mean my child's hair is going to be right it' Right. Right.
01:27:22
Speaker
It is cool because it it it does prove something about Rogue to everybody else. She's willing to undergo. like She doesn't stop. She's willing to undergo all this pain for her new team.
01:27:35
Speaker
So she may be trustworthy. But again. is It doesn't make sense. It also it it's there's this thing that's being established And up to this point, it seems like it was an attitude that they had towards her strictly because she was fresh off the brotherhood. But right they still maintain this attitude after she proves it right here, which is like, yeah, she's probably fine.
01:28:04
Speaker
Let her do her thing. Like she turns, she they were convinced this was going to kill Colossus or that he might already be dead. yeah She takes exact same form and they're like,
01:28:16
Speaker
Glad that's over. Let's get out of here. Okay. Presumably leave her in the med bay. Well, okay. I assume that what once... Oh, right, because her skin is going to be all cracked now.
01:28:31
Speaker
Right. And, yeah, sure, the effects will wear off and she'll be They just wait it wear off and heal her heels her, but... they don't know what even looks at her. They're all just like, yeah, glosses is okay. Problem solved. Yeah.
01:28:46
Speaker
I do want to mention something that we didn't really talk about. And and the X-Men don't talk about, which is interesting. Rogue did betray the X-Men in this story.
01:28:58
Speaker
She had mystique dead to rights. When Xavier was on the ground and mystique had the gun. Oh, that's true. She chose not to let Mystique go. Yeah. Stop Mystique.
01:29:11
Speaker
It happens off panel, but it's fully implied, right? Like she could have stopped the Mystique right there. Yeah, you're right. Huh. Well, the next day, Kitty and Eliana are saying farewell at the subway station at 72nd and Central Park West. Pat, let's go. should go there,
01:29:31
Speaker
It's a really nice awning over that subway station too. I don't know you know I'm a real big fan of a subway awning. Yeah, you used to run the magazine Subway Awnings Monthly, right? Yeah. but yeah And I would only cover the best subway awnings in this one. Hey, it's pretty good one. i Kitty gave her word and intends to keep it. She gives Ileana two letters, one for mom and dad and one for Peter.
01:29:58
Speaker
Hugs her friend. And descends the stairwell. When she returns to Caliban, he's stunned by her beauty, but concerned by the sad look in her eyes. Kitty tries to force a smile, though.
01:30:11
Speaker
Maybe after some time, this new life will be just as good as her old one. Perhaps, says Caliban. But we won't find out today. He calls off the wedding and releases Kitty from her vows in front of everyone.
01:30:25
Speaker
He loves her. but she doesn't love him. She deserves to be free and with some luck, maybe she'll return of her own free will. Oh God, this is brutal. It's brutal. Cause he's like, and maybe, Hey, maybe one day you'll, Hey, maybe one day you'll be back. And she's like, ah, listen, buddy, I don't think I'm ever going to see you this way.
01:30:47
Speaker
Don't count on it. Goodbye.
01:30:52
Speaker
She does tell him she'd be honored to be his friend and they share a hug. As Caliban walks away, Kitty looks down at her wedding gift. A single pink rose.
01:31:05
Speaker
The end. Do you think when they had that last hug, Caliban did that thing where he kind of like tilted his head thinking like, Like hoping hoping that she would she would turn her head and he'd get a kiss. Like ah ah like trying to just put his face in front of her face. is it maybe time? i Also, single pink rose to Caliban is probably a beautiful thing that he doesn't see much living a thousand feet underground. Yeah.
01:31:37
Speaker
As a wedding gift? Yeah.
01:31:43
Speaker
Would have been funny if they ended that issue with Kitty being like, what the fuck? find I could buy this from the guy right outside the subway station. Would you spend a dollar on this, deal no yeah i Very good story.
01:32:07
Speaker
Can I say? Yes. I'm sorry to say it. Art's not weird enough. The Morlocks, like... Yeah. They look a little too normal. The moment that really kicked it off for me is when they're shaping... When Mask is shaping Kitty's face into different faces. like Right. This is body horror. You could really make this...
01:32:32
Speaker
something visceral, something that like, that I feel. Right. But instead it looks like a, it looks like something out of a kind of mad magazine. Like it doesn't, it looks so cartoony. It doesn't, it doesn't elicit any sort of grossness. And this will continue. But John Romita Jr.'s idea of the Morlocks is very different than Paul Smith's. It's just bondage gear.
01:32:56
Speaker
Yes. Paul Smith makes them look weird and creepy and kind of like alien where yeah John Romita is like they're just kind of ugly people wearing bondage gear at all times. Exactly. Sometimes they're green.
01:33:12
Speaker
Right. Right. Even draw somebody that looks like from the back. It's a it's a it's a let me make sure I'm getting this right. ah Getting the colors here right.
01:33:23
Speaker
The head of a black person with a white mohawk. in the scene where Caliban, yes, there's a black person wearing a black leather jacket with a white mohawk when Caliban's like, yes, it is not Storm. Yeah, yeah, yeah, when Caliban's like, hey, I'm, Kitty's free. It's not Storm.
01:33:46
Speaker
John Romina Jr. didn't have any better ideas.
01:33:52
Speaker
I guess that's also we can also blame ah who is the colorist on this on this on this guy. We can also blame Glynis Ween for that one. No Glynis Ween is in a Glynis Ween innocent.
01:34:08
Speaker
She can do you no wrong. Matt. Yeah. I'm just going to keep on rolling here. I'm going to take the next one. What? It's not it's not an X-Men comic. So don't worry.
01:34:21
Speaker
Pat just texted me because your voice sucks. It's because your voice sucks. Please don't share my text messages on air. That's so unprofessional. Matt, let me read you Moon Knight number 35. Moon Knight. Moon Knight. Moon Knight. Moon Knight. He's the Moon Knight.
01:34:42
Speaker
Moon Knight number 35. Second Wind. second wind Jenny Isabella writer. Jenny Isabella is back, Matt. She's back. We haven't seen her since the defenders and we'll never see her again. the champions.
01:34:57
Speaker
Oh, that's right. You're right. But ah back and better than ever. they like they're Defenders. want to say ah right.
01:35:09
Speaker
um No, no. ah Steve Englehart. Oh, I think you're probably right. I think you're right. Yeah. No, Steve Englehart did the Captain Americas that we read.
01:35:20
Speaker
i think he created the Defenders. i don't think he was the writer. Was it David Kraft? It might have been David Kraft. Yes, it was when we read. that was the dollar bill. It is David Kraft. Yes, there's a different writer for the champions era where the.
01:35:39
Speaker
defenders show up i know that's just black goliath being borrowed from the defenders yeah but jenny isabella did write champions you're right yes and then she left champions and then yeah she left marvel because of a choice because of some anger like like she was angry about them fucking with her ghost rider story and then i guess came back to write moon knight which is cool because i think this is a yeah it is not super. Most of this isn't super X-Men related. I'll just warn people up front, but yeah, it is a pretty good issue.
01:36:13
Speaker
It seems like if you're into moon night, this is all very interesting. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, Anyway, we got a bunch of new names here, Matt. Kevin Nolan. Oh, fuck. Yes.
01:36:25
Speaker
Carl Potts and Joe Kyoto inkers. Sorry. go ahead. No. What do you know about Kevin Nolan? Tell me about him. Uh, I don't know much about his origins, but I do know he did. He worked on, um, tomorrow stories with Alan Moore. And it's fucking great. It's so good. I guess he, he did several moon night stories.
01:36:51
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, the art here was, was great. Yeah. He was largely like a cover artist. Um, and I guess he was an anchor for a while, but his, his, yeah, his,
01:37:04
Speaker
penciling work is is really, really good. yeah ah We have two inkers. We're splitting inks again. Carl Potts and Joe Kioto. All right.
01:37:15
Speaker
Funny thing about Carl Potts, and has nothing to do with him, but I was looking at ah one of the old ads for a comic book convention that was happening right around this time. And one of the people you could meet was Ian Nocenti.
01:37:30
Speaker
And because it's 1983, they had to clarify, but this is Carl Potts, assistant editor. ah Damn it
01:37:41
Speaker
it. Bob McLeod. Pencils and inks pages 28 to 42. He's still getting his own still getting to ink his own pencils. He's back. Rosen slash Higgins letterers. Christy Scheel colorist Linda Grant editor.
01:37:58
Speaker
he shot her editor in chief. Release date October 1983 cover January
01:38:07
Speaker
Okay, this issue is basically 75% Moon Knight shit, so let's jump through it as quick as possible. In a fight with The Fly... The Fly. The Fly, Matt, a a throwaway Spider-Man villain who eighth is a total dork. yeah he's The artist does their best to make him look yoked as hell. Like he is jacked. And still, just because of his costume and the dumb look of his face, you're like, oh, what a fucking loser this guy is. How is he beating up Knight?
01:38:46
Speaker
And Jenny, Isabella writes his dialogue like like he's like a hardened guy. Except she also balances out with him going, I smell some rotting garbage in the other room.
01:39:02
Speaker
I'd sure like some of that. No, no, I must focus on the burglary. Is the thing with the fly that he started wearing a fly costume and he started taking on the like he was like, oh, maybe I am a fly and like fly stuff.
01:39:17
Speaker
His actual power, Matt. He just goes to sleep on a pile of animal shit. He's actual, and I assume this is why he calls himself the fly.
01:39:27
Speaker
His power is that he can see in all directions at once.
01:39:34
Speaker
Do you understand how powerful sucks that could make you? The fly sucks. You can see in a sphere around yourself in every direction. Can you imagine? It can like it really talking wouldn't matter much in my day. only It only matters if people sneak up on you a lot.
01:39:53
Speaker
Well, yeah, but they we would never happen. You could master a haunted house. This guy sucks. This guy fucking sucks so bad.
01:40:05
Speaker
Anyway, he breaks Moon Knight's back and paralyzes him. What? While Moon Knight tries to recover, he loses confidence in himself. His buddies, Frenchie and Marlene, try to help him recover while all the people he helped as Moon Knight lose faith in him.
01:40:22
Speaker
Meanwhile, in Paris, a young dancer gets murdered by a woman in a fur coat and headband who accuses her of stealing her dancing talents from ma Mother Russia. This woman has the power to control the wind, stealing breath from people's lungs or tossing them around with it.
01:40:39
Speaker
Okay. shes She murders her by just sending her up in the air. Right. We don't see her come back. like The dancer just goes. no they they They display this other stuff, like have her toss her around a little bit and have her be like, I can't breathe. at Yeah. But yeah yeah, it ends with her just chucking her in the air.
01:41:03
Speaker
Later, still in a wheelchair, Moon Knight goes to see his friend Sergei dance ballet, but this same weird woman shows up. Sergei expected her.
01:41:14
Speaker
Huh? She goes by Bora and she's been killing his students, but he's shocked to find out that she was also a student of his. When her power manifested, she suddenly grew to seven feet tall and her ballet career was over. I don't think we get enough of that where somebody has a mutant power, but then something also just like fucked up.
01:41:35
Speaker
Like, yes, like, oh, my mutant power is I can hear radio waves, but I also grew a fucking third arm. Right. Kurt is our best example of that right now. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's yeah. i also just happened to turn into a demon. Yeah.
01:41:53
Speaker
My feet fell off, but fucking cool. I can shoot electricity from my eyes. But seven feet tall is, I mean, I get your ballet career is probably gone at that point, but yeah, you can ball.
01:42:06
Speaker
Yeah, you could do some impressive gym a little bit and you were going to fucking crush it. Bora now uses her power to punish people who left Russia to give their dancing talents to the rest of the world.
01:42:18
Speaker
Sergei refuses to relent to her and continues defiantly dancing ballet while she slowly batters him with wind and starves him of oxygen. Moon Knight has to watch, helpless, while the man dies. It's supposed to be really, ah like, ah emotional.
01:42:38
Speaker
And like the- it is so hard to take seriously. The narration is like, and he keeps dancing despite the fact that he's dying and it's this last he did. He never stops doing what he loves and he dances until he's dead.
01:42:56
Speaker
he date He dances to try like he's trying to beat her with the power of dance is what it boils down to. And listen, do the the poses they draw this man in the are great. It is graceful. it is beautiful. It looks like a ballet is happening in front of your eyes. He's doing it in the air with the all the wind swirling around him. and It's so stupid.
01:43:21
Speaker
If it hadn't been in this context, these even these words, his dance has become a language now. His movement, it's alphabet. the The opposition of arms and legs create words.
01:43:34
Speaker
Great prose. If beautiful it wasn't in this context. battle his life. I mean, It's clear that he knows he's dying, but it's like, even as I'm dying, i will not stop dancing. Like, ridiculous. Shut the fuck up. Jenny, we love you.
01:43:56
Speaker
Shut the fuck up. Later, Moon Knight, through force of will, dons his costume and forces himself to walk again.
01:44:06
Speaker
He's back. Okay. All right. Sure. It's unclear how much time has passed here, but it's a matter of days. Yeah, it's like six pages of him being like, I gotta stand up everybody's counting on me to stand up and I haven't stand up in a while, but I'm going to stand up now and no Moon Knight, you can't stand up. I'm good. Exactly. Okay. Yeah, I bet if you're a big Moon Knight fan, this was really impactful.
01:44:37
Speaker
Now that he is mobile again, his first stop is Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. We're back. We're back. Sir Charles x Xavier, the authority on human genetics, may be able to help him understand this Bora woman. Here we are. Here we are, folks.
01:44:53
Speaker
this is He tells Moon Knight that he believes Bora's powers are psionic. She opens portals from which her wind escapes.
01:45:02
Speaker
no hey pat
01:45:07
Speaker
I bet I also open a portal from which my window is.
01:45:15
Speaker
x Xavier is inspired by Moon Knight's courage and pain. So when Colossus and Nightcrawler want to interfere, he suggests they simply watch and only interfere if necessary. Meanwhile, Frenchie and Storm flirt with each other. Yeah, it's a weird throwaway scene.
01:45:32
Speaker
It's the night of the big ballet production of Laurentia, in which another Russian dancer will perform. Pat, what's Laurentia? Laurentia. I don't know, Matt. I'm not following the ballet.
01:45:49
Speaker
Nightcrawler sits in the stands while other attendees look shocked at his furry blue skin. But one audience member taps him on the shoulder and asks him what brings him there. That audience member is the Thing. Aw.
01:46:03
Speaker
He's smoking a fucking cigar. While Kurt and the X-Men are here of their own volition to make sure Moon Knight is okay facing Bora on his own, the Thing and the Fantastic Four were invited by Moon Knight as backup. Alright.
01:46:17
Speaker
This is so fucked up.
01:46:21
Speaker
That he goes... To the X-Men to be like, I need your help. This is a mutant. You know how to deal with mutant threats. Please tell me what I need to know here. Doesn't ask them to help him out. Professor x Xavier is like, oh, it must be because he wants to prove to himself that he can do this. But no, he goes and invites the Fantastic Four.
01:46:44
Speaker
He just doesn't trust that the... Maybe he's mutant phobic. Well, so this is what I understand to be a problem for a lot of marginalized people, right? Where like...
01:46:55
Speaker
If somebody's making a show about trans issues, they will go out and consult trans people left and right. They'll hire somebody to work on the show and act as a consultant, but they'll still hire fucking Jeffrey Tambor to play a trans person on the Yeah, and hire cis writers. They'll go to a trans writer to be like, hey, can you help us figure out how to write trans people?
01:47:22
Speaker
And then won't hire them as a writer. Yeah. Can you teach this room of cis people how to write a trans person? Oh, I could just write the dialogue. no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no No, no, no, no, no. You're consulting.
01:47:38
Speaker
As predicted, at some point of the ballet, which I'm sure is significant, Bora shows up trying to kill one of the dancers. Storm wants to stop the winds and Human Torch wants to light shit on fire, but Xavier and Reed Richards stop them.
01:47:54
Speaker
They want to give Moon Knight a chance. Weird. Moon Knight, meanwhile, leaps from the balcony seats. He distracts Bora from the dancers and gives a signal to Marlene and Frenchie who switch on a bunch of lights and alarms to disrupt her psionic powers. There's a really funny scene, like when the the ballet starts, Moon Knight's up in the balcony seats.
01:48:16
Speaker
And it just looks like somebody stuck a Moon Knight sticker in like a different comic. She's like, he's sitting there just like, hmm, ooh, a ballet. Oh, yes, I am here.
01:48:32
Speaker
You look like it's green screened in in a comic book. exactly Also, so he's creating a ah noise and lights to distract her, to keep her from concentrating so strongly on her powers. Isn't that going to do the same thing to everyone in this room? Yeah, yeah.
01:48:51
Speaker
yeah yeah Bora loses control, but her winds don't stop. So the Fantastic Four leap into action, saving the audience from harm, but leaving Bora to Moon Knight. Xavier still won't let Storm interfere, but he allows her to save audience members by flying them out of the theater.
01:49:08
Speaker
Meanwhile, he calms them with all the telepathy, Meanwhile, he calms them all with telepathy and Kitty starts dragging audience members through the walls of the venue.
01:49:21
Speaker
He uses all the telepathy. He uses all the telepathy. There's none left. Damn it. The balcony begins to collapse and the thing rushes to hold it up long enough for the people to escape. But it's too imbalanced for him to do himself.
01:49:35
Speaker
When he sees it stopped anyway, he looks over to see Colossus smiling and holding another brace up. Aw. That's sweet, man. Moon Knight is confused but happy to see the X-Men here as he crawls tirelessly against Thora's relentless winds to reach her.
01:49:51
Speaker
Nightcrawler takes this moment to teleport in behind her, yelling, Boo! Boo! It gets her. She's like, That's a very Nightcrawler thing to do also. It is. It's adorable. Yeah.
01:50:05
Speaker
This distracts her long enough for Moon Knight to rush in and smother her with a c cloth doused in chloroform. She falls unconscious as Nightcrawler and Storm look on. Master strategist. It What are his powers a again? because
01:50:24
Speaker
Why did everyone leave this to him? he's the worst superhero I've ever seen. He just rushes at her with a chloroformed red. Yeah. ah Do you also know like do you also know the thing about chloroform?
01:50:40
Speaker
Is it? No. no The reality way different than it is on in like movies and TV and stuff. It's not like if you smell chloroform enough, you'll pass out.
01:50:52
Speaker
it is that it asphyxiates you. So really, oh the covering somebody's mouth and starving them of oxygen is doing way more work than the chemicals in the chloroform.
01:51:03
Speaker
That is a lot of brain damage. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Later, Moon Knight's at home and he's feeling better. the end.
01:51:15
Speaker
don't see what happens with Bora we just see him at home in like this three panels and she's like she ah she gets chloroformed yeah she gets chloroformed the end professor x Xavier's there he probably locks her in his basement
01:51:34
Speaker
Oh, Matt, we got anything else left in the tank here? do. well So the thing i do want to just like mention in this Moon Knight issue, I do think it's interesting. They are, it is the X-Men sort of still like, they have a role here.
01:51:49
Speaker
It is both. They are now fully integrated in the Marvel Universe, but also still outcasts. Right. Yeah, yeah. They are the people you consult about mutant issues. Yes.
01:52:04
Speaker
And like Colossus is as heroic as the thing. Kitty Pryde is as heroic as the Fantastic Four. Right. Like everybody is as heroic. Like they are as heroic. But they are not the ones Moon Knight brought along.
01:52:19
Speaker
Right. And Fantastic Four is the one that's going to be praised in the newspapers about it. Exactly. Exactly. I think i think the thing, the the moment that hit me the most was Kitty Pryde being like, oh my God, it is so exhausting to carry a person.
01:52:34
Speaker
But fuck, well, I'm going to it get back in there and do it again. Yeah, um yeah. It's like, yeah, Kitty Pryde is one of the most heroic people in that whole fucking room.
01:52:46
Speaker
Like probably more than the Human Torch, probably more than the Thing, probably more than Reed Richards, maybe not as much as Sue Storm. but Right. And this is this is kind of a trick that they pull with her every once in a while, which is like...
01:53:02
Speaker
She's a teenager, so she can have these thoughts. It's okay for her to be like, ah this sucks. yeah But it's the only way to move forward.
01:53:14
Speaker
Like her her making the heroic decision in yeah real time rather than just being adjusted to making heroic decisions. Right. Remember when she was saving the X-Men and she was like, what Cyclops said?
01:53:26
Speaker
Like Cyclops said. yeah. yeah that This is the scariest thing I've ever seen, but Cyclops said it's okay to be scared. Yeah. She's fucking, she rules. Kitty Pryde's like fast becoming like one of my favorite characters of all time. She's great.
01:53:42
Speaker
All right, Pat, I'm going to tell you about another comic. It's not the X-Men.
01:53:47
Speaker
Oh. It's Marvel Fanfare number 24. the The comic is, it's called Elegy. Okay. And it's, we'll talk about it a second. it's It's written by cla Chris Claremont, penciled by David Ross, inked by Bob Wyachek, lettered by Rick Parker, colored by Bob Sharon, edited by Al Milgram, and the editor-in-chief is Jim Halpert.
01:54:11
Speaker
It's released on October 8th, 1985. Cover date January 1986. We're flying forward. We're hopping forward a little bit. but I'm alive in this era. mountain and I was alive. i was I'm still dead. the first time this happened. I'm still dead at this point.
01:54:30
Speaker
Is that what happens before you're alive? You're dead? yeah You're dead and then you're alive and then you're dead.
01:54:37
Speaker
Before we talk about it, before we get into what happens, like I want to talk about the premise of this issue. It's the Marvel Universe floating poker game. Yeah, yeah.
01:54:49
Speaker
This is iconic. Iconic. Pat, one of my first X-Men comics that I ever had, i ever owned and ever read, was X-Men
01:55:01
Speaker
where they have a ah they have a poker game with the thing in, apparently, i looked this up, in Angel's Loft in Soho. okay And it's like Storm and Gambit and Wolverine. um ah The Thing is there.
01:55:17
Speaker
like like Beast is there. He's always there. Because there's some people who are mainstays. They're not there at every game, but they're there for most of them. Like The Thing, The Beast, Nick Fury, and Jarvis. After this story, Wolverine becomes a mainstay. but Yeah, sure.
01:55:32
Speaker
Apparently more than... Spoiler. Because ah it's more than 50 heroes have participated in this thing over time. um Even fucking Kingpin showed up once.
01:55:43
Speaker
I think I do know about that. I think that was during like maybe the Humberto Ramos drawn Spider-Man in the early 2000s and Kingpin shows up and they're like, oh, we got to fight you, Kingpin. And he's like.
01:55:59
Speaker
ah Actually, I just want to play poker. Just here to play poker. And he pops open his suitcase and it's full of money. And he's like, let me play. And they're like, all right, man. But this is the third ever issue it's ever happened in. Whoa.
01:56:13
Speaker
in It started in 1979 in Marvel 2 and 1 number 51. Okay. was invented by writer Peter Gillis. And the artists were Frank Miller and Bob McCloud.
01:56:26
Speaker
holy cow I know. Yeah. yeah but Then in Marvel two and one 75 in 1981, then this, there was also a in Fantastic Four 542 in 2007.
01:56:43
Speaker
There is a chronologically there is a game that takes place between two of these, but. OK, but it's not actually written about until. Exactly. Yeah. Decades later.
01:56:55
Speaker
So and they call it the Marvel Universe floating poker game, and it's like this recurring event. No one no no one knows when it's going to happen, and it just pops up randomly throughout the comics throughout the years. It's rules.
01:57:07
Speaker
So cool. Yeah, yeah. I mean, because Wolverine's a mainstay, and Beast is a mainstay, we wanted to cover it here. Yeah. And for other reasons that you'll see, a flying Porsche arrives at Avengers Mansion, and out pop Ben Grimm and Nick Fury.
01:57:24
Speaker
Oh. Pengrim the Thing. They pass through a demanding security check before entering the mansion where the Thing is enraged by what he sees. The poker game has started without them!
01:57:38
Speaker
Ah, you mugs. You're worse than the Yancy Street gang in my Aunt Tunia. Beast, Wonder Man, and Manhattan... Look, Pat...
01:57:52
Speaker
Yeah. Who fuck is this? Manhattan DA Blake Tower. You don't know Manhattan DA Blake Tower? How would I know Manhattan DA Blake Tower? i I know the name because he is in Daredevil seasons two and three, the Marvel Netflix shows. So he's a prominent character there. And when I saw him here, I was like, oh, I guess they didn't just invent him for the show. He's Blake Tower. So they're gathered around a table playing practice, playing a practice hand as Jarvis, the host of tonight's game, goes to answer an unexpected knock on the door.
01:58:27
Speaker
Two shadowy figures stand outside after seeing Grim and Fury go through the security process. They opt to just knock on the front door. Jarvis, surprised, welcomes Carol Danvers and Logan into the party. Oh.
01:58:45
Speaker
God, I love Wolverine meeting Jarvis. Yeah, yeah. You know they've had some interesting conversations. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Carol says that despite her ugly and justified exit from the Avengers, which we talked about back in Avengers Annual number
Poker Game at Avengers Mansion
01:59:05
Speaker
10, right?
01:59:05
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. ah She missed the poker game and wants back in. If no one minds, her friend Logan would also like to join. After some brief confusion from the rest of the players over who Carol and Logan even are... Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:59:21
Speaker
They're joyfully invited to take a seat. yeah They resolve like, oh, Carol is Miss Marvel. I am Miss Marvel. They apparently never learned her secret identity.
01:59:31
Speaker
And even though all she does wears is she wears a domino mask. Like, it's not fucking hard. Logan, I don't think they go through like, oh I'm Wolverine. It's just like, no, this is my friend Logan.
01:59:44
Speaker
Yeah, although he and Fury exchange of of a vigorous handshake and are like, oh, I haven't seen you since before you were the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. Yeah, it's it's it's really great. yeah yeah The newest Avenger invited to this game for the first time ever hasn't shown up, so there's plenty of room.
02:00:04
Speaker
So like they're there because then what they're invited into the game because the newest Avenger who this was their first time supposed to show up. First time invited and they don't show up to the game. don't show up.
02:00:17
Speaker
Time out. Cut to two hours later, a stack of chips lay before Carol and Logan as they reminisce about the good times in foreign countries. While a frustrated Ben Grimm pushes the rest of his chips and a chipless Nick Fury watches.
02:00:32
Speaker
They are cleaning up. Carol wins with a full house and basks in victory for a full panel before a blinding light on the front lawn interrupts everyone. An attack!
02:00:46
Speaker
It is a really nice... Okay, I'm going to pause because this is our reading through this issue. This is the third time that we're supposed to think something bad's about to happen, but then it actually just turns out to be a friend. but So, not worried about that. What I think is really nice here...
02:01:02
Speaker
is that they give Carol a full panel where she's just sitting at the poker table chips, like a mountain of chips in front of her. And she has the biggest smile on her face. It's really, it's, it's really knowing everything that happened between her and the adventures, knowing what the adventures did to her, yeah how they left it with her being like, you guys fucked up.
02:01:28
Speaker
Yeah. Uh, This feels like her in sort of a petty way getting some closure there. Like she showed up. She she can absolutely look the Avengers in the eye still. But once she embarrasses them at the poker table, she's like, okay, I can move on.
02:01:49
Speaker
I think this is Chris Claremont further just like he loves Carol Danpurs. Yeah. And he's just left and right. He's like, she deserves justice. And i think we're going to see more of that in this in this issue.
02:02:04
Speaker
Also, is this the first time we learn about Wolverine's connection to Nick Fury? Yeah, this is as far as I know, the first mention of it. And also just the imp implication implication even more implications of Carol and Logan's past here, too. Yeah, yeah. ah Barely able to see, everyone prepares for the assault.
02:02:25
Speaker
Only for the new Captain Marvel, Monica Rambeau, to pop onto the scene. oh She was the new no-show Avengers, and everyone was unfamiliar with or just forgot about her light powers. it's This is also cool because Fury, Logan, and Carol all like move as a unit.
02:02:43
Speaker
they yeah We see a panel of them all in like a a particular formation as if... We are military strategy to each other. Right. We either we all know this because we've done it together before, which is probably the case, or we are just all military people and we understand.
02:03:04
Speaker
What to do if we're in this. Yeah, yeah, it's it's kind of cool. Yeah.
Carol Danvers' Transformation and Identity Crisis
02:03:10
Speaker
Upon being introduced to the new Captain Marvel, Carol cracks a joke about Mar-Vell, the original Captain Marvel, which is met with a reaction of pure disgust.
02:03:19
Speaker
Yikes. She defends herself. If Mar-Vell were here right now, he'd crack a joke about her, prompting Fury to break the news that no one realized she hadn't received.
02:03:34
Speaker
Mar-Vell is dead. Months ago. Cancer. o So this is why we're reading this now.
02:03:45
Speaker
the The death of Captain Marvel happened in a 1982 graphic novel. Yeah. There's some other things that time this to a around the time that we're reading right now, um which we'll get to towards the end. but ah Clearly, this is taking place around where we are in Marvel canon right now. just It's just released in 1985.
02:04:09
Speaker
nineteen eighty Yeah. They said it it happened about three months ago. Oh. ah Oh, Mar-Vell's death happened about three months ago. Carol stands in shock for a moment before raging out, transforming to binary, and...
02:04:26
Speaker
shooting through the roof, of course. yep All she ever does. Leaving a hole in her wake. Everyone but Logan is shocked. yeah yeah The last time they saw her, she had lost her powers. Logan tells them all it's none of their business.
02:04:42
Speaker
But does think through how she got her new powers, recapping her side of the brood saga in his head. Carol, meanwhile, soars through space, mourning her former mentor, port partner, and lover. She finds his grave,
02:04:55
Speaker
captain marvel's in a deep canyon on a remote planet and sheds a few tears says her final words to him and blasts off back to earth is it established because i i truly don't know is it established before this time that she and the original captain marvel were boning
02:05:15
Speaker
i don't know i don't know anything about captain marvel Because when I saw it here, I was like, ah oh. i i I don't know. Okay. on a remote coastal club mutant mena pad at gma dot com please tell us On a remote coastal cliff, Logan finds Carol looking out over the sea in silent contemplation. He tries to comfort her as her close friend, someone with whom she has a long history.
02:05:46
Speaker
But Carol, as much as she wants to, doesn't feel the same way about him. Just like with Mar-Vell, her memories of him, her links to their shared past, they all feel like they belong to someone else.
02:05:57
Speaker
She was reborn as Binary, and despite Xavier restoring all her memories after they were stolen by an evil rogue, she just doesn't feel like the person that lived them. She couldn't even bring herself to cry at Mar-Vell's grave.
02:06:13
Speaker
All right, this is where you say she also implies that she and Logan boned at one point in their past. That's right. She just says they spent a very memorable night together.
02:06:26
Speaker
And with that, she blasts off to space, letting Logan know she'll be joining the Star Jammers. That's our other way to frame this in time. Yes. Yeah, yeah. This is when she finally takes off.
02:06:37
Speaker
Her life as Carol Danvers is finally over. And the life of binary can finally begin.
02:06:48
Speaker
Yeah, so again, I think this is Chris Claremont saying, like, it sucks that you left Carol out of the death of Captain Marvel graphic novel.
02:06:59
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. And it sucks that you brought in a new Captain Marvel without ever addressing...
02:07:07
Speaker
the feelings of Carol Danvers. And you've been having these poker games and Carol's not there anymore as if she didn't matter. Like it feels like Chris Claremont's just constantly like justice for Carol Danvers. Like he's, yeah he's the one who's like, no one else is going to care about this iconic Marvel hero.
02:07:27
Speaker
I am going to have to. It's good stuff. Yeah. Yeah. I mean,
02:07:38
Speaker
What did you think of this whole friggin arc?
02:07:42
Speaker
I think we had a lot of fun. i think i my favorite part was the Morlocks. have just fallen in love with them. I think like not as...
02:07:54
Speaker
people but as characters like yeah i don't i wouldn't want to be around them i wouldn't want to read a story like a a comic about them but the sort of conundrum that they present the anti x-men mutant colony that just they have to deal with much like the hellfire club right where it's like we don't like each other but It would be a waste of all of our time if we just tried to continually attack each other.
02:08:26
Speaker
We're going to exist. And if we clash heads, it's going to be for a very unique reason, a very particular reason. Right.
02:08:37
Speaker
Yes. I also like that they've decided to so to address, to further address the passing privilege
02:08:49
Speaker
Granted, yeah like you said, they did it really awkwardly between Mask and Kitty, but they at least, like, Chris Claremont is at least trying to touch base with the idea of, like, yeah, you're the attractive mutants. We're the fucking we're the fucking monsters that no one wants to see, that people want to pretend don't exist, and...
02:09:12
Speaker
i i think that's really I think that's really interesting because i that's a thing that real people in the our real world have to deal with and think about all the time.
02:09:25
Speaker
I don't know. I don't know that they go he goes deep enough into it with the Morlocks to be super impactful, but I like that we're thinking about it.
02:09:38
Speaker
I also, i I really like the Brotherhood stuff, if nothing else, then because it sets them up as a higher level of threat than they have been to this time. Like, this is serious and you could die. They want to kill you and they have the abilities to good to come close, if not actually kill you.
02:10:05
Speaker
In the past, they were kind of a joke. It was like, look at these these weirdos, the the people too stupid to be X-Men. Right. but And Claremont clearly didn't care about them, right?
02:10:18
Speaker
Except for Blob, I guess. Like Claremont is often like a lot of those old school X-Men villains. He's just kind of ignored. Yeah.
02:10:29
Speaker
We don't see Unus the Untouchable anymore. <unk> finally living his promise to never join the brotherhood of evil mutants again. No toad, very little juggernaut, very little, like, i guess he started to find a place for Magneto, but like, there's a lot that Claremont was like, I don't like this about the X-Men. um And I think the brotherhood was one of them. And now he's kind of fine found a reason to, a thing to do with them.
02:11:02
Speaker
yeah Also, i I kind of like the the running idea of um surrogate parentage. You know, there's a lot of younger people having to tell the older people, the paternalistic older people in their lives like, hey, I didn't fucking ask for your help.
02:11:24
Speaker
Please stop. There's Rogue tells it tells it to Mystique. ah You know, Kitty tells it to Storm and Wolverine. Right. There's a lot of like, hey, you may be trying to look out for me, but this feels like it's more about you than it's about me.
02:11:43
Speaker
I didn't ask for this. I don't want this. And you're not listening to me. Right. it which Which mirrors a lot of the X-Men's interactions with like Xavier, too. Yes. And it's very much somebody born in the 70s talking to somebody born in the forty s or 50s. That's good point, yeah. The difference in being a teenager in those decades and and like how independent you can be.
02:12:16
Speaker
Right. Well... I'm excited to see where he goes with the Morlocks. What happens with Rogue and Storm's crazy new personality.
02:12:28
Speaker
What are our other dangling plot threads here in the X-Men right now? All that and more on the next episode of... You've got an eye out. Stuff that could buy out. If you had time machine that you would like to try out.
02:12:43
Speaker
It can feel... feel...
02:12:47
Speaker
Oh, Matt, that brings us to the segment that we call Pat Steals and Deals. Would you believe I have a steal and a deal for you this week?
02:12:59
Speaker
ah No, I wouldn't believe it. So let me just play the music. and Nope, nope. wait Hang on. i gotta to do let's Let's give it a shot. Okay. What I have today is the Saga of Crystar, Crystal Warrior Action Figure Collection from Remco.
02:13:18
Speaker
Each figure is fully articulated and complete with weapons and accessories. it's Now,
02:13:26
Speaker
we can try to explain the way that some of them look here in a moment, but let me just cover the names first. Moltar, the Lava Warrior. Okay. Feldspar, Embodies Good vs. Evil.
02:13:40
Speaker
ah Okay, Feldspar's just like a typo. Okay. Crystar, the Crystal Warrior. Okay. Zardeth, the Evil Wizard.
02:13:52
Speaker
Magma Man, ah another Lava Warrior. Yeah, what's different than him and Maltar? Warbo, another Crystal Warrior. Okay. Crystar and Warbo, best friends.
02:14:03
Speaker
Ogeode, the Good Wizard. but who' collect them all. Available at participating Kmart The Saving Place stores. Patrick, what the fuck is this?
02:14:17
Speaker
ah So this is Now, it says trademark Marvel Comics. i I don't know that this actually ever made it to...
02:14:30
Speaker
comic right so it it it did there was a name it really did 11 issue comic um published in 1983 so after this ah it's trying to capitalize on the success of micronauts and rom space night and look i've never read a single issue of chris star It's written by Joe Duffy, who is very, very hit or miss.
02:15:01
Speaker
Yeah. And the artist's art is by Brett Blevins, also very hit or miss. The art looks so bad.
02:15:12
Speaker
Um... And apparently, like, I'm reading, I'm just reading the wiki here. Like, I'm not not going too deep here, but, like, Nightcrawler and Alpha Flight both make appearances. So maybe you have to look at Chris. oh no. no and apparently they yeah appear in, okay, okay, they appear in Secret Wars, but, like, the way, the, like, Marvel.
02:15:37
Speaker
later Secret Wars, like the 2015 one. Oh, really? That's even stranger. Well, ah I think um right i think i think the the whole point of that series was like, look at all the crazy shit that's happened in Marvel Comics over all this time, and what if we tried to pretend it was all...
02:16:01
Speaker
What if we tried to merge reality and fiction in that it is reality because it's fiction the same way Grant Morrison always does. Jonathan Hickman was like ah clearly inspired by them. Right.
02:16:12
Speaker
Right. Almost in the the spirit of the marvels. Right. Where it's just ah almost a look back. I mean, Secret Wars 2015 is very active plot wise as well. But.
02:16:26
Speaker
there's There's a metaphor there of like, look at all Marvel Comics has done. How could we possibly move forward from this? Right, right, right. um And so, yeah, of course, the Crystar Warriors would show up.
02:16:38
Speaker
Who do you like best? I got to say Zardeth, the evil wizard. He is wearing... A robe that leaves the middle of his chest bare so you can see the what looks like upside down smiley face tattoo that covers his chest.
02:16:56
Speaker
Kind of looks like that. And what's on his head? i he is wearing. Imagine somebody put like a bucket over your head, but then cut out around one eye and then all the way down to the bottom. the Oh, okay. It's like half of his face is visible. Okay. I didn't know what was shadow and what was face. Okay.
02:17:23
Speaker
He's also got some sort of wand. It's shaped like a question mark, but not like a, it's not like a staff. It is, it's handheld shaped like a question mark. And the end of it, that because it's shaped like a question mark, come back, comes back towards him.
02:17:41
Speaker
has some sort of zappy thing on the end of it yes you know i i think i kind of like chrystar the crystal warrior why you tell us what he looks like i mean he just looks like um a standard he looks like he man but he's made of crystal optimus prime okay i could see that because almost geometry of the face yeah um I like Feldspar a lot because he looks so fucking dopey.
02:18:12
Speaker
Yeah, what the fuck is this guy's deal? um He's just like a little... He's just a little shrimpy... dork with no shirt on who has like one evil staff and one good staff everybody's got a staff everybody's got a weapon because it's yeah i kind of like chris star the crystal warrior he's 300 on ebay so i don't think this is one that i'm going to no just like we did with the winged hats matt put in a bid let's get you a chris more figure
02:18:48
Speaker
Pat, this is a pretty good stealer deal. We don't have any prices, so actually it's not a very good. Yes, but it's available exclusively at Kmart, which at this time had the slogan, The Saving Place. Pat, I will pay you $40 to print this ad out and walk into a Kmart, one of the few remaining Kmarts.
02:19:14
Speaker
Do they still have those? and demand Do they still have them? Now let's look that up. Are there still Kmart's? There is a Kmart website. You can still buy from Kmart online. Nope.
02:19:28
Speaker
Brick and mortar. Today, there are three remaining Kmart locations. The one in the Virgin Islands. Okay. One in guam Okay.
02:19:40
Speaker
sounds Sounds like we're having a nice little vacation. And a tiny one in Kendale Lakes, Florida. Yeah. Let's send them a bunch of flyers.
02:19:55
Speaker
All right, Pat. That was a great Steals and Deals. Thanks. He's got an eye out of stuff you buy out. If you had a time machine that you would like to try out.
02:20:06
Speaker
Deals and Deals.
02:20:10
Speaker
All right, folks, that's the show. I gotta say, I gotta say, say it. Thank you so much for listening. And yeah as much as you've done for us already, we just need a little more. Just like, subscribe, comment, share, tell your friends online and offline. Just Let people know about us. Follow us on Instagram at mutant menace pod. You can join our discord. We'll leave a link in the comments here, but our link in the show notes. But what if they love us and want to give us money?
02:20:45
Speaker
Yeah. If they want to do that, they can go to patreon.com slash mutant menace or just Google mutant menace on Patreon. It searches the word, not Google.
02:20:56
Speaker
What if they want to write into Pat's email corner? If they want to write into... page You should really let me get to this stuff, Matt. Because if you stopped interrupting me, then you would already know. If they want to write into Mutant MenacePod at gmail.com, they can appear on Pat's email corner. Yeah, but Pat, who wrote all the music for this show?
02:21:17
Speaker
Well, I was just about to thank Julia Selle for providing the voice of Trish Tilby. Before I thanked Krils Wilson.
02:21:29
Speaker
We're providing all the music for the show. But Pat, what do we say every episode to close out the show? Now there's the question I was waiting for, Matt. Always remember, I'm the hardware nuts and bolts freak.
02:21:46
Speaker
And as always, her rusky smooch was icing on the cake.