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45 - New Mutants #9-13 - Nova Roma
106 Plays11 days ago
It's a New Mutants episode! We start with a pretty wild email segment and an even more wild Pat's Steals and Deals, but in the middle we meet Magma, Selene, and Doug Ramsey when the New Mutants visit an ancient Roman city in the middle of the Amazon, and then head back home to spill soda on each other.
Topics Discussed:
White People Wakanda. Amara Juliana Olivia Aquila. The New Mutants unconscious... again... Meanwhile, a bunch of nude men! SELENE! "'tis nah proper!" Kids rely on experience, not conviction. Bobby's growin' up! Incredible pervert faces. "Am I dreaming?" RIP Amara. Selene has too many powers. Sal Buscema missed the memo on Columns. MAGMA. Selene has every power. RIP Amara again. Gallio has goo-blood. Stop changing Dani's outfit. A hollow, underground mountain!?? "She's probably unkillable." A cool chair turnaround. "Wee Slip of a Girl". A wolf sneezing. Destroying a poor family's home. Daysze. Does Professor X respect the privacy of peoples' thoughts? DOUG RAMSEY! An interlude? GROAT CHIPS. REAL CHEAP! REAL BAD! Amara's cryin' rock.
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Transcript
Introduction and Live Report
00:00:01
Speaker
I'm Trish Tobey with W.A.R.C. reporting to you live from Westchester, New York, where there appears to be some sort of mutant menace on the loose.
Podcast Hosts and Patreon Shout-Outs
00:00:32
Speaker
Hey, everybody, I'm Matt Allcamp. And I'm Pat Reber. And say it with us, Pete. Welcome. Welcome to Mutant Menace. Patrick, how are you doing this fine winter evening just before a massive snowstorm sweeps through the east eastern seaboard?
00:00:55
Speaker
That's right. Once again, the listeners are in a future that knows what happens during the snowstorm, and we're stuck in a past that no idea. Do you think we are just buried under snow at the moment?
00:01:08
Speaker
ah No, I think by now it's probably started to melt away. yeah In our little podcast bunker, huddled around microphones and X-Men comics, and like, i hope that's right I hope we get out of here soon, Pat.
00:01:23
Speaker
Neither sleet nor rain nor snow. There's a Patreon now. We owe it. I want to say thank you to White Raven and Damiana and Saddle and Tim and Mike and and a good Brent for signing up for the pay what you want tier of the Patreon.
00:01:40
Speaker
Yeah. And thank you as well to Pushing Up Roses, Sean, Vio, Michael and Jason.
Email Segment: Casting Suggestions and Debates
00:02:00
Speaker
It's time for Pat's email. Whoa! I didn't even know this would happen today. Matt, we got a whole stack here. We got old emailers. We got new emailers. I i'm going to start with an episode 43 response from our friend Email Michael. Email Michael! Hey, Email Michael.
00:02:24
Speaker
Hey, Pat, he says, tell Matt that Aaron Eckhart would be a great Fred Duncan and is an inspired casting choice. Thank you. Email Michael. I agree. next I didn't know anyone would have an opinion on who would be a good Fred Duncan.
00:02:38
Speaker
Next, I'd be happy to play the X-Men arcade game with either of you, but I called dibs on playing Dazzler. As a kid, it took me a few years to learn that she was a separate character and not just Jubilee from the cartoon with the wrong hair color and a different name. Oh, well.
00:02:53
Speaker
He did also provide us with the information we asked for on the LOSBs of the old Star Wars comics. He actually points out that they appeared in 1977 in the Star Wars comics. oh ah So Kitty wasn't just reading Star Wars comics. She was reading old Star Wars comics like a nerd.
00:03:17
Speaker
Oh, man, I can't. I can't relate. He says, I'll end with this question. Matt seems pretty harsh on Team America and he drew a comparison to the Power Rangers. So which team does he think would win in a fight?
00:03:30
Speaker
To keep it fair, both teams can use their vehicles. So it's five guys with motorcycles who can summon a sixth guy on a motorcycle versus six guys with giant robots and guns. I'm not sure there's a right answer. Just curious what he thinks. It's anyone's game. Email Michael. All right. So do you want to play out the fight? All right. So first in are Red Ranger and Black Ranger.
00:03:50
Speaker
they are They are at the front of the Vanguard. And they are the Triceratops and the Mastodon. Well, they're not they're on foot first. They're charging in. They're foot first? Yeah, they're charging in. and at the front of ah And at the front of the Team America, it's like wrench.
00:04:07
Speaker
what's ah What's the guy's name? Johnny Be Good? Are You Ready? I think was his Are You Ready? and then Yes. Using his hip-hop Kido, the Black Ranger it beats the hell out of Wrench and actually kills Wrench by accident. um and then it's And then next up is Are You Ready? And it's the Red Ranger. And he takes out his gun and he shoots Are You Ready? And Are You Ready? He's dead.
00:04:31
Speaker
So then the other two guys absorb the powers of the two dead guys, the other two Team America guys, and they summon the Black Racer. We assume. Yeah, who knows? They summon the Black Racer, and now it's three motors, and now they hop on their motorcycles, and they're like, we can't take these guys by hand. They've killed two of us, and then they start chasing after them, and then ah the Power Rangers get in their big...
00:04:53
Speaker
ah In their vehicles. And they just stomp on the motorcycles. And the others are dead. Yeah, because they are all giant. They're a T-Rex, a mastodon, a saber-toothed tiger, a triceratops, a pterodactyl, and a dragon is their thing. Okay, hold on. have another. have an alternate.
00:05:14
Speaker
I have an alternate take on this fight. All right. The Power Rangers, they're running up. And the Team America ease immediately knows they're outclassed. okay So they look at each other, and then they look at the then they look at the Power Rangers, and they all get these kind of like evil smiles on their face.
00:05:35
Speaker
And they summon the Black Racer, and it pops out of the Black Ranger's chest. They summon him inside another guy. and then The Black Ranger is the Black Rider now.
00:05:47
Speaker
No, the Black Ranger is goo on the Black Rider's chest. motorcycle jacket and now they unsummon it and they summon it again but this time inside the pink ranger she explodes can they does this work i can they do that because this is now very powerful if they can summon if you can just summon the black rider from inside someone's chest the game has changed yeah if you could just make it materialize from nowhere Then Team America, I think, wins this one. Just one by one, they keep exploding all the Power Rangers.
00:06:25
Speaker
All right. What an interesting thought exercise. Thank you, email Michael.
Listener Emails and Pop Culture Talk
00:06:31
Speaker
Up next, we have Weapon Jason. He says, hey, Pat, tell Matt, hey weapon let me add to the ice in milk discussion by pointing to a brown cow cocktail recipe that calls for milk, ice, and Kahlua. Yeah, all right.
00:06:45
Speaker
If you're adding alcohol, the game done changed. It's a different guy. Yeah, rules are off. This is also when I was in like my late teens, early 20s, and we thought vodka tasted gross. This is what we would make as a white Russian after watching the Big Lebowski. Just Kahlua cream and milk. Yeah, honestly, hard, hard same.
00:07:11
Speaker
It was good. He also, he linked us to a recipe for the cocktail from food.com. God, remember back in the day when you were when you were younger and full of life and getting drunk felt good instead of ah physically painful on your human body?
00:07:28
Speaker
oh I was going to say, do you remember when you were young and full of life and could just type something.com into the internet and get taken to a pretty good divorce resource for that thing?
00:07:41
Speaker
ah Food.com. Power Rangers. Team America.com. I wouldn't go there now. No. No. God damn it. He goes on, he says, Puck rules in these early issues. i mean, not much more to say about it than that. He's not perfect, but he was my favorite in these early issues.
00:08:00
Speaker
The references by Snowbird to Nelvana is Byrne making nods to Nelvana of the Northern Lights, one of Canada's early comic books from the Golden Age. oh She's a demigoddess who battles Nazis in the Canadian North. That's fucking cool as shit.
00:08:15
Speaker
Yeah, that is that makes that incredibly cool. Oh my God. All right, all right. Love that. i Some other interesting information. From the official handbook of the Marvel Universe around this time, Quicksilver's speed is only about 175 miles per hour.
00:08:32
Speaker
He sees a huge power bump come as Marvel tries to turn him more and more into the Flash. Aurora, at this point in Alpha Flight, can theoretically hit like 99% the speed of light, but she never does.
00:08:45
Speaker
North Star could do the same, but has effectively maxed out at 7,700 miles per hour as practical. Namor can apparently swim about 45 miles per hour and Marina can do a about 48 miles per hour usually, but can do ridiculous speeds for short periods.
00:09:04
Speaker
Okay, so she so she can take off at whatever it said, like 100 knots or whatever, 1,000 knots, 2 billion knots, but only for like a short sprint. And then she has to stop.
00:09:19
Speaker
Yeah. he continues saying that the snow issue was Burn having a lot of fun with the assistant editor's month ah that was going Oh, okay. Apparently a ah strange sort of experimental fun time. And it was like, and you were encouraged to do something weird that you couldn't get away with normally or whatever. Yeah. Okay. All right. All right. All right.
00:09:43
Speaker
Says also, Colomac clearly did something to offend Hodiak. And since Snowbird is clearly related, he thusly gets beat up, which isn't a justification. I don't think that... Yeah. The the question was, why, what did he do do do to deserve this? I don't know if that's what I actually asked, but now the question is, what did he do to deserve this? Free Colomax. Would you consider it
New Listener Introduction and Philadelphia Recommendations
00:10:11
Speaker
justified if... Okay, my my somebody did something to my dad.
00:10:18
Speaker
A thousand years ago. And then I run into this guy. do the same At a construction site. Yeah, sure. And I destroy the man. Like, I turn him into dust.
00:10:29
Speaker
Are you going to be like... You imprison him for a thousand years. if yeah Are you going to be like... When people are like... There's fair. Your buddy just fucking just destroyed...
00:10:42
Speaker
a man who hasn't done anything wrong for a thousand years, are you going to be like, look, you don't know the whole story. I, for you, Matt, I probably would. Yeah. Thank you.
00:10:56
Speaker
But not for snow bird because we don't know her. He goes on to talk about alpha flight being a weird one. He does say you can see burn warming up to the comic until he leaves. I do wonder how Pat's going to feel about those mantlo issues.
00:11:12
Speaker
Me too, man. We got a new emailer, Matt. No way. Daniel. Hi, Daniel. Hey, Pat.
00:11:23
Speaker
Damn, Daniel. damn damn daniel with the white kids i think it's white fans fans oh yeah damn daniel back at it again with the white vans all right there we've we've got it we we got it try it one more we nailed it okay all right let's let me get a line read hold on yeah yeah damn daniel full video why did i think that this guy had a lower voice He's got a really high voice.
00:11:51
Speaker
Damn, Daniel. Damn, Daniel. Back at it again with the white vans. Damn, Daniel. You sound like an orphan. Damn.
00:12:03
Speaker
ah Please, sir, may I have some white vans? And you're saying that's who emailed us? I think. All right.
00:12:14
Speaker
Daniel, welcome. he opens... I'm a little confused about our opening here, but we get Pat, tell Matt, Daniel, and then in parentheses, a waving my email corner code name.
00:12:26
Speaker
Daniel. if So i think he goes on to explain he is a longtime X-Men fan that just recently learned about the podcast and is up to episode 17 now. that's So he's not going to hear this for a while. Very excited to have him. I'll go through parts of his email. But what I think he's doing here is responding to our prompt to say yeah please tell us your name so we can say it at the beginning of the podcast any requests that we he does request that we add it but we're not going to it's pete's now what if we spend so much money on airfare at this point what we what if we do like what do we do like say it with us daniel and then we still play pete's
00:13:14
Speaker
he's got a fun story though he says i found out about you guys through a local comic book shop of mine oh It is. I work in a sort of nerd gift shop called the Retro Wormhole in Medford, Oregon. We specialize in all things 70s, 80s, 90s and aughts, media and pop culture. I work on the various electronics for the shop to include video game consoles, record players and VCRs. but Rad. That's rad.
00:13:36
Speaker
He invites us in if we're ever in the area, too. He tells us we're nerds. He says, anyways... Right next door to us on the literal other side of the drywall is Rogue City Comics. I had a comic on hold over there, and when I came into work one day, they left a note with my boss that basically said, hey, come pick up your shit. The note was on the backside of one of your guys' flyers for your podcast. so Okay.
00:14:04
Speaker
Well, if it seems Rogue City Comics is using us as a notepad. Not it. Very much appreciated. Not exactly how we intended, but I'm into it. Yeah, that's guerrilla marketing, Matt. You can't always you can't always predict where it's going to go.
00:14:19
Speaker
Shout out to Rogue City Comics. Shout out to Retro Wormhole. If you guys are anywhere near Medford, Oregon, check out check out those shops. He wraps up. He says, since I've blasted through 15 of your episodes in order in a matter of weeks, I've been keeping a mental note of all the things I wanted to email you, but haven't gotten the chance because that takes time. So I remember them or write them down on my notes app for later. Matt, he has 12 numbered items respond to various prompts from our episodes. What I thought we could do. Okay.
00:14:51
Speaker
you Maybe we should have talked about this, but... No, please. I like when you... worth Unlike you from me, I like when you spring things on me. From me.
00:15:01
Speaker
But you don't like when I spring things on you from me. I don't. I hate it. was It's no secret that we haven't released the... Epstein files.
00:15:14
Speaker
Ugh. ah We could cut that. That's right.
00:15:21
Speaker
and we haven't
00:15:26
Speaker
It's no secret that we haven't released the... The the story so far episode. Where are they now? The story so far. We had technical difficulties. So, we do have that upcoming. It's imminent. Please don't worry, but we're going to get it there. We had to scrap our original recording. We'll figure it out. We'll figure it out. But...
00:15:44
Speaker
I think this is a great time to engage with Daniel's 12 or 13 questions or responses that he has for us. So stay tuned. That as that episode is coming. Wait, you're saying we are going to wait until...
00:16:01
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. We're going to wait to address all 12 until we do Stories So Far. That's right. We've got a few more. The emails just keep coming.
00:16:13
Speaker
Mikey two males sent us just one male and that's okay. It's okay. you know, you you can't be on all the time. You are, you still get to be Mikey two males when you send one male. Yeah. Yeah. And he signs off as much. So is again, absolutely fine. oh Let's not make it a pattern. hey It's just, and it's a just a name. it It's just a name. It doesn't have to be your identity.
00:16:34
Speaker
But his response to our episode 44 non X-Men email. Hi, Pat. Tell Matt, I said, I need to ask the Pennsylvania expert for some really good spots of where to go in Philadelphia. My friends and I are going to be traveling to Philly for a yearly meetup in August. And I may have to ask, Pat, since you know so much about Philly, what are some places you would recommend we visit and foods to try?
00:16:57
Speaker
I guess Matt can chime in too. All right, let me handle this, Patrick. First, you're going to want to go to the Franklin Institute. That's absolutely right. i was I was just at the Franklin Institute a few weeks back. It is it is very much a place designed for children, but it is filled with- fascinating scientific toys.
00:17:18
Speaker
What I would say for things to do are museums. There are so many museums in the city. Don't just go to the art. The art museum is beautiful and filled with some some incredible art, but there's so many smaller...
00:17:30
Speaker
art and science museums in the city that some are weird some are just extremely curated ah any of them are worth visiting highly recommend the magic gardens i think we talked about it in like episode one or two but it is an outdoor mosaic that takes up uh like a quarter of a square block the mudder museum beautiful The Mudder Museum is the Museum of Medical Oddities. It's really gross, though, so like be careful, it's depending on that, if you have a strong stomach. Constitution. and' it's it's i I got lightheaded in there, and i I see gross shit all the time. I've never been to the Ben Franklin Museum, but tourists fucking love it, man.
00:18:12
Speaker
I believe that I've never been there either. Yeah. Yeah. i for history, the constitution center is really great. The Betsy Ross house is supposed to be really good. I've never been there, but people sing its praises. And then for food, we're a restaurant city. Like it's, there are so many good restaurants. I can give you recommendations. I would base it just around where you're staying, but if you want to get,
00:18:35
Speaker
A cheesesteak. No Pats. No Geno's. Don't go to Pats. Don't go to Geno's. If you want to go to a touristy spot, there's gyms on South Street. If you really want the experience, though, just go to like a pizza shop near wherever you're staying. That is where you get just the best cheesesteak. Get whatever you want on it. Don't let people tell you what a real one is. Just I do fried onions and hot peppers. I'm going to give a recommendation if you are like a food guy who's yeah like, I'll spend I'll spend good money for like food.
00:19:03
Speaker
Yeah. Miss Rachel's Pantry. But going to have to book way in advance. It has a seasonal menu. It is all locally grown. It is all is it vegan or vegetarian? Anyway, it's incredible, incredible foods. Fixed menu. um yeah Yeah, it is, I think, the best thing you can eat in the city.
00:19:23
Speaker
But it is like pretty fucking pricey, but worth it. A good mid-range restaurant is Sabrina's, I think, for breakfast or honey's. Sabrina's or honey's, I'm a big breakfast guy. yeah Sabrina's, honey's, aunt's pants. Those are my absolute favorite breakfasts in the city. if we If I keep talking about it, I'll keep listing more. Sorry, have one more thing I wanna recommend to everybody out there that wants to visit Philadelphia. If you want the best sausage sandwich of your life, you go to the Home Depot in South Philadelphia
00:19:57
Speaker
And you see a stand in front. It's called Rocco's. It's just like some awning. It's like ah like a covered porch that has a gas grill in it. And they make an incredible sausage sandwich, a great breakfast sandwich.
00:20:13
Speaker
If you can make it down, it's not very walkable down there, but if you can make it down to the South Philly Home Depot in Columbus, the sausage sandwich outside of there is, again, best in the world.
00:20:25
Speaker
We got any other emails? get very passionate about this subject. Yeah, we got so many more. No, no, no, no, no. His name was Dusk has written back in. He says, hey, Pat, can you tell Matt that I've been going through the back issues of your podcast? What's his name now? In episode 22, when you were arguing, he signs off as Dusk.
00:20:45
Speaker
Name was? Okay. is yeah Yeah, It can be both. My name was Pat. My name is still Pat, but it was Pat, too. Yeah. It's a Mitch Hedberg joke he's writing. was He goes on to offer a compliment at a moment that he laughed at very hard. And then he says, what was the moment? What was the moment? What was the moment? What was the moment? i episode 22 when you're arguing about the name of the the defenders dollar bill slash defenders for a day arc. I do remember this it's very clear. It says when Pat declared, okay, well, I win the argument and then moved on. I laughed so hard. I nearly spit up my coffee.
00:21:23
Speaker
Yeah. Pat's actually a funny guy. If you get to, if you get to know what sometimes it's yeah. If you, if you really give him a chance, yeah.
00:21:34
Speaker
If you have all the context, it's very funny. You have to think about it. You have to really think about it and then come back to it. And you're like, oh this guy actually is funny.
00:21:47
Speaker
He keeps going, though. He has a question for you, Matt. oh He says, I know Pat has said he loves Daredevil, Luke Cage, and other more street-level Marvel comics. But what are your favorite non-X-Men comics, Matt? Do they make those? Yeah.
00:22:04
Speaker
uh they do brian bennis's daredevil is just a ah masterpiece matt fractions hawkeye unbelievable incredible run i i like anything that tom king and mitch gerrads do mostly they do dc stuff but they did a uh a vision miniseries that's fucking um unbelievable yeah yeah um it's a character that you'll always pick up oh man that's that's tough i i don't i don't know that i have one like i ah like i love the runaways okay and and then i like i like the silly ones that aren't deadpool like uh sure yeah like yeah like when gwenpool for example is has a lot of really good comics um yes and school so complex squirrel girl yeah sure if i spent some more time with she hulk i bet i'd really like she hulk
00:22:56
Speaker
Oh yeah, sure. yeah Because I think she fits right into that. Gwenpool and Unbeatable Squirrel Girl are in the the grand tradition of She-Hulk, right?
00:23:08
Speaker
Yes, sort of fourth wall breaking, silly female heroine. um Yeah, doesn't have to take itself seriously, but can take itself seriously. Yeah, so yeah.
00:23:21
Speaker
Dusk finishes off with one more question for you, Matt. He says, can you thank Pat for reading my email to you? Thanks, Matt. Huh.
00:23:31
Speaker
I don't think you've ever done that. That's interesting. Yeah, that's really interesting, Dusk. Yeah. Thank you. His name was Dusk. That's a really interesting question. No, Matt, have two more emails. Oh, sorry. or no Two more emails, Matt, and then we are through. We got one from Gene. I don't know if Gene is a listener. We just get, hello.
00:23:56
Speaker
Hey, Gene.
00:24:00
Speaker
Hello, Gene. And then finally, Ink Master writes in, responding to episode 42. He says, hey, Pat, tell Matt that I'll thank the both of you not to discuss my permeable membranes.
00:24:12
Speaker
Did we do that? Did we discuss Ink Master's permeable membranes? I think they mentioned that they were introduced to X-Men through osmosis. So they mentioned their permeable membranes. Yeah, we would just... And then we brought the phrase permeable membranes into the conversation. You brought up your permeable membranes, Ink Master. It's not our fault.
00:24:35
Speaker
And you can't blame us. And we didn't do it. But thank you for the feedback.
00:24:49
Speaker
Oh, map pat that was Matt. Oh, Pat. That was a marathon. That was a lot of emails. So many emails. hope we cut it down from the half hour that it took us.
00:25:02
Speaker
All that aside, the segment's over. I gotta ask, yeah have you done anything X-Men related this week? You know, i didn't expect this question. So we didn't I didn't really ah prepare anything, but let me quick look around the room.
00:25:18
Speaker
I got a new plant, like Aurora Monroe. I'm really bad at keeping, so unlike Aurora Monroe, I'm really bad at keeping plants alive. I do really, a really really bad job. So, okay ah my friends who are plant friends, and there are a few, there are very few of there are very few of those who get me plants, but of the ones who do, they know to get me like low light plants that don't take a lot of water.
00:25:44
Speaker
Yeah, sure. You can water them when you remember. So, I got a little plant. I got just like a little plant. i That's it. hey Pat, have you done anything X-Men related is this week? Pat, I gotta say, and this is a little awkward, but...
00:25:59
Speaker
Aurora Monroe got rid of all our plants. All right, here I go. i don't know. I couldn't make a I couldn't, I didn't know what sound to make. It sounds like you're banging on your mic cord when you throw a plant away. It's identical. Did I do anything X-Men related this week, you said? Yeah, I did say that. I heard i heard you ask it earlier. Yeah, i did. I did. I did ask it. Okay. You don't have to answer though.
00:26:28
Speaker
and But in fact, man, I did. Yeah, but you don't have to answer. Yeah, but you don't have to answer. But in fact, man, already answered. It's okay if you don't answer. It's okay if you don't want to elaborate, though.
00:26:39
Speaker
I was just about to, though. Okay, but it's all right if you don't. You know it's okay you don't. It's all loaded up here. It's just coming out. The thing that I did this week is a lot of thinking about movies. Oscar noms were released, if you saw. Sinners is up there for like...
00:26:57
Speaker
a record-breaking number of nominations, which is incredible. Independent film, not studio-driven. There was no marketing campaign for It's almost entirely word of mouth. yeah Anyway, my favorite movie all time, I think, is Fargo. Have you seen Fargo? Yes, I've seen Fargo. This really does not feel X-Men related thus far. No, no, no. we're I'm pulling it around. i We're right there, Matt. So I'm thinking of our...
00:27:25
Speaker
x-men universe okay uh that we've been building and again think i have connecting piece here is such an interesting word and can mean a lot of different things into a place that where you really see the vision right that's all i'm trying to do here so i've picked another one think uh our next magneto should be william h macy All right.
00:27:56
Speaker
Okay. You're saying, okay. you're Okay. So Wolverine is Bowen Yang. Yeah. um Did you pick a Nightcrawler? No, we haven't picked Nightcrawler yet. Did you pick a Cyclops? That's a tough one. No. Okay. So you've picked... Okay. So you've picked Wolverine. Bowen Yang is Wolverine. You've picked Fred Duncan. And you've picked Magneto. And that's it.
00:28:19
Speaker
And Professor X. Who is Professor X? Drew Carey. Okay. Professor X is Drew Carey. Alan Alda? And William H. Macy. Who's... Alan Alda? I don't know. Who the fuck was Fred Duncan? are casting Alan Alda as? Aaron Eckhart. Aaron Eckhart is Fred Duncan. Is FBI agent Fred Duncan. And William H. Macy is... Okay, so I'm getting sort of like this vibe of like this... This is X-Men as directed by the astonishing team-up of the Coen brothers and Anderson.
00:28:50
Speaker
Together. you think do You think we could get together again for the first time? i think that's what I'm seeing. That's what I'm seeing your vision of the X-Men to be. Am I am i getting close?
00:29:04
Speaker
Well, yeah i just I don't see a lot of Wes Anderson in there. I do think Coen Brothers is probably a good direction to take this. If you think we could get them.
00:29:17
Speaker
i Okay. A Coen Brothers directed X-Men movie? mean, no, that would be that would be amazing. Are kidding That would be amazing. I would love that. I just, I'm still not seeing your cast.
00:29:33
Speaker
Okay, I'll keep trying. ah ah while While you think of it. we should give your brain something else to think about. Like, let's, we'll just focus on something else you can process in the background, right? I love that idea. So, but, so I, I want you, Patrick.
00:29:53
Speaker
Yeah. To tell me about new mutants number nine. Oh, but, Oh, okay. Folks. It's a new mutants episode. It's been, ya been a tiny little bit since we've had a full episode dedicated to the new mutants.
New Mutants Recap and Nova Roma Adventure
00:30:08
Speaker
Yeah, caught an issue here or there, but... And because ah the last couple issues of New Mutants were so weird and complicated, i thought we would just do like a quick recap. What do you think?
00:30:20
Speaker
I think that's a great idea. so I love this idea, Matt. oh Really? Thank you. so Yeah. So, just to remind everybody where we're at. Number one, Karma is missing.
00:30:32
Speaker
She's presumed dead by the mutant New Mutants, but she's presumed alive by Professor x Xavier. Right, right, right. The New Mutants are on a trip in the Amazon with Roberto DaCosta's mother. Okay. Because she's ah she's an archaeologist.
00:30:48
Speaker
Right. Roberto's father, Emmanuel DaCosta, is joining the Hellfire Club and using their resources to send goons to disrupt the trip.
00:31:00
Speaker
Because right he's like trying to do mining out there. Right. Yeah. And he's like, don't don't archaeology there or they won't let me mine there. You know, so these goons were supposed to not harm Bobby or his mom, but they did attack the new mutants, seem to kill them.
00:31:21
Speaker
And Roberto's mother's missing. Right. The mutants, the new mutants, they kidnapped what appeared to be an an indigenous Amazon woman. They just like kidnapped her out of the woods, right? and turned out to be a white blonde woman in brownface.
00:31:37
Speaker
Oh, more yikes. Yeah, so it goes to like from yikes to double yikes. Yeah. The last issue ended with a bunch of Roman legionnaires holding the new mutants at spear point, being like, you're all now slaves of imperial Rome.
00:31:54
Speaker
Remember? Oh. Oh. You know, but we didn't talk about this last episode, but why the fuck didn't they just beat their asses? Yeah, I assumed we would open this episode with a fight. Yeah.
00:32:09
Speaker
And we don't. We don't. We don't. Like, these are just guys with spears. Cannonball take them out in, like, a fucking second, right? Like, why... Well, let's find out why, Matt.
00:32:21
Speaker
In New Mutants number nine, Arena. Chris Claremont, writer, Sal Buscema, penciler, Tom Mandrake, finisher. Tom Mandrake. Tom Mandrake. Don't listen to him cry.
00:32:34
Speaker
ah Tom Wierzykowski, letterer. got the Toms. Glynis Ween, colorist, Louise Jones, editor, and Jim's stupid emperor. Emperor. Emperor. He made them put that in there.
00:32:46
Speaker
Release date July 26th, 1983. Cover date November, 1983. The New Mutants are led through a cave by the Roman legionnaires to a massive valley surrounded by mountains and covered in a dense cloud fog.
00:33:01
Speaker
In the base of the valley is lush greenery, farmland, a flowing river, and a city that's styled exactly like the architecture of ancient Rome. The legionnaires call it New Rome, and this cave is the only way in around. This is just...
00:33:16
Speaker
the Savage Land again. Rome? Sort of. I saw it more as Wakanda for white people. but Like it's a society that has been, it's an advanced society hiding in a remote place in a different country.
00:33:38
Speaker
But it's not advanced. It is they're nu They're not. They have no tech they've no, they have, this is the thing. They've been here. since I guess ancient Rome and have made no advance whatsoever in style, in art, in architecture, in religion, in culture, in technology, nothing.
00:34:00
Speaker
Yes. Imagine like the high point of the Roman empire is imagine just before the events of Julius Caesar. Yeah. Everything just continued on as it was at status quo for 2000-ish years. Although we'll find out this is after Julius Caesar.
00:34:17
Speaker
But, yeah. Well, yeah, everything that's happening here is after Julius Caesar. I mean, they left Rome after Julius Caesar. Roberto wonders why they don't just fight their way out of this mess. Yeah! danny Danny says they're in no shape, and besides, this new girl Amara tells them not to resist because there is much more at stake than their lives. Alright, well that, okay, that's fine.
00:34:42
Speaker
They're all thrown in a dungeon, and Amara identifies herself as Amara Juliana Olivia Aquila, daughter of the first senator of Nova Roma. Nova Roma is a lost Roman city, she explains, but partially populated by Incas who fled the colonial invasion of South America.
00:34:59
Speaker
This Incan faction is trying to overthrow the Roman Republic with absolute monarchy, and Amara is part of the resistance to that movement. She's hiding her identity because her resistance could be dangerous for her father's position. Okay.
00:35:14
Speaker
So, okay. So, all right. So here's what you're telling me. Yeah. There was a white people society hidden in the Amazon. Deep in the Amazon. And then some indigenous Amazonians, the Incans,
00:35:31
Speaker
the inkins Yeah. Integrated into their society. And with their barbaric, absolute monarchist ways, they're trying they're trying to take away the civilized democracy of the white people.
00:35:48
Speaker
And so they needed a white blonde girl to go out into the world and put on brownface to collect some people to help her stop the Incans.
00:36:01
Speaker
Yeah, to collect some civilized people to come and help. So that's the story. That's the story, and that's the story that we're being told. Yeah, it's pretty racist.
00:36:15
Speaker
Okay. All right. Cool. It is ah once again, just Chris Claremont's position on indigenous people and ah ah whether I guess they are current or ancient people and how they would react to the situation. Wild. Okay. All right.
00:36:34
Speaker
Cool, cool, Chris. The mutants are unsure whether to trust her or not, which leads Danny to instinctively pull a fear image from Amara's head, one in which a priestess dressed in black throws her into a pit of fire.
00:36:47
Speaker
Sam and Roberto have had enough. Sunspot suns up and punches out of the cell, but it triggers a series of poison darts in the wall that shoot the mutants and knock them all unconscious. Again, they are always getting knocked unconscious, like every two issues.
00:37:02
Speaker
I love it. I think that it really shows their, like, teenager-ness, because they're so immensely powerful as a group, right? But they're reckless, not just with their powers, but also with their decisions. Okay. And so a lot of times they end up getting knocked unconscious because you can't kill them. I could see that, but do you feel like you're bringing that to that to this, and that Chris Claremont was just like, oh, they're too powerful, they could just, like...
00:37:31
Speaker
Break out of anything. I got a knock on conscious. I think it was intentional here because the way this plays out is i Sam is like, I'm just going to rocket my way out of here. And Raina Danny are like, no. okay Right.
00:37:48
Speaker
Roberto is also like, no, Sam, don't. Because I will. And then he punches the ground and and breaks the cell open. And Danny and Rain are still both like, no.
00:38:01
Speaker
That wasn't why we were telling him not to do it. Meanwhile, a bunch of nude men.
00:38:09
Speaker
pat
00:38:13
Speaker
In the senatorial baths, Senator Akilah tells Senator Galio. Yeah, they call him Gallo and Galio at different points. Okay. I think they call him Galio more later.
00:38:28
Speaker
Yeah. So I think it's Galio, and I think Galo was an accident. All right. Well, if we go back and forth, please forgive us. ah But he tells Senator Gallo that he knows about the prisoners. The boys are to be sent to the arena and the girls sold into slavery.
00:38:44
Speaker
Gallo storms away and tells his wife, Selene, that Akilah learning of the prisoners foiled his plans. He was going to use their powers to take over Rome, but now he has to uphold the law and do the whole arena slavery thing. Wait.
00:38:57
Speaker
so you're So the head of the Incan faction is also a white blonde man. Yes. Okay.
00:39:08
Speaker
All right. Yeah. Okay. Selene, his wife, offers to kill Aquila with sorcery, but Gallo wants to kill him himself. So Selene leads him down a secret hallway to show him her plan B.
00:39:20
Speaker
She waves her hand and an illusory wall turns into a door. The door to a cell where Castro. Remember him? Remember him? Is imprisoned. He offers the services of Emmanuel or the Hellfire Club.
00:39:35
Speaker
Unclear which, or or maybe both, to help them take over Nova Roma in exchange for mining rights in the area. Galio is interested. okay. Okay.
00:39:47
Speaker
In the house of woman. I think it was supposed to say women, but. In unsuspecting, Danny and Ray are getting wine drunk, bathed and groomed until Amara breaks into their sleeping chambers and warns them that they have to get the fuck out of there.
00:40:03
Speaker
Yeah. She says, Danny, don't drink so much. The wine is drugged. Number one, don't drink at all if the wine is drunk.
00:40:16
Speaker
She's like, I only had a little bit, so I'll be okay. But number two, i absolutely love that she runs in, shouts that warning, and Danny goes, oh the wine's drugged? Shit, give me some more. she drinks more. She like downs her. She's having a blast.
00:40:34
Speaker
Under the influence of that drugged wine, though, the girls refuse to get out. Amara reveals to the readers that she was sent from Nova Roma to protect her from the Black Priestess until her father stops the woman.
00:40:46
Speaker
She wonders why the wine drug doesn't affect her and then has a somewhat familiar attack, like a force inside of her trying to burst out and causing her pain and dizziness, feeling like she's on fire inside. Hey, do you remember this happening to anyone else, Patrick?
00:41:02
Speaker
The Phoenix. Oh, yeah, I guess so. I was thinking more like... Dark Phoenix 2? I was thinking more like Kitty Pryde. was thinking Kitty Pryde, but okay. Yeah, I guess it happened to the Phoenix, but like...
00:41:14
Speaker
This has been happening for a while, but never been so bad. As she tries to recover, she cries out, alerting the Black Priestess, draped in shadow, but clearly Selene. I don't know if they were trying to get us to not know who that was, yeah but it's Selene. Selene is the Black Priestess. And just to be clear, it's because Black Magic and she wears black.
00:41:37
Speaker
she is She is, everyone here is white. Yeah, she's a white person very much. Yes, yeah, yeah. Be awful rude if they were like, she was a black woman and they were just like, oh, the black priest. This is Marvel in the 1980s. They did that to everybody.
00:41:53
Speaker
That's true. Sam and Roberto, meanwhile, are chained up and being forced to watch some gladiators train for the arena. They would escape, but they're being kept drugged until the gladiatorial match.
00:42:05
Speaker
Speaking of, we hop forward to the games. A drugged Danielle Moonstar and Rain Sinclair sit next to Senator Galio and passively watch their friends Roberto DaCosta and Sam Guthrie tossed into the ring.
00:42:19
Speaker
Themselves drugged with something that's supposed to throw them into a berserker fury. Fuck! Sam tries to... At least Roberto's gonna get the chance to be just like his hero Wolverine.
00:42:31
Speaker
Right. or ah that one motorcycle man who's also a dick. at Wolf. Sam tries to resist, but Bobby switches right into sunspot form and beats the fuck out of the human gladiators.
00:42:46
Speaker
As wooden carts with big Mario-style spiked rollers on them roll onto the field, Cannonball fires up and shoots straight through them. Yeah, what are these things? They're just like... Was this a real device some point? They're like big tanks with these... Again, it just looks like from a video game, like a roller with spikes that you'd have to hop over. Yeah, yeah.
00:43:07
Speaker
A chariot tries to trample Sunspot, so he dives beneath it, avoiding the horses, and yanks the chariot into the air, throwing it across the arena. it's fucking cool. This part is really cool.
00:43:19
Speaker
The crowds cheer and take bets in the circus as Cannonball continues to wreak havoc on archers and more rollers until he accidentally barrels right into Sunspot. Oh. Whoops. The two, the two, fueled with rage, rear back and collide. Sunspot punch to Cannonball blast. And both revert to normal kid form. Oh, okay.
00:43:40
Speaker
They start wrestling. They're not but they're not out yet, though, Matt. They start wrestling ferociously until Roberto sunspots up again, grabbing Sam by the throat. An enraged Rain watches this and fearing that her love is in peril. Wait. Shifts. Yeah, I don't know where that came from.
00:43:59
Speaker
It must be the drugs shifts to wolf form and leaps into the arena. When she does, it kicks on the mind link between her and Danny and psych snaps out of her drug frenzy.
00:44:12
Speaker
Is it so psyche? I just like to say sleep. so ah ah it's the i mean It's the worst superhero name in comics. So I think we just call her. It's just Danny.
00:44:25
Speaker
While Wolfsbane converges on the two other mutants, Psych trains her powers to pull an image of Professor X from all of their minds, which snaps the kids out of it. That's all it takes. That's all it takes. You see your teacher, you're not on drugs anymore.
00:44:39
Speaker
then If that was the case, I would have had a very different high school experience.
00:44:49
Speaker
Sam apologizes to Bobby, who no time for that nows him as the crowd begins to turn hostile. These are spawn of the black priestess and must be killed. But Senator Gallio seeing an opportunity, halts the panic and announces the mutants to be fulfillment of an ancient prophecy deserving of the Laurel Wreath of Triumph.
00:45:10
Speaker
See, Rain's red hair marks her as a descendant of Julius Caesar, hu while her wolf form marks her as a descendant of the she-wolf who nursed Romulus and Remus. Okay, all wolves are related.
00:45:22
Speaker
These are not just weird kids, but gods. No way. Continue. That is a pretty good pivot on Galiah's part, right? Yeah.
00:45:35
Speaker
It is, this whole issue up to when they get to the arena feels like... I know I keep making this comparison, but it feels so much like Silver Age, maybe late 60s comics where you are just planting a group of characters into a historical situation. They seem to be playing out some sort of political i drama here. Right. And the new mutants are just going to happen to witness it.
00:46:07
Speaker
And then... We get to the arena. There's a lot of action. And then, yeah, just that turn to here's how they get out of it. They're actually considered gods. And this is going to be a much longer story. who Yeah, you know what is great about this issue, though?
00:46:26
Speaker
Sal Buscema's art is finally starting to hit for me. That's true. He's getting pretty comfortable here. the kid ah but ah One thing, we haven't given him enough credit. The kids look like kids. Muscly kids, but kids.
00:46:40
Speaker
Yeah, sure. Which is apparently very hard for any comic book artist. obviously In the grand tradition, I guess, of Renaissance artists. do you ever see Renaissance kids? Yeah. They just look like... Oh, yeah, they look like little demons. Stubby little grown people.
00:46:57
Speaker
But also, like, the action here is really good. the settings here are really, like, well illustrated in the sense of, like, you feel like you're there, not just in the sense of...
00:47:08
Speaker
the pictures um yeah yeah it's like it's it's yeah i think i this episode or this issue just looks really good when uh cannonball smashes through the vehicles with the rollers on them it's fucking thrilling it is or when sunspot dips down under the chariot to he takes like a top view like a bird's eye view to see him diving between the horses Yeah, yeah. And you can like you can feel the action. It all makes sense. It connects one panel to the other. No wasted space. And then he's like, yeah, he's like dragging along the ground as he's trying to get a hand, hold like a a hold on the chariot. And then, yeah, it's it's it's really good. Yeah, man's putting in the work. He's doing he's doing well.
00:47:53
Speaker
And if you want to know more about Sal Buscema's work on the New Mutants, do you want me to tell you about New Mutants number 10? Betrayal! I do.
00:48:04
Speaker
Well, Chris Claremont wrote it. I'll tell you that much. Yes. And Sal Buscema penciled it, which is why I said the thing I said. Good. Yeah, that makes the transition work. The Toms are here. Tom Mandrake is the inker and Tom Morzikowski is the letterer. Glynnis Ween colored this one. Louise Jones was the editor. And Glimmy Dipsnips, editor-in-chief. Release state august twenty third nineteen eighty three covered date, December
00:48:32
Speaker
interner wolf form sits atop a marble throne surrounded by Roberto, Danny, and Sam all being carried on a platform. Everyone's a little unsure about this situation. they're in a There's a grand parade going on all around them. But hey, it's better than the arena.
00:48:51
Speaker
Senator Gallio follows in his chariot, reflecting on how popular he is now that he's found these gods and how he'll use that popularity to break the Senate and become emperor. He and Senator Aquila... ah Aquila? Aquila?
00:49:06
Speaker
I always said Aquila, but I know that's just like the very, very American pronunciation. Yeah, I'm splitting the difference in going with Aquila. Aquila. So he and Senator Aquila meet eyes and stare each other down. Sam notices the tense look between the two senators and tries to discuss it with Bobby, but he's too busy worrying about his mom.
00:49:26
Speaker
Rain, meanwhile, is concerned about all these folks calling her God. okay roberto should be fucking loving like all roberto wants to be is a adored hero right uh but in his home country too yeah but he can't stop thinking about his mom and it's so funny he's like oh i gotta try to hide this so nobody knows i'm upset and immediately immediately danny's like he's thinking about his mom yeah yeah oh I do. I love the moment where rain is like, she's actually pretty into the adoration part of it. yeah She's like, they should not be calling me a God. She says, is not proper. It's true. It is not proper.
00:50:09
Speaker
So here's another thing I'm getting fucking pissed about. Okay. Stop trying to pair these kids up. doesn't work it doesn't fit they feel like fucking friends and but like this idea like rain and sam what and then danny and bobby Yeah, it doesn't make sense. They don't give you any build up to it. But I will argue with you a little one on this map, because I think in a lot of situations, this is just sort of like, oh, yeah, let's start having people hook up in this situation specifically. i think it rings true of being in a like pretty small community of other teenagers where.
00:50:53
Speaker
the girls here seem to be the ones that are defining some sort of relation or trying to define a relationship, trying to say, like, hey, I kind of like this guy I hope that we can connect. And the boys are the ones that are just kind of like either missing it entirely or accepting it. There's some moments where, like,
00:51:16
Speaker
Sam does the exact opposite of readinging of what Rain thinks a person a good person should do in that situation. Right. Totally oblivious, and she it doesn't seem to affect her because this is just their little community. Their hormones are running wild. They're going to start...
00:51:36
Speaker
i can try and pair I can see it with rain, actually. We'll keep an eye on it. If Sam starts returning the affection, that's going to fucking... Yeah, that's gonna that would be uncomfortable. Really annoying, um especially because the age difference. But Bobby does, throughout this next couple issues, just in in little in like passing, the way Danny does in passing...
00:51:59
Speaker
Return it. Return it. He talks about his admiration for her. And when he talks about his admiration for her as like a leader and a strong person, it's great. But every now and then he dips into the romance of it and it's like all right, we don't need that part.
00:52:13
Speaker
It's better without. They do in the New Mutants movie with Danny and Rainn. end up sneaking off and hooking up. And I was oh yeah just hoping that's the direction this is going to go. I realized that we're still in like the early mid-80s, so that's not going to happen. But I really... That was the ship I was rooting for.
00:52:33
Speaker
I think... I think Rain Sinclair is pretty aggressively heterosexual, as we'll find out in the next 100 episodes of this show. um Okay. But Danny, I could see...
00:52:46
Speaker
Danny just seems to be horny all the time, right? Like, she's always like, let me take my clothes off. Let me stare at these men. And sometimes, like, when they're in ah Rio, she's like, ooh, these women are pretty. Like, I could see. She's said some suggestive things, but yeah who knows? Yeah.
00:53:04
Speaker
Back at the palace, the new mutants are pampered by the palace slaves. As Galio speaks of all the good he plans to do for the Republic as a nobleman, he explains that it's actually Senator Akila, the plebeian, who wants to take power and name himself as emperor.
00:53:20
Speaker
Sam's skeptical, but Rain is bought in If Amara, Akila's daughter, was a liar and a sneak, why would her father be any different?
00:53:30
Speaker
Galio jumps on the opportunity, pointing out that Amara was captured with them, but didn't join them in the arena, suggesting that she escaped without consideration for the rest of them. Once the senator leaves, Sam and Rain bicker. Sam trusts Amara, but doesn't trust Galio. But Rain has the exact opposite position.
00:53:49
Speaker
Roberto has no time for this now and goes off to find some time alone. Just as he's thinking about how he's lost so many important women in his life, he sees a woman in custody being marched through the streets that looks an awful lot like his mother from the distance.
00:54:03
Speaker
He runs to see if it's really her, but as soon as he tries to leave the palace, he's met with a platoon of Roman soldiers, telling him he must stay on the grounds for his own protection. He sunspots up and considers plowing through the soldiers, but remembers his training and relents.
00:54:20
Speaker
It's really good moment. Yes. So there's some weird stuff in here. First of all, they're being attended by slaves. Yes.
00:54:30
Speaker
And Roberto's like, my dad was a slave when he was my age. You're what, 15? Mm-hmm. And your dad was a millionaire by the time he was 20?
00:54:43
Speaker
What happened in that five years, man? made a killing. I guess so. The next thing is that Claremont is doing a really good job of writing kids here, right? Yeah, yeah.
00:54:56
Speaker
Like the sense like they don't have experience. They don't have convictions. Right. They only have experience. So whereas like Wolverine might be might say something like I don't believe in slavery. But Roberto's like, man, I don't know how I feel about this. My dad was a slave when he was my age.
00:55:13
Speaker
Rain isn't like, I think something like, ah you know, I have a conviction that something's wrong with Amara. She just is saying that because Amara listened to her, pour her heart out. Confess her. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Her shames.
00:55:27
Speaker
And ah same thing with like, um Sam doesn't trust Galio because like, I don't know, there's something about his tone of voice that reminds me of the the the rep for the, the company rep for the mines. Oh yeah. The one that,
00:55:41
Speaker
ah kept making his dad work weekends or whatever. Yeah, man. What an interesting way to write a group of children who have to make like life and death decisions. Yeah, yeah.
00:55:54
Speaker
Yeah, it's very cool. Like this, at some point, enough of these experiences just become your code, right? It's just that yeah repetition. You don't even think about why anymore, but as a child, you absolutely do. All of this stuff is still fresh in your memory.
00:56:09
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Also, Sam says, mind your elders, girl. You hear me? Shut up. since You're like two years older than Rain. You're a little boy. Shut the fuck up.
00:56:24
Speaker
susanton Did you want to talk about Bobby? Oh, just he is facing a platoon of soldiers that he knows he could take out. He could turn into Sunspot and crash through them and go off and do what he needs to do. But he thinks of Xavier.
00:56:40
Speaker
He thinks of his training. And then he's like, you know what?
Political Intrigue and Arena Fight
00:56:44
Speaker
I'm clearly scaring this man. And it's it is clear. the The soldiers are very scared, but duty bound to to guard him. And he's like... it would be i would be a real dick if I used my powers just to threaten and scare them.
00:57:00
Speaker
And so he powers down. And he apologizes. He apologizes. He's growing up, or oh boy It's a bit of a gruff apology, but yeah, it's just it's progress. So later that night, Danny manages to sneak out by distracting a couple guards at a side entrance. entrance By sounding just like ladies.
00:57:20
Speaker
Pretty ladies. Pretty ladies. Wearing bikinis. And it works. The guards. So to Sal Beshema's credit, he draws two incredible pervert faces.
00:57:33
Speaker
but so like By the gods, are they real? Am I dreaming? Like, imagine if you walked up to somebody to flirt with them. And they blinked at you and they were like, am I dreaming? You'd be like, okay.
00:57:47
Speaker
All right. I, uh, I gotta go. I might be out of your league.
00:57:53
Speaker
So as soon as she gets out of the, uh, villa, she's, she's kidnapped like immediately. Yeah. Even later, Rain and Roberto worry that Danny's been gone for an awfully long time when Roberto notices a hand with a pistol creeping out from behind one of the curtains.
00:58:10
Speaker
He manages to warn Rain and move fast enough to only get hit in the shoulder, but the force knocks him out of the window from several stories up. Sam, waking up to see the chaos, bursts out of the window and manages to catch him before he hits the ground.
00:58:24
Speaker
Back in the room, Rain has managed to subdue the assassin. It's Castro, the mean man from the boat. Oh, hell yeah. After some questioning from Galio, he reveals that Senator Akilah hired him to kill the new mutants. Galio immediately summons a squad to go arrest Akilah.
00:58:44
Speaker
Why would Akilah do that? we And we know he was hired by Galio because we saw him in the cell with Selene. This is his plan? Castro's like, if you let me go, I'll go get you guns and armies and stuff.
00:58:59
Speaker
And Galio's like, I have a better idea. How about you go try to shoot the kids? Well, I think the idea is to not actually kill them, right? To to make it look, to frame Akilah. Right.
00:59:15
Speaker
He's having a failed assassination attempt so that they can still question the assassin and he still has full control of the new mutants. Though... they could just go get an army. They could just have Castro go get an army.
00:59:29
Speaker
They could have. Meanwhile, done Danny wakes up in a mossy cave, remembering only being kidnapped and drugged. She finds herself in a bikini.
00:59:40
Speaker
Oh no. Stop it. Stop. and Stop making the villains undress everybody. God damn it. So fucking weird. Especially children. Stop it. Next to two other unconscious young women.
00:59:55
Speaker
Also in bikinis. Of course. One of them is Amara. Guards show up to the retrieve the girls, but Danny's still too weak from the drugs to conjure an image. The guards inform her that they're taking them to be sacrificed.
01:00:09
Speaker
Oh. They march through the cave to a big boiling lava pit. where they see a woman materialize on a platform jutting out over the lava. She calls herself Selene, daughter of the moon, mistress of the fire, but we would recognize her as the wife of Senator Gallio.
01:00:27
Speaker
She commands the girls to step forward for their sacrifice, and Dani feels the mental tug inside her. Her training is protecting her from what is clearly a psychic command, but the other girls don't seem to stand a chance.
01:00:41
Speaker
Danny, still unable to use her powers, watches helplessly as the girl that's not Amara ascends the stairs. ah She ascends the staircase to Selene's platform and walks right off it into the lava.
01:00:53
Speaker
yeah Selene takes great pleasure in and absorbing energy from the sacrifice. Back in town, Sunspot and Cannonball burst through the walls of the Aquila estate, sending guards flying everywhere. Roberto is mad and looking for revenge, but Sam notices this is all a little too convenient.
01:01:11
Speaker
Castro gave up Akila with minimal questioning, and Galio had a whole army that was a little too ready to go and storm this compound. Yeah, they were just there. They were like, oh, we already know our orders, too.
01:01:23
Speaker
Rain wants to hop in the battle, too, but Galio insists that as as a goddess and a child, she must not put herself at risk. Sam manages to pull Bobby away from the fight by flying him up in the air and explains how suspicious this all seems.
01:01:39
Speaker
They agree to prevent any execution of Aquila till he's had a fair trial, bursting in just as Galio's guards are closing in on him. They prevent the guards from murdering Aquila. Man, Sam's so fucking brave.
01:01:51
Speaker
Yeah, very cool moment for him to yeah to part with in army. Yeah, he's so, he he is fucking fearless. He does this all the time now, and it's so cool.
01:02:05
Speaker
I love Sam. They offer to escort him to the palace for his trial. Galio and Akila trade words in Latin where Galio all but admits he's doing this to further his plan to become emperor and is pinning all the blame on Akila.
01:02:19
Speaker
Little do they know, and little did we know, Bobby speaks Latin. What the fuck? And he heard the entire exchange. Can you imagine Bobby sitting there trying to study Latin and succeeding at it? This is Roberto da Costa.
01:02:41
Speaker
Back in the cave, amerra Amara stands on the edge of Selene's platform, clearly in a daze as Selene explains her part of the master plan. Years ago, she took Amara's... Classic villain stuff. She is about to kill Amara and she's like, before you hop in the lava pit, let me tell you everything that led to this moment and then everything that's going to happen after. ah Years ago, she took Amara's mother and is now thrilled to observe absorb her life force as well. Once she kills Amara and her husband kills Akilah, they will rule Nova Roma.
01:03:21
Speaker
Danny, being restrained by guards, is finally able to find the strength and summon an image of those guards' greatest fears, a giant vampire. A huge one.
01:03:32
Speaker
yeah If it was a smaller vampire, they would have been like, we can take it. yeah yeah I think it's supposed to be Selene, but kind of distorted.
01:03:44
Speaker
Oh. Big sharp teeth is is what made me say vampire. She runs up, Dany runs up onto the platform and tries to use her powers on Selene, but Selene has already protected herself from this. She grabs Dany by the throat, holds her over the ground, and explains.
01:04:00
Speaker
Upon meeting Dany, Selene immediately sensed that she was special, like her, a mutant, instead of sacrificing her. Selene plans to sway Dany to her side in service of her and use Dany's powers to convince the rest of the new mutants to serve her as well.
01:04:18
Speaker
With that power, they can control the world, not just New Rome. The world. She's doing something to weaken Dany, but the fight was enough of a distraction for Amara to break free. She jumps for Selene, who knocks her back with force, sending her flying into the lava.
01:04:37
Speaker
Amara. Rest in peace, Amara. Yeah. Yeah. Man, it feels like there was more to that character that we should have gotten to know. Above ground, an earthquake sets off, toppling columns and opening fiery fissures in the ground. Back in the cave, we see a glowing red figure swirling with fire, ride a tower of flame out of the lava pit, swearing vengeance and doom upon Selene.
01:05:04
Speaker
To be continued. Whoa. Wow. Extremely... ah cool. Yeah. mean New Mutants is good all of a sudden. Yeah. Dude, this was game. I think a big part of it is number one, Sal Buscema is having a blast. He is drawing the... ah roman empire which it seems like he really enjoys because there's so much detail in in everything that he's doing yeah yeah he's also ah really nailing the occult feel of selene without really having any mysticism around it yet aside from sacrifices like it's just vibes that you get this feeling of oh there's some
01:05:53
Speaker
witchy shit going on here right right i mean i'm gonna have some questions about selene she's got so many powers in these issues that it's like what what is specifically her mutant power you know there's one point in the next issue where she says what her mutant power is but she uses it exactly once and does five other magic things through this run Pat, you say he seems really into the architecture of Rome and all Rome and stuff,
01:06:33
Speaker
You believe this guy can't choose between Doric and Ionic columns? Oh, right. What a fucking dope. You think you are ancient Greece? Yeah, he's like, oh, ah ah what, would this have a Doric column or an Ionic column? Oh, maybe both.
01:06:52
Speaker
Oh, was was Zeus here? Did Zeus tell you that? Did Zeus tell you? did zeus say Oh, what is that? A Corinthian column? Come on, man.
01:07:06
Speaker
uh uh anachronism much ah let me check my watch oh it looks like it's uh anachronism o'clock oh it seems like somebody missed the memo Didn't get the email on architectural style through the ages.
01:07:30
Speaker
so The art rules and the the characterizations are incredible. Right? Like, like again, that's why we paused this description so many times to just talk about characters' motivations. Because that all of them have such depth. And, like, you really understand...
01:07:47
Speaker
who these people are, why they're doing what they're doing, what makes them different from each other more than just their accents and their cultures. Like, yeah, it, this is, I think where the new mutants really come alive. And like, we know who these people are now. Yeah.
01:08:03
Speaker
Also, the you like the the teen crush stuff aside, yeah really doing a lot of work to establish the relationships between these characters. When they trust each other, when they disbelieve each other, does the points of tension and the points of reconciliation between them. Right. It's really you just a yeah a full understanding of all these characters.
01:08:28
Speaker
Yeah, really, really impressive stuff. And um it's going to continue. I think that was a good note to end it on, Matt. All right. Well, ah thank you, everybody, for coming. Good night, everybody. Now that we've got your Patreon money, we've decided to only do two issues per episode.
01:08:47
Speaker
And like we say at the end of every episode, New Mutants number 11, Magma. Chris Claremont, writer, Sal Buscema, penciler, Tom Mandrake, finisher. They keep calling him a finisher. Louise Jones, editor, Joe Rosen, letterer. Breaking up the Toms.
01:09:09
Speaker
Glynis Ween, colorist, and Tim Booter, editor-in-chief. Release date, September 27th, 1983. Cover date, January Celine is fucked,
01:09:22
Speaker
or so it appears She just cast Amara Akila into a pit of fire and she's burst back out on a pillar of rock looking like a swirly human torch hurling fire at the Black Priestess.
01:09:35
Speaker
Selene seems to be countering it with some kind of magic and telling everyone that she has preyed on mankind since the dawn of history, summons rock monsters to collapse on Amara.
01:09:46
Speaker
These are fucking cool looking rock monsters. They are cool. They are cool. They've got like jack-o'-lantern mouths. They look rad.
01:09:57
Speaker
And this is the point she specifically says here. I'm a mutant. My power is to control all things inanimate. Okay. so so what So what is sucking the energy from dead people?
01:10:13
Speaker
And what is the thing that she does later where she like shoots green bands out of her hand? Yeah. Or when she zaps people? Yeah, yeah! there were said There are several mutant powers here. This is the one that she... Or maybe some of them are mystic. This is the one that she says is her mutant power. Right, and maybe other than that, maybe she's also just like a matt magic lady.
01:10:35
Speaker
Selene, this might give us some clue, looking markedly older, summons rocks from the walls of the cavern to push her own followers into a magma pit, and suddenly she looks young again.
01:10:47
Speaker
Her own followers. She's just like moving rocks to eliminate any ledges in the room. you're all going But we served you so well. hey! but i but hey This is what happens when you join a death cult!
Selene's Confrontation and Amara's Transformation
01:11:03
Speaker
God!
01:11:06
Speaker
Somehow she looks younger than she did before. Yeah, because she just sacrificed like 10 people. Somehow she transfers some of that dark energy to Danny, tempting her to join her in conquering the world.
01:11:20
Speaker
However, Danny leaps to her feet in defiance. As she does, the lava pool erupts in columns of magma that all converge on Selene. Amara, still aflame, stands atop the column, unharmed.
01:11:34
Speaker
God damn it. So cool. he's Yeah, this what an opening. And fucking Danny being Danny and being so rad and fucking, oh, wow this, whoa, we didn't know this about Amara at all.
01:11:48
Speaker
And she just destroyed Selene. Just like, oh here's this huge threat. Clomp. Gone.
01:11:58
Speaker
Danny struggles to get away but falls at Amara's feet. She accidentally pulls a fear from Amara's head again in image of her burning Danny accidentally because she can't control her new flame powers. Yeah, there is a amazing moment. So Amara walks over to Danny who's like flailing on the ground and like there's this intimidating fire woman standing above her and she goes, hi Amara.
01:12:24
Speaker
How are you doing? Good. I think it's meant to be cheeky. I know. It's great. It's so good. It's very good. Amara turns away, fearing that she's a monster, but suddenly is wrapped up in green bands. Yeah, this. She falls in human form to the floor as Selene, still unharmed, stands above her. What? No, but we just... Selene drains all the life from Amara, who falls into Danny's arms, eyes blank, body limp.
01:12:57
Speaker
She's dead. ah Yeah. I have a question. Yeah. Does this ever get resolved? Like, okay. She's clearly not dead, right? Like, I don't know that that's a spoiler.
01:13:14
Speaker
Do we ever know why she's not dead? Like, she's dead. She's dead here. She's lying dead. no When she reappears, she says, yeah, turned out I wasn't dead. ah Ugh, okay. Well. But for now, she's dead for the second time. She's so dead. this episode Back in Senator Akilah's villa,
01:13:36
Speaker
Galio thanks the kids for their help, but they don't feel great. They ask for help finding Danny, and Galio says he'll form a search party, while one of the centurions tells him in Latin that since she's a maiden, the Black Priestess probably has her.
01:13:51
Speaker
I thought for sure this was going to be Bobby discovering this. Right. He just doesn't hear it. just Yeah, yeah. He forgot his Latin.
01:14:02
Speaker
Rain offers to help the search party, and Senator Aquila tries to warn her that Galio is a traitor, but Galio silences Aquila and tells Rain to leave it all to him. Bobby, believing he may have spotted his mother again, warns Sam and sneaks off, knocking out a legionnaire and donning his armor.
01:14:20
Speaker
Bobby begins putting the pieces of the conspiracy together as he sneaks through the villa and finds his mother chained up in a cell, arguing with Castro. Castro tells her that he was ordered by her husband not to harm her, but accidents happen.
01:14:37
Speaker
This is Bobby's Magnum P.I. moment. Sunspot bursts in and rushes Castro, knocking him out. He rips his mother's chains apart, and the two have an emotional reunion.
01:14:49
Speaker
She tells Bobby that she was rescued by the fake Amazons. She tells him about the Black Priestess and her cult, and Bobby deduces that this is probably where Danny is. She can take care of herself, though, he thinks. He devises a plan to, he's pretty sure, he devises a plan to free every prisoner he can and join the fake Amazons with Akilah's men to stop Galio's plans.
01:15:12
Speaker
Okay. In Galio's chambers, Sam and Rain are beginning to bristle as Senator Akilah is whipped bloody on the floor. Galio secretly orders Sam some poisoned wine and raises a toast to Danny when suddenly Amara bursts through the fucking floor. She's okay.
01:15:33
Speaker
She's fine. she see This is the moment where she says, oh, actually, I didn't die there. I was resting.
01:15:43
Speaker
She's on fire and begging her father to save her. The guards charge her, but at that moment, Roberto da Costa swings in on a rope, knocking a host of guards to the floor.
01:15:55
Speaker
As they round on him, his mother and an army of fake Amazons and Akilah's guards all charge in. Yes. Wolfsbane turns Wolf and guards Senator Akilah while Sam cannonballs through Galio's army.
01:16:09
Speaker
As the mutants fight the guards, Akilah and Galio square off with short swords. Despite Galio's advantage in size and fitness, Akilah manages to stab the man through the heart.
01:16:21
Speaker
God damn. It's very cool. This is also not unearned, by the way, when i think we skipped it in the recap. But when is first being arrested by Galio's men, he starts stabbing him. He's taking him out. Yeah, that's right. Who's next? Who else? said if you're going to take me, I'm coming down with you. It is the gooiest bloody sword that I've ever seen, though.
01:16:45
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. They get again. Sal is just having having the time of his life here. Yeah, yeah. It's it's really, so you know, it's just some lore about Senator Galio. He has very thick blood, thick, gooey blood.
01:17:01
Speaker
Battle won.
Battle Against Selene and Amara's Choice
01:17:02
Speaker
They rush to Amara, who tells them about her transformation, and Selene, the psychic vampire, And her plans to turn Danny into something like herself.
01:17:11
Speaker
So this is where we also learn that she's a psychic vampire. Yeah, apparently she's a psychic. Apparently she's a psychic vampire. Amara leads the new mutants down through the caverns to find Danny, but are stymied by Selene's control of rocks. Or up through the caverns. We have to discuss this soon, but okay. Wolfsbane gets separated from the other three, who are cocooned in rock tombs.
01:17:35
Speaker
Though this doesn't hold up to Sam's cannonballing and Amara's magma form. Bobby can't transform to Sunspot, though, because he's out of sun power. He does once more, but yeah he but if they forget for a panel.
01:17:48
Speaker
ah So Cannonball grabs them both and rockets into Selene's chamber where Wolfsbane is already squaring off against a rock monster. The mutants charge, but are blasted back by Selene's ill-defined powers. However, while she's concentrating on fighting the mutants, Danny finds a chink in her psychic armor and summons her greatest fear, death.
01:18:12
Speaker
Also, they change Danny's outfit again. Again. yeah Again. Pervert Selene just keeps undressing her. buts her and It's actually you a very nice outfit that she puts her in. It's like a a fancy ye robe.
01:18:26
Speaker
it's It's exactly like Selene's outfit, only in like a lighter blue, which is like a really, really deep V. Yeah, yeah. And they're wearing high heels.
01:18:37
Speaker
All this fashion in ancient Rome. So Selene is staring at her greatest fear, death. Bobby takes this opportunity to plunge a knife into Selene's chest, but Selene tells him she doesn't have a heart.
01:18:54
Speaker
ah Just another, another thing. Selene starts sucking out Bobby's life force, but Sam, realizing this mountain must be above the cloud cover of Nova Roma, blasts a hole in the wall. The sun floods in, powering Sunspot and overloading Selene.
01:19:12
Speaker
Amara creates a fissure in the ground, revealing a river of lava, and Sunspot lifts Selene up and throws her into it. He then smashes the ground, burying the lava flow and Selene in rock. Okay, are they in a fucking mountain or are they underground? What is happening here?
01:19:31
Speaker
to The... Just above us is the sky above the cloud cover. Just below us, the Earth's core and the magma that flows within.
01:19:41
Speaker
Look, I only have taken one geology class, and it was the only class that I got an A- minus in instead of an A or an A+. plus okay So, questionable source on this. It absolutely destroyed my GPA. Changed it from a 4.0 to a 3.99. All right, you to a three point nine nine right you nerd Get to the point.
01:20:03
Speaker
I don't, I think it's an either or scenario. I don't think you have lava flows, like active lava flows in rivers underneath you while you were up in a mountain high, high, high above a big valley.
01:20:17
Speaker
Couldn't you, what if you were at the top of a volcano? They're not.
01:20:27
Speaker
Also, was a big hollow mountain. Yeah, it's got caves. I guess mountains have caves, but this is like a big dome at the top of the mountain. Like, if you if you knock on a mountain too hard, you're gonna crack into its juicy center.
01:20:48
Speaker
ah Sam is upset at Bobby for killing Selene, but... Bobby tells them she's probably unkillable. How does he know that? What? ah so would it's I understand we'll see Selene again in the future at
Roberto's Family Conflict
01:21:05
Speaker
some point, but if you were reading this at the time, not knowing she would come back, what an insane statement.
01:21:13
Speaker
um She's probably unkillable. It also... it would have been so much cooler for him to just be like, yeah, I killed her.
01:21:25
Speaker
And she them have to reckon with that. Like, that's just a part of his personality. Like it is Wolverines, you know, you're building these team dynamics, but, uh, Far be it from us to tell Chris Claremont how to write a book he clearly doesn't want to be writing. But is starting to find his groove in, to be fair. Yeah, yeah.
01:21:44
Speaker
Amara wonders if, now that she knows she's a mutant, will she become a hero like the new mutants or a villain like Selene? Ooh. The end.
01:21:55
Speaker
I'll be honest. Yeah. This was a good series. Yeah. It rolled. No, for Roke. Yeah. Great. Great. Great. And you'd think, because of that, Amara is going to be like the best new character in New Mutants.
01:22:11
Speaker
Oh man, she came from their best arc so far. She's going to be great. I don't care for her so far. ha ha. Don't you you know, everybody's favorite X-Men character, Magma, who has such a defined personality and we all love very much and we all talk about all the time.
01:22:31
Speaker
Magma, what a great character. all the merch. Yeah. All Matt, that arc is over, but there's so we still have to deal with the consequences of it, right?
01:22:42
Speaker
Okay, I will. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. i can't I know how to do it. I'm going to do it by reading you New Mutants number 12. Sunstroke. Yes.
01:22:53
Speaker
Chris Claremont, writer Sal Buscema, penciler Tom Mandrake, finisher George Rousseau's colorist Tom Orzakowski. The Toms are back together. He's the letterer. Louise Jones is the editor and flimsy stupid is the editor in chief. Yeah.
01:23:12
Speaker
Man, we need to do better about this. need to get back in that groove before they pick a new editor-in-chief.
01:23:21
Speaker
Released date October 25th, 1983. Cover date February 1984. Downtown Rio de Janeiro. Emmanuel Da Costa enters his the city's newest skyscraper, greets the doorman Ephraim, ascends to the penthouse and enters his office. As he turns on the lights, his chair wheels around to reveal his son, Roberto, confronting him about his, his mother's and his friend's survival at the hands of a assassin he hired.
01:23:52
Speaker
It's so cool. What a cool chair turnaround in a dark office moment. It was a cool chair turnaround. However, when I first read this, I was like, oh, did Bobby take over his dad's company? Did he somehow like oust his dad? Did he defeat his dad somehow? But now they just get a little argument.
01:24:12
Speaker
Yeah. Emmanuel tries to play cool, explaining that if everyone left unharmed, then I'll win according to plan. If a Roberto... or anyone else had died, he would definitely have been sad.
01:24:25
Speaker
Sure. But they didn't, which was his plan all along. I swear, i swear, son, if what I did killed you, I would have definitely been crying. So, I'm a good dad, actually.
01:24:39
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. It's not that I don't care if you die. It's just that I... I would care if you died. Roberto's not buying it and swears off the family fortune. He tells his father that the man that raised him, the man he loved, is gone.
01:24:55
Speaker
Emmanuel raises his hand to Roberto, but Roberto transforms to Sunspot. Fucking cool. And dares him to try it. Emmanuel swears he has no son. Roberto swears he has no father. And the two part ways.
01:25:10
Speaker
emmanuel immediately calls sebastian shaw sebastian my son was killed at sebastian do do you really think i'm a bad dad
Amara's Cultural Struggles and Power Control
01:25:25
Speaker
um ah he calls sebastian saw and accepts his offer to join the hellfire club's inner circle whoa Man, I hate a disembodied head panel.
01:25:37
Speaker
There's a panel here where Roberto's head is just kind of floating in a bunch of squiggly lines. Yeah, they cut it off at the neck. yeah I do not like it. Roberto, meanwhile, is kicking himself on the elevator ride down. He really did just want to talk to his father to understand, but let his temper get the better of him.
01:25:56
Speaker
He reflects on his last conversation with his mother, who insisted on staying in the Medaria. She loves Emmanuel too much to confront him about this. This is such a weird... Toxic relationship, much? ah Absolutely. But at the same time, Roberto's mother is like, hey, he's lost right now. That man is not your father. And if we love him, we don't abandon him when he's lost. And that was kind of like a...
01:26:25
Speaker
At least shed some light on this weird relationship they have. But Patrick, what would ah what would relationship TikTok say about this?
01:26:35
Speaker
What would psychology TikTok say about this? I don't know, Matt. I'm not following TikTok. Danny and Amara, meanwhile, are sitting on the beach in Ipanema, where Amara marvels at everything around her bathing suits, the number of people, the hot sun, it's all new.
01:26:50
Speaker
She reflects on why she had to leave the comforts of home in Nova Roma. Her father wants Xavier to train her, and when she objected, she threw a tantrum and summoned a lava spout into their home.
01:27:04
Speaker
Can you imagine? Oh, no. Just like, just like oh I'm so mad. Ah! Fuck! Sorry, Dad. Sorry.
01:27:15
Speaker
God, I burnt all of our photo albums. She must learn how to control her powers. Her thoughts are interrupted, though, when a group of muskly boys approach her and Danny on the beach and offer them company.
01:27:30
Speaker
When Danny rebuffs them, one of them grabs Amara by the waist and forces a kiss on her. ah Enraged, she inadvertently, but justly I'll say, summons a small volcano on the beach as she pushes the man away. People go flying everywhere as the beach clears.
01:27:54
Speaker
This is terrifying. Could you imagine being on the beach and a volcano shoots out of the ground? Just like tosses you into the waves. You're like, huh? Nearby, Rain enters a Catholic church despite being a Protestant.
01:28:09
Speaker
She's looking for guidance. She's in a bad place. She feels guilty for allowing people to call her a god and she feels used by Galio for her mutant power. She generally feels unaccepted.
01:28:20
Speaker
Even her friends, including her crush Sam, seem to like Amara more than her. Perhaps they don't like Rain, just the wolf. We
Religious Themes and Amara's Vision
01:28:30
Speaker
should be counting wee slip of a girl's, by the way.
01:28:34
Speaker
Oh, I think we would lose count. she Just keeps calling herself a wee slip of a girl. Just a wee slip of a girl. I'm just a wee slip of a girl. I keep going to it's you We're both doing just a wee slip of a girl. I'm just a wee slip of a girl. There we go.
01:28:48
Speaker
Ironically enough, Sam runs into the church at that moment, needing use of her wolf powers. They just like me for my wolf powers. Hey!
01:28:59
Speaker
Rain, get out here! We need your wolf powers! That's almost verbatim what he says. We need your wolf powers. Amara has disappeared after causing a scene on the beach. Their best hope is Rain's tracking abilities as a wolf.
01:29:14
Speaker
Amara, meanwhile, still in a bathing suit, is wandering in the middle of a busy street, eliciting car horns, screeching tires, and Portuguese curses. the she can't understand any of them because she speaks English and she speaks Latin and that's it. ah Why do they speak English? Do we ever get an explanation for that?
01:29:37
Speaker
Why Amara speaks English? Yeah, why anybody in Nova Roma speaks English. Well, most of them speak Latin, and then they have like a tenuous grasp of English. Okay. like They speak very simple phrases in English. She was sent out into the world to learn more about it, but actually to be protected from Selene, right? So in order to go out in the world, she had to learn a number of languages. I'd be curious how they learned English in Nova Roma, being that they haven't had contact with the outside of the world since...
01:30:09
Speaker
I guess we you're obbc but we just have to assume that they've, they it's like the Amish. They've made a decision to isolate themselves. Like they know that the outside world is there.
01:30:22
Speaker
Well, yeah. I mean, they know that it's there, but if they're not talking to anyone from it, where are they picking up different languages? Well, that's what I mean. They're going and buying dictionaries? but ah Well, ah just like the Amish. maybe they like ah Maybe they go out to like farmer's markets.
01:30:40
Speaker
buy some ah roman i guess Buy some Roman cabbages, then. That's my Amish accent. That's what your Amish? That's pretty good, actually. Buy some Roman cabbages.
01:30:51
Speaker
The hot sun beats down on Amara as she tries to escape the chaos, only meeting more cars as she runs. Finally! A police officer runs in to stop traffic and help her, but upon hearing her speak English, assumes she's a foreigner and on drugs. He tries to arrest her, sending her back into a panic, and rock formations start shooting out of the ground, sending traffic flying.
01:31:12
Speaker
God. This is nuts. A few blocks away, the new mutants hear the commotion start running towards it, only to find the aftermath of Amara's freakout. Flipped cars fire and giant rods and giant rocks jutting out of the ground.
01:31:27
Speaker
Sam wants to stay and help the authorities clean up, but Danny points out that their bigger responsibility right now is finding Amara and reining her in. Rain transforms into wolf form to start tracking again, but the smell of sulfur and smoke interferes with her senses.
01:31:45
Speaker
They illustrate this by having Rain in wolf form, Smee's, and... Sal Besheba has to draw a dog mid-sneeze. He just scrunches up its face like like it's a rat. Like it looks like a rat now. Like it's a human. like yeah And he's doing his best. It would be very difficult to find reference for that, I imagine, especially in 1983. But...
01:32:10
Speaker
definite It is a dog, as if a dog had human facial muscles and was reacting to a sneeze the way a human does. Because when a dog sneezes, it just kind of goes like, like it just kind of yeah bursts out of its nose. if spin Spin its head around a little.
01:32:26
Speaker
When it's
Rescue and Controlling Powers
01:32:27
Speaker
gearing up to sneeze, maybe it bares its teeth, but it doesn't go, ah, like, yeah. that's But again, to his credit, it is the If you can see the musculature of it, you you can understand where he's coming from. but just this is an absurd picture. But imagine Sal Buscema getting that page where Claremont's like, and then the wolf sneezes. He's like, what the fuck do you want me to draw here Instead, they follow the path of destruction. They didn't need her senses after all. Elsewhere, Amara has finally found a relatively quiet place, an abandoned derelict lot where she can be left alone. The sun continues to beat down and the air is hot.
01:33:10
Speaker
She decides to sit and stop fighting off the delirium she can feel creeping over her. Suddenly, she's surrounded by lava, crying out to the god Helios, offering herself to the sun. Helios accepts and she becomes one with the with the god. She returns to the glowing red form, fire swirling through her body and out into a head of fiery hair. She rev revels in the power, feeling the lava within the earth like she feels the blood in her veins.
01:33:40
Speaker
Can you feel the blood in your veins, Pat? Yeah. Can you not? Oh, mutant menace pod at gmail.com. Can you feel the blood in your veins?
01:33:50
Speaker
As a God, she towers over the city of Rio, bringing hellfire down upon it, collecting the lives of the city's inhabitants as a great sacrifice. She grows more powerful, plotting to reshape the world itself, ruling with fear and wrath.
01:34:04
Speaker
She starts to dig deeper into that well and suddenly find Selene, the black priestess, willing her to keep embracing this power. This Snaps her out of the vision, placing her back in the empty lot, unsure if she dreamt it or really leveled the city.
01:34:19
Speaker
She collapses as she prays for strength, and we see a group of shadows converge on her and take her. Ugh. roberto when they start following when they decide to follow the uh he goes roberto says follow that volcano and it's one of these claremont things where he's like has another character go oh roberto cracked a joke oh yeah because when i read it i was i did not read it as a joke right yeah they're literally following you it's a joke
01:34:50
Speaker
I think it's interesting also here that Amara's perception, like, that we get two religious scenes here. And one is Rain feeling this, like, guilt of...
01:35:04
Speaker
yeah yeah her belief in God coming down on her and then from Amara who feels like she's got the Roman conception of gods and godhood so as a god like so a god is going to support her Using her power to subjugate others. Right. Helios is going to side with her here and exchange for her service. Right. And because she is now like a God, it is perfectly acceptable for her to take people's lives, for her to destroy cities like this is perfectly this is what a God does.
01:35:42
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. The narration makes a point to be like, she doesn't regret doing this. She doesn't feel guilt. This isn't an evil act in her mind. This is what a god does. Right, right.
01:35:54
Speaker
Just a short time later, the team stands on that same spot where Amara was just taken from. Rain tracking in werewolf form, but she's no longer there. After yelling at Sam for petting her like a dog.
Amara's Reflection and Recovery
01:36:06
Speaker
Yes, that's fucking rude.
01:36:09
Speaker
Very rude. Rain notes that there's a strange tinge in the air. One that Bobby explains means an earthquake is imminent. They have to move fast. They track her to a shanty town in the hills of Rio where they find a group of children, even younger than the team, attending to Amara.
01:36:26
Speaker
Oh, it's like she she's in this hostile environment where it's like every, everybody's terrible. Everything is terrible. Every, around every turn, it's worst examples of humanity.
01:36:39
Speaker
And then just a group of kids take her back to their house, like their own house, to help her. Really. These were the the shadows converging on her going, should we take her?
01:36:49
Speaker
Which we think, because of everything she's experienced so far, like... is gonna be malicious. It's even, it's a really clever trick where, like, we can't see the people saying it, and because it's written, we can't hear the tone, so yeah in our heads, we just apply a menacing tone to it, when really it's a, maybe we should take her. Should we take her? To the hospital. ah ah When you put it that way, it seems a lot sillier than the thing that was gonna make me tear up in a second. They drag her to the shantytown. Oh, yeah, um...
01:37:25
Speaker
Uh, she's feverish, soaked with sweat, and delirious, clearly suffering from sunstroke. They could break the fever with- Yeah? Oh, so it- it actually was just sunstroke. That's why this issue is called sunstroke. Oh, because she had sunstroke. They're fighting sunstroke.
01:37:41
Speaker
Oh, yeah. They could break the fever with some ice, but Roberto explains that they'd be hard-pressed to find any in this poor neighborhood. Ooh. Danny tries to summon Amara's greatest desire, recalling when she was able to summon a snowstorm for the overheated rain. But she only summons a vision of the angel of death chasing down Amara and the entire team.
01:38:04
Speaker
ah Okay. Her greatest desire is to die and take the new mutants with her. Can you imagine? is First of all, why does she want to take the new mutants out? I don't know. i don't know. Okay. But can you imagine being Danny and just trying to help somebody and being like, oh, whoops, I summoned to the angel of death.
01:38:30
Speaker
Danny
Discussion on Powers and Responsibility
01:38:31
Speaker
insists they need some ice. And this time Bobby knows where to find some. He and Sam blast off to a nearby warehouse district where they find an ice truck. And rocket it back to the house, noting along the way that the bay is boiling it and the lava is bubbling up in the middle of it.
01:38:47
Speaker
That's scary. But we got to talk about this ice truck. Okay. Because Roberto is able to lift it as sunspot. That makes sense.
01:38:58
Speaker
Sam... is able to carry Roberto places using his blasting power. And as we know, he and anything he's carrying are invulnerable.
01:39:13
Speaker
That makes sense. This checks out. How'd they work an ice truck into Sam's rocketing? Yeah. Yeah. Carrying it through the sky and the way they justify it. Sorry. I'm very mad about this. The way they justify it is,
01:39:29
Speaker
Because Sam is nigh invulnerable while he's blasting, his arms should be able to handle the strain of picking up a man who's picking up an ice truck.
01:39:47
Speaker
You know, I've always thought about this with Wolverine, right? If Wolverine heals, maybe we could do Deadpool because apparently, I guess Deadpool heals faster than Wolverine. is life Sure.
01:39:57
Speaker
ah Okay. So if Deadpool gets under a big heavy object and just starts lifting, Are his muscles going to tear apart and heal fast enough? Like so fast that he becomes strong enough to lift the thing. Yeah.
01:40:14
Speaker
No, I think he would get crushed, but then eventually he would be able to because he would continue trying to lift the rock. The muscles would continue to tear, continue to rebuild. That's what I'm saying.
01:40:27
Speaker
And every time they re-grew, they'd be a little stronger because that's what happens when you tear a muscle and regrow it, right? Yeah, yeah. So eventually, I don't think he could do it quickly enough to hold up this giant rock, but he would get squished, slowly heal back to this, like, extremely jacked version.
01:40:45
Speaker
And then did they do they go back to normal? Is that the thing about Wolverine and, like, ah a healing factor? Is it... Ooh, that's a good question. It always brings you back to, like, ah a normal?
01:40:57
Speaker
Yeah, to your original form. Right. Or would Deadpool stay, like, super jacked until he dies some sort of other flattening death, I guess? And then he yeah yeah then he has to, like, rebuild his muscles, yeah. Yeah.
Amara's Training and Adjustment at Xavier's
01:41:13
Speaker
All Amara sees only darkness followed by fire, then followed by a sheet of ice that shatters and sends her back to consciousness. She's okay. The fever's broken. The delirium's faded. Amara accepts that she needs x Xavier's training and it asks if she really destroyed the city.
01:41:30
Speaker
Luckily, she only damaged some streets and this one poor family's home and created a new island in the bay. Everything's just fine. The end. Yeah, they fill this poor family's home with ice.
01:41:41
Speaker
They do. They also burst in like it's a ah villain's lair. And it's like all these all these these kids and you can see their breath and they're like barely clothed and they're like... yeahf It's just water all over the floor. yeah, yeah, yeah. Also, she created an island in the bay. I feel like that's going to flood. It's going to breach the floodgates.
01:42:07
Speaker
That's probably fine. That's a geological event, Matt. ah That's going to change global weather patterns. yeah ah Matt, what say yeah we read one more issue of New Mutants today?
01:42:21
Speaker
I just want to go back to school, Pat. Well, luckily, oh the issue we're going to read is New Mutants number 13, School Days.
01:42:33
Speaker
Days is these. Days. Oh, it's like Nietzsche. School Daitchie. Oh, school day. ch It's with for this is an audio medium. So for those of you that are looking at it, it is spelled D-A-Y-Z-S-E. And having read this issue, I'm not sure why. Me neither. I think it's I think it's Claremont not having the courage of his convictions to do the school days D-A-Z-E thing.
01:42:59
Speaker
Years before Spike Lee would have done it. Chris Claremont, writer, Sal Buscema, penciler, Tom Mandrake, finisher, Tom Orzakowski, letterer, the Tom's stay strong. Glynis Ween, colorist, Louise Jones, editor, and dumb dupid.
01:43:15
Speaker
We've really got to work on this. i i I swear to God, I thought of one too. And I just, it flies out of my mind every time I see his name. Because get so filled with rage. At the very beginning You had so, so many good ones.
01:43:32
Speaker
I know. You can only do so many. We've read 50 issues at least with Jim Shooter as editor-in-chief. Who? Release date November 22nd, 1983. Cover date March 1984.
01:43:46
Speaker
Back from their trip, the New Mutants introduced Charles x Xavier to his new student, Amara Akilah. He tells her a bit about himself and mutant kind before dropping her off at her new bedroom, an exact replica of her room in Nova Roma.
01:44:01
Speaker
m She begins thinking of her home and her feelings of anxiety cause a small tremor beneath the mansion. She calms herself, but outside, Professor X worries that he'll have to keep constant tabs on her emotions in case things go south.
01:44:16
Speaker
Yeah. Right just before that, right? Like it's her first experience with a telepath and she's like, are my thoughts not... Not private.
01:44:27
Speaker
And... He's like, oh, it's like this it's like the Psy Code. well yeah we We respect your privacy, and I won't ever go in your mind. Oh, except for, sorry, when I pulled out the image of your bedroom.
01:44:40
Speaker
Your childhood bedroom. of childhood bedroom. data Yeah, except for when I pulled out all the memories of you in your own bedroom. He says, he says your mind is your own. I will not pry.
01:44:52
Speaker
And then immediately...
01:45:00
Speaker
All right. Well, let's see. like That's probably his only two offenses. Later, the kids and Stevie Hunter are having a barbecue to welcome Amara to the school.
01:45:11
Speaker
They refer,
Project Wide Awake and Hacking Subplot
01:45:12
Speaker
they call it a welcome barbecue. Yeah. Yeah. It's also, it's very funny that it was Bobby's idea, but that he also refuses to cook. Yeah. He's literally turning his back on everybody and staring at tree.
01:45:27
Speaker
When Amara comes out in her best dress, she's embarrassed, but Bobby's flirting eases her a bit until Sam comes crashing in with a nine pack of moxie cola, trying to impress her with tricks and spilling the soda all over her dress. Jesus Christ.
01:45:43
Speaker
Even if he didn't spill, he would have ruined those sodas. He would have shaken them up. He's doing loops in the air. Yeah. Amara runs off crying with soda spilled all over her dress. Earthquakes and lava spurts appearing across the school grounds as she does.
01:45:58
Speaker
Shifting to wolf form with Danny in her wake, Wolfsbane locates Amara crying on a rock in the woods. She's upset about how dangerous her powers are, but has hope that Xavier can help. Interlude.
01:46:11
Speaker
Project Wide Awake, Sebastian Shaw, Henry Peter Guyrich, and Val Cooper are testing a new advanced Sentinel prototype. You left out Judge Petrie, Matt. No, Judge Petrie isn't there. Val Cooper is there on behalf of Judge Petrie, who at this now is called Judge Richard Petrie.
01:46:29
Speaker
I guess he got a middle name. It starts to go crazy when some rogue actor takes control of it, the Sentinel prototype. So Gyrich has to hit the self-destruct.
01:46:40
Speaker
He vows revenge on whoever just cost the government $5 million. dollars No one costs my government $5 million. dollars Like what? It doesn't come out your salary, Henry. You think you're worth more than $5 million?
01:46:56
Speaker
After this next scene, I'll explain why I'm upset that this is a This is called an interlude. Ooh, a little sneak preview. Back at the mansion, Kitty and her new blonde friend, Doug. Who the fuck is this guy, Matt?
01:47:11
Speaker
Okay. Well, we'll find out a lot more about Doug, but he first appeared like two months prior in Uncanny X-Men number 177. So we'll talk about that again. Hmm.
01:47:24
Speaker
Next episode. i don't trust him. They've been doing some hacking and found that the system they were hacking has just suddenly gone offline. You're going love this guy. Hold on. I just have to say you don't like him. I'm going to tell. I'm going to call. I call it right now. You're going fucking love this guy.
01:47:40
Speaker
Oh, yeah. OK. ah We'll see. He's got a lot to prove. The two hatched into Shaw Industries, which led them to a Hellfire Club system, which led them to a weird government program. All two, as Kitty explains, just learn some info about Sebastian Shaw.
01:47:59
Speaker
they
Xavier's Reflections and Student Challenges
01:48:00
Speaker
were They were Googling him. Ended up in the government's mainframe. They didn't want to use their own Google. They had to use government. well So this is why it's not an interlude, because it directly ties into the events of the main book. Yeah, yeah. He's pretty fast and loose with that word.
01:48:17
Speaker
Yeah. Interlude. Yeah. Before Doug can ask any more questions, though, she distracts him with a big bag of chips. She doesn't want to talk to him about the X-Men. She's suckered this poor kid into helping her hack, and she's actually doing work against the government on behalf of the X-Men. She brings him downstairs to his own kitchen, I might add,
01:48:38
Speaker
to pull out to pull out some chips. They're at his house. Groat chips. Groat? They're called groat chips. the they're called It says on the bag, real cheap, real bad. That's pretty good. ah After a summons from x Xavier, though, Kitty rushes from the Ramsey's home. I guess Doug's last name is Ramsey. Doug Ramsey.
01:49:05
Speaker
Back to the mansion grounds, only to find Amara on her crying rock. She introduces herself, but Amara's hair catches fire and she runs her off, stomping through the yard. She runs into the X-babies. They get in a little verbal sparring match until Kitty gets called away again by an angry Xavier.
01:49:25
Speaker
Not a good day for Kitty. Well, I'm sure it was fun hanging out with Doug. When she gets to his office, he lectures her for missing her training session. She's getting more lax in her X-Men duties and needs to tighten up.
01:49:39
Speaker
Plus, her feud with the new mutants is stupid, and x Xavier assigns her the vague task of help the mutants. Won't you help the mutants?
01:49:49
Speaker
Kitty, help the mutants. You'll feel better. When she heads off to her room, Xavier sits in the dark and thinks. He hopes that Ileana can talk some sense into Kitty.
01:50:01
Speaker
He worries about Amara. He reminds himself to schedule an examination for Roberto and Rain after the run-in with Cloak and Dagger. What? Oh, it happened in Marvel team up annual number six.
01:50:12
Speaker
Oh, we'll get there. It'll become relevant later. And that's when we'll read it. But yeah, it's just a passing reference here. Yeah. He wonders if he should bring cloak and dagger into the X-Men, despite them turning down an offer from cannonball.
01:50:25
Speaker
And he thinks of Lalandra before a painful psychic wave comes over him, scanning him from the outside. I guess we'll learn a tiny bit more about that also in next episode.
01:50:37
Speaker
The next day, it's computer class for the new mutants.
01:50:44
Speaker
Amara catches on quickly while Sam and Rain struggle and Rain wonders about her place in the school. They all seem pretty foreign to the concept of computers, which yeah is fair. This is like the Apple IIe days, right? they're They've got these big blocky things in front of them.
01:50:59
Speaker
I like the idea that like Chris Claremont hasn't has a thought in his head of how relatively smart everyone is. And like Rain is kind of stupid.
01:51:10
Speaker
Sam
Danger Room Training and Emotional Growth
01:51:12
Speaker
is very stupid. Yeah, he's a simple man. And Danny and Danny and Bobby are smart. Amara's like super smart, I guess.
01:51:23
Speaker
And of course, Kitty's a genius. And as we know, your proficiency with a computer is the best measure of your intelligence. The kids move on to dance class at Stevie Hunter's studio where Amara again excels so Rain shows off by turning into werewolf form during a pirouette.
01:51:42
Speaker
Sam chides her and Amara becomes upset that they have to hide who they truly are all the time. At that moment, Doug pops in to pull Kitty away to the mall for a soda. Hey, Doug. Rain apologizes. The fuck is this guy?
01:51:56
Speaker
Ha ha ha ha. Later, in the danger room, Amara is in her new mutant's uniform with a new name, Magma. Magma! Professor X wants her to melt through a block of steel and to keep her from losing control, he'll guide her psychically.
01:52:13
Speaker
But she doesn't want him in her mind. She feels lied to when earlier, he told her he'd never invade her mind without her permission. Yeah! Fucking finally a person speaks fucking truth to Professor Xavier about this shit.
01:52:30
Speaker
He doesn't reflect on it, though. No, no. He's like, she's a kid. She'll chill calm down. She storms away and cries some more until she finally realizes x Xavier is a good dude who's just trying to help.
01:52:43
Speaker
Okay. man and's It's more of like ah he could make me do things and he's not. a Base level of human decency. You're right. Yeah. It's more like he's not evil. Right. Yeah.
01:52:56
Speaker
She's simply afraid of what her power can do. She pulls her robe on and heads downstairs, thinking of how Rain must still be upset about when she poured her heart out to Amara, not realizing she spoke English.
01:53:09
Speaker
She makes her way to Xavier's study where he's talking to a holographic projection of Lalandra. He misses her, but she's off fighting a war. Amara apologizes for eavesdropping and Xavier explains his situation.
01:53:22
Speaker
He'd love nothing more than to be with Lalandra, but their divergent responsibilities are what keep them apart. He's dedicated to training young mutants so their powers aren't a danger to themselves or others.
01:53:34
Speaker
Amara is reminded of her own desire to be back home, but also the responsibility she has to herself and her surroundings to get her powers under control. Then she calls him her father.
01:53:45
Speaker
Ew. Yeah. so It's such a weird... You've known this guy for 12 hours now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We saw you meet him this morning.
01:53:56
Speaker
But she decides to stay. Like, ah that I mean, I don't know. Yeah, yeah. The one thing I want to complain about here. Professor Xavier's talking to Lalandra. Like, about how much he misses her and she's off fighting a war and he's like, now I know how Moira McTaggart felt the day I went off to war and left her behind. Yeah.
01:54:15
Speaker
When I returned, everything had changed. The love we felt no longer existed. Stop saying that to your girlfriend. Stop talking about how much you miss your ex-girlfriend to your girlfriend.
01:54:28
Speaker
that's true yeah yeah i didn't even think that but he's just he's comparing lalandra to yeah to moira well he's comparing lalandra to himself and himself to moira yeah yeah and he's like you know how you feel about uh me right now that's how i feel about moira you know i'm a lot like my ex-girlfriend oh man how did you like this little arc I really liked it, Matt. I gotta say, like, even this last episode, which is just kind of like Like wrap-up. Or this last issue. There's no... Yeah, it's wrap-up. There's no event that happens. It's just Amara meets Professor Xavier and Kitty pops in. What I like about it, yeah. But even that like, is...
01:55:20
Speaker
examining like i said earlier the characters and their relationships to each other it feels like we're taking a step forward with their team building and all of the sudden it seems like instead of a speed run of how to start the x-men we have this slow burn where these characters are building towards being a team and are just still a good bit out from it yeah Yeah, I think that's true. What I like
Storytelling and Character Development
01:55:50
Speaker
about this, so, okay, so I like the fucking Nova Roma story. We already talked about how much we loved that, right? Like, that was great. um
01:55:57
Speaker
But then what I like about the two following issues is, like, Claremont is pairing story and theme in a way that he doesn't always, right?
01:56:09
Speaker
um Where it's like, expand on that. Where we're we're getting like, okay, this this issue, the the issue that we just read, what's happening is like Amara needs to learn to trust Amara.
01:56:28
Speaker
What's happening here? there's all There's all these reasons for her not to trust it. And she keeps running into these reasons not to trust it. But what she realizes ultimately is whether or not I can trust this. And like, i okay, maybe a Xavier can be trusted a little bit. But whether or not I trust it, this is what I need this school for. And she's seeing examples of that in front of her at the same time as she's discovering it right? Yeah, yeah. And in the last issue, it's it's similar as in what she's she's got to adjust to this new world.
01:57:00
Speaker
But what she has to learn is why. Why she doesn't want to be evil and what she wants to do to... And, and and ah like, what what is the purpose of this? Like, she's still missing home. What's the purpose of what she's doing? And she sees it because she experiences it, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:57:22
Speaker
she goes through seeing all this, like, the evils of man and then sees the kindness kindness of man at the end, right? So I think, like, rather than just superhero comics where, you know...
01:57:39
Speaker
a There's just a bunch of events that happen and then after and then they have like a speech to make the point of the comic. He's making the point through the story and he's getting better at that. He didn't always do that.
01:57:54
Speaker
But he's getting better. He's been getting better at it through the X-Men and then kind of dropped it with the New Mutants. But now he's getting good at it with the New Mutants again. um it it turns the X-Men into something like a little more literary and a little less just kind of bullshit. Yeah.
01:58:10
Speaker
um He pulls it together at the end of every arc, too. He really, like, he's crossing his T's and dotting his I's. He knows what details he needs to include to make it a complete story. And he knows why he's telling the stories. Like, that's that's that, I think, is maybe the biggest and most important thing here for me, is that, like, he is now understanding he's telling story.
01:58:36
Speaker
He's not just telling
Humorous Conclusion
01:58:37
Speaker
stories because, oh, it's superheroes, right? Yeah, yeah. he's telling he He has a point. He has an idea and a point every time he tells a story. um Very cool.
01:58:48
Speaker
Yeah. And, of course, the Nova Roma shit is really cool. And, hey, Doug Ramsey is here. Who the fuck does this guy think he is? got an eye out of stuff that you could buy out. If you had time machine that you'd like to try out.
01:59:07
Speaker
It's Matt Fields. Ooh, wee, Matt. Yeah. Time for Pat Steals and Deals. But as you know, in these issues of New Mutants that I've had to gather since we've started reading them, yeah the ad vampires have sucked the life force out of the ads in these issues. So am being very transparent here.
01:59:33
Speaker
not lying to anyone about this. I got this ad. No one can accuse you of lying. No one can accuse him of lying, and he's not lying, and you can't accuse him of it. I got this ad from a slightly older comic. It comes from earlier in 1983 than any of the issues that we read today. I want everybody to understand that.
01:59:50
Speaker
Now, let's get into it. Wait, are you lying? No, I am being fully transparent here. Okay, all right, all right, all right. It might be 1982. It might have been like late 1982. I knew it. I fucking knew it. I fucking knew it. I knew it. I knew it before you even It felt like too much to explain. I could just... You're right.
02:00:09
Speaker
Matt! Yeah? Can I interest you in the winged warrior hat? You know what? You absolutely can. What the fuck?
02:00:20
Speaker
Silver. will Let me let me show you the picture here or let me let me set the scene for you here. it is a bright red baseball caps with two wings coming off the side, like not embroidered onto the side, two wings that are sewn on and come off of the hat to the side. Yeah.
02:00:40
Speaker
Like, um, like ah Like Hermes boots. Like Hermes boots, but on a hat. Silver wings. Red hat. Assorted color caps.
02:00:53
Speaker
One size fits all. Made in Vermont. a Send $5.45 plus 50 cents for postage and handling. 50 other styles available. Send $1 for the catalog. 50 styles available. 50 styles of the winged warrior hat, Patrick.
02:01:11
Speaker
i'm yeah I'm sure it's 50 other styles of hats, but they do have assorted colors for these for these winged warrior hats, Matt. but Ah! What this? Now, this dollar today.
02:01:26
Speaker
early to mid nineteen eighty three so we are still looking at about three twenty five to the dollar today so In today's money, the value of this would be before shipping and handling and and you know assuming that we're not buying the catalog, we're just getting this hat,
02:01:49
Speaker
$17.71-ish cents. $17 for this this hat with wings on it. but Okay, I am fucking Googling like mad here. Winged Warrior hat. Winged Warrior hat ball cap. Winged Warrior hat ball cap 1980s. Winged Warrior ball cap ah ah ah red.
02:02:08
Speaker
Winged Warrior hat. Okay, let me look at this ad. Cosmic caps. Winged Warrior hat cosmic caps. Yeah. Now, Cosmic Caps is a company that sells ah mushroom gummies.
02:02:28
Speaker
I'm Anita Muscaria.
02:02:31
Speaker
ah Okay, we'll get this man a Muscaria then.
02:02:37
Speaker
Sorry. Wing and Warrior Hat. Cosmic Caps. I'm putting them in quotes and I'm getting nothing. I'm going to use a different search engine. Yeah, how is this not a major fad?
02:02:50
Speaker
This thing looks awesome. I just, I mean, even just like, how is this not a curio of this time period? So here's what I thought. for i I was sure that this was, have you ever seen Adventures in Babysitting?
02:03:08
Speaker
I haven't. Okay. There is a scene where, so the kid, with one of the children being babysat, is obsessed with Thor. They meet a car mechanic and they run into a very young Vincent D'Onofrio. Okay. is jacked as hell, wearing a tank top that's like bright blue, like Thor's a chest piece. And he's wearing a red baseball cap and he's got beautiful, long blonde hair. He looks like Thor in a certain light. Okay. And I could have sworn he was wearing one of these winged caps, but he's not. she's wearing a helmet that has wings coming off of it he is just wearing a red baseball cap there oh that was a wild goose chase there is nothing it's not you can't even find it on ebay
02:03:56
Speaker
there' this one so bad this doesn't exist did they ever make these is this just an ad I have to imagine they but they were probably very poorly made and would not have survived the 40 years.
02:04:12
Speaker
Winged warrior hat, silver wings. but This is making me so upset. Would you buy one? Yeah, I'd buy one.
02:04:23
Speaker
Of course. Under $20. This is one those things that if it was like $35, my wife would have to talk me out of trying to buy it. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. I found it. Burgundy and silver. Oh, my God. Patrick. Okay, hold on. here Burgundy? Yeah.
02:04:39
Speaker
it is It is. I found it on Pinterest. It says extremely rare. oh wow. oh Oh, there's one on Etsy. How much? This isn't for sale?
02:04:52
Speaker
sold This is sold out. Item on Etsy. Etsy sold out. oh But can you explain to people, like, what... it's like It's like puffy. The wings are puffy. It is. Yeah, they look like stuffed animal wings. Like if you if you had a silver bird stuffed animal and you cut the wings off of it and sewed it to the side of what looks like a pretty sturdy baseball cap. um Oh, God, I want this so much more now.
02:05:17
Speaker
Okay, now there's one. Looks like there was one by Free Mountain Toys 1978. and nineteen seventy eight And there was also one by the vegeals What is the Vegemoles?
02:05:33
Speaker
Sounds Australian. No. Vegemoles is something different. Okay. I mean, it is Vegemoles, but it also is something. that There is that there is a ah is a TV show called The Vegemoles.
02:05:48
Speaker
Oh. But this is not. Maybe like this? No, no, no, no, no. That was many, many years later. Vegemoles. Hat. Okay. If you type in Vegemoles winged hat.
02:06:00
Speaker
That's when you start finding them. you Okay. Finally getting into the shit here. There was one on eBay that sold for $60. Oh, my God. All right. There's a $35 one on eBay. All right, Patrick. Let me send you this.
02:06:17
Speaker
I told you if it was $35, I would need my wife to talk me out of it. oh my god there's There's one that's a sweatband. ah Oh, wow. Oh, they got a green one, too?
02:06:30
Speaker
Okay. Fuck. that one's Me and you gotta get these. Me and you gotta get these. Yeah, i agree. How do we both convince your wife to let me and you get these? How do we convince my wife to buy these for us?
02:06:42
Speaker
You gotta get the $60 one. Yeah, I do. Because you're loving this green one. Yeah. And I'll get the $35 one. Alright.
02:06:53
Speaker
Sold. And Pete. Pete. You're going to buy this $100 blue one.
02:07:01
Speaker
Sorry, Pete. Sorry, Pete. Poshmark. Oh, there's one on Poshmark. Oh, it's sold out. Fuck. People are buying these things up like let like faster than we can get. Man, this day.
02:07:15
Speaker
I'm going to buy this fucking winged hat. Do it. yeah Oh, it's $12 in shipping. Fuck. oh gun hold on hot on hold on let's let's think of this let's lower that offer okay so if I got if I spent 28 bucks 30 40 that's 40 bucks that's 40 bucks 40 bucks on one of these hats I don't really wear hats is the thing I said that once but look at me now you find a cool enough hat you're gonna become a guy that wears hats all right $28 I'm making them offer yes send offer ah damn it
02:07:54
Speaker
Oh, declined. Auto declined. Whoa. Okay. All right. Should I do 30? Let's call this up. Let's kind of call this guy up. All right. Let's do 30.
02:08:06
Speaker
It's only two more dollars. Yeah. Yeah. Offer sent. All right. We'll see. We'll see. All right. I can't go higher. Tune in next week. Did I get the Free Mountain Toys 1978 The Vegimals Snapback Winged Hat Maroon Silver Cap?
02:08:21
Speaker
God, this hat rules. What a deal. He's got an eye out. Stuff that you could buy out. If you had time machine that you would like to try out.
02:08:32
Speaker
He has like 15 minutes of us looking at a hat.
02:08:37
Speaker
All right, everybody. Thank you so much for listening. Thank you for being here. ah If you want to find us on any of our places online, we are on Instagram at mutant menace pod. You can find our discord. There's a lot of cool discussions, a lot of fun people, a lot of names you'll recognize from Pat's email corner um in the discord. It's you'll find that link in our show notes. and It's our little community.
02:09:02
Speaker
you can join our Patreon. Patreon.com slash mutant menace are awesome. Be a link in the show notes. And ah there are free short bonus episodes that come up that pop up from time to time. You'll see some outtakes reading lists are on the free tier. Everything else is on the paid tier.
02:09:21
Speaker
And there's a $1,000 a month ah Warren worth Worthington family trust. Somebody's going do it. They shouldn't, but they will. They shouldn't. Please don't. But do. But don't.
02:09:32
Speaker
You can also, as always, email Pat's email corner at mutantmenacepod at gmail.com. Huge thanks to Julia Selle for providing the voice of Trish Tilby and to Krils Wilson for all of the music. It's so good.
02:09:51
Speaker
It's good. And I guess that just leaves us with the line we close every show out with, Matt. Yeah. do you Do you want me to deliver it or do you want to you want to tell him? ah Why don't I take it?
02:10:04
Speaker
Okay. As always, take some money, go phone for an ambulance. And remember, Pluto take that fat old man's soul!