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48 - New Mutants #14-17, Uncanny X-Men #180 - Hellions
101 Plays13 days ago
What if there was another school for mutants? Well, there is! You'd know if you've been paying attention. But we're not holding that against you - instead, we're diving deep into what's going on at the Massachusetts Academy, and the weird team of fighting mutants that they've put together. Plus, more Doug Ramsey! Tune in!
Topics Discussed:
30 minutes of emails. More about Pilk. Jeremy Bear and Jeremy Succession. Brute forcing a brain. Trying to draw a dog. Fuck on the switch. Stevie Hunter is a hero! Doug is a creep. Xavier shooting hoops. Kitty is being a real ding. Doug is NOT a creep we love him! Rusher Street Rebels. The X-Men disappear (ugh). I don't think that's how Jesus works. Compu-scan. The Hellions are here! This kid can't get enough Magnum P.I. Everyone forgot about Doug.
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Transcript
Introduction and Email Mishaps
00:00:02
Speaker
I'm Trish Tobey with WARC reporting to you live from Westchester, New York, where there appears to be some sort of mutant menace on the loose.
00:00:37
Speaker
Hey, everybody. I'm Pat Reber. And I'm Matt Aucamp. And say it with us, Pete. Welcome to Mutant Menace.
00:00:49
Speaker
is Did you slow that down? No, I fucking nailed it. Or did you hear me nail it? No, I didn't. That's why I asked. Nope.
00:01:06
Speaker
Oh my goodness, Matt. We have so many emails. Oh my goodness. I'm not going to apologize for this, but I did falsely accuse you of deleting some of our emails. Okay.
00:01:19
Speaker
It turns out they were just lost. I found them. But we do have a few emails. Some of these. Why aren't you apologizing for it? i I don't think it was my fault. Okay.
00:01:35
Speaker
We both couldn't find these emails. So I'm going to go through a few older emails, but we have so many emails on top of those older emails. So i really need you to buckle in, Matt. You ready? You can just move them.
00:01:49
Speaker
Also, you're going to love these. We have so many corrections.
Listener Emails and Speculations
00:01:54
Speaker
Oh, my God. All right. He's being sarcastic.
00:01:59
Speaker
OK, let's start with email. Michael, his episode 45 response. He says, hey, Pat, tell Matt that William H. Macy would be a great Magneto and is an inspired casting choice.
00:02:11
Speaker
Huh? You ask to be forgiven if you flipped between using the names Senator Galio and Senator Gallo. So you are. But the Marvel Wiki seems to think he's Senator Galio. Make of that what you will.
00:02:23
Speaker
Yeah, I think he's Senator Galio. I think there was just one or two typos that said Gallo. Matt briefly used an Amish accent, and I'd just like to say flawless.
00:02:35
Speaker
Thank you. It was really. These corrections. These sound like compliments to me. Well, if you remember, email Michael has promised to be nice as agreeable as possible.
00:02:52
Speaker
And I got to say it's working. And then finally, and lastly, Matt asked if listeners could, like Pat, feel the blood in their veins. My answer is, well, ha ha. Let's just say I'm the wrong person to ask about that.
00:03:05
Speaker
No follow up questions.
00:03:09
Speaker
ah Signs off. What even is blood really? Email Michael. well yeah I know we're not allowed any follow up questions, but I do have some follow up assumptions. So we know email Michael has has no blood yeah so okay you're starting before you're starting before this email yeah yeah let's go back a little bit he is he uh lived in japan for a little while he's trained in the art of nunchaku he speaks more than one language and he doesn't have blood okay so he is a hand assassin
00:03:51
Speaker
oh Oh, yeah, could be. They just have dust running through their veins, right? Which I'll bet they can feel. I bet you you would definitely feel dust in your veins. It's much bigger than um And all day, every day, you'd be like, ah!
Volcanoes, Comic Logic, and Element Debates
00:04:06
Speaker
ah ah like ah like it Like as if it's almost there, as it's almost passed through. That's probably why they're such jerks. ah Not email Michael, the hand. Yeah, the hand. Up next, here's another one on episode 45. This is from the Ink Master. Oh, Ink Master. Hey, Pat, tell Matt the volcanoes are by definition a type of mountain and that the Andes Mountains, the main mountain chain in South America, are mostly volcanic.
00:04:34
Speaker
So, right. They most likely were in a volcano. Which is how they can be so close to the peak and also near to lava at the same time.
00:04:46
Speaker
Huh. I don't... Look, I'm no geologist. I got an A- minus in geology. But as my only A-, minus everything else I got an A or A+. plus Drives me crazy. Fucking ruined my GPA. Ooh. So we know that you are definitively not an expert in this subject.
00:05:08
Speaker
Exactly. But I think the further that the magma gets from, like, the Earth's core, the more it cools. So you can have ah intrusive rock. Yeah.
00:05:21
Speaker
That was magma, and it can go up pretty far, but you're not going to have a seething caldera that's just hanging out there in the top of a mountain for a very, very long time. And the other thing that we pointed out that made this mountain i a ridiculous was that it was just a big hollow dome on top.
00:05:44
Speaker
Well, well... Ink Master goes on. Since they were most likely in a volcano, the caves would then most likely be empty lava tubes from where the volcano was more active. From when the volcano was more active.
00:06:00
Speaker
Yes, but you wouldn't.
00:06:04
Speaker
But you wouldn't just have one sheet of rock. forming the peak of the mountain and underneath was fully ah empty space like ah like ah like a a plastic toy.
00:06:20
Speaker
i'm pretty sure we've asked Master to provide their credentials before, but I do not remember them. So i there's the gauntlets thrown down. They keep going. They say, i can't normally feel my blood, but sometimes when I experience an emotional high, usually prolonged excitement, I can feel the blood in my nose and front teeth. It doesn't happen often, but when I do, it feels like a buzzing sensation.
00:06:46
Speaker
Whoa, that's wild. Yeah, I don't i I believe that one out of all the times people of all the things people are going to write in and say that they can feel their blood about. This is the one that I find the most plausible and to be similar to the scenario being described in the comic.
00:07:08
Speaker
Okay, there you go. You can feel the blood in your veins. Because I can feel, okay, i can't I don't know that I can feel with the blood in my veins, but when I get anxious or upset, like, I can feel myself getting, like, hot.
00:07:23
Speaker
I can feel myself like I can feel myself turning red or whatever, but I don't know that that's the same as feeling the blood. Like I'm not then like, oh, and I can feel stuff moving throughout all the little lines on my arm.
00:07:36
Speaker
yeah i think you're splitting hairs there. ah Moving on, though, Mikey Two Nails comes in hot with two fresh emails. from Oh, whoa. How surprising.
00:07:48
Speaker
X-Men related email. Hi, Pat. Tell Matt I said the that the firebird lifting Colossus was such a stupid thing. One thing that the writers seem to do is go extremely silly routes to get characters where they need them to be. That's actually a good point is like sometimes it's maybe legitimate camp that they have a giant bird of fire. That's not a Phoenix. Right. X-Men and able to lift them.
00:08:12
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, that's fair. Yeah. Yeah. But our job is to make fun of shit. So when something is legitimate camp, that just makes our jobs easier, I guess. ah That being said, that's a good point. Shut up. Shut up about it. ah That being said, fire is not plasma. Plasma is formed when the electrons and the atom bodies separate, which requires an extreme amount of heat.
00:08:40
Speaker
Fire is indeed a chemical reaction. Matt is right about that. Flames are, i said that as if you were wrong about the other part. You're right about both of these.
00:08:50
Speaker
ah Flames are particles of burning matter. Flames are particles of the burning matter. The most common reason why we see red fires is because fire reacts to the particles and certain particles will cause colored flames. This comes from being a former and maybe soon current science educator.
00:09:10
Speaker
Oh, you know, he showed us a lab explosion when he first introduced himself. Congratulations on your potential new job. Thank you, Mikey. Two males. We've also got your non X-Men related email. Hi, Pat. tell me That was the X-Men related email. That one was the X-Men related email. Hi, Pat. Tell Matt that I said pilk is an absolute abomination and a mistake. Anyone who willingly consumes this and claims it is great has no taste buds.
00:09:41
Speaker
Now, here's where it gets a little murky. Yeah. I had a friend. Milk is, uh, pilk is Pepsi and milk. Oh, ew. I know.
00:09:53
Speaker
We do this every week. Memento.
00:10:01
Speaker
Here's where it gets a little murky. He says, i had a friend who made it for me once as a joke because I told him I don't care. I'll drink whatever. And it has made me become very specific when someone offers me something to drink in their home. that's That's a very good prank.
00:10:17
Speaker
but ah That's really, really good. your friend i keep that friend forever. But. I do want to clarify what we asked for is video.
Trivia, Superheroes, and Humorous Exchanges
00:10:31
Speaker
So just to give us definitive proof that this either curls, curdles or doesn't curdle and also is disgusting. This video of someone drinking pill. I don't think it curdles, but it is. I do think it's disgusting. I'm pretty sure it will.
00:10:48
Speaker
Let's keep moving on with an email from Brent, who I think is. is a first-time emailer, someone who is is... this the Brent from the Discord? azi Yeah, yeah, very active on Discord and has a lot of fun things to say. But... Hey, Brent. But here is his Pat's email corner debut. Whoa.
00:11:11
Speaker
Brent says, hey, Pat, please tell Matt that of course Matt Murdock isn't Daredevil. Everyone knows that Daredevil's real name is Bart Hill. In fact, since everyone knew that, he had to change his name to the Death Defying Devil.
00:11:23
Speaker
Later in his career, I guess he provides a picture of a comic called Daredevil Battles Hitler. ah But it's just a bunch of.
00:11:38
Speaker
godly dressed uh fighting giant hitler so daredevil uses a boomerang oh and has a u a spiked utility belt yeah um daredevil ah but besides that his costume looks like the eel Yes. Oh, my God. Without the jagged line down the middle, just a straight line down the middle. And was eventually placed into the image universe.
00:12:12
Speaker
Oh. But they had to rename him Double Dare or the Death Defying death-efying devil Because by that time there was already a claim. Created by Jack Cole, the guy who created Plastic Man.
00:12:25
Speaker
Oh, wow. Oh, that's interesting. Yeah. ah Thank you, Brent. Please keep writing in and i please keep tagging me every once in a while with strange pictures of Daredevil that you find in the Discord.
00:12:40
Speaker
Up next we have, okay, Matt, this isn't a first time emailer. Okay. It is their second time emailing us. It is their first time making it to air. Oh, I won't explain any further than that.
00:12:52
Speaker
Sounds like I said something racist. I know. I love implying. Anyway, this is Tim. Listener Tim. Hey, Tim. Hey, Pat. Tell Matt he's wrong about feeling blood in your veins. People are frequently able to feel their pulse without trying. Depends on pulse rate and how aware of their own bodies they are. and and i rejected the pulse theory can feel um i can feel my pulse but i do not think that's what they're talking about in the comics it is so we're gonna hear this a lot in on today's pat's email corner but it is worth pointing out i'll give you credit here that what we're talking about is feeling the blood in your veins where believe mutant menace pot at gmail.com but i believe
00:13:36
Speaker
that a pulse is the blood in your arteries. Yeah, so I think, and I think a pulse is the way that your arteries, like your heart, it's the way they they they they tense and and ah expand and contract, rather. Oh, so you're saying it's more like the the musculature...
00:13:54
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know if it's, I think it's probably muscles. This is getting so far. Now that we're talking about like the specifics of, is it muscles that contract arteries? We're going so fucking far into the unknown. We're going to get, we're going to, we're going doctors by the time we get to the 90s. While I'm at it.
00:14:18
Speaker
Tim continues. He says, Hey, Pat, tell Matt. You don't have to. Oh, no, this is Hey, Matt. Tell Pat. While I'm at it Hey, Matt, tell Pat. it's ah What?
00:14:30
Speaker
Tell Pat he's wrong about cola curdling milk. I just tried it and can confirm the milk was fine. The concoction tasted like ass, but it didn't curdle. Hey, Pat, once again, you are wrong about. Wait, up hang on. I'm sorry. and Once again, while I think it's incredible that you turned around and actually did this.
00:14:52
Speaker
Yeah, you, man. You made a specific request. deserves a request it almost deserves a nickname right off the bat. ah Yeah, yeah. with you Pilk. Pilk Tim. Pilk Tim!
00:15:03
Speaker
Tim Pilk. pi all right, we'll play around with that. ah Finally, sorry for the old man yells at cloud vibe of this email. Have you heard this podcast?
00:15:16
Speaker
but I just finished the recent episode and had to challenge you guys on these points. Keep up the good work and don't mind grumps like me. Folks, Tim. We love Tim Pilk. Everyone else. Yeah, please be as grumpy as you want. Yeah, we are not nice to you folks when you write in. i mean, yeah, you guys, you guys being, um,
00:15:37
Speaker
This way to to us is what allows us to unlock this ah being like playful adversarial relationship we have with you. Yeah. Yeah. We love it. ah We have another one from email. Michael, this one's a little more current. This is for episode 46.
00:15:54
Speaker
Email. Michael says, hey Pat, tell Matt that Yahya Abdul Mateen would be a great Scott Summers and is an inspired casting choice. We said it.
00:16:06
Speaker
yeah Word for word. he He goes on. He says, Matt said that you guys were perfectly on during this episode's welcome to Mutant Menace at the start of the show. And Pat disagreed. i fully side with Matt on this one, I'm afraid. i think you did great.
00:16:21
Speaker
but i I'm worried that we can't trust email Michael anymore. Well, I'm now that he's I don't know. Now that he's being so kind, it seems like he's he's being agreeable with you. which maybe yeah I can handle the like criticism. You're right. Actually, we can really, really, really trust him.
00:16:40
Speaker
There was some discussion of frozen berries and milk, bananas and milk and granola and milk. Personally, I think all three sound delicious. And I would often soak granola and milk for hours in the fridge to have for breakfast when I was younger.
00:16:54
Speaker
Basically has the consistency of cold oatmeal, which I liked, but I can see how some might not. These days I eat my oatmeal hot like a man, but yeah not my berries or bananas. ah Yeah, i I do not like like that's that's the um what do you call it? Overnight oats or whatever.
00:17:13
Speaker
I do not like granola and milk. It gets too soggy too fast, but I do love granola. Granola and yogurt? Fuck. Fuck. Every time I eat granola and yogurt, i think I think to myself, this is the best food on earth.
00:17:26
Speaker
Why don't I eat this every day? And then I continue not eating it every day. Big granola heads over here. Big... guy like Granola head something. I think there's this type of...
00:17:41
Speaker
There's a fan of something that are called granola heads. Oh, it's just hippies. Hippies are called granola heads. I thought it was like specifically like the fans of a, so of a, i don't know, Grateful Dead or something. No, those are dead heads. That describes us perfectly, Matt. couple of hippies. We're a couple. of
00:18:01
Speaker
He goes on. He says, lastly, the question came up about fire being only a chemical reaction, Matt's claim, or a plasma, Pat's. I'm happy to say that once again, you're both sort of right. Fire is the visible part of a chemical reaction involving gases. However, if the fire is hot enough, those gases can become plasma.
00:18:21
Speaker
For example, a plasma torch really does contain plasma. A candle flame doesn't. What this means as far as birds lifting people is something I am not qualified to discuss. Oh, I am You can't. ah yeah Fire can't lift a human. well Still not possible. Hold on.
00:18:38
Speaker
Patrick, I just had something wholly untrue. What's that? I said fire can't lift a human. It can. Ever heard of an air balloon?
00:18:52
Speaker
Oh, hot air. Hot air. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. You're right. Fire can lift it. Maybe that's what Pyro has going on. in elaborate system of hot air balloons. Yeah. There's a balloon. There's a there's a clear plastic balloon. No. What do you make a hot air balloon out of Leather? There's a clear leather balloon around that that bird of fire that we just can't Like when they need Crystal Pepsi.
00:19:24
Speaker
ah Up next, we are still going. We're in the homestretch here, Matt, we are still going. We have an email from listener Emily. hey emilym Emily. Comedian Booking. Hello there. Ignoring formatting rules. Hello there. Are you available for booking? We'd love to have you perform at our corporate event. Let me know.
00:19:45
Speaker
Pat, you respond to Emily right now. Yes, we would love to perform at our corporate event. All right, hang on.
00:19:57
Speaker
Yes, we are absolutely available. We'll travel. Sounds interesting. And we are usually available. What are the details?
00:20:10
Speaker
say Say willing to travel, both independently wealthy. Willing to travel, both independently wealthy. Wealthy parentheses.
00:20:25
Speaker
We're a team. All right. Setting this to Emily. What an opportunity. I didn't think we'd appeal to the corporate crowd, but me neither. That's what's so interesting about that. As we get bigger and bigger, we're not going change just for them, though.
00:20:40
Speaker
No, we are going to speak. We're going to speak truth to power. Truth to power about the X-Men. Yeah. If one of their bosses is Roy Thomas or Bill Mantlo. Hey, we're not going to hold back.
00:20:55
Speaker
I would probably hold back on Bill Mantler. That guy's been through a lot. Yeah. right Yeah. Yeah. We don't.
Fan Art, Pilk Debates, and Kmart Corrections
00:21:00
Speaker
ah We can. We can talk shit on Bill Mantler's writing, but nobody, please nobody tell him ever. He's he deserves. He deserves some rest and ah kindness.
00:21:11
Speaker
All right. Let's keep moving instead of digging i up next. Simon from hell is back. Hello, guys. Simon, you don't need to worry about formatting. You have been here long enough. It took forever for different reasons, but here's Pat as a superhero. I'm afraid he's been a victim of the fact that I mainly collected comics in the 90s and had to suffer through stupid guns, superfluous pouches, and huge shoulder pads. Hope you like it and that I've still done Pat justice.
00:21:44
Speaker
Simon from hell. And then, of course... We have a beautiful old picture of me fucking jacked as hell. Yeah, yeah. With your giant shoulder pads, a giant gun and more pouches than Cyclops in the 90s. Have you ever worn something with shoulder pads?
00:22:04
Speaker
No.
00:22:08
Speaker
Just try it. I might now. Look at this guy. Damn, dude. Yeah, you look fucking yoked in this one. And a bunch of spikes on your one arm. This rules. This is sick. And a a gun that doesn't make sense. That's what I love.
00:22:23
Speaker
a fucking gun that doesn't make sense yeah yeah this is it's i have bandolier but i don't think these bullets would fit in this gun which is which is perfectly which is its chef's kits yeah yeah this is really great thank you simon from hell please keep up the great work uh well we got to pair this with his rendition of you as a superhero matt Yeah. And we've at this point, I think it's on us to save him from hell.
00:22:52
Speaker
Yeah. All right. That's so we're launching. That's our collective character. We're launching an expedition. Find Simon, save him from hell. Thank you so much, Simon. Absolutely love this.
00:23:07
Speaker
Up next, we have Ink Master again. wow ah Because again, I just neglected to read their email last episode, but this is our episode 46 response from inck They say, Hey, Pat, tell Matt that sweet Douglas sounds like something someone would yell when they've injured themselves and are trying not to curse. yeah Sweet Douglas.
00:23:30
Speaker
a Oh boy. I love that somebody gets to Pat's email corner and doesn't make it any like doesn't make it further in before they're like, I got to send an email.
00:23:47
Speaker
yeah you know this segment works. yeah They also go on. I have heard of Pilk and as someone whose two favorite beverages are Pepsi and milk. Oh, my God.
00:23:59
Speaker
the idea of mixing the two sounds revolting. Milk as a beverage is revolting to me. Yeah, that's. Strange.
00:24:10
Speaker
Strange. I don't understand people that just can't. For all the opinions I have about drinking milk, yeah i I would never drink it myself. I'd never sit down to a glass of milk. I'd never grab a glass of milk and go sit down and watch TV or something and just be like, mmm, swerp.
00:24:30
Speaker
But it's fine if you do. Honestly, it's I think it's strange, but I think a lot of things are strange. I'm i'm very judgmental. So please enjoy your pilk. Inkbusters. No, Inkbusters said. and did you did know
00:24:47
Speaker
but Okay, two more. No, I'm sorry. Three more. Whoa, holy shit. My goodness. So many emails, Matt. Up next is Pete. We all know Pete. Hey, Pete. Pete. ah He was just here. He just left. He could have just told us this. You could have just said this. invited him to just to say this on mic. And and already are you emailing while driving all the way back to Australia, Pete? Yeah, very dangerous. Hopefully you're doing talk to text. But.
00:25:14
Speaker
Pete wants to talk to us about Kmart. He says, hey, Pat, tell Matt that his information was incorrect about Kmart. Here in Australia, we have 302 Kmarts. So he needs to stop with the lies. I'm sick of him spreading misinformation.
00:25:30
Speaker
Okay. What do you say to this, Matt? I say that it it is fair that there are Kmarts in Australia. The truth about it, though, is fair.
00:25:42
Speaker
They're allowed. is that's a It's a totally different chain. Right. With a different owner and different ah corporate ID, different mission statement. ah Everything about the that Kmart is different. um The American Kmart brand only has three worldwide. Yes. So the other the the Kmart Australia...
00:26:06
Speaker
Is its own corporation from because i mean it it's been a different company since like back in the 70s. Like so it was the same company at some point.
00:26:18
Speaker
Seems like yes. Seems like yes. But they split a long time ago. Pete might have us on this one then. Either way, we should be considering our international audience. We are a global podcast.
00:26:32
Speaker
so they right So when we say so when we say Kmart, we should be saying we should be looking up trademarks in each country, specifying which of the two Kmart's we are talking about.
00:26:46
Speaker
Also, says Pete, in relation to XXL men movie casting. He's got a few nominations here. And I love this. We now have our Coen brothers X-Men cast and our XXL x xl men cast. Shatner for Professor X, John Goodman for Magneto, Queen Latifah for Storm, and Jack Black as Beast, which is a shame because I fucking hate Jack Black so much.
00:27:14
Speaker
Oh my god. Jack Black as Beast is really inspired. So here's have here's my thoughts on this. I don't like the Queen Latifah's Storm, to be honest.
00:27:25
Speaker
I think what we're looking at here is a list of celebrities at their peak as X-Men. Not now. yeah Yeah, yeah. And that's the problem. We want to make sure like this could happen.
00:27:38
Speaker
So we want to make sure that we're casting it. We have power in Hollywood. All the big wigs listen to this podcast. So, Pete, please take another stab at this. I did have one thought actually about XXL then.
00:27:51
Speaker
i which is the beast. And this is a bit of stunt casting, but I think it would work really well. The beast should be Mr. Beast Mode himself, Marshawn Lynch.
00:28:07
Speaker
Huh? I... He's not. No. he Jack and Black is too good of a fucking idea for Beast. Jack Black's like 60 years old. Yeah. Even Jack Black now. I mean, you know, all of his stunts are going to be mo-capped.
00:28:22
Speaker
Yeah, that's true. like a different actor. He will just. Yeah. He's just doing the voice at this point. Okay. Well, I guess by consensus, we can do Jack Black as Beast.
00:28:33
Speaker
But the rest. I'm sorry. mean. i mean John Goodman is just too old. Same with William Shatner. That guy's like, it's just not doing well. I like, but I like if if we were doing like an animated XXL men.
00:28:47
Speaker
Oh my God. That's these are who we would base the characters off of. I think, but it's an incredible start. Thank you, Pete. Thank you, Pete. We got to move on though, Matt. We have so many emails. Oh my God. We are fucking 40 minutes in dude.
00:29:00
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. We have one more, Matt. It's it's where we're truly in the end game now. Uh, weapon Jason wrote in. He says, Hey, but Jason, tell Matt feeling the blood in your veins is called a pulse. If Matt can't feel it, he should get checked out.
00:29:18
Speaker
All right. Again, once again, that's not how they were referring to it. And your pulse isn't your blood. It's your arteries. We next. He says, I've read that the
X-Men Activities and Comic Book Discussions
00:29:30
Speaker
X-Men and Teen Titans was originally supposed to be a Cockrum art X-Men and Legion of Superheroes story.
00:29:37
Speaker
But Teen Titans was more popular, so Cockrum left and we got this. We probably get Darkseid as the villain because over in Legion of Superheroes, Paul Levitz just brought Darkseid back in the Great Darkness saga. Don't worry, I know you don't follow the Legion.
00:29:51
Speaker
Before this, Darkseid had been out of comics for years and was mostly forgotten. What if that was the one we followed? Right. Every other title that comes up, we're like, I'm not following Fantastic Four or whatever. And then we just spoke with absolute authority on the Legion. know.
00:30:14
Speaker
So that was obviously in relation to our bonus Teen Titans X-Men episode with Ernie the Blurred Without Fear. We also have reference to episode 46. Romita Sr. Inking Jr. definitely is why number 177 has the feel of an early 70s house style Marvel comic. I remember reading this issue when it came out, and honestly, after the Paul Smith run and those first Romita Jr. issues that continued that feel, this issue was disappointing.
00:30:44
Speaker
Right, yeah. Until that last panel where we see Colossus statuified. Which, yeah, is, I mean. Goddamn. I think there are moments in that issue that are kind of cool, even even with the Brotherhood. But yeah, the majority of that issue, kind of disappointing.
00:31:05
Speaker
here's ah Here's a fresh correction weapon Jason has for us. Oh, cool. He says cameras did have timers in the 80s, so it's possible Scott had the camera set up on a tripod in that photo, that naked photo that he sent of himself and Madeline to the professor.
00:31:19
Speaker
yeah it's possible, but no, he called down to the front desk and said, Hey, I'm nude in bed. Can you come up and take a picture? Well, he does dig into this theory a bit. He says though, even more disturbing because now you have to imagine a naked Scott Summers lining up the shot, setting the timer, then running with Wang Rao to get into bed and hit that pose before the shutter goes off. Oh,
00:31:44
Speaker
Oh my god, yeah. And then, there's nothing, imagine any na nude man running.
00:31:54
Speaker
There's absolutely nothing sexy about that. Uh, I don't know, man, it's Scott Summers. Stuff flopping all around? Beautiful man.
00:32:05
Speaker
Best head of hair in comics? Yeah. is i'm not I'm a straight man, but like the the body the beauty of the human form would be on full display there.
00:32:17
Speaker
Flopping everywhere. Just flopping all over the place. Yeah. just going And you're hearing the slapping noises of it bouncing around. Bodies flop.
00:32:28
Speaker
And then ah he does have some compliments for us that he said specifically... ah we should not read on the air because we don't like to. So we won't. But thank you, Weapon Jason. Matt, you can trust me that it's a nice compliment.
00:32:41
Speaker
Read them to me and we'll cut it. Oh, that's really, really kind. It is. ah Okay, thank you, Weapon Jason. And that is It we appear to have gotten a few emails while I was reading those map, but we'll save those for next episode. the ah The that Pat's email corner went so long that our piano player fell asleep.
00:33:04
Speaker
So if you give me a. sta Oh, somebody shake him. yay Yeah.
00:33:10
Speaker
In the meantime, i mean, I could start digging into some of these emails. OK, OK. Thank God.
00:33:19
Speaker
Oh, and with that, Matt. I got to ask and please keep it brief. Did you do anything X-Men related this? Holy shit. um You know, I tried to download some old KSR issues because I don't know if you remember in last issue that in the magic miniseries, there's a reference to KSR. Right. And so it's like, yeah I'm going to go online. I'm going to go find some old KSR issues to and read them yourself because I refuse to.
00:33:52
Speaker
um Yeah. Yeah. Nobody is online archiving KZAR issues.
00:34:01
Speaker
I tried. So I am a firm believer that things should be archived generally. But I'm also a firm believer that KZAR is not in any way an important series. but but um All right. have Pat, how about you?
00:34:16
Speaker
Did you do anything X-Men related this week? Matt, you know what I watched over the last week was i the new Bruce Springsteen movie starring Jeremy Allen White.
00:34:29
Speaker
I believe it's called Deliver Me From Somewhere. Okay. Jeremy Allen White, the guy from The Bear. Yes. Yeah, yeah. As well as Jeremy Strong, the Jeremy from... we have Jeremy Bear and Jeremy Succession.
00:34:46
Speaker
It's actually got a crazy cast, but not a very good movie. I just want to say, i don't think I would be casting anybody from that in my Coen Brothers X-Men.
00:34:59
Speaker
All right, well... Hall Walter Hauser is somebody that I would consider, but he already plays Mole Man in the universe. so Well, that is... ah I guess that is something X-Men related. Pat, we've yeah got to keep moving forward.
New Mutants #14 Storyline Highlights
00:35:15
Speaker
We got to, Matt. We're so deep in. We've recorded for an hour. We read an hour of emails. Yeah, I hope you guys only listened to, say, 20 minutes of emails, but we read emails for almost an hour. All right, Pat, I'm going to tell you about New Mutants number 14.
00:35:34
Speaker
What new mutants number 14? i have a question for you actually to start. Oh yeah. What's up? Do you believe in magic? Uh, with a C or a K? It's with a K. Do you remember the magic mini series we read a little while back?
00:35:52
Speaker
Uh, yeah, it was in fact, it was last week. Oh, okay. Well, yeah, this is basically the followup to that. And we got a new mutants episode, Patrick. Ooh, okay. Yeah, hell yeah. let's say And I don't think we need to do any catch-up. If you've read, if you've listened to the Magic miniseries, you are you are caught up on everything you need to know for this. If you ah haven't... If you haven't... Ileana's magic now. No, she's not!
00:36:25
Speaker
Oh, wait. Yes, she is. Ileana's magic, with a C, now. Why do they keep using the name magic?
00:36:36
Speaker
Without actually bestowing the title. Yeah. yeah What's going on? All right. Chris Claremont's the writer. Sal Bussem is the penciler. Tom Mandrake's the finisher. Glynis Ween is the colorist. Tom Orzakowski is the letterer. Louise Jones is the editor. And ah
00:36:56
Speaker
Sim Hooters.
00:36:59
Speaker
it's a vt it's an it's a It's when Maxis really fell off a cliff. they did They did Sim Hooters. Anyway, that's the editor-in-chief. Release date, December 27th, 1983. Cover date, April 1984. We meet Ileana, right where we found her at the end of the Magic miniseries,
00:37:20
Speaker
standing over a cliff on the x Xavier Mansion grounds, looking at her bloodstone medallion, ah contemplating her dark past and her potential future, as she as she does.
00:37:34
Speaker
Snow starts to fall, and she hears joyful noises coming from the mansion. The new mutants have been let out of class early and are out playing in the snow. She also tries to throw the ah medallion away in this in one of these panels and can't.
00:37:51
Speaker
Interesting. Ileana stands brooding, wondering if she should approach. Would she fit in with the new mutants? They laugh so easily while I've forgotten how to cry, she thinks.
00:38:02
Speaker
Xavier, brooding himself, notices Ileana's brooding and wonders why he still can't get into her mind. We're both brooding! He's just over here trying to brute force his way in. He's like, I've tried everything. I've been doing this non-stop for days!
00:38:20
Speaker
Ugh!
00:38:22
Speaker
The new mutants notice x Xavier's brooding and surmise it must be because his lover, Lalandra, recently left for space. They know how to pull him out of it, though. They'll throw him a surprise party. Okay. Sitcom-ass setup. it's I mean, everybody... Chris Claremont apparently loves surprise parties because it's every 12 issues somebody's throwing somebody a surprise party. i Fuck, dude. I hate to say it.
00:38:51
Speaker
Because... yeah and with something Something bad happened. Something tragic happened ah sort of recently. Sal Buscema passed away.
00:39:03
Speaker
And granted, yeah passed away at 89. Had a good long life with a lot of achievements. But fuck, man, his art takes a fucking nosedive in this issue and these upcoming issues.
00:39:19
Speaker
He does not want to be drawing new mutants. I think there's a few moments where you can say like, okay, Sal, this is a little inattentive. There's also some really beautiful stuff in this run, though.
00:39:30
Speaker
You think we'll talk about it, I guess, is that he's clearly he's clearly trying very hard on and just not succeeding is drawing a dog's face. He is just he is getting further and further. It's a rat every single time. He's got like it's it's like he's got a pet rat that he's referencing.
00:39:51
Speaker
Yeah. he I mean, there's characters he likes and characters he doesn't seem to care as much about. And like he puts a lot of attention into Amara's face and Ileana's face.
00:40:03
Speaker
And he puts a lot of attention yeah into any time cannonball blasts. Yeah. So the New Mutants run off to find Stevie Hunter and ask her for a ride to the mall, inviting Ileana with them along the way.
00:40:18
Speaker
that just solves the with a question for her. As they head out, though, a giant looming silhouette watches them from the woods. Sim!
00:40:29
Speaker
Oh, come on, man. this guy You thought you were rid of this guy. He's dead! When they get to the dance studio, Stevie is immediately down.
00:40:41
Speaker
Not Doug Ramsey, though. He's trying to find Kitty. It's real important. He just pops in. Doug, when he he missed dance class. He showed up to be like, I know I missed dance class, but have you seen Kitty?
00:40:59
Speaker
Everyone else, ah though, stuffs themselves into Stevie's sob, sob, sob, though, and head off for the mall, noting that they're still reconstructing it from the last time the new mutants were here back in Mutant Menace number 38 when they fucking destroyed the Sentinel destroyed it.
00:41:16
Speaker
Yes. This trip is incident free, though, as they pick up party supplies and even run into their friends, Diana and Tony. Remember them? Who do we know these folks? I do not remember. They're the first time they were at the mall and they invited the new mutants to come to their school dance. They first started picking on the ho sort pig rain rain for her hair or something. And then they were like, ah, we're just kidding. You guys are. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Come to our dance.
00:41:45
Speaker
Back in the mansion, though, things aren't so peaceful. x Xavier, reading up on Belasco in an attempt to better understand Ileana, feels a foreign presence in the mansion. This is not the extraterrestrial scanning waves that so devastated him before, he explains. This is a different thing. Just like he explained ah when Karma first went missing.
00:42:11
Speaker
there was some evil force that he was worried about, but it was different than the extraterrestrial scanning waves. Right. Chris Claremont keeps using this and it has to be like, fuck. Okay. It's not right. It's not the guy. We're doing a different psychic junk slopper told me to put in this. It's the thing that I was doing. Um,
00:42:37
Speaker
Suddenly, Sim greets him in the doorway of his study, shaking off x Xavier's mind blast and backhanding him real hard. How does he survive this? How does he keep surviving people with super strength hitting him?
00:42:50
Speaker
Punching him. He also, Sim is standing there and just saying, like, it would be great if I could just kill you right now. Yeah. And then doesn't have a butt following. Yeah. and And then they spend the next 10 minutes in this room together. The next time we see Professor x Xavier, there is absolutely no explanation why he didn't just get murdered here. Like, just to just to leap ahead.
00:43:13
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. This keeps happening.
00:43:18
Speaker
um The New Mutants arrive back at the mansion, noting all of the lights are off despite it getting darker since they left. They had also phoned the mansion from the mall to make sure the coast was clear and no one had answered. They're a little apprehensive, but mostly worried about the professor reading their minds and the surprise being ruined. No one trusts this fucking guy and as well, they shouldn't.
00:43:41
Speaker
Immune to so x Xavier's psychic scan, Ileana volunteers to go make sure everything's okay. As she walks towards the mansion, Amara mentions that she reminds her of Selene.
00:43:52
Speaker
And Roberto notes that even the X-Men are scared of her sometimes. Ileana hears it all. She powers through, though, thinking about what a true friend Kitty Pryde
00:44:06
Speaker
You don't know, there's supposed to be sapphic subtext between Kitty Ileana that a lot of people at the time picked up on.
00:44:20
Speaker
And a lot of people still remark on. And I think even Claremont confirmed. But I'm going to be honest. I don't fucking see it. Yeah, I don't. I don't either.
00:44:31
Speaker
They just seem like really close friends. yeah i I don't see anything romantic or sexual between them at at all in any any of the times they think about each other or talk about each other or any of the times they're together.
00:44:45
Speaker
Maybe it's, I mean, know this applies to men more than women, but at the time it was considered gay to show any emotional affection towards someone of the same sex.
00:45:01
Speaker
That's a guess. i' i've not I have no idea. i was a negative one, negative two. you were dead. I was dead. i Still dead at the time. I was still dead.
00:45:20
Speaker
I was still in hell at this time. entering the mansion, Ileana is quickly confronted by Sim, who grabs her and tells her he's bringing her back to limbo at Belasco's request.
00:45:32
Speaker
Ileana is paralyzed in the moment. All she can think of is the abuse she suffered at his hand as a small child and is unable to summon any mystic defenses. Her mutant powers kick in instinctively though, and a light disc teleports the rest of the gang and Stevie Sab into limbo.
00:45:51
Speaker
The exact moment we saw them come crashing in in the magic miniseries. Whoa. This actually pretty anticlimactic. I thought it was going to be like an action packed moment that they ended up here. Yeah. Yeah.
00:46:06
Speaker
A moment later, they and Stevie sob are teleported to the mansion living room to find Sims squeezing the life out of Ileana. Oh, no. Everyone springs into action! Except Stevie's sab. But Sam, Bobby, and Rain all bounce off Sim harmlessly. Danny has more luck, though, conjuring an image of a wrathful Belasco and...
00:46:29
Speaker
For just a moment, a wrathful demon Ileana from Sim's head, sending him running into the corner. Stevie jumps in and grabs an unconscious Ileana, dragging her out of the room as Amara summons a volcano to slow Sim down. It doesn't slow him very much, though.
00:46:47
Speaker
Stevie Hunter. Stevie Hunter. She's just jumping into the middle of this battle. And when when we met her, she was like, man, I i can't move because of my bum leg. i can't run. I can't dance. I can't do anything. And yet every fucking time we see her in in the shit, she immediately is like, I'm fucking mixing it up.
00:47:13
Speaker
she so but When we first met the new mutants, I was like, Stevie Hunter is not qualified to oversee yeah a group of two neat teenage superheroes. I was wrong. yeah She's great. ah Man.
00:47:30
Speaker
yeah Justice for Stevie Hunter. Oh, no. Does something terrible happen to her? No, it's just I wish she had become like I wish she was a a. ah big name. like i like I wish she had become so popular that like we saw her on the X-Men TV series. I don't know if she makes a cameo on the X-Men TV, but like she should be a big character in the Marvel Universe. She's awesome.
00:47:54
Speaker
She should, at the very least, have been in that New Mutants movie. Yeah! What the fuck? Stevie pulls Ileana into the elevator and starts descending into the tunnel system under the mansion, but Sim...
00:48:08
Speaker
starts lifting the elevator back up. This was a good moment. This was terrifying. They jump off just in time, but Stevie agitates her old knee injury in the process. She pulls them both as far as she can until collapsing as Sim closes in on them, promising to pick Stevie's bones clean for interfering.
00:48:30
Speaker
But just then, he's hit in the face with a magic blast as Ileana tells him he won't be around to make good on that threat. Her fists crackle with power as Sim recovers from the blast and prepares to strike back, but Ileana summons her soul sword and holds it to his throat.
00:48:45
Speaker
o She considers killing him, but instead declares that he's now in her service and sends him back to limbo with a light disc. How...
00:48:57
Speaker
How was he not already? I mean, like Belasco sent him here, but Belasco is less powerful than Sim right now, right? Yeah. I mean, so Danny pulls the image of Belasco out of his head as his greatest fear.
00:49:12
Speaker
And it's the demonized version of Belasco. But you have to imagine that he's just like, well... What else am I going to do? This guy. Right, right, right, right. I'm going to still follow Belasco because he's fucking scared. He scares me and he scared me for.
00:49:30
Speaker
You know, however long Belasco has been in limbo, indefinable amount of time. Right, right. Stevie is shocked, but Ileana whips up a spell to calm her by erasing her memories of the incident.
00:49:44
Speaker
Damn it. All she remembers is Ileana using her life light disc to send Sim back where he came from, saving the day. I think it's interesting here, though, that Ileana is kind of like, I am ready to come out to everybody as a mutant.
00:50:01
Speaker
I am not ready to come out to everybody as a demon sorceress. Yes. Yeah, yeah. That is... i Like, she's been hiding both from everybody.
00:50:11
Speaker
And yet... This is what she's comfortable sharing. It also just, it kind of shows how mature she is despite being 14 years old and just like her decision-making capability, whether she's making the right decisions or not, she's at least very confident in those decisions. Right, right.
00:50:30
Speaker
Later that evening, the X-Men return home to find a party in full swing despite the car and volcano in the living room. It's a very funny scene. It's very like that meme of ah from from Community where...
00:50:46
Speaker
Troy returns. Troy returns. so To see everything on fire. Yeah, exactly. So it ah is Xavier is okay with all of it. So the X-Men join the party.
00:50:57
Speaker
Xavier is so happy, in fact, that he stands up out of his chair without even thinking. And shares a waltz with Ileana. His legs have finally recovered. Whoa. Okay. I thought that was last. What was the problem? meant Exactly.
00:51:13
Speaker
ah Last time we saw him. Lalandra's like, I finally discovered the problem. It's physical. Right. It's not strictly psychosomatic. And yet. Kitty stands over by the window. Sharing in all the joy when she notices a figure watching through the window from outside.
00:51:34
Speaker
It's Doug Ramsey. I think. The moment I saw this panel of Doug peeking in the window, I sent it to you because I couldn't stop. It's like the, um you know, that onion cartoon with the sickos guys standing outside. It's, it is that he's, it's like faded. Yeah. His face is obscured by the fog and light on the window. It's actually like, it's really well.
00:52:03
Speaker
I'm going to say it kind of looks like some of the fucked up, ah The fucked up people in like early Sandman issues or like. Okay. or like um Or like Alan Moore's swamp thing.
00:52:19
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. um Some little creep staring in your window from the cold. Yeah, like, yeah. Like a ghost boy. ah Well, do you remember? He was looking for her back at the beginning of the issue and he's got important news to share.
00:52:37
Speaker
He got a scholarship to a prestigious boarding school. He'd love to take a kitty to take a tour with him since she was a student there, even if only for a week.
00:52:49
Speaker
What? It's called the Massachusetts Academy, Pat. No. no Man. That's the Emma Frost school. Yeah.
00:53:00
Speaker
To be continued in X-Men 180. Man. man
00:53:06
Speaker
this issue really felt like a child's comic, like ah a comic for kids, like a a children's comic. This was a little, uh, I mean, i think the the, themes we're dealing with are not necessarily children's themes. Um,
00:53:22
Speaker
But but all the action and dialogue in this issue. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Having a big purple dinosaur demon show up and just terrorize the mansion seems while you're while everybody's busy trying to throw a surprise party. Right.
00:53:37
Speaker
It opens with a snowball fight. Yeah. um That's fair. I didn't – it's not that I disliked this issue, though. It's just – I don't know. It felt like a like ah step back writing-wise a little bit.
00:53:53
Speaker
There's some some weird shit in this issue that feels – like, okay, at some point, Danny, ah when they're outside playing in the snow, pulls an image randomly out of Amara's head. you're Like, oh, I want to make her feel better, so I'll pull something that she likes out of her head.
00:54:10
Speaker
How many times has she tried this on other new mutants and it always goes wrong every single time? Why is she still doing it? Except for that one time. Oh, that she created a snowstorm for rain. yeah I guess she did it one time. She's just trying to recapture that moment. But in this time, something odd happens because Amara is like, what?
00:54:35
Speaker
do Danny how could you do that do you know what happened under this tree she doesn't look sad but she's like oh right she summons she ends up summoning a palm tree yeah she's like single palm tree do you know what happened under this tree and Danny's like no what happened she's like ah ask Roberto yeah did I mean they just made out Yeah, yeah. Okay. but they it's But that's definitely the implication. is yeah, yeah. Fooled around under this tree. Yeah, yeah.
00:55:08
Speaker
Good for them. she Yeah. And I just want to touch back on the the the Professor x Xavier thing. Because he can't walk.
00:55:21
Speaker
And then he gets hit by Sim and Sim's like, I'm going to kill you. And then the rest of the issue passes and suddenly he can walk. Oh, well, it just clicked into place for me, Matt.
00:55:35
Speaker
There must have been some like vertebrae or something that was out of alignment. And then when Sim slapped him. Yeah. Yeah. With his super strength, he just knocked it back into place. Knocked it back into place. All anyone had to do was slap Professor Xavier out of his wheelchair with super strength and everything would have been fine.
00:55:54
Speaker
ah From the very beginning. Hasn't walked in like 30 years. Yeah. how it it's Would it really be that natural of a movement for you?
00:56:08
Speaker
Also, yes. That and i have to...
00:56:15
Speaker
If you were reading this comic at this time and knowing Chris Claremont, you would be like, oh, that's not that's not Professor X. Oh. Right?
00:56:28
Speaker
Wow, yeah. i hadn't even considered that. And, like, I don't want to set up – I don't want to set listeners up for something that's not going to be paid off. That is Professor X.
00:56:39
Speaker
That is Professor X and you can walk now and everything's normal and fine. Like nothing. There's nothing intended to be weird about this.
00:56:49
Speaker
It's just really fucking weird. Yeah, that's so strange. Yeah. But.
00:56:58
Speaker
It's here now. I have another stupid thing that I want to talk about. Do you know about the. You did not like this issue. Do you know about the the flick thing in comics?
00:57:09
Speaker
Do I know about the flick thing in comics? So in general, and sounds like now generally, ah comic book lettering is done sans serif and, and is tight.
00:57:24
Speaker
So okay when you put, when you write the word flick in a comic, it always, always look, it looks like fuck. So right. Oftentimes, unless they're making a joke,
00:57:37
Speaker
writers comic book writers will avoid the word flick here they use it and it looks like uh it looks like sam guthrie says fuck the switch yeah beautiful maybe they just hadn't learned that lesson yet yeah i guess not maybe this is where they learn it maybe people like clip it and put it on like punk rock posters or something and they're like fuck
00:58:07
Speaker
That's all I have to say about this issue. Okay. Well, that is i serendipitous, Matt, because I was just about to read us the follow-up to the story from Uncanny X-Men number 180. This is surprising, but I will allow it.
00:58:25
Speaker
Whose life is it anyway? which Which one? My... that's i mar That's the name of the okay a comic. Now, for anybody that's confused, this is not a take on whose line is it anyway, the show that came out five years after this. This is actually a reference to the 1981 Cassavetes film starring Richard Dreyfuss, which is about a man's struggle to recover from a car accident. Yeah.
00:58:56
Speaker
Loses the the use of his legs. Oh, okay. So here. so this issue is going to be about like Xavier, you know, struggling to walk again. He's going to be working hard at it. Yeah, yeah.
00:59:10
Speaker
Chris Claremont, writer John Romita Jr., Dan Green, and Bob Wyacek, artists. Oh, okay. We don't have an anchor listed, though, so I assume one of them took that up. Linus Ween, colorist Tom Orszakowski, letterer Louise Jones, editor, and Jim Parsons, editor-in-chief.
00:59:29
Speaker
Release date January 10th, 1984. Matt, we've made it. We're in 1984. Yay! We're getting so close to being not dead anymore.
00:59:40
Speaker
Cover date, April 1984. Professor Charles x Xavier, recently having regained the use of his legs, is shooting hoops in the school gym. Wait, hold on.
00:59:53
Speaker
He's just, okay. He's just, and he's moving like fluid. i think we get it. Last issue, he stood up for the first time in 30 years. This issue, he is...
01:00:07
Speaker
Crushing it on the basketball court. Yeah. I mean, he misses his shot, but he is fucking like he's juking left and right. He's, he's dribbling but yeah between his legs. What moves the hell? ah He's also talking to himself. Like, Ooh, Abdul Jabbar attempts a steal, but and Xavier slips past. Oh, what a play. Very adorable. This is an ex Xavier we've never seen before. It's like,
01:00:35
Speaker
Claremont is just imagining, hey, when he's alone, he is just a little child boy in his mind. Which is very cute, very sweet. The the the sweetest we've ever seen in Xavier.
01:00:50
Speaker
i mean, we knew he was a star athlete, too. oh that's true. Right before he was, before he lost use of his life. There's also a poster on the wall that says, x Xavier School Basketball, 1972 to 1973. What the fuck is that?
01:01:06
Speaker
Whoa. Who did they play against? And what like this was what? This was during the Dark Era.
01:01:18
Speaker
so What is this? What is that? Anyway, he's shooting hoops when he's struck by another powerful psychic attack. Another one, Matt. Oh, every single issue it's happening. Cool. I bet it's going to be something really awesome and fun.
01:01:34
Speaker
This one doesn't just feel extraterrestrial. It feels extra universal. ah like something from outside of this universe. Storm comes in to check on him and they talk about the ways their mutant powers change their lives for better or worse.
01:01:51
Speaker
Storm is worried whether the personality changes she's going through, the way she's hardening and becoming less goddess-like and more human, are changing her in ways she likes or hates or hates that she likes.
01:02:03
Speaker
Professor X, after having a few creepy thoughts about her, scans her brain. She's not insane, and he can help further, but Aurora prefers to find her own path.
01:02:15
Speaker
Okay.
01:02:20
Speaker
First of all, he says, i i never thought of Storm as a woman. She always seemed beyond such things, which on its surface, I was like,
01:02:33
Speaker
Okay, you don't think of her as like a human. You just see her as some sort of tool for your your plans here. But no, it's worse. he's He's talking about he's never thought of her sexually until this moment when she comes in to confide in him. And now he's horned up.
01:02:51
Speaker
And now he's horned up. And he's he's wearing basketball shorts, so not a good time to get horned up. But yeah. Don't get horned up for Aurora. your student. I don't think he has a full grasp on ah the ins and outs of mental illness here. He just, he scans her brain and says, nope, not crazy.
01:03:12
Speaker
like She's clearly going through a mental illness right now, right? She's clearly going through a bout of depression. Right. But at this, also... also
01:03:24
Speaker
I don't I don't think that's how that works. I don't think that. And granted, I'm not a doctor of psychics, so I could be wrong here. But I don't think that psychically you can just detect mental illness. ah He's like she's like, I am going through ah something describing behaviorally depression.
01:03:47
Speaker
She's like, I'm going through something. And he touches her head. And he's like, no you're not. Right.
01:03:53
Speaker
um I guess he's not a behaviorist. I guess he's more of a, ooh, what's the word?
01:04:01
Speaker
He believes that mental illness is some deformity in the brain. So he's a, what? A eugenicist. All right.
01:04:13
Speaker
Let's chew on that for a little while. So Storm, also, I want to, like her, this whole change, I i keep thinking of it as unearned, right? Like i keep, I keep seeing her just like, she's suddenly a badass who hates plants actually. And she, um,
01:04:29
Speaker
She might want to kill people. And like this all happened so suddenly. And you're kind of like. Like she met Yukio. And suddenly she's like. Oh I'm different now.
01:04:40
Speaker
And it feels really unearned. And then I always have to remind myself. That she fucking died. yeah She died dead She was a dead person. She died.
01:04:52
Speaker
and then was cosmically reborn by. a space whale. ah Yeah. That is essentially a representation of a god. Yeah. Like a multi-theistic system.
01:05:05
Speaker
Yes. So yeah, she's she's entitled. to Right. And it's just that the Yukio thing happened so, like, the focus shifted so quick.
01:05:16
Speaker
Yes. At the mall. Oh. The mall, man. Oh, we're back at the mall. Doug Ramsey and Kitty Pryde are getting- perhaps never left.
01:05:27
Speaker
Ooh. No, this is a different scene. Oh, I'm sorry. Doug Ramsey and Kitty Pryde are getting kicked out of the umpteenth arcade for playing games too good. So they sit down at a McDonald's and start talking life stuff. And we're not we're not.
01:05:42
Speaker
That's not a we're not exaggerating in any way. ah They get out for your case. You hog my games on one quarter. And so I'm losing money. Yeah. ah Kitty likes Doug a lot, but she's upset about Storm and it's making her feel down.
01:06:00
Speaker
Nothing new there. Doug has just gotten accepted to the Massachusetts Academy, and he wants Kitty to come with him to check it out. She's immediately worried, but doesn't want to tell him about Emma Frost or the Hellfire Club. So what should she do?
01:06:17
Speaker
Back at the school, Peter Rasputin is chopping down a tree, even though he's still all fucked up from the Brotherhood's attack. Love chopping down trees on this estate. Yeah, I don't even think...
01:06:29
Speaker
i just I mean, John Romita Jr. stays on the book. So it breaks our rule that when ah when Colossus chops down trees and pulls roots out of the ground, it's the last artist gets fired.
01:06:45
Speaker
Well, maybe that's why we have three artists on this issue. He's like, I am not drawing that fucking tree chopping scene.
01:06:56
Speaker
Logan watches drinking a beer and smoking cigs. He calls Peter out for being upset about Kitty, even though she just went to the extreme lengths to save his life. Klaasas steals up to have the conversation and explains that he's jealous of Doug.
01:07:13
Speaker
He feels like he and Kitty are from different worlds and Doug would be a better partner. And maybe it's time he moves on.
01:07:22
Speaker
Meanwhile, he's i he's not. He's kind of not wrong here. i actually i love that knowing Kitty and Peter's future. i love that this is where they went after the two of them initially hook up. Right. Yep.
01:07:38
Speaker
Well, you still got other suitors. Oh, Pat. Oh, you you sweet summer child. ah the the the the place that Colossus is about to go. we are not going to have nice things to say about, but, Oh boy. um Yeah. I, I, there, I think there is something interesting here about him being like, like, cause he's like, if we were in my hometown, just even despite this age difference, like we would be married by now.
01:08:09
Speaker
um But right. I mean, I'm in your country now where that's not cool. and the culture is totally different. And like, that's,
01:08:20
Speaker
Like, if you're going to engage with that kind of problematic subject matter and have a character that is from a culture, and I don't know this about Siberia. i yeah like i'm sure i'm assuming no one on claremont's word I'm assuming Claremont is wrong about this, but ah but like let's let's let's go on his word for the sake of the the argument.
01:08:44
Speaker
The idea that he is still going to think that's okay until he sees how it's culturally not and then say, yeah, so maybe I should stop. Speaks really highly of like, that's a really interesting way to tackle that.
01:09:02
Speaker
It's a way that that sort of thing would not normally be tackled in a story like this. And also speaks well of Colossus's character. Yeah, it's a good way to show how open minded he is. It's it's he's it's without like erasing the struggle altogether of the of the culture shock that he's going through. Right. And it's shaking off his conditioning. It's not like he's. Yeah, exactly.
01:09:26
Speaker
Meanwhile, Aurora walks through the Bronx Botanical Gardens where she donated all her plants. Thank God they're still alive. Yeah. trying to get back in touch with her memories of Africa and her naturistic roots. Oh boy. Chris Claremont's doing real. Inside the greenhouse, the inexorable march of the seasons is denied as the plants, which would normally face the tides and the rises and falls of their life cycle, have been frozen in time. Like, shut the fuck up.
01:09:58
Speaker
It's a greenhouse. We know what a greenhouse is. ah However, this is interrupted when some thugs at the Botanical Gardens try to mug and assault an old lady and her husband.
01:10:15
Speaker
Storm obviously kicks their asses, but the couple she saved are as scared of her as they were of the thugs. No time for this now, though. Storm is needed back at the mansion. Hey, Nico, I want to go rough up some old ladies. Where do you think we should get? gu Where do you think we should go?
01:10:34
Speaker
Oh, they got tons old ladies at the Botanical Gardens. Oh, let's get our weapons together. We'll go to the Botanical Gardens and we'll mug some old folks. The Russia Street Rebels, everybody.
01:10:48
Speaker
ah So we do get a name for this group, Russia Street Rebels. Yes. We also get a name of one of them, as you mentioned, Nico. Yes.
01:11:01
Speaker
Are these... i They... Are extremely arrogant. When Storm tells them to stop mugging an older couple. They try to attack her. And they get wrecked. Yes.
01:11:13
Speaker
Are these immediate loser league candidates? Ooh. Are they loser league?
01:11:22
Speaker
I think so. If. Alright. If. The fucking. Satan's Saints. Are in the Loser League.
01:11:34
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. ah Yeah, I think there is this. I think there is this like rivalry in the Loser League where. Oh, man. The Satan Saints versus the Rebel Street Rushers. Rusher Street Rebels. Rusher Street Rebels. Yeah, I think they have. ah yeah I think they're both in the Loser League and they each one thinks the other one shouldn't be.
01:11:55
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Back at the mansion, the X-Men all gather in the study to talk through Kitty's concerns about Doug Ramsey going to the Massachusetts Academy.
01:12:07
Speaker
Kitty wants to go with Doug to keep him safe. The Hellfire Club is in shambles anyway, and as long as Kitty doesn't fuck with anyone, they'll probably leave her alone. weird rexen's Weirdest set of assumptions ever, by the way. What?
01:12:22
Speaker
Well, Emma's in a coma, as far as we know. Sebastian Shaw is still at large. Yes. And Emma has returned from the dead once already.
01:12:36
Speaker
True. So, yeah. Nothing go wrong. Yeah, everything's fine. Everything's gonna be fine. Let's just walk into the fucking lion's den. Yeah, sure. Perfect. Professor X and Storm are concerned, but approve the plan nonetheless. And Professor X reveals that Doug is actually a mutant with the ability to comprehend any language.
01:13:00
Speaker
what do you i my my jaw dropped to the floor man what do you think what do you think i love this guy i love him so much i know who he is ah you know oh you know which character he is now yeah yeah but i can't wait to see how he becomes that character yes yeah oh my god yeah i was just as soon as he said that i was like yes You'll notice that I haven't called Doug Ramsey a little creep in any of his, well, maybe one of his appearances today in a ah in a more respectful way. I mean, he was being a little creep when he was outside the window. yeah He deserved it that time.
01:13:38
Speaker
Yeah, he, um and I think it's it's interesting. We'll get really in, we'll get into this way later, but a lot of people, like like people read um Cyclops, but even more sort of intensely,
01:13:51
Speaker
Or at least with more um supporting evidence. People read Doug Ramsey as on the spectrum. Oh, okay.
01:14:03
Speaker
um He does not have, he doesn't feel that way at all in these first few appearances. But, yeah, it's interesting. and Keep an eye out for it.
01:14:16
Speaker
Kitty heads off to get ready and muses on Doug being a mutant, but not knowing because his power is so subtle. As she thinks, she's suddenly swept out of the window by a gust of wind storm wants to talk uh yeah because kitty's being such a fucking ding about it all she is she's still being a brat she's being a big ding every she's like oh she you changed your your jacket i hate it and i hate you i won't talk about it stop being a ding and just like chill with your friend uh storm forces the situation though it's
01:14:55
Speaker
It's very cool and it's it's very new Storm. it's Yes, exactly. Like you are fucking talking to me. She tells Kitty high up in the sky where no one else can hear them that her time with the X-Men has made her less idealistic, more ruthless, and the time changes all things.
01:15:13
Speaker
Kitty doesn't want to accept this. She relied on Storm ever since her parents' divorce. But Storm tells her how inappropriate that was. Which I'll put is is partly on Storm, right? Storm is yeah acting like a mother figure.
01:15:27
Speaker
Both of them were being inappropriate. And she's not shying away from that here. She's saying, like, you shouldn't have come to me like that and I shouldn't have supported you in the way that I did.
01:15:39
Speaker
Right. Storm is her friend, not her mother. right She loves Kitty, but they each must live their own lives and make their own choices.
01:15:50
Speaker
She's confronting some hard truths and she doesn't need a surrogate daughter guilting her all the way. She needs a friend to support her. Kitty is scared, but begins to understand.
01:16:01
Speaker
They hug and cry. That's the next week legitimately moving. Like that's, um, I don't think the dialogue had like the, I want to cry sort of element to it, but thinking about what was being discussed later definitely has a like misting up. Like it's such a, so human and it's so it's two people expressing a need to each other, an emotional need.
01:16:30
Speaker
um And as always, they nail the way that I think like a confused teenager would respond to this, which is like, I still don't get it.
01:16:46
Speaker
Yeah. But I hear what you're saying. And yes, I can. I can try to yeah fix this. Yeah. who The next week, Kitty and Doug board an airplane to Massachusetts.
01:17:02
Speaker
Peter gives her a cold goodbye and Kitty's upset. Now Peter's being a ding. But her concerns are overridden by an even worse anxiety when she sees that Emma Frost is on the plane. No!
01:17:16
Speaker
i mean, but obviously, like fucking come on. you Jesus Christ. Yeah. Then the professor takes the X-Men to Central Park to follow his weird telepathic attacks and they find a weird gate and disappear through it.
01:17:29
Speaker
The end. You know, I think ah like an ah something like an editor in chief might look at a see a scene like that and be like, hey, this feels completely out of left field and feels like something that um is interrupting your story.
01:17:45
Speaker
So maybe you should just cut this part.
01:17:51
Speaker
You know, like a good editor-in-chief would say, hey, I see you're trying to tell a story here, and what I'm noticing is that this weird scene where you sent all your characters to Central Park to a weird stone gate and they all disappear at the end of the issue, it really isn't in line with the rest of your story. And I, as your editor-in-chief, am here to make you tell, to help you tell the best stories a person can possibly tell, to help bring your vision to life in the best way it can be brought.
01:18:21
Speaker
So maybe you shouldn't do that.
01:18:26
Speaker
What do you think? What do you think a bad editor in chief would do in this situation, Matt? Oh, they would probably force you They would probably take the advice of a fucking toy company and force you to interrupt your story to do something like this.
01:18:38
Speaker
This is so it is So it's one panel, right? It is. Everything is happening. And then maybe it's two panels. I think it's a page. They say like, okay, we got to go to Central Park. and Oh, they go to Central Park and suddenly there's a big they're acting so out of character, too. And speaking so concisely, is it possible that this wasn't Claremont at all? That junk slopper might have written this. That somebody yeah just threw an extra page onto the end of the story.
01:19:09
Speaker
Said the X-Men disappear for a month. If that is true.
01:19:17
Speaker
I think it was because i don't think it was like like Claremont was helping set this up. That's true. He was eating Secret Wars for like a year.
01:19:28
Speaker
Right. This is Secret Wars, everybody. Obviously,
Comic Trends and Chris Claremont's Views
01:19:30
Speaker
this is Secret Wars. um yeah It might not be obvious to you, um but if you know, if you've if you read this era of comic books, it'll be obvious. And this is this is what those psychic pings were? Yes.
01:19:42
Speaker
Fuck. I know. It sucks. It sucks, and comics will never learn their lesson from this. They will continue doing this forever, especially...
01:19:55
Speaker
under, yeah ah you know, Jom Shithead's reign, but forever. they'll They will do this forever. ah so but But yeah, I wonder if Claremont just said, I'm no, I'm not writing that.
01:20:10
Speaker
i'm I'm mad that you're doing this. It interrupts my story and it's out of character. I'm not writing that. and Right. It struck me like he was like, okay, I can end the story a page early if you want.
01:20:24
Speaker
Yeah. And then you can just go ahead and and fill in the last page with your Secret Wars bullshit. That's what it feels like Because I don't think they did it without his knowledge or permission. Because, again, because he's been seeding it.
01:20:36
Speaker
but Yeah, yeah. And also, i i they would know by now that if you try to do that to Chris Claremont, there's going to be a big reaction. Oh.
01:20:47
Speaker
That's how New Mutants started in the first place. Is that how you – you think that that'll hold? That's interesting that you think that they won't do anything sneaky and underhanded in maybe even the next year.
01:21:01
Speaker
with They wouldn't dare. threaten having Chris Claremont ah almost quit. Anyway, Pat, I'm going to ask for something. going to ask you for a favor.
01:21:17
Speaker
What's that? My throat just fell off. So what I while I. Oh, God. Yeah. Yeah, it's fine. It's right. Yeah. i thes Can't see it. This is disgusting. it' toot You got to calm down because we're recording a podcast. We're both professionals.
01:21:34
Speaker
and that I'm I'm I'm holding my throat in place. Yeah. Not well. Yeah. Hopefully we've we've done some editing magic so that it sounds like my normal voice. But um
01:21:50
Speaker
while i get this thing put brexit and post I get this thing put back in place, do you mind just, and I know you just read a whole the whole
Rescue Mission and Power Dynamics
01:22:00
Speaker
last issue. I did.
01:22:01
Speaker
Can you read the next issue for me, please? Okay. Can you turn your camera off for a second, dude? It's really disgusting. No. No. All right. Well, you call an ambulance. I am going to get us into new mutants. Number 15.
01:22:21
Speaker
Scaredy cat. yeah
01:22:26
Speaker
Stan Lee presenter. Chris Claremont writer. Sal Buscema penciler. Tom Mandrake finisher. Tom or Zakowski letterer. We got our Tom's back. Tom's are back.
01:22:37
Speaker
Glynis Ween colorist, Louise Jones editor, and Jim Carter. Top cat, it says here. Release date, January 24th, 1984. Cover date, May 1984.
01:22:50
Speaker
Ileana sits in a room in the Xavier Mansion, worried about her friend Kitty Pryde. She was supposed to check in about her visit to the Massachusetts Academy, but hasn't.
01:23:01
Speaker
So Ileana uses a spell to project herself across the state and check in. She finds Kitty in the secret basement of the Academy tied to a chair in a black and pink spandex outfit and at the mercy of the White Queen.
01:23:15
Speaker
So not okay. the The White Queen smoking a cigarette on the end of one of those long sticks. Yes. Like fucking Cruella de Vil.
01:23:27
Speaker
Emma Frost taunts Kitty. She's been using her psychic powers on Doug Ramsey, making him think he's having a romantic week with Kitty, though she insists he's just a friend.
01:23:37
Speaker
Oh, man, that sucks. Yeah, that is so fucked up. And it's very fucked. Like, it's it's very Emma Frost. We already have such a clear picture of how cruel she is. Yeah.
01:23:52
Speaker
She goes on to threaten Kitty's parents, explaining her real goal is to get her to want to stay at the Academy and never go home to the X-Men. Kitty notices Ileana's astral form floating in the room, which prompts Emma to launch a psychic blast dissipating her.
01:24:09
Speaker
Huh. That's so strange. That is weird. Ileana screams with her real mouth back in Westchester, causing the new mutants to come running. Expecting to find a young girl alone in her room, they kick open the door to Ileana in the center of a pentagram in agony with a swarm of demons bursting from her forehead. God, this happened to me once at a sleepover party. It was so fucking embarrassing.
01:24:36
Speaker
is Did you get a good nickname out of it? Everybody the next day called you c Sinhead. Sinhead. The mutants all power up and chase after the demons, finding that each poof into nothing when they try and touch them.
01:24:51
Speaker
Back in Ileana's room, Dany tried to use her powers on the demons, shocked to discover that what they fear most is Ileana herself. Whoa. An evil version of Ileana appears through the fog of the vanishing demons, lifting Dany and putting her in bed. That's nice.
01:25:08
Speaker
yeah it's not Not so evil to me. That figure turns back into regular Ileana as the other new mutants appear at the door demanding answers.
01:25:20
Speaker
This is already starting this thing where like, ooh, Ileana's evil, but like the her quote unquote evil form does a nice thing immediately. Yeah. In the kitchen over some French bread, Ileana tells the new mutants all about what just happened.
01:25:38
Speaker
Her being a mutant and sorceress, Kitty and Emma Frost, the psychic bolt which caused her psychic familiars, a horde of harmless spirit form demons, to get loose. Afraid for Kitty's safety, the mutants try to call the Fantastic Four and the Avengers, finding that all the world's heroes appear to be missing in action. Huh.
01:25:57
Speaker
As if they're part of some kind of secret war. Wow, that's weird. Like a secret, like a war that happens in secret. It's a mystery. How would a war happen in secret, by by the way? like ah You would have to be outside of our universe to be sure.
01:26:18
Speaker
You can't do that. I do absolutely love that for once the Fantastic Four and the Avengers aren't available for an actual reason.
01:26:30
Speaker
Like ah in canon reason.
01:26:35
Speaker
ah So after some cajoling from Ileana Amara, the New Mutants decide they're going to Massachusetts themselves to save Kitty Pryde. If they could only figure out how to get there. I ah i also absolutely love this. It's a throwback to old X-Men.
01:26:54
Speaker
it is. It's just like, well, ah there's nobody else here. We're in New York. Yeah. Yeah. And then ah they decide to scrounge up some change and take the damn bus. Apparently Bobby's got like.
01:27:11
Speaker
A lot of money in his piggy bank. I mean, Bobby is very wealthy. Yeah. It's not plane money, though. It's still bus money.
01:27:22
Speaker
There's also a brief interlude. At least they didn't have to go get part-time jobs for a day. The scrounge money for a plane. Remember, Hank and Bobby became, like, street performers. You're right.
01:27:40
Speaker
ah There's also a brief interlude where Sunspot and Wolfsbane stare at the Holy Ghost Church across town in a daze. What? And Sam and Danny worry it has something to do with the time they met Cloak and Dagger. What?
01:27:53
Speaker
But we'll talk about that in a future episode. Oh.
01:27:57
Speaker
The gang move on to worrying about more pressing issues, though. Pacing the bus on the long ride to the Academy, Sam talks to Danny about the how the Hellfire Club are one of the X-Men's most dangerous enemies, and Sam thinks about how even the Danger Room wouldn't let them face the Hellfire simulation out of safety concerns.
01:28:15
Speaker
Weird. He sits with Rain, who is still panicking about Ilyana. Rain is petrified because Ilyana is a witch, and she herself is likely a spawn of Satan. Wow.
01:28:26
Speaker
Yeah. But Sam talks her through it with some amateur theology. Rain reveals that her mom died in childbirth and that Reverend Craig used to blame her for it.
01:28:38
Speaker
He'd say that she died because of her own sin and that Rain was meant to atone for it. ha Jesus Christ, that is that is some high level religious ah emotional abuse.
01:28:51
Speaker
ah Yeah, yeah. Sam comforts her by telling her that he misses his family, too, and she can come next time he visits them. it is It's a really nice, like, Sam being sort of a... Older brother. Southern church-going guy being like, I don't think that's how Jesus works. Right, right. It it is a very amateur understanding of the Bible, and but... and Well, not just of the Bible. It's an amateur understanding of ah the difference between different religions and that in Reign's...
01:29:29
Speaker
religion This is like what he's saying there is, I think your religion is wrong, which, yeah which, like, is not great. But also, but he's doing it to cheer her up. And he's, you know.
01:29:45
Speaker
He also you he makes his point by saying i was attending Sunday school long before you were even born. Yeah. Sam, you are two years older than her.
01:29:59
Speaker
And like, noting you just weren't. And wasn't you fucking raised by a, by a, by a priest, by a reverend. Right. She's been getting it birth. Every time Sam tries to pull this kind of shit on people, every single time, it's absolute. but Every time he's like, mom I'm the oldest one here. It's like,
01:30:23
Speaker
it's such bullshit.
01:30:27
Speaker
Later, deep underneath the Massachusetts Academy, magma melts her way up through the floor, allowing the gang to sneak in. Oh, Ileana wearing Kitty's old X-Men uniform leads the way to her cell.
01:30:42
Speaker
When she runs to untie her though, she finds that it's an illusion and behind it, The White Queen. No. To be continued.
01:30:57
Speaker
But, I mean, entirely predictable. we Yeah, if we do get we get one more attempt ah from Salbashem trying to draw rain as a wolf here and the swing and a miss. Yeah, it is. It looks more like a greyhound than anything here. um Yeah, at least looks canine here.
01:31:22
Speaker
Yeah, well, in some in some not panels. and not When she's sniffing the ground, it looks like a rat again. but
01:31:32
Speaker
and it yeah And it kind of has a foxtail. Yeah, no, it doesn't. All right. Yeah, yeah. it's not This was not someone looking at a picture of a wolf. No. Pat!
01:31:44
Speaker
Yes? My throat is back in place. It actually looks it's actually looks better than it did before. right so i i thought maybe i would read this this i would i would i would i would recap this issue for you what do you think yeah sure it's not gonna hurt any of the uh the implants he got in there they need time to heal uh no if it did the doctor said if it does i could just shove more nails into it to hold it in place
01:32:18
Speaker
Okay. All right. Yeah. Yeah. So I got this. You you see, I got this yeah bag of nails. Yeah. Good. Good. um So I'm going to read you. I'm going to tell you all about new mutants. Number 16.
01:32:29
Speaker
way game. What does that mean?
01:32:35
Speaker
Away game, Matt, is a sports term. ah ah When you're a sports team you play you usually have like ah a home base, right? Where the professionals have sports or collegiate have their their college stadium. Chris Claremont is writer. Sal Buscema is penciler. Mandrake and DeMolder are the inkers. Tom Orszakowski is the letterer. Ken Fedunowicz is the colorist.
01:33:03
Speaker
Jones and Nesenti are the editors. So Anne Nesenti and Louise Jones. um Oh, wait. And that's Tom Mandrake. So the Toms.
01:33:14
Speaker
The Toms are still here. Okay. All right. But Demulder is like in between them. Third wheeling. um Yeah. And then some guy named ah Jim Shake Shack is the editor in chief. Release date February 28th, 1984. Cover date June The New Mutants.
Hellfire Club Confrontations
01:33:32
Speaker
Stand in a spotlight.
01:33:37
Speaker
It's a detail we needed to share. Lorded up her by giant image of Emma Frost. Arm around a dejected kitty pride. Telling them that their lives now belong to the Hellfire Club.
01:33:50
Speaker
Two Hellfire goons close in with guns. But at Sam's signal, Amara starts burning white hot and summons an earthquake. It hits several power conduits and cuts the lights.
01:34:03
Speaker
And by the time the backup lights come on, the kids are gone. The goons, who are named Art and Gil, by the way. Yeah. They update Emma, who says she'll deal with them herself.
01:34:18
Speaker
Emma turns from the video monitor to a psychically paralyzed Kitty Pryde, telling her that she's impressed by the new mutants and is glad that they'll soon belong to the Hellfire Club.
01:34:29
Speaker
She explains what's going on here. The Hellfire Club, looking to amass enough power to rule the world, have turned their attention to mutants now that Emma and Sebastian Shaw are the sole leaders.
01:34:41
Speaker
Okay. Power in the near future will belong to whatever organization, corporation, or country has the most mutants, but mutants will still be feared by most. With the Hellfire Club in full power, that fear wouldn't matter.
01:34:55
Speaker
Kitty, of course, rejects the idea of being a tool in an ongoing battle for power. Hey, can you explain, how does this philosophy differ from Magneto's? I think it does, but I'm like, when I try to put it into words, I'm struggling. it I mean...
01:35:15
Speaker
I think on a surface level it does, but when you boil down to it, it really is. Like, you the way that it differs is that Magneto doesn't claim to want the power, right? But the Hellfire Club does. So Magneto...
01:35:31
Speaker
would have the power obviously there's a desire for power there but his driving force would be protecting mutants whereas their driving force is just themselves doesn't necessarily want to protect mutants but they are mutants and they know mutants will be valuable but the ultimate goal is power right and both is power and both of them are intending to use the fact that mutants are going to be the That amassing power amassing powerful mutants is going to lead to power. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. But for different ends, I guess. Yeah.
01:36:05
Speaker
Well, if the same ends, but different reasoning about those ends. Then again, i don't know. Maybe life under Magneto would be a little bit better than life under the Hellfire Club. Yeah, yeah, I think so. so and and meanwhile...
01:36:21
Speaker
The ah gang are holed up in a utility closet trying to formulate a plan. If they can find a way to take out the campus's main generator, they could they could buy enough time to rescue Kitty and slip out.
01:36:34
Speaker
They catch a couple of Hellfire goons walking about and kidnap them and tie them up. They won't answer questions about where to find the generator, though. We'll never tell you where the generator is.
01:36:46
Speaker
Ha ha ha. I'll take the secret of where the generator is to my grave. It's like i guaranteed there's a door that says generator on it. Well, they're also not trying any interrogation techniques. They're just like, can you tell us where the generator is? No.
01:37:03
Speaker
Damn it. Just tell us. These guys have an iron will.
01:37:09
Speaker
um So this is until Danny conjures an image of the white queen with fangs from their heads. who They'll talk. But they let Danny know what a monster she is for having done this.
01:37:24
Speaker
For having reminded them of their boss.
01:37:29
Speaker
I showed you a picture of your boss. You're a monster! i think it's more of her delving deep into their psyche without permission, but yeah.
01:37:40
Speaker
Danny needs a moment to herself because she kind of agrees. I shouldn't have shown them a picture of their boss. No time for that now, though. She and Ileana seem to be the only ones that can fit into the Hellfire goons costumes.
01:37:52
Speaker
This is such... Okay. Yeah. First of all... Yeah. They're the only ones that can fit into the costumes. They happen to find two female Hellfire goons.
01:38:08
Speaker
Yeah. Okay, i can yeah I can suspend my disbelief here. Yeah. They need to get into these Hellfire Goons costumes to be able to move about the facility. I can i can get on board with that as well. Yeah, Magnum P.I. i Why did they need to dress the Hellfire Goons up in their new Mutants costumes?
01:38:32
Speaker
All right. Well, all right. I have a theory. Okay. Okay.
01:38:39
Speaker
The outfits wouldn't fit underneath the Hellfire Club outfits. It'd look bulky. Somebody say, hey, are you wearing a mutant New Mutants outfit under there? Spandex outfits.
01:38:55
Speaker
ah Here's my next. Here's the next one. The next part of the theory. they they ah It's like memory foam. It maintains the form of whoever was wearing it last. So if you just hang it on a hanger...
01:39:10
Speaker
It's going to come out flat. Yeah. Then your your your hips, your ah your boobs, your ah wrists, your they won't be able to fit in them anymore. Right. you'll have to You'll have to break it in yeah like like a new pair of shoes. The biggest, my biggest concern here is, okay, two biggest concerns. Number one, Ileana, that's not your uniform. That's Kitty Pryde's uniform. You told us that.
01:39:35
Speaker
You're just giving it to some lady. Number two, Danny has special boots and belt. Oh yeah. Those are personal. Yeah. And she's just leaving them on this fucking lady.
01:39:48
Speaker
Like, it's and when you look closely, no, she's not. So where did they get extra boots and belt from?
01:39:59
Speaker
um The team splits up. Danny and Ileana go for a walk in their hellfire uniform. Rain and Bobby go to track sense around the complex. sniff around over there and amara and sam go to find the generator amara takes her magma form and burns a hole through the ground tunneling them to under the generator room and melts the whole fucking room power goes out through the entire campus they do take the i love the i guess this is just generally a claremontism but
01:40:34
Speaker
Magma bursts into the generator room She burns white hot. Everything melts. There's flames shooting up. There's people screaming. And the narrator tells us all she destroys is the generator. Just to make sure we know that these dozen people that we see running...
01:40:56
Speaker
Seemingly trapped in the building. Haven't burned to death And neither have their like chairs and desks. Right. ah Power goes out through the entire campus. Above Kitty smirks as Emig begrudgingly lights a candle. Letting her know the battle has barely begun.
01:41:14
Speaker
Kitty having a moment where she's like. ah Cue the new mutants. Because all the power goes out everywhere. is yeah Yeah. Just so cool. Yeah. I told you.
01:41:26
Speaker
Sam and Amara surface and blend in with the crowd of students emerging from their powerless dorms. But we see someone named Jetstream flying overhead and tracking them through CompuScan program.
01:41:41
Speaker
CompuScan program, Pat. Like the antivirus software? Yeah, you remember CompuScan from the 90s? was a web browser.
01:41:52
Speaker
This seems to just take regular images and pixelate them. Yeah, it seems like what it does. And remove the hair.
01:42:03
Speaker
Meanwhile, Danny and Ileana stalk the dark hallways, wondering where they should start with finding Kitty. Danny asks why they can't just teleport to Emma's office or house or something. But Ileana lets her know that she doesn't have the control she needs yet.
01:42:15
Speaker
She'll only use it as a last resort. All the while, we see they're stalked by a cat-like figure. clinging to the ceiling above them. yes Meanwhile, meanwhile, Berto and Rain are tracking Kitty's scent until they come to a thick door that Rain can't smell through.
01:42:34
Speaker
Her one weakness. Berto takes sunspot form and rips the door off, but is immediately blinded by a magnesium flare and knocked out cold. A man calling himself Thunderbird?
01:42:49
Speaker
Pat. That sounds familiar. He stands over him complaining that he was promised a challenge. He gets that challenge immediately as a wolf leaps on top of him, shifts into werewolf form, and takes him to the ground. Rain's victory is short-lived, however, as a busty woman stands behind Thunderbird and summons disc of black light over Rain's head.
01:43:11
Speaker
Suddenly, the shelves next to her collapse on top of her. As Roulette explains that her wheels of fortune can shower their marks with good or bad luck.
01:43:24
Speaker
Wheels of fortune? It's her wheels of fortune, Pat. Come on. It's every character that encounters these has to look at it and say, oh, that's a disc of black light. There's no way the art can clarify what it is.
01:43:42
Speaker
Roulette mocks Thunderbird for his defeat as Thunderbird shows concern for Rain appearing pretty hurt. Sunspot pops back up threatening to end both of them. But his first priority is to make sure Rain's okay.
01:43:56
Speaker
Already interesting. these these this new This other team like don't have the care and support for each other that the new mutants do. Yeah, they're butting heads a little bit.
01:44:09
Speaker
As he lifts the shelf off of Rain, roulette Roulette sends another black disc over, and suddenly Bobby's sunspot form disappears, and the weight of the shelf causes him to throw out his back. I can relate, buddy.
01:44:21
Speaker
At that moment across... i'm Not me. I'm very, very physically strong. At that moment across the complex, Danny can feel Rain's pain through their psychic rapport as Ileana tries to help two cat's claws descend from above and slam her head into the ceiling.
01:44:38
Speaker
Hard. oof Danny goes to make a move, but is suddenly confronted by a woman wielding a tarot card and summoning the devil that's drawn on it. Hmm.
01:44:50
Speaker
Back above ground, Amara tells Sam not to call her Mara, which he's been doing all night. It's a name for lovers, she tells him, and he's embarrassed. Yeah, that's pretty embarrassing.
01:45:03
Speaker
um But just then they're confronted by Manuel Alfonso Rodrigo de la Roja. o His eyes glow as he tells them to give up their search for Kitty. Doing so would upset him, and he's their friend, someone they love.
01:45:19
Speaker
In turn, Sam and Amara's eyes start glowing, and all they can think of is how they'd do anything for this man. It's like casting the friend spell in D&D. Yeah, yeah. This is interrupted when Doug Ramsey appears, though, delighted to see his friend Sam and Amara have come for a surprise visit. Yeah.
01:45:38
Speaker
This snaps Sam out of it, who is filled with rage. Seeing Doug Ramsey fill Sam with rage. it By having his mind controlled, he starts beating ah the man, only to be stopped when another figure zooms in through the window, cannonball style, and drives Sam through the wall on the other side, aiming what the fuck for an old oak tree to smash him against.
01:45:59
Speaker
Sam recovers from the blow just in time to blast away, sending that man jet stream, crashing through the tree on his own. Emma looks on, upset at what a ruckus this is all causing, and for the second time promises to take matters into her own hands.
01:46:17
Speaker
Sam starts flying back to Amara only for her to start firing lava bolts at him. De La Roja, going by empath, recovered and charmed her.
01:46:29
Speaker
Luckily he's invulnerable while blasting. Which, man. Number eight. luckily three Luckily he's invulnerable while blasting. But Jetstream gaining ground on Sam isn't so lucky. um I just want to say the Empath Charming Amara thing is the start of a running theme that is very disturbing. And we will have to talk a lot about Empath.
01:46:55
Speaker
Boy, we're getting a lot of that today. This is going to suck. And you and I are going to talk about it sometime in the future. yeah. yeah Something, yeah.
01:47:06
Speaker
Jetstream is hit with a stray lava bolt and starts plummeting to the ground unconscious. Sam, ever the hero, blasts down to save him. Unfortunately, he's hit directly by a lava bolt also as soon as he catches Jetstream and blasts straight down into the ground.
01:47:20
Speaker
Empath revels in his victory, letting his concentration slip, and Sam bursts out of the ground with a surprise sucker, taking him out with a full speed uppercut.
01:47:31
Speaker
Again, yeah, fucking Buscema... loves drawing Sam in action. Yeah, yeah. Here's the one thing that is that's bugging me here, Matt, and I don't mean to be a pain, but I believe he's said once or twice that he is near invulnerable while blasting.
01:47:52
Speaker
Why would this lava bolt hitting him have an effect on him? Yeah, you know, I've seen that happen a few times, and I just can't make sense of it.
01:48:05
Speaker
Hmm. We're talking like there's a ah bigger thing here that we're coily not revealing. No, it's literally just... But no, it's just, they yeah. They suck at writing it. He's near invulnerable. Oh, I see.
01:48:19
Speaker
ah Right, so every now and then, something hits a vulnerability, and it's it what hits that vulnerability is any attack. Yeah. Doug Ramsey stands on the side, shocked. These guys have superpowers?
01:48:32
Speaker
Hmm.
01:48:35
Speaker
but suddenly yeah he says wait till i tell kitty he's done you are so lost man
01:48:44
Speaker
but suddenly he glazes over and stops cold as emma frost appears behind them they see her for a moment but then the telepathy hits suddenly sam sees emma as a scantily clad long-haired americanized amara trying to seduce him While Amara is looking at the mother she never got to know.
01:49:07
Speaker
Very fucked up, but also like... This is what it takes. Yeah. Both follow Emma willingly, and Doug gets his memory erased. Oh.
01:49:19
Speaker
Back underground, Danny is struggling with the tarot devil, and it seems to be corrupting her. Ileana, held by the cat girl Cat's Eye, and coming out of her fog from the bump on her head, summons her soul sword. She slices the cat. And Cat's Eye, by the way, talks like Hepzibah. It's like... Oh, yeah. Another little, like, goblin... Goblin-speak. Yeah, yeah. drops as She slices the cat, drops down, and decapitates the devil and starts running for Taro. Taro summons the Knight of Swords, a skeleton warrior, and a demon horse. Claremont's like, Illyana's never faced a mounted foe.
01:49:55
Speaker
Yeah. she Shut up. a horse Shut up, Claremont. It's like he was just reading some sort of book on medieval... ah medieval warfare and and the author's like facing a mounted foe is much different than facing a foe on the ground he's like oh also it's these are the two cards that tarot has to play right you've got a knight you've got a devil and then you got a tower yeah was the queen of cups gonna come and save you a moon ah
01:50:37
Speaker
but just then Emma bursts in and tells everyone to stop screwing around. Ileana, protected from her psychic illusions, grabs Danny by the hand and hops into a light disc over Danny's objections. She was looking right at her late grandfather.
01:50:54
Speaker
Emma pouts about their escape and plots her next move, having two-thirds of the new mutants under her control to be continued. o All right. Do we want to talk about the Hellions, who they are, and their whole thing? do we want to talk about them now?
01:51:11
Speaker
Yes, Matt. The Hellions are here. It's the Hellions! So, we've got Cat's Eye turns into a cat. Sure.
01:51:22
Speaker
Talks weird. I does not like being a human now prefers cat form. And ah rain talks all the time about like turning into a wolf and feeling those animal instincts and wanting to stay there. But yeah, pulling yourself back. This is clearly someone who's given into that.
01:51:41
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Jet stream. It's cannonball. But. ah without the Without the blast field.
01:51:53
Speaker
Yes. Vulnerable while blasting. Yeah. We've got Empath. He ah manipulates people's emotions.
01:52:07
Speaker
Yes. he can He can cast the charm spell. Yes. Yeah. yeah Exactly. Thunderbird. We don't know much about him. Just that he's strong. And he seems to have the same powers as...
01:52:21
Speaker
Thunderbird. The Thunderbird that we already know. Yes. And he he makes some references occasionally to or or once or twice to a brother. Yes. like he's sees he's in He's intent on revenge for what happened to his brother. Also, his name is James.
01:52:38
Speaker
um Oh, Cat's Eye's name is Sharon. We get that. And we get Empath's name is Emmanuel de la Roca. Roulette, she does, she summons, she can make good or bad luck happen with her little discs.
01:52:53
Speaker
Unclear if she controls whether it's good luck or bad luck that she's shooting out. Yeah, yeah. Just that when she shoots one of these discs, it's either good or bad fortune.
01:53:05
Speaker
Right. um Tarot. She can make the little guys on her tarot cards into real things. Yeah. She also... Emma Frost doesn't fully understand Taro's powers. So, ah is a little intimidated by her.
01:53:23
Speaker
Right. So, that's that's a thing I was really... so there's there's two things worth noting. Number one, they... A lot of these powers are like analogous to the new mutants, but they do not really like each other. Some of them, it's without as much as we hate the man. It is education about your mutant power without the ethos that Professor X brings into it. Right.
01:53:52
Speaker
So Emma Frost is the Professor X, but a shitty version of it. Right. She's like, I don't care if you show off. I don't care how violently you use your powers. I don't care if you work together.
01:54:03
Speaker
Yeah. Do my bidding. Jetstream is Cannonball. Cat's Eye is Wolf's Bane. The other ones, it's a little tougher to draw comparisons with. Like Empath and Taro are both a little bit Danny-y.
01:54:21
Speaker
Well, I think Tarot is very Danny because it seems to me like like Tarot is just the medium so she chooses. Right. Like her mutant power isn't going to be inherently linked to the magic of a Tarot card deck. It's that she's conjuring images that she sees on a... Yeah, paper that's interesting. And but not just images. she's They're real. But then again, Danny has said before that Professor Xavier thinks that she could eventually make her images real. Make tangible images. Yeah. yeah So so Taro is Danny. um
01:55:00
Speaker
Thunderbird, I guess, is Sunspot. Yeah, just strong and fast and. Yeah. and And then I don't. And then, yeah, ah empath and roulette don't really correspond to magma and.
01:55:14
Speaker
Yeah. And magic. But. And that's OK. You get the idea. who's magic? Wait, why did I just say magic? This is. Yeah, I don't know. That's weird. You're talking about the miniseries?
01:55:25
Speaker
Yeah. The girl who starred in the miniseries magic and her name is Ileana Rasputin. She doesn't have any sort of superhero name because she's not a superhero. She's just a little girl. And. I guess I got confused because she's hanging out with superheroes in this story. All right. I think you're spiraling, Matt. Let's keep on moving.
01:55:45
Speaker
Our last issue of this episode, should we talk about New Mutants number 17? Get away away. I think, well, Pat, I think you're, no it's fine.
01:55:58
Speaker
Chris Claremont, writer, Sal Buscema, Tom Mandrake, and Kim DeMulder, artists. oh Tom Morzikowski, letterer, Glynis Ween, colorist, and no centi editor. Wow. Okay. Yeah. Jim Fallon, editor in chief.
01:56:14
Speaker
Release date, March 27th, 1984. Cover date, July, 1984.
01:56:20
Speaker
Jetstream decks empath. but His carelessness during their fight with the new mutants almost got him killed. Thunderbird tries to hold the boy back, but when Empath is racist, Jetstream slips his grasp and slams the other boy to the ground.
01:56:36
Speaker
Empath's emotional manipulation powers force Jetstream to stop and apologize, but when he asks the young boy to beg, Emma Frost appears, demanding he knock it off.
Hellions and Mystical Revelations
01:56:48
Speaker
Emmanuel De La Rocha, aka Empath, is apparently a massive ding. His power and ambition make him a good candidate for the Hellfire Club, Frost thinks, but a dangerous fucker to have around. Let's talk about what a ding he is. He's like super racist.
01:57:05
Speaker
Yes. He's just referring to people by their race is the, the clear sign. At some point he calls sunspot a half breed. Like, yeah yeah, it's, it's, it's really bad. the And again, referring to people by their race all the time. And, um,
01:57:22
Speaker
And also just like clearly obsessed with his own pride and power. um Like really, i think she's right, really would fit in in the Hellfire Club. But like, yeah, yeah. But man, having having to put up with a ding like that for this, like until like for 10 years or whatever until he's good enough to to be a part of the club. Yeah.
01:57:47
Speaker
In another room, Kitty, Sam, Amara, Bobby, and Rain are all locked in a prison cell that looks a bit more like a nice hotel room with beds for everyone. It also inhibits their powers. Oh, okay.
01:58:02
Speaker
Bobby is in agony as Roulette's bad luck disc made him pull a muscle in his back. and Kitty tries to massage it out using a technique she learned from dance. He's fucking, that's all he's ever wanted. As she does, she lectures the room on attacking the Hellfire Club and the hopelessness of trying to go up against the White Queen.
01:58:23
Speaker
They'll probably now all be brainwashed into joining the Academy. Sam explains that they had to come to her rescue. All the adult heroes are gone, as if off to war.
01:58:34
Speaker
And it's like that war is secret. As they despair, Rain reminds them that Ileana and Dany got away, but Emma Frost appears as a hologram to taunt them and tell them they have no hope of escape. Why does she keep doing shit as a hologram? She's a telepath.
01:58:51
Speaker
It could be a mental projection, but... ah The writers make it very clear that it's not. this It is a hologram. Using hologram technology. Yes, exactly. And this time she just does it to be mean. She just pops in to be like, yeah hey, you are mine Fuck you. disappear They're trying to sleep the frost appears. She's like, fuck you. Disappears. God, stop it I love that Emma Frost voice. Fuck off. Hey, it's me, Emma Frost.
01:59:25
Speaker
We'll have to remember that when we get all the way to a New X-Men. Right. Meanwhile, in Limbo, Danny and Ileana lay unconscious.
01:59:37
Speaker
Some demons cautiously advance on their bodies. As they get close, Danny, who was playing possum, grabs a branch and clobbers one in the fucking face. Yeah. He uses her powers to summon an image of Sim that scares the rest away.
01:59:53
Speaker
then the real Sim shows up. You're still doing it, huh? Cut to Ileana waking up in a fancy bed dressed in an elegant green robe. Danny next to her wears a weird fur bikini and tells her Sim brought them here to this palace in limbo.
02:00:11
Speaker
She doesn't understand, but Ileana and Sim explain that Ileana rules Limbo now as Magus. The demons serve it to her pleasure. Ileana banishes him from the room and uses a healing spell, but Dany notices something strange.
02:00:28
Speaker
She sits in a pentagram of silver flame, indicating white magic, but she faces the base of the pentagram, indicating black magic. What?
02:00:40
Speaker
britishage How does Dany know about? She picked this all up in a movie. ah What? What? Anyway, Ileana summons a stepping disc and they teleport back into the Massachusetts Academy. That movie?
02:00:55
Speaker
New Mutants. yeah Through a doorway, the girls see the Hellions in their pink and black uniforms walking in a big group down the hallway with...
02:01:07
Speaker
The New Mutants and Kitty Pryde. Also in Helion's uniforms. And the whole gang is laughing and joking with their arms around each other. Plus, it's daytime and spring outside. Remember, they left in the snow.
02:01:22
Speaker
And night. What the fuck is happening? Grabbing a newspaper, Danny notices that it's been a full year since they left. Ileana's discs must have shifted them in time as well as space.
02:01:35
Speaker
Emma Frost bursts in. And Ileana summons another disc. Hmm.
02:01:42
Speaker
Crazy. and That they just jump to the future and see. Yeah. yeah And we saw in the magic mini series that like she was able to jump back in time to see storms, initial confrontation with Belasco, but I don't know how they're gonna work.
02:02:00
Speaker
Time shifting in. This seems really dangerous story wise. Right. I mean, it seems like Ileana, Can't control that. But I mean, the X-Men are are all learning to the new mutants are all learning to use their powers.
02:02:17
Speaker
What if one day Ileana can control that? Yes. Then all of the Marvel universe breaks. then Yeah, i guess we're going to have to deal with it at that time. Yeah, yeah.
02:02:29
Speaker
This time on the other end of the stepping desk, it's night and winter. And 1984. Oh, phew.
02:02:40
Speaker
Phew. They're back. But apparently one week after the fight. ah Ah, close enough. Yeah. They phone the X-Men, but they still don't pick up. They're still on their own.
02:02:53
Speaker
So they sneak down to wake up the new mutants. But before they can get away, the Hellions show up. Thunderbird nerve pinched Ilyana and Jetstream informs the rest that the Hellions have discussed it.
02:03:05
Speaker
They don't want the mutants to join them involuntarily. Plus, they still haven't had a fair fight between their two teams. So he suggests a duel, one of yours versus one of ours in the combat room. What's the combat room?
02:03:20
Speaker
It is. We see it in a minute. It is the old danger room before Kitty and that demon fucked up. the the danger Yeah. Yeah. And then the she are helped rebuild it or whatever. Yeah. Yeah.
02:03:36
Speaker
If they win, they go free. But if the hellions win, they join voluntarily. Whoa. Danny internally conflicted about the decision accepts.
02:03:50
Speaker
It's cool leader moment. It's a cool moment moment for Danny. Yeah, she's like, i I am not equipped to make this decision. Fuck. Everybody's looking to me. No one can help me out here.
02:04:02
Speaker
Fine. I accept.
02:04:06
Speaker
Down in the combat room, Cannonball and Jetstream face each other. No killing or maiming. Not on purpose, at least. But the duel doesn't end until one yields.
02:04:19
Speaker
Thunderbird switches the combat room on and the two rocket into the air. Immediately, Sam loses focus when some batons shoot at him and he drops his blast field, falling to the ground.
02:04:30
Speaker
As Jetstream gloats, he's caught in some mechanical tentacles. Cannonball grabs onto some machine handle or something and swings around, blasting back up into the air. he Kurt Rupert, he thanks Nightcrawler for teaching him how to how to move around a space like this. Yeah, that's true.
02:04:48
Speaker
Jetstream breaks his bonds as Sam closes in, causing Sam to crash into the ceiling, rocketing back out. Jetstream intercepts him and throws him in between two masher things.
02:05:01
Speaker
Bobby calls out from the ground, reminding Sam to keep control of the fight and maybe try maneuver seven. The Magnum variation. This guy cannot get enough of that. Jesus Christ.
02:05:16
Speaker
Cannonball rockets towards some hanging ring with jet stream right on his heels. But at the last second, he drops his blast field, grabs a ring, swings around and kicks the kid in the face. So good.
02:05:29
Speaker
He tackles Jetstream to the ground and climbs astride him, demanding he give up. Jetstream, black eyes swelling on his face, refuses. But at that moment, the match is interrupted. By Sebastian Shaw and Emma Frost. Oh, couldn't shit have predicted this.
02:05:49
Speaker
The principal's here. They ask for an explanation, but when Emma hears the deal, she tells the new mutants that it's unauthorized and to go back to their room.
02:06:02
Speaker
Sam immediately rockets straight into Shaw. Yes, power. I mean, dumb force absorbs the impact and turns it into strength. Backhanding Sam across the room. I mean, Cannonball, he's dumb, but he's fucking brave.
02:06:18
Speaker
And this is exactly what we want from him. Sunspot charges in next, despite warnings from Danny. This is also very Sunspot. Yes. Yeah. He's probably just not strong enough. Yeah.
02:06:31
Speaker
She tries to intercept by using her power on Shaw, but Emma turns it around on her. Psyche is struck with terror as the mystic bear that slaughtered her parents appears before her. Wait, have we heard about this bear before?
02:06:45
Speaker
Yes, in the beginning of the graphic novel. Oh, okay. All right. And that's that's it. As Sunspot obviously fails to kick Shaw's ass, Shaw tells him that his father is the newest member of the Hellfire Club's inner circles.
02:07:00
Speaker
In the confusion, Kitty Pryde slips out of the room and into the combat room's control room. The room starts going crazy, firing javelins and rockets all over the place.
02:07:10
Speaker
In cat and wolf form, Wolfsbane and Cat's Eye drag Bobby's unconscious body over to the rest of the New Mutants. As Ileana fires up a stepping disc, they offer Cat's Eye membership.
02:07:23
Speaker
But she definitively turns them down. This really you cool moment, actually. It's like we don't know much about Cat's Eye, but the fact that she is willing to help make sure the new mutants don't die. And they're like, hey, you're not evil. You should join us rather than this evil team. And she's like, no, no. Actually, I really like this evil team because they let me do whatever I want. yeah She's like, I'm not leaving. She's like in her fucking Hepzibah voice. She's like, Cat's Eye, not leave. in Happy place.
02:07:58
Speaker
It's very, this is the decision a cat would make in this situation. right A second later, the new mutants are at the mansion, but they don't feel triumphant.
Return to Mansion and Future Reflections
02:08:10
Speaker
They're anxious about limbo, which they just traveled through. Ileana is worried about whether it's even the same day as they left since she can't control her discs yet. Sam worries that with x Xavier missing, they might have to go back to Emma Frost to teach them about their powers.
02:08:26
Speaker
And to make matters worse, Dani is suddenly struck by the ghost of a giant bear. It tells her that just as it killed her parents, it will come for her.
02:08:38
Speaker
To be continued. To be continued in Bill Sienkiewicz's first issue. Which we're not covering today. But buckle the fuck up, people.
02:08:48
Speaker
God damn, this is going to be good. It is about to get nuts. um There is a... The the demon bear... Sal Buscema's version of the demon bear is so goofy and stupid. It's just a bear made out of clouds.
02:09:05
Speaker
And yes, he can't draw animals. So it's like, it's got a very human face. Yeah. It's man. It's a shame, but he's also, he's clearly at the end of his run on this book, which is evidenced by him not being here for the next one. Yeah. Right.
02:09:23
Speaker
So,
02:09:26
Speaker
That's so fucking funny that everyone just immediately forgot about Doug. The whole point of this mission was to rescue Doug Ramsey and Kitty Pryde. And yet they completely forget about Doug.
02:09:40
Speaker
He's happy. Just leave him there. He's a great time. Yeah. He's hooking up with Kitty Pryde.
02:09:47
Speaker
But here's where... Here's what I wanted to talk about, about how the Cerebro era is clearly over, right? Yeah, yeah.
02:10:00
Speaker
The mission statement of Professor Xavier was like, I'm going to monitor... the world for the appearance of mutants and i will try to recruit them or monitor them to see if they're becoming evil or try and train them on their new powers right here are a fucking load of mutants young mutants whose powers must have recently developed and
02:10:32
Speaker
That he absolutely ignored. Just went undetected. Undetected or he like Doug Ramsey. Because we know he detected Doug Ramsey and then just let him continue staying in public school. Yeah. You didn't let him go to the Massachusetts Academy. Right. professor Xavier is like.
02:10:53
Speaker
Completely uninterested in New Mutants now. Yeah. it I mean, it makes sense. Like it's. They haven't been really...
02:11:06
Speaker
in an idle place, right? In right a little while where Xavier would just sit back and be like, let me see if there's anything for the X-Men to get up to today. Right.
02:11:17
Speaker
So, i but it seems like, like you're saying, he's also just not recruiting at this moment either. And we know what at the beginning of the New Mutants, he was throwing a little tantrum, yeah which may or may not have been Brood influenced, but...
02:11:34
Speaker
He didn't want to take on any new mutants because he was tired of recruiting people and having them die. But he's also not monitoring the world for new mutants that might emerge and hurt people. And right even when he was evil, Moira was like, look If you don't get him, Emma Frost is going to get him or Magneto is going to get him.
02:12:00
Speaker
And he was like, oh, like you. Good point. I'll take care of it. But now he's not doing that. So Mystique is getting them. And Emma Frost is getting them.
02:12:11
Speaker
Or Callisto is getting them. it's It's just it's strange that he's just totally kind of given up on his mission. But also, he's not monitoring for evil mutants either, but.
02:12:25
Speaker
Neither are evil mutants just appearing randomly to attack random towns and shit anymore. Yeah, I guess it's really calmed down. The whole mutant thing is just yeah there was really chill now. There's this period of time in the late 60s where mutants were just showing up everywhere and trying to destroy towns.
02:12:46
Speaker
And now they're just like gathering in clubhouses. Or a thousand feet under Manhattan. Which, another clubhouse. um Yeah, what did you think of this little arc?
02:13:00
Speaker
I thought this was really good. i thought it was... an exciting adventure for the new mutants to go on, which again has been a little bit of a challenge for us recently. Uh, it's also, it seems so much more grounded than a lot of the stuff they've been doing recently. Like they're just going to a school, meeting some other teenagers that are like them and yeah are very competitive. It's at the same time,
02:13:26
Speaker
we're opening up the world here, right? There is like, we're, we're looking at it as the Cerebro era is over, but also mutants are common enough that Emma Frost has built her own X team.
02:13:40
Speaker
Yeah. And of children, or maybe not of children, actually. they I think some of them mentioned that like they're too old for school, but still like, these are just, these are folks that had,
02:13:53
Speaker
sort of incidental powers that she has gathered and trained to fight. Right. Is taught to their power. It's just, it's opening up the the world of mutants a little more without, without having to focus on the fact that somebody is trying to kill all of them.
02:14:12
Speaker
The other thing we're getting here is magic. yes Her mutant powers revealed. The fact that she's a demon sorceress is revealed to the new mutants and only to the new mutants. They're the only ones who know about this. And yeah, yeah no one knows except for the new mutants and Stevie Hunter um and Emma Frost and bad guys. But yeah like, it's it's an interesting introduction and it's it's interesting that she's not the focus there's this other thing happening and it happens to wrap like Ileana gets wrapped up in it
02:14:52
Speaker
There's not like the, this is the introducing Ileana arc, like Nova Roa was the Amara, yeah introducing Amara arc, right? It is, it is. i see what you're saying. She's along for the ride. She, or not even along for the ride. She's the one that makes the decision to go to the Massachusetts Academy and help Kitty. To save Kitty, yeah. And the new mutants are like, well, what if the new mutants join you?
02:15:15
Speaker
Right. And it also just like... The approach to it, the fact that the new mutants have to sit around and be like, should we? We're were heavily outmatched here.
02:15:30
Speaker
None of the other heroes are going to be able to come back us up. Like, we will probably lose this fight right if we go into it. But do we have any other choice?
02:15:44
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Really good. Just really like really good character defining stuff as a team. Right. Rather than just all the individual stuff we've been getting recently.
02:15:57
Speaker
Not that that's a problem, but just nice to see them grow together. He's got an eye out stuff that could buy out. If you had time machine that you would like to try out.
02:16:12
Speaker
It can feel, feel.
02:16:17
Speaker
Oh, okay. That sound, Matt. I hope you were done talking about that because that was like... Pat Steeles. No, Matt. I would keep talking forever. If these music cues didn't stop me. So thank you for that.
02:16:31
Speaker
the um Music. Our music director is a harsh master. This week. Oh Pat steals and deals. ah Similarly to last week does have a big old image of Spider-Man on it.
Promotion and Listener Engagement
02:16:45
Speaker
i'm Okay. This Matt. Maybe the change you've been waiting for. It's a increase in salary. Potentially.
02:16:57
Speaker
If you'd like to be a Marvel Comics writer, penciler, anchor, colorist, or letterer, this book was made for you. It's your chance to try out your creative skills under simulated combat conditions as close as possible to actual professional working conditions.
02:17:14
Speaker
So funny to think of the bullpen saying that they were in combat. ah Anyway, this is the official Marvel Comics tryout book, Matt, which is pretty – it's actually fairly reputable. Like this – when this came out, people were like, this is the real deal. This is okay actual – they're not secrets, but like actual industry practices. This is how Marvel makes a comic. And so it gives you ah like tips in general, fundamental stuff, but then also provides you with pages to color pages that you can ink pages that you can letter. You can put a script. They just give you blank pages to draw. Yeah, that's the one that seems a little sus.
02:18:02
Speaker
It's just blank pages. Yeah. i pages to plot and how to explanations, it says. So I'm. Well, assume the how-to explanations are not something you'll be creating.
02:18:15
Speaker
It'd be funny if, yeah, I mean, if the but if the book drew your written idea, you write a script in it, you close the book, you go to sleep, you wake up the next morning, huh it's a comic book.
02:18:30
Speaker
Yeah. That'd be cool. Why didn't they do that? Yeah, why didn't they do magic? Huh. Anyway. This seems to be the next best thing.
02:18:43
Speaker
Only. Only. 1295. Okay.
02:18:51
Speaker
What is that in? Okay. Yeah. yeah I'm going to need your. i think it's time to recalculate. We're in a fresh year. Okay. So what in 1984. 1984.
02:19:02
Speaker
$1 was worth about $3.12 today. So it's gone down a bit. Okay. Which means that at $12.95, this comes to about $40 and change.
02:19:17
Speaker
Oh, wow. Okay, but it's going to make my dream come true, and it's going to teach me how to color, ink, letter, script, draw, plot, and how-to explanations. Right.
02:19:30
Speaker
And Matt, as a Marvel artist, you'll make that $40 back in like three to four months.
02:19:41
Speaker
All right. I'll buy it. I'm in it. I'm in. I'm in. I got it. right You did it. We're in the biz, baby. We're making comics. He's got an eye out. Stuff that you could buy out.
02:19:52
Speaker
If had time machine that you would like to try out. It can feel safe.
02:19:59
Speaker
Oh boy.
02:20:04
Speaker
Well, it's been a nice time here with you folks. This was nice. This was nice. This was nice. We should do it again ah next week, which we will every, every Thursday for the rest of our lives.
02:20:17
Speaker
um In between that one thing you can do, you can go to our Patreon. If you can't get enough of our frigging voices,
02:20:29
Speaker
ah Over in the Patreon, you can find outtakes. We put up outtakes tape one last week. Yes. And you get early access to bonus episodes. And there's like ah there's some just like silly little bonus podcasts that are in there. um Yeah.
02:20:46
Speaker
Also, you can join for free. On the free tier, you just you get the ah you get periodic reading lists. So you know what we're going to be talking about. and you can read along with us.
02:20:59
Speaker
And little updates. Someday we're going to send out just a little update to our are subscribers. and So I've heard.
02:21:08
Speaker
We also, would please don't forget, Matt, that ah regardless of whether you're paying us or not we would absolutely love you to like, to subscribe, to comment, just to even tell somebody.
02:21:20
Speaker
Just tell a friend. That'd be nice. It'd be nice of you. We'd appreciate it. um You could find us on Instagram at mutantmenacepod, and you can email Pat's email corner at mutantmenacepod at gmail.com.
02:21:35
Speaker
You can. I'll read your email. Big thank you to Krils Wilson and for the music and Julia Selle for the voice of Trish Tilby.
02:21:46
Speaker
Always. And I think that only leaves one thing for us to do at the end of, that we do at the end of every episode, Pat, which is give our signature sign off the thing we say every single week.
02:22:02
Speaker
That's right, Matt. As always, you don't send high school varsity, no matter how good, up against the Pittsburgh Steelers. It's suicide. And remember, um wasn't cut out to be a preppy.