SPEAKER_00 0:09

Hello and welcome to Uncanny Book Club. I'm Isaac Vaderspiel and joining me today is my co-host Adam Ward. Hey, how's it going? Pretty good. How are you? I'm doing good. I've been kind of looking forward to these next set of issues we're going to be talking about. I think that this is a really fun little three issue stretch that we have. I think it might be my favorite of the batch that we've read when you look at them as a group. Because there have been some standout issues, like I think amongst all of the ones that we've looked at. But I think amongst those are have always been like when we're, you know, like we kind of walk away feeling like it was it was fine. But if our rating would have been significantly high, there was always one issue that dragged it down. Sure. I felt like reading these three that we're going to talk about today. I really felt like they were all bangers. 100% agree. I think this is definitely the best three that we've done as a group. Like you said, there have been others that have been, you know, this is a standout issue. We think back to when they're at the space station and Jean Grey makes her short-lived sacrifice. But if we're grouping them, I'd say that this is a very, very solid three issues. With a lot of development on a couple different stories that we have going on, like there is The greater tale that we're kind of seeing unfold where Chris is kind of laying the groundwork for future stories. And we've seen that bit of payoff already, right, with Phoenix and the stuff that happened in space. But now we're kind of seeing story threads that were developed several issues ago now begin to bear fruit, really coming together 100%. In this podcast, we are exploring Chris Claremont's legendary X-Men run as we read it for the very first time. We hope you'll join us and read alongside or just stick around for the discussion. In our previous episode, we saw the X-Men travel to space on a rescue mission where they also defeated Lang and his new Sentinels. On their flight back to Earth, Gene was overwhelmed by the solar storm, but rose again as the Phoenix. Professor X and Scott decide to stay with Jean at the hospital, and the rest of the X-Men travel to Cassidy Keep for a quick vacation. However, Banshee's cousin, Black Tom Cassidy, and the Juggernaut are waiting to spring a trap. In this episode, we'll be picking things up where we left off with issues 102 through 104. At the start of issue 102, a fight breaks out immediately with Banshee charging Black Tom and everyone else being left to deal with the Juggernaut. We get another glimpse into Storm's past as she has to deal with another episode of claustrophobia. Xavier attempts to send Scott to aid the X-Men after he realizes what they're going through, but he refuses to leave Jean's side and says the team will have to learn to fight on their own. Professor X is once again also mentally assailed by his nightmares or hallucinations of an alien race. Back in Cassidy Keep, the X-Men are completely outmatched, with Nightcrawler getting knocked unconscious by one of Tom's blasts and being whisked away by leprechauns, which... we'll get into it. Tom also reveals that someone freed him and Juggernaut from prison and is paying them to kill the X-Men. The issue ends with the team captured and Juggernaut revealing his plan to bring Professor X, who is their real target, to them by torturing his students. All right, so I thought that this was a fun issue, and what really stood out to me out of the ones that we've read so far is that this is really the first time we see the X-Men just severely outmatched. And I think outmatched in a way that feels very comic book-y, whereas some of the past interactions that they've had with You know, the antagonists of the story have been maybe not to the caliber that we would kind of come to expect or or maybe more so like their confrontations with other classic X-Men villains. Like we haven't really seen that yet. I think for me, this just felt like a great comic book. That's the best way I can describe it. Reading it the entire time, I felt like this is a classic comic book story, the way it's playing out on the pages. It was very fun to read. It was portrayed beautifully with a lot of great action sequences. And it was very exciting. And not that I'm rooting for the X-Men to lose. But I think it brings a lot of depth when they counter adversity because now they have to figure out some way of dealing with it. For sure. And you mentioned that this is like an action heavy issue. And my recollection of thinking back on it is man, that issue was just like constant action. But paging through it, there's actually a lot of things that are occurring outside of that main fight scene. We spend a long time delving into Storm's past. We have the scenes away back at the hospital with Jean Grey and what Professor X and Scott are discussing. We spend a good amount of time outside of that scene as well, which I think is very, I guess, satisfying from a comics perspective. What I learned reading this is that I knew very little about Storm's backstory. If I had to imagine it, I think my perception of her past was always tied to her being revered in Africa as like a bit of a deity. Like that didn't throw me when we saw it the first time. But what threw me is the reference of her actually being royalty, right? Like that's how I interpret it. Like her mother is a princess. Yeah, I'm not sure how I didn't do any research into, you know, is her mother like a princess or is that just kind of like a playful way of speaking? I guess it wouldn't surprise me either way. But it was interesting to see that Storm hasn't lived her whole life in Africa and her family, when she was a baby, were living in Harlem. Yeah, because her father is a photojournalist. Yep. Mm-hmm. Yeah. What I really began to appreciate in this story that we see with Storm is there's going to be layers that play out with her being a pickpocket surviving on the streets. We've seen these layers of Storm be displayed especially well by Chris in this story. I would say almost more so than any other character. Yeah, for sure. It definitely feels like Storm has the most... thoughtful character building happening. Yeah, it seems like there is kind of a focus on getting to know her more than some of the others right now. I just caught myself wondering, we're spending a lot of time with Storm. We're learning a lot about Storm's backstory. I'm curious about which member of the team are we going to kind of dive into next in the story? Yeah, that's a good question. And I don't really, like, I don't personally know the answer to By the end of these three issues, I made a note specifically highlighting that this is probably the most I've cared about Banshee ever. Okay. As a character. That's how I felt towards the end of the next two issues. I felt impressed, I think, is probably the best way of putting it. I think he kind of steps up in a way as well. You know, the X-Men are... leaderless right now for the very first time after, we'll say, they're together for around a year. And I think in a few different ways throughout these three issues, Banshee kind of steps up as almost a backup leader for the team or some kind of guiding force. He definitely feels like the adult in the room, right? Well, he is an old man. Yeah, and I think that's very clear, right? And most of his... interactions with the group, he feels significantly out of place. So I just went and looked because I was very curious about the storm reference to her mother. She is a princess of a tribe in Kenya. Goddess and royalty. Yeah, so there we go. So we're not misreading that. Yeah, I found her overall story just kind of sad. Yeah. It's really how I felt. And I felt even more sad as a parent seeing that happen because it would just, it's just incredibly heartbreaking. You mentioned how the other time we spend away from the core group of the X-Men, there is stuff transpiring. We see Misty Knight, who I would not have guessed would be the roommate of Jean Grey. Yeah, I was curious about what was your reaction to like, wait, what? Misty Knight is Jean's? Roommate? This is... Okay. Yeah, that was essentially my reaction was, oh, I know who Misty Knight is. Why is she roommates with Jean Grey? Is this established in a different book? Or did they just pluck her out of thin air? Because we don't really see what happens with Jean when she leaves the X-Men in the books that we're reading, right? Like this core run. So I want to know, how did this happen? When did they become friends? It is cool, though, to see this little tie-in across books. Most of my Misty Knight knowledge is, I guess, currently from the Marvel TV shows. Yeah, I would agree with that. What did you think of the exchange with Scott and Xavier? I think Xavier has a very specific way of talking and a very specific word choice that Very much sounds like him. And him calling Scott, what was it, like an unspeakable cur or something like that was very Charles Xavier of him. Yeah, he is essentially saying he's calling Scott ungrateful for disobeying him. Yeah, he does have a very specific way of speaking. And it's very unlikable. I found it super fair. The way that several members of the X-Men respond to criticism or negativity in the moment is something else because we've seen Scott Xavier Wolverine is a bit of an instigator. He's the cause of the trouble and not necessarily the response, but we've constantly seen these, like these outbursts. They're not going to take, you know, somebody's shit. Everyone escalates. Everybody just escalates it. You better stop this or else something is going to happen. In this case, it's Scott. You need to get on a plane and fly several hours over to, uh, to help them at the Banshee Estates or else you're disobeying me. And Scott was right, right? He's completely right in this instance. This is not... They've had a year, maybe more than a year, around a year. They do need the training wheels off a little bit, and I think we see this issue. They really do need to learn how to function without him because there are going to be moments that, you know, everybody takes turns getting kidnapped, so... At one point, they are going to have to kind of lead themselves. Yes. I don't even think Cyclops probably would have made too much of a difference in this fight. Regardless, the juggernaut just dominates the X-Men, period. I think from a power standpoint, that's true. I think one of the main things that they were really lacking was like a tactical direction. And I think that that's where Scott probably would have made a difference. Yeah, that's very, very fair. That's very fair. And he has the experience of contending with the juggernaut from before. So you're right. A tactical advantage probably would have made a difference. Black Tom at one point makes a note of, or maybe it's Banshee, but they're apparently immune to each other's powers, which I was like, why? What is it that makes them immune? Because they're related, but their powers are totally different. Doesn't matter. You know, I don't know if the comics have portrayed this, but I believe that Cyclops and Havoc are also immune to each other's powers. Didn't we already see them fight? Yeah, and that's why I'm questioning whether or not the comics have really portrayed that accurately, or at least, you know, you have to retcon things here and there. The rule of cool. Another note that I had about Plot Tom... He just lauds Banshee about his escape from prison and his overall lack of interest on how he gets into the keep. Banshee just could not care. It's such a funny interaction between the two of them. And you can tell that Black Tom is just furious at the entire exchange. Why are you not asking me these questions? Don't you care how I got out of prison? I will tell you everything. Don't you want to know what the plan is? It felt very stereotypical villain, but it felt very appropriate here as especially because we see like the juggernaut being this absolute brute force. And then you have Black Tom kind of evening it out. And I really like the relationship between the juggernaut and Black Tom. Best of friends. Super best of friends. The only other thing that I wanted to know in this issue is really just how great I loved it. It was such a good fun. It was a great fight. It was great seeing the Juggernaut be the Juggernaut, because I feel like in modern-day Juggernaut storytelling, you probably more often than not see him lose. And here we have him very much dominating them. Well, to be fair, he's also a good guy right now. I mean, yeah, that is true. Slight tangent. We're not going to spend any time with this, but I absolutely love the current... run of X-Men that the interactions between the Juggernaut and Magic are amazing. Just the best part of the books. Now I feel like I need to go and read them. There's like a very specific panel that I can share with you that very much sums up oh yes, this is both of these characters to a T and this is exactly how they would interact. Yes, please do share that with me. I also am lying. There was one more thing I wanted to mention because we We haven't talked about it yet, but Nightcrawler getting kidnapped by leprechauns, by what we find out is leprechauns, is just, it's a choice, you know? It's one of those things where you can say to yourself, did it need to be leprechauns? And the answer is always going to be no. But I just wasn't expecting it, like at all. I don't think any of them were expecting it. I like how everyone interacts with him is just like leprechauns aren't real. Before I read issue 103, I had written down that Nightcrawler gets kidnapped by Robin Hood because that's what it looked like. It does look a little bit like Robin Hood is kidnapping him or like Peter Pan or something. Oh, yeah. He's going to be a lost boy. What did you think of the Nightcrawler power reveal? I didn't even know he had that power. I don't think he currently does. I think that's another one where that kind of fades away and stops being a thing. I was really confused when I read this at first because I was like, did Black Tom turn him invisible? What is happening? Nightcrawler doesn't turn invisible. So the brain eventually caught up and was like, okay, he's hidden in the shadows. That makes sense, too. But yeah, I think we overall summed it up. The only other thing that I really want to touch on is Jean's interaction with Misty Knight, where there's a very specific panel where she just looks like demented. The expression on her face, the way they drew her, like the background, it is just a crazy one panel. So Misty's like, you know, worried about you, blah, blah, blah. And Jean's reaction is, I know. So tell me, Misty Knight. How would you feel if you died then brought yourself back to life? I do see it. I would say that Jean is not well right now. And we haven't really spent much time getting anything from her perspective, but she's not doing great. There's another wicked panel on this page with these weird floating eyes behind Xavier's head. Yeah, they do a lot of fun stuff. trippy stuff in this era of X-Men. Is that supposed to be Storm? Oh yeah, it is. It's Storm. It says it right there. I also just want to quickly call out the last panel that we see is awesome. We see Black Tom chuckling and behind him we have this full body shot of the juggernaut holding up the unconscious bodies of Colossus and Storm. It looks awesome. Yeah, the X-Men got whooped, and Black Tom is such a perfect mustache-twirling villain in this issue. He truly is. I also love that our next issue is called Death Siege. We had Death Star, and now we have Death Siege. Fun cover, too. It is a fun cover. The Juggernaut throwing an entire brick section of the tower. Yeah, the visual of him just ripping off a large chunk of tower to throw it is very good. Tell us what happens in this book, because it starts off with a bunch of leprechauns. Picking things up with issue 103, it's revealed that Eric the Red freed Black Tom and Juggernaut. The other X-Men are in the middle of being tortured, and Nightcrawler stages a rescue by using his image inducer to appear as Charles Xavier, which throws Juggernaut into a rage. Juggernaut's punch ends up destroying the castle wall, and Storm is able to summon the winds to free Wolverine and Colossus. But to free Banshee, they'll need to walk into Black Tom's and Juggernaut's trap. Wolverine calls Storm a broad one too many times, and Colossus throws him so hard he shoots past Banshee and lands in the wrong end of the castle. Yeah, he does. Black Tom ends up being flung into the ocean by Banshee's kick and Juggernaut immediately runs to his aid because BFF? Neither are seen after hours of searching. The issue ends with Eric the Red monitoring the X-Men and the reveal that next time they'll have to deal with Magneto. Awesome. This whole book was awesome. It was my favorite of the three. Interesting. I think next issue is my favorite, but tell me why this one was your favorite. We saw a lot of payoff from the Storm story, and I kind of touched on this a little earlier, but there is a scene where Storm is trying to rescue Wolverine, and she uses her lockpicking skills that she picked up as a pickpocket in Africa when she was orphaned. So that was just a really awesome set of panels. And just the general, like, we watched... the X-Men be defeated for the very first time in this way, just manhandled. And we already talked about how maybe having a tactician like Scott would maybe change the outcome in the initial fight. But as Scott said, the X-Men really needed to try and survive on their own, right? They need to figure this out. They've been at this for a year. He can't be there all the time. Or even worse, what if something happens to Scott? So we have them... really using maybe not the best teamwork to solve this particular problem as they're kind of all doing things independently with Storm, Banshee, and Nightcrawler really being the ones that turn the tide here. But I thought it was just a great culmination of the story that we just read in issue 102. And here in 103, we see just this great kind of conclusion to the tale with this awesome sword fighting scene involving Black Tom and Banshee. We have Nightcrawler totally debating Juggernaut into thinking that he's Charles Xavier, which would make literally no sense. Nightcrawler is a huge star in this episode. I agree 100%. I think this was a really good demonstration of, you know, what can Nightcrawler do against the Juggernaut? Because, I mean, what's he gonna do? But... Nightcrawler 100% turns the tides. He goes in, he throws Juggernaut into a rage by using the image inducer that he has. And then he ends up freeing Banshee at the very end and is able to really foil the trap that both Juggernaut and Black Tom have set for the rest of the team. Yes, I agree with everything you just said. And as I said earlier, this to me was the most I cared about Banshee. Period. I also do love that we got one more instance of Professor X shocking an adversary by getting up or by not being in his chair and slugging them or fighting them in some other way. Yes. When Charles Xavier throws down, everybody just expects him to suddenly stand up and just start socking punches. The only thing I will say I did not like about this issue, and maybe I'm viewing these issue 102 and 103 together, I really did not like the leprechaun stuff. The leprechaun stuff is weird, but without the leprechaun stuff, we wouldn't get Wolverine saying, no way, bub, the Wolverine don't believe in leprechauns. I could live without that line if it meant we didn't get the leprechauns to begin with. It was fine. It served its purpose, you know. Well, So here's the thing. It does feel like everything with the leprechauns can be better replaced by, I think his name is Amon, the steward of the castle.

SPEAKER_01 23:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:57

He's the one whose family is in danger from Black Tom threatening them. And he's kind of involved a little bit with the leprechauns and planning with Nightcrawler. But why isn't all of it just him? The leprechauns were the ones that revealed that it was Eric the Red, right? But still, that could still be the other guy. Like, when Nightcrawler's talking to them, they're explaining that everything that transpired, that Juggernaut and Black Tom came and was a menace to the leprechauns. And then they learned that they're, like, telling him everything that happened with Eric the Red freeing them and sending them here. And this would be the first time he's popped up for, I guess, a few issues now, correct? We haven't seen him since the airport, maybe? Yeah, we haven't seen him since the first vacation that Charles tried to take. Yeah, at the airport, which was, I believe, the first attack that the X-Men were involved in at the airport. If I remember correctly, we were questioning how the plane crash was transpiring on the pages and whether Charles Xavier flew through. Through another plane? Another plane, yeah. We landed on that he didn't. But yeah, it would have been cool if he did. I really like this issue. I like Storm, you know, freeing herself of her crippling claustrophobia and just kind of overcoming her personal demons to really become the power that the X-Men needed to overcome the odds. You also mentioned Colossus eating Wolverine up the wall. That was a really fun scene to watch. Yeah, that might be one of the funniest things that's happened in this run so far. I mean, number one, obviously, Professor X standing up and punching Wolverine. I don't know if we'll ever top it. But him eating him over the castle and Wolverine just having that, hey, like letters like trailing after him in his wake is really good. Yeah, it's just really, really fun. And I think it is because it's just a solid two issues that really complement each other as just like a really fun, high action, little conjecture that carries through too, too much. Like really the focus was what was happening between the X-Men and Black Tom and Juggernaut. So I really, really liked it. I would give both issues combined eight. I was thinking eight. I would have maybe have raised that to like a nine if we didn't have leprechauns. Also, the love story that is Black Tom and Juggernaut is truly magnificent. Seeing Juggernaut just jump in after him. That's a friend. Truly a friend. And it's rare that you see that in these books. And it's nice that you see it from the villain perspective because you sort of expect it with the heroes. But it is really nice to see like, you know, these people that want to commit murder. do truly love each other. They can find hope in a hopeless place. So on that last panel, I think is where we really see Eric the Red, and he's got this whole TV screen set up going on. I feel like looking at this, I now feel comfortable saying that, you know, we had that discussion about like Lang was watching the X-Men. There was like another person watching them or watching Lang or whatever it was. Yes. I feel pretty confident that it was Eric the Red in that moment as well. I 100% agree. I was literally just thinking that. Do you know who the guy in the middle is? So there's for those who can't see this panel. There is Eric the Red sitting at basically a computer console, one that they would imagine from in 1970, of what a modern-day computer console would look like. A lot of switches and dials. Nothing but switches and dials is 90% of the board. And then there's these three tiny monitors with various characters on it. On one screen, we have the X-Men at Cassidy Keep. On the far right image, we have Magneto. And then in the middle, we have a character I'm unfamiliar with. Is this space related? Yes. Okay. But the only reason I know that is because he says Princess Nirmani. So I know it's Shiara Empire related. Okay, I'm glad you're big braining this. And it's not some weird spoiler that I have inadvertently caused. He seems to be the force behind Eric the Red. He says, I will brook no more failures. Is that understood? What are your thoughts on Eric Duran in general from what we've seen so far? I like that he is conniving and doing a lot of things behind the scenes. Like his first step is, I'm going to mind control Havoc and Lorna. And then he tries to direct conflict and it doesn't go amazing. His next step after that is, I'm going to free these adversaries of the X-Men. in Juggernaut and Black Tom and, as we'll discuss in the next issue, Magneto. I like that he's doing a lot of steps. Direct conflict didn't go great for him. It didn't go super bad, but it's nice that he's not just trying to do the same thing over and over again and not just reappearing every other issue to be like, I'm going to get you now, X-Men. Yeah, I think that is maybe the only redeeming quality for me. I just don't like the design. I don't really care for the character. I like all the things he's doing in terms of the string pulling, as you kind of are alluding to here. He's the puppet master who's putting all of these challenges in the way of the X-Men in order to fulfill a greater purpose. However, that could be literally anybody. It doesn't necessarily need to be Eric the Red, at least from what we've seen so far. It could be leprechauns. I mean, we got leprechauns that are just being pulled out to basically serve as a saving grace to Nightcrawlers. Could we not find somebody else? Could we not give this to the Mole Man? I think he's busy at this point. Could we not give this to... I don't know. Gnomes? Gnomes are cool. What about Mystique? Let's give it to Mystique. Maybe this is Mystique disguised as Eric the Red. Is Mystique even around yet? Am I... I don't know that Mystique exists yet, but I'm assuming she doesn't. All right. Well, let's assume she doesn't because otherwise she would have been perfect for this. Whatever you think. I just hate the design. I don't like looking at it. It's from a certain time. I think all that is super fair. And we don't really get any personality necessarily from him. Like, we don't spend enough time with him to be like, oh, yeah. eric the red rocks he says a bunch of cool stuff all the time he doesn't rock he's just kind of there but the behind the scenes stuff is at least a nice touch yeah the action that he is causing is very nice as uh you know borat would say and i hope everybody listening knows what borat is because that would not be cool man that would not be cool see you next man villa Yeah, he's an X-Men villain. He should have been the one filling in for Eric the Red. That would be a comic. I'm trying to think of how to do a Borat impression that would be X-Men appropriate. I'm having a really hard time. Sometimes Scott says, my wife. And he could say it in a funnier voice. My wife. Get on it, Marvel. Give us Borat the X-Men. It could even be called that. There's the title. There's Wolverine in the X-Men and there's Borat in the X-Men. Yeah. It works. Coming soon to Disney+. You can give him a leotard that looks like Wolverine's but is very revealing. Kind of like a swimsuit. Sexier. Give him Eric the Red's outfit. The original one that Cyclops wore. Yeah. The sexy one. The sexier one. Come on. Let's not do Eric the Red Dirty. If he's known for anything, it's being revealing. All right, let's get into issue 104. In this issue, the X-Men are taking a hovercraft over to Moira's island after she called worried and asked them to check up on her place. As they approach, the boat is pulled apart, tallying another checkmark in the vehicles destroyed by X-Men chart. They wash ashore and spot her lab and, like us, express confusion as to why exactly did she become Professor X's housekeeper again. The earth beneath them suddenly lifts up and they shoot toward the lab. They end up crashing through the walls and are confronted by the X-Men's oldest, deadliest foe, Magneto. Luckily, Moira and Scott arrive at the landing pad behind the lab and find an unconscious Jamie Madrox. Jamie explains that Eric the Red broke into the lab with Havok and Polaris and used a ray to embiggen Magneto back into an adult. Oh, by the way, Magneto has been a baby up until this point, since Defender 16 apparently, and that's why we haven't seen him. Magneto easily handles the X-Men, but Cyclops comes to their rescue and is able to stun him. He gathers the X-Men and they flee, and Magneto declares himself triumphant. We get a few teasers as to what's coming next. A horror known as Mutant X is escaping its containment in Moira's lab slash prison. And on the last page, we see the Starjammer spaceship warning of an emperor opening the dimensional gate and it'll be the end of everything. We also see the alien from Xavier's visions fleeing to Earth, but that she's being targeted by an Imperial cruiser. We also see Eric the Red spying on Professor X and Jean Grey. He declared that his final player is about to make his entrance, saying the princess will be his and the X-Men will be no more. Next issue, The Phoenix is Unleashed. So I feel like we have to start off by talking about the baby in the room. Yes, we need to talk about the baby in the room. You should lead us into this because this was your favorite issue. So tell me about the baby. Tell me about Baby Magneto and why you loved it. Well, I loved it because it was so out of left field, like the leprechauns, but was a little bit more useful, I guess, than the leprechauns. It's just such a weird, bizarre, 70s comic book choice to be like, we stopped Magneto by turning him into a baby, and then we imprisoned him. Oh, by the way, he still has that white hair. So... I don't think I put any stock into the fact that we had not seen Magneto to this point, and that was largely because this is a new X-Men team. It would make sense that with a new X-Men team, you take it in new directions that aren't necessarily the same villains that the original team had confronted. So I never really thought about it. And then you made a note to me where there was a bizarre case that was coming up with Magneto, and I was not expecting him to be a baby. Yeah, I was very much looking forward to your reaction to like, wait, why? Why did they make him a baby? You definitely nailed it on the head. This is like some 60s decision making at its core. We have to get rid of him, but we can't make it too crazy. And it needs to be super campy. So let's Let's figure out what the Brady Bunch would do here. And that is turn Magneto into a baby and put him in baby jail, which was then kept on this island. Yeah, in her lab, her lab slash containment center jail. I don't really remember what they call it, but it is a jail essentially. Toward the end of the issue, we see Wolverine passing a door and being like, oh, great, looks like that bug-eyed broad's busted loose. So people are being held there, imprisoned. By the way, did you realize who the bug-eyed broad was, or were you like, what is he talking about? I did not know who he was talking about. Was it one of the animen? Yeah, it's the dragonfly animen lady. I never put two and two together to assume that that's what it was, and now it makes a lot more sense. So they've just been basically setting the prisoners of the X-Men to this island. That's kind of messed up, man. I guess. I mean, Professor X and Moira don't mess around. That's seen by her wielding a machine gun. That's just sad. And she definitely does not deserve the title of housekeeper or maid or whatever it is she should at least be like a c-suite member you know yeah in this issue we also learned that she left her professorship at edinburgh and her research lab slash prison so she's taking kind of a downgrade in life especially considering what we know of moira mctaggart in the future it's i don't blame her at all for being furious with Charles when the Krakoa age rolled around. Did you notice the other mutant that was hanging around the prison? The other mutant hanging around the prison? Are you talking about the mutant X or... Oh, do you mean Jamie?

SPEAKER_01 38:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:01

The multiple man? I did notice Jamie. Mostly because I've always hated that costume and he wears it a lot.

UNKNOWN 38:09

Ha ha ha ha!

SPEAKER_00 38:10

I mean, Jamie Madrox is like the best person to have as your lab worker, just because then you have like 100 lab workers. Yeah, absolutely. It was neat seeing him, but we didn't really see his powers used at all. No, we only see the one Jamie Madrox instead of a bunch of them. Yes, I don't know if you were new to this at the time that you would really have been able to figure that out pre-internet and all. And assuming this is, you know, a starting on point for people. Do you think he's been shown before this? I mean, I would have to think so. So there was a couple things about Magneto I just wanted to talk about. Number one, he is the ultimate Chad for how he shows up in this comic book. Just pulling Colossus, just yanking him forward like Darth Vader and just tossing him away. We see the effects of Wolverine's metal bones, his adamantium bones, come into effect. And we see a very cool moment as well where he pulls the Pharos particles out and uses them against Nightcrawler. He very handily handled the X-Men. very very easily and that whole the taking the the ferris particles and completely like covering banshee and like the skin tight dust suit is one of the most villainous things i think we've seen so far it's just it's just a ruthless way to deal with someone it i think really paints the picture of just how out of league he is compared to them right like he's That's a terrible way of putting it, but he's in a league above them is what I'm trying to say, right? We know he's an Omega-level mutant. For those who don't know, there is a tier system for powers. Some are great, like Magnetos. He's an Omega mutant. Some are terrible. Some people make gold balls. Some people make gold balls, and sometimes your skin just turns inside out, and that's your superpower. Very unfortunate. So to see him, I think, experience, like, I think that's the biggest takeaway, right? In that fight, you really see Magneto standing above them by just having mastery of his powers and knowing what he's capable of. We'll see that, obviously, from the X-Men in the future, and we already kind of saw that in the previous issue with Nightcrawler learning that he can, whatever it was, camouflaging is pretty much what I'm taking away from it. Camouflaging works. Yeah, it's basically camouflaging. But it was really awesome to see Magneto, especially because I think this is my earliest in terms of comic book history. If I were to think back of everything that I've ever read, this is the earliest state that I've seen Magneto. And he is a badass through and through. We also learned that he is probably stronger than he's ever been because he was a baby. And now he's not. Yeah, the way I interpret that is they aged him up, but he didn't get to as old as he was previous. So he's younger, stronger, but he has all of the extra experience of using his powers and more of that mastery, like you said. What did you think of all of the space stuff, like with this story thread that we're coming in of these aliens that want to, I don't know, do something with Xavier? I'm really glad that we're getting to that point where we're going to start seeing this stuff resolved. Like we've talked a while about, you know, I've really enjoyed the different instant teasers and like that this is still happening kind of stuff that's going on. But it has been going on for a lot of issues at this point. And it's really nice to see everything starting to come together really quickly and culminate into what i'm assuming is going to be a pretty intense conflict it's interesting to me that we're introducing new people at this point like so late into this sort of pre-conflict area that we're left in mostly i'm talking about uh corsair and the star jammer yeah we get that very early scene with him they don't even call him corsair do they just christopher Yeah, they make reference to the Star Jammers. It's a very, very quick reference. I'm trying to keep open-minded about it, but I don't know where this is going. Aside from, like, I get the general feeling that obviously the Phoenix is involved. But I'm interested to see what happens. I don't know. To me, the latter half of this book kind of left me a little meh. I do think them finishing the issue with the, if he goes through with his plan to open the dimensional gate, it'll be the end of everything. But as a reader, I don't know who this is. I don't know what the dimensional gate is. I don't know who the emperor is. It's kind of, it's missing the stakes. Yeah. Yeah. It's a case of, so what? So what this guy wants to do this? Like, who is he? Like, what does he want? What do these mean? Yeah, he's having all these visions, okay? Like, who is, what's happening? Why is this important to me? Aside from that, still awesome seeing Magneto and everything. And we essentially see Cyclops come, and they leave, right? Isn't that essentially how it ends? Yeah, he is able to stun Magneto, and then he gathers everyone up and convinces them to leave because he's figured out, like, oh, hey... This is all a distraction. Eric the Red wants to get to Professor X. We need to hop back across the ocean and be there to help Professor X. There's another interaction. This has kind of happened, I think, a few times at this point where Scott ends up threatening Wolverine or is kind of angry with him. I don't remember if it's a threat threat. Oh, no, it is. I'll blast you down and carry you out. I think that this time the threat is actually an example of good leadership, unlike the past where it's like Cyclops is overwhelmed emotionally and stressed and he's doing these things. I think this time it felt more to me like this is the best way of communicating with Wolverine in a way that he's going to respect and get him to actually be on board with this plan. Yeah, that's a way of, I think, thinking about it or at least rationalizing it. Yeah, I could definitely be like really working hard to rationalize it, but that's the way I like to read that panel. And I think that's fine. I put this just in the same category as the overreaction that we've seen so many times already. But I really like your explanation of Scott has just figured out this is the way to talk to Wolverine to get action done. I'm going to use this headcanon from now on. It'll be interesting to see how many more times Scott has to threaten Wolverine in the coming issues. I'm pretty sure it's just a continued thread. That's just going to happen for the rest of time. So given the three of the books, we started this off by saying it's by far the best trio that we've read. I still stand by that. The story with Black Tom and Juggernaut were fantastic. We roll in Magneto that kind of caps this story off the coast of Ireland or in Ireland. And it was just a great comic book. It's like three solid issues of campy, action-packed comic hilarity. Definitely. I think these are the most fun that the comics have been so far. Like the three of these were very fun comics. There's a lot to smile about. laugh at, joke about, but also there's a lot of action and they're introducing all of these things and story threads are starting to come together really well. It's a very solid three issues. It's fun and we're seeing the X-Men fail for the first time, which is nice because it's going to eventually help them grow and they're going to be an even better team because of it. I'm just really happy with these three. Given that, and maybe this is just how we can round out our chat for today, but what do you hope for when we think about the next three or four books that we're going to talk about? I feel like we have been leading up to this moment for a long time now. Eric the Red came by issues ago. He's been behind all these different things. He's been spying on the X-Men in a really creepy way. He's let loose some of their greatest foes to try and take them off of the board. I think that the conflict that we, I'm assuming, are getting into needs to be a big event. We talked about the last episode, there was that teaser of like, can Colossus stop the Juggernaut or whatever? And we didn't really discuss it, but it wasn't really that much of a theme in that issue. I want to see a really big conflict because there's a lot of pieces that are in play right now and they all seem to be headed in to the same point. And I'm really hoping that we see something satisfying, something that really then lays a groundwork for where do we go from here? And I assume it's going to be probably Phoenix related, just given the little teaser that we get at the end of this issue of the Phoenix will be unleashed, blah, blah, blah. I don't know that I can describe it any better than you just did. This feels like we're leading to something big. We have all these story threads that are coming together. I am hoping that the Shiar element doesn't take me out of the story that we have going on, but I'm open to the journey that we're about to take. It's just the Shiar stuff has looked on paper to just be a little silly. Outside of what we're reading right now, what is your knowledge or understanding of Shi'ar stuff or like previous or other instances of the Shi'ar popping up in X-Men comics or other comics? I have a general knowledge of them as I've read a couple different cosmic related Marvel books where they pop up sparingly. But I don't know that I've really read too heavily of a story that involves them. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but the Shi'ar are the alien species that also have powers, right? Isn't Gladiator a member of the Shi'ar Royal Guard? Yeah, Gladiator is, I think, the leader of the guard. Okay, yeah. So they had a big presence in Hickman's Avengers books when they do a lot of the space stuff, right? That's essentially my knowledge is really that. And I know that there's a connection to the X-Men, but I don't know what it is. I would say I have a very similar level of time spent with them in comics. A little bit possibly more understanding of some of the X-Men interaction. Things from like the X-Men 97 show. Very good, by the way, everyone should watch. As well as some of the other X-Men runs that I've read, but Assuming that this is the first introduction of them, brand new, whole cloth, Chris is creating them, I'm really curious to see how this introduction to them goes. I'm actually very curious. Is he the originator of them? It feels like he is. He is. Yes. Can confirm. Huh. Okay. I mean, like, that has me excited to see them kind of portrayed for the first time. And I mean, like, I'm trying to stay open-minded about the whole thing. I think what has me most excited is just where this story is going with Phoenix. You're just worried that we'll have too much Eric the Red. And maybe, like, Steve the Red and Chaz the Red. And Borat the Red. Now that's a book. Tune in next week, everyone. As we deep dive into Borat the Red. The only other thing, at the very start of this book, we have that interaction with the guy, the hovercraft boat owner doesn't want to rent them the boat, and Colossus looks very menacing behind him. That is like a meme-worthy panel. And they end up just stealing his boat. Kind of stealing, because technically they paid to rent it, but they just leave him hanging. Not a wedgie, but they hung his jacket up on a hook, and he's just like... dangling and they just essentially steal the boat and then it blows up but then it yeah but then it blows up because of course the x-men are are driving a vehicle so it must be destroyed i thought that it was a fun display of youthfulness and immaturity that really spoke to these are people in their early and mid-20s and you know banshee but It is nice to see them kind of acting like it. I mean, he's like 20 at heart, really. But yeah, it was very fun. I agree. I have it up here right now. And you're right, just... Colossus standing behind the boat owner. They drew that so good. His reaction, the business owner's reaction is that's just something else. That poor guy loses his boat. Hopefully he has insurance. That does it for this episode of Uncanny Book Club. Thanks for listening and we hope to see you next episode where we'll discuss issues 105 to 108. I'm If you enjoyed this podcast, don't forget to subscribe, leave a review or share with a friend.