Hello everyone and welcome to Uncanny Book Club. I am Isaac Baderfield and joining me today is my co-host Adam Ward. Hey, can you believe we're on episode six? I can't. It's all been a blur. By the end of this, because I've been reading these through the good volumes, and so by the end of today, I will have transitioned into volume three. Very exciting. And the cover for volume three, I have to say, is so good. I mean, so is Volume 2 if you've not seen them. The Masterworks collection for Uncanny X-Men, so good. It's been a bit since I've seen them, but I'll have to go back and look. 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 Landra teleport to Professor X for help, The X-Men fell and battled a Fire Lord, but a much more even matchup then happened between himself and the Phoenix. Eric the Red ended up kidnapping Lilandra, but the X-Men pursued them through the Stargate. A flashback issue that neither of us were a huge fan of then occurred and explained the cause of Xavier's malady and provided a look back at the X-Men shortly following Thunderbird's death and Moira's entrance. We then jumped back to the present where we saw a fight between the X-Men and the Imperial Guard of the Shi'ar. The Starjammers ended up coming to their aid, but they were too late, and Emperor Dakin succeeded in powering the Makran Crystal. Eventually, they were all transported inside the crystal and were shown their greatest nightmares. Phoenix was able to break free and stop the Neutron Galaxy from being released, and this ended up saving the universe and reality itself. The Landra then join the X-Men on their journey home while she is temporarily in exile. In this episode, we'll be picking things up right where we left off with issues 109 through 111. Issue 109 begins with their return home to the mansion. We get a lot of small moments of the X-Men in this issue. Storm visiting her plants, Banshee and Moira, a brief look at the aftermath of the fight at the Crystal and what it means for Lalandra, Nightcrawler setting up a date for himself, Colossus attempting to write home, Cyclops brooding, Jean filling in her parents on a lot. We also see an interlude of someone who's achieved a target lock on Weapon X. Banshee, Moira, Colossus, and Storm go out for a picnic, and Wolverine hitches a ride to do some non-lethal hunting. We get another interlude and now see a team of Canadian agents closing in on their target. While hunting, Wolverine is surprised by James Hudson, aka Weapon Alpha. The Canadian government wants Wolverine back, and he's been sent to grab him. The two fight, but their conflict soon involves the picnic goers. Hudson's energy blast ends up ricocheting off Colossus and hitting Moira. Banshee goes berserk, and the issue ends with Hudson narrowly escaping the X-Men. So I thought that this was an interesting issue, just because we're really coming from... Really high stakes, really big conflict, something that we led up to for a really long time. And one thing that I'm really glad to see is that they knew this is really a point in the story where it makes a lot of sense to kind of do more of a lull, wind things down, have some of those slow moments, return to a few things that are a little bit more low stakes. I agree 100%. you saying that we're coming from this large showdown that we've been building through and off the top I mentioned that we're if you're reading this through the volumes like I am you're nearing the end of the second volume which really feels like obviously the close of a chapter right so We had this big showdown. Here we have what I think really could have probably been two separate issues. We had what really felt like two different things happened in this book, right? Like we had these very personal moments, as you mentioned. Very quickly, I just want to mention Storm's pad is like super cozy. Would love all those plants and just her being up in that space. It's a cool room. Super cool. She has like the, I think she has like a bunch of skylights. Skylights, yeah. I was going to say sunlights, and I was like, no, that's what comes through. That's what comes through those windows. Very awesome room. We also see a glimpse of Nightcrawler's room, which is littered with movie posters. And he's got the bars on his ceiling for, like, doing acrobatic tricks and stuff. I never even noticed that until just now. That would explain how he's hanging upside down. I didn't even, like, put two and two together. Although he jumps into... Peter's room. And he's also hanging off the ceiling. So I guess this would explain why I never really thought too much about how he keeps doing it. Maybe there's a ceiling fan. Maybe. Peter's room compared to the other two is looking a little bit more Spartan. He's got a bed. He's got a desk. He's crumpled up a lot of notes on his dresser. He's got like a hammer and a sickle to let us know that he's Russian. It's I think very telling of Peter's character, right? Like he comes from a foreign background with probably very little compared to some of the others who have these very eccentric personalities. I mean, as you can see, that's reflected in the rooms. Just a really cool look behind the curtain of like their personal lives, which we haven't really been able to see too, too much because as we've encountered most of the time that the team has, had a chance to take a breath and relax, that vacation just gets squashed by some, you know, villain who's trying to stomp on their relaxing time. Which is something that does happen in this issue to a certain extent. A hundred percent. Before we kind of get to some other aspects of this book, Moira, right off the top, forbids Nightcrawler from using his powers. At a school... for mutant children. Well, I guess they're not really children anymore, but for mutants who have been rejected from society, and here she is blatantly telling him to not use his powers in the house. And then a few panels later, when we see him in his room, he uses his powers to get to Peter's room anyways, which I absolutely love. But it just seems so ludicrous to be telling him to not use his powers, which aren't harmful to anybody. To a certain extent, I can see where she's coming from. If she's the very underemployed housekeeper, she's having to clean up after these people. Apparently, when he bamfs, there's a lot of brimstone smell. Does it stick to stuff, or does it go away? We don't know. Maybe she's had to do a lot of cleaning up. Yeah, that's very fair. Or she's just being very cross. You're bringing a lot of perspective here to the table. I just thought... that she should have some mindfulness in understanding that perhaps telling a mutant who has these abilities not to use them can be a bit offensive, right? It does seem rude. It does seem a little rude. Although she does love Charles Xavier, or used to, as we see in this book. She is very much in her relationship with Sean Cassidy. Good for him. She's very happy to see him return. And yeah, good for them. We also see some other couple drama unfolding with Jean Grey and Scott kind of having dueling thoughts. You know, Jean is very obviously dealing with a lot right now, and we see that theme carry over the next couple of issues. But Scott, I think, needs to have some, as you said, he's brooding, but he should really have some perspective that she is dealing with a lot, right? Like, she died, came back to life, prevented an intergalactic war from spilling over, stopped a universe-ending plot by an alien race, came to the realization that her greatest fear was death, which she has now overcome, and she is trying to balance these new powers as Phoenix, which she has no understanding of, is lured towards escalating how much of that power she uses, and is very clearly being tempted to give in further to Phoenix. Right. Like we kind of see that playing out over these last couple of issues. So there's a lot happening in the world of Jean Grey. And in this issue, we see a very awkwardly Scott sitting in like this armchair with his fingers. What is that called? Arched. It's like tapping his fingers, basically. He looks like he's plotting as as he awkwardly watches Jean Grey come out to her parents as the phoenix through a window, through a window. With Nightcrawler peering from behind him. I feel really bad for Jean in this. It led me to question whether her parents knew she was a mutant at all. I'm assuming no. That was the gist of what I kind of took away from that as well. Not only this specific revelation that she has these powers, she can turn into Phoenix, look at her go. And really cool too, we see that fire Phoenix popping out of the panel again, which is just... such a great detail to continuously see as we progress through these different issues the moral of the story here kids so I'm going to get very serious with some relationship advice talk to your partner it'll solve a lot of problems and Scott should really give Gene a chance to process what's happening but also communicate what's going on in his mind which is basically why are we not talking yeah I was going to do like an in Scott's defense sort of deal but I think I think the way you came around to it at the end there has really concluded things Scott really wants to talk things out with Jean and figure things out there's some issues of just not feeling close between them personally he's worried about the whole Phoenix thing and thinks that she needs to talk about it and you know maybe she does and she just needs to process first but essentially what they do need to do is get on the same page and check in and be like hey I think you need to talk about this sounds great I'll do that soon I need to process this it's literally been like two hours since we got back from the Stargate that is a very actually very fair point Don't get me wrong here. I'm not saying that Scott is invalid in how he's feeling in this moment. Because he's obviously very concerned. He loves Jean, as we've seen, right? Like, he's made that very clear that he is blinded by love when it comes to Jean. And he's worried. And I get that. And I think anybody who's been in a relationship before can relate to that feeling of watching somebody that you care about struggle. And that's what is happening with Jean. And at the same time, Gene needs to be able to tell Scott, you got to chill out, man. Give me a moment to think because everything has just been back to back to back to back to back. We do see by the end of these three issues, a bit of growth from Gene.

And

going back to just the situation with Nightcrawler lurking behind the brooding Cyclops, I really like the conversation that they have a lot. I agree. I think that's probably one of the best little personal moments that we've had so far just in the entirety of what we've read. Kurt really puts them in his place. Scott is obviously feeling very sorry for himself and is a little bit rude to Nightcrawler at first saying life isn't all swashbuckling adventures and circus stunts. And Nightcrawler has to be like, oh, you're right. You've got it so hard having to wear sunglasses all the time. Meanwhile, I'm blue. Yeah, and has been since he's been born. which is, I think, more even further to the point, right? I'm looking at the panel right now and he says, we are what we are. Wishing won't change a blessed thing, nor will feeling sorry for yourself. And I learned very early on that I must either accept what I am or go mad. And though I am now occasionally crazy, I am not insane. I like that a lot. Now that I am occasionally crazy, I am not insane. That's very good and very accurate to the character. Yeah, his final piece of advice here is if you keep tearing your guts apart every time you think the world's shafted you, my friend, you'll destroy not only yourself, but those who love you. It's very good advice. And I think a great reality check for Scott. And I think he leaves kind of, you know, it seems like he learns his lesson. He is no longer frowning. He's got a smile on his face. He tells Sean, I'm not going to go to the picnic. Have a great time. You know, Kurt's given me a lot to think about. So I think he's in a good direction, though. I think he has provided Scott with helpful advice, whereas we've seen some other people in Scott's life, like Xavier, just basically tell him to get over it and move on, rather than acknowledging that he's contending with some problems, but he needs to, you know, you can't change what you can't change. And you can't change your immune. At least right now, anyways. That will change in the future. Speaking of Scott, before we move on, his dad is a straight deadbeat man. For sure. We see this interaction very briefly between Corsair and Jean back in space where he basically pleads with Phoenix to take care of Scott. And that is for the best that he doesn't get involved. Probably feeds into the rest of Scott's problems. The final note I made before we kind of transition into this very different story that takes place in this issue is this double date that Kurt is trying to basically set up for him and Peter. And the best part is because we've talked about it a couple of times in the last couple of episodes, these subtle nods to Star Wars. Well, folks, we finally got it. Star Wars written out in text in the book. That's what they wanted to go see at the theater. The Death Star is literally a thing that is canon in the book. And now we have Star Wars with the Death Star now officially a movie taking place within our story. Multiple Death Stars in the books so far. Multiple Death Stars. Yeah, multiple Death Stars. And before, as I said, before Star Wars was officially out in theaters. So fun little nod to the time of when this book was written. What do you think of the first half of this book? Because we have all these very story-based progressions happening with the characters. There's a lot to unpack in terms of what's happening in their personal lives. I really liked all the little personal moments. I feel like we have been missing some of that for the last few issues. We've had a lot of action between, you know, the whole Black Tom and Juggernaut thing. And then they get back and immediately are fighting Eric the Red. And then immediately Fire Lord kicks their asses a little bit. And then they're back in space. They're on a different planet, blah, blah, blah. There really hasn't been time for anything special. like that. And I think it's a really good way to reestablish and look at, you know, how do all of these characters relate to each other? Kurt and Peter are obviously very good friends. I think the series has kind of set up Nightcrawler as being someone who gives good advice to Scott and kind of reminds him to not be so glum all the time. Wolverine is a bit of a loner. That's kind of re-established as well. Yeah, that is true. It was a lot of fun moments, I guess I would say. I agree 100% with everything you just said. What we've kind of seen play out is this non-stop action rollercoaster that there's no breath that's taking place to establish the relationships that are being built. And I found myself at times... through these last couple of issues, really, wondering how close everybody is in their interactions because the way that it comes off at times is very playful. The way that they talk to each other, they talk like how friends would talk. I can't imagine Jean Grey would let anybody who is not a friend call her Jeannie. So seeing those sorts of interactions, I've been wanting something like this to kind of just show how the team has grown because we haven't really seen it too much, aside from their combat skills, which we really saw play out in the last couple of issues. The second part of this book, we see the other parts of the team, those who didn't go on dates or were brooding around the X-Men mansion. They went instead to a picnic of sorts, like a day at the... stream at the swimming hole at the old swimming hole and wolverine hilariously asks to come along only to basically hitch a ride to go hunting but not real hunting because store makes a big fuss about killing animals for sport and not for food to which wolverine basically tells her i didn't say i was killing anything killing's easy so it was fun seeing him come out and be like hey like i'm not the killer everybody thinks i am here okay like i'm just going to test myself but he hilariously is doing it in his full x-men outfit which does not blend into the terrain at all which might be the point right like that might be the point it makes it all the more impressive when he's able to sneak up on the deer yeah and almost touch the deer which was his goal but is very much interrupted by weapon alpha who has come calling on behalf of the government to basically say, OK, Logan, your time's up, man. You got to come back now. And I mentioned a few episodes ago how I thought it was odd that the Canadian government in that first interaction, like following that initial mission that he had with Xavier, didn't just it just seemed like Xavier just kind of took ownership of him. The X-Men now own you, Wolverine. You are now a member of my team. This is what's happened. And there was just kind of a general acceptance. I had asked the question, isn't he supposed to go back? He was like on loan to the X-Men. And here we have... He quit. He cut the guy's tie off. Yeah, no, no, I know. He calls that out in this book as well. Initially, this was my thought, that he didn't quit quit. Well, he didn't put in his two weeks. He just sort of left. He cut off the tie. What other way is there to... That's how you quit. In the Canadian government, that's how you do it. Just dip that tie right into his coffee after you cut it off. Say, I'm done. I'm outie. I'm going with the strange man. And you will forget about it. Only he did not. And here we have Weapon Alpha coming after him. Yeah, I'm glad that we've returned to this conflict. Wolverine's exit was obviously very tense. And... it makes sense that something would eventually come of it. So I'm glad that we're looping around and not just leaving this as a thread that's dangling. It certainly gave me more questions than answers, and I feel like we're at a point right now where that's the kind of thing we want, right? We saw Chris kind of weave in these little story threads through several issues, right? At times it was a little too much, but getting that little taste of something that's to come We see James Hudson leave, basically, after getting confronted by all of the X-Men to essentially say, OK, well, I'm going to be back and next time I'm going to have Alpha Flight with me. So we know that there's going to be this confrontation in the future. It's going to happen. And that leaves, obviously, us as readers saying, well, what is Alpha Flight and when are we going to see them? So I think a really fun teased. A lot of great interaction even between Logan and James and this working relationship that the two of them clearly have history of. So that was really fun to see that play out. Old co-workers butting heads essentially and both of their powers aren't really enough to one-up each other. All in all, I thought the book was solid. I thought it was like a really good issue coming out of what we just had. Agreed. I think it's exactly what the series needed at this point. And I'm glad that we're, like you said, establishing, hey, these things are coming up. There's going to be this bigger conflict that's yet to come. So stepping into the next issue, we still see that playing out a little bit with like these little personal stories. So why don't you hit us up with what happens in issue 110? Issue 110 starts with a baseball game to send off Moira as it is her last day in New York. Wolverine and Colossus continue the trend of having little moments that walk a fine line between tense and amusing. Moira lets someone into the mansion who she assumes is the phone company, but the mysterious intruder ends up shooting Moira with some kind of tranquilizer dart. We learn that his identity is Warhawk, and there is someone pulling his strings. He starts messing with the computer for the danger room, which the X-Men then enter for their training session. Gene and Professor X are attacked and stunned by Warhawk, but not before Gene can get a warning to Scott. The X-Men try to escape, but the danger room traps them inside and begins a lethal assault on them. Nightcrawler ends up teleporting Wolverine to the power terminal, but the two arrive unconscious due to the strain of teleporting someone with a lot more mass than Lalandra had. Wolverine is eventually able to stir himself and destroys the computer with his claws. Warhawk attacks him, and the two begin to battle, but when the rest of the X-Men arrive, he's quickly apprehended, and the police take him away. Jean is very bothered about how easily she was defeated, and decides at the end of the issue that she will officially rejoin the X-Men. There's that personal growth I was talking about, coming back to the X-Men after coming to the conclusion that she needs to have better control of her powers. It's I thought it was really great to see after the issue we just had where she is still trying to process everything that she's processing. Yeah, this was, I think, a good step in the right direction. You know, Jean has been hovering around for a while now, so it did feel odd that she wasn't an official member of the team in training just because she's ended up suited up as Phoenix quite a lot over the last several issues. So I'm glad to see her making her return. She's definitely been, I think even predating that, has been a massive focal point of the books, whether that's her going off to live her life not as an X-Men or being quickly drawn back into the conflict of being part of the X-Men. So I think seeing this growth from her and this acknowledgement that she's both afraid of her powers and very confused by them now, And we see her come to this conclusion that because she didn't have total control over them, she feels like she wasn't able to take on Warhawk in a way that she feels like she should have been able to do. Yeah, and don't they give him a diss like he's a second-rate Colossus? Well, I mean, he very much looks like a second-rate Colossus, let's be real. The character design is, like, if you blinked very quickly, you would say, hey, there's Colossus there standing in a You know it's not him because he's wearing pants. Yeah, Peter would never do that. No, Peter definitely would not wear full pants like that. He also has a skull on his belt buckle, continuing the thread of bizarre clothing choices that we've seen play out across a couple different issues. A few cool observations in some of these panels. We see Jean Grey pushing Xavier in his wheelchair, which... Shouldn't he just be able to do that himself? Is that what's happening? I did not understand what was occurring and why is Jean having these weird energy things coming out of her head and they seem to be directed to the professor. I never noticed that he wasn't being pushed by anyone. Well, it's because normally when we see Charles Xavier, he's just moving around. Yeah, he's always got a much more fancy chair. For those who are unfamiliar with the panels we're talking about, there's this kind of like pinkish, pink and white sort of wavy, groovy beam, I guess is probably the best way. It's essentially like a mind beam that is coming from Jean's chin and neck for some reason. But I'm assuming that's what she's doing. Also, feels bad for Colossus that Moira makes a point of being shocked to see this man's face. who we later learn is Warhawk. And she specifically thinks about how this poor man needs plastic surgery or had plastic surgery done recently and is shocked to see his face. And yet he looks almost identical to Colossus. So it feels bad for Peter. Well, Colossus can turn it off, though. I mean, still, though. She would have seen what he looks like with his metal form. Even without his metal form, he looks the exact same, just not metal. Moira is just judgy, I guess. I have a question for you as a non-American. We see them playing baseball, and baseball is America's pastime, or so pop culture will have you to believe. Can confirm. Okay, so with that in mind, did you question that Moira's send-off to go back home was a baseball game? I mean... It's not the send-off that I would want, but I hate baseball. I think it makes sense to a certain extent. I don't know why, but I have some kind of recollection of the X-Men playing baseball sometime else. I know in X-Men 97 they play basketball. Maybe that would have been a better choice. I don't know. I don't think basketball would be any better. It's more fun. for a send-off party? Look, obviously they should be doing some sort of barbecue situation, or they're in New York, maybe they should be getting some really crazy pizza and bagels situation going on. That would be my kind of send-off. That's what I would enjoy. I will say, I really did enjoy the confrontation between Peter and Logan, and there's a very funny scene where Peter is rushing to... get to the first base, I think it was. And Jean had to use her mental powers to catch the baseball because Peter was hitting it so hard it was going towards airplanes. And so Logan is telling her, you need to throw me the ball, I gotta tap him to get him out. And Logan has his claws out in the catcher's mitt. And then in response to that, Peter just puts on his metal skin and they just crash into each other. He hilariously just sits on top of him to pin him down. I think honestly, like, because we see in the future how Peter and Logan are very close. To me, this is them building their friendship is like this playful sort of butting of heads and challenging of each other. Yeah, Colossus really doesn't take the shit that Logan dishes out, I suppose is how I would phrase it. He's not one to be intimidated by it or... He just sort of loops it around back to him and will do things like throw him over a castle or crash into him at a baseball game. Well, we even see him deliver a fastball special in this issue where he throws Logan up to essentially cut loose. Yeah, he gets tossed up to cut loose Storm and Nightcrawler who are, while fighting in the danger room, are trapped inside of a steel net. And so he gets Colossus to throw him up there to try to cut them loose. And then he hilariously falls on top of Scott on his way down. He doesn't fall on him. He pushes him out of the way because he's about to get hit by I think it's like a laser. Oh, I'm not really sure. But yeah, like he comments like, oh, I could just let Scott take this and then Gene would be mine. But that's not how the Wolverine does things. And then he pushes them out of the way and saves them. Yeah, they're like razors. They look like giant blades of some kind. He says, razor wings heading for psych, and he ain't spotting them. If I just butt out presto, I got a clear track with Jeannie. He invites her to play some nine ball this issue, too. And Scott's like, what's going on with that? Yeah, he's very funny. Just like very oblivious. Very out of character for Logan in the continuity of the story that they are living, right? It's out of character from Scott's perspective for him to be asking Gene out, although we know that there's this established attraction, at least from Logan. Although I will say, like, Gene is quite flirtatious with Logan in this issue. I thought that you could kind of see there's this lingering will-they-won't-they taking place. I thought that was fun, and it was funny seeing Scott's oblivious reaction of, wait, wait, what? No, we're not. You can't go on a date with her. We're going to go practice in the danger room, even though we just came off of a very large mission to space and you just fought a special agent from the Canadian government. Got to keep up the practice. Got to stay on your toes. I will say it was really nice seeing Scott lead the team with confidence for a change he really took charge and we see them very much established that the danger room has been overrun they don't realize that it's warhawk but they know something's up right and basically the safeguards get removed so now the danger room is even more dangerous and i believe it's storm makes a point of how the room or the program is Mm-hmm. She relaxes, she's not freaking out, and she's shortly thereafter released from it. But it was also just a nice kind of character growth piece that we see from Storm. So while this is all happening, that's when Nightcrawler comes up with this idea that they can bamf out the room and try and get a hold of the controls so that everybody can get out. What did you think of Warhawk in this? Obviously, as you mentioned, there's another Puppet Master here. We don't know yet. is another theme of somebody behind the somebody pulling the strings. We see Warhawk kind of just, I don't know, he could have been anybody in my opinion. I think that this is a really good use of an underwhelming character. Warhawk really is kind of a second rate, maybe third or fourth rate villain. He's not that interesting. He's very, very easily defeated. But I guess he's really also accomplishing what he needs to accomplish with whoever the mastermind that's sending him to settle this up. Who it is isn't really that important. He's basically just a lackey. And I think the real adversary in this issue is more the Danger Room than him. And I think that was a really good way to make use of him just because, you know, they do have a struggle with, But it's not necessarily against him. It's really mostly the dart gun that puts him at an advantage over the X-Men. That and ultimately the element of surprise. I did find it very fun. We see Wolverine make a mention after he becomes engaged in a fight with Warhawk. And Warhawk's power set, as we see it, is essentially second-rate Colossus. Metal skin, impenetrable, strong. That's it, pretty much. But Logan makes a mention that his movements are quite fast, and it's reminiscent of a conflict that he had with Iron Fist. So then I was like, what? When did this happen? Iron Fist number 15. So I went and looked it up because I was very curious as to... How that interaction came to be. So very quickly, Danny Rand, who's the Iron Fist, he fights off some hijackers. As you can imagine, that probably wore him out. So he is trying to find a place to chill and decides to go see Misty Knight. Then realizes, oh, Misty's away on a mission. So her place is just empty. So goes there. And as we know, who else lives with Misty Knight? Jean Grey. And so Gene in the story is throwing like a housewarming party of some sort. And Wolverine is just standing outside of the place. I think probably he showed up too early. He was too punctual. And he sees Danny Rand climbing in through the window. So he confronts him thinking he's a burglar and they have like a fight. Basically, it's what is the context of how it all happened. I mentioned this all because it's fun continuity that's we're seeing play out across several books where Jean Grey is like being very much established as the roommate to Misty Knight and we see that now playing out and having dividends and fun stories in other books because how when else would you have probably have seen Wolverine and Danny Rand coming to blows that is also a really good use of Wolverine for like a very minor character cross comic situation because he is absolutely someone that would be like, you can't crawl through that window. I'm going to beat you up. So all in all, you know, like we see these callbacks and issues like several times, but I thought this was a fun one. I try to always look them up and flag them for you and for the listeners when they're connected to our story or interesting. This is one of them. So there you go. Some fun facts about Danny Rand and Logan. So I don't have a whole lot to say about the issue necessarily. Just that, you know, it was fun. Nice to see some more team bonding during their downtime. Another conflict that's a little bit more low stakes. The one thing I have is that it's interesting to see Moira making her exit. And I assume it's because Professor X no longer has the... nightmares mind malady thing going on you know he's back to 100% what I'm curious about is what does this mean for her and Banshee or you know would Banshee potentially think about leaving the team to go with her back to Scotland I'm interested to see where things go from here I believe he makes a note like Sean Cassidy does that he loves Moira it may have even been like the narration That Sean loves Moira, Moira loves Sean, and he is thinking about potentially settling down. He is older than the rest of the team. Ancient. Ancient by the comparable standards, yeah. We get a fun closing remark from Charles Xavier, who basically says powerful forces are beginning to surround the X-Men. I felt like this was kind of like a great tease that There's something on the horizon. We now have a man in the chair that we don't know who it is. Or a woman. But we have somebody in the chair watching the X-Men again. And honestly, for me, my favorite part of this whole book was seeing Jean come to the conclusion that she has to rejoin the X-Men. I think it really adds to her story. And the last couple of issues, you start to feel this flow, right? They were heading into Jean time. We had a lot of storm time. And the last couple of books have been us telling the story about Jean Grey. And now she's officially back. So I'm very happy to see that. Curious to see where it goes. I mean, we know that this Phoenix situation is still unfolding. So I guess we'll see how that plays out. The only thing I wanted to know to you, just as like a funny thing, Lalandra was completely missing from one ton. Where is she? She's like, f*** baseball. I'm staying inside. What is this human sport? Issue 111 starts in an unexpected way with us following around Hank McCoy, aka Beast, former X-Man and now Avenger, who is investigating a circus that appears to be starring the X-Men? We learn that Lorna called him back when Havok was kidnapped and wasn't able to get an answer from the X-Men. Hank visited the mansion, found it deserted, though he does find a postcard from Professor X and Lilandra who appear to be on another vacation. While unsure about the other X-Men he saw, Beast is sure that he recognizes Jean Grey and follows the performer to her trailer. Jean, going by Ms. Destiny, calls for help from a Slim Summers to kick him out. Beast eventually loses his trench coat, and the entire circus begins attempting to capture him. He's eventually apprehended in front of Wolverine, who is all chained up. Beast is then brought before Mesmero, who has put the mental whammy on the X-Men, and he begins to attempt to enthrall Beast as well. Wolverine is able to mentally and physically slip free, and he breaks Mesmero's hold on Jean as well. Beast slips the grasp of the guards holding him, but before he can strike Mesmero, he's taken down from behind, much to the surprise of Mesmero, who is shocked at the arrival of a mystery figure. The X-Men, now all free, fight their way to Mesmero's tent to try and rescue Beast, but they are surprised to instead be greeted by Magneto, who is looking to end the X-Men once and for all. The next issue is teased with the title Magneto Triumphant. So, what really sticks out, and I'm curious about your overall thoughts about this issue, but I think the thing that really sticks out is it's a really big departure from what we've done so far, going with this 90% just following Beast around the whole time. Beast is sort of randomly brought back into the mix for this one issue. I thought it was a fun little change-up, and I'm very interested in what you thought about it. Okay, I want to preface this by saying this issue has two redeeming qualities. First is we see Beast roaming around like he's Dick Tracy. I thought that was kind of fun. I think it could have been a little bit better. Like I wish it was a little bit more detective-y other than Beast showing up and questioning whether the very obvious X-Men are the X-Men. Yeah. Is that Nightcrawler? I don't know. He's wearing the same outfit. And who else is made of metal? Yeah. That outfit, by the way. I'm looking at it right now. We see the X-Men, with the exception of Nightcrawler, all in different outfits than they normally wear. Although, poor Logan is stripped, basically, in a very tattered singlet. But we see most of the rest of the team in new outfits, including Jean and Storm. The best outfit by far has to be Colossus, man. Yeah, he looks good. That outfit kicks. It is so good. He's wearing what is essentially like a gold neck piece that surrounds him and has like a gold loincloth, basically. Yeah, he's got a whole golden steel thing going on. He's like very impressively holding like a one-ton barbell above his head while holding in his other hand another one-ton weight. Well, it's two one-tons on the barbell, so he's got three tons total. I like this idea of like Beast kind of like trying to figure out what happened and piecing it together. I just feel like the mystery, I think, could have been a little bit better. The clues are a little obvious. Like too obvious. That to me, it just, Was like, yeah, no, duh. Like, obviously. Like, you're staring at Jean Grey and you're being like, is this Jean Grey? I don't know, man. I can't tell. Is this Marvel girl? It's like, I don't know. I grew up with this person. We used to hang out all the time and fought crime. Maybe? Yeah. I like that everybody is, like, repurposed into, look at these incredible people. And Scott is just renamed to Slim. And he's just a random security guard, essentially. Also, as if like this trench coat is preventing people from seeing Beast's face. Isn't seeing a blue man like enough to like question? Well, it's probably nighttime because it's a circus. So, you know, you've got the you got the brim pulled down a little bit. So it casts some shadow. I mean, he is also an Avenger. Couldn't they have given him like an image inducer like Nightcrawler? Maybe he doesn't want it, though. Yeah, that's fair. That's fair. I think Beast likes who he is. So there's that. I like that. Mesmero? Eh. I had never really heard of him prior to this issue. His design is kind of snake-like. He does have a big snake energy. I think that must be part of it, too, because he's doing the eye hypnosis thing. I'm putting that together with myself as well. We see Wolverine smack not just Scott, but repeatedly slaps Jean Grey in order to wake her up. She gets mad. She gets real mad. But it works. It works. It works. It works really well. And then really for me, the big saving grace of this, for some reason, Magneto is also at the circus. I'm assuming he used Mesmero to basically capture the X-Men, but I'm very excited to see him face off with the X-Men again because it was very exciting the first time. I'm unclear about whether this is Mesmero has a grudge and is doing this of his own initiative or if he was a tool that Magneto used. Because Magneto also could have just been like, those are obviously the X-Men and decided to visit this circus. Maybe he was on a road trip. And on this road trip, he sees a sign for a circus. And he thinks for a moment, maybe, maybe I will find something there. And as he gets closer, he sees the billboard outside its circus that depicts all of the X-Men. And he just solves it, unlike Beast. He's like, it's obviously the X-Men. It is a really bizarre thing for a supervillain to do. Like, I'm not going to kill you. I'm going to put you in my circus. It's so random. But I do wonder, is it a Magneto thing? Because I could see it being a... You guys turned me into a baby for years, kind of like getting back at them, you know, just to humiliate them and throw them in the circus, essentially. I hope we get an answer in the next issue, because I also found it to be quite odd that this is the plan that Mesmero came up with. And maybe that's as big picture as he can get. Maybe his best thing here is, you know what, I'm going to use my arch nemesis as nemesi. I don't know what the plural of nemesis is. Maybe it's just nemesis. He is my nemesis to essentially run a freak show circus and make money off of that. And there's nothing they can do about it. I mean, it's a good gig. It's quite evil if you think about it. And you can be a bad guy without wanting to kill people. Maybe that's just the line he doesn't want to cross. Yeah, he's a bad guy with morals, with a moral compass that keeps him on track. So in the first episode of the show, we dunked on Beast a little bit for how he looked. I agree 100%. Yeah, he's... He definitely looks how I imagine Beast looking, especially on the page where Peter punches Hank through a curtain, I believe is what it is. Is it a curtain or a wall? Oh, it is a curtain. It would be way cooler as a wall. I'm kind of questioning how it even ripped like that. Would it have just moved? I think he's stepping on it, you know, because he wants it to look a little bit cool. He's like, all right, I'm just going to put my foot here and just rips through it. In either case, on this page, I think you can really see Beast. Like, I see Beast as I would imagine him looking, even to the pointed teeth. The pointed teeth help. Oh, 100%. Overall, I don't know, man. This is a low point for me. It's more of a setup issue than... It's really setup. I wouldn't even say it's like building toward something just because it is just... We're here and next issue, we're going to be here. We're not having a ramp up. I don't mind it. Don't get me wrong. I like the change of pace in terms of the approach to the story. I think it just could have been better. I think we could have had more of like the mystique of Where are the X-Men? Why is Hank at a carnival? We could have had more of a tease that drew out across this issue of Hank actually investigating, and it looks like he's investigating as opposed to showing up and right off the bat very obviously seeing the X-Men. There's a lot of potential left on the table. From my critical lens, that's my critique of it. I think it just could have been more than what it was. And I think that could have been a lot of fun. And now I want a book that is just Detective Hank McCoy. That could be interesting. That would be pretty cool, right? As long as he's wearing that outfit. Oh, I think he needs that trench coat. It's very reminiscent of, and this is going to date me quite a bit, but if you've seen the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, the live action one, Raphael. The best one. Raphael would wear almost the exact same outfit. roaming around the streets of New York. So that was the moment that I saw it, and I thought, okay, that's what it is. It's Raphael. All right, team up, buddy cop, detective, comic, Hank McCoy, and Raphael. Just throwing it out there. I would read it. They're a fun combo. I mean, Hank would be used to dealing with somebody like Raphael. I mean, at least modern-day Hank would be. I'm a little unfamiliar with who would be on the Avengers at this point. I think overall, when I look at these three issues, this is the low point for me with the, with the buildup being right. Like the promise here is we're going to get a confrontation with Magneto. And for that reason alone, like we're not being left with, okay, well now we got to deal with Mesmero for another issue. And it's just very uninteresting. Nah, man, we're going right into confrontation with Magneto. So for that reason, If I'm rating the three books together, I'm going to give it a seven because I think there was a lot of growth amongst the team. We had a lot of personal interactions that were a lot of fun. We had some decent action sets that we saw take place, especially with the Danger Room. We get the tease of Alpha Flight going to be coming back to take Wolverine, maybe, or at least try to. And then, of course, we have the best setup of all, Showdown with Magneto. With Gene there, that's going to be the big difference, right? Gene's there and... And Cyclops. Yeah, Cyclops as well. He wasn't there for the last confrontation. He just came at the end, was able to stun him, and then kind of whisked the X-Men out of there. Yeah, they retreated. Yeah, yeah, that's right. So yeah, seven, maybe even a seven and a half. I really like the personal stories that we got here and the interactions. That's exactly where I ended up. I know it's just say somewhere around 7 or 7.5 out of 10 question mark. Overall thoughts were, you know, it's low stakes, but it's a fun three issues. It's really serving as a good foundation point for not just next issue, but the issues after that with, like you mentioned, Alpha Flight, the, you know, who sent Warhawk. And then we have this issue where it's like, oh, it's Mesmero. And then at the end, plot twist. He's not important. We're going to do Magneto instead. So that's a really fun plot twist. I really overall just enjoyed some of those little slice of life moments. And I think we're setting up for some fun things to happen next. The only thing I want to mention about issue 111, last page, absolutely sick last panel. It's just like a big blown up Magneto close up on him it's got just a ton of shading all over it that's kind of like I guess like pointillism it's super cool and menacing yeah we get this awesome final quote from Magneto this time the final victory will belong to Magneto and as you mentioned the next issue is called Magneto Triumphant I'm very excited dude this looks so good Like you could print this out and put it on a wall. Yeah, that's a poster. And if not a poster, at the very least, that could be like a phone background. I do need a new phone background. There's an option. Say goodbye, children. You're replaced with Magneto. 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 112 to 114. Yeah, and Magneto. And Magneto. Bye, everyone. Thanks for tuning in to this episode of Uncanny Book Club. If you enjoyed this podcast, don't forget to subscribe, leave a review, or share with a friend.