SPEAKER_01: 0:09

Hello everyone and welcome to Uncanny Book Club. I'm Isaac Faderspiel and joining me today is my co-host Adam Ward. Hey, how's it going? Pretty good. How about yourself? I'm doing good. Curious to hear your thoughts on these three books that

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we're going to talk about today.

SPEAKER_01: 0:26

Yeah, I'm excited to get into it, compare and contrast, see where we're lining up, where we're disagreeing, but definitely a few things to bring up. It's a very It's a very positive view about the conversation we're about to have. All right. Well, 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 us or just stick around for the discussion. In our previous episode, the X-Men battled Magneto inside his volcanic base, were reduced to having the mental capabilities of babies after they lost, they escaped, once again battled Magneto inside his volcanic base. They eventually got the better of him, but damaged the base in the process. Gene and Beast were separated from the others, and both groups assumed that the others perished in the volcano's deadly eruption. Gene and Beast were eventually rescued and broke the news to Professor X, and the rest of the X-Men were able to tunnel to safety until they reached the Savage Land. They traveled to a village and began a few days of recovery. but Storm was attacked by an energy vampire who transformed into Sauron. In this episode, we'll be picking things up where we left off with issues 115 to 117. Issue 115 kicks off with Wolverine rushing the dino-human hybrid. In his haste, he doesn't properly defend himself and is hypnotized by Sauron into believing the X-Men are demons. Cyclops ends up blasting Wolverine a couple times and eventually yeets him over some trees. He along with Banshee are able to do some real damage to Sauron. Eventually Sauron spots Colossus and attempts to use him to recover, but is overwhelmed when Colossus transforms in the process. Wolverine plans to finish the once again human Karl Lycos, but Kazar appears and stops him. We see some Carl Lyko's backstory and witness a priestess bringing back Garak, the petrified man, who is some kind of god or something. Khazar and the other inhabitants of the Savage Land attempt to stop him before he got too powerful, but we're too late. Wolverine is eager to join this fight, but Scott says they need to return home and protect Xavier in case Magneto goes looking for some additional revenge. Kazar attempts to escort the X-Men out of the Savage Land, but the once-tropical jungle has been overtaken by frost and their passage by means of river is frozen solid. Garak the Petrified Man has upset the balance of the Savage Land, and it will all be destroyed unless the X-Men help Kazar to stop it. So overall, I thought this was just a very okay issue. I didn't mind the fight. We got a pretty good fight out of it at the beginning. Mm-hmm. It eventually ends up being a lot of backstory, a lot of lore building, a lot of exposition, just like a really heavy back half. And as a side quest or side story type situation, this really reminds me of when you're playing D&D, half the group is really interested in like this little side quest that the DM has like sort of presented for the group. And the other half is just like really wanting to ignore it. So we have Wolverine, who's just really gung ho. wants to do this weird side quest the rest are like no we want to continue the main story let's just go to the next town over already

SPEAKER_00: 3:56

yeah and then tack on the fact that the dm is making a decision to involve the party regardless of what they want is pretty much what takes place

SPEAKER_01: 4:05

Oh, you're trying to leave? The river is frozen solid. What's your move now?

SPEAKER_00: 4:11

Your means of escape has been lost, and the tunnel that you were hoping to go back into has been shut with ice. I'm actually really glad that you shared your opinion first, because I think you articulated my feelings very, very well. There were elements of this book that I liked, but there's a lot of stuff that really bothered me. I want to start with the things I liked here. I thought the battle between Sauron and Wolverine was great. And it seems like it was a highlight for you as well. The whole battle in general. Yes, you're 100% correct. I thought the leadership of Scott here... having already battled Sauron before, really kind of shined. We're starting to see this a little bit more now. He was really focused. He understood the task at hand, which was immobilizing Sauron. And him getting Banshee to fly high and scream down at the same time as he hit him with his optic blast, I thought was a really cool sequence.

SPEAKER_01: 5:09

The whole fight is very dynamic. There's like a lot of good movement, a lot of up and downs. They did some cool things with the scenery.

SPEAKER_00: 5:17

The other compliment that I wanted to give here is just how beautifully and horrifically drawn and colored the fight with Sauron and Wolverine is. We have a panel specifically that really stood out to me where you can see, can I

SPEAKER_01: 5:33

guess at what it is? Yeah, yeah, please. Yeah, yeah. Is the panel the one where it's half Wolverine's face, half Sauron's face, and he's being hypnotized, and he says, your mind, your very soul, mutant, is mine? Yeah, that's the one. Dude, that one is so good.

SPEAKER_00: 5:49

It is so good. That has to be my favorite panel in the whole issue. I really want to give credit to the creative team here because this whole sequence where we see Sauron really for the first time, he's so... artistically beautiful to look at. He has these folds and these muscles that are protruding that... And I'm not flirting with Sauron here. He

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is the perfect man. I

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just really think that he was drawn so well. And the sequence fight with Wolverine, you could just see all this detail that really comes off the page. I really, really did like that. I'm glad that they could kind of step away from... We see a lot of people in costume, right? And I could see that be a little one-dimensional over time. So to kind of get a character like Sauron in a setting like the Savage Lands that have these big, fantastic beasts, it really kind of gives the creative team a chance to flex their muscles and produce something beautiful.

SPEAKER_01: 6:53

Yeah, I would say one of the impressive things about not only this issue, but essentially everything that we've read so far, Psychic ability, mind stuff, it's difficult to conceptualize that into a visual thing because it's all completely not visual. It's all happening just in the mind. They do an incredible job of really showcasing like this person's getting mind blasted. Wolverine is getting hypnotized. They do such a good job with all of that weird stuff.

SPEAKER_00: 7:28

Yeah, I agree 100%. It couldn't have been easy to think about this on paper, how to really present psychic powers. And I'm sure they're not the first to do it, right? I'm sure it's been done many, many times before now, but their approach is very recognized in how nice it is to look at. It doesn't leave you guessing what's happening, number one. And number two, they illustrate it with just these vibrant colors that maybe you wouldn't necessarily associate with psychic powers. Though I say that in purple is a pretty common color association with psychic powers. But anyways. So I really, really, really like that. What I absolutely hated is the exposition and the lack of explanation about what the hell is going on. For the most part, through all the issues we've read, all the stories we've gone through at this point, if you started from the very beginning... You could follow along with minimal disturbance, right? You might have to go and look something up if you really wanted to. But hearing Magneto tell you that he was turned into a baby is enough of an explanation of what happened to understand the plot. But in this issue, we're getting hit with all this lore about the Savage Land that's never been explained before. And in some of the panels, I feel like we're just skipping over parts just to get from point A to point B. So we're left with just this muddy pool of information that you're looking at on a page and not understanding in the context of what's going on. And a good example of this is this whole situation with the Petrified Man. Who are these people that we've never been introduced to before? Which is fine, right? Like we've seen alien races being brought into the fold here for the very first time without much past introduction. But the issue here is like there's clearly an established lore that is happening that the reader is unaware of unless they've read the Khazar book.

SPEAKER_01: 9:39

Prior to this... Were you familiar at all with... Is it Kazar or Kazar? I like to say Kazar, but I don't know him at all. I'm not familiar with his game, as it were. No, neither

SPEAKER_00: 9:52

am I. I've read a couple of books that contained him as a side character. I believe he was a character in the Savage Avengers when that was a thing. That would make sense. And that had a bit of an odd team. I think it was mostly... put together because Marvel had received the rights to Conan the Barbarian and they were trying to shoehorn him into the Avengers, I guess. So the team was like, Conan, I think Wolverine was in it, Khazar or Khazar or whatever you want to choose. So I was familiar with the character. I was familiar with the Savage Lands. I remember seeing it in the X-Men cartoon. Like the general setting to me wasn't foreign, familiar with the general concept. But that general concept was, okay, this is a place where dinosaurs are and... It's dangerous. It's dangerous and it's kind of a fantastical area, very, you know, sci-fi in its setting and you have a main protagonist who is essentially a caveman.

SPEAKER_01: 10:57

I don't know if he did any looking into what his deal was, a little research. Did the Petrified Man exist before this or is this his introduction? So

SPEAKER_00: 11:09

I didn't look into the Petrified Man, but I did look into Kirk Marston. Because we're just introduced to Kirk Marston out of the blue. So I was curious if he had been involved prior to this. And the answer is yes. So his whole situation, just to kind of like scene set, because it's not explained. So his whole thing is that he was a radiologist working for MI6, the same spy agency James Bond works for. And Kazar, he comes to London, he's looking for a cure to a vibranium-related illness or madness that's affecting all the people in the Savage Land. And he gets introduced to Kirk and he goes back to the Savage Land to basically help him with this problem. And that's how he goes from London to the Savage Land. And then a bunch of shenanigans kind of take place. And then we get to where we are, where he's suddenly kidnapped and gets turned into the Petrified Man.

SPEAKER_01: 12:09

I had no idea that he was anyone of consequence. Yeah. I was just like, this is a random dude chained to a slab. And he gets transformed in like a cool way at I like the whole, oh, they paint fire on him. Yeah. Like that's a cool priestess thing to do. And then he turns into like a weird looking dude. So that could be a little better, but the ritual

SPEAKER_00: 12:31

is cool. Well, that whole sequence was happening before they did the ritual, which I agree looked really cool and different. I thought, oh, we're going to be getting the monster of the week. That's what we're getting here. That was my first thought. this being that they were worshipping is like some sort of demon that's in another dimension that's going to show up and the X-Men are going to fight it. Which I guess kind of happens, but not in the way that I thought.

SPEAKER_01: 12:54

Ultimately, I feel like I didn't really have a lot of skin in the game for this confrontation that they're setting up. So I don't have a lot of background on Khazar, Garak, really barely any background on Sauron as well. Yeah. in this issue, next issue. He's a very minor player. He really is not in the books as much as I thought he would be. Kind of a shoulder shrug reaction to the Savage Land in general, just over these two issues, or especially in this issue, I guess.

SPEAKER_00: 13:26

Yeah. I also want to admit that I probably sound totally ignorant of the information, right? Well, we are very dumb. So I admit that I am not familiar with this, and I messaged you... earlier very briefly about this and I had expressed I wasn't a huge fan of this issue specifically because there was just a lot of confusing information happening in the story for me and your response was basically maybe Kazar comics were popular then and that's a very good point because we're reading this obviously way way way way way way after this came out and without the context of was Marvel really kind of pushing this at the time Which would make a lot of sense if it were. And I'm sure I could have looked this up. I didn't. I'm ignorant again. But I think that's important context to have here as well. Before we move on to the next issue, I think I did do a little bit of research on the Savage Land. Because I was genuinely curious reading this. Because I was like, what is going on? There's aliens. There's the dinosaurs, obviously. We got interdimensional beings. What is going on in this place? Because all I thought it was was just dinosaur land. So are you good if I jump into a base, a little explainer of where we are to kind of help set the scene and provide maybe a little bit more context of what we're looking at? I guess I'll allow it. All right. So it's explained that the Savage Lands is in Antarctica. That's very well established. Obviously, we have the dinosaurs there. Now, I have a question for you. You're a smart guy.

SPEAKER_01: 15:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 15:07

Antarctica would have had dinosaurs

SPEAKER_01: 15:10

on it, right? Yes, because I believe back then, would the continents have been separated, or would they have been the one supercontinent? Yeah, Pangea. Yeah, I went to American school, so. It is, I believe it's, hold on, I'm looking this up. I don't want us to talk. Was dinosaurs in Antarctica? Let's

SPEAKER_00: 15:34

see. Yes, they did. Okay. I knew this. All right. We crushed it. Yeah, we crushed it. We're good. My son watches enough dinosaur related content for me to, I don't know why I second guessed this, but yes, I did know this. All right. So yeah, they have

SPEAKER_01: 15:47

dinosaurs there, but that's not the reason. Hold on. Let me just Google is the Savage Land real, real quick.

SPEAKER_00: 15:55

Well, what you would actually find if you Google that is exact coordinates where it is believed to be in the book, which is an area of the continent called the Palmer Peninsula. And there's like an archipelago there, which is a bunch of islands for you non-scientific

SPEAKER_01: 16:13

folk. I actually got a way different result from the AI overview. No, Savage Land is not a real place or event. It is a fictional story presented in a mockumentary format. The film depicts a massacre in a small Arizona town near the U.S.-Mexico border.

UNKNOWN: 16:28

Ha ha ha ha!

SPEAKER_00: 16:29

It's a very different Savage Land.

SPEAKER_01: 16:32

I think it might be a zombie movie. But the image that I'm seeing paired next to it is from James Cameron's Avatar, so I'm just beyond confused.

SPEAKER_00: 16:41

All right, so we have the Savage Lands in Antarctica. We got the coordinates. Big shout out to the Marvel fandom database where a lot of this information came from. Super helpful. So the dinosaurs are here not because they were living here before, but because an alien brought it here to this specific spot as a game preserve for the Beyonders. And the Beyonders are just a bunch of other god-like alien beings that exist in the universe. Super gods. Yeah, they're kind of a big deal. So over the years, there's been all sorts of alien shenanigans that have kind of happened in the Savage Lands. At one point in time, the Eternals are doing some stuff there, and they're meddling about, and other aliens come.

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It's like a favorite vacation spot.

SPEAKER_00: 17:29

It seems to be a popular destination if you're... out of this world. And then there's like some sort of connection to like another universe, another dimension. I don't know what's going on. Anywho, those are my feelings of this. There was just too much exposition that was needed. Although I will give points where points are due for the art, the cool fight scene. We got a Godzilla reference at one point that was cool to see. And then at some point we also see Kazar flying on a shark. Because why not? Again. I don't have an explanation for it. Alien Zookeepers, I guess. Pretty good band name. That is

SPEAKER_01: 18:08

a cool band name. Should we go on to 116? Yeah, yeah, let's go. Let's do it. In issue 116, the X-Men and Kazar travel to the city of the Sun God. but before they can set their plan, they are ambushed by some of his forces who are flying on dinosaurs that I would probably mispronounce anyway. A fight ensues, but Cyclops, Kazar, Colossus, and Banshee are all captured, leaving behind Wolverine, Storm, Nightcrawler, and Kazar's saber-toothed companion. And here is where this little side quest and the Savage Land takes an awesome turn, in my opinion, because Wolverine takes charge of the situation and leads the remaining X-Men on a rescue mission. He sends the Tiger home to get some backup and plans an infiltration of the city. When the three come across a sentry standing guard, Wolverine definitely murders him to the shock of Storm and Nightcrawler. The team eventually finds their companions and learn that the petrified man plans to execute the X-Men and Kazar. Nightcrawler frees up Cyclops' optic blasts, which are then used to free Colossus and Banshee. A battle ensues, and Cyclops gives chase of Garak, who ran off. It turns out he was running to fill up on some energy, and the two shoot eye blasts at each other. Before there is a clear winner, the metropolis around them crumbles and they both begin to fall. Banshee catches Scott, and Storm attempts to rescue Garrick, but can't reach him in time. She safely returns, but is devastated by her failure. A fortnight passes, and the team is finally able to leave by boat, but they end up sailing into a crazy storm. So I think, right off the bat, Still not super interested in the Petrified Man, what's going on in the Savage Land. I'd rather these people return to their main quest or whatever you want to call it. But like I said earlier, I think that Wolverine just completely kills at this issue. We see him just being a huge badass and an awesome leader. And not just the old Wolverine, berserker, dumb fight, fight, fight that he sometimes comes across as in some of these books.

SPEAKER_00: 20:27

Yeah, I agree totally. I think it was the only redeeming quality of the entire issue, in my opinion. Wolverine taking charge. We know he's a leader in the future. We see this really cool interaction with the Sabertooth Tiger where Logan is like, hey man, I know you want to come. I know you miss your best friend and all. How about you run home and get some backup? And we're going to go take care of this because we need to be stealthy. He had a whole plan. He stuck to it. You even see the characters in the book remarking about how un-Wolverine this is like. So it's really fun to see. And as we know in the future, we'll start seeing Logan become more of a leader for the other mutants that end up going to the school.

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He has another fun... Animal interaction with the raptor that bites his hand.

SPEAKER_00: 21:20

Yeah, that was very fun. As soon as it happened, I thought, are they going to do it? Are they going to pull the trigger on this and actually have him extend his claws in the raptor's mouth? And they did. It wasn't very gruesome on panel, which I think was the right call. But it was a really cool impression to see placed on a page. Yeah, I'm glad they went through with it. I thought that we saw some cool interactions with different characters across these books in the way that they've been able to kind of use their powers. So in this issue, we kind of see Nightcrawler again pushing his powers further than he's pushed them before as he basically takes charge in this interaction where they've now gotten pretty close here. to where the petrified man is. They're having this ceremony, sacrifice situation going on. We see a really cool image of Colossus tied up, totally ablaze. Burning him like a witch. Burning him like a witch. And he's red as a tomato because the metal on his skin is just so hot. But Kurt pushes his powers, basically teleports behind Colossus, cuts him free, and then the X-Men are able to get a hold of the situation. Very, very cool. We also see this in the previous issue with Peter getting attacked by Sauron, right? Where Sauron comes in, grabs Peter, is going to try to energy vampire him. And in this process, we see this kind of like the kinetic force of the change pushing Sauron back enough to really prevent him from sucking the energy out of him. So a really cool interpretation of the various powers that we're kind of seeing across these issues. And we were just kind of talking about in the last episode how we were wanting more of the other characters to kind of shine through. rather than there being emphasis on specific ones that we've seen, like Jean and Storm.

SPEAKER_01: 23:31

Yeah, I thought they did a really good job here with that, because we didn't necessarily get Wolverine's backstory, but we got to see a different side of him. Him being cute with animals, him being super tactical, him getting to cut loose a little bit and do a little bit of murder. So, you know, we're getting those person... And even... the previous issue, there's like a really fun interaction he has with Kurt right at the end where Kurt hits him with a snowball. And in the past, you know, that's something that Wolverine would maybe try to swipe at him with his claws. But in this issue, he's like, oh, you've done it now, elf. Grab a snowdrift. We're going to have a snowball fight. The loser buys beer. Completely different than how he used to act now that he's, I guess, actually like friends with these people.

SPEAKER_00: 24:19

Yeah, I imagine, you know, part of this, too, if you've ever found yourself in a leadership position and you've you have people around you looking up to you and they're following your lead and they're trusting you. Having that interaction that he has in this issue probably really bolstered his relationship with the other members because they trusted him to make the right decisions, whereas, you know, many times in the past they've asked him to pump the brakes. So to kind of see them getting on board, we're going to go in stealthy. Wolverine suddenly seems to know what he's doing. Let's give him a chance to lead us. And, you know, as you said, we get this rewarding shot of Nightcrawler throwing the snowball at Logan and them having a fun moment together.

SPEAKER_01: 25:03

The only other Wolverine thing that I think I may have had is I feel like they teased the healing factor very slightly in this one, too. Storm is concerned about his arm. He says, not so's you'd notice. It's okay, babe. I heal real fast and the beast ain't been born that can break my bones. So it's a little bit of that tease of like, it's not just the claws. Maybe it's his whole skeleton that is made of adamantium and he heals really fast.

SPEAKER_00: 25:36

That's a great pickup, man. I didn't even really put much thought into it. You're totally right. It's a great tease. And also super cool for Logan to say, by the way. Like, look at me, the big tough man. Little tough man. Hell yeah, little tough man. He does poke fun at himself in this issue too, I believe it is, for his stature.

SPEAKER_01: 25:58

Yeah,

SPEAKER_00: 25:58

I don't remember where it is, but he does bring it up. The only other thing that I thought was cool about this issue is the dueling eye beam fight that we get towards the end of the book between Cyclops and the Petrified Man, where he's like siphoning the hydrothermic energy that's below them, essentially. Science. I think that's what it is. It's like thermal energy. So he's like utilizing this to create an eye blast. And isn't he supposed to be like the sun god? Isn't that like how they

SPEAKER_01: 26:32

present him? They're in the city of the sun god. And I know he's the petrified man. And he might be the sun god. I don't know. Maybe? I hope we never see him again. That's my opinion. I hope we never come back. Well, he might be dead. He did fall very far.

SPEAKER_00: 26:49

Yeah, all the way to the center of the earth, allegedly. Thank you so much. It just feels like, isn't that kind of like her power set? Even when the cave was blocked, I thought, couldn't you just warm up the sky? Do the storm thing.

SPEAKER_01: 27:24

Yeah, weather manipulate. We're at like 49 years ago where we don't have all this. Here's everything Storm's done. Here's why she's a big deal. We haven't built up to it yet. I think it's the way to really explain it away, at least looking back on it, is she doesn't have the practice yet. But she was doing it in Africa, right? To a certain extent, but...

SPEAKER_00: 27:46

It was making it rain.

SPEAKER_01: 27:47

Yeah, but there's a difference between making it rain and traveling the ocean in like a hurricane.

SPEAKER_00: 27:54

Well, I thought the explanation she gave was like very good. Like this is controlled, right? We see them on this boat in this intense storm, which the Drake Passage is known for. And for her to be like, I am doing everything I can right now to make this storm be what it currently is. If I'm not doing this, like we're in big trouble. But I'm looking at this at earlier in the story when they tried to go back into the cave, like they just accept that it was iced over when really any number of them probably could have broke through that ice. But I just felt like maybe Storm could have used her powers to like make it warmer,

SPEAKER_01: 28:33

you know? Yeah. We don't really know, like, how far of ice is this tunnel. Maybe they decided it'll save time to fight this guy, but it really doesn't because apparently they chilled out for a fortnight afterward. Yeah, I thought that was weird, too. Cyclops says, we need to leave right now. After they finish the job, all right, everyone, take a fortnight. Peter, go back to your island with those girls. Yeah. Everyone just chill. I guess it had to melt, but again, they probably could have sped that up, but it doesn't matter. It's not a big

SPEAKER_00: 29:07

deal. No, I realize that. I'm probably just nitpicking the nitpick, honestly. I do recall them saying that the reason that things were freezing over was because of the extraction of energy, basically.

SPEAKER_01: 29:22

Yeah, the city that had put up was taking the energy and then the Savage Land, because it sat on like a bunch of volcanoes, basically. It got

SPEAKER_00: 29:32

cold. Yeah, it's all explained, but they fixed it. At the time, I was questioning it, and then we got the explanation in the next issue. Does it not also bother you that we still, for some reason, everybody's just accepted that they're all dead? Like, I just think it's so strange. That they haven't just hopped into Cerebro and just like...

SPEAKER_01: 29:52

I have an explanation for this, too. Oh, please, hit me with it. So, here's what's happening. Professor X, it's well established that he has a psychic rapport with his students. He's really down. He probably lost track of them on vacation because he was doing stuff. He was busy. Okay, sure. He was off.

SPEAKER_00: 30:15

He was so much off, he put his head of office on for his mental powers.

SPEAKER_01: 30:19

Look, Professor X was like, hey, this is my new boo. I'm going to take her to this vacation destination that I used to go with my old love because he has a weird fixation, needs to find some new spots. Yeah, make some new memories, Charles. So he turned off the psychic report a little bit there. They go into the volcano base. Magneto's helmet blocks psychic stuff. So I think it can make sense that he would have a base that would block psychic stuff. Yeah. loose track there. At a certain point, I think we also said like, oh, maybe the Savage Land has a weird thing going on. Right now, they've escaped. There's no reason for them not to have a connection. I think it's just he's very sad. He's very down and depressed. I don't think he's reaching out psychically at all. I think he's just sitting there very isolated, only in his own mind, not doing anything with his

SPEAKER_00: 31:12

powers. I think that's a very fair explanation. I'm definitely not accounting for the amount of grief that he's probably finding himself in. And I guess if your prized pupil is coming home, both of them, Beast and Gene, to say, like, they're dead, you're probably putting a bit of trust into those words. And if it's heartbreaking, it's heartbreaking. So, very fair. Very fair. I retract my statement. Poor Charles.

SPEAKER_01: 31:43

We'll dunk on him for... Other reasons at other times, because I know they'll come up.

SPEAKER_00: 31:50

All right, well, with that in mind, we're about to get a very heavy Charles Xavier issue.

SPEAKER_01: 31:55

Yep, big into Professor X. Issue 117, the previous issue teased the least expected X-Men origin of them all, and we see from the cover of 117 that we'll be looking at the saga of Professor X, A New Beginning. And the end? Question mark exclamation point? But before we get into that, we return to the X-Men navigating the storm. Storm the person is using her powers to try and calm things, but it still looks pretty grim. Thankfully, they stumble across a ship on its way home from Japan. The X-Men are told that unauthorized radio communication is forbidden. because they're on a delicate mission for the government, and they're taken below deck as guests, and I've written guests in italics. Lalandra tries to comfort Xavier, and he regales her with a tale of how he used to be in love with Moira, definitely a great conversation to have with your current love, and what he did after she left him. We see Xavier bumming around, and he ends up in Cairo, where a young Storm picks his pocket, He uses his powers to freeze her, but it alerts another telepath of his presence. Xavier enters the saloon and enters into telepathic combat with Amal Farouk, who will someday be known as the Shadow King. He's almost defeated, but gives him the ol' brain blasty and Farouk is presumed dead. Xavier notes that he was the first evil mutant he had ever met, and it made him realize how deadly mutant powers could be in the wrong hands. Lilandra asks Xavier to return to her home with her, and Xavier eventually says yes. On the last page, we get a quick look at Jean Grey booking a flight for somewhere, and Misty Knight happens to pop up and is headed to Japan with Colleen Wing. What a coincidence. Jean waves to Misty's departing plane and realizes that for the first time since joining the X-Men, she is truly on her own. So do you want to kick us off for 117? How did you feel about this one?

SPEAKER_00: 34:09

I honestly didn't really have a lot to say. I thought it was fine. It kind of really surmises the last three issues. Eh, it was okay. I thought the fight that we end up seeing, and we talked a little bit earlier about how they've depicted psychic powers, and this fight that we get between Farouk and Charles sees them donning armor and the Shadow King, as he'll one day be known, is hulking in size, not like the Hulk, but big like that. It was a really cool depiction of the fight. But aside from that, I just want to get back to the main story. It's kind of where I am.

SPEAKER_01: 34:48

Yeah. I think we didn't add a lot with the Savage Land stuff besides some cool Wolverine interaction, I guess would be my main takeaway. Yeah. So it just feels like we're taking a lot of pit stops versus getting to our destination. It is fun to get a look back. And I am curious a little bit about before this, how much of Xavier's backstory is really out there beyond he's leading a school and and he's a mutant, and he wants good human and mutant relations.

SPEAKER_00: 35:24

Yeah, that's a very good question. I don't have an answer. It is nice to see, and we know the Shadow King becomes a big villain for the X-Men, so that's fun to see the nexus of that in this little interaction with a little storm. How did you feel about the storm interaction?

SPEAKER_01: 35:43

Eh,

SPEAKER_00: 35:44

I could have did without it.

SPEAKER_01: 35:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 35:46

That's how I feel.

SPEAKER_01: 35:47

Yeah, I wrote down Storm Titan is a little silly, but the X-Men are a little silly, so I'll let it pass. It's just like a weird cameo where it's like, oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00: 35:57

Yeah, I mean, it was clearly put in place because he was in Cairo. And it's like, well, he may as well run into Storm because she's there. And not that it doesn't make sense. Like, you know, he feels her mutant powers and can sense it. So, like, it's not crazy or outlandish to think that it could have happened.

SPEAKER_01: 36:15

I think it's a cool intro for Farouk, though. They both enter the saloon, are just silent, having this psychic conversation, sit down, and have a little battle. It's fun. It's interesting. I'm glad that he's not just being used as a one-off. I think it's probably a long time before he shows up again, but I'm glad that this isn't just a throwaway random dude.

SPEAKER_00: 36:42

Yeah, absolutely. And to that note, so I've mentioned to you before that I've been reading Uncanny X-Men, the new one that's out. Sorry, not Uncanny X-Men, the Ultimate X-Men. And the setting is...

SPEAKER_01: 36:56

I've been reading Uncanny X-Men. Uncanny or Ultimate? The Louisiana X-Men. Oh, no, I haven't been reading that one. It's fun. It's so fun. We'll talk later. Oh, okay. Yeah, I don't know. So right now the X-Men are split where there's X-Men, and that's Cyclops' group, and they're in Alaska doing X-Men things. And then there's Uncanny X-Men, and that's Rogue and Gambit and Wolverine and Jubilee, and they're in Louisiana, and they have four new characters, like these kids that are mutants and showed up. You know, a lot of new characters don't really hit or they feel like, oh, okay, they're just trying to, like, introduce some new people, blah, blah, blah. Awesome characters. I really like the new characters that they're bringing into Uncanny X-Men. I hope they're just, like, around for the next several years, next long time. I think they're great additions to the universe.

SPEAKER_00: 37:54

Oh, all right, damn. Okay, I might have to check this out. Very similarly... I've been reading Ultimate X-Men, which is a very, very different take on mutants. And in that series, it takes place entirely in Japan. These powers are kind of manifesting in different kids, and the main character is Armor, and there's Nico, who's there. We get Psylocke shows up, but one of the other characters who becomes one of the larger antagonists, and a bit of a victim in his own right, is the Shadow King. who is also like a child. It's not everybody's cup of tea. The style is like a manga, which is really kind of cool. I like it. It's just very, very different, and I've enjoyed reading it, so I'd recommend it as well. I'll have to check

SPEAKER_01: 38:43

it out. I think Amal technically is also a victim of the Shadow King. The Shadow King is the evil, multiversal entity that likes to possess Amal Farouk, and he actually has a little... redemption arc on Krakoa. Oh, does he? Oh, shit. Okay. Is that in the New Mutants, I think. Did you watch the New Mutants movie? No. It's insane to me that they didn't use him as the villain in that. It makes zero sense. It's, oh, that movie is so bad.

SPEAKER_00: 39:19

Who's the villain?

SPEAKER_01: 39:20

The villain is... I mean, I guess the villain is, oh, what's her name? She's a doctor. She can make shields. She's being essentially bossed around by Mr. Sinister and is kind of the villain, but not really. She dies eventually. The real villain is Danny Moonstar learning how to use her powers, I guess. Oh, yeah, I see it. Cecilia Reyes is her. Yeah, Dr. Reyes. Dr. Reyes, Dr. Reyes. Dr. Reyes, Dr. Reyes. Can you play the piano anymore?

SPEAKER_00: 40:00

Thank you for getting that. I did want to defend Professor Xavier here for a moment because... For being a killer? No, not for that. I think that was...

SPEAKER_01: 40:13

That was fine. That was fine. Kind of surprising, but I think he made the right call. I'm just a little surprised that he made the call, but... I mean, it could... At different points in his life, I think he would or would not kill Farouk. Yeah,

SPEAKER_00: 40:26

that's what I was about to say. Like, if this is his first time interacting with, like, such an evil presence, maybe he felt the best thing to do was to eliminate it because it was too much of a threat. Very un-Charles Xavier-like, but we've seen him bend the rules. Anyways, what I wanted to say was, he's telling this story about him and Moira, and... I think it's very easy to say, dude, what are you doing? Why are you telling your new love interest this story about your old love interest? But I think the relationship he has with Lilandra is one that is mentally bound, right? They had this very intimate telekinetic connection, and... I'm reading in between the lines here like really, really far, but I think it's fair to say that this connection that they've developed is really thorough in the idea that his mind was shared with her mind and vice versa, which is why he was having these dreams about her, right? And we learn later she was similarly having dreams about Charles and, you know, they're in love because they feel a connection that cannot be unmatched. So, With that in mind, you can kind of look at this as a situation where, yes, he's recounting this story that maybe she's unfamiliar with, but doesn't take it too personally that he has a love for Moira because she can understand it through this connection that they have.

SPEAKER_01: 41:54

All that's very fair. I was mostly just poking fun at him. It's just a little funny. I felt

SPEAKER_00: 42:00

like I had makeup for poking at him needlessly for his grief. I got your back, Charles. Love is love, baby. Love is love. I'm assuming we are heading towards a reunion with one of the original members of this team in Sunfire since we're heading to Japan. I

SPEAKER_01: 42:19

can tell you definitely yes, because he's on the cover of the next issue. So I don't think that's too much of a spoiler, but I want to know how rude he's going to be. Yeah. Like, is he gonna, how much of a dick is Sunfire gonna

SPEAKER_00: 42:34

be? Yeah, he didn't really leave on the best of terms, so it's fair to assume that he's not gonna be very happy to see them there.

SPEAKER_01: 42:39

It's interesting that we're gonna mix in Misty Knight and Colleen Wing as well. We're having more cross-comic intermingling. Curious as to why they're going to Japan, but I think it's safe to assume that all three groups are gonna be together.

SPEAKER_00: 42:57

That would be my hope. I would be very upset if we don't see some interaction between Misty and Christine with the X-Men. That would be kind of funny. That would be really weird.

SPEAKER_01: 43:07

If they just happen to also be going, maybe they just pass in the street. They're just there in the background passing by. Two

SPEAKER_00: 43:14

ships in the night. Having some ramen. I could go for some ramen. Dude, have you been to Japan? No. Okay, so I went to Japan for my honeymoon, and... regrettably only stayed for a week, but it was incredible. It's an incredible country, and the ramen is just as good as you can imagine. Probably even better, because you can't imagine how good it is. I just want to eat ramen and sushi all day. And the sushi is unlike anything I've had outside of Japan. You have to experience it. The entire place, it's just an experience that you have to see for yourself for the very first time. I want a

SPEAKER_01: 43:53

vacation again someday. Children are hard. 100%. My big three right now, Japan, obviously, has been of a big interest. And I think in terms of new countries that my wife and I would visit would probably be number one or number two. I don't really know what her deal is, what she wants to do. The other two I really like that we've already been to, London and Italy. Both very cool. I like London more. Sorry,

SPEAKER_00: 44:22

Italians. Those are both locations on my list as well. We were supposed to go back to Japan and we had everything booked. We had everything paid for. We were going to be there for two weeks. Our trip was going to extend beyond just Tokyo, which is where we were for our first trip. And we were going to go to Kyoto. We were going to go to Osaka. And then the pandemic happened, so we had to cancel.

SPEAKER_01: 44:47

I have a friend, the exact same thing happened to him. He had like a two or three week sort of deal. He was going to go with his brother. Pandemic hit. Canceled. I think he got to go there eventually, though.

SPEAKER_00: 45:00

Well, that's good. That would really suck. A co-worker of mine was supposed to go to Japan last year and had bought into a tour package. And the tour company called them like two weeks beforehand and canceled it. And so they couldn't go. Yeah. We were smart and we paid for the insurance way ahead of time, right? Like before there was ever any kind of talks of a pandemic or anything like that, right? So we had booked this trip like in November of the previous year and we got the insurance at the time because we were like, well, may as well, just in case. It was a good thing we did because we got all our money back.

SPEAKER_01: 45:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 45:43

Look at you,

SPEAKER_01: 45:43

Mr. Foresight.

SPEAKER_00: 45:45

Well,

SPEAKER_01: 45:45

you know, planning keeps you prepared. So vacations aside, do you have anything else for 117? No, I don't. Okay. I think we'll just kick into overall thoughts. I liked 116 a lot, actually. I thought that one was really fun. 115, kind of okay. 117, a little interesting. It's fun to see the origin of a villain you recognize. Fun to learn a little bit more about Professor X and what his deal is. We did a lot of side story stuff before the X-Men are allowed to go home and be like, hey, we're not actually dead. I wasn't super connected to the Savage Land, but, you know, I liked what they were able to do with Wolverine there at least. And I guess looking forward, it seems like they're setting some interesting things up. The X-Men going to Japan, see Sunfire, probably Misty and Colleen. I hope that we don't lose track of Jean over the next few issues. Where is she going? That's one of the big questions on mind. I hope that it's not just she randomly pops back in later and is like, oh, good, you're alive. Yeah. I'd like to see what she's up to in the meantime. I guess like a 6.5 to 7 out of 10 if we're looking as a unit. I think 116 drags it up for me a lot. I

SPEAKER_00: 47:11

think you're being very generous. This to me is probably like a five. I thought there was sprinkles of things that I liked throughout the books, which is a testament to the creative team. I've said that a lot. Okay. The creative team, the creative team, the creative team, but it stands true. I think Chris and everybody else has done a really great job and like overall, but the story here, I just did not like in really any of the three books. And I am comparing this to the last batch, which were my favorite that we've read so far.

SPEAKER_01: 47:44

We've been on a pretty crazy run. The last several issues have knocked it out of the park.

SPEAKER_00: 47:49

Yeah. So coming off of that high, this is a steep curve down to where I want to personally be. I want to ride that high a little bit longer because we had this cliffhanger and we just let it hang for too long. Mm-hmm. So I also need to make a correction of myself. I called Colleen Christine earlier, and I only recognized it when you said Colleen. So I apologize, Colleen. Sorry, Colleen. I hope you enjoy your trip to Japan.

SPEAKER_01: 48:20

I also want to throw out there that a 5 out of 10 isn't necessarily... I think a lot of people look at that maybe from the video game review sort of mindset of this is a disaster trash. 5 out of 10 is kind of like average-y.

SPEAKER_00: 48:33

I think it's like a slightly below average.

SPEAKER_01: 48:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 48:37

I think a six to me is kind of like, this is fine. That's our scale. Yeah. Like a six to me is like, it's fine. It's not great. I think that's good. Right. Like it's not great. It's fine. I can live with it. It's a dip. Yeah. I know that we're going to upswing eventually here. We're just taking a breath. We've done the exhale. Right. And now we're going to get into something new.

SPEAKER_01: 49:01

Well, I think 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 118 to 121. Another four-issue episode. How

SPEAKER_00: 49:15

exciting. Will we learn the fate of the X-Men, and if they will have some sort of interaction with Misty Knight and Colleen? I guess we'll find out. Will they pick up a telephone and dial home, please? Tell poor Jean Grey and the professor that you're alive. That's all I want. This should be the first thing they do when they arrive. If they're, you know, not detained. We'll see. Yeah, we'll see. All right. Well, read comics,

SPEAKER_01: 49:40

everyone. Bye. Bye. 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.