SPEAKER_01: 0:09

Hello and welcome to Unciddy Foot Club. I'm Michael Baders Gill, and joining me as always is my co-host, the preeminent Adam Ward. New Year, new costume for Kitty Pride, I I you know, I have a feeling that maybe we'll see a lot of new costumes for Kitty Pride. God, I hope so, because what we see here is just not it. You know, from a practicality standpoint, I get it. You drew it once, you want to use it for more than one issue, but my god, I cannot believe that this stuck around for more than just this single issue.

SPEAKER_00: 0:45

Uh yeah, I agree. When I started reading issue 150, I was very shocked to see that Kitty was still wearing kits. Especially the roller skates.

SPEAKER_01: 0:56

You know, the roller skates really don't make sense. That seems like it would severely hamper your superheroing.

SPEAKER_00: 1:04

I'm not accusing anybody of anything, but this reminds me of the fact that a man drew this and is coming in with the concept that this is what a teenage girl is like uh in the early 80s at this point. And didn't Kitty already have a costume?

SPEAKER_01: 1:21

Am I crazy? Yeah, she has a costume. She designed this one though. This is the costume that she designed because she thinks it'll look cool versus the one that Charles gave her. Because that one is kind of blah, which is fair, it is pretty blah, but you know.

SPEAKER_00: 1:36

Do you think the other X-Men, like I'm just looking at the cover right now for issue 149? Do you think the X-Men in this image all design their own outfits? Because Charles makes a point that uh uniforms are earned.

SPEAKER_01: 1:50

Well, those are the the graduation uniforms. You get like a new uniform when you graduate his school. Is that legit canon? Yeah. And I feel like they're usually just bad. Or that is like a sentiment. Did Kurt's outfit change at all? No, I don't think so. I th I think the only outfit that's changed is Wolverine's versus like their introduction. If any of them changed, it would be pretty minor, I would think. Yeah. Class's boots might be more impressive. They do hang off the knee. Yeah, I like their little like extension shield that they got for his kneecaps. It looks uncomfortable. Yeah. Like if you're running in that. Maybe when you have the metal legs, it's fine. You can just it bends around you. Well, I say we dive right in then. Yeah, let's do it. I will say, you know, if we were reading these the way that they originally came out, I probably would not have made that connection last episode of like, hey, this kind of looks like the petrified man. But yeah, it's a Garrick one.

SPEAKER_00: 2:55

Yeah. I don't really care much for the inclusion of uh the petrified man here. Like, it's fine. It feels very like Monster of the Week. We've talked about this before.

SPEAKER_01: 3:06

Sometimes you gotta have a monster of the week. But why don't you uh give us the rundown of this issue? Issue 149 begins with Charles Xavier researching Magneto when Kitty phases through the wall in a horrific costume of her own design and wrecks the data he accumulated. In anger, he yells at her telepathically, forcing her to leave. She wonders if he knows that that hurts and if that was his intention. Meanwhile, the X-Men are still hard at work trying to fix up the danger room. The team sees that Kitty needs a bit of cheering up and they toss her around for a bit until Professor X summons them to the briefing room for an important recon mission. Wolverine goes to fetch a beer and sandwich, but finds Kitty Pride stowed away instead. There's no time to turn around, but Storm is very stern with her and tells her that this is not a game. They arrive at Magneto's old volcanic base and get exploring. They split up a bit, and Storm is teased by a mysterious voice who accuses her of murdering him. She exclaims, Garrick, the name of the petrified band, from their adventures in the savage lands. Wolverine confirms that his senses don't detect anyone else. Peter has a bad day when a half-melted Garrick knocks him out in one punch and destroys a wall holding back lava to overtake Kitty as well. Storm hears her cry and summons frosty winds, and a frozen colossus is slid toward her, knocking her down and studding her. Garrick begins fighting Wolverine and Nightcrawler and reveals that Magneto saved him from oblivion. Meanwhile, Kitty phases out of the lava that she was engulfed in and sets out toward the X-Men with determination. Garrick rudely recreates the mini pit, like the one he fell down, and intends to throw Storm down it. Kitty rouses Kurt and Wolverine and she phases through Garrick, which had hurt him earlier, while Kurt teleports in and tries to grab Storm. Garrick ends up leaping into the pit with Storm, far enough down that they can't see him. Kitty goes in after floating down with her powers and flashlight. She finds Auroro but is attacked. Instinctively, she phases and Garrick flies through her and plummets to his probably not death. The X-Men rescue Storm and head home. Meanwhile, Scott is wearing some sick new clothes adorned with a gold octopus, and Lee shows up in something Emma Frost would probably wear. They thank Bignito for the new clothes, and he reveals that he knows that his guest is Cyclops and lets him know that he can take off the ridiculous blindfold and that his eye blasts will not work while he remains at his base. Man, I miss Emma.

SPEAKER_00: 5:57

Bring her back. Probably soonish. Yeah, I mean, we didn't even see anything happen to her on screen here.

SPEAKER_01: 6:04

It's impressive that she's actually been gone for this long. I mean, I guess Hellfire is also presumably doing background stuff, but Yeah, that's true.

SPEAKER_00: 6:15

It's been a bit because Sebastian Shaw's in the in the mix here, and we know that he's seemingly trying to get the government involved in a sentinel program. I believe that's the last time we saw him.

SPEAKER_01: 6:28

He's engaging in some capitalism and he's gonna profit off of some sentinel construction.

SPEAKER_00: 6:33

So are you uh familiar with the wonderful sport of professional wrestling?

SPEAKER_01: 6:40

Vaguely.

SPEAKER_00: 6:41

Okay.

SPEAKER_01: 6:42

I know the Ms. and that he's awesome. He is very awesome.

SPEAKER_00: 6:46

So in professional wrestling, there is a term called jobbing. Is this familiar to you at all?

SPEAKER_01: 6:53

No.

SPEAKER_00: 6:54

Okay. Uh jobbing is basically you would have a wrestler, let's say Goldberg. Are you familiar with Goldberg?

SPEAKER_01: 7:02

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00: 7:02

Okay.

SPEAKER_01: 7:03

I I grew up in the 90s, so Alright, okay, all right.

SPEAKER_00: 7:06

So Goldberg is most famous for just basically going into the ring. He often faces like some uh maybe like a local guy who's a wrestler. He's not necessarily like with the company on a regular basis. And Goldberg goes into the ring and beats him in like a minute. And the idea is that you're booking Goldberg in this situation to be like over-the-top straw, right? To make him feel like he's uh a dominant force that he is to be taken seriously, because, you know, look how strong he is for coming in and beating his opponent in a minute. This issue, to me, is the petrified man jobbing to Kitty Pride, because the situation that the X-Men find themselves in here, especially after being scolded by Xavier, essentially, you know, trying to put Kitty in this position of being a child and immature and doesn't listen. Here we have her stowing away to go on a mission with the X-Men. And the team, despite knowing the risks of going to Magneto's lair, allow Kitty to take along. And this is very important because to me as the reader, I see this as the team accepting Kitty, recognizing that there's a void here because Angel is now gone, thankfully. So Angel's gone, and now we don't have Scott on the team. And so, really, the the X-Men is a very small number of people. We're down to four main people, right? Storm, Nightcrawler, Wolverine, and Colossus. The core four, if you will. The core four. So I think we saw basically everybody but Storm was immediately kind of like cheeky about Kitty stowing away even the way Wolverine's acting, kind of has like this smirk on his face. Um, like uh almost like a sense of pride that she has snuck onto the the plane. I think he respects the play. I think so as well. And then even Storm ultimately is like, okay, you know what? You're here, we have to do this, let's go long. And through this issue, we see Kitty having to be relied upon several times, and the team ultimately trusting her, to a point where she comes up with a bit of a plan to try and save Storm, and Logan is like, just go for it, like run with it. And so we really end this issue with Kitty, I think, cementing her place on the team, building the trust with them, and I think getting a big, big win and defeating another foe, in this case, somebody that the X-Men had an initial challenge with, and here he is getting jobbed by Kitty Pryde to make her seem, you know, like she belongs. And I'm not saying that's a bad thing. I think it's very effective because it is in this case making Kitty feel more than just like this teenager who's, you know, being immature all the time in there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 10:19

I really like the way that you framed this and kind of created this metaphor or allegory or whatever to professional wrestling. I think it puts it in a very good, understandable, and fun space. I also had pretty similar thoughts about this. Um, you know, writing down pretty good kitty issue. Like for the last few issues in this one, you can kind of see why maybe readers at the time were not feeling it. Yeah. She's getting a lot of screen time. I wouldn't really call her annoying or anything, though. And I feel like this issue and next issue, she's really getting a lot of great character growth moments, kind of like little lessons learned along the way of like, oh, this is what it takes to be a hero and this is why they do that. Yeah. And I think you really see, you know, when she kind of turns and has that determination, jumps straight back into the into the fray. It's a really good kind of glimpse into the hero that she eventually becomes.

SPEAKER_00: 11:24

Yeah, I actually feel like these, you know, what what's two issues, but really three, is we we see a lot of character development that takes place across several characters. You know, we can talk a little bit more about it because it happens in the next issue primarily. But obviously in this issue, we see Kitty really being the star, and I think rightfully so. To your point about her being annoying, I don't really feel that way. Maybe it's because I'm a parent and I can just see like the reason she's being portrayed the way she is, because she is being brought to life as a character that is significantly younger than the rest of the group. And so by default, having had a team that at one point had Sean Cassidy in it, who is in his forties. If not 80, we now had right, like we now have a massive swing in the opposite direction to really kind of like be like, here, you know, here's the future of this franchise. My issue, and I think this feeds into the problem, is how she's being drawn right now, is not very serious. Right? And if you're talking about derp face? Well, the derp face and just like the outfit in this issue in general, right? Like it's it's not serious.

SPEAKER_01: 12:44

You're just kinda you're getting like the duality of like this person is wildly immature, but they're on like a very serious path and doing very serious things.

SPEAKER_00: 12:56

Now that you mentioned her face, there are a couple very odd I feel like this issue was fine. Nah, it's still.

SPEAKER_01: 13:04

I would after you said it, I noticed it immediately. You know, I'm scrolling through. There's there's like a couple, but I would say that the derp factor is significantly lower in this issue versus maybe some of the other ones.

SPEAKER_00: 13:19

I think aside from the whole kitty aspect of this issue, Charles continues uh to not really seem like he works well with young kids. Or like Yeah. I understand that Kitty is in the wrong for what she's doing here, right? However, her mutant power is phasing through everything. So I don't understand why Charles is acting like this isn't what having kids in a school is like. They're gonna be kids.

SPEAKER_01: 13:52

I feel like there was a significant amount of damage done to his research project. This is before, you know, autosave was even a thing. You know, he says everything is like in temporary storage. It's understandable why he reacted. However, I am on I'm completely on board with like, does Charles even like kids? Yeah. He seems like he hates everyone. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 14:21

I actually think it's funny because we've talked about Charles over several issues at this point, like at least a dozen or more, where he has really shown to have no actual grasp on the state of the X-Men, right? Like we've seen this when he first came back, and Charles tried to take over again from Cyclops, only for that to backfire, and then he alienated members of the team because they weren't doing things exactly the way he wanted them to be doing, despite at that point having been a team for several months, if not longer. And, you know, yeah, like sure, you put Storm in charge, which is an incredibly appropriate choice. He continues to not really show faith in Wolverine. We've seen how he's acting with Kitty, he alienated things with Gene Gray. Like, he has proven time and time again, he comes in to claim the credit of the successes for the X-Men, but really it's the core team that has developed such a relationship and such a uh trust that they rely on each other and trust each other. And we see this again with Storm acknowledging the fact that Warren isn't here any longer because he thinks Logan doesn't belong, because he can be a little over the top. And I still find it kind of odd that we're suddenly kind of in this. Like we've seen it hinted that there might be something else happening with Logan, but we're not entirely sure. Like, we haven't really seen that picked up upon, aside from the fact that Logan's just been more aggressive the last couple of issues. So, I mean, like, overall, this team functions as well as it does because they are just a good team. And so having them trust Kitty in this situation, while Xavier continues to be very hesitant to include her on missions, I think really speaks a lot to the to the character of the team and the bonds that they've created. And we continue to see Storm have that like motherly relationship with Kitty.

SPEAKER_01: 16:36

So one, uh just playing off what you said, I do like what Xavier is doing. Like the the situation he's put himself in. Storm is leading the X-Men, you know, she's calling the shots, and he's doing like this big research project. Like he's being very useful where he can be. Like he knows Magneto's up to something, he just doesn't really know what. Um, so I like the position that he's put himself in. I think it's a place that he can be useful without dragging the team down. And to what you ended with, I feel like this is a good mission for him to not want to send Kitty to um, you know, going to Magneto's base, like she's just not really ready for like a like a Magneto confrontation, even though that is exactly what happens in issue 150.

SPEAKER_00: 17:32

Yeah, and I mean I guess in you know, the way things end, as we'll get to, I think you could you could argue that it went well until it didn't. And I also think that you could argue that the team's success wouldn't have been possible if it wasn't for Kitty. Yeah, I think that's pretty much it. Right? Kind of for both issues. Yeah. Like the team here again, like going back to the jobbing metaphor, like Kitty just happens to be the one that can do anything to the petrified man. You know, which is which is kind of just explained away as this, I don't know, uh, uncomfortableness, shocky feeling with her phasing through him.

SPEAKER_01: 18:14

They keep going back to like uh she phased through it and it hurt the thing for reasons, or like it keeps happening with like the not xenomorph, this dude, kind of Magneto as well. It's kind of a weird fallback.

SPEAKER_00: 18:32

The other piece of this puzzle that we're also seeing is um, and this kind of comes up in the next issue, especially because Cyclops essentially points out, once the team is kind of reunited, that you know, they each have something they're good at beyond just their powers, right? And we see him say, you know, like I'm a great tactician. And Peter, you're strong regardless of your powers. Storm, you're a master thief. Uh Nightcrawler, you're an incredible acrobat. Logan, you got claws. And then we get to Kitty, and Kitty Such kind words. Kitty is being positioned as like a computer whiz. Mm-hmm. Um, we see her trying to uh, I think, make up for her mistake by offering to help Charles that she's good with computers. And then in issue 150, we see that come up again, um, and it ends up being a major plot point for how this issue ends up ending.

SPEAKER_01: 19:34

She's basically the girl from Jurassic Park. The only other thing I really wanted to mention was that I feel like this was a pretty good use of more of that monster of the week format, especially I think bringing in Garrick is odd, but also makes a lot of sense. Like, I like that it's it's tying things together. Very neatly with them wanting to loop Magneto back into the story, having Garrick and Magneto have a little bit of that relationship and tie in, and that he saved him and you know, Garrick is all melty or whatever, and I guess just hangs out at his old base hoping the X-Men come by. It's kind of a weird way to live, but you know, you do you, man.

SPEAKER_00: 20:25

Um it's funny you say that because I was also thinking, like, why couldn't he just leave? I I I I get that he's been tasked by Make Nito with guarding this base from the X-Men, but it's he owes him a life debt, maybe. Maybe. He's just a very honorable monster. Um, I agree, actually, with everything that you said. I think, you know, when you think about the Monster of the Week format, I think it's fine for it to be like this kind of one-off monster, like every once in a while, like it's just there to fill time. I think tying the petrified man back into this as a creature that we've already seen, playing off this guilt that exists within Storm, and you know, really having Kitty come out and I think, again, really shine against an enemy that the X-Men re or this team specifically really had a hard time with the first time around, you know, to a point that Storm had to act very recklessly in order to defeat him. So it's a it's a really great contrast, I think, between where we started and where he is now. I do think if if at any point in time in the future that the petrified man is brought back into the fold, he wouldn't need to be, I think, the winner of the confrontation. To just kind of like bring some credence back to his character. Because now it's like, okay, they've beaten him once, they especially beat them with Kitty's powers by happenstance. And if he's gonna be like a foe that we see kind of semi-regularly, I think we need to kind of take him seriously, otherwise, you know, let's just kick him down the the villain ladder into permanent jobber.

SPEAKER_01: 22:11

I can't imagine he's dead, but I also have trouble seeing like what is his, you know, path back to the ring like.

SPEAKER_00: 22:21

I think it would have to be savage lands related. Like I think that would be the most logical. Like, after my defeat with the X-Men, I've I escaped that awful place and went back to the Savage Lands to And now I rule a pack of tigers. Yeah. You know, enter MacGuffin where I went and got a new thing that lets me do something, and now I have a power-up. Ha ha ha.

SPEAKER_01: 22:44

And a gun. It shoots his stones. Alright, I'm good for 150 if you are. Yeah, I'm ready. Probably gonna get tired reading all of this. This is too much. X-Men 150 is a double-sized issue with its cover once again giving us a Nuff Sud tag by the X-Men vs. Magneto cover text. With a 3D projection, Magneto is demanding total political control of the world? Or he will end life on Earth as we know it. We see Magneto making his demands to various world powers, and he walks over for a bit of celebratory champagne. Scott tells him that he's celebrating too early, and the two begin to argue. Magnet tells Scott that he will usher in a golden age free of hunger, disease, and poverty. Trillions that the world spends on war can instead be spent on people. Magneto says, I am tired of seeing things as they are and asking why, of dreaming of things that never were and asking why not. I have the power to make my dreams reality, and that I shall do. He then brings up Jean and asks Scott why he is with some new girl. Scott fills him in on what happened, and Magneto gives his condolences, saying she was an honorable foe and worthy of respect, that he cared for her. Scott slaps him away and shouts Spare me your hypocrisy, Magneto. Magneto replies, saying that he grieves for her, and saying that Scott doesn't even know the meaning of grief. He reveals that his homeland has none who bear his family name and that they were all slaughtered without mercy or remorse. Missiles end up getting launched at the Magneto base, and he eliminates the threat pretty easy and destroys the sub that launched them. In a show of his powers, he births a volcano in the middle of a Soviet city. He slows the growth though to give people enough time to flee, with the implicit message that those who escaped did so only at his benevolence. Lee is bummed by all this, and at sunset her and Scott kissed just in time to miss the X-Men falling out of the sky via the Blackbird. The team is able to crash the jet gently enough that they can swim free. We also see that nearby on a boat is Professor X, Moira, Peter Corbo, and X-Avenger Carol Danvers, who are monitoring the situation. Later that night, we see the X-Men arrive, lugging Peter out of the water, and Wolverine throws Lee into the water just in case she's lagoon. She recognizes them as the X-Men and says that she's a friend of Scott's. They're able to resuscitate Peter, and Scott meets up with them and forms a plan of attack that hopefully works, despite them not having any powers. The boys are on demolition duty and begin wrecking the device that was used to create the volcano. Storm, Lee, and Kitty go to the computer room to see if they can shut anything down there. Storm eventually splits off and creeps into Magneto's bedchamber and is conflicted over if she should take his life while he sleeps. She can't do it, but Magneto awakens and magnetically blasts her out a window. Xavier begins a psychic assault on Magneto, but while he's distracted, the screws on his chair are loosened and the chair is pulled free from the boat and starts shooting toward the island. Meanwhile, the guys finish wrecking the machine just in time for Magneto to arrive with Lee, Xavier, and Kitty as hostages, and to repair the machine in just moments. We see that Storm was able to stop her fall with her cape, and she explodes his computer by throwing a chair at it, I guess. Scott can feel his powers returning and hits Magneto with an optic blast. The X-Men all break free and begin their battle against the master of magnetism. Scott instructs Kitty to destroy the computers, of which I guess there are more, saying that they are the key to Magneto's device and his master plan. The X-Men and Magneto have a pretty fantastic back and forth battle. Magneto hits Storm with lightning, setting her on fire. Kurt is ready to save the day and teleports her into the water. Kitty destroys the computers by phasing through them, and an enraged Magneto confronts her. She plans to phase through him, but her powers disrupt his natural magnetic field, giving him a painful jolt. His instinctive reaction is to send a lethal charge of electricity through her. He immediately regrets this and is shocked to see that Kitty is a child. He has a flashback to his wife Magda, who ran from him in terror after seeing him use his powers, even though he says he was avenging their murdered daughter. He says, I swore then that I would not rest till I had created a world where my kind, mutants, could live free and safe, and unafraid, where such as you, little one, could be happy. Instead, I have slain you. Magneto then reveals his own childhood experience at Auschwitz and is confronted by Storm, who is shocked at the scene. Storm tells him that if he has a god to pray to it, Magneto replies that as a boy he believed, but that he's turned his back on God forever. He says, Kill me if you wish, Windrider, I will not stop you. Magnet says that he thought he was prepared to pay any price to make any sacrifice to achieve his dream, but he forgot it's the innocence who would suffer. Storm replies, The dream was good, is good. Only the dreamer has become corrupted. To which Magneto replies, It is too late to change Auroro. I am too old. I have lived too long with my hatred. Thanks to her phasing at the time, Kitty was able to survive what should have been a lethal strike. The X-Men arrive to find her in Storm's arms with no sign of Magneto. They have an island dinner and say that they'll soon begin making repairs so that they can leave the island. Somehow, they also have marshmallows to make s'mores. Xavier notes that while the X-Men believe the day was a draw, them changing Magneto's perceptions of who and what he was is a great victory. He says to Moira, he wasted so much of his life. Perhaps here that will end, and he will emerge from this crucible, the good man he once was and may yet be again. The issue ends with Kitty playing a trick on everyone, pretending to lift the black bird like Yoda lifting Luke's X-Wing, much to the shock of the rest of the team, but then it's revealed that she suggested Peter carry the jet to shore. They throw her into the ocean as payback. Great recap. Long issue.

SPEAKER_00: 29:29

Well, that is a double. Like you explained all of that, and at the same time it felt like not a lot happened.

SPEAKER_01: 29:35

There is a lot of fighting.

SPEAKER_00: 29:36

Yeah, it was I really don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed these two issues. I think it's a lot of fun, you know, a real kind of complete two-issue story that's just compounded into one book, and it has a lot of stuff happening in it. I know I just said it doesn't have a lot happening. But I think it's because the pacing was very good.

SPEAKER_01: 29:57

It I know what you're saying. It does have like a weird kind of feel to it where I don't know, it just like moves along in a way that sometimes didn't feel like there was a ton happening, but it just works.

SPEAKER_00: 30:12

Yeah, like I I think like a good example is you know, we get a a bunch of exposition from Magneto kind of early on in this issue when he's, you know, with Scott and you know, explaining his master plan of taking over the world, and then he calls all the world leaders and he's like, hey, you're gonna like do this, and if not, then sucks to be you, I'm gonna take you out. But I want a utopia people, and his message is really good, right? I mean, it's hard to argue with the idea that instead of spending trillions of dollars on military, you lift humanity up and the world up by, you know, pulling people out of poverty. The issue is that it comes in the form of Or you'll die. You know, it's a dictatorship, ultimately. You do things make Neo's way, or your utopia is gonna be hell.

SPEAKER_01: 31:05

It's kind of a Doctor Evil threat of, you know, do this or give me total political control of the entire world.

SPEAKER_00: 31:13

It yeah, I think the the scope is definitely the problem, but unlike Dr. Evil, I think Meg Dino, as we see in this issue, is much more capable in the follow-up and quite meticulous. I mean, even him pulling that volcano out of that Russian town slow enough so they could evacuate the city of all the people. Overall, I really, really like this because it does cover so much. We have this espionage element, we have uh this tactical fight that happens with Magneto, where I think the team really shows just how formidable they can be, to a point where even Magneto acknowledges that. And like he's, you know, very prideful, but acknowledges that the X-Men are truly his, you know, his rivals. And the only piece of the puzzle that feels very off in this story is the inclusion of Xavier and Carol Danvers and this little rap day boat. It just feels shoehorned in. Like it really doesn't feel like it makes total sense. It's a big mission. It is a big mission, however, Magneto wears this helmet knowing that it protects him against Xavier. It doesn't.

SPEAKER_01: 32:32

What do you mean it doesn't? It doesn't. That's a movie thing. I don't know if that was true before the movies. Wait, really? Maybe. It's certainly not true in this issue. That's not canon yet? No, no. Because he gets uh psychic blasted. They do their psychic battle after his helmet's already on.

SPEAKER_00: 32:56

I rec I recognize that because I thought it was going into it thinking that that's how the helmet worked, I thought that to be extremely odd, given the fact that we see him sleeping without it on him, and I thought, why doesn't Xavier just do his thing now as opposed to later?

SPEAKER_01: 33:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 33:16

But, you know, I don't I don't know that Xavier really added a whole lot here aside from just being kind of a minor distraction at times. And I also recognize that I'm being incredibly critical of Xavier's role in these stories, and I think it's fair to say that I don't generally enjoy his inclusions just because I feel like the X-Men have outgrown Xavier at the current moment.

SPEAKER_01: 33:39

He doesn't really seem to be carrying his own weight as like an omega-level telepath.

SPEAKER_00: 33:46

I feel like, and maybe this is where we're going, but it feels like if you're going to say that you are running a school for gifted children, that you should be running a school. Have the X-Men doing X-Men things and do your school stuff, you know? Like I think his talent would be better used, you know, teaching the next generation rather than going out on these missions where he's maybe not necessarily a main player like he was with the original team. And I guess in some ways, like this is beneficial because it does provide us like another point of contention and drama in the team, because, you know, we see Xavier being this uh semi-antagonistic figure at times, you know, because he still holds a lot of sway over the team.

SPEAKER_01: 34:35

I feel like I've gotta like just fully disagree with you. I I feel like it makes complete sense for him to be here, like Magneto's put a gun up to the world, he's like, I'm gonna shoot you. Uh so the X-Men are, you know, they're like, hey, Magneto's our responsibility. This is a big fight, we gotta, we gotta go all like jump in and handle this one. It's a all hands-on-deck sort of moment since he has some sort of weird machine that can grow volcanoes all over the world.

SPEAKER_00: 35:07

But then why aren't we seeing, like, just to use that logic, why aren't we seeing all of the other side characters get tapped in here? I mean, come on, man, Sean Cassidy's not even on the boat. He's enjoying retirement, he doesn't even have powers. So?

SPEAKER_01: 35:22

How is it? He doesn't believe in himself. When when has that stopped them? His secondary power is the gun and Magneto controls metal. It just doesn't work out. But it does.

SPEAKER_00: 35:33

He could have just been on the boat the whole time. You mean like why is Carol Danvers there? It makes no sense.

SPEAKER_01: 35:39

Well, to why to know that you gotta read Avengers Annual number 10. Well, I'm not going to do that.

SPEAKER_00: 35:46

I can explain to you a little bit about what's going on with her. Okay, please do because in its current setting, Carol Danvers does literally nothing in this entire arc. She's just there on the boat when that could have just been Sean Cassidy on the boat, because at least he has skin in the game and Moira's there, so he could have just been there with Moir.

SPEAKER_01: 36:11

So Carol is hanging with the X-Men because in Avengers Annual number 10, she returned from being gone, and uh that is when Rogue first appears and steals her powers. Uh, so Avengers Annual 10 was also written by Chris. First appearance of Rogue. It's got the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, the X-Men show up. Apparently, I haven't read it, but you know, just going off of the cover and everything. So, you know, basically, Rogue steals her powers, her memories, etc. Professor X helps her return the memories, and she's really pissed at the Avengers because basically the reason she was off Earth is because some like evil dude brainwashed her and was like, Alright, you're like my wife now, and all the Avengers were like, Oh, I guess, I guess, you know, that's good for her. They were like, Good for good for Carol, and just let him leave with her. Wow. Yeah, so then I think that is addressed I believe that's addressed in this in that issue by Chris, with it her being like, yo, what is wrong with all of you? This is messed up on several levels, you all suck. I'm gonna go live with the X-Men.

SPEAKER_00: 37:32

Well, that is all very important context to have. Context I didn't think I was gonna need to understand Carol's inclusion here. But I mean, regardless, couldn't she have gone in and helped the X-Men deal with Magneto? I don't think she has powers anymore.

SPEAKER_01: 37:49

I think Rogue, like, permanently has her powers at the moment. Damn. I know Rogue keeps Carol's powers for a long time. I also know at some point Carol does get powers back because I mean she's Captain Marvel. I just don't know how or when or really anything about that.

SPEAKER_00: 38:08

I think it's fine for the Avengers, like that makes total sense, right? But I think if you're going to like bring Carol into the fold, at least have her do something. Make, you know, like live up to the threat that she's leaving the Avengers and hanging out with the X-Men for a bit. Like make her inclusion meaningful because it would only be a positive.

SPEAKER_01: 38:28

Maybe, maybe that's coming. Maybe this is just like too soon after the annual, and you know, they're working her in. Yeah, maybe.

SPEAKER_00: 38:37

Yeah, maybe. It's a living universe. Yeah. I mentioned earlier that many characters we see a bit of growth happening. There's a few that I wanted to call out. Um, we've already talked about Kitty, and I think Kitty again in this issue really shines as I think a permanent inclusion on this team. I at least I will be very upset if that's not the case. Because I feel like this is now earned.

SPEAKER_01: 39:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 39:04

Right? Like she did an incredibly dangerous task and was entrusted by the team to do it, and then ultimately, you know, albeit very temporarily, died or almost died. Almost died. Almost dead. It was a princess bride sort of thing. And I feel like that kind of earns your your your place, right? Like without Kitty, even in a distractionary capacity, uh, without her, they they wouldn't have been able to defeat Magneto. And in Magneto's situation, we see, I think, uh a very important character development in him, where you know, we see that he he has his big plan, and you know, you the metaphor you use was he's pointing a gun at the world, he's willing to pull the trigger, we see him, you know, make a point of this, and then You know, we see him talk about, you know, the the impacts of his family being killed and and no longer having anything, and we see him show like I think like a lot of respect at the X-Men, and we see him acknowledge Gene's death and how much he respected Gene. And by the end of this, we see a moment where I feel like he's, you know, at least my impression was that he's leaving to go and think about what his role is. You know, we we see him acknowledge that he's too old to change his ways, but this shock that he experiences seeing Kitty and how his actions directly resulted in her injury really hits him in a, you know, in a in a meaningful emotional way. It's not I I think if Storm didn't let him go, this would be a very different situation. But I think Storm letting Magneto walk away is her essentially saying it's the right thing to do in this moment. And Storm's the other character that we see a lot of character growth with here, um, where she I think really proves the value of her leadership. She again is like the the the strongest character, I think, from a power set perspective, pushing Magneto to his absolute limits. We see her um again being clever with the cape, pulling herself back up, being the one that releases the stranglehold Magneto has over their powers. She's the all-star of this team. And she, again, has come out to really kind of be the shining beacon that keep the X-Men moving forward, and I think really anchors so many characters to this team because she's the one who's going to bat for Logan. She's the one who's ultimately providing the acceptance of Kitty being there and her taking a genuine passion and love for her and seeing her included on this team, which I think is only a positive because we're again building up these character relationships where when we have a situation like this where somebody is seriously hurt, you know, it has a lot more power. And you can see that sort of motherly bond that Storm has with Kitty again kind of play out in the situation where, at least for me, at the very end of this issue, it is in a lot of ways two parental figures, right? Like two people who, you know, were parents, or in Storm's case, have kind of taken on a parent role and really kind of showing love for their children and for their families, and really kind of departing ways there. And, you know, even the way Storm compacted the situation and where she was, you know, inches away from eliminating Magneto, talking about how Logan, you know, wouldn't hesitate. And here Storm almost thinks about doing it, but ultimately can't bring herself to do it because she's not a killer. She is, you know, this leader and hero and really exemplifies, I think, the best facets of the X-Men. That was a lot. That was a lot.

SPEAKER_01: 43:19

Sorry, I just went with the vibe. Yeah, yeah. No, I uh I mean I'm super, I'm super on board. I think this is the like such an incredibly important issue in terms of transforming Magneto from, you know, the kind of more one-dimensional, two-dimensional, whatever uh villain that he has been, and you know, really fleshing him out into like, okay, but why does he do these things? Like, what are his goals? We get to see what makes him tick, why he does the thing he does. You know, we even hear, like, you know, he used to be a good man, Professor X says, and you know, I think that's maybe we're getting a little closer to like teasing, hey, these two were friends at some point. Um, it's just a really big turn for Megneto from being like, oh, he does evil things because he's evil to like here's why he does the things. And we uh got a really big lore dump along with that. I am very curious though, more so than I think any time prior to this, you know, how does Magneto show up next time he shows up? Because this isn't just like we can jump back into like, oh, it's another situation with Magneto doing something. Like, this is gonna be, I would have to assume, going to have like a direct continuation. Like it's it's a path that's going to be followed.

SPEAKER_00: 44:47

Yeah, I agree. I think there's a lot of different ways that you could go with this. You know, we know the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants are out there, you know, you just mentioned their inclusion in that Avengers story. And right now, I believe it's Mystique that's leading that team, correct? Mm-hmm. So that kind of really frees Magneto up to not necessarily be part of you know what has been established as the evil version of the X-Men. And you could pull him into maybe a reluctant hero situation. Um, you can go as far as bringing him into the fold at Xavier's school and maybe help, you know, teach kids. Like there's a lot of different things that you can do, and a lot of things I think you and I both are aware of from his past, not necessarily that they happen here, but just, you know, we know that he eventually becomes a professor at the school, right? Like he he runs Charles's school at the end, right? So um I'm very interested to see where this is gonna go.

SPEAKER_01: 45:56

I feel like the art found its footing a lot more during this issue as well. It's always sad not having John Byrne, but I don't know, it felt everything was just like a little bit more solid, a little bit more polished. They were doing a lot of kind of really cool things. We got the good psychic battle going on. There's which what was it? Um there's there's a few standout panels like Scott shooting his optic blasts on the on the page right after Kurt like teleports behind Magneto and hits him with a big metal pipe. Yeah. And then I think the one that was like super sick, and I have to imagine that you're on board with this, after Magneto wakes up and he just like pulls his metal costume like into himself, like that was at him or whatever, is like we gotta that's something we gotta see in like like an X-Men movie. We gotta put some budget behind that kind of a scene.

SPEAKER_00: 46:58

I uh agree 100%. It look it looked awesome in you know what it's one of those things that I don't know that I necessarily ever thought about.

SPEAKER_01: 47:09

It makes sense, yeah, it does. So why don't you hit me with some overall thoughts for our two issues?

SPEAKER_00: 47:17

Yeah, I think overall, you know, when you look at issue 149, um, you know, I I'm gonna go back to the jobbing metaphor. It really leaves Kitty looking incredibly strong. And I think continues like this story that's kind of been happening in the background um the last couple of issues, where we've seen Scott kind of uh lost at sea and doing his thing and ending up in Magneto's backyard castle or whatever the hell that is. You know, it kind of keeps that story moving forward and really lays the groundwork of getting the X-Men back on track of, you know, where is Magneto and let's be proactive. Um, you know, thinking about what you were saying about a good use of Xavier's time as this research project, you know, giving that some uh more thought, I think if that's a really nice way of putting his role. I think he just could be less of an asshole along the way. And again, would love to kind of see more of a teaching situation going on with him. Regardless, I think um that feeds very well into this double-sized issue. You know, I think there was really awesome pacing. We had a lot of nice set pieces between the infiltration, this confrontation with Magneto, and I think all of the members aside from Peter continued to, I think, be very uh very strong in how we see them using their powers. Um we didn't even really talk about it, but Kurt uh I think plays a very important role in these ish uh this 150 issue specifically because you know he uses his powers uh and and really saves Storm's life here by pulling her into the ocean after she gets electrocuted essentially by Magneto. So we see a lot of character growth. I think we have some really cool stuff that will happen eventually with Magneto. Uh that's very exciting because he is he he really kind of gets flushed out with depth here. And, you know, I'm left feeling like Kitty really belongs on this team, and I'm optimistic that her portrayal is transitioning from this, you know, mascot-like character into a character that we as the readers can take a little bit more seriously. So I think like looking at the two issues together, I'd probably give it I'd give it an eight, I think. I I overall enjoyed it, didn't really have a ton of complaints.

SPEAKER_01: 49:46

Yeah, for me, first issue that we did, kind of, you know, alright, decent enough. Garrick is Garrick, had a few good moments in there. Second issue, I think, is very solid. Maybe give the two like a yeah, I think about an eight as like a whole, and then like if 150 was separate, probably like an eight or an eight five, eight five feels right. Great Magneto and Kitty content for both issues. I feel like, you know, certain personalities are really shining through in the writing as well. Yeah. Uh Kurt, Kitty, Magneto, I feel like they're, you know, very distinct and getting a lot more of them in some of the writing just recently, but also specifically with these issues. I think it sets us up for an interesting place to go. We're back to not really having that obvious next step. Is Scott going to rejoin the team, maybe? When does Magneto show up again? It'll be interesting to see how things play out from here.

SPEAKER_00: 50:53

Yeah, I think a lot of credit can go to Chris too for how this team is kind of evolving. You know, we're starting, at least over the last little while, we've seen really the the remnants of the original X-Men kind of taken out of the team with Scott being off on his little side quest. And, you know, I I can see there be a lot of risk in trying to position a new leader for the X-Men. And I think removing those original members, you know, really puts a lot of the weight on this new team. Albeit, you know, like at this point, Logan and Storm are incredibly popular characters, and likely are many of the other X-Men here. So it's not as if they can't pull their own weight, but I think this has been done very cleverly in positioning Storm as this leader, and she continues to be just, you know, the all-star of this group. And I think Chris has done a really great job of I think positioning Storm as such an important member of this team.

SPEAKER_01: 51:55

Well, 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 151 to 153. 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.