September 17, 2025 • 43 mins
Join us for another episode of Uncanny Book Club and explore one of the most influential storytelling sagas in comic book history.
In episode 12 we finish our discussion on the Proteus arc! We see Cyclops motivate the troops, an emotional father son reunion, and a thrilling conclusion as the X-Men confront Proteus and his wacky reality bending powers.
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Uncanny Book Club is a biweekly read-along through Chris Claremont’s 16-year long X-Men run, which includes some of the most iconic X-Men stories.
Whether you’re revisiting these stories, are reading it for the first time like us, or just want to ride along for the discussion — we hope you’ll join us every other Wednesday.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
UNKNOWN (00:00):
Thank you.
SPEAKER_01 (00:07):
Hello and welcome to Uncanny Book Club.
I'm Isaac Baderspiel, andusually this is when I would be
introducing my co-host AdamWard.
However, we recorded thisepisode and the last episode in
one run, thinking it was goingto be one single episode.
It turns out we had a lot to sayabout the Proteus Saga.
(00:28):
We hope you enjoy our discussionof X-Men issues 127 and 128.
Issue 127 picks up immediatelywhere we left off.
off with Proteus shufflingcloser and closer to Storm.
What eventually stops him is abarrage of bullets between him
and Storm from Moira's rifle.
She means to take the killingshot, but Cyclops stops her.
(00:51):
Moira knocks him out inretribution and takes up the
hunt once more.
The team reassembles for a hotcocoa break, and Cyclops sees
that Wolverine is extremelyshaken by his run-in with
Proteus.
Cyclops goads him into a fight,and eventually involves
Nightcrawler and Storm in theconflict as well.
(01:11):
Scott calls a truce and says toconsider it a session in the
danger room.
He wanted to ensure that thereweren't any lasting
psychological after-effects fromtheir reality-bending encounter.
Wolverine delivers extremelyhigh praise by saying, I ain't
thought much of you in the past,Psych.
(01:32):
As a team leader or as a man, Iwas wrong.
Moira arrives in Edinburgh towarn her estranged and abusive
husband, Joe, and to tell himthat, hey, they have a son and
he's coming to kill youprobably.
Proteus continues his journey,jumping hosts when needed until
(01:54):
encountering his true target,and he does eventually take over
Joe, killing him.
After absorbing Joe, Proteusgains his father's memories and
emotions, which turns himagainst his mother Jean hears
the psychic death scream andrushes the X-Men to the scene.
There's a brief battle, but theX-Men have difficulty getting to
(02:17):
Proteus due to his powers.
The issue ends with Proteusholding Moira hostage to stop
the X-Men from coming after him.
Scott apologizes to Sean andsays that Proteus needs to be
stopped, no matter the cost.
I think really, really solidbook just overall, and I mean,
(02:37):
that's something that we cankind of just say about all four
issues.
One thing that I think stuck outto me a lot was when I think
about Cyclops in just across alot of what we've read so far,
he really excels at being atactical leader, but less so a
leader of people, you know,really highlighted by the first
(03:00):
issue we talked today where hisfeedback is just pathetic
people, really pathetic, not thebest way to talk to your team.
I guess that's just hismanagement style.
But I felt like it was reallynice to see him really step up
and have this encounter withWolverine, Storm, Nightcrawler,
and really go beyond just histactical leadership expertise
(03:27):
and to provide a much neededdirection and leadership
intervention for the three ofthem.
SPEAKER_02 (03:34):
Yeah, I agree 100%.
I said off the top how I didn'tagree with how Cyclops was
dealing with that situation inthe danger room and how he dealt
with the team and this is thepolar opposite of that seeing
the toll this conflict withProteus had on all of the
members of the team butespecially Logan and he even
(03:58):
remarks that if Wolverinedoesn't get past this it's going
to cripple him like he'll he'llnever be the same and to do that
he he What a good leader has todo when he pokes the bear and
gets him agitated and gets himangry and gets him not
necessarily thinking about thisencounter with Proteus and how
(04:19):
he failed in a lot of ways toovercome the situation and be
impactful and meaningful inthose encounter in that
encounter with Proteus.
And I think that really speaksto his ability to be a people
leader, which I mean, like,that's a very common phrase I
think in like modern culture butI think it's it's not something
(04:41):
that you would really expecthere it's something I would
expect from Captain Americaright being able to kind of put
the people you're around aheadof the mission and that's kind
of what we get here with thisyou know pause and it was
incredible foreshadowing and agreat tie back to that first
issue of okay yeah I'm I'm hardon you guys I recognize that but
(05:06):
every time we working togetherand training together and all
these missions he's developedthis connection with them where
he can recognize when they'restruggling and in actual danger
as we see as he talks about thetrauma that Wolverine's dealing
with and he's able to kind ofact and he does it responsibly
(05:26):
like he knows he's goadingWolverine enough that he's not
holding back and we see thattake place and it's a great
choreographed move that kind ofgoes on with Logan being tossed
over because he's actingirrationally and doing exactly
what Scott wants him to be doingand letting go and trying to
(05:50):
kill him and he informs Geneahead of time mentally that hey
like I'm I'm gonna do somethingcrazy here because I need to
help them I need to snap themout of this funk and the only
way I can do that is by openingtheir eyes to what we're doing
(06:10):
and then pulling in Kurt whogets knocked around immediately
and Storm steps in to be likethis is enough this is
ridiculous why are we doing thisand he doesn't take that for
anything other than okay well ifyou're gonna talk like this then
you're gonna get pulled intothis too you failed and I need
(06:31):
to make sure that you're alsookay but recognizing as soon as
Storm steps in he's like okaythat's enough and we gotta I
forfeit by the way this was alla test and you all passed
congratulations
SPEAKER_01 (06:43):
yeah he can knock her down the one time but he
doesn't want to necessarily havethat fight linger on for too
long yeah it's a clear
SPEAKER_02 (06:53):
kind of you know it's a bit of a movie trope it's
that slap in the face to snapyou back to reality and that's
essentially what happened herethis was Scott giving the team
giving the team that backslapped to the face to like get
them to snap back and be likeokay you're focused again you
(07:15):
can do this and we can do thistogether but I need you to be
present and so it was awesome itwas so great I will provide a
critique though of Scott becausewe see Moira pull out a rifle
that she created because it hasthe ability at least the scope
(07:36):
of seeing through i guess likethe illusion of what and how
proteus is kind of existingright because if he's not even
in a body like he's just almostlike pure energy basically
SPEAKER_01 (07:51):
it's like uh like infrared like heat scope
situation except tuned to youknow looking for his specific
form of energy but
SPEAKER_02 (08:02):
super messed up that you have to make a weapon or or
an attachment to a weapon that'scapable of killing your child
again kind of playing into thatgenerational trauma she's known
how big of a threat he could bethat if he escaped something
like this could happen and hewould be unstoppable and she
would have to do the only thingsshe can do and that's put him
(08:25):
down it's I can't even imaginethat situation for a parent to
have to make that decision andthen you have Scott step in when
she's about to kind of eliminatehim understanding the threat
that he poses and Scott steps inprevents her from taking the
shot and then at the end of thebook I think he kind of
(08:48):
recognizes the mistake that hemakes because suddenly he's
changed his tune to okay wemight actually have to like
cross you know our red line andeliminate him for good
SPEAKER_01 (09:03):
yeah I mean at this point Scott hasn't had a direct
encounter with Proteus and he'slike what are you doing we want
to capture him not kill him andthen later in the book after
he's seen his crazy powers inaction he's like uh never mind
we uh we can't capture thisperson let's just uh we gotta do
(09:27):
what we gotta
SPEAKER_02 (09:28):
do we've really kind of talked about this theme of
generational trauma we see herrush to get ahead of Proteus by
going to her estranged husbandand be like hey you're a giant
piece of shit but I'm trying todo right here by giving you a
heads up that your son that youdon't know about but you have is
(09:53):
dangerous and is aware of youand is coming to potentially
kill you and how she had youknow he left her and he you know
all of that trauma plays out andinto Proteus and his motivations
and the way he acts in thisvillainous attitude really all
(10:18):
stems from the experiences Moirakind of had and the hate that
she generated towards himbecause here Proteus is
seemingly hating his fathertrying to kill him then gaining
those memories and seeing evendeeper and and darker how messed
(10:38):
up the relationship is and himnow wielding the husk killing
your father and wielding thehusk of him to now go after your
mother and I guess likeultimately get humanity to bend
the knee and recognize thatthey're nothing compared to you
(11:01):
like really messed up when youthink about the layers and
layers and layers of trauma thatare feeding this story and I
wrote down you know likegenerational trauma is a curse
and I think that's how we see itplay out here
SPEAKER_01 (11:17):
part of the issue seems to be that I mean the way
I read some of this is it seemsthat Moira was essentially
trauma dumping on her own sonnowadays people go to therapy
for that kind of thing I meanpeople probably still you know
definitely do it I think peopleare still trauma dumping on
their children but should stopit and go to therapy but you
(11:40):
know not a great mother childsituation that she created with
that and
SPEAKER_02 (11:46):
I think she like she recognizes that right like she I
think recognizes she's part ofthe problem but it's too late
right yeah this child that youhad is now grown up and is like
the damage is done and I thinkthat's why you have her creating
a weapon capable of eliminatinghim Because, you know, while she
(12:08):
doesn't want to use it, and sheprobably wants to hope that
there's still, you know, I thinkshe even comments at one point
about how she did, you know, shetried, she tried to make him a
good person, but it wasn'tenough.
And it's, you know, exactly whatyou said, it's trauma dumping on
on her kid that put this in thatsituation.
(12:28):
It's, I think, very mature ofChris to include that kind of
story in in this in the X-Men atall because it's I think very
relatable to people especiallyin the 70s and it's still
relatable today for thousands ifnot millions of people who still
are dealing with the baggage oftheir parents it's hard man and
(12:52):
I think you have to sympathizelike a little a little with
Proteus and I think anybodywho's been in that situation
right like the trauma dumping ifyou've been on the receiving end
of it you know what it's likeeven beyond that his
SPEAKER_01 (13:05):
life majorly sucks Yeah, he's certainly a monster
SPEAKER_02 (13:31):
of his environment from his power set.
And I think a lot of mutants andwe see this through like dozens
and dozens of stories somemutant powers suck like they
just suck and you can accept itand try to live with it and and
(13:52):
own it and you know i think it'swonderful when you can accept
who you are and i think i wisheverybody could but in proteus's
case you're being shoved into acloset and left there to rot in
a lot of ways being told thatyou're a monster that you're
uncontrollable that you're toodangerous to exist in reality
(14:17):
and out in the open to see thesky to you know experience
sunlight to be with friends andyou're having to like that
shit's gonna build up and buildup and build up until it
explodes like a powder keg andthat's what we see here this was
an inevitability you know yeah Ialso want to call it how great
the cover is I'm flipping backnow.
(14:38):
The cover of this issue is likeProteus is portrayed in this
kind of white outline and color,almost like a ghost.
And it's just flush with likethis purple and pink and these
waves of black.
It's awesome.
I love it.
It's so vibrant.
(14:59):
There's some good covers inthese issues.
I was a little like on the fenceabout how I was going to feel
about the artwork because I knewthis was kind of...
You know, like it's an old book.
I've really
SPEAKER_01 (15:08):
loved it.
There's a lot of really goodstuff.
There are elements that, atleast for me, I end up missing a
lot.
Like, you know, a lot of modernstuff is just there's a lot of
detail.
And I guess I would describe itas like a cleaner art style.
Like, I think some of this oldstuff really relies a lot on
(15:31):
like a shading style that justisn't used as much nowadays.
And, you know, modern printingis, you know, just in a place
that wasn't possible back then.
When I decided to, you know,hey, it'd be really fun to just
like, read all these old X-Mencomics, I thought that the art
(15:53):
would be a bigger obstacle thanit was.
And maybe early on, it felt likemore of an obstacle.
But I mean, at this point, itlike really, really doesn't
SPEAKER_02 (16:07):
i agree 100 i struggle to consume media that
is older like whether that'swhat old media sucks watching
something that was you know sdand hasn't been upgraded to hd
in any kind of way like i reallyhave a hard time sitting down
and watching that like likewisea good old four three four three
(16:31):
format ratio yeah and similarlywith games like older games i
just feel like I have memoriesof those and the experiences and
how much I love them at themoment but if I go to play them
now it those like it doesn'tfeel the same as it did and I
(16:51):
think that's just because atthose moments in time seeing
pixels the way you were seeingthem like it was fine because
that was incredible that youwere experiencing it like in
that capacity but to know wherewe are now where you can near
lifelike versions of video gamecharacters to go back and play
(17:13):
something where they're verypolygon like is it's a struggle
it's such a barrier for me andlike and for some people it's
not and to you I say I'm happybecause it's a massive barrier
for myself
SPEAKER_01 (17:29):
yeah gaming had and like a very much an awkward
stage in like the PlayStation 1and 64 era.
And to some extent still likethe PS2 era is kind of a rough
period where I think, I mean, itdepends on like the type of game
(17:51):
that you're trying to do, butlike there's a lot of Super
Nintendo stuff that still looksreally good.
And that's because it's workingwithin different limitations.
Yeah.
Like a Chrono Trigger or FinalFantasy like that kind of stuff
still looks really good anddoesn't really come off the same
(18:13):
way as like if you were doinglike Final Fantasy 7 or
something like that or 8 justkind of look rough 9 I think
less so because it has a veryfun art style to it that I've
always appreciated but it's juston the mind because they're
(18:35):
having their big anniversaryaround now damn happy birthday
Final Fantasy 9 I agree 100%
SPEAKER_02 (18:44):
with everything you just said I think there's
obviously exceptions to the ruleand I think one that sticks out
for me not as an exception butan example of a game that I just
can't play today is Goldeneyethe way the controls are like
even just using the N64controller for me now is just I
can't it's just it's I'm tooused to the dual joysticks.
(19:10):
The C-pad on there is veryawkward to use now.
It's a weird controller.
It was a choice.
And for some people, they stilllove it.
I think the new Switch camewith...
You can get an accessory that'sbasically like an N64
controller.
We are really making this a hardone to edit.
(19:36):
I think those are all the notesI have for this issue.
So I mean, like we can move onto the final one.
I
SPEAKER_01 (19:41):
mean, the only other note I have, and I think it's
very important is just poor SeanCassidy.
He's on hot cocoa duty.
He learns that Moira has asecret husband or had at this
point.
Like, I mean, it's like yousaid, you know, he's doing what
he can to support the team.
And for some reason that's hotchocolate.
(20:04):
Not even coffee.
That was...
really out of left field like Iwas it's just so random to be
like here's your hot cocoa Scottdo you want some more I love oh
I love that he also throws it inWolverine's face like that's how
he starts the fight just bythrowing a bunch of hot hot
(20:27):
chocolate
SPEAKER_02 (20:28):
straight into his face actually now that you
mention it in that wholeinteraction with Logan he even
like hints that Wolverine isthinking about leading the team.
It's interesting because we'veseen Logan kind of step up in
some of the past issues over thelast couple of episodes.
And here we have like anacknowledgement by Scott, who is
(20:49):
also seeing Logan kind of, Ithink, step into being more of a
leader than maybe he wasoriginally.
I
SPEAKER_01 (20:56):
think it's partially also just due to how much
Wolverine personally likes toquestion leadership styles and
choices that Scott makes.
That is all my notes otherwise.
Kind of just like a great middleissue of the arc with, you know,
not a whole lot of very specificnotes.
Yeah, we can move on to the lastbook.
Issue 128 starts things off witha pretty trippy first page of an
(21:21):
entire city getting all bendy.
The X-Men spring into action,attempting to save the lives of
bystanders.
Proteus turns Moira into somekind of elephant-like creature.
That was weird.
Things get pretty weird.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Gene connects the teampsychically and Scott dictates a
(21:41):
new plan of attack to them.
His plan seems to be achievingsome measure of success as
Proteus ends up fleeing withPhoenix in pursuit.
The X-Men keep chipping away athim little by little causing
Proteus to burn through hishuman host.
Colossus tosses him away fromMoira and his host body
eventually disintegrates asProteus takes his true energy
(22:05):
form where he is both mostvulnerable and most dangerous.
Peter steps up big though andtransforms as Proteus attempts
to take his body.
He then smashes into him withhis organic steel fists, blowing
him apart in one of the sickestpanels we've seen yet.
The X-Men arrive to Peter'sside, relieved to see him alive
(22:28):
and well.
Moira grieves, Sean and Moiraembrace, and the X-Men walk away
victorious.
So overall, to just a reallysolid issue really great
conclusion to this four partstory that we've gone through
like you said it's really hardto find areas to complain about
(22:51):
or to like nitpick and for atime I you know thought I did
stumble upon one where I waslike yeah I don't know about
this there's like a page thatessentially recaps everything
Yep.
We see all the way back tohere's Wolverine and Colossus
(23:12):
battling Magneto for the veryfirst time, like 20 issues ago,
more than 20 issues ago.
And this is how he broke free.
And then he takes over old manMcWhorter.
And part of me was like, well,like, why do we have this recap
or kind of retreading?
But then I spent a little bitmore time kind of mulling things
(23:37):
over.
and instead shifted a bit to Ienjoy this recap you know it
provides context of why was hesitting around for so long like
why is this story happening nowversus when the containment was
breached and getting to look atdifferent angles and you know
(23:59):
different perspectives ofdifferent events that happened
throughout all this like seeingMoira actually enter the actual
cell and seeing the husk of whatwas her son's body just, you
know, shriveled up and gone.
So I kind of did like a big 180of, oh, yeah, this thing.
(24:20):
And I was like, oh, yeah, thisthing's pretty good.
SPEAKER_02 (24:23):
I'm on board.
I think the context that youkind of just gave won me over on
the idea as well.
And I don't think maybe itstruck me upon reading it in the
same way.
But I guess we're kind of seeingthings through his eyes in a lot
of ways.
Like him even taking overJamie's body, the shriveled up
remains of his body that Moirafinds, this confrontation with
(24:47):
Phoenix.
I agree.
Like at first I was like, whyare we getting a recap?
I guess is it because, you know,these are coming out months
apart and we're just trying togive the reader the additional
context of where we started andhow we got here.
And I think that kind of likeserves that purpose in a lot of
ways.
But I really like how you kindof position the rationale behind
(25:10):
the entire situation and whatit's serving so you've won me
over I am now doing 180 as wellwe did it you did it Chris again
you won us over I want to likequick like just make mention and
not dwell on it but on theopening page you mentioned like
it's we see like the bendinessand the trippiness of Proteus's
(25:32):
powers kind of playing out stillsuper cool to see but how metal
is it I know exactly what you'regonna say an incredible way to
start a book than to say everhear a city scream that is
pretty metal it is so metal Ithink there's a lot of things in
this issue especially that youcould kind of like define as
(25:55):
metal especially the you knowlike as you said like this
ending sequence with Colossusand Proteus where he catches him
in the monologue and
SPEAKER_01 (26:06):
just makes him pay for it now you're just making
really roundabout puns aboutmetal
SPEAKER_02 (26:12):
unintentionally not mad about it though in either
case I really really love thatthey kind of have the just that
like little phrasing kind ofreally sets the scene that this
is immensely out of controlright and I think it's immensely
out of control in a way that wehaven't really seen before not
that the X-Men haven't dealtwith large-scale threats we saw
(26:36):
the situation in Japan which youknow threaten to sink the entire
country and we've seen also thattime reality almost ended that
almost seems like nothingcompared to this I'm yeah I
understand what you're saying Ithink it's like seeing the
stakes are different right andyou touched on this earlier when
you were like well a lot ofthese fights that we've kind of
(26:58):
seen kind of take place withnobody around right even when
they were when the X-Men werefighting Alpha Flight like it's
at you know a vacant kind of Sothe stakes aren't exactly the
same in how we're witnessing it.
And even how we've seen, Ithink, the average citizen used
(27:21):
in this story as a casualty ofProteus.
We've talked about how he's thedeadliest on-panel foe that
we've kind of seen, and hisindiscriminate killings are very
different to some of the others.
other villains that we'veencountered even though like
arcade is like literallykidnapping people to kill it
(27:44):
doesn't even feel remotely closeto the same
SPEAKER_01 (27:47):
as this arcade kind of seems like a amateur like he
murder world seems like itreally needs to take some notes
from maybe Proteus and hisapproach to villainy well that's
SPEAKER_02 (28:00):
simple it just wouldn't work in that case right
because Proteus is not in theentertainment business he's in
the I'm here to mess things upbusiness.
Everything I thought was likesuper cool, great action
sequences.
Like we see this kind of finalconfrontation where all the
cards are put on the table.
The bees, bees are brought inhere, weaponized.
(28:24):
The
SPEAKER_01 (28:24):
bees are so funny.
I can't look at that panelwithout just hearing, not the
bees.
The bees!
SPEAKER_02 (28:33):
It really speaks to the character of Storm who's
like, I don't want to hurt thebees.
everyone so I'm gonna just blowthem away even though I don't
they're not even real I guess Iguess they are real I don't know
he's the reality they're realbees but it's uh it was a really
crazy scene we see just Proteuslike there's another panel in
(28:55):
here that really stuck out to meand it's like every scene we see
kind of you're beginning to seethe collapse of the body of his
father with like the glowingpurple eyes and these it's he's
slowly kind of corrupting thethe body more and more and more
(29:16):
and like we get to the end ofthis book and he's now like a
like a corpse basically he'slike the he's being shot up into
the air on like this i guessdirt mud boulder rock something
it's going up the side of thisescarpment and he's now just
like oh that's a big word awithered Someone went to
(29:39):
college.
What, escarpment?
Yeah.
Well, I live on the NiagaraEscarpment, man.
Boom.
There you go.
It probably isn't an escarpment,but anyways.
It's just a cool visualizationof, okay, the plan is working,
right?
Scott keeps going on about howwe got to burn him out.
We got to burn him out, get himto use his powers, going to have
(30:01):
to ditch this thing, this body,look for something else, and
that's when we're going to beable to strike.
And it's a good plan.
Is it though?
Cause I was kind of going backand forth on it because we've
seen like Jean again mentions, Ithink it's like earlier in this
issue, she has like kind of likean internal thought bubble
(30:23):
talking about how the more heuses his powers, the
SPEAKER_01 (30:27):
stronger he gets.
Well, I think part of that'sjust, you know, he doesn't have
experience using his powers.
Like this is him practicing andgetting used to it.
And yeah, becoming more and morecomfortable with it so that he's
able to do not just surroundsomebody in amber turn a bunch
of stuff into bees you know hecould start to do some really
(30:50):
wild stuff if he gets his youknow reps in that's a very
SPEAKER_02 (30:56):
fair point that I don't know that I considered it
in that way and I think thatmakes I mean it makes a lot more
sense I think in the context ofthis story to think of
SPEAKER_01 (31:05):
it and it's like one of the two like they they kind
of like bring up like two majorweaknesses of Proteus he don't
like metal metal no good and youknow he's burned through just
like a ton of husks of peopleand is just constantly murdering
to stay alive so you knowgetting him to accelerate they
(31:28):
drive him out of the city sothat there's nobody like around
for him to take and then justget him to burn through by
overindulging in his powers.
Yeah.
And I feel like they really usea lot of like hit and run kind
of tactics to just like chipaway at him.
SPEAKER_00 (31:47):
Yeah,
SPEAKER_02 (31:48):
100%.
It seems like every X-Men kindof takes their shot.
You know, we have even this likecool panel of Scott and Havoc on
either side of them and they'rejust like blasting them away
only for him to, I think, likedissipate.
basically and they hit eachother and talk again about like
(32:10):
how they can metabolize theenergy and we see like multiple
times Scott's like it's likeWolverine you gotta go it's it's
on you man it's that I got faithin you you gotta go deal with
this you're on your own we seeLogan profess his love for Jean
kind of he does he says leaveher alone I love oh I loved that
(32:32):
lady I didn't even recognize thepast tense it It's such a weird
thing to say.
Well, maybe he's mourned theidea that she died.
I mean, he's...
And he's now Yuriko.
He's got
SPEAKER_01 (32:43):
Mariko now, but...
Mariko, yeah.
It's just such a...
Like, it's a weird phrase to sayaloud, I guess, is what I'm
trying to get at.
Yeah, it is a little strange.
No one's around to hear him andcall him out on it, though, I
guess.
Like, what do you...
You loved her?
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (33:03):
Yeah, you could still love her, you know, as a
friend, as a sister, as family,whatever.
But I don't know.
It's whatever it is, what it is.
That's not how the Wolverinerolls.
No, he professes his feelingsaloud.
There's this really cool panelof Wolverine falling and Cyclops
trying to stop him with hisoptic blasts.
(33:24):
Super cool.
That's another funny one.
Super cool.
I think like the culmination ofPeter getting up there and you
mentioned this already is socool.
See, him just punch and justshatter him into you know a
million energy pieces and theyeven you know make mention that
they the punch sends him flyingto every corner of the world
(33:47):
really cool culmination and Idon't think this like capstones
Peter's story like the one thatwe've kind of been talking about
where he's like trying to findhis place on the team I hope
this is not the conclusion tothat because this to me still
doesn't feel Like that's what wewere building towards here.
Like to me, this was the X-Menworking together.
(34:08):
Peter, you know, steps in and isable to hit the final blow.
I
SPEAKER_01 (34:13):
don't think it's meant to be like the conclusion
to that.
I feel like they would have hadto set it up more with him
failing earlier or like, youknow, having that stumble of
like, I didn't succeed.
And then, you know, when hesteps up and delivers the
finishing blow, it would havethat greater impact.
(34:34):
But I think it's just like yousaid, kind of that more of a
teamwork thing that we're seeinghere.
Yeah, Scott, I'm looking
SPEAKER_02 (34:41):
at this panel right now towards the end of the book.
And Scott, you know, he'stalking about how metal is, you
know, his weakness.
And he says, quote, that's why Iwas counting on Colossus to
finish the job the rest of usstarted.
And it looks like he's done justthat.
So really, I think speaks to theteam effort and how it took
everything they had to stop him.
(35:01):
He also makes mention, I thinkit's earlier in this issue about
how Proteus is the type ofthreat that the X-Men were
created to stop and I thoughtthat was such a like such a
important line I think to reallyraise the stakes of what they
were looking at and I don't knowthat they've ever really
(35:21):
positioned any of the threatsthat we've seen so far in that
way
SPEAKER_01 (35:25):
maybe Magneto I mean his his like intro is you know
the whole trying to take overthe air base or the army base or
whatever it is and grab missilesand stuff back in I assume
that's I think that's the firstissue of X-Men but either way
like I think that's a reallygood call out and I think it's a
fun connection back to that likeflashback issue we had with
(35:48):
Xavier where Amalfarook was likethe first evil mutant that he
had ever encountered which thenyou know led to him being like
oh you know we need something inplace there's gonna be more
mutant threats that some Someonehas to stop.
Yeah, that's a that's
SPEAKER_02 (36:06):
a great connector.
And I honestly didn't even likeput those two things together.
But yeah, it ties in beautifullyto like the overall story that
we've been having.
And I'm very satisfied with theending.
SPEAKER_01 (36:18):
One thing that I wanted to make sure we called
out, I think there's a nicemoment in this book, like a
Scott and the Jean moment.
And like these four issues areso hectic that even though
They've reunited.
They haven't had any time tounpack anything.
Like, you know, Scott wakes herup.
(36:40):
She's like, oh, Jason, it's you.
And he's like, uh...
You know, what, who's Jason?
But at the same time, he's alsolike, oh yeah, I've got to get
Colleen's key off my key ringreal fast or, you know, whatever
his thought process might be.
There's just like a really nicemoment after Jean is hurt and
(37:02):
he's thinking, that scream,Jean's down, hurt.
No, I can't think about her now.
I don't dare or I'll crack wideopen.
I have to focus on the job athand, nothing else.
And I think it's nice to see youknow it's been unclear about
what is going on with Scottwhere he's not grieving the loss
(37:24):
of Jean and I think what we'refinally getting to see is he you
know walled himself out fromthat and didn't want to
experience any of that grief andhis brain is just pretending
like oh maybe I didn't love Jeanand now we're kind of seeing
even if it's not like a romantictype connection at the very
(37:46):
least We're back toacknowledging he's very close to
this person and has been for anumber of years now.
Like they've essentially grownup together after a certain
point in their life.
And it's good to see, you know,we're back to him caring instead
of just being like, I don't feelsad.
Yeah, I almost feel like
SPEAKER_02 (38:08):
having some sort of breather after this story would
be beneficial.
Yeah.
(38:41):
Just like a conversation of, oh,my God, you're alive.
Yes.
Oh, my God, you're alive.
And here, you know, we can havethis conversation about our
feelings that have beenunresolved over the past several
months while they've beencontending with their own
problems separate of oneanother.
I don't know that we're going toget that, but I think it would
(39:03):
be very beneficial if we do.
SPEAKER_01 (39:05):
Yeah, they're definitely going to need a game
of baseball to work this out.
SPEAKER_02 (39:11):
Well, maybe when Charles returns.
Play ball.
Then the whole gang will be backtogether and he could be the
referee or whatever the heck hewas doing.
SPEAKER_01 (39:18):
So we already kind of, you know, gave our little.
Well, I think maybe only you.
I don't remember if I gave itscore at the beginning.
This, you know, episoderecording has been lasting a
long time, so I can't rememberthat far back.
I have the memory of a bird.
But, you know, overall thoughts.
Very good.
I think best contained storywe've read so far.
(39:39):
It doesn't.
all prey to over relying on tonsof pros or like whatever it is
you know the non-dialogue yeahthere's only that one section
and that last issue but it waskind of an interesting recap and
providing some tidbits on stuffwe didn't know so gets past main
(39:59):
focus is the Proteus story butwe're still you know kind of
have those little threads of youknow we're dragging things along
of like oh what's going onwhat's happening with this Jason
character and gene in thosefirst couple issues.
I believe you had said 9.
When I have written down, I put8.5 or 9 out of 10, I think, for
(40:21):
me.
Probably a 9.
I think this is about
SPEAKER_02 (40:24):
probably as perfect as you can get.
I don't think I could ever giveanything a 10 out of 10, but I
think Chris and the rest of thecreative team, and again,
massive shout out to, I think,John for his, you know, the way
he kind of really depictedProteus in this book and his
(40:45):
powers which I think again likeon paper could have been very
challenging to imagine likereality warping in general but
to kind of come up with thisconcept of a character that
doesn't have a physical form andhow do you make that character
stand out when they areinhabiting the bodies of other
(41:06):
people so they don't just looklike Mary Sue like Ren Yeah, I
think it would have been, Ithink the art and the coloring
by Bob and John and everybodyelse that was like involved in
this specific story, like reallybrought this to life and I think
(41:28):
made Proteus into the top tiervillain that he was.
And I think they all deservelike immense credit for this
story.
It's really stands out to me, Ithink, as the best one.
And I say that as somebody whoreally stand Magneto and that
whole arc, if we want to call itmuch of an arc, um, the Magneto
(41:53):
Chronicles this to me when youthink about the hype around
Chris and this is one of thosestories that really I think
stands out as an incredible highpoint and one that if I were to
point somebody to as a as one tokind of absorb in a bubble I
(42:14):
would point them to this becauseit's very well contained it's
very entertaining and it's veryvery visually appealing while
carrying these very mature tonesthat might not necessarily
always be at the forefront ofcomic books.
and especially in comic books atthis point in time.
(42:37):
So I stick with my 9 out of 10.
I really, really enjoyed it, andI imagine most probably do.
SPEAKER_01 (42:46):
That does it for this episode of Uncanny Book
Club.
Thanks for listening, and wehope to see you next episode,
where we'll discuss issues 129to 131.
Bye, everyone.
Read comics.
Thanks for tuning in to thisepisode of Uncanny Book Club.
you enjoyed this podcast don'tforget to subscribe leave a
review or share with a friend
Thank you.
SPEAKER_01 (00:07):
Hello and welcome to Uncanny Book Club.
I'm Isaac Baderspiel, andusually this is when I would be
introducing my co-host AdamWard.
However, we recorded thisepisode and the last episode in
one run, thinking it was goingto be one single episode.
It turns out we had a lot to sayabout the Proteus Saga.
(00:28):
We hope you enjoy our discussionof X-Men issues 127 and 128.
Issue 127 picks up immediatelywhere we left off.
off with Proteus shufflingcloser and closer to Storm.
What eventually stops him is abarrage of bullets between him
and Storm from Moira's rifle.
She means to take the killingshot, but Cyclops stops her.
(00:51):
Moira knocks him out inretribution and takes up the
hunt once more.
The team reassembles for a hotcocoa break, and Cyclops sees
that Wolverine is extremelyshaken by his run-in with
Proteus.
Cyclops goads him into a fight,and eventually involves
Nightcrawler and Storm in theconflict as well.
(01:11):
Scott calls a truce and says toconsider it a session in the
danger room.
He wanted to ensure that thereweren't any lasting
psychological after-effects fromtheir reality-bending encounter.
Wolverine delivers extremelyhigh praise by saying, I ain't
thought much of you in the past,Psych.
(01:32):
As a team leader or as a man, Iwas wrong.
Moira arrives in Edinburgh towarn her estranged and abusive
husband, Joe, and to tell himthat, hey, they have a son and
he's coming to kill youprobably.
Proteus continues his journey,jumping hosts when needed until
(01:54):
encountering his true target,and he does eventually take over
Joe, killing him.
After absorbing Joe, Proteusgains his father's memories and
emotions, which turns himagainst his mother Jean hears
the psychic death scream andrushes the X-Men to the scene.
There's a brief battle, but theX-Men have difficulty getting to
(02:17):
Proteus due to his powers.
The issue ends with Proteusholding Moira hostage to stop
the X-Men from coming after him.
Scott apologizes to Sean andsays that Proteus needs to be
stopped, no matter the cost.
I think really, really solidbook just overall, and I mean,
(02:37):
that's something that we cankind of just say about all four
issues.
One thing that I think stuck outto me a lot was when I think
about Cyclops in just across alot of what we've read so far,
he really excels at being atactical leader, but less so a
leader of people, you know,really highlighted by the first
(03:00):
issue we talked today where hisfeedback is just pathetic
people, really pathetic, not thebest way to talk to your team.
I guess that's just hismanagement style.
But I felt like it was reallynice to see him really step up
and have this encounter withWolverine, Storm, Nightcrawler,
and really go beyond just histactical leadership expertise
(03:27):
and to provide a much neededdirection and leadership
intervention for the three ofthem.
SPEAKER_02 (03:34):
Yeah, I agree 100%.
I said off the top how I didn'tagree with how Cyclops was
dealing with that situation inthe danger room and how he dealt
with the team and this is thepolar opposite of that seeing
the toll this conflict withProteus had on all of the
members of the team butespecially Logan and he even
(03:58):
remarks that if Wolverinedoesn't get past this it's going
to cripple him like he'll he'llnever be the same and to do that
he he What a good leader has todo when he pokes the bear and
gets him agitated and gets himangry and gets him not
necessarily thinking about thisencounter with Proteus and how
(04:19):
he failed in a lot of ways toovercome the situation and be
impactful and meaningful inthose encounter in that
encounter with Proteus.
And I think that really speaksto his ability to be a people
leader, which I mean, like,that's a very common phrase I
think in like modern culture butI think it's it's not something
(04:41):
that you would really expecthere it's something I would
expect from Captain Americaright being able to kind of put
the people you're around aheadof the mission and that's kind
of what we get here with thisyou know pause and it was
incredible foreshadowing and agreat tie back to that first
issue of okay yeah I'm I'm hardon you guys I recognize that but
(05:06):
every time we working togetherand training together and all
these missions he's developedthis connection with them where
he can recognize when they'restruggling and in actual danger
as we see as he talks about thetrauma that Wolverine's dealing
with and he's able to kind ofact and he does it responsibly
(05:26):
like he knows he's goadingWolverine enough that he's not
holding back and we see thattake place and it's a great
choreographed move that kind ofgoes on with Logan being tossed
over because he's actingirrationally and doing exactly
what Scott wants him to be doingand letting go and trying to
(05:50):
kill him and he informs Geneahead of time mentally that hey
like I'm I'm gonna do somethingcrazy here because I need to
help them I need to snap themout of this funk and the only
way I can do that is by openingtheir eyes to what we're doing
(06:10):
and then pulling in Kurt whogets knocked around immediately
and Storm steps in to be likethis is enough this is
ridiculous why are we doing thisand he doesn't take that for
anything other than okay well ifyou're gonna talk like this then
you're gonna get pulled intothis too you failed and I need
(06:31):
to make sure that you're alsookay but recognizing as soon as
Storm steps in he's like okaythat's enough and we gotta I
forfeit by the way this was alla test and you all passed
congratulations
SPEAKER_01 (06:43):
yeah he can knock her down the one time but he
doesn't want to necessarily havethat fight linger on for too
long yeah it's a clear
SPEAKER_02 (06:53):
kind of you know it's a bit of a movie trope it's
that slap in the face to snapyou back to reality and that's
essentially what happened herethis was Scott giving the team
giving the team that backslapped to the face to like get
them to snap back and be likeokay you're focused again you
(07:15):
can do this and we can do thistogether but I need you to be
present and so it was awesome itwas so great I will provide a
critique though of Scott becausewe see Moira pull out a rifle
that she created because it hasthe ability at least the scope
(07:36):
of seeing through i guess likethe illusion of what and how
proteus is kind of existingright because if he's not even
in a body like he's just almostlike pure energy basically
SPEAKER_01 (07:51):
it's like uh like infrared like heat scope
situation except tuned to youknow looking for his specific
form of energy but
SPEAKER_02 (08:02):
super messed up that you have to make a weapon or or
an attachment to a weapon that'scapable of killing your child
again kind of playing into thatgenerational trauma she's known
how big of a threat he could bethat if he escaped something
like this could happen and hewould be unstoppable and she
would have to do the only thingsshe can do and that's put him
(08:25):
down it's I can't even imaginethat situation for a parent to
have to make that decision andthen you have Scott step in when
she's about to kind of eliminatehim understanding the threat
that he poses and Scott steps inprevents her from taking the
shot and then at the end of thebook I think he kind of
(08:48):
recognizes the mistake that hemakes because suddenly he's
changed his tune to okay wemight actually have to like
cross you know our red line andeliminate him for good
SPEAKER_01 (09:03):
yeah I mean at this point Scott hasn't had a direct
encounter with Proteus and he'slike what are you doing we want
to capture him not kill him andthen later in the book after
he's seen his crazy powers inaction he's like uh never mind
we uh we can't capture thisperson let's just uh we gotta do
(09:27):
what we gotta
SPEAKER_02 (09:28):
do we've really kind of talked about this theme of
generational trauma we see herrush to get ahead of Proteus by
going to her estranged husbandand be like hey you're a giant
piece of shit but I'm trying todo right here by giving you a
heads up that your son that youdon't know about but you have is
(09:53):
dangerous and is aware of youand is coming to potentially
kill you and how she had youknow he left her and he you know
all of that trauma plays out andinto Proteus and his motivations
and the way he acts in thisvillainous attitude really all
(10:18):
stems from the experiences Moirakind of had and the hate that
she generated towards himbecause here Proteus is
seemingly hating his fathertrying to kill him then gaining
those memories and seeing evendeeper and and darker how messed
(10:38):
up the relationship is and himnow wielding the husk killing
your father and wielding thehusk of him to now go after your
mother and I guess likeultimately get humanity to bend
the knee and recognize thatthey're nothing compared to you
(11:01):
like really messed up when youthink about the layers and
layers and layers of trauma thatare feeding this story and I
wrote down you know likegenerational trauma is a curse
and I think that's how we see itplay out here
SPEAKER_01 (11:17):
part of the issue seems to be that I mean the way
I read some of this is it seemsthat Moira was essentially
trauma dumping on her own sonnowadays people go to therapy
for that kind of thing I meanpeople probably still you know
definitely do it I think peopleare still trauma dumping on
their children but should stopit and go to therapy but you
(11:40):
know not a great mother childsituation that she created with
that and
SPEAKER_02 (11:46):
I think she like she recognizes that right like she I
think recognizes she's part ofthe problem but it's too late
right yeah this child that youhad is now grown up and is like
the damage is done and I thinkthat's why you have her creating
a weapon capable of eliminatinghim Because, you know, while she
(12:08):
doesn't want to use it, and sheprobably wants to hope that
there's still, you know, I thinkshe even comments at one point
about how she did, you know, shetried, she tried to make him a
good person, but it wasn'tenough.
And it's, you know, exactly whatyou said, it's trauma dumping on
on her kid that put this in thatsituation.
(12:28):
It's, I think, very mature ofChris to include that kind of
story in in this in the X-Men atall because it's I think very
relatable to people especiallyin the 70s and it's still
relatable today for thousands ifnot millions of people who still
are dealing with the baggage oftheir parents it's hard man and
(12:52):
I think you have to sympathizelike a little a little with
Proteus and I think anybodywho's been in that situation
right like the trauma dumping ifyou've been on the receiving end
of it you know what it's likeeven beyond that his
SPEAKER_01 (13:05):
life majorly sucks Yeah, he's certainly a monster
SPEAKER_02 (13:31):
of his environment from his power set.
And I think a lot of mutants andwe see this through like dozens
and dozens of stories somemutant powers suck like they
just suck and you can accept itand try to live with it and and
(13:52):
own it and you know i think it'swonderful when you can accept
who you are and i think i wisheverybody could but in proteus's
case you're being shoved into acloset and left there to rot in
a lot of ways being told thatyou're a monster that you're
uncontrollable that you're toodangerous to exist in reality
(14:17):
and out in the open to see thesky to you know experience
sunlight to be with friends andyou're having to like that
shit's gonna build up and buildup and build up until it
explodes like a powder keg andthat's what we see here this was
an inevitability you know yeah Ialso want to call it how great
the cover is I'm flipping backnow.
(14:38):
The cover of this issue is likeProteus is portrayed in this
kind of white outline and color,almost like a ghost.
And it's just flush with likethis purple and pink and these
waves of black.
It's awesome.
I love it.
It's so vibrant.
(14:59):
There's some good covers inthese issues.
I was a little like on the fenceabout how I was going to feel
about the artwork because I knewthis was kind of...
You know, like it's an old book.
I've really
SPEAKER_01 (15:08):
loved it.
There's a lot of really goodstuff.
There are elements that, atleast for me, I end up missing a
lot.
Like, you know, a lot of modernstuff is just there's a lot of
detail.
And I guess I would describe itas like a cleaner art style.
Like, I think some of this oldstuff really relies a lot on
(15:31):
like a shading style that justisn't used as much nowadays.
And, you know, modern printingis, you know, just in a place
that wasn't possible back then.
When I decided to, you know,hey, it'd be really fun to just
like, read all these old X-Mencomics, I thought that the art
(15:53):
would be a bigger obstacle thanit was.
And maybe early on, it felt likemore of an obstacle.
But I mean, at this point, itlike really, really doesn't
SPEAKER_02 (16:07):
i agree 100 i struggle to consume media that
is older like whether that'swhat old media sucks watching
something that was you know sdand hasn't been upgraded to hd
in any kind of way like i reallyhave a hard time sitting down
and watching that like likewisea good old four three four three
(16:31):
format ratio yeah and similarlywith games like older games i
just feel like I have memoriesof those and the experiences and
how much I love them at themoment but if I go to play them
now it those like it doesn'tfeel the same as it did and I
(16:51):
think that's just because atthose moments in time seeing
pixels the way you were seeingthem like it was fine because
that was incredible that youwere experiencing it like in
that capacity but to know wherewe are now where you can near
lifelike versions of video gamecharacters to go back and play
(17:13):
something where they're verypolygon like is it's a struggle
it's such a barrier for me andlike and for some people it's
not and to you I say I'm happybecause it's a massive barrier
for myself
SPEAKER_01 (17:29):
yeah gaming had and like a very much an awkward
stage in like the PlayStation 1and 64 era.
And to some extent still likethe PS2 era is kind of a rough
period where I think, I mean, itdepends on like the type of game
(17:51):
that you're trying to do, butlike there's a lot of Super
Nintendo stuff that still looksreally good.
And that's because it's workingwithin different limitations.
Yeah.
Like a Chrono Trigger or FinalFantasy like that kind of stuff
still looks really good anddoesn't really come off the same
(18:13):
way as like if you were doinglike Final Fantasy 7 or
something like that or 8 justkind of look rough 9 I think
less so because it has a veryfun art style to it that I've
always appreciated but it's juston the mind because they're
(18:35):
having their big anniversaryaround now damn happy birthday
Final Fantasy 9 I agree 100%
SPEAKER_02 (18:44):
with everything you just said I think there's
obviously exceptions to the ruleand I think one that sticks out
for me not as an exception butan example of a game that I just
can't play today is Goldeneyethe way the controls are like
even just using the N64controller for me now is just I
can't it's just it's I'm tooused to the dual joysticks.
(19:10):
The C-pad on there is veryawkward to use now.
It's a weird controller.
It was a choice.
And for some people, they stilllove it.
I think the new Switch camewith...
You can get an accessory that'sbasically like an N64
controller.
We are really making this a hardone to edit.
(19:36):
I think those are all the notesI have for this issue.
So I mean, like we can move onto the final one.
I
SPEAKER_01 (19:41):
mean, the only other note I have, and I think it's
very important is just poor SeanCassidy.
He's on hot cocoa duty.
He learns that Moira has asecret husband or had at this
point.
Like, I mean, it's like yousaid, you know, he's doing what
he can to support the team.
And for some reason that's hotchocolate.
(20:04):
Not even coffee.
That was...
really out of left field like Iwas it's just so random to be
like here's your hot cocoa Scottdo you want some more I love oh
I love that he also throws it inWolverine's face like that's how
he starts the fight just bythrowing a bunch of hot hot
(20:27):
chocolate
SPEAKER_02 (20:28):
straight into his face actually now that you
mention it in that wholeinteraction with Logan he even
like hints that Wolverine isthinking about leading the team.
It's interesting because we'veseen Logan kind of step up in
some of the past issues over thelast couple of episodes.
And here we have like anacknowledgement by Scott, who is
(20:49):
also seeing Logan kind of, Ithink, step into being more of a
leader than maybe he wasoriginally.
I
SPEAKER_01 (20:56):
think it's partially also just due to how much
Wolverine personally likes toquestion leadership styles and
choices that Scott makes.
That is all my notes otherwise.
Kind of just like a great middleissue of the arc with, you know,
not a whole lot of very specificnotes.
Yeah, we can move on to the lastbook.
Issue 128 starts things off witha pretty trippy first page of an
(21:21):
entire city getting all bendy.
The X-Men spring into action,attempting to save the lives of
bystanders.
Proteus turns Moira into somekind of elephant-like creature.
That was weird.
Things get pretty weird.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Gene connects the teampsychically and Scott dictates a
(21:41):
new plan of attack to them.
His plan seems to be achievingsome measure of success as
Proteus ends up fleeing withPhoenix in pursuit.
The X-Men keep chipping away athim little by little causing
Proteus to burn through hishuman host.
Colossus tosses him away fromMoira and his host body
eventually disintegrates asProteus takes his true energy
(22:05):
form where he is both mostvulnerable and most dangerous.
Peter steps up big though andtransforms as Proteus attempts
to take his body.
He then smashes into him withhis organic steel fists, blowing
him apart in one of the sickestpanels we've seen yet.
The X-Men arrive to Peter'sside, relieved to see him alive
(22:28):
and well.
Moira grieves, Sean and Moiraembrace, and the X-Men walk away
victorious.
So overall, to just a reallysolid issue really great
conclusion to this four partstory that we've gone through
like you said it's really hardto find areas to complain about
(22:51):
or to like nitpick and for atime I you know thought I did
stumble upon one where I waslike yeah I don't know about
this there's like a page thatessentially recaps everything
Yep.
We see all the way back tohere's Wolverine and Colossus
(23:12):
battling Magneto for the veryfirst time, like 20 issues ago,
more than 20 issues ago.
And this is how he broke free.
And then he takes over old manMcWhorter.
And part of me was like, well,like, why do we have this recap
or kind of retreading?
But then I spent a little bitmore time kind of mulling things
(23:37):
over.
and instead shifted a bit to Ienjoy this recap you know it
provides context of why was hesitting around for so long like
why is this story happening nowversus when the containment was
breached and getting to look atdifferent angles and you know
(23:59):
different perspectives ofdifferent events that happened
throughout all this like seeingMoira actually enter the actual
cell and seeing the husk of whatwas her son's body just, you
know, shriveled up and gone.
So I kind of did like a big 180of, oh, yeah, this thing.
(24:20):
And I was like, oh, yeah, thisthing's pretty good.
SPEAKER_02 (24:23):
I'm on board.
I think the context that youkind of just gave won me over on
the idea as well.
And I don't think maybe itstruck me upon reading it in the
same way.
But I guess we're kind of seeingthings through his eyes in a lot
of ways.
Like him even taking overJamie's body, the shriveled up
remains of his body that Moirafinds, this confrontation with
(24:47):
Phoenix.
I agree.
Like at first I was like, whyare we getting a recap?
I guess is it because, you know,these are coming out months
apart and we're just trying togive the reader the additional
context of where we started andhow we got here.
And I think that kind of likeserves that purpose in a lot of
ways.
But I really like how you kindof position the rationale behind
(25:10):
the entire situation and whatit's serving so you've won me
over I am now doing 180 as wellwe did it you did it Chris again
you won us over I want to likequick like just make mention and
not dwell on it but on theopening page you mentioned like
it's we see like the bendinessand the trippiness of Proteus's
(25:32):
powers kind of playing out stillsuper cool to see but how metal
is it I know exactly what you'regonna say an incredible way to
start a book than to say everhear a city scream that is
pretty metal it is so metal Ithink there's a lot of things in
this issue especially that youcould kind of like define as
(25:55):
metal especially the you knowlike as you said like this
ending sequence with Colossusand Proteus where he catches him
in the monologue and
SPEAKER_01 (26:06):
just makes him pay for it now you're just making
really roundabout puns aboutmetal
SPEAKER_02 (26:12):
unintentionally not mad about it though in either
case I really really love thatthey kind of have the just that
like little phrasing kind ofreally sets the scene that this
is immensely out of controlright and I think it's immensely
out of control in a way that wehaven't really seen before not
that the X-Men haven't dealtwith large-scale threats we saw
(26:36):
the situation in Japan which youknow threaten to sink the entire
country and we've seen also thattime reality almost ended that
almost seems like nothingcompared to this I'm yeah I
understand what you're saying Ithink it's like seeing the
stakes are different right andyou touched on this earlier when
you were like well a lot ofthese fights that we've kind of
(26:58):
seen kind of take place withnobody around right even when
they were when the X-Men werefighting Alpha Flight like it's
at you know a vacant kind of Sothe stakes aren't exactly the
same in how we're witnessing it.
And even how we've seen, Ithink, the average citizen used
(27:21):
in this story as a casualty ofProteus.
We've talked about how he's thedeadliest on-panel foe that
we've kind of seen, and hisindiscriminate killings are very
different to some of the others.
other villains that we'veencountered even though like
arcade is like literallykidnapping people to kill it
(27:44):
doesn't even feel remotely closeto the same
SPEAKER_01 (27:47):
as this arcade kind of seems like a amateur like he
murder world seems like itreally needs to take some notes
from maybe Proteus and hisapproach to villainy well that's
SPEAKER_02 (28:00):
simple it just wouldn't work in that case right
because Proteus is not in theentertainment business he's in
the I'm here to mess things upbusiness.
Everything I thought was likesuper cool, great action
sequences.
Like we see this kind of finalconfrontation where all the
cards are put on the table.
The bees, bees are brought inhere, weaponized.
(28:24):
The
SPEAKER_01 (28:24):
bees are so funny.
I can't look at that panelwithout just hearing, not the
bees.
The bees!
SPEAKER_02 (28:33):
It really speaks to the character of Storm who's
like, I don't want to hurt thebees.
everyone so I'm gonna just blowthem away even though I don't
they're not even real I guess Iguess they are real I don't know
he's the reality they're realbees but it's uh it was a really
crazy scene we see just Proteuslike there's another panel in
(28:55):
here that really stuck out to meand it's like every scene we see
kind of you're beginning to seethe collapse of the body of his
father with like the glowingpurple eyes and these it's he's
slowly kind of corrupting thethe body more and more and more
(29:16):
and like we get to the end ofthis book and he's now like a
like a corpse basically he'slike the he's being shot up into
the air on like this i guessdirt mud boulder rock something
it's going up the side of thisescarpment and he's now just
like oh that's a big word awithered Someone went to
(29:39):
college.
What, escarpment?
Yeah.
Well, I live on the NiagaraEscarpment, man.
Boom.
There you go.
It probably isn't an escarpment,but anyways.
It's just a cool visualizationof, okay, the plan is working,
right?
Scott keeps going on about howwe got to burn him out.
We got to burn him out, get himto use his powers, going to have
(30:01):
to ditch this thing, this body,look for something else, and
that's when we're going to beable to strike.
And it's a good plan.
Is it though?
Cause I was kind of going backand forth on it because we've
seen like Jean again mentions, Ithink it's like earlier in this
issue, she has like kind of likean internal thought bubble
(30:23):
talking about how the more heuses his powers, the
SPEAKER_01 (30:27):
stronger he gets.
Well, I think part of that'sjust, you know, he doesn't have
experience using his powers.
Like this is him practicing andgetting used to it.
And yeah, becoming more and morecomfortable with it so that he's
able to do not just surroundsomebody in amber turn a bunch
of stuff into bees you know hecould start to do some really
(30:50):
wild stuff if he gets his youknow reps in that's a very
SPEAKER_02 (30:56):
fair point that I don't know that I considered it
in that way and I think thatmakes I mean it makes a lot more
sense I think in the context ofthis story to think of
SPEAKER_01 (31:05):
it and it's like one of the two like they they kind
of like bring up like two majorweaknesses of Proteus he don't
like metal metal no good and youknow he's burned through just
like a ton of husks of peopleand is just constantly murdering
to stay alive so you knowgetting him to accelerate they
(31:28):
drive him out of the city sothat there's nobody like around
for him to take and then justget him to burn through by
overindulging in his powers.
Yeah.
And I feel like they really usea lot of like hit and run kind
of tactics to just like chipaway at him.
SPEAKER_00 (31:47):
Yeah,
SPEAKER_02 (31:48):
100%.
It seems like every X-Men kindof takes their shot.
You know, we have even this likecool panel of Scott and Havoc on
either side of them and they'rejust like blasting them away
only for him to, I think, likedissipate.
basically and they hit eachother and talk again about like
(32:10):
how they can metabolize theenergy and we see like multiple
times Scott's like it's likeWolverine you gotta go it's it's
on you man it's that I got faithin you you gotta go deal with
this you're on your own we seeLogan profess his love for Jean
kind of he does he says leaveher alone I love oh I loved that
(32:32):
lady I didn't even recognize thepast tense it It's such a weird
thing to say.
Well, maybe he's mourned theidea that she died.
I mean, he's...
And he's now Yuriko.
He's got
SPEAKER_01 (32:43):
Mariko now, but...
Mariko, yeah.
It's just such a...
Like, it's a weird phrase to sayaloud, I guess, is what I'm
trying to get at.
Yeah, it is a little strange.
No one's around to hear him andcall him out on it, though, I
guess.
Like, what do you...
You loved her?
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (33:03):
Yeah, you could still love her, you know, as a
friend, as a sister, as family,whatever.
But I don't know.
It's whatever it is, what it is.
That's not how the Wolverinerolls.
No, he professes his feelingsaloud.
There's this really cool panelof Wolverine falling and Cyclops
trying to stop him with hisoptic blasts.
(33:24):
Super cool.
That's another funny one.
Super cool.
I think like the culmination ofPeter getting up there and you
mentioned this already is socool.
See, him just punch and justshatter him into you know a
million energy pieces and theyeven you know make mention that
they the punch sends him flyingto every corner of the world
(33:47):
really cool culmination and Idon't think this like capstones
Peter's story like the one thatwe've kind of been talking about
where he's like trying to findhis place on the team I hope
this is not the conclusion tothat because this to me still
doesn't feel Like that's what wewere building towards here.
Like to me, this was the X-Menworking together.
(34:08):
Peter, you know, steps in and isable to hit the final blow.
I
SPEAKER_01 (34:13):
don't think it's meant to be like the conclusion
to that.
I feel like they would have hadto set it up more with him
failing earlier or like, youknow, having that stumble of
like, I didn't succeed.
And then, you know, when hesteps up and delivers the
finishing blow, it would havethat greater impact.
(34:34):
But I think it's just like yousaid, kind of that more of a
teamwork thing that we're seeinghere.
Yeah, Scott, I'm looking
SPEAKER_02 (34:41):
at this panel right now towards the end of the book.
And Scott, you know, he'stalking about how metal is, you
know, his weakness.
And he says, quote, that's why Iwas counting on Colossus to
finish the job the rest of usstarted.
And it looks like he's done justthat.
So really, I think speaks to theteam effort and how it took
everything they had to stop him.
(35:01):
He also makes mention, I thinkit's earlier in this issue about
how Proteus is the type ofthreat that the X-Men were
created to stop and I thoughtthat was such a like such a
important line I think to reallyraise the stakes of what they
were looking at and I don't knowthat they've ever really
(35:21):
positioned any of the threatsthat we've seen so far in that
way
SPEAKER_01 (35:25):
maybe Magneto I mean his his like intro is you know
the whole trying to take overthe air base or the army base or
whatever it is and grab missilesand stuff back in I assume
that's I think that's the firstissue of X-Men but either way
like I think that's a reallygood call out and I think it's a
fun connection back to that likeflashback issue we had with
(35:48):
Xavier where Amalfarook was likethe first evil mutant that he
had ever encountered which thenyou know led to him being like
oh you know we need something inplace there's gonna be more
mutant threats that some Someonehas to stop.
Yeah, that's a that's
SPEAKER_02 (36:06):
a great connector.
And I honestly didn't even likeput those two things together.
But yeah, it ties in beautifullyto like the overall story that
we've been having.
And I'm very satisfied with theending.
SPEAKER_01 (36:18):
One thing that I wanted to make sure we called
out, I think there's a nicemoment in this book, like a
Scott and the Jean moment.
And like these four issues areso hectic that even though
They've reunited.
They haven't had any time tounpack anything.
Like, you know, Scott wakes herup.
(36:40):
She's like, oh, Jason, it's you.
And he's like, uh...
You know, what, who's Jason?
But at the same time, he's alsolike, oh yeah, I've got to get
Colleen's key off my key ringreal fast or, you know, whatever
his thought process might be.
There's just like a really nicemoment after Jean is hurt and
(37:02):
he's thinking, that scream,Jean's down, hurt.
No, I can't think about her now.
I don't dare or I'll crack wideopen.
I have to focus on the job athand, nothing else.
And I think it's nice to see youknow it's been unclear about
what is going on with Scottwhere he's not grieving the loss
(37:24):
of Jean and I think what we'refinally getting to see is he you
know walled himself out fromthat and didn't want to
experience any of that grief andhis brain is just pretending
like oh maybe I didn't love Jeanand now we're kind of seeing
even if it's not like a romantictype connection at the very
(37:46):
least We're back toacknowledging he's very close to
this person and has been for anumber of years now.
Like they've essentially grownup together after a certain
point in their life.
And it's good to see, you know,we're back to him caring instead
of just being like, I don't feelsad.
Yeah, I almost feel like
SPEAKER_02 (38:08):
having some sort of breather after this story would
be beneficial.
Yeah.
(38:41):
Just like a conversation of, oh,my God, you're alive.
Yes.
Oh, my God, you're alive.
And here, you know, we can havethis conversation about our
feelings that have beenunresolved over the past several
months while they've beencontending with their own
problems separate of oneanother.
I don't know that we're going toget that, but I think it would
(39:03):
be very beneficial if we do.
SPEAKER_01 (39:05):
Yeah, they're definitely going to need a game
of baseball to work this out.
SPEAKER_02 (39:11):
Well, maybe when Charles returns.
Play ball.
Then the whole gang will be backtogether and he could be the
referee or whatever the heck hewas doing.
SPEAKER_01 (39:18):
So we already kind of, you know, gave our little.
Well, I think maybe only you.
I don't remember if I gave itscore at the beginning.
This, you know, episoderecording has been lasting a
long time, so I can't rememberthat far back.
I have the memory of a bird.
But, you know, overall thoughts.
Very good.
I think best contained storywe've read so far.
(39:39):
It doesn't.
all prey to over relying on tonsof pros or like whatever it is
you know the non-dialogue yeahthere's only that one section
and that last issue but it waskind of an interesting recap and
providing some tidbits on stuffwe didn't know so gets past main
(39:59):
focus is the Proteus story butwe're still you know kind of
have those little threads of youknow we're dragging things along
of like oh what's going onwhat's happening with this Jason
character and gene in thosefirst couple issues.
I believe you had said 9.
When I have written down, I put8.5 or 9 out of 10, I think, for
(40:21):
me.
Probably a 9.
I think this is about
SPEAKER_02 (40:24):
probably as perfect as you can get.
I don't think I could ever giveanything a 10 out of 10, but I
think Chris and the rest of thecreative team, and again,
massive shout out to, I think,John for his, you know, the way
he kind of really depictedProteus in this book and his
(40:45):
powers which I think again likeon paper could have been very
challenging to imagine likereality warping in general but
to kind of come up with thisconcept of a character that
doesn't have a physical form andhow do you make that character
stand out when they areinhabiting the bodies of other
(41:06):
people so they don't just looklike Mary Sue like Ren Yeah, I
think it would have been, Ithink the art and the coloring
by Bob and John and everybodyelse that was like involved in
this specific story, like reallybrought this to life and I think
(41:28):
made Proteus into the top tiervillain that he was.
And I think they all deservelike immense credit for this
story.
It's really stands out to me, Ithink, as the best one.
And I say that as somebody whoreally stand Magneto and that
whole arc, if we want to call itmuch of an arc, um, the Magneto
(41:53):
Chronicles this to me when youthink about the hype around
Chris and this is one of thosestories that really I think
stands out as an incredible highpoint and one that if I were to
point somebody to as a as one tokind of absorb in a bubble I
(42:14):
would point them to this becauseit's very well contained it's
very entertaining and it's veryvery visually appealing while
carrying these very mature tonesthat might not necessarily
always be at the forefront ofcomic books.
and especially in comic books atthis point in time.
(42:37):
So I stick with my 9 out of 10.
I really, really enjoyed it, andI imagine most probably do.
SPEAKER_01 (42:46):
That does it for this episode of Uncanny Book
Club.
Thanks for listening, and wehope to see you next episode,
where we'll discuss issues 129to 131.
Bye, everyone.
Read comics.
Thanks for tuning in to thisepisode of Uncanny Book Club.
you enjoyed this podcast don'tforget to subscribe leave a
review or share with a friend
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