June 25, 2025 • 52 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 6 we take a break from the action and enjoy a bit of downtime with our favorite mutants in issues #109 - 111. But even on their off days, the X-Men get into plenty of trouble as we see with James Hudson’s attempt to kidnap Wolverine and Warhawk’s infiltration of the X-Mansion. Jean Grey officially rejoins the X-Men and we get a special issue where we follow ex-X-Man (that’s a mouthful) Beast as he explores a circus in search of the team, who have gone missing.
Have feedback or questions for the show? Email uncannybookclub@gmail.com.
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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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:09):
Hello everyone and welcome to Uncanny Book Club.
I am Isaac Baderfield andjoining me today is my co-host
Adam Ward.
Hey, can you believe we're onepisode six?
I can't.
It's all been a blur.
By the end of this, because I'vebeen reading these through the
good volumes, and so by the endof today, I will have
(00:31):
transitioned into volume three.
Very exciting.
And the cover for volume three,I have to say, is so good.
I mean, so is Volume 2 if you'venot seen them.
The Masterworks collection forUncanny X-Men, so good.
It's been a bit since I've seenthem, but I'll have to go back
and look.
In this podcast, we areexploring Chris Claremont's
(00:51):
legendary X-Men run as we readit for the very first time.
We hope you'll join us and readalongside or just stick around
for the discussion.
In our previous episode, we sawthe Landra teleport to Professor
X for help, The X-Men fell andbattled a Fire Lord, but a much
more even matchup then happenedbetween himself and the Phoenix.
(01:12):
Eric the Red ended up kidnappingLilandra, but the X-Men pursued
them through the Stargate.
A flashback issue that neitherof us were a huge fan of then
occurred and explained the causeof Xavier's malady and provided
a look back at the X-Men shortlyfollowing Thunderbird's death
and Moira's entrance.
We then jumped back to thepresent where we saw a fight
(01:35):
between the X-Men and theImperial Guard of the Shi'ar.
The Starjammers ended up comingto their aid, but they were too
late, and Emperor Dakinsucceeded in powering the Makran
Crystal.
Eventually, they were alltransported inside the crystal
and were shown their greatestnightmares.
Phoenix was able to break freeand stop the Neutron Galaxy from
(01:56):
being released, and this endedup saving the universe and
reality itself.
The Landra then join the X-Menon their journey home while she
is temporarily in exile.
In this episode, we'll bepicking things up right where we
left off with issues 109 through111.
Issue 109 begins with theirreturn home to the mansion.
(02:18):
We get a lot of small moments ofthe X-Men in this issue.
Storm visiting her plants,Banshee and Moira, a brief look
at the aftermath of the fight atthe Crystal and what it means
for Lalandra, Nightcrawlersetting up a date for himself,
Colossus attempting to writehome, Cyclops brooding, Jean
filling in her parents on a lot.
(02:40):
We also see an interlude ofsomeone who's achieved a target
lock on Weapon X.
Banshee, Moira, Colossus, andStorm go out for a picnic, and
Wolverine hitches a ride to dosome non-lethal hunting.
We get another interlude and nowsee a team of Canadian agents
closing in on their target.
While hunting, Wolverine issurprised by James Hudson, aka
(03:03):
Weapon Alpha.
The Canadian government wantsWolverine back, and he's been
sent to grab him.
The two fight, but theirconflict soon involves the
picnic goers.
Hudson's energy blast ends upricocheting off Colossus and
hitting Moira.
Banshee goes berserk, and theissue ends with Hudson narrowly
escaping the X-Men.
(03:23):
So I thought that this was aninteresting issue, just because
we're really coming from...
Really high stakes, really bigconflict, something that we led
up to for a really long time.
And one thing that I'm reallyglad to see is that they knew
this is really a point in thestory where it makes a lot of
sense to kind of do more of alull, wind things down, have
(03:46):
some of those slow moments,return to a few things that are
a little bit more low stakes.
I agree 100%.
you saying that we're comingfrom this large showdown that
we've been building through andoff the top I mentioned that
we're if you're reading thisthrough the volumes like I am
you're nearing the end of thesecond volume which really feels
(04:09):
like obviously the close of achapter right so We had this big
showdown.
Here we have what I think reallycould have probably been two
separate issues.
We had what really felt like twodifferent things happened in
this book, right?
Like we had these very personalmoments, as you mentioned.
Very quickly, I just want tomention Storm's pad is like
super cozy.
(04:29):
Would love all those plants andjust her being up in that space.
It's a cool room.
Super cool.
She has like the, I think shehas like a bunch of skylights.
Skylights, yeah.
I was going to say sunlights,and I was like, no, that's what
comes through.
That's what comes through thosewindows.
Very awesome room.
We also see a glimpse ofNightcrawler's room, which is
(04:53):
littered with movie posters.
And he's got the bars on hisceiling for, like, doing
acrobatic tricks and stuff.
I never even noticed that untiljust now.
That would explain how he'shanging upside down.
I didn't even, like, put two andtwo together.
Although he jumps into...
Peter's room.
(05:13):
And he's also hanging off theceiling.
So I guess this would explainwhy I never really thought too
much about how he keeps doingit.
Maybe there's a ceiling fan.
Maybe.
Peter's room compared to theother two is looking a little
bit more Spartan.
He's got a bed.
He's got a desk.
He's crumpled up a lot of noteson his dresser.
(05:33):
He's got like a hammer and asickle to let us know that he's
Russian.
It's I think very telling ofPeter's character, right?
Like he comes from a foreignbackground with probably very
little compared to some of theothers who have these very
eccentric personalities.
I mean, as you can see, that'sreflected in the rooms.
(05:55):
Just a really cool look behindthe curtain of like their
personal lives, which we haven'treally been able to see too, too
much because as we'veencountered most of the time
that the team has, had a chanceto take a breath and relax, that
vacation just gets squashed bysome, you know, villain who's
trying to stomp on theirrelaxing time.
Which is something that doeshappen in this issue to a
(06:17):
certain extent.
A hundred percent.
Before we kind of get to someother aspects of this book,
Moira, right off the top,forbids Nightcrawler from using
his powers.
At a school...
for mutant children.
Well, I guess they're not reallychildren anymore, but for
mutants who have been rejectedfrom society, and here she is
(06:39):
blatantly telling him to not usehis powers in the house.
And then a few panels later,when we see him in his room, he
uses his powers to get toPeter's room anyways, which I
absolutely love.
But it just seems so ludicrousto be telling him to not use his
powers, which aren't harmful toanybody.
To a certain extent, I can seewhere she's coming from.
(07:00):
If she's the very underemployedhousekeeper, she's having to
clean up after these people.
Apparently, when he bamfs,there's a lot of brimstone
smell.
Does it stick to stuff, or doesit go away?
We don't know.
Maybe she's had to do a lot ofcleaning up.
Yeah, that's very fair.
Or she's just being very cross.
(07:23):
You're bringing a lot ofperspective here to the table.
I just thought...
that she should have somemindfulness in understanding
that perhaps telling a mutantwho has these abilities not to
use them can be a bit offensive,right?
It does seem rude.
It does seem a little rude.
Although she does love CharlesXavier, or used to, as we see in
(07:45):
this book.
She is very much in herrelationship with Sean Cassidy.
Good for him.
She's very happy to see himreturn.
And yeah, good for them.
We also see some other coupledrama unfolding with Jean Grey
and Scott kind of having duelingthoughts.
You know, Jean is very obviouslydealing with a lot right now,
(08:06):
and we see that theme carry overthe next couple of issues.
But Scott, I think, needs tohave some, as you said, he's
brooding, but he should reallyhave some perspective that she
is dealing with a lot, right?
Like, she died, came back tolife, prevented an intergalactic
war from spilling over, stoppeda universe-ending plot by an
(08:31):
alien race, came to therealization that her greatest
fear was death, which she hasnow overcome, and she is trying
to balance these new powers asPhoenix, which she has no
understanding of, is luredtowards escalating how much of
that power she uses, and is veryclearly being tempted to give in
(08:52):
further to Phoenix.
Right.
Like we kind of see that playingout over these last couple of
issues.
So there's a lot happening inthe world of Jean Grey.
And in this issue, we see a veryawkwardly Scott sitting in like
this armchair with his fingers.
What is that called?
Arched.
It's like tapping his fingers,basically.
He looks like he's plotting asas he awkwardly watches Jean
(09:16):
Grey come out to her parents asthe phoenix through a window,
through a window.
With Nightcrawler peering frombehind him.
I feel really bad for Jean inthis.
It led me to question whetherher parents knew she was a
mutant at all.
I'm assuming no.
That was the gist of what I kindof took away from that as well.
(09:38):
Not only this specificrevelation that she has these
powers, she can turn intoPhoenix, look at her go.
And really cool too, we see thatfire Phoenix popping out of the
panel again, which is just...
such a great detail tocontinuously see as we progress
through these different issuesthe moral of the story here kids
(09:58):
so I'm going to get very seriouswith some relationship advice
talk to your partner it'll solvea lot of problems and Scott
should really give Gene a chanceto process what's happening but
also communicate what's going onin his mind which is basically
why are we not talking yeah Iwas going to do like an in
(10:21):
Scott's defense sort of deal butI think I think the way you came
around to it at the end therehas really concluded things
Scott really wants to talkthings out with Jean and figure
things out there's some issuesof just not feeling close
between them personally he'sworried about the whole Phoenix
thing and thinks that she needsto talk about it and you know
(10:43):
maybe she does and she justneeds to process first but
essentially what they do need todo is get on the same page and
check in and be like hey I thinkyou need to talk about this
sounds great I'll do that soon Ineed to process this it's
literally been like two hourssince we got back from the
Stargate that is a very actuallyvery fair point Don't get me
(11:08):
wrong here.
I'm not saying that Scott isinvalid in how he's feeling in
this moment.
Because he's obviously veryconcerned.
He loves Jean, as we've seen,right?
Like, he's made that very clearthat he is blinded by love when
it comes to Jean.
And he's worried.
And I get that.
And I think anybody who's beenin a relationship before can
(11:29):
relate to that feeling ofwatching somebody that you care
about struggle.
And that's what is happeningwith Jean.
And at the same time, Gene needsto be able to tell Scott, you
got to chill out, man.
Give me a moment to thinkbecause everything has just been
back to back to back to back toback.
We do see by the end of thesethree issues, a bit of growth
(11:50):
from Gene.
SPEAKER_01 (11:50):
And
SPEAKER_00 (11:52):
going back to just the situation with Nightcrawler
lurking behind the broodingCyclops, I really like the
conversation that they have alot.
I agree.
I think that's probably one ofthe best little personal moments
that we've had so far just inthe entirety of what we've read.
Kurt really puts them in hisplace.
(12:13):
Scott is obviously feeling verysorry for himself and is a
little bit rude to Nightcrawlerat first saying life isn't all
swashbuckling adventures andcircus stunts.
And Nightcrawler has to be like,oh, you're right.
You've got it so hard having towear sunglasses all the time.
Meanwhile, I'm blue.
Yeah, and has been since he'sbeen born.
(12:36):
which is, I think, more evenfurther to the point, right?
I'm looking at the panel rightnow and he says, we are what we
are.
Wishing won't change a blessedthing, nor will feeling sorry
for yourself.
And I learned very early on thatI must either accept what I am
or go mad.
And though I am now occasionallycrazy, I am not insane.
(12:56):
I like that a lot.
Now that I am occasionallycrazy, I am not insane.
That's very good and veryaccurate to the character.
Yeah, his final piece of advicehere is if you keep tearing your
guts apart every time you thinkthe world's shafted you, my
friend, you'll destroy not onlyyourself, but those who love
you.
It's very good advice.
(13:17):
And I think a great realitycheck for Scott.
And I think he leaves kind of,you know, it seems like he
learns his lesson.
He is no longer frowning.
He's got a smile on his face.
He tells Sean, I'm not going togo to the picnic.
Have a great time.
You know, Kurt's given me a lotto think about.
So I think he's in a gooddirection, though.
I think he has provided Scottwith helpful advice, whereas
(13:42):
we've seen some other people inScott's life, like Xavier, just
basically tell him to get overit and move on, rather than
acknowledging that he'scontending with some problems,
but he needs to, you know, youcan't change what you can't
change.
And you can't change yourimmune.
At least right now, anyways.
That will change in the future.
(14:03):
Speaking of Scott, before wemove on, his dad is a straight
deadbeat man.
For sure.
We see this interaction verybriefly between Corsair and Jean
back in space where he basicallypleads with Phoenix to take care
of Scott.
And that is for the best that hedoesn't get involved.
(14:23):
Probably feeds into the rest ofScott's problems.
The final note I made before wekind of transition into this
very different story that takesplace in this issue is this
double date that Kurt is tryingto basically set up for him and
Peter.
And the best part is becausewe've talked about it a couple
of times in the last couple ofepisodes, these subtle nods to
(14:46):
Star Wars.
Well, folks, we finally got it.
Star Wars written out in text inthe book.
That's what they wanted to gosee at the theater.
The Death Star is literally athing that is canon in the book.
And now we have Star Wars withthe Death Star now officially a
movie taking place within ourstory.
(15:06):
Multiple Death Stars in thebooks so far.
Multiple Death Stars.
Yeah, multiple Death Stars.
And before, as I said, beforeStar Wars was officially out in
theaters.
So fun little nod to the time ofwhen this book was written.
What do you think of the firsthalf of this book?
Because we have all these verystory-based progressions
(15:29):
happening with the characters.
There's a lot to unpack in termsof what's happening in their
personal lives.
I really liked all the littlepersonal moments.
I feel like we have been missingsome of that for the last few
issues.
We've had a lot of actionbetween, you know, the whole
Black Tom and Juggernaut thing.
(15:49):
And then they get back andimmediately are fighting Eric
the Red.
And then immediately Fire Lordkicks their asses a little bit.
And then they're back in space.
They're on a different planet,blah, blah, blah.
There really hasn't been timefor anything special.
like that.
And I think it's a really goodway to reestablish and look at,
(16:11):
you know, how do all of thesecharacters relate to each other?
Kurt and Peter are obviouslyvery good friends.
I think the series has kind ofset up Nightcrawler as being
someone who gives good advice toScott and kind of reminds him to
not be so glum all the time.
(16:32):
Wolverine is a bit of a loner.
That's kind of re-established aswell.
Yeah, that is true.
It was a lot of fun moments, Iguess I would say.
I agree 100% with everything youjust said.
What we've kind of seen play outis this non-stop action
rollercoaster that there's nobreath that's taking place to
(16:54):
establish the relationships thatare being built.
And I found myself at times...
through these last couple ofissues, really, wondering how
close everybody is in theirinteractions because the way
that it comes off at times isvery playful.
The way that they talk to eachother, they talk like how
(17:15):
friends would talk.
I can't imagine Jean Grey wouldlet anybody who is not a friend
call her Jeannie.
So seeing those sorts ofinteractions, I've been wanting
something like this to kind ofjust show how the team has grown
because we haven't really seenit too much, aside from their
combat skills, which we reallysaw play out in the last couple
of issues.
(17:36):
The second part of this book, wesee the other parts of the team,
those who didn't go on dates orwere brooding around the X-Men
mansion.
They went instead to a picnic ofsorts, like a day at the...
stream at the swimming hole atthe old swimming hole and
wolverine hilariously asks tocome along only to basically
(17:59):
hitch a ride to go hunting butnot real hunting because store
makes a big fuss about killinganimals for sport and not for
food to which wolverinebasically tells her i didn't say
i was killing anything killing'seasy so it was fun seeing him
come out and be like hey likei'm not the killer everybody
thinks i am here okay like i'mjust going to test myself but he
(18:22):
hilariously is doing it in hisfull x-men outfit which does not
blend into the terrain at allwhich might be the point right
like that might be the point itmakes it all the more impressive
when he's able to sneak up onthe deer yeah and almost touch
the deer which was his goal butis very much interrupted by
(18:43):
weapon alpha who has comecalling on behalf of the
government to basically say, OK,Logan, your time's up, man.
You got to come back now.
And I mentioned a few episodesago how I thought it was odd
that the Canadian government inthat first interaction, like
following that initial missionthat he had with Xavier, didn't
(19:04):
just it just seemed like Xavierjust kind of took ownership of
him.
The X-Men now own you,Wolverine.
You are now a member of my team.
This is what's happened.
And there was just kind of ageneral acceptance.
I had asked the question, isn'the supposed to go back?
He was like on loan to theX-Men.
And here we have...
He quit.
He cut the guy's tie off.
(19:25):
Yeah, no, no, I know.
He calls that out in this bookas well.
Initially, this was my thought,that he didn't quit quit.
Well, he didn't put in his twoweeks.
He just sort of left.
He cut off the tie.
What other way is there to...
That's how you quit.
In the Canadian government,that's how you do it.
Just dip that tie right into hiscoffee after you cut it off.
(19:46):
Say, I'm done.
I'm outie.
I'm going with the strange man.
And you will forget about it.
Only he did not.
And here we have Weapon Alphacoming after him.
Yeah, I'm glad that we'vereturned to this conflict.
Wolverine's exit was obviouslyvery tense.
And...
it makes sense that somethingwould eventually come of it.
(20:10):
So I'm glad that we're loopingaround and not just leaving this
as a thread that's dangling.
It certainly gave me morequestions than answers, and I
feel like we're at a point rightnow where that's the kind of
thing we want, right?
We saw Chris kind of weave inthese little story threads
through several issues, right?
At times it was a little toomuch, but getting that little
(20:32):
taste of something that's tocome We see James Hudson leave,
basically, after gettingconfronted by all of the X-Men
to essentially say, OK, well,I'm going to be back and next
time I'm going to have AlphaFlight with me.
So we know that there's going tobe this confrontation in the
future.
It's going to happen.
And that leaves, obviously, usas readers saying, well, what is
(20:54):
Alpha Flight and when are wegoing to see them?
So I think a really fun teased.
A lot of great interaction evenbetween Logan and James and this
working relationship that thetwo of them clearly have history
of.
So that was really fun to seethat play out.
Old co-workers butting headsessentially and both of their
(21:15):
powers aren't really enough toone-up each other.
All in all, I thought the bookwas solid.
I thought it was like a reallygood issue coming out of what we
just had.
Agreed.
I think it's exactly what theseries needed at this point.
And I'm glad that we're, likeyou said, establishing, hey,
(21:36):
these things are coming up.
There's going to be this biggerconflict that's yet to come.
So stepping into the next issue,we still see that playing out a
little bit with like theselittle personal stories.
So why don't you hit us up withwhat happens in issue 110?
Issue 110 starts with a baseballgame to send off Moira as it is
(21:58):
her last day in New York.
Wolverine and Colossus continuethe trend of having little
moments that walk a fine linebetween tense and amusing.
Moira lets someone into themansion who she assumes is the
phone company, but themysterious intruder ends up
shooting Moira with some kind oftranquilizer dart.
(22:18):
We learn that his identity isWarhawk, and there is someone
pulling his strings.
He starts messing with thecomputer for the danger room,
which the X-Men then enter fortheir training session.
Gene and Professor X areattacked and stunned by Warhawk,
but not before Gene can get awarning to Scott.
(22:38):
The X-Men try to escape, but thedanger room traps them inside
and begins a lethal assault onthem.
Nightcrawler ends up teleportingWolverine to the power terminal,
but the two arrive unconsciousdue to the strain of teleporting
someone with a lot more massthan Lalandra had.
Wolverine is eventually able tostir himself and destroys the
(23:01):
computer with his claws.
Warhawk attacks him, and the twobegin to battle, but when the
rest of the X-Men arrive, he'squickly apprehended, and the
police take him away.
Jean is very bothered about howeasily she was defeated, and
decides at the end of the issuethat she will officially rejoin
the X-Men.
There's that personal growth Iwas talking about, coming back
(23:23):
to the X-Men after coming to theconclusion that she needs to
have better control of herpowers.
It's I thought it was reallygreat to see after the issue we
just had where she is stilltrying to process everything
that she's processing.
Yeah, this was, I think, a goodstep in the right direction.
You know, Jean has been hoveringaround for a while now, so it
(23:43):
did feel odd that she wasn't anofficial member of the team in
training just because she'sended up suited up as Phoenix
quite a lot over the lastseveral issues.
So I'm glad to see her makingher return.
She's definitely been, I thinkeven predating that, has been a
massive focal point of thebooks, whether that's her going
(24:06):
off to live her life not as anX-Men or being quickly drawn
back into the conflict of beingpart of the X-Men.
So I think seeing this growthfrom her and this
acknowledgement that she's bothafraid of her powers and very
confused by them now, And we seeher come to this conclusion that
(24:26):
because she didn't have totalcontrol over them, she feels
like she wasn't able to take onWarhawk in a way that she feels
like she should have been ableto do.
Yeah, and don't they give him adiss like he's a second-rate
Colossus?
Well, I mean, he very much lookslike a second-rate Colossus,
let's be real.
The character design is, like,if you blinked very quickly, you
(24:50):
would say, hey, there's Colossusthere standing in a You know
it's not him because he'swearing pants.
Yeah, Peter would never do that.
No, Peter definitely would notwear full pants like that.
He also has a skull on his beltbuckle, continuing the thread of
bizarre clothing choices thatwe've seen play out across a
couple different issues.
(25:12):
A few cool observations in someof these panels.
We see Jean Grey pushing Xavierin his wheelchair, which...
Shouldn't he just be able to dothat himself?
Is that what's happening?
I did not understand what wasoccurring and why is Jean having
these weird energy things comingout of her head and they seem to
(25:33):
be directed to the professor.
I never noticed that he wasn'tbeing pushed by anyone.
Well, it's because normally whenwe see Charles Xavier, he's just
moving around.
Yeah, he's always got a muchmore fancy chair.
For those who are unfamiliarwith the panels we're talking
about, there's this kind of likepinkish, pink and white sort of
(25:56):
wavy, groovy beam, I guess isprobably the best way.
It's essentially like a mindbeam that is coming from Jean's
chin and neck for some reason.
But I'm assuming that's whatshe's doing.
Also, feels bad for Colossusthat Moira makes a point of
being shocked to see this man'sface.
(26:18):
who we later learn is Warhawk.
And she specifically thinksabout how this poor man needs
plastic surgery or had plasticsurgery done recently and is
shocked to see his face.
And yet he looks almostidentical to Colossus.
So it feels bad for Peter.
Well, Colossus can turn it off,though.
(26:39):
I mean, still, though.
She would have seen what helooks like with his metal form.
Even without his metal form, helooks the exact same, just not
metal.
Moira is just judgy, I guess.
I have a question for you as anon-American.
We see them playing baseball,and baseball is America's
pastime, or so pop culture willhave you to believe.
(27:02):
Can confirm.
Okay, so with that in mind, didyou question that Moira's
send-off to go back home was abaseball game?
I mean...
It's not the send-off that Iwould want, but I hate baseball.
I think it makes sense to acertain extent.
I don't know why, but I havesome kind of recollection of the
(27:25):
X-Men playing baseball sometimeelse.
I know in X-Men 97 they playbasketball.
Maybe that would have been abetter choice.
I don't know.
I don't think basketball wouldbe any better.
It's more fun.
for a send-off party?
Look, obviously they should bedoing some sort of barbecue
(27:46):
situation, or they're in NewYork, maybe they should be
getting some really crazy pizzaand bagels situation going on.
That would be my kind ofsend-off.
That's what I would enjoy.
I will say, I really did enjoythe confrontation between Peter
and Logan, and there's a veryfunny scene where Peter is
(28:07):
rushing to...
get to the first base, I thinkit was.
And Jean had to use her mentalpowers to catch the baseball
because Peter was hitting it sohard it was going towards
airplanes.
And so Logan is telling her, youneed to throw me the ball, I
gotta tap him to get him out.
And Logan has his claws out inthe catcher's mitt.
(28:28):
And then in response to that,Peter just puts on his metal
skin and they just crash intoeach other.
He hilariously just sits on topof him to pin him down.
I think honestly, like, becausewe see in the future how Peter
and Logan are very close.
To me, this is them buildingtheir friendship is like this
(28:48):
playful sort of butting of headsand challenging of each other.
Yeah, Colossus really doesn'ttake the shit that Logan dishes
out, I suppose is how I wouldphrase it.
He's not one to be intimidatedby it or...
He just sort of loops it aroundback to him and will do things
like throw him over a castle orcrash into him at a baseball
(29:11):
game.
Well, we even see him deliver afastball special in this issue
where he throws Logan up toessentially cut loose.
Yeah, he gets tossed up to cutloose Storm and Nightcrawler who
are, while fighting in thedanger room, are trapped inside
of a steel net.
(29:32):
And so he gets Colossus to throwhim up there to try to cut them
loose.
And then he hilariously falls ontop of Scott on his way down.
He doesn't fall on him.
He pushes him out of the waybecause he's about to get hit by
I think it's like a laser.
Oh, I'm not really sure.
But yeah, like he comments like,oh, I could just let Scott take
this and then Gene would bemine.
(29:53):
But that's not how the Wolverinedoes things.
And then he pushes them out ofthe way and saves them.
Yeah, they're like razors.
They look like giant blades ofsome kind.
He says, razor wings heading forpsych, and he ain't spotting
them.
If I just butt out presto, I gota clear track with Jeannie.
(30:16):
He invites her to play some nineball this issue, too.
And Scott's like, what's goingon with that?
Yeah, he's very funny.
Just like very oblivious.
Very out of character for Loganin the continuity of the story
that they are living, right?
It's out of character fromScott's perspective for him to
be asking Gene out, although weknow that there's this
(30:38):
established attraction, at leastfrom Logan.
Although I will say, like, Geneis quite flirtatious with Logan
in this issue.
I thought that you could kind ofsee there's this lingering
will-they-won't-they takingplace.
I thought that was fun, and itwas funny seeing Scott's
(30:59):
oblivious reaction of, wait,wait, what?
No, we're not.
You can't go on a date with her.
We're going to go practice inthe danger room, even though we
just came off of a very largemission to space and you just
fought a special agent from theCanadian government.
Got to keep up the practice.
Got to stay on your toes.
(31:19):
I will say it was really niceseeing Scott lead the team with
confidence for a change hereally took charge and we see
them very much established thatthe danger room has been overrun
they don't realize that it'swarhawk but they know
something's up right andbasically the safeguards get
(31:41):
removed so now the danger roomis even more dangerous and i
believe it's storm makes a pointof how the room or the program
is Mm-hmm.
(32:16):
She relaxes, she's not freakingout, and she's shortly
thereafter released from it.
But it was also just a nice kindof character growth piece that
we see from Storm.
So while this is all happening,that's when Nightcrawler comes
up with this idea that they canbamf out the room and try and
get a hold of the controls sothat everybody can get out.
(32:36):
What did you think of Warhawk inthis?
Obviously, as you mentioned,there's another Puppet Master
here.
We don't know yet.
is another theme of somebodybehind the somebody pulling the
strings.
We see Warhawk kind of just, Idon't know, he could have been
anybody in my opinion.
I think that this is a reallygood use of an underwhelming
(32:58):
character.
Warhawk really is kind of asecond rate, maybe third or
fourth rate villain.
He's not that interesting.
He's very, very easily defeated.
But I guess he's really alsoaccomplishing what he needs to
accomplish with whoever themastermind that's sending him to
settle this up.
Who it is isn't really thatimportant.
(33:20):
He's basically just a lackey.
And I think the real adversaryin this issue is more the Danger
Room than him.
And I think that was a reallygood way to make use of him just
because, you know, they do havea struggle with, But it's not
necessarily against him.
It's really mostly the dart gunthat puts him at an advantage
(33:46):
over the X-Men.
That and ultimately the elementof surprise.
I did find it very fun.
We see Wolverine make a mentionafter he becomes engaged in a
fight with Warhawk.
And Warhawk's power set, as wesee it, is essentially
second-rate Colossus.
Metal skin, impenetrable,strong.
(34:06):
That's it, pretty much.
But Logan makes a mention thathis movements are quite fast,
and it's reminiscent of aconflict that he had with Iron
Fist.
So then I was like, what?
When did this happen?
Iron Fist number 15.
So I went and looked it upbecause I was very curious as
to...
(34:27):
How that interaction came to be.
So very quickly, Danny Rand,who's the Iron Fist, he fights
off some hijackers.
As you can imagine, thatprobably wore him out.
So he is trying to find a placeto chill and decides to go see
Misty Knight.
Then realizes, oh, Misty's awayon a mission.
So her place is just empty.
(34:49):
So goes there.
And as we know, who else liveswith Misty Knight?
Jean Grey.
And so Gene in the story isthrowing like a housewarming
party of some sort.
And Wolverine is just standingoutside of the place.
I think probably he showed uptoo early.
He was too punctual.
And he sees Danny Rand climbingin through the window.
(35:09):
So he confronts him thinkinghe's a burglar and they have
like a fight.
Basically, it's what is thecontext of how it all happened.
I mentioned this all becauseit's fun continuity that's we're
seeing play out across severalbooks where Jean Grey is like
being very much established asthe roommate to Misty Knight and
(35:30):
we see that now playing out andhaving dividends and fun stories
in other books because how whenelse would you have probably
have seen Wolverine and DannyRand coming to blows that is
also a really good use ofWolverine for like a very minor
character cross comic situationbecause he is absolutely someone
(35:50):
that would be like, you can'tcrawl through that window.
I'm going to beat you up.
So all in all, you know, like wesee these callbacks and issues
like several times, but Ithought this was a fun one.
I try to always look them up andflag them for you and for the
listeners when they're connectedto our story or interesting.
(36:12):
This is one of them.
So there you go.
Some fun facts about Danny Randand Logan.
So I don't have a whole lot tosay about the issue necessarily.
Just that, you know, it was fun.
Nice to see some more teambonding during their downtime.
Another conflict that's a littlebit more low stakes.
The one thing I have is thatit's interesting to see Moira
(36:34):
making her exit.
And I assume it's becauseProfessor X no longer has the...
nightmares mind malady thinggoing on you know he's back to
100% what I'm curious about iswhat does this mean for her and
Banshee or you know wouldBanshee potentially think about
leaving the team to go with herback to Scotland I'm interested
(36:59):
to see where things go from hereI believe he makes a note like
Sean Cassidy does that he lovesMoira it may have even been like
the narration That Sean lovesMoira, Moira loves Sean, and he
is thinking about potentiallysettling down.
He is older than the rest of theteam.
(37:20):
Ancient.
Ancient by the comparablestandards, yeah.
We get a fun closing remark fromCharles Xavier, who basically
says powerful forces arebeginning to surround the X-Men.
I felt like this was kind oflike a great tease that There's
something on the horizon.
We now have a man in the chairthat we don't know who it is.
(37:42):
Or a woman.
But we have somebody in thechair watching the X-Men again.
And honestly, for me, myfavorite part of this whole book
was seeing Jean come to theconclusion that she has to
rejoin the X-Men.
I think it really adds to herstory.
And the last couple of issues,you start to feel this flow,
right?
They were heading into Jeantime.
(38:03):
We had a lot of storm time.
And the last couple of bookshave been us telling the story
about Jean Grey.
And now she's officially back.
So I'm very happy to see that.
Curious to see where it goes.
I mean, we know that thisPhoenix situation is still
unfolding.
So I guess we'll see how thatplays out.
The only thing I wanted to knowto you, just as like a funny
thing, Lalandra was completelymissing from one ton.
(38:26):
Where is she?
She's like, f*** baseball.
I'm staying inside.
What is this human sport?
Issue 111 starts in anunexpected way with us following
around Hank McCoy, aka Beast,former X-Man and now Avenger,
who is investigating a circusthat appears to be starring the
(38:48):
X-Men?
We learn that Lorna called himback when Havok was kidnapped
and wasn't able to get an answerfrom the X-Men.
Hank visited the mansion, foundit deserted, though he does find
a postcard from Professor X andLilandra who appear to be on
another vacation.
While unsure about the otherX-Men he saw, Beast is sure that
(39:09):
he recognizes Jean Grey andfollows the performer to her
trailer.
Jean, going by Ms.
Destiny, calls for help from aSlim Summers to kick him out.
Beast eventually loses histrench coat, and the entire
circus begins attempting tocapture him.
He's eventually apprehended infront of Wolverine, who is all
(39:30):
chained up.
Beast is then brought beforeMesmero, who has put the mental
whammy on the X-Men, and hebegins to attempt to enthrall
Beast as well.
Wolverine is able to mentallyand physically slip free, and he
breaks Mesmero's hold on Jean aswell.
Beast slips the grasp of theguards holding him, but before
(39:51):
he can strike Mesmero, he'staken down from behind, much to
the surprise of Mesmero, who isshocked at the arrival of a
mystery figure.
The X-Men, now all free, fighttheir way to Mesmero's tent to
try and rescue Beast, but theyare surprised to instead be
greeted by Magneto, who islooking to end the X-Men once
(40:12):
and for all.
The next issue is teased withthe title Magneto Triumphant.
So, what really sticks out, andI'm curious about your overall
thoughts about this issue, but Ithink the thing that really
sticks out is it's a really bigdeparture from what we've done
so far, going with this 90% justfollowing Beast around the whole
(40:33):
time.
Beast is sort of randomlybrought back into the mix for
this one issue.
I thought it was a fun littlechange-up, and I'm very
interested in what you thoughtabout it.
Okay, I want to preface this bysaying this issue has two
redeeming qualities.
(40:53):
First is we see Beast roamingaround like he's Dick Tracy.
I thought that was kind of fun.
I think it could have been alittle bit better.
Like I wish it was a little bitmore detective-y other than
Beast showing up and questioningwhether the very obvious X-Men
are the X-Men.
Yeah.
Is that Nightcrawler?
I don't know.
He's wearing the same outfit.
(41:15):
And who else is made of metal?
Yeah.
That outfit, by the way.
I'm looking at it right now.
We see the X-Men, with theexception of Nightcrawler, all
in different outfits than theynormally wear.
Although, poor Logan isstripped, basically, in a very
tattered singlet.
But we see most of the rest ofthe team in new outfits,
(41:37):
including Jean and Storm.
The best outfit by far has to beColossus, man.
Yeah, he looks good.
That outfit kicks.
It is so good.
He's wearing what is essentiallylike a gold neck piece that
surrounds him and has like agold loincloth, basically.
Yeah, he's got a whole goldensteel thing going on.
(41:59):
He's like very impressivelyholding like a one-ton barbell
above his head while holding inhis other hand another one-ton
weight.
Well, it's two one-tons on thebarbell, so he's got three tons
total.
I like this idea of like Beastkind of like trying to figure
out what happened and piecing ittogether.
I just feel like the mystery, Ithink, could have been a little
(42:22):
bit better.
The clues are a little obvious.
Like too obvious.
That to me, it just, Was like,yeah, no, duh.
Like, obviously.
Like, you're staring at JeanGrey and you're being like, is
this Jean Grey?
I don't know, man.
I can't tell.
Is this Marvel girl?
It's like, I don't know.
I grew up with this person.
We used to hang out all the timeand fought crime.
(42:43):
Maybe?
Yeah.
I like that everybody is, like,repurposed into, look at these
incredible people.
And Scott is just renamed toSlim.
And he's just a random securityguard, essentially.
Also, as if like this trenchcoat is preventing people from
seeing Beast's face.
(43:03):
Isn't seeing a blue man likeenough to like question?
Well, it's probably nighttimebecause it's a circus.
So, you know, you've got the yougot the brim pulled down a
little bit.
So it casts some shadow.
I mean, he is also an Avenger.
Couldn't they have given himlike an image inducer like
Nightcrawler?
Maybe he doesn't want it,though.
Yeah, that's fair.
That's fair.
I think Beast likes who he is.
(43:24):
So there's that.
I like that.
Mesmero?
Eh.
I had never really heard of himprior to this issue.
His design is kind ofsnake-like.
He does have a big snake energy.
I think that must be part of it,too, because he's doing the eye
hypnosis thing.
I'm putting that together withmyself as well.
We see Wolverine smack not justScott, but repeatedly slaps Jean
(43:48):
Grey in order to wake her up.
She gets mad.
She gets real mad.
But it works.
It works.
It works.
It works really well.
And then really for me, the bigsaving grace of this, for some
reason, Magneto is also at thecircus.
I'm assuming he used Mesmero tobasically capture the X-Men, but
(44:12):
I'm very excited to see him faceoff with the X-Men again because
it was very exciting the firsttime.
I'm unclear about whether thisis Mesmero has a grudge and is
doing this of his own initiativeor if he was a tool that Magneto
used.
Because Magneto also could havejust been like, those are
(44:33):
obviously the X-Men and decidedto visit this circus.
Maybe he was on a road trip.
And on this road trip, he sees asign for a circus.
And he thinks for a moment,maybe, maybe I will find
something there.
And as he gets closer, he seesthe billboard outside its circus
that depicts all of the X-Men.
(44:54):
And he just solves it, unlikeBeast.
He's like, it's obviously theX-Men.
It is a really bizarre thing fora supervillain to do.
Like, I'm not going to kill you.
I'm going to put you in mycircus.
It's so random.
But I do wonder, is it a Magnetothing?
Because I could see it beinga...
(45:15):
You guys turned me into a babyfor years, kind of like getting
back at them, you know, just tohumiliate them and throw them in
the circus, essentially.
I hope we get an answer in thenext issue, because I also found
it to be quite odd that this isthe plan that Mesmero came up
with.
And maybe that's as big pictureas he can get.
(45:35):
Maybe his best thing here is,you know what, I'm going to use
my arch nemesis as nemesi.
I don't know what the plural ofnemesis is.
Maybe it's just nemesis.
He is my nemesis to essentiallyrun a freak show circus and make
money off of that.
And there's nothing they can doabout it.
I mean, it's a good gig.
It's quite evil if you thinkabout it.
(45:57):
And you can be a bad guy withoutwanting to kill people.
Maybe that's just the line hedoesn't want to cross.
Yeah, he's a bad guy withmorals, with a moral compass
that keeps him on track.
So in the first episode of theshow, we dunked on Beast a
little bit for how he looked.
I agree 100%.
Yeah, he's...
(46:45):
He definitely looks how Iimagine Beast looking,
especially on the page wherePeter punches Hank through a
curtain, I believe is what itis.
Is it a curtain or a wall?
Oh, it is a curtain.
It would be way cooler as awall.
I'm kind of questioning how iteven ripped like that.
Would it have just moved?
I think he's stepping on it, youknow, because he wants it to
(47:08):
look a little bit cool.
He's like, all right, I'm justgoing to put my foot here and
just rips through it.
In either case, on this page, Ithink you can really see Beast.
Like, I see Beast as I wouldimagine him looking, even to the
pointed teeth.
The pointed teeth help.
Oh, 100%.
Overall, I don't know, man.
(47:29):
This is a low point for me.
It's more of a setup issuethan...
It's really setup.
I wouldn't even say it's likebuilding toward something just
because it is just...
We're here and next issue, we'regoing to be here.
We're not having a ramp up.
I don't mind it.
Don't get me wrong.
(47:49):
I like the change of pace interms of the approach to the
story.
I think it just could have beenbetter.
I think we could have had moreof like the mystique of Where
are the X-Men?
Why is Hank at a carnival?
We could have had more of atease that drew out across this
issue of Hank actuallyinvestigating, and it looks like
(48:09):
he's investigating as opposed toshowing up and right off the bat
very obviously seeing the X-Men.
There's a lot of potential lefton the table.
From my critical lens, that's mycritique of it.
I think it just could have beenmore than what it was.
And I think that could have beena lot of fun.
And now I want a book that isjust Detective Hank McCoy.
(48:31):
That could be interesting.
That would be pretty cool,right?
As long as he's wearing thatoutfit.
Oh, I think he needs that trenchcoat.
It's very reminiscent of, andthis is going to date me quite a
bit, but if you've seen theoriginal Teenage Mutant Ninja
Turtles movie, the live actionone, Raphael.
The best one.
Raphael would wear almost theexact same outfit.
(48:54):
roaming around the streets ofNew York.
So that was the moment that Isaw it, and I thought, okay,
that's what it is.
It's Raphael.
All right, team up, buddy cop,detective, comic, Hank McCoy,
and Raphael.
Just throwing it out there.
I would read it.
They're a fun combo.
(49:15):
I mean, Hank would be used todealing with somebody like
Raphael.
I mean, at least modern-day Hankwould be.
I'm a little unfamiliar with whowould be on the Avengers at this
point.
I think overall, when I look atthese three issues, this is the
low point for me with the, withthe buildup being right.
Like the promise here is we'regoing to get a confrontation
(49:37):
with Magneto.
And for that reason alone, likewe're not being left with, okay,
well now we got to deal withMesmero for another issue.
And it's just veryuninteresting.
Nah, man, we're going right intoconfrontation with Magneto.
So for that reason, If I'mrating the three books together,
I'm going to give it a sevenbecause I think there was a lot
(49:58):
of growth amongst the team.
We had a lot of personalinteractions that were a lot of
fun.
We had some decent action setsthat we saw take place,
especially with the Danger Room.
We get the tease of Alpha Flightgoing to be coming back to take
Wolverine, maybe, or at leasttry to.
And then, of course, we have thebest setup of all, Showdown with
(50:19):
Magneto.
With Gene there, that's going tobe the big difference, right?
Gene's there and...
And Cyclops.
Yeah, Cyclops as well.
He wasn't there for the lastconfrontation.
He just came at the end, wasable to stun him, and then kind
of whisked the X-Men out ofthere.
Yeah, they retreated.
Yeah, yeah, that's right.
(50:40):
So yeah, seven, maybe even aseven and a half.
I really like the personalstories that we got here and the
interactions.
That's exactly where I ended up.
I know it's just say somewherearound 7 or 7.5 out of 10
question mark.
Overall thoughts were, you know,it's low stakes, but it's a fun
three issues.
It's really serving as a goodfoundation point for not just
(51:05):
next issue, but the issues afterthat with, like you mentioned,
Alpha Flight, the, you know, whosent Warhawk.
And then we have this issuewhere it's like, oh, it's
Mesmero.
And then at the end, plot twist.
He's not important.
We're going to do Magnetoinstead.
So that's a really fun plottwist.
(51:26):
I really overall just enjoyedsome of those little slice of
life moments.
And I think we're setting up forsome fun things to happen next.
The only thing I want to mentionabout issue 111, last page,
absolutely sick last panel.
It's just like a big blown upMagneto close up on him it's got
just a ton of shading all overit that's kind of like I guess
(51:50):
like pointillism it's super cooland menacing yeah we get this
awesome final quote from Magnetothis time the final victory will
belong to Magneto and as youmentioned the next issue is
called Magneto Triumphant I'mvery excited dude this looks so
good Like you could print thisout and put it on a wall.
(52:14):
Yeah, that's a poster.
And if not a poster, at the veryleast, that could be like a
phone background.
I do need a new phonebackground.
There's an option.
Say goodbye, children.
You're replaced with Magneto.
That does it for this episode ofUncanny Book Club.
Thanks for listening, and wehope to see you next episode
where we'll discuss issues 112to 114.
(52:36):
Yeah, and Magneto.
And Magneto.
Bye, everyone.
Thanks for tuning in to thisepisode of Uncanny Book Club.
If you enjoyed this podcast,don't forget to subscribe, leave
a review, or share with afriend.
Hello everyone and welcome to Uncanny Book Club.
I am Isaac Baderfield andjoining me today is my co-host
Adam Ward.
Hey, can you believe we're onepisode six?
I can't.
It's all been a blur.
By the end of this, because I'vebeen reading these through the
good volumes, and so by the endof today, I will have
(00:31):
transitioned into volume three.
Very exciting.
And the cover for volume three,I have to say, is so good.
I mean, so is Volume 2 if you'venot seen them.
The Masterworks collection forUncanny X-Men, so good.
It's been a bit since I've seenthem, but I'll have to go back
and look.
In this podcast, we areexploring Chris Claremont's
(00:51):
legendary X-Men run as we readit for the very first time.
We hope you'll join us and readalongside or just stick around
for the discussion.
In our previous episode, we sawthe Landra teleport to Professor
X for help, The X-Men fell andbattled a Fire Lord, but a much
more even matchup then happenedbetween himself and the Phoenix.
(01:12):
Eric the Red ended up kidnappingLilandra, but the X-Men pursued
them through the Stargate.
A flashback issue that neitherof us were a huge fan of then
occurred and explained the causeof Xavier's malady and provided
a look back at the X-Men shortlyfollowing Thunderbird's death
and Moira's entrance.
We then jumped back to thepresent where we saw a fight
(01:35):
between the X-Men and theImperial Guard of the Shi'ar.
The Starjammers ended up comingto their aid, but they were too
late, and Emperor Dakinsucceeded in powering the Makran
Crystal.
Eventually, they were alltransported inside the crystal
and were shown their greatestnightmares.
Phoenix was able to break freeand stop the Neutron Galaxy from
(01:56):
being released, and this endedup saving the universe and
reality itself.
The Landra then join the X-Menon their journey home while she
is temporarily in exile.
In this episode, we'll bepicking things up right where we
left off with issues 109 through111.
Issue 109 begins with theirreturn home to the mansion.
(02:18):
We get a lot of small moments ofthe X-Men in this issue.
Storm visiting her plants,Banshee and Moira, a brief look
at the aftermath of the fight atthe Crystal and what it means
for Lalandra, Nightcrawlersetting up a date for himself,
Colossus attempting to writehome, Cyclops brooding, Jean
filling in her parents on a lot.
(02:40):
We also see an interlude ofsomeone who's achieved a target
lock on Weapon X.
Banshee, Moira, Colossus, andStorm go out for a picnic, and
Wolverine hitches a ride to dosome non-lethal hunting.
We get another interlude and nowsee a team of Canadian agents
closing in on their target.
While hunting, Wolverine issurprised by James Hudson, aka
(03:03):
Weapon Alpha.
The Canadian government wantsWolverine back, and he's been
sent to grab him.
The two fight, but theirconflict soon involves the
picnic goers.
Hudson's energy blast ends upricocheting off Colossus and
hitting Moira.
Banshee goes berserk, and theissue ends with Hudson narrowly
escaping the X-Men.
(03:23):
So I thought that this was aninteresting issue, just because
we're really coming from...
Really high stakes, really bigconflict, something that we led
up to for a really long time.
And one thing that I'm reallyglad to see is that they knew
this is really a point in thestory where it makes a lot of
sense to kind of do more of alull, wind things down, have
(03:46):
some of those slow moments,return to a few things that are
a little bit more low stakes.
I agree 100%.
you saying that we're comingfrom this large showdown that
we've been building through andoff the top I mentioned that
we're if you're reading thisthrough the volumes like I am
you're nearing the end of thesecond volume which really feels
(04:09):
like obviously the close of achapter right so We had this big
showdown.
Here we have what I think reallycould have probably been two
separate issues.
We had what really felt like twodifferent things happened in
this book, right?
Like we had these very personalmoments, as you mentioned.
Very quickly, I just want tomention Storm's pad is like
super cozy.
(04:29):
Would love all those plants andjust her being up in that space.
It's a cool room.
Super cool.
She has like the, I think shehas like a bunch of skylights.
Skylights, yeah.
I was going to say sunlights,and I was like, no, that's what
comes through.
That's what comes through thosewindows.
Very awesome room.
We also see a glimpse ofNightcrawler's room, which is
(04:53):
littered with movie posters.
And he's got the bars on hisceiling for, like, doing
acrobatic tricks and stuff.
I never even noticed that untiljust now.
That would explain how he'shanging upside down.
I didn't even, like, put two andtwo together.
Although he jumps into...
Peter's room.
(05:13):
And he's also hanging off theceiling.
So I guess this would explainwhy I never really thought too
much about how he keeps doingit.
Maybe there's a ceiling fan.
Maybe.
Peter's room compared to theother two is looking a little
bit more Spartan.
He's got a bed.
He's got a desk.
He's crumpled up a lot of noteson his dresser.
(05:33):
He's got like a hammer and asickle to let us know that he's
Russian.
It's I think very telling ofPeter's character, right?
Like he comes from a foreignbackground with probably very
little compared to some of theothers who have these very
eccentric personalities.
I mean, as you can see, that'sreflected in the rooms.
(05:55):
Just a really cool look behindthe curtain of like their
personal lives, which we haven'treally been able to see too, too
much because as we'veencountered most of the time
that the team has, had a chanceto take a breath and relax, that
vacation just gets squashed bysome, you know, villain who's
trying to stomp on theirrelaxing time.
Which is something that doeshappen in this issue to a
(06:17):
certain extent.
A hundred percent.
Before we kind of get to someother aspects of this book,
Moira, right off the top,forbids Nightcrawler from using
his powers.
At a school...
for mutant children.
Well, I guess they're not reallychildren anymore, but for
mutants who have been rejectedfrom society, and here she is
(06:39):
blatantly telling him to not usehis powers in the house.
And then a few panels later,when we see him in his room, he
uses his powers to get toPeter's room anyways, which I
absolutely love.
But it just seems so ludicrousto be telling him to not use his
powers, which aren't harmful toanybody.
To a certain extent, I can seewhere she's coming from.
(07:00):
If she's the very underemployedhousekeeper, she's having to
clean up after these people.
Apparently, when he bamfs,there's a lot of brimstone
smell.
Does it stick to stuff, or doesit go away?
We don't know.
Maybe she's had to do a lot ofcleaning up.
Yeah, that's very fair.
Or she's just being very cross.
(07:23):
You're bringing a lot ofperspective here to the table.
I just thought...
that she should have somemindfulness in understanding
that perhaps telling a mutantwho has these abilities not to
use them can be a bit offensive,right?
It does seem rude.
It does seem a little rude.
Although she does love CharlesXavier, or used to, as we see in
(07:45):
this book.
She is very much in herrelationship with Sean Cassidy.
Good for him.
She's very happy to see himreturn.
And yeah, good for them.
We also see some other coupledrama unfolding with Jean Grey
and Scott kind of having duelingthoughts.
You know, Jean is very obviouslydealing with a lot right now,
(08:06):
and we see that theme carry overthe next couple of issues.
But Scott, I think, needs tohave some, as you said, he's
brooding, but he should reallyhave some perspective that she
is dealing with a lot, right?
Like, she died, came back tolife, prevented an intergalactic
war from spilling over, stoppeda universe-ending plot by an
(08:31):
alien race, came to therealization that her greatest
fear was death, which she hasnow overcome, and she is trying
to balance these new powers asPhoenix, which she has no
understanding of, is luredtowards escalating how much of
that power she uses, and is veryclearly being tempted to give in
(08:52):
further to Phoenix.
Right.
Like we kind of see that playingout over these last couple of
issues.
So there's a lot happening inthe world of Jean Grey.
And in this issue, we see a veryawkwardly Scott sitting in like
this armchair with his fingers.
What is that called?
Arched.
It's like tapping his fingers,basically.
He looks like he's plotting asas he awkwardly watches Jean
(09:16):
Grey come out to her parents asthe phoenix through a window,
through a window.
With Nightcrawler peering frombehind him.
I feel really bad for Jean inthis.
It led me to question whetherher parents knew she was a
mutant at all.
I'm assuming no.
That was the gist of what I kindof took away from that as well.
(09:38):
Not only this specificrevelation that she has these
powers, she can turn intoPhoenix, look at her go.
And really cool too, we see thatfire Phoenix popping out of the
panel again, which is just...
such a great detail tocontinuously see as we progress
through these different issuesthe moral of the story here kids
(09:58):
so I'm going to get very seriouswith some relationship advice
talk to your partner it'll solvea lot of problems and Scott
should really give Gene a chanceto process what's happening but
also communicate what's going onin his mind which is basically
why are we not talking yeah Iwas going to do like an in
(10:21):
Scott's defense sort of deal butI think I think the way you came
around to it at the end therehas really concluded things
Scott really wants to talkthings out with Jean and figure
things out there's some issuesof just not feeling close
between them personally he'sworried about the whole Phoenix
thing and thinks that she needsto talk about it and you know
(10:43):
maybe she does and she justneeds to process first but
essentially what they do need todo is get on the same page and
check in and be like hey I thinkyou need to talk about this
sounds great I'll do that soon Ineed to process this it's
literally been like two hourssince we got back from the
Stargate that is a very actuallyvery fair point Don't get me
(11:08):
wrong here.
I'm not saying that Scott isinvalid in how he's feeling in
this moment.
Because he's obviously veryconcerned.
He loves Jean, as we've seen,right?
Like, he's made that very clearthat he is blinded by love when
it comes to Jean.
And he's worried.
And I get that.
And I think anybody who's beenin a relationship before can
(11:29):
relate to that feeling ofwatching somebody that you care
about struggle.
And that's what is happeningwith Jean.
And at the same time, Gene needsto be able to tell Scott, you
got to chill out, man.
Give me a moment to thinkbecause everything has just been
back to back to back to back toback.
We do see by the end of thesethree issues, a bit of growth
(11:50):
from Gene.
SPEAKER_01 (11:50):
And
SPEAKER_00 (11:52):
going back to just the situation with Nightcrawler
lurking behind the broodingCyclops, I really like the
conversation that they have alot.
I agree.
I think that's probably one ofthe best little personal moments
that we've had so far just inthe entirety of what we've read.
Kurt really puts them in hisplace.
(12:13):
Scott is obviously feeling verysorry for himself and is a
little bit rude to Nightcrawlerat first saying life isn't all
swashbuckling adventures andcircus stunts.
And Nightcrawler has to be like,oh, you're right.
You've got it so hard having towear sunglasses all the time.
Meanwhile, I'm blue.
Yeah, and has been since he'sbeen born.
(12:36):
which is, I think, more evenfurther to the point, right?
I'm looking at the panel rightnow and he says, we are what we
are.
Wishing won't change a blessedthing, nor will feeling sorry
for yourself.
And I learned very early on thatI must either accept what I am
or go mad.
And though I am now occasionallycrazy, I am not insane.
(12:56):
I like that a lot.
Now that I am occasionallycrazy, I am not insane.
That's very good and veryaccurate to the character.
Yeah, his final piece of advicehere is if you keep tearing your
guts apart every time you thinkthe world's shafted you, my
friend, you'll destroy not onlyyourself, but those who love
you.
It's very good advice.
(13:17):
And I think a great realitycheck for Scott.
And I think he leaves kind of,you know, it seems like he
learns his lesson.
He is no longer frowning.
He's got a smile on his face.
He tells Sean, I'm not going togo to the picnic.
Have a great time.
You know, Kurt's given me a lotto think about.
So I think he's in a gooddirection, though.
I think he has provided Scottwith helpful advice, whereas
(13:42):
we've seen some other people inScott's life, like Xavier, just
basically tell him to get overit and move on, rather than
acknowledging that he'scontending with some problems,
but he needs to, you know, youcan't change what you can't
change.
And you can't change yourimmune.
At least right now, anyways.
That will change in the future.
(14:03):
Speaking of Scott, before wemove on, his dad is a straight
deadbeat man.
For sure.
We see this interaction verybriefly between Corsair and Jean
back in space where he basicallypleads with Phoenix to take care
of Scott.
And that is for the best that hedoesn't get involved.
(14:23):
Probably feeds into the rest ofScott's problems.
The final note I made before wekind of transition into this
very different story that takesplace in this issue is this
double date that Kurt is tryingto basically set up for him and
Peter.
And the best part is becausewe've talked about it a couple
of times in the last couple ofepisodes, these subtle nods to
(14:46):
Star Wars.
Well, folks, we finally got it.
Star Wars written out in text inthe book.
That's what they wanted to gosee at the theater.
The Death Star is literally athing that is canon in the book.
And now we have Star Wars withthe Death Star now officially a
movie taking place within ourstory.
(15:06):
Multiple Death Stars in thebooks so far.
Multiple Death Stars.
Yeah, multiple Death Stars.
And before, as I said, beforeStar Wars was officially out in
theaters.
So fun little nod to the time ofwhen this book was written.
What do you think of the firsthalf of this book?
Because we have all these verystory-based progressions
(15:29):
happening with the characters.
There's a lot to unpack in termsof what's happening in their
personal lives.
I really liked all the littlepersonal moments.
I feel like we have been missingsome of that for the last few
issues.
We've had a lot of actionbetween, you know, the whole
Black Tom and Juggernaut thing.
(15:49):
And then they get back andimmediately are fighting Eric
the Red.
And then immediately Fire Lordkicks their asses a little bit.
And then they're back in space.
They're on a different planet,blah, blah, blah.
There really hasn't been timefor anything special.
like that.
And I think it's a really goodway to reestablish and look at,
(16:11):
you know, how do all of thesecharacters relate to each other?
Kurt and Peter are obviouslyvery good friends.
I think the series has kind ofset up Nightcrawler as being
someone who gives good advice toScott and kind of reminds him to
not be so glum all the time.
(16:32):
Wolverine is a bit of a loner.
That's kind of re-established aswell.
Yeah, that is true.
It was a lot of fun moments, Iguess I would say.
I agree 100% with everything youjust said.
What we've kind of seen play outis this non-stop action
rollercoaster that there's nobreath that's taking place to
(16:54):
establish the relationships thatare being built.
And I found myself at times...
through these last couple ofissues, really, wondering how
close everybody is in theirinteractions because the way
that it comes off at times isvery playful.
The way that they talk to eachother, they talk like how
(17:15):
friends would talk.
I can't imagine Jean Grey wouldlet anybody who is not a friend
call her Jeannie.
So seeing those sorts ofinteractions, I've been wanting
something like this to kind ofjust show how the team has grown
because we haven't really seenit too much, aside from their
combat skills, which we reallysaw play out in the last couple
of issues.
(17:36):
The second part of this book, wesee the other parts of the team,
those who didn't go on dates orwere brooding around the X-Men
mansion.
They went instead to a picnic ofsorts, like a day at the...
stream at the swimming hole atthe old swimming hole and
wolverine hilariously asks tocome along only to basically
(17:59):
hitch a ride to go hunting butnot real hunting because store
makes a big fuss about killinganimals for sport and not for
food to which wolverinebasically tells her i didn't say
i was killing anything killing'seasy so it was fun seeing him
come out and be like hey likei'm not the killer everybody
thinks i am here okay like i'mjust going to test myself but he
(18:22):
hilariously is doing it in hisfull x-men outfit which does not
blend into the terrain at allwhich might be the point right
like that might be the point itmakes it all the more impressive
when he's able to sneak up onthe deer yeah and almost touch
the deer which was his goal butis very much interrupted by
(18:43):
weapon alpha who has comecalling on behalf of the
government to basically say, OK,Logan, your time's up, man.
You got to come back now.
And I mentioned a few episodesago how I thought it was odd
that the Canadian government inthat first interaction, like
following that initial missionthat he had with Xavier, didn't
(19:04):
just it just seemed like Xavierjust kind of took ownership of
him.
The X-Men now own you,Wolverine.
You are now a member of my team.
This is what's happened.
And there was just kind of ageneral acceptance.
I had asked the question, isn'the supposed to go back?
He was like on loan to theX-Men.
And here we have...
He quit.
He cut the guy's tie off.
(19:25):
Yeah, no, no, I know.
He calls that out in this bookas well.
Initially, this was my thought,that he didn't quit quit.
Well, he didn't put in his twoweeks.
He just sort of left.
He cut off the tie.
What other way is there to...
That's how you quit.
In the Canadian government,that's how you do it.
Just dip that tie right into hiscoffee after you cut it off.
(19:46):
Say, I'm done.
I'm outie.
I'm going with the strange man.
And you will forget about it.
Only he did not.
And here we have Weapon Alphacoming after him.
Yeah, I'm glad that we'vereturned to this conflict.
Wolverine's exit was obviouslyvery tense.
And...
it makes sense that somethingwould eventually come of it.
(20:10):
So I'm glad that we're loopingaround and not just leaving this
as a thread that's dangling.
It certainly gave me morequestions than answers, and I
feel like we're at a point rightnow where that's the kind of
thing we want, right?
We saw Chris kind of weave inthese little story threads
through several issues, right?
At times it was a little toomuch, but getting that little
(20:32):
taste of something that's tocome We see James Hudson leave,
basically, after gettingconfronted by all of the X-Men
to essentially say, OK, well,I'm going to be back and next
time I'm going to have AlphaFlight with me.
So we know that there's going tobe this confrontation in the
future.
It's going to happen.
And that leaves, obviously, usas readers saying, well, what is
(20:54):
Alpha Flight and when are wegoing to see them?
So I think a really fun teased.
A lot of great interaction evenbetween Logan and James and this
working relationship that thetwo of them clearly have history
of.
So that was really fun to seethat play out.
Old co-workers butting headsessentially and both of their
(21:15):
powers aren't really enough toone-up each other.
All in all, I thought the bookwas solid.
I thought it was like a reallygood issue coming out of what we
just had.
Agreed.
I think it's exactly what theseries needed at this point.
And I'm glad that we're, likeyou said, establishing, hey,
(21:36):
these things are coming up.
There's going to be this biggerconflict that's yet to come.
So stepping into the next issue,we still see that playing out a
little bit with like theselittle personal stories.
So why don't you hit us up withwhat happens in issue 110?
Issue 110 starts with a baseballgame to send off Moira as it is
(21:58):
her last day in New York.
Wolverine and Colossus continuethe trend of having little
moments that walk a fine linebetween tense and amusing.
Moira lets someone into themansion who she assumes is the
phone company, but themysterious intruder ends up
shooting Moira with some kind oftranquilizer dart.
(22:18):
We learn that his identity isWarhawk, and there is someone
pulling his strings.
He starts messing with thecomputer for the danger room,
which the X-Men then enter fortheir training session.
Gene and Professor X areattacked and stunned by Warhawk,
but not before Gene can get awarning to Scott.
(22:38):
The X-Men try to escape, but thedanger room traps them inside
and begins a lethal assault onthem.
Nightcrawler ends up teleportingWolverine to the power terminal,
but the two arrive unconsciousdue to the strain of teleporting
someone with a lot more massthan Lalandra had.
Wolverine is eventually able tostir himself and destroys the
(23:01):
computer with his claws.
Warhawk attacks him, and the twobegin to battle, but when the
rest of the X-Men arrive, he'squickly apprehended, and the
police take him away.
Jean is very bothered about howeasily she was defeated, and
decides at the end of the issuethat she will officially rejoin
the X-Men.
There's that personal growth Iwas talking about, coming back
(23:23):
to the X-Men after coming to theconclusion that she needs to
have better control of herpowers.
It's I thought it was reallygreat to see after the issue we
just had where she is stilltrying to process everything
that she's processing.
Yeah, this was, I think, a goodstep in the right direction.
You know, Jean has been hoveringaround for a while now, so it
(23:43):
did feel odd that she wasn't anofficial member of the team in
training just because she'sended up suited up as Phoenix
quite a lot over the lastseveral issues.
So I'm glad to see her makingher return.
She's definitely been, I thinkeven predating that, has been a
massive focal point of thebooks, whether that's her going
(24:06):
off to live her life not as anX-Men or being quickly drawn
back into the conflict of beingpart of the X-Men.
So I think seeing this growthfrom her and this
acknowledgement that she's bothafraid of her powers and very
confused by them now, And we seeher come to this conclusion that
(24:26):
because she didn't have totalcontrol over them, she feels
like she wasn't able to take onWarhawk in a way that she feels
like she should have been ableto do.
Yeah, and don't they give him adiss like he's a second-rate
Colossus?
Well, I mean, he very much lookslike a second-rate Colossus,
let's be real.
The character design is, like,if you blinked very quickly, you
(24:50):
would say, hey, there's Colossusthere standing in a You know
it's not him because he'swearing pants.
Yeah, Peter would never do that.
No, Peter definitely would notwear full pants like that.
He also has a skull on his beltbuckle, continuing the thread of
bizarre clothing choices thatwe've seen play out across a
couple different issues.
(25:12):
A few cool observations in someof these panels.
We see Jean Grey pushing Xavierin his wheelchair, which...
Shouldn't he just be able to dothat himself?
Is that what's happening?
I did not understand what wasoccurring and why is Jean having
these weird energy things comingout of her head and they seem to
(25:33):
be directed to the professor.
I never noticed that he wasn'tbeing pushed by anyone.
Well, it's because normally whenwe see Charles Xavier, he's just
moving around.
Yeah, he's always got a muchmore fancy chair.
For those who are unfamiliarwith the panels we're talking
about, there's this kind of likepinkish, pink and white sort of
(25:56):
wavy, groovy beam, I guess isprobably the best way.
It's essentially like a mindbeam that is coming from Jean's
chin and neck for some reason.
But I'm assuming that's whatshe's doing.
Also, feels bad for Colossusthat Moira makes a point of
being shocked to see this man'sface.
(26:18):
who we later learn is Warhawk.
And she specifically thinksabout how this poor man needs
plastic surgery or had plasticsurgery done recently and is
shocked to see his face.
And yet he looks almostidentical to Colossus.
So it feels bad for Peter.
Well, Colossus can turn it off,though.
(26:39):
I mean, still, though.
She would have seen what helooks like with his metal form.
Even without his metal form, helooks the exact same, just not
metal.
Moira is just judgy, I guess.
I have a question for you as anon-American.
We see them playing baseball,and baseball is America's
pastime, or so pop culture willhave you to believe.
(27:02):
Can confirm.
Okay, so with that in mind, didyou question that Moira's
send-off to go back home was abaseball game?
I mean...
It's not the send-off that Iwould want, but I hate baseball.
I think it makes sense to acertain extent.
I don't know why, but I havesome kind of recollection of the
(27:25):
X-Men playing baseball sometimeelse.
I know in X-Men 97 they playbasketball.
Maybe that would have been abetter choice.
I don't know.
I don't think basketball wouldbe any better.
It's more fun.
for a send-off party?
Look, obviously they should bedoing some sort of barbecue
(27:46):
situation, or they're in NewYork, maybe they should be
getting some really crazy pizzaand bagels situation going on.
That would be my kind ofsend-off.
That's what I would enjoy.
I will say, I really did enjoythe confrontation between Peter
and Logan, and there's a veryfunny scene where Peter is
(28:07):
rushing to...
get to the first base, I thinkit was.
And Jean had to use her mentalpowers to catch the baseball
because Peter was hitting it sohard it was going towards
airplanes.
And so Logan is telling her, youneed to throw me the ball, I
gotta tap him to get him out.
And Logan has his claws out inthe catcher's mitt.
(28:28):
And then in response to that,Peter just puts on his metal
skin and they just crash intoeach other.
He hilariously just sits on topof him to pin him down.
I think honestly, like, becausewe see in the future how Peter
and Logan are very close.
To me, this is them buildingtheir friendship is like this
(28:48):
playful sort of butting of headsand challenging of each other.
Yeah, Colossus really doesn'ttake the shit that Logan dishes
out, I suppose is how I wouldphrase it.
He's not one to be intimidatedby it or...
He just sort of loops it aroundback to him and will do things
like throw him over a castle orcrash into him at a baseball
(29:11):
game.
Well, we even see him deliver afastball special in this issue
where he throws Logan up toessentially cut loose.
Yeah, he gets tossed up to cutloose Storm and Nightcrawler who
are, while fighting in thedanger room, are trapped inside
of a steel net.
(29:32):
And so he gets Colossus to throwhim up there to try to cut them
loose.
And then he hilariously falls ontop of Scott on his way down.
He doesn't fall on him.
He pushes him out of the waybecause he's about to get hit by
I think it's like a laser.
Oh, I'm not really sure.
But yeah, like he comments like,oh, I could just let Scott take
this and then Gene would bemine.
(29:53):
But that's not how the Wolverinedoes things.
And then he pushes them out ofthe way and saves them.
Yeah, they're like razors.
They look like giant blades ofsome kind.
He says, razor wings heading forpsych, and he ain't spotting
them.
If I just butt out presto, I gota clear track with Jeannie.
(30:16):
He invites her to play some nineball this issue, too.
And Scott's like, what's goingon with that?
Yeah, he's very funny.
Just like very oblivious.
Very out of character for Loganin the continuity of the story
that they are living, right?
It's out of character fromScott's perspective for him to
be asking Gene out, although weknow that there's this
(30:38):
established attraction, at leastfrom Logan.
Although I will say, like, Geneis quite flirtatious with Logan
in this issue.
I thought that you could kind ofsee there's this lingering
will-they-won't-they takingplace.
I thought that was fun, and itwas funny seeing Scott's
(30:59):
oblivious reaction of, wait,wait, what?
No, we're not.
You can't go on a date with her.
We're going to go practice inthe danger room, even though we
just came off of a very largemission to space and you just
fought a special agent from theCanadian government.
Got to keep up the practice.
Got to stay on your toes.
(31:19):
I will say it was really niceseeing Scott lead the team with
confidence for a change hereally took charge and we see
them very much established thatthe danger room has been overrun
they don't realize that it'swarhawk but they know
something's up right andbasically the safeguards get
(31:41):
removed so now the danger roomis even more dangerous and i
believe it's storm makes a pointof how the room or the program
is Mm-hmm.
(32:16):
She relaxes, she's not freakingout, and she's shortly
thereafter released from it.
But it was also just a nice kindof character growth piece that
we see from Storm.
So while this is all happening,that's when Nightcrawler comes
up with this idea that they canbamf out the room and try and
get a hold of the controls sothat everybody can get out.
(32:36):
What did you think of Warhawk inthis?
Obviously, as you mentioned,there's another Puppet Master
here.
We don't know yet.
is another theme of somebodybehind the somebody pulling the
strings.
We see Warhawk kind of just, Idon't know, he could have been
anybody in my opinion.
I think that this is a reallygood use of an underwhelming
(32:58):
character.
Warhawk really is kind of asecond rate, maybe third or
fourth rate villain.
He's not that interesting.
He's very, very easily defeated.
But I guess he's really alsoaccomplishing what he needs to
accomplish with whoever themastermind that's sending him to
settle this up.
Who it is isn't really thatimportant.
(33:20):
He's basically just a lackey.
And I think the real adversaryin this issue is more the Danger
Room than him.
And I think that was a reallygood way to make use of him just
because, you know, they do havea struggle with, But it's not
necessarily against him.
It's really mostly the dart gunthat puts him at an advantage
(33:46):
over the X-Men.
That and ultimately the elementof surprise.
I did find it very fun.
We see Wolverine make a mentionafter he becomes engaged in a
fight with Warhawk.
And Warhawk's power set, as wesee it, is essentially
second-rate Colossus.
Metal skin, impenetrable,strong.
(34:06):
That's it, pretty much.
But Logan makes a mention thathis movements are quite fast,
and it's reminiscent of aconflict that he had with Iron
Fist.
So then I was like, what?
When did this happen?
Iron Fist number 15.
So I went and looked it upbecause I was very curious as
to...
(34:27):
How that interaction came to be.
So very quickly, Danny Rand,who's the Iron Fist, he fights
off some hijackers.
As you can imagine, thatprobably wore him out.
So he is trying to find a placeto chill and decides to go see
Misty Knight.
Then realizes, oh, Misty's awayon a mission.
So her place is just empty.
(34:49):
So goes there.
And as we know, who else liveswith Misty Knight?
Jean Grey.
And so Gene in the story isthrowing like a housewarming
party of some sort.
And Wolverine is just standingoutside of the place.
I think probably he showed uptoo early.
He was too punctual.
And he sees Danny Rand climbingin through the window.
(35:09):
So he confronts him thinkinghe's a burglar and they have
like a fight.
Basically, it's what is thecontext of how it all happened.
I mentioned this all becauseit's fun continuity that's we're
seeing play out across severalbooks where Jean Grey is like
being very much established asthe roommate to Misty Knight and
(35:30):
we see that now playing out andhaving dividends and fun stories
in other books because how whenelse would you have probably
have seen Wolverine and DannyRand coming to blows that is
also a really good use ofWolverine for like a very minor
character cross comic situationbecause he is absolutely someone
(35:50):
that would be like, you can'tcrawl through that window.
I'm going to beat you up.
So all in all, you know, like wesee these callbacks and issues
like several times, but Ithought this was a fun one.
I try to always look them up andflag them for you and for the
listeners when they're connectedto our story or interesting.
(36:12):
This is one of them.
So there you go.
Some fun facts about Danny Randand Logan.
So I don't have a whole lot tosay about the issue necessarily.
Just that, you know, it was fun.
Nice to see some more teambonding during their downtime.
Another conflict that's a littlebit more low stakes.
The one thing I have is thatit's interesting to see Moira
(36:34):
making her exit.
And I assume it's becauseProfessor X no longer has the...
nightmares mind malady thinggoing on you know he's back to
100% what I'm curious about iswhat does this mean for her and
Banshee or you know wouldBanshee potentially think about
leaving the team to go with herback to Scotland I'm interested
(36:59):
to see where things go from hereI believe he makes a note like
Sean Cassidy does that he lovesMoira it may have even been like
the narration That Sean lovesMoira, Moira loves Sean, and he
is thinking about potentiallysettling down.
He is older than the rest of theteam.
(37:20):
Ancient.
Ancient by the comparablestandards, yeah.
We get a fun closing remark fromCharles Xavier, who basically
says powerful forces arebeginning to surround the X-Men.
I felt like this was kind oflike a great tease that There's
something on the horizon.
We now have a man in the chairthat we don't know who it is.
(37:42):
Or a woman.
But we have somebody in thechair watching the X-Men again.
And honestly, for me, myfavorite part of this whole book
was seeing Jean come to theconclusion that she has to
rejoin the X-Men.
I think it really adds to herstory.
And the last couple of issues,you start to feel this flow,
right?
They were heading into Jeantime.
(38:03):
We had a lot of storm time.
And the last couple of bookshave been us telling the story
about Jean Grey.
And now she's officially back.
So I'm very happy to see that.
Curious to see where it goes.
I mean, we know that thisPhoenix situation is still
unfolding.
So I guess we'll see how thatplays out.
The only thing I wanted to knowto you, just as like a funny
thing, Lalandra was completelymissing from one ton.
(38:26):
Where is she?
She's like, f*** baseball.
I'm staying inside.
What is this human sport?
Issue 111 starts in anunexpected way with us following
around Hank McCoy, aka Beast,former X-Man and now Avenger,
who is investigating a circusthat appears to be starring the
(38:48):
X-Men?
We learn that Lorna called himback when Havok was kidnapped
and wasn't able to get an answerfrom the X-Men.
Hank visited the mansion, foundit deserted, though he does find
a postcard from Professor X andLilandra who appear to be on
another vacation.
While unsure about the otherX-Men he saw, Beast is sure that
(39:09):
he recognizes Jean Grey andfollows the performer to her
trailer.
Jean, going by Ms.
Destiny, calls for help from aSlim Summers to kick him out.
Beast eventually loses histrench coat, and the entire
circus begins attempting tocapture him.
He's eventually apprehended infront of Wolverine, who is all
(39:30):
chained up.
Beast is then brought beforeMesmero, who has put the mental
whammy on the X-Men, and hebegins to attempt to enthrall
Beast as well.
Wolverine is able to mentallyand physically slip free, and he
breaks Mesmero's hold on Jean aswell.
Beast slips the grasp of theguards holding him, but before
(39:51):
he can strike Mesmero, he'staken down from behind, much to
the surprise of Mesmero, who isshocked at the arrival of a
mystery figure.
The X-Men, now all free, fighttheir way to Mesmero's tent to
try and rescue Beast, but theyare surprised to instead be
greeted by Magneto, who islooking to end the X-Men once
(40:12):
and for all.
The next issue is teased withthe title Magneto Triumphant.
So, what really sticks out, andI'm curious about your overall
thoughts about this issue, but Ithink the thing that really
sticks out is it's a really bigdeparture from what we've done
so far, going with this 90% justfollowing Beast around the whole
(40:33):
time.
Beast is sort of randomlybrought back into the mix for
this one issue.
I thought it was a fun littlechange-up, and I'm very
interested in what you thoughtabout it.
Okay, I want to preface this bysaying this issue has two
redeeming qualities.
(40:53):
First is we see Beast roamingaround like he's Dick Tracy.
I thought that was kind of fun.
I think it could have been alittle bit better.
Like I wish it was a little bitmore detective-y other than
Beast showing up and questioningwhether the very obvious X-Men
are the X-Men.
Yeah.
Is that Nightcrawler?
I don't know.
He's wearing the same outfit.
(41:15):
And who else is made of metal?
Yeah.
That outfit, by the way.
I'm looking at it right now.
We see the X-Men, with theexception of Nightcrawler, all
in different outfits than theynormally wear.
Although, poor Logan isstripped, basically, in a very
tattered singlet.
But we see most of the rest ofthe team in new outfits,
(41:37):
including Jean and Storm.
The best outfit by far has to beColossus, man.
Yeah, he looks good.
That outfit kicks.
It is so good.
He's wearing what is essentiallylike a gold neck piece that
surrounds him and has like agold loincloth, basically.
Yeah, he's got a whole goldensteel thing going on.
(41:59):
He's like very impressivelyholding like a one-ton barbell
above his head while holding inhis other hand another one-ton
weight.
Well, it's two one-tons on thebarbell, so he's got three tons
total.
I like this idea of like Beastkind of like trying to figure
out what happened and piecing ittogether.
I just feel like the mystery, Ithink, could have been a little
(42:22):
bit better.
The clues are a little obvious.
Like too obvious.
That to me, it just, Was like,yeah, no, duh.
Like, obviously.
Like, you're staring at JeanGrey and you're being like, is
this Jean Grey?
I don't know, man.
I can't tell.
Is this Marvel girl?
It's like, I don't know.
I grew up with this person.
We used to hang out all the timeand fought crime.
(42:43):
Maybe?
Yeah.
I like that everybody is, like,repurposed into, look at these
incredible people.
And Scott is just renamed toSlim.
And he's just a random securityguard, essentially.
Also, as if like this trenchcoat is preventing people from
seeing Beast's face.
(43:03):
Isn't seeing a blue man likeenough to like question?
Well, it's probably nighttimebecause it's a circus.
So, you know, you've got the yougot the brim pulled down a
little bit.
So it casts some shadow.
I mean, he is also an Avenger.
Couldn't they have given himlike an image inducer like
Nightcrawler?
Maybe he doesn't want it,though.
Yeah, that's fair.
That's fair.
I think Beast likes who he is.
(43:24):
So there's that.
I like that.
Mesmero?
Eh.
I had never really heard of himprior to this issue.
His design is kind ofsnake-like.
He does have a big snake energy.
I think that must be part of it,too, because he's doing the eye
hypnosis thing.
I'm putting that together withmyself as well.
We see Wolverine smack not justScott, but repeatedly slaps Jean
(43:48):
Grey in order to wake her up.
She gets mad.
She gets real mad.
But it works.
It works.
It works.
It works really well.
And then really for me, the bigsaving grace of this, for some
reason, Magneto is also at thecircus.
I'm assuming he used Mesmero tobasically capture the X-Men, but
(44:12):
I'm very excited to see him faceoff with the X-Men again because
it was very exciting the firsttime.
I'm unclear about whether thisis Mesmero has a grudge and is
doing this of his own initiativeor if he was a tool that Magneto
used.
Because Magneto also could havejust been like, those are
(44:33):
obviously the X-Men and decidedto visit this circus.
Maybe he was on a road trip.
And on this road trip, he sees asign for a circus.
And he thinks for a moment,maybe, maybe I will find
something there.
And as he gets closer, he seesthe billboard outside its circus
that depicts all of the X-Men.
(44:54):
And he just solves it, unlikeBeast.
He's like, it's obviously theX-Men.
It is a really bizarre thing fora supervillain to do.
Like, I'm not going to kill you.
I'm going to put you in mycircus.
It's so random.
But I do wonder, is it a Magnetothing?
Because I could see it beinga...
(45:15):
You guys turned me into a babyfor years, kind of like getting
back at them, you know, just tohumiliate them and throw them in
the circus, essentially.
I hope we get an answer in thenext issue, because I also found
it to be quite odd that this isthe plan that Mesmero came up
with.
And maybe that's as big pictureas he can get.
(45:35):
Maybe his best thing here is,you know what, I'm going to use
my arch nemesis as nemesi.
I don't know what the plural ofnemesis is.
Maybe it's just nemesis.
He is my nemesis to essentiallyrun a freak show circus and make
money off of that.
And there's nothing they can doabout it.
I mean, it's a good gig.
It's quite evil if you thinkabout it.
(45:57):
And you can be a bad guy withoutwanting to kill people.
Maybe that's just the line hedoesn't want to cross.
Yeah, he's a bad guy withmorals, with a moral compass
that keeps him on track.
So in the first episode of theshow, we dunked on Beast a
little bit for how he looked.
I agree 100%.
Yeah, he's...
(46:45):
He definitely looks how Iimagine Beast looking,
especially on the page wherePeter punches Hank through a
curtain, I believe is what itis.
Is it a curtain or a wall?
Oh, it is a curtain.
It would be way cooler as awall.
I'm kind of questioning how iteven ripped like that.
Would it have just moved?
I think he's stepping on it, youknow, because he wants it to
(47:08):
look a little bit cool.
He's like, all right, I'm justgoing to put my foot here and
just rips through it.
In either case, on this page, Ithink you can really see Beast.
Like, I see Beast as I wouldimagine him looking, even to the
pointed teeth.
The pointed teeth help.
Oh, 100%.
Overall, I don't know, man.
(47:29):
This is a low point for me.
It's more of a setup issuethan...
It's really setup.
I wouldn't even say it's likebuilding toward something just
because it is just...
We're here and next issue, we'regoing to be here.
We're not having a ramp up.
I don't mind it.
Don't get me wrong.
(47:49):
I like the change of pace interms of the approach to the
story.
I think it just could have beenbetter.
I think we could have had moreof like the mystique of Where
are the X-Men?
Why is Hank at a carnival?
We could have had more of atease that drew out across this
issue of Hank actuallyinvestigating, and it looks like
(48:09):
he's investigating as opposed toshowing up and right off the bat
very obviously seeing the X-Men.
There's a lot of potential lefton the table.
From my critical lens, that's mycritique of it.
I think it just could have beenmore than what it was.
And I think that could have beena lot of fun.
And now I want a book that isjust Detective Hank McCoy.
(48:31):
That could be interesting.
That would be pretty cool,right?
As long as he's wearing thatoutfit.
Oh, I think he needs that trenchcoat.
It's very reminiscent of, andthis is going to date me quite a
bit, but if you've seen theoriginal Teenage Mutant Ninja
Turtles movie, the live actionone, Raphael.
The best one.
Raphael would wear almost theexact same outfit.
(48:54):
roaming around the streets ofNew York.
So that was the moment that Isaw it, and I thought, okay,
that's what it is.
It's Raphael.
All right, team up, buddy cop,detective, comic, Hank McCoy,
and Raphael.
Just throwing it out there.
I would read it.
They're a fun combo.
(49:15):
I mean, Hank would be used todealing with somebody like
Raphael.
I mean, at least modern-day Hankwould be.
I'm a little unfamiliar with whowould be on the Avengers at this
point.
I think overall, when I look atthese three issues, this is the
low point for me with the, withthe buildup being right.
Like the promise here is we'regoing to get a confrontation
(49:37):
with Magneto.
And for that reason alone, likewe're not being left with, okay,
well now we got to deal withMesmero for another issue.
And it's just veryuninteresting.
Nah, man, we're going right intoconfrontation with Magneto.
So for that reason, If I'mrating the three books together,
I'm going to give it a sevenbecause I think there was a lot
(49:58):
of growth amongst the team.
We had a lot of personalinteractions that were a lot of
fun.
We had some decent action setsthat we saw take place,
especially with the Danger Room.
We get the tease of Alpha Flightgoing to be coming back to take
Wolverine, maybe, or at leasttry to.
And then, of course, we have thebest setup of all, Showdown with
(50:19):
Magneto.
With Gene there, that's going tobe the big difference, right?
Gene's there and...
And Cyclops.
Yeah, Cyclops as well.
He wasn't there for the lastconfrontation.
He just came at the end, wasable to stun him, and then kind
of whisked the X-Men out ofthere.
Yeah, they retreated.
Yeah, yeah, that's right.
(50:40):
So yeah, seven, maybe even aseven and a half.
I really like the personalstories that we got here and the
interactions.
That's exactly where I ended up.
I know it's just say somewherearound 7 or 7.5 out of 10
question mark.
Overall thoughts were, you know,it's low stakes, but it's a fun
three issues.
It's really serving as a goodfoundation point for not just
(51:05):
next issue, but the issues afterthat with, like you mentioned,
Alpha Flight, the, you know, whosent Warhawk.
And then we have this issuewhere it's like, oh, it's
Mesmero.
And then at the end, plot twist.
He's not important.
We're going to do Magnetoinstead.
So that's a really fun plottwist.
(51:26):
I really overall just enjoyedsome of those little slice of
life moments.
And I think we're setting up forsome fun things to happen next.
The only thing I want to mentionabout issue 111, last page,
absolutely sick last panel.
It's just like a big blown upMagneto close up on him it's got
just a ton of shading all overit that's kind of like I guess
(51:50):
like pointillism it's super cooland menacing yeah we get this
awesome final quote from Magnetothis time the final victory will
belong to Magneto and as youmentioned the next issue is
called Magneto Triumphant I'mvery excited dude this looks so
good Like you could print thisout and put it on a wall.
(52:14):
Yeah, that's a poster.
And if not a poster, at the veryleast, that could be like a
phone background.
I do need a new phonebackground.
There's an option.
Say goodbye, children.
You're replaced with Magneto.
That does it for this episode ofUncanny Book Club.
Thanks for listening, and wehope to see you next episode
where we'll discuss issues 112to 114.
(52:36):
Yeah, and Magneto.
And Magneto.
Bye, everyone.
Thanks for tuning in to thisepisode of Uncanny Book Club.
If you enjoyed this podcast,don't forget to subscribe, leave
a review, or share with afriend.
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