July 9, 2025 • 47 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 7 we discuss issues #112 - 114. We see the X-Men battle Magneto inside a volcano base, Magneto gets his ultimate revenge and reduces their capabilities to that of a baby, and the X-Men eventually escape — but accidentally cause the eruption of the volcano. Jean and Beast get split from the rest of the team and both sides presume that the others are dead. Cyclops and the rest of the squad end up in the Savage Land where they're attacked by Sauron.
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'm Isaac Baderspiel and joiningme as always is my co-host Adam
Ward.
Hey everyone.
This is, I have to say man, thisis like the most comic book
comic book I think we've readyet.
Things do get pretty comicbook-y in this three issue
ensemble.
(00:29):
It's everything that I wouldwant in a comic book.
If they were to adapt this intoa movie, I would not be upset
about it.
Maybe this is what the MCU willdo for their upcoming X-Men
movie.
I think it would be veryconfusing to a lot of people.
Just jump straight into thewagon?
Well, maybe we pick it up at thecarnival, you know?
They're just there and Beastshows up trying to figure out
(00:52):
who the X-Men are and everybodyin the audience will recognize
who they are and Beast willstill be confused.
That'll work.
Alright, well, in this podcast,we are exploring Chris
Claremont's legendary X-Men runas we read it for the very first
time.
We hope you'll join us and readalongside, or just stick around
for the discussion.
In our previous episode, theX-Men had some much-needed
(01:15):
downtime, and we witnessed a lotof small moments.
We then saw an attemptedkidnapping as the Canadian
government sent James Hudson,going by Weapon Alpha, to
capture and return Wolverine.
He was defeated, but with atease that the Canadians will be
getting ready for round two.
We also saw Warhawk, aka SecondRate Colossus, break into the
(01:38):
X-Mansion and sabotage theDanger Room to make it the Extra
Danger Room.
The team was able to escape andWarhawk was stopped, but we
don't yet know who sent him onthis mission, or why.
This also led to Jean Greyofficially rejoining the X-Men.
And finally, issue 111 followedBeast as he explored a circus
(02:00):
looking for the X-Men, who hadvanished.
He discovered that Mesmero hadenthralled the X-Men, but was
captured in the process.
Wolverine broke free and helpedfree Gene as well.
As the X-Men confronted Mesmero,however, we saw him fall, and
the team was instead greeted byMagneto.
In this episode, we'll bepicking things up where we left
(02:22):
off with issues 112 through 114.
Issue 112 begins with the X-Menlearning that Magneto has
already sprung his trap.
The circus wagon that they'reall in is miles above the earth,
and they have no means ofescape.
We learn that Magneto visitedthe mansion to confront his
enemies, but found it deserted.
(02:43):
Beast then arrived, and Magnetodecided to just follow him and
get him to do all his legworkfor him.
Magneto tosses Mesmero out ofthe wagon, though controls his
descent so he doesn't die whenhe hits the ground.
The wagon then arrives atMagneto's base, a volcano in
Antarctica.
A battle immediately kicks offonce there's solid ground below
(03:06):
them.
Without the ability to alert theothers, Scott plans to start
things off himself and workeveryone else in as they go.
He attempts this by directingPeter to make his move, but the
X-Men soon all start attackingSolo.
One by one, Magneto handles eachof the X-Men until the whole
squad is defeated, includingPhoenix.
(03:26):
Magneto then reveals hisultimate eye-for-an-eye revenge.
The X-Men are left with theirminds intact, but have the
physical capabilities of asix-month-old.
So Adam, thinking back to ourprevious episode, big tease,
(03:47):
everything's called MagnetoTriumphant.
Do you think this book capturedwhat you were looking for?
I think it exceeded what I wasenvisioning.
I think this ultimately waseverything I wanted and more.
frankly, because when I thinkabout a comic book, right, it's
campy at times, not all thetime, but it can be campy.
(04:09):
It can be very serious.
We have like great fighting inthis book and we have like
Magneto being triumphant as theyso plainly put it at the start
of this book as so infrequentwhen we see meaningful villains
(04:29):
succeed.
And here we have the X-Men beingconfronted by Magneto,
especially after these last fewbooks, right?
Where we had the whole Mesmerocircus situation that really
made no sense and now at leastkind of makes a little bit more
sense, I guess.
I loved it.
I loved everything about it.
I honestly could have spent thisentire episode just talking
(04:51):
about this issue.
What about yourself?
Yeah, I'm of the same mind.
I thought it was an awesomeissue.
I liked that we actually gotanswers to some of those
questions that we were askingourselves the other week where
we were wondering, are we goingto learn, like, why is Mesro
there?
Why is Magneto there now?
(05:12):
Like, what is the story that'sgoing on here?
We got to see a little bit ofthat.
Like you said, just a ton ofaction, a ton of fighting.
And I really liked how itshowcased Magneto really
planning ahead and making hismove.
It really showed him as a dualthreat of, yes, he's an
(05:32):
Omega-level mutant, but he alsohas a very tactical mind, and he
sets everything up in his favor.
You know, he kidnaps them,essentially, and is floating
above the Earth where they can'treadily escape, and he's able to
take them onto his turf where hewants them.
Yeah, he definitely held all thecards in this interaction with
(05:54):
the X-Men, right?
And we see Cyclops...
pretty much is the only one torecognize that this is the case,
right?
It really speaks to Scott'sleadership, especially even in
this fight, right?
Between him and Magneto, it wasone shot to probably really take
a hold of the situation.
And the inexperience of the restof the members in fighting
(06:15):
Magneto specifically, who Scottrecognizes as being this
incredible threat compared toall the other foes the X-Men
have faced to this point.
really speaks to the characterthat is Magneto.
However, in the end, as we'llget to, his overconfidence is
(06:35):
his hubris here, right?
He made all these preparations.
He had this big plan.
I was a baby once, and now,X-Men, I can't turn you into
babies, but I can make you feellike you're a baby as well as I
can.
Speaking of campy like youbrought up earlier, very good.
Very good comic book.
(06:55):
Right?
Motivation for Magneto.
Like, he doesn't want to killthese darn kids that have been
thwarting his plans, or at leastthe team that has been thwarting
his plans.
But it does feel verymustache-twirling villain of,
you will now all be babies.
Even the lava layer, right, addsto the camp.
(07:17):
Like a lava layer belowAntarctica.
An evil base under a volcano.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It was great.
And even them, a bit ofhappenstance, right?
Like he shows up, he can'texecute his plan because the
X-Men aren't actually here.
Charles is missing.
Who shows up?
A beast.
Very lucky.
And he just, he just followsthem all the way to the circus
(07:40):
and figures out immediately,figures out immediately that the
X-Men are now all carnies or atleast carnival attractions.
One would think it would havebeen easier for Beast to figure
that out.
Magneto has met this team justas much as he has.
Magneto's like, why is Banshee acarnival barker?
(08:04):
I also love that the way they'vedrawn this, it's just Magneto,
essentially a mutant terrorist,just walking around in his full
outfit in the public.
I have to imagine that This isjust the way it's being shown to
be like, here he is, and thathe's in a little bit more of a
(08:24):
disguise in actuality.
Otherwise, I would kind ofquestion, I guess, everyone
around them and Beast'sinability to look behind
himself.
We do get a little bit moremention of past campiness, too,
where he throws Mesmero out ofthe wagon.
Everyone's like, oh my god,dude, you're a murderer.
(08:46):
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Definitely not something realMagneto would ever do.
(09:09):
It did kind of pop out ofnowhere.
And there was also a referenceto some adventure that happened
between Magneto and Dr.
Doom and Captain America.
I meant to go and look that up,but honestly, it was over like
several issues and I just didn'thave the time to really dig deep
into the confrontation thatreally prevented Magneto from
(09:30):
showing up earlier.
We'll forgive you this time.
I haven't taken the time tocount all the vehicle explosions
and past issues, so we'll callit even.
We also got to see a bit ofnuance in Magneto's power and
how he was able to I think itwas Storm started creating a
(09:51):
blizzard around Magneto and itreally just supercharged him.
Turned him into a livingsuperconductor.
Right, yeah, because of thebitter cold of this windstorm
that she whipped up, which Inever knew that was a power that
he had.
And the other very brutal scenethat we get is between him and
Sean Cassidy where he turns hisscream back on him.
(10:15):
I was a little bit confusedabout how that worked, but I
assume it all comes back tomagnets eventually.
The rule of cool, baby.
I'm not a scientist, but theredoes seem to be a lot of rule of
cool getting a little bendy withit in this issue.
I mean, in fairness, if anyonedeserves it, it is Magneto.
Yeah, in fairness, I was goingto say it's Magneto, right?
(10:38):
We are being led to believe thathe is amongst the strongest
mutants there are.
Although Phoenix almost did getthe upper hand against him, but
it was the hesitation of JeanGrey that allowed Magneto to
seal the deal and grab the upperhand.
He also turned Wolverine's clawson himself.
(10:58):
And I don't believe he actuallyforced them into him, but he
came pretty close.
Yeah, I think he was justforcing them to his face and
maybe Wolverine retracted themor Magneto retracted them
because, you know, his goalisn't dead X-Men, it's baby
X-Men.
Yeah, the scene kind of looks asthough we see the Snikt taking
(11:22):
place and...
Wolverine punches himself in theface, basically, is kind of what
it looks like.
And no claws are seen anylonger.
I do love the panel right beforethat with Wolverine with the
tiny little beady eyes.
He can't believe it, right?
Which is surprising because thisis now his second confrontation
with Magneto.
And there's now a history of himbeing able to control the metal,
(11:45):
you know, and that's most ofWolverine.
And the same could be said withPeter.
He was rushing over at him likehe wasn't made of metal.
And one would assume at thispoint, Scott keeps them
practicing in the danger roomconstantly.
That's been established.
There's no chance that theyhaven't trained for specifically
fighting Magneto.
(12:06):
That's a very good point becauseScott is prepared, if nothing
else.
He's a boy scout.
As we see him here, right?
Like he is ready as much as onecan be to at least try and take
on Magneto on his terms.
But.
At the end of the day, it willprove beneficial.
(12:26):
Just not yet.
Not in this issue anyways.
We're getting into issue 113territory, but I do really like
the juxtaposition between howthings go in this issue and how
things go in the next one where,spoilers, but, you know, the
turns are tabled and the X-Meninstead prepare and plan ahead
(12:50):
and are able to coordinateand...
Magneto instead has to be theone reacting to them.
And we also see Jean Grey, Ithink, really submit to Phoenix,
but we can get more into thatwhen we get into the next issue.
Overall, I really, really likethis book.
As a standalone story, I wouldprobably give this like a 10.
(13:14):
I also recognize that we justspent a bit of time kind of
poking at it, but that's uslike, Digging deep here.
It's fun to poke.
At an enjoyment level, it'severything I would want in a
book.
It's serious enough to carrythings over and bring us a
relatively good arching storyover the next little arc.
(13:35):
I didn't prepare a score, butwe'll call it a nine.
Gotta just go with your heart inthe moment, man.
There's no planning involved.
Needed more cats.
I mean, Beast was there.
He's basically like a cat.
Almost.
Not yet.
Yeah, not yet.
He's got a couple more years togo.
At the start of issue 113, wesee that Magneto has been busy
(13:56):
since the X-Men's defeat and hasbeen raiding research complexes
in Australia and New Zealand.
His attacks have gone unopposedas the Fantastic Four and
Champions have disbanded and theAvengers are under house arrest.
We see Xavier and Lalandra onvacation in Greece.
but Xavier is troubled by thelack of his telepathic rapport
(14:18):
with his students.
The X-Men are still locked intheir bodies, but after a couple
attempts, Storm is able to freeherself and the others by using
a hidden lockpick.
When Magneto returned to hisbase, the X-Men sprung an
ambush, now with a lot morecoordination.
By linking the teamtelepathically via Jean Grey,
Cyclops is able to orchestratetheir attack much better.
(14:40):
Phoenix accidentally destroysthe main control console in the
fight, however, and the basestarts coming down around them.
Gene and Beast get separatedfrom the others, Magneto escapes
by flying to safety, and theremaining X-Men are left behind
as the roof collapses andVolcano explodes.
Beast attempts to carry Gene tosafety, but is soon overcome by
(15:01):
the blizzard and collapses.
So I thought this was anotherawesome issue.
and a great follow-up to 112.
Like I said, I really like thatit built on Cyclops and the
team's failure to work as ateam, and we got to see the
other side of the coin with themmaking the plan, being
(15:22):
coordinated, having Magnetoreact to them instead, and I
really liked that it showcasedhow adding a telepath, whether
it's Jean or someone else, issuch an invaluable addition and
a strategy that really becomes amainstay of the X-Men going
forward in a lot of cases andpossibly was frequently used
(15:45):
previously before Claremont'srun.
Yeah, it really felt like theywere a team, right?
Scott being able to call theshots, Jeans providing them with
a means of communication thatdon't give their tactics away to
Magneto.
really gives them the upperhand.
And I felt like Gene is reallybeginning to take control of
(16:11):
Phoenix or vice versa.
I guess we'll have to wait andsee who's really in control.
But there's a lot of funelements to this.
Apparently, it's not a very goodtime to be a superhero is what
we learn at the beginning ofthis issue.
I am a little curious aboutwhat's all going on and why the
Avengers are on house arrest,but I wasn't curious enough to
(16:34):
look it up.
So I don't know why the Avengersare on house arrest, but we do
get the name of another group,the Champions.
If I gave you five guesses, doyou think you can take a shot in
the dark at the five members whoare on this team?
And I will give you a hint.
I'll actually give you twohints.
Two of the members are formerX-Men, and one of the members is
(16:59):
a former Avenger.
Although I don't know if they'vebeen a former Avenger at this
point.
Well, if it's former X-Men, arewe talking Iceman and Angel?
You got it.
Nice.
So now we know where they'vebeen.
Yep.
So they've been hooked up withthis team.
Which also consists of GhostRider.
(17:20):
Okay.
Interesting.
Hercules.
Another one I would not haveguessed.
And Black Widow.
It's hard to think of BlackWidow not being on the Avengers,
but I don't think I would haveguessed the rest of those.
I'm very curious to know howthis group came to be,
specifically with Angel andIceman being on the team.
(17:40):
But I guess as we learn, theyare no more.
After what must have been a verybrief time together.
Yeah, I guess so.
The Fantastic Four have alsodisbanded, which must have been
a pretty big deal at the time,considering the Fantastic Four
were like the first family ofMarvel.
That one, I guess I'm moreinterested in knowing what
happened versus why the Avengersare on house arrest.
(18:04):
Yeah, because that's probablyjust for like some one-off story
that's taking place at themoment.
But I think really fun to kindof see the overarching universe
leading in in this way wherethere's like the shared
continuity amongst the stories,which I don't think we've really
necessarily seen too much ofthat at this point, where it's
been weaved in in this way.
Like we've seen references toother books.
(18:26):
That guy hits like the ironfist.
Yeah, right?
Which is fun.
But it's nice to kind of see,you know, more of this being
incorporated into the story.
What did you think aboutMagneto's baby plan falling
apart?
It's interesting that he arrivedand came to that conclusion
(18:47):
himself, but was still surprisedand not prepared for the X-Men's
attack.
I thought that was a nice touchof Magneto's not an idiot.
He arrives, he knows something'sup.
tries to play it off like, oh,Nanny, what's wrong?
I thought I built you betterthan this.
But even with all that, he'sstill not prepared for the plan
(19:09):
that the X-Men put together.
Did you think Magneto was smartenough to make a robot?
Like, he's not ever reallyportrayed, at least in modern
day comics, he's not reallyportrayed as like a roboticist
or a scientist.
I'm assuming that this is...
a wholesale situation wherethere's a lot of robots that
(19:29):
these evil people can buy theydon't have to be the most tech
savvy to set it up but he buys arobot in a box like you could go
to sears and buy a house in abox and just assembles it
himself and teaches it to be aloving mother and i guess just
has it run loose i think that'sjust something that all the
(19:49):
villains were really good atback then, building robots.
Yeah.
Maybe somebody had it in aclassified section of a
newspaper, you know.
Evil robot for sale.
Can be trained to take care ofchildren.
Wears French maid outfit forreasons.
I mean, whatever.
It's fun.
It's stupid.
It's campy.
(20:10):
It works here.
There's a hilarious scene of therobot force-feeding Wolverine
soup or some other sort ofliquidy thing.
And brushing Beast.
Yeah, and brushing Beast.
I do like all of those.
It looks like she's givingCyclops a bath and a massage.
Dude needs a massage.
It's very funny.
And then we get to see Storm'shistory of lockpicking come in
(20:31):
again, which is wonderful tosee.
We know from the previous issuesthat we've read that Storm grew
up on the streets of Cairo.
She learned how to be a masterlockpick and thief.
And we see her pull off thisneedle that is in her headpiece
(20:52):
and grab it in her mouth andthen she's trying to lockpick
these very complex lookingshackles that for some reason
have an actual hole to lockpickas if a key goes in there.
Well, you have to be able tounlock it and open them up.
Why?
Magneto just can undo it withmutant power.
(21:14):
You're thinking about this toomuch.
Stop it.
Stop it.
I'm not overthinking this.
It makes no sense.
I mean, yeah, it makes no sense,but maybe Nanny needs to be able
to take them out of their cuffssometimes.
Speaking of not making sense,and...
(21:35):
They have set this up, to befair, a little bit where they
talked about in another pastlook at Storm when she was a
baby.
Her parents were talking like,oh, she can understand us.
She's very aware of hersurroundings.
She knows what we're saying.
She knows the meaning.
It is a lot to have it bebelievable that someone at six
(21:58):
months had the dexterity of asmall child.
Yeah, I mean, we do see herusing her appendages like her
feet.
I don't know why I saidappendages.
That's a very weird way ofputting that.
She uses her feet to unlock asafe in one of these panels.
(22:20):
And then she's also just left ina room tied and bound.
And her mentor basically says,you need to figure your way out
of here or you're not my pupil.
So maybe in her mind, she's justrelying on that knowledge and
we're getting a little bit offudge.
I mean, I'm saying this afterjust, you know, really ripping
into the lockpicking thing here,which, by the way, I think is
(22:41):
really cool.
It's just ridiculous to thinkthat there's a lockpick hole.
It's absolutely ridiculous.
I do love that the means ofescape had nothing to do with
mutant powers being a factor.
And I like that it pulled fromStorm's already established
backstory.
But it's kind of a...
It has plus and minuses, Iguess, to it.
(23:03):
I mean, it's fun.
Whatever.
It is fun.
You're right.
I am probably getting too deepinto this.
It's a lot picking, man.
One thing I will say, though, atthis point, I do feel like...
We have really been focusing inon Storm backstory wise.
And at this point, it's beengoing on for a long time.
I would say we're probably wellover a year, maybe over two
(23:26):
years at this point of Chriswriting the comics.
I think we're maybe overfocusing on Storm, despite how
much I love Storm.
And I would like to see some ofthe other people maybe have a
little bit of their stories comein and given a chance to shine
some.
I don't disagree with you.
That is good perspective tothink about how infrequently
(23:49):
this was being released comparedto how we're consuming it.
So to go two years, for example,if that is the case, that's a
long time, man.
Like, it's not a lot of books,like, very clearly, but that's
still a long time to, if you'rereading this in the moment and
only getting, like, thesebreadcrumbs that, you know, are
coming out.
And I guess that is donedeliberately to keep you coming
(24:11):
back, but...
and I wrote this down in mynotes, it is clear that Storm is
the greatest of the X-Menbecause she's getting all this
time and attention and she'sbeing able to get them out of
these situations repeatedly andends up being the defining
person who is able to get themout of these tricky situations.
(24:32):
And we see it time and time andtime again.
This time it's lockpicking,which, as you said, has nothing
to do with your mutant powers,but we've also seen her being...
the crux of several otherconflicts where she's able to
overcome great odds compared tothe rest of the other members to
get a hold of the situation andthe one thing that really was a
(24:54):
detriment to her which was herclaustrophobia we have seen
incredible growth around andhave actually seen her work on
getting over it so we've alreadyhad like a sort of a full circle
moment for her which iswonderful and like Great
character development.
But I would like to see moreabout Peter and Kurt, like
what's going on in theirbackgrounds.
(25:16):
They're both really cool lookingcharacters.
Now I'm suspending what Iobviously know about them at
this point, but I want to knowmore about them because they're
so interesting.
So give it to me, Chris.
Give me the Nightcrawlerbackstory that we all want to
know.
I'm currently looking at thispanel of all of the members of
the X-Men.
And it's depicting the mind meldthat's kind of happening here.
(25:40):
You can see Jean Grey outlinedin the background in these like
bright yellows and oranges todepict the phoenix.
And it's just really cool seeingthe way that they're
communicating illustrated inthis way.
I do love the drawing.
The one thing that it's veryoff-putting, the teeth are
weird.
(26:00):
You know what?
I actually found that very hardto look at as well.
And honestly, I don't know thatI necessarily saw it on first
look and then I looked down andI can't unsee it now.
Yeah, it's scary.
It's just kind of scary like aninfant's x-ray and you see how
all their teeth are assembledand you realize that your child
is a monster.
I really felt like Magnetoshould have probably just turned
(26:28):
them into literal babies or justhave killed them.
Probably because all of this wasundone.
Yeah, but that's not revenge.
Well, I mean, it is.
It's just not the revenge hewants.
He wants to laud it over them.
He's an eye for an eye, man.
But he's not morally better thanthe X-Men.
(26:48):
I guess maybe that's the pointthat he's trying to make is that
he is.
But on paper, he is not right.
Like he is a villain.
So do it.
Do villain stuff.
Yeah, just eliminate.
Move on.
We did get a really cool fightscene moment with Hank throwing
Kurt so he could knock offMagneto's helmet.
The teleportation was a reallycool use of that team-up power
(27:12):
approach.
I did also like Hank justspinning him around.
I really feel like they'vecaptured Hank's voice so well in
these two issues.
From Magneto's perspective, hemust just be so annoying.
But...
He's off there spinning around,going round and round he goes,
bon voyage, and throws Kurt athim.
(27:32):
I was familiar with Beast havingvarious quirky catchphrases,
like he's very famously knownfor saying, oh my stars and
garters.
I used to have an X-Men toy thathad little sound bites, probably
from the TV show.
You would press on theirportrait and they would just say
it.
And I would just sit therepressing on Beast over and over
(27:53):
and he'd just go indubitably,indubitably, indubitably.
I didn't realize that he was sofast with the one-liners, like
beyond the Stars and Gartersline.
He does seem to like to jokearound a little bit.
and have a little bit of arapport with Magneto, or Maggie,
as he calls him several timesover the last two issues.
(28:17):
Which may, how much does drivehim crazy?
I noticed that some of theothers started that too.
Like, I think there's a pointwhere Wolverine also calls him
Maggie.
So I think it's, you know, it'sstarting to stick.
It is funny seeing Magneto justkind of dip.
He just is like, okay, well,this isn't working out for me
anymore.
Yeah.
(28:37):
I'm just going to let them burnin my base, I guess.
And then we see a few membersescape, right?
Yeah, at the end of the issue,we see Jean and Beast.
We saw them get separated.
Jean's able to sort of blastthem out, get them to not safety
because they're in the middle ofa blizzard, but they are free
(28:57):
from the volcano.
And it says Beast doesn't last100 yards before the two of them
collapse.
If I didn't know better, likereading these final panels of
them in Antarctica in thisblizzard and beast is carrying
gene.
And even the way that Chris kindof wrote the last piece of
(29:18):
dialogue, I'm, you know, rest,rest for a minute.
Then I will lie down and closemy eyes.
Just, for a minute it's so coldhow come I don't feel anything
like it leaves just enough of ataste of are they done for like
is this just you know the way Iread it was man they could like
these could legit be done hereyou know the way it's written is
(29:42):
how I imagine somebody in thoselike very exhausting and
difficult situations just youknow they just try to rest they
take they close their eyes andAnd that's how it happens, man.
It's so sad.
But that's how it happened.
So it's okay.
And instead of issue 114,instead we get issue 114 and
(30:05):
this really awesome opening pageof Beast covered in snow, head
to toe, holding Jean.
And it looks awesome.
Like he's just burying it.
He's just burying the blizzard.
It's so cool looking.
big cover for that comic toowith Banshee, Nightcrawler,
Storm, Cyclops, Colossus,Wolverine, all ghosts behind a
(30:30):
group like as a ghostly figuresbehind a grieving Professor X,
Beast, and Jean.
Yeah, I certainly have a lot ofquestions around some of the
elements in this next book.
So why don't you kick us offwith a quick rundown?
Issue 114 shows us that Beastwas able to summon enough energy
to continue carrying himself andJean.
(30:52):
Luckily for him, they stumbleacross a helicopter, and Jean
summons up a Phoenix light showto catch their attention.
Jean is interested in saving theX-Men, but a tearful Beast tells
her that they're dead.
Thankfully, on the next page, wesee that's not quite the case.
The rest of the team, Cyclops,Colossus, Nightcrawler,
Wolverine, Banshee, and Stormtunneled through the mountain
(31:14):
but found themselves in a verydifferent climate.
The X-Men emerged in the SavageLands, a prehistoric jungle
hidden from the rest of theworld in the middle of
Antarctica.
While flying, Banshee iscaptured by a giant pterosaur,
but a fastball special helpsWolverine to free him.
Behind some bushes, we see oneof the residents of the Savage
(31:36):
Land surprised to see Cyclops,who he is previously acquainted
with.
He senses that they're mutantsand says that's precisely what
he needs.
We take a short break away fromthe Savage Land and see Hank and
Jean safely return toWestchester, where she breaks
the news to Charles Xavier thatthe rest of the X-Men are dead.
(31:56):
On the other side of the world,the X-Men believe Gene and Beast
suffered the same fate.
Cyclops orders rest andrelaxation for everyone, but
says they'll be pulling outsoon.
Scott is stewing in his failure,but he is also concerned that
his heart isn't broken at theloss of Gene and Hank.
He shaves into a fine piraticalmustache, as he calls it, and
(32:19):
notices some strikingsimilarities between himself and
Corsair.
Scott sees memories of hischildhood, him and Alex falling
with fire all around them.
He sees Corsair and a sobbingwoman who pushes them out a
plane escape hatch, but aninterruption from Storm causes
them to fade back.
(32:39):
Storm is hoping to share hergrief over Jean with Scott, but
is disappointed to learn thatScott is only in mourning over
Hank.
Unlike Scott, Wolverine is inmourning and wishes he could
have told Jean his real name.
He turns down Peter's invitationto hang with a couple of local
women on their, quote, specialisland.
Storm goes for a swim, butsomeone has stalked her.
(33:04):
He sneaks up and attempts todrain some of her life energy,
but the overwhelming powertransforms him.
A scream and a lightning boltcauses the X-Men to rush to her
aid, but when they arrive, theysee Sauron.
Human Pteranodon, Pteranodon,Pteranodon.
Human Pteranodon hybrid, whoseCyclops says should be dead.
(33:27):
Sauron, famous for not wantingto cure cancer and wants to only
turn people into dinosaurs.
Yeah.
I mean, he's cool in thissetting, I guess, because, you
know, it's the Savage Lands anddinosaurs.
He's like an energy vampire iswhat he is.
He just also happens to turninto a human pterodon.
(33:48):
He's an energy vampire and awerewolf-esque thing.
He does it all.
He only turns into the pterodonform, I believe, when he
consumes the energy of mutant.
I think that's correct.
But regardless, cool to see himat the very end.
I'm interested to kind of seewhat this means going forward.
(34:11):
There are some high points and Ithink some low points in this
issue.
What did you see as, I guess,some of the highs and some of
the lows?
Okay, well, I'm just going tostart with one of the biggest
lows, and it's frankly how noone knows that they're alive,
right?
Like, we see Gene kind ofsensing them in Antarctica, and
(34:34):
Hank, who's an incrediblyintelligent person, is an
absolute idiot.
and convinces her that they'redead.
There's no way she could besensing them.
It's even more bizarre thatCharles can't sense them.
They are no longer below aninsulated area that Magneto has
built and could conceivably havebuilt it in a way that prevented
(34:58):
Charles from penetrating it withhis mind.
There might be something specialabout the Savage Land, though.
It is a warm jungle in thecenter of Antarctica, so there's
something weird going on there.
I think potentially there couldbe some sort of block where that
mental scanning, that mentaltransmission doesn't really work
(35:20):
out.
You could very well be correct.
The thing that is...
Another problem here is that theX-Men have been to the Savage
Land before.
This is not like this might bethis group's first time, but
it's not the X-Men's first time.
So there is a history here thatcould lead them to at least
ponder the question.
Could they have gone to theSavage Land?
(35:40):
Is that a thing?
Could they have done that?
You know, could they havesomehow escaped and just tried
to check the Savage Lands as anoption?
It just feels like we'reignoring this deliberately to
just have them be in the SavageLands and have this plot with
Sauron.
So it's fine, but not myfavorite.
I just felt like we'resuspending their powers here to
(36:02):
kind of feed into this idea thatthey're dead.
Sure.
I didn't have the same...
to what happened at the end ofthe last issue.
I didn't take away from thatthat Jean was sensing them in
some way.
I thought that was just she wokeup and was like, I have to save
them because she thought she wasstill there and hadn't been
(36:23):
walked all over the place byBeast, but not sure.
I mean, yeah, I may very well betaking it a little too
literally, but I do feel likethere's a bit of leap happening
here to get us from point A topoint B.
Was there anything that stuckout to you from a low point
perspective?
I don't know.
I actually liked this issue.
(36:44):
I don't really have anythingthat necessarily was like, this
is a low point.
I thought it was really, Ithought that they've really
nailed down when to let thestory breathe a little.
And we had two big action booksback to back.
And now we're taking anotherpause.
We're able to check in on whereeveryone is, how they're doing.
It feels like to me that we've,fully transition into this being
(37:10):
a cohesive story versus maybe atthe start it was more a
collection of stories of here'swhat happened this month and
then here's what happened twomonths later.
I actually agree with all ofwhat you said, minus my gripes
that I had.
This does feel like a cohesivestory.
I actually really liked a lot ofthe character growth that we had
(37:33):
in this book.
We see Logan suffering thisheartache.
And it's really put intoperspective because Scott is
questioning why he doesn't feelthe same way Logan does.
And part of this might actuallybe, well, Scott isn't feeling
grief because maybe deep down heknows that Jean's still alive,
right?
Maybe he just knows.
(37:54):
And because he isn't reallyprocessing it in a logical way,
he's having this questioning of,Like, why do I not feel this?
Why am I not sad that she'sgone?
That's one thing that I'm reallyinterested in seeing how it
resolves.
Like, what exactly is going onhere?
Is Scott in shock?
(38:16):
Is he mentally avoiding thereality of his situation?
Does he not love Jean?
You know, mainly he probablyjust needs a therapist.
He needs to work this out.
But I'm interested in seeingwhat does this eventual reunion
of Jean and Scott look like?
My personal opinion of it is, Ithink Scott, especially after
(38:38):
the conversation with Storm,where Storm is basically like,
Jean is growing up, man, and youcan either grow up with her, but
she is not the girl that sheused to be.
She is a strong woman who hasgone through a ton of stuff, and
she may have changed, but she'sstill Jean, and you can either
accept that or not.
(38:58):
you can continue to kind ofwallow and think that you've
lost this girl that you were inlove with when you were, you
know, a teenager.
Yeah, in my notes, I wrote downScott and Storm interaction,
parentheses, she murders himwith words.
I mean, that is essentially whathappened, but I think it was a
(39:19):
very important truth bomb thathe needed to hear.
Absolutely.
He's essentially grieving thismemory of Jean of how she used
to be, and we've seen him overthe last couple of issues really
kind of coming to terms withthis idea that, okay, things are
not as they used to be.
Like, what's going on here?
Like, you know, things used tobe so smooth between Jean and I,
(39:41):
and now I don't even feel likewe're together anymore.
I said this last time, talk toyour partner, man.
Like, I know he hasn't had theopportunity.
I'm assuming there's been sometime to talk that we haven't
seen.
Well, they were kidnapped and ina circus for who knows how long.
There was dust all over themansion.
I don't know.
All I'm saying is that a lot ofthese issues can be resolved by
(40:05):
having a simple conversation.
My hope is that this is going toresult with Scott letting her
go, admitting that things aredifferent now.
Like, you can still lovesomebody, but have to walk away
and let them figure out whatthey need to figure out.
So that's my hope.
And at the same time, I hopethat Logan and Gene get
(40:28):
together.
I want to stand thatrelationship, man.
I think Scott and Gene willprobably just talk it out
eventually.
They need a big fight orsomething, but I don't know.
We also get this revelation ofScott coming to this conclusion
that Corsair is his father,which it simply took him getting
(40:49):
a mustache to make thatconnection.
A mustache can do wonders for aman.
And I think we end with himkeeping it, huh?
Looking at where the issue ends,he does take the time, hopefully
before Storm cries out, notafter, to finish shaving and
suits up.
(41:09):
So, R.A.P.
Scott's mustache.
I mean, it's very funny thatScott has so much stubble
already.
He has this big 5 o'clock shadowthat required him to shave.
But then you look at Wolverine,who is as hairy as he should be,
but his face is the same.
Well, maybe he's been shaving,though.
(41:31):
I mean, I guess he hasessentially a razor built into
his hand.
He's been doing a lot of upkeep.
He's sewing his uniform.
He's sewing his uniform.
And this is all after, by theway, which we totally jumped
over.
My apologies.
this awesome fight scene thatthe X-Men get into with a giant
pterodon, and we see Peterfastball special Wolverine at
(41:56):
the pterosaur, and he justcarves it up in the air.
And it is probably the coolestthing that we've seen Wolverine
kill at this point.
Probably the only thing,probably, that we've seen him
kill, but very awesome.
He even says that it's been awhile since he's been able to...
cut loose and really just carvesomething up.
(42:18):
So it's nice that he was able toget some of that anger out, I
guess.
He was just a baby, essentially,for who knows how long, being
force-fed mush by Nanny.
So I, too, can relate toWolverine's frustration.
And I hope that Peter can have alovely time off at the special
island.
(42:39):
Yeah, with these...
Yeah, Peter's really makinghimself at home.
Yeah.
Well, and so is Storm.
She's having the time of herlife until, you know, she gets
zapped by Sauron.
She talks at length about howwonderful the Savage Lands are
and how it reminds her of homeand the fresh air that she
doesn't get living in New Yorkwith the X-Men.
(43:01):
Doesn't stink like New York.
Sorry, New Yorkers.
Their words, not ours.
Yeah.
Quote, open sewer.
I don't know what that means,but there you go.
Storm lives there.
She must know.
All in all, I will say this hasbeen a very fun three issues.
I am interested to see whathappens with the Sauron arc as
(43:23):
I've never really read anythingwith him as like a focal
villain.
So I'm interested to kind of seewhat that plays out as.
I really kind of just know himfrom the meme of not wanting to
cure cancer.
It's a good meme.
It is very good.
So I'm excited to kind of seehim play out what this means.
Maybe we'll get some moredinosaurs, which I love.
(43:43):
And I guess what is next?
Because to me, this is us comingdown from the story with them
being kidnapped and Magneto andall that.
And I really want to see wherethis is about to go beyond
Sauron.
So give it to me, Chris.
And give me some Nightcrawlerbackstory, man.
I want it.
(44:04):
I know it's possible.
Just give us some more love ofthe other characters.
So what do you have for a scoreout of 10 for looking at these
three as a whole?
I'm already on record giving thefirst issue a 10.
So I think I would probably giveoverall a 9, despite what I've
complained about this lastissue.
(44:25):
But overall, everything has beenreally fun.
It's been what I would have cometo expect from a comic book.
And as you said, it's reallynice seeing this continued story
play out where everything feelscohesive and meaningful.
Because I wasn't sure how thingswere going to go coming out of
the circus situation and to seeit meld directly into the next
(44:49):
story piece.
And that story piece being a 10out of 10 in my book really
makes every issue feelmeaningful.
So even while, you know, I mighthave a complaint here or there
with this latest issue withSauron, it makes me at least
hopeful that regardless of theproblems I'm personally
experiencing, those can berectified with meaningful
(45:13):
storytelling in the next issueor the issue after that.
And it will all make sense andbe for something.
So that's my hope.
Let's keep the momentum goingforward and hopefully we're
going to get some more 10 out of10 issues.
What would you give it?
Yeah, so I thought it was a verysolid three issues.
I think we're in an interestingplace where Gene, Beast, Xavier,
(45:34):
they think the X-Men are dead.
The rest of the team thinks thatGene and Beast are dead.
Really interested in seeing whatthat reunion looks like.
And I hope that going forwarduntil we get there, we continue
to get perspectives and storiesfrom both groups.
To me, it felt like a reallywell-earned partial victory for
(45:55):
the X-Men over Magneto versusjust they win because plot kind
of a moment.
We had the two issues of bigaction, one that was a little
bit more downtime where we gotto check in on where people are
mentally and emotionally,similar to the first two issues
that we covered last episode,but it still really advanced the
(46:15):
story and provided an immediatesetup for what comes next.
So that said, I'm sitting at 8.5out of 10.
Dude, this might be like ourhighest rated arc that we've
read.
I think so.
But to be fair, two issues withMagneto will do that.
(46:36):
Two issues with Magneto and thenwe're going into Dinosaur Land.
So, I mean, that's a pretty goodsetup for what's to come.
And a reminder to, you know,like this is my first time
reading this and same withIsaac.
So this is all new territory forus.
That does it for this episode ofUncanny Book Club.
Thanks for listening.
And we hope to see you nextepisode where we'll discuss
(46:59):
issues 115 to 117.
Bye.
Bye.
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 it with afriend.
Hello everyone and welcome to Uncanny Book Club.
I'm Isaac Baderspiel and joiningme as always is my co-host Adam
Ward.
Hey everyone.
This is, I have to say man, thisis like the most comic book
comic book I think we've readyet.
Things do get pretty comicbook-y in this three issue
ensemble.
(00:29):
It's everything that I wouldwant in a comic book.
If they were to adapt this intoa movie, I would not be upset
about it.
Maybe this is what the MCU willdo for their upcoming X-Men
movie.
I think it would be veryconfusing to a lot of people.
Just jump straight into thewagon?
Well, maybe we pick it up at thecarnival, you know?
They're just there and Beastshows up trying to figure out
(00:52):
who the X-Men are and everybodyin the audience will recognize
who they are and Beast willstill be confused.
That'll work.
Alright, well, in this podcast,we are exploring Chris
Claremont's legendary X-Men runas we read it for the very first
time.
We hope you'll join us and readalongside, or just stick around
for the discussion.
In our previous episode, theX-Men had some much-needed
(01:15):
downtime, and we witnessed a lotof small moments.
We then saw an attemptedkidnapping as the Canadian
government sent James Hudson,going by Weapon Alpha, to
capture and return Wolverine.
He was defeated, but with atease that the Canadians will be
getting ready for round two.
We also saw Warhawk, aka SecondRate Colossus, break into the
(01:38):
X-Mansion and sabotage theDanger Room to make it the Extra
Danger Room.
The team was able to escape andWarhawk was stopped, but we
don't yet know who sent him onthis mission, or why.
This also led to Jean Greyofficially rejoining the X-Men.
And finally, issue 111 followedBeast as he explored a circus
(02:00):
looking for the X-Men, who hadvanished.
He discovered that Mesmero hadenthralled the X-Men, but was
captured in the process.
Wolverine broke free and helpedfree Gene as well.
As the X-Men confronted Mesmero,however, we saw him fall, and
the team was instead greeted byMagneto.
In this episode, we'll bepicking things up where we left
(02:22):
off with issues 112 through 114.
Issue 112 begins with the X-Menlearning that Magneto has
already sprung his trap.
The circus wagon that they'reall in is miles above the earth,
and they have no means ofescape.
We learn that Magneto visitedthe mansion to confront his
enemies, but found it deserted.
(02:43):
Beast then arrived, and Magnetodecided to just follow him and
get him to do all his legworkfor him.
Magneto tosses Mesmero out ofthe wagon, though controls his
descent so he doesn't die whenhe hits the ground.
The wagon then arrives atMagneto's base, a volcano in
Antarctica.
A battle immediately kicks offonce there's solid ground below
(03:06):
them.
Without the ability to alert theothers, Scott plans to start
things off himself and workeveryone else in as they go.
He attempts this by directingPeter to make his move, but the
X-Men soon all start attackingSolo.
One by one, Magneto handles eachof the X-Men until the whole
squad is defeated, includingPhoenix.
(03:26):
Magneto then reveals hisultimate eye-for-an-eye revenge.
The X-Men are left with theirminds intact, but have the
physical capabilities of asix-month-old.
So Adam, thinking back to ourprevious episode, big tease,
(03:47):
everything's called MagnetoTriumphant.
Do you think this book capturedwhat you were looking for?
I think it exceeded what I wasenvisioning.
I think this ultimately waseverything I wanted and more.
frankly, because when I thinkabout a comic book, right, it's
campy at times, not all thetime, but it can be campy.
(04:09):
It can be very serious.
We have like great fighting inthis book and we have like
Magneto being triumphant as theyso plainly put it at the start
of this book as so infrequentwhen we see meaningful villains
(04:29):
succeed.
And here we have the X-Men beingconfronted by Magneto,
especially after these last fewbooks, right?
Where we had the whole Mesmerocircus situation that really
made no sense and now at leastkind of makes a little bit more
sense, I guess.
I loved it.
I loved everything about it.
I honestly could have spent thisentire episode just talking
(04:51):
about this issue.
What about yourself?
Yeah, I'm of the same mind.
I thought it was an awesomeissue.
I liked that we actually gotanswers to some of those
questions that we were askingourselves the other week where
we were wondering, are we goingto learn, like, why is Mesro
there?
Why is Magneto there now?
(05:12):
Like, what is the story that'sgoing on here?
We got to see a little bit ofthat.
Like you said, just a ton ofaction, a ton of fighting.
And I really liked how itshowcased Magneto really
planning ahead and making hismove.
It really showed him as a dualthreat of, yes, he's an
(05:32):
Omega-level mutant, but he alsohas a very tactical mind, and he
sets everything up in his favor.
You know, he kidnaps them,essentially, and is floating
above the Earth where they can'treadily escape, and he's able to
take them onto his turf where hewants them.
Yeah, he definitely held all thecards in this interaction with
(05:54):
the X-Men, right?
And we see Cyclops...
pretty much is the only one torecognize that this is the case,
right?
It really speaks to Scott'sleadership, especially even in
this fight, right?
Between him and Magneto, it wasone shot to probably really take
a hold of the situation.
And the inexperience of the restof the members in fighting
(06:15):
Magneto specifically, who Scottrecognizes as being this
incredible threat compared toall the other foes the X-Men
have faced to this point.
really speaks to the characterthat is Magneto.
However, in the end, as we'llget to, his overconfidence is
(06:35):
his hubris here, right?
He made all these preparations.
He had this big plan.
I was a baby once, and now,X-Men, I can't turn you into
babies, but I can make you feellike you're a baby as well as I
can.
Speaking of campy like youbrought up earlier, very good.
Very good comic book.
(06:55):
Right?
Motivation for Magneto.
Like, he doesn't want to killthese darn kids that have been
thwarting his plans, or at leastthe team that has been thwarting
his plans.
But it does feel verymustache-twirling villain of,
you will now all be babies.
Even the lava layer, right, addsto the camp.
(07:17):
Like a lava layer belowAntarctica.
An evil base under a volcano.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It was great.
And even them, a bit ofhappenstance, right?
Like he shows up, he can'texecute his plan because the
X-Men aren't actually here.
Charles is missing.
Who shows up?
A beast.
Very lucky.
And he just, he just followsthem all the way to the circus
(07:40):
and figures out immediately,figures out immediately that the
X-Men are now all carnies or atleast carnival attractions.
One would think it would havebeen easier for Beast to figure
that out.
Magneto has met this team justas much as he has.
Magneto's like, why is Banshee acarnival barker?
(08:04):
I also love that the way they'vedrawn this, it's just Magneto,
essentially a mutant terrorist,just walking around in his full
outfit in the public.
I have to imagine that This isjust the way it's being shown to
be like, here he is, and thathe's in a little bit more of a
(08:24):
disguise in actuality.
Otherwise, I would kind ofquestion, I guess, everyone
around them and Beast'sinability to look behind
himself.
We do get a little bit moremention of past campiness, too,
where he throws Mesmero out ofthe wagon.
Everyone's like, oh my god,dude, you're a murderer.
(08:46):
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Definitely not something realMagneto would ever do.
(09:09):
It did kind of pop out ofnowhere.
And there was also a referenceto some adventure that happened
between Magneto and Dr.
Doom and Captain America.
I meant to go and look that up,but honestly, it was over like
several issues and I just didn'thave the time to really dig deep
into the confrontation thatreally prevented Magneto from
(09:30):
showing up earlier.
We'll forgive you this time.
I haven't taken the time tocount all the vehicle explosions
and past issues, so we'll callit even.
We also got to see a bit ofnuance in Magneto's power and
how he was able to I think itwas Storm started creating a
(09:51):
blizzard around Magneto and itreally just supercharged him.
Turned him into a livingsuperconductor.
Right, yeah, because of thebitter cold of this windstorm
that she whipped up, which Inever knew that was a power that
he had.
And the other very brutal scenethat we get is between him and
Sean Cassidy where he turns hisscream back on him.
(10:15):
I was a little bit confusedabout how that worked, but I
assume it all comes back tomagnets eventually.
The rule of cool, baby.
I'm not a scientist, but theredoes seem to be a lot of rule of
cool getting a little bendy withit in this issue.
I mean, in fairness, if anyonedeserves it, it is Magneto.
Yeah, in fairness, I was goingto say it's Magneto, right?
(10:38):
We are being led to believe thathe is amongst the strongest
mutants there are.
Although Phoenix almost did getthe upper hand against him, but
it was the hesitation of JeanGrey that allowed Magneto to
seal the deal and grab the upperhand.
He also turned Wolverine's clawson himself.
(10:58):
And I don't believe he actuallyforced them into him, but he
came pretty close.
Yeah, I think he was justforcing them to his face and
maybe Wolverine retracted themor Magneto retracted them
because, you know, his goalisn't dead X-Men, it's baby
X-Men.
Yeah, the scene kind of looks asthough we see the Snikt taking
(11:22):
place and...
Wolverine punches himself in theface, basically, is kind of what
it looks like.
And no claws are seen anylonger.
I do love the panel right beforethat with Wolverine with the
tiny little beady eyes.
He can't believe it, right?
Which is surprising because thisis now his second confrontation
with Magneto.
And there's now a history of himbeing able to control the metal,
(11:45):
you know, and that's most ofWolverine.
And the same could be said withPeter.
He was rushing over at him likehe wasn't made of metal.
And one would assume at thispoint, Scott keeps them
practicing in the danger roomconstantly.
That's been established.
There's no chance that theyhaven't trained for specifically
fighting Magneto.
(12:06):
That's a very good point becauseScott is prepared, if nothing
else.
He's a boy scout.
As we see him here, right?
Like he is ready as much as onecan be to at least try and take
on Magneto on his terms.
But.
At the end of the day, it willprove beneficial.
(12:26):
Just not yet.
Not in this issue anyways.
We're getting into issue 113territory, but I do really like
the juxtaposition between howthings go in this issue and how
things go in the next one where,spoilers, but, you know, the
turns are tabled and the X-Meninstead prepare and plan ahead
(12:50):
and are able to coordinateand...
Magneto instead has to be theone reacting to them.
And we also see Jean Grey, Ithink, really submit to Phoenix,
but we can get more into thatwhen we get into the next issue.
Overall, I really, really likethis book.
As a standalone story, I wouldprobably give this like a 10.
(13:14):
I also recognize that we justspent a bit of time kind of
poking at it, but that's uslike, Digging deep here.
It's fun to poke.
At an enjoyment level, it'severything I would want in a
book.
It's serious enough to carrythings over and bring us a
relatively good arching storyover the next little arc.
(13:35):
I didn't prepare a score, butwe'll call it a nine.
Gotta just go with your heart inthe moment, man.
There's no planning involved.
Needed more cats.
I mean, Beast was there.
He's basically like a cat.
Almost.
Not yet.
Yeah, not yet.
He's got a couple more years togo.
At the start of issue 113, wesee that Magneto has been busy
(13:56):
since the X-Men's defeat and hasbeen raiding research complexes
in Australia and New Zealand.
His attacks have gone unopposedas the Fantastic Four and
Champions have disbanded and theAvengers are under house arrest.
We see Xavier and Lalandra onvacation in Greece.
but Xavier is troubled by thelack of his telepathic rapport
(14:18):
with his students.
The X-Men are still locked intheir bodies, but after a couple
attempts, Storm is able to freeherself and the others by using
a hidden lockpick.
When Magneto returned to hisbase, the X-Men sprung an
ambush, now with a lot morecoordination.
By linking the teamtelepathically via Jean Grey,
Cyclops is able to orchestratetheir attack much better.
(14:40):
Phoenix accidentally destroysthe main control console in the
fight, however, and the basestarts coming down around them.
Gene and Beast get separatedfrom the others, Magneto escapes
by flying to safety, and theremaining X-Men are left behind
as the roof collapses andVolcano explodes.
Beast attempts to carry Gene tosafety, but is soon overcome by
(15:01):
the blizzard and collapses.
So I thought this was anotherawesome issue.
and a great follow-up to 112.
Like I said, I really like thatit built on Cyclops and the
team's failure to work as ateam, and we got to see the
other side of the coin with themmaking the plan, being
(15:22):
coordinated, having Magnetoreact to them instead, and I
really liked that it showcasedhow adding a telepath, whether
it's Jean or someone else, issuch an invaluable addition and
a strategy that really becomes amainstay of the X-Men going
forward in a lot of cases andpossibly was frequently used
(15:45):
previously before Claremont'srun.
Yeah, it really felt like theywere a team, right?
Scott being able to call theshots, Jeans providing them with
a means of communication thatdon't give their tactics away to
Magneto.
really gives them the upperhand.
And I felt like Gene is reallybeginning to take control of
(16:11):
Phoenix or vice versa.
I guess we'll have to wait andsee who's really in control.
But there's a lot of funelements to this.
Apparently, it's not a very goodtime to be a superhero is what
we learn at the beginning ofthis issue.
I am a little curious aboutwhat's all going on and why the
Avengers are on house arrest,but I wasn't curious enough to
(16:34):
look it up.
So I don't know why the Avengersare on house arrest, but we do
get the name of another group,the Champions.
If I gave you five guesses, doyou think you can take a shot in
the dark at the five members whoare on this team?
And I will give you a hint.
I'll actually give you twohints.
Two of the members are formerX-Men, and one of the members is
(16:59):
a former Avenger.
Although I don't know if they'vebeen a former Avenger at this
point.
Well, if it's former X-Men, arewe talking Iceman and Angel?
You got it.
Nice.
So now we know where they'vebeen.
Yep.
So they've been hooked up withthis team.
Which also consists of GhostRider.
(17:20):
Okay.
Interesting.
Hercules.
Another one I would not haveguessed.
And Black Widow.
It's hard to think of BlackWidow not being on the Avengers,
but I don't think I would haveguessed the rest of those.
I'm very curious to know howthis group came to be,
specifically with Angel andIceman being on the team.
(17:40):
But I guess as we learn, theyare no more.
After what must have been a verybrief time together.
Yeah, I guess so.
The Fantastic Four have alsodisbanded, which must have been
a pretty big deal at the time,considering the Fantastic Four
were like the first family ofMarvel.
That one, I guess I'm moreinterested in knowing what
happened versus why the Avengersare on house arrest.
(18:04):
Yeah, because that's probablyjust for like some one-off story
that's taking place at themoment.
But I think really fun to kindof see the overarching universe
leading in in this way wherethere's like the shared
continuity amongst the stories,which I don't think we've really
necessarily seen too much ofthat at this point, where it's
been weaved in in this way.
Like we've seen references toother books.
(18:26):
That guy hits like the ironfist.
Yeah, right?
Which is fun.
But it's nice to kind of see,you know, more of this being
incorporated into the story.
What did you think aboutMagneto's baby plan falling
apart?
It's interesting that he arrivedand came to that conclusion
(18:47):
himself, but was still surprisedand not prepared for the X-Men's
attack.
I thought that was a nice touchof Magneto's not an idiot.
He arrives, he knows something'sup.
tries to play it off like, oh,Nanny, what's wrong?
I thought I built you betterthan this.
But even with all that, he'sstill not prepared for the plan
(19:09):
that the X-Men put together.
Did you think Magneto was smartenough to make a robot?
Like, he's not ever reallyportrayed, at least in modern
day comics, he's not reallyportrayed as like a roboticist
or a scientist.
I'm assuming that this is...
a wholesale situation wherethere's a lot of robots that
(19:29):
these evil people can buy theydon't have to be the most tech
savvy to set it up but he buys arobot in a box like you could go
to sears and buy a house in abox and just assembles it
himself and teaches it to be aloving mother and i guess just
has it run loose i think that'sjust something that all the
(19:49):
villains were really good atback then, building robots.
Yeah.
Maybe somebody had it in aclassified section of a
newspaper, you know.
Evil robot for sale.
Can be trained to take care ofchildren.
Wears French maid outfit forreasons.
I mean, whatever.
It's fun.
It's stupid.
It's campy.
(20:10):
It works here.
There's a hilarious scene of therobot force-feeding Wolverine
soup or some other sort ofliquidy thing.
And brushing Beast.
Yeah, and brushing Beast.
I do like all of those.
It looks like she's givingCyclops a bath and a massage.
Dude needs a massage.
It's very funny.
And then we get to see Storm'shistory of lockpicking come in
(20:31):
again, which is wonderful tosee.
We know from the previous issuesthat we've read that Storm grew
up on the streets of Cairo.
She learned how to be a masterlockpick and thief.
And we see her pull off thisneedle that is in her headpiece
(20:52):
and grab it in her mouth andthen she's trying to lockpick
these very complex lookingshackles that for some reason
have an actual hole to lockpickas if a key goes in there.
Well, you have to be able tounlock it and open them up.
Why?
Magneto just can undo it withmutant power.
(21:14):
You're thinking about this toomuch.
Stop it.
Stop it.
I'm not overthinking this.
It makes no sense.
I mean, yeah, it makes no sense,but maybe Nanny needs to be able
to take them out of their cuffssometimes.
Speaking of not making sense,and...
(21:35):
They have set this up, to befair, a little bit where they
talked about in another pastlook at Storm when she was a
baby.
Her parents were talking like,oh, she can understand us.
She's very aware of hersurroundings.
She knows what we're saying.
She knows the meaning.
It is a lot to have it bebelievable that someone at six
(21:58):
months had the dexterity of asmall child.
Yeah, I mean, we do see herusing her appendages like her
feet.
I don't know why I saidappendages.
That's a very weird way ofputting that.
She uses her feet to unlock asafe in one of these panels.
(22:20):
And then she's also just left ina room tied and bound.
And her mentor basically says,you need to figure your way out
of here or you're not my pupil.
So maybe in her mind, she's justrelying on that knowledge and
we're getting a little bit offudge.
I mean, I'm saying this afterjust, you know, really ripping
into the lockpicking thing here,which, by the way, I think is
(22:41):
really cool.
It's just ridiculous to thinkthat there's a lockpick hole.
It's absolutely ridiculous.
I do love that the means ofescape had nothing to do with
mutant powers being a factor.
And I like that it pulled fromStorm's already established
backstory.
But it's kind of a...
It has plus and minuses, Iguess, to it.
(23:03):
I mean, it's fun.
Whatever.
It is fun.
You're right.
I am probably getting too deepinto this.
It's a lot picking, man.
One thing I will say, though, atthis point, I do feel like...
We have really been focusing inon Storm backstory wise.
And at this point, it's beengoing on for a long time.
I would say we're probably wellover a year, maybe over two
(23:26):
years at this point of Chriswriting the comics.
I think we're maybe overfocusing on Storm, despite how
much I love Storm.
And I would like to see some ofthe other people maybe have a
little bit of their stories comein and given a chance to shine
some.
I don't disagree with you.
That is good perspective tothink about how infrequently
(23:49):
this was being released comparedto how we're consuming it.
So to go two years, for example,if that is the case, that's a
long time, man.
Like, it's not a lot of books,like, very clearly, but that's
still a long time to, if you'rereading this in the moment and
only getting, like, thesebreadcrumbs that, you know, are
coming out.
And I guess that is donedeliberately to keep you coming
(24:11):
back, but...
and I wrote this down in mynotes, it is clear that Storm is
the greatest of the X-Menbecause she's getting all this
time and attention and she'sbeing able to get them out of
these situations repeatedly andends up being the defining
person who is able to get themout of these tricky situations.
(24:32):
And we see it time and time andtime again.
This time it's lockpicking,which, as you said, has nothing
to do with your mutant powers,but we've also seen her being...
the crux of several otherconflicts where she's able to
overcome great odds compared tothe rest of the other members to
get a hold of the situation andthe one thing that really was a
(24:54):
detriment to her which was herclaustrophobia we have seen
incredible growth around andhave actually seen her work on
getting over it so we've alreadyhad like a sort of a full circle
moment for her which iswonderful and like Great
character development.
But I would like to see moreabout Peter and Kurt, like
what's going on in theirbackgrounds.
(25:16):
They're both really cool lookingcharacters.
Now I'm suspending what Iobviously know about them at
this point, but I want to knowmore about them because they're
so interesting.
So give it to me, Chris.
Give me the Nightcrawlerbackstory that we all want to
know.
I'm currently looking at thispanel of all of the members of
the X-Men.
And it's depicting the mind meldthat's kind of happening here.
(25:40):
You can see Jean Grey outlinedin the background in these like
bright yellows and oranges todepict the phoenix.
And it's just really cool seeingthe way that they're
communicating illustrated inthis way.
I do love the drawing.
The one thing that it's veryoff-putting, the teeth are
weird.
(26:00):
You know what?
I actually found that very hardto look at as well.
And honestly, I don't know thatI necessarily saw it on first
look and then I looked down andI can't unsee it now.
Yeah, it's scary.
It's just kind of scary like aninfant's x-ray and you see how
all their teeth are assembledand you realize that your child
is a monster.
I really felt like Magnetoshould have probably just turned
(26:28):
them into literal babies or justhave killed them.
Probably because all of this wasundone.
Yeah, but that's not revenge.
Well, I mean, it is.
It's just not the revenge hewants.
He wants to laud it over them.
He's an eye for an eye, man.
But he's not morally better thanthe X-Men.
(26:48):
I guess maybe that's the pointthat he's trying to make is that
he is.
But on paper, he is not right.
Like he is a villain.
So do it.
Do villain stuff.
Yeah, just eliminate.
Move on.
We did get a really cool fightscene moment with Hank throwing
Kurt so he could knock offMagneto's helmet.
The teleportation was a reallycool use of that team-up power
(27:12):
approach.
I did also like Hank justspinning him around.
I really feel like they'vecaptured Hank's voice so well in
these two issues.
From Magneto's perspective, hemust just be so annoying.
But...
He's off there spinning around,going round and round he goes,
bon voyage, and throws Kurt athim.
(27:32):
I was familiar with Beast havingvarious quirky catchphrases,
like he's very famously knownfor saying, oh my stars and
garters.
I used to have an X-Men toy thathad little sound bites, probably
from the TV show.
You would press on theirportrait and they would just say
it.
And I would just sit therepressing on Beast over and over
(27:53):
and he'd just go indubitably,indubitably, indubitably.
I didn't realize that he was sofast with the one-liners, like
beyond the Stars and Gartersline.
He does seem to like to jokearound a little bit.
and have a little bit of arapport with Magneto, or Maggie,
as he calls him several timesover the last two issues.
(28:17):
Which may, how much does drivehim crazy?
I noticed that some of theothers started that too.
Like, I think there's a pointwhere Wolverine also calls him
Maggie.
So I think it's, you know, it'sstarting to stick.
It is funny seeing Magneto justkind of dip.
He just is like, okay, well,this isn't working out for me
anymore.
Yeah.
(28:37):
I'm just going to let them burnin my base, I guess.
And then we see a few membersescape, right?
Yeah, at the end of the issue,we see Jean and Beast.
We saw them get separated.
Jean's able to sort of blastthem out, get them to not safety
because they're in the middle ofa blizzard, but they are free
(28:57):
from the volcano.
And it says Beast doesn't last100 yards before the two of them
collapse.
If I didn't know better, likereading these final panels of
them in Antarctica in thisblizzard and beast is carrying
gene.
And even the way that Chris kindof wrote the last piece of
(29:18):
dialogue, I'm, you know, rest,rest for a minute.
Then I will lie down and closemy eyes.
Just, for a minute it's so coldhow come I don't feel anything
like it leaves just enough of ataste of are they done for like
is this just you know the way Iread it was man they could like
these could legit be done hereyou know the way it's written is
(29:42):
how I imagine somebody in thoselike very exhausting and
difficult situations just youknow they just try to rest they
take they close their eyes andAnd that's how it happens, man.
It's so sad.
But that's how it happened.
So it's okay.
And instead of issue 114,instead we get issue 114 and
(30:05):
this really awesome opening pageof Beast covered in snow, head
to toe, holding Jean.
And it looks awesome.
Like he's just burying it.
He's just burying the blizzard.
It's so cool looking.
big cover for that comic toowith Banshee, Nightcrawler,
Storm, Cyclops, Colossus,Wolverine, all ghosts behind a
(30:30):
group like as a ghostly figuresbehind a grieving Professor X,
Beast, and Jean.
Yeah, I certainly have a lot ofquestions around some of the
elements in this next book.
So why don't you kick us offwith a quick rundown?
Issue 114 shows us that Beastwas able to summon enough energy
to continue carrying himself andJean.
(30:52):
Luckily for him, they stumbleacross a helicopter, and Jean
summons up a Phoenix light showto catch their attention.
Jean is interested in saving theX-Men, but a tearful Beast tells
her that they're dead.
Thankfully, on the next page, wesee that's not quite the case.
The rest of the team, Cyclops,Colossus, Nightcrawler,
Wolverine, Banshee, and Stormtunneled through the mountain
(31:14):
but found themselves in a verydifferent climate.
The X-Men emerged in the SavageLands, a prehistoric jungle
hidden from the rest of theworld in the middle of
Antarctica.
While flying, Banshee iscaptured by a giant pterosaur,
but a fastball special helpsWolverine to free him.
Behind some bushes, we see oneof the residents of the Savage
(31:36):
Land surprised to see Cyclops,who he is previously acquainted
with.
He senses that they're mutantsand says that's precisely what
he needs.
We take a short break away fromthe Savage Land and see Hank and
Jean safely return toWestchester, where she breaks
the news to Charles Xavier thatthe rest of the X-Men are dead.
(31:56):
On the other side of the world,the X-Men believe Gene and Beast
suffered the same fate.
Cyclops orders rest andrelaxation for everyone, but
says they'll be pulling outsoon.
Scott is stewing in his failure,but he is also concerned that
his heart isn't broken at theloss of Gene and Hank.
He shaves into a fine piraticalmustache, as he calls it, and
(32:19):
notices some strikingsimilarities between himself and
Corsair.
Scott sees memories of hischildhood, him and Alex falling
with fire all around them.
He sees Corsair and a sobbingwoman who pushes them out a
plane escape hatch, but aninterruption from Storm causes
them to fade back.
(32:39):
Storm is hoping to share hergrief over Jean with Scott, but
is disappointed to learn thatScott is only in mourning over
Hank.
Unlike Scott, Wolverine is inmourning and wishes he could
have told Jean his real name.
He turns down Peter's invitationto hang with a couple of local
women on their, quote, specialisland.
Storm goes for a swim, butsomeone has stalked her.
(33:04):
He sneaks up and attempts todrain some of her life energy,
but the overwhelming powertransforms him.
A scream and a lightning boltcauses the X-Men to rush to her
aid, but when they arrive, theysee Sauron.
Human Pteranodon, Pteranodon,Pteranodon.
Human Pteranodon hybrid, whoseCyclops says should be dead.
(33:27):
Sauron, famous for not wantingto cure cancer and wants to only
turn people into dinosaurs.
Yeah.
I mean, he's cool in thissetting, I guess, because, you
know, it's the Savage Lands anddinosaurs.
He's like an energy vampire iswhat he is.
He just also happens to turninto a human pterodon.
(33:48):
He's an energy vampire and awerewolf-esque thing.
He does it all.
He only turns into the pterodonform, I believe, when he
consumes the energy of mutant.
I think that's correct.
But regardless, cool to see himat the very end.
I'm interested to kind of seewhat this means going forward.
(34:11):
There are some high points and Ithink some low points in this
issue.
What did you see as, I guess,some of the highs and some of
the lows?
Okay, well, I'm just going tostart with one of the biggest
lows, and it's frankly how noone knows that they're alive,
right?
Like, we see Gene kind ofsensing them in Antarctica, and
(34:34):
Hank, who's an incrediblyintelligent person, is an
absolute idiot.
and convinces her that they'redead.
There's no way she could besensing them.
It's even more bizarre thatCharles can't sense them.
They are no longer below aninsulated area that Magneto has
built and could conceivably havebuilt it in a way that prevented
(34:58):
Charles from penetrating it withhis mind.
There might be something specialabout the Savage Land, though.
It is a warm jungle in thecenter of Antarctica, so there's
something weird going on there.
I think potentially there couldbe some sort of block where that
mental scanning, that mentaltransmission doesn't really work
(35:20):
out.
You could very well be correct.
The thing that is...
Another problem here is that theX-Men have been to the Savage
Land before.
This is not like this might bethis group's first time, but
it's not the X-Men's first time.
So there is a history here thatcould lead them to at least
ponder the question.
Could they have gone to theSavage Land?
(35:40):
Is that a thing?
Could they have done that?
You know, could they havesomehow escaped and just tried
to check the Savage Lands as anoption?
It just feels like we'reignoring this deliberately to
just have them be in the SavageLands and have this plot with
Sauron.
So it's fine, but not myfavorite.
I just felt like we'resuspending their powers here to
(36:02):
kind of feed into this idea thatthey're dead.
Sure.
I didn't have the same...
to what happened at the end ofthe last issue.
I didn't take away from thatthat Jean was sensing them in
some way.
I thought that was just she wokeup and was like, I have to save
them because she thought she wasstill there and hadn't been
(36:23):
walked all over the place byBeast, but not sure.
I mean, yeah, I may very well betaking it a little too
literally, but I do feel likethere's a bit of leap happening
here to get us from point A topoint B.
Was there anything that stuckout to you from a low point
perspective?
I don't know.
I actually liked this issue.
(36:44):
I don't really have anythingthat necessarily was like, this
is a low point.
I thought it was really, Ithought that they've really
nailed down when to let thestory breathe a little.
And we had two big action booksback to back.
And now we're taking anotherpause.
We're able to check in on whereeveryone is, how they're doing.
It feels like to me that we've,fully transition into this being
(37:10):
a cohesive story versus maybe atthe start it was more a
collection of stories of here'swhat happened this month and
then here's what happened twomonths later.
I actually agree with all ofwhat you said, minus my gripes
that I had.
This does feel like a cohesivestory.
I actually really liked a lot ofthe character growth that we had
(37:33):
in this book.
We see Logan suffering thisheartache.
And it's really put intoperspective because Scott is
questioning why he doesn't feelthe same way Logan does.
And part of this might actuallybe, well, Scott isn't feeling
grief because maybe deep down heknows that Jean's still alive,
right?
Maybe he just knows.
(37:54):
And because he isn't reallyprocessing it in a logical way,
he's having this questioning of,Like, why do I not feel this?
Why am I not sad that she'sgone?
That's one thing that I'm reallyinterested in seeing how it
resolves.
Like, what exactly is going onhere?
Is Scott in shock?
(38:16):
Is he mentally avoiding thereality of his situation?
Does he not love Jean?
You know, mainly he probablyjust needs a therapist.
He needs to work this out.
But I'm interested in seeingwhat does this eventual reunion
of Jean and Scott look like?
My personal opinion of it is, Ithink Scott, especially after
(38:38):
the conversation with Storm,where Storm is basically like,
Jean is growing up, man, and youcan either grow up with her, but
she is not the girl that sheused to be.
She is a strong woman who hasgone through a ton of stuff, and
she may have changed, but she'sstill Jean, and you can either
accept that or not.
(38:58):
you can continue to kind ofwallow and think that you've
lost this girl that you were inlove with when you were, you
know, a teenager.
Yeah, in my notes, I wrote downScott and Storm interaction,
parentheses, she murders himwith words.
I mean, that is essentially whathappened, but I think it was a
(39:19):
very important truth bomb thathe needed to hear.
Absolutely.
He's essentially grieving thismemory of Jean of how she used
to be, and we've seen him overthe last couple of issues really
kind of coming to terms withthis idea that, okay, things are
not as they used to be.
Like, what's going on here?
Like, you know, things used tobe so smooth between Jean and I,
(39:41):
and now I don't even feel likewe're together anymore.
I said this last time, talk toyour partner, man.
Like, I know he hasn't had theopportunity.
I'm assuming there's been sometime to talk that we haven't
seen.
Well, they were kidnapped and ina circus for who knows how long.
There was dust all over themansion.
I don't know.
All I'm saying is that a lot ofthese issues can be resolved by
(40:05):
having a simple conversation.
My hope is that this is going toresult with Scott letting her
go, admitting that things aredifferent now.
Like, you can still lovesomebody, but have to walk away
and let them figure out whatthey need to figure out.
So that's my hope.
And at the same time, I hopethat Logan and Gene get
(40:28):
together.
I want to stand thatrelationship, man.
I think Scott and Gene willprobably just talk it out
eventually.
They need a big fight orsomething, but I don't know.
We also get this revelation ofScott coming to this conclusion
that Corsair is his father,which it simply took him getting
(40:49):
a mustache to make thatconnection.
A mustache can do wonders for aman.
And I think we end with himkeeping it, huh?
Looking at where the issue ends,he does take the time, hopefully
before Storm cries out, notafter, to finish shaving and
suits up.
(41:09):
So, R.A.P.
Scott's mustache.
I mean, it's very funny thatScott has so much stubble
already.
He has this big 5 o'clock shadowthat required him to shave.
But then you look at Wolverine,who is as hairy as he should be,
but his face is the same.
Well, maybe he's been shaving,though.
(41:31):
I mean, I guess he hasessentially a razor built into
his hand.
He's been doing a lot of upkeep.
He's sewing his uniform.
He's sewing his uniform.
And this is all after, by theway, which we totally jumped
over.
My apologies.
this awesome fight scene thatthe X-Men get into with a giant
pterodon, and we see Peterfastball special Wolverine at
(41:56):
the pterosaur, and he justcarves it up in the air.
And it is probably the coolestthing that we've seen Wolverine
kill at this point.
Probably the only thing,probably, that we've seen him
kill, but very awesome.
He even says that it's been awhile since he's been able to...
cut loose and really just carvesomething up.
(42:18):
So it's nice that he was able toget some of that anger out, I
guess.
He was just a baby, essentially,for who knows how long, being
force-fed mush by Nanny.
So I, too, can relate toWolverine's frustration.
And I hope that Peter can have alovely time off at the special
island.
(42:39):
Yeah, with these...
Yeah, Peter's really makinghimself at home.
Yeah.
Well, and so is Storm.
She's having the time of herlife until, you know, she gets
zapped by Sauron.
She talks at length about howwonderful the Savage Lands are
and how it reminds her of homeand the fresh air that she
doesn't get living in New Yorkwith the X-Men.
(43:01):
Doesn't stink like New York.
Sorry, New Yorkers.
Their words, not ours.
Yeah.
Quote, open sewer.
I don't know what that means,but there you go.
Storm lives there.
She must know.
All in all, I will say this hasbeen a very fun three issues.
I am interested to see whathappens with the Sauron arc as
(43:23):
I've never really read anythingwith him as like a focal
villain.
So I'm interested to kind of seewhat that plays out as.
I really kind of just know himfrom the meme of not wanting to
cure cancer.
It's a good meme.
It is very good.
So I'm excited to kind of seehim play out what this means.
Maybe we'll get some moredinosaurs, which I love.
(43:43):
And I guess what is next?
Because to me, this is us comingdown from the story with them
being kidnapped and Magneto andall that.
And I really want to see wherethis is about to go beyond
Sauron.
So give it to me, Chris.
And give me some Nightcrawlerbackstory, man.
I want it.
(44:04):
I know it's possible.
Just give us some more love ofthe other characters.
So what do you have for a scoreout of 10 for looking at these
three as a whole?
I'm already on record giving thefirst issue a 10.
So I think I would probably giveoverall a 9, despite what I've
complained about this lastissue.
(44:25):
But overall, everything has beenreally fun.
It's been what I would have cometo expect from a comic book.
And as you said, it's reallynice seeing this continued story
play out where everything feelscohesive and meaningful.
Because I wasn't sure how thingswere going to go coming out of
the circus situation and to seeit meld directly into the next
(44:49):
story piece.
And that story piece being a 10out of 10 in my book really
makes every issue feelmeaningful.
So even while, you know, I mighthave a complaint here or there
with this latest issue withSauron, it makes me at least
hopeful that regardless of theproblems I'm personally
experiencing, those can berectified with meaningful
(45:13):
storytelling in the next issueor the issue after that.
And it will all make sense andbe for something.
So that's my hope.
Let's keep the momentum goingforward and hopefully we're
going to get some more 10 out of10 issues.
What would you give it?
Yeah, so I thought it was a verysolid three issues.
I think we're in an interestingplace where Gene, Beast, Xavier,
(45:34):
they think the X-Men are dead.
The rest of the team thinks thatGene and Beast are dead.
Really interested in seeing whatthat reunion looks like.
And I hope that going forwarduntil we get there, we continue
to get perspectives and storiesfrom both groups.
To me, it felt like a reallywell-earned partial victory for
(45:55):
the X-Men over Magneto versusjust they win because plot kind
of a moment.
We had the two issues of bigaction, one that was a little
bit more downtime where we gotto check in on where people are
mentally and emotionally,similar to the first two issues
that we covered last episode,but it still really advanced the
(46:15):
story and provided an immediatesetup for what comes next.
So that said, I'm sitting at 8.5out of 10.
Dude, this might be like ourhighest rated arc that we've
read.
I think so.
But to be fair, two issues withMagneto will do that.
(46:36):
Two issues with Magneto and thenwe're going into Dinosaur Land.
So, I mean, that's a pretty goodsetup for what's to come.
And a reminder to, you know,like this is my first time
reading this and same withIsaac.
So this is all new territory forus.
That does it for this episode ofUncanny Book Club.
Thanks for listening.
And we hope to see you nextepisode where we'll discuss
(46:59):
issues 115 to 117.
Bye.
Bye.
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 it with afriend.
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