July 23, 2025 • 49 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 8 we discuss the X-Men's encounter with Sauron and Ka Zar in the Savage Land, their infiltration of the City of the Sun God, and the battle with Garokk the Petrified Man. We also get a glimpse of Xavier's past and his run in with Amahl Farouk.
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_01 (00:09):
Hello everyone and welcome to Uncanny Book Club.
I'm Isaac Faderspiel and joiningme today is my co-host Adam
Ward.
Hey, how's it going?
Pretty good.
How about yourself?
I'm doing good.
Curious to hear your thoughts onthese three books that
SPEAKER_00 (00:24):
we're going to talk about today.
SPEAKER_01 (00:26):
Yeah, I'm excited to get into it, compare and
contrast, see where we're liningup, where we're disagreeing, but
definitely a few things to bringup.
It's a very It's a very positiveview about the conversation
we're about to have.
All right.
Well, in this podcast, we areexploring Chris Claremont's
legendary X-Men run as we readit for the very first time.
(00:48):
We hope you'll join us and readalongside us or just stick
around for the discussion.
In our previous episode, theX-Men battled Magneto inside his
volcanic base, were reduced tohaving the mental capabilities
of babies after they lost, theyescaped, once again battled
Magneto inside his volcanicbase.
They eventually got the betterof him, but damaged the base in
(01:10):
the process.
Gene and Beast were separatedfrom the others, and both groups
assumed that the others perishedin the volcano's deadly
eruption.
Gene and Beast were eventuallyrescued and broke the news to
Professor X, and the rest of theX-Men were able to tunnel to
safety until they reached theSavage Land.
They traveled to a village andbegan a few days of recovery.
(01:32):
but Storm was attacked by anenergy vampire who transformed
into Sauron.
In this episode, we'll bepicking things up where we left
off with issues 115 to 117.
Issue 115 kicks off withWolverine rushing the dino-human
hybrid.
In his haste, he doesn'tproperly defend himself and is
hypnotized by Sauron intobelieving the X-Men are demons.
(01:57):
Cyclops ends up blastingWolverine a couple times and
eventually yeets him over sometrees.
He along with Banshee are ableto do some real damage to
Sauron.
Eventually Sauron spots Colossusand attempts to use him to
recover, but is overwhelmed whenColossus transforms in the
process.
Wolverine plans to finish theonce again human Karl Lycos, but
(02:19):
Kazar appears and stops him.
We see some Carl Lyko'sbackstory and witness a
priestess bringing back Garak,the petrified man, who is some
kind of god or something.
Khazar and the other inhabitantsof the Savage Land attempt to
stop him before he got toopowerful, but we're too late.
(02:39):
Wolverine is eager to join thisfight, but Scott says they need
to return home and protectXavier in case Magneto goes
looking for some additionalrevenge.
Kazar attempts to escort theX-Men out of the Savage Land,
but the once-tropical jungle hasbeen overtaken by frost and
their passage by means of riveris frozen solid.
Garak the Petrified Man hasupset the balance of the Savage
(03:03):
Land, and it will all bedestroyed unless the X-Men help
Kazar to stop it.
So overall, I thought this wasjust a very okay issue.
I didn't mind the fight.
We got a pretty good fight outof it at the beginning.
Mm-hmm.
It eventually ends up being alot of backstory, a lot of lore
(03:24):
building, a lot of exposition,just like a really heavy back
half.
And as a side quest or sidestory type situation, this
really reminds me of when you'replaying D&D, half the group is
really interested in like thislittle side quest that the DM
has like sort of presented forthe group.
And the other half is just likereally wanting to ignore it.
(03:45):
So we have Wolverine, who's justreally gung ho.
wants to do this weird sidequest the rest are like no we
want to continue the main storylet's just go to the next town
over already
SPEAKER_00 (03:56):
yeah and then tack on the fact that the dm is
making a decision to involve theparty regardless of what they
want is pretty much what takesplace
SPEAKER_01 (04:05):
Oh, you're trying to leave?
The river is frozen solid.
What's your move now?
SPEAKER_00 (04:11):
Your means of escape has been lost, and the tunnel
that you were hoping to go backinto has been shut with ice.
I'm actually really glad thatyou shared your opinion first,
because I think you articulatedmy feelings very, very well.
There were elements of this bookthat I liked, but there's a lot
of stuff that really botheredme.
I want to start with the thingsI liked here.
(04:33):
I thought the battle betweenSauron and Wolverine was great.
And it seems like it was ahighlight for you as well.
The whole battle in general.
Yes, you're 100% correct.
I thought the leadership ofScott here...
having already battled Sauronbefore, really kind of shined.
We're starting to see this alittle bit more now.
(04:53):
He was really focused.
He understood the task at hand,which was immobilizing Sauron.
And him getting Banshee to flyhigh and scream down at the same
time as he hit him with hisoptic blast, I thought was a
really cool sequence.
SPEAKER_01 (05:09):
The whole fight is very dynamic.
There's like a lot of goodmovement, a lot of up and downs.
They did some cool things withthe scenery.
SPEAKER_00 (05:17):
The other compliment that I wanted to give here is
just how beautifully andhorrifically drawn and colored
the fight with Sauron andWolverine is.
We have a panel specificallythat really stood out to me
where you can see, can I
SPEAKER_01 (05:33):
guess at what it is?
Yeah, yeah, please.
Yeah, yeah.
Is the panel the one where it'shalf Wolverine's face, half
Sauron's face, and he's beinghypnotized, and he says, your
mind, your very soul, mutant, ismine?
Yeah, that's the one.
Dude, that one is so good.
SPEAKER_00 (05:49):
It is so good.
That has to be my favorite panelin the whole issue.
I really want to give credit tothe creative team here because
this whole sequence where we seeSauron really for the first
time, he's so...
artistically beautiful to lookat.
He has these folds and thesemuscles that are protruding
(06:11):
that...
And I'm not flirting with Sauronhere.
He
SPEAKER_01 (06:14):
is the perfect man.
I
SPEAKER_00 (06:17):
just really think that he was drawn so well.
And the sequence fight withWolverine, you could just see
all this detail that reallycomes off the page.
I really, really did like that.
I'm glad that they could kind ofstep away from...
We see a lot of people incostume, right?
And I could see that be a littleone-dimensional over time.
(06:37):
So to kind of get a characterlike Sauron in a setting like
the Savage Lands that have thesebig, fantastic beasts, it really
kind of gives the creative teama chance to flex their muscles
and produce something beautiful.
SPEAKER_01 (06:53):
Yeah, I would say one of the impressive things
about not only this issue, butessentially everything that
we've read so far, Psychicability, mind stuff, it's
difficult to conceptualize thatinto a visual thing because it's
all completely not visual.
It's all happening just in themind.
(07:13):
They do an incredible job ofreally showcasing like this
person's getting mind blasted.
Wolverine is getting hypnotized.
They do such a good job with allof that weird stuff.
SPEAKER_00 (07:28):
Yeah, I agree 100%.
It couldn't have been easy tothink about this on paper, how
to really present psychicpowers.
And I'm sure they're not thefirst to do it, right?
I'm sure it's been done many,many times before now, but their
approach is very recognized inhow nice it is to look at.
It doesn't leave you guessingwhat's happening, number one.
(07:51):
And number two, they illustrateit with just these vibrant
colors that maybe you wouldn'tnecessarily associate with
psychic powers.
Though I say that in purple is apretty common color association
with psychic powers.
But anyways.
So I really, really, really likethat.
What I absolutely hated is theexposition and the lack of
(08:16):
explanation about what the hellis going on.
For the most part, through allthe issues we've read, all the
stories we've gone through atthis point, if you started from
the very beginning...
You could follow along withminimal disturbance, right?
You might have to go and looksomething up if you really
wanted to.
But hearing Magneto tell youthat he was turned into a baby
(08:40):
is enough of an explanation ofwhat happened to understand the
plot.
But in this issue, we're gettinghit with all this lore about the
Savage Land that's never beenexplained before.
And in some of the panels, Ifeel like we're just skipping
over parts just to get frompoint A to point B.
So we're left with just thismuddy pool of information that
(09:03):
you're looking at on a page andnot understanding in the context
of what's going on.
And a good example of this isthis whole situation with the
Petrified Man.
Who are these people that we'venever been introduced to before?
Which is fine, right?
Like we've seen alien racesbeing brought into the fold here
(09:24):
for the very first time withoutmuch past introduction.
But the issue here is likethere's clearly an established
lore that is happening that thereader is unaware of unless
they've read the Khazar book.
SPEAKER_01 (09:39):
Prior to this...
Were you familiar at all with...
Is it Kazar or Kazar?
I like to say Kazar, but I don'tknow him at all.
I'm not familiar with his game,as it were.
No, neither
SPEAKER_00 (09:52):
am I.
I've read a couple of books thatcontained him as a side
character.
I believe he was a character inthe Savage Avengers when that
was a thing.
That would make sense.
And that had a bit of an oddteam.
I think it was mostly...
put together because Marvel hadreceived the rights to Conan the
(10:12):
Barbarian and they were tryingto shoehorn him into the
Avengers, I guess.
So the team was like, Conan, Ithink Wolverine was in it,
Khazar or Khazar or whatever youwant to choose.
So I was familiar with thecharacter.
I was familiar with the SavageLands.
I remember seeing it in theX-Men cartoon.
(10:33):
Like the general setting to mewasn't foreign, familiar with
the general concept.
But that general concept was,okay, this is a place where
dinosaurs are and...
It's dangerous.
It's dangerous and it's kind ofa fantastical area, very, you
know, sci-fi in its setting andyou have a main protagonist who
(10:55):
is essentially a caveman.
SPEAKER_01 (10:57):
I don't know if he did any looking into what his
deal was, a little research.
Did the Petrified Man existbefore this or is this his
introduction?
So
SPEAKER_00 (11:09):
I didn't look into the Petrified Man, but I did
look into Kirk Marston.
Because we're just introduced toKirk Marston out of the blue.
So I was curious if he had beeninvolved prior to this.
And the answer is yes.
So his whole situation, just tokind of like scene set, because
(11:29):
it's not explained.
So his whole thing is that hewas a radiologist working for
MI6, the same spy agency JamesBond works for.
And Kazar, he comes to London,he's looking for a cure to a
vibranium-related illness ormadness that's affecting all the
people in the Savage Land.
(11:49):
And he gets introduced to Kirkand he goes back to the Savage
Land to basically help him withthis problem.
And that's how he goes fromLondon to the Savage Land.
And then a bunch of shenaniganskind of take place.
And then we get to where we are,where he's suddenly kidnapped
and gets turned into thePetrified Man.
SPEAKER_01 (12:09):
I had no idea that he was anyone of consequence.
Yeah.
I was just like, this is arandom dude chained to a slab.
And he gets transformed in likea cool way at I like the whole,
oh, they paint fire on him.
Yeah.
Like that's a cool priestessthing to do.
And then he turns into like aweird looking dude.
So that could be a littlebetter, but the ritual
SPEAKER_00 (12:31):
is cool.
Well, that whole sequence washappening before they did the
ritual, which I agree lookedreally cool and different.
I thought, oh, we're going to begetting the monster of the week.
That's what we're getting here.
That was my first thought.
this being that they wereworshipping is like some sort of
demon that's in anotherdimension that's going to show
up and the X-Men are going tofight it.
(12:51):
Which I guess kind of happens,but not in the way that I
thought.
SPEAKER_01 (12:54):
Ultimately, I feel like I didn't really have a lot
of skin in the game for thisconfrontation that they're
setting up.
So I don't have a lot ofbackground on Khazar, Garak,
really barely any background onSauron as well.
Yeah.
in this issue, next issue.
He's a very minor player.
He really is not in the books asmuch as I thought he would be.
(13:17):
Kind of a shoulder shrugreaction to the Savage Land in
general, just over these twoissues, or especially in this
issue, I guess.
SPEAKER_00 (13:26):
Yeah.
I also want to admit that Iprobably sound totally ignorant
of the information, right?
Well, we are very dumb.
So I admit that I am notfamiliar with this, and I
messaged you...
earlier very briefly about thisand I had expressed I wasn't a
huge fan of this issuespecifically because there was
(13:48):
just a lot of confusinginformation happening in the
story for me and your responsewas basically maybe Kazar comics
were popular then and that's avery good point because we're
reading this obviously way wayway way way way after this came
out and without the context ofwas Marvel really kind of
pushing this at the time Whichwould make a lot of sense if it
(14:10):
were.
And I'm sure I could have lookedthis up.
I didn't.
I'm ignorant again.
But I think that's importantcontext to have here as well.
Before we move on to the nextissue, I think I did do a little
bit of research on the SavageLand.
Because I was genuinely curiousreading this.
Because I was like, what isgoing on?
There's aliens.
(14:30):
There's the dinosaurs,obviously.
We got interdimensional beings.
What is going on in this place?
Because all I thought it was wasjust dinosaur land.
So are you good if I jump into abase, a little explainer of
where we are to kind of help setthe scene and provide maybe a
little bit more context of whatwe're looking at?
I guess I'll allow it.
(14:51):
All right.
So it's explained that theSavage Lands is in Antarctica.
That's very well established.
Obviously, we have the dinosaursthere.
Now, I have a question for you.
You're a smart guy.
SPEAKER_01 (15:06):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (15:07):
Antarctica would have had dinosaurs
SPEAKER_01 (15:10):
on it, right?
Yes, because I believe backthen, would the continents have
been separated, or would theyhave been the one
supercontinent?
Yeah, Pangea.
Yeah, I went to American school,so.
It is, I believe it's, hold on,I'm looking this up.
I don't want us to talk.
Was dinosaurs in Antarctica?
(15:34):
Let's
SPEAKER_00 (15:34):
see.
Yes, they did.
Okay.
I knew this.
All right.
We crushed it.
Yeah, we crushed it.
We're good.
My son watches enough dinosaurrelated content for me to, I
don't know why I second guessedthis, but yes, I did know this.
All right.
So yeah, they have
SPEAKER_01 (15:47):
dinosaurs there, but that's not the reason.
Hold on.
Let me just Google is the SavageLand real, real quick.
SPEAKER_00 (15:55):
Well, what you would actually find if you Google that
is exact coordinates where it isbelieved to be in the book,
which is an area of thecontinent called the Palmer
Peninsula.
And there's like an archipelagothere, which is a bunch of
islands for you non-scientific
SPEAKER_01 (16:13):
folk.
I actually got a way differentresult from the AI overview.
No, Savage Land is not a realplace or event.
It is a fictional storypresented in a mockumentary
format.
The film depicts a massacre in asmall Arizona town near the
U.S.-Mexico border.
UNKNOWN (16:28):
Ha ha ha ha!
SPEAKER_00 (16:29):
It's a very different Savage Land.
SPEAKER_01 (16:32):
I think it might be a zombie movie.
But the image that I'm seeingpaired next to it is from James
Cameron's Avatar, so I'm justbeyond confused.
SPEAKER_00 (16:41):
All right, so we have the Savage Lands in
Antarctica.
We got the coordinates.
Big shout out to the Marvelfandom database where a lot of
this information came from.
Super helpful.
So the dinosaurs are here notbecause they were living here
before, but because an alienbrought it here to this specific
spot as a game preserve for theBeyonders.
(17:02):
And the Beyonders are just abunch of other god-like alien
beings that exist in theuniverse.
Super gods.
Yeah, they're kind of a bigdeal.
So over the years, there's beenall sorts of alien shenanigans
that have kind of happened inthe Savage Lands.
At one point in time, theEternals are doing some stuff
(17:22):
there, and they're meddlingabout, and other aliens come.
SPEAKER_01 (17:27):
It's like a favorite vacation spot.
SPEAKER_00 (17:29):
It seems to be a popular destination if you're...
out of this world.
And then there's like some sortof connection to like another
universe, another dimension.
I don't know what's going on.
Anywho, those are my feelings ofthis.
There was just too muchexposition that was needed.
Although I will give pointswhere points are due for the
(17:49):
art, the cool fight scene.
We got a Godzilla reference atone point that was cool to see.
And then at some point we alsosee Kazar flying on a shark.
Because why not?
Again.
I don't have an explanation forit.
Alien Zookeepers, I guess.
Pretty good band name.
That is
SPEAKER_01 (18:08):
a cool band name.
Should we go on to 116?
Yeah, yeah, let's go.
Let's do it.
In issue 116, the X-Men andKazar travel to the city of the
Sun God.
but before they can set theirplan, they are ambushed by some
of his forces who are flying ondinosaurs that I would probably
mispronounce anyway.
(18:29):
A fight ensues, but Cyclops,Kazar, Colossus, and Banshee are
all captured, leaving behindWolverine, Storm, Nightcrawler,
and Kazar's saber-toothedcompanion.
And here is where this littleside quest and the Savage Land
takes an awesome turn, in myopinion, because Wolverine takes
charge of the situation andleads the remaining X-Men on a
(18:51):
rescue mission.
He sends the Tiger home to getsome backup and plans an
infiltration of the city.
When the three come across asentry standing guard, Wolverine
definitely murders him to theshock of Storm and Nightcrawler.
The team eventually finds theircompanions and learn that the
petrified man plans to executethe X-Men and Kazar.
(19:11):
Nightcrawler frees up Cyclops'optic blasts, which are then
used to free Colossus andBanshee.
A battle ensues, and Cyclopsgives chase of Garak, who ran
off.
It turns out he was running tofill up on some energy, and the
two shoot eye blasts at eachother.
Before there is a clear winner,the metropolis around them
(19:33):
crumbles and they both begin tofall.
Banshee catches Scott, and Stormattempts to rescue Garrick, but
can't reach him in time.
She safely returns, but isdevastated by her failure.
A fortnight passes, and the teamis finally able to leave by
boat, but they end up sailinginto a crazy storm.
So I think, right off the bat,Still not super interested in
(19:59):
the Petrified Man, what's goingon in the Savage Land.
I'd rather these people returnto their main quest or whatever
you want to call it.
But like I said earlier, I thinkthat Wolverine just completely
kills at this issue.
We see him just being a hugebadass and an awesome leader.
And not just the old Wolverine,berserker, dumb fight, fight,
(20:22):
fight that he sometimes comesacross as in some of these
books.
SPEAKER_00 (20:27):
Yeah, I agree totally.
I think it was the onlyredeeming quality of the entire
issue, in my opinion.
Wolverine taking charge.
We know he's a leader in thefuture.
We see this really coolinteraction with the Sabertooth
Tiger where Logan is like, heyman, I know you want to come.
(20:47):
I know you miss your best friendand all.
How about you run home and getsome backup?
And we're going to go take careof this because we need to be
stealthy.
He had a whole plan.
He stuck to it.
You even see the characters inthe book remarking about how
un-Wolverine this is like.
So it's really fun to see.
And as we know in the future,we'll start seeing Logan become
(21:09):
more of a leader for the othermutants that end up going to the
school.
SPEAKER_01 (21:14):
He has another fun...
Animal interaction with theraptor that bites his hand.
SPEAKER_00 (21:20):
Yeah, that was very fun.
As soon as it happened, Ithought, are they going to do
it?
Are they going to pull thetrigger on this and actually
have him extend his claws in theraptor's mouth?
And they did.
It wasn't very gruesome onpanel, which I think was the
right call.
But it was a really coolimpression to see placed on a
(21:40):
page.
Yeah, I'm glad they went throughwith it.
I thought that we saw some coolinteractions with different
characters across these books inthe way that they've been able
to kind of use their powers.
So in this issue, we kind of seeNightcrawler again pushing his
powers further than he's pushedthem before as he basically
(22:00):
takes charge in this interactionwhere they've now gotten pretty
close here.
to where the petrified man is.
They're having this ceremony,sacrifice situation going on.
We see a really cool image ofColossus tied up, totally
ablaze.
(22:21):
Burning him like a witch.
Burning him like a witch.
And he's red as a tomato becausethe metal on his skin is just so
hot.
But Kurt pushes his powers,basically teleports behind
Colossus, cuts him free, andthen the X-Men are able to get a
hold of the situation.
(22:42):
Very, very cool.
We also see this in the previousissue with Peter getting
attacked by Sauron, right?
Where Sauron comes in, grabsPeter, is going to try to energy
vampire him.
And in this process, we see thiskind of like the kinetic force
(23:04):
of the change pushing Sauronback enough to really prevent
him from sucking the energy outof him.
So a really cool interpretationof the various powers that we're
kind of seeing across theseissues.
And we were just kind of talkingabout in the last episode how we
were wanting more of the othercharacters to kind of shine
(23:25):
through.
rather than there being emphasison specific ones that we've
seen, like Jean and Storm.
SPEAKER_01 (23:31):
Yeah, I thought they did a really good job here with
that, because we didn'tnecessarily get Wolverine's
backstory, but we got to see adifferent side of him.
Him being cute with animals, himbeing super tactical, him
getting to cut loose a littlebit and do a little bit of
murder.
So, you know, we're gettingthose person...
And even...
the previous issue, there's likea really fun interaction he has
(23:54):
with Kurt right at the end whereKurt hits him with a snowball.
And in the past, you know,that's something that Wolverine
would maybe try to swipe at himwith his claws.
But in this issue, he's like,oh, you've done it now, elf.
Grab a snowdrift.
We're going to have a snowballfight.
The loser buys beer.
Completely different than how heused to act now that he's, I
(24:17):
guess, actually like friendswith these people.
SPEAKER_00 (24:19):
Yeah, I imagine, you know, part of this, too, if
you've ever found yourself in aleadership position and you've
you have people around youlooking up to you and they're
following your lead and they'retrusting you.
Having that interaction that hehas in this issue probably
really bolstered hisrelationship with the other
members because they trusted himto make the right decisions,
whereas, you know, many times inthe past they've asked him to
(24:42):
pump the brakes.
So to kind of see them gettingon board, we're going to go in
stealthy.
Wolverine suddenly seems to knowwhat he's doing.
Let's give him a chance to leadus.
And, you know, as you said, weget this rewarding shot of
Nightcrawler throwing thesnowball at Logan and them
having a fun moment together.
SPEAKER_01 (25:03):
The only other Wolverine thing that I think I
may have had is I feel like theyteased the healing factor very
slightly in this one, too.
Storm is concerned about hisarm.
He says, not so's you'd notice.
It's okay, babe.
I heal real fast and the beastain't been born that can break
(25:23):
my bones.
So it's a little bit of thattease of like, it's not just the
claws.
Maybe it's his whole skeletonthat is made of adamantium and
he heals really fast.
SPEAKER_00 (25:36):
That's a great pickup, man.
I didn't even really put muchthought into it.
You're totally right.
It's a great tease.
And also super cool for Logan tosay, by the way.
Like, look at me, the big toughman.
Little tough man.
Hell yeah, little tough man.
He does poke fun at himself inthis issue too, I believe it is,
for his stature.
SPEAKER_01 (25:58):
Yeah,
SPEAKER_00 (25:58):
I don't remember where it is, but he does bring
it up.
The only other thing that Ithought was cool about this
issue is the dueling eye beamfight that we get towards the
end of the book between Cyclopsand the Petrified Man, where
he's like siphoning thehydrothermic energy that's below
(26:20):
them, essentially.
Science.
I think that's what it is.
It's like thermal energy.
So he's like utilizing this tocreate an eye blast.
And isn't he supposed to be likethe sun god?
Isn't that like how they
SPEAKER_01 (26:32):
present him?
They're in the city of the sungod.
And I know he's the petrifiedman.
And he might be the sun god.
I don't know.
Maybe?
I hope we never see him again.
That's my opinion.
I hope we never come back.
Well, he might be dead.
He did fall very far.
SPEAKER_00 (26:49):
Yeah, all the way to the center of the earth,
allegedly.
Thank you so much.
(27:14):
It just feels like, isn't thatkind of like her power set?
Even when the cave was blocked,I thought, couldn't you just
warm up the sky?
Do the storm thing.
SPEAKER_01 (27:24):
Yeah, weather manipulate.
We're at like 49 years ago wherewe don't have all this.
Here's everything Storm's done.
Here's why she's a big deal.
We haven't built up to it yet.
I think it's the way to reallyexplain it away, at least
looking back on it, is shedoesn't have the practice yet.
But she was doing it in Africa,right?
(27:44):
To a certain extent, but...
SPEAKER_00 (27:46):
It was making it rain.
SPEAKER_01 (27:47):
Yeah, but there's a difference between making it
rain and traveling the ocean inlike a hurricane.
SPEAKER_00 (27:54):
Well, I thought the explanation she gave was like
very good.
Like this is controlled, right?
We see them on this boat in thisintense storm, which the Drake
Passage is known for.
And for her to be like, I amdoing everything I can right now
to make this storm be what itcurrently is.
If I'm not doing this, likewe're in big trouble.
(28:14):
But I'm looking at this atearlier in the story when they
tried to go back into the cave,like they just accept that it
was iced over when really anynumber of them probably could
have broke through that ice.
But I just felt like maybe Stormcould have used her powers to
like make it warmer,
SPEAKER_01 (28:33):
you know?
Yeah.
We don't really know, like, howfar of ice is this tunnel.
Maybe they decided it'll savetime to fight this guy, but it
really doesn't becauseapparently they chilled out for
a fortnight afterward.
Yeah, I thought that was weird,too.
Cyclops says, we need to leaveright now.
After they finish the job, allright, everyone, take a
(28:55):
fortnight.
Peter, go back to your islandwith those girls.
Yeah.
Everyone just chill.
I guess it had to melt, butagain, they probably could have
sped that up, but it doesn'tmatter.
It's not a big
SPEAKER_00 (29:07):
deal.
No, I realize that.
I'm probably just nitpicking thenitpick, honestly.
I do recall them saying that thereason that things were freezing
over was because of theextraction of energy, basically.
SPEAKER_01 (29:22):
Yeah, the city that had put up was taking the energy
and then the Savage Land,because it sat on like a bunch
of volcanoes, basically.
It got
SPEAKER_00 (29:32):
cold.
Yeah, it's all explained, butthey fixed it.
At the time, I was questioningit, and then we got the
explanation in the next issue.
Does it not also bother you thatwe still, for some reason,
everybody's just accepted thatthey're all dead?
Like, I just think it's sostrange.
That they haven't just hoppedinto Cerebro and just like...
SPEAKER_01 (29:52):
I have an explanation for this, too.
Oh, please, hit me with it.
So, here's what's happening.
Professor X, it's wellestablished that he has a
psychic rapport with hisstudents.
He's really down.
He probably lost track of themon vacation because he was doing
stuff.
He was busy.
Okay, sure.
(30:13):
He was off.
SPEAKER_00 (30:15):
He was so much off, he put his head of office on for
his mental powers.
SPEAKER_01 (30:19):
Look, Professor X was like, hey, this is my new
boo.
I'm going to take her to thisvacation destination that I used
to go with my old love becausehe has a weird fixation, needs
to find some new spots.
Yeah, make some new memories,Charles.
So he turned off the psychicreport a little bit there.
They go into the volcano base.
(30:41):
Magneto's helmet blocks psychicstuff.
So I think it can make sensethat he would have a base that
would block psychic stuff.
Yeah.
loose track there.
At a certain point, I think wealso said like, oh, maybe the
Savage Land has a weird thinggoing on.
Right now, they've escaped.
There's no reason for them notto have a connection.
I think it's just he's very sad.
(31:01):
He's very down and depressed.
I don't think he's reaching outpsychically at all.
I think he's just sitting therevery isolated, only in his own
mind, not doing anything withhis
SPEAKER_00 (31:12):
powers.
I think that's a very fairexplanation.
I'm definitely not accountingfor the amount of grief that
he's probably finding himselfin.
And I guess if your prized pupilis coming home, both of them,
Beast and Gene, to say, like,they're dead, you're probably
putting a bit of trust intothose words.
(31:34):
And if it's heartbreaking, it'sheartbreaking.
So, very fair.
Very fair.
I retract my statement.
Poor Charles.
SPEAKER_01 (31:43):
We'll dunk on him for...
Other reasons at other times,because I know they'll come up.
SPEAKER_00 (31:50):
All right, well, with that in mind, we're about
to get a very heavy CharlesXavier issue.
SPEAKER_01 (31:55):
Yep, big into Professor X.
Issue 117, the previous issueteased the least expected X-Men
origin of them all, and we seefrom the cover of 117 that we'll
be looking at the saga ofProfessor X, A New Beginning.
And the end?
Question mark exclamation point?
(32:16):
But before we get into that, wereturn to the X-Men navigating
the storm.
Storm the person is using herpowers to try and calm things,
but it still looks pretty grim.
Thankfully, they stumble acrossa ship on its way home from
Japan.
The X-Men are told thatunauthorized radio communication
is forbidden.
because they're on a delicatemission for the government, and
(32:38):
they're taken below deck asguests, and I've written guests
in italics.
Lalandra tries to comfortXavier, and he regales her with
a tale of how he used to be inlove with Moira, definitely a
great conversation to have withyour current love, and what he
did after she left him.
We see Xavier bumming around,and he ends up in Cairo, where a
(33:01):
young Storm picks his pocket, Heuses his powers to freeze her,
but it alerts another telepathof his presence.
Xavier enters the saloon andenters into telepathic combat
with Amal Farouk, who willsomeday be known as the Shadow
King.
He's almost defeated, but giveshim the ol' brain blasty and
(33:23):
Farouk is presumed dead.
Xavier notes that he was thefirst evil mutant he had ever
met, and it made him realize howdeadly mutant powers could be in
the wrong hands.
Lilandra asks Xavier to returnto her home with her, and Xavier
eventually says yes.
On the last page, we get a quicklook at Jean Grey booking a
(33:46):
flight for somewhere, and MistyKnight happens to pop up and is
headed to Japan with ColleenWing.
What a coincidence.
Jean waves to Misty's departingplane and realizes that for the
first time since joining theX-Men, she is truly on her own.
So do you want to kick us offfor 117?
(34:06):
How did you feel about this one?
SPEAKER_00 (34:09):
I honestly didn't really have a lot to say.
I thought it was fine.
It kind of really surmises thelast three issues.
Eh, it was okay.
I thought the fight that we endup seeing, and we talked a
little bit earlier about howthey've depicted psychic powers,
and this fight that we getbetween Farouk and Charles sees
(34:32):
them donning armor and theShadow King, as he'll one day be
known, is hulking in size, notlike the Hulk, but big like
that.
It was a really cool depictionof the fight.
But aside from that, I just wantto get back to the main story.
It's kind of where I am.
SPEAKER_01 (34:48):
Yeah.
I think we didn't add a lot withthe Savage Land stuff besides
some cool Wolverine interaction,I guess would be my main
takeaway.
Yeah.
So it just feels like we'retaking a lot of pit stops versus
getting to our destination.
It is fun to get a look back.
And I am curious a little bitabout before this, how much of
(35:11):
Xavier's backstory is really outthere beyond he's leading a
school and and he's a mutant,and he wants good human and
mutant relations.
SPEAKER_00 (35:24):
Yeah, that's a very good question.
I don't have an answer.
It is nice to see, and we knowthe Shadow King becomes a big
villain for the X-Men, so that'sfun to see the nexus of that in
this little interaction with alittle storm.
How did you feel about the storminteraction?
SPEAKER_01 (35:43):
Eh,
SPEAKER_00 (35:44):
I could have did without it.
SPEAKER_01 (35:45):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (35:46):
That's how I feel.
SPEAKER_01 (35:47):
Yeah, I wrote down Storm Titan is a little silly,
but the X-Men are a littlesilly, so I'll let it pass.
It's just like a weird cameowhere it's like, oh, okay.
SPEAKER_00 (35:57):
Yeah, I mean, it was clearly put in place because he
was in Cairo.
And it's like, well, he may aswell run into Storm because
she's there.
And not that it doesn't makesense.
Like, you know, he feels hermutant powers and can sense it.
So, like, it's not crazy oroutlandish to think that it
could have happened.
SPEAKER_01 (36:15):
I think it's a cool intro for Farouk, though.
They both enter the saloon, arejust silent, having this psychic
conversation, sit down, and havea little battle.
It's fun.
It's interesting.
I'm glad that he's not justbeing used as a one-off.
I think it's probably a longtime before he shows up again,
(36:37):
but I'm glad that this isn'tjust a throwaway random dude.
SPEAKER_00 (36:42):
Yeah, absolutely.
And to that note, so I'vementioned to you before that
I've been reading Uncanny X-Men,the new one that's out.
Sorry, not Uncanny X-Men, theUltimate X-Men.
And the setting is...
SPEAKER_01 (36:56):
I've been reading Uncanny X-Men.
Uncanny or Ultimate?
The Louisiana X-Men.
Oh, no, I haven't been readingthat one.
It's fun.
It's so fun.
We'll talk later.
Oh, okay.
Yeah, I don't know.
So right now the X-Men are splitwhere there's X-Men, and that's
Cyclops' group, and they're inAlaska doing X-Men things.
(37:18):
And then there's Uncanny X-Men,and that's Rogue and Gambit and
Wolverine and Jubilee, andthey're in Louisiana, and they
have four new characters, likethese kids that are mutants and
showed up.
You know, a lot of newcharacters don't really hit or
they feel like, oh, okay,they're just trying to, like,
(37:38):
introduce some new people, blah,blah, blah.
Awesome characters.
I really like the new charactersthat they're bringing into
Uncanny X-Men.
I hope they're just, like,around for the next several
years, next long time.
I think they're great additionsto the universe.
SPEAKER_00 (37:54):
Oh, all right, damn.
Okay, I might have to check thisout.
Very similarly...
I've been reading UltimateX-Men, which is a very, very
different take on mutants.
And in that series, it takesplace entirely in Japan.
These powers are kind ofmanifesting in different kids,
and the main character is Armor,and there's Nico, who's there.
(38:18):
We get Psylocke shows up, butone of the other characters who
becomes one of the largerantagonists, and a bit of a
victim in his own right, is theShadow King.
who is also like a child.
It's not everybody's cup of tea.
The style is like a manga, whichis really kind of cool.
I like it.
It's just very, very different,and I've enjoyed reading it, so
(38:39):
I'd recommend it as well.
I'll have to check
SPEAKER_01 (38:43):
it out.
I think Amal technically is alsoa victim of the Shadow King.
The Shadow King is the evil,multiversal entity that likes to
possess Amal Farouk, and heactually has a little...
redemption arc on Krakoa.
Oh, does he?
Oh, shit.
Okay.
(39:03):
Is that in the New Mutants, Ithink.
Did you watch the New Mutantsmovie?
No.
It's insane to me that theydidn't use him as the villain in
that.
It makes zero sense.
It's, oh, that movie is so bad.
SPEAKER_00 (39:19):
Who's the villain?
SPEAKER_01 (39:20):
The villain is...
I mean, I guess the villain is,oh, what's her name?
She's a doctor.
She can make shields.
She's being essentially bossedaround by Mr.
Sinister and is kind of thevillain, but not really.
She dies eventually.
The real villain is DannyMoonstar learning how to use her
(39:43):
powers, I guess.
Oh, yeah, I see it.
Cecilia Reyes is her.
Yeah, Dr.
Reyes.
Dr.
Reyes, Dr.
Reyes.
Dr.
Reyes, Dr.
Reyes.
Can you play the piano anymore?
SPEAKER_00 (40:00):
Thank you for getting that.
I did want to defend ProfessorXavier here for a moment
because...
For being a killer?
No, not for that.
I think that was...
SPEAKER_01 (40:13):
That was fine.
That was fine.
Kind of surprising, but I thinkhe made the right call.
I'm just a little surprised thathe made the call, but...
I mean, it could...
At different points in his life,I think he would or would not
kill Farouk.
Yeah,
SPEAKER_00 (40:26):
that's what I was about to say.
Like, if this is his first timeinteracting with, like, such an
evil presence, maybe he felt thebest thing to do was to
eliminate it because it was toomuch of a threat.
Very un-Charles Xavier-like, butwe've seen him bend the rules.
Anyways, what I wanted to saywas, he's telling this story
about him and Moira, and...
(40:50):
I think it's very easy to say,dude, what are you doing?
Why are you telling your newlove interest this story about
your old love interest?
But I think the relationship hehas with Lilandra is one that is
mentally bound, right?
They had this very intimatetelekinetic connection, and...
(41:11):
I'm reading in between the lineshere like really, really far,
but I think it's fair to saythat this connection that
they've developed is reallythorough in the idea that his
mind was shared with her mindand vice versa, which is why he
was having these dreams abouther, right?
And we learn later she wassimilarly having dreams about
(41:31):
Charles and, you know, they'rein love because they feel a
connection that cannot beunmatched.
So, With that in mind, you cankind of look at this as a
situation where, yes, he'srecounting this story that maybe
she's unfamiliar with, butdoesn't take it too personally
that he has a love for Moirabecause she can understand it
through this connection thatthey have.
SPEAKER_01 (41:54):
All that's very fair.
I was mostly just poking fun athim.
It's just a little funny.
I felt
SPEAKER_00 (42:00):
like I had makeup for poking at him needlessly for
his grief.
I got your back, Charles.
Love is love, baby.
Love is love.
I'm assuming we are headingtowards a reunion with one of
the original members of thisteam in Sunfire since we're
heading to Japan.
I
SPEAKER_01 (42:19):
can tell you definitely yes, because he's on
the cover of the next issue.
So I don't think that's too muchof a spoiler, but I want to know
how rude he's going to be.
Yeah.
Like, is he gonna, how much of adick is Sunfire gonna
SPEAKER_00 (42:34):
be?
Yeah, he didn't really leave onthe best of terms, so it's fair
to assume that he's not gonna bevery happy to see them there.
SPEAKER_01 (42:39):
It's interesting that we're gonna mix in Misty
Knight and Colleen Wing as well.
We're having more cross-comicintermingling.
Curious as to why they're goingto Japan, but I think it's safe
to assume that all three groupsare gonna be together.
SPEAKER_00 (42:57):
That would be my hope.
I would be very upset if wedon't see some interaction
between Misty and Christine withthe X-Men.
That would be kind of funny.
That would be really weird.
SPEAKER_01 (43:07):
If they just happen to also be going, maybe they
just pass in the street.
They're just there in thebackground passing by.
Two
SPEAKER_00 (43:14):
ships in the night.
Having some ramen.
I could go for some ramen.
Dude, have you been to Japan?
No.
Okay, so I went to Japan for myhoneymoon, and...
regrettably only stayed for aweek, but it was incredible.
It's an incredible country, andthe ramen is just as good as you
(43:35):
can imagine.
Probably even better, becauseyou can't imagine how good it
is.
I just want to eat ramen andsushi all day.
And the sushi is unlike anythingI've had outside of Japan.
You have to experience it.
The entire place, it's just anexperience that you have to see
for yourself for the very firsttime.
I want a
SPEAKER_01 (43:53):
vacation again someday.
Children are hard.
100%.
My big three right now, Japan,obviously, has been of a big
interest.
And I think in terms of newcountries that my wife and I
would visit would probably benumber one or number two.
I don't really know what herdeal is, what she wants to do.
The other two I really like thatwe've already been to, London
(44:16):
and Italy.
Both very cool.
I like London more.
Sorry,
SPEAKER_00 (44:22):
Italians.
Those are both locations on mylist as well.
We were supposed to go back toJapan and we had everything
booked.
We had everything paid for.
We were going to be there fortwo weeks.
Our trip was going to extendbeyond just Tokyo, which is
where we were for our firsttrip.
And we were going to go toKyoto.
We were going to go to Osaka.
(44:43):
And then the pandemic happened,so we had to cancel.
SPEAKER_01 (44:47):
I have a friend, the exact same thing happened to
him.
He had like a two or three weeksort of deal.
He was going to go with hisbrother.
Pandemic hit.
Canceled.
I think he got to go thereeventually, though.
SPEAKER_00 (45:00):
Well, that's good.
That would really suck.
A co-worker of mine was supposedto go to Japan last year and had
bought into a tour package.
And the tour company called themlike two weeks beforehand and
canceled it.
And so they couldn't go.
Yeah.
We were smart and we paid forthe insurance way ahead of time,
(45:23):
right?
Like before there was ever anykind of talks of a pandemic or
anything like that, right?
So we had booked this trip likein November of the previous year
and we got the insurance at thetime because we were like, well,
may as well, just in case.
It was a good thing we didbecause we got all our money
back.
SPEAKER_01 (45:42):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (45:43):
Look at you,
SPEAKER_01 (45:43):
Mr.
Foresight.
SPEAKER_00 (45:45):
Well,
SPEAKER_01 (45:45):
you know, planning keeps you prepared.
So vacations aside, do you haveanything else for 117?
No, I don't.
Okay.
I think we'll just kick intooverall thoughts.
I liked 116 a lot, actually.
I thought that one was reallyfun.
115, kind of okay.
117, a little interesting.
(46:07):
It's fun to see the origin of avillain you recognize.
Fun to learn a little bit moreabout Professor X and what his
deal is.
We did a lot of side story stuffbefore the X-Men are allowed to
go home and be like, hey, we'renot actually dead.
I wasn't super connected to theSavage Land, but, you know, I
liked what they were able to dowith Wolverine there at least.
(46:29):
And I guess looking forward, itseems like they're setting some
interesting things up.
The X-Men going to Japan, seeSunfire, probably Misty and
Colleen.
I hope that we don't lose trackof Jean over the next few
issues.
Where is she going?
That's one of the big questionson mind.
I hope that it's not just sherandomly pops back in later and
(46:53):
is like, oh, good, you're alive.
Yeah.
I'd like to see what she's up toin the meantime.
I guess like a 6.5 to 7 out of10 if we're looking as a unit.
I think 116 drags it up for me alot.
I
SPEAKER_00 (47:11):
think you're being very generous.
This to me is probably like afive.
I thought there was sprinkles ofthings that I liked throughout
the books, which is a testamentto the creative team.
I've said that a lot.
Okay.
The creative team, the creativeteam, the creative team, but it
stands true.
I think Chris and everybody elsehas done a really great job and
(47:31):
like overall, but the storyhere, I just did not like in
really any of the three books.
And I am comparing this to thelast batch, which were my
favorite that we've read so far.
SPEAKER_01 (47:44):
We've been on a pretty crazy run.
The last several issues haveknocked it out of the park.
SPEAKER_00 (47:49):
Yeah.
So coming off of that high, thisis a steep curve down to where I
want to personally be.
I want to ride that high alittle bit longer because we had
this cliffhanger and we just letit hang for too long.
Mm-hmm.
So I also need to make acorrection of myself.
I called Colleen Christineearlier, and I only recognized
(48:12):
it when you said Colleen.
So I apologize, Colleen.
Sorry, Colleen.
I hope you enjoy your trip toJapan.
SPEAKER_01 (48:20):
I also want to throw out there that a 5 out of 10
isn't necessarily...
I think a lot of people look atthat maybe from the video game
review sort of mindset of thisis a disaster trash.
5 out of 10 is kind of likeaverage-y.
SPEAKER_00 (48:33):
I think it's like a slightly below average.
SPEAKER_01 (48:36):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (48:37):
I think a six to me is kind of like, this is fine.
That's our scale.
Yeah.
Like a six to me is like, it'sfine.
It's not great.
I think that's good.
Right.
Like it's not great.
It's fine.
I can live with it.
It's a dip.
Yeah.
I know that we're going toupswing eventually here.
We're just taking a breath.
We've done the exhale.
(48:58):
Right.
And now we're going to get intosomething new.
SPEAKER_01 (49:01):
Well, I think that does it for this episode of
Uncanny Book Club.
Thanks for listening, and wehope to see you next episode,
where we'll discuss issues 118to 121.
Another four-issue episode.
How
SPEAKER_00 (49:15):
exciting.
Will we learn the fate of theX-Men, and if they will have
some sort of interaction withMisty Knight and Colleen?
I guess we'll find out.
Will they pick up a telephoneand dial home, please?
Tell poor Jean Grey and theprofessor that you're alive.
That's all I want.
This should be the first thingthey do when they arrive.
If they're, you know, notdetained.
(49:37):
We'll see.
Yeah, we'll see.
All right.
Well, read comics,
SPEAKER_01 (49:40):
everyone.
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 with afriend.
Hello everyone and welcome to Uncanny Book Club.
I'm Isaac Faderspiel and joiningme today is my co-host Adam
Ward.
Hey, how's it going?
Pretty good.
How about yourself?
I'm doing good.
Curious to hear your thoughts onthese three books that
SPEAKER_00 (00:24):
we're going to talk about today.
SPEAKER_01 (00:26):
Yeah, I'm excited to get into it, compare and
contrast, see where we're liningup, where we're disagreeing, but
definitely a few things to bringup.
It's a very It's a very positiveview about the conversation
we're about to have.
All right.
Well, in this podcast, we areexploring Chris Claremont's
legendary X-Men run as we readit for the very first time.
(00:48):
We hope you'll join us and readalongside us or just stick
around for the discussion.
In our previous episode, theX-Men battled Magneto inside his
volcanic base, were reduced tohaving the mental capabilities
of babies after they lost, theyescaped, once again battled
Magneto inside his volcanicbase.
They eventually got the betterof him, but damaged the base in
(01:10):
the process.
Gene and Beast were separatedfrom the others, and both groups
assumed that the others perishedin the volcano's deadly
eruption.
Gene and Beast were eventuallyrescued and broke the news to
Professor X, and the rest of theX-Men were able to tunnel to
safety until they reached theSavage Land.
They traveled to a village andbegan a few days of recovery.
(01:32):
but Storm was attacked by anenergy vampire who transformed
into Sauron.
In this episode, we'll bepicking things up where we left
off with issues 115 to 117.
Issue 115 kicks off withWolverine rushing the dino-human
hybrid.
In his haste, he doesn'tproperly defend himself and is
hypnotized by Sauron intobelieving the X-Men are demons.
(01:57):
Cyclops ends up blastingWolverine a couple times and
eventually yeets him over sometrees.
He along with Banshee are ableto do some real damage to
Sauron.
Eventually Sauron spots Colossusand attempts to use him to
recover, but is overwhelmed whenColossus transforms in the
process.
Wolverine plans to finish theonce again human Karl Lycos, but
(02:19):
Kazar appears and stops him.
We see some Carl Lyko'sbackstory and witness a
priestess bringing back Garak,the petrified man, who is some
kind of god or something.
Khazar and the other inhabitantsof the Savage Land attempt to
stop him before he got toopowerful, but we're too late.
(02:39):
Wolverine is eager to join thisfight, but Scott says they need
to return home and protectXavier in case Magneto goes
looking for some additionalrevenge.
Kazar attempts to escort theX-Men out of the Savage Land,
but the once-tropical jungle hasbeen overtaken by frost and
their passage by means of riveris frozen solid.
Garak the Petrified Man hasupset the balance of the Savage
(03:03):
Land, and it will all bedestroyed unless the X-Men help
Kazar to stop it.
So overall, I thought this wasjust a very okay issue.
I didn't mind the fight.
We got a pretty good fight outof it at the beginning.
Mm-hmm.
It eventually ends up being alot of backstory, a lot of lore
(03:24):
building, a lot of exposition,just like a really heavy back
half.
And as a side quest or sidestory type situation, this
really reminds me of when you'replaying D&D, half the group is
really interested in like thislittle side quest that the DM
has like sort of presented forthe group.
And the other half is just likereally wanting to ignore it.
(03:45):
So we have Wolverine, who's justreally gung ho.
wants to do this weird sidequest the rest are like no we
want to continue the main storylet's just go to the next town
over already
SPEAKER_00 (03:56):
yeah and then tack on the fact that the dm is
making a decision to involve theparty regardless of what they
want is pretty much what takesplace
SPEAKER_01 (04:05):
Oh, you're trying to leave?
The river is frozen solid.
What's your move now?
SPEAKER_00 (04:11):
Your means of escape has been lost, and the tunnel
that you were hoping to go backinto has been shut with ice.
I'm actually really glad thatyou shared your opinion first,
because I think you articulatedmy feelings very, very well.
There were elements of this bookthat I liked, but there's a lot
of stuff that really botheredme.
I want to start with the thingsI liked here.
(04:33):
I thought the battle betweenSauron and Wolverine was great.
And it seems like it was ahighlight for you as well.
The whole battle in general.
Yes, you're 100% correct.
I thought the leadership ofScott here...
having already battled Sauronbefore, really kind of shined.
We're starting to see this alittle bit more now.
(04:53):
He was really focused.
He understood the task at hand,which was immobilizing Sauron.
And him getting Banshee to flyhigh and scream down at the same
time as he hit him with hisoptic blast, I thought was a
really cool sequence.
SPEAKER_01 (05:09):
The whole fight is very dynamic.
There's like a lot of goodmovement, a lot of up and downs.
They did some cool things withthe scenery.
SPEAKER_00 (05:17):
The other compliment that I wanted to give here is
just how beautifully andhorrifically drawn and colored
the fight with Sauron andWolverine is.
We have a panel specificallythat really stood out to me
where you can see, can I
SPEAKER_01 (05:33):
guess at what it is?
Yeah, yeah, please.
Yeah, yeah.
Is the panel the one where it'shalf Wolverine's face, half
Sauron's face, and he's beinghypnotized, and he says, your
mind, your very soul, mutant, ismine?
Yeah, that's the one.
Dude, that one is so good.
SPEAKER_00 (05:49):
It is so good.
That has to be my favorite panelin the whole issue.
I really want to give credit tothe creative team here because
this whole sequence where we seeSauron really for the first
time, he's so...
artistically beautiful to lookat.
He has these folds and thesemuscles that are protruding
(06:11):
that...
And I'm not flirting with Sauronhere.
He
SPEAKER_01 (06:14):
is the perfect man.
I
SPEAKER_00 (06:17):
just really think that he was drawn so well.
And the sequence fight withWolverine, you could just see
all this detail that reallycomes off the page.
I really, really did like that.
I'm glad that they could kind ofstep away from...
We see a lot of people incostume, right?
And I could see that be a littleone-dimensional over time.
(06:37):
So to kind of get a characterlike Sauron in a setting like
the Savage Lands that have thesebig, fantastic beasts, it really
kind of gives the creative teama chance to flex their muscles
and produce something beautiful.
SPEAKER_01 (06:53):
Yeah, I would say one of the impressive things
about not only this issue, butessentially everything that
we've read so far, Psychicability, mind stuff, it's
difficult to conceptualize thatinto a visual thing because it's
all completely not visual.
It's all happening just in themind.
(07:13):
They do an incredible job ofreally showcasing like this
person's getting mind blasted.
Wolverine is getting hypnotized.
They do such a good job with allof that weird stuff.
SPEAKER_00 (07:28):
Yeah, I agree 100%.
It couldn't have been easy tothink about this on paper, how
to really present psychicpowers.
And I'm sure they're not thefirst to do it, right?
I'm sure it's been done many,many times before now, but their
approach is very recognized inhow nice it is to look at.
It doesn't leave you guessingwhat's happening, number one.
(07:51):
And number two, they illustrateit with just these vibrant
colors that maybe you wouldn'tnecessarily associate with
psychic powers.
Though I say that in purple is apretty common color association
with psychic powers.
But anyways.
So I really, really, really likethat.
What I absolutely hated is theexposition and the lack of
(08:16):
explanation about what the hellis going on.
For the most part, through allthe issues we've read, all the
stories we've gone through atthis point, if you started from
the very beginning...
You could follow along withminimal disturbance, right?
You might have to go and looksomething up if you really
wanted to.
But hearing Magneto tell youthat he was turned into a baby
(08:40):
is enough of an explanation ofwhat happened to understand the
plot.
But in this issue, we're gettinghit with all this lore about the
Savage Land that's never beenexplained before.
And in some of the panels, Ifeel like we're just skipping
over parts just to get frompoint A to point B.
So we're left with just thismuddy pool of information that
(09:03):
you're looking at on a page andnot understanding in the context
of what's going on.
And a good example of this isthis whole situation with the
Petrified Man.
Who are these people that we'venever been introduced to before?
Which is fine, right?
Like we've seen alien racesbeing brought into the fold here
(09:24):
for the very first time withoutmuch past introduction.
But the issue here is likethere's clearly an established
lore that is happening that thereader is unaware of unless
they've read the Khazar book.
SPEAKER_01 (09:39):
Prior to this...
Were you familiar at all with...
Is it Kazar or Kazar?
I like to say Kazar, but I don'tknow him at all.
I'm not familiar with his game,as it were.
No, neither
SPEAKER_00 (09:52):
am I.
I've read a couple of books thatcontained him as a side
character.
I believe he was a character inthe Savage Avengers when that
was a thing.
That would make sense.
And that had a bit of an oddteam.
I think it was mostly...
put together because Marvel hadreceived the rights to Conan the
(10:12):
Barbarian and they were tryingto shoehorn him into the
Avengers, I guess.
So the team was like, Conan, Ithink Wolverine was in it,
Khazar or Khazar or whatever youwant to choose.
So I was familiar with thecharacter.
I was familiar with the SavageLands.
I remember seeing it in theX-Men cartoon.
(10:33):
Like the general setting to mewasn't foreign, familiar with
the general concept.
But that general concept was,okay, this is a place where
dinosaurs are and...
It's dangerous.
It's dangerous and it's kind ofa fantastical area, very, you
know, sci-fi in its setting andyou have a main protagonist who
(10:55):
is essentially a caveman.
SPEAKER_01 (10:57):
I don't know if he did any looking into what his
deal was, a little research.
Did the Petrified Man existbefore this or is this his
introduction?
So
SPEAKER_00 (11:09):
I didn't look into the Petrified Man, but I did
look into Kirk Marston.
Because we're just introduced toKirk Marston out of the blue.
So I was curious if he had beeninvolved prior to this.
And the answer is yes.
So his whole situation, just tokind of like scene set, because
(11:29):
it's not explained.
So his whole thing is that hewas a radiologist working for
MI6, the same spy agency JamesBond works for.
And Kazar, he comes to London,he's looking for a cure to a
vibranium-related illness ormadness that's affecting all the
people in the Savage Land.
(11:49):
And he gets introduced to Kirkand he goes back to the Savage
Land to basically help him withthis problem.
And that's how he goes fromLondon to the Savage Land.
And then a bunch of shenaniganskind of take place.
And then we get to where we are,where he's suddenly kidnapped
and gets turned into thePetrified Man.
SPEAKER_01 (12:09):
I had no idea that he was anyone of consequence.
Yeah.
I was just like, this is arandom dude chained to a slab.
And he gets transformed in likea cool way at I like the whole,
oh, they paint fire on him.
Yeah.
Like that's a cool priestessthing to do.
And then he turns into like aweird looking dude.
So that could be a littlebetter, but the ritual
SPEAKER_00 (12:31):
is cool.
Well, that whole sequence washappening before they did the
ritual, which I agree lookedreally cool and different.
I thought, oh, we're going to begetting the monster of the week.
That's what we're getting here.
That was my first thought.
this being that they wereworshipping is like some sort of
demon that's in anotherdimension that's going to show
up and the X-Men are going tofight it.
(12:51):
Which I guess kind of happens,but not in the way that I
thought.
SPEAKER_01 (12:54):
Ultimately, I feel like I didn't really have a lot
of skin in the game for thisconfrontation that they're
setting up.
So I don't have a lot ofbackground on Khazar, Garak,
really barely any background onSauron as well.
Yeah.
in this issue, next issue.
He's a very minor player.
He really is not in the books asmuch as I thought he would be.
(13:17):
Kind of a shoulder shrugreaction to the Savage Land in
general, just over these twoissues, or especially in this
issue, I guess.
SPEAKER_00 (13:26):
Yeah.
I also want to admit that Iprobably sound totally ignorant
of the information, right?
Well, we are very dumb.
So I admit that I am notfamiliar with this, and I
messaged you...
earlier very briefly about thisand I had expressed I wasn't a
huge fan of this issuespecifically because there was
(13:48):
just a lot of confusinginformation happening in the
story for me and your responsewas basically maybe Kazar comics
were popular then and that's avery good point because we're
reading this obviously way wayway way way way after this came
out and without the context ofwas Marvel really kind of
pushing this at the time Whichwould make a lot of sense if it
(14:10):
were.
And I'm sure I could have lookedthis up.
I didn't.
I'm ignorant again.
But I think that's importantcontext to have here as well.
Before we move on to the nextissue, I think I did do a little
bit of research on the SavageLand.
Because I was genuinely curiousreading this.
Because I was like, what isgoing on?
There's aliens.
(14:30):
There's the dinosaurs,obviously.
We got interdimensional beings.
What is going on in this place?
Because all I thought it was wasjust dinosaur land.
So are you good if I jump into abase, a little explainer of
where we are to kind of help setthe scene and provide maybe a
little bit more context of whatwe're looking at?
I guess I'll allow it.
(14:51):
All right.
So it's explained that theSavage Lands is in Antarctica.
That's very well established.
Obviously, we have the dinosaursthere.
Now, I have a question for you.
You're a smart guy.
SPEAKER_01 (15:06):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (15:07):
Antarctica would have had dinosaurs
SPEAKER_01 (15:10):
on it, right?
Yes, because I believe backthen, would the continents have
been separated, or would theyhave been the one
supercontinent?
Yeah, Pangea.
Yeah, I went to American school,so.
It is, I believe it's, hold on,I'm looking this up.
I don't want us to talk.
Was dinosaurs in Antarctica?
(15:34):
Let's
SPEAKER_00 (15:34):
see.
Yes, they did.
Okay.
I knew this.
All right.
We crushed it.
Yeah, we crushed it.
We're good.
My son watches enough dinosaurrelated content for me to, I
don't know why I second guessedthis, but yes, I did know this.
All right.
So yeah, they have
SPEAKER_01 (15:47):
dinosaurs there, but that's not the reason.
Hold on.
Let me just Google is the SavageLand real, real quick.
SPEAKER_00 (15:55):
Well, what you would actually find if you Google that
is exact coordinates where it isbelieved to be in the book,
which is an area of thecontinent called the Palmer
Peninsula.
And there's like an archipelagothere, which is a bunch of
islands for you non-scientific
SPEAKER_01 (16:13):
folk.
I actually got a way differentresult from the AI overview.
No, Savage Land is not a realplace or event.
It is a fictional storypresented in a mockumentary
format.
The film depicts a massacre in asmall Arizona town near the
U.S.-Mexico border.
UNKNOWN (16:28):
Ha ha ha ha!
SPEAKER_00 (16:29):
It's a very different Savage Land.
SPEAKER_01 (16:32):
I think it might be a zombie movie.
But the image that I'm seeingpaired next to it is from James
Cameron's Avatar, so I'm justbeyond confused.
SPEAKER_00 (16:41):
All right, so we have the Savage Lands in
Antarctica.
We got the coordinates.
Big shout out to the Marvelfandom database where a lot of
this information came from.
Super helpful.
So the dinosaurs are here notbecause they were living here
before, but because an alienbrought it here to this specific
spot as a game preserve for theBeyonders.
(17:02):
And the Beyonders are just abunch of other god-like alien
beings that exist in theuniverse.
Super gods.
Yeah, they're kind of a bigdeal.
So over the years, there's beenall sorts of alien shenanigans
that have kind of happened inthe Savage Lands.
At one point in time, theEternals are doing some stuff
(17:22):
there, and they're meddlingabout, and other aliens come.
SPEAKER_01 (17:27):
It's like a favorite vacation spot.
SPEAKER_00 (17:29):
It seems to be a popular destination if you're...
out of this world.
And then there's like some sortof connection to like another
universe, another dimension.
I don't know what's going on.
Anywho, those are my feelings ofthis.
There was just too muchexposition that was needed.
Although I will give pointswhere points are due for the
(17:49):
art, the cool fight scene.
We got a Godzilla reference atone point that was cool to see.
And then at some point we alsosee Kazar flying on a shark.
Because why not?
Again.
I don't have an explanation forit.
Alien Zookeepers, I guess.
Pretty good band name.
That is
SPEAKER_01 (18:08):
a cool band name.
Should we go on to 116?
Yeah, yeah, let's go.
Let's do it.
In issue 116, the X-Men andKazar travel to the city of the
Sun God.
but before they can set theirplan, they are ambushed by some
of his forces who are flying ondinosaurs that I would probably
mispronounce anyway.
(18:29):
A fight ensues, but Cyclops,Kazar, Colossus, and Banshee are
all captured, leaving behindWolverine, Storm, Nightcrawler,
and Kazar's saber-toothedcompanion.
And here is where this littleside quest and the Savage Land
takes an awesome turn, in myopinion, because Wolverine takes
charge of the situation andleads the remaining X-Men on a
(18:51):
rescue mission.
He sends the Tiger home to getsome backup and plans an
infiltration of the city.
When the three come across asentry standing guard, Wolverine
definitely murders him to theshock of Storm and Nightcrawler.
The team eventually finds theircompanions and learn that the
petrified man plans to executethe X-Men and Kazar.
(19:11):
Nightcrawler frees up Cyclops'optic blasts, which are then
used to free Colossus andBanshee.
A battle ensues, and Cyclopsgives chase of Garak, who ran
off.
It turns out he was running tofill up on some energy, and the
two shoot eye blasts at eachother.
Before there is a clear winner,the metropolis around them
(19:33):
crumbles and they both begin tofall.
Banshee catches Scott, and Stormattempts to rescue Garrick, but
can't reach him in time.
She safely returns, but isdevastated by her failure.
A fortnight passes, and the teamis finally able to leave by
boat, but they end up sailinginto a crazy storm.
So I think, right off the bat,Still not super interested in
(19:59):
the Petrified Man, what's goingon in the Savage Land.
I'd rather these people returnto their main quest or whatever
you want to call it.
But like I said earlier, I thinkthat Wolverine just completely
kills at this issue.
We see him just being a hugebadass and an awesome leader.
And not just the old Wolverine,berserker, dumb fight, fight,
(20:22):
fight that he sometimes comesacross as in some of these
books.
SPEAKER_00 (20:27):
Yeah, I agree totally.
I think it was the onlyredeeming quality of the entire
issue, in my opinion.
Wolverine taking charge.
We know he's a leader in thefuture.
We see this really coolinteraction with the Sabertooth
Tiger where Logan is like, heyman, I know you want to come.
(20:47):
I know you miss your best friendand all.
How about you run home and getsome backup?
And we're going to go take careof this because we need to be
stealthy.
He had a whole plan.
He stuck to it.
You even see the characters inthe book remarking about how
un-Wolverine this is like.
So it's really fun to see.
And as we know in the future,we'll start seeing Logan become
(21:09):
more of a leader for the othermutants that end up going to the
school.
SPEAKER_01 (21:14):
He has another fun...
Animal interaction with theraptor that bites his hand.
SPEAKER_00 (21:20):
Yeah, that was very fun.
As soon as it happened, Ithought, are they going to do
it?
Are they going to pull thetrigger on this and actually
have him extend his claws in theraptor's mouth?
And they did.
It wasn't very gruesome onpanel, which I think was the
right call.
But it was a really coolimpression to see placed on a
(21:40):
page.
Yeah, I'm glad they went throughwith it.
I thought that we saw some coolinteractions with different
characters across these books inthe way that they've been able
to kind of use their powers.
So in this issue, we kind of seeNightcrawler again pushing his
powers further than he's pushedthem before as he basically
(22:00):
takes charge in this interactionwhere they've now gotten pretty
close here.
to where the petrified man is.
They're having this ceremony,sacrifice situation going on.
We see a really cool image ofColossus tied up, totally
ablaze.
(22:21):
Burning him like a witch.
Burning him like a witch.
And he's red as a tomato becausethe metal on his skin is just so
hot.
But Kurt pushes his powers,basically teleports behind
Colossus, cuts him free, andthen the X-Men are able to get a
hold of the situation.
(22:42):
Very, very cool.
We also see this in the previousissue with Peter getting
attacked by Sauron, right?
Where Sauron comes in, grabsPeter, is going to try to energy
vampire him.
And in this process, we see thiskind of like the kinetic force
(23:04):
of the change pushing Sauronback enough to really prevent
him from sucking the energy outof him.
So a really cool interpretationof the various powers that we're
kind of seeing across theseissues.
And we were just kind of talkingabout in the last episode how we
were wanting more of the othercharacters to kind of shine
(23:25):
through.
rather than there being emphasison specific ones that we've
seen, like Jean and Storm.
SPEAKER_01 (23:31):
Yeah, I thought they did a really good job here with
that, because we didn'tnecessarily get Wolverine's
backstory, but we got to see adifferent side of him.
Him being cute with animals, himbeing super tactical, him
getting to cut loose a littlebit and do a little bit of
murder.
So, you know, we're gettingthose person...
And even...
the previous issue, there's likea really fun interaction he has
(23:54):
with Kurt right at the end whereKurt hits him with a snowball.
And in the past, you know,that's something that Wolverine
would maybe try to swipe at himwith his claws.
But in this issue, he's like,oh, you've done it now, elf.
Grab a snowdrift.
We're going to have a snowballfight.
The loser buys beer.
Completely different than how heused to act now that he's, I
(24:17):
guess, actually like friendswith these people.
SPEAKER_00 (24:19):
Yeah, I imagine, you know, part of this, too, if
you've ever found yourself in aleadership position and you've
you have people around youlooking up to you and they're
following your lead and they'retrusting you.
Having that interaction that hehas in this issue probably
really bolstered hisrelationship with the other
members because they trusted himto make the right decisions,
whereas, you know, many times inthe past they've asked him to
(24:42):
pump the brakes.
So to kind of see them gettingon board, we're going to go in
stealthy.
Wolverine suddenly seems to knowwhat he's doing.
Let's give him a chance to leadus.
And, you know, as you said, weget this rewarding shot of
Nightcrawler throwing thesnowball at Logan and them
having a fun moment together.
SPEAKER_01 (25:03):
The only other Wolverine thing that I think I
may have had is I feel like theyteased the healing factor very
slightly in this one, too.
Storm is concerned about hisarm.
He says, not so's you'd notice.
It's okay, babe.
I heal real fast and the beastain't been born that can break
(25:23):
my bones.
So it's a little bit of thattease of like, it's not just the
claws.
Maybe it's his whole skeletonthat is made of adamantium and
he heals really fast.
SPEAKER_00 (25:36):
That's a great pickup, man.
I didn't even really put muchthought into it.
You're totally right.
It's a great tease.
And also super cool for Logan tosay, by the way.
Like, look at me, the big toughman.
Little tough man.
Hell yeah, little tough man.
He does poke fun at himself inthis issue too, I believe it is,
for his stature.
SPEAKER_01 (25:58):
Yeah,
SPEAKER_00 (25:58):
I don't remember where it is, but he does bring
it up.
The only other thing that Ithought was cool about this
issue is the dueling eye beamfight that we get towards the
end of the book between Cyclopsand the Petrified Man, where
he's like siphoning thehydrothermic energy that's below
(26:20):
them, essentially.
Science.
I think that's what it is.
It's like thermal energy.
So he's like utilizing this tocreate an eye blast.
And isn't he supposed to be likethe sun god?
Isn't that like how they
SPEAKER_01 (26:32):
present him?
They're in the city of the sungod.
And I know he's the petrifiedman.
And he might be the sun god.
I don't know.
Maybe?
I hope we never see him again.
That's my opinion.
I hope we never come back.
Well, he might be dead.
He did fall very far.
SPEAKER_00 (26:49):
Yeah, all the way to the center of the earth,
allegedly.
Thank you so much.
(27:14):
It just feels like, isn't thatkind of like her power set?
Even when the cave was blocked,I thought, couldn't you just
warm up the sky?
Do the storm thing.
SPEAKER_01 (27:24):
Yeah, weather manipulate.
We're at like 49 years ago wherewe don't have all this.
Here's everything Storm's done.
Here's why she's a big deal.
We haven't built up to it yet.
I think it's the way to reallyexplain it away, at least
looking back on it, is shedoesn't have the practice yet.
But she was doing it in Africa,right?
(27:44):
To a certain extent, but...
SPEAKER_00 (27:46):
It was making it rain.
SPEAKER_01 (27:47):
Yeah, but there's a difference between making it
rain and traveling the ocean inlike a hurricane.
SPEAKER_00 (27:54):
Well, I thought the explanation she gave was like
very good.
Like this is controlled, right?
We see them on this boat in thisintense storm, which the Drake
Passage is known for.
And for her to be like, I amdoing everything I can right now
to make this storm be what itcurrently is.
If I'm not doing this, likewe're in big trouble.
(28:14):
But I'm looking at this atearlier in the story when they
tried to go back into the cave,like they just accept that it
was iced over when really anynumber of them probably could
have broke through that ice.
But I just felt like maybe Stormcould have used her powers to
like make it warmer,
SPEAKER_01 (28:33):
you know?
Yeah.
We don't really know, like, howfar of ice is this tunnel.
Maybe they decided it'll savetime to fight this guy, but it
really doesn't becauseapparently they chilled out for
a fortnight afterward.
Yeah, I thought that was weird,too.
Cyclops says, we need to leaveright now.
After they finish the job, allright, everyone, take a
(28:55):
fortnight.
Peter, go back to your islandwith those girls.
Yeah.
Everyone just chill.
I guess it had to melt, butagain, they probably could have
sped that up, but it doesn'tmatter.
It's not a big
SPEAKER_00 (29:07):
deal.
No, I realize that.
I'm probably just nitpicking thenitpick, honestly.
I do recall them saying that thereason that things were freezing
over was because of theextraction of energy, basically.
SPEAKER_01 (29:22):
Yeah, the city that had put up was taking the energy
and then the Savage Land,because it sat on like a bunch
of volcanoes, basically.
It got
SPEAKER_00 (29:32):
cold.
Yeah, it's all explained, butthey fixed it.
At the time, I was questioningit, and then we got the
explanation in the next issue.
Does it not also bother you thatwe still, for some reason,
everybody's just accepted thatthey're all dead?
Like, I just think it's sostrange.
That they haven't just hoppedinto Cerebro and just like...
SPEAKER_01 (29:52):
I have an explanation for this, too.
Oh, please, hit me with it.
So, here's what's happening.
Professor X, it's wellestablished that he has a
psychic rapport with hisstudents.
He's really down.
He probably lost track of themon vacation because he was doing
stuff.
He was busy.
Okay, sure.
(30:13):
He was off.
SPEAKER_00 (30:15):
He was so much off, he put his head of office on for
his mental powers.
SPEAKER_01 (30:19):
Look, Professor X was like, hey, this is my new
boo.
I'm going to take her to thisvacation destination that I used
to go with my old love becausehe has a weird fixation, needs
to find some new spots.
Yeah, make some new memories,Charles.
So he turned off the psychicreport a little bit there.
They go into the volcano base.
(30:41):
Magneto's helmet blocks psychicstuff.
So I think it can make sensethat he would have a base that
would block psychic stuff.
Yeah.
loose track there.
At a certain point, I think wealso said like, oh, maybe the
Savage Land has a weird thinggoing on.
Right now, they've escaped.
There's no reason for them notto have a connection.
I think it's just he's very sad.
(31:01):
He's very down and depressed.
I don't think he's reaching outpsychically at all.
I think he's just sitting therevery isolated, only in his own
mind, not doing anything withhis
SPEAKER_00 (31:12):
powers.
I think that's a very fairexplanation.
I'm definitely not accountingfor the amount of grief that
he's probably finding himselfin.
And I guess if your prized pupilis coming home, both of them,
Beast and Gene, to say, like,they're dead, you're probably
putting a bit of trust intothose words.
(31:34):
And if it's heartbreaking, it'sheartbreaking.
So, very fair.
Very fair.
I retract my statement.
Poor Charles.
SPEAKER_01 (31:43):
We'll dunk on him for...
Other reasons at other times,because I know they'll come up.
SPEAKER_00 (31:50):
All right, well, with that in mind, we're about
to get a very heavy CharlesXavier issue.
SPEAKER_01 (31:55):
Yep, big into Professor X.
Issue 117, the previous issueteased the least expected X-Men
origin of them all, and we seefrom the cover of 117 that we'll
be looking at the saga ofProfessor X, A New Beginning.
And the end?
Question mark exclamation point?
(32:16):
But before we get into that, wereturn to the X-Men navigating
the storm.
Storm the person is using herpowers to try and calm things,
but it still looks pretty grim.
Thankfully, they stumble acrossa ship on its way home from
Japan.
The X-Men are told thatunauthorized radio communication
is forbidden.
because they're on a delicatemission for the government, and
(32:38):
they're taken below deck asguests, and I've written guests
in italics.
Lalandra tries to comfortXavier, and he regales her with
a tale of how he used to be inlove with Moira, definitely a
great conversation to have withyour current love, and what he
did after she left him.
We see Xavier bumming around,and he ends up in Cairo, where a
(33:01):
young Storm picks his pocket, Heuses his powers to freeze her,
but it alerts another telepathof his presence.
Xavier enters the saloon andenters into telepathic combat
with Amal Farouk, who willsomeday be known as the Shadow
King.
He's almost defeated, but giveshim the ol' brain blasty and
(33:23):
Farouk is presumed dead.
Xavier notes that he was thefirst evil mutant he had ever
met, and it made him realize howdeadly mutant powers could be in
the wrong hands.
Lilandra asks Xavier to returnto her home with her, and Xavier
eventually says yes.
On the last page, we get a quicklook at Jean Grey booking a
(33:46):
flight for somewhere, and MistyKnight happens to pop up and is
headed to Japan with ColleenWing.
What a coincidence.
Jean waves to Misty's departingplane and realizes that for the
first time since joining theX-Men, she is truly on her own.
So do you want to kick us offfor 117?
(34:06):
How did you feel about this one?
SPEAKER_00 (34:09):
I honestly didn't really have a lot to say.
I thought it was fine.
It kind of really surmises thelast three issues.
Eh, it was okay.
I thought the fight that we endup seeing, and we talked a
little bit earlier about howthey've depicted psychic powers,
and this fight that we getbetween Farouk and Charles sees
(34:32):
them donning armor and theShadow King, as he'll one day be
known, is hulking in size, notlike the Hulk, but big like
that.
It was a really cool depictionof the fight.
But aside from that, I just wantto get back to the main story.
It's kind of where I am.
SPEAKER_01 (34:48):
Yeah.
I think we didn't add a lot withthe Savage Land stuff besides
some cool Wolverine interaction,I guess would be my main
takeaway.
Yeah.
So it just feels like we'retaking a lot of pit stops versus
getting to our destination.
It is fun to get a look back.
And I am curious a little bitabout before this, how much of
(35:11):
Xavier's backstory is really outthere beyond he's leading a
school and and he's a mutant,and he wants good human and
mutant relations.
SPEAKER_00 (35:24):
Yeah, that's a very good question.
I don't have an answer.
It is nice to see, and we knowthe Shadow King becomes a big
villain for the X-Men, so that'sfun to see the nexus of that in
this little interaction with alittle storm.
How did you feel about the storminteraction?
SPEAKER_01 (35:43):
Eh,
SPEAKER_00 (35:44):
I could have did without it.
SPEAKER_01 (35:45):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (35:46):
That's how I feel.
SPEAKER_01 (35:47):
Yeah, I wrote down Storm Titan is a little silly,
but the X-Men are a littlesilly, so I'll let it pass.
It's just like a weird cameowhere it's like, oh, okay.
SPEAKER_00 (35:57):
Yeah, I mean, it was clearly put in place because he
was in Cairo.
And it's like, well, he may aswell run into Storm because
she's there.
And not that it doesn't makesense.
Like, you know, he feels hermutant powers and can sense it.
So, like, it's not crazy oroutlandish to think that it
could have happened.
SPEAKER_01 (36:15):
I think it's a cool intro for Farouk, though.
They both enter the saloon, arejust silent, having this psychic
conversation, sit down, and havea little battle.
It's fun.
It's interesting.
I'm glad that he's not justbeing used as a one-off.
I think it's probably a longtime before he shows up again,
(36:37):
but I'm glad that this isn'tjust a throwaway random dude.
SPEAKER_00 (36:42):
Yeah, absolutely.
And to that note, so I'vementioned to you before that
I've been reading Uncanny X-Men,the new one that's out.
Sorry, not Uncanny X-Men, theUltimate X-Men.
And the setting is...
SPEAKER_01 (36:56):
I've been reading Uncanny X-Men.
Uncanny or Ultimate?
The Louisiana X-Men.
Oh, no, I haven't been readingthat one.
It's fun.
It's so fun.
We'll talk later.
Oh, okay.
Yeah, I don't know.
So right now the X-Men are splitwhere there's X-Men, and that's
Cyclops' group, and they're inAlaska doing X-Men things.
(37:18):
And then there's Uncanny X-Men,and that's Rogue and Gambit and
Wolverine and Jubilee, andthey're in Louisiana, and they
have four new characters, likethese kids that are mutants and
showed up.
You know, a lot of newcharacters don't really hit or
they feel like, oh, okay,they're just trying to, like,
(37:38):
introduce some new people, blah,blah, blah.
Awesome characters.
I really like the new charactersthat they're bringing into
Uncanny X-Men.
I hope they're just, like,around for the next several
years, next long time.
I think they're great additionsto the universe.
SPEAKER_00 (37:54):
Oh, all right, damn.
Okay, I might have to check thisout.
Very similarly...
I've been reading UltimateX-Men, which is a very, very
different take on mutants.
And in that series, it takesplace entirely in Japan.
These powers are kind ofmanifesting in different kids,
and the main character is Armor,and there's Nico, who's there.
(38:18):
We get Psylocke shows up, butone of the other characters who
becomes one of the largerantagonists, and a bit of a
victim in his own right, is theShadow King.
who is also like a child.
It's not everybody's cup of tea.
The style is like a manga, whichis really kind of cool.
I like it.
It's just very, very different,and I've enjoyed reading it, so
(38:39):
I'd recommend it as well.
I'll have to check
SPEAKER_01 (38:43):
it out.
I think Amal technically is alsoa victim of the Shadow King.
The Shadow King is the evil,multiversal entity that likes to
possess Amal Farouk, and heactually has a little...
redemption arc on Krakoa.
Oh, does he?
Oh, shit.
Okay.
(39:03):
Is that in the New Mutants, Ithink.
Did you watch the New Mutantsmovie?
No.
It's insane to me that theydidn't use him as the villain in
that.
It makes zero sense.
It's, oh, that movie is so bad.
SPEAKER_00 (39:19):
Who's the villain?
SPEAKER_01 (39:20):
The villain is...
I mean, I guess the villain is,oh, what's her name?
She's a doctor.
She can make shields.
She's being essentially bossedaround by Mr.
Sinister and is kind of thevillain, but not really.
She dies eventually.
The real villain is DannyMoonstar learning how to use her
(39:43):
powers, I guess.
Oh, yeah, I see it.
Cecilia Reyes is her.
Yeah, Dr.
Reyes.
Dr.
Reyes, Dr.
Reyes.
Dr.
Reyes, Dr.
Reyes.
Can you play the piano anymore?
SPEAKER_00 (40:00):
Thank you for getting that.
I did want to defend ProfessorXavier here for a moment
because...
For being a killer?
No, not for that.
I think that was...
SPEAKER_01 (40:13):
That was fine.
That was fine.
Kind of surprising, but I thinkhe made the right call.
I'm just a little surprised thathe made the call, but...
I mean, it could...
At different points in his life,I think he would or would not
kill Farouk.
Yeah,
SPEAKER_00 (40:26):
that's what I was about to say.
Like, if this is his first timeinteracting with, like, such an
evil presence, maybe he felt thebest thing to do was to
eliminate it because it was toomuch of a threat.
Very un-Charles Xavier-like, butwe've seen him bend the rules.
Anyways, what I wanted to saywas, he's telling this story
about him and Moira, and...
(40:50):
I think it's very easy to say,dude, what are you doing?
Why are you telling your newlove interest this story about
your old love interest?
But I think the relationship hehas with Lilandra is one that is
mentally bound, right?
They had this very intimatetelekinetic connection, and...
(41:11):
I'm reading in between the lineshere like really, really far,
but I think it's fair to saythat this connection that
they've developed is reallythorough in the idea that his
mind was shared with her mindand vice versa, which is why he
was having these dreams abouther, right?
And we learn later she wassimilarly having dreams about
(41:31):
Charles and, you know, they'rein love because they feel a
connection that cannot beunmatched.
So, With that in mind, you cankind of look at this as a
situation where, yes, he'srecounting this story that maybe
she's unfamiliar with, butdoesn't take it too personally
that he has a love for Moirabecause she can understand it
through this connection thatthey have.
SPEAKER_01 (41:54):
All that's very fair.
I was mostly just poking fun athim.
It's just a little funny.
I felt
SPEAKER_00 (42:00):
like I had makeup for poking at him needlessly for
his grief.
I got your back, Charles.
Love is love, baby.
Love is love.
I'm assuming we are headingtowards a reunion with one of
the original members of thisteam in Sunfire since we're
heading to Japan.
I
SPEAKER_01 (42:19):
can tell you definitely yes, because he's on
the cover of the next issue.
So I don't think that's too muchof a spoiler, but I want to know
how rude he's going to be.
Yeah.
Like, is he gonna, how much of adick is Sunfire gonna
SPEAKER_00 (42:34):
be?
Yeah, he didn't really leave onthe best of terms, so it's fair
to assume that he's not gonna bevery happy to see them there.
SPEAKER_01 (42:39):
It's interesting that we're gonna mix in Misty
Knight and Colleen Wing as well.
We're having more cross-comicintermingling.
Curious as to why they're goingto Japan, but I think it's safe
to assume that all three groupsare gonna be together.
SPEAKER_00 (42:57):
That would be my hope.
I would be very upset if wedon't see some interaction
between Misty and Christine withthe X-Men.
That would be kind of funny.
That would be really weird.
SPEAKER_01 (43:07):
If they just happen to also be going, maybe they
just pass in the street.
They're just there in thebackground passing by.
Two
SPEAKER_00 (43:14):
ships in the night.
Having some ramen.
I could go for some ramen.
Dude, have you been to Japan?
No.
Okay, so I went to Japan for myhoneymoon, and...
regrettably only stayed for aweek, but it was incredible.
It's an incredible country, andthe ramen is just as good as you
(43:35):
can imagine.
Probably even better, becauseyou can't imagine how good it
is.
I just want to eat ramen andsushi all day.
And the sushi is unlike anythingI've had outside of Japan.
You have to experience it.
The entire place, it's just anexperience that you have to see
for yourself for the very firsttime.
I want a
SPEAKER_01 (43:53):
vacation again someday.
Children are hard.
100%.
My big three right now, Japan,obviously, has been of a big
interest.
And I think in terms of newcountries that my wife and I
would visit would probably benumber one or number two.
I don't really know what herdeal is, what she wants to do.
The other two I really like thatwe've already been to, London
(44:16):
and Italy.
Both very cool.
I like London more.
Sorry,
SPEAKER_00 (44:22):
Italians.
Those are both locations on mylist as well.
We were supposed to go back toJapan and we had everything
booked.
We had everything paid for.
We were going to be there fortwo weeks.
Our trip was going to extendbeyond just Tokyo, which is
where we were for our firsttrip.
And we were going to go toKyoto.
We were going to go to Osaka.
(44:43):
And then the pandemic happened,so we had to cancel.
SPEAKER_01 (44:47):
I have a friend, the exact same thing happened to
him.
He had like a two or three weeksort of deal.
He was going to go with hisbrother.
Pandemic hit.
Canceled.
I think he got to go thereeventually, though.
SPEAKER_00 (45:00):
Well, that's good.
That would really suck.
A co-worker of mine was supposedto go to Japan last year and had
bought into a tour package.
And the tour company called themlike two weeks beforehand and
canceled it.
And so they couldn't go.
Yeah.
We were smart and we paid forthe insurance way ahead of time,
(45:23):
right?
Like before there was ever anykind of talks of a pandemic or
anything like that, right?
So we had booked this trip likein November of the previous year
and we got the insurance at thetime because we were like, well,
may as well, just in case.
It was a good thing we didbecause we got all our money
back.
SPEAKER_01 (45:42):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (45:43):
Look at you,
SPEAKER_01 (45:43):
Mr.
Foresight.
SPEAKER_00 (45:45):
Well,
SPEAKER_01 (45:45):
you know, planning keeps you prepared.
So vacations aside, do you haveanything else for 117?
No, I don't.
Okay.
I think we'll just kick intooverall thoughts.
I liked 116 a lot, actually.
I thought that one was reallyfun.
115, kind of okay.
117, a little interesting.
(46:07):
It's fun to see the origin of avillain you recognize.
Fun to learn a little bit moreabout Professor X and what his
deal is.
We did a lot of side story stuffbefore the X-Men are allowed to
go home and be like, hey, we'renot actually dead.
I wasn't super connected to theSavage Land, but, you know, I
liked what they were able to dowith Wolverine there at least.
(46:29):
And I guess looking forward, itseems like they're setting some
interesting things up.
The X-Men going to Japan, seeSunfire, probably Misty and
Colleen.
I hope that we don't lose trackof Jean over the next few
issues.
Where is she going?
That's one of the big questionson mind.
I hope that it's not just sherandomly pops back in later and
(46:53):
is like, oh, good, you're alive.
Yeah.
I'd like to see what she's up toin the meantime.
I guess like a 6.5 to 7 out of10 if we're looking as a unit.
I think 116 drags it up for me alot.
I
SPEAKER_00 (47:11):
think you're being very generous.
This to me is probably like afive.
I thought there was sprinkles ofthings that I liked throughout
the books, which is a testamentto the creative team.
I've said that a lot.
Okay.
The creative team, the creativeteam, the creative team, but it
stands true.
I think Chris and everybody elsehas done a really great job and
(47:31):
like overall, but the storyhere, I just did not like in
really any of the three books.
And I am comparing this to thelast batch, which were my
favorite that we've read so far.
SPEAKER_01 (47:44):
We've been on a pretty crazy run.
The last several issues haveknocked it out of the park.
SPEAKER_00 (47:49):
Yeah.
So coming off of that high, thisis a steep curve down to where I
want to personally be.
I want to ride that high alittle bit longer because we had
this cliffhanger and we just letit hang for too long.
Mm-hmm.
So I also need to make acorrection of myself.
I called Colleen Christineearlier, and I only recognized
(48:12):
it when you said Colleen.
So I apologize, Colleen.
Sorry, Colleen.
I hope you enjoy your trip toJapan.
SPEAKER_01 (48:20):
I also want to throw out there that a 5 out of 10
isn't necessarily...
I think a lot of people look atthat maybe from the video game
review sort of mindset of thisis a disaster trash.
5 out of 10 is kind of likeaverage-y.
SPEAKER_00 (48:33):
I think it's like a slightly below average.
SPEAKER_01 (48:36):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (48:37):
I think a six to me is kind of like, this is fine.
That's our scale.
Yeah.
Like a six to me is like, it'sfine.
It's not great.
I think that's good.
Right.
Like it's not great.
It's fine.
I can live with it.
It's a dip.
Yeah.
I know that we're going toupswing eventually here.
We're just taking a breath.
We've done the exhale.
(48:58):
Right.
And now we're going to get intosomething new.
SPEAKER_01 (49:01):
Well, I think that does it for this episode of
Uncanny Book Club.
Thanks for listening, and wehope to see you next episode,
where we'll discuss issues 118to 121.
Another four-issue episode.
How
SPEAKER_00 (49:15):
exciting.
Will we learn the fate of theX-Men, and if they will have
some sort of interaction withMisty Knight and Colleen?
I guess we'll find out.
Will they pick up a telephoneand dial home, please?
Tell poor Jean Grey and theprofessor that you're alive.
That's all I want.
This should be the first thingthey do when they arrive.
If they're, you know, notdetained.
(49:37):
We'll see.
Yeah, we'll see.
All right.
Well, read comics,
SPEAKER_01 (49:40):
everyone.
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 with afriend.
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