EP 130: Endgame in the Stars: The Epic Last Stand of the X-Men!

In this pulse-pounding episode, we dissect the explosive finale of X-Men: The End - Book Three: Men & X-Men #6! The end is here, and it’s as epic as it gets—Cassandra Nova is reborn as Phoenix, and her reign of terror knows no bounds. With the Shi’ar sun on the brink of supernova, it's up to the X-Men to make their final stand. Heroes fall, alliances are tested, and the fate of mutantkind is sealed in the most cosmic way possible.

But that’s not all! We also share our epic memories from SDCC, where we co-moderated the X-Men Fandom Panel celebrating X-Men '97, and dish on meeting celebrities backstage at D23 for the Marvel Animation Panel. Plus, don’t miss out on the details of our upcoming Summer Cosplay Mixer—where fandoms collide in a night of mutant-themed fun!

Find us on the AIPT Podcast Network. Follow our show to be alerted when new episodes appear the first and third Wednesday of the month. Check us out on social media @xreadspodcast on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. For business inquiries, email [e-mail]. Learn more at https://aiptcomics.com

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/x-reads-an-x-men-experience--3616281/support.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi everybody, This is Chandler and this is Chris. You're
listening to.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
The podcast.

Speaker 1 (00:19):
Welcome everybody to episode one thirty, where Chris and I
are going to recap a really exciting episode. It is
the end.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
It is the end by Chris Claremont. Yes, the Claremontian
end exactly. This is what he envisioned the ending of
the X Men would be if he wrote it.

Speaker 1 (00:39):
And it's quite an ending. We'll get into it, but
before we do, there is so much. First of all,
no special guests, just Chris and I. Aren't you all lucky?
But we've got so much stuff to recap and remember
because we've done so much the past couple of weeks.

Speaker 2 (00:54):
Did SDCC really happen? Was that a your dream?

Speaker 1 (00:58):
It happened and it was It was only like a
month ago. It feels like it never had like it
was last year. It's crazy.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
This is the first year that I went to so
many cool, like super exclusive parties that I don't get
to go to. But like I went to the IgM party,
I went to the Entertainment Weekly party. Favorite was the
Marvel hall Age party.

Speaker 1 (01:22):
M Yeah, those were great parties. Those are well, you
know those those were good parties, but the best party
was our party at coin Up. Yeah. Yeah, I'm glad
that you got to go to those parties and you
got to experience them, and they were wonderful opportunities to
socialize and be amongst the people. But my favorite kind

(01:45):
of party is when it's just you and all your friends.
And so we hosted our annual geek out night at
coin Up, our kide bar, and all of our X
Men friends came and we could quite some some folks there.
I mean I remember well. We had our good friends
from Gray Malkin Lane. Chad Anderson was there mm hm.
And cos player model guy Nate Weir was there.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
Yeah. Oh, his cyclops is so good.

Speaker 1 (02:15):
Yes, let's see who else was there? Vanta Creates, she's
an amazing cost player. She was there.

Speaker 2 (02:21):
Oh yeah. And oh Kyle Thomas was there. People Magazine's
official astrologer. So it was a star stud at night indeed.
And speaking of star study, we hung out with the
X Men all week in various capacities. One of my
favorite moments was watching Guy Augustini perform live on stage

(02:42):
in front of a nightclub full of adoring fans. And
this was at the X Level Entertainment party, which was
themed around anti Hero because of that pool coming out.
It was so great to hang out the X Men there,
and you know, I was with them all week doing
signings at the Unknow Comics booth. I was lucky enough

(03:04):
to be a handler for Leonor and also aj who
plays Gambit, and oh wow, they are so popular. I'm
very empathetic and I feel people's energies and when they
come up, you know, to the actors to tell them
their stories about how much the characters meant to them.
It's so touching. It's so like there's an emotional Catharsis
that happens for so many people that I get to,

(03:25):
you know, witness and be there for. It's such an honor.

Speaker 1 (03:29):
Yeah, I would say. I got to interact with some
pretty cool X Men creators. I got to see our
friend Bill Sinkevich on the floor, so it's fun to
see Bill. I met Mark Silvestri for the first time.
Oh yeah, Mark Silvestri, creator of Jubilee and many other
amazing characters love him. And then also Jay Scott Campbell.

(03:51):
I'd never met him before. So I got to interact
with some pretty cool comic creators. Sdc C weekend.

Speaker 2 (03:59):
Yeah, that's a amazing well, I guess, like you know,
the biggest highlight for me besides being at that Marvel
Hall h party and bob nobbing with stars like John
Carlo Esposito and seeing Harrison Ford and all that, that
was great. But my favorite moment of the whole convention,
the whole week was the X Men fandom panel. Oh yes,

(04:23):
And we have been doing this panel for many a
year now, I think it's been the fifth year.

Speaker 1 (04:29):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (04:29):
You know, we have brought in so many creators and
artists within the x Men community over the years, and
this was the moment that we were able to celebrate
x Men ninety seven. We brought in so many cast
members of the legacy cast, the new cast, and this

(04:51):
was in a room that seated two thousand people plus,
Holy moly.

Speaker 1 (04:58):
And it was full, yes, like full fall.

Speaker 2 (05:02):
I think. Would you say that that is the biggest
panel that we've ever done.

Speaker 1 (05:06):
Oh easily, Yeah, yeah, I would say that was very big.
And it was so big that you couldn't even see
the back of the room when the lights were off,
and so it just was a sea of people into darkness.

Speaker 2 (05:19):
Mm hmm. I had a really surreal moment, Chandler, when
I'm looking out at the audience and I'm looking to
the left and I'm seeing all my childhood heroes and
you know, the new actors that embodying these characters that
we love, and I'm looking at you and I'm thinking wow,
And I think I even said it out loud, like
is this really happening? Like we did it? We did it.

(05:40):
You know we've been going to convention since two thousand
and six, right, yeah, we started.

Speaker 1 (05:45):
Yeah, it was crazy, first of all, just because the
the amount of talent we had on stage was staggering.
Because not only did we have, you know, the original
voice of Jeane Catherine Disher voice of Jubilee, alis in Court,
our new cast members, you know, Gee Augustinia Sunspot, Isaac

(06:07):
Robinson Smith as Bishop JP Carliac is more Yea as
Holly Chow as Jubilee. We had the amazing legacy actors
of Rogue, Storm and Wolverine, and they're all so incredible.
But it's just like the star power was through the roof.
And when when Alison Ceely Smith took the stage, I

(06:30):
could feel the room just swirling with her. Yes, they
were so excited to see her.

Speaker 2 (06:36):
Oh they loved it. And then oh gosh, so you
know how Marvel likes to pull stunts, you know, and
be theatrical. Well, guess what, audience, so do we?

Speaker 1 (06:49):
We did it too.

Speaker 2 (06:51):
We did it too. We pulled our own little stunt
at the end, and you know, through the doorway at
the very end, came in a giant sentinel, like the
one of the most epic cosplays of a sentinel you'll
ever see.

Speaker 1 (07:05):
He basically approached the audience his poems extended, yelling halt mutants,
and you know, everybody was excited to see this big sentinel.
But what they were really not expecting was inside the
sentinel was Eric Bousa, the voice of the Sentinels in
the animated series. But not only is he the voice
of the Sentinels, he is the voice of Bugs, Bunny

(07:28):
and many other cartoon characters.

Speaker 2 (07:30):
But oh so many cartoon characters.

Speaker 1 (07:33):
He's such an iconic voice actor, and ironically he just
does the sentinel voice in X Men ninety seven saying
you know, three lines. But he loves X Men so much.
He just was so excited to be a part of
the project and he got this giant Sentinel suit made
just for Comic Con so he could be there and
surprise everybody. So everybody was super surprised, and they were

(07:53):
even more surprised to learn that he was inside because
he's a little Canadian man and he was in this
giant robot and he was very excited and we.

Speaker 2 (08:02):
Were excited that he participated. What a surprise.

Speaker 1 (08:05):
It was a lot of fun. And you know, just
to shout out to all the people in the audience
because you mentioned this, like when you look out in
the audience and you're doing this panel, they're just so
happy to see the cast members and listen to their
stories and everything like that. And just to be a
part of that, to be, you know, the orchestrators of
making that all come together, just feels really good that

(08:26):
we could provide that kind of panel for the fans,
because there wasn't going to be one, truthfully, you know,
there was you know, they're not part of the Marvel
programming because you know, they did it two years ago
when they were promoting the show, so they wouldn't have
been on the panel. So we were really happy to
do that.

Speaker 2 (08:43):
SDCC wasn't the only convention that we hit up. Just recently,
we were also at one of the most magical conventions
in existence. It only happens once every two years. I
am talking about D twenty three in Anaheim. And this
convention celebrates all things under the Disney umbrella. And that's
National Geographic, it's ESPN, it's Hulu, it's Marvel and Star

(09:07):
Wars and pigs are Yes, it's it is like so much.
And this convention has the best cosplay. Oh, they go
all out for their cosplays at this one. Lots of
wonderful energy. The booths and the activations are huge. We
had the honor of attending the Marvel Animation panel, and

(09:31):
it is a pretty big deal because, as I said,
this is the platform for Disney to announce the things
that they have coming up over the next two years.
So we were able to see footage from stuff that
other people have not seen yet, like the new Wakanda
animated series, you know, which looks very powerful, yes, and

(09:54):
one of my favorite things to see, and I have
a feeling it's going to be a hit. Your friendly
Name Hood Spider Man.

Speaker 1 (10:01):
Oh yeah, yes.

Speaker 2 (10:03):
The animation is you know, two D and vintage. It
looks great. The voice actors are phenomenal.

Speaker 1 (10:11):
You know.

Speaker 2 (10:11):
I got to meet them backstage and they're they're very
excited about their project.

Speaker 1 (10:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (10:15):
Oh my gosh. You know who Ilse I met backstage?

Speaker 3 (10:18):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (10:19):
Nina West. Oh.

Speaker 1 (10:20):
Yes, she looked fabulous backstage. And was she not dressed
as like an alligator type, like some sort of alligator theme?

Speaker 2 (10:30):
This I believe was themed after Captain Hook and never Land?

Speaker 1 (10:36):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (10:36):
Yes, yes, so you have the Neverland map? Yes, and
on the train the alligator is kind of like.

Speaker 1 (10:43):
And like a ship for a hat or something like that,
I recall, so, yes, it was, Yeah, it was. It
was very creative. It was very cool, and I'm jealous
that you got to meet no West. I saw Nina Wes,
but I was on the other side of the room.
But you I know, I saw you make a B line.
You're like, oh my god. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (11:00):
Well, you know, I didn't even realize who it was
until like I was being whisked away because the show
was starting, and they told me as I was leaving,
I was just geeking out, just going gaga over her dress.
I didn't even know it was Nina.

Speaker 1 (11:15):
Yeah, oh that's cool. And then we got to talk
to Kevin Faigie backstage. So one of the cool things
about D twenty three is, you know, we were guests
through Marvel Animation because of the X Men ninety seven
element that they got to debut. So they got to
bring in first look at X Men ninety seven and

(11:36):
on stage came out Lenora's Ann and Cal Dodd and
Chris and I got to be kind of guessed through
the X Men train into the Marvel Animation panel. So
we were backstage, we got reserve seating and got to
meet all these people, and it was it was so
cool and like, we're so grateful that Marvel gave us
the opportunity to do that, Like it was such a

(11:57):
nice experience.

Speaker 2 (11:58):
I would say one of my favorite memories from D
twenty three was the TWA am I saying that right, TVA, TVA,
thank you Chandler the time Variant Agency Authority. Oh damn it,
I got it wrong again. I need to watch Loki.

Speaker 1 (12:16):
Yeah, you should watch it.

Speaker 2 (12:17):
Yes, I watched the first episode and then I was
just like I tuned out. I'm sorry, sorry, Loki. But
that booth was cool because you're going through this like
you know, Mayze environment, and then you're looking through all
these like windows and you're seeing all the different costumes
and stuff. And the last window you get to I
was with leonor Zian, who plays Rogue and the brother

(12:40):
and girlfriend of Isaac Robinson Smith, who voices Bishop, and
we're like, we're going to show you something. I was
like what, So, you know, we get escorted to the
front and h to this Rocket Raccoon window where he
is appearing as a hologram. I thought, originally, oh, wait,
this is probably just one of those pre recorded holograms

(13:02):
that they have at Disneyland. No, this guy was interacting
with you live and in person. There was a camera
there and the actor is in the other side of
the convention center up second floor in a different room,
all blanked out, dark, and he is interacting with these
people that are downstairs of this activation. And it turns
out that Rocket Raccoon is Isaac Robinson Smith, a voice

(13:27):
of Bishop from X Men ninety seven. It was so
meta and cool to see Rocket Raccoon interacting with Leonore
because Lenora was making Rogue jokes illusions, so he had
to react off of that like, you know, oh, there's
there must be something wrong with the time stream. We
got to find Bishop oh that guy.

Speaker 1 (13:49):
Yeah, but.

Speaker 2 (13:55):
Oh my god, that that was a blast. And he
was explaining to me like, yeah, it's not all these
like dots and everything that they paste on you anymore.
It's just a headset. And I was so amazed because
with the technology now, every facial expression looked, you know,
authentic and real and fluid technology right now rocks. And

(14:15):
then you get to the end of this t V
A experience in the office there they hand you a
card to give your assignment. Oh my card that I got.
I was assigned a minuteman. Oh, that would be my
job at the TVA.

Speaker 1 (14:33):
Hmm. So does that mean you also work for miss minutes?

Speaker 2 (14:37):
Mm hmm, that's right. I have a bonified card and everything.

Speaker 1 (14:40):
All right, what would you be?

Speaker 2 (14:44):
You'd probably be like an archivist.

Speaker 1 (14:46):
Probably, I don't know, Yeah, maybe maybe somebody who sends
out the minute men. Yeah, go go take care of
time things. I don't know what that person's called.

Speaker 2 (14:58):
The person who delegates.

Speaker 1 (15:00):
Yes, well I didn't get to go through TVA the
line was so long, but I did get to go
to the x Men ninety seven booth activation where they
had recreated Professor Xavier's desk in this library and there
was a Magneto helmet and they had a wall full
of X Men art as well, and it was really
cool to do that little activation photo op.

Speaker 2 (15:23):
And lots of X Men cosplayers this year, tons of
x Men cosplay. I loved it. You know. The next
day we didn't stop the party there. We went to
a com book store and did a signing with the
X Men ninety seven actors. That was fun. We went
to week and Be Heroes shout out and my favorite
memory from that was recreating photos from the animated series

(15:46):
in X Men ninety seven with the actors. So we
did we could do side by sides like a Gambit
writing Woolver Reed's back and wool Read's clause lighting up
and all that stuff. Well we recreated that with the
actors and the last version of it.

Speaker 1 (16:03):
Yeah, we also recreated the huggable moment where Nightcrawler teleports
and gives Gambit and Rogue a hug when they arrive
on Genosha, and they got to recreate that moment too,
So it was super cute, super fun, and yeah, a
big shout out to Weekend Be Heroes for you know,
hosting the event and to the actors who play Rogue, Wolverine, Magneto, Gambit,

(16:28):
Morph and Nightcrawler, who are all there.

Speaker 2 (16:30):
You know what, you guys, Do you want to hang out?
Do you want to party with us? Well, you don't
have to wait until the Uncanny Experience happening September twenty
eighth and twenty ninth at the Minneapolis Club. You can
meet up with us sooner than that at our cosplay
summer mixer at Number twelve Cider in Minnesota. Get ready,
because our extraordinary sponsor and the largest sidery in Minnesota

(16:55):
is we are descending upon their establishment where you can
on award winning sider that's as bold as will Rine
and as smooth as Gambit in their North Loop tap room,
or chill on their pet friendly patio with some wood
fired pizza.

Speaker 1 (17:11):
Yea yeah, So suit up in your best X Men
cosplay and join us for a night of mutant fun, fandom,
and cider that's sure to power up your taste buds.
I'm going to be there myself, addressed as Cable, and
I have engaged with a total of twelve local cosplayers
who have all agreed to come an X Men cosplay.

(17:32):
We're going to do a photo shoot starting at four
o'clock and then we're going to be hanging out afterwards,
So don't forget to come down on Saturday, August thirty
first to Number twelve Sider in downtown Minneapolis.

Speaker 2 (17:44):
This is an X Men podcast where we like to
recap into issues of the X Men. So why don't
we do that.

Speaker 1 (17:52):
Let's do it, Let's do it.

Speaker 2 (17:54):
Let's get into our latest.

Speaker 1 (17:56):
Yes, while we are going to be doing an issue,
as we say about the end by Chris Claremont. It
came out on June seventh of two thousand and six.

Speaker 2 (18:07):
And the reason that I chose this one specifically was
because I'm fascinated by Cassandra Nova. I know that we
covered Cassandra before when we did New X Men number
one twenty one with X Men artist Lucas Warnick, and
we also what was the other one that we did.

Speaker 1 (18:26):
We also did issue one fourteen, which was episode ninety one,
and that was the dawn of the Grant Morrison era
and the first introduction of Cassandra Nova.

Speaker 2 (18:37):
Yeah, and it's pretty intense. And I thought she was
brutal in those issues, and I thought she was even
more brutal in Deadpool and Wolverine. But guess what, you guys.
In Chris Claremont's the end, she is the most brutal
that you will ever see her, most likely, well as

(18:58):
far as I know.

Speaker 1 (18:59):
I will. I'll say, I will say there was a
lack of her sticking her hands in people's faces.

Speaker 2 (19:05):
Oh well, you know what, if you want more of
that instead of reading issue six, go to issue five
and four.

Speaker 1 (19:11):
Good, I want plenty of fingers going through people's.

Speaker 2 (19:15):
Fingers went through faces. I was terrified, and I'm just like,
oh my god, It's just like the movie or the movies,
just like the comics, you know. I was fascinated by
the concept of Chris Claremont's vision of the end of
the X Men, and I did something that I don't
normally do, And I read the entire arc right before

(19:39):
recording this, because normally I just jump in. I just
jump in and swim around wherever we're at. But this one,
I was transfixed. Some really amazing, incredible things happen in this,
Like there's lots of espionage in the arc. Gambit is
disguising himself as mister Sinister to try to, like the

(20:01):
n angle his way into the shiar Empire. Madeline Pryor
is going around masquerading as dust you know, Soraya. That way,
you know, she can get close to Scott to kill him. Oh, Bishop,
he finds out that he has a daughter with death Bird.

Speaker 1 (20:20):
What what do you mean? Finds out? Meaning he just
didn't know that he made her pregnant, He.

Speaker 2 (20:25):
Had no idea, he kept it. She kept it from him.

Speaker 1 (20:29):
Oh wow, you know we find out up.

Speaker 2 (20:32):
Oh, I don't know, but she kept it from him.
She at this point is already dead. Lalande Professor Xavier
have a son.

Speaker 1 (20:42):
A son on top of a daughter. Her name is Xandra.

Speaker 2 (20:47):
With oh cool, Well, in this issue there is no daughter,
but there is a son. We'll see his fate soon.
Brace yourself because the most disgusting thing in the world
is back within this arc, and that's the Brood. And

(21:13):
there's so many deaths. I mean he did end. Yeah,
Like Lorna has an incredible death scene. Magneto dies, and
the cool thing that happens with them is that Magneto
keeps Lorna alive for you know, not too long, but
a little while, and they turn into magnetic energy and

(21:35):
they merge with the magnetic field of the planet, and
so they're able to like keep their ethereal form alive
a little bit longer, to have some touching scenes and
also help in the fight. Wow, so that's that's pretty intense.
An adorable touching scene also happens where Kitty finally apologizes

(21:57):
to Professor Xavier for calling I'm a jerk. So waiting
all the way to the end, all the way to
the end, Chris Claremont, Well.

Speaker 1 (22:09):
Wow, so basically you've just given us the recap of
the whole series leading up till now, so we should
probably set the era.

Speaker 2 (22:18):
Yes, let us set the era. This book was published
June seventh of two thousand and six. The top song
was Rotten by a Chamellionaire featuring Crazy Bone.

Speaker 1 (22:30):
Now, I don't know this song. You and I were
talking about this and I don't know this song.

Speaker 2 (22:35):
I am so shocked Chandler because literally the first like
mid second I heard the chorus, I was like, oh no,
no dirt ride in dirty dirt riding, dirty No no
do doo do doo. Oh man, this this song definitely
was a hit.

Speaker 1 (22:53):
You know what's crazy. As we mentioned this at the
top of the show, this is two thousand and six
of June. So that means the next month we're going
to our very first comic con. Oh my god, ride
and Dirty down to San Diego.

Speaker 2 (23:06):
We were riding Dirty into our first venture into the
convention world.

Speaker 1 (23:14):
Wow, and the X Men were ending at this time. Wow.

Speaker 2 (23:18):
Wow, what a full circle moment. Huh.

Speaker 1 (23:21):
Yes. Well, the top movie of June seventh of two
thousand and six was Click. It's an Adam Sandler starring
film about a workaholic architect who finds a universal remote
that allows him to fast forward and rewind to different
parts of his life. Complications arise when the remote starts
to overrule his choices.

Speaker 2 (23:40):
Oh yeah, Kate back in Sale and Christopher Walking was
also in this. It was a cute movie, but it
just kind of like came and went.

Speaker 1 (23:49):
You know, I didn't see him. You know, this is
the time period of my life where I was obsessively
playing X Men Legends. So there's a good solid chance
I wasn't listening to any new music or watching any
new films because I was home playing X Men Legends.

Speaker 2 (24:05):
All right, here we go, X Men The End min
and X Men Number six. This is the title of
this issue is called Come the New Dawn. This is
written by Chris Claremont and the art was by Sean Chen.

Speaker 1 (24:20):
And on the cover we have quite a lot of fire.
We've got a headshot of Xavier and we've got Jean
Gray question mark standing in front of him. I don't
know what this cover is telling me. And we see
the world. So we're in space looking down at the world.

(24:40):
But who is this redhead below Xavier? And who is
this redhead above Xavier?

Speaker 2 (24:46):
Well, I'm gonna say the one behind is Rachel.

Speaker 1 (24:51):
Okay, okay, I will go with that as well.

Speaker 2 (24:58):
Yeah, zoom inn. You can see that Rachel. She's got
her short hair, her iconic short hair.

Speaker 1 (25:02):
Okay, all right. I didn't realize that Rachel was even
in this issue.

Speaker 2 (25:07):
What she's literally the whole like Crux, the Lynchpin, you know,
the person who saves the day.

Speaker 1 (25:19):
Oh I thought that was Gene, just short haired Gene.

Speaker 2 (25:23):
I think it's Rachel. Oh okay, is it short haired Gene?
And I got it wrong?

Speaker 1 (25:27):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (25:29):
Well, it's definitely Rachel in previous issues. Now here's the thing.
If you read this story arc, there's actually a lot
of stuff that you're going to see in X Men
ninety seven, for example, there is a whole scene where
there's an astral plane speech that Professor Xavier gives to
the Shear people. Well, in this story arc, it's completely different,

(25:53):
but with elements that are the same. And we have
an astral plane moment where they're in the classroom and
it Cassandra Nova as the teacher, and what happens is
is Rachel she psychically goes in to where they're at,
inside of the Professor Xavier's brain or whatever and tries

(26:15):
to save him. But Cassandra and Professor x refer to
her as Gene because they think that she's Gene and
not Rachel, and Rachel is able to use that to
her advantage.

Speaker 1 (26:28):
Oh dear, mm hmm, Well, clearly to confused me. But
let's get into this issue. We open on the Presidential
Seal of America. The eagle that's holding a olive branch
in one claw and arrows in the other. We've seen it.

(26:50):
It's in the Oval office, it's everywhere, and we're getting
just the little recap about the x Men, who they
are while they're special, how they thought they were above
it all, and how they thought their world would never end.
But boy were they wrong?

Speaker 2 (27:06):
Were they? Well we turned the page and now we
are on Chandolar. Every time I read this homeworld name,
I think of you.

Speaker 1 (27:17):
Yes, it's just my name, but just since pronounced like
an Italian person, oh lah, or like it's like Russian
accent or something.

Speaker 2 (27:26):
But yes, I love it.

Speaker 1 (27:28):
I love it.

Speaker 2 (27:29):
Okay. So it's the Throne world of the Shire Empire,
and we have Cassandra Nova, who is Professor Xavier's evil twin,
and they'd been at one another's throats literally since conception, because,
as you recall from the issues that we recapped previously,
these two were twins inside of the womb and didn't

(27:51):
he tried.

Speaker 1 (27:52):
To eat her, No, he tried to strangle her. Uh
she sorry. She tried to strangle him with the umbilical
cord and then he fought back, manifesting somehow his psychic
powers in the womb, and she was born stillborn, but
through that psychic blast, her sense, her essence, her they

(28:16):
call it like Mamroader or something like that left and she,
through the astroplane, was reformed as Cassandra Nova and new
x Men one fourteen. But I just want to talk
about Cassandra's outfit. Now, can you explain how she's rocking
such a bod at this age? And like, is there
some sort of explanation of why she's wearing this outfit

(28:37):
in the prior issues?

Speaker 2 (28:39):
Well, Chandler, just so you'd know, anytime that anybody gets
possessed by the Phoenix Force, they get some hot lukes.
Oh yep, Like remember the Phoenix five. Oh yes, they
had a whole new wardrobe. Well guess what Cassandra Nova
gets to be the Phoenix. Yes, and she gets a

(29:02):
fancy new outfit too.

Speaker 1 (29:03):
Oh good for her. M Well, I have to remark
that there is quite some characters here, so you know
you read this arc. I'm coming in on Blast issues,
so I'm like, whoa, Okay, So we have Storm and Bishop.
I see is this Monete?

Speaker 2 (29:21):
Yeah, Mone is in the issue.

Speaker 1 (29:22):
Oh, I love Money. I love that she's here. I
see the Imperial Guard though Gladiator is a woman. I
don't know why, but I will take it. And then
in the back I see Nightcrawler and Nightcrawler's daughter Nocturn
didn't know she was in this. On the ground is
a deceased Rachel and Cyclops and holding Cyclops's head. Is

(29:47):
that Gene No, no, that's Madeline, oh Madeleine? Oh yeah,
I could.

Speaker 2 (29:52):
See how you can get confused by that.

Speaker 1 (29:54):
Yes, Laura Kinney, I see her. And then this girl
with the glasses could be Emma, it would be dazzler.

Speaker 2 (30:01):
There's a lot of characters.

Speaker 1 (30:02):
There's a lot.

Speaker 2 (30:03):
I would say cannon fodder if you will.

Speaker 1 (30:05):
Okay. And then this blue glowing thing that's supposed to
be Magneto hovering.

Speaker 2 (30:09):
That's Magneto in his electromagnetic He's dead but ethereal form.

Speaker 1 (30:15):
Okay, got it. I see Iceman clear as day. And
then yeah, all of the various Imperial Guard characters. Wow, okay,
so they all are trying to take on Cassandra Nova.
Cassandra Nova not only super powerful as is, but now
the Phoenix version of Cassandra Nova. What. Yes, that's never
gonna happen.

Speaker 2 (30:35):
Can't even imagine.

Speaker 1 (30:37):
But on the next page, when we go to Earth
and we see Beast and Cecilia, Ray's trying to revive Wolverine.
I need to know why is Wolverine almost dying?

Speaker 2 (30:47):
I didn't really pick up on that. Oh no, yeah, no,
I don't remember. I definitely something he got taken out,
but oh no, it was in this arc. But there's
so much going on. But you know, the whole thing
about him being on the deathbed here is again I
feel like, wasn't he on on his deathbed in ninety
seven as well?

Speaker 1 (31:06):
Yes he was.

Speaker 2 (31:08):
Yeah, And there's a lot of like imagery and storyline
that I feel is reflected in the new series. Interesting
from this story arc, what I like in.

Speaker 1 (31:21):
The next one when they're in Chicago is that Katy
Pride has been knocked out. They're trying to resuscitate her.
But I see that she is a political person. We
see the Pride buttons and signs everywhere. So I love
that she is running for mayor of Chicago. I was like,
that is very Katie Pride.

Speaker 2 (31:43):
Yep, that's right. And unfortunately she's had a really rough
time with her campaign because her opponent is anti Mutant
oh well, of course, and hates her, of course, and
is doing a lot of smear campaign and all that.
And unfortunately there was a kid, a high school student,

(32:06):
honor student, track star, the works. He decided to volunteer
for her campaign and go door to door handing out
pamphlets and flyers, and you know, convincing people to vote
for Kitty Pride or Kate Pride. And he didn't make it.
He was gunned down. He's murdered by anti mutant haters.

Speaker 1 (32:31):
That's horrible.

Speaker 2 (32:32):
Yeah, it really affected her. She went on CNN and
she had to talk to Larry King because back then,
you know, he was at the top of the of
the news anchor game. Yes, I'm sorry, Sean Chen. You
kind of did Larry a little dirty because you gave
him an oxygen you know, uh oh for his nose

(32:55):
and I'm not sure if he had the oxygen tank
like live on the air, but maybe that was just
commenting on his age at the time.

Speaker 1 (33:02):
It was a well because this is supposed to be
you know, further along, so yeah, I would imagine he'd
be quite an old presenter by this time.

Speaker 2 (33:11):
Kitty was devastated by all this, so you know, she
had to scale back on her campaign and you know,
tell the kids, Hey, don't go out there anymore. It's
too dangerous, you know.

Speaker 1 (33:23):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (33:25):
But we're at the moment in this comic an issue six,
where they're about to announce who's going to win, or
that happens at issue five at the end of issue five,
they're gonna announce who's gonna win, and guess who the
winner is. It's Kitty. But at that very same moment,
there is this psychic you know, reverberating force through the

(33:48):
universe that knocks out and you know, harms a lot
of the X Men that are connected to Professor X
and all that kind of stuff. Oh yeah, so she
you know, gets knocked out in that wave.

Speaker 1 (34:02):
Okay, so she's not attacked necessarily, she just is psychically
knocked out.

Speaker 2 (34:07):
Correct? And is that callisto?

Speaker 1 (34:10):
I think it's callisto. It means there's an eyepatch.

Speaker 2 (34:13):
Mm hmm.

Speaker 1 (34:14):
Though I'm feeling callisto. You would know before me. Yes,
But you know, they're trying to revive her, and we
cut back to Chandelar and the Gladiator, leader of the
Super Guardians says to you know, do it for the
Magistrix and attack. So the super Guardians, the Imperial guard

(34:38):
are very strong. They kicked the X Men's butt, you know,
the you know, they they're really superior battlers. But against
Cassandra Nova, it's like no question. She just flicks her
finger and the head of Gladiator comes off. I don't
know how that happens, Gladier's in pervious to harm. As

(35:00):
long as Gladiator has confidence, he cannot be harmed. How
does she flick her head finger and then his head
Her head comes off anyways, and.

Speaker 2 (35:11):
He's the freaking Phoenix Chandler.

Speaker 1 (35:14):
She don't, I don't. The world don't buy it. I
don't buy it.

Speaker 2 (35:18):
But anyway, so she is Cassandra. She does an epic
karate chop on one of these guys that has four
arms and literally chops him in half with a shrug.

Speaker 1 (35:34):
And breaks Smasher's neck with a snap. Crazy. So then
all the energy users decide to ban their energy beams
to take her out, but she's able to put up
a shield to flect and then just make them all explode,
so she's unstoppable.

Speaker 2 (35:54):
In the previous issue, guess who came as the cavalry
to come in and help with this battle?

Speaker 1 (36:01):
Who?

Speaker 2 (36:01):
In this Starjammer, we had Storm and Dazzler, and they're
going to do an epic tem up because when they
landed on this planet, they decided to do a big
Dazzle moment and give Storm the ability to get in
there and give an epic speech to tell everybody chill

(36:23):
and guess what. They were able to chill enough to
be able to turn their sights on the true enemy
here Cassandra.

Speaker 1 (36:29):
Cassandra, oh wow, mm hmmm.

Speaker 2 (36:32):
Well to an issue six. We see a little beam
of light happening on Cassandra's forehead like it's a sniper,
and then it gets big and huge and that like
goes right through her skull with a zark and through
the hole.

Speaker 3 (36:48):
The next panel we see Dazzler and she says, guess what,
hag we took notes and they all go at it.

Speaker 1 (36:58):
So the Supergardians can't do anything, but they're able to
literally laser a hole through Cassandra's head, strike down lightning,
freese her, and then compile her with a weapon to
make her explode.

Speaker 2 (37:16):
And Bishop's daughter is like, we got her, dad, we
got her. Bishop's all light We'll see.

Speaker 1 (37:23):
Yeah, And she literally explodes. There's nothing left of her.
But you know that doesn't quite end. She is able
to somehow form herself into energy of sorts and she
shoots herself right through Dazzler. Dazzler's gone.

Speaker 2 (37:39):
Then she dead with a slam.

Speaker 1 (37:42):
Then she Sizark's storm out of the sky. Doesn't look
like she's dead. But she's definitely shot down from the
sky and Iceman tries to rescue her, and in the process,
Cassandra is reconstructing her body into her sexy self with
her amazing new look that the phoenix gave her.

Speaker 2 (38:03):
I want phoenix force power me too. I want to sexy, Luke,
I do too.

Speaker 1 (38:09):
I just want to, like, you know, explode and then
come back and look amazing.

Speaker 2 (38:14):
Yes, I want a giant cod piece and gold accents
and shoulder pads, big.

Speaker 1 (38:19):
Big spiky ones.

Speaker 2 (38:21):
Oh yes, Well, Cassandra is doing her guttural like that
wasn't very nice, but she's sexy, It's fine.

Speaker 1 (38:32):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (38:33):
Bishop is throwing himself at her, and what he does
instead of shooting her, he turns his gun around and
he blasts Magneto's ethereal magnetic field form and he says,
bless you, my boy, as he disintegrates into nothing, and
Cassandra she goes on to say to him as Bishop

(38:58):
is impaling her with a knife and all the energy
is crackling and exploding around it, she says, very impressive, Bishop,
intuiting that I was utilizing Magneto's life force to sain
me and then striking me with this leech blade to
drain my energies into you. That was precisely the right move.

(39:19):
Actually it was your only move. Such a pity. I
didn't really need a magneto that I possess so much
more power than you can imagine, much much more than
I suspect that you can absorb. I should let you
go pop, but I want to play. And during this
she is just basically charging Bishop up to a point

(39:43):
where he can't handle it, and he's exploding. But he's
torturing him and not killing him right away.

Speaker 1 (39:48):
Yeah, and tortures him even further because what happens but
she turns on Bishop's kid and gratuitously body horror makes
a brood come out of her body.

Speaker 2 (40:02):
No, I think the brood was in there.

Speaker 1 (40:04):
Oh, so she speed up the brood process to make
her transform into brood and then made the brood explode
and killed the kid at the same time.

Speaker 2 (40:15):
Yeah, and she mentions you should have been kinder to
Zavi Creature because she killed Zavilelandre and Xavier's son in
the previous issue. Oh, she says, I might then have
let you live longer. Is that all there is?

Speaker 1 (40:32):
Is that all there is with her arms. Yeah, just
expanded to the heavens.

Speaker 2 (40:39):
And this looks exactly like the scene where Jennifer Love
Hewitt is twirling around and I know what you did
last summer and says what are you waiting for?

Speaker 1 (40:49):
Her? What are you waiting for? Completely? Oh, so, well
you know what we're read for.

Speaker 2 (41:00):
Yes, there is another player on the field.

Speaker 1 (41:03):
M hmmm.

Speaker 2 (41:05):
And we now find out that Soriah Dust is not
who she seems she is. She's actually Madeline Prior, the
Goblin Queen.

Speaker 1 (41:17):
Yeah, she reveals herself and then Cassandra she's saying, whatever,
what do you wait or what else is that? What
are you waiting for? Is that all there is? And
then Madeline Pryor stands up and says, there's me and
Cassandra says not anymore something click of the wrist like something,
and then she says board now, time to go, and

(41:39):
she looks up at the space into space and she
looks at the star or the sun of the solar
system of Chandelier and then makes it start to go
into supernova mode. What does she do to Maddie because
she doesn't. Does she just blow off her robe so
she can reveal her sexy.

Speaker 2 (41:57):
Look literally, I think that's all that happened.

Speaker 1 (42:01):
Like, what kind of power move is that I'd be like,
you're no matter to be, but I'm just literally gonna
disintegrate your robe.

Speaker 2 (42:09):
Yeah, I want this scene now to be you know,
Cyclops instead, Let's let's get him naked.

Speaker 1 (42:16):
It's a battle of the boobs right now. It's like,
all right, who can have the skimpier outfit. Let's go, Cassandra,
Let's go.

Speaker 2 (42:24):
Cassandra is shouting at her, impossible. I'm the phoenix. Now,
you shouldn't even be you shouldn't even be a ghost.
Madeline Pryor is explaining in this moment that she is
the essence of Gene that loved Scott with all of
her heart, and that's why it never worked between them afterwards,
between Gene Scott, because Madeline is the part that was

(42:48):
willing to die for Scott and she is the part
that made them whole.

Speaker 1 (42:54):
Hmmm.

Speaker 2 (42:56):
So that's very interesting. So when they did the gene splicing,
is that a meaning that Sinister took out the part
of her psyche and and put it into Madeline and
that part was the part that loved Scott. Yes, interesting,
I guess so.

Speaker 1 (43:13):
Though, Jane seems to love Scott too, but maybe it
was the part of Gene that would accept him at
any moment or whatever and.

Speaker 2 (43:23):
Would die for him. Yes, so regular normal Gene would
be like, mmm, I don't think I'm gonna die for you,
So I'm just gonna go step over there now. Well,
Cassandra is not happy. She is lunging, saying, wretched cow,
You're no match for me.

Speaker 1 (43:42):
Ooh, I don't have to be. I'm an X Man.
We don't fight alone. And who should come from behind?
But Silock she's been there the whole time.

Speaker 2 (43:51):
Yeah, Well, because she did something clever, all right. She
was up on that chip and she bought the brood
and she took all the Brute out, and her dead
body was lying in the middle of all of them.
But Stage is smart and super intelligent and calculated. So
when Nightcrawler and the rest of the X Men who

(44:13):
were on the star Jammer came into the room, they're like, oh,
I'm going to tell apart you now down to the
surface to do the battle, because yeah, you know, all
the Brute are dead, but Siloc is dead too, okay, bye,
And then so everybody else left, and then she said Okay,
get up. You're gonna go down there now too. They

(44:34):
all think you're dead. So when they're reading, when Cassandra
is reading their minds, she ain't going to even know
that you're on the battlefield because you're gonna protect yourself
with your psychic blockers and you're gonna get in there secretly.
Oh nobody knows you're alive right now, girl, you have
the hand well and she did.

Speaker 1 (44:53):
She did because she made a psychic sword, not a
psychic knife, but like a full freaking sword, and she
jammed that through Cassandra's head.

Speaker 2 (45:01):
Yes, and it's so interesting, like they keep going for
the head. Have you noticed that?

Speaker 1 (45:07):
Yes? Yeah, it didn't work last time, but apparently it
works this time. That Silac is able to keep Cassandra
under control, while Madeline is able to sacrifice herself to
revive Rachel and Scott, so they are revived from their wounds,

(45:28):
and they are able to all be revived and teleported
magically to the planet and all get sexy body upgrades,
phoenix outfits, and Wolverine is there too. It's like one
of these things where I'm like, I don't know what's happening,

(45:48):
but we're all here and now all the women have
these like phoenix bodices on, and all the men are
shirtless and ripped. And you know, I'm not mad about it.

Speaker 2 (45:58):
Everybody gets a phoenix outfit except for us.

Speaker 1 (46:01):
I know.

Speaker 2 (46:04):
That that's it. I'm commissioning artwork, Chandler. I will make
us phoenix outfits.

Speaker 1 (46:12):
It's just so random. Oh this is ending. Yeah, so
they get all revived or brought back together or whatever,
but not Bishop's kid. Bishop's kid has to stay dead.
Now why why is that?

Speaker 2 (46:25):
Because she's a brood now I guess so well, I mean,
you know, her brood form isn't there anymore, so I
guess that was cleansed and Professor X wats no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
she's still alive. Now. Something that I didn't mention to you, Chandler,
that I didn't really realize until the end, which we

(46:46):
will get too soon, was that at the start of
every issue previous we saw a glimpse into the future.
So you know that panel that we saw the American
emblem of the crest. Yes, so it's that page. And
in previous issues we see things like a panel of

(47:09):
Nightcrawler with a bunch of kids you know, and then
one of them we see that bishop is the protector
guardian of his daughter, who is the Empress of the
Shar Empire. So we see that flash photo of what
the future is going to be like after all this.

(47:30):
So she's still alive and in this world she is
going to become the Empress and the reason why And
I got to tell you this too, because there's a
lot that goes on in this art channel. You didn't
see this moment, but it is important, and that's the
fact that Lilandra was decapitate. It Lilandra and Xavier's son

(47:53):
did his you know, proclamation to the planet, you know
in the hologram saying, everybody go after the x Men.
Sir Xavier is the one who killed the Landra and
the x Men need to be murdered.

Speaker 1 (48:04):
Oh my gosh.

Speaker 2 (48:06):
Yeah, drama, it's a lot of drama.

Speaker 1 (48:10):
The takeaway is that everybody gets their Phoenix sexy makeover.
All the guys get designer jeans and they all get
incredible ripped bods, and they are approaching Cassandra because they
want to whatever subdue this thing and be like you

(48:30):
need to stop, you know. The Xavier and Cassandra need
to come to terms, and Silok is the only thing
keeping Cassandra atte Bay, but they tell her, you need
to let her go and we need to finish this
because Rachel is somehow controlling the Phoenix Platforcet now more

(48:51):
than Cassandra, and she is forming this tree of life
and everybody needs to take their place in order for
her to save the world. Siloc is keeping Cassandra Nova's
powers at Bay, and with the removal of the Psychic Blade,
Cassandra thinks she's going to take the upper hand, but

(49:14):
she is wrong because all of the Phoenix Force has
left her and now is inside Rachel slash Jean slash Maddie,
who I think they've all merged into this one being
is what we've determined. The way that they're going to
end this or they're going to end the x Men,
is that they're going to transcend reality, and in order
to do so, the Phoenix Force resurrects and brings to

(49:39):
the planet various x Men that have either died or
you know, like Wolverine who was on Earth. The Wolverine
then appears because she needs these people to be a
part of the tapestry that's going to transcend reality with
this Tree of life that she has formed on the ground,
and part of that it requires Cassandra, and of course
Cassandra wants nothing to do with these X Men, And

(50:01):
through whatever understanding and admittance, Xavier and Cassandra reveal that
they're both afraid of each other. And Phoenix is like, well,
we need you to learn acceptance and be a part
of the Tree of Life, and then we are going
to transcend reality and everything will be fine and we
will save this universe.

Speaker 2 (50:23):
Yes, And you know, we have an ultra dramatic epilogue
monologue that starts here and goes for a while, and
I'm just going to get through it because you know,
these are powerful words that Chris Claremont has written to
end the X Men in his mind. And I believe
this is Xavier saying I brought you together in search
of a dream, never realizing that it was tainted from

(50:46):
its inception. The fear and hatred I perceived in the
world was but a reflection of what was in my
own heart and soul. It may be that we are
as God made us, but we must also be held
accountable for our choices in life and the actions that
flow from them. My first encounter with a mutant, my

(51:07):
own twin sister, led to a responsive fear of hatred,
of violence. I was your teacher. If my worldview was
built on a foundation of fear and hatred, how could
yours be otherwise? And if we who possess such miraculous
gifts choose to hide ourselves from the world, to deny

(51:29):
our natural being, is it any surprise that the world
took its cue from us? How different might it all
have been if we had celebrated what we were, if
we had showed humanity the wondrous promise of our genome.
It is past time to lay that fear to rest,

(51:49):
and the guilt and the shame. The X Men were
my candle in the darkness. I never imagine that all
I had to do to let in the light was
to open my eyes. And that light is so beautiful.
And what we're seeing is, you know, they're on the platform,

(52:10):
and this platform is now kind of ascending into the heavens.
They're on this tree of life, and then in space
we see the image of the phoenix and the tree
of life, and in the circles the faces of the
X Men that took their places in those circles. Twenty
years later.

Speaker 1 (52:30):
Twenty years later, we get a time jump.

Speaker 2 (52:32):
And we are in the White House, y'all, in a hallway,
and there is a girl and she looks a lot familiar.
She kind of looks like Kittie Pride.

Speaker 1 (52:44):
He does.

Speaker 2 (52:46):
She says, Hi, and Nate afternoon, Missus Lancaster, can I
bust in on the bus for you, Miss Pride? The
door's open, says Missus Lancaster. And she opens the door
and it's the door to the Oval Office. And what
does she see, Well.

Speaker 1 (53:02):
She sees her mother, Kate Pride, the President of the
United States, giving an interview. But then they pause the
interview because you know, she's got to do some mom duties.
Mm hmm.

Speaker 2 (53:13):
Lockey, he's so cute.

Speaker 1 (53:15):
Lockheed is there, but it's time for the baseball game.
So the two little kids, maybe twins of Doug and Sarah,
come running in and Kate has to, you know, she's
got to go support the game. I just realized that
Meredith is the elder daughter. I'm curious about these names,
so Doug obviously is going to reflect cipher Meredith. I'm

(53:40):
very maybe Meredith is the name of her mother. Let's
see Kitty prides parents' names. Carmen was the father, Teresa
or Terry was the mother. I'm curious where the name
Meredith comes into significance to her. And Sarah is an
interesting name as well. Maybe it reflects Marrow. Marrow's name
is Sarah, where Jean gray sister was named Sarah. But anyways, while.

Speaker 2 (54:04):
There's abouts that have her children ten years apart, that's
why there's a big age gap.

Speaker 1 (54:08):
Yes, they're about to leave, but in walks the competition.

Speaker 2 (54:14):
Yes, this is Alice, who says, forgive my interruption, Madam President.
I know today is a private ceremony, but I'd like
to attend with.

Speaker 1 (54:24):
Respect, Madam speaker, you've hated my guts since the day
we met.

Speaker 2 (54:28):
With respect, Madam President, I hated a mutant. And then
Alice extends her hand to shake Kitty's hand, and she
says I was wrong.

Speaker 1 (54:39):
And Kitty or Kate extends back and says, in that case, Alice,
I'd be honored.

Speaker 2 (54:44):
And now they're on air Force one having a conversation
and reminiscing about that night in Chicago when Alice never
even called her to concede because apparently when she heard
that she collapsed, and we're seeing a panel where I
don't know if this is Callisto or not.

Speaker 1 (55:05):
It looks very calisto.

Speaker 2 (55:06):
We'll just say, yeah, I'm my fantasy. It's Callisto. She says,
when I heard you collapse, I actually hoped you die.
But you proved to be a surprisingly good mayor, a
halfway decent governor, and given a little luck, you might
actually make a truly great parent. She didn't want to

(55:27):
admit President No. Kitty wants to know what changed her mind,
and she says, it's just like the quote of Bobby
Kennedy's You're so fond of knowing you for the better
part of my lifetime. I suppose that I came to
see that the things we have in common matter a
whole lot more than the prejudice that drives us apart.

Speaker 1 (55:45):
And the journalist is like, oh, excuse me, we never
finished our story, and Kate's like, wow, we sure did
in more ways that count. You just saw it happen,
and so you just see them clean their glasses and
she just feels like that's a win. And then when
we got our final splash.

Speaker 2 (56:05):
Age and this is these are my favorite because you
get everybody in there, and there was lots of Easter eggs,
like as an example, I'm seeing on the right Nightcrawler
and his children. There's Emma and the Cuckoo's mystique, oh
Beast in his family.

Speaker 1 (56:23):
I'm very curious about how this works. So the ones
that are in fire above are the ones that transcended reality,
went to heaven.

Speaker 2 (56:31):
They died, no dead like angel got like incinerated.

Speaker 1 (56:36):
So well, I understand that that they died, but then
of course Phoenix resurrected a bunch of them to make
the Phoenix of make the Tree of Life. However, when
I look at the bottom of the people who are alive,
Nightcrawler was a part of the tree that transcended reality,
Wolverine was part of the tree, and I feel like,

(56:57):
why were some.

Speaker 2 (56:59):
You know, because their bodies were alive. Oh gosh, ch
mister Claremont, I have I just don't you all. No, no, no,
this is going to be a channeler. I have to know,
because this is the image in his mind of what
the end is. Yes, we're going to see Chris Claremont
at the Uncanny Experience at the end of September. September

(57:21):
twenty eighth and twenty ninth at the Minneapolis Club. Check
out the Unkenny Experience dot conticat tickets. I'm gonna ask him.

Speaker 1 (57:27):
Okay, well, he has a Q and A on Sunday
at ten or eleven am. I don't remember the schedule.
So if you guys have these questions, just like Chris,
you can go to Chris Claremont's Q and A and
you can ask him questions like, excuse me, mister Claremont,
when in the end, when you finish in the last paragraph,
and you know on the last page and you saw
that night Crawling and Wolverine were alive, but they were

(57:49):
also part of the tree of life that transcended time
in reality? What was your thought on that?

Speaker 2 (57:57):
All right, I already know that I as a producer
of the event, you and me and Dylan Carter from
House of X Podcasts are running around like crazy trying to,
you know, make the event happen. I'm going to miss
that panel. So audience, if you're listening and you happen
to be going to The Uncanny Experience and you ask

(58:17):
Chris Claremont on my behalf, please email me or message
me on social media at X reads podcast, Aletter xri
ads podcast on all platforms. Let me know what he says,
and I promise that I'm going to send you a
no prize. Oh that's exciting, so we'll have noon the answer.

Speaker 1 (58:39):
I just want to put. You know, we can talk
about this kiddie speech and if we want to recite it,
we can. It takes forever. However, we're at this speech.
Everybody's dressed up really nice. You know, this is the
President of the United States giving an address, and all
the X men are there. Wolverine's in a tuxedo, which
I think is a little over addressed for this occasion,
but they're all there looking. Ice Man, on the other hand,

(59:02):
is there like he's at the club, shirtless with his
trench coat on. And I'm like, sir, this is a presidential.

Speaker 2 (59:11):
You're not allowed aware of that, missed her?

Speaker 1 (59:14):
What is this outfit? A gold chain necklace, no shirt
and a trench coat. I do love that we get
all these little peeps, you know, like you said Easter eggs.
We see Bishop and his daughter daughter looking very much
like Deathbird in this death Bird ware. So Bishop must
have moved to Chandelar to live with his daughter, which
is super cute.

Speaker 2 (59:34):
Yeah, and she's the Empress and she's Oh, she's the Empress,
got it. Yeah, and he's he's basically like what Deathbird was.

Speaker 1 (59:42):
And then we have Wolverine and Laura Kenney standing behind him,
silocked next to him, and Sage Beast with his family
with Cecilia Ray So Beast and Cecilia end up together
and they have two children and they're adorable. And Beast
is such a hippie. I love this. He still doesn't
wear shoes because why would he.

Speaker 2 (01:00:05):
And Emma, even though it's twenty years later, she doesn't
look like she's aged today.

Speaker 1 (01:00:10):
No, and she does have a cuckoo behind her, all
grown up as well. And I see Mystique behind her,
and over in the corner night Crawler and his family.
It's so lovely to see everybody all grown up.

Speaker 2 (01:00:24):
It sure is. And also all those dead heads.

Speaker 1 (01:00:28):
Yes, there's a lot of dead characters up there. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:00:32):
Well, Chandler, you love Kate Pride Kitty. This is a
huge speech and addressed to the American people and the
mutants of the world. This is the final moment of
Chris Claremont's X Men.

Speaker 1 (01:00:54):
Yeah, I.

Speaker 2 (01:00:56):
Think you should read it.

Speaker 1 (01:00:58):
I will read it.

Speaker 2 (01:01:01):
Drama, give me intensity.

Speaker 1 (01:01:03):
I will. I will read it as if I was
the President of the United States. But before I do,
I just want to give a little Easter egg shout
out that I just noticed that the art is by
Sean Chen and if you see the chords of the podium,
make an S N A C down by Kate.

Speaker 2 (01:01:19):
Oh my god, wow.

Speaker 1 (01:01:22):
Though he drew his initials into the scene for the
very final page of Chris Claremont's X Mens, I love
that flex. Okay, here we go, Kate Pride, President of
America talking to the American people, mutants and humans. We
gather on this centennial of Charles Xavier's birth, which is

(01:01:44):
also the twentieth anniversary of his passing. I say passing
rather than death, because while he was a man with
the full complement of flaws and frailties, he was also
the embodiment of a dream, and that dream is what
brought us together. The X Men were the embodiment of
that dream, and we few are what remained. It was

(01:02:08):
special to be an x Men, and sometimes it could
be glorious. Think a moment of where we've been and
what we've done, of the difference we've tried to make.
Wrapped in the urgent necessities, the never ending crisis of
those mad Cap days, it was natural to expect that

(01:02:29):
we'd always be x Men. It was how we defined ourselves.
It was the reason, the very foundation of our being
as individuals and as a family. We thought it was
the sum and substance of life, when in fact it
was no more than a stage along the road within

(01:02:51):
the walls of this school, within the armor of our uniforms.
As x Men, our role was clear. We thought we
were safe. We were so so comfortable. Growth isn't comfortable
or safe above all else. Charles Xavier was a teacher
with a final, primal lesson for those who stood on

(01:03:12):
both sides of what genetic divide between sapiens and mutants.
For humanity to truly evolve and claim the bright and
shining future that Charles Xavier held out as the birthright
for us, all, we had to lose our safety net,
the x Men had to end. And since then, see

(01:03:33):
how far we've come. We have jobs, we raise families,
a mutant sits in the Oval office. We make ourselves special,
not by the flashy powers we were born with, but
with how we choose to raise our kids and contribute
to our community. We were outcasts then, who swore to
protect a world that seemed to fear and hate us

(01:03:56):
and often tried to bring us to an end. We
met the enemy and he was indeed us. And with
that realization, the conflict, the war that divided humanity, also
came to its end. That is Charles Xavier's legacy, the
fulfillment of his dream. The struggle isn't finished, it will

(01:04:17):
likely never be, but for the sake of these children
around us, and generations yet unborn, we've made a start.

Speaker 2 (01:04:25):
I love the fact that in this vision of the end,
that Kate Pride is the one that is the leader
of Xavier's vision going forward. Yeah, what are your thoughts
on that?

Speaker 1 (01:04:37):
I know, I think she totally is. You know, she
is one Claremont's like, one of his favorites, and she
came in at a time of the X Men's history
where she was able to see all of the ups
and downs of how everything was going. She came in
right in when Jeanne was turning into the Phoenix. You know,

(01:04:59):
she was there through all of the you know, the
Jim Lee era will say when she's on Excalibur, and
I don't know. I just feel like she's a character
that really has seen it all from being a very
young age, and she is a born leader, and I
think she make a great president.

Speaker 2 (01:05:19):
I'm so glad that I read the entire arc and Chandler,
I suggest going back and peruising through it too, because
it was a good one. You know, Chris Claremont ended
The X Men with a Bang back in two thousand
and six.

Speaker 1 (01:05:34):
Awesome. Well, I appreciate you helping me guiding me through
this finale because I was going in pretty blind. But yeah,
it's definitely intriguing and I will go back and read
the rest of this. There's three volumes of it, so
as it was a really fun issue. And if you

(01:05:56):
enjoyed it, why don't you please leave us a review
on Apple Podcasts or a star review on Spotify. Your
contributions to our reviews really help us out. One. It
gives us warm feelings inside, and also it helps the
algorithm for people to find our podcasts in the future,
So please do leave a review. It means a lot
to us.

Speaker 2 (01:06:17):
Okay, everybody, it's time for.

Speaker 1 (01:06:21):
News. Oh my gosh, there's so much happening.

Speaker 2 (01:06:26):
I can't even I couldn't even fit all the announcements
that I could into this. So we're just going to
touch on a lot of aspects of one thing, and
that is the Saturday Night after Party in the X Mansion.

Speaker 1 (01:06:40):
Yes, we are a month away from the Uncanny Experience.
We are literally thirty days as of this recording, and
here we go. Are you guys ready to party like
mutants in a mansion?

Speaker 2 (01:06:53):
Yeah, with dance, drag, and D and D. Get ready
for an extraordinary Saturday night at the Uncanny Experience. Hour
after Party in the Mansion is back and better than ever.
You're in for an evening packed with electrifying events and
unforgettable moments.

Speaker 1 (01:07:09):
Yes, like dance floor tunes with DJ Neon Horror. Get
your groove on with the hottest beats spun by DJ
Neon Horror. Whether you're a dancing queen or a head
bopping wallflower, these tunes will get you moving.

Speaker 2 (01:07:23):
I'm a head bopping wallflower Chandler.

Speaker 1 (01:07:25):
Yes, I could tell that was your part. That was
your voice there, that was Yes?

Speaker 2 (01:07:28):
And we have an X Men themed a drag show
starring Demanda Martini. Prepare to be dazzled by the sensational
performances of our X Men drag show featuring the fabulous
or War Avail, Sasha Casadine and Jensen Assholes. This show
is guaranteed to leave you spell bound.

Speaker 1 (01:07:47):
Well not only that, but we have complimentary gin cocktails
by Earl Giles. You can sip on expertly crafted gin
cocktails available throughout the evening for free. This is a
free drink from our sponsor, Earl Giles, which brings the
finest and mixology to keep your spirits alive. They are
going to be pouring the Polaris, which will be a

(01:08:09):
black light, blow in the dark drink which is super cool.
And a Rusty Collins. So if you want to know
what these drinks taste like, you gotta show up to
the after party. They're only available at the Saturday night
after party.

Speaker 2 (01:08:22):
What's a Rusty Collins?

Speaker 1 (01:08:24):
I don't know, You'll have to wait and find out.
Is that a character Rusty? Well so, Rusty Collins is
a character who goes by fire Fists sometimes. But Rusty
and Skids are two young mutants in the nineties era
who are part of Exterminators and then they join Magneto
up on asteroid m and they always are having a

(01:08:45):
bad day.

Speaker 2 (01:08:47):
Well that's a deep cut, thank you, Earl Giles. But
if you want more free alcohol, don't be afraid. Don't
you worry, because we got you covered, y'all. We have
free bruise from Gambit Brewery. Enjoy a variety of free
beers from Gambit Brewery. Raise a glass and toast to
an unforgettable night with the best bruise in town.

Speaker 1 (01:09:08):
And we also have oracle cards with Destiny, which takes
place in Xavier's office. Step into Xavier's office for a
glimpse into your future. Destiny's oracle card readings are sure
to unveil the mysteries that lie ahead. Professional readings by
nine Keys, Metaphysical aweight.

Speaker 2 (01:09:27):
Yes, and are you a gamer? Because our game room
arcade is gonna be rockin' and we have X Men,
D and d up in there. It's called the Jubilation
Station Game Room. Join the adventure with X Men themed
dungeons and Dragon sessions hosted by Chicago based DM Joseph Tinman.
Whether you're a season player or a curious newbie, Jubilation

(01:09:50):
Station is the place to get your game on.

Speaker 1 (01:09:53):
Everybody wants to wear a crown. So come to the
Homecoming Royal Court crowning who will be crowned as the
home Coming Royalty If to join us for this exciting
ceremony and cheer on your fell immunes as they take
their place in the spotlight.

Speaker 2 (01:10:08):
Well, guess what that is not all that's happening. We
have more. We have something that was such a hit
last year that we are leveling it up this year
to make it even bigger and better and more bold.
And that is our Healthfire Club Initiation Ceremony. I received
a letter from Miss Emma Frost not too long ago.

(01:10:30):
Shall I read it to you, Chandler, read it Emma Frost,
the White Queen of the Hellfire Club. Rights dearest, Omegas
are esteemed a VIPs. The time has come, my darlings.
The gates of the hell Fire Club stand open, awaiting
those bold enough to enter our inner circle. I am

(01:10:50):
A Frost, the White Queen, invite you to an evening
of unmatched power and decadent revelry. Space within our exclude.
The fold is limited RCB. To claim your place among
the chosen, Only those twenty one and over will be admitted.
This inaction requires a certain maturity. The health Fire Club

(01:11:14):
is not for the faint of heart. But then again,
I would it to have invited you if I thought
you were anything less. Do not delay, darlings, Your destiny
at waits with anticipation. Emma Frost, the White Queen of
the hell Fire Club.

Speaker 1 (01:11:32):
Yes oooooooooooo m my goodness, so saucy, so spicy. I
can't wait to see how people react. And within the
health Fire Club activation. Within the health Fire Club Activation,
we are so excited to have Number twelve Sider as
the official sponsor. We're going to be providing a sparkling

(01:11:53):
beverage for everyone upon arrival.

Speaker 2 (01:11:55):
Yes, and I am so excited to have you all
see what we have been cooking up for this initiation
ceremony into the Clandenstein Group of the hell Faia Club.

Speaker 1 (01:12:07):
So get your tickets today at Theuncannyexperience dot com and
don't hesitate because this event can sell out due to capacity,
So do not delay. Get your tickets and make sure
to pick up that after party pass because as a
general admission person, you are not granted admission to after party. However,

(01:12:27):
you can get the ad on and join us for
the party.

Speaker 2 (01:12:31):
Yep, that's right. I am so excited to see all
you fellow mutants at Xavier Institute.

Speaker 1 (01:12:37):
See you in class.

Speaker 2 (01:12:39):
X Reads is recorded in the United States.

Speaker 1 (01:12:41):
Our theme music is written by Austin Wintry.

Speaker 2 (01:12:43):
Please make sure to follow our podcast to be updated
on when new episodes appear every first and third Wednesdays.

Speaker 1 (01:12:49):
Of the month. Follow us on social media at x
reads podcast, That's the Letter, x riads Podcast on Twitter, Instagram,
at Facebook.

Speaker 2 (01:12:57):
Thanks so much for listening by wait