January 29, 2025 • 60 mins
Limbo’s fiercest warrior is back, and she’s taking NO prisoners! This week, we’re cracking open Magik #1 with the incredible Ashley Allen, the writer bringing Illyana Rasputina’s latest demon-slaying adventure to life!Magik has faced Hell itself (literally), but what fresh horrors lurk beneath the Alaskan ice? How does this new series push her to her mystical and moral limits? And let’s be real—who in their right mind would pick a fight with the Queen of Limbo?!
Ashley gives us the inside scoop on Illyana’s new mission, her brutal battle tactics, and what makes Magik the most terrifying (and coolest) mutant in the Marvel Universe. If you love badass mutant sorceresses with attitude, this episode is your spellbound invitation to the chaos!
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 xreadspodcast@gmail.com. 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.
Ashley gives us the inside scoop on Illyana’s new mission, her brutal battle tactics, and what makes Magik the most terrifying (and coolest) mutant in the Marvel Universe. If you love badass mutant sorceresses with attitude, this episode is your spellbound invitation to the chaos!
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 xreadspodcast@gmail.com. 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.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey everyone. Before we start today's episode, we wanted to
address the devastating wildfires sweeping through Los Angeles. As of
recording today on January eighteenth, twenty twenty five, these fires
have tragically claimed at least twenty seven lives and destroyed
over twelve three hundred structures.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
It's really heartbreaking Chandler, and living in LA, I've witnessed
firsthand the destruction and the resilience of our community, and
the Palisates fire alone is consumed over twenty three thousand
and seven hundred acres. That's making it the most destructive
in the city's history. And our friends have lost homes.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
It's been horrible, and it's been horrible to witness from
afar as I'm in Minnesota, but having lived in LA
for twenty years, I feel very tied to you know,
our friends, our colleagues, everybody there, and I've known many
people that have lost everything. So for those of you
looking for help, there are several avenues on GoFundMe. If
you go to their homepage, they have a dedicated page
(00:59):
for Aliforonia wildfire relief. So if you feel helpless in
this matter, you can go ahead and donate to families
that have lost everything, you know, as little as five
ten dollars or if you want to donate more. Sometimes
that feels good just to be able to feel like
you've contributed towards rebuilding some people's lives.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
And every little bit helps. And additionally, the City of
Los Angeles they launched the LA Strong Initiative. It's providing
more resources and ways to contribute. If you want to
find out more about the LA Strong Initiative, head on
over to lacity dot gov slash LA strong. Again, that's
(01:37):
lacity dot gov slash LA strong.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Yeah, we encourage you to share these links on your
social media if you want to volunteer, if you're local,
help spreading awareness to help rebuild the city of Los
Angeles and all of the structures that have been destroyed
and all the lives have been affected.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Stay safe, everyone, and remember in times like these, community
and compassion is what makes all the difference.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
And with all that being said, let's continue on with
the show and let's celebrate our next guest, Ashley Allen. Hi, everybody,
this is Chandler and this is Chris. Ni'm Ashley and
you're listening to Excrets the podcast. Welcome everybody to episode
(02:29):
one thirty seven with our very very special guest, Ashley Allen. Welcome,
Ashley yah.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
Hi, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Oh, it is a pleasure to have you. Ashley. You
are the writer of Magic Solo series, and you also
contributed to stories like in the Marvel Zombies universe, Blood
Hunt and one As for DC Comics and more, and
you are a previous and future guest of The Uncanny Experience.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Yeah, I'm excited. I love it. I'm excited summer this year.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Yes, yes, I mean we haven't really revealed anywhere that
you're going to be a guest yet, but yeah, I
guess if you hear it on this podcast, you've heard
it first that actually will return to The Uncanny Experience
this July. So we are so excited that you get
to come back.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
Yeah, me too, Secret scoop.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Breaking news exclusive.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Yes. So we have some questions to kind of warm
us up before we dive into your Magic solo series,
which is fantastic. We've only had the first issue come
out so far, so we're going to recap Magic number
one in a little bit, but before we get there,
we want to know how were you introduced to the
X Men.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
My first ever introduction was the X Men First Class Trilogy,
after the original Box trilogy.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
That's what I remember seeing in movies.
Speaker 4 (03:48):
I think I was like eleven or twelve, and I
was like, oh, I love this and I just love
the dynamic between like Magneto and Charles Xavier. And then
that kind of got me into the comics after because
again I didn't want to wait for the movie to
come out, so I just like read Old Claremont runs
and et cetera.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
So, of all the magic's abilities, which one is your favorite?
Speaker 3 (04:11):
Oh, that's hard.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
I think teleportation just because there's so much you can
play around with, and I think it's so unique to
her because I think, like the mutant ability of teleportation
isn't unique obviously, like night Crawler has a similar power set,
but I think having it so like intrinsically tied to
her time and Limbow makes it really interesting as both
(04:32):
like a power but then also a literary device, like
with telling her backstory.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
We've spent some time with you. You've banned appearances at
our booths at Twin City's Con, and we just did
a signing event with you at the Source. I overheard
you talk about how you base Magic's characterization off of
your cat, and can you expand on that please?
Speaker 3 (04:53):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (04:53):
Well, I mean first of all, I mean do you
guys have did you have childhood cats.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
Or do you have cats now?
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Yes? Both?
Speaker 4 (05:01):
Okay, Yeah, So my childhood cat, I felt like I
had to really work to earn the love of my cat,
and like I could tell that my cat loved me,
but like he had to still work for it. And
if you like the cat went off and did its
own thing, You're like, it's fine, it's okay. So I
think Iliana is kind of like that, at least like
at first glance where she's a little prickly, but if
(05:22):
you get to know her, she has like a heart
of gold. She's a sweetheart and she loves like very deeply.
So I sometimes think I can see a lot of
parallels between her and cat like energy.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Absolutely, yeah, she is very cat energy. That's a good call.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Me out. So how is it working with her mom? Paralta?
Speaker 3 (05:42):
Yeah, her mom is like amazing. He is so good
and I've loved his work, especially like his work during
Blood Hunt.
Speaker 4 (05:50):
I think he like is a really good pick in
terms of having those softer storytelling moments. But also he
has this great ability to illustrate action in like this
static two D medium, and I think his art style
and also his line work specifically is so suited to
(06:12):
like these horror supernatural elements that we're trying to convey
in this I think he has like a really great
understanding of how to like build suspense in his panel work.
And so it's just been great working with him because
sometimes I swear he reads my mind. I'm like, oh,
can you do this, and he's like, yeah, like draw
up a few things and then I'll send me back something.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
I'm like, Wow, no notes, amazing.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
I love that. It's so great when an artist and
a writer can have such great synergy.
Speaker 4 (06:38):
Yeah, we've been really lucky in this series, and Darren,
our editor, I think, has done a great job in
pulling together the creative team to make sure that we
all work really well together and we all have a
similar idea for how we want this story to go.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
Magic is a character in the new massively popular video
game Marvel Rivals, and I personally am playing this game
religiously every night. It is one of my favorite things
to have come out. I was curious, have you had
a chance to play the game yet, yes.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
And honestly, it's to my detriment right now.
Speaker 4 (07:10):
I have so many deadlines that I need to hit,
and I think Marvel Rivals has just consumed a lot
of my head space in the past week. So it's
been super fun. In all honesty, I can only play
two characters. Both characters involve auto aim because I cannot aim,
so it's Scarlet Witch and Cloag and Dagger.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
But I've been playing for the last week.
Speaker 4 (07:33):
My first time playing was this like past Saturday, and
it's just been super fun getting to chat with friends
on Discord and play and see all the voice lines
and all the little like lower drops and it's really fun.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Yeah. Absolutely. I will give a shout out to our
Uncanny Experienced Discord channel if anybody's listening and you want
to join our discord and play with our group. We
always have various people in the Discord channel that are playing,
and we have a voice channel so we can all
chat and hang out. So if you guys want to join,
you can find the Discord link on the Uncanny Experience
(08:08):
dot com and you scroll to the bottom you'll see
the little Discord icon and it's also in our link
tree and various things on social media. So it's a
really fun hangout. And I'm glad that you're getting a
chance to play the game because it is. It's really
exciting for me. I love it, Chris, You've got it right.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
I played it for like literally five minutes, and I
had a heart attack because it's literally a run in
and you a gun and things are flying at you. You're
gonna die in a moment second if you go around
the corner. I had a heart attack, and I don't
know why. But now I'm at this age where I
feel so old, like I need things to move at
a turtle pace. I want things to go like very
(08:48):
slowly for me, but not this game. It is run
and gun. Yes, yeah, who's your main chandler?
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Oh gosh, it depends on the need, you know. So
I'm I have favorites in each class category of you know,
Vanguard and Duellist and strategist. Right now, I love Sue
Storm and Strategy. She's a new character that just drops,
so it's really fun to play Invisible Woman. I really
enjoy either Winter Soldier or Moonnight in the dualist category,
(09:21):
and then I'm a main My main main is Thor,
Like usually I'm always ending up being Thor.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
And it all it's all the characters right in the
Marvel Universe. It's not just the set normal Avengers that
we always see.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
Correct. Well, yeah, there's there's thirty five characters to choose from,
and they have some obscure ones like Penny Parker from
the Spider Verse. They've got squirrel Girl, Cloak and Dagg
or you know, there's like these characters that are not
mainstays or have even been in an MCU. So it's really
interesting to see their character selection.
Speaker 4 (09:56):
And they're going to go out in every like three
months too, like new character so that's yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
Super fun.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
We have confirmation that Jean Gray and Emma Frost are coming,
so we know that they are coming. And there's gonna
cracoa battle map as well coming as well.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
This is an exavier also coming to.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
Yes rumored rumored, Okay, I.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
Only heard the Twitter, like the Twitter memes about it.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Well, I want to see a squirrel Girl and Magic battle,
so now I can see this on Morral Rivals.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
You can, yes, I will say I play Magic a
lot so and the actress Abby Abby Trot. I'd be
taught something like that. Anyways, she's a great voice of
Magic and it's really fun. And I looked at her
credits and she is also Spiral on X Men ninety seven,
so you know, mutant family all around. We love that.
Speaker 4 (10:51):
I feel betrayed anytime Magic kills me in the game,
I'm like, ah, what, but like also a little proud.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Well, we've been giving you Magic a lot of love.
But I want to know, Ashley, if you could write
a solo book of another ex character, who would it be.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
Oh that's so hard.
Speaker 4 (11:12):
I feel like it would be a tie between like
Magneto and then Emma Frost, mostly just because like, who
doesn't love Emma Frost? Yeah, But then also I just
I mean, Magneto is like my second favorite X character
other than Magic. I think he's just such a complex
character and has an impact in any scene he's in,
(11:35):
like whether or not he's just like a side character,
he's the main character. I think it'd be a really
interesting to do something.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
With him getting into the book. Magic Number one. We'd
like to set the era. Normally we are setting the
ear out back into the eighties and nineties, but today
we are just going a few weeks in the past,
and this book was published January eighth of twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
The top song was Die with a Smile by Lady
Gaga and No Mars.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
I'm not familiar with this song, but I do love
Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars. So I just, you know,
as someone who doesn't listen to the radio, because I
feel like after a certain age, you just don't listen
to the radio. I just I don't know the song.
Do you guys know this song?
Speaker 3 (12:14):
Yeah, it's one of my favorites.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Oh, well good. Yeah. The top film was Mufasa the
Lion King, which has been the number one film for
sixteen weeks at the time of this recording, so it's
a that's a pretty popular film.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
I had no idea it would be that popular.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
Yeah, you went to the Red Carpet premiere, didn't you.
I did.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
I went to the Red Carpet premiere. I got to
do a luke, a red carpet luke, and that was
a scar. I had an orange suit and I sacrificed
my John Snow cosplay to get the fur around the
collar and I went as like an ol Mo to scar.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
I love that oh own kind of hell fire gala moment,
so to speak.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
I loved it, and it was so amazing to see
all those major stars on stage in front of me.
I was like in the second row, so I'm like,
I wonder who they're going to bring out, and it
was everybody in the cast, like Lynn Win, while Miranda
was there, Beyonce came out. You know it. It was
a pretty awesome premiere. I think the animation was gorgeous.
(13:31):
And I know that there's a lot of people that
don't like the live action Disney movies, but as far
as Disney live actions go, I would give this one
a thumbs up. I would say, yeah, go ahead and
watch it. It's a good one.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Nice, great well. I don't know actually if you've seen Mufasa,
but I guess apparently it's a Number one film.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
I have not seen it yet.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
I haven't seen it yet either. But let's get into
this issue. So we are doing Magic Number written by
Ashley Allen, art by her Men Peralta cover by Jay
Scott Campbell, which is incredible, And let's talk about this cover,
even though I have a variant cover, the Rivals one,
but you guys can talk about the Jay Scott Campbell
cover beautiful. I mean it's obviously Jay Scott Campbell is
(14:17):
an iconic artist, and you know he has the traditional
sword on the shoulder pose for magic in the Chris
Bacallo look. Did you get any input or any feedback
on that cover.
Speaker 4 (14:31):
I know so Darren, our editor was the one mainly
taking care of all of the covers, so I actually
saw the main cover i think at the same time
as they dropped it to the general public. So that
was really fun to see, mostly because too on the
cover it was really interesting where I.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
Was like, oh, wow, I can see the.
Speaker 4 (14:53):
Graveyard in this issue that comes up and I can
see the demons. But I know everyone on line was
like speculating, Oh what does this mean?
Speaker 3 (15:00):
What does this mean? I'm like, oh, that's super fun.
There's like a little hidden Easter eggs that like our
team knows about what people don't know about yet. So
it was really fun, very cool.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
Yeah, I love that cover and I saw that Jay
Scott Campbell he just announced he has a special variant
of that on his shop. So if you guys missed
cover A because it's sold out, congratulations, it's going to
second printing. Congratulations. We were doing our signing in the
Twin Cities and it was sold out metro wide, so
people are really down for this book. So a big
applause on that. And so if you missed out, you
(15:32):
can get the alternate variant that Scott has put up
on a store. It is same Poe, same character art,
but a different background. All right, Well, let's get into
this issue. It's titled The Threads That Bind and we
open in Juneo, Alaska with a young mutant girl running
for her life down a street that's empty.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
There is a monstrous hand that grabs her by the
back of the head and with a thud, you know,
cracks her head to the ground and she says, no
help me. And you can see that she's a mutant
by it, based on her hand. She has the webbed fingers,
and you know, I'm guessing, in your head, is she
more of like amphibious? Is she more maybe she's reptilian?
(16:16):
What's going on here? What kind of a mutant is she?
Speaker 1 (16:19):
In your head?
Speaker 4 (16:20):
In my head, she's more amphibian. But I think we
really wanted to show that. I mean, if you're a mutant,
there's the chance that you'll have these extraordinary powers like telepathy, teleportation,
et cetera. But I think for the most part, there's
this whole subsection of mutants where maybe it is just
as simple as your hands are webbed, and maybe that
(16:41):
helps with swimming and all that, but day to day life,
you're in Juno, Alaska, there's not a whole lot of
chances to swim. So it's just kind of like it's
an obvious mutation, but it's not giving you this extraordinary power.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
It's just she's a normal girl.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Well, she is not winning this battle because she is
scratching the ground trying to escape, and just like a
scene from a horror film, she is gone. She has disappeared.
That monster got her. And click, there is a light
in a window and there is a girl at the
window and she has pigtails and she is looking out
(17:22):
and what happens next.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
Well, I want to say, when I first read this,
without knowing any context, I thought that she was like
a demon and Magic was going to collect them and
put them into limbo. Like that was kind of like,
I'm like, is this what's going on? Is that Magic
is kind of cleaning house because I know she's in Alaska,
on the X team, and so I just want to
say that you set that kind of picture for me.
(17:47):
Is that I was like, oh, maybe this is you know,
some sort of demon girl that is going to put
back into limbo. And she's been in hiding in Juneo,
Alaska and Magic is going to clean house. So that
was that was my first impression. But then we get
a flashback scene or I guess of dream scenario scene
of young Iliana and her brother Colossus sitting on the
(18:09):
lawn of the X mansion in Westchestern, New York. Everything
looks very peaceful, very colorful, very beautiful tones of light.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
You know, she looks so happy. This is her happy place.
Speaker 4 (18:22):
Yeah, and then have one little happy moment.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
I know, poor girl, so much has happened to her anyways.
So she, you know, she's in a dream scenario. Her
brother calls her out basically saying this is a tree,
and she's like, get out of my dream. But of
course what happens is she gets embraced by what we
see on the next page, the dark Child, her other
side of her personality, her other entity that lives inside
(18:48):
of her. And you know, even though if she wants
to live an idyllic life. She cannot because part of
her is half demon, so to speak. I don't know
if I'm saying that correctly, but I feel like that
Dark Child persona is just intrinsically tied to her soul
no matter what, Like I don't think she can never
get rid of it.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
Yeah, I would agree, And I think that's the main
thing with Billianna is right now we're calling out like
she's running from these like darker emotions, like she might
be running from like having to think too much about
like the fall of Krakoa.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Yeah, and I like how, yeah you call out that
she you know, divorced herself from Limbo, she gave away
all the power to Malan Pryor, and so with that,
she was just like, hopefully that side goes away, but
obviously it doesn't. And we get this gory splash page
of all these X Men downed by the Dark Child,
(19:45):
and it's pretty gruesome. I will say, what did you
get to choose which characters? Or did her mom do that?
Speaker 3 (19:53):
Yeah? So it was kind of a collaborative effort.
Speaker 4 (19:55):
Her mom threw in a few but I my main
mention was to make sure that a few members of
her current team and X Men were there, so that's.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
Why you see the extent of course like Cydeclops.
Speaker 4 (20:06):
With her history with him, but her mom also was like, oh,
look to add in a few like of her teammates
from the New Mutants as well. So it was a
fun reveal when it finally came together.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
Yes, I remember this page being revealed early before the
issue came out, and it's very demonic.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
As far as deaths goes. I will have to say
that Kittie has a very creative one because her body
is going through the floor halfway and that you know,
this whole thing is very very gruesome.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
Yeah, I know, of course Cyd Collops right.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
Oh, I know, he's probably got it the worst. He's
charred to a I.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
Think Beast got at the worst the enhalement through the chest.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
Oh yeah, but that's the instant Cyclops got like burned
to death, and you know you have more of an
opportunity to feel it to or before the dying.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
Wow, well we learned. It's a nightmare and she wakes
up with a huff, huff, a pant pant as we
see in so many movies of just jolting to life,
and I guess this is something that has been going
on for a couple of nights. She's been having the
same dream.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Wait, I don't have my peepers on. Look at her
frame on the windowsill. I want to know who is
she hugging with Colossus.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
It's kid Ah.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
Okay, I see, and that's the new Mutants team next
to them. I'm not reading a digital copy, so I
cannot asume, but I definitely see that. I love that
she has pictures like that because it does show a
softer side, because if she just was pure, you know, warrior,
she wouldn't have memorabilia in her bedroom.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Well, like a true badass, I'm sorry. And like a
true bad ass. She's also wearing a Magnito's Right T shirt.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
Yeah, I'm glad people picked up on that. I really
wanted to include that T shirt.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
That was my one ask perfect. Well, and he's on
that team too, or he's up in Alaska with them,
so you know.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
Yeah. And then also just the fact that like Quentin
might just be like, oh I'm sick of my T
shirts an Eli on it's like okay, sure I'll grab
a T shirt like whatnot?
Speaker 1 (22:21):
You know, Yeah, that's awesome now, I'm what I want
to draw attention to because I'm very curious has Marvel
retconned the spelling of dark Child, because I know it
used to be spelt with a y, and now I
see it spelt with an eye, and so I just
was curious if that is now like the overall like
that's what we're calling dark Child.
Speaker 3 (22:42):
Yeah, it is, at least for this run.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
Okay, yeah, yeah it was. It was an interesting editorial choice.
I thought, well, she's up early, still dark outside, she's
got her uniform on, she's ready to go to work.
But what happens when she goes into the kitchen slash
w rec room but a Chris.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
Surprise, Happy birthday. Oh my gosh. And something I know
from playing Marvel Midnight Suns is that Illiana does not
appreciate a birthday party. No or surprise is no, this
is the worst thing to ever happen.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
Oh it's good. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Why did you choose to have the opening issue feature
this traumatic moment?
Speaker 4 (23:35):
Well, because I think as like just an overall state
of Illiana's headspace right now. It's she's in this weird
in between where in Kirkoa she was allowed to open
up and like maybe soften herself up a bit, but
then in doing so, kir CoA fell and maybe like
softening herself up didn't lead to a direct impact on
(23:58):
Kirka's actual fault, but in her head, she's like, oh,
I did this.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
I was supposed to protect her Coha.
Speaker 4 (24:05):
Therefore I need to harden myself back up again. So
it's this almost like Candle saying, oh, here here's this gift.
This is what you want.
Speaker 3 (24:16):
You want a family, you want to be with your friends.
Speaker 4 (24:20):
And it's just like on a silver platter handed to her,
but internally she can't accept that because she doesn't think
that she should accept it. So we thought a birthday
was like a great way to symbolize coming into a
new stage in life.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
Well, I do like that Juggernaut is the one with
the cake or pancakes in this situation because they have
this kind of bond in Jed McKay's X Men. So
it's just really sweet to see those two bruisers, you know,
form up.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
Juggernaut is so giant, and you know, the pancake platter
looks steeny tiny in his hand and it looks super.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
Cute, and Quentin of course wants her to wear the
birthday hat at least come on and just put out
for us. And she will not have it because there
are mutants that are disappearing in their backyard. And she's like,
we've got work to do.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
Don't you see what's going on on the television and
what the people are saying right now, And Quintin's all like,
but they just popped up on the screen right now
this moment. Can't you just have a birthday?
Speaker 1 (25:28):
Come on?
Speaker 3 (25:30):
My favorite it's lucky. I popped up on the screen
that moment, and she's just pulling off.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
Yeah, And I like Quentin's line where he says, cyclops,
you can't be serious. What about team bonding?
Speaker 2 (25:41):
That's your shit or that's your explitive Let her go.
It's not the first time that Leanna has fled to
be alone, and it won't be the last.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
Oh and then we go to a funeral. And what's
interesting is that the portrait of the girl is a
human girl. But I thought it was like a reptile
girl that died.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
Yeah, so it's the same girl.
Speaker 4 (26:10):
It's just that her hands are the only thing that
indicates that she's immune.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
Ah, okay, got it. I was a little I was
a little confused in the moment, but I do see
that now and what's happening outside, of course, is heartbreaking
to see all these protesters defacing the funeral building and
all of this kind of almost violence happening because there
is a mutant funeral happening. You know, this of course
(26:38):
goes all into the allergy of X men reflecting civil rights,
queer rights, et cetera. You know, like there's been mobs
that have attacked various institutions for supporting gay marriage or whatever.
So this always hits home when we see these kind
of protesters. I'm going to give a little Easter egg
shout out because I didn't notice this until the second reading.
(27:00):
But as this is happening and her friend Wren is
afraid for herself because she is also a mutant and
this is her mutant friend that died. But we see
in the foreground as they're talking, this elderly woman sketching
ruins in green glowy power on the table. I miss
this one hundred percent the first time. Well, when she
(27:21):
appears later in the issue, I was like, who is
this lady? But then I'm like, oh, she was kind
of like sprinkled in.
Speaker 3 (27:27):
Yeah, iess it's always there.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
Is she a character that has been in Jedd McKay's
X books, or is she introduced in this one?
Speaker 3 (27:37):
She's introduced him this one?
Speaker 1 (27:38):
Oh okay. I was like, I gotta go back and see.
Maybe she's part of the whole Alaska, you know, like town,
and I just missed her. But yeah, we hear some
commotion outside and what do we see?
Speaker 2 (27:49):
Chris Well Magic steps through the portal out into the
front lawn and she confronts the crowd of protesters. One
of the protes comes up to her and says, another one,
you'll get out of town if you know what's good
for you. But Ileana, She takes her finger and points
right at his forehead, and she says, you might want
(28:13):
to back up a bit. So now stuff is about
to go down. What happens next, Ashley.
Speaker 3 (28:25):
Well, she might not be a demon, but there are
some demons that are coming to attack this mutant funeral.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
Now we did she summon these demons or did they
just appear coincidentally?
Speaker 4 (28:38):
They just appeared coincidentally, So she says, strange, who would
summon demons to Juneo? So they're coming to attack this
funeral home that just happens to house a bunch of
mutants at the moment within this funeral home.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
Ah. Yes, and this line is my favorite. Could you
please give us a magic reading of what she said
as in the next couple of in the next couple
of panels.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
Sure, I'll try my best. Now, would you like my
help or should I get lost? I'm fine with either.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
Yes, because she gives this menacing look and she's like, listen,
I don't care if you live or die, but if
you want my help, I'll help you because I'm an
X man. She gets her soul sword and she gets
to rocking and rolling, and then she does her big
Marvel Rivals move of swinging her sword into a big circle.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
No, I love that. That's a thing. And then she
does something that is truly horrifying for these crowds of protesters.
She summons a portal to get them to safety by
the way. So she's being, you know, very helpful here.
But you know, in order to do that, they have
to go through limbo and get a peek at Hell
(29:55):
or a hell dementia if.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
You were did they pop out by the way, So
they went down into the ground, But where did where
does she spit them out.
Speaker 4 (30:02):
Somewhere to say, okay from the funeral home. Yeah, I'm
glad people picked up on that. I just thought would
be really funny because I'm like, oh, well, Eleana has
to help these people because she's an X men she
wants to help others, but she's just been like attacked
and accosted by these folks. So she's like, oh, well,
you might as well see what like an actual hell
(30:22):
dimension looks like.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
And in the art, what I love is that in
the first panel she's so determined, she's all like, I'm
going to get them to safety, but the second panel
she is reveling in the fact that they're in limbo
and they have to look at Hell. She loves it.
She has this ooh, this smirk that is full of joy.
Speaker 3 (30:43):
Yeah, I love her little gremlin smirk. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
Oh that's perfect. Yes, it's a gremlin smirk. And one
of the protesters realizes that the demons are after mutants,
so he grabs this poor mutant girl round with the
pigtails and hurls her at the demons, and then the
demon grabs Wren and starts taking off, but of course
Magic is there to stop them, or at least, you know,
(31:08):
plow them into one of her stepping discs to teleport
them to safety. But she actually teleports them to the
graveyard and Agnes is there again. I didn't notice her
until the second read through, and I was like, Oh,
that's that lady, And she says it's begun. We can't
let it take her. Now, I'm so excited to get
(31:29):
into the next couple of pages because I need to
know more about this family. The seals I know will
be revealed in this. I don't want any spoilers, but
I feel like I need, I need some more information.
So they end up in the graveyard and she has
saved the girl Wren for now I don't know. I
guess the demon that she trampled over she must have. Oh,
(31:50):
she got sword right through his chest. I see that.
Now he's done. And there is another boy who is sobbing,
and she's like, oh my gosh, well I'm to help
you too, And then we realize that he does not
need any help. He's the bait. Now we get a
new character introduction tell us about this guy.
Speaker 3 (32:11):
Yeah, so this is.
Speaker 4 (32:12):
The crow demon designed by Peach Momoko, who is just
utterly amazing at character design. Yeah, it was super fun
to design him with her, just because essentially I got
to provide a mood board with some images about the
overall vibe and aesthetic that I wanted him to look like,
and then Peach just blew it off like out of
(32:32):
the park. So we have a demonic gun slinger.
Speaker 3 (32:36):
With a demonic gun with a cool power set that
will be revealed the next few pages. But yeah, I
really wanted I.
Speaker 4 (32:48):
Was like, oh, what's like best to bring to like
a sword fight and it's like a gun, So who comes.
Speaker 3 (32:54):
Out on top?
Speaker 2 (32:58):
Well, I love the design on this, all the feathers
in the pump and circumstance of it all. I want
to know with the feet or are those boots or
those his feet?
Speaker 3 (33:10):
I think those are his feet, That's how I interpret it.
Speaker 2 (33:14):
Yeah, and something I really love is this hat because
it looks wispy and wicket. The brim of it is feathery,
and yeah, everything on this is just gorgeous and I
want to contemplate this at one point in life.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
So what I'm gathering from this, and you can help clarify,
is that he is not in any sort of you
know seal or you know he has free movement. He
is a crow demon that is out and about in
the world, and he has come to this moment because
he's trying to free his master or whatever, the larger
demon that is at stake, and in order to do that,
(33:54):
he needs mutant blood in order to break the seal.
Speaker 3 (33:59):
Yeah, that's her. So.
Speaker 4 (34:01):
I mean, like you saw with the money the Mute
from page one, he's been camping out in June like
Juno with his demon underlings to grab munes to sacrifice
to the seal to hopefully build up enough power to
break it and free as master.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
With magic getting shot so many times, I'm just curious,
what is your interpretation of her healing factor so to speak?
How is she surviving so many or is they just
magic bullets slash wounds and not true fatal wounds.
Speaker 3 (34:36):
Yeah, so I think it's a magical attack.
Speaker 4 (34:38):
But I like you can see kind of midway down
the page she's using her magic to essentially cauterize her
wounds as they're happening, So she's lighting her hand on
fire and trying to stem the bleeding that way.
Speaker 1 (34:55):
Yes, Yes, she is such a warrior and we know
of her time in limbo. Of course she can survive
basically anything I feel. And then we get the introduction
of Agnes and her grandson. I mean they're introduced in
panels prior, but this is like their true moment. This
is like, oh, these people matter. We learn about this
(35:16):
family history and they're in charge of keeping these seals
to keep out a larger demon at play. Now this family,
is this a Marvel like chain, Like, is this a
family tree that we should be known about or is
this a new kind of like a whole new family
(35:38):
of magicians in the Marvel universe.
Speaker 4 (35:41):
Yeah, this is a completely new family of mages and
it's all little sub section of the Marvel universe.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
Oh that's exciting. I need the family tree whenever it
comes out. So I'm curious where there, you know, magical
power stem from? Where did they learn it? You know,
how does it get passed down? Is it the book
that we'll see later or is it inherent in their blood?
I'm just now I'm ready for the Bible because I'm
I'm a big fan of Marvel magic users, Doctor Strange,
(36:09):
you know whoever. I love it all. So now I'm
very invested in this family. Do they have like a
family name or do we just have their first name?
Speaker 3 (36:18):
Are their last names?
Speaker 1 (36:19):
Isaacs Isaacs Isaacs writing it down, that's revealed.
Speaker 4 (36:24):
And like I think the seconds last page, but yeah,
Agnes Isaacs and then cal Isaacs.
Speaker 1 (36:31):
Well, it's really fascinating in these kind of couple panels
because one you see Agnes drawn up magic shields. She
is trying to repair the seal that was damaged due
to mutant blood and all the time the crow demon
is causing chaos and of course trying to go after
poor Wren in the pigtails.
Speaker 2 (36:52):
And Wren is going to fight back. She is going
to fight for her life, and she screams, no, stay back,
and he is just ha ha ha haha laughing. But
she gives this giant street and out of her mouth,
kind of like Banshee. Here she is screaming at him,
trying to disintegrate him, but it does not work. He
(37:13):
is standing tall. He grabs her by the face. There's
blood spurting out of the hand and the face. It
is horror, it is scary, and he says, my turn.
And this is truly a horror movie scene again here
in this issue, because he kills her, and it's very brutal,
(37:36):
and it's on the seal and there's a lot of
blood and guess what, you guys, just in case you
all forgot, that's exactly what they need to open the seal.
So now the mission has been accomplished by this villain.
Speaker 1 (37:52):
Yes, but magic is starting to embody the dark Child.
We see her literal devil over her shoulder, talking to her,
just saying like, let me in, let me take over,
let me let me you know, manifest so to speak, and.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
We actually, do you want to give us a line
reading of Dark Child?
Speaker 1 (38:11):
Here?
Speaker 3 (38:13):
Oh? Sure, I'll try.
Speaker 4 (38:15):
Okay, poor pathetic Iliana was holding us back? Worth it
for your silly little morals?
Speaker 3 (38:22):
What will you do now? Who else will you let die?
Speaker 1 (38:27):
Now? When when this crow demon fires his gun and
he says his magic spell words, I hear it so well,
like the letterer did such a great job, because it's
in my head. It's like this echoy deep voiced, kind
of like magical.
Speaker 2 (38:46):
Word explode.
Speaker 1 (38:50):
Something like this. Yes, I don't know how to describe it.
I feel like I would need to just experiment in
a vocal texture machine and and get it out. But
but I do love the lettering technique because it definitely
makes me feel like something is happening. And we see that,
you know, Ileana and most characters, of course, they have
(39:11):
white word bubbles with black letters. This is just kind
of tradition. But now after dark Child has spoken to
her she got shot again, we see that her word
bubble has turned red when she says the word die,
so her eyes are glowing red, her word bubbles red.
I think the Dark Child is coming through, you would
(39:34):
be right. Agnes is busy repairing the seal. She's the
grandson is like, what's going on. I don't know anything
about this. He's been kept in the dark, and she's
just like, get in. What does she want out of
her bag?
Speaker 2 (39:48):
He's like, oh, she wants the green plant in the
front pocket. But it's called that's.
Speaker 3 (39:55):
An actual plant that exists if you google.
Speaker 4 (39:59):
It means like it has healing properties, et cetera.
Speaker 1 (40:02):
So and so the son or the grandson is trying
to help out and he is like, well, you know
what about her? She's helping us, and we learn that
she's like, you cannot trust the dark Child. So the
dark Child means that this is a demon slash character
of Lord that this family is very well versed on,
(40:24):
and like the Scarlet Witch and like other characters in
the Marvel pantheon, the Dark Child is inevitable. Is a
character or is a demon that I think always exists
in my opinion, I don't know if I'm stretching here.
Speaker 3 (40:40):
Yeah, I mean I would say so, I guess.
Speaker 4 (40:42):
Also mentions that the group she's a part of is
tasked with preventing the apocalypses that.
Speaker 3 (40:48):
Are trying to plague the world and Earth.
Speaker 4 (40:50):
And so it's obvious that she draws some connection to
the apocalypses plaguing the world with the Dark Child, which
we have seen in past with Marvel, and how the
Dark Child comes up to play in the New Munes.
Speaker 1 (41:09):
Well, Billianna is getting more and more demonic. She is
fighting this crow. He is fighting back with all sorts
of magic bullets. She's getting shot more and more, and
Agnes is just like, you idiot, you have magical powers,
and she's like, oh, fullap.
Speaker 4 (41:27):
Sometimes you just need a grandma to tell you what's
like actually going on.
Speaker 1 (41:34):
And the thing that I didn't notice again until second reading,
is that she costs the spell of Silence because obviously,
all of his magic is vocalized and makes that's what
tells the bullets what to do. But in order to
cast a spell, she has to use her own blood,
which she flings droplets of blood that he has caused
her to bleed, and then through the magic of the
(41:55):
blood binding spell, she is able to silence him and
he's not able to speak his spells. And I thought
that was super clever, And again I didn't notice it
until the second round because I was like, obviously, there's
so much action, so much going on. Sometimes it's great
to do second readings of comics because you just pick
out all those little details.
Speaker 3 (42:15):
Yeah. No, I was really proud of that scene.
Speaker 4 (42:17):
It was really fun to do because I think a
big thing about this series that we wanted to make
sure didn't happen is we didn't want magic to be
all powerful, both the character but then also magic itself,
Like we want everything to feel like it has a cost,
Like you can't just have a get out of jail
(42:39):
free card.
Speaker 2 (42:42):
H Well, we next go to something that is fun,
a little dropping of a moment called X mentions, where
we get a preview of things to come in the
Marvel universe. But I want to scroll all the way
down past the checklist, past all of the descriptions of
the cool things, coming up to the question of the month,
(43:03):
and we'll just speed read this real quick because there's
quite a few answers from the creative team of the
x ME universe. The question is who is the most
underappreciated character in the extended X Men family? And who
do you love that everybody else ignores? So you know,
we'll go one at a time and just read this
(43:24):
real quick. So Joe Casey says, Stacy X insert your
own joke here.
Speaker 1 (43:28):
Chris Cross says Madricks and Havoc. These guys are rarely
seen or ever truly fleshed out. I think I just
found the best mutant buddy comic the world needs to see,
the mutant Myrtog and Riggs.
Speaker 4 (43:42):
Yeah, And Gail Simon says, I always thought Hilaris would
be a lot bigger if the other mutants weren't all
jealous of her fabulous hair.
Speaker 2 (43:51):
Javier Garon says, shout a star. Come on, he shouted
a star. Awkward pause in the room, No did he?
Speaker 1 (43:59):
He?
Speaker 2 (44:00):
Isn't that the reason you got that name? Why are
you all looking at me like that.
Speaker 1 (44:06):
David Marquez says, up until Air of Apocalypse, I would
have said Cipher, but it seems there are already some
plans in the works, although depending on how that goes,
I have a couple of ideas.
Speaker 3 (44:18):
And Martin Bureau says murmur She's French Canadian, she's flirtatious, mysterious,
and she'll control your mind.
Speaker 2 (44:26):
On Elise Visas says Hie Boy, he sees everything and
he deserves to be seen more by us.
Speaker 1 (44:33):
And Tom Breevort says, I have a strange liking for Pixie,
so much so that it's kind of strange that she
hasn't shown up yet, and also dating back to my
New Warriors' days, Justice very interesting.
Speaker 2 (44:47):
So, Ashley, I want to know from you who is
the most underappreciated character in the extended X Men family.
Speaker 4 (44:55):
That's so hard because I think the issue is I
will say, oh, I think this character is underappreciated. But
I think the beautiful thing about like the X Men
fandom is you'll say that and then there's like a
thousand people who will come out of the trenches and
be like, no, that's my favorite. So I always say
(45:16):
that about Danny and I know she's been in a lot,
but like I love Danny, Moonstar and Mirage, so I
would always love to see her in more things. But
I think I have to agree with Annalise. I think
Eyboy deserves to be seen more by us.
Speaker 3 (45:32):
How about you guys?
Speaker 2 (45:33):
Oh my god, I want to say Glob herman. I
just I love Glob so much. She brings a smile
to my face.
Speaker 1 (45:41):
Well, oh gosh, I'm gonna say Lila Chenney just because
you know, she is an awesome musician. I know she
has very limited galactic teleportation powers, but I don't know.
I always loved when she would come into the X books,
and so I just feel like I would love to
see more of her.
Speaker 2 (46:00):
All right, now back to the issue. Well, we're still
in this face off, but it is getting a little
bit more horrific, more scary, more slice and dice and
why Chandler.
Speaker 1 (46:13):
Well, we see that magic is you know, like this
awesome warrior. You know she is able to neutralize the threat.
She's able to disarm him by cutting off his arm,
dropping the gun and kind of pushing him away with her.
There's some sort of whirlwind of blood, slash energy, going on,
(46:34):
and he is able to somehow regenerate his arm or
develop a new gun, and he is or is that
his teleportation? Sorry, maybe Ashley, you can jump in and
explain what's happening.
Speaker 4 (46:46):
Yeah, so if you see it, she chops off his arm,
but then mid air, as his arm that's holding his
gun falls to the ground, he reaches out with his
other hand to grab the gun for me. So you
can see it in the last panel that this crow
is without an arm the rest of the story.
Speaker 2 (47:05):
So he doesn't have any regenitive powers then, so he
is armless forever.
Speaker 4 (47:12):
Yes, unless some magical means happened, but yes, he's armless
this boss.
Speaker 1 (47:19):
Yes, yeah, he fires some so the magic spell is gone,
the silent spell is gone, he's able to speak again.
He fires another burst shot and he takes out Agnes
the grandmother in the back, and he is finished. He's
so tired of these games. He says like, I'm tired
of this family trying to keep my boss down. And
(47:42):
he's just like, let's get rid of these seals so
we can bring out Limonol. We haven't seen yet, but
we know that that is a big threat. So is
limonall a true demon. Is this someone as should google?
Speaker 4 (47:54):
I don't Well, no spoilers, but I can say he
has not been seen in Marvel up to this moment,
so he is a new villain, completely new to our series.
Speaker 1 (48:05):
Mm ooh. I would just point out that the word lemonal,
what it means is occupying a position at or on
both sides a boundary or threshold.
Speaker 3 (48:16):
Oo. I wonder how that could affect the story in
any way.
Speaker 1 (48:21):
I'm very curious. Yeah, I cannot google what limon all
meant until now. So yes, try to pick apart every
little detail, and you know, information you drop. But so
the seal is broken. We see this black energy and
somewhat claw like stuff and a lot of pink lightning,
and there's some bad shit happening.
Speaker 2 (48:43):
Oh yeah, so many tandrils and Magic is getting cal
to safety and also the dead body of poor Agnes
and they're outside of the seal area. And what does
Magic do. She puts up a force filled and with
it's almost kind of like an electrical buzz here with
a crackle. You see all this like blue energy kind
(49:04):
of enveloping the broken seal and all of that energy
that's coming out of it. But unfortunately, Magic isn't going
to be able to hold this forever. It is heavy
on her shoulders, and her strength to hold this together
is going to follow her eventually. And she knows this.
Speaker 1 (49:22):
She has neutralized what she could. She goes to console
Cal and he is devastated that his grandmother has died.
But he discovers a book that has all the family
secrets and magic, and he has decided to take up
the mantle of the family tree and do whatever he
(49:43):
can to use these family secrets to protect the town.
Speaker 2 (49:47):
Oh is that grandma's purse, because if it is, she's
got great fashion.
Speaker 3 (49:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (49:51):
I was going to draw attention to that is I
just truly adore how it is.
Speaker 3 (49:56):
His grandmother's purse. But now he just has with him,
I think too.
Speaker 4 (50:01):
An important part about this is I feel like Cal
immediately sees this and is kind of like Magic in
a way where they're both Okay, let's spring into action.
Let's avoid these like more negative feelings instead of saying,
oh this like I just lost my best friend, I
(50:21):
lost my grandmother. Let me take on this mantil, let
me do something, let me figure out what's going on.
But as you can see, In the next page, Magic
also has that type of personality, but in childhood she
wasn't allowed to make that choice.
Speaker 3 (50:39):
It was made for her. So she can see that Cal,
this like fourteen year old boy, is making this choice,
but in reality it's not really a choice at all.
It's a kid out of his steps and he really
whereas Magic kind of wants to avoid this part of herself.
Speaker 4 (50:55):
Cal's throwing himself in head first, and so that's going
to cause them to.
Speaker 3 (50:59):
But some heads.
Speaker 1 (51:02):
And we see a page fall from the purse and
land on the ground as they walk away. And on
the very last page of the comic, we have a
splash page and we see Dark Child unleashed, and it
is obviously an artistic rendition of Ileana as a dark
child with her wings out and looking demonic, floating over
(51:24):
a pool of blood or a sea of blood. Actually
that's covering an entire city full of corpses. And we
get some spooky black text that's speaking, which I imagine
is Lemon All Chris, do you want to read what
that says?
Speaker 2 (51:36):
The Dark Child? So that's her name? How interesting? Will
she pose a threat or become a gift? No matter?
Will have fun neither way. I just gotta say, like,
I thought this was a tarot card at first, and
I love Taro, But looking at this, it would make
(51:58):
a perfect album the cover for a heavy metal band.
Am I right? If you want to listen to this
album Dark Child Unleashed.
Speaker 3 (52:08):
I mean, Magic is I think the most metal X
men of them all, so that would track.
Speaker 1 (52:13):
Oh and then I see they're off to Tokyo for
the next issue. Next Magic's hunt for Limon All Seals
takes her and Cal deep into the Tokyo underground. But
who is watching Ileana from backstage and has Cal teamed
up with Earth's best chance against the demon invasion or
its prophesized leader. Let's see.
Speaker 3 (52:37):
I just have to say, whoever writes those little blurbs
at Marvel does an amazing job.
Speaker 4 (52:41):
I'm like, wow, that's such a good way to summarize.
Speaker 1 (52:46):
Well cool. Well, thank you so much for joining us
on the show. This was really fun to kind of
dig into this issue, dig into Magic, learn more about
you and your writing style and all that sort of stuff.
Speaker 2 (52:56):
What was your favorite part of the issue, Chandler.
Speaker 1 (52:59):
My favorite heart was her casting the Silent Spell. I
thought that was really cool. I remember in that moment,
I was like, oh, yes, magic, let's do it. Magic
is doing magic.
Speaker 2 (53:08):
Oh yeah. And I gotta say, I think the limbo
moment where she throws the crowd into limbo and they
have to take a glimpse into the hellscape of limbo,
that that was just her smile. It made me giddy.
What about you, Ashley, what was your favorite moment of
the issue.
Speaker 3 (53:26):
I mean, I have to say all of it, but
I think the birthday party holds a special place in
my heart. Just maybe early on it. We'll put on
the hat next time. We'll see round two.
Speaker 1 (53:39):
Wonderful.
Speaker 2 (53:39):
Well again, thank you so much for joining us, Ashley.
This has been truly a delight. I am so excited
for everybody that is listening right now. You need to
go and pick up this issue in the com book stores.
It'll be out on newsstands when this episode releases. Am
I right it's out?
Speaker 1 (53:58):
Yeah? Well it's sold out, so gotta wait for this
I can pull down and it's so popular.
Speaker 3 (54:03):
Thank you all for supporting.
Speaker 4 (54:05):
It's crazy that we're on our second printing, so I mean,
I'm awestruck.
Speaker 1 (54:10):
So thinks if I recall you sold more than unkinny
x men.
Speaker 4 (54:17):
Yeah, that's crazy, and I think that also has to
do with just I mean, Marvel Rivals coming out at
the perfect time. I think more people that were like,
who is this woman with a big sword can teleport everywhere?
So I think it's really fun to see people who
may not be into comics going out to their local
comic book story to pick up these first issues to
(54:37):
see like who these characters actually are.
Speaker 3 (54:39):
I think that's so fun.
Speaker 1 (54:41):
Mm hmmm, yeah, well, congratulations again. Can't wait to read
more of the story. This is an ongoing series, everybody,
because it frequently gets called a mini series, but it
is an ongoing series, so hopefully it gets to go
on and on and on and on.
Speaker 3 (54:57):
Yeah. I hope we have more stories to tell.
Speaker 1 (55:00):
So well, great, Well again, thank you so much. We
look forward to seeing you at the Uncanny Experience in
July twelve and thirteenth, and hopefully we can have you
back on the show when we have more Magic issues
out and we can talk about Yeah, I would love that.
Speaker 3 (55:17):
Thanks for having me excited for Uncanny.
Speaker 1 (55:20):
Now it's time for the Uncanny News News News News,
get Ready VIP and Omega ticket Holder Sunday Lorne.
Speaker 2 (55:29):
And at nine thirty am, step into the student hall
for an unforgettable VIP breakfast with X Men Evolution.
Speaker 1 (55:38):
Joining us are the incredible talents behind the iconic series.
We have Stephen E. Gordon, the director and character designer,
Megan Black, the voice of Rogue, and Maggie Blue O'Hara,
the voice of Kitty Pride aka's Shadowcat.
Speaker 2 (55:51):
And that's not all. Fan favorite X Men Evolution characters
will be roaming the room ready to mix, mingle and
take photos with you. This is your exclusive chance to
chat with the stars, capture amazing memories, and kick off
your Sunday with Mutant powered energy.
Speaker 1 (56:05):
This event is exclusive to VIP and Omega ticket holders,
so don't miss out on this epic experience.
Speaker 2 (56:12):
We have something brand new and exciting at the Uncanny
Experience for our junior year and that is a fact
that we have a guidance counselor on the campus. That's right.
As a student at at Xavier Institute, it's time to
answer the big question, which Mutant team is your perfect fit.
During your session with the school's guidance Counselor, your unique
(56:34):
abilities will be evaluated to determine where you truly belong.
Speaker 1 (56:38):
Will you join the legendary X Men, the covert X Force,
the daring Excalibur, or even a more unexpected team with
countless possibilities. Your mutant destiny is waiting to be revealed.
Speaker 2 (56:50):
Sessions are limited and will be scheduled exclusively for VIP
and Omega ticket holders, So you got to become a
VIP for your chance to discover the team that's called
your name.
Speaker 1 (57:01):
Everybody your mutant identity awaits, but it's only for VIPs
and omegas. The gates of Xavier Institute are opening, and
as a VIP ticket holder, you'll officially join its ranks
with your very own custom student ID card at badge
that's as unique as your mutant du name.
Speaker 2 (57:17):
All right, here's what makes it special. You got your
mutant name on it that your alias in the world
of Xavier Institute, chosen to reflect your true mutant essence.
Has your power, whether it's controlling the elements or telepathic prowess.
Your ability will be front and center on this ID
and it shows your ticket level, so it'll show if
(57:38):
you're either a VIP or the elite Omega.
Speaker 1 (57:42):
Yes, carry your Xavier ID with pride. It's not just
a keepsake. It's your connection to the Mutant legacy. Use
it to explore the Mansion, strike your best superhero poses
and maybe even unlocked perks along the way.
Speaker 2 (57:55):
And remember this is exclusive to VIP ticket holders. This
idea is more a card. It's a symbol that you're
one of the gifted.
Speaker 1 (58:03):
Indeed, all right, let's break down all the VIP perks
so everybody knows what they're getting when they become a
VIP student at the Unking Experience.
Speaker 2 (58:11):
Wait, there's more, there's more, all right.
Speaker 1 (58:15):
Your VIP ticket gets you guaranteed access to the hell
Fire Club. You can enter the inner sanctum of mutant
opulence with exclusive entry to this elite experience.
Speaker 2 (58:26):
Yes, and the VIP badges also grant you free admission,
which is one hundred dollars value y'all to the Saturday
after party in the Mansion. This epic event features mutant
powered entertainment with DJ Neon Horror. There's a show stopping
drag show, there's karaoke, there's a D and D tournament.
(58:47):
There is just NonStop entertainment all night everywhere.
Speaker 1 (58:51):
At Also, you get priority meet and greet lions, so
you have less waiting and more time meeting your favorite
stars and creators.
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Yep, there's a dedicated VIP entrance so you have a
fast track to the registration and security line. You're going
to be the first person to step foot in the
mansion every day, ensuring that you're ahead of the crowd
and you're ready to dive into the action.
Speaker 1 (59:14):
Yes, and with this you get early admission on top
of that, so you can also get above the crowds
and before general admission by getting in even earlier.
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Yeah, there's also a merchandise discount, so you can save
on Uncanny Experienced collectibles and gear to commemorate your weekend.
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VIP tickets of course, grant access to the event for
both days, Saturday and Sunday, ensuring you don't miss a
moment of the excitements. These tickets are limited and in
high demands of snag yours before they're gone.
Speaker 2 (59:40):
Be sure to visit Theoncannyexperience dot com and enroll in
at Xavier Institute.
Speaker 1 (59:45):
Today See there Mutants.
Speaker 2 (59:47):
X Reads is recorded in the United States.
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Our theme music is written by Austin Wintry.
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Please make sure to follow our podcast to be updated
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Speaker 2 (01:00:05):
Thanks so much for listening.
Speaker 1 (01:00:06):
Bye.
Hey everyone. Before we start today's episode, we wanted to
address the devastating wildfires sweeping through Los Angeles. As of
recording today on January eighteenth, twenty twenty five, these fires
have tragically claimed at least twenty seven lives and destroyed
over twelve three hundred structures.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
It's really heartbreaking Chandler, and living in LA, I've witnessed
firsthand the destruction and the resilience of our community, and
the Palisates fire alone is consumed over twenty three thousand
and seven hundred acres. That's making it the most destructive
in the city's history. And our friends have lost homes.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
It's been horrible, and it's been horrible to witness from
afar as I'm in Minnesota, but having lived in LA
for twenty years, I feel very tied to you know,
our friends, our colleagues, everybody there, and I've known many
people that have lost everything. So for those of you
looking for help, there are several avenues on GoFundMe. If
you go to their homepage, they have a dedicated page
(00:59):
for Aliforonia wildfire relief. So if you feel helpless in
this matter, you can go ahead and donate to families
that have lost everything, you know, as little as five
ten dollars or if you want to donate more. Sometimes
that feels good just to be able to feel like
you've contributed towards rebuilding some people's lives.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
And every little bit helps. And additionally, the City of
Los Angeles they launched the LA Strong Initiative. It's providing
more resources and ways to contribute. If you want to
find out more about the LA Strong Initiative, head on
over to lacity dot gov slash LA strong. Again, that's
(01:37):
lacity dot gov slash LA strong.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Yeah, we encourage you to share these links on your
social media if you want to volunteer, if you're local,
help spreading awareness to help rebuild the city of Los
Angeles and all of the structures that have been destroyed
and all the lives have been affected.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Stay safe, everyone, and remember in times like these, community
and compassion is what makes all the difference.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
And with all that being said, let's continue on with
the show and let's celebrate our next guest, Ashley Allen. Hi, everybody,
this is Chandler and this is Chris. Ni'm Ashley and
you're listening to Excrets the podcast. Welcome everybody to episode
(02:29):
one thirty seven with our very very special guest, Ashley Allen. Welcome,
Ashley yah.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
Hi, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Oh, it is a pleasure to have you. Ashley. You
are the writer of Magic Solo series, and you also
contributed to stories like in the Marvel Zombies universe, Blood
Hunt and one As for DC Comics and more, and
you are a previous and future guest of The Uncanny Experience.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Yeah, I'm excited. I love it. I'm excited summer this year.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Yes, yes, I mean we haven't really revealed anywhere that
you're going to be a guest yet, but yeah, I
guess if you hear it on this podcast, you've heard
it first that actually will return to The Uncanny Experience
this July. So we are so excited that you get
to come back.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
Yeah, me too, Secret scoop.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Breaking news exclusive.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Yes. So we have some questions to kind of warm
us up before we dive into your Magic solo series,
which is fantastic. We've only had the first issue come
out so far, so we're going to recap Magic number
one in a little bit, but before we get there,
we want to know how were you introduced to the
X Men.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
My first ever introduction was the X Men First Class Trilogy,
after the original Box trilogy.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
That's what I remember seeing in movies.
Speaker 4 (03:48):
I think I was like eleven or twelve, and I
was like, oh, I love this and I just love
the dynamic between like Magneto and Charles Xavier. And then
that kind of got me into the comics after because
again I didn't want to wait for the movie to
come out, so I just like read Old Claremont runs
and et cetera.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
So, of all the magic's abilities, which one is your favorite?
Speaker 3 (04:11):
Oh, that's hard.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
I think teleportation just because there's so much you can
play around with, and I think it's so unique to
her because I think, like the mutant ability of teleportation
isn't unique obviously, like night Crawler has a similar power set,
but I think having it so like intrinsically tied to
her time and Limbow makes it really interesting as both
(04:32):
like a power but then also a literary device, like
with telling her backstory.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
We've spent some time with you. You've banned appearances at
our booths at Twin City's Con, and we just did
a signing event with you at the Source. I overheard
you talk about how you base Magic's characterization off of
your cat, and can you expand on that please?
Speaker 3 (04:53):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (04:53):
Well, I mean first of all, I mean do you
guys have did you have childhood cats.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
Or do you have cats now?
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Yes? Both?
Speaker 4 (05:01):
Okay, Yeah, So my childhood cat, I felt like I
had to really work to earn the love of my cat,
and like I could tell that my cat loved me,
but like he had to still work for it. And
if you like the cat went off and did its
own thing, You're like, it's fine, it's okay. So I
think Iliana is kind of like that, at least like
at first glance where she's a little prickly, but if
(05:22):
you get to know her, she has like a heart
of gold. She's a sweetheart and she loves like very deeply.
So I sometimes think I can see a lot of
parallels between her and cat like energy.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Absolutely, yeah, she is very cat energy. That's a good call.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Me out. So how is it working with her mom? Paralta?
Speaker 3 (05:42):
Yeah, her mom is like amazing. He is so good
and I've loved his work, especially like his work during
Blood Hunt.
Speaker 4 (05:50):
I think he like is a really good pick in
terms of having those softer storytelling moments. But also he
has this great ability to illustrate action in like this
static two D medium, and I think his art style
and also his line work specifically is so suited to
(06:12):
like these horror supernatural elements that we're trying to convey
in this I think he has like a really great
understanding of how to like build suspense in his panel work.
And so it's just been great working with him because
sometimes I swear he reads my mind. I'm like, oh,
can you do this, and he's like, yeah, like draw
up a few things and then I'll send me back something.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
I'm like, Wow, no notes, amazing.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
I love that. It's so great when an artist and
a writer can have such great synergy.
Speaker 4 (06:38):
Yeah, we've been really lucky in this series, and Darren,
our editor, I think, has done a great job in
pulling together the creative team to make sure that we
all work really well together and we all have a
similar idea for how we want this story to go.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
Magic is a character in the new massively popular video
game Marvel Rivals, and I personally am playing this game
religiously every night. It is one of my favorite things
to have come out. I was curious, have you had
a chance to play the game yet, yes.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
And honestly, it's to my detriment right now.
Speaker 4 (07:10):
I have so many deadlines that I need to hit,
and I think Marvel Rivals has just consumed a lot
of my head space in the past week. So it's
been super fun. In all honesty, I can only play
two characters. Both characters involve auto aim because I cannot aim,
so it's Scarlet Witch and Cloag and Dagger.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
But I've been playing for the last week.
Speaker 4 (07:33):
My first time playing was this like past Saturday, and
it's just been super fun getting to chat with friends
on Discord and play and see all the voice lines
and all the little like lower drops and it's really fun.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Yeah. Absolutely. I will give a shout out to our
Uncanny Experienced Discord channel if anybody's listening and you want
to join our discord and play with our group. We
always have various people in the Discord channel that are playing,
and we have a voice channel so we can all
chat and hang out. So if you guys want to join,
you can find the Discord link on the Uncanny Experience
(08:08):
dot com and you scroll to the bottom you'll see
the little Discord icon and it's also in our link
tree and various things on social media. So it's a
really fun hangout. And I'm glad that you're getting a
chance to play the game because it is. It's really
exciting for me. I love it, Chris, You've got it right.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
I played it for like literally five minutes, and I
had a heart attack because it's literally a run in
and you a gun and things are flying at you. You're
gonna die in a moment second if you go around
the corner. I had a heart attack, and I don't
know why. But now I'm at this age where I
feel so old, like I need things to move at
a turtle pace. I want things to go like very
(08:48):
slowly for me, but not this game. It is run
and gun. Yes, yeah, who's your main chandler?
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Oh gosh, it depends on the need, you know. So
I'm I have favorites in each class category of you know,
Vanguard and Duellist and strategist. Right now, I love Sue
Storm and Strategy. She's a new character that just drops,
so it's really fun to play Invisible Woman. I really
enjoy either Winter Soldier or Moonnight in the dualist category,
(09:21):
and then I'm a main My main main is Thor,
Like usually I'm always ending up being Thor.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
And it all it's all the characters right in the
Marvel Universe. It's not just the set normal Avengers that
we always see.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
Correct. Well, yeah, there's there's thirty five characters to choose from,
and they have some obscure ones like Penny Parker from
the Spider Verse. They've got squirrel Girl, Cloak and Dagg
or you know, there's like these characters that are not
mainstays or have even been in an MCU. So it's really
interesting to see their character selection.
Speaker 4 (09:56):
And they're going to go out in every like three
months too, like new character so that's yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
Super fun.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
We have confirmation that Jean Gray and Emma Frost are coming,
so we know that they are coming. And there's gonna
cracoa battle map as well coming as well.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
This is an exavier also coming to.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
Yes rumored rumored, Okay, I.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
Only heard the Twitter, like the Twitter memes about it.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Well, I want to see a squirrel Girl and Magic battle,
so now I can see this on Morral Rivals.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
You can, yes, I will say I play Magic a
lot so and the actress Abby Abby Trot. I'd be
taught something like that. Anyways, she's a great voice of
Magic and it's really fun. And I looked at her
credits and she is also Spiral on X Men ninety seven,
so you know, mutant family all around. We love that.
Speaker 4 (10:51):
I feel betrayed anytime Magic kills me in the game,
I'm like, ah, what, but like also a little proud.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Well, we've been giving you Magic a lot of love.
But I want to know, Ashley, if you could write
a solo book of another ex character, who would it be.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
Oh that's so hard.
Speaker 4 (11:12):
I feel like it would be a tie between like
Magneto and then Emma Frost, mostly just because like, who
doesn't love Emma Frost? Yeah, But then also I just
I mean, Magneto is like my second favorite X character
other than Magic. I think he's just such a complex
character and has an impact in any scene he's in,
(11:35):
like whether or not he's just like a side character,
he's the main character. I think it'd be a really
interesting to do something.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
With him getting into the book. Magic Number one. We'd
like to set the era. Normally we are setting the
ear out back into the eighties and nineties, but today
we are just going a few weeks in the past,
and this book was published January eighth of twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
The top song was Die with a Smile by Lady
Gaga and No Mars.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
I'm not familiar with this song, but I do love
Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars. So I just, you know,
as someone who doesn't listen to the radio, because I
feel like after a certain age, you just don't listen
to the radio. I just I don't know the song.
Do you guys know this song?
Speaker 3 (12:14):
Yeah, it's one of my favorites.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Oh, well good. Yeah. The top film was Mufasa the
Lion King, which has been the number one film for
sixteen weeks at the time of this recording, so it's
a that's a pretty popular film.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
I had no idea it would be that popular.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
Yeah, you went to the Red Carpet premiere, didn't you.
I did.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
I went to the Red Carpet premiere. I got to
do a luke, a red carpet luke, and that was
a scar. I had an orange suit and I sacrificed
my John Snow cosplay to get the fur around the
collar and I went as like an ol Mo to scar.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
I love that oh own kind of hell fire gala moment,
so to speak.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
I loved it, and it was so amazing to see
all those major stars on stage in front of me.
I was like in the second row, so I'm like,
I wonder who they're going to bring out, and it
was everybody in the cast, like Lynn Win, while Miranda
was there, Beyonce came out. You know it. It was
a pretty awesome premiere. I think the animation was gorgeous.
(13:31):
And I know that there's a lot of people that
don't like the live action Disney movies, but as far
as Disney live actions go, I would give this one
a thumbs up. I would say, yeah, go ahead and
watch it. It's a good one.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Nice, great well. I don't know actually if you've seen Mufasa,
but I guess apparently it's a Number one film.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
I have not seen it yet.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
I haven't seen it yet either. But let's get into
this issue. So we are doing Magic Number written by
Ashley Allen, art by her Men Peralta cover by Jay
Scott Campbell, which is incredible, And let's talk about this cover,
even though I have a variant cover, the Rivals one,
but you guys can talk about the Jay Scott Campbell
cover beautiful. I mean it's obviously Jay Scott Campbell is
(14:17):
an iconic artist, and you know he has the traditional
sword on the shoulder pose for magic in the Chris
Bacallo look. Did you get any input or any feedback
on that cover.
Speaker 4 (14:31):
I know so Darren, our editor was the one mainly
taking care of all of the covers, so I actually
saw the main cover i think at the same time
as they dropped it to the general public. So that
was really fun to see, mostly because too on the
cover it was really interesting where I.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
Was like, oh, wow, I can see the.
Speaker 4 (14:53):
Graveyard in this issue that comes up and I can
see the demons. But I know everyone on line was
like speculating, Oh what does this mean?
Speaker 3 (15:00):
What does this mean? I'm like, oh, that's super fun.
There's like a little hidden Easter eggs that like our
team knows about what people don't know about yet. So
it was really fun, very cool.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
Yeah, I love that cover and I saw that Jay
Scott Campbell he just announced he has a special variant
of that on his shop. So if you guys missed
cover A because it's sold out, congratulations, it's going to
second printing. Congratulations. We were doing our signing in the
Twin Cities and it was sold out metro wide, so
people are really down for this book. So a big
applause on that. And so if you missed out, you
(15:32):
can get the alternate variant that Scott has put up
on a store. It is same Poe, same character art,
but a different background. All right, Well, let's get into
this issue. It's titled The Threads That Bind and we
open in Juneo, Alaska with a young mutant girl running
for her life down a street that's empty.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
There is a monstrous hand that grabs her by the
back of the head and with a thud, you know,
cracks her head to the ground and she says, no
help me. And you can see that she's a mutant
by it, based on her hand. She has the webbed fingers,
and you know, I'm guessing, in your head, is she
more of like amphibious? Is she more maybe she's reptilian?
(16:16):
What's going on here? What kind of a mutant is she?
Speaker 1 (16:19):
In your head?
Speaker 4 (16:20):
In my head, she's more amphibian. But I think we
really wanted to show that. I mean, if you're a mutant,
there's the chance that you'll have these extraordinary powers like telepathy, teleportation,
et cetera. But I think for the most part, there's
this whole subsection of mutants where maybe it is just
as simple as your hands are webbed, and maybe that
(16:41):
helps with swimming and all that, but day to day life,
you're in Juno, Alaska, there's not a whole lot of
chances to swim. So it's just kind of like it's
an obvious mutation, but it's not giving you this extraordinary power.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
It's just she's a normal girl.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Well, she is not winning this battle because she is
scratching the ground trying to escape, and just like a
scene from a horror film, she is gone. She has disappeared.
That monster got her. And click, there is a light
in a window and there is a girl at the
window and she has pigtails and she is looking out
(17:22):
and what happens next.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
Well, I want to say, when I first read this,
without knowing any context, I thought that she was like
a demon and Magic was going to collect them and
put them into limbo. Like that was kind of like,
I'm like, is this what's going on? Is that Magic
is kind of cleaning house because I know she's in Alaska,
on the X team, and so I just want to
say that you set that kind of picture for me.
(17:47):
Is that I was like, oh, maybe this is you know,
some sort of demon girl that is going to put
back into limbo. And she's been in hiding in Juneo,
Alaska and Magic is going to clean house. So that
was that was my first impression. But then we get
a flashback scene or I guess of dream scenario scene
of young Iliana and her brother Colossus sitting on the
(18:09):
lawn of the X mansion in Westchestern, New York. Everything
looks very peaceful, very colorful, very beautiful tones of light.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
You know, she looks so happy. This is her happy place.
Speaker 4 (18:22):
Yeah, and then have one little happy moment.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
I know, poor girl, so much has happened to her anyways.
So she, you know, she's in a dream scenario. Her
brother calls her out basically saying this is a tree,
and she's like, get out of my dream. But of
course what happens is she gets embraced by what we
see on the next page, the dark Child, her other
side of her personality, her other entity that lives inside
(18:48):
of her. And you know, even though if she wants
to live an idyllic life. She cannot because part of
her is half demon, so to speak. I don't know
if I'm saying that correctly, but I feel like that
Dark Child persona is just intrinsically tied to her soul
no matter what, Like I don't think she can never
get rid of it.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
Yeah, I would agree, And I think that's the main
thing with Billianna is right now we're calling out like
she's running from these like darker emotions, like she might
be running from like having to think too much about
like the fall of Krakoa.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Yeah, and I like how, yeah you call out that
she you know, divorced herself from Limbo, she gave away
all the power to Malan Pryor, and so with that,
she was just like, hopefully that side goes away, but
obviously it doesn't. And we get this gory splash page
of all these X Men downed by the Dark Child,
(19:45):
and it's pretty gruesome. I will say, what did you
get to choose which characters? Or did her mom do that?
Speaker 3 (19:53):
Yeah? So it was kind of a collaborative effort.
Speaker 4 (19:55):
Her mom threw in a few but I my main
mention was to make sure that a few members of
her current team and X Men were there, so that's.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
Why you see the extent of course like Cydeclops.
Speaker 4 (20:06):
With her history with him, but her mom also was like, oh,
look to add in a few like of her teammates
from the New Mutants as well. So it was a
fun reveal when it finally came together.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
Yes, I remember this page being revealed early before the
issue came out, and it's very demonic.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
As far as deaths goes. I will have to say
that Kittie has a very creative one because her body
is going through the floor halfway and that you know,
this whole thing is very very gruesome.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
Yeah, I know, of course Cyd Collops right.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
Oh, I know, he's probably got it the worst. He's
charred to a I.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
Think Beast got at the worst the enhalement through the chest.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
Oh yeah, but that's the instant Cyclops got like burned
to death, and you know you have more of an
opportunity to feel it to or before the dying.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
Wow, well we learned. It's a nightmare and she wakes
up with a huff, huff, a pant pant as we
see in so many movies of just jolting to life,
and I guess this is something that has been going
on for a couple of nights. She's been having the
same dream.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Wait, I don't have my peepers on. Look at her
frame on the windowsill. I want to know who is
she hugging with Colossus.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
It's kid Ah.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
Okay, I see, and that's the new Mutants team next
to them. I'm not reading a digital copy, so I
cannot asume, but I definitely see that. I love that
she has pictures like that because it does show a
softer side, because if she just was pure, you know, warrior,
she wouldn't have memorabilia in her bedroom.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Well, like a true badass, I'm sorry. And like a
true bad ass. She's also wearing a Magnito's Right T shirt.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
Yeah, I'm glad people picked up on that. I really
wanted to include that T shirt.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
That was my one ask perfect. Well, and he's on
that team too, or he's up in Alaska with them,
so you know.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
Yeah. And then also just the fact that like Quentin
might just be like, oh I'm sick of my T
shirts an Eli on it's like okay, sure I'll grab
a T shirt like whatnot?
Speaker 1 (22:21):
You know, Yeah, that's awesome now, I'm what I want
to draw attention to because I'm very curious has Marvel
retconned the spelling of dark Child, because I know it
used to be spelt with a y, and now I
see it spelt with an eye, and so I just
was curious if that is now like the overall like
that's what we're calling dark Child.
Speaker 3 (22:42):
Yeah, it is, at least for this run.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
Okay, yeah, yeah it was. It was an interesting editorial choice.
I thought, well, she's up early, still dark outside, she's
got her uniform on, she's ready to go to work.
But what happens when she goes into the kitchen slash
w rec room but a Chris.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
Surprise, Happy birthday. Oh my gosh. And something I know
from playing Marvel Midnight Suns is that Illiana does not
appreciate a birthday party. No or surprise is no, this
is the worst thing to ever happen.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
Oh it's good. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Why did you choose to have the opening issue feature
this traumatic moment?
Speaker 4 (23:35):
Well, because I think as like just an overall state
of Illiana's headspace right now. It's she's in this weird
in between where in Kirkoa she was allowed to open
up and like maybe soften herself up a bit, but
then in doing so, kir CoA fell and maybe like
softening herself up didn't lead to a direct impact on
(23:58):
Kirka's actual fault, but in her head, she's like, oh,
I did this.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
I was supposed to protect her Coha.
Speaker 4 (24:05):
Therefore I need to harden myself back up again. So
it's this almost like Candle saying, oh, here here's this gift.
This is what you want.
Speaker 3 (24:16):
You want a family, you want to be with your friends.
Speaker 4 (24:20):
And it's just like on a silver platter handed to her,
but internally she can't accept that because she doesn't think
that she should accept it. So we thought a birthday
was like a great way to symbolize coming into a
new stage in life.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
Well, I do like that Juggernaut is the one with
the cake or pancakes in this situation because they have
this kind of bond in Jed McKay's X Men. So
it's just really sweet to see those two bruisers, you know,
form up.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
Juggernaut is so giant, and you know, the pancake platter
looks steeny tiny in his hand and it looks super.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
Cute, and Quentin of course wants her to wear the
birthday hat at least come on and just put out
for us. And she will not have it because there
are mutants that are disappearing in their backyard. And she's like,
we've got work to do.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
Don't you see what's going on on the television and
what the people are saying right now, And Quintin's all like,
but they just popped up on the screen right now
this moment. Can't you just have a birthday?
Speaker 1 (25:28):
Come on?
Speaker 3 (25:30):
My favorite it's lucky. I popped up on the screen
that moment, and she's just pulling off.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
Yeah, And I like Quentin's line where he says, cyclops,
you can't be serious. What about team bonding?
Speaker 2 (25:41):
That's your shit or that's your explitive Let her go.
It's not the first time that Leanna has fled to
be alone, and it won't be the last.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
Oh and then we go to a funeral. And what's
interesting is that the portrait of the girl is a
human girl. But I thought it was like a reptile
girl that died.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
Yeah, so it's the same girl.
Speaker 4 (26:10):
It's just that her hands are the only thing that
indicates that she's immune.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
Ah, okay, got it. I was a little I was
a little confused in the moment, but I do see
that now and what's happening outside, of course, is heartbreaking
to see all these protesters defacing the funeral building and
all of this kind of almost violence happening because there
is a mutant funeral happening. You know, this of course
(26:38):
goes all into the allergy of X men reflecting civil rights,
queer rights, et cetera. You know, like there's been mobs
that have attacked various institutions for supporting gay marriage or whatever.
So this always hits home when we see these kind
of protesters. I'm going to give a little Easter egg
shout out because I didn't notice this until the second reading.
(27:00):
But as this is happening and her friend Wren is
afraid for herself because she is also a mutant and
this is her mutant friend that died. But we see
in the foreground as they're talking, this elderly woman sketching
ruins in green glowy power on the table. I miss
this one hundred percent the first time. Well, when she
(27:21):
appears later in the issue, I was like, who is
this lady? But then I'm like, oh, she was kind
of like sprinkled in.
Speaker 3 (27:27):
Yeah, iess it's always there.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
Is she a character that has been in Jedd McKay's
X books, or is she introduced in this one?
Speaker 3 (27:37):
She's introduced him this one?
Speaker 1 (27:38):
Oh okay. I was like, I gotta go back and see.
Maybe she's part of the whole Alaska, you know, like town,
and I just missed her. But yeah, we hear some
commotion outside and what do we see?
Speaker 2 (27:49):
Chris Well Magic steps through the portal out into the
front lawn and she confronts the crowd of protesters. One
of the protes comes up to her and says, another one,
you'll get out of town if you know what's good
for you. But Ileana, She takes her finger and points
right at his forehead, and she says, you might want
(28:13):
to back up a bit. So now stuff is about
to go down. What happens next, Ashley.
Speaker 3 (28:25):
Well, she might not be a demon, but there are
some demons that are coming to attack this mutant funeral.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
Now we did she summon these demons or did they
just appear coincidentally?
Speaker 4 (28:38):
They just appeared coincidentally, So she says, strange, who would
summon demons to Juneo? So they're coming to attack this
funeral home that just happens to house a bunch of
mutants at the moment within this funeral home.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
Ah. Yes, and this line is my favorite. Could you
please give us a magic reading of what she said
as in the next couple of in the next couple
of panels.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
Sure, I'll try my best. Now, would you like my
help or should I get lost? I'm fine with either.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
Yes, because she gives this menacing look and she's like, listen,
I don't care if you live or die, but if
you want my help, I'll help you because I'm an
X man. She gets her soul sword and she gets
to rocking and rolling, and then she does her big
Marvel Rivals move of swinging her sword into a big circle.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
No, I love that. That's a thing. And then she
does something that is truly horrifying for these crowds of protesters.
She summons a portal to get them to safety by
the way. So she's being, you know, very helpful here.
But you know, in order to do that, they have
to go through limbo and get a peek at Hell
(29:55):
or a hell dementia if.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
You were did they pop out by the way, So
they went down into the ground, But where did where
does she spit them out.
Speaker 4 (30:02):
Somewhere to say, okay from the funeral home. Yeah, I'm
glad people picked up on that. I just thought would
be really funny because I'm like, oh, well, Eleana has
to help these people because she's an X men she
wants to help others, but she's just been like attacked
and accosted by these folks. So she's like, oh, well,
you might as well see what like an actual hell
(30:22):
dimension looks like.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
And in the art, what I love is that in
the first panel she's so determined, she's all like, I'm
going to get them to safety, but the second panel
she is reveling in the fact that they're in limbo
and they have to look at Hell. She loves it.
She has this ooh, this smirk that is full of joy.
Speaker 3 (30:43):
Yeah, I love her little gremlin smirk. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
Oh that's perfect. Yes, it's a gremlin smirk. And one
of the protesters realizes that the demons are after mutants,
so he grabs this poor mutant girl round with the
pigtails and hurls her at the demons, and then the
demon grabs Wren and starts taking off, but of course
Magic is there to stop them, or at least, you know,
(31:08):
plow them into one of her stepping discs to teleport
them to safety. But she actually teleports them to the
graveyard and Agnes is there again. I didn't notice her
until the second read through, and I was like, Oh,
that's that lady, And she says it's begun. We can't
let it take her. Now, I'm so excited to get
(31:29):
into the next couple of pages because I need to
know more about this family. The seals I know will
be revealed in this. I don't want any spoilers, but
I feel like I need, I need some more information.
So they end up in the graveyard and she has
saved the girl Wren for now I don't know. I
guess the demon that she trampled over she must have. Oh,
(31:50):
she got sword right through his chest. I see that.
Now he's done. And there is another boy who is sobbing,
and she's like, oh my gosh, well I'm to help
you too, And then we realize that he does not
need any help. He's the bait. Now we get a
new character introduction tell us about this guy.
Speaker 3 (32:11):
Yeah, so this is.
Speaker 4 (32:12):
The crow demon designed by Peach Momoko, who is just
utterly amazing at character design. Yeah, it was super fun
to design him with her, just because essentially I got
to provide a mood board with some images about the
overall vibe and aesthetic that I wanted him to look like,
and then Peach just blew it off like out of
(32:32):
the park. So we have a demonic gun slinger.
Speaker 3 (32:36):
With a demonic gun with a cool power set that
will be revealed the next few pages. But yeah, I
really wanted I.
Speaker 4 (32:48):
Was like, oh, what's like best to bring to like
a sword fight and it's like a gun, So who comes.
Speaker 3 (32:54):
Out on top?
Speaker 2 (32:58):
Well, I love the design on this, all the feathers
in the pump and circumstance of it all. I want
to know with the feet or are those boots or
those his feet?
Speaker 3 (33:10):
I think those are his feet, That's how I interpret it.
Speaker 2 (33:14):
Yeah, and something I really love is this hat because
it looks wispy and wicket. The brim of it is feathery,
and yeah, everything on this is just gorgeous and I
want to contemplate this at one point in life.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
So what I'm gathering from this, and you can help clarify,
is that he is not in any sort of you
know seal or you know he has free movement. He
is a crow demon that is out and about in
the world, and he has come to this moment because
he's trying to free his master or whatever, the larger
demon that is at stake, and in order to do that,
(33:54):
he needs mutant blood in order to break the seal.
Speaker 3 (33:59):
Yeah, that's her. So.
Speaker 4 (34:01):
I mean, like you saw with the money the Mute
from page one, he's been camping out in June like
Juno with his demon underlings to grab munes to sacrifice
to the seal to hopefully build up enough power to
break it and free as master.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
With magic getting shot so many times, I'm just curious,
what is your interpretation of her healing factor so to speak?
How is she surviving so many or is they just
magic bullets slash wounds and not true fatal wounds.
Speaker 3 (34:36):
Yeah, so I think it's a magical attack.
Speaker 4 (34:38):
But I like you can see kind of midway down
the page she's using her magic to essentially cauterize her
wounds as they're happening, So she's lighting her hand on
fire and trying to stem the bleeding that way.
Speaker 1 (34:55):
Yes, Yes, she is such a warrior and we know
of her time in limbo. Of course she can survive
basically anything I feel. And then we get the introduction
of Agnes and her grandson. I mean they're introduced in
panels prior, but this is like their true moment. This
is like, oh, these people matter. We learn about this
(35:16):
family history and they're in charge of keeping these seals
to keep out a larger demon at play. Now this family,
is this a Marvel like chain, Like, is this a
family tree that we should be known about or is
this a new kind of like a whole new family
(35:38):
of magicians in the Marvel universe.
Speaker 4 (35:41):
Yeah, this is a completely new family of mages and
it's all little sub section of the Marvel universe.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
Oh that's exciting. I need the family tree whenever it
comes out. So I'm curious where there, you know, magical
power stem from? Where did they learn it? You know,
how does it get passed down? Is it the book
that we'll see later or is it inherent in their blood?
I'm just now I'm ready for the Bible because I'm
I'm a big fan of Marvel magic users, Doctor Strange,
(36:09):
you know whoever. I love it all. So now I'm
very invested in this family. Do they have like a
family name or do we just have their first name?
Speaker 3 (36:18):
Are their last names?
Speaker 1 (36:19):
Isaacs Isaacs Isaacs writing it down, that's revealed.
Speaker 4 (36:24):
And like I think the seconds last page, but yeah,
Agnes Isaacs and then cal Isaacs.
Speaker 1 (36:31):
Well, it's really fascinating in these kind of couple panels
because one you see Agnes drawn up magic shields. She
is trying to repair the seal that was damaged due
to mutant blood and all the time the crow demon
is causing chaos and of course trying to go after
poor Wren in the pigtails.
Speaker 2 (36:52):
And Wren is going to fight back. She is going
to fight for her life, and she screams, no, stay back,
and he is just ha ha ha haha laughing. But
she gives this giant street and out of her mouth,
kind of like Banshee. Here she is screaming at him,
trying to disintegrate him, but it does not work. He
(37:13):
is standing tall. He grabs her by the face. There's
blood spurting out of the hand and the face. It
is horror, it is scary, and he says, my turn.
And this is truly a horror movie scene again here
in this issue, because he kills her, and it's very brutal,
(37:36):
and it's on the seal and there's a lot of
blood and guess what, you guys, just in case you
all forgot, that's exactly what they need to open the seal.
So now the mission has been accomplished by this villain.
Speaker 1 (37:52):
Yes, but magic is starting to embody the dark Child.
We see her literal devil over her shoulder, talking to her,
just saying like, let me in, let me take over,
let me let me you know, manifest so to speak, and.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
We actually, do you want to give us a line
reading of Dark Child?
Speaker 1 (38:11):
Here?
Speaker 3 (38:13):
Oh? Sure, I'll try.
Speaker 4 (38:15):
Okay, poor pathetic Iliana was holding us back? Worth it
for your silly little morals?
Speaker 3 (38:22):
What will you do now? Who else will you let die?
Speaker 1 (38:27):
Now? When when this crow demon fires his gun and
he says his magic spell words, I hear it so well,
like the letterer did such a great job, because it's
in my head. It's like this echoy deep voiced, kind
of like magical.
Speaker 2 (38:46):
Word explode.
Speaker 1 (38:50):
Something like this. Yes, I don't know how to describe it.
I feel like I would need to just experiment in
a vocal texture machine and and get it out. But
but I do love the lettering technique because it definitely
makes me feel like something is happening. And we see that,
you know, Ileana and most characters, of course, they have
(39:11):
white word bubbles with black letters. This is just kind
of tradition. But now after dark Child has spoken to
her she got shot again, we see that her word
bubble has turned red when she says the word die,
so her eyes are glowing red, her word bubbles red.
I think the Dark Child is coming through, you would
(39:34):
be right. Agnes is busy repairing the seal. She's the
grandson is like, what's going on. I don't know anything
about this. He's been kept in the dark, and she's
just like, get in. What does she want out of
her bag?
Speaker 2 (39:48):
He's like, oh, she wants the green plant in the
front pocket. But it's called that's.
Speaker 3 (39:55):
An actual plant that exists if you google.
Speaker 4 (39:59):
It means like it has healing properties, et cetera.
Speaker 1 (40:02):
So and so the son or the grandson is trying
to help out and he is like, well, you know
what about her? She's helping us, and we learn that
she's like, you cannot trust the dark Child. So the
dark Child means that this is a demon slash character
of Lord that this family is very well versed on,
(40:24):
and like the Scarlet Witch and like other characters in
the Marvel pantheon, the Dark Child is inevitable. Is a
character or is a demon that I think always exists
in my opinion, I don't know if I'm stretching here.
Speaker 3 (40:40):
Yeah, I mean I would say so, I guess.
Speaker 4 (40:42):
Also mentions that the group she's a part of is
tasked with preventing the apocalypses that.
Speaker 3 (40:48):
Are trying to plague the world and Earth.
Speaker 4 (40:50):
And so it's obvious that she draws some connection to
the apocalypses plaguing the world with the Dark Child, which
we have seen in past with Marvel, and how the
Dark Child comes up to play in the New Munes.
Speaker 1 (41:09):
Well, Billianna is getting more and more demonic. She is
fighting this crow. He is fighting back with all sorts
of magic bullets. She's getting shot more and more, and
Agnes is just like, you idiot, you have magical powers,
and she's like, oh, fullap.
Speaker 4 (41:27):
Sometimes you just need a grandma to tell you what's
like actually going on.
Speaker 1 (41:34):
And the thing that I didn't notice again until second reading,
is that she costs the spell of Silence because obviously,
all of his magic is vocalized and makes that's what
tells the bullets what to do. But in order to
cast a spell, she has to use her own blood,
which she flings droplets of blood that he has caused
her to bleed, and then through the magic of the
(41:55):
blood binding spell, she is able to silence him and
he's not able to speak his spells. And I thought
that was super clever, And again I didn't notice it
until the second round because I was like, obviously, there's
so much action, so much going on. Sometimes it's great
to do second readings of comics because you just pick
out all those little details.
Speaker 3 (42:15):
Yeah. No, I was really proud of that scene.
Speaker 4 (42:17):
It was really fun to do because I think a
big thing about this series that we wanted to make
sure didn't happen is we didn't want magic to be
all powerful, both the character but then also magic itself,
Like we want everything to feel like it has a cost,
Like you can't just have a get out of jail
(42:39):
free card.
Speaker 2 (42:42):
H Well, we next go to something that is fun,
a little dropping of a moment called X mentions, where
we get a preview of things to come in the
Marvel universe. But I want to scroll all the way
down past the checklist, past all of the descriptions of
the cool things, coming up to the question of the month,
(43:03):
and we'll just speed read this real quick because there's
quite a few answers from the creative team of the
x ME universe. The question is who is the most
underappreciated character in the extended X Men family? And who
do you love that everybody else ignores? So you know,
we'll go one at a time and just read this
(43:24):
real quick. So Joe Casey says, Stacy X insert your
own joke here.
Speaker 1 (43:28):
Chris Cross says Madricks and Havoc. These guys are rarely
seen or ever truly fleshed out. I think I just
found the best mutant buddy comic the world needs to see,
the mutant Myrtog and Riggs.
Speaker 4 (43:42):
Yeah, And Gail Simon says, I always thought Hilaris would
be a lot bigger if the other mutants weren't all
jealous of her fabulous hair.
Speaker 2 (43:51):
Javier Garon says, shout a star. Come on, he shouted
a star. Awkward pause in the room, No did he?
Speaker 1 (43:59):
He?
Speaker 2 (44:00):
Isn't that the reason you got that name? Why are
you all looking at me like that.
Speaker 1 (44:06):
David Marquez says, up until Air of Apocalypse, I would
have said Cipher, but it seems there are already some
plans in the works, although depending on how that goes,
I have a couple of ideas.
Speaker 3 (44:18):
And Martin Bureau says murmur She's French Canadian, she's flirtatious, mysterious,
and she'll control your mind.
Speaker 2 (44:26):
On Elise Visas says Hie Boy, he sees everything and
he deserves to be seen more by us.
Speaker 1 (44:33):
And Tom Breevort says, I have a strange liking for Pixie,
so much so that it's kind of strange that she
hasn't shown up yet, and also dating back to my
New Warriors' days, Justice very interesting.
Speaker 2 (44:47):
So, Ashley, I want to know from you who is
the most underappreciated character in the extended X Men family.
Speaker 4 (44:55):
That's so hard because I think the issue is I
will say, oh, I think this character is underappreciated. But
I think the beautiful thing about like the X Men
fandom is you'll say that and then there's like a
thousand people who will come out of the trenches and
be like, no, that's my favorite. So I always say
(45:16):
that about Danny and I know she's been in a lot,
but like I love Danny, Moonstar and Mirage, so I
would always love to see her in more things. But
I think I have to agree with Annalise. I think
Eyboy deserves to be seen more by us.
Speaker 3 (45:32):
How about you guys?
Speaker 2 (45:33):
Oh my god, I want to say Glob herman. I
just I love Glob so much. She brings a smile
to my face.
Speaker 1 (45:41):
Well, oh gosh, I'm gonna say Lila Chenney just because
you know, she is an awesome musician. I know she
has very limited galactic teleportation powers, but I don't know.
I always loved when she would come into the X books,
and so I just feel like I would love to
see more of her.
Speaker 2 (46:00):
All right, now back to the issue. Well, we're still
in this face off, but it is getting a little
bit more horrific, more scary, more slice and dice and
why Chandler.
Speaker 1 (46:13):
Well, we see that magic is you know, like this
awesome warrior. You know she is able to neutralize the threat.
She's able to disarm him by cutting off his arm,
dropping the gun and kind of pushing him away with her.
There's some sort of whirlwind of blood, slash energy, going on,
(46:34):
and he is able to somehow regenerate his arm or
develop a new gun, and he is or is that
his teleportation? Sorry, maybe Ashley, you can jump in and
explain what's happening.
Speaker 4 (46:46):
Yeah, so if you see it, she chops off his arm,
but then mid air, as his arm that's holding his
gun falls to the ground, he reaches out with his
other hand to grab the gun for me. So you
can see it in the last panel that this crow
is without an arm the rest of the story.
Speaker 2 (47:05):
So he doesn't have any regenitive powers then, so he
is armless forever.
Speaker 4 (47:12):
Yes, unless some magical means happened, but yes, he's armless
this boss.
Speaker 1 (47:19):
Yes, yeah, he fires some so the magic spell is gone,
the silent spell is gone, he's able to speak again.
He fires another burst shot and he takes out Agnes
the grandmother in the back, and he is finished. He's
so tired of these games. He says like, I'm tired
of this family trying to keep my boss down. And
(47:42):
he's just like, let's get rid of these seals so
we can bring out Limonol. We haven't seen yet, but
we know that that is a big threat. So is
limonall a true demon. Is this someone as should google?
Speaker 4 (47:54):
I don't Well, no spoilers, but I can say he
has not been seen in Marvel up to this moment,
so he is a new villain, completely new to our series.
Speaker 1 (48:05):
Mm ooh. I would just point out that the word lemonal,
what it means is occupying a position at or on
both sides a boundary or threshold.
Speaker 3 (48:16):
Oo. I wonder how that could affect the story in
any way.
Speaker 1 (48:21):
I'm very curious. Yeah, I cannot google what limon all
meant until now. So yes, try to pick apart every
little detail, and you know, information you drop. But so
the seal is broken. We see this black energy and
somewhat claw like stuff and a lot of pink lightning,
and there's some bad shit happening.
Speaker 2 (48:43):
Oh yeah, so many tandrils and Magic is getting cal
to safety and also the dead body of poor Agnes
and they're outside of the seal area. And what does
Magic do. She puts up a force filled and with
it's almost kind of like an electrical buzz here with
a crackle. You see all this like blue energy kind
(49:04):
of enveloping the broken seal and all of that energy
that's coming out of it. But unfortunately, Magic isn't going
to be able to hold this forever. It is heavy
on her shoulders, and her strength to hold this together
is going to follow her eventually. And she knows this.
Speaker 1 (49:22):
She has neutralized what she could. She goes to console
Cal and he is devastated that his grandmother has died.
But he discovers a book that has all the family
secrets and magic, and he has decided to take up
the mantle of the family tree and do whatever he
(49:43):
can to use these family secrets to protect the town.
Speaker 2 (49:47):
Oh is that grandma's purse, because if it is, she's
got great fashion.
Speaker 3 (49:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (49:51):
I was going to draw attention to that is I
just truly adore how it is.
Speaker 3 (49:56):
His grandmother's purse. But now he just has with him,
I think too.
Speaker 4 (50:01):
An important part about this is I feel like Cal
immediately sees this and is kind of like Magic in
a way where they're both Okay, let's spring into action.
Let's avoid these like more negative feelings instead of saying,
oh this like I just lost my best friend, I
(50:21):
lost my grandmother. Let me take on this mantil, let
me do something, let me figure out what's going on.
But as you can see, In the next page, Magic
also has that type of personality, but in childhood she
wasn't allowed to make that choice.
Speaker 3 (50:39):
It was made for her. So she can see that Cal,
this like fourteen year old boy, is making this choice,
but in reality it's not really a choice at all.
It's a kid out of his steps and he really
whereas Magic kind of wants to avoid this part of herself.
Speaker 4 (50:55):
Cal's throwing himself in head first, and so that's going
to cause them to.
Speaker 3 (50:59):
But some heads.
Speaker 1 (51:02):
And we see a page fall from the purse and
land on the ground as they walk away. And on
the very last page of the comic, we have a
splash page and we see Dark Child unleashed, and it
is obviously an artistic rendition of Ileana as a dark
child with her wings out and looking demonic, floating over
(51:24):
a pool of blood or a sea of blood. Actually
that's covering an entire city full of corpses. And we
get some spooky black text that's speaking, which I imagine
is Lemon All Chris, do you want to read what
that says?
Speaker 2 (51:36):
The Dark Child? So that's her name? How interesting? Will
she pose a threat or become a gift? No matter?
Will have fun neither way. I just gotta say, like,
I thought this was a tarot card at first, and
I love Taro, But looking at this, it would make
(51:58):
a perfect album the cover for a heavy metal band.
Am I right? If you want to listen to this
album Dark Child Unleashed.
Speaker 3 (52:08):
I mean, Magic is I think the most metal X
men of them all, so that would track.
Speaker 1 (52:13):
Oh and then I see they're off to Tokyo for
the next issue. Next Magic's hunt for Limon All Seals
takes her and Cal deep into the Tokyo underground. But
who is watching Ileana from backstage and has Cal teamed
up with Earth's best chance against the demon invasion or
its prophesized leader. Let's see.
Speaker 3 (52:37):
I just have to say, whoever writes those little blurbs
at Marvel does an amazing job.
Speaker 4 (52:41):
I'm like, wow, that's such a good way to summarize.
Speaker 1 (52:46):
Well cool. Well, thank you so much for joining us
on the show. This was really fun to kind of
dig into this issue, dig into Magic, learn more about
you and your writing style and all that sort of stuff.
Speaker 2 (52:56):
What was your favorite part of the issue, Chandler.
Speaker 1 (52:59):
My favorite heart was her casting the Silent Spell. I
thought that was really cool. I remember in that moment,
I was like, oh, yes, magic, let's do it. Magic
is doing magic.
Speaker 2 (53:08):
Oh yeah. And I gotta say, I think the limbo
moment where she throws the crowd into limbo and they
have to take a glimpse into the hellscape of limbo,
that that was just her smile. It made me giddy.
What about you, Ashley, what was your favorite moment of
the issue.
Speaker 3 (53:26):
I mean, I have to say all of it, but
I think the birthday party holds a special place in
my heart. Just maybe early on it. We'll put on
the hat next time. We'll see round two.
Speaker 1 (53:39):
Wonderful.
Speaker 2 (53:39):
Well again, thank you so much for joining us, Ashley.
This has been truly a delight. I am so excited
for everybody that is listening right now. You need to
go and pick up this issue in the com book stores.
It'll be out on newsstands when this episode releases. Am
I right it's out?
Speaker 1 (53:58):
Yeah? Well it's sold out, so gotta wait for this
I can pull down and it's so popular.
Speaker 3 (54:03):
Thank you all for supporting.
Speaker 4 (54:05):
It's crazy that we're on our second printing, so I mean,
I'm awestruck.
Speaker 1 (54:10):
So thinks if I recall you sold more than unkinny
x men.
Speaker 4 (54:17):
Yeah, that's crazy, and I think that also has to
do with just I mean, Marvel Rivals coming out at
the perfect time. I think more people that were like,
who is this woman with a big sword can teleport everywhere?
So I think it's really fun to see people who
may not be into comics going out to their local
comic book story to pick up these first issues to
(54:37):
see like who these characters actually are.
Speaker 3 (54:39):
I think that's so fun.
Speaker 1 (54:41):
Mm hmmm, yeah, well, congratulations again. Can't wait to read
more of the story. This is an ongoing series, everybody,
because it frequently gets called a mini series, but it
is an ongoing series, so hopefully it gets to go
on and on and on and on.
Speaker 3 (54:57):
Yeah. I hope we have more stories to tell.
Speaker 1 (55:00):
So well, great, Well again, thank you so much. We
look forward to seeing you at the Uncanny Experience in
July twelve and thirteenth, and hopefully we can have you
back on the show when we have more Magic issues
out and we can talk about Yeah, I would love that.
Speaker 3 (55:17):
Thanks for having me excited for Uncanny.
Speaker 1 (55:20):
Now it's time for the Uncanny News News News News,
get Ready VIP and Omega ticket Holder Sunday Lorne.
Speaker 2 (55:29):
And at nine thirty am, step into the student hall
for an unforgettable VIP breakfast with X Men Evolution.
Speaker 1 (55:38):
Joining us are the incredible talents behind the iconic series.
We have Stephen E. Gordon, the director and character designer,
Megan Black, the voice of Rogue, and Maggie Blue O'Hara,
the voice of Kitty Pride aka's Shadowcat.
Speaker 2 (55:51):
And that's not all. Fan favorite X Men Evolution characters
will be roaming the room ready to mix, mingle and
take photos with you. This is your exclusive chance to
chat with the stars, capture amazing memories, and kick off
your Sunday with Mutant powered energy.
Speaker 1 (56:05):
This event is exclusive to VIP and Omega ticket holders,
so don't miss out on this epic experience.
Speaker 2 (56:12):
We have something brand new and exciting at the Uncanny
Experience for our junior year and that is a fact
that we have a guidance counselor on the campus. That's right.
As a student at at Xavier Institute, it's time to
answer the big question, which Mutant team is your perfect fit.
During your session with the school's guidance Counselor, your unique
(56:34):
abilities will be evaluated to determine where you truly belong.
Speaker 1 (56:38):
Will you join the legendary X Men, the covert X Force,
the daring Excalibur, or even a more unexpected team with
countless possibilities. Your mutant destiny is waiting to be revealed.
Speaker 2 (56:50):
Sessions are limited and will be scheduled exclusively for VIP
and Omega ticket holders, So you got to become a
VIP for your chance to discover the team that's called
your name.
Speaker 1 (57:01):
Everybody your mutant identity awaits, but it's only for VIPs
and omegas. The gates of Xavier Institute are opening, and
as a VIP ticket holder, you'll officially join its ranks
with your very own custom student ID card at badge
that's as unique as your mutant du name.
Speaker 2 (57:17):
All right, here's what makes it special. You got your
mutant name on it that your alias in the world
of Xavier Institute, chosen to reflect your true mutant essence.
Has your power, whether it's controlling the elements or telepathic prowess.
Your ability will be front and center on this ID
and it shows your ticket level, so it'll show if
(57:38):
you're either a VIP or the elite Omega.
Speaker 1 (57:42):
Yes, carry your Xavier ID with pride. It's not just
a keepsake. It's your connection to the Mutant legacy. Use
it to explore the Mansion, strike your best superhero poses
and maybe even unlocked perks along the way.
Speaker 2 (57:55):
And remember this is exclusive to VIP ticket holders. This
idea is more a card. It's a symbol that you're
one of the gifted.
Speaker 1 (58:03):
Indeed, all right, let's break down all the VIP perks
so everybody knows what they're getting when they become a
VIP student at the Unking Experience.
Speaker 2 (58:11):
Wait, there's more, there's more, all right.
Speaker 1 (58:15):
Your VIP ticket gets you guaranteed access to the hell
Fire Club. You can enter the inner sanctum of mutant
opulence with exclusive entry to this elite experience.
Speaker 2 (58:26):
Yes, and the VIP badges also grant you free admission,
which is one hundred dollars value y'all to the Saturday
after party in the Mansion. This epic event features mutant
powered entertainment with DJ Neon Horror. There's a show stopping
drag show, there's karaoke, there's a D and D tournament.
(58:47):
There is just NonStop entertainment all night everywhere.
Speaker 1 (58:51):
At Also, you get priority meet and greet lions, so
you have less waiting and more time meeting your favorite
stars and creators.
Speaker 2 (58:59):
Yep, there's a dedicated VIP entrance so you have a
fast track to the registration and security line. You're going
to be the first person to step foot in the
mansion every day, ensuring that you're ahead of the crowd
and you're ready to dive into the action.
Speaker 1 (59:14):
Yes, and with this you get early admission on top
of that, so you can also get above the crowds
and before general admission by getting in even earlier.
Speaker 2 (59:23):
Yeah, there's also a merchandise discount, so you can save
on Uncanny Experienced collectibles and gear to commemorate your weekend.
Speaker 1 (59:29):
VIP tickets of course, grant access to the event for
both days, Saturday and Sunday, ensuring you don't miss a
moment of the excitements. These tickets are limited and in
high demands of snag yours before they're gone.
Speaker 2 (59:40):
Be sure to visit Theoncannyexperience dot com and enroll in
at Xavier Institute.
Speaker 1 (59:45):
Today See there Mutants.
Speaker 2 (59:47):
X Reads is recorded in the United States.
Speaker 1 (59:49):
Our theme music is written by Austin Wintry.
Speaker 2 (59:52):
Please make sure to follow our podcast to be updated
on when new Episodes appear every first and third Wednesdays
of the month.
Speaker 1 (59:58):
Follow us on social media at x RES podcast That's
the Letter, x R a DS podcast on Twitter, Instagram,
and Facebook.
Speaker 2 (01:00:05):
Thanks so much for listening.
Speaker 1 (01:00:06):
Bye.
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