Muse

Welcome to Raging Bullets, a comics fan podcast, Season 2, Episode 771.

Sean and Jim are back again, talking comic books with all their friends. They'll spoil a story and break it down. These two guys talking comics are the best around. Raging Bullets, the podcast show.

Raging Bullets, the podcast show.

Welcome to Raging Bullets. I'm Sean Whalen, Dr. Norridge. I'm joined as always by my co-host Jim, the sensei of the whatnot. The Duke of, you know, the Sultan of Strategery, the Minister of More Gooder, the star of the hit crossover series, Sensei and Forget-Me-Not, soon to be collected in Marvel's new Life-Size Prestige format, and of course, the elder statesman of the podcast, Segulin. How's it going, eh? Jim, on this episode, we're going to be doing part two of our look at X-Man Hunt. We're going to be covering issues Storm No. 6, X-Men 13, and X-Factor No. 8, which is actually the Legacy 300, so a special anniversary issue. We're sponsored as always by DCBService and InStockTrades.com. Mr. Segulin, what's going on over at DCBService.com?

Well, remember, DCBS is not just a great place to get some awesome deals on comics. They've got apparel. They've got statues. They've got action figures. They've got various games, and you name it, in the different comic geeky kind of, you know, mindset that we all love, they have it for you. So thank you, DCBS.

Over at InStockTrades.com, I just did a search for X-Men, and I just figured for giggles, let's take a look at some of the epic collections that are out there. So they have the X-Men Epic Collection Trade Paperback Volume 19, Mutant Genesis. This is $44. Regularly, it's 38% off, only $28.79. For that same price point, they have X-Men Epic Collection Trade Paperback Volume 9, The Brood Saga. This is the original Brood Saga. I love this story. X-Men Epic Collection Legacy's Trade Paperback, also at the same price. This is a great chance if you want to collect some of these stories into collected editions to take advantage of the great price point for the epic collections. I want to thank DCBService and InStockTrades.com for continuing to support our show. Mr. Seglin, what kind of a podcast are we?

Raging Bullets is a spoiler podcast. We go in-depth into plot lines, story twists, and whatnot of the comics we're discussing on today's show. So if you haven't read the books, you may want to come back later so you can better enjoy the show.

DC High Volume Batman. The Dark Knight's definitive DC comic stories, adapted directly for audio for the very first time. Fear. I have to make them afraid. He's got a motorcycle. Get after him or I'll have you shot. You mean blow up the building. From this moment on, none of you are safe. New episodes every Wednesday, wherever you get your podcasts.

He really grows on you, doesn't he? Our first discussion this episode is going to be of Storm Issue No. 6. The writer is M-U-R-E-W-A-A-Y-O-D-E-L-E. I don't want to butcher that name because I'm absolutely loving the writing on this book. The artist is Luciano Vecchio. Color artists are Alex G-U-I-M-A-R-A-E-S. And Rachel Rosenberg. The letterer is VCs Travis Lanham. The cover artist is Mateus Manahini. The very cover artists are Francesco Mobley, Moreno Dinesio, Peach Momoko, and Phil Noto. I know I butchered names there, and I want to apologize. This book is really fantastic. And this crossover is kind of doing what I really like with crossovers, in the sense that it's a great opportunity to spotlight maybe some of the titles that aren't getting as much notice as they were, because they aren't the team book, or they aren't the lead book. Storm is just a fantastic character. It's funny, when I was growing up, my first exposure to X-Men, Uncanny X-Men, was the Belasco issue, where Ileana was pulled into the demon realm, and came out being much older through that process. And Wolverine, I remember being the draw, you know, at the time. It was just, I was very new to that character. I was of that age where, you know, that character was just... Schnick, schnick. Yeah, that's exactly right. So, I loved the whole team. I loved the whole concept of the team. Nightcrawler was really colorful, you know, and there was the cover, that cover with the hand of Belasco, really drew me into the whole thing. So, I was very, very into Uncanny X-Men from that Singleton issue. I remember, I liked Storm as a leader. I thought it was interesting. We have this female leader, which was not something I was used to seeing on superhero teams. And, I found myself liking her. If you had asked me, you know, is she somebody like, would you eventually vote for Wolverine being leader, or Cyclops coming back, I would have been in that camp until I remember the issue. where Storm and Cyclops fought. And I'm like, wait a minute, I'm rooting for Storm here, which is where I started seeing, you know, a shift in my thinking that I think was just organic along the way because of great writing that I became really invested in her as a character. Flash forward to now where we've got this book and we've got a Storm who's continued to evolve. This is a character who over time, you know, we talk so much about progression of characters. Storm as a character who's had a lot of progression, but none of the progressions ignored her rich history. Who she was, the Storm goddess and all those type of pieces, and still that kid that was the thief and all those pieces that kind of make Storm who she is, is something that I think has been enveloped into this really, really cool book. That's kind of my history with Storm and where I'm at with Storm right now. I'm digging this book. What about you? What's your history with Storm?

Where are you at with this character? Well, again, uncanny X-Men, of course. But it was funny because I've said on the show multiple times that when I was younger, I was an idiot when it came to female superheroes. I didn't, I wouldn't follow or read a superhero book if the female was the lead just because it was a female superhero. Yes, I was an idiot. I admit that. Storm is one of those interesting situations because I started having a really good turnaround with her at the issue where the depowered Storm beats Scott to be the leader of the X-Men. Such a good issue. And I remember very vividly that reading that issue going, oh, this character is kind of cool. You know, and I really, you know, that was like the beginning of the eye opener for me, you know, towards with her as the leader, her running the X-Men, you know, and just who she was. And then as, because before this, I'll be honest with you before this, I thought her powers were cool, but she wasn't anything that I was like, oh my God, this is great. I was like you, I was a Wolvie guy. You know, I was reading the Wolvie solo series. You know, I was, you know, when it, when that came out, I jumped on that thing. Anything that had Wolverine, Wolverine Kitty Pride. I love that. Oh yeah. Mini series, you know, anything that has Wolvie in it, I was reading it. I couldn't, I wouldn't say the same thing about Storm. But again, that issue with her deep power taking Scott down was such a great story and made her look like a really cool badass that I was like, I'm, you know, I'm curious about her. And I, you know, I've always kind of had a, you know, just keeping an eye on her, seeing what she's doing. And we go to the present day. It's funny because I knew she was an Avenger, but I didn't know she had her solo series. And I don't, I may have mentioned this last time. I'm not sure. You did. But I did. Okay. Um, so I picked up the Storm stuff through the app to get ready for this. So I going into, you know, getting ready for, you know, getting ready for talk manhunt. I didn't know there was a solo series. I picked it up and I read it and I was like, Oh, this is awesome. This is great. I was loving it because one, it keeps a lot of that coolness that I liked about Storm, but also takes her up to this Omega level power. And I'm like, we've got a goddess kind of power set going on here. And I loved, loved just seeing Storm really, as you said before, evolve and just the development of this character, who she is, but she still had her core. She still has that coolness that we saw back in Uncanny X-Men all those years ago when she took down, when she was depowered and she took down Scott, you know, to be the leader of the X-Men and prove continually prove that she doesn't need her powers to lead the X-Men. I thought that was a neat that we still maintain that cool factor behind Storm, but we're adding to it with all this power and the tech she's

got available to her. Did you read, uh, back in the day, you mentioned the Kitty Pryde and Wolverine miniseries, the Wolverine miniseries, you know, that were in there. Did you read the Storm and Illyana miniseries, the magic one, the very first one? Cause that was very good. Um, this one actually might want to seek out on the app. That was, um, the story of what happened during those years where Illyana was trapped in the underworld. Um, so it was, I read that and I think that was part of one, another one of the series that, you know, kind of got me into Storm more. It was, uh, cause I was really fascinated by that whole story. She's a very, very cool character. This book in particular, you know, when you flip the page and you start taking a look at how the story's kicking off, this is a gorgeous book. I just really liked the art. We get to see Storm, she's putting on her armor and Charles is narrating and he's like, they will send men after me. Very bad men. They will be armed to the teeth, um, with weapons made to hurt me and I would deserve it. I broke out of prison, Aurora. And I love how it's this, you know, her getting ready for battle kind of setting up. And I just love the whole battle look of Storm. There's just something just you really impressive about that. It's funny for me, she was Wonder Woman before Wonder Woman, if that makes any sense. I grew up with Wonder Woman. I grew up with the Linda Carter Wonder Woman. I grew up with the Wonder Woman that was on Justice League before Perez took over. I, so it, I didn't look at her as a warrior in the same way I did Storm, if I'm making any sense at all. Then Perez's book hit and he got the, you know, there's kind of like that reboot and re-imagining of the character. And I got a greater, it was really the first time I was reading Wonder Woman solo for a long period of time. So seeing Storm like battle up like this, it's something that I just got really used to her being that character who would do like it. It's not, I'm like saying Storm with an arsenal, like that's so out of character. Nope, this is very Storm. And I really enjoy that part. There's something about this artwork that is really inviting and this idea of this living space of Storm's and just how vast it is and how, you know, how much she's got at her disposal. She and Charles now are on a very different level. They're on this, like, I mean, Charles obviously has always been like, he is the alpha and, you know, he's kind of the leader and those pieces. We're seeing how Storm's evolved in the sense now that she's got like a goddess would, like somebody who was married to Black Panther would, like somebody who's doing what she's doing with the Avengers right now. She's got this, this craft that has this wonderful, like living space inside of it. And she's being the host, but they're having this very, very feeling out conversation where there's definitely love and affection there between the two of them. But there's also this sense of time has passed. A lot has happened between the two of them.

And, you know, in this situation, Storm's kind of feeling out Charles and saying, listen, I called the Avengers and Charles is calling out saying, I know you didn't. And I, I loved that bit between the two of them where she's trying to toe the line of, I am an Avenger, you know, and I'm, I'm in a position of respect. And yet I've also got this affection and affinity for you. And I'm trying to balance those pieces because you saved me. It I'll tell you one of the things I loved about that.

Well, first off, you mentioned the artwork is beautiful. It's beautiful and powerful. Yes. This is a great balance of that. Cause you've got the, where it's the storm sanctuary, but it can also be thundercloud and you get that really cool image of the energy that this, this is a formidable battle station on top of a sanctuary for, you know, creatures and, you know, great and small, but also I loved just the, they were, they were communicating as equals. Yeah. You know, and I think that for me was the neat stuff. Cause you talk about the, you know, where she says, yeah, I called the Avengers and this, and then she lays out why she had to do that, but you see them, she's just preparing. And I love where she finally goes back, Charles, you don't understand 95% of the people who escape in your situation die. I'm preparing for you, your last meal. And I love just that level of where she's at with him, where it's two equals talking. He wasn't talking down to her. She wasn't trying to talk down to him. They were on the same level. And I think that for me is a really neat place because there was never a moment in time when it feels stretched, faked or anything. And 100% felt like this was two people just having a conversation, two equals having a conversation. And I think that for me was the coolness of these two pages, just the comfort they had with each other. And as they're getting ready for the battle, you know, just those moments out this for, for me was like the calm before the storm, pardon the storm,

pardon the pun. Hard not to drop that when it comes to storm, isn't it? It's, it's interesting when she's talking about what's going on here, because she's also referring to the fact that there's no more resurrections anymore. You know, that was a thing for a while there, the dead stay dead. So if I were you, I would get to talking. Why have you really come here? And he's basically sitting there saying, I want to raise the dead one final time. We're seeing here for the first time, Charles admitting his end game. And really with Aurora, this is the first time he's admitted it, right? We've seen him in the previous issues of this be manipulative and using, being an opportunist in order to get himself into the position he's at. I feel this is the first time where we're seeing him drop the mask, relax and be Charles. It's funny. We read Secret Wars very recently where we got to see Charles' relationship with Aurora there, where he was taking the lead. He had to be the FIA leader. And this is, this is a very different conversation between the two. And the level of respect is years.

this is years later they've been through a lot since then and it's interesting to see the difference it's the fun fun part about doing stories that take place in different eras this is an example of progression this conversation is it's something we like so much when we talk about the bat family when we've seen the evolution of them and how we get to see them have this level of conversation much more familiar when you see it with the x-men you don't see it very often with storm and charles and i really like how this piece is playing out so then we flash over to san

francisco and are you familiar with maggot not really i was trying to you know again i've started reading the storm issues but so i've got like five issues of mag of storm red so i'm like that's all my experience i have with maggot at all so i don't know him too well yeah that's the interesting piece with

him is he's a character that came in during again another one of the relaunches in the series where um he was created and um i i've always liked the character um he's another one that i think over time i've started to become like i'm like oh maggot that's cool he's in this and digging what they're doing with him right now um his relationship with storm in this is really good it's it's interesting to see and that's important things with a solo book you need to have a supporting cast you need to have other people that are in there besides just storm otherwise the book's going to get boring pretty darn fast so maggot being a part of this i think is a great addition to it seeing her charles and maggot together this is a pretty impressive squad yeah you know and i'll tell you i loved when the x-men

showed up i did too that for me is a brilliant look you know it was the you know yeah the again i talk about the power of the page flip you got the initial the bottom of the one page is the portals opening you flip the page and there's the team standing there ready to rock and again it was a cool moment between storm and scott you know it was like hey we're taking them with them no you're not you know we don't back down i understand give it your all brother that for me that was a great moment you got the close above the two eyes you got cyclops's eye and then you got the storm with her energy you know the lightning going through there i thought that for me was just a real again a really cool okay it's about to get real now it's about to you know they're about to open up we're

about to see an x fight i really like the swagger of scott's team the reason being we've got two x-men books you've got uncanny and you've got x-men they feel very different from each other in all the right ways oh god of it has to do with the leader and it's something uncanny x-men feels like the uncanny x-men i grew up with if that makes any sense in all the right ways it doesn't feel like a rehash or a redo i don't mean it that way what it means is there is just that flavor that i always liked in claremont's books it sounds like i'm knocking scott's team i'm not i actually applaud the ability to make these books mckay's doing a great job on that book with developing this team as more of a squad more of scott's leadership scott's leadership style and what that team looks like when um they're they're following with the cyclops yeah and it's something that i think really stands out i love the choice of the team magic and juggernaut together seems to be i who thought that those two would be the buddy you know cop situation that i wanted out of this um but it's really really working for me um i really like the lineup i mean it's an interesting sort of lineup and does not feel like hey we've recreated the same squad that we've got over an uncanny just with different players um just to have another x book if that makes sense these books were strategically put together by teams who understand how to make them unique and different whether or not they're all going to work in this process i'm enjoying the variety for myself because i feel like each one of them has a reason to be there versus like oh man i'm reading this book and it's a trudge and none of them feel like that but these two teams these are the flagships right it's going to be x-men and uncanny that are the two flagships i know that sounds like i'm knocking exceptional down exceptional is different and we'll talk about that when we get to talk about exceptional i really love exceptional but these two are the

flagship team books that are in there yes it will you think back to probably 90s or you know when they had all those multiple x books out there and they had the uncanny and another x book they had two x-men teams a and alpha and to the the a and b teams that they had out there and you know and i remember when i was reading that i thought it was cool because one i got more x books to read that's always a plus but i do remember thinking you know going back thinking that the two teams felt very you

you

similar to each other. Yes. You know, and again, I love the book. So I'm never knocking. You'll

you

never hear me knock that time period because that was fun. But this time period, they feel like two

you you you

different teams and in a good way, like you were saying, you know, this X-Men team and Uncanny

you you you

feel like two different teams. Now, as I say, two different teams, they are both X-Men and they will fit their team. They especially fit their leader and the purpose behind the team. You know, Scott's team is more of as he's more of the tactical squad, whereas Uncanny under Rogue is more of that family. She's taking in the young mutants, training them. You know, again, it's kind of keeping the the pureness of Xavier's dream alive going on in Uncanny, whereas the X-Men to me feels like it's the operational team of, hey, we got a problem in the world. Send the X-Men. You're not going to say, you know, you can send the other team, but this is my this is my go to team for, you know, a disaster happening, you know, in an alien invasion or some type of apocalyptic event going on. Yeah. Call the X-Men, not Uncanny. Call this team because that's what this team's good for. You know, they're really good for this. And then when they need backup, they call out to their buddies out in Uncanny to come in for backup on them. And I think that for me is that's how I see these different teams. So I love the fact that it was Scott's team, you know, one, because all the background with Scott, Storm, Scott and the professor. But I do love that it was Scott's team

here that really made the assault. See, here's where I disagree with you. I don't think these are two teams that are calling each other for backup right now. These are two teams that are completely separated. And the reason let me explain where I'm going with this. You were mentioning back in the day when we had the two X-Men squads that were part of the larger like they were part of the same X-Men family. There's like a pyramid, right? Yeah. And they were all part of the same X-Men group. They were led by Xavier. They had the two different squads and they were by design. And you're right. Those were very, very good books. And even though the squads felt similar to each other in their design, it was because this was a cohesive unit that was there and it worked. That was the time it was the status quo of the team. And you wanted to see that put together. So it made a lot of sense. This is different because these, this is a fractured group of mutants. Yes, they're both X-Men teams. And I do think in danger, this is, let me correct some of what I'm saying here. In, if they were in dire danger, yes, they would reach out to each other for backup. I agree with you on that point, but I think they would reluctantly do it because of the, because of the fact that right now they don't care for each other much. And they've got different philosophies, different ways of upgrading. Even in this situation, their interactions with what is going on right now with Charles and how they feel this should be resolved is opposed. And that's something that I think is very, very interesting in this because I don't, it's not just the situation with Charles. It's overall philosophy on operation is very, and direction for mutant kind is very different right now. Yeah. And again, completely

agree with you. This right now, the way these teams are right now, neither one's reaching out to the other one for help. They, they have this, the, the X-Universe is very fractured right now. You know, I'm thinking down the future, you know, down the line, you know, issue 30, issue 40, you know, of the series, you'll get a moment when they, you know, they're, they're backs up against the wall, they call for backup. And as soon as they do a portal opens up and they show up saying, all right, Hey, we may not like these guys, but you throw it down with them. You throw it down with all of us, you know, and you had that, you know, that moment of the X-Universe coming together right now. It's fractured a hundred percent agree with you. I'm just talking in my head, the storyline down the line. I think we're going to see a moment where the X-Family comes together.

The assault on the mansion when that was happening, there was still, there was a little bit of, you know, them backing each other to a certain extent during that whole piece. Um, different, again, different philosophies still going on there, but you saw glimmers of, of that in some of the way that they were operating this, when they start breaking down into a battle here and we get to see, um, this, this team of three versus the X-Men, this is where you really get an idea of just how impressive Storm is. I love Cyclops' strategic planning. He's out there. He's telling Kid Omega right from the get-go, listen, you need to shield us from Xavier. Get that right out there. Juggernaut, maggots, all yours. Psylocke and I will retrieve the Professor and withdraw. The whole breakdown of let's split these people up. Let's...

retrieve the person and get out of there. He's also talking about in the environment we're in right now, she will destroy her base if she fully unleashes here. So let's take advantage of that for the moment. And that whole squad-based decision, the way that rolled out, I liked that they were circling them and they were controlling, working to control the environment. It's just a different way of operating. And I really love seeing that out of Cyclops.

For me, one of the great tests and just signs of a great writer, great artist, are how you handle the chaos and the beauty and the pageantry that is battle. Yes. And right here, we are seeing a brilliant job of the story being told, the art layout, how they're handling this, multiple tier fronts, how, you know, the motion and just the sheer raw power we're seeing out of Scott, out of Storm, out of all of them. I love how this looks. I love how this feels. I love the story being told here. This really is one of those things where a page, you know, this flat page comes to life. You know, we both love movies. We both love cartoons. Just because you get that, you do get another level of it. But this art team, this story crafting really captured that motion, really captured that energy that we would get from an animated series or that we would get some cool live action scenes. We're like, whoa, when you're in the movie theater and you'd have that. You know, I love, again, the look, the feel, the story being told here. This is an absolute brilliant job with this. And again, before reading Storm, I had no idea who this person, the writer was. And again, like you, I'm not going to try to pronounce their name, but they are amazing. Oh, yes. And I would love to learn how to pronounce their name just so I could give them full credit on this, because this is absolutely brilliant. This is how you craft a story. This right here is how you give me an epic combat over multiple pages. This and the art team, again, you got to throw the full art team. Inks, pencils, colors, the full whole nine yards, everything just looks absolutely epic here. There is, I always talk about how I like that pop. You know, you get that energy, you know, this 100%, you're getting that. And even, I love the reactions on people's faces to some of the events that are happening. You know, you got Scott, who's blasting so hard, he shatters his visor. You know, I'm trying to remember last time I saw him do that. I don't remember it. I don't know if, do you remember him ever using so much energy that he shatters his own visor?

Yes, but it's rare. Okay. I mean, it's got to be, I mean, this is, this is them, what they're doing here, and it's why you see it rarely. This is him because it's Storm, and because of the fact that he has to complete the mission. He knows that he has to unleash everything. That's almost a respect of the fact that she can take it, and he knows if he doesn't let go, if he doesn't let loose with everything, he's done. Yeah. So that's, that visual there was really, really critical. It's a great marriage of writing and art when you put that in there. There's something you said earlier that I really want to touch on. It's funny with the X-Men. And I love the movies, X-Men 1, X-Men 2, you know. The third one, like everybody else, I thought I enjoyed the third one, but it's, it, that movie series kind of, you know, progressed downward. We did the relaunch with First Class and all those pieces. Really, really enjoyed those as well. It wasn't until animation, though. The X-Men animated series is really where they shine. And it's, it's something that I'm hoping we get eventually in film. An X-Men that matches the level of that great animated series. And I think one of the reasons that you stated here is there's a visual presence that I think you're able to achieve in animation. And in a way that they were able to do the storytelling in animation that has been, has not yet been matched on live action. And I'm fine with that if we keep getting great animation out of these characters. But I think it is because of these seeing Storm deliver that visual presence in this. Oh, was it stunning? Because yes, to everything you said about the visor, but what's important is what's going on on the other side. And when you see that possession take over and where this is not Storm anymore, I love that the, the word balloons, not just the visual of Storm, the word balloons. Now we've got a different color tone to them, a different way they're laid out. Oh, there's something above and beyond going on here. This is not, this is not Aurora anymore. I don't know what's going on there, but we know it as a reader right away from that presence. And it's.

It's beautiful. It's beautiful in its danger. It's beautiful. I mean, it just feels threatening. It feels dangerous. And it's still breathtaking and stunning in the way that it's handling. And Charles is, you mentioned reactions. Reactions are key here. Oh, Scott, what have I done? You know, and that piece is, again, this is Xavier now. This is Professor X. This is Charles. This is the father figure to him. And that piece, there's something very, very different. Because you know, we see from their reactions what's happening to him first. Then we actually see what happened to him. Their horrified reactions was a great lead into then seeing that stunning part where he's laying on the ground and he's frozen because of how her power took over. That was just breath. Juggernaut.

Juggernaut. Ripping off Maggot's arm. I mean, it was just so, so cool. Just how that took.

How many times in like various movies or, you know, horror stuff where there are people talk about, I'm going to rip your arm off and beat you to death with it.

Yes.

Juggernaut does that. And I love that. And I love the look of, you know, Juggernaut's face like Cyclops. Just that, where that wide eye, like, oh my God, kind of look. When you get that kind of reaction, again, from Juggernaut, that for me was awesome. And then, but the, you know, Storm isn't even remotely phased by this. No. And I love that she, again, she unleashes even more powers on him. And then he's going to upgrade, give Maggot an upgrade to Omega level. And I want to see what Omega level Maggot is like now. I love that.

Yeah. I love that she healed the arm and those type of pieces in the whole process. Got him back up and running. There was something really, really great. Her going toe to toe with Juggernaut, just because I grew up loving just that he's the unstoppable Juggernaut. You know, it's usually the way to resolve things with him is drop him through floors and things like that. All of these avoidance pieces where, you know, you're separating yourself from Juggernaut and not allowing him the opportunity to gain that momentum to come at you. This was very, very different. It's very rare that you see somebody with a power set that is able to blast through his helmet. And that piece was so cool. Just seeing how that played out.

Oh, God. Yeah. And again, I'm still I am still getting used to Juggernaut being a good guy, you know, because, again, all my exposures with him is always as the villain, the Bane to the X-Men. So I love seeing him here on the team and his styling. He's, you know, again, you do hero with air quotes around it. Good guy, because it is still Juggernaut. There is still a little bit of that, you know, that villain side of him, that monster side of him. I love seeing that in him. I love seeing that power set. I love seeing him unleash that level of energy. So it's kind of neat seeing someone who keeps up with him.

One of the joys when you've stepped away from a book for a while, especially many years, is the storylines that you've missed that are in between. That's not a bad thing. It's kind of like it's nice to kind of go, I'm going to gradually make my way through it. Enjoy some of those and see how this all came to be, which is kind of a fun and interesting thing. Psylocke, what is your history with her as a character and the complication?

Well, oh, God, yeah. See, with me and her, her time went with Excalibur when it first came out. You know, I was reading her in on that team. You know, and there's periodic stories like that. So with who Psylocke is, this Psylocke, I'll be honest with you, I don't know if this is the same Psylocke I was reading before.

It's complicated because there's two. There's Psylocke and there's Betsy Braddock now. Betsy Braddock is Captain Britain now. So it's an interesting sort of relationship here. Whereas we read at one point in time when they made Psylocke Ninja Psylocke, you know, when she came back and became Ninja Psylocke. That is two separate people now. Okay. Very, very complicated. I think even trying, if I was trying to explain it right now, I would do a horrid job at the moment even. But, so we've got, this is Psylocke here right now. This is not Betsy. Right. So we, Betsy, we will see Betsy in the story arc and the crossover. But there are two differences between the two. I like Ninja Psylocke. I do. And I like Betsy. There's things between the two. And it's funny, your reference to Excalibur. Betsy is kind of more Excalibur Betsy now.

Yes.

So there's a, your recollection and history of them is actually, is kind of.

accurate i liked when she became the ninja though in the x-men i think it was just kind of a cool

era that you were you're reading then right when she yeah i read i read her as a ninja um that that may have been near the end of my reading to be honest okay i think you know because i don't remember reading i remember reading a little bit of her and going oh that's she's kind of wicked that's kind of neat but that may have been near when i stopped reading x's and started you know because remember i you know in college there was a period where i stopped reading altogether then i got back into it you know and when i got back into it i was i got back more into dc because my buddy joe was a big dc guy and he was letting me borrow books and you know and hey i think you would like this hey superman right yeah you know and then yeah the well superman but also uh green lantern mosaic you know right you know he he was like i think you'd like uh john stewart and he was 100 correct i love john stewart still do to this day you know but so that is again so but when i shifted i stopped reading x books and i started going into dc and there was a period i i do remember reading some of psylocke you know and there was a captain america period when i was reading some a cap you know and that that ended and i slowly transitioned from marvel into dc full time and the only thing i was reading was dc so this is really my homecoming back into you know marvel reading and i'm trying to get caught up and there's so many different stuff i gotta read you know that i gotta get caught up on so there's a lot of cool stories i've got uh i've got a lot of stuff ahead of me so it's it's again this is a good time for me this is a good time for me to just go back and i'm reading some of the older stuff i'm trying to keep caught up with the current stuff so there is a balancing act of me trying to i i need more time in the day sean is what i need i need i need the days to be like 36 hours per day not 24 it's this pesky work stuff if that wasn't in the way we could just read all day long if i couldn't read all day long i'd be golden yeah it's a story of my life you know before it was

school now it's now it's uh it's work um you know all that stuff gets in the way of being able to stay caught up with all these not just the current comic stories but the the classics no it's funny with

you know as we're going into this and they they pulling the beast into the story yeah you know i completely forgot beast was on this team i didn't notice that he wasn't in with the the group until just now when they're like beast or you know you know have you found it you know where they're reaching out the brief beast again great planning on their part they do this big frontal assault drawing the thing meanwhile they send the beast in to sneak in like the sideways sneak in the back door to try to disable the systems i thought that for me again was absolutely brilliant i loved this

layout i love that charles knew yeah charles was ready for it yes because him standing there in the backgrounds only because of the familiar familiarity and i like that they're reaching out beast beast beast yeah and they're getting no response that was a great ending to the issue just because of uh just knowing where this book was going to go that part was really really cool leading us into x-men it was actually a great segue into the x-men title this leads us into our next discussion x-men number 13

the writer is jed mckay inkers by sean parson pencils by netho diaz colorist is f-e-r-s-i-f-u-e-n-t-e-s hyphen s-u-j-o i have no idea how i'm going to pronounce that so i'm spilling out because i do not want to insult that person letters uh vcs clayton cowles uh cover arts by ryan stegman and marty garcia variant covers by e-j-i-k-u-r-e peach monoco and phil noto yeah and i find myself nowadays i wish

there was a pronunciation key i know but they're not really doing that so we can say it out like audibly it's it's us reading them so they're getting credit for this um it's interesting when you take a look at this team like magneto's on this team for example and and with his whole storyline you get why he's not forefront in this particular storyline but i want to look at that cover for a second i'd love when they do stuff like this like this cover of the x-men team decimated with storm hanging in the background it's beautiful in the way that it's laid out i just love the color design of it and just the again the majesty of the power that is storm sitting there there was something that was really really strong about how this was laid out you know kicking us right back into things in san francisco bay and uh it's especially it's all it's various you

names. Oh, God, yeah. I'll tell you, one of the, again, I liked how they had all the different names of the former homelands, the former bases of operations for the mutants. All of them, one by one by one, yet another one shattered. Again, it's part of the things that I love about the mutants, and I've always loved about the mutants, how they're always the downtrodden, how they're always the underdog. Even though they're these great heroes, people always put them down. There's always the hatred towards them, but they're just, they're heroes. These are people who have saved the universe multiple times over. You know, and I, and, you know, they cheer and, you know, levitate for the Avengers and for the Fantastic Four, but the X-Men are like, oh, no, these evil, dirty mutants. I always love when, you know, we get, you know, we, they show that it's, you know, who they are and what they're about, and I love that, you know, they still, no matter what, they push through. That's that true hero moment. You know, I've, I've joked on the show before that if I was a mutant in this universe, I would have been Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. I would have been with Magneto just because I would have been so sick of the human race putting me down just because I was a mutant. You know, but I love that our heroes never give up.

Well, and it's interesting on this one, it's whose side should you be on? Yeah. Because I, Psylocke is having some real strong issues with what happened here because of her history with Xavier, because of what's happened so recently. She's, but I love that she's sitting here, she's like, I don't know, but San Francisco is suffering from Xavier's psychic bleed. In her wisdom, Storm has flown in a mega psychic contagion over a densely populated area. That part where she's, you know, you're sitting there going, ugh, I, I'm going to be honest with you, when I was reading Storm's book, I was team Xavier and Storm all the way. The kickoff of this, I'm like, ooh, hold on a second, maybe I shouldn't be. And I like that. I like when stories are complicated. It really is, it's your relationship right now. It's complicated. It's so that way with this book and the way that it's written. And I still, I'm, I'm cheering kind of for both sides as they're going along because I say that, but we're flipping the page and in the thundercloud, Storm's mobile base where we've got Beast and Xavier, I'm digging what he's doing. I won't lie. I shouldn't be. I shouldn't be like Beast. Go over, turn around and smack him. But I'm loving what he's doing and I'm loving the impending battle that's coming between him and Quentin. And that's, it's something that I'm super excited about.

You know, you want to know the funny thing, you know, with this. One, I agree with you. I, you know, I'm angry at Charles, but I'm not angry at Charles. It's one of those weird things. I don't know. Yeah, I can't, I can't bring myself to call him the villain. Even though he's done horrific stuff, I still can't do it because it's the professor. And I still lean on to my childhood when he was this, this hope for the mutant kind and all that. But this, you know, lead up to this fight between Quentin and Xavier, it reminded me of the discussion you and I had about Doom and Reed Richards as who's smarter. Where, you know, and how, you know, and again, you threw out how the fact that, the fact that Reed no, doesn't need to prove it shows he is that much smarter. The fact, you know, Quentin's like, yeah, let's go, let's go. You know, he's ready to pump. And Xavier's just calmly like, okay, that right there lets you know which, you know, telepath is more powerful. And I love that. Is he though? Well, yeah. Well, we're going to get to that one.

Because here's the thing, and it's something that we're learning about Kid Omega here. Kid Omega's playing a little bit of a game here as well. Yeah. Kid Omega's letting him think what he's trying to. And I actually really like these intelligent twists and turns that you're going through because they're both playing with each other. And it's something I think only when you really write these mutant psychics the right way and tell these kind of stories, you get this edge to them with these battles that I think are just outstanding. This is hard to do because these are battles of the mind. What's kicking off here is going to be really good. But we got to flash quickly to what was going on with Juggernaut. And his lashing back out saying, you know, to Storm, you think you're tough? I got beat up by Kurt Marco. What my dad did to me, like, you can't replicate that. So bring it on. That's Juggernaut. That is Juggernaut. The unstoppable Juggernaut. And I love that he's not, it's not his suit. It's not all those pieces. It is the man underneath. That was something that I thought was just, that was a really cool. well-written, well-drawn sequence. Because you see the determination and defiance in his face in a way that is just, ooh. So I want to see that animated, like with that type of flair to it.

And you add to it the fact that his helmet's now broken. Yes. You know, and you've got that. I loved this for, yeah, because we talk a lot of times about doing facial expressions when someone has a helmet or a mask. And this, this for me was, one, it gave a great way for us to see his face so they could do the reaction. But the shattered helmet did add to that grit, did add to that, oh yeah, it's about to go now. Now we're about to see the true power of Juggernaut. We're about to see some serious fighting happening. And I was excited. You know, this was one of those things like, oh, this is going to be cool, man. This is going to be cool.

Oh, when Ileana pops out of her little bubble and takes Magneto's helmet, I knew exactly where this was going. Yep. I'm like sitting here, oh, we're going back to the old helmet that blocks psychic. I'm like, super cool as far as that piece was going. It was great that she was going to Hank. And this is our way to get Hank back and get him back under control. So that way now we've got him as a player in this battle because they need him at the moment. The psychic battle where we're, I love when they do stuff where we're seeing in the foreground what is visible in the real world. The background's already the psychic backlash that we can't see. This is an example of, boy, I mentioned great artwork in the Storm book. When you flip that page and you look at the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning, this is breathtaking. The way that they're conveying that sense of, I'm in a spooky place. Being inside the mind and circling through these things where we've got multiple Xaviers that are sitting there. And Quentin is because Quentin is being forced into Charles' realm. Quentin is being taken back to a time of his life where he was more vulnerable. And Charles is taking advantage and trying to poke at all and poke and prod all of those pieces. This is a different sort of Charles. Charles, this is a Charles, I've seen Charles do, you know, his battles on the astral plane and all that kind of stuff over the years against villains. Seeing him go up against so ruthlessly one of his own is something that it's almost onslaught level on what he's doing. And I really liked seeing this battle play out as he's talking about experience being the thing that drives as a differentiator when your power levels are the same.

Yes. And again, you know, it was funny, as we started reading this, this is exactly the kind of stuff I was expecting. This is what, you know, that, that, you know, I talked about before where he had that calmness to him. You know, this is the fight I was expecting. This was where Xavier just shows why he's Xavier, why he is as powerful as he is. So I loved the crafting of this story, especially how it, where it goes and where Quentin makes the turn. And I was like, oh, this is absolutely, I'm reading this going, oh God, yeah, this kid's toast, this kid's toast, you know? And I'm just like, oh man. And then you get you thinking, okay, well, Beast is back into play. Maybe Beast can help out or something, you know? And, you know, as I'm reading the pages, I'm, you know, all this stuff is going through. And again, you get this great moment when the Xaviers are swarming in on him and he's like, ah, they're just about to win. You flip the page. We go back to Storm and Juggernaut. I'm like, no, come on and go back to Charles. I want to read more of that. This right here was just brilliant usage of jumping back and forth between the two big fights going on. I absolutely loved how they did that.

Temper being a factor where she's able to kind of like, let's negate some of the power issues that we've got going on right now with Storm. But Storm being able to have out these powerful kind of swords that she's using that are a part of her possessed evolution that we've got going on here. I do love when we see magic kind of sitting there going, oh, you got swords? I love swords. And the battle going there. She's reminding Juggernaut, you know, hey, you can just kind of manifest your armor again, you know. You don't have to stay that way. That part was, it was really great. Added a little bit of humor. And it's the buddy aspect of these two that I've, I did not realize I wanted to see so bad in the next book was seeing those two team up.

Yes, but they fit so well together. Yeah. You know, this, this again, brilliant usage of this and the, the little subtle humor doesn't derail or, you know, slow down anything. And then again, we flip the page and we're back to the horror novel. Alright.

Alright. Gvia. Great.

That is the astral plane fight between these two Omega-level telepaths. So, again, brilliant layout on how they're doing this, how they're laying out the story.

Wow. qued Groes.

And, again, you know, it's going back and forth.

Bye.

One side, one battle. One battle, one battle. And I loved how this, you know, as this is escalating, each of the fight is getting to an escalation point of, oh, my God. You know, because you get this great moment where the, you know, the Xaviers are taking down Quentin.

Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.

You know, and then you go back to the Stormfront and it's the fight going on. And I love Juggernaut. I always say if blunt force trauma ain't working for you, you ain't using enough of it. And he unleashes a massive haymaker. It doesn't affect Storm. He's like, are you finished? I'm like, dang, that is some power. And I love that Magic and Juggernaut both are like, we are in problem here. We got a problem. They're recognizing we don't have enough power levels for her. And I love that realization. But I also love the fact that they're like, okay, let's throw down. Let's go. And they're not giving in.

It's interesting, though, that Ileana's pointing out what's really going on here. She's like, she's possessed. I looked into her soul. This is like, you know, next level possession. What's going on here? And Psylocke's like, we need her back. She's recognizing maggots in a cocoon. This leaves him rather vulnerable. And you know what she's going to do. She's going to use that chess piece as a way to try and reach Aurora. And I really like the setup for that. I like that this was, to your point, the tradeoff between the two. I got to tell you, when I see that cross that Quentin's on, boy, does it remind me of that iconic cover with Wolverine on that cross. You know, every time. Yep. There's something about just iconic about just how defiling that is when it's there.

And also the scene with Angel. Yes. When he got pinned on there with his wings before he became Archangel. Yeah. They've used the X crucifixion sequence so many times brilliantly in the X universe that you can always throw out something. And again, another brilliant usage for it right here. And I love this. Because again, I was this whole time. I'm like, okay, the kid's beat. The kid's beat. No, the kid ain't beat. I love the turn. I love the fact that we got a little bit of rope-a-dope going on here. We got a little bit of cheating in a way, you know. You know, Quentin is not Xavier. Yes, he's not. He's able to do other stuff. He's willing to do other stuff. And I love that we got to see how he uses his little backdoor attorney to actually take down Xavier. That was brilliant.

You know who that is, don't you? Not really. Cassandra Nova. It's Charles's sister. Okay. So that's what the whole piece is. He's using a manifestation of her to take down Charles. And she was most recently in, did you see Deadpool and Wolverine yet? No. Okay. You should watch it because you'll see her.

I've never read any stories with her in it.

Did you read the Grant Morrison X-Men run? You didn't read that? No. Here's the thing. I don't remember it. Wow. So I may have read it, but I don't remember it. Wait, here's the thing. Yeah, I'd remember it. If you don't know who she is, you did not read that.

Yeah. So with the sequence, again, I knew that was her sister because they say it in the sister. Hello. You know, hello, Charles. Hello, brother. I'm like, okay, that's got to be the sister. But I had no idea any of the story that happened between them. But again, I didn't need to know that to realize what he was doing and how he was using this against Charles and how he was taking down Charles. And again, it's a nice little, you know, kind of dirty pool, however you want to word it. I love this. This was absolutely brilliant. And I loved how it showed his face. And, you know, initially he's all beaten and oh, you know, and then as the page is going on, he's like, yeah, let me tell you about my attorney. And then you get the page and the next page, you get that look in that kid's eyes. And then she shows up and she's doing all types of freaky stuff that Charles, I loved how that played out. And just as you're thinking you're going to get something more, you flip the page and we go back to the storm battle. I'm like, oh, thank you guys. You keep doing that to me. I love it, but you keep doing it to me.

We knew where Psylocke was going with this, right? She was going to use Maggot as a way to try and reach Aurora, saying like, listen, I'm not talking to you anymore. I want to talk to Aurora. Aurora, Monroe, are you in there? Are you going to let this happen? You know, this is, you know me, you know that I'm going to do it.

You know, are you going to let this happen? And that part was great. Then going back to the battle and seeing that what Quentin was doing, Quentin won. I like that Quentin like had taken the, he was, he was in the lead in this battle. Beast shows up and it gives plenty of time for him to throw Magneto's helmet on Charles and to put him out, which is good, not just for them. It's good for the whole San Francisco area because Charles is not the San Francisco treat. He's been a much of a problem with it. Psychic bleed over. That part was really great. I liked the whole dirty trick.

Now question for you, because here's something I was wondering, was this their plan all along? You know that, you know, they knew because Charles knew that Beast was going after the reactor. Did they know that Charles would know? Did they sell throw Beast out there to pull Charles away from the storm battle? You know, and then have Beast with the kid, you know, to take on Charles and, you know, capture Charles this way. Was this always their plan or was this an X-Men improvisation? That's where I'm not 100% certain if this was the plan all along or if this was just the X-Men being X-Men and improvising on the fly. What do you think?

I think it was not the plan all along. I think that they had to improvise with what they were dealing with there. I think as a squad, they were able to come up with a plan relying on each other, knowing that, you know, what they would be able to do. At least that's my thought, by the way. I'm not saying that it's... I think some of this is open to interpretation.

And I'm... It's funny. I'm either... I'm good with either way that this was just because, again, part of the coolness of the X-Men are that they improvise on the fly. You know, they 100% didn't know that Scott would get taken out the way Scott got taken out. But they're... You know, this is them reacting to the situation. It's part of what makes this team such a great team that they're able to do this kind of stuff.

The monster analogy when Storm and Psylocke have that, you know, the monster explanation where Psylocke is like, we are just monsters. And I like how Storm's like looking back at her just monsters. It's, you know, it's an interesting sort of piece with what happened with that battle. And just how both sides would be viewing each other after this. This is something that, as a family, which you, you know, I'd consider the X-Men that, you have some trouble coming back from right now. You know, it's... There's going to be a recovery period that's needed from all of this that I think is something that I'm looking forward to reading as we go forward with these characters. Because some moments happen that you just can't easily take back.

This is a... This was a tough one. You know, and again, but here's the thing. I loved the notion between them at the end. You know, Storm does let them take Charles. You know, she does let them, you know, take him. And she's recognizing that there is... They do kind of need to do this. So I like the fact that she was willing to back down from this and let them take away. And I also like the fact that the team's recognizing we've got the opening. Let's go now. You know, their mission wasn't to fight Storm. Their mission was to get Charles. Mission accomplished. They got him out. And I love that they blink, you know, that they teleport back in and they start immediately, you know, trying to re-hook up with Scott to get the team together to come up with the next part of whatever plan they have. But because it's an X-Book, things always don't go as planned.

I think one of the things we've got to be clear on, though, Storm agreed to let them take Charles with certain considerations. Yeah. You don't take him back there.

Yeah.

You can take him, but you don't take him back there. And that's going to be the agreement there. And that distinction is really, really important because we're left with the cliffhanger of X-Factor showing on the scene. And they don't have the same feelings, perhaps, which is something that is very interesting. Yeah. All right. Our next discussion is going to be of X-Factor number eight, which is Legacy issue 300. So this is an anniversary issue. The writer is Mark Russell. The artist is Bob Quinn. Color artist is Jesus Abertoff. The latter is Joe Carmigiana from VC. The variant, I mean, so the cover artists are Greg Land and Frank Di Armada. And not skipping over, the variant cover artists are Greg Land and Rachel Rosenberg and Phil Noto. And apologies for any name butchery that was in there. X-Factor. So let's talk a little bit about X-Factor, right? I mean, what an interesting and unique book X-Factor has been throughout its rich history, starting off originally as being a vehicle to roll out the original X-Men team all the way back from the 60s, straight on through to... just various incarnations. We just lost recently Peter David, the writer, and Peter David famously had a really amazing run on X-Factor. So when we're looking at the legacy of X-Factor and what this book has been and its various runs that have led to 300 issues of this book, it's a unique title. And certainly this title in particular fits into that mold as well. They do seem to be a team when they have handlers, it does not go well. And this is a team where having handlers is not making

it go well for these team members. It's funny. I remember when we first had this relaunch and we were talking X-Factor before, and I was like, I've read it, I think. I couldn't remember. So I went back into using the app to reread the original X-Factor. I read all that. And I'm like, how did I forget all this? And I'm going back through it. It was just a sheer joy in going back to reading the initial X-Factor creation and the initial X-Factor run when Gene comes back and all that brilliance that they, how they told the story. I was like, oh my God, how did I forget all of this?

Did you go back before and read the stuff that led to Gene being discovered? Like the issues before

X-Factor? Oh yeah. Yeah. And, and again, as I was reading it, I remembered going, I read this, I read this before. I remember that. I remember. And it was like, you know, I, I don't know. I got memory issues all the time. So I forget a lot of stuff, you know, and as I was rereading it, it brought back all those memories. I was like, oh my God, yeah, this is great. And so I have just been purely loving X, this X-Factor relaunch or, you know, continuation of the adventures of X-Factor, because this has a, really does have a good, a very symbiotic feel to what it was originally. This is what those things were going back through. And I, and again, I'm remembering, you know, the, the ups and the downs that the team had, and this team is having them. Now it's not, don't, I don't want anyone thinking, oh, Jim Sandys is a complete re-get. No, no, no, this X-Factor team has their own little turbulence that they've got to deal with. And I love, absolutely love that. I love how this team's a little bit, you know, has some other issues that the other team didn't have and vice versa.

I love that you're talking about this team's ups and downs. What have the ups been?

Okay. Okay. This team's downs. Well, hey, they've got Granny Smite. You know, come on.

She's an up. She's an up. I got to agree with you. She's an up. But, but I struggled to find a lot of ups with this team. I love the book. It's very different. But there's not a whole lot of ups with this team, especially when you flip the page and we start off with Alex and I love Havoc. I've loved the history of Havoc. And it's, he's an interesting sort of character. Boy, he's, he's not having a good day. He's not having a good few years. And this relationship with Polaris has just been such a rich one throughout the history of these characters. What's your history with Havoc? Like, was it, was it X Factor? Was it before X Factor? You know, Scott's brother has had a unique in and out of the X books throughout the years. So what, what's your history with them?

Okay. Well, the X books are the big thing, but it was really, I got to know the character where, again, it was him with Wolverine, you know? Oh yeah. Yeah. The crossover. The crossover thing. That's where I really, and again, it's Wolverine what really, you know, cause Wolverine was my guy. Anything that had Wolverine in it, I was reading it. And that one had a really cool, different art style to it. Wasn't that prestige? Like, wasn't that like with the

prestige covers and everything like that? Like a three issue. Am I right? It's like a three issue.

Yeah. Three or four issues. Can't remember, but it was, yeah, it was that prestige. It had, again, it didn't have the classic, the class, my classic comic book art that I love so much. It had that artistic styling to it. And I remember when I first read it, I was like, Hmm, I don't know how I feel about this. This doesn't look like my comic books. This looks different, but I really like it, you know? And again, it was that, that the young, the young me learning to, and I say young, but this was, this was our college years, I think. So I'm not really that young, but I was still, you know, kind of immature. Um, but it was me just, you know, that development of the appreciation of other art styles. It was kind of the beginning phase of what I currently look at now going, Oh my God, that's brilliant. That's all unbelievable. You know, it's the, I, but I do remember that as it initially threw me off, but I had to keep reading it one, just because of those Wolverine in it, but two, because there was something about

you.

it that I really enjoyed the story. You know that the, you know, wrote that, don't you?

No. Walter Simonson from Thor and Louise Simonson, who wrote not only X factor, but also wrote Superman during your era of wanting, of loving Superman. So it was their husband and wife team. So they wrote that together. And John J. Muth, who I adore his artwork, was the artist on that one. So it was, it was a pivotal team that were, were doing this book, but so you had, you know, before the Thor run, you had some serious experience with these,

this writing talent. Back then, I did not look at names of writers, names of writers or names of artists. You know, and again, it's, I just read the book. I didn't look at that kind of stuff. And it's something that I wish I had done back then. You know, what I wish I knew then what I know now, and not even just the information, but known the pay attention to that kind of stuff, you know, and, you know, take your time with a book, read it multiple times, enjoy the savoring of what is the artwork? What is the story being told? Enjoy the layering of a story being told. These are all things I didn't appreciate, you know, when I was, you know, before, you know, but again, this is something that being on this podcast over these last, you know, 19 years has helped me learn and develop. So, and again, this X Factor team, the layering on the suffering that is havoc. And I'm like, oh man, this poor guy, I really do feel, I feel bad for him. He, he, I don't want to say pathetic because I don't want to kick a man when he's down, but I do love the way they make him look so pathetic, you know, in that, you know, here's a guy with some serious, you know, power levels who is just because of the way he's, he is in life. He's kind of like at odds with, with himself, at odds with the world, at odds with anybody he's on a team with. He's just, you know, kind of like a, he's, he's a social pariah and it's, you know, you, I feel horrible for him, but again, it makes

for great stories. Havoc and Wolverine Meltdown is the name of the miniseries. It's a four, it's actually read as four issues. So, um, I, I wanted to look at that one just so we shout it out. It's very good. It's worth reading. I haven't read it in years, but, um, I, I actually looked it up to grab the digital version of it so I could reread it. I have it in my comic collection. Um, but rather than dig it through the long boxes, I, I decided to go and take a look at the digital version of it and grab it. But, uh, for anybody out there that's looking for it, it's definitely worth seeking out. Havoc's, uh, issues. I'm hoping Havoc's story and what's going on with him right now that we're starting to see him take a turn, right? I need a redemption story for Havoc. I like that he's, he's ready to not like re-engage with the world, but when she comes to him looking for help, you know, with the whole situation with Xavier and what's going on, she's basically saying to him, you know, what you got better to do right now? How's that going on for you? You know that? And these are two people that both have had the same problem. They were involved with X factor and it kind of didn't work out for them very well. So this book has interesting level of intrigue to it. I'm really digging this title. And this is an example of what I'm loving about the flavor of the X books. You know, people will critic, get critical. Sometimes there being too many X books. Sometimes that's fair when they start feeling like more and more of the same thing. But when you've got creatives like this, that are like taking each of these books and giving them something unique, unique hooks to them, unique reasons to have them, are all of these going to work and stick around? I don't know. Probably not. You know, I actually, I think I know that some of these have already been announced, like switched to being mini series now versus being ongoings like they were before. I'm glad they're taking these little experiments, right? Because to me, some of these experimental series that all of a sudden you try out and start to have legs to them. That's where you get sometimes those really special runs of a book that you didn't know you were going to get. And this is one where I don't know if this one's going to continue to be an ongoing or if it's going to turn into a mini series or has already been announced as that. But I'm, I'm stuck on this one right now. I'm really enjoying, I'm enjoying this series. This was a slow burn for me though. Like when I read the first issue of it, I liked it. I wasn't like totally in love with it. As the series has gone on with each issue and I started to really feel what they're doing, I got more and more invested in it. And I will say at this point, I am like really enjoying this. I'm having a lot of fun with, with what.

they're trying to do with this particular team. I do want Havoc eventually in a happy place, though.

I 100% think this is the beginning of the comeback. I do, too. I think we are now starting... I think he has reached his rock bottom, and I think now he's going to start coming back. I think we're going to start seeing Havoc again. Again, I'm like you. I want to see it. I've been loving the downward spiral that he's going through, but I need now to see the rebound because he is a great hero. I need to see X-Factor rebound. Again, as we said before, the ups and downs of the teams, what ups have they had? I need to start having some ups now. I need to have the team start doing some stuff. I really, I'm enjoying X-Factor, and I want to keep reading X-Factor, but I do need to have some wins. I need to have chalk up some W's on the win column.

Yeah, and they need to stop dropping.

Yeah.

I see an Angel back with the team. Angel's one of those interesting characters where I've gone from being interested in him, being kind of not, then being interested in him, then being kind of not. The Archangel piece kind of reignited the I'm interested in him piece. I remember when he came back to X-Men, back in the era when we read, I was intrigued by him. I'm like, okay, one of the originals came back, and it's kind of nice to have that legacy feel, even when you weren't part of reading the legacy. You know, the idea that he came back in that red and white stripe, you know, with the white stripe down the middle, and he came back to the team. I really enjoyed seeing him come back, and he had kind of that cocky attitude about him. Plus, he had money, you know, from, you know, kind of like, he had the Batman thing going on where he had money, and those pieces kind of worked because, you know, he was able to give them some refuge at times because of the fact that he had the money and the space to be able to do it. So, there were things that I liked about him. The battle between him and Hank, the verbal battle, at least initially, you know, where Hank's like, Warren, we want the same thing here. No, Hank, we want to have the same thing. There's a difference. And I really liked that distinction. You know, the familiarity between these two, and Juggernaut gets a certain point where he's like, no, I don't think you're going to be taking Xavier here. That's not really going to happen. And you see him unleash. I thought it was really, really great because he takes down the intern, and then we get to see him. He has a history with the X-Men. He has fought the original team on his own and had a very powerful impact on this team. And to see him, angels trying to fly off, to see Hank, you know, be able to, I mean, I'm sorry, to see Juggernaut be able to take him down so easily originally, or as how it looked, was something that was pretty cool. I liked the setup to this. I did not see where it was going. And I love when they do that. I feel like I should have seen where this was going, but I love that I didn't see where it was going.

Oh, big time. Big time. I'm in the same boat as you were. I did not see it coming, but I loved, again, the layout of this. Everything you said, Juggernaut jumping up in there, come here, little birdie, throws him to the ground. Pyro's just about to jump in. Chill, Pyro. Power's taken out. But then Beast takes over. And I loved Beast, again, using the strategery, using the intelligence that is the Beast. He's like, hold on, whoa, whoa, whoa. Let's everyone calm down. Granny Smite, right? What's your power? I can't die. Okay, so nobody tried to kill her. She's neutralized. You, kid, what's your power? Oh, I can block things. Okay, yeah, you're nothing. And I loved how Beast is just one by one taking them all down, going, then he finally gets the angel. He's like, Warren, what the heck? Come on, man. How could you be so arrogant to think this team could take down? And then we see Archangel come back. A very different,

a very different Archangel with the claws and all of those. I mean, it's, that piece was really, really cool.

Now, okay, so when the iron wings or the steel wings come out, we see feathers fly. Does that mean Angel's wing wings are completely gone or not? I don't, so. That's what I don't know.

I thought there were points in time in the storytelling where he was able to revert back. And so, I don't, we'll see what happens with this. Yes. I mean, I think this is a stay tuned, kind of like,

what does this mean now? Because I remember when we first got Archangel, then as Archangel went away, they revealed that his real wings were underneath the Archangel wings. The very first time he went from being Archangel back to Angel. But then I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't remember.

remember reading anything beyond that where he could transform from feather to archangel steel wings and that's i don't know so i'm hoping he's not you know he's able to transform back and forth because again i'd be okay if they say he's got the transfer for transformation ability i'm fine with that just because i do like the angel look but i do like the archangel look as well because

archangel's a wicked badass dude dude's got like a sword now yeah and then you know he's able to turn into like this buzzsaw you know i love hank hank's like run run run run come on run again it's

beast little funny moments in this book and i think that's something that x factor is doing really well over all the other x books as i we said earlier each of the x books needs to have their own groove to it yeah yeah x factor has that humor sign to it you know and i like how but it's not losing the energy it's not losing the drama and again i say i say humor in that they've killed off people so you can't say oh that's funny but they do have these little moments like this if

you're getting what i'm saying i do yeah i've actually and i'm pitching a brand new team up book oh boy okay so so work with me on this one right you know i'm a big fan on team ups and that type of thing it may lead to a fight initially but i could see how these two people could become friends just the title of itself marvel comics presents sensei of the forget me not i think it's going to be a great book i think people everywhere will be picking it up prestige format you know so one of those things where it'll be that art style where like people will go i don't know if i should be liking this or not

it'll be that new art style called stick figure yes yes it'll be it'd be really good

just because i'm gonna draw it yeah exactly that you're gonna get but uh yeah sensei of the forget me not be on the lookout for it on a new stance everywhere because i placed it there

i liked forget me nots good okay i gotta share something with uh the people listening sean and i are trying something new we've got video up now right so we can actually see each other and i'm letting everyone know and when you started with that set you had a grin on your face i was like oh boy this is going to be something good here you know what's he got in his skin what's he got up

his sleeve we used to do this face to face so i mean this is actually bringing something back we haven't done in years um this used to be the way we would do business yeah so it's interesting having this back again in some capacity i liked forget me nots whole little interactions with iliana and this is a this is a tough thing to do right now because you're right x factor has that humor value to it so you you want to still make them feel competent or able to at least make some kind of impact here and like when he pushes her in the portal um like quentin's like who is that i forget and that was his own teammate who's saying i forget i loved everything about that story they were able to in this whole piece neither team recognized that this opened a perfect doorway for havoc and his amazing friend to escape with charles and i really liked how that piece played out the conversation between the two of them starts setting havoc on the path i think that you're talking about where we're seeing him gradually get there i like that it's not a light switch with him we've got to see havoc gradually build towards being the more confident character that he was before that part was really awesome

yeah and again i loved seeing havoc and her running away they're like and she had the not only did they grab charles but they also grabbed his helmet yes you know again they knew it and i you know just as he's like hey okay you know when he first throws out the question how did you know that where the professor was you're like well we got to move you know they're gonna be looking for us and he's like i love it when someone just ignores my question makes me feel like we're in a movie you know and i love just that little bit there where he's going hey what the heck is going on here and the final reveal that she's not working with the mutant underground but xavier reached out to her directly yeah and i love that again this is charles xavier this is the professor you know the professor reaches out to you and says hey i need your help you're gonna step up and you're going to do it and i love just that there's still that hope that people have in professor xavier even though all the horrific stuff he's done they still have hope in the man and i love that and then it goes back to as you said where you know where havoc's looking back at his life his time as an x-man his time on the team you know and it was just that you

kind of that soul searching when you could really start seeing maybe, you know, you know, things could turn positive until an optic blast blaster in the chest.

What a stop for one second though, and talk about the, even with the horrific stuff that Charles has done, you want to put quotes around that. Yes. That's complicated because Charles has made people think he's done things that he hasn't done. Yeah. So that it's an interesting sort of piece out there right now. So yes, what's out there is that he's done some terrible things, but not necessarily everything that people think that he did. And he did that, that kind of piece taking that dive was for the greater good, which is a very Charles thing to do. I do love the classic picture of the X-Men. It's, I'm doing a weird X-Men read through where I started back at the very beginning of the original X-Men title and I'm making my way through those. And I started at giant size or, you know, right before giant size X-Men one and the Claremont stuff and Len Wein, Glenn Claremont straight on through. I'm starting to read those stories. Got all the way to the Phoenix saga. And I'm kind of going beyond that right now and rereading those stories. So I'm doing them in two categories. Just really, really enjoying it because a lot of that original X-Men stuff, I haven't read all of the issues. I read some of them along the way. There were reprints and things like that, that I was able to grab in a couple of cases. I was able to grab originals. I, it was an example of a title where I was collecting a lot of singles along the way. And I never read all of the original X-Men issues. So my gap in my X-Men reading goes back to, I've read some of the original team. The stuff that I haven't read yet is when we get closer to giant size X-Men, how they wound up where they were. I read the hidden years. Did you ever read that one by John Byrne, X-Men, the hidden years? That's it's, I read all of that. So, which was kind of a, it filled in certain elements of the story. It was doing what, um, untold tales of the Spider-Man did if you read any of those issues, but it was doing it on the X-Men side. And it was really a good book. But, um, I, this era, when I'm looking at the pictures, I'm like, this is the air I want to read. I've got to get caught up to this because I'm not there yet. And I want to read when they were this team and, and follow that through. But we do get Scott on that scene. And the interesting thing about these two brothers is these are two brothers who their powers negate each other. They can't hurt each other, which is interesting, you know, for that to be an issue with the mutants. But the, the talk and the debate between the two of them, these are two brothers that have been rivals. They have been friends. They have been brothers and everything in between. And it rolls like a roller coaster because of the fact that they're two very, very different people. And I love how this battle played out. I liked how Scott, yeah, I, my powers can't hurt you, but I can do other things. And I loved his strategic use.

This is the shows Scott is the Wiley season veteran taking advantage of environment and circumstance to make things happen when it comes to havoc. Versus doing, and, and fisticuffs to take control of the situation versus using his powers that way. To me, to me,

it went back to what we were talking about earlier, where a depowered storm took out Cyclops. So right here, we've got two guys who really they're, they can't use their powers the way they normally would. So they're going to channel it. And I'd love this, his usage of blast the ground, throw dirt up in his face. So he can't see then punch up a couple of times. Then havoc kicks him off. He's throwing some blows, but this was a great physical, but I do love the verbal debate going on between these two brothers. Yes. Because again, it's brother, as you well know, relationships between brothers are very complicated. Sometimes. Oh yeah. Sometimes things are our street and you're on the same page, but sometimes you're throwing punches. Sometimes you're directly in opposition of each other. I know we both have been in those situations with our brothers and with our, even our brothers who aren't our actual bio, who aren't our brother. Sure. You know, we've got some old friends of ours who are their family as much as anybody else is their family. You know, and we've had our run-ins with those people as well. This read so realistic because of all the turmoil that these two have had. And because of all the turmoil I've had in my life with people who are considered to be my brother. You know, I loved these moments. I love the physical, but more importantly, I love the debate going back and forth about the fact that, you know, Havoc's like, how could you do this to the professor? He's still holding onto it, but then Scott.

is still holding on to no he is a monster we need to take him down i'd love that it is it's sometimes

a passionate idea ideologies between brothers will sometimes cause issues um sometimes you're wrong sometimes your brother's wrong sometimes neither of you are wrong or or you're both wrong when those pieces are gonna you know happen and that type of thing um and and the idea of sometimes you get so stubbornly like why won't you see my side of it that that keeps the battle going between them scott in the end with a reveal with charles is crawling to show scott what's happening because i think charles is convinced at this point if scott sees this i may get somewhere yeah he may understand what i'm actually doing there's one more of these eggs this is it this is the last egg we have a chance here to do something i did not see where this was going with charles with the whole egg i didn't see where this was going and i i loved the intrigue like as the story was going on i felt like we were each chapter we're unveiling something new as he gets kidnapped and taken away by yet another party which is going to lead us into x-force which was i just i just think this is a

great issue oh god yeah and again like you i 100 was not thinking enough there was a last one last egg yeah i was not thinking that and then it's funny when i first see the egg first thought that popped in my head is like you know and i love how you know scott's like who is who's in who's inside there no never mind it doesn't matter it's too late yeah my first question was who's inside there as well and then i started going on a tailspin of who could be in the egg to to everywhere i was thinking what if xavier's in the egg oh yeah and i you know what if there's a version of charles in the egg who doesn't have a little brain tumor thing this is a way to resurrect himself it's a way to resurrect himself you know and that's where i was thinking could it be that oh my god what if it's that what i love how they ended this i love how again the way this story is going from one to the next leading into always leading into the next with you know ending with um again the egg charles and you know goes off to x-force next and you got to read x-force number nine to find out what's going on

i love how this story is playing out yeah this is this is exactly what i was hoping for with this book and um i'm just really really enjoying every aspect of it and actually our next issue isn't x-force

it's exceptional isn't it or am i wrong yeah well it's exceptional is that collateral damage kind of side story piece going on and then x-force and then uh because x-force is actual is the next part of manhunt right but exceptional x-men is kind of a side story of what's going on in exceptional x-men

and i think we need we're going to do that one oh yeah we'll do we'll do the next next episode we'll finish up with the the last three issues that are associated with this and uh and go from there

yeah this i'll tell you this has been now when we first we did part one i enjoyed manhunt i was like oh this is kind of good this this section these issues have gotten me to the point where i'm like this is an epic story this is something that i absolutely love this story you know it's it's i enjoyed it before i want i was oh this is cool this is good i'm liking this now i absolutely love the story you know this is now has me where i want to collect it collect it in a prestige you know nice big i don't know i i'm not sure what marvel's formats are but whatever their version of the absolute is i want to collect this story in that format just so i have a nice big book that sometimes i can pull off a shelf and read when i feel like uh reading a manhunt story they have a they have a life-size

version yeah it takes i would pick up a life-size version of this i would too it takes three people to open it yeah can you come over i gotta turn the page yeah hey sean i want to read

manhunt why don't you come on over it seems to run on some form of electricity

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