Muse

Welcome to Raging Bullets, a comics fan podcast, Season 2, Episode 772.

From the great outskirts of Cleveland, to wherever you may roam, Sean and Jim, thank you for listening to the Raging Bullets Podcast Show.

Welcome to Raging Bullets, I'm Sean Whalen, Dr. Norge, and 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, is reminding you that you should be very afraid of your fate in the upcoming 97-part epic miniseries, Sensei Kills the Marvel Universe, and of course is the elder statesman of the podcast, Segulin.

How's it going, eh?

On this episode, Jim and I are going to be talking about Exceptional X-Men No. 7, X-Force No. 9, and X-Man Hunt Omega No. 1. Sponsoring this episode is of course DCBService and InStockTrades.com. Mr. Segulin, what is going on over at DCBService.com?

We have the X-Men of Apocalypse Alpha, issue 1 of 4, 46% off, only 323, as well as multiple variant covers. It looks like they're taking the Age of Apocalypse universe and continuing on the story. There's going to be an Alpha series and an Omega series, so it's kind of neat considering we're coming up to the, what, 30th anniversary of Age of Apocalypse. So that's kind of a cool thing coming out. And also, I saw an all-new Spider-Gwen series, Ghost Spider, issue 1, 46% off, only 269, and there's going to be a Thor No. 1. So it looks like they're restarting up that series as well. Also, 46% off, only 269, so thank you, DCBS. Are you reading Immortal Thor? No, I'm not, and I've got to.

You've got to, because you'll understand why there's going to be a new Thor. Oh, cool. Yeah. Perfect. Over at InStockTrades.com, there's DC's finest, Catwoman Vengeance and Vindication. This is $39.99 regularly, 55% off, only $17.99. Two different versions of the Marvel Masterworks Daredevil Hardcover, Volume 19, $75 regularly, 46% off, only $40.50. And Spawn Origins Deluxe Edition Hardcover. They have a signed and an unsigned version. Both are 50% off. The signed version is $149.99 regularly, 50% off, only $75. The unsigned version is $99 regularly, 50% off, only $49.99. I want to thank DCBService and InStockTrades.com for continuing to support our show. Mr. Segulin, 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. Let's talk some comics.

Our next discussion is going to be of Exceptional X-Men No. 7, which is the Collateral Damage Issue. The writer is Evel Ewing. The artist is Carmen Carnero. The color artist is Nolan Woodard. The letterer is VCs Travis Lanham. The cover artists are Carmen Carnero and Nolan Woodard. The variant cover artists are Peach Momoko, Rian Gonzalez, Ricky Yagawa, and Nolan Woodard. And apologies for any name butchery at all. This is an interesting book to talk about. I've really enjoyed Exceptional X-Men because of the fact that it's been trying to do something different. We got a Kitty Pryde who originally didn't want to get back in the game, so to speak, and was drawn back in. Emma Frost playing off of her, which is Emma Frost being uniquely Emma Frost. And a really interesting cast of new X-Men that I'm really digging so far in Bronze, Axo, Melee, and of course having Iceman come back in this one has been pretty good as well. What are your thoughts on Exceptional X-Men as a title so far? We're seven issues into this title. We can kind of go from there.

Well, when we talked about Exceptional No. 1, I was like, oh, okay. I wasn't like, oh, my God, I got to keep reading this. It was interesting, but I wasn't locked in on it. And so it just sat there. And it just built. And as we were getting ready for, again, getting ready to talk manhood, I'm like, oh, let me get caught up on it. So I was able to read 1 through 6 in one sitting. Nice. So, and again, exactly nice. That actually really helped me appreciate this book and enjoy it because I got to see the build of the team. I got to see the point where it feels like an X-book now. Issue number one didn't really feel like an X-book to me. It felt like they had X characters. And I got to see the build of the team.

but they weren't X-Men. It wasn't an X-Men book. By issue six, I'm seeing the X-Men because we're seeing a school of, we're seeing a school. You know, granted, it's not the formal university, but it is still Kitty and Emma and Bobby doing the training of the young mutants. And you're seeing the young mutants' personal life kind of also dealing with their mutant life and whatnot. So it was kind of a neat, it had that X feel to it. So I'm glad that I didn't, you know, read one month and then wait, read an issue, wait a month, read an issue, wait a month. I actually was able to sit down in one sitting and knock it out. So if anyone's out there and you've read one issue or two issues and you're like, ah, do yourself a favor, go through and read one through six. They're all available on the app. Yeah. You'll get a good, solid feel of what Exceptional X-Men's about. And I'm digging it. I'm enjoying this book. You know, and I'm especially liking Bronze. For some reason, Bronze, I'm just like, I love that character. I love how, you know, she's this shy, timid, and she's starting to come out of her shell. You're seeing so much of, you know, so much of what, you know, a lot of the cool X stories that we read when we were younger, of them dealing with their teen angst and whatnot, and then dealing with the X factor of it. And, you know, it's, I like that character a lot. She's kind of cool.

So we'll talk about it a little later in this conversation, but who Xenos actually is. And to me, you needed the previous issues to build to that. I think that reveal coming too early would not have worked. So there's definitely a pacing that's needed to be done here. I'm going to add something onto something you're saying. I agree with you that it feels more like an X book now, but I also feel like now it more, it's why do we need this X book is much more apparent, if that makes sense. Yeah. Because, you know, there comes a point in time where it's like, is this just yet another book trying to be an X book for no reason? What flavor this provides, what's unique about this book is really apparent now. And it's an example of a book that needed an arc, which I like that. I mean, to me, when I try a title, I like to give it an arc before I make a decision on it anyway, if I'm going to jump ship or not. And this is a book that its first arc story has gotten me really, really hooked into these characters. And I'm glad that it's here. It did have a slow burn though, but that's not a bad, pacing wise, I don't need out of the, I don't need the first issue in every single title to hit me that way. I need the first arc to hit me that way. And this is an example of it. We kick into the first page and we see Emma Frost really kind of reflecting on life in general and her concept of love and what love is. And we've, she's had some interesting relationships along the way. Obviously the, you know, Cyclops one is a big one that stands out there. I forgot that she was married to Tony Stark, which was something that was a whole interesting storyline that happened over there. They did it for some very specific reasons, but actually fell for each other along the way. Emma's relationships have been very, very unique and interesting along the way. And then some, just some of the horror that happened in Krakoa, death that happened there. Krakoa being this safe haven and what they were trying to build there and the loss of that. I'm glad to see Emma reflecting it in this way because I don't know that this is something that we've seen too much in these X titles. Yes, Krakoa has been mentioned. Their status quo changes have been mentioned, but I like that this is kind of establishing what Krakoa was. You know, so if you didn't read all of that or even if you just need kind of a memory of like, this is why these people are upset, I kind of get it. It looks really nice.

And I love the fact that we're seeing this side of Emma because we always see her not as nice. and, you know, you're seeing just, you know, even she found Krakoa as this peaceful haven, you know, and it was a paradise even to her and she's got, you know, you think about her character and her personality. I would never imagine her being at peace, you know, with the universe. You know, she's always going to be chaos. She's always going to be at odds with it. Here we're seeing she had moments of peace there. So taking that away from her escalates, you know, what she, you know, because she's not a fan of humanity at all. You know, she's one of those mutants that, you know, you keep a close eye on because at any given moment she could try to wipe out humanity. She can try to wipe out all non-mutants. You see, again, she had this peace and was taken from her. You know, and you understand where she's coming from and you start getting a better vibe on just her personality you know, and it's kind of, it was a neat, you know, couple, neat.

to spend a couple pages on it because in up in this point in the exceptional you never really got to see an emotional side of emma frost you're seeing more of emma being emma you know there's some classic emma moments this is letting us see you know letting us chip away at the armor and letting us actually see she's got a heart she's got emotion she feels she hurts you know and i loved these couple pages just spending through there and i love the fact that we do have lang we do have words in there but a lot of it's being told in the artwork oh yes in the way the images are laid out you know so again that further adds to me about just showing the emotional side of it of her not trying to logically explain it but just we're seeing the images that she sees in her mind

you know the interesting part about emma is she's clearly reverted to what emma does that that hard diamond shell um it's kind of funny that uh it's not just her psychic power she has she's you know for years now had this this hard exterior that she's able to uh bring into manifestation it it matches her um that's that's how when the world hits her she hardens up and uh pushes back accordingly um usually using you know if you look at both of her power sets usually in a sneaky somewhat underhanded fashion yeah which is very emma i do i agree with you that uh seeing this side of her right now is something that i think is really necessary in this book just as a reminder of the kind of caring person that she is and also likely to see that you know she cares about these kids and to some extent she cares about kitty um it's that's an interesting relationship with those two it's it's that's a definition of it's complicated um it's a very complicated history between the two of them and their relationship right now is very complicated which uh works really really well

for me um i'm starting to dive into the krakow readings you know and the krakow time period in the x universe well that's a lot to read so you know there's a lot yeah i know it's good a lot to go and it's some really good stuff and you know and kitty again you know shadow cat ninja badass she was on fire and i'm like man you know so again it adds to why she is so wants wanted to have just this normal life she didn't want to have any of the x stuff she didn't want to get involved she just wanted a nice calm and this stuff is just the chaos is thrust upon her and she's got to deal with it and there was some again some really cool moments in this but i'm just now really diving in krakow stuff it's this is a really cool balance and again it further adds why this this series has been such a slow burn as we said you know because you need you know you had kitty who was really beaten up over everything that happened to her everything that happened to the mutant world you know and you've got emma we're getting a good idea on why she's doing what she's doing how much she hurts so i love how this is building up and again melee and bronze two great new characters and i love that we're getting similar powers that we've seen before but little variations on them kitty went to some very

dark places during krakow i'm still gonna leave it at that yeah oh yeah and um it's especially as it as krakow came to an end uh and emma was there and emma was a part of that so this this is something that um this is not where kitty wants to be uh well i i you know i think the question is at least kitty's perception of what this was going to be i think we're we're seeing now kitty pride become kitty pride again in in all the right ways i absolutely adore the character um she was um when i was a kid she was like my gateway into the x-men because she was still relatively the newbie when i jumped onto the book and uh she made you feel like you could be an x-men and uh i love characters like that they're the ones that uh they've they've got that kind of accessibility of they're not polished yet they're learning and you're like oh i could do that too you know that was during the day when they had the m thing on the hand you know where they would if you were a mutant you had an m on the hand and that type of thing so it's i i love the fact that kitty today is a character we can still read who still has such a rich history and she's been through a lot you mentioned the wolverine crossovers in one of our previous episodes and i think that's something that uh the character i will always have a soft spot for her for that piece and again also the wolverine crossover series but

i still remember the spider-man kitty pride team up oh yeah when they were down in the morlock tunnels and you know it again part of it was the kids that kitty was babysitting kidnapped so she's got to go down there and do her ex thing and that was a and that was again that was the pre ninja training that kitty pride had so that for me was just a great crossover and again she as you said she's just a cool character and i love the fact that she has grown and we've seen her mature and we've seen the character develop you know a lot of the a lot of the characters they don't let them age they don't let them grow up i'm glad that they're letting kitty grow up and i'm glad they're letting kitty become a mature woman and not just oh let's reboot her bring her back down to young age so we keep her the sprite no no this mature you know experienced kitty pride is so much cooler you know you know then she was you know and again like you i love the character back then but i love the fact that she has grown into this and i love that we now have another phasing kind of hero that she's dealing with and we've got bronze who is so similar to colossus that even she mentioned it like a couple issues ago how she's like i know somebody you know who has a power very similar to you and they're the gentlest person i know you know just you know going on with helping her deal with her transformation and her transition so it was it's really neat to have these two on her team yeah and it's it's really

interesting to see them training we got to see rogue training in one of the previous in the actually the kickoff issue of this piece and just the sense of we're trying to ethically prepare these kids for anything they could possibly face uh so they're pushing them and being critical and doing it in a different way i like that it's it's not a cookie cutter version of what rogue was doing rogue is going to be different in how she's training and they're in a little bit of a harsher environment kitty and emma together are kind of it's almost like they're playing bad cop bad cop in the way they're interacting and uh i i like it i actually really like the training relationship between them with melee and bronze trying to make sure that the two of them can kind of push up bra brawn's basically saying that we're kind of in a fight club was an interesting sort of uh piece to look at the phasing thing it's interesting to see where emma's talking about the phasing the points made that you don't want to be doing the same fight every time i like i like that this dialogue was not just uh yeah you're you're training a certain pathway but you want to be careful that we don't want to be predictable to our enemies as well yeah and i loved that dialogue and that banter because i'm like well yeah that's true it was really smart you don't often hear that when that we see like you know certain certain x-men moves or certain team moves put in place where the person goes back and they're having the conversation like yeah but i don't want to be predictable and that worked i really really liked that thought oh big

time big yeah and again this is one of the neat things watching this team grow watching this team develop you know and they don't have a danger room so they have this dance floor basically you know and probably does want to see eventually all the teams get a danger room because those danger room training situations are so cool i always love those things you know but i do like how they're dealing with this how they are doing their training and early on in this series emma threw out some mind you know some mind stuff to them they've had a couple different types of training elements added to it when bobby was around they've done some they've done some improvise adapt and overcome just like we saw when this series kicked off rogues and her team were doing that kind of stuff so i love that they all they all have that same mindset and they love that you know that based from what they're they dealt with they know the only way you can get better control of your powers are by using them and by training with them and by focusing on them focusing in a combat situation focusing on the various day-to-day situations that way in a moment's notice you can pull it on you can turn it on and you could use it so i again training sequences with any of the x books are always a must-have and

i'm loving how they're pulling this off xenos is so well written oh yeah you want to just jump to who he is yeah so it's mr sinister i love that i didn't fully know i mean i had a feeling like he was evil i had a feeling he might be somebody i wasn't i don't know i guess i wasn't really diving into it it goes back to the fact of this book's been a slow build i wasn't overly thinking about who xenos was and actually it served even better for when we got the reveal because by that point in time i was invested in him as clearly the the big evil of this i love the manipulation though if he's sitting there with axo who he knows right now is feeling like a um he's out of place you know doesn't really

really have a sense of belonging, have a sense of purpose, have a sense of value. And he's fully playing into that. He knows he's crafted himself as this enigma. And it's working, you know, for Zenos, you know, to be this guy that, you know, I understand you. Look at me. I've got these horns on my head. I understand what it's like to be hard to fit in. You know, he's checking all of the boxes of, I get it. But also what he's done is he's gotten his life together. Look how successful he is. Look at what he's doing. So you can see Axel kind of look at him and go, I want to be, or Alejandro, looking at him and going, I want to be him. I want to eventually, you know, have that level of togetherness and gotten my life together. I'm making it. And he's doing all the things that Axel wants to be involved in. I love how he does little bits of, oh, if I only knew how to use this doggone software and that type of thing. And all of those things were blatant nuggets that he was dropping to make Axel feel important and needed. Evaluating, showing him again, this is why you want to be here. This is why I need you to be here. Building trust. So that way, Axel can start letting down his shell and revealing his vulnerability so Sinister can manipulate him. That's where now reading it back, it's like, how did I not know it was him?

And it was funny, like, last issue, they get mugged. And I did air quotes around the term mugged. Yeah, yeah. Because Sinister paid the muggers to attack them.

Yes.

You know, and again, it made Axel really look like the hero saving. Get back, Rituzinos. Does his, like, you know, quick knockdown and, you know, gets rid of the people and, you know, they're not going to bother anybody anymore. And it was all, it was just that great moment of letting, you know, Axel feel like he's important. And just like these sequences, let him feel like it was important. This cover has Xenos and then it kind of has the Sinister cape. But I'll admit to you, I thought those were some type of wings. Yeah. I was thinking that Xenos was a demon, not Mr. Sinister. Because I knew he was a bad guy. But I was thinking just the way those, the cover art looked like, to me, it looked like demon wings versus the Sinister cape.

But now, wait, now when you look at that cover, though. Now you look. That is a really sharp cover. Oh, God, yeah. I actually like the way that they did the cover because it's clearly Sinister. But I didn't notice it for the same reasons you were because it wasn't 100% on my radar. It's one of those when you look back at it now, you're like, oh, my God, it was right there. But I like that. And kudos to the cover artist for putting that the way that it was. It works on two different levels. It's a smack to the head, you know, like, duh. But it didn't ruin the issue. And that was just brilliantly, brilliant. At least for me, it didn't. It was brilliantly, brilliantly done.

100% did not ruin it. And again, because I noticed, again, as I said, I was thinking demon. I was thinking Xenos was a demon. You know, not I wasn't thinking Mr. Sinister. And I don't know why I wasn't because he's obviously one of the great villains that the exes face. So let's might as well throw him against exceptional. So this but and this is even a perfect usage of Sinister. Yeah. You think what's what he's doing here, what he's trying to do with, you know, with a human, you know, basically capturing the human soul, capturing the mutant, you know, trait. He's doing this is all classic Mr. Sinister stuff. And I was like, this is brilliant storytelling. And I love how this all played out. This was a really cool usage. And I'm looking forward to future episodes, issues of exceptional just to see how this ex team deals with Sinister now. That's going to be that's going to be a fight that's going to be fun to watch.

What's really interesting is this algorithm that, you know, you're finding out things about people and digging deep into secrets and private things that people aren't going to want you to know. And Sinister's dropping this nugget in particular because I love that Axo's questioning about it. Like, is this right? Should we even be doing that? And I like that Xenos is like, you know, ethically, this technology is out there. And if it's going to be out there, I'd like to be one of the ones driving the ship on it. So that way, you know, I'm I'm being a responsible steward. What an answer. You know, I mean, yeah. Yeah. No, dude, like we don't want you having access to any of this kind of stuff. But I love how he used it as a way to say, but tell me about you. Like, there's a reason why you're asking that question. He used it as totally a way to peel peel back that onion and to get deep inside him. You know, his point is, I never know if I've got a real relationship with anybody. You know, are people really trusting me? Are that because is it because of my powers that they're doing? I love when the X-Books do stuff like this, because sometimes these powers are not ideal or clean. They tend to have an after effect. In his case, not only is it a visual one, it's a personal one. He has relationships that he just doesn't know if they're genuine. Do these people really care about me? Do these people really trust me? Or is it just my powers forcing them to? He catches himself at the end saying, sorry, that was too much. And I love that Zeno says the one thing that this kid needed right now. And this is a very sinister thing too. I understand. Yep. Oh, is that this issue reads? It was reading. It was reading sneaky and slimy and all that all along. It reads even more so when you know who this dude is.

Yeah. Oh, God. And I love it. I love him thinking with him saying after he says, I understand, you know, a lot of people say that and they don't. But with you, I think they I think this guy really gets it. I'm like, oh, man. You know, when I'm reading it the first time, I was like, oh, God, kid, this is not good for you. And then you reread it the second time knowing it's sinister. You're like, oh, man, this is this is really great sinister writing. This really is Mr. Sinister. I'm like, damn, this is awesome.

Well, it's interesting is they have the conversation about the the visual look, you know, as far as one of those things. And he's he's like, do people comment on my horns, you know, and that kind of look? Yeah, all the time. But I'm the boss. You know, it's interesting how he's he's basically saying, you know, there's there's ways you can get there. But Alejandro is saying that's not the issue. And it goes it keeps going back to that piece of, you know, is it I want to learn how to control this because I want to know if relationships are real. I want to know, you know, those pieces. I that part's really, really important to me. This after school club, he keeps referencing, you know, that sinister knows exactly what that's all about. He's trying to manipulate all of them using Exo. And this is his way of once again, screwing with the X-Men.

Oh, God, big time. You know, again, it's sinister. He knows what's going on. And he's and I even love how he is putting a wedge between them.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah. You know, without even without even trying, you know, because he's he's being such supportive for, you know, for Axo that when he actually was interacting with the people who do legitimately care about him, he's brushing them off saying, you know, and again, like to bronze when he when he yelled at bronze, like, dude, that's bronze. She legitimately cares about you because that's the kind of person she is. She is just too tender to she's not a manipulator. And you're letting the guy who is the master manipulator let you lash out at her. I was like, oh, and that again, great sequence when he just slashes an out to her that, you know, bronze goes into melee and melee is comforting her like a big sister because we we've seen, you know, melee has this rough exterior. But she's also one of those where she's taking care of her family. She's taking she's she lashes out because she's a she's a guardian. You know, her personality is I've got to fight to protect my family. I got to fight to protect my loved ones. I've got to fight to protect the innocent. You know, she is a 100 percent true guardian hero, you know, in her. You know, and I love seeing just these little moments, you know, and, you know, there's eventually going to come a reckoning with, you know, these between these three and it's going to be these three against Sinister. And I want to see this team working together because Axel right now it's they're like they're talking about just that empath kind of ability where you can get people to confess their deepest, darkest thoughts. But there is a side to it. He's starting to, you know, he's able to manipulate and not manipulate, but kind of precog where, you know, he was able to see the attack coming on. He was able to see when people lash out because he can feel that emotional side.

Yeah.

You know, there's a secondary part of his power set that's going to play out. You know, that's going to really start getting developed. That's going to make him even more powerful than what we think he is. I'm looking forward to that evolution down the line.

I love his insecurities are being transmitted here because now he's questioning all these friendships, you know, basically saying, I don't know that you really even care about me. Or is this just my powers at work right now? Are you really here because you want to be here because Emma's manipulating you? And he's not really angry at Emma. He is questioning himself. But because Emma is the closest mirror to what he has, he's naturally assuming that, yeah, none of my relationships are real, which means none of your interactions with Emma are real because she's probably manipulating you. And that's what that's all about. That's all. All of this is about him. All of this is about him. And I loved how real that reads because that's what people do. I mean, we've all been there before. When you're at your lowest, you lash out in ways and you hurt people that are the closest to you. Great. During this point in time, he goes to storm on out and Bobby walks in and this is where we see the touch point. I really liked how this book handled Manhunt. And there's a reason why it's labeled collateral damage because of the fact that they're mentioning Manhunt. They're integrating. I mean, Bobby's one of the original X-Men. And obviously, Emma and Kitty are going to have reasons that they need to know about all of this piece. This is a great way to incorporate Manhunt without forcing this book to be directly involved in an integral way in Manhunt. And I'm glad that they did that because, boy, this storyline would have been derailed if they pulled them more deeply into Manhunt. It was a good choice to do this.

And it's funny because, and there's one of the points that when, when I, before I read the, the actual ending of the series, I had this massive idea in my head of how this is going to play out. And I'm so glad I was wrong. Not only was I wrong, I was completely wrong. I love the way this story, the manhunt ends so much better than what my mind said. Because I had it that the, what was going to happen was the Bobby, Emma, and Kitty were going to get pulled into Manhunt. You know, when they find out the professor gets out. And I was thinking they were going to get pulled into on the X-Force side of it. You know, the stuff that's currently going on in X-Force, that's where those three were going to get pulled into it. And I'm so glad they didn't do that because, again, as you said, that would have completely derailed the story. But I love the fact that, you know, you know, we get a good touch on it and we get a good motion. And I love when Bobby's first coming in, the shadow that's overcast on the ceiling is Professor, you know, it's Charles' image.

Yeah, yeah.

You know, on the ceiling. Again, brilliant artwork on this. And I love the fact that we do get an emotional reaction from Emma. You know, the diamond hard, non-emotional white queen, she has a reaction to Xavier getting out. I thought that for me, this page is absolutely brilliant. And then I love how when they go right into it, the kids don't know who Xavier is. They have no idea. And they wouldn't know who Xavier is. You know, so I thought that, again, I was like, oh, that is awesome. That is awesome. And even like how Kitty's like, oh, yeah, of course you guys wouldn't know. You know, and it was a great, again, great emotional side of the story that would not have happened in my universe. In my universe, these pages were spent, from that page on, was spent them, you know, getting hooked up on the X-Force side of the fight. Because X-Force is the next book. You know, that's why I was thinking that they were going to get tied into X-Force. And when we talk X-Force, I'll tell you how I thought that was going to play out.

It would have been a huge mistake. Big time. Because of the fact that I hate when storylines do that. They feel there's a need to force a book into it. This is a much better way to do it, with calling it collateral damage and then having them reflect on it this way. Having the dialogue with the kids as far as how are these kids interacting. This book is written very current and very today. I love that the kids are like, well, we know Krakoa. Because, you know, we get sent the videos like 10 times a day about mutant politics. So we understand what that is. So, you know, there is a touch point to bring them up to speed. But they weren't there. They don't know the inner politics. They don't know who Charles is. They didn't interact with Charles that way. And I love that. I love that being a different lens into all of this. Being that these three, Bobby, Emma, and Kitty, are their Charles in their own way. And I love that aspect of this book right now. And they're making the strides that Charles would make. And they're making mistakes like Charles would make along the way. And all of that, I think, just works really, really well. Emma kind of talking about the philosophical piece of Krakoa. Saying, you know, sitting there, you know, but for us, that's not all that being a mutant is about. The things that happened to you. And she's like, no, no. You don't understand. This happened to you too. They took your home away. Even if you never went there. You know, she's saying, like, you know, like, especially with seeing that in the beginning. That establishing shot. Those establishing shots of how Krakoa was. And what it meant. She's saying, like, you could have been there. Like, this was awesome. And this was something that was available to all.

all mutants. So Emma's right in what she's feeling. And I don't know if these kids are ever going to understand that Krakoa is this ideal that I was glad that the books explored this. And I'm glad you're reading it, because when you read it and you're kind of like, oh, they were doing this. It's that loss is huge when you take a look at everything they were doing at Krakoa. It's why that era got such buzz. And I'm glad these books are reflective of it.

Oh, big time. Yeah. And again, it is this epic thing that happened to the mutants that even if these kids never went there, they missed out on the opportunities that would have presented themselves if Krakoa still existed. And it is kind of cool that I'm glad. And again, glad that it's Emma, because this again is showing that emotional side of her that we normally don't see about how they took away your home. Her one true love was Krakoa, was the peace that she felt in Krakoa. You know, and I love the fact that, you know, again, bringing on the artwork just to look on her face was is that, you know, that's the you know, you don't get it, kid. This is, you know,

this is nasty. And I love that. I like when he's texting Sophie as XO when he's walking along. I like that, you know, she's sitting there. I'm sorry you got it with your friends. I definitely can relate. But it sounds like your boss listens to you. He's like, it really does. It's weird. It's, I think there's a part of him that it's weird piece. I don't think it's a throwaway. There is a part of him that is some of this is registering that something seems a little off. And I like that. It's there's something because I like this kid quite a bit. And I like with everything that he's going through, you know, if he was a little bit more stable right now, or a little bit more self confident, Sinister wouldn't be able to get away with this. Sinister is preying on the fact that he has a lack of self confidence right now, because life's given him that. His powers have given him that. He's got a really cool power set. But the where he didn't hit the genetic lottery is the fact that what came along with that is so much the visual look of him, you know, has made him question others and their relationships with him. And the power set has made him question that. I love it. That part of it is so good. We get to the basement layer. And that's something that it's it's now that Sinister's kind of ripping off the bandaid here. And this is this is where things are really like, I was like sitting like this guy's not leaving this basement.

Yeah, he's in trouble. Yeah, the kids in trouble. Now when you're in a place where there's nobody else around and oh, this is my personal lab where I come to tinker. Like, oh, this kid's in trouble. He's in danger now. Now. And again, I still it's funny because I really was not thinking Sinister. I was thinking demonic type of stuff. And I was thinking this is going to be the gateway to hell. And I'm like, kid, you're in trouble now. And I loved how he's just laying it out even more. And and again, he's like, oh, I trust you. You're in this inner circle. I completely trust you now. Like, no, he completely has you under control now. Yeah. Yeah. You know, it like you said, he's starting to wreck, you know, the you know, his spidey sensor starting to tingle. He's like, something's not right with this guy. I'm going to leave. Oh, I just got a text message. And it really was just a reminder to return some library books. He's like, yeah. Oh, no. You know, Sinister knows like, no, this is a dead zone. Sinister knows the kid's lying. He's like, you're not leaving here, you know? And he's like, oh, yeah, I've got the elevator on a bio scan. So you can't physically leave here. It's like, oh, man, this is just the classic villain mode, you know, moments. And I love how they're starting to change the I don't want to say change how they're drawing him, you know, yeah, but they are starting to make just the the the the little slide looks and just the way the grimace on on Exo's face throughout this, you really now see him as the villain. The art team, you mean Xenos? Yeah, Xenos. Yeah, sorry. You know, you're really now seeing the villain side of him before you kind of saw him as the friendly, good going lucky. Hey, you know, yeah, I got some big horns on my head, but I'm a nice guy. You know, now you're seeing the sinister starts to come out. Now you're starting to see just the way he grit, you know, that that evil grin, you know, that he's got going on. I love how the art team changed over their styling of him. Exo, you know, they're showing him like the, oh, I think we got a problem here kind of look on his face. This for me was a great art team working with the story, shifting how the guy looks, shifting how their pre... presented, you know, to let you know, yes, this is a bad guy now.

Now, what's interesting with Mr. Sinister, I'm very afraid for Exo because I'm afraid of what Sinister is going to do to him. Sinister's got a history of altering and changing and manipulating and doing those pieces. I'm but we doesn't do anything more to screw around with this poor kid because he's he's got enough of a genetic lottery problem. He doesn't need any help. So I'm very, very worried about where this goes, because his team, his friends don't know where he is right now. So that's it's going to be interesting to see where this goes. And because he's not in a situation where he's got people that are actively looking for him or have a reason to actively look for him. He stormed off angry. So, you know, those are pieces where it's kind of a give him a chance to normally you'd say give him a chance to, like, get some breathing room and then come back and then we can kind of talk all this out when he's calmer would be kind of the approach to this type of thing. I know there's not a reason for a hunt for him, a manhunt, so to speak, for Exo at the moment. I like that. You know, as far as setting up a sense of real danger here, I'm not feeling like we're going to flip the first page of the next issue. And yes, team's there and they're all ready to hang out.

But yeah, well, only thing I'm thinking is that Sophie will be trying to find him and can't. So she'll reach out to the others, you know, and they're like, hey, no one's seen Exo. And it's going to be something where they're going to realize he's missing eventually. But there's gonna be a time passage for that. Oh, yeah. I mean, that's that passage. Who knows what Sinister is going to do to the kid? Yeah, because they're going to figure out that he went to this guy that he went to his his his understanding boss, you know, and that's going to be because the part of the team is not, you know, melee was 100 percent not trusting of the guy. Right. She was, you know, you think about it. She was like, ah, this guy, there's something wrong here. You know, she immediately didn't trust the guy. So she's going to go ahead first into it. And she's probably going to be the next one to get captured. In my opinion, she and bronze are going to go looking for are going to go looking for him and they're going to be next captured, which is going to lead into Emma, Kitty and Bobby going after, you know, for the cleanup. Yeah. So that's that's how I'm seeing this play out in my head. So and again, I'm looking forward to seeing it play out, you know, because this has been some really good stuff. And we know this creative team knows how to do Mr. Sinister. So we're getting some good. We're going to these next couple issues of exceptional are going to be just that exceptional.

Yeah. I'm enjoying this book a great deal. It's funny. You mentioned in the beginning, you know, how this feels more like an X book now. I agree. But what I really like about it is that it doesn't feel like the other two. And that's really, really critical for me. It's, you know, one of the things that is the common criticism with X books over the years has been, do we really need another X book? I think what you when you're launching titles like this, you've got to give a reason why, why this book, why do we need this third X book? Why do we need another one with the title of X-Men on it? I feel like this first arc has really given a strong reason why this book's needed and why this book is really enjoyable and why it's different. It's a book that it's like I like you said earlier. And it's kind of what I'm alluding to as well. I'll say it again. Slow burn. And but a but a slow burn that turned I mean, like this reveal does not matter if you don't have the six issues before. Yep. And this I'm glad that this book has gotten to where it is. And I'm hoping that it's gotten some additional readership to it because it's it's a good book.

Yeah. And again, yeah, if you if you read issue one and you're like, it's not for me, you may want to pick up the one through six is available on the on the app right now. So pick it up and give it a read. Because again, this was this book has that X feel to it. And like you said, all of the X books, they all to me all have that X men feel. But each one is a little different. Each one has a different side to it. You know, I'm not sitting there going, do we need because I'm one of those people who in the past have said, do we really need another X book? You know, what's the point of this book? Is it just so you can use more characters? Is it just to sell another comic book? So you slap the label X man on it? No, we're now seeing that exceptional is an X book for a reason. And it's got its purpose. It's got its own groove and vibe to it. So I'm very happy with all of these X books, how they feel that I feel like it's an X book, but it's not a cookie cutter carbon copy of anything I've read. It's its own entity. It's its own life. And I'm that's something I'm really, as I said, I'm very excited for the next issue of exceptional because, you know, it's. It's, you know, I'm loving this story.

I'm going to add something to what you're saying. I agree with you as far as the app being a good way to get caught up if you haven't been reading the series. I will say this, though, and it's more of a, if you like a book, you have to buy it. Yeah. And it's something out there that I don't feel like the app reads are giving people a vote as far as saying that, you know, hey, this title needs to stick around. So when people, if you're asking, like, why is my favorite title or why is the title that I'm jumping on going away? Do yourself a favor and vote for it by paying for the title. It's just a reality nowadays that titles tend to vanish. I love using the app for the same reason, so I'm not correcting you. I'm more building off of what you're saying. The app's a great way if it's a title, you're like, I don't know if this is for me or not. Pick it up. You're paying for the app. Take a look at it. But if you like it, at some point you do need to pay for it as its own individual entity because that's the way you vote for the book. That's the way the book sticks around is if you do that because they're really looking at the monthly issues. That's what they're looking at the sales of those. It's a reality of it. I have certain books that I pick up monthly. And here's where I'm going to contradict myself a little bit. I collect in such a funky way now. I have certain books that I'm collecting single issues where I'm collecting them as far as the physical single floppies. There's other books where I'm reading them as singles digitally. And I'm hearing that that's not a great way to vote. So I'm struggling myself with how do I make my vote count? Do I convert those over to floppies? And I don't know what to do as far as that end goes. I wish that the single digitals counted as much as the floppies do as well. Because I have certain books I like having in floppies. There's a reality of the truth is if you want your vote to count, you gotta buy the paper. Yeah. And that's kind of the reality to it.

Our next discussion is on X-Force number nine. The writer is Jeffrey Thorne with artist Marcus To. Color artist is Eric A-R-C-I-N-I-E-G-A. The letter is VCs Joe Carmanga C-A-R-A-M-A-G-N-A. Cover artist is Stephen Segoba Rain B-E-R-E-D-O. And the variant covers are by E.M. Jist with Phil Noto. And yeah, apologies on name butchering on all of those because I butchered a lot of them. And this is an actually really good book. So thank you.

What's interesting about this book too is it's Legacy Issue 299. So we're one away from 300. So I actually really like that Marvel does that. The Legacy numbering. And it's nice to see, you know, as a collector, when new volumes are launched, I get why we do new number ones and what they bring to the table. But I like where do I put this in my collection? Where does it fit? I geek out at stuff like that. X-Force already hitting 300 issues is a real landmark. I'm a testament to this book. What's your history with X-Force as just a concept? Where do you go back to? I mean, were you reading New Mutants when it became X-Force? Yeah. Was that kind of, so was I.

Yeah, I read the crossover from New Mutants to X-Force. And I think I picked it up. I don't think I picked it up at like X-Force number one. But when it happened, I wasn't reading New Mutants. So it wasn't until it actually was solid X-Force.

So you weren't in on the cable stuff when cable was launching.

When cable was there, that's what got my interest because, oh, this character is really cool. So I probably got back, got in on X-Force like number seven or six or something like that. You know, so that's where I'd been, you know, back then I didn't think to, oh, I should hunt down X-Force number one before it becomes worth a lot of money. You know, I wasn't thinking that way when it came out. So it was, so I probably have X-Force six or seven, you know, maybe somewhere around there in my, you know, in my massive stockpile behind me of comics. It's probably sitting there somewhere. But so I'm relatively early into the game of X-Force. And again, it was because of I wasn't reading New Mutants because I was like, I don't need it. And then X-Force came around. I'm like, oh, this is kind of interesting. This cable guy is kind of cool. I think I'm going to jump in on that.

See, I loved New Mutants. I was a big fan of New Mutants when Claremont did like the spinoff and then where it grew into along the way. New Mutants had kind of its peaks and troughs, but it was always an enjoyable book. I always really liked it. It had some, I should say, it had some stellar storylines in it that were great. And Cable became kind of this, wow. Cable came in at the right time for the book. It needed that something. That something to set it apart. Something to be different. And who knew that Cable was going to go where that character ended up going. And just how big that character ended up becoming. This is interesting.

He is an amazing character. That's a character I would love to see somehow for them to figure out a way to bring back. Yeah. In full force. That would be kind of neat. And no pun intended on X-Force commentary. One of the.

Oh, good.

Well, I was going to say, one of the things I liked about this current version of X-Force. It's not remnant. It's not like, oh, it's a carbon copy of that. None of these. All these books have their own groove to them. Their own style, their own reeling. But again, this really does have an X-Force feel to it for me. This, you know, off the books kind of covert operation type of team. That's a strike force with the one particular. They've got their little globe that's guiding them. You know, and Forge is a great leader for this. He is the right person to run X-Force. He has that kind of, again, he's not cable, but he has that kind of groove to him. You know, and him and Sage as a tag team, it really, to me, had that X-Force cable domino kind of groove to it. So again, it's, I don't want to say this is a copy of it, but it has that same kind of vibe, you know, to it for me. And that was, again, one of the reasons I really, I'm digging this series. Yeah.

Did you read Extreme X-Men by Claremont? No, I did not. So, you know, that was, Sage was really heavily featured in that book and really enjoyed her there. I was glad to see her back in this. I think one of the things that this X-Force book has done very well is letting you get to know these characters. Because not a one of them is a part of the original X-Force team. Yeah. You know, which is fine. I actually, I agree with you. It's X-Force. This book is X-Force because of the squad-based approach, more of the almost covert, like you're saying, covert military style. They're kind of like the A-team of the X-Men. You know, except for the Black Van. But I really enjoy this team. I don't know where they're going with the Surge storyline. Like, we've got Surge in there as, you know, dead as a part of the team. Are we going to get Surge back? I'm kind of hopeful that we get Surge back at some capacity. Because, yeah, I'm with you. I got my fingers crossed on that one, too. But, because she's still there with the X over her. And I'm hoping that's not a throwaway just because I feel that there's room for that. But it also added a sense, whether she comes back or not, it added a sense of real danger to the kind of missions this team is doing. I like the whole lineup, though. Having Rachel Summers in that piece, you know, as Ascani with her crazy background story. Yes. Captain Britain, we've got the original Betsy Braddock in this one, Captain Britain. And I like Tank. I like Tank in this quite a bit. It's a good team lineup for the kind of stories that they're telling in this piece. When you flip the page and we start off right away with Sage, this is a great spotlight issue to get you. If you did not know who Sage was before, you get to know her really well during this whole sequence and her interactions with Charles. What she's about, how she operates, where her loyalties lie, what loyalty means to her, and why she does the things she does is something that really stood out. This is a great crossover issue. Because inserting her into this storyline right now is something where you're seeing how Charles is surviving and how Charles is manipulating and making his way through all of this. And when I say manipulate, it's not like you say it in a bad way. Charles is reaching out to his closest confidants the further that he goes down this rabbit hole right now. The relationship with Sage is a really good one. I really, really like this outreach and why he reached out to her and what he was looking to do with her. This works really well.

Here's the thing with me and Sage, I have absolutely no idea who she is. I didn't read, I haven't read anything with her in it previously. So my only exposure to Sage has been X-Force. So the first previous eight issues, reading her there, you know, and just seeing her interaction. So immediately with this interaction with her and Charles, I'm like, oh, this is kind of cool. I like this, you know, because again, they give me enough pages because I got a pretty good groove on who Sage is from the previous issues of X-Force. Now I'm seeing her past or interaction with Charles. I'm like, okay. Again, her loyalty completely understands this. I knew where all this was coming from. And like you said, this is a great issue to really show what Sage can do. So... So...

So... So... So...

We've gotten some cool moments previously, but this issue really had, this was the issue that had me going, I got to read more.

So... Alex, what the do I do know?

And I had notes for myself to ask you, what should I read to read more good, cool sage stories? Extreme X-Men. What?

Like this is cool. Yeah.

Extreme X-Men.

So...

Yeah.

I know I have the deal.

The first volume of that in particular, Salvador LaRock, it's Claremont's writing, Salvador LaRock's art.

So... Like this is cool. It's cool. Like this is beautiful. Okay. So... So like this little thing...

The artwork's gorgeous.

So I got it. Yeah.

I mean, it is a cool, cool story.

I said, okay.

That first volume of that, I recommend, anybody listening to this, I recommend it. It's a cool read.

After we're done here, I'm going to grab it and I'll start reading that. But again, I loved how this played out. And okay, so as I said before, I had a crazy theory on how I thought the story was going to go. Now, I didn't see any of this stuff with Sage and Charles. So I'm glad that they did this and I was completely wrong on that. But I saw, as I said, Emma, Kitty, and Bobby coming over to X-Force. The reason I thought that was going to happen, because you got this big battle that X-Force is going through. I thought they were going to jump in on that fight. You know, so you'd have Emma, Bobby, and Kitty showing up. But especially, I was thinking that when Kitty shows up, she would see the Colossus that's there and say, Hello, that's not Colossus. And then she'd point over at Tank and say, That's Colossus. And we'd get a big reveal that Tank is really Colossus. Not that this other person. Then we'd get this reveal on who this other person is that's, you know, the bad guy that's not Colossus. That is, who knows who he is. And that's where I thought this was going to play out. And again, glad I'm wrong, because I really do like how this played out.

That's a pretty intricate story you had going there.

Yes, I did. Just wait until we get to the ending. You're going to love the ending, dude. I had this all mapped out, you know?

That's Jim's ultimate universe.

Yes, the sensei's ultimate universe. Now, I'm still not 100% convinced that Tank is not Colossus. Even though I'm seeing them on the same page next to each other, I'm still holding out that that's not the real Colossus. You know, or he's under a mind control. Because there's no way Colossus would be the bad guy. You know, so I'm like, I'm holding out that Tank is really Colossus. And in the end, there's going to be the big reveal that he's been Colossus all along. Because I want that character around so much. I love that guy. I love the big guy. I miss him. So I'm hoping that I'm, you know, somehow, you know, I'm right on this one. Even though it's not looking good. But I'm hoping. It is not. Not looking good. I'm still holding out to mind control, though. That he's not doing this of his own free will. I'm still holding out hope for that. Dude's been through a lot. Yeah, but I'm holding out. I'm hoping.

When Charles is reaching out to Sage, you get the reason why. He needs, at this point, extraction. He needs to get away. He needs to be able to be on the move. Because of the fact that he's now got forces coming after him from a lot of different directions. And the Sage is the perfect one to reach out to. Because I love that she's got candidates for extractors. And she's going through the history of the X-Men and pulling through some people there. And this leads to John Wraith. Kestrel. Which, Kestrel becomes a really cool part of the whole story.

Oh, God, yeah, man. Another character. I had no idea who he was.

Yeah.

You know, before this issue. But again, he was one of those guys. I'm like, I've got to learn more about this guy. This guy is cool. I'm digging him.

The X-Force team is in South America. And they're fighting this big, giant beast. And I like how they're recognizing this thing is just a distraction.

Yeah.

As they're going through this battle. So, it's seeing how competent this X-Force team is, is really great as the thing's going on. I like seeing Betsy. Betsy and Rachel's relationship in particular is something that I'm really enjoying. Because they play off each other well.

Yeah.

They keep upping each other's game. It's nice when you see character relationships where you get them as a couple. You get kind of that their road's been rocky. But you also understand what they do for each other. What is interesting about the two characters. Sometimes they force feed us relationships. You know, where it's like, we're going to just do this just to shake things up a little bit. And there's not a lot of thought as far as what does that relationship actually bring to the characters. How do they actually grow or anything with that. And those typically wind up fizzling because there's not much storytelling depth to them, right? In this case, there's a lot of storytelling depth to these two. There's a lot of character to it. And I really enjoy that piece. And it gives Betsy to me, it's, you want to give me something with Betsy where, okay, we've split off Betsy from Psylocke. Thank you.

Give me a reason why that matters. Why do I care? And I feel like they're doing a really great job with that.

Right now I'm going through Excalibur. And I'm reading when she became Captain Britain. And I'm reading those Excalibur stories. And again, it also shows those two together and all that. So it's kind of neat going back and I'm reading those stories as I'm reading the current X-Force stuff. And I loved seeing, again, these two together, you know, they work well. They fit kind of the way Scott and Gene fit. Yes. You know, those two as a couple really solid fit. These two as a couple really solidly fit. So I'm very happy with, again, the story being told. But I also like how early in a couple issues earlier, you know, they were helping each other regulate their powers. And Forge is like, you guys should have told me, here's the fix. And he fixed it because he's Forge. He can make those kind of stuff. And the costume is fixing the problem that they were previously doing, freeing them to do more, to unleash more of their potential. And again, it was one of those really neat little, I think it was like a couple pages a couple issues ago or something like that. And it really, though, it further added to why they're too good together on this team. Why X-Force is such a good idea and a good concept of keeping these, putting these people together. So it's little stuff like that. And as you said, one-two punch between, you know, these two is a great combo attack. I love seeing these two together on the same team. Power set and story-wise fit. Yeah. I love when you get that. When you get that, why does Forge have these people on his team? Here's why. This makes sense.

This is one of the things where this book is succeeding, is that there's a balanced team. Everyone brings something to the table. This team feels competent. They feel... What I like about them is we've got X-Factor, which has its share of problems, right? Yeah. X-Force feels like a squad. And they feel like a very different kind of squad than the X-Men teams are. This really is X-Force. I mean, it feels like X-Force. And that distinction is really important. If you're going to put this moniker on this book, there's a rich history here. It's got to feel like this kind of squad. I love that we've got this great action battle, which is something that X-Force is known for at its best. And you flip over to this Metal Gear-like stealth of Sage and what's going on. And I think the balance and pacing of this particular issue is really, really strong. Because I want to see... I'm like, okay, give me some action. I want to see some action. And I love great action sequences when they're so story-driven like this. But then when you flip over to this stealth and you get to see just how wicked cool Sage is. This is a character Sage, when she's written right, is just an excellent character. There's something different about her. You get how she's a survivor. You get what she brings to the table for a team. This is somebody you want having your back. Like, Charles reaching out to her makes a ton of sense here, right? It's like, Sage, I'm in a bit of trouble right now. I need to get out of this. And I need somebody who can get me out of this. She's showing right now in every single panel why she's your person. This is exactly who I'd reach out to first in this sequence. It's, I've got to get out under the wire. I've got some big guns coming after me right now. And she's digging deep and bringing to him some things that will help him get where he needs to go in the way that he needs to do it. Setting up a location, setting up coordinates, and getting to where she needs to get was just really, really cool.

Oh, God, yeah. And, again, you know, knowing, you know, seeing this kind of stuff, the layout, the spy kind of groove that Sage has got going really, one, made me really love this character even more. Because before I thought she was a really cool character. You know, the first eight issues of X-Force, I was like, man, this is a really cool character. This is the issue really that had me going, wow, I really like this character. I've got to know more. I've got to know more. Before I was interested, this was a must-know more. Because this really, you know, again, it's that nice, neat, cool spy kind of feel as you're talking about. But also just the, you know, she's sitting there and I love how she's able to hack, you know, the thinker's security measures so she can get access to his toy box. Because he said, hey, anything you, you know, when she defeated him, she got access to anything she wanted and she wants that toy box. So that's what she's claiming. You know, and I love how seeing her just do her Sage thing and get access. But also I love this, the banter with her, you know, about...

getting access, getting Charles a safe haven. She knew what she needed because she knew who was following Charles, who was following them. So I need a psychic block to prevent them from finding us immediately. Charles needs some time. She knows what Charles' plan is. She knows who's in the egg. She knows all of that now because Charles did one of those downloads to her, giving her all the info. So not only is this a safe haven for normal people, this is a safe haven for telepaths. This is a safe haven for mutants. This is a place where they can give Charles time to do his final plan, that she knows what it is, that we don't know what it is yet. I'd love just all those little layers that we got just in a couple quick pages.

So the interesting part about Sage is she's got a long history. She actually was created in 1980. Really? She was part of the Hellfire Club. Oh, dang. She was Sebastian Shaw's personal assistant. This goes all the way back to the Claremont and Byrne era. So she's a character who has had evolution over time, where I'm sure when the character was originally created, there wasn't this idea of doing this with her. But man, did she kind of evolve over time to become the person that she was. It was the early 2000s that saw her become Sage and see her evolve into this piece. I love the action sequence where she's escaping and we see her do almost like a Nightwing-like move in the way that she operates. It's nice seeing that Sage is, yes, she has mutant powers and things like that that she's able to utilize, but she's got mad skills, crazy mad skills that she's learned over time. And she's built relationships, some of them a little seedy. You know, even the part where she's there with the thinker, you know, and manipulating and taking advantage of the AI and making it her own. So that way she's able to, you know, manipulate machinery and be able to do kind of the things that she needs to be able to do to gain an upper hand. I love that. Like, this is a card that she's been holding for some time. I could take any treasure that I want. I was told I could. And I'm here to claim that prize. And that prize is, in fact, you. I love that she does that with the AI and takes it over. Now it's become her, the code's become hers. And she's utilizing it to handle situations that she needs to. That piece was awesome. Leading her to the interactions with Charles. And we get to see Charles and Kestrel interacting for the first time. And this team up, this squad is cool. Yeah. It's neat when you've got as many awesome teams on the table as you've gotten this. You've got Uncanny X-Men. You've got the X-Men. You've got X-Factor. We've got X-Force on the table with this piece. This little mini squad here right now, man, I'd read a book with these three. Like, I like them together. I mean, so this is, it's cool when you bring them into the storyline. And you know that's not where it's going to go. But, you know, seeing the three of them, and it adds more importance to Charles' egg, that Charles has got these kind of people. They have to be people outside of the X-Men proper. They have to be people that, you know, Sage is somebody that he clearly trusts. Because Charles has to stay on the move because he knows that he can't go to his traditional sources. You know, this can't be a, come to me, my X-Men. Let's handle this together. It can't be that. It's got to be, I've got to go to those people that I will go to when the situation is dire.

And I've got to be off the grid. That's cool. That is cool.

Yeah. Oh, God, yeah. And again, you know, I'm loving, you know, how this story is playing out. And you say the well-balance of, we get these great Sage and Charles moments. Yep. You know, then you flip the page and you get some really cool action sequences. Then you flip the page and you're back to Charles and Sage. And they did a great balance of when do we need to give you that bam explosion to when do we need to get you those powerful story elements that is furthering the manhunt of Charles. You know, and again, this was great balance. And as I said before, much better than my idea, you know, of having, you know, because again, I was also thinking, just so you know, that the bad that X-Force is fighting right now is going to continue on into the manhunt, you know, of Xavier. I'm glad it did. Yeah, me too. 100%. You know, but I was thinking this crew was actually going to further on into the manhunt. And that's why, you know, this was being played out. That the way this story, I was thinking the way this issue was going to end is the bad guys here and X-Force, we're going to merge with the bad guy that comes out of the... That comes out of the Charles story. Because as I said, I said this yesterday, I was thinking that Xavier's body was in the egg. I wasn't thinking who was actually in the egg. I was thinking Xavier's body, you know? So I was thinking that for one period in time, we would have two Charles Xaviers. Now, Charles's mind would get transferred into the healthy Xavier body, leaving the dying body that has that parasite kind of brain thing going on. Well, I was thinking that parasite brain evil version of Charles, I'm calling it the evil Charles, would then get its own life, if you will, and would team up with these villains that we're seeing fight X-Force, and that would be the continuation of the manhunt. So we would have good Charles Xavier, who came out of the egg, and an evil Charles Xavier teaming up with these people that X-Force is currently fighting. That's where my head was going.

You were on the right track on a certain extent as far as part of this story is about healing Charles Xavier. Right. So, I mean, that worked. I mean, you know, as far as that end goes. What I liked about this, and it's what I prefer about crossovers when they're done well, if you're going to cross over into an ongoing title, do not disrupt the flow of the ongoing title. So this is an opportunity right now. In this title, you've got this very cool sage story that's going on with Charles. If you've been reading Man and you're like, I haven't touched X-Force with a 10-foot pole, you've got a storyline that's going on right now that is continuing, that is, you know, the other scenes that are going on that like, oh, well, how'd they wind up here? You know, what's going on with that? There's a way to draw people into a book using this. For a reader who's been reading X-Force, I love the fact that you didn't disrupt my story. Right. Like, now all of a sudden we've done this awkward way of pulling the team away from this battle that they were in, or we truncated this battle to kind of rush through it so that way now we've got them in the crossover, which is derailing the main book. That's been done many, many times where books have been hurt by crossovers. And I like that the choice was in this one, we just came off Extreme X-Men that did that collateral damage thing, which worked really well, I think, for that book and not really touching it with this. And then you did something with this, where this book plays a much more significant role in the major Manhunt storyline, continuing to move it forward, while at the same time giving you the X-Force story you've been following. I love the pacing of this. Makes a ton of sense in how it worked. It's good writing. It's respective of the book. You know, we're respectful of the book, I should say. Whereas a reader, I feel respected as far as I've been investing in this book. I've been enjoying X-Force. Do not wreck this for me. And it does all of those really, really good things. They took Tessa off the table already in the storyline. You know, she has a reason to not be working with the team proper at the moment. So it fits. Everything tracks. In a way, with what happened with Surge led to where Tessa was, which led to Tessa being available for this particular piece, and leading the rest of the team to be dealing with the mess that they're dealing with at the moment. This is therapy for Sage in its own way. And I love when you got stuff like this. Meantime, what about Colossus with his Kung Fu hands and stuff like that? You know, with the sword and that type of thing? Yeah. That stuff is sweet.

When was he able to do that? When was he able to do that? Because, again, I don't ever remember seeing Colossus able to transform his arm into a sword like that. And that's, again, further at my I'm hoping why this is not the real Colossus. This is somebody else. This is not my guy. Come on. You know, but, again, I don't think I think I'm wrong. But, also, I do want to say how much better I think this story is than the thought I had in my head. You know, I love the fact that we're continuing on this adventure. And that they gave us within the story a reason why Sage wouldn't be connected. You know, why Sage would be separated. And it was even neat because, you know, if you think back to the last issue, Sage was just about to go help Forge when Xavier reached out to her. So the end of last issue is where Sage is like, hey, okay, let me go help them. And Charles is like, hey, I need your help. You're like, well, Forge can take care of himself. And she went to help Xavier. So, like you said, they didn't derail the current X-Force story going on. They worked with it. And actually, it's so much better for it. You know, because now we've got some neat stuff going on with X-Force trying to figure out where they're going to go, how they're going to land.

One of the things that I really enjoyed in this particular storyline was this ongoing mystery with the egg itself and the reveal of who was in the egg.

I felt like a dunce. I felt like with the daughter being right there on page one and the fact that we knew Lalandra was off the table, that I should have known that it was going to be Lalandra. But I love that Charles is like, my daughter needs not just me at the moment. My daughter needs us. Yeah. And I love that we've got Lalandra here and Charles is bringing her up to speed. I geek out at seeing Lalandra. And it's funny, as a kid growing up, when the Lalandra and Charles relationship was going on, I liked it. I was never sitting there like going, I love Lalandra and all those pieces. I think over the years, though, I've grown to really, I think I was too young. I think now I really appreciate her and really appreciate the relationship. And when I've done my reread of those issues, I'm like, I don't know why I didn't like this more than I did at the time. I loved her in Dark Phoenix Saga and what that did to the relationship between Charles and Lalandra. I always thought that was a great way to handle the two of them and how they were forever changed because of that. But they encountered each other many, many times throughout the years, especially things like the Brood Saga and stuff like that. You know, it's they're they're just really the Shiara are just a cool, cool people. And I thought bringing her back here was absolutely perfect with what was happening. I did not. This is where I'm with you. The storyline started going places that I never knew it was going to go. And I love that piece.

Oh, big time. And I'll tell you, I loved I loved being wrong. I so loved being wrong. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, and everything you said, I'm just I'm nodding my head along like an idiot saying, yes, I agree. I completely agree. This was absolutely brilliant usage of sage. Again, as I said earlier in this episode, this issue is the one that made me go. I've got to know more about her. Yeah, I've got to see some cooler stories. And also it again, the fact that the the mutant egg, the egg used to only be for mutants. Not anymore. Now we've got, you know, the last egg ever out there. And again, you were saying last egg. Is it really the last thing?

Well, it's until Riker comes up with it.

Until, well, they've already talked about bring it, you know, there there is another seed out there of Krakoa. Yeah. You know, that Mogo has. So who knows? Maybe we'll get more eggs out of this. I don't know. But I love the fact that she is the last egg, you know, and you get Charles and, you know, you know, it's, you know, Charles and his wife or I don't know. Were they ever officially married or are they just a couple? I don't know what the I actually I don't really know the dynamic between these two.

I thought they were married at one point. Yeah.

I'm not sure. But again, you do run into the fact that she did die. So it's death do you part. So they if they were married, they're no longer married, I guess. I don't know. But again, it's their story is one that I have a lot of a lot of gaps in. I know. I think I wasn't actively reading exes when they were a solid couple because I don't really remember reading a lot of them together. I remember reading them have being, you know, having that.

They didn't think they were married at some point in time and then their marriage was an old. They it was it's an it's a great example of it's complicated.

Yeah. It's an X thing.

Yeah. Well, it's and you think about the role of Charles Xavier, how that would happen. That part was, yeah, very, very cool. We get to see more of the actually I love the fact that we get to see more of the storyline with Sage getting them where they need to go to escape. And then we jump back into the battle. This battle to me is exactly what I love about this type of storyline, because we're left with this cliffhanger about we are the solution. And I want to know a lot more about Colossus's role with the solution. I want to know more about the headband. I want to know more about what's going on with him. What made him join the solution? Is he being controlled on some level? Colossus's story has taken many dark turns over the years. You know, he's he's been a roller coaster ride and a half. So I want to know more about like what what is going on with the solution. So this this storyline is gripping for me.

Yeah.

And I can imagine if you're a reader that has not been reading X-Force and you are a longtime X-Men fan.