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. Well, though.

So I think 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.

I think so.

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

Extreme X-Men.

Yeah.

The first volume of that in particular, Salvador LaRock, it's Claremont's writing, Salvador LaRock's art. The artwork's gorgeous. I mean, it is a cool, cool story. 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. Everybody's at hand knives at ambos at both sides.

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

I do this again. But... They have to run their hands together. Here we've also got a list ofーーng, общie, hocks, and raised gaz fizzy. We're going to spread the weapon, rather than others.

Right now I'm going through Excalibur.

They know why we've got two very variants. It's up toOkai. Woo. We're going to ask you guys the next one.

And I'm reading when she became Captain Britain.

We want you to put together the Model Girls. We want you to push back better. We س conference beautiful and make it together. It's totally underneath the coordinators here, you know.

And I'm reading those Excalibur stories.

nen gross dude has along the כן 상ส system of all of thought water.

And again, it also shows those two together and all that.

We really don't track here, but I might have any fun from this. And we will, there's not even doubt about that in front of all fashion.

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, you kind of get drawn in by the fact that you want to know more. I would hope this has been a really, really good book. And it's something that I really enjoyed about all of this was getting to read that storyline, leaving us off with Charles and the Landra where we did was something. that sets up for the Omega issue. Yeah.

And one thing, again, I'm going to further add on to my theory that Colossus is being controlled because of the headband. And also, when he did the transformation of his hand, it had that green kind of energy that we're seeing from the boss lady here. So she has that same kind of energy signature. So I'm hoping that, again, it's all her manipulation of him that's why he's in on it. Not him willingly being a part of this. Because, again, I want to hold on to the fact that Colossus, both you and I love the character. So we love the big guy. So I don't want the big guy to be the bad guy. I want him to be the hero that we know he is. So I'm 100% I got to read the next issue of X-Force. 100% got to know what's going on here because I'm like, this is just too much for me. I'm like, dude, my guy, what's going on here? So this, for me, was a great way to really lock in X-Force. Just like how exceptional was a great way to lock in that, you know, exceptional X-Men. This is another one of those brilliant usage of the crossover to give you a good idea what X-Force is about, what you want to do, and it's a cool lead into, right into Omega.

Yeah, it's, I think he's being controlled too. That's kind of where I'm at. There were some dark turns for his story in particular that would set him up to be malleable, you know, where, like, this could be taken advantage of like this. I don't know that I'm right, but, you know, I tend to root for our heroes to have a redemption arc of sorts.

Yeah.

But this story's way cool right now, so it's an interesting one to follow. Ready to talk about Omega? Yes. Okay. Our final issue that we're going to be discussing as part of X-Man Hunt is the finale, Dream's End, and X-Men Omega No. 1. The writers are Murewa, it's M-U-R-E-W-A, apologies, A-Y-O-D-E-L-E, and Gail Simone. The artists are Gleb Melkinov, Federica Manson, Enid Balam. The color artist is Brian Reber. The letterer's VC's Travis Lanham. The cover artists are Gleb Melnikov and Maury Hallowell. The variant cover artists are David Marquez, Jesus Arbertov, Edwin Gallman, Frederico Bally, Phil Noto, Tony Daniel, and Frank Diarmata. And apologies, absolute apologies for name butchery because it was rife throughout that. But this is quite the team that has put together this particular book. These are hard to do, these type of larger Omega issues because you're summing up a lot of storylines that have come together and converged as a part of this piece and you have to do it in a satisfying fashion and really wrap up this storyline in a way that works. And this did this. It really did a lot of things like you. I was surprised with where this went. I'm glad it went where it did. And this was, it just turned out to be a love letter to the fans, I think, in the way that it all wrapped up. I like where this piece all went. But I like, we got some nice scream time with each of our teams, which was really good, you know, from seeing, I wanted to see at this point Cyclops and Rogue sitting at the table. I loved what they did here with that piece. We've got the two teams together talking it out. We got the NYX team. This was really a great way to open this piece up because there's some, these are people that are supposed to love each other, right? Yeah. So you got to sit around the table and go, okay, we need to talk. It is time to talk. And this worked really well.

Oh God, yeah. And especially, I always do like when they say X weeks ago. Yes. So you don't give an exact time frame, but it's, they let you know it's following the raid.

Yeah.

So this is setting up the conversation that Scott and Rogue had, you know, why they're kind of at odds with each other. And I liked that we got to see that. I liked the, you know, everything you said, well, this is a really cool sit down moment. And again, I like the fact that who each of their seconds are. Each is just the meeting of the two team leaders and they each have their own second. They each have their own person with their own second, you know, in the room with them. Now, are they expecting any kind of combat? No, but it is good that they have someone there and it makes sense that it's Remy and that it's magic. You know, two perfect usages of these two different of these in these different teams. I liked how this laid out. And again, I liked how they showed we see all of the other X teams. We see X Factor on the runway. We see the force in the trench. We see Exceptional doing, you know, their training. stuff that they're dealing with. Again, it's just showing all these ex-families doing their own individual thing. It was a really cool moment and it was a good sit down, but the focus is Scott and Rogue. What's going on? Why are they at odds with each other? What's the ex-family? What's the ex-men? The two different... I say main teams. I don't want to dissuade any opinion on anything else, but these are the two that have ex-men in their name. I love the fact that these are the two leaders sitting down, having this conversation. Well, because of the fall,

they're in the place that they are. I love that they reference the fall. You get to see that shot of Scott where just how far down things went with the fall, which again establishes why are they this broken? What has happened? I love that that is something that if you haven't read all of that, you're getting brought up to speed that like, no, this was bad, like really bad. And that's why, yes, these people still love each other and those pieces are valid, but they've been through some things that they have not recovered from. And the dream as the, as it was originally intended, has got to alter in order to meet where this world is at now. And I love that they're coming at it from two very different points as far as they both kind of want the same things. You know, I'd say foundationally, they both do want the same things. Their idea on how you get there and what is needed to get there is where things are veering off. And I love that they're like, we need to come to an understanding if we're going to coexist and function. And, um, you know, the, the big philosophical, philosophical point is, is what happens with Xavier? Cyclops is firmly believing that Xavier needs to stay in prison and he needs to stay in prison because the, the relationships they built, the trust they built is something that needs to stand right now. And if, um, if they break those relationships along the way, it's going to be devastating for all of them. You know, the, he's, he's thinking this is the sacrifice for the greater good. And this is where rogue has a major philosophical difference from him. And I love that. Um, I'm team 1000% team rogue on this one for me. I'll lay it right out there and her feeling off of that. Um, I get the logic of Cyclops though. And that's one of those where it's more powerful when you understand where he is coming from. I have my beliefs and my preferences, and I'm team rogue, but I love it when I feel that I'm team rogue, but I get him and I get what

he's doing. And it's again, I agree completely with you. I personally philosophically would be team rogue, but if I was a mutant with sufficient power levels, I probably would be siding with Scott on this

one. And with the relationship with Charles, you would do that. Yeah. Yeah. You know, and here's why

Scott's arguments about how, if Xavier gets free, you know, that will make it worse for the mutants. And I completely agree with Scott. And as much as I hate to say it, I would sacrifice Xavier for the

greater good of all the mutants. And here's where that's no good. Go ahead and finish. No. And, and,

and again, in my heart, I would be like, he should be free. But in my head, I would be like, we need to, we need to protect the mutants. We need to protect the next generation of mutants. And it would be the sacrifice of Xavier. That's, and I think that's, and again, I would hate myself for doing it, but I would probably still do it. I probably would be on Scott's team on this one.

This is where I would, would 1000% change to Rogue's side. Yeah. When she asked this question, if it were any of us in the professor's situation, would you leave us locked up to rot? Scott had no answer. Yeah. And Rogue coming back with, that's what I thought you all can go now. Yeah. And this is where she takes control of the whole situation. And I loved, loved the writing on this one. Yeah. Scott looks back at her and goes, you're wrong on this Rogue. I hope not, Scott. We're still X-Men. You know that. All of us. If you need us, you call us. She took the lead on that one. She's like, this conversation's over. You've gone too far. You're gone. Yeah. And there's nowhere for us to go right now in this situation. And I, I was like sitting here. I'm like, she putting that distinction on there and saying, Scott, where does this, where does this philosophy of yours stop? What if it was me? What if it was Gambit? What if it was Wolverine? Would you sacrifice any one of us?

for this philosophy of yours? And Scott's non-answer said yes, you know, in those sequences. And that's where I'm like, Scott, I couldn't side with him on that end. It's one of those pieces where I loved that debate because it went beyond Charles in those sequences. And I thought, I gotta admit, I was Team Rogue all along anyway, but she asked the right question. I'm like, oh, she now made it an exclamation point for me. And I love that.

And again, I completely agree with Rogue, but again, it's part of the thing where I understand to the point where Scott's at. I'm like, yeah. And again, in my alternate universe where we had the two eggs where the egg was now evil Charles and good Charles, in my alternate universe, this story ends with them turning in the one version of Charles. And the other version of Charles is free. But that's why I was thinking in my universe, Charles was in that egg.

So you're still thinking that at the start of this?

Well, no, no, no.

I knew at the, this, okay. Oh, because you already knew about the egg. You already, so at this point in time, your egg theory is shattered.

Before, all these ideas, this theory of mine was completely developed before reading these final issues.

Got it, got it, got it.

You know, so before reading these final issues, so in my story, I had, again, two versions of Xavier, one evil, one good. The evil version is the one that the X-Men would turn back into the prison. But you know that now.

Right. So, like, your story is in an alternate universe, right?

Right, the alternate universe.

Yeah. So in this case, I'm taking your story, taking your story out of it. I'm, I'm Team Rogue.

Right. Okay, so in, in this universe, again, I, one, I don't think, you know, at this point in time when I was reading this, because now I knew my, my story was completely bunkus.

Okay.

You know, so then I'm forming new ideas. I was thinking Xavier was going to get sacrificed. You know, and I, I was thinking at the end of this issue, Xavier wasn't going to be free. You know, and again, I'm, again, I'm glad I was wrong on that. You know, but, you know, and as this was going on, you know, cause as I'm reading that, like with, with. So you weren't rooting for him to leave with Lalandra. I, what I was thinking was that's, that's the statement that she said to him, you know, about if it was any one of us with the professor, you know, leave us locked up to rot.

No, would you leave us? Like she was asking Scott, she's like, Scott, would you leave us locked up to rot?

Yeah. I was thinking this was not going to have a happy ending. Somebody was going to get sacrificed. This was going to end with somebody dying. And I was afraid,

I was afraid of that too.

I was thinking Xavier was going to sacrifice himself so that his wife could go save their daughter. I was thinking this was going to end with Xavier being sacrificed.

Okay.

You know, at this point in time when I'm now reading, knowing that, you know, Lalandra was alive, I was thinking that this was going to end with Xavier dying. You know, and the last egg was used to bring his wife back who would then go save their daughter. That's how I was thinking this was going to end.

I was totally locked into the, this idea of I wanted them to continue on and I was, I was riding along with, I want, I'm on the escape ride, right? And, and so I was thinking how are they going to escape? They've got to escape. I want them to escape. That's all I was thinking. So I'll admit that I was singularly minded of, I was feeling the danger. So I'm with you on that piece, but I was rooting for the danger to pass. I'm not saying that I was thinking it was going to. I was very afraid. I guess I was afraid all along that something is going to go awry. So I'm thinking that piece too and I agree with you. Out of the two, who was I thinking if it's going to be potentially Charles? I was rooting though for Charles and the Lander to escape together and go help their kid.

Yeah. I'll be honest, just so you know, I want that. I wanted that as well, but I was just thinking they weren't going to give them a happy ending. Yeah. I was really thinking and again, this conversation, like you said, this conversation was absolutely brilliant in that it 100% locked me. Personally, I'm team Rogue, but I know my personality if I was one of these X-Men, I would be on team Cyclops here just because needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or the one. You know, and that's where I would be thinking. Yeah, I probably, and again, I would hate myself for doing it. I would 100% be on, you know, fighting alongside Cyclops saying, I hate this. I hate this. We shouldn't be doing this, but I would continue fighting alongside him because again, the mute, the fate of the all

all the mutants were in on capturing Xavier and I would be helping him capture Xavier. And, you know, it's, it's one of those things where, you know, I completely agree with what rogue is saying. And then in my heart, I would be like, no, Xavier needs to be free, but I know my personality. I know I would be fighting alongside a cyclops on this one. And I would hate myself while I'm doing it.

But this is where, this is where sitting at the table, I'm putting us at the table with rogue. Right. We're having that debate. Rogue's basically saying there's always another way. And in that moment where she goes to Scott and she's saying to him, what if it was any other of us that was in that spot? And Scott's basically affirming the fact that I'm going to do the same thing as any of you. I'm jumping off his bandwagon. I'm like rogue. I'm going to hang out here with you. Let's get, so that, I mean, that's where, that's where I get the debate over Charles and with what Charles, here's where there's some weight to what Scott's doing. We know what's happening. There's an after effect and we're not seeing it so much in this, but there's an after effect of Charles's powers because of what's, you know, going on in his head and that type of thing. So some of that, I can understand the danger that is Charles in this storyline and what they're doing with him. So I get that piece and I can agree with the danger, but I like when to rogues, rogues question, I think it's a deep philosophical one in this. And it's something that I get people being all over the place on it. It's actually very smart. This is where this story is very, very smart because it leads to these kinds of debates. And that to me is really, really strong writing when you're sitting here and you're willing to fight for it. I mean, that's a good story when you're like, Oh yeah. What are the, cause this isn't the guys, this isn't really happening, but you're willing to fight for it because you're believing in it at the moment. And that's what a good story does. You're digging your heels in. And it's, it's one of those pieces where I'm like, Oh, we're going to buckle up. I'm like, I don't know. I'm rogue. Rogue would have had me on this one. I know for sure. Rogue would have rogue would have at that table. Rogue. If I was on team Cyclops, that would have gotten me to jump ship.

Yeah. Well, like if, if say for example, you and I were standing in the, uh, in sitting in the, standing in the kitchen.

Yeah.

Magic opens the portal. Scott walks through. You would have looked at Scott's and see, I'm staying here.

What's for breakfast.

Right. I would have walked through the portal. I would have, I would have, you know, and again, I would have looked better than you,

though.

Yeah. I would have looked at rogue said, I think you're right on this, but I'm, I gotta go.

Yeah.

And I would have gone with Scott, you know, and, and the whole time I'm having Cajun cooking.

Cause Gambit's making some, Gambit's making something in the kitchen, that type of thing. So.

Yeah. And I'm probably eating some processed, uh, you know, yes.

So I'm winning on all levels on this.

Yeah. You're winning on all levels. And I would be sitting there going, damn it. I should have listened to Norge.

I should have listened to Norge. Wait, here's the thing. Your phone's buzzing. Cause I'm sending you pictures of what I'm eating. Still think your idea was good. Gambit can cook. Although later on, you can be sending pictures by how you, how's your tummy doing after all that. I do like this, uh, San Francisco piece where we start, um, taking a look at storm and, um, we get this, this history of what's going on with Xavier. Cause it does, it adds some weight to the debate, right? When you're taking a look at where Xavier's been symbols and what happened with Charles, the beginning of Krakoa, the fall of Krakoa and things that happened there with it. It did remind you of the fact that, you know, this has been a very bumpy and rough ride with Charles. We go to, um, earth orbit and we see what ended up happening during that time. And, and we start getting to see the layers peeled away of the fact that what everyone think Charles thinks Charles did, we're setting up the stage for realizing that did not happen. Charles crafted an illusion because it was a necessary illusion to create. And when you start ripping that layer away too, that's where I'm starting to become more team, team Charles in this one. I'm like, he sacrificed his reputation and everything for the good of his people. And now he's at a point where he wants to go save his daughter. I'm kind of helping him. I love seeing Tessa and storm together in this and, um, seeing, um, seeing Tessa's asking for pieces of the sanctuary. She's like, you know, you could just give us the whole thing. I'm just saying, and storms like, you're getting one of these engines. That's going to be it. You're lucky. You're getting that storm set up is really, you know, cool i mean it's like really impressive i'm digging what they're doing with storm oh god yeah

you know story again yeah i'm so glad that you know this this crossover series really brought the storm solo series to light for me yeah so once again i was like thank you for this crossover because i didn't know any of this was going on so i've got another series that i'm reading you know that i'm just because this is some cool stuff going on and the storm powers man just i love this this little sanctuary of hers i love where she's going and again another combo with her and test with her and uh tessa it's i'm like man this is some really cool writing this is a really neat crafted story we're not getting any you know it's i love the fact that you can be pulled into a story and find it gripping without physical action just the character interaction has me going oh yeah oh yeah i gotta flip you know it's got you going where you want to read more what's next what's next a lot of times physical action really does that but if you get a cool powerful story being built with characters that are well developed you know this kind of stuff you know pulls you in just

as easily as high action i agree with that i like how this one we got to see storm's power here and what is going on with something inside of her right i like how she's like no no i gotta yank whatever's going on in me away from this battle um we learned a lot from dark phoenix and i'm trying to do everything i can not to repeat those mistakes in this process so um she's like you know fight for your friendship um with your wisdom i like i like how she's like encouraging her friend telling sage like listen you keep being doing you and you keep doing this right thing that you're doing i need to get this power away from all of this because this could wind up being a disaster and that was really really smart um it also draws you as a reader to i want to see where's that going you know because i know you're going to give me that story and and that's a really really smart way to start exiting storm out of this storyline as we go back to iceland um i'm geeking out because i'm going to iceland um it's kind of cool to see um you know how this storyline is playing out and how the team has split into different areas to try and find charles they're looking around for where they think charles is going to be and i love that uh boy quentin is really well written in all of this yeah i really have enjoyed quentin's integration into the storyline and how he's being utilized um for the hunt for xavier i love that they've got this really cool maneuver with magic this cr20 maneuver with the sword and all that that is you use the combo use of their you get why she's the lieutenant right as you're mentioning it boy magic's in a character that i've always been fascinated by just because i guess it goes back to my very first uncanny x-men issue that was when iliana came out of you know belasco's realm aged and uh we got to see just the complication of her storyline kick off all the way through but seeing this girl now and how far she's come along the way the red surfer gig i thought that was so that's awesome that was really really cool dude so so much of a

vibe of the uh the fastball special yes every time they do every time they do combo moves like that and variations of it i cheered i absolutely cheered out loud when you know when he's getting something we do the cr20 maneuver i'm like oh power the page flip the red surfer i'm like oh that is awesome i cheered with that one because i loved how that looked magic is one of those characters that has been again you see why she's his right hand you see that it's not just the teleportation abilities it is the power set why he's got her right next or why he's using her as he is it's absolutely brilliant

i love this marvel and arc systems works has next year coming out this um um x-men not x-men i'm sorry marvel fighting game uh these two characters haven't been announced they need to be yes i would make a strong argument that because it's going to allow for tag team fights and that type of thing if they allow tag team moves this needs to be won like this is like they're they're this this creative is making your game for you right here like i want to see that i want to do this so i mean

this is the kind of thing that i want to see in a game so you get both characters to the finisher mode and then you do a red surfer maneuver come on that would be awesome to see in a game it's awesome to see

live here on the page what i think is they're looking into the next phase of marvel like we keep hearing the rumblings that X-Men are going to be coming to the forefront, right? That we're going to be going yet to a new phase for X-Men. And I think, you know, I'm hoping that means more X-Men films. The X-Men animated series did, you know, the relaunch of it did killer numbers. They're doing another season of that. This is a really good time, I think, to be an X-Men fan, to be hopeful that some of this stuff that's happening in the comics could bleed over into other media. There's a Wolverine game coming out from Insomniac on the PlayStation systems, which I think is just going to be awesome if they're able to do what they did with the Spider-Man game. They're able to do a Wolverine game with that kind of depth to it. I'm hoping it leads to an X-Men game at some point in time that, like, delivers with this kind of quality. This stuff's making me geek out. I feel like we're on the cusp of what could be a very, very good X-Men era. Because the Marvel films, as we know, need kind of a... I'm enjoying them all, so I want to be very, very clear off of that. But I think when you're... There was that era, especially when, like, Endgame and all that was coming out, where, like, everybody and their uncle was into Marvel. And it just was... It was a phenomenon. We're not in the phenomenon anymore. It's doing well. And that's... Nothing I'm saying here is negative. It's just kind of things go in phases, right? Right. Well, I would love for there to be a phenomenon where everybody's into the X-Men the way that they were in Game and all of that stuff. And I'm hoping potentially this is leading to that era where that type of thing can happen. Because it'd be fun to have just a really cool romp with these characters on the big screen.

One of the judges I use, because you talk about phenomenon, is what kind of questions I get at work from the different people. And when Endgame came out and all that, I was constantly getting people asking me about that stuff. Lately, any of these movies that are coming out, I'm not getting the questions.

Right, right.

And even from some of the people that I know are comic book-based movie watchers. They've never read a comic in their life, but they watch the comic book movies. They like them. Because they're fun. They're a fun movie to see. That's going to be some good action. I'm not even getting questions and comments from them. They may have seen the movies, but there's not an anticipation on it. What about Superman? Anything for that? I'm getting some of that just because it's Cleveland. Okay. Because all the filming was done here and all that stuff. And they're doing some really good hype in Cleveland over it. But again, I'm not really getting the Endgame level. Yeah. The Avengers Endgame level. Throughout all that Avengers stuff, that was really huge in these people. Talking me about the different things. Hey, did they do something like this? What's this Civil War thing? Oh, well, people asking me about that kind of stuff. There was a lot of that Avengers story. They really... I was getting a lot of people asking me and talking to me about it. And it's funny because it wasn't a Marvel guy at the time. And I was still telling them, well, this is based on this story, this story, that kind of stuff. And it was kind of interesting just having conversations with people on it. But there was talk. With the Superman one, there's some talk, but it's not to that same level. And just like when Robert Downey Jr. revealed to be Doom, I'm not getting... There was not a, oh, my God. Same thing, Fantastic Four. I've had a couple conversations with people about Fantastic Four. And I'm like, from what I'm seeing in the trailers, it seems like they're doing a really good job tying into the classic Fantastic Four. And I've had a couple conversations with people on it. And they're like, well, they were kind of iffy on it because they've gotten burned on a couple of the movies that they didn't like. And they're like, I don't know if I'm going to like this. I'm like, to me, I'm planning on seeing it because it does seem like a classic Fantastic Four is out there. And I want to see where it goes. But, again, the hype level is nowhere near what it was.

I've had to defend that film twice already.

What?

Fantastic Four. Sure. Because of the most recent reveals on it, they have been over Sue Storm being the leader. Because I guess that's, Sue's going to be the leader, which has history in the comics. So I've defended that piece. I'm like, she's been leader before. Like, they're not doing something wacky new because they're saying, oh, Disney's doing this again. I'm like, oh, calm down. You know, please. This comics media has been doing this for years. You guys are acting like this is all today and all that kind of stuff. No, comics have been on the cutting edge of this stuff versus forever. Yeah. You know, get it together. It's okay. You know, it's a big deal. Sue's been a strong character for many, many years in the comics. So they're doing that piece, I think. You know, that's what I read as one of the memes. And I'm trying to stay away from some of the spoilers.

on this one just because of the fact that i just want to enjoy the film see everything in execution um the other piece was that uh the female silver surfer and i'm like that's that's also been from the comics like they're they're just doing because we've already done the silver surfer they're uh doing the female version of the silver surfer cool that's fine i don't know like can we look at this thing together i heard galactus is outstanding yeah i've heard that that's like really spectacular and i'm just looking forward to seeing the film in execution and hope it's i i i gotta tell you if there's one thing i'm thinking that the film's gonna be i don't i think they're gonna lose that's yeah i've just got i've got thoughts i've got thoughts yeah i don't

know what's gonna happen i'm looking forward to be honest with you and i am too it's funny yeah i hadn't heard that thing about sue being that just came this week oh okay yeah um but you know there's always we always get questions on you know and i know you do and i know i do you know like when uh falcon became captain america yeah i had a couple people ask me hey is that the disney thing or dead in the comic like oh no he's the current captain america in the comics it's he's a long history of being captain america oh okay and that was the end of the conversation you know because you know whenever you have something variations from what the common the muggle knows they want to make sure is this something that the the studios are doing or is this something the comics did i'm like oh no the comics did that same thing when the justice league animated series came out and john stewart was the green lantern in it i know i had a couple people asking me hey who is that green lantern oh that's john stewart he's amazing he's wonderful they're like oh okay you know and i know i had people ask me about that so it's you always do we always do get those kind of stuff and again it's kind of in a way it's good that people are asking if they accept it and move on but there are going to be some people who are held off and like ah and i'm like you're you're wrong you know you know enjoy this this is a great cool story opportunity i think that's the problem

though i i don't think people are focusing on the fact that let me give it a shot as a good story right the the you're right more often than not the comments i'm getting are exactly what you're nailing it's that disney is mandating this is this a disney mandate is disney doing that and it's like where why is that so a part of this conversation i get it okay you know you didn't like some of the disney choices on some of their movies okay i get that um and do they as a company mandate certain things yeah what you think they didn't before like i don't know it's a company they're you know they spend millions on these things so yeah disney has some influence on that so does warner brothers so does paramount all these companies have some form of mandate on these things they're spending millions of dollars to finance these things so yeah that's a thing you know and there were some missteps along the way as far as i i don't think it was because it all goes back to the woke movement right now we're not going to go crazy into all that but um you know as far as everyone assuming that everything is this forced woke movement comic books have been woke forever people they just have it's like and i mean like these concepts are things that they've they've opened the doorways to for years and done very very well so it's it's to me the marvel movies aren't have not failed because of that it's just that they haven't appealed to a mass audience because some of the stories haven't been on the same level that's all yep they've been good films though so very very good films enjoyable you know i just yeah some of them are popcorn flicks yeah and i like popcorn flicks so anyway zeroing back to this story in the red surfer when we got to this because the fact that i want to see this in a video game yeah we actually start seeing something else here i'm going to be honest with you i was like oh this is the coolest story ever when i saw charles's brain yes because i'm sitting here i'm like she is doing surgery on him mid flight right now to extract the problem so she's fixing charles which is where i'm going back to earlier you were on the right track in the sense that this storyline was going to end with a fixed charles i don't think any of us saw because we weren't thinking of lilandre lilandre doing surgery on the brain in the middle of a firefight this was really cool this is wacky cool stuff i love this lilandre in this they did a really good job this woman was just born from an egg and now she's doing surgery like this is pretty darn cool

and and here's the interesting thing i completely agree with you love the fact that she's fixing charles love the fact that she's doing this but this was furthering my idea that charles was gonna

you

going to sacrifice himself yes you know this oh this sequence is like not for me no well for me

you know and again yeah i'm like he oh his brain's going to be completely fixed we're going to get back the original professor right he's going to sacrifice himself to save the mutants and i was 100 thinking that was going to happen at the end of this issue and and again you know i i'm so glad i'm wrong again 100 they were right on how they did this but this really when i was reading this sequence especially when you see that the ship they're flying that she was attacking was just a decoy it wasn't the real ship i'm like she's gonna fix him and he's going to sacrifice himself to save his fellow mutants i'm like oh man no charles and i was like oh and i'm sitting there i'm reading this at these pages just going no you're so close to a happy ending because i never thought they would give him a happy ending i never thought that was going to happen i didn't think so either i want

to be you know i i felt like something was going to go wrong i so when i'm saying no in a lot of this i kept rooting for like they've got to make it through this they've got to make it through this that was where my mind was at so i was feeling the danger i want to be very very clear i was in denial of the danger which is what the story was doing for me so i'm saying no to you like i was i'm disputing you're disputing you're disputing you i'm really not it's more of the my journey was one of like oh come on make it you two got to make it through this it's cool i'm going to go back to what i said earlier and just do it really quick fiery slash i want to see it in a video game yes i want to see in a role-playing game i want to see it on the big screen like i am so ready for this that is just like to me a role-playing game would be perfect for this where you're gradually building up your characters and as they you know one of the things they do really well in rope and rpgs like really good rpgs is as characters interact together they eventually develop like these co-op skills together you know the move sets and things that would be a great one it's like if you work like heavily on cyclops and magic on your squad like eventually when they get to like level 30 or something like that they can do this cool move together you know or they get some weapon and allows them to do this together or you know the final fantasy had like materia and stuff like that where if you put the right thing in place you're going to be able to do this kind of move i want that yes like this i love when i see the potential for the stuff that they do in comics to lead to other media and because i you know i think nowadays that's one of the powerful roles of comics um they're providing great source material for all these other media out there and boy does this does do just do really really well in this the um the piece with cyclops where he does the wake up soldier moment yeah that was pretty darn awesome the the summoning of the demon and what that all looked like i thought was really cool

and i like the fact that scott recognized you know because you know you know magic's like hey professor's not aboard the ship and scott realizes oh no he is they're in the right spot scott realizes this is the right spot yeah he knew where xavier was because he knows xavier so well yeah so that's why he summoned up the demon that's why because he knew the the big fights coming down now this is going to be the fight and i love that scott knows them so well but also sage is ready for him sage is ready for the big kaiju with their own uh mech warrior and it was like oh that i loved again perfect timing of this really cool moment you get some bam bam bam heavy hits i was loving this their mech warrior

does the rko yes that was sweet like that was awesome like from out of nowhere yeah team sage all the way man yeah again pastor john writhe yes to him yes i know like when he comes in man like meet him absolutely meet him he brings out giant robot giant robot comes out giant robot does rko this it's very rare that you're going to get somebody that's going to make me want to see somebody take down anything iliana rasputin because i love magic i love that character this worked for me i was like i'm okay i'm in on this one my allegiance is temporarily swayed um you know rip apart her demon it's okay with me i'm good he ripped the arm off of the demon after the rko yes it was like to me the rko like the rko is usually a finisher right we're usually done at that point in time we're like no we're going to keep going and we're going to decimate

this thing that was sweet now again i don't know who i really don't know the character you know uh john wraith but i do but i do have a question for you okay now the biblical quotes is that part of the power set it's a power set it is a power set it is a power set

Or is that just his personality?

Oh, personality.

Okay. I wasn't 100% certain, you know, because like, you know, like what the human torch has to say flame on to fire up. I didn't know if he had something where he needed to throw out a biblical quote and then he could channel that energy.

Oh, he's doing that because it's a demon.

Okay.

And he's like basically he's throwing out that stuff saying that like, you know, he's not going to be he's not afraid of any demon. It's like, you know, he's he that is an example of badassery.

Okay.

It was like he could have said nothing. He's like, nah, we're going to I got a speech for you.

And again, this is brilliant writing, too. I do love, you know, I love the way he's written because it's great quotes. They're pulling out really good ones. And they're not pulling up like we all know John 316. Everybody knows that. Well, these are quotes that people don't know. These are biblical references that people don't realize. So I'm digging this.

I did like seeing Cyclops have this human moment. This is pretty critical, too, because I mentioned what I said earlier in the story where I was not Team Cyclops. You need to remind us this man cares. This was really, really critical. And this was also smart writing because there's a danger with Scott sometimes in the logic of Scott of making him somebody that you can't relate to. Somebody that you start to dislike because of some of the choices that they make with Scott. They did a really, really important thing here in making sure to go. We're going a little far with him right now. Let's take a breath and humanize him again. Remind, you know, the fact that he cares about Elia. This is right hand, right? In all of this. And I loved those moments where the battle went where it did. He wanted to make sure she was OK. Also, it begs the question that Rogue asked earlier. Is Scott's answer as clean as the non-answer that he gave? I wonder.

Yeah.

You know, when you see those moments, you're like, would Scott be OK with that? Would he live with that? I don't know. And I needed that moment, too, because there's something where I said I was Team Rogue. But you've also got to understand this is why he was at the table. It was moments like this. This is why they did that sit down together. And why anyone would agree to it. It's this side of Scott that's really important, too. So maybe it's maybe hope that he's not so far gone.

Yeah. Again, it's there's so much more going on with him, what he's thinking. And I love the fact that she's, you know, she's she's pretty banged up. You know, she's you know, she said bleeding out in the sands. You know, you know, she's pretty banged up, but she still has the ability to transport him right on top of the ship.

Right.

Again, showing her badassery, too. I love the fact that, you know, she's banged up. She's hurting pretty bad. She could potentially be dying. I don't know. But, you know, she's still got enough juice in her to say, OK, finish this. You know, go give him hell. And I love the fact that she teleports him right on top of the ship. So, again, it's X-Men's have a plan. Then they got to improvise, adapt and overcome. The initial plan was, you know, the red surfer move with the fiery slash. That didn't work. Plan B. Scott, drop on top of him. Do your thing. I love that.

So, Charles, while they say that the biggest threat's out of the way, Charles knows that one big threat's still on the table, and that's Scott. And I love that he uses, as his powers are starting to restore, he starts, or his control over his powers are starting to restore. He uses this as an opportunity to reason with Scott. This is the message that needs to happen. Did you read X-Men Xavier's Secret? No, I never did. So, that came out during this whole new X-Men era. I highly encourage you to read it if you're listening to this. It basically reveals a lot of information as far as what happened with Xavier and what that storyline looked like. It's essential reading. Really good issue. And they reference it. Actually, this is an example of, thank you for the editorial notes in this. It's something we're seeing, I think, come back more in comics when appropriate. And when they're used correctly, you know, this did a great thing of pointing out why Cyclops is mad. That's all true from Fall of Xavier. But Xavier's like, hang on a second here, Scott. Like, I get that you're ticked about everything that went on in your head and what you saw and all that kind of thing. But you know that wasn't true. And that was revealed later on. So, you know, it's like, come on now. Like, you're trying to throw something in my face that you already know is fiction. So, why are we talking about this? I love that. Everything about that played out really, really good at this point.

Yeah.

you need this in the story because to your point not and to the point of this conversation not everyone has read Xavier's Secret not everyone has even read The Fall of the House of X so you need this play out right now just to bring everybody no matter what your reading experience is everybody here is up to speed right now if you want to read more in depth we're telling you where but we're going to give you the Cliff Notes version so you were at least on the same page with everybody who's read all of that and you know that like if you were thinking that they should be capturing Xavier here's where maybe you have second thoughts maybe maybe Xavier deserves another chance because maybe he didn't do everything wrong that people think he did well and I get I

love everything you're saying about the editor notes and all that stuff because again it's the now you know the rest of the story and I do but it also further it's further explaining why Scott is so hell-bent on him yeah because he saw these horrors he witnessed these horrors you know and he's been after all the horrors he's been trying to re-bring back the mutant human relationship and you're seeing what Scott is what Scott has personally sacrificed yeah to allow this to happen to to get what little they have right now mutants it's horrible their relationship with humanity you know the mutants and humans are having a really rough time this is going back to early early mutant time where you know it's the anti-mutant sentiment is so strong you know and Scott's trying to fight it and that's the whole point of why he's going so heavy after Xavier and I do love the fact that Xavier's like dude it didn't happen I love that we're getting this cleansing of Xavier but my fate one of my favorite stuff through all this is I do like the fact that Scott's saying hey if your daughter's in trouble you know we'll find a way to help her so Scott's not abandoning you know Xavier's daughter he's still gonna do try to do the right thing he's like we're taking you back to prison and then we'll help your daughter you know we're still x-men we're still the good guys and I love the fact that he's willing to do that and also love the moment where he's like I'd rather die here on the hall of the ship than to let you leave and it was just you know you know his conviction was solid Scott was going to sacrifice himself right here and now if he needed to to stop this and I love the I love Xavier's reply that's the thing Scott she won't let you kill yourself and I thought like she then you flood the power of the page flip and you see who the she is at storm I'm like oh this is brilliant writing this is absolutely

and they made us think she was exiting the story yeah I love that part that was really really cool that was that was a great way to like let's play a little show game she did but she didn't need to be there to do what she needs to do right now it's like I see you and I'm sitting here like that was so cool and I'm sorry brother this hunt is over yep so cool and I love I love that Charles at the end is saying that even though it's twisted my dream still lives you know because that part the dream of the x-men and that whole piece of dreaming and searching for a better future I think now more than ever this this is the kind of storyline that we need um and I I love that the mutants are shattered into different factions with different philosophies and things like that but there's one united front that holds them together um and it's it's these type of beliefs I the cyclops getting shot and then being caught by rogue yeah and you know that other team being there and helping out and doing exactly what she said she was going to do because she said at the beginning we'll be there for you then that delivers by the way that is an excellent art piece when you see her team in that sequence that is just a gorgeous gorgeous art sequence I I love that team I love the whole look um there was there was just something about the way that that was laid out that was just a really cool one page oh god yeah that is

again and this you know you gotta love the fact that you know everything you said about rogue being the one to catch him yeah yeah about that and just the the full page spread of the team um it's like I got you cyclops we got you you know and again it's just you know the emphasis on the we because again they are all x's you know this is there no matter how much they disagree with each other they're still x's they still watch each other's back you know and even this though I love the fact that Scott still hasn't completely given up on capturing Xavier as long as Xavier's there he's still going to and he's got his backup plan for his backup plan for the secondary twist you know Scott's ready for this kind of stuff and I love that they you know still are trying

you

to capture Xavier. And it's, again, this for me, one of the neat things about the X-Men, it's the Jackie Chan movies that we love because you love seeing Jackie Chan scramble and fight. When he's fighting, it feels realistic because he's not just standing still beating people up. He's bobbing and moving. He's doing all this type of crazy stuff just to get through it. The Xs have always been about that for me, where it's not just plan A, B, C, or D. We're going all the way down to Z until it's ending. You keep going. You keep improvising. There's always a new plan. When the last plan fails, we've got our backup for that. And then we'll have a backup for that. And if we don't have a backup for that, we'll think of one on the fly. I loved seeing this.

Yeah, yeah. This is another example of using the team, Temper, John Wraith, all of this kind of playing together. It led to this really, really cool sequence where, again, there was a plan to shift the ship so that way they couldn't get a beat on it. This was very well planned out, knowing the players that were going to be on the table. Xavier got the right squad to help him. It's not about beating them. It's about escaping them. There's a different philosophy when you're doing that, a different way of operating when you're doing that. I loved how that piece played out.

Oh, God, yeah. And again, it's this character that I really don't know, and I want to know more about him. Because, again, they threw out the plan. They shoot Temper. They didn't shoot Juggernaut. And I like the fact that they didn't shoot Juggernaut, because Juggernaut would just be a blunt missile. They threw Temper to try to distort everything. But, again, John Wraith moves a ship, moves an entire ship so she missed. That, for me, was just a great moment. And then, poof, gone. Kick on the hyperdrive, and they're gone. And I love just how that played out. And then you see Scott just lose it.

Yeah.

You know, and again, there's nothing. It's 100% perfect matching on what's going on. You know, this, again, he's now going through. It's not just about losing Xavier. It's not just about losing this fight. It's about all of mutant kind now going down because of this. Yeah, yeah. In his mind, he knows they're going to come back to hunting us. They're going to go back to, we're going to have to deal with Sentinels again. He's thinking every possible horrific, apocalyptic ending that could happen, he's going through. And I've loved seeing Scott just have a meltdown. You know, where he just completely loses full control. This really does show the kind of power levels that he's capable of. You know, you throw out terms of omega level power. You know, and Scott's never been one where people will throw out, oh, he's got an omega level power because he's got the energy blast. Right here, you're seeing just how much a mutant can do when it's, you know, just pure anguish, pure anger, pure just 100% uncontrollable emotion. All mutants have this chance to tap into this power level. Yeah. And I love seeing Scott doing it. And I love the fact that it's Wolverine who's got to bring him back down to, bring him back down to reality. And kind of neat seeing Wolverine gut somebody.

Yeah, yeah. This whole thing was really, really cool. Especially because of their relationship, right? It's always been when things go haywire and somebody needs to either bring Wolverine back to gear or Cyclops back to bear. It's going to be these two. And this is probably going to be a lifelong struggle between the two of them. They're brothers really in the most significant of ways in how they're written. And I always love how that plays out. Where this went is like, I figured this was going to be the ending, right? Yeah. I'm so glad it wasn't. I like how this went. It wasn't what I expected. And this is an example of, you know, writing, taking a good look at this and going, how should we end this? Like, what do we really want from this storyline? I love when writers do something that you don't expect.

Yeah.

And yet when you read it, you're like, of course, this is what Charles would do.

It is funny because, you know, remember going into, you know, once I realized what was going on and I thought Charles was going to sacrifice himself. When the first ship pops off and disappears, I'm thinking, okay, that's the ending of this. Like, oh, crud. Xavier's getting away. And then you flip the page and you're back and he's on the ship and he's like, oh, we

see you next time at the P.

got to go back and i'm like oh no here comes the sacrifice no please you guys were free and i remember reading this the first time going through going you were free you won don't go back don't go back i was so worried xavier was going to sacrifice himself that xavier was going to do something like do something stupid like this i was so worried and i'm so glad that they didn't go the route that my brain was going i love the fact that xavier is like we gotta go we can't let it end this way we gotta go back and that again that is such a my professor the professor xavier i have in my head from childhood would 100 have to do this yeah and i loved seeing that that i'd love the fact that you know um it was absolutely brilliant the the ending of this the bon voyage

for the last time was something that um was really interesting because bringing the select guests i love the magnetos one of the people that's there like storm being there there's there's certain people that are at this that need to be miss marvel was an interesting choice um the one who was sitting there i'm glad she's there but i'm like sitting here like okay um we're good but i there's certain key players that need to be there like forge stepping out angel stepping out they all make sense there these are players that needed to see xavier for this last time for him to do this piece i like that this feels like a conclusion i also feel like this feels like a teacher teaching his students one last thing how to how to exit how to retire how to step away in a way that is graceful in a way that acknowledges um there were mistakes made along the way there were problems along the way um i want to do this the right way i want to have at least some closure for this also just to bring to bear i'm sorry i haven't been me for quite a long time and there's been some reasons why and it's cost me it's cost everyone it's cost you i like that this was very much a bringing together of i get why you feel the way you do and i want to acknowledge that i want that to be a part of this there were so many things i tried to do in my dream and and it it didn't work i love that piece where he's now saying to them but you are the future you know the others are going to look to you for that guidance protection for comfort and you know just keep in mind they're not asking for perfection from you they're asking you to be there when they need it and i love just the messaging of all this you know charles is setting the stage for you know you've got the power here to guide this ship and keep going and moving forward can keep fighting the good fight for them it really is like setting up a mandate and opening a doorway for them to decide how they want to build a new dream and what it looks like i do like that he asked him to

build a dog on school again that part was really cool and and again i love the fact that you know you know xavier is going like no more fighting you know we don't fight you know and again it's the call to arms to all mutants stop fighting each other you know fight for justice you know fight you know you know fight for freedom you know do not fight your brother look upon your sister with patience help others and ask for help when it's needed i love the fact that he as he's leaving he's throwing this out to the rest of the world yeah once again he never wanted to be a general but a professor the professor is giving one last uh lesson i thought that was absolutely brilliant and the line about with uh for god's sakes you know build another school i don't know about you but i heard 100 heard patrick stewart's voice oh yeah when i was reading that i was like man that is again that that is professor xavier to me the only thing i wish is i would have rather seen this sequence with him without his helmet on you know it's kind of like those moments when you know when the bat drops the cowl and you see bruce's face i think i would have rather seen um xavier's face in this you know but again i can't knock it because this is an absolutely brilliant story this right here was giving the xavier his exit giving him you know the final goodbye and aside from there's that imperial series going on i don't know if we're going to see xavier ever on earth again this may they may be finally done with professor charles xavier you know at least for a while you know in the x universe i agree with that place but i'm wondering if we're not going to see him for a while i i don't i mean

obviously we got a new storyline coming by jonathan hickman with him so what does their journey look like and how long does that journey run and i think there will always be something that could bring him

You know what I mean? Storyline-wise, whether it's the current writing team or future writing teams, whatever that looks like, that would have a reason to bring him back. I like that this makes sense.

Oh, God, yeah. And everything you said about how the right people were there that needed to be there, one of the people that, again, if I hadn't read the last issue of Exceptional, I wouldn't have been as excited to see Emma Frost there. You know, so then this is building on that last stuff where you really do see the last issue of Exceptional. We really did see that emotional. Well, I saw the emotional side of Emma. Yeah. So seeing her there also further added to it. And again, I love the fact that Magic is crying. It's like, oh, sand in my eye. Everyone shut up. Again, little humoristic bit that added to the emotional side of this. I love this story. This was absolutely so much better than the stuff I had in my brain. So thank you to the creative team for not doing what I thought you were going to do, because this is such a better story.

Yeah, it was really, really interesting to see. I wanted to tell him, tell Scott that every time he looks up, he'll be there, but he's already gone. I think in those moments, Scott, you know, has a revelation of things that he wishes he'd said of the professor. And they've all got that. Rogue's got that, too. It's something that they relate on. This was a very, very interesting ending, because now Scott's got to deal with regret that this is a father figure to him, who in so many ways, you know, with his complicated relationship with his own father, Charles has served and filled that role for him. And now Charles is gone, and he doesn't get a chance to have that closure the way that he'd like. And that's something that's really interesting. I don't know what the future holds for Xavier in the stories. I like that there was a finality to this, that as much as there's finality to anything in comics, and I say that not in a snarky way. It, you know, it's, storylines like this should lead to, like, I'm excited for that Hickman book. Yeah. You know, just to follow more of Professor X and Llandra and see their little adventure. And however long that's going to go, I have a feeling that's going to be pretty darn epic, and I'm looking forward to a really good epic storyline. It's an example of this storyline set up not only the future of these books right now and setting up a status quo for these books right now in a very satisfying way. It also set up a reason for having that book at all. And that book's going to be really kick butt, I think.

Yep.

This is a good time to be an X-Men fan.

Really is. This is a very good time to be an X-Men fan. Yeah. And this was a great story. And again, it did what a crossover needs to do. Yep. It got me excited to read all of the X-Books. I'm 100%. I got to know what happens afterwards. Yeah. How did Xavier getting away really change the mutant landscape? Because there's a lot of people who are going to be very angry that they didn't bring back Xavier.

And was Cyclops right?

Yeah.

You know, at the end of the day, here's what we're going to see. We're going to see some consequence to this. Was Cyclops right? Was he not? And how does he respond to that? What does that look like? Yeah. Those are going to be pieces that are going to be very interesting. RagingBullets.com is our show website that feeds into a Facebook fan page. It also feeds into X slash Twitter. We are proud to be part of an amazing Facebook group community. I appreciate everyone who's been posting. There's been a lot going on. A lot of things going on with Diamond Comics distribution and what's going on over there. A lot of comic book news that's going on. A lot of things going on with films. Just a lot of comic news. And I really appreciate the fact that our team of friends that are over there are constantly curating information. We've got friends who are posting about blog posts and things like that that they're doing. I also want to make sure that I shout out the fact that I've had two podcasts appearance. Actually, three podcast appearances recently that I want to shout out. One of them was just released. I was on the Earth Station Who podcast. And we were wrapping up season two, a.k.a. season 15, depending on how you're looking at this whole Disney Doctor Who. And we talked about the whole season and a really great conversation. I just love the people over there and really proud to have been invited over to that podcast. I also want to shout out that coming up in July, I regularly do Is It Jaws? I'm on every other week on Is It Jaws, the film review podcast. But we did a crossover with Paul Spataro's other podcast, Back to the Bins. And we had Chris Eberle come and join us. And we talked about Daredevil in comics. The Frank Miller run. We were really talking about that whole entire era. And then we also went. and talked about Daredevil in film over on Is It Jaws? Those are going to be released in early July, so be on the lookout for both of those, where you get to take a look at us and basically Frank Miller Daredevil and Daredevil Across Media in those two parters. So I wanted to shout those out. It's coming up releases that you would be interested in, but it's been a fun time to do some podcasting. You can also, in the About Us section of our show website, find out where to connect with us on social media and gaming platforms. And we are sponsored, as always, Jim, by DCBService and InStockTrades.com. Can you please tell us what is going on over at DCBService.com?

The X-Men of Apocalypse Alpha, issue 104, 46% off, only $3.23. The all-new Spider-Gwen Ghost Spider, issue number one, 46% off, only $2.69. And Thor, number one, 46% off, only $2.69. As well as multiple varying covers for all of these titles. So thank you, DCBS.

Once again, over at InStockTrades.com, DC's finest, this is a great line, DC's finest Catwoman, Vengeance and Vindication. $39.99, regularly 55% off, only $17.99. Two different versions of the Marvel Master Wars Daredevil card cover, number 19, depending on what your interest is. $75, regularly 46% off, only $40.50 each. Spawn Origins Deluxe Edition hardcover. There is a signed and unsigned version of this. The signed version is $149.99, regularly, 50% off, only $75. The unsigned version is $99.99, regularly, 50% off, only $49.99. I want to thank DCBService and InStockTrades.com for continuing to support our show. Next episode, Jim and I are going to be back on something that we have wanted to talk about for a long time. That is the Masters of Universe, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles crossover, Turtles of Grayskull. We're going to be doing a two-parter, taking a look at that, and that begins next week. See you then. Bye!

John 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. Raging Bullets, the podcast show.

The episode show. Raging Bullets. The podcast show. The podcast show. The comments. The podcast show. The podcast show. The podcast show. The podcastãn. The podcast show. Showing you. The podcast show. The podcast show.