0:00

Hey Jay, what's triathlon's deal? Um,

0:02

it's a race in three parts, so

0:04

they're swimming, they're cycling, and

0:06

they're running. No, I mean

0:09

the superhero triathlon. I don't know, is

0:11

that even a thing? Maybe they fly instead

0:13

of running? No, no, no, not

0:15

superhero triathlons. The superhero who goes

0:17

by the name triathlon. Oh, okay,

0:20

okay, that guy. So he's a

0:22

disgraced Olympic athlete turned superhero,

0:24

his powers come from the

0:27

triune understanding understanding.

0:29

That's that UFO

0:32

call, right? Yeah, they

0:34

use some weird relic

0:37

to give them the

0:39

powers of 3D

0:41

man. Aren't most

0:43

men 3D? Well,

0:45

yeah, but most

0:48

of them don't

0:50

live as two-dimensional

0:53

entities in their

0:55

brother's eyeglasses.

0:57

What? And we are here to

0:59

explain the X-Men. Because it's about

1:02

time someone did. Welcome to episode

1:04

479 of Jane Miles Explain the

1:06

X-Men, where we walk you through

1:08

the ins, the outs, and the

1:10

red cons of comic's greatest superhero

1:12

soap opera. Welcome to our examination

1:14

of one of, I think, the

1:16

worst cases of wasted potential of the

1:19

odds. Because today we are looking

1:21

at a mini-series with the

1:23

amazing title, Magneto Dark Seduction.

1:25

Magneto, Dark Seduction. And

1:27

I was hoping based on

1:29

this title that we were going

1:32

to get a full like Gothic

1:34

horror romance with Magneto

1:36

as the damsel. I know

1:38

right but nobody really gets seduced

1:41

at all darkly or otherwise unless

1:43

we're talking metaphors but even then

1:45

people kind of don't really that

1:47

much I guess Polaris like wants

1:49

to be powerful that's about the

1:51

closest thing I can think of

1:54

yeah but there's no seduction involved

1:56

it's like dark friendship with

1:58

benefits oh maybe and you know

2:00

Magneto, maybe he's seduced by the promise

2:02

of the thing he's been wanting to

2:05

do since Exma number one, which is

2:07

to have mutants be in charge or

2:09

at least not persecuted. Magneto,

2:11

dark booty call. Wow, I would

2:13

read that. Magneto, dark quickie. I mean,

2:15

yeah, but if the series were called those

2:18

things, they also would not, you know,

2:20

live up to it. Like, Magneto, dark

2:22

quickie, would just be a little ash

2:24

can addition that was like, you know,

2:26

eight pages, eight pages long. There's

2:28

got to be someone out there making

2:30

X-Men 2 on the Bibles. Oh yeah, like

2:32

those old little porn cartoon books? Yeah,

2:35

little tiny porn comics. Yeah, I assume

2:37

so. I mean, there's a lot of

2:39

X-Men porn out there. I'd imagine it

2:41

takes pretty much every form imaginable. There

2:43

is, but like I feel like there's, there's,

2:45

there's, there's, that format is a classic.

2:48

And it takes, you know, a degree

2:50

of, of, of, of, of, of being rooteded in

2:52

the history of, to decide to go

2:54

that direction with your cartoon porn.

2:57

No, that's fair. There's a lot of

2:59

nuance going on here with the X-fuckin. Anyway,

3:01

we're immediately off track, but how could we

3:03

not be with a title like that? Yes,

3:06

the point is, we're covering the mini-series

3:08

Magneto Dark Seduction, which is notable

3:10

not only for its inaccurate and

3:12

disappointing title, but also for being

3:14

the start of a new giant

3:16

era. We talked about this in

3:18

past episodes, but we are now

3:20

officially in the revolution era of

3:22

the X-Line. This was like a

3:24

soft reboot, I guess, that took

3:27

place in 2000, in the spring

3:29

of 2000. And every book had

3:31

like a new direction of some sort.

3:33

Some of them had new creative teams

3:35

and even new premises. We'll see some

3:37

of that soon. Some of them would

3:40

just get like a new artist or

3:42

something. In this case, the only way

3:44

it really ties in was with a

3:46

unifying plot element, which is that between

3:49

the comics we just got done covering

3:51

and all of the revolution comics, six

3:53

months have passed. Time has passed and

3:55

we don't know what happened during that

3:58

time because comics haven't covered it. And

4:00

so we're going to find out as we go

4:02

bit by bit. Or in the case of certain

4:04

books, we're going to have some flashbacks. But right

4:06

now, how does that apply here? Not very

4:09

relevantly. The stuff that's happened in

4:11

the last six months doesn't really matter

4:13

very much. Yeah, so this is a

4:15

comic about Janosha. We've talked a

4:17

lot about Magnito and his deal with

4:19

ruling Janosha. We'll get some more details

4:22

there for those who have forgotten shortly.

4:24

But it just means that he's had

4:26

more time to like. fix it up,

4:28

it's spruced up a little, you know,

4:30

he's like swept all the debris into

4:32

the closet and closed the door for

4:34

when mom comes in. Well, six months

4:37

is a long time, even if we

4:39

don't know what happened during that time,

4:41

but we should probably talk about what

4:43

happened before then with Megito, you

4:45

know, in Genosha. Okay, so as we

4:47

all know, Megido is the ex-man's

4:49

archfrenomy, and a while ago he

4:51

decided that he wanted a country,

4:53

so he blackmailed Earth for one. Yeah,

4:55

he threatened to tear apart the

4:58

planet's electromagnetic field, which would have,

5:00

you know, crippled civilization and killed

5:02

an enormous number of people, unless he

5:04

got a country. To rule? You know, like

5:06

Dr. Doom, Dr. Doom has one, why shouldn't

5:09

Magneito? The United Nations, which

5:11

in the Marvel Universe has actual

5:13

power, gave him one. They did. Even though unbeknownst

5:15

to them, Magneito had kind of

5:17

burned out his powers in all

5:20

of the fights surrounding that whole

5:22

electromagnetic magnetic field deal. Specifically, the

5:24

UN gave Magnitow the nation of

5:26

Genosha. Let's remind people what the

5:29

deal with Genosha has been and

5:31

is. Genosha, much like America

5:33

of 2025, is a ham-handed

5:35

apartheid metaphor. Yep. In this case,

5:37

in the past, Genosha used technology

5:39

called the mutate bonding process to

5:42

enslave the mutant population and force

5:44

them to work for the ruling

5:46

human population, thus making the country

5:48

very rich and successful and nice

5:50

for the people in charge. As

5:53

a result of several crossovers, Genosha

5:55

was gripped by a civil war

5:57

between the humans and the mutates.

6:00

And that was the state of the

6:02

country when Magneto took it over,

6:04

when Magneto was given it. And that

6:06

was kind of the point of why

6:08

the UN gave Genosha to Magneto. They

6:11

hoped that it was so war-torn and

6:13

fucked up that he would have a

6:15

hard time dealing with it and would

6:17

be too distracted to do much more

6:19

supervillany for a while. That's a really

6:22

fucked up thing to do with the

6:24

whole country of people, to be like,

6:26

here, here, here's a distraction, and

6:28

end the civil war. with the

6:30

help of his cabinet who consists

6:32

of a bunch of folks. All

6:34

right, so we have former

6:36

acolytes, those are magnetos cultists,

6:38

Amelia Vote and Fabian Cortes.

6:40

Former human-supporting mutants magistrate

6:42

pipeline, aka K.A. K.A.

6:44

K.A. Teleporter of the

6:46

Nude. Well, he later was able to

6:49

use his powers to teleport people's

6:51

clothes as well, which honestly I

6:53

think is a real downgrade for

6:56

an X-Men comic. Absolutely. Former rebels

6:58

and lovers Philip Morrow and Jenny

7:00

Ransom. On again off again,

7:02

currently on, son of Magneto Quicksilver.

7:05

All to Huxley, the portentiously named

7:07

cutthroat genotion ambassador to

7:09

the United Nations. And

7:12

most recently, on again off

7:14

again, currently off, daughter of

7:16

Magneto, Polaris, who's taken over

7:18

Fabian Cortez's role of amplifying

7:20

Magneto's secretly failing powers. So

7:22

wait, if they're Magneto's cabinet, does

7:25

that mean that each of them

7:27

is the secretary of something? Uh,

7:29

yeah, I assume so. Is Fabian

7:31

Cortez the secretary of ponytails that

7:33

are jerks? No, I think he's

7:35

the secretary of betrayal. Secretary

7:37

of betrayal, Fabian Cortez. Was he

7:39

elected? Oh no. So what about

7:41

everyone else? Well, I think

7:44

Alda Huxley is the secretary of

7:46

on-the-nose naming. Or possibly the

7:48

secretary of guns. Yep. These days

7:50

Philip Moro is the secretary of grizzledness.

7:52

Like, he's got stubble and a trench

7:54

coat and a cigarette, and he's very

7:56

grim. So what I'm hearing is that

7:58

he's a secretary. of Noir. Secretary

8:01

of Noir, Philip Morrow. Jenny

8:03

Ransom is kind of the secretary of

8:05

I'm here because I was in the

8:07

comic. Oh yeah. Oh, that line from

8:10

Josie and the Pussy Cats. What a

8:12

fine underrated movie. But I really

8:14

love imagining what their qualifications are

8:16

outside of their their powers or abilities, or

8:18

whether they have ones, or whether Magneto's just

8:21

kind of giving positions to all of

8:23

the people who are there and are his friends,

8:25

or whether current politics are inspiring my read on

8:27

this story, or what. Man, why you got to

8:29

make X-Men all political? It's just

8:31

a comic. We just read it to

8:34

escape. Just saying I would take any

8:36

of these characters as Secretary of Health

8:38

Human Services over the current one. Yeah,

8:40

even Fabian Cortez, 100%. Especially Fabian Cortez?

8:43

Uh, well, anyway, there have been

8:45

a bunch of stories set in

8:47

this status quo of Magneto and

8:49

his cabinet ruling Genosia. And, uh,

8:51

here's another one. Magneto Dark

8:53

Seduction number one, part one,

8:55

the Masada maneuver. Is that a

8:57

sex thing that sounds like a sex

9:00

thing? It's complicated, but it's, uh,

9:02

among other thing, is kind of

9:04

a Zionist reference? Oh, never mind.

9:06

This is written by Fabian Naseza, penciled

9:08

by Roger Cruz, inked by Andy Owens,

9:10

colored by Mike Rockowitz, and lettered by

9:12

Sharp Font, and Paul Detron. Hey, it's Roger

9:14

Cruz. Roger Cruz has done a lot of little

9:16

X-Bits, most notably a whole bunch of X-Men. He

9:19

also did that X- Patrol one shot that Devin

9:21

and I covered, you know, the Amalgum X-Force, doing

9:23

patrol thing. And he'll later go on to do

9:25

a series that I think we both absolutely love,

9:27

which we both absolutely love, which is X-men first

9:30

class, which is X-men first class. I think

9:32

of him in this era at least slightly

9:34

uncharitably as not quite Joe

9:36

Mad. I mean, that's accurate.

9:38

I think a lot of people were

9:40

aeping Joe Madera's art style just because

9:43

it was so fresh and exciting and

9:45

well successful. Not a bad thing, but

9:47

there are no Joe Mad. Only Joe

9:49

Mad is Joe Mad. I'm going to

9:51

put this up front because otherwise I'm

9:54

going to harp on it throughout. I

9:56

cannot get over the way that Roger

9:58

Cruz draws breasts. Oh yeah,

10:00

they're kind of like, um, like,

10:02

great groups. They're like wizard orbs.

10:04

That one would ponder. Like, it's

10:06

a combination of the penciling and

10:09

the coloring, I think, because they're

10:11

all perfectly spherical and they're all

10:13

really shiny and it's very unsettling.

10:15

Do you think they kind of

10:17

make like a magical, wow, wow,

10:19

wow, wow, sound at all times?

10:21

I mean, I think Polaris is

10:23

definitely due because of magnetism. Yeah,

10:25

that's canon. I'm gonna go ahead

10:27

and say that's canon. As Miles

10:29

mentioned, there is no really big

10:32

mystery as to what happened in

10:34

this six-month gap. It's not like

10:36

everyone's mad at Cyclops abruptly or

10:38

anything, as in the eight-month gap.

10:40

We've had too few months for

10:42

that. But Janochet is thriving, or

10:44

at least it's superficially thriving under

10:46

Magneto. It's complicated. It

10:48

looks really pretty in the opening two-page

10:51

spread. Hammer Bay, which is the capital

10:53

of Janosha, big city. It's just this

10:55

cluster of shining golden techno skyscrapers. It's

10:58

pretty cool looking. Okay, but it also

11:00

looks like a city made entirely out

11:02

of expensive vibrators. Well, everyone must be

11:04

very happy there then. God, Hammer Bay

11:07

would actually be a great name for

11:09

a sex toy company. It totally would.

11:11

I'm not sure if we could say

11:14

the listeners can use that themselves or

11:16

if we should just cancel the podcast,

11:18

quit our day jobs and start a

11:21

sex toy company called Hammer Bay. I

11:23

feel like this ends with a weird

11:25

lawsuit from Marvel. Probably true. What a

11:28

way to go bankrupt though? Like also,

11:30

would you, like the name is good,

11:32

but would you really want that reference?

11:35

Like this is our sex toy company

11:37

named after a complex apartheid metaphor in

11:39

a comic book. I mean everybody's got

11:41

their fetishes but yeah that one might

11:44

be kind of niche good point. Actually

11:46

so I know about this because there's

11:48

there's some cooking show where they make

11:51

the contestants wear spreader bars sometimes. What?

11:53

And there was there was a Tumblr

11:55

post about this. the brand they used

11:58

and the brand they used their logo

12:00

involved like a muscle dude except it

12:02

was a traced picture of Namor every

12:05

single thing you've added to this story

12:07

makes it less believable Jay I swear

12:09

to God I'm not making it up

12:12

I will find a link to this

12:14

for the visual companion to the traced

12:16

picture of Namor that's the logo for

12:18

a company that makes spreader bars that

12:21

they use on a cooking show yes

12:23

I Or you know what? Marvel, you

12:25

should have known that calling your comic

12:28

magneto dark seduction would have led to

12:30

conversations like this, you know, 25 years

12:32

later. Anyway, what were we talking about?

12:35

Uh, Dilda City. Uh, okay, what's going

12:37

on there? Well, um... We get most

12:39

of this series from Quicksilver's point of

12:42

view, and Quicksilver is mostly here to

12:44

keep an eye on Magnito. He's grudgingly

12:46

serving in Magnito's cabinet. And we first

12:49

see him here stopping soldiers from executing

12:51

a human family trying to leave after

12:53

curfew, because immigration is illegal unless it's

12:55

approved by the ministry. which is pretty

12:58

messed up. Yeah, it's very much flipped

13:00

around here in Genosha. That is I

13:02

think something that has shifted somewhat during

13:05

those six months. Mutants are now very

13:07

much the ruling class and humans are

13:09

not just equal, but they are very

13:12

much the underclass. And it's interesting to

13:14

me here that as we see this

13:16

first interaction between humans and mutants. Magneto

13:19

soldiers are wearing uniforms that are quite

13:21

reminiscent of the military magistrate uniforms that

13:23

the human soldiers wore back in the

13:26

old paradigm, the old status quo of

13:28

Janosha. Yeah, I mean that has to

13:30

be deliberate. Like everything here is hammering

13:32

down the magneto is basically reversing the

13:35

status quo. Everything is bad, but the

13:37

other way now. Exactly, yeah. That's tricky,

13:39

because if you're not careful with a

13:42

plot line like this, it can turn

13:44

into one of those... reverse racism arguments,

13:46

which of course doesn't work because that's

13:49

not how power works, that's not how

13:51

history works. I think this story navigates

13:53

it pretty well in that it in

13:56

the way it portrays Magdino in the

13:58

way it portrays his cabinet like I

14:00

think it does add enough nuance within

14:03

the cabinet themselves at least to make

14:05

it work so I appreciate that and

14:07

part of that is just it's Fabian

14:09

nieza like this may not be his

14:12

best story by a long shot but

14:14

he does pay attention to these things

14:16

yeah agreed So Magneto himself is doing

14:19

pretty well these days too because he's

14:21

got Polaris working with him. And what

14:23

they discovered over the course of the

14:26

12 crossover is that Polaris can basically

14:28

augment Magneto's powers. He can pretty much

14:30

draw from her powers as if they

14:33

share a common pool. And here, he's

14:35

able to use those powers to stop

14:37

a disaster and not yet functional fusion

14:40

plant. Everybody's kind of

14:42

wondering though what Polaris is doing here.

14:44

I mean, she doesn't really like Magneto

14:46

historically, like the first time Polaris appeared

14:48

she got betrayed by a Magneto robot

14:51

and it didn't necessarily get much better

14:53

from there. There's some suspicion that they

14:55

may be a couple which is quashed

14:57

fairly quickly to everyone's intense relief. And

15:00

Pietro goes to visit Polaris in her

15:02

apartment there... Remember, they're pretty close having

15:04

been teammates on X-Factor for a very

15:06

long time, even though they aren't aware

15:09

that they're, well, actually not siblings, but

15:11

like, might have been siblings? I love

15:13

this. That at this point, we think

15:15

that Quicksilver in the Scarlet Witch are

15:17

magnetos kids and Polaris isn't, and in

15:20

current continuity, it's the exact reverse. I've

15:22

just given up. I stick with the

15:24

on again off again, kids. Legit. Title.

15:26

And kind of a fun detail. Polaris

15:29

is currently living entirely upside down. Her

15:31

home is furnished on the ceiling, has

15:33

a chandelier hanging on the floor, because

15:35

it's part of training her to strengthen

15:38

her powers. So she is presumably holding

15:40

this whole situation together magnetically, including while

15:42

she sleeps. And I think that's an

15:44

excellent metaphor for her just being desperate

15:47

for power to create control, to turn

15:49

the world into something it currently... isn't

15:51

because she's doing all of this in

15:53

part because her ex-boyfriend Havik has died

15:56

and she is convinced he's still out

15:58

there somewhere. She has some supporting evidence

16:00

for this involving Hatjem's long story but

16:02

as far as the rest of the

16:04

Marvel universe knows Havik is very much

16:07

dead and Polaris is just desperate to

16:09

somehow find a way to bring him

16:11

back which always seems strange to me

16:13

because... They broke up like a long

16:16

time ago and she's been very independent

16:18

and kind of bitter toward havoc since

16:20

then. She's kind of done a 180

16:22

since he died. Polaris saw a copy

16:25

of previews and realized the mutantex was

16:27

solicited in it. That's that's probably it

16:29

right there. And with Magnito she feels

16:31

in control and powerful for the first

16:34

time in a long time and she

16:36

thinks if she leans if she leans

16:38

into it and she really focuses on

16:40

honing her powers with his support she

16:42

might be able to find a way

16:45

to bring Alex home. And I would

16:47

object to that because like how are

16:49

you going to cross dimensions with magnets?

16:51

And then I remember, oh right, it's

16:54

the Marvel Universe. You can do literally

16:56

anything with magnets. Yes. Also, let's talk

16:58

about Polaris's outfit. She has a new

17:00

look in this mini series. And I

17:03

think it's like my favorite thing about

17:05

the entire mini series. She's got this

17:07

solid green body suit with black accents

17:09

and this sort of reflective sheen over

17:12

the whole thing, including her. or boobs

17:14

I guess, but it looks radis hell.

17:16

She actually reminds me a bit of

17:18

hella from Thor, that black on green

17:21

and like the sort of flat spiky

17:23

headdress around her head, which looks like

17:25

a cross between Polaris's initial headdress and

17:27

hell is, well, always headdress. Oh yeah,

17:29

I can see it. And that's cool

17:32

because like hella, Polaris is wearing. colors

17:34

that are associated with not exactly villains,

17:36

not exactly heroes. Green is one of

17:38

those ambiguous colors in superhero comics. It's

17:41

a secondary color. So it's kind of

17:43

associated with villains, but it's also something

17:45

that shows up on superheroes a lot.

17:47

And I like that. I like that

17:50

this miniseries, where this character is kind

17:52

of on the edge of Is she

17:54

a hero, is she a villain, gets

17:56

that nice iconography. Polaris just want to

17:59

be left alone. And then

18:01

she jumps over a mountain and eats

18:03

a bunch of beans. But also, there's

18:05

an element of her costume that I

18:08

really want to talk about. She has

18:10

a demon skull on her chest. Like,

18:12

okay, green and black, secondary colors, you

18:15

know, really dealing with her dark side,

18:17

green's eyes been her color, black, makes

18:19

her feel shadowy. But she's also just

18:22

got like a skull with demon horns,

18:24

right there. I don't know, did she

18:26

just get really into heavy metal, metal,

18:29

while what the hell? Yeah, that's that's

18:31

a bizarre choice It's truly bizarre. The

18:33

best thing though, I mean aside from

18:36

her being a heavy metal now, I

18:38

wonder what her favorite bands are, is

18:40

that her hair is just this giant

18:43

energy field that goes from her head

18:45

and just like radiates outward as this

18:47

giant curby crackle filled cloud that goes

18:50

from her head and just like radiates

18:52

outward as this giant curby crackle filled

18:54

cloud that like acts as a trail

18:57

behind her when she flies and fills

18:59

the panel as she channels her power.

19:01

It's such a cool visual. It's actually

19:03

a lot... like the way the Scarlet

19:06

Witch's hair these days goes from being

19:08

regular hair and trails off into like

19:10

magic stuff except it's all magic stuff

19:13

and by magic I mean magnetism. So

19:15

magic. Yeah pretty much. Anyway she looks

19:17

awesome as the point we will absolutely

19:20

have her individual companion probably a few

19:22

times. The visual companion is just going

19:24

to be the guide to learn of

19:27

Dana's fancy hair. Yeah and her skull.

19:29

I mean the one on her chest

19:31

not the one on her head. So...

19:34

There's one main exception to the at

19:36

least apparent bliss of Genota, and that

19:38

is carrying Cove a small fishing port.

19:41

This is the sole holdout from Magnito's

19:43

rule of the island, still resisting to

19:45

Magnito's great displeasure. And in defending themselves

19:48

from Magnito's mostly ruling forces, they don't

19:50

just have human soldiers, or mutate soldiers

19:52

for that matter. They've recruited a number

19:55

of former acolytes of magneto. Accolites that

19:57

magneto had previously abandoned, which uh, magneto

19:59

kind of does that to his acolytes

20:02

a lot. And his children. and his

20:04

children. And we've seen a lot of

20:06

these folks before, including Senyaka. You know,

20:09

the one with the cloth wrapped around

20:11

his head, like the way Wolverine looked

20:13

when he was death, with the Electro-Wips.

20:16

He's died at least twice by this

20:18

point. He's died at least twice by

20:20

this point. He's just around again. I

20:23

guess the moral of the stories, if

20:25

you want to live forever, make sure

20:27

you get an action figure that people

20:29

like to buy. Second question, which is

20:32

not actually a question. When I first

20:34

saw the Electro-Wips, I thought they were

20:36

teasing Omega- Red. Ah. They were not.

20:39

I'm surprised that they thought people were

20:41

going to see that and be like,

20:43

oh, it's Senyaka. Like, he's not that

20:46

well-known or memorable a character. Okay, you

20:48

say that Jay, but having been really

20:50

into X-Men in the 90s, and you

20:53

know, young enough to be really into

20:55

action figures, but like, I was sort

20:57

of obsessed with them. The Sanjaka action

21:00

figure was really one of the coolest

21:02

ones. Almost as cool as Spat and

21:04

Grovel. So I can't believe they got

21:07

action figures. Who were those guys? Oh,

21:09

you remember Spat was like the very

21:11

small cave girl who was actually older

21:14

and Grovel was the big frog monster

21:16

she hung out with? I don't, but

21:18

good for them. Yeah, it was during

21:21

the trial of Gambit. Okay. It's okay,

21:23

Spat and Grovel. I'll never forget you.

21:25

So the actless working for Magneto are...

21:28

wearing different colored outfits than usual before

21:30

they used to all wear purple and

21:32

red presumably a homage to magneto. Now

21:35

the ones working for Janosha are wearing

21:37

blue and yellow and the renegade accolades

21:39

are actually still wearing the purple and

21:42

red. I do love color coding and

21:44

I kind of like the color coding

21:46

and I kind of like the idea

21:49

that you know the quote good guys

21:51

have more X-Men type colors. Maybe there's

21:53

something going on in the back of

21:56

magneto's head where he really does have

21:58

that much respect for the respect for

22:00

the X- But it's also very inconsistent

22:02

between panels, so I don't know what's

22:05

deliberate and what isn't. Well, it's also

22:07

weird that the accolades were specifically going

22:09

against Magnito, we're still wearing his colors.

22:12

I agree. I mean, I guess maybe

22:14

since Meg, you know, abandoned them, they've

22:16

been really broke and they didn't know

22:19

how to get a normal job so

22:21

they can't buy different clothes, they just

22:23

have what they were wearing at the

22:26

time. Aw. Poor Senyaka. Actually, poor Senyaka

22:28

hell. He's now on his third life

22:30

at least. I want to be able

22:33

to do that. This sort of supports

22:35

my theory that he's just a video

22:37

game guy. He very much is. Yeah,

22:40

I can really imagine the mechanics you

22:42

would use to like swing across gaps

22:44

with those whips or retrieve items or

22:47

whatever. Exactly. And these accolades are not

22:49

only back, but their powers are somehow

22:51

amped up. And when Amelia vote goes

22:54

to investigate this, she's one of the

22:56

current accolades, one of the cabinet, she

22:58

is knocked out and she is let

23:01

in on a terrible, terrible secret. The

23:03

reason that Kerry and Kove has been

23:05

resisting so hard. That brings us to

23:08

magneto dark seductionuction. Number. Number two. Part

23:10

Two, Rotten Apples, written by Fabian Asieza,

23:12

pencil by Roger Cruz, inked by Andy

23:15

Owens, Mark Morales, and Art T. Bear,

23:17

colored by Mike Rockwitz, and lettered by

23:19

Sharpfaunt, and Paul Tutrone. Now, we neglected

23:22

to mention at the end of the

23:24

last issue that there is one more

23:26

thing that happens. All the Huxley is

23:28

removed as UN liaison to Genosha, on

23:31

the basis that she is insufficiently impartial.

23:33

Despite being at this point, Magnito's daughter,

23:35

the Scarlet Witch. It's Wanda Maximoff, the

23:38

Scarlet Witch, an adventure at the time

23:40

of this series. So, Megido gives a

23:42

tour of Janosha to his currently daughter,

23:45

with Megido and Polaris flying around, and

23:47

the Scarlet Witch and Jenny Ransom on

23:49

like a cool hover platform thing that

23:52

I don't know why it has all

23:54

this tech on, and if Magninos just

23:56

gonna carry it around magnetically, but whatever.

23:59

And Magnito, as much as he's trying

24:01

to show his daughter that this place

24:03

is great, just outright states that the

24:06

slaves have now become the masters. You

24:08

are talking to him. of the Avengers

24:10

Magneto, they don't like it when you

24:13

say stuff like that. You're talking to

24:15

a member of the Avengers in an

24:17

era where their two leaders have just

24:20

quit due to accusations of racism, in

24:22

fact. And Magneto is of course appropriately

24:24

dramatic in all of their interactions. Although

24:27

duly impressed, you still seek reasons to

24:29

doubt your father. She replies? Biology does

24:31

not make you my father, Magido. And

24:34

where did you get the idea I

24:36

am impressed? I really like the Wanda

24:38

Maximoff of this era. She's snarky and

24:41

strong-willed, and she's great. This is before

24:43

they kept having her, like, become mentally

24:45

ill and kill everybody over and over

24:48

and over. But, you know, I mean,

24:50

it is pretty impressive. The city looks

24:52

good, except for the horrific war near

24:54

Kerry and Cove on the other side

24:57

of the island. And so the tour

24:59

continues. The Scarlet Witch sees what seems

25:01

to be humans engaged in slave labor.

25:04

Magneto tells her otherwise. Every citizen works

25:06

to their strengths. Be it agriculture, construction,

25:08

science, engineering. and are paid in a

25:11

proportionate sharing of the output of their

25:13

respective expertise. Which gives us my favorite

25:15

single panel in the whole comic, which

25:18

is a close-up of the Scarlet Witch

25:20

scowling and saying, Socialism? It's great. Um,

25:22

anyway, Scarlet Witch talks to the citizens,

25:25

but what with Magneto, like, right there,

25:27

the humans are a bit iffy on

25:29

speaking openly. She does get them to

25:32

open up some, and they mostly just

25:34

seem kind of unsure, like the country...

25:36

is functional and they can't currently leave

25:39

but they'll they're told they'll be able

25:41

to soon so like maybe things were

25:43

kind of okay. Oh I assume they

25:46

were just putting that on because Magna

25:48

was right there. It's possible I mean

25:50

Wanda does use again every strong-willed bearing

25:53

to assure them they'll be safe. I

25:55

got the impression they opened up a

25:57

bit more because of that. So,

26:00

Magneto, meanwhile, is hearing a voice in

26:02

his head. What's going on with this?

26:04

So we never actually find out. But

26:06

this is something that happens throughout the

26:08

miniseries, is that he engages in this

26:10

debate with a voice in his head.

26:12

He at one point asks why the

26:14

voice is still there, and the voice

26:17

says... Because you need me to. Because

26:19

you want me to. I like how

26:21

you added some dark seduction to that,

26:23

Jay. Maybe that's the dark seduction going

26:25

on? Maybe... Oh my God. Yeah. Did

26:27

you ever see the fuck ghost episode

26:29

of Star Trek The Next Generation? Uh,

26:31

no, but I've heard a great deal

26:33

about it. In fact, I think we

26:35

might have talked about it in that

26:37

one Star Trek episode with Tina Carlton.

26:39

I think you're right, but maybe Magneto

26:42

has an ancestral fuck ghost is my

26:44

point. Honestly, I think it's definitely true

26:46

that he has an ancestral fuck ghost.

26:48

Competing theories are that this is Professor

26:50

X. Or that this is a version

26:52

of Professor X that Magneto is sort

26:54

of having an internal debate with, who's

26:56

just in Magneto's head, that is sort

26:58

of Magneto's conscience personified as his old

27:00

friend. And we actually kind of saw

27:02

that happen with Professor X, when Magneto

27:05

was mindless, when Professor X had ripped

27:07

out Magneto's mind at the end of

27:09

fatal attractions, Xavier would have debates with

27:11

his version of Magneto inside his own

27:13

head. What is it actually? I don't

27:15

know, we never find out. Or at

27:17

least not in any comic- So

27:20

the Scarlet Witch is suspicious. She's like,

27:22

okay, I mean, this is a utopia,

27:24

I guess, or is it really just

27:26

the home base for the next war

27:28

you're going to launch? And Quicksilver is

27:30

also suspicious. It must run in the

27:32

family. He has gone over to Kerry

27:34

and Cove and he's been shown the

27:36

secret of Kerry and Cove by Amelia

27:38

vote. The secret of Kerry and Cove?

27:40

Does that like sound like a Nancy

27:42

Drew story to you? Yes. Okay, good.

27:45

But it's complicated because Quicksilver agrees

27:47

that Megino shouldn't have access to

27:49

the secret of carrying Cove, which

27:51

they are still not telling us

27:53

what it is. He feels that

27:55

nobody should have access to it,

27:57

especially because it turns out the

27:59

rebels are being funded by the

28:01

evil corporation Rock. and they did

28:03

hire rebel accolades to murder a

28:05

bunch of humans, it's actually pretty

28:07

terrible everywhere. Everything is the worst.

28:10

War is bad. I think we

28:12

can all agree on that, except

28:14

for assholes who might disagree. And

28:16

turns out part of why the

28:18

war is so bad is you

28:20

know how those rebel accolades powers

28:22

had been amped up? Well, who

28:24

has the mutant power of amping

28:26

up other mutants powers? And also

28:28

betrayal! It's the Secretary of Betrayal

28:30

Fabian Cortez. He is creating this

28:32

conflict. And that what he does

28:34

is cut off the Rebels, the

28:37

Rebel Acolytes, extra powers, and get

28:39

in touch with the UN folks

28:41

who've been watching all this, saying,

28:43

okay, now it's time to move

28:45

because Karian Cove is being lost

28:47

Maginos forces, the tide has turned.

28:49

He's just basically manipulating the UN

28:51

into having an excuse to invade

28:53

Janosha. Why is he doing this?

28:55

We don't know. He's Fabian Cortez.

28:57

It is his nature. He's the

28:59

secretary of betrayal. I mean, we

29:01

do find out a little bit.

29:03

We'll get to that. And as

29:06

for the forces that are coming

29:08

in, that the UN sends in,

29:10

it's... The Avengers! The rest of

29:12

them! They're extra into coming to

29:14

help because, you know, one of

29:16

their own is currently in Janosha

29:18

as far as they know held

29:20

captive. The UN forces get all

29:22

this information, by the way, from

29:24

a news report by Neil Conan.

29:26

You know, the real-life reporter who

29:28

was last seen in the Xbox

29:30

during fall of the mutants. He

29:33

was in Chris Claremont's Fantastic Four

29:35

Run in between that and this,

29:37

but, hey, nice to see you,

29:39

Neil. Well, he'll live forever in

29:41

superhero comics, which honestly is pretty

29:43

cool. So this brings us to

29:45

Magneto Doc Seduction number three. Something

29:47

worth fighting for. Written by Fabian.

29:49

It says that penciled by Roger

29:51

Cruz, Inc. by Andy Owens, and

29:53

Art Chabear, colored by Mike Rockowitz,

29:55

lettered by sharp fonts, and Paltototron.

29:57

And we're halfway through, and no

30:00

one has been darkly seduced yet.

30:02

Booo! Avengers versus Acolytes fight, and

30:04

this is a weird-ass Avengers team.

30:06

Who've we got? So we've got

30:08

the Wasp, Goliath, aka Giant Man,

30:10

aka Ant-Man. Iron Man, Warbird, and

30:12

that is Carol Danvers, the former

30:14

Ms. Marvel and eventually to be

30:16

Captain Marvel, as opposed to Avadaara

30:18

Nandini from Wolverine and the X-Men,

30:20

the Shiar Lady. We've got Shehulk,

30:22

and we've got Triathlon. We talked

30:24

about him. He's great. So yeah,

30:26

his deal right now is that

30:29

he has the strength agility and

30:31

speed of three combined peak performance

30:33

human beings. Suck, who only has

30:35

the strength of two strong men,

30:37

triathlons like half again better than

30:39

you. These are the Avengers from

30:41

the lovely Kurt Buesik era of

30:43

the team. Listers, if you haven't

30:45

read that, it's really fun. It's

30:47

all on Marvel Unlimited. I'm not

30:49

going to say it's perfect. Not

30:51

everything is aged well, but it's

30:53

excellent. And here they are. Also,

30:56

here is some wonderful opening narration.

30:58

As Fabian Niseza introduces the character's

31:00

mid-fight by referring to Shehalk as

31:02

the Punining. So pipeline is very

31:04

concerned with the matter in Kerry

31:06

and Cove. He knows what's there,

31:08

and he believes it's a resource

31:10

that should be saved for native

31:12

Genocean. So he is against the

31:14

accolades in this. Although he hasn't

31:16

made a full turn yet. Quicksilver's

31:18

doing the can't we all just

31:20

get along thing. He figures they

31:23

should all be working together to

31:25

keep Magneto from getting the secret

31:27

of Kerry and Cove. Which is,

31:29

of course, exactly when Magneto shows

31:31

up behind him and kicks everyone's

31:33

asses. I will cast your flat

31:35

scan allies 50 miles into the

31:37

ocean, Pietro, unless you can convince

31:39

them to leave Janosha peacefully. She

31:41

all chimes in. Don't worry about

31:43

us, Pietro. We're good swimmers. Very

31:45

amusing, Miss Walters. My son, of

31:47

course, knows you would be trying

31:49

to swim with lead weights wrapped

31:52

around... Ground your ankles. Yeah, you

31:54

can tell Megino's powers are messed

31:56

up, because normally he would just

31:58

throw any given problem into space.

32:00

That's what I like to do

32:02

with problems. Satisfying? That it's space's

32:04

problem. So vote Mists Quicksilver out

32:06

of the mass of metal he's

32:08

wrapped in, and the Avengers are

32:10

going to keep Megnito busy while

32:12

Quicksilver goes and destroys the secret

32:14

machinery of carrying Cove. We know

32:16

now it's a machine. Except this

32:19

plan is complicated significantly when Magneto

32:21

somehow yoinks the totality of Polaris'

32:23

powers and then rips the entire

32:25

town of Kerry and Cove off

32:27

the cliff as a distraction, then

32:29

heads out. The narration describes him

32:31

pulling Polaris' powers away as like

32:33

pulling the bed sheet off the

32:35

person next to you in bed,

32:37

which is just such a silly

32:39

but also kind of perfect simile?

32:41

Yeah, no, it's a vivid metaphor.

32:43

It is. And yeah, I mean,

32:46

this is, I think, crossing a

32:48

line for Megito. He's currently very

32:50

okay with killing tons of humans

32:52

by bringing down this whole city

32:54

if it gets him what he

32:56

wants, which is, of course, to

32:58

serve mutants. But I feel like

33:00

this is a worse crime than

33:02

Megido has done in the past.

33:04

Like, yes, he's retaliated against humans.

33:06

Yes, he's killed them if they

33:08

were trying to kill him. But

33:10

these are just like the civilians

33:12

of Kerry and together. Well yeah,

33:15

and this is literally just a

33:17

distraction. Damn it, Magnaito! Polaris thankfully

33:19

is able to use her magnetism

33:21

as she joins a bit of

33:23

the bed sheet back to slow

33:25

the fall of the city and

33:27

the Avengers somehow managed to save

33:29

everybody's life because, well, they're the

33:31

Avengers. They're great at that. That's

33:33

what they do. Magnito heads to

33:35

the caves of Kerry and Cove,

33:37

where the secret is, and he's

33:39

actually known about the secret for

33:42

months as it turns out. There

33:44

is ridiculously fancy advanced machinery here.

33:46

This was left by Sugarman, because

33:48

as you may recall, he popped

33:50

to the past of Genosha from

33:52

the age of Apocalypse. Yeah, and

33:54

remember, even though this is advanced

33:56

machinery, the Age of Apocalypse was

33:58

not an alternate future. The Age

34:00

of Apocalypse was an alternate present.

34:02

So the fact that this is

34:04

so advanced is partially because since

34:06

the sugar man went from the

34:09

present at the Age of Apocalypse

34:11

to the past of the main

34:13

Marvel University had a bunch of

34:15

time to develop more stuff. It

34:17

is so unnecessarily confusing and I

34:19

don't think that plot thread should

34:21

have existed, but here we are.

34:23

The important thing is that there's

34:25

a machine in the caves by

34:27

carrying cove that makes your powers

34:29

super good. This is one

34:31

of the machines that was used for

34:34

the creation of the mutates. So the

34:36

mutates in Genosha, some of them were

34:38

existing mutants, some of them were just

34:41

humans who were latent mutants, who would

34:43

not have developed powers on their own.

34:45

So this technology was able to bring

34:48

out the mutin powers of those latent

34:50

mutants, and then change it to whatever

34:52

was needed by the state. So you'll

34:55

see some mutates who would have naturally

34:57

had a very different mutant power. Jenny

34:59

read some, for example. Jenny Ransom, for

35:02

example. Yeah, she was turned into like

35:04

a super strong lady as opposed to

35:06

I forget what her original eyes were.

35:09

Was that it? Okay, gotcha, gotcha. So

35:11

it kind of does make sense that

35:13

this tech would be here and that

35:16

it could repower Magneto, kind of. And

35:18

Magneto, in his thought balloons, puts this

35:20

delightfully, dramatically. I walk in amidst charges

35:23

of international interference and corporate manipulation. And

35:25

I walk out with my power fully

35:27

restored. And all it will have cost

35:30

me is my last chance for a

35:32

reconciliation with my children. An acceptable loss.

35:34

And Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver are in

35:37

fact waiting for him and he magnetically

35:39

clunks their heads together knocking them out

35:41

that's pretty funny. It's hilarious, like you

35:43

have this magnetic god. I mean, he's

35:46

not a god right now, he still

35:48

needs to get repowered, but that's the

35:50

solution to just bonk their heads together.

35:53

I think bonk is the correct term.

35:55

It is absolutely the correct term. However...

35:57

His third on again off again child

36:00

is waiting to stop him, her boobs

36:02

humming. That's right, Polaris is here. Just

36:04

as back at headquarters. Alda Huxley and

36:07

a bunch of soldiers arrest Cortez for

36:09

his role in this whole debacle. And

36:11

it leads us to Magneto Dark Seduction,

36:14

Part 4, by Right of Force. Written

36:16

by Fabian Asieza, penciled by Michael Ryan

36:18

and Jorge Santa Maria. Aced by Sandu

36:21

Fluria, Tyson, Macadue, Derek May, Rodney Ramos,

36:23

and Harry Candelario, colored by Mike Rockwitz,

36:25

and lettered by Sharp font, and Paul-to-Tron.

36:28

Yeah, you thought we had a lot

36:30

of anchors in previous in previous issues

36:32

in previous issues in previous issues in

36:35

previous issues in previous issues in previous

36:37

issues, now, now, now we have five.

36:39

Plus two pencilers, neither of which is

36:42

the person who did the first three

36:44

issues. Like the arts all fine. I

36:46

mean, none of it's bad. Although, man,

36:49

Polaris's breast do get like even rounder

36:51

somehow. But the inconsistency does make it

36:53

a little hard to stay focused on

36:55

the story, unfortunately. So Magneto and Polaris

36:58

square off from Magnet Fight. And you

37:00

know it's serious because they are both

37:02

just absolutely covered in curby crackle. It

37:05

occurs to me we always say curby

37:07

crackle, but we haven't really described it

37:09

in a long time. It's those little

37:12

bits of dots of various sizes like

37:14

in energy fields that show up around

37:16

any manifestation of a great deal of

37:19

energy or power in a comic book.

37:21

Usually specifically cosmic energy or power. Yeah,

37:23

although in this case magnetism, named of

37:26

course after its creator or at least

37:28

the person who made it most prominent,

37:30

Jack curby. Polaris. Polaris. Polaris despite the

37:33

fact that she's been working with Magnaito

37:35

for a while at this point, has

37:37

no patience left. You're a monster, Magnes,

37:40

and the sad part is that you

37:42

can't see that you've become exactly what

37:44

you claim to be fighting against. A

37:47

racist and oppressor. So I was away

37:49

from X-Men for a long time and

37:51

came back in college, as did you

37:54

Jay, with Grant Morrison's run of new

37:56

X-Men. And I was really annoyed that

37:58

when Magnito shows up in that, when

38:01

he's revealed in that, I guess more

38:03

accurately, he just comes across as such

38:05

an unambiguous... mustache twirling villain. But the

38:08

thing is I hadn't read any of

38:10

this. I hadn't read any of the

38:12

error where Magnaito is running Janosha or

38:14

where he does the trial of Gambit

38:17

or just any of that stuff. The

38:19

Magnaito War. And that Magnaito is very

38:21

consistent with this one, I think. That's

38:24

the thing, yeah. I mean, I still

38:26

don't love the way Grant Morrison wrote

38:28

Magnaito as much as I like their

38:31

run overall a great deal. But it's

38:33

not coming out of nowhere. This is

38:35

a magneto who's certainly much more of

38:38

a villain than a hero, even if

38:40

he's a sympathetic, somewhat understandable villain. Like,

38:42

this is not the magneto who is

38:45

everybody's bud, and who's, you know, on

38:47

Krakoa or working with Xavier or working

38:49

with Cyclops. Like, he's kind of a

38:52

bad guy at this point. Yeah, he's

38:54

unambiguously a villain, and he's one-dimensional in

38:56

the way that you have to be

38:59

to be to be that unambiguous a

39:01

unambiguous a villain. And I think that's

39:03

part of why the Janotian cabinet is

39:06

always brought into the story so heavily,

39:08

because Magnito is less interesting than when

39:10

he's more ambiguous. Well, Magnito unambiguously goes

39:13

into that machinery to fully restore his

39:15

powers, and it works. His 2.5 or

39:17

so children try to demolish the machine,

39:20

but it doesn't work, because he emerges

39:22

with all white eyes, dramatic shadowing, and

39:24

even more curby crackle. Alda Huxley for

39:26

her part is generally just amused by

39:29

everything that's gone down. She's got a

39:31

ton of blackmail data from Cortez. She

39:33

can use all of that info to

39:36

manipulate Magneto by feeding him selective information.

39:38

She knows that Cortez was manipulating events

39:40

that Magneto wouldn't get repowered, but too

39:43

bad for him. And that's, you know...

39:45

That's it. Like I love that her

39:47

greatest pleasure is just crossing over a

39:50

Fabian Cortez in multiple ways. I feel

39:52

like that's a really reasonable thing to

39:54

find affirming. Yeah, there's a little bit

39:57

that's interesting here though, as she's just

39:59

mocking Cortez in his jail cell. Cortez

40:01

talks about how well he's still alive

40:04

now, and there's an image of Mr.

40:06

Sinister hovering in the air above and

40:08

behind him. And this is not explained

40:11

or addressed, right? So the going theory

40:13

about this at the time was that

40:15

maybe Sinister was the reason that Fabian

40:18

Cortez survived the bloodlines crossover in Janosha

40:20

much earlier in the 90s. Because remember,

40:22

Cortez seems to die in that storyline,

40:25

and then he was just back later

40:27

on. So I don't know. Maybe that's

40:29

a plot line that would have eventually

40:32

gone somewhere. I don't think it actually

40:34

does. But a fun little touch. The

40:36

Avengers, meanwhile, help evacuate the wreckage of

40:39

Kerry and Cove, grateful that Polaris gently

40:41

set it down with her magnetism. And

40:43

Magnito, now repowered, shows up and defeats

40:45

them all yet again. He even magnetically

40:48

forces She hulked to punch Warburg, just

40:50

to be a dick, I guess? Wow,

40:52

uncool, Magnito. So the Avengers try to

40:55

talk Magnito down. But he figures after

40:57

humans violated all of the treaties that

40:59

they'd signed with him by giving technology

41:02

to Fabian Cortez and to the rebels,

41:04

he has no interest in their laws

41:06

anymore. And as a demonstration of his

41:09

power when the Avengers are still resisting,

41:11

He magnetically joins the escaping Fabian Cortez

41:13

off the dock 50 miles away where

41:16

he's trying to escape from and smashes

41:18

him into the ground at the Avengers'

41:20

feet in 20 seconds. 50 miles in

41:23

20 seconds. The sound effect is, I

41:25

don't know, how would you pronounce this,

41:27

Jay? That sounds right. Yep, so, however

41:30

he survived dying the first time. Well,

41:32

he's now, died a second. The next

41:34

time we see him, he'll be resurrected

41:37

in the necrosia event along with a

41:39

whole lot of other people. It would

41:41

be funny if you were just sort

41:44

of a conscious puddle at that point.

41:46

He's just goo at that point. He's

41:48

just been squished, but he's immortal. Magnito

41:51

keeps showing off his newfound omnipotent power.

41:53

He grabs, I think it's 37 satellites

41:55

out of space and prepares to crash

41:57

them all into Earth's major cities. In

42:00

a row? Try not to throw any

42:02

satellites on the... of the parking lot

42:04

and Magnido with that just looks at

42:07

the Avengers and says hey what happens

42:09

next is their call but they know

42:11

how it's going to go and they

42:14

retreat. Magnido has won. Or has he

42:16

because while he has the actual victory

42:18

the moral victory as his current children

42:21

are careful to tell him belongs elsewhere.

42:23

Wanda says and even... having anticipated your

42:25

crippling arrogance and seen past the facade

42:28

of Janosha's newfound prosperity barely concealing its

42:30

naked fear and your continued embracing of

42:32

leadership by right of force, you still

42:35

disgust me. And Quicksilver, uh, Quicksilver, ads?

42:37

I agree with my sister. You disgust

42:39

me as well. Not only for what

42:42

you have done, but for what I

42:44

know you will be forever incapable of

42:46

doing. To have a chance to build

42:49

true paradise at your fingertips and to

42:51

refuse it, because you fear that someone

42:53

will take it from you, is the

42:56

saddest kind of short-sightedness I could imagine.

42:58

It's not a surprise, really, since that

43:00

is the standard by which so many

43:03

countries and societies are defined. Why should

43:05

I have expected you to rise above

43:07

your very own? Human nature. Ah, snap.

43:10

And Polaris says that she's just thinking

43:12

of what havoc would want her to

43:14

do and that the answer is obvious

43:16

and away all three of them go

43:19

from Genosha. Preparing for what they feel

43:21

at this point is an inevitable war

43:23

between Magneto and the rest of the

43:26

world. And in fact, that war will

43:28

indeed come in the upcoming Eve of

43:30

destruction event after Chris Claremont's run. But

43:33

that's where we leave off with yet

43:35

another magneto ruling Janosha story. We've had

43:37

this, we've had Megido Rex, we've had

43:40

a bunch of stories in other books.

43:42

I don't know about you Jay, but

43:44

while there were some fun things about

43:47

this series, quite a few fun things,

43:49

I think I'm ready to focus on

43:51

this plot line a bit less. Yeah,

43:54

yeah, we've spent a lot of time

43:56

here and it hasn't really all been

43:58

time particularly well spent. It's true. Time

44:01

spent in Hammer Bay and Carian Cove,

44:03

which I feel like are your good

44:05

or evil sex toy shops companies. Ugh.

44:08

Anyway, that might raise some questions what

44:10

we were just talking about, but here

44:12

are some different ones. Optimicals asks on

44:15

Tumblr. Did we ever get the story

44:17

of Rachel Summers Gray in Spiral's Body

44:19

Shop? We did not, and that's a

44:22

shame. Yeah, so listeners, you may recall

44:24

that an uncanny X-Men number 209, Rachel

44:26

Summers, was on the X-Men, and Wolverine

44:28

stabbed her trying to kill her because

44:31

Rachel had tried to kill Saline, which

44:33

I mean, two wrongs don't make her

44:35

right, Logan. And the next time we

44:38

saw her after that, I mean, so

44:40

at the end of that issue, she

44:42

followed spiral, mojo's hench-woman, into the body

44:45

shop to get fixed. And the next

44:47

time we saw her, she was in

44:49

London being pursued by the warwolves. In

44:52

the First Excalibur Special, so there's a

44:54

hell of a gap there. So, that

44:56

was going to be addressed. I found

44:59

this information on Jason Shayer's Marvel Comics

45:01

of the 1980s blog. Apparently, there was

45:03

going to be a Phoenix mini-series in

45:06

1986, written by Chris Claremont, and penciled

45:08

by Rick Leonardi. Oh, damn. Right? And

45:10

it would have taken place between those

45:13

comics, between Rachel Leaving with Spiral and

45:15

Uncanny 209, and showing up to meet

45:17

X caliber, and the X caliber special

45:20

disorder drawn. Apparently, the series was supposed

45:22

to be really psychological involving... a lot

45:24

of flashbacks and flash forwards which were

45:27

in some so confusing that the series

45:29

was canceled. Before it started, a few

45:31

pages were penciled though and those are

45:34

online. We'll put a link at the

45:36

end of the visual companion. They're really

45:38

pretty. It's Rick Leonardi, so of course

45:41

they are. But I gotta say, given

45:43

Marvel's current habit of giving Chris Claremont

45:45

like a couple mini series every year

45:47

that always take place back in time.

45:50

during his original run. It honestly wouldn't

45:52

surprise me if this series did come

45:54

out. I suspect it would take a

45:57

very different form that it initially would

45:59

have, but I don't know, maybe we'll

46:01

see some version of it. Natalis 13

46:04

asks on Tumblr. Any plans on covering

46:06

solo titles like Wolverine or possibly more

46:08

cable on a more regular basis? Not

46:11

on an ongoing basis at least. But

46:13

I want to say, listeners, anybody wants

46:15

to start like a Wolverine or cable

46:18

podcast? I think there are already some

46:20

out there for Wolverine. You should. They're

46:22

fun books, especially the Larry Hama run

46:25

of Wolverine and the Jose Ledron run

46:27

of cable. So I guess I wish

46:29

we could do at all. I wish

46:32

there was a way to, but. With

46:34

this podcast we kind of have to

46:36

pick and choose or else we would

46:39

have so many titles we were going

46:41

between and certainly we've been in this

46:43

state earlier in the 90s in our

46:46

coverage where it would be really easy

46:48

to forget what the hell was happening

46:50

like the last time we saw X-Force

46:53

or X-Factor or whoever. Yeah we started

46:55

this podcast in our late teens and

46:57

now we're both over 80 so it's

46:59

true it's been so long we're like

47:02

that old lady at the beginning and

47:04

end of Titanic in the framing story.

47:07

We're going to throw a necklace in a river

47:09

and then it's going to somehow get eaten by

47:11

a fish and factor into Nimrod showing up. Oh

47:13

shit, that's what the deal was with that necklace.

47:15

Yeah, yeah, it was the old lady from Titanic.

47:18

Totally. It's all cannon. My God. Anyway, um, that

47:20

said, as you've seen in our coverage, we do

47:22

pick and choose bits of those ongoing series or

47:24

one shots or whatever. I mean, we did Wolverine

47:26

killing and Wolverine Black Rioo. Those were great. We

47:28

have some stuff coming up. as well. And with

47:30

that! Jay and Miles Explain the X-Men is recorded

47:32

in Forest Hills New York and Portland Oregon and

47:34

produced by Matt Hunter who also arranged our theme

47:36

music. You can find more of Matt's work at

47:38

moon hyphen talk dot bandcamp.com. New episodes come out

47:40

most Sundays on Apple podcasts, Spotify, and at Explain

47:42

the x-men.com for visual companions to... every

47:44

episode. Our show is 100% show is

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supported. If you'd like to help If

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you'd like to help us

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48:01

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48:26

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48:29

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