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ORORO, QUEEN OF THE GALAXY, by David Wynne. (Prints available here until October 5.)
Lockheed vs. Pete Wisdom. (Excalibur #97)
Ironically, the thing she’s mad about might be the one time he actually isn’t, but the point stands in general. (X-Men #168)
Lockheed lurks. (X-Men #168)
This isn’t really relevant to the episode–we’re just hoping someone will use it as the basis for a Kitty Pryde magical-girl transformation sequence. (X-Men #168)
Scott and Lee: STILL AWESOME. (X-Men #168)
Before that one Hawkeye thing, there was this. (X-Men #168)
AWESOME TEAM-UP OF AWESOME. (X-Men #168)
But I think we all know the REAL point of X-Men #168. (We’re reviving this for this week’s art challenge – send your Kitty Pryde costume redesigns to xplainthexmen(at)gmail(dot)com!)
Very Nude Nightcrawler. (X-Men #169)
Dragon-sitting is basically the X-Men girlfriend test. (X-Men #169)
Remember that time X-Men straight-up did Barbarella? (Also the time Angel got pinned up by his wings in the Morlock tunnels. No, not that time. The other time.) (X-Men #169)
This cover is slashy in every sense of the word. (X-Men #170)
Well, then. (X-Men #170)
Remember that time Storm straight-up stabbed someone through the heart? BECAUSE THAT DEFINITELY HAPPENED. (X-Men #170)
And then Walt Simonson drew Storm, and we had Feelings. (X-Men #171)
Rogue also has feelings, but they’re less about the transcendent perfection of Simonson’s art than about her out-of-control powers. Sorry, Rogue. (X-Men #171)
Well, that escalated quickly. (X-Men #171)
This might be the most Rogue moment ever. (X-Men #171)
Remember that time Professor X was actually pretty fucking awesome? (X-Men #171)
For full effect, you have to imagine Wolverine’s lines in Steven Blum’s voice. I mean, you should really be doing that anyway. (X-Men #172)
YUKIO. Much, much more about her next week, but she’s the best. (X-Men #172)
For real, there is literally nothing you can say that will convince Rachel that these two are not TOTALLY DOING IT. (X-Men #173)
They really can’t kick her off the team after that. (X-Men #173)
BRB HAVING FEELINGS. (X-Men #173)
Oh. THAT asshole. (X-Men #173)
Meanwhile in Alaska, the most awkward meet-cute ever. (X-Men #168)
Here’s the thing about Scott and Madelyne: they’re actually kind of awesome together. Doomed, but awesome. (X-Men #170)
As a character who’s spent most of his life in a Claremont-written world, Scott is unfamiliar with the concept of coincidence. (X-Men #171)
Then, again, having spent years reading stories set in a Claremont-written world, we find it difficult to believe that this was actually just supposed to have been a coincidence. (X-Men #172)
Lilandra agrees. (X-Men #173)
HEPZIBAH, NEVER CHANGE. (X-Men #174)
This is funny because both of these relationships are super doomed. (X-Men #174)
A brief interlude of adorability from these goofy kids. (X-Men #174)
REMEMBER THAT PRIEST? Yeah. Totally Mastermind. God damnit, Mastermind. (X-Men #174)
Look, it’s a reasonable question under the circumstances. (X-Men #174)
Oh. (X-Men #174)
WELL, THAT ESCALATED QUICKLY. (X-Men #175)
Okay. This looks bad. (X-Men #175)
Really bad. (X-Men #175)
Really, really bad. (X-Men #175)
Cyclops-gritting-his-teeth-and-being-brilliant-in-the-face-of-impossible-odds is the best Cyclops. (X-Men #175)
Ughhhhhhhhhhhhh. (X-Men #175)
Not elegant, but efficient. (X-Men #175)
This is a really good speech, as such things go, but it’s also really funny that he went to the graveyard in his tux. (X-Men #175)
And then they lived happily ever… oh. (X-Men #175)
Next week: Wolverine demonstrates the Inverse Ninja Law.
Uncanny X-Men #175 is my favorite Scott/Cyclops comic, so far. It’s such a treat to read every time. His tactics in the Danger Room are masterful.
Too bad Paul Smith departed in this issue.
Thanks for another wonderful episode!
He’ll be back eventually in X-Factor! (Paul Smith, I mean. Cyclops too, obviously, somewhat earlier.)
I have such mixed feelings about #175. On the one hand, it is a great Cyclops issue. On the other hand, the entire Maddie Pryor thing is TERRIBLE. It started off entirely contrived, and just got worse and worse and worse.
Actually, that sort of sums up the next few years of the X-men for me. Great stuff mixed with terrible stuff…
Speaking of Walt Simonson and X-Men, have you covered X-Men/Teen Titans yet, and if not, do you have plans to do so in the future?
I was actually wondering the exact same thing! I know they’ve not covered it yet, but it would be a shame to not at least mention it.
I mean, we get Darkseid messing with Scott’s head, just because he can, and Cyclops taking part of the Phoenix Force.
31 years before AvX.
Thank you guys so much for doing this podcast. It is one of the few things I can look forward to at work on Monday morning. Also, the fact that you keep mentioning Harvey and Janet just fills me with delight ev.er.y.time.
Thank you! Any friend of Harvey and Janet is a friend of ours! <3
Does this extended Barbarella homage mean that Wolverine is that hairy guy with the ice sled?
A brief list of things I love:
1. Storm/Callisto
2. Callisto’s wedding outfit. My god, Callisto’s wedding outfit.
3. Kitty and Illyana being BFFs
4. Storm/Yukio
5. MOHAWK STORM!!!
6. Scott’s outfit with the blue tie from #170. It’s a pure Scott Summers look, but it’s also legit stylish, IMHO. Paul Smith was the best at drawing the X-Men in people clothes.
7. The way Claremont draws on one of his own repeated tropes for a Mastermind-created fake-out. Just as he always has cameos from other heroes when something massive is going down, here we see the Avengers and the Starjammers dealing (fatally) with the return of Phoenix, but none of it is actually happening.
8. Scott being great at what he does one last time and then getting (what was meant to be) a happily ever after ending. That’s new for him (and sadly, would still be new for him if it happened now).
Hey, that’s the first cold open that I actually was familiar with! The S.W.O.R.D reveal mostly, I still need to read the issues that introduce Lockheed.
Are you going to talk about Mohawk Storm more next episode? Since the actual out-of-story explanation behind it is pretty fascinating.
God DAMN, I love Paul Smith’s art. I remember when these were new issues and I was a kid getting them in the mail by subscription. Golden years. Much feels.
The BEST episode so far!
About Storm’s mohawk, here’s a great inside story about how she got that look and the inspiration for Kitty’s reaction, told by Paul Smith himself:
http://marvel1980s.tumblr.com/post/81281197327/1983-mohawk-storm-from-paul-smiths-blog
All I can say is that I’m glad Weezie Simonson “committed the murder”!!!
It’s a great scene, but it always irritated me to no end that Rogue has to fly FASTER THAN THE SPEED OF LIGHT to get in front of that laser beam.
Perhaps the problem is with the media. For it to work you have to interpret the image like she flew towards Logan before Viper pushed the trigger and the laser flies behind her, not the other way around. Too much for a single image, maybe. But that’s really a tricky one, I had never realised the problem!
I’ve tried to find the version of Kitty pointing that says “Stop Telling Women to Smile” but google has been failing me.
Oh hey, I made that. Here it is: http://media.tumblr.com/c661659439445f33640bdd064a1adb1d/tumblr_naqpcnfSXe1tzj05eo1_500.jpg
Yay! Thank you!
FUN FACT: George Gozum, the fan from the Kitty Kostume Korner page, is the guy who later designed the Goblin Queen costume! We used to hang around in the CBR forums. He’s a cool guy.