Listen to the episode here!
Art by David Wynne. Prints and cards available until 8/30/2015 at the shop, or contact David to purchase the original.
Spoiler: They will be back next issue. (New Mutants #51)
“If they’d learned anything from me, they’d be faking their own deaths!” (New Mutants #51)
DRAMA! (New Mutants #51)
No, the OTHER Plan Omega. (New Mutants #51)
Kevin Nowlan draws a rad Hepzibah. (New Mutants #51)
PROFESSOR XAVIER IS A JERK. (New Mutants #51)
“Well, I should probably see what the study group thinks, but I’m thinking fuchsia.” (New Mutants #51)
Sebastian Shaw takes dress codes seriously. (New Mutants #51)
She even LOOKS like she stepped off a power metal album cover. (New Mutants #52)
HE’S NOT WRONG. (New Mutants #52)
Aw, kiddo. (New Mutants #52)
Fighting xenomorphs, from the look of it. (New Mutants #52)
Love the body language on this page. (New Mutants #52)
We keep saying that this whole era feels like an inexorable escalation toward Inferno, and, yeah. That. (New Mutants #52)
I was gonna make a “subtext: not just for the ladies” joke, but I’m pretty sure it’s just text at this point. (New Mutants #53)
Aw, man. (New Mutants #53)
TWIST! Don’t worry, this’ll come back up eventually. (New Mutants #53)
“…But can you take them anywhere?” Spoiler: NO. No, you can’t. (New Mutants #53)
Magik intimidating Empath is the gift that keeps on giving. (New Mutants #53)
Make good choices, Cypher! (New Mutants #53)
Or, y’know, not. (New Mutants #53)
Sam Guthrie: Everyone’s best big brother. (New Mutants #54)
“I love you, but I have to leave the team because your costumes are SO BAD.” (New Mutants #54)
SO, THAT HAPPENED. (New Mutants #54)
Has anyone else noticed that Doug’s superhero career is basically a series of dress rehearsals for his eventual death. (New Mutants #54)
I genuinely can’t tell if this is a good burn or not: on one hand, the New Mutants’ costumes are objectively way worse; but on the other hand, the Hellions’ costumes are way more circus-y. (New Mutants #54)
NEXT WEEK: It’s hard to be Havok.
LINKS:
- If you’re curious about the Starjammers, go listen to Episode 7 – Cyclops Has a Good Day, in which we discuss them at length with Greg Rucka.
- The podcast where two dudes watch and review Grown Ups 2 every week is an actual, real thing, which you can listen to here.
This comment is more of a general one than anything related specifically to the episode because, well, I haven’t had time to listen yet! I’m a few episodes behind, in fact. I’ve just been meaning to tell you both how much I enjoy the show and that you are doing amazing work on your journey through X-history! I’m sure I speak for fans of the X-Men when I say “Thank you!” I’m doing my own re-read (or first read in some cases, because dammit there is just so much X-Men to read!) of assorted eras of X-Men and right now I’m in the second Cockrum run (The Brood!) and just loving it all over again. I’m then going to jump ahead to the era starting around issue 200 of the main book and do an early X-Factor read through, finally (these are all on Marvel Unlimited, thank goodness). You are covering these issues of late so it’s really exciting me to check them out, and to reread some of Uncanny from 200 on up through the Inferno storyline.
Again, thank you for this podcast, it’s a real blast to listen and read along (or, ya know, read or reread storylines weeks after I’ve listened to you talk about them). Now I really might need to order some of the groovy pinback buttons…
So as far as I know from accounts at the time Liefeld taking over New Mutants was the beginning of the fever not the midst of it and also he wanted to be put on a book that wasn’t doing well.
I have a question about the era that I think is ending with Illyana eventually leaving the mansion. For years I remember that when the X-men were at the mansion, they were speaking Russian. This would often be explained with a little note from the editor. The idea was that it was easier for all of them to speak Russian (taught to them by Prof-X telepathically?) than for Illyana to learn English.
When did this change and how long did it go on for? When I think of the mansion and how it works, this is how I imagine it but maybe it was only for a pretty brief time. Did it persist until Prof X left? Illyana left? Do the X-men all know Russian still? The New Mutants? The dance teacher? has it ever come up since then?
When kid Illyana was living at the mansion for a time (after being kidnapped by Arcade), Kitty and Peter spoke to Illyana in Russian, because that’s all she knew. “Kitty’s Fairy Tale” (Uncanny X-Men 153) is where Kitty says it was a good thing the Prof telepathically taught them all Russian, so Illyana could understand them. To be clear, it’s not that they were speaking Russian all the time at the mansion, just when they were talking to Illyana. It was never explained why they didn’t telepathically teach kid Illyana English also, but it may have had to do with her age. Maybe infodumping into kid brains would break something?
After Illyana spent years in Limbo, she was living at the mansion with Prof X, while the X-Men were in space fighting the Brood. Illyana now speaks English, and even comments in # Uncanny X-Men 164 how she now speaks English. She asks the Professor about it, and the Xavier tells her he taught her English telepathically while she slept. From that point on, I don’t recall Illyana speaking much Russian at all. I mean, I don’t remember her dropping so much as a “tovarish” or a “bozhe moy”, which Colossus did all the time. The Illyana voice I heard in my head during her New Mutants run is American English. I don’t think of her speaking with a Russian accent at all. I do “read” Colossus with a Russian accent though.
Art