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In which Charles Xavier returns to the pages of Uncanny X-Men; Storm is out of our league forever; Miles would be a terrible president; Psylocke picks up the frequent-shower torch; everyone gets possessed; Gambit acts more Sinister than he is; and our NYCC panel is definitely on THURSDAY, not Friday.
X-PLAINED:
- The Pantheon
- Uncanny X-Men #275-277
- Dinosaurs in space
- A very impressive cover
- Several kinds of manacle
- Small children we’d like to see beat up Gladiator
- Varying levels of Evil Charles Xavier
- A nefarious plan
- Double death
- FailCat Logan
- Two bad, beautiful babes with really big guns
- Some excellent sound effects
- Awesome space fights
- Shopping with Deathbird
- Mall vs. maul
- X-archenemies
NEXT EPISODE: The Kings of Pain!
NOTE: Seriously, the NYCC Panel is on THURSDAY. Not Friday. THURSDAY. It’s official now.
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Er, the audio is missing.
Maybe … that’s the point? Maybe it’s commentary?
Yeah, I was thinking this was some sort of conceptual, almost-Zen criticism, allowing us to ponder in our own minds what Jay and Miles observations might be, without being limited by their actual thoughts.
Someone accidentally scheduled the blogpost to go out earlier than the episode going up on the podcast sites. Annoying but happens occasionally.
Fixed!
And there I was getting ready to follow Icon_UK’s lead and imagine my own, ideal, version of the episode.
It was going to start with a “WHAT?” about Valeria Von Doom. Chris Claremont was on the Fantastic Four for such a short time, but in it he managed to take a lifetime’s experience of creating continuity snarls and focus it to create this pure, perfect, expression of the motif. Truly, he is the Master.
(Also, I can’t help but read it as a nice little riposte to what John Byrne did to him with Jean Grey.)
He also brought the Technet and the Cpatain Britain Corps into his first FF arc.
In so doing creating Caledonia, perhaps the most Claremontesque of all Claremont characters. Essentially a personification of an over-the-top phonetic accent…
I imagined an episode in which all the lines are randomly placed, and you have to guess again the sum original meaning as you go along.
It also never loaded onto iTunes. Well, at least I don’t feel left out.
Should be up now!
I assume Itunes and Stitcher both pull the audio from this site’s feed.
Deathbird’s feathers are an atavistic mutation, most shi’ar have little vestigial forearm feathers but hers are full-sized wings that actually work. I think the mechanical look is just Jim Lee doing his thing.
But here’s the thing. A bird’s flight feathers are anchored in the bone. You pull them out, it would hurt like pulling out teeth, and do about as much damage. Dwell on that a moment.
Finally, I’ve always wanted to ask. Miles’ way of catching digressions and steering them back on track, that comes from DMing role playing games, right? I know “anyway” is the most-used word in any game I’ve DMed.
Ha! Yeah, I suspect that’s part of where that comes from. Meandering is great, but come on, players – the plot’s right over there!
It was also the fact that she had those wings made her, in the eyes of the Shi’ar, an evolutionary throwback and thereby unfit to be Majestrix.
First time I WHAT!?’d along with Miles.
I either never knew, or had completely forgotten, that Agammemnon was Asgardian too!
I wasn’t that familiar with the Pantheon overall but still. I never would have guessed any connection to Asgard.
FYI, I just checked the NYCC app and it’s still showing your panel on Friday afternoon, not Thursday.
Also is there an after party planned somewhere in NYC? If so any idea what day?
We’re working on getting the NYCC folks to change it on their site – should be fixed soon, hopefully.
No official gathering this time (in part because I’ll be at the show with Dark Horse and they’ll mostly have my soul), but if that changes we’ll let everyone know!
FWIW, as of about 11 pm, NYCC still thinks you’re appearing on Friday.
But, since I trust you more than them (and because it’s the one day that’s not sold out) I’m gonna get a ticket for Thursday.
Should be fixed now! There was some confusion over panel time / guests.
So I’m trying to do the math and with the MCP issues and the annuals and the con specials…are you guys aiming for X-Men 1-3 to be your Giant Sized Year End Special?
Also, hilarious ep as always! Loved the whole bit about Storm delegating showering duties and planet-eating Cate Blanchett.
I will say I have mixed feelings about the NYCC date change. I’m flying into NJ that Friday morning and was trying to pull some strings to get a ticket, so while I’m bummed I can’t go, I’m a little relieved I won’t have to do a jetlagged con or really push my connections for the ticket. Though, are there any rumblings you guys can hint at as to whether there’s any potential of an SoCal appearance in your eventual future? (I’m aware these things cost money and require other organizations to reach out to you both…so understandable if it’s still just on the “some day” list)
No SoCal plans, and there probably won’t be unless someone decides to fly us down. Depending on where you’re coming from, I’ll be at VVCBF in November, but that’s just me…
Now that we’ve had a sneak preview of Jay’s reaction to Charlie’s “area” I can’t wait for you guys to get to the Muir Island Saga. I’m imagining 50 minutes of “that’s not how trousers work” intermingled with anguished sobs!
Having not finished listening to the podcast, but having gotten a fair way through it…
“Donnybrook” is nowadays an American expression (although not, I believe, common even in American English). It does derive from the place in Ireland where a fair was held in, I think, the 19th century and had a supposed reputation for fights breaking out. Or so I believe, anyway.
The American use of “donnybrook” to mean a brawl has always amused me. Because nowadays Donnybrook is a ritzy area in south Dublin which is probably best known for being where RTÉ (the national broadcaster) is headquartered. You are, on the whole, most likely to be hurt by snobbish remarks about your taste in organic coffee.
Oh yeah, it’s a similar thing with Hell’s Kitchen and how Marvel always portrays it as a hellhole, whereas nowadays, the worst crime that’ll happen is someone selling an unsuspecting tourist fake Hamilton tickets
So all this time, Daredevil’s been making it worse.
My favorite Hell’s Kitchen WTF in Daredevil is its size. I knew in theory before I moved to NY that it was pretty small; but, yeah, you can walk straight through it in like half an hour. Also gentrified as fuuuuuuuuck these days.
See the classic: https://twitter.com/justinguarini/status/624423465420988416?lang=en
“The Hand” is actively considering renaming themselves “The Manicure”.
Donnybrook can still be pretty cutthroat, in its way.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BYS0PFmAf3A/
Oh wow. That is, umm, the most Dublin 4 thing I’ve seen in a long time. I will refrain from making the “What’s a creche?” Joke.
Speaking as someone who used to hang out on the grim, gritty, urban streets of, err, Rathgar.
Donnybrook is a neighborhood in Dublin. My parents have a house there. It was known for a fair they used to have there which, in the way of Irish fairs, would sometimes get out of hand. That’s what the term comes from. It’s an Americanism, though. The people in Donnybrook are surprisingly unaware of the use as a term for a big fight.
The Donnybrook Fair, as a fair, is no more. There is a bougie grocery store of that name on the main shopping street in the neighborhood.
Oh, hey, someone already said all this. Whoops.
For a serious answer your listener question about archenemies with regard to Xavier and Magneto I there’s a line from The West Wing that I think gives a great answer. When talking about the Republicans Leo McGarry says “Ther’re not the enemy, they’re the opposition.” I think that pretty well sums up their relationship.
And as for how Gambit always has cool cards to throw, it should be obvious he uses a pinochle deck. Twice the regular number of face cards, and he probably gets rid of the nines.
Also on the nemesis corner: M and Template.
In reference to the fact that the Skrulls just disintegrated after they were defeated, I assumed that this was the (official? unofficial?) first appearance of the Phalanx. Didn’t the Skrulls and they equipment both have that glint of artificial computer tech on them that later Phalanx characters will have?
Anyway, that’s the impression I got. Phalanx pretending to be Skrulls (or Skrulls infected with Phalanx).
Interesting idea, but the Phalanx wouldn’t appear for three years or so, and were, at that time, based purely on Earth.
The Skrulls have a much longer history of aggression and hostility towards the Shi’ar, so I think it more likely to have been intended to be them.
Man, what a great time to start listening to the podcast.
Near as I can tell, Uncanny #275 was the first floppy I picked up and read as it was released– having previously read Giant Sized #1 and the Dark Phoenix saga in trade. Now, a quarter century later, I can finally get context.
BTW, I’ve always thought it would be awesome if Gambit used Magic: The Gathering and Pokémon cards, and was just secret-geeky enough that he uses his crap extra lands on mooks and saves his Black Lotus to use on, like, Onslaught.