House of X and Powers of X Review

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Hey, Bub, I keep telling you, don't call me Wobby!

Hello and welcome to The Pull Bag. This is episode

501. Holy crap, folks, we have made it over 500

episodes and we're about to celebrate 10 years

of the podcast in March of 2023. I'm, of course,

TF2 and Mike, returning to the podcast. What

was the last thing you were on? I don't even

remember. But it is Ryan, The Uneven Flow Merkley.

Hello, sir. How are you? Good. So does this mean

you've now read 500 comics? Over that I mean

if we're talking individual issues, it's But

if we're talking just trades, it's most definitely

over that like yeah, I I don't know. Yeah, I'm

way over that for number of trades I own. Oh,

yeah, cuz you were you were a reading machine

like, you know, and that's great. That's awesome

I mean, I have a guy that delivers comics to

me. So yeah, I know right like, you know Just

just feed them into my brain, please I always

wonder about that too like what the neighbors

think because on Sundays on Sundays I go downstairs

to the door He leaves like a package that's wrapped

we chat for a bit and then I just run inside

With them they probably you know, I think I'm

getting drugs Oh cheese delivered or something

which to be fair may not be that far off considering

how many I've got now, but anyway Yeah, you have

a lot and a lot of... Including the series we're

talking today, which I actually have in... It's

one of the very few hardcovers I have. Very cool,

very cool. I just prefer trades. I don't know.

Anyway. Yeah. I mean, you always have. I mean,

that's... Are you going to eat in the bathroom

and carry around? Absolutely. And the thing is,

is this is since... Yeah. So it has been What

was 28 seven or eight years the last X -Men thing

because I was trying to feel like did we ever

cover it like there are a lot of things that

I am going to be catching up in You know on in

the new year and I'm just like did we ever cover

X -Men anything at all? I don't remember The

2000s have been a little rough on the X -Men,

and I don't think you can talk about this run.

We're covering House of X today by Jonathan Hickman.

Powers of X is very much tied into this, but

it's the new status quo for the X -Men. When

I say the 2000s have been rough. So this was

released in 2019. There are some notable and

really good runs for the X -Men, but I don't

think you can talk about it without going outside

of comics, which is Fox Studios owned all the

rights to the X -Men films and essentially in

retaliation or because of that, for whatever

reason. Marvel pretty much shoved the x -men

to the side in the 2000s and this is post the

90s where they had one hell of a run Yeah between

you know the comics starting with like Claremont

era everything that went on Kind of like digging

themselves into a hole with the onslaught stuff

And then coming back and then obviously we had

stuff like the x -men animated series which again

was fox and that was a big deal. And for a lot

of people yourself included i think it was the

first exposure to x -men so fast forward into

the two thousands the fox. Movies start coming

out. They do really well things look great for

the x -men except in the comics where Marvel

just decides like yeah, we'll just throw these

to the sides because we don't have the rights

to them and There was a whole bunch of different

events all of which Decimated the mutant population

in comic books and kept shoving the mutants to

the side and Marvel would try to replace them

with their various things. There's the Inhumans,

which, oh boy, that is not... I mean, they're

popular Inhumans. There's good runs. But I don't

think it's a coincidence that Ms. Marvel is pretty

much the most popular of the group. Yeah. And

she's really the only one that's been... focused

on an awful lot pretty heavily. Yeah, I don't

know any of the inhumans. I don't have any of

the new mutants. I don't know. Well, the new

mutants are still part of the X team. Right?

No, I know. But I'm saying like, you know, for

me, like you were saying with Yes, I start because

again, I was a cartoon kid. I was not a comic

book kid. I was all about the tunes and between

X -Men and Spider -Man and everything else. That

was my entry into Marvel, which watching those

cartoons made me want to seek out the books.

And, but when someone says to me, X -Men, I'm

thinking Cyclops, Jean Grey, Wolverine, Beast,

Storm, Gambit, Rogue, Jubilee, you know, Iceman.

You know, Juggernaut, Professor X, Magneto, I

already said Rogue, Mystique, you know, I'm thinking

all of those characters and I'm like... A lot

of them become major characters in this series

and the franchise again, but for a long time,

everybody was kind of sidelined. And yeah, Marvel

just... Since the re -acquisition of the X -Men

license and everything that's gone along with

it, they've... I mean, the most notable event

is this. It's Hickman's run on it that kind of

returned the mutants to being a huge part of

the Marvel Universe. And, oh boy, are they a

big part all of a sudden. Yeah. As Hugh will

see and as... We've been reading. So this came

out in 2019. The first issue was July 24th. And

this status quo is running right now and will

run through into 2013. There is an event in 2013

called Fall of X. You mean 2023? Sorry, 2023.

Whoops. Brain freeze. It's okay. Whatever. Hey,

there's lots of timeline jumping, but that's

more of a power of X thing. Don't even get me

started. But anyway, so yeah, there's an event

in 2023 called Fall of X, which possibly will

be the end of this status quo of Krakoa. But

until then, let's enjoy it while it lasts. So

yeah, this starts with the house that Xavier

built as volume one. First issue of this series,

first issue of sort of the relaunch. And written

by, like you said, written by Jonathan Hickman,

Penciler was R .B. Silva, Inkers was R .B. Silver,

and Adriano Di Benedetto? I'm probably mispronouncing

that. Clayton Cowles on letters, and Marty Garza

on colors. This is the first time I've read anything

by Hickman. I have not read any, I don't know

him as a writer or a creator at all. He's very

good, that's all I'll say. He's got a huge output

and he has been writing comics for quite some

time now with Marvel on his own. And yeah, this

book opens with Professor X standing over a group

of new mutants or full -grown mutants. NSTEMS

we go from there. So the main sort of plot line

of this entire set is that the mutants this whole

series could just be called Professor X has had

enough or the mutants are sick of our shit. And

I love that ever since I was a kid and I watched

X -Men in the 90s or read the books or whatever.

I always thought like, man, these guys are always,

you know, the X -Men are protecting the people

that hate and fear them. They're treated like

garbage the whole time. Xavier and everybody

just kind of take it. I love this series so much

and this new status quo because the X -Men, sorry,

not the X -Men, sorry, the mutants of the Marvel

universe represent probably the most powerful

fighting force. in all of Marvel. Absolutely.

And if they just joined together, they could

do exactly what we see in this series. They have

established a new nation on Krakoa, which is

a mutant island that was established quite some

time ago in the comics. They have advanced technology

just phenomenally. And as this series goes, we

see why. I mean, again, It's everybody finally

working together. Which, oh boy, I mean, you're

talking Apocalypse, Sinister, the X, all of the

X teams, Magneto, the Brotherhood, like, this

is a ridiculous group. It's like a massive X

-Men universe that instead of all fighting and

get like the X -Men are fighting against Magneto

or Magneto is fighting against instead of all

of that you have all of them coming together

and It's interesting. What do you think? I'm

on the second page of the first issue. What do

you think of? The Cerebro helmet he wears almost

all the time. Yes the X so We figure it out later

or we find out later that the mutants are now

immortal. They cannot die. And Xavier keeps a

Cerebro helmet on pretty much at all times. It's

really rare in the entire series that we see

him without it. And I like the look. I don't

know. So first of all, in general, I love the

artwork. The artworks amazing in this series.

Yes. I like Xavier and the way it makes him look

because it looks like there's something sinister

under there too. And there kind of is like they've

real they've figured out how to cheat death.

Yeah. And Xavier is constantly scanning and honing

in on the minds of every mutant. on and eventually

off earth and creating backups of them to restore

them if anything happens. And this is sort of

the concession and this is why they're so powerful

again now. They have found a way to resurrect

all of the past mutants that have died and restore

the ones who lost their powers during stuff like

House of M and God with a messiah complex like

all of the different events that served to decimate

the Mutants over the past 20 years and shove

them to the you know side while Marvel focuses

on the Avengers and everybody else that They

have the film rights to true. Yeah They get to

the chance to undo all this because a lot of

the people you listed have either been Depowered

or were dead for a long time. Yeah and then That

kind of sucks, and you're right. There is something

definitely sinister about this look because if

you look at the panel at the bottom of that page

where he's like, to me, my X -Men. Like, that's

a sinister grin. He's kind of like, it's not

even a half smile. He's doing a full smile, but

the way that it's drawn and the way that it's

colored and just the close -up... Of the visor

of the of the x -helmet and just as he's like

to me my x -men I wouldn't say it's that bad.

But yeah, I mean it's bad. I'm not saying it's

bad at all It's just I know there's there's more

going on though. And yeah, I like that I mean

they you know, one of the lines in a later issue

that's part of this match is no more From Xavier

like he's had it with the humans killing Yeah,

mutants for so long. And he should, you know,

it's been decades that this series has run. And

one of the things I like so X -Men has always

been about marginalized groups. It's been an

analogy for marginalized groups in real life

kind of fighting for their rights. And in this

They kind of go back to that in a way they really

haven't in quite some time. It feels like the

old Claremont and the old 90s X -Men series that

they're fighting a world that hates and fears

them, but alternatively, they've pretty much

had enough of our shit. It's kind of refreshing

in a way that, like I said before, even as a

kid or teenager, I guess, watching and reading

this stuff, I thought to myself like, you know,

Xavier's dream is nice and that kind of thing,

but people just, it's not working out. No, because

for the most part, and I, and we're going to

get into probably some controversial stuff on

this thing, folks. So I want to warn you right

now. I should have warned you at the beginning

of this, but at 15 minutes and nine seconds,

10 seconds, 11 seconds, there is some. Really

been there has always in every X -Men story even

going back to the cartoon series like you said

They are fighting for their right to be recognized

as a race of people yeah, and a lot of it a lot

of the X -Men stuff that was put into the films

and Even the the cartoon series. It's really

just an analogy a lot of it was created by the

creators as an analogy for gay people or, you

know, and nowadays a lot of it was analogy to

especially Claremont's run. He wanted to sort

of create more direct link to the plight of African

Americans worldwide. Yeah. And now as we move

into this century like deeper into this decade

There's a It just feels it feels like this has

been reinvented as it should that the groups

that have really been kicked down an awful lot

over Forever. Yeah have kind of had enough and

it may be it's time that the people who were

on top take a few of their lumps for a bit and

You know, we kind of get to a point where things

can be more equal Yeah, I mean the whole thing

of equality for all I Hope for that and it sucks

that we aren't ever Like I don't know if we'll

ever get there in my lifetime your lifetime,

whatever but this story man it like Reflects

like you said it reflects bits and pieces of

real life and it I was saying to my friend Bethany

who was on episode 499 where she was doing her

controversial comic and MCU opinions which really

weren't that to me they weren't that controversial

because I agreed with half of what she said,

but It's one of those things where she said and

we agreed that the stories that these creators

Telling have to be compelling they have to be

relatable and when you get into deep -seated

issues like. Mutant kind and human kind and.

It's just racism really in this case in the comic

books i mean the mutants are a race and everybody

treats them like garbage and they shouldn't nobody

should be treated that way. But this story just

pulls you in because it has you know, like like

you said at the beginning of this Hickman is

an amazing writer and the story that he tells

is it takes characters we know and basically

like Almost almost at the end of every panel

or every page where there's story and art. It's

like holy shit. Holy shit Holy shit, what the

you know what I mean? Like it's one of those

things where the moments in this and then the

mixing in of the I'm gonna call them they're

not government documents, but I'm gonna call

them that but like the flowers of Krakoa and

it's like this doc they sort of are I mean it's

sort of you know, you're seeing the redacted

documents of different governments be it Krakoa

or You know the world and yeah the Marvel Comics

universe. Yeah I love the mix in of this between,

you know, a normal regular comic book that has

thought bubbles that has, you know, the, um,

the narration bubbles and obviously the speech

bubbles for the characters, plus the character

designs and all that. But then you get, Hey,

look at this and pay attention to this. Cause

this matters. towards, you know, the, what the

end goal of the story is. And at first I was

really confused. And then I started zooming in

and looking at this stuff. I'm like, Oh, okay.

Gotcha. You know? Yeah. So, I mean, we opened

with, yeah, the house that Xavier built and we

see the, or a team of mutants, which is Mystique,

Sabertooth and Toad. Yup. Breaking out. of a

damage control storage facility. They're intercepted,

most notably Sabertooth. Yes. And, yeah, Cyclops

lets the Fantastic Four stop them. I love that,

though. I think that's cool. I think that's...

I didn't know what to expect with this series,

because I'd never read it before. So I didn't

know if there were going to be other Marvel,

you know, obviously within the X -Men universe,

as we already mentioned, there's already Magneto,

not Galactus, that's F4, Sinister and Apocalypse

and all that. But like, I was not expecting the

Fantastic Four to show up. And I was like, Hey,

that's cool. And we get a first taste of the

humans here, which is Orcus? I can never figure

out how to pronounce this. Yeah, I never can

either. But it's their new sentinel program,

essentially, which includes all of our usual

sort of suspects. There's a Trask involved, et

cetera. Magneto meets a lot of the leaders of

Earth's nations and just essentially explains

that, okay, we're a nation now and there's not

much you can do. You can stop. There's nothing

you can do to stop it. We won't accept any demands.

We're not here to negotiate. We are telling you.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, he says on that, you know,

He says on this on this final page not final

page, but the page where he's talking Charles

won't be joining us today. He is otherwise engaged

I admit I am a poor substitute, but I'll hopefully

manage And I mean he ends it all with saying

I need you to understand you have new gods now

Yep, and I I love that because this is a guy

who has tilted the entire Earth's axis On his

own before yep, he's very strong a lot of the

mutants are So yeah, I just I love the series

so much So yeah, that's kind of issue one and

issue two we really find out how a lot of this

happened and This is interesting because you

will know who Moira McTaggart is absolutely she

was in X -Men animated series and Hickman made

the concession slash has decided that she was

a mutant and her ability is to live different

lives and be reborn each time essentially in

a different in a different timeline and she remembers

what happened in the previous ones. Yeah, and

in every timeline the mutants lose Yeah in one

way or another You know, it's funny when I was

reading this I I Should remember this off the

top of my head, but I don't but there was a Ben

Affleck Uma Thurman movie came out number years

ago called paycheck and Ben Affleck's character

is a reverse engineer and he goes under and does

this job, but he never He's not supposed to remember

anything. So this kind of thing with Moira where

she does retain all of her memories from her

past lives. It's very interesting. And it is

very like, she's not just there to be. Professor

X's wife or girlfriend or, you know, whatever

she is there because she has had a shit ton of

stuff happened to her over 10, 12 lifetimes.

I don't even know how many off the top of my

head, but I know it was more than five. Yeah.

This is 10. So it's nine so far. Okay. And she's,

if she does everything right, she can potentially

live 11. But she's nearing the end. Yep. 10 in

theory is the end. But again, if she makes certain

choices, she'll make 11. Yeah. And yeah, we see

a lot of it in issue two. Uh, I'll be blunt here.

There's a, I don't care about this, but there's

a handful of things in the series that don't

make sense. And Moira being a mutant and nobody

knowing forever, that kind of thing is sort of

one of them, but I just can't care enough about

it being a retcon or a problem or that kind of

thing. Cause the story is good enough. It doesn't

bother me. Um, Also, I mean, you know, Hickman's

talked about a lot of people have talked about

it. They needed somebody that Xavier trusts.

Yeah, because if I were to go to somebody and

say like, hey, you know, if you read my mind,

you'll see all these lives I've lived. Yeah.

If it wasn't somebody I knew or somebody I trusted,

I'd probably think they're full of crap, even

if I was some sort of telepath. So yeah. And

again, like, like I said, you know, you you're

putting her into the story. You're using her

in a way that And i could be wrong because i

haven't read the last ninety years of x -men

comics or however the hell long it's been. But

to my knowledge in the comics a story like this

with her has never been told and she is a part

of charles's life and putting her in there in

this way you're right it isn't like watching

a movie and something happens at the beginning

of the movie and then like. Just for example,

this is stupid, but the first fight in Iron Man

in Tony's house and they move a cup and then

we go back to Tony's house, but that cup isn't,

you know, it's those little tiny and having her

be a mutant, having people not know. And it added

to the overall coolness and interesting way that

the story is told. Yeah, and you know again as

the series goes on so I mean that's issue two

is the focus on that issue three and a lot of

well three is the X team Leaves to go attack

a new master mold. So again, if you were a longtime

fan of X men This is you're getting what you

want because it's Cyclops leading, you know Wolverine

Archangel Marvel girl, which is Jean Grey Nightcrawler

mystique like all these characters Everybody

knows from the 90s in addition to there's husk

Monet st. Croix on the mission But there's a

focus on all of these characters that we know

And we also get to see Sabertooth trial and which

have a frost just says like, Hey, by the way,

he's kind of ours. So you know what, we're just

going to take them and there's nothing you can

really do about it. So yeah, here you go. We

Yeah, I Oh, man, I loved this. And we see how

dedicated the humans are as Erasmus, who is the

chief of the security, kills himself to set off

a bomb that destroys the X jet and kills a bunch

of the X men or X team here. But I mean, this

is the most, you know, again, this is probably

of the series so far. This is the most standard

X men. You know, it's the X men. They're going

out on a mission issue. Of the six so far. Yeah.

It's like getting the black bird. We got to go

do some shit. Like. Got to stop sentinels basically.

Yeah. Basically. Yeah. It's night of the sentinels

all over again. Where's morph when you really

need him? Well, they did have mystique there.

So. Yes, that's true. And I love the art. I mean,

I, I, I mean, I know we're focusing on the story,

but God damn, this art is amazing. Like I have

never been. The biggest fan of Cyclops is original

uniform, which is kind of the way he's drawn

here. But are in color and all that, but just

looking at it is like, Oh my God, this looks

amazing. And then you see apocalypse. So I'm

like, yup, that's. Yeah. Apocalypse and Magneto

and like everybody with the sort of like dark

and shading sort of on them. It's just gorgeous.

And then I'm not going to nitpick or complain

about this, but I have to call out. I love that

they use the yellow and brown Wolverine and not

the blue and yellow spandex because he basically

blends into every, like everybody else stands

out. Wolverine blends into everything. Like I

almost didn't see him in a couple of these panels.

I mean, it makes sense too. You know, he's on

a mission and he wants something a little less.

little more inconspicuous than the bright yellow.

Yeah. And issue four is the continuation of it

with everybody fighting to trying to sort of

buy time for the team to get to master mold and

or mother mold, I guess it is in this case. Yeah,

I know a bunch of the Oh, good. I don't understand

that. That was one thing I was like, what? Hell

is mother mold like It's the same as master mold.

I mean, it's just a big sentinel that's going

to create new sentinels infinitely and wipe out

all of the mutants right now, but yeah, it's

just a different name for master mold really

and I love again the Art is amazing. The character

stuff is amazing. So the X -Men just die pretty

much one after another in this, the remaining

ones. And we see one of my favorite parts, which

is Wolverine talking to Nightcrawler. He knows

they're both about to die and they have a conversation

and Wolverine sort of asks them, you know, what's

after this? Because Nightcrawler has died before

and come back. Much like everybody in all of

the X -Men comics. Anywho. And yeah, he, you

know, Nightcrawler has the line, uh, when you

wake from this earthly slumber, my friend, look

for me. I will be there waiting for you radiant

and with open arms and then teleports them to

their death on the final pylon to throw mother

mold into the sun and mother molds, uh, becoming

online and sort of going cuckoo. starts, you

know, creating an Olympian allegory that machines

are going to destroy both man and mutant, which

we'll see in powers of X is exactly what happens.

It's pretty much what happens in every future

that at some point the machines, they wipe out

the mutants. I mean, we saw it in the X -Men

animated series. They wipe out the mutants and

they eventually create camps for humans too.

Yeah. Because they you saw it too. Was it I can't

remember No, it's Nimrod to trash who tells them

that humans are that mutants are human Yeah,

and yeah, they always come to that conclusion

This issue ends with you know, Cyclops gets executed

Gene ends up being killed and this is the one

that ends with Xavier crying and just saying

no more. Yeah, no more no more Which again, I

don't blame him. No, absolutely. Like, you know

you you you put somebody in a position where

That you know Something happens to them that

they're just like I'm fucking done. There's that

what like he says no more like this happens And

that's why we hit issue five. Yeah, you know

and we see how all of this comes about that they

have quote, the five unquote, which are five

mutants whose powers combine a couple of, well,

actually really only one is just a joke character

in the past. It's a really smart way to do this,

that the group of them combine their powers and

are able to resurrect. So yeah, I. Yeah, go ahead.

Which one is the joke? Gold balls now called

egg the one who creates the eggs. Oh, right.

Yeah part of it is because Under the surface

the X -Men have kind of been a joke or mutants

in general for a lot of These years since Marvel

shoved them to the side And like I said, there

have been some really good runs during that time

Grant Morrisons and others, but they've never

been a focal point again until now. And yeah,

I again, absolutely love this issue, which features

the resurrection of the mutant team, as well

as a group of the X -Men foes arriving on Krakoa,

most notably Apocalypse. Yep. Who is one of the

most powerful beings in the all of the marvel

universe a universe filled with gods. I love.

The central design. Oh yeah. The page where it's

it's was it like the fourth or fifth page in

where the central shows up like who in the dark

again most of this is just a dark story but there

have been bright. art spots and things like that

but you're you know going down this dark dark

path and you're having a lot like you said all

these foes show up and then all of a sudden hey

look here's an army of sentinels and here's this

one right in the middle of the frame that basically

just like it is basically the 92 sentinel except

he's more gray than Read a little more modernized.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, absolutely. It looks amazing.

It really does Everybody's design in this is

fantastic. You mentioned it earlier, you know,

sorry I've jumped an issue ahead here, but I

mean Apocalypse looks amazing He he looks like

he walked out of the 90s x -men Animated series,

you know did you know sinister and others, but

yeah again I love this so much. And apocalypse,

you know, sort of says like, you know, you, they

greet him and Wolverine sort of threatens them.

Are you going to be a problem? And apocalypse

just, you know, tells him that he couldn't be

more proud of them. That they finally kind of

asserted dominance, which is what he always wanted.

Yep. Yeah. It's so, it's such a good series.

And seeing them all together, frankly, just kind

of gives me goosebumps and thinking about all

of these. You know, imagine if the Avengers teamed

up with all of their villains or, and that's

kind of what this is. Yeah. Yeah. This is very

much a, Hey, let's. do this, let's again, kind

of going by Charles's dream, you know, mutant

kind, working together in the world. Like there

is no, I'm sure there are individual animosities

and things like that, whatever else between the

mutants, but they face something so large that

you have no choice but to team up. because the

the only way you're gonna defeat that is is to

have every you know, it's This is silly and what

I'm gonna say, but it's kind of like Wolverine

voiced by Steve Bloom in superhero squad show.

He's like Giant monsters everybody plays, you

know kind of thing where it's like, you know

and again the issues that that are explored in

This six issue series alone. This is just house

of X. We will get powers of X later, but it,

man, it was so good. Like it makes me want it.

And this is the way I am with all the books that

I read. It's like, if I've never read that person

before, it's like, Oh, I now need to go down

this rabbit hole of whatever the right, you know,

Jonathan Hickman, Kyle Higgins, whatever, you

know, Claremont, all that. But like, yeah. And

I like that they give, it's not just about the

action or that kind of thing. So the final issue

is sort of the end of the flashbacks we've seen

of the establishment, which is Professor X, Moira

and Magneto going around and trying to kind of,

you know. recruit, get the gang back together

and fix things up and recruit people. But in

the present day of this issue of the finale,

we see the establishment of their government,

which is the Quiet Council, which consists of

Xavier, Magneto, Apocalypse, Exodus, Sinister,

Jean Grey, Storm, Black King, White Queen, which

is Emma Frost, Nightcrawler, Mystique. And it's

presided over by Cypher who speaks with slash

for Cracoa on his own. And we see their first

sort of justice, which is they give Sabertooth

the trial for killing humans. And they decide

that as part of the core of laws, mutants will

murder no human. And for breaking these laws,

Sabertooth is banished and he's held. We see

in inside Cracow, which man is hell of a jail.

Yeah, it is. And yeah, that's sort of where we

end is with a somewhat ominous, I guess, celebration

of their new nation. Yeah, very ominous. I mean,

it's all ominous because as cool as it is to

see, you know, apocalypse, sinister, all of these

groups. They're still apocalypse sinister. Well,

I mean, they are still like, just because they're

coming together to, like I said, to fight whatever

it, you know, all this stuff, but like they are

still there themselves, but they, yeah, it's

also sinister and all of his clones, by the way,

which sinister has cloned himself so many times

now he doesn't even remember. And they don't

remember who the original is. And they're all

different and. He's kind of out there. Although

we will eventually get back to that and more

of him. But yes Yeah, I I've been gushing over

this so far, but I love it I am I Love the X

-Men. I always have and I probably always will

they are some of the first comic books I ever

read and the animated animated series is largely

responsible for me getting into comics Yep. I

mean, animated series is fantastic. And basically

a return to the characters and the ideas of it

and those eighties and early nineties comics.

I mean, sign me up. And that's kind of what this

is. It's yeah, I could like if this was the next

season of the X -Men animated series, like remember

it ended with Xavier departing and that Magneto

leads the school. If the next season was Xavier

comes back from space, like with LaLondra and

everybody and says, you know what, we're going

to make our own island. I could see that. No,

I definitely, yeah, I agree. Like it would still

fit in it. And I really like that. Well, between

Krakoa. And I know Asteroid M really isn't in

this, but, you know, between all the separate

mutant areas that they've... Genosha, and Genosha

was also in the animated series as well, too,

by the way. Yep. Yeah. They have their place

in the world, but it just, yeah, it's... Well,

like we said, seeing them come together is...

Amazing because even though they still have like

you said sinister is so sinister and there's

a whole mess of psychological things there with

look What I and this is funny because I know

this will never happen what I want to see is

I want to see a sinister spider -man I want to

see a book a series four issues five issues six

issue whatever where The spidey clones and the

sinister clones get together to try to figure

out which one is the actual original copy. That

was always trying to forget about the existence

of the clone saga. So that's true. Yes, that's

true. Sadly, unlikely, but still. And again,

as soon as you put an idea out there, no one's

gonna use it I mean if they do they have to give

you credit and all that and always give credit

folks You know, I'm pretty sure I don't think

Jonathan Hickman's listening to our podcasts

Not yet. If he is, please email us immediately

feedback at geekcastradio .com I mean I plan

on tagging him if he's still on social media

I don't the social media is we're not gonna get

into that here But yeah, no, no, no. Man, I'm

glad I left when I did. Oh, well, anyway. You

know what? It's a train wreck. I've been on the

train since 2008. I'm going to go down with the...

I'm going to go to Coyote Pass or whatever the

hell. I don't know if House of X is supposed

to be House of 10, but obviously, I mean, powers

of X. Is meant to be powers of 10 it should be

The x -men animated series continuation is based

on this Which is why I kind of said what I said

that to me I don't have a problem with that.

It kind of makes sense because You know even

in the animated series, they didn't have it as

bad as yeah the mutants have had it because of

marvel's business decisions yes but it's still

pretty bad on the x -men on the animated show

so yeah and the thing with x -men 97 is i don't

know how 92 you mean but anyway are you saying

the show yeah sorry it's just the the continuation

is called x -men 92 whatever anyway yeah so with

the new animated series coming Whenever it's

supposed to be coming Norm Spencer passed away

So there it won't be a site. They're gonna have

to replace Cyclops He was the voice of Cyclops

in yeah, I mean there's a number of them didn't

the voice of Beast pass as well Let me check

I don't George Booza. I yeah, I think he did

Yeah, but yeah, it's been yeah Don't let's not

get started on Yes, and passings of animated

and yeah, we different sort of children's While

children sorry us when we were younger. Well,

yes and everything. Yeah This is a Marvel episode

folks. And while we will be paying our respects

to the people that he's talking about Yeah, no,

I'm trying to where the hell is beast? To be

fair. It's hard to bring up x -men animated series

without mentioning sort of in the same breath

Batman the animated series cuz I mean Man for

comic for comic book animated shows. What a decade.

Yep. I mean jeez like Well, there he is got him

George Booza. All right, he no he's Still alive.

Okay. Good. All right. I'm glad to be wrong.

It doesn't say born in Cleveland, Ohio. Moves

to Toronto, Ontario, Canada as a young man became

a Canadian citizen in 1998. Says nothing here

about him dying. Okay. Good. And again, it's

Wikipedia. It could be out of date, but I think

we would have heard if George Booza passed away.

I think we would have remembered that. Yay. All

right. Glad to be wrong on that one. So Yes,

house of X powers of X powers of X will be coming

up next after the ad break but the first six

issues of this story and When we were going to

read this you were like, oh you have the trade

and I'm like, yep You're like, how is that? How

was that laid out? I said I have to look. Yeah,

because the way the continuity is of house house

of X one powers of X one two, two, three, three,

et cetera, et cetera. And I'm like, it's, it's

12. I think it's swaps at some point too, but

yeah, it's a weird, it's a weird setup. So they're

in, uh, I mentioned I have the hard cover. I

believe the trade is this way too, that it's

the two are mixed together. Uh, and to be blunt,

house of X is mostly the one that is present

day quote unquote. Yeah. Marvel. Storyline and

then the powers of X is mostly Moira's story

Yeah Yeah and issue seven according to this or

the seventh part of the thing it says it will

be done and this is where it has Professor X's

quote of no more and Then it says look at what

they've done and it's got that report and then

it starts out with which is a preview for When

we get into after the ad, because I have not

read this, but it starts out with Cricoa's observation.

Are we ready? So that's, that's what issue seven,

according to this trade starts out with. But,

uh, any other thoughts on the first six? I love

this. I know, you know, we'll probably give a

final thought or final rating for both of them,

but this is a five out of five easily for me.

Yeah. I just, I love this entire series so much.

It is, the bouncing around can be confusing.

So House of X is the most straightforward portion.

Right. And then Powers is, is, is time jumping.

Yeah. Yeah. It's a lot more jumping around to

see the after effects of things or to see Moira's

different lives and journeys and each of her

deaths. Uh, and yeah. I think it's isn't issue

three of house is when we the the many lives

of myra i have to say i love that. I love you

okay well whatever but. Point is is that when

they were when it was telling her story of okay

this is my first life there was. Normal there

was no mutants there was this there was that

you know it was just a normal life. You know,

and then all of a sudden she's on her second

life and there's this difference in that. I just

love the way he told her story because it's a

unique story that I have never like the only

other time that I've seen something like. The

Moira story is currently in a series called radiant

black room image written by Kyle Higgins where

issue 19 is the is Wendell the yellow radiant.

person and he, the way that that story is told

is similar to the Moira story where it's like

different timelines and there, and normally I

don't like time jumping. And I blame James Roberts

and John Barber for that. Not kidding. And I,

and I say it in jest, but like the time jumps

in robots and disguise slash optimus prime and

more than meets the eyes slash lost light killed

me. However, in some comics I've gotten used

to it. And with the radiant black issue with

Wendell, I love just like this with Moira. I

loved it. And the, just the way that it time

jumped and it did different lives for her, but

it was, it was still linear at the same time.

It wasn't like, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's her third

life that she had found a. She's decided she

doesn't want to be a mutant anymore and she just

she discovers the cure for Mutation and then

she gets attacked by the Brotherhood of evil

mutants and destiny whose ability is precognition

destiny can see Moira and all of her lives and

everything and has Has pyro burn her to death?

a death so painful that she'll remember it each

time and never move against mutants again. And

this is another sort of, this is another long

story that will pay off much later of Moira's

choices as well as her. sort of disdain for being

a mutant, combined with the fact that one of

the things she tells Xavier initially is under

no circumstances should Destiny be resurrected.

Yeah. Which is a big problem because the only

reason Mystique is with Xavier and Co. is because

she thinks they'll resurrect Destiny for her.

Mystique, by the way, is Destiny's wife. They

are married and That is one of the main reasons

she wants her back. Moira gives a bunch of rules,

by the way, and we see pretty much all of them

broken instantly by Xavier. Most notably, Moira

mentions that Sinister shouldn't be allowed to

join and get up to his things, but we pretty

much immediately see Sinister join and get up

to his things. Yeah, absolutely. Anyway, yeah,

no, it's it's It's very sinister. Yeah, it's

in his name and it's the same with the apocalypse

like, you know How how well do you think some

of this stuff's gonna end any? Yeah, absolutely.

So we're gonna take a quick break You're gonna

hear some ads and some other stuff and we'll

come back with powers of X right after this Hello

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Well, you see, oh, wait a minute. Yes, yes. Uh,

Ryan and I are back. We're doing powers of X

like we just did house of X earlier in this episode.

And this consists of according to the trade parts

seven to 12 and holy crap. Yeah. Like I said,

in the hard cover, it bounces between them. I

don't have the digital. Anyway, we start with

the first volume or first issue is the last dream

of Professor X. They sort of bounce around the

different timeframes and the different Moira

-McTaggart timelines. For example, in theory

we see the first meeting between Moira and Xavier

in this issue. And from there, we go to what

is seemingly our timeframe, or I believe it's

our timeframe with Mystique and Toad returning,

because we mentioned it last time, Mystique,

Toad, and Sabretooth go on a mission to get something.

Mystique and Toad come back, Sabertooth gets

caught by the Fantastic Four, et cetera, et cetera.

Anywho, we see the after effects of that with

Xavier. They're pretty clearly bargaining for

Destiny to come back. We mentioned that previously.

Mystique obviously wants her wife brought back

to life. Both Magneto and Xavier are using her.

Because they have no intention of bringing her

back, because that's one of the things Moira

warned them about. Then we meet the next version,

or next version, next timeline, which is the

war between the mutants and a man -machine sort

of merge of them. Yeah, we see a bunch of X -Men

that are products of Sinister's breeding program.

So yeah, there's a version of for example, it's

clearly like Peter sorry Colossus mixed with

different mutants and Damn, I mean they got some

really awesome powers by the way. It got crazy

It's really neat. They've got like some absolutely

some of them have like five different powers

apparently and anyway, yeah, it's pretty cool

to see Uh, I mentioned that before that one of

the things the series does really well is they

show off how powerful the mutants can be when

they work together. And some of these characters

have essentially multiple are walking like groups

of mutants themselves. But anyway, uh, and we

see Nimrod for the first time in this series

as well too, sort of. And yeah, long time again.

callback to the 90s and the X -Men, Y and 80s,

sorry, and the X -Men animated series, where

pretty much everybody knows Nimrod from that,

as the sort of master, sentinel, great sort of

mutant hunter, et cetera, et cetera. That's how

he's depicted here in charge of all of the...

Different forces the man and machine forces and

by the way is a gigantic dink in this Like he

just randomly kills his own troops Just gets

annoyed at them. He reminds me a lot of old Galvatron

Who would just kind of like go nuts or be disappointed

and just shoot his own guys Okay, you say that

and it's true. No, you're not saying you're wrong

I'm just saying you you saying that all as I

can think of is well I have to say is and he

just shoots the screen. Oh Galvatron Frank Yeah,

you know the difference here by the way is Nimrod's

killing humans who can't just be put back together.

Yeah Yeah, I feel I feel like that's a bad way

to Keep your troops Yeah But whatever and yeah,

finally the last bit is we see Much further in

the future the sort of Yeah, yeah just Nimrod's

library we see that Homo sapiens are now extinct

The last mutants are being preserved Yeah Which

surprise surprise who one of the last mutants

is the old dude with a healing factor. Well,

of course, I mean come on I Don't know he's always

yeah, one of the last sort of survivors Although

they've turned that on that said a little bit

later in this series. But anyway, oh Dude, yeah,

that's right. They do don't they well, there's

another not in this series, but With one of the

other yeah, one of the other Wolverines X23,

who great character, really like her. Anywho,

getting off on that. And that's issue one. And

we sort of continue the jumping around, although

it's timelines. With issue two, we see how or

what they grabbed essentially, which is Magneto

and Xavier had Mystique and co. grab Record or

the plans to the mother mold. Yep group, which

will eventually Mother mold is what we saw destroyed

in the other series. Yep House of X but mother

mold is also what creates Nimrod in the end Yeah,

and so yeah, this is a big deal for them to stop

And yeah, it's we jump around a bit to the other

timelines Yeah, the the other timelines man just

whoo. So basically the one hundred years in the

future. It's yep apocalypse leading the remains

of mutant dome against sinister Yep, and heck

with it. I'm just gonna break with the yeah synopsis.

Let's just do it in order I guess the apocalypse

timeline stuff is awesome frankly because we

see a Whole bunch of neat stuff, but I mean We

see Apocalypse give his life so Wolverine can

get Moira the knowledge of when Nimrod comes

online. Yep. And by killing Moira, she'll bring

that into the next timeline. Yep. I'm trying

to think we don't get to see apocalypse just

sort of cut loose all that often It was really

neat to see him I mean it takes an army of nimrods

to bring him down and yeah, they smack him around

but like damn he doesn't It's pretty good showing

for apocalypse against things designed to like

kill him specifically. Yeah It takes a lot of

them and yeah, we don't get to see apocalypse

kind of kick -ass all that often mostly because

he's fighting our heroes and they're supposed

to be the ones that Yeah. Beat up everybody.

Like you referenced earlier, and like we've said

so far in this episode between when we covered

House of X before the break and now covering

Powers of X, this is one giant, I'm just going

to say it, it's one giant size tribute to X -Men

92, to the old animated series. And it's awesome.

Like the last time I remember Apocalypse even,

Having the upper hand and like you said it's

usually because he has the upper hand against

our heroes and that's the interesting thing and

twist with this series is that all of these characters

with the exception of maybe sinister maybe Are

all trying to work together to figure out all

of Moira's timelines and everything else. So

But yeah, it's it's awesome. It's fun. It's cool

Also, to be fair, Apocalypse hasn't done much

in the comics since roughly 2001, 2002. He's

been involved, but there hasn't been a whole

lot. It was nice to see him more on the forefront

again as well, too, because he's an interesting

character. Essentially, the first mutant who

is immortal and believes himself the actual Apocalypse.

Yes. Yeah, and you gotta wonder what immortality

does to characters I mean Technically with Wolverine's

healing factor he can live beyond most normal

means and then obviously apocalypse is completely

immortal and it's like It's got to get lonely

if you're the only one left Presumably they they

play a lot with apocalypse in this series, which

is another reason I love it So much because so

often he's not really a character. He's just

sort of like the scheming villain and we don't

get to see What he's like or what his life was

like or anything like that All that often and

I don't know again. It's another one of those

things that I was always interested in. They've

explored a little, but I feel like they do it

more heavily in the Hickman run that begins with

this. Because I mean, one of the next sort of

big events in this timeline or in Hickman's stuff

is a 10 of swords. And I mean, that deals pretty

much exclusively with Apocalypse and some of

his decisions. Yeah, so yes, yeah, it's very

Well, yeah, we see so that I mean is the one

timeline the other timeline to it should be noted

is just before the establishment of Krakoa in

house of X and it's sort of the getting the band

back together like Xavier approaches forge and

has them rebrilled Cerebro to be able to back

up all of the mutants and hold their stuff. Or

Professor X and Magneto visiting Sinister and

making their pitch to him. And Sinister is kind

of out there, but again, it's Bar Sinister, which

at this point is filled with his clones. All

of them think they're the real one. Yeah we don't

know which one is the real sinister and then

the one that they first talked to is like no

I'm not gonna do any of that he gets killed by

another clone and the clone was like okay whatever.

Yeah I'll do it I want the cape. Yep. Which he's

right, by the way, Magneto has an excellent cape

in this series. But yeah, I really like that

series, the whole like getting the band back

together and kind of visiting all our different

sort of major mutant characters. Well, a number

of the major mutant characters. Yeah. I don't

know. It's well done. I like seeing the it's

interesting that this is the series they did

sort of the prelude or they detail out like how

how it got formed and everybody getting together.

Yeah. as well as the 100 years in the future

of a previous Moira timeline. I believe it's

nine, which is the previous one. Then the last

bit is a thousand years in the future where Nimrod

and everybody were successful and the Phalanx

has essentially taken over everything. Yes, it

has. come to earth the phalanx again another

sort of invention of the older x -men another

thing that i think we mentioned appears in the

animated series look at all the phalanx covenant

episodes yep yeah and essentially phalanx is

sort of a machine hive mind sort of thing think

the borg only even less individual Yes Yes, exactly

and I you know, you know, we kind of talked about

already so far like the various like documents

and things that they spring that's why I love

these two series there's such unique X -Men series

with tiebacks to things we've already you know,

like we've already talked about but Having certain

like It's not often comic books mix in actual

written pages that are just document -like things.

I think it's issue 10. I love the Cerebro document.

That is so interesting to me. One of the other

books we did, which is More Than Meets the Eye,

also liked to do that, doing the prose stuff.

Yeah. Yeah, it's nice. It just adds more to it.

well it adds more to it and it breaks it up so

like okay so i'm on the main cover of of issue

10 within the digital so for the children is

is this story so as i what i noticed between

both of these series is in in this trade is that

single issues for this must have felt like they

were going on forever. I'm not saying that as

a negative. I'm saying if you went and you picked

up issue one, two, three, four, five, six of

either series or of both, because that's what

you should do is get them both, but both of these

series. Yeah, it had to suck waiting. It's not

even the sucking of waiting. because they mix

in prose with traditional comic art and bubbles

and writing that way, these books feel like they

are longer than they are. And speaking of that,

and by the way, yeah, it makes for, it's a really

good value for the trades. Absolutely. Which

is, you know, has six of both series. So all

of them and 12 issues altogether. But you mentioned

it, the art. Arby Silva's the pencil or an anchor

on these Marta Garcia is the colorist letters

done by Clayton Cowles and The art lettering

and everything in this series is also fantastic

Oh, yes, most definitely and what I love the

most is I mentioned this earlier in the episode

and we're talking about house of X was that The

so like he has the cerebral helmet on all the

time like that's a part of his Professor like

instead of having the chair he has cerebral so

that's part of his design and what they do like

there's a It's the second to last page of issue

8 there is a Thing in here where it zooms in

and it says All this time, everyone has misunderstood

what Cerebro really was, and it's a close -up

on Charles, you see his nose, his, you know,

his facial features around his nose, but it's

basically a close -up on the Cerebro X helmet

that he wears, and it's such an amazing piece

of art, and... Like various times that it's used

it or we've seen it like at the beginning of

the mention the reflection of the it's very detailed

the reflection of the newborn Cyclops. Yep, the

newborn Cyclops. I believe it's in issue seven

when we first start this is when he when we first

get to it, it's going back. I'm trying to find

this thing. Yeah, the first The second page of

issue seven, the second full page where he goes,

communion, my dear, all eight of us acting as

one. Shall we begin? We begin. And then like,

it's like a giant blue light of like Cyclops

is quartz vision thing where he says, All cocos

will be blind with each of you enabling you to

join your minds together and function as a singular

organism but just the art on that just the way

his home with the way cerebral functions this

story is just mind -blowingly awesome. Literally.

Or mine savingly i don't know yeah and they are

in general is very good it's different from the

other. Issues and that's fine. What I really

like is Clayton Cowles does the lettering on

both So it makes it feel It makes everything

feel closer together. Yeah It's not to the point

that I wouldn't know there were different artists

between them But it's close enough that it doesn't

feel like it's not jarring. I guess is what it's

not jarring at all And the arts is generally,

yeah, it's quite good and just, I don't know,

like I said, it didn't bother me that I'm going

from artist to artist pretty much with the way

the issues are built in the trade. Yeah. And

what I like is in House of X, it's more of a

classic, like classic X -Men. designs and things

like that or is in powers of X it's like Hey,

guess what? We're kind of gonna get modern on

your ass because they do quite literally Like

there are several modern designs in this and

I'm like, oh, that's cool. I love that And even

in the future everybody's pretty easy to tell

you know who they are that kind of thing. Yeah,

I Love this White magneto suit He's got the like

the grayish white whatever you want coloring

you want to call it that he had Yeah, or similar

coloring I should say that he had in the 2000s,

but this one looks better with like the longer

cape and everything. Yeah Everybody looks good.

I mean we mentioned that in the last round and

see it's worth stating again that I really like

the character designs in general. Everyone is

very distinct and you can tell who everyone is.

Yep. No matter what. Basically, no matter their

sizing on the page. That's how it should be.

I mean, the X -Men, or sorry, the different mutants

do not look alike. You shouldn't have trouble

telling Sinister from Magneto or Jean Grey from

Logan. Trust me. There's definitely been artists

in art. It's not as good. So right, you know

Yeah, no, but it's it's What I've outside of

the a Lot of issues that are in these stories

obviously because they have to tell he has to

tell a compelling story and he does What I came

away with this is just pure unadulterated fun.

I enjoyed this a lot Yeah, I mentioned it last

time. I mean, the whole thing is a five out of

five. I hadn't been this excited to keep reading

a series, not to mention keep reading X -Men

in forever. It's been a long time since an X

-series, over a decade, I think, really caught

my attention this way. And I love the constant

changing of colors like So as I've gone through

the trade like issue 7 was kind of like black

and green and then it you know has a certain

color palette to it issue issue 8 is the same

kind of way issue 9 changes it up to Almost black

and white and then white on black for issue 10

and then you get to issue 11 It's oh hello white

and purple. Okay, you're speaking my language.

Let's go, you know kind of thing and The last

two issues, man, oh man, just whew. So good.

Sorry, I don't know. I have less to say, oddly

enough, about this one because of the jumping.

I mean, it's less straightforward than the first

part. And let's be honest, I spent most of the

gushing I was going to do in the first volume.

like this a lot because it fills in the gaps

of both Moira's previous life, as in why some

of the things happened that they that did happen

in house effects. And I appreciate that they

took the time to do that. But it makes this Don't

want I don't know how to put it. I guess I'll

just say like it makes this feel like the weaker

portion of the trade But not by much like it's

an important part, too. I don't know. I just

find it doesn't read Quite as quick. I don't

know. So, you know, I'm trying to say that but

then I remember like I just blew through the

whole thing So and I've reread and I've reread

it. I don't know how many times since then, right?

So the way I see it is house of X Is the outer

edges of the it is a full deep story, but it

is the outer edge of the overall story. And then

powers of X is more like the the the core of

like the the hidden details the this the that

the things we didn't see with house of X like

they go into more detail and more depth into

this and. Just everything between like we said,

Jonathan Hickman and all of the artists. Well

done. Well, well done. And yeah, I'm digging

it, man. I, I need to read more from him because

he's, he's a pretty damn good writer, obviously,

but it was just super enjoyable. He is, he's

very good. He manages to. He manages to keep

a lot of plates spinning in the air at the same

time without kind of tripping over them for the

most part. Mm -hmm Yeah And especially with x

-men Look how much we're coming a lot of characters.

Yeah, there's a lot of characters Not only is

there a lot of characters to choose from once

you've made your choices of who you're going

to use and what stories you want to tell with

those characters you then have to Flesh all of

that out You mentioned it. Yeah, and you mentioned

it to last issue too that they're also not afraid

to show the larger part of the Marvel universe

ie Have the Fantastic Four confront Mm -hmm The

X or sorry confront most notably I guess Cyclops

and they're the ones that trap, you know saber

tooth Yeah Yeah, and like Again, it's just...

I haven't covered X -Men in a long time, like

I mentioned earlier in the episode, and it is

what it is, but I'm glad that this was the coverage

that I came back to, or the coverage that I started

on, because... There wasn't so many things with

Wolverine that I could point out, or, oh, that...

Animated series that reminds me of this and obviously

like Jubilee's not gonna be here And it is what

it is and that's fine that like she's not necessary

to this story So Jubilee at this point has a

random child and I believe at the open of this

was a vampire Yeah, X -Men stuff like Don't know

x -men is the one of the world's longest -running

soap operas. So Always has been oh yeah, you

name it something has happened To somebody so

you say she became a vampire. I'm like, oh my

god blades mother yikes No, she was I think it

was fighting. I think it was fighting x -men

villain Dracula No, I'm not kidding. I mean Dracula

was always like a x -men villain in Marvel Comics

Yeah, I don't know anyway Yeah, no, I mean good

old Marvel comics where you've got, you know

Dracula the devil slash Mephisto all running

around and It's a great big universe and we're

all really puny so When is the devil gonna be

in the MCU? I mean, that's that's the real question.

Oh Let's see probably As soon as Ghost Rider

is, whenever that is, I don't think he's coming.

I was going to say, well, the devil will be reborn,

but that's not the devil you're talking about.

Which Ghost Rider will it be? Will it be Johnny

Blaze, Robert Reyes, or Frank Castle? Well, I

don't mind if it's Blaze or Castle, but that

other guy, I... Really? Reyes is cool. I don't

know, I like Reyes. I like the car, anyway. I

like the car too, but it was better as the Punisher's

car. We have three ghost riders. Yeah, but I

mean the Punisher was, yeah, anyway. It's a future

version of the Punisher that died fighting Thanos,

made a deal with Mephisto to become the new ghost

rider. Went to take revenge on Thanos only to

discover there was nobody left alive on earth

Stayed there for a thousand years growing more

insane Galactus came. He made a deal with Galactus

to become the new Herald So he became the cosmic

ghost rider But still but still Frank Castle,

but anyway, I was gonna say and he still has

a 1972 charger No, he rides like a space sort

of motorcycle, but he still has the skull on

the outfit and he's also completely insane. Oh,

God. Now that not that Frank Castle's particularly

saying anyway, we're getting real off topic.

Well, now that you're mentioning all of this

and you said it, you said it was based. Oh, God.

Well, I can only imagine Frank Castle as a ghost

rider. teaming up with Rodimus Prime, the space

Winnebago. House of X, powers of X. Read it,

folks. Actually, you forget that the Transformers

were part of the Marvel universe in the 80s.

I know. Trust me, I know. I don't forget that.

I know. Yeah. House of X, powers of X is really

good. If you are a fan at all of the X -Men and

their... adventures, even if really you're only

kind of familiar with like the Wikipedia version,

or with the animated series, like if even if

you've dabbled in a little bit, I think it's

a really solid read. And it doesn't take a lot

of prior knowledge, like I really like that.

It doesn't matter if you knew, you know, Jubilee

was a vampire or that Wolverine. died recently

and was dead for like six years in the comics

or Had his skeleton ripped out once or like all

the different continuity stuff. Yeah It's cool

if you know that but you don't need to know any

of it it's a really good jumping on point and

that happens really rarely with stuff that's

run since You know 1967 or whatever. Yeah And

you know what? Like, yeah, you're right. This

is a great jumping on point. Hell, this is just

a great two series, one long, 12 issues. You're

probably going to call blast for me when I say

this, but I say this because I experienced it.

If I had welcome back Frank in my hand and I

fell asleep because of the weight of the actual.

Omnibus killed my hand and I woke up woke me

up by crashing to the floor and you imagine what

I'd be doing with this. I'm not saying house

of X powers of X is a welcome back Frank I'm

saying because 12 issue story all one thing it's

slightly similar as far as that goes kind of

thing and It's just if we're it's not blasphemy

by the way if we're talking quality wise I think

this is better than welcome. That's a different

story though. That's I know you're trying to

say I think I cast I think this is one of the

best trades you can pick up especially of the

current sort of modern Era of comics like it

only came out in 2019 in the last three in the

last three years There's only a handful of books.

I think I'd recommend as highly as this one so

Yeah. Isn't there supposed to be Don of X and

something else of X? Yeah. There's a bunch of

series that run after this. We essentially return

to what we're used to with the X -Men, which

is there's a Wolverine series, there's an X -Men

series, and then we have other sets beyond that.

What's kind of nice is if you just want to read

the storyline as... The major events, there's

a series that follows it, which if I remember

correctly, it was initially, it was Dawn of X.

Which is, it's a compilation of individual issues

from the other books. So it'll have Wolverine

issue one and two, and it'll kind of give you

what you need to know that's going on with him.

It'll have X -Men one. It'll have Hellions one.

It'll give you just enough. to sort of keep going

and follow along until the next sort of big event,

which is like Ten of Swords, Hellfire Gala, that

kind of stuff. So it wasn't a bad idea, but yeah,

we get into, it gets a lot harder to follow though

instantly. Like if you want to see everything,

I think Barotters restarts, X Factor restarts.

So yeah, we get back to the usual, there's 84

X teams. What's been really weird is the quality

has been really good of all of those though,

so I Got all of them because Sarah's a big x

-men fan. I became a huge fan of them again after

this Yeah, I wanted to read everything and I'm

happy I did because it's all surprisingly really

good some better than others, but Yeah, I've

been astounded at how good the quality is this

is the best the x -men have been for a while

and Hickman's been gone for a bit and it's been

taken over by different groups I mentioned Kieran

Gillen I mentioned Al Ewing who's also knocking

it out of the park like Everybody's been doing

a really good job. So yeah, it's been a lot of

fun and that different series have been so different.

There was one series that was essentially nightcrawling,

debating what is the soul of mutant kind if they're

all immortal. What does that do to them spiritually?

Does it mean there's not a god for mutants or

does it make them their god? The fact that they

slow down on occasion and take a look at that,

there's a full series that explores Sabertooth

punishment and Where he is and what is happening

to him and just yeah, I don't know. It's been

fantastic so of course, it's like right in front

of my face in the top of the Wikipedia article

of house of X and powers of X because I was looking

at this and I keep staring at what the abbreviations

for these are is Hawks and pox and i'm thinking

yes what folks like but i found what i was looking

for as far as the. The dawn of x it was basically

house of x powers of x started everything in

the ongoing series which was x -men volume five

written by hickman and then jerry dougan. Benjamin

percy and vida alia took over for marauders one

to fifteen. Uh, teeny Howard, good Excalibur,

volume four, Hickman returned with Ed Brisson

for new mutants, volume four, issues one to 13,

X -Force by Benjamin Percy, volume six, issues

one to 14, fallen angels, Wolverine, Cable, like

you mentioned, Hellions, X -Factor. I don't know

if we're going to dive into all these things

in 2023. No, but I'm saying like. How some hawks

and pox basically, you know launched a whole

new x -men universe and and Or sort of relaunch

them. Yeah versus you know where they were. Yeah

So but yeah, no, that's that's super interesting

to see All of that Oh juggernaut one to five

that that that's probably fun Mr. Mr But he's

not a mutant, anyway. Well then, screw him. Alright

folks, like Ryan said, five out of five for powers

of X. Same thing for house of X, so basically

double tens? I don't know. You got anything going

on you want to talk about? Anything you want

to promote or anything like that? Nope. I don't

do anything. It's great. Just playing spider

-man miles Morales and Marvel snap so Marvel's

did we already talk about that? I don't remember

if we okay. What is Marvel snap? Marvel snap

is a free -to -play card game available on iOS

Android and Steam And it is surprisingly well

done. It's done by the makers of hearthstone

and it could have just been a phone in cash grab

But man, they actually did a good job on it.

Very cool, very cool. All right, folks, I think

we're gonna go to a quick ad break, come back

to close the show. I think it is did an ad break

for something that's not sponsoring us. True,

but I asked you what it was because I... No,

I know. You say Marvel Snap and then you say

it's a card game. My first thought was, oh, it's

Solitaire with X -Men characters on it or whatever.

So anyway... We're gonna go to a quick podcast

ad break and we will come back to close the show

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Every week on my show, I talk about all kinds

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Show. Transform and roll out and be sure to check

out my content till all are one. Pull bag any

final Hawks and pox thoughts on for you Ryan

It's fantastic. I mean, I don't know we've gushed

over it gushed over it It's hard to talk about

without just giving praise at least for me. I

know it's this Series, I know, you know, we didn't

go super in -depth, but it honestly it's one

I think people should read Yeah, no, absolutely.

And you know, you've reread it multiple times.

I have read it once each series once for this

podcast and at some point next year down the

line I may reread them both because it is such

a good good story and yes we threw a lot of praise

at its way rightfully and deservedly so but they're

really it like I love when I can come across

a story where I even even though people are you're

not thinking critically well there's nothing

really to criticize because art is subjective

And the story is just damn good. Like, there

are no... There are no... This is Jonathan Hickman.

This is not... Whoever the hell wrote Revenge

of the Fallen. Anyway. Mean we could do it critically

and go through page by page I also think there

is some stuff you could nitpick and I mentioned

some of it Yeah through it be it the shift in

Moira and the way they use her Especially later

on as the series goes on but bleh I mean you're

allowed to enjoy and have fun with it's like

it's not a I don't know I don't feel like we're

a nitpicky podcast if I want but I guess what

I mean I can rip stuff to shreds trust me and

like a great example is some of the Transformers

stuff we've done over the years or when we talk

about the animated series and stuff like that

which I don't know my feeling on it's always

been when you take the nostalgia out it's not

great there's no it's like the original Star

Trek there's about For every five great episodes,

there's about 25 not so good ones. Yeah It's

about the same rate but yeah, it's not I don't

know I don't want to be one of those podcasts

or for you I spent way too much of my life being

a bitter prick who would just rip on stuff Mm

-hmm. There's plenty of other shows and podcasts

Absolutely, and the thing of it is God knows

that's how you get popular on YouTube You know,

it's not by saying anything nice about anything,

but don't get me started. I don't care. I'm not

going to make shit up or create problems or pretend

I don't like something just to rip on it. And

I mean, the thing is, if we don't like something,

we'll say it. We'll have a discussion about it.

We either agree with each other or disagree with

each other and we move on. Like we don't dwell

on the negative around here. Like this bag would

be empty if we did that. So next week, we'll

do Matt Fraction's run on Punisher War Journal,

which I will be giving negative six out of five.

Oh, sorry. Right, not negative. Anyway. Alright

folks, thank you for joining us here inside The

Pullback. If you'd like to get in contact with

us, leave feedback for the show. There are several

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on Facebook, go to facebook .com slash Geekcast

Radio Network. You can also check out the pull

bag over there as well. I'm going to say this,

but I might have to pivot. But Episode 502 will

be my buddy Mikey from Moonbase 2 and I talking

about Carter Mann's Immortal Orphans issue number

five. Since Carter lives down there in Louisville,

Kentucky, and I lived in Louisville for 25 years,

and 502 is the Louisville area code, so there's

that. Nice. Yep. For now, I'm TFG1Mike with Brian

the Uneven Flow. As always, make your greatest

game to comics, and we will catch you next time

here inside the pull bag. Going after. No way,

Wolverine. We've got a job to do first. I go.

You've just heard the latest episode of The Pullback,

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