Here is Leonora zan aka Road. It's cal Don here, voice of Wolverine
from X Men, the animated series, Baba. Join me at the Uncanny
Experience, the ultimate destination for X Men fans just like you. You will
become a mutant student at Xaviers and be able to explore the school campus,
shop the vendor hall, and meet the creators and stars of the X Men
universe. Get your tickets now, Sugar at the Uncanny Experience dot Com guys
were so excited for you to join us at this September sixteen and seventeenth at
the Uncanny Experience. It's going to be incredible. We have some news that
we're going to break for you guys, so you can learn about it here
first. What do we have, Chris? Yes, every episode we are
going to highlight a new aspect of the convention that maybe of interest to you.
Are you a cous player, Are you a costumer? Do you love
the X Men and want to express yourself through fashion? Well, guess what
we have the perfect place for you to do it. Jumbo Carnations Cosplay Contest,
which will be held at the Uncanny Experience Sunday, September seventeenth at two
PM. So, Chandler, why did we call it Jumbo Cardnation's cosplay contest?
Who is Jumbo Carnation, explained to us. All Well, for sure,
of course, Jumbo is the mutants like fashion guru. He is the
top designer of mutant fashion. He has Emma Frost's choice fashion designer, so
you know that she's got the best taste. He's got the best styles.
So he is somebody that has four operational arms, and he's got like tough,
tough skin. He's strong, and he is just somebody who is a
joy to read in commas. And also spoiler alert, he makes out with
the Lighthouse Island guy who runs the place where the hell Fire Galla takes place.
Oh, so he's queer. He's also a queer mutant, which we
love. Yes, well, Jumbo Carnation was the absolute perfect mutant to attached
to our cosplay contests. So I'm excited to see, you know it come
to life. And if you're going to compete, get ready because you may
win an epic prize like medals, a trophy assigned comic book exclusive that we
have at our convention. You could also win an xim in the animated series
book that's signed by all the cast and the creatives. Also VIP tickets to
next year's event in twenty twenty four. Yeah, so definitely when you get
to the event and you go show up on Sunday, make sure you sign
up for the cosplay contest so that you can win some of these cool prizes.
Some of our judges include award winning costplayers and designers, like coming H
two, who is our Juggernaut costplayer. Also his name is Roger by the
way, oh yeah, he also has a fabulous omega red and he's really
known for his massive, big builds. We also have Ray who is a
cause player and designers, and then of course we have our community manager and
person of interest with our Samantha Ray. She is a contestant from Project on
Way season sixteen. She's a local fashion designer and she will be one of
your cosplay judges. To sign up, you just have to visit the info
booth during show hours prior to the contest and fill out our entry form.
So I can't wait to see all of your mutant fashions. Everybody, Good
luck, good luck. Hi everybody. This is Chandler, and this is
Chris and this is Nikkiel and you're listening to X Ray three. Here we
are here with episode one oh five, and we are here with the amazing
nikkil Clayton. Welcome to kill. Thank you for joining the show. Thank
you guys so much for having me. Of course, I just was watching
your latest TikTok on the hell Fire Galla issue recap of the What the Fuck
Comics recap you know, segment that you do, so I can't wait to
dive into that later. Chris, we have some questions for Nick Hill.
Let's introduce him a little bit, Let's get to know it. Yeah,
Well, something about you that I love is that you are all over TikTok.
You have a seven hundred over seven hundred and fifty thousand followers, which
is like monumental, and you cover X Men and other pop culture properties.
So I wanted to know what started your passion for the X Men. What
was your first introduction? What made you fall in love with the X Men?
So the X Men, I think I first discovered as a kid watching
what were my version of the cartoons, which were X Men Evolution and Wolf
in the X Men, And when I saw them they were both coming out.
I think it reruns. Honestly, by the time I was watching them,
but I had a little kid brain, and I thought they were the
same show. And I thought it was so amazing that they were skipping back
and forth in time from them being in high school to the post apocalyptic moment
of like most of them being dead. This is the greatest show I've ever
heard of. It was. I was a teenager before I looked back and
realized they were two different shows that had nothing to do with each other.
But that really kick started my love of the characters. And then from there
I picked up a bunch of random comics back in the day from my middle
school library, and my parents whould dropped me off at Barnes and Noble,
and I just spent my time reading X Men and it's been that ever since.
Amazing. That's great. So as far as your TikTok goes, which
TikTok video have you released about the X Men that has been the most well
received, the most loved, the most liked. Oh, I don't know.
I post a lot of it is with the X Men. I post
a lot of like fan fiction any skits, and those are usually very well
liked. I think the one that maybe did the best in numbers is I
made just a video talking about the X Men movies and pointing out all of
the cameos they have with the most random characters, like how the Stepford Cuckoos
are in the background of one scene, and that got a lot of reception
because everyone was just like, what you're telling me all these characters have been
in film? Wow, Well, what are some content that you have coming
up on the channel and where can people find you on TikTok So On TikTok
I'm at Nikil Clayton and I Khil Clayton. Basically, I'm doing a lot
more just normal skits, a lot of comic focused stuff. I used to
split my time between comic and movies, but to honor the strikes, I'm
doing only comics for the next foreseeable future. I just uploaded a skit today
about the Five, which is funny because I recorded it before the Health Hire
Gala and it doesn't really work at the current canon anymore. But I had
to go out and then I'm also going to start launching a YouTube that is
at nikkil Clayton, where I will my first post is going to be a
documentary or mocumentary version of the Dark Phoenix saga, and I'm looking very forward
to that. So are you going to play like all the care I'm gonna
play all of them. Yeah, it's gonna be it's gonna be interesting.
I got a lot of I got wigs for the first time ever. I
usoly just put names over myself. But I'm really committing for YouTube. I
love it. Now are you doing Are you doing it like as the X
Men are talking, or as claremontin Burne and everybody as the X Men?
That my idea is that someone has found the X Men and is just interviewing
them about what happened with the Phoenix at all, and it's just them sitting
there in like the black room, having the two shots of them discussing what
was going on, and then using like the comic panels themselves as the Ken
Byrne style photos. Excellent and can't wait to see it. But you're also
currently running a Kickstarter for a TV pilot called The Bumbling Immortal, which is
an adaptation of your TikTok series. So what's that all about? So I
actually that kickstarter is funded and we are working on it. But what it
was is one of my original series I used to do was about just the
world's worst immortal character in one of these stories, because I feel like usually
when you have immortals, even in like X Men with the externals, they're
always like, we're involved in great societies, doing shadowy things in the past,
you know, having moments that mattered, and this is just a guy
who didn't do any of that. It was always basically, I'll get to
it when I'm older. But he never has any reason to rush or do
anything because he's always going to be around. So he's been like crashing on
a couch for like six hundred years and stuff, and this is the story
of him finally doing something. Oh, that's actually so true that procrastination affects
us all, even immortals. So well, let's let's make up some San
Diego comic con a little bit. I mean, all three of us were
down in San Diego this past couple of weekends, and it was pretty cool.
They were celebrating sixty years of X Men. Marvel was doing all the
stuff, including the D twenty three Hellfire Galla, which was immense. It
was amazing. What was your reaction to it? I loved it. I
really did. My partner and I we did not get to CONSPRESSDCC, but
we did drive down just for the night to go to the gala, and
I thought it was beautiful. You walk in, there's the whole photo booth
for to take a picture in front of the X Men logo with all of
the cutouts of the Gala people and their outfits. Then they had three rooms.
They had the Green Lagoon, they had like a normal club room.
They had what they called the X Layer, which was also a normal club
room but was more nineties based. It met my expectations and then exceeded them.
So what were you wearing? I went as Gambit to twenty twenty two
hell Fire outfit, which was an interesting choice because it required me to not
wear a shirt, but I decided it was worth it to finally be Gambit
at a like the one event. I know that you guys are also going
to get Xpit event, but the one Xpit event that happened already. Yes,
well you've you've alluded to the uncanny experience, which we'll get into later.
But the Gambit look was really hot. I mean, everybody loves that
that Russell Dodderman design gambit. Yeah, I love it. Myself friend of
ours named west Offer he also wore that last year, I think great Chris
at our x Menda panel and he looked amazing in it too. So if
you've got the body, even if you feel like you don't have the body,
and you just have the confidence, you can wear that outfit. Oh
yeah, I drew the body on. I did not have that naturally,
but I got makeup and a pen that was enough. Hey, you know,
I know a lot of people that are very fit that still draw definition
on muscles because superheroes are a bit beyond what we can achieve as humans.
So you got to augment yourself as much as possible. But I love it.
I love it. What's one of your favorite fashion moments that you witnessed
at the Galla. Oh that's a very good question. There was a storm
I saw that had an actual cloud situation on her head, which amazed me.
I don't know how you pull that off. I loved your courser by
the way. I thought it was fantastic. There was also a no that
was really cool who had the three lights. Yeah, we're going on.
Yes, name more cosplay, friend, Name more cosplay? Ye addressed as
as Nova the new Gala look for Nova and that storm. I saw her
too, and just to give the listeners a little sense of what it was,
so she uh yeah, had this cloud effect going on as like almost
a hat that was her hair, but it also lit up and kind of
looked like it was storming inside of it. It was next level, like
amazing her and there was an Emma frost um like look alike, a cosplay.
To me, I felt like were the highlights for me? That's a
Michelle a friend of mine is Actually she came with a friend of mine to
that party and she was great. It was like photo accurate Emma Frost.
Yeah, Michelle Waffle. Of course, we we know and love Michelle Waffle.
She was an excellent Emma Yeah. Well let's talk about the decor,
like inside so people can understand. I know you mentioned the green lagoon,
the nightclub room, whatever, Let's get into some details. Like I would
say the green lagoon was really interesting because it had that green carpet with a
step and repeat, the purple step and repeat that we saw in the first
year Gala. I thought that was fascinating. If people remember the Russell Dottoman
connecting variants from the first half fire. They kind of recreated that, which
was really neat. What I loved was the fact that the lighting fixtures they
had, like the laser lights pointing so that it formed an X, so
you saw x is everywhere, you know, in light. It was really
cool to see that. By the way, I didn't go to the Helfire
Gala, didn't didn't take it. I was standing outside going, but I
saw on social media it made it. It's still making a splash. They
I will say it was very crowded, it was very hot, and it
did get very hot. It was a lot of people, especially in that
one the second level that was the club room, that was very crowded from
what I saw online. My favorite aspect of the decor was the crackohen Gate.
It was this misst that you had to walk through and they had a
projection, a light projection over it. So I think everybody that went to
the hel Fire Gala has a special TikTok video where they're making their grand entrance
through this crackohen Gate. I definitely do. I waited specificly, it was
a little updated filmed a video walk it through that thing. It was so
cool. Plus, they had the flower right next to it, which meant
mysteriously missing at some point that I noticed, is it stopped being there?
Who ended up going away with that flower? Oh? Wow, I'm jealous.
I wish I thought about that. When you guys entered, you guys
had a hell Fire Gala invitation which looked really cool. Was that a pen
attached to it? A little X pinta? What an amazing extra touched twenty
three? Yeah? Absolutely, And then we got a gift bag on our
way out which came with hell Fire Gala branded bag, a pin, a
refrigerator magnet, and then randomized was either like a graphic novel or these like
prose novelizations of X Men stories, including two books by guests of previous episodes
on X Rays the podcast, including Carrie Harris and Neil Clyde. So I
was really excited to see their books being held by people in the in the
club. That's so nice. I got the graphic novel, but it's good
to hear that the novelizations were around too. Yes, well, it was
really cool. I hope they do it again. I really feel like it
would be amazing. I just want to know though, there are so many
creators and artists and writers from the X Men universe. Were you able to
hob mob with anybody? Did you have cool conversations? Did you get any
spoilers about things that are to come? I personally I met some other X
Men comicy creators that I knew were coming when I went there, But I
went online after and saw that like Teeny Howard and everyone was there. I
was so I could have talked to all of you people that I've been idolizing
your work, and I had no idea you were there, and I did
not see them because it was so crowded. But yeah, I was fortunate
enough to kind of station myself where they were all hanging out. So I
got to hang out with Teeny Howard, zeb Wells, Jerry Duggan, Joshka
Sarah. Jordan D. White was there. The showrunner and director of X
Men ninety seven was there, so I was able to like interact with all
of them. I will say. The one piece of information I learned while
I was hobnobbing was this current issue of hell Fire Galo that we just read
may not be the last hell Fire Gala as we predicted. Interesting The phrase
was keep the faith when one questioned if there's going to be another Gallo.
Wow. By the way, the hell Fire Gala issue that just came out
is huge. It is swept the internet. It is triggered people to go
to the comic bookstores and pick up their hard copies like never before. This
is red Wedding, Game of Throne style storytelling within the x ME universe.
I have not ready yet. I am still going to get that com books,
so I don't want any spoilers from you too, but I want to
hear your reaction to this issue. I was blown away. I really was.
I expected something big, given that I was supposed to kick off all
of x and everything, but I was totally blown away by the scope of
everything they accomplished. And two points, it is physically also huge. Like
I remember going, I was like, how are they going to wrap up
all of the stuff that they've been setting up for this gala in one issue?
And the issue it's like seventy five pages. It was like, Ah,
that's how it's like three books of one. It's insane. I posted
a wrap up of it that we just talked about on my TikTok and covered
the whole thing and it took like six or seven minutes. It was insanity.
Yeah, but I don't I can't say much because they don't want to
spoil it for you, but it shook the foundation a lot, and I
was very blowed away. Yeah, I will, I will agree, I've
read it. I am shook it. I was upset, like physically,
there's there's definitely moments in there that it's a lot to take in. And
our beloved X men totally get it at like they've been telling us for months
now. I feel like that it all goes down at the hell Fire Gala
and be prepared for depth destruction in Mayhem. And they did not disappoint one
bit. But some of it was gory, like to the point of where
I was like, oh no, oh yeah, the visuals of it.
I was surprised they got away with some of the stuff. They got away
with genuine little nightmare fuel and I was like, oh my god, m
but Modoc's in it, so Chris, you'll love it. Oh my gosh.
Really, okay, Modo is there? Yeah, I just I just
binge the Modoc theories from Hulu and now I'm in love with the character more
than I was before. So and how fire Gella, I am checking out
this issue? Can you tell me though, like I'm a little behind.
Do I have to go far back in order to be able to understand what's
happening with all the setup that they do? Like how far back? Like
six months of comics? Oh, that's it's a complicated question because it ties
in threads that are like one of the threads is straight up from twenty eighteen,
like when the whole thing kicked off. But I think for the most
part, don't understand most of what's going God, you need just the general
understanding of the task quo of Cocoa and then maybe the last few months of
comics of like the flagship title is help you understand, Yeah, because I
know that they wrote it in a way that I think you can almost pick
it up as a first comic just to kind of get a sense of the
world. Are They're really good at establishing kind of what we already know from
what we've been reading. But yeah, in order to appreciate the depth of
that issue, you've definitely my advice is to read every book that's been out
since Hoxxbox, because the only way to really grasp every detail that's going on,
But at the same time, you can pick it up as a new
reader. They designed it in a way that you can kind of get introduced
to the people and then be like, what the hell just happened? I
need to keep reading? Cool? Well, everybody, stay tuned after our
issue recap for a special bonus segment where me and Chandler are going to do
a deep dive into our San Diego Comic cod experience because there's a lot well
cool, Well, let's let's start setting the era of May of nineteen ninety
two, because the issue that you selected is Chef's Kiss Primetime nineties. X
Men Jim Wee are like it is so good and so it came out in
May of nineteen ninety two, and we liked to set the air of like
top film, top song. So that's what's the top song? Chris.
The top song of May of nineteen ninety two was Jump by Chris Cross.
Chris Cross is gonna make you jump Jump? Yes, Wow, the number
one for eight weeks in a row. I mean, I definitely remember and
being in school in nineteen ninety two. I was definitely alive at this time
and remembering Criss Cross and remembering all the backwards clothes because I had to wear
my jacket backwards. Like I was very influenced by Chriss Cross confession. I
try to wear my clothes backwards to school. They would not let me because
there was like a loose uniform code, and yeah, I almost got sent
home. I had to like change that. But it's how us tell us
your experience about Chris Cross. Do you remember this song? Does it resonate
with you. I'm gonna be honest, I don't. I don't know.
I think when you sag a bit of it sounded a bit familiar. But
the backwards close things, that's very interesting. I was still eight years from
being bored with it. Nine two. I know we're talking to embryo here.
So what was the top movie of nineteen ninety two? In May Chandler?
It was Lethal Weapon three, a movie I've never seen, but of
course a franchise that people love. And this is definitely not an era where
I was into action movies. Obviously I was a little young, so you
know, as we were in grade school essentially at this time, Lethal Weapon
three was not on my watch list. What about you, Chris? I
also did not watch Lethal Weapon three, But I did watch a lot of
the other movies that hit the box office. Oh yeah, that mud like
for instance, Sister Act, absolutely Alien three and in Sin No Man,
I've seen him all yeah, what about you, nikkil Nevy? Have you
seen any of these movies we just mentioned? Actually, I love Lethal Weapon
three. I binged all the Lethal Weapons just a few years ago over COVID
and Lethal Weapon three. I think my favorite one because it's the one with
where Joe Peshi's character takes them more center stage and he's hilarious to that movie.
Let's get into the issue, you guys. Let's do it. Oh
my god, do it. I can't wait. We're We're doing X Men
number eight. The cover date was May of nineteen ninety two. The title
of this issue is Tooth and Claw. Yes. The credits are Jim Lee
as writer, penciller and inker, Scott Lobdell as writer, Art Tibert as
inker, Joe Roses or Ross's or I don't know how to say, his
last name is colorist and oh Tim, Tim and your last name, your
Polish last name or Zechowiski or ze Chioski as a letterer. That that's probably
the best we're gonna be able to do so well, I'll take it cool,
all right. Well on the cover, guys, what do we see
on the cover? Man, this is a Gambit versus Bishop, Enuff said,
I think first in saying this Bishop looks super cool. He's standing there,
He's got his flaming fist going on. Gambit, who is established so
far as already being a huge badass, is just down for the count and
looks very much at pain. And so Bishop is like, he seems very
menacing at this moment, and a rogue seems very upset. Yes, absolutely,
And Scott in jubilee in the background with the shock and off faces like,
oh no, he didn't you know what I just discovered about this cover
in this very moment right now? What if you look in the lower right,
I just I don't know why I didn't pick this up, but that's
goes right space. Yeah, that was awesome. Ghostwriter. I was also
just looking at that because in my head the cover is the Bishop and Gambit
like standoff, but there is a ghostwriter down there. You know what's funny
is that? Yes, so special appearance by ghostwriter as if it like has
anything to do with the story. No, it literally is a bait switch
of like you know, oh, ghostwriter is going to be in the issue.
No, he literally is just trying to get you to read his his
series. I believe it's like the last panel of correct Pas. I'm also
noticing for the first time that Gambit shirt is torn open. Yeahly from the
flaming fist as well. Yeah, no, he got blasted pretty hard.
Well, let's dive into the issue. We start on Wolverine doing some desk
work. He's doing his office hours at the computer and he is just going
through cigar after cigar. He is I see a couple of coffee. You
know, he must be doing all nighters doing his homework or whatever he's doing
on this computer. But unfortunately he can't use a computer because it keeps blocking
him with an access denied. Do you think it's because he's got chunky fingers
and as he's typing, they just keeps fumbling the password because Wolverine just setting
stocky on all levels, including his fingers. I imagine they don't work well
in keyboards. I love. He also is threatening the computer like he's like
one of us is going to have to give computer. It ain't gonna be
me like this is how his approach to getting his information is. Oh,
the files are in the computer. Little Zoolander moment for everyone. Well,
he's wearing a red flannel shirt and a black tank top, which is kind
of like my go to look. So I think I found my next cosplay,
great casual Wolverine cosplay. I'm loving it, Julie Yo Wolfster. Maybe
not now is at the time, you know, the prof is Dave Bautant,
his latest ex dude top side names Bishop. Now I don't feel bad
about Jules go away, and cyclop says as I said, now, probably
is when I say what I do later Jubilation and he's like grabbing her shoulder,
like, come on, get out of here. Yes, I love
this era of Jubilee, just because she was such a fun voice in comics.
You know, they're so serious, all these adults dealing with very adult
issues, and she's in there being like, what, I have a good
time. Oh and then we get our next splash page, which is a
really beautiful portrait of Storm and Bishop with Professor Xavier in the background. Storm
is giving him a guided tour around the mansion and she's very cautious of this
man. She's like, who is this dude. I'm gonna keep my eye
on him. He's from the future, allegedly, Like I know, they
deal with a lot of stuff, you know, broods and aliens and space
and people dying and coming back to life and whatnot, but somebody from the
future. I'm sure she was not too pleased to be able to have him
join the team automatically because the Professor's like, he's cool. I love Storm.
She's the Gold team leader and she is cautious. But something that I
love about this is that Bishop is from the future and he has all the
tea, and one of the things that he alludes to is that Storm is
legendary, so he knows a goddess, oh when he sees one. And
then she brings him around to the Blackbird to introduce him to somebody named Genesis.
No Forge, Now, ah, Genesis is actually Forge's name in the
future. Yes, I love it. Close I name Forge. He's like,
for the moment, that's what Bishops. I don't know what at what
point Forge becomes Genesis. But obviously I didn't realize this kind of you know,
nineteen ninety two drop of like we're gonna at some point, Forge is
going to change his name. We see this covered in XP, the animated
series. I believe this issue definitely has has a two parter of the nineties
animated series for sure. Well. Forge has been working on the Blackbird all
night and he is eventually going to get picked. But Professor is just like,
you know, even your newton ability to create a repair, anything mechanical
has its limits. He's like, rest up, dude. Well, and
Forge is super shady to Storm in this panel. He says, the work
needs to be done Aurorro, and I find most of my evenings have been
free lately because they're fighting. Oh is this when they were in the relationship.
Yeah, yeah, this is when they're in relationship. But obviously they're
on the outs right now, so you know there's no cuddle time before bed,
So Borge just like I'm not sleeping on the couch. I'm going to
work on the Blackbird. I'll show them. And now they're on their way
to meet Cyclops and Bishop as a fan girl, and he was just like,
what the greatest leader of all time? Oh? So excited. But
Storm takes immediate offense to this term. He says, you will assimilate much
sooner if you do not believe everything you hear in your history books. Mhmm,
indeed, oh yes. And then so the elevator doors open, he
gets to get a glimpse at the team. His eyes are wide with glee.
He is a fan at San Diego Comicon, going to his first panel
in getting to see all of his all of his you know, his dreams
and helps come alive because yeah, he gets to see Cyclops, Jean Gray,
Beast, Row, Psiloc, Gambit, and Jubilee. Something interesting,
um he mentions about Beast is that he vote unquote, was in the future
Randall's most read philosopher, and pieces are like, and who's Randall? What
do you think Randall is? Is that a school? No, Randall is
one of his buddies that come through from the future, but they die unfortunately
in the Trevor Fitzroy storyline. I think it's also a very beast like to
respond Grassias to this like why are you saying it in Spanish? Well,
yeah, exactly. Another thing he says is you are jubilation the Last X
Men, And she's like, really cool, what do you know about the
Last X Men? How how big was the last X Men in the storyline
in the future. Well, you know, Gamba technically is the last,
which we get to ye, but I don't know. I feel like Jubilee
just was the last to go down there. Technically Kitty Pride was the last
to go down, So I don't know. This is a bit weird that
they're like twite if we don't know a ton about Bishop's future. I think
it's just a fun nod that Jubilatians like important. You know what's interesting is
they're doing that storyline right now called X Men Days a Future Past Doomsday,
and they are telling the story of how the X Men were destroyed in that
timeline, which I can't remember. It's not six one six obviously, but
that timeline. So I wonder if we actually get to see Jubilie last till
till the end. So I'm very curious. We've only have one issue come
out so far. It was Brutal Is Bishop from the Day's Future past timeline?
There was from like a different time. I thought he was maybe,
oh, yeah, you're right, he is from it, because because in
that one, for sure, there's like Rachel Summers is still around and Kitty
still around and everything, and Jubilee is not there because it came up before
she existed. So I feel like some reason, yeah, he wasn't the
same, But I guess I do think you're right that he is in a
different timeline. His has to do with like Hope, Summers and everything.
That's why he wants to kill Hope for some reason later. Yeah, there's
a lot of alternate horrible ways the expect could all die. I asked things.
Also, what you're saying about Jubilee, Like she hears she's the last
X Man and she's like, all right, cool, great sounds fun.
Yeah, so I live the longest of all these schmucks. But yeah,
Bishop he is upset because he says Gambit and he doesn't quite know who Gambit
is. But then he hears the French accent or the Creole accent, and
he media is like, oh, you're fucking Lebau. Oh I'm gonna rip
you in half. Because he was the trader, the one who gave away
the location of the X Men that caused their demise, So he is pissed
at seeing Gambit once he realizes that he is Lebou. I also love that
Gambit immediately is just like, if she's the last X man, what are
you? Because Bishop's got a giant X on his suit and he's like,
well, that doesn't make any sense. And Bishop's response is to say le
Beau. And I think I'm pretty sure this is the first time Lebou's ben
said in comics A interesting. I think he's just been Gambit until this point,
and now they're saying Lebou. Okay, but what's up with Jean's face
in this panel? Is she like psychically hearing him and going, oh my
god, this is yeah? No, right, no, this is a
bit of a sloppy panel. I feel. No, he learns that Gambit
or Lebau is the trader because Jean left a video transmission that he watched in
the future, and then she like dies because of having essential attacks the video.
But the video stays, you know, in the computer, so that's
just a reference back to him watching that video. She supposed to be much
older, but she just looks like regular Jean. Yeah. I've also been
curious why Gene is having a solid reaction to just say Lebau. And then
we have a macho face off. We have Gambit versus Bishop and they are
a lock. Their eyes are locked, and they were about to go at
it, but Cyclops steps in between. Is the mediator. Yes, so
I love they're throwing insults, they're they're getting there, puffing their chests up,
and Bishop's like, you gotta believe me, and Everyone's like, yo,
we don't know you see, And I love how Gene is just like,
um, I hate to sound insensitive to the needs of the chronologically displaced,
but can we discuss this over our previously scheduled a picnic? And Bishops
pick exact this exact concept is why I love this comic so much, like
I do think it's the best example of the X Men cheesiness because the response
of this man from the future is telling us that this guy's going to be
try us to kill us all. But we were supposed to be on a
picnic right now, so can we get back to what's important? Please go
on our picnic is amazing O. Jane says, hate to sound insensitive to
the needs of the chronologically displaced, but can we discuss this over our previously
scheduled picnic? Picnic? I inform you you're impending desk at the hands of
a trader and you suggest a picnic. We do our best thinking on a
full stomach, says Professor, but to the like but everyone. Oh and
then this early early Gambit Rogue love I forgot that they're just getting warm to
each other, and so Gambit hears that Rogue feels like accusing him was insulting,
and he's like, oh, insulting a share I didn't know you cared.
So she's she's getting a little smug smile on her face and she says,
I'm sorry, did y'all get the impression I cared? Oh? I
could just hear Leonora Zanne read that line. Oh yes, Like I don't
know why, but I want to snap snap for that. Yeah. Yeah.
And Bishop's a bit upset. He's like, no one's taking me seriously.
And Storm's just like, well, would you take somebody you just met
seriously? Like, let's go have food. It's also notable that two people
that jumped to Gabbit's defense are Storm at Rogue, which Rogue is obviously the
budding relationship, and the Storm is like his best buddy at this little moment
because he's just found her. It helped her like not be a kid and
everything again, right, And so Storm's just like, no, I trust
him, boy that I trust you totally. And then we go back down
to the basement and Wolverine has discovered one word, Barrington. He doesn't know
anything about Barrington, if it's a person, if it's a place. He's
trying to figure it out, and Professor's just like, picnic. Now,
we got one thing we had to do today. You will have this bay.
It's just like family meeting, or like you will all come to dinner
and sit down, put your phones away. We're gonna have this picnic.
Stop brooding about your mystery past and come enjoy our picnic. And this is
like the best. I when I got to this part of the issue,
I'm like, I'm fully in Nick, He'll pick the best issue in the
entire universe of X Men, because we have our swimsuit edition of the X
Men up in this panel. Because at that moment, on the very edge
of the Xavier estate, we see them playing around on the lake and they're
all in sexy bathing suits. Oh yes, oh she is. I had
not noticed. That's so fun. I love best is just chilling at the
top of a rock. I think he's eating an apple. Yes, on
top of a rock. Of course, the casual X Men is the best.
I love it when they have downtime because it's like when the best ship
goes down because they're always fighting for their life, trying to stay alive,
helping one another out. And then when all the dust settles, they go
back home and they're just like who are you looking at? And who are
you grabbing the other night? And who are you sleeping with? Comes out?
It devolves into like reality TV so quick. It's so beautiful because like,
yeah, Jean is trying to have a serious conversation because the Professor has
just been put in a wheelchair again, and he's like, it's weird that
he's not talking about it, and Scott is fully ignoring her. M Jean
leans into Cyclops and she says, it hasn't you know, he hasn't said
a word about his condition since the Shadow King crushed his leg. It's not
natural even for the professor. What do you think about? What about the
Professor? And then all of a sudden, we see Sylock emerging from the
lake in the most sexual and provocative outfit you can possibly think of. And
she is built and she is gorgeous, and she is curty Oh my gosh,
I'm questioning my own sexuality right now. And she has a Pikachu on
her belly. Oh, oh my god, you guys, I know,
Wow, she caught Pikachuma. I'm gonna have to, like, you know,
post this on our social follow us on Exert's podcast on Instagram. I'm
going to show you this Pikachu inspired sexy swim suit. But anyway, she's
emerging, she has her hands over ahead her, she's dripping wet, and
she is looking all sexy, and cyclop says, I think that the Charles
professor guy, I think the Professor is um doing the that is he's just
perfect. Excuse me. She is like like we see a zooming shot of
psiloc kind of like caressing her chest in her mouth is open, and it's
probably like the most erotic thing that I've ever seen from Silocum. And I
just I have to give a shout out to the letter or who did a
great job of conveying Scott's very awkward, very stunted speech here. But Gene
Gene is not happy. She side blast cyclops right on the side, right
in the delt. Yeah, she says, excuse me, Gene, you
remembered. I'm flattered. And then Silock is coming out of the lake and
she's drying her hair and she looks over at Scott. But then there's kind
of like a knowing sexy like I saw you looking at me, and we
see the close up on her eye, and then we see a close up
on cyclops side and then he says, sorry, my mind must have been
um been somewhere else the gutter perhaps absolutely. I also love his like gene
exclamation when he gets hit does have a question mark like he is confused what's
happening? He was not aware she was there. And then we cut to
a more serious encounter between Storm and Bishop. Storm is also in a bathing
suit, but she's got like a little strong kind of wrap around her bikini
bottom. It's like a purple and pink patterned look. And she's got all
sorts of bracelets going on, because when we go swimming, we wear bracelets.
Yes, actually they they're floaters. You don't know this. They're X
men technology. Yes, because she actually doesn't know how to swim, that
makes perfect sense, that's why she flies. But I have to say I
vote storm swimsuit as the best swimsuit of the issue. She's gorgeous. It's
a It's not a Pokemon bathing suit, but at least it's high fashion.
It's beautiful, Yes, hell Fire gall of the Swimsuit edition. Yes.
So yeah. They're talking about how Bishop has forgotten that there's more forms of
life on Earth than just mutants and humans, that there's nature, there's bugs
or whatever. Storm's a little depressed to hear that. And then we hear
a gem in the background. Cyclops. He's under attack, and you know
what Bishop does. He is already get his gun out. He is cocking
it. He's like, let's charge into battle, because in the future you
got to act quick because you are always in danger. But Storm's just like,
can you like chill out a little bit? Yeah, it's not like
the future here. The only thing I'm really I love this and I hate
this is that we don't see this Gene throwing Cyclops into the lake moment.
We get to imagine it because we see a big on Amapia that goes splush
after he screams out, so we know that she threw him into the lake,
and I kind of want to see it. So I'm going to give
a shout out to art of Lucas. Can you please fan art this moment
because I want to see it. Yeah. Then we get the X Men
philosophy that, you know, we cannot do the same that our enemies do.
We have to be better. We have to think for peace, we
have to fight for that, otherwise if we do a resort to violence,
we've already lost. And then we get to the picnic. This is where
the soap opera stuff happens. And I'm a huge fan of the soap opera.
So we see on a picnic blanket Gambit and Rogue, and Rogue is
looking all sudden gorgeous. She's wearing a yellow tube top more like bikini top
that also covers her arms in a little bit. I don't know, it's
it's very revealing. And she has Daisy Duke Duke Duke shorts on like basically
denim briefs, and she she's got her No, she doesn't have her cowboy
boots on at this moment. She took them off because they're on the picnic
blanket. And then of course she's wearing her signature yellow gloves and she's got
a yellow bandana in her hair instead of green, and Gambit is looking like
a street swamp rat with a toward up shredded black tshirt that's super tight and
that shows off his muscles, and you know, he just kind of looks
like he rolled out of bed and didn't even try. And he is also
wearing yellow brass yes signature gloves, the signature gloves that are missing the pinky
and the pointer finger and his thumb. There archery gloves because he chucks.
Thus, oh, archery gloves. Interesting. I didn't know that archery gloves
had select fingers. So they're trying to get close to each other. Rogue
is like, you idiot. You know I can't get close to people.
You can't touch me. I don't want you in my head. He's like,
are you sure about that? Like? What would be different than right
now? I'm always in your head and love it. She so she's replying
away. She's kind of, you know, lifting herself off the ground.
She goes honestly, talking to y'all is like talking to oh frick wall,
And she runs right into Bishop are We, who knocks her sunglasses off.
I didn't realize she was wearing sunglasses. Maybe they were touched into her shirt
somewhere Gabby gets up to kind of protect rogue and help her up, and
he's all like, to Bishop, it's only been ten minutes, moan of
me, and I already know I don't like you much. And then she's
all like, as in at all, she replies. Bishop says, I'm
devastated. I was hoping we'd be friends, le beau, seeing as how
I'm going to be following your every move until I figure out exactly what it
is you're up to. It's all like that may be a while. You
might best take a shot now, avoid the rush. And he's pointing his
finger. They're they're about to have a confrontation. The level of heat is
rising, yes, and I love how Bishop's waiting for the first strike.
And he takes Bishop poking his chest as like the first punch, and he's
just like, that's what I was waiting for. He scupouse him, dam
it right in the face. Uh. This this panel is pretty epic because
if you look at the borders, um, it's red and it's black,
and you know, it's all over the place and it looks like, ouch,
that's what I look at that that border and it says ouch, I'm
in pain. I just got hit totally. Yeah, this is like the
straightest callback to the cover, I think, because we see why Gabbitt is
in such bad straits on there, because he takes a massive punch from this
guy, flies through the air and runs into rams into Rogue, knocking her
off the cliff and causing her to fall into the lake. She's like yelling
up at him, tell me you didn't do that. On purb Broke,
a character who could notably fly is pushed off a cliff. But as also
we get from here Bishop's announcement that he was raised by Gambit, which is
a plot thread that I don't think we ever really build on again. But
he says, for I was raised by you in the aftermath of the Great
Betrayal. Well, I might not know exact actually how it came about.
Rest of shared, I will do everything in my power to see that it
does not wow interesting, I don't. Yeah, see, I'm there's a
lot of Bishop storyline that I don't know. I think there would be a
great character to dive into and kind of dissect a little bit, or maybe
there's just not a lot written specifically about all of the eras of time,
it's this specifically has to do with there was a character called the Witness,
which is the Trader that was at this time very clearly stated to be Gambit,
and later on would be Reckon to not be Gambit, which makes these
lines not make sense. But I think they just didn't like the idea that
Gambit raised. Bishop. Well, Gambit is very upset and he decides to
pick up some rocks and throw it at Bishop, causing them to explode,
and he reminds them, Yeah, anything I pick up that solid, I
can energize it, and I can make a blow up in your face.
And he also reminds them like, hey, if you're going to try to
to me in my sleep, you can't because other people have already tried.
You know, I'm good. But this is this is my best. Oh,
this is the best part. I know. I keep saying the best
many moments of this issue, but this is one of my favorites because it
involves pie. Ye yes, the boys and Berry Pie. Specifically, Gabbit
says a plasma rifle against a boys and Berry pie? Can you find the
christ psychopath in this picture? I think, right, Bishop, if anyone's
behaving like a prime candidate for the accolades. It's you. You're wasting your
massive lung share. He's not to listen to reason, and he is like
trying to, you know, throw a plasma plast at him. And then
he throws the pie, the charged electric explosive pie. And where does it
land? Right on Rogue's face. Splat, Bishop ducked out of the way.
This is pure comedy gold you guys. Oh it's so good. I
know, Gambit, It's like, whoops, I spent four hours sweat over
a hot stove and the best you can offer is oops. The look of
horror of sheer, just shock on Rogue space in this moment, something you
would think that this is a reaction panel of like finding out someone died.
Yeah, but it's about her pie and then livid and then be Bishop and
Gambit have like a little bro out session over this. Would they just start
laughing together? Bishop's all like, is this wise? Gabb It's like,
keep laughing or she'll kill us. What does Rogue say? She there,
She says, I suppose it's fitting you die with a smile on your face.
And Gambit's all like, I'm not shaking Sherry. I got it on
good authority I'm gonna outlive every one of you do, Yeah, being to
see the absurdity of it all, y'all is trying to hold Gambit responsible for
something he may or may not have done in the future that may or may
not ever happen. If you're gonna hate him, Sugar, at least hate
him for the scoundrel that he is. How can a body argue with an
endorsement like that? And then Bishop's all like there is so much of the
past that remains a mystery. Yeah, well, and then suddenly from behind
there is a sprat, says some lady. Everybody, Bishop, Gambit,
Rogue all gets zapped from behind and incomes Belladonna. Belladonna. Now, let's
let's dissect this outfit here, because this is this is Belladonna's very first appearance
in the X Men comic books. So what is a monumental moment? Oh?
Yeah, what is she wearing you guys? Oh well, first of
all, she is wearing a body suit that is very like Lady Death Strike
legs with a loinclothey, mystique vibe belted things with looks like test tubes full
of something, and it has had a very layered cape let thing over her
shoulders that come swooping around, and then a head sock that goes up and
over her head. It looks sort of like a version of Gambits costume because
it has the metal legs and it has the head sock and everything. Yeah,
and it's got like the little crossy bits that he has over his pink
shirt or go down in a very deep v on hers. But it's that
plus a cape plus swirling energy. Yeah, what's that we've learned now later
in life? Is that so the crisscross kind of chest thing that Gambit also
has and whatnot? We learned that Lila Chenny got him that armor from the
Sher Empire and that's why he dresses so unlike a normal thief wood in New
Orleans. And so now that Belladonna is wearing this outfit, I'm like,
wait a minute, where are we going to get the Belladonna Lila Chenney she
are armor storyline? Because they matched so perfectly. It is very death like
a death bird like in a way the way the outfit is constructed. So
I see the resemblance. And if you are all wondering where else have I
seen Belladonna before? If you're a fan of xim. In the animated series,
we get a first image of Gambit's passed in season one, but she
actually fully appears in the episode called Externally Yours, where she goes in and
blackmails Gambit to come to her. M well, we learned that this is
his laugh and then we cut to the next page and you usedee the whole
the whole building, screaming your what, your what? I laughed out loud
so hard at the first time. I just love this. The drama full
looty tunes and mayhem. We are in an Animaniacs episode of Absolutely it's so
perfect. I wish we would have more of this. It's so much because
on the past page there was Bishop in Beldada are about to fight each other
because they want to like both kill Gambit, and I like that is such
a setup at a cartoon of like, no, I have to kill this
guy, and I was like, well, I want to kill him,
so what do we gotta do? Yeah? Exactly. Oh, but Jubilee's
reaction was great. You mean somebody was actually desperate enough to become missus Gambit
and Belladonna's like desperate. You don't know the half of it child, and
the name is Anna Donna Burdreaux boud Raw Boudreau. I think it's Boudreau Boudreau.
It's an amazing name. Bella Donna Boudreau is such a comic book day.
Well, I love Julie. She thinks it's a scam. He goes
sure, he becomes a big, fancy famous X men. Suddenly he's got
a wife that comes across. Shush, shush, child, my husband and
men business to discuss clan business. Not that, Oh my gosh, am
I doing like this weird Southern accent. That's guy, Not that that's nobody's
know how. But I was raised by my grandpa and the Assassin's Guild,
And why nobody ever did dumb enough to take blame for that actual birth?
Me and loving husband was brought up in a thieves guild, and Gamba says
it sounds more dramatic than it is. Amazing. Clans and guilds is just
a big easy way of referring to families, which is such a gross understatement
of the fact of both things they belonged to. He's like, yeah,
it's just our family. It's not like an international criminals said the kit we
happen to belong to or anything exactly. Oh yeah, But then we get
like a montage history of what's going on. Gambit's brother accidentally killing somebody in
the assassin's guild causing all this drama, and that made Gambit and Belladonna have
to get married to ease the tensions. Yeah, it's essentially Romeo and Juliet.
They get married to merge the guilds. But then Belladonna's brother is like,
no, she can't marry a thief, so he duels Gambit and then
Gambit kills him, and then Gambit has to flee because he's killed an assassin
and does not take Belladonna with it. So they decide that they're going to
go to New Orleans Facili's business, and like Professor's like, okay, who's
going to be on this trip? I just know the fact that piece is
all like great, just in time for Mardi Gras. I love that Cyclops
speak specifically for Beast and him. He's like, I'm sure I speak up
behalf of the Beast. What I'd say, we'd be happy to enjoin you
doesn't speak for the team or anyway. It's just being Beast. We're going
yeah, and then Rogue is just like dripping with dread. She's all like
want it and sit for the world. Can we see that in the letter
the lettering in the bubble, it's frozen almost like it's almost got icy.
She's so icy. Cilox like you have to ask, what did you?
Belie say right like, I got anything better to do? And Wolverine John
said, he's all like room for one more slam always I love He asked
Cyclops it's gambits thick, and then Cyclops nominates himself a beast and they all
are enjoined a Cyclops gable us not asked for any of this. Hey,
you know what if I were an extent on the team in that moment and
I knew that everybody else is going to Mandy Grass, I would have a
little bit of phobo and I'd be like me, two of you guys,
you're bringing me too. I'm gonna I'm gonna earn those beads. Mhmm.
Wolverine, he says, so you're the skirt that tamed the cage in and
Belladonna says house broke to be more accurate. Nice to see everyone's having their
ha has in my expense since Ford has the Blackbird sprawled across the hangar deck.
Hope nobody minds the first class on the Red Eye to the Big Easy
yep. And now we're gonna get our little travel montage here because now we're
in New Orleans. But we're not with the X men. We are with
a police officer. He has his radar gun up and he gets startled awake
because it goes b b b b b B beads. Somebody is traveling one
hundred and twenty miles per hour, which is very fast. Yeah, so
he's like, what what what? And he really really he starts chasing after
this speed stir allows a little two willed speed freak bikers think they could drive
any which way they please, not in my town. And he's smoking a
cigarette, looking at all medacine. Pull it over, son, So what
do we have here? And he pulls over this guy and he says,
you want to extinguish your helmet because he sees that the motorcycle guy has a
big flaming head. Then I'd like to see your license and your redge stray.
Shit. He's really scared. Why because as a ghostwriter a ghost writer's
ghostwriter saying is there a problem officer? And the security or the police officer
is just completely at a loss for words. Very Scooby Doo vibes again as
he's running away scram big. Yes, I can hear the like kick up
run car effect. Yes, we see this gorgeous panel of the ghost Writer
who's actually popping out of the panel with his wheel, just popping out into
our imaginations. It says, next issue, what do you think to be
continued in Ghostwriter number twenty six? And that's the issue? That's it.
Wow, well that was so much fun, as we said, like literally
a joy to read, So thank you so much for picking that one course.
Yes, tell me what was your favorite part of the issue. Oh?
Absolutely, it's it's the gambit Bishop poisonberry pie incident. I think that
steals the whole issue. It's so funny, the fact that he throws it.
It's like the first funny pie in the face joke since like Vaudeville in
this X MEB comic is so good the whole interaction. Yes, totally.
And what was your favorite part Chandler, Oh god, there's so many.
I just love Jubilee, the whole issue. I just I love how she's
like, somebody actually is missus campit like gro It's she's lying, don't.
I don't even know what scam Jubilee thinks exists. That this is to just
pretend to be someone's ex wife. Wow, not even a current wife,
like like she's gonna come take half the mansion from them. I think my
favorite part was the Gene and Cyclops interaction about Ciloc that was just so juicy,
and the fact that like Ciloc looked back at a Cyclops going I saw
you looking like ooh that's juicy. Yeah, great issue, so much fun.
I can't believe I had never read at all until just now, Like
I've seen bits and pieces of all of this, like I've known it all
happened, but this is the first time I've read it cover to cover and
I was like, oh, it's just so good Prime goofy x men.
I love it. Thank you so much for joining us. Can you remind
our audience where can we follow you on social media? Because listeners you need
to follow this man. No, thank you guys so much for having me.
It's been absolutely amazing, And I'm on TikTok and Instagram and soon to
be YouTube all under Nikhil clayton n I k h il cla y t O
n perfect. All right, Well, thanks again and we look forward to
seeing more of your TikTok and video content across social media. Thank you so
much. I look forward to listening to more episodes of this. You guys
do great. Thank you. Okay, everybody, As promised, we have
a very special bonus segment for you today. We wanted to do a deep
dive into our adventure at San Diego Comic Con otherwise known as SDCC because there
was a lot it being the sixtieth anniversary of the X Men, there was
fandom out in full celebration at this convention with so many activations and annals and
ex celebrities there. We had we had the honor of presenting the fourth annual
X Men Fandom Panel. Yes, we had panelists such as David Nakiyama,
the iconic cover artist, Michelle Wopple who's the cosplayer and also one of the
originators of the halfire Galla Walk. We had Blaine Rodenberg, who is also
known as Blainer Things. He is a toy designer and concept artists with Necca
Toys. Justin Wilder, who is the co host of the ex wife podcast,
Love Them m and the Amazing Anemia. She is a cost player and
comic book writer who has been around a long time. She also works for
Previews, so if you ever go to previews dot com to see what comics
are coming out, you'll see her going promo videos. We also had Warpath
Dylan, who is the co host of House of X podcast and is on
staff at The Uncanny Experience, one of our co founders and our cohorts in
our adventure there. Yes, boy, howardy was that panel amazing we were
in? We got upgraded. Yes again. Every year it seems like they
keep putting us in bigger and bigger rooms, and this year we were in
room six a where you know, pretty big, amazing panels happened with major
celebrities and brands. Yeah, the energy was amazing. Everybody's love for the
X men can be felt. It was so fun just to geek out with
all of our fellow mutants, and it was really special to provide an exclusive
art print by Lucas Vernick, who did a beautiful piece of Jean Gray and
Emma Frost that literally was so breathtaking, like I've felt really special that he
made that for us. Chris, I can't believe he made that for us,
Like, I know, it's so gorgeous. I really, It's one
of the pieces that I want to have framed on my wall. That's how
gorgeous it is. It's amazing. So many people are like, how did
you get him to commission that? I was like, we didn't. He
actually wanted to do it for the fans. You know, this is not
something that we like bought for our personal collection, then decided to duplicate for
people. We just he wanted to be on the panel. He unfortunately had
to cancel his trip to San Diego, but he's like, listen, I'm
going to provide you guys this art so you can hand it out to all
the fans at X Men Fandom. And then he shared it online afterwards and
people just like, we're melting over it. So if you want to see
what this our print looks like, just go to Lucas Vernick's Instagram or Twitter
or whatnot and you will see he just recently posted it. It's beautiful and
next year we'll be in hall Age Ballroom twenty to work. Yeah. Well,
I was very excited that a lot of X Men Cause players came out
to the panel to celebrate their fandom and connect with each other, and we
have a tradition after our panel to do a Cause player photoshoot, and I
want to give a very special thank you to Cheat Geek Photography, who is
an official San Diego Comic Con photographer who once again came out and took gorgeous
photos of the group of X Men Cause players that came out, and there
were so many of them, Yes, there, they were incredible. Big
shout out to the cost player who dressed up as current day Goblin Queen,
the Emissary of Limbo in New York City like her modern day with the crown
and everything. She looked so good, her her Instagram handles and the geek
ange the Geek she looked amazing, So I'm going to give her a special
shout out. Who was one of your favorite looks, Chris Well. I
thought there was these two kids that were super adorable that did cyclouds in Wolmarine,
but they were almost like venomized versions of them. Yeah I correct,
Yeah, yeah, yeah. They put a lot of effort and a lot
of time and energy into those Cause plays and it showed. They were adorable.
I think they really stood out and if you look at our photo on
x Reid's podcast on Instagram, you'll be able to see them standing right up
in the front. Absolutely. You know, it's a joy and we love
putting that together every year and seeing all the X Men fan cosplay community come
together. So thank you to all the cost players who came out, and
I hope you got some great photos out of it. We also did our
annual kind of geek out meetup thing, so we love to gather kind of
all of the geek community that we can when we're in San Diego with a
free event. You know, there's a lot of parties that happen, but
you have to be on a list or you need your badge or whatever.
So we're like, well, let's just create something that's you know, free
for everybody to show up. So it was a blast. We do it
at Coin Up, the Arcade Bar and the gas Lamp District and everybody showed
up. We got to have drinks, food, games, good times.
Oh yeah, I had a blast. I love playing the pinball machines there.
And there was a lot of panels, a lot of X Men panels,
I got to say the X Men the Animated series panel with Larry Houston.
I stood in line for it, and the line was out the door,
around the block, like wrapped around everywhere outside. I didn't even get
in. Great, but it's okay. Yeah, I know. I'm okay
with it though, because I actually spent a lot of time talking to other
fans in the lines, and you know, those are magical memories too.
So yeah, everybody like me who didn't get in, Yeah, that was
a panel that I didn't go to. But I did it by design in
the sense of, you know, we we worked with Larry Houston. He's
going to be a guest with the un Keen Experience. Ron Wasserman was on
the panel, who was on our fandom panel at wonder Con. Art of
Lucas was on the panel, who was on our panel at San Diego last
year. So I feel like, why take up a seat for somebody who
really wants to interact with these friends of ours? And I really didn't want
to, you know, I wanted to be supportive. But if it's already
oversold, of like I, you know, let's get new new blood in
there so they get to experience these amazing talented people for the first time,
so I'm so glad to hear it was a hit. And one of the
panels that I got to go to was the Designing X Men panel that happened
on Thursday, I believe, and it was that was the hot ticket,
that was the one that made news. Yes, So not only did we
just do this panel about the design of the X Men, which was really
lovely, we talked about how they came up with the design of the X
logo. They showed all these different iterations of it. It's really fascinating to
see all the different ways it could have looked, and then of course what
they landed on, which is the logo that you see on comics nowadays.
And we went through like Xavier's hell Fire Galla look because Joshua Sara, the
artist was on there who designed his look at this year's Galla, and they
just went and looked through all the different designs and they landed on, of
course, the one that we see. So it's one of those things where
it was really fascinating to go behind the scenes on the process of that.
But but they surprised us at the end because what they did. But they
did not put in the panel description. They did not even tease it at
the beginning of the panel, but they said, oh, there happens to
be some people in the audience. Why it looks like it's the showrunner,
director and art director of X Men ninety seven. Come on up, guys,
and bo to Mayo and Jake and Larry Houston. They were all there,
and they came up on stage and they talked a little bit about the
show and they're like, listen, why are we talking about it when we
can just show you? And so, oh my gosh, they show Okay,
So was everybody screaming. I wasn't there. I really wanted to be,
but I could just imagine the head exploding emoji over everybody's had. Oh
my god. Everyone was so excited. It was more of a quiet awe
than anything because everyone's like, yes, of course, there was like cheery
and clapping, but it was mostly people just like utterly shocked that we got
this. And so they played a really good chunk of footage. I'm gonna
say it was five minutes, if not more. We got multiple scenes,
We got to see tons of characters in action. We got a really dramatic
scene with storm, Cyclops and Henry Gyrick giving our usual you know speech about
how mutants are persecuted or whatever and how humans need to prevail, etc.
And then they go on a mission and they're in the Blackbird and a sentinel
attacks the Blackbird, and the whole sequence of how the X Men survived the
plane crash using their powers to get back down to the Earth was just amazing.
Just the creativity of use of power, the just the flex that Cyclops
does. If you saw the footage, you know what I mean. He
pulls out this supermove onlike anything I've ever seen Cyclops do, and I loved
it. I literally was gasping because I just was in awe, in awe.
Was there any other like things that you can reveal to us, Oh,
well, I'm sure what you saw was that Gene is pregnant. Yes,
she's pregnant with Rachel And we see her pregnant, and then we see
her in a dream sequence holding a redheaded girl baby in her arms, and
you're like, oh, that's Rachel Um And yeah, so that is a
bit of a surprise. We you know, we did not know that up
until this very moment when we saw the footage. So it's funny because you
didn't know, like they do a very low angle shot on Jeane at first,
and you're just like, oh, she's not looking very fit, like
something like it's just an unflattering angle. And then all of a sudden,
like you see her from like whatever the front angle and you're like, oh,
she's pregnant. So it just was like it was it was cool.
It was very cool. Um anything else in the footage, I mean,
I think that basically sums it up. I really, uh, there was
I wish I recorded, honestly, I wish somebody recorded it so that it
lives on YouTube somewhere so we can go back and rewatch it because in the
moment, you know, I only remember that much. It's great, of
course, here oh our iconic voices. We got to hear Leonora Zan back
as Rogue. We got to hear cal Dodd doing really funny lines as Wolverine.
We got to hear Alice and Seely Smith back as Storm. We have
our new cyclops, and we have Jennifer Hill as Jean Gray this time.
But it was really fun. It was really amazing. I'm so excited to
see XP ninety seven when it finally comes out someday one day in the future.
So as far as like the X Men creatives and artists and writers and
all that stuff, who did you get autographs from? I know, I
accompanied you to the Marble stage and I got your hat sign because you can
only get one thing signed. So I said, you know what, bro,
I'm going to stand in line with you army get that hat signed for
you, so that way you can have more signatures besides Chris Clairvot. So
we waited in line and who did we meet well on that stage was Jerry
Duggan, Peppe Lauras, and Joshka Sara and it was so cool, So
thank you so much for getting my hat signed. I got comic books signed
by them, and they had a poster that neither of us were able to
get. I was a little angry at the booth attendance because they said you
can only have one thing signed, and I said, okay, well give
me the poster. I'm not gonna get it signed, and they said no,
and I'm like no, why, Like, why can't I have the
poster? I waited in line, but no, they were being jerks,
honestly, So that happened let's see, I got to meet I mean,
these are people I might have met before, but I got to interact with
Mark Brooks, Teeny Howard Todd, knock zeb Wells, this amazing cover artist
from Korea named in Hyuk Lee. I got to see Ramia Junior from a
distance, but I didn't get have talked to him. There were so many
other I mean, Joshka Sarah we already talked about. There was so much
talent at that con. It was amazing. So Maria Wolf was an amazing
cover artist also from Marvel. I really had an amazing time. I had
such a great time. Oh so cool. I mean, besides X Men,
we also have other fandoms that we love, and I just want to,
you know, mentioned that Futurama is back, and I love Futurama and
the Adventures of Fry the Time Traveler. Now here's the thing. They had
a huge, giant inflatable walk through experience of the Planet Express building outside,
which was so cool, and they even did a drone light show where the
drones formed Fry and they formed Bender and other Futurama characters in the sky.
That was my favorite. As far as other things going on at the con
fandom wise, what about you, Did you have a non x men fandom
experience that you loved. That's a funny thing to ask, because I feel
like everything was so x meny. I guess one thing I did is I
went down for work and I was able to moderate a panel on Star Wars
JETI Survivor, the recent video game that came out. I was asked to
moderate this panel to talk about the music of the game, and that was
a lot of fun. So I love Star Wars. It's probably like my
second favorite fandom, so to speak. So to be amongst Star Wars fans
and all the Calqusta's cost players and Marin and all the people from the video
game, it was really cool and it was a really amazing thing to work
with Lucasfilm and EA Games on that. So that was probably a non x
Men highlight for me for sure. Something that was different this year that was
actually, you know, either a help or a detriment. I'll let you
be the judge of that. There was no celebrities. There was no like
actors in the studios pulled out of the convention for the first time in many
years. I mean, we've been going so long that we know what it
was like before Twilight quote unquote, and when it was all about actors and
celebrities. But now in this era of twenty twenty three, we are experiencing
the actors and the writers. They've gone on strike, and part of that
is the fact that they are not allowed to promote their projects. What does
that mean. They're not allowed to go to Comic Con, They're not allowed
to do panels, they're not even allowed to talk about it. So they
were all missing. There was no line at all age. Yeah, and
honestly, it was still super busy. It was so crowded. Everyone says,
how it's going to be a diminished comic Con. I couldn't move in
that exhibit floor. I couldn't get into some of the panels. I couldn't
even get into the door in the morning because there's so many people. So
when people were freaking out that no actors were there, it didn't mean anything.
People love their stuff, whether an actor is there or not. We
look forward to their return because you know, it's fun, exciting energy.
But at the same time, I didn't miss it. You know, I
don't go for the actors, so I don't I don't you know, I
don't need that mayhem in the room. The one thing I missed about it
though, is every year I bumped into celebrities left it right, you know,
whether it is bumping into one of the supernatural dudes in the elevator after
our workout at the gym, or hanging out with the Robot Chicken producers in
the hot tub at the Hilton. You know, all of those magical moments
are a lot of fun. But no, I mean, none of that
happened this year. I'm okay with it though. I thought that it was
a lot more about shopping for people and a lot more about you know,
cosplay, the comics and community. Yeah, that's that's the vibe that I
got too big cosplay photo groups. The Marvel photoshoot was really fun. Yeah,
all of that stuff, it was just it was just a gas.
It was so much fun. Indeed, And to cap this out and circle
back to the X Men, because we are an x mement podcast, I
loved what they did at the Marvel booth because they were celebrating X Men hardcore.
A whole section of the Marvel Booth was dedicated to the x x Men
fashion and an x Men photo op. Yes it was. They partnered with
Kith to create Jacket's shirts, shoes, the skate decks. They had all
sorts of really cool stuff and that is now available on the Kith website.
So if you go to Kith dot com which is ki dot com and look
at their Marvel collab, you can see all of the cool Xment stuff,
including their really cool arcade went up collaboration where they reskinned it for the X
Men arcade and they used Jim Lee X Men number one art instead of the
Konami art, which to me, I love it as a collector's item,
but as a like, you know, purist, I want Dazzler and I
want Nightcrawler on my cover, and that X Men cover does not have those
guys, so or Colossus, No, he's on that cover. Anyways,
point is it was cool. They got to have a whole X Men like
cosplay fashion walk moment, and yeah, Dylan got to be in that as
Toad. Our friend Alicia from X Wife podcast was there up as Kate Pride.
It was a lot of fun to witness. Oh, Michelle Waffle was
up there as Dazzler. They did an Exterminators cosplay group with her and Chrissy
Lynn and John Carl And that was so fun to see them as exterminators.
So I love that moment too. So yeah, but they were a hit,
like a lot of the creatives were sharing them saying, oh my god,
it's the exterminators. Absolutely yeah. Well, and it was great to
see Ryan Pinagos, a former guest of our podcast not too long ago,
Ryan Pagos hosting. He was being the host with the most because he was
hosting everything including the hasbro X ninety seven toy line reveals, which I was
there in the audience screening being like, oh my god, I want them
yes, and you guys have to follow him. He's agent ev social medias
well. That was a great episode, that was a great issue, That
was a great con We're in a good spirits and next up is the Uncanny
Experience and so we can't wait for that, so excited. X Reads is
recorded in the United States. Our theme music is written by Austin Wintry.
Please make sure to follow our podcast to be updated on when new episodes appear
every first and third Wednesdays of the month. Follow us on social media at
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Facebook. Thanks so much for listening by