SERIES REVIEW: X-Men ‘97 w/ Badr Milligan (The Short Box) Part Two

As with the original series, various comic book storylines were adapted for the revival. The original animated series was primarily influenced by Chris Claremont's run of the comics from the mid 70s to the early 90s. X -Men 97 continues to adapt those stories from the era, as well as elements from later in the 90s and into Grant Morrison's new X -Men run.

Now, first we have the trial of Magneto from Uncanny X -Men 200 from 1985 by Chris Claremont and John Romita Jr. This is adapted in the second episode. And I think as soon as we saw his outfit, you know, that giant purple You know, that very distinct Magneto outfit that he has wore literally never in any other part in history. We're like, OK, they're definitely doing the trial of Magneto. Yeah, they're like, let's show off his delts. You know, the biceps, the triceps.

But but don't give them all the arms. All right. So you ever just imagine. OK, maybe I'm weird, but do you just ever imagine like these characters getting dressed in the morning? That is funny as shit. I've never heard of that. It's just like, he's like looking in the closet and he's like, do I want to wear the sleeves? Do I wear the sleeves or not the sleeves? Cape? No cape. I feel like this costume is made out of velour. I think it's like some crazy material, you know?

So that's where my brain, I don't know what's wrong with me, but that's where even, even Bastion's like, I'm like, that's made out of crushed velvet. Yeah. It's like. This isn't regular H you know, bullshit cotton. Like this is they look like they're dressed to impress in the weirdest. Yeah, that is one thing I would say about Magneto early on is I was like, that is it. To me, that is like one of my least favorite costumes.

So when he gets back in his like classic, you know, Jim Lee era, 90s, you know, his classic costume towards the end, I was like, yeah, finally. Well, and you know, speaking of crazy outfits that I have absolutely zero idea how they do it, how it works, the buoyancy, the everything, the material. In the third episode is a condensed version of the comic book crossover Inferno from 1989 written by Luis Simonson and Chris Claremont and drawn by Brett Blevins, Mark Salvestri and Walt Simonson.

This, of course, is very Madeline Pryor, Mr. Sinister sort of inspired. So both of those costumes, if we're going to talk on it, you know, we've got Madeline Pryor, which is one of the horniest costumes in X -Men history. And then you have. Yeah, buddy. What are the what are these stringy capes that Mr. Sinister has behind Mr. Sinister had a full cape? But one day he got too close to a paper shredder. He managed to pull away before he got to him, but he was like, you know what?

I think I'm going to rock this. He's got those old school, like some kind of like saber tooth tiger where he lives in his little dinosaur area. Yeah, it's Savage Land. Yeah, it's Savage Land. He just shredded it like it was some drapes. That's kind of where I think I started to really enjoy the series is because one of, speaking of daunting, one of the parts of the X -Men lore is the Madeline Pryor Jean Grey clone stuff. And that is such a blind spot for me because it is everywhere.

And we'll get into it more with like Rachel Summers later in this conversation. But all of that is so crazy because it's time travel plus cloning. And Claremont, not only his horniness, but he loves time travel. If I was to describe Chris Claremont to anyone, it would be he's horny and he loves time travel. And that's X -Men for 40 years. I want to see Goblin Queen Dune. Yeah. I remember. So. Really quick, my relationship with the X -Men is one of immense fandom.

I think it's safe to say the X -Men SNES game where you got to play as Cyclops, Wolverine, I think Beast, Psylocke, Gambit, I think I might be missing a character. But that is one of my earliest memories. And I remember that game, my dad running that game from Blockbuster and it blew my mind and it made me a fan. And then there was things like X -Men versus Street Fighter. And my dad had... He had his comic collection was like 90 % X -Men. So he was a huge fan as well.

And when I started getting into comic books myself, I would read the Marvel essential books, the phone size black and white books. And I read like volumes one through, I think like five of X -Men. So I like digested a lot of classic Claremont era X -Men and Infernal was one of them. And if I'm not mistaken, I think it had its own dedicated essentials. And that was an extra. Extremely convoluted story.

So when the show adapted it, I was a little hesitant like you know This is about to be such a clusterfuck and I don't know if I if I can make it but then when they only did one episode I was like, wait a minute like whoa, you convinced 900 pages of a comic book to one episode. It was pretty impressive. But also like okay Smart call because that would have been maybe lost a lot of people.

Yeah, we're only getting wave tops here but I think that what they did with a lot of this stuff was really tastefully done as far as like kind of teasing us into, you know, the, the, the, the mat, the matter, the subject matter of it. And, and it kind of, this is a really good gateway for them to, you know, what they need to do. And in my opinion, this is what they need to do.

Once everybody's had a chance to release it or to watch it all, they need to go back and they need to do like, do you remember pop -up video? So they need to do like a pop -up video version of this season. And then obviously when they do the next one and then in every episode, like whatever is a reference, they do like a pop -up like this is a reference in Inferno. This is such a great idea.

I'm surprised that, you know what, Amazon, going on a tangent here, but just to bring it back to that Nicholas Cage, I noticed that that's going to be on Amazon Prime and Amazon Prime has that feature where if you pause it, it'll tell you, Hey, this, here's all the actors in this scene right now. And then I think there's sub menus to tell you what else they've been in. I wonder if.

they'll incorporate, that'd be a cool way to incorporate that feature of the Spider -Man noir, because it is like a one -off Spider -Man series, I think you could play around with that. But to your point, Aaron, really quick, you hit it on the head where I feel like with a lot of these storylines, and Chris, I know we've still got a lot of storylines to mention, but they did such a good job of just being like, what is the summation of this?

What is the high level, let's like trim a lot of the fat, because let's be real, this is comic books. There is a lot of fat sometimes. There is a lot of like tie ins, especially Inferno had so many tie ins. It was pretty impressive for them to be like, let's just try to boil it down to its bare minimum. Like the important thing is that Madeline Pryor is a clone.

Sinister has been playing a, you know, been playing a genetic roulette and move on, you know, like this tie that into the larger story, but we don't got to spend a lot of time. Yeah, that way they can bring cable in later, essentially. That, that was the thing for me that I really appreciated. Absolutely about the show though is growing up watching X -Men I always was kind of in it like just this elusive character of mr.

Sinister He was always very much in the sharp ass teeth Yeah, he was always much in the much in the background of the original X -Men show but never really any kind of Resolution but blife had asked me while we were watching my fiance.

She was like what is sinister powers and I was a sharp teeth beady eyes creeps Yeah, and that's like that's the thing is like now that I they bring him back and like now that he's still like he is still a very elusive character and you and you they don't really go Yes, he's like stolen genetics and he's kind of like he's kind of like the what is his name? It wasn't cipher. What was the guy's name?

Remember heroes the guy that was stealing everybody's powers Well, I would say the greatest comparison is the high evolutionary who they have a relationship in the comics That's the villain from Guardians of the Galaxy volume 3. Yes. Yeah So they both deal with like genetics and sort of the question, the age old question is just because we can, should we? Those guys were like, yeah, we should, you know? So Aaron, why don't you talk about the next storyline here? It's very Storm Forge.

Yes, very Storm Forge centric. Fourth episode contains too many episodes. And this was also the first part of that episode was the Motendo episode as well, which I really liked that one because I'm a game nerd. And same thing with you talking about the... video game that you played, I had a similar experience with the, it was on a Sega. It was like X -Men. I don't exactly remember which game it was, but it was X -Men on the Sega Genesis.

And it's, you actually fought against the Shi 'ar, like all that. It was pretty cool. The Life Death storyline from Uncanny X -Men number 186 from 1984 by Claremont and Barry Windsor Smith is adapted in the fourth and sixth episode. The fourth episode contains too many episodes. The first one being Life Death part one, and also Motendo. which is an homage to the 1992 X -Men arcade game. And you actually see that played in there, all the little effects, and it was really cool.

I loved that episode, especially with the inclusion of an older, like virtual reality version, almost AI version of Jubilee. And I think to put in context for people in the way that sort of, I'll speak kind of selfishly here. The way I feel about the series is that the fourth episode might be my least favorite of the series, but - It's still a really enjoyable episode. Like you told me that. Yeah. And it's not, it's not bad by any stretch.

I'm just, I remember tuning out a couple of times there cause I'm like, okay, I kind of see where this is going, but I will say it's, it's an enjoyable episode. I think they were just sort of biting time for that fifth episode, which again smacks you in the face. Yeah. Yeah. I think that what they were trying to do was kind of bring a little bit more relevancy of, you know, sunspot and, and Jubilee kind of being, being kids and kind of. I think they did that very intentionally.

You know, they wanted to ensure that they kind of spotted for everybody the fact that Jubilee was turning 18. She's still at, huh? I said pun. You said spotted, sunspot. yeah. Yeah. But yeah, like they wanted to ensure that going into this very heavy story, like the rest of the storyline for the show with obviously incorporates a lot of other other storylines, but the fact that like they're, they're the X -Men were kids.

doing very heavy stuff as teenagers, as the original X -Men, and they're still doing that. You know, they're still bringing in two young kids, one who's not even fully committed to being an X -Men into what's going on. Yeah, and Jubilee never really had a shot to be a kid. I think the first episode of the animated series is when she becomes sort of part of the team, right? Like, they save her, I think, in that first episode.

Yeah, she's at a mall hanging out, and a giant, you know, the sentinels show up, and the X -Men save her. And from there, her life is, you know... She doesn't go back, which I think is a, is an interesting, you know, a setting to kick the show off. But yeah, I really want them to do more of a spotlight on her and the struggles that she's going with as she evolves or not evolves, but as she grows into who she will be as an adult.

And there's a really cool, and we'll talk about the exiles here in a bit with morph, but there's a team of the exiles, a recent run. I'm forgetting the writer and artists now, but, Jubilee isn't she's older. It's an older Jubilee is on the team. which is really cool. It's like an older Jubilee, an older Ms. Marvel, a Peggy Carter Captain America. There's like, there's a couple of different really cool sort of multiverse characters, but Aaron, we have two more here.

Let's, let's continue on with our, with our, you know, influences. All right. We'll run through this real quick. I'll say some, the next episode is a Magneto rips out the adamantium of Wolverine like any did in 19 eight, 1993s, X -Men number 25 written by Fabian Nichiesa and drawn by Andy Kubert. You'll eventually find out that Logan's claws were actually a part of his mutation, not a modification from the weapon X program. That's why it gets bone claws.

Obviously, that lace is skeleton with the enemy in the first place underneath the metal. He had a sex tet of jagged bone claws and they're not just like the smooth fucking pieces. Like you see the metal. Aaron, if you don't mind really quick, but I want you to read this next part because I think you're going to appreciate it. And I don't know if you know this, so I'm curious. So go ahead.

No, actually, obviously I'm reading ahead, but I will say X -Men number 25 is one of those comic books that is just burned into my memory. I remember plucking it from my dad's collection. Obviously there was a holo card on the cover, so I was like, whoa. I think I remember ripping the holo card off the cover, and my dad was like, boy, what the fuck are you doing? And I think I was banned from his comic collection for a couple months.

But it was one of those story arcs, right, that like, Made me fall in love with Andy Kubert. Like I remember that was my first exposure to him and then obviously the big moment with Magneto ripping out Wolverine's adamanium blew my brain away. So, no, I did not know this, but what you're alluding to is a little Easter egg slash tidbit about the, how that, that moment came about.

And during the 1992 writer ex writers conference for the big X -Men crossover, fatal attractions, Peter David, who is a highly regarded writer. he's well known for his Hulk run, but also his, his. writing period across Marvel books like X Factor back in the day. But he's at this big X writers conference. They're trying to plan out the big fatal attractions crossover, which kind of, you know, touched on a bunch of are tied into a lot of X. I think it tied into every X title in 92.

I think it was six titles total. Yeah, and every single one of them had a badass holo card that that moderate one point ripped out of his dad's comment Yeah, I collected all six. Yeah, look at my cards Collector value gone. All right. But anyway, so Peter Davis at this conference and he's frustrated over the lack of of actual X Factor characters in X Factor number 85, which I had to look up just to be reminded but X Factor 85 shows a cover of Cable, Bishop, and Wolverine on the cover.

So none of the X -Factor characters that were prevalent in the book at the time that Peter David is writing. So he makes a joke that, well, maybe, and I think it was just a throwaway joke, that maybe Magneto should just pull Wolverine's adamanium skeleton out of his body. And he thought it was a joke, but no one laughed. And Fabian, I can never say his name right, Neksivia? Nek -sivia?

I apologize, I know I slaughtered that, but Fabian, Here's it and he doesn't laugh and he has a quote that he says is none of us laughed because we thought it was a great idea. And obviously that became the iconic X -Men number 25. Yeah, insane. And a fun fact, since we're on the topic of video games, do you remember how cool it was when you played Marvel versus Capcom 2 for the first time? And it was bone claw Wolverine and regular Adam Manium.

Yeah. Yeah. What that game did for X -Men, I think, Or what X -Men did for that game? I don't know.

I don't know which one it is But when I think of like 90s video games that one of the first games I think of is Marvel versus Capcom that I still wear the shirt today I still go to arcades and play Marvel versus Capcom to just to rule that machine and play the entire thing through I will never put in more than a dollar and I will hit the scoreboard every time I literally kicked my brother's ass After I left the C2e2 we found a little arcade and they had it and I was like Ellis come on

Let's do it one time for our childhood and obviously. I used to be the guy that would take my dream cast to school during lunch. We had a TV in one of our classrooms and during lunch our teacher would let us hang out in there. I would bring my dream cast with Marvel vs. Capcom 2 and I would challenge people for money. If I was in your school you'd be the coolest kid alive in my eyes. Can I also add one more Easter egg episode? Was that four?

No, I'm getting I might be getting too ahead of no I'm not ahead of myself on the topic of that episode which was episode Was that episode 9 that Wolverine gets his? Ripped out. Yep. That is also I think one episode prior episode 7 Where the X -Men suit up and and they're you know, like Wolverine gets into his brown and tan costume Cyclops gets into his I don't know. It's swimsuit guy. I don't like the weird bald cap thing.

Yep, but when they get into that costume or that episode, that is also, I believe, a callback not only to the video game, but in a roundabout way. That X -Men arcade game, which they reference in the Motendo episode, is also influenced or came from the pilot episode of an abandoned X -Men animated cartoon well before the 90s one that we all know and love called Pride of the X -Men. And that was meant to be like a pilot episode. The animation was sleek.

I think it was done by a Japanese animation company, but it just didn't hit the same way. And then later it would be revived into the X -Men cartoon that we know and love. But I remember playing the hell out of that VHS, because Colossus was in it, Wolverine had Australian accent, and it looked just like the arcade game. So I think that's a word that you mention here too. I think that's the same episode where Scott puts on the old school...

Cyclops costume and tosses the suit his old or newer suit to cable and he goes what'd you expect black leather which is a callback. Yeah, I want to say the first X -Men movie go outside and these things. Yellow spandex. Yeah, yeah, that was a cool. That's a good one, Aaron. Yeah. Speaking of Marvel vs Capcom, while we're on the topic really quick, one of my favorite moments of the entire series is when Cyclops uses his hyper move in the last episode against Bassia. Optic blast.

Yeah, optic blast. Hit him with that full cannon. I would man. Chris, I know your pain. I finally get it now because I know you've got this beautiful. Outline and details and me and Aaron are over here taking like left turns and right turns nearly guys just follow straight ahead Listen, I'm really getting I'm used to I finally get what happens when I am hosting my show and Ed or Cesar are derailing it, but thank you. I guess I'm saying thank you for letting me play co -host today.

Well our last This is what Chris wants me to do willing into his brain right now like magnetic like professor shut up Chris shut, shut your mouth. Shut that one up. Stupid. the existence of the Magneto protocols, which was revealed in the ninth episode, it's first referenced during the aforementioned 1993 fatal attraction, which we've been talking about ad nauseam event storyline.

These protocols were a series of measures devised by professor X working on in conjunction with the, with shield offering a series of countermeasures to stop Magneto in the event of his going too far. Aaron, I'm going to let you keep talking because we have the cast and it's a long one. So get ready. And, I will say just kind of before we get into it, there's a specific name on here that I know you're going to be excited to hear once you see it. Ray Chase is Scott Summers, AKA Cyclops.

Optic blast. Matthew Watterson is Eric Magnus Lencher, Magneto Ross Markand as professor Charles Xavier. Jennifer, hey, who's a good friend of the show. Yeah. As Jean Gray. Lenore Zan as Rogue, Allison Sealy Smith as Aurora Monroe. That's a lot of ro -ro -ro Monroe. I can't feel the breeze. Iconic man, classic one. I can't feel the breeze. Cal Dodd as Logan Wolverine, JP Karliak as Morph, George Booza as Dr. Henry Hank McCoy Beast, AJ Lacascio as Remy Laboe Gambit, Holly Cho as Jubilee.

Isaac Robinson Smith as Bishop, Adrian Hugh as, or Huff, Huff as Kurt Wagner, Nightcrawler, Guy Agostini as Robert DeCosta, Sunspot, Christopher Britton as Nathaniel Essex, Doctor, excuse me, Doctor Nathaniel Essex, Mr. Sinister, Gil Birmingham as Forge, Chris Potter who voiced Gambit in the original series as Nathan Summers Cable. I love that Mr. Sinister got a downgrade in his title. when he became Mr. Sinister. He was a doctor and then became Mr. He's not Dr. Sinister anymore.

No, no, sorry, sorry. My father's a doctor, I'm Mr. Chris. I see you've got a note here. And if you don't mind me mentioning this one here, but I was so excited to see Ross Markland, his name on this, because he is a name that, unless you are looking at IMDb's and who voices who in certain cartoons, he's gotten around, not just behind the scenes and for animated shows. but also like live action stuff like this one Ross Mark Kwan and hopefully I'm saying that right.

Has portrayed the red skull in Avengers Infinity War and he voiced Ultron in the what if animated series. He's also the voice of immortal and invincible. He plays Aaron in the walking dead like my man gets around. Yeah, it was cool to see that because I didn't know that you know while watching the series like you're absolutely right like he was a great inclusion here for this.

And you know, we only get a little bit of professor X there at the tail end, you know, in the last couple episodes, but I'm sure we'll see a lot more of him in season two. So, moving on here a little bit, we have, well, so I have fun facts here. Is there anything you guys, do you want to go kind of, is there, is there certain episodes? How else do you guys want to guide the conversation?

Cause fun facts is sort of our last bit and that's a long one, but I want to kind of talk a little bit about the series, specific moments. We talked about catchphrases and, and sharp lines that people say in the series. And I wanted to mention that rogue when she meets up with captain America. in that cottage at one point. She takes his shield, flings it into the mountains and goes, I guess you don't need that anymore.

Whenever he's talking about, I need to, if your hands are tied, you can't use this. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. That's my favorite one. Chris, I think it was such a missed opportunity for me. I'm surprised I didn't do any episodes about X -Men 97. And maybe that was a saving grace because I just got to enjoy it because there was so many noteworthy quotes in this show.

Do you know how many times I looked at Blithe throughout the... of whatever, this show's been aired for six, seven weeks or whatever. You know how many times I looked at her and said, bars, bars. You know, like the writing in this show is phenomenal. Like this is a show that really respects your intelligence, that understands its audience. And I don't doubt that there was kids watching this. I can imagine that, you know, hell, a lot of people our age and older are watching this.

They've got kids, they've got families of their own. I'm sure there's people that are like, hey, this is my opportunity to bond with my kid, share something that I got into. But I love that they didn't dumb down the dialogue between people. Like it wasn't afraid to get emotional and get political and get, you know, deep with things and the writing and the interactions between people.

Like they're, like I said, I wish I would have wrote down some of the lines and quotes I heard just in this last episode alone between, you know, Magneto and Professor X have so many quotables. And obviously you guys are bringing up some of the other ones, but I guess I do want to spotlight how well written the unbelievable these characters are. It tells that line of campy and not, right?

It stays true to the fact that Storm is yelling out her powers as she's doing them, but at the same time, Rogue with her very, very over the top voice and all the things. But like you're saying, all of it is so believable and we're so invested as watchers that some of those... you know, some of those silly aspects are just part of the fun. Yeah. I mean, they really lean into like the soap operandist of it.

I think it executed that so well where it's like, let's, let's have some drama that isn't, you know, involving punching. And I think that's where they, you know, they struck such a perfect balance of, of quiet character moments. And then the action to me was top notch. Sometimes it felt like the anime influence is definitely strong in this, in my opinion, like just from the look and animation.

but also some of the choreography and act fight scenes, you know, is reminence of fighting games and anime. X -Men 97 is, and forgive me if this is kind of like going against what you guys are going to say, but this is something that I really feel is important to state. X -Men 97 looks like it is a show that is brought back into reality from the original series in order to kind of bring the older generation, the younger generation together, but it's not.

And I'm going to say that it's not at all. It is. This one to me is truly made for the old heads who watched the original X -Men show. And I say that because there are so many moments in this show that face some ultra realistic and, and like kind of hard to, to, to like, I don't know, as a kid, you would never be able to understand the, like how, what these things are implying.

For instance, there's the one episode where Magneto is up, you know, he's, he's, he's, still being trapped by Bastion and that that senator or UN whatever director she like looks at his arm and sees his tattoo from when he was in the Holocaust. No kid these days is like no young child who's watching this is really going to understand like the implication of what that tattoo is meaning at that time.

And it's also just like a purely somber moment of this guy who is just he has nothing left to say to this woman. He has nothing left to say to anybody else, but the moment he gets free, he knows exactly what he needs to do. He's literally biting his time. And that's not a topic that a kid is going to easily understand. Same thing with the life death storyline where Aurora is our creature is, is, you know, attacks, forge and is chasing her.

That creature is purely brought in drawn to both of them through their grief and their pain. And kids are going to be like, Ooh, there's a big owl monster, but they're not going to understand the fact that we all have our own demons and our own monsters that are chasing us. and we can fight them off as much as we want to, but at some point the bill is due.

And there's so many amazingly written moments like that, that tie in this feeling of nostalgia from these characters that we love and have adored since we were kids, and these feelings that we have now as an adult and really intertwines them together to create this world that is again, just wave tops of decades of lore. And I'm just so impressed by it, but... I'm happy that it's not dumbed down for kids. We need to re -approach this topic.

We need to... I think it's such a silly thought that when we talk about how we approach children's television or topics, adult themes for kids, kids are smart. We need to stop pretending that they don't have all of violence and horror in their pocket right now, because they do. So the least we can do is take... important topics that they should be learning about in a sort of safe and healthy environment and put it in shit like this.

Like where else are kids going to learn about relying on other, you know, their family and their friends? What makes us different? Doesn't necessarily make us adversaries. you know, all the important topics that this show sort of highlights might, well, I'll say this and Bob, you kind of talked about a moment ago in terms of what I think is appropriate for kids is that I don't know if there is anything anymore.

And the fact that they made this for people like us who grew up with X -Men for like the millennial, I guess, millennial and up generation, maybe the older gen Z and up. The kids are going to, the kids are going to get along regardless. Like they're going to, they're going to see that we're enjoying it. They're going to see it in their popular culture. They're going to see it online and they're going to be exposed to it in some way.

But yeah, to pretend that like we need to like kitty this down for some reason, like that's been my, and not to deviate too much. We don't have to talk about this very much, but Aaron, that was my main complaint when we talked about Ghostbusters, Frozen Empire. Ghostbusters franchise has sort of sort of slowly deviate into all ages, kid friendly bullshit.

It bothers me because what's great about the Ghostbusters is that it's these, you know, for lumpy sort of just down their luck, no filter New Yorkers out there fighting ghosts, you know, like as I become a naturalized New Yorker, I am appreciating that viewpoint even more. I'll tell you, that's the interesting thing. And I'll get back to my one of my other points.

That's the interesting thing about living in New York and the pride that you feel from just being a part of this city There's that scene where where where spider -man's holding the the the basket of people from the bridge That's in the first and like is it the first one?

Yeah Okay, and like the Green Goblins like trying to like kill him while he's holding these people and the people on the bridge You mess with one of us you mess with all of us, you know, like I almost Teared up the last time I saw that because I'm like fuck. Yeah One of the most beautiful things that I think is overlooked in this show is the openness in emotions and how willing everybody is to share how they truly feel with each other.

And there is this one scene where I think it's an episode nine. It's at the end where Morph is sitting next to Logan when he's in bed and he says to him, he's like, she's not here to say it. So I will. And he turns into Jean Grey and he tells Logan that, They love him. And I feel like that was not just Jean Grey or the morph trying to be like helping him and being comforting. I feel like that love came from morph. yeah. 100%.

Yeah. That was, that was more of trying to like play to the idea that like he has affection for him. You know? Exactly. Exactly. And we already know that because there's that scene where he's like walking into the shower and obviously, you know, I felt like there's like, there is some okayness there, especially from Logan's. Logan's old enough to have dipped his. You know, his, his, his, there's no way that Logan's not at least by at the very least.

Yeah. I fucking, I, I shipped that right there. Okay. But what I'm saying is like, that's another level of this show that was very beautifully done, but also very much overlooked with the amount of emotional openness that every character had in this, even Magneto, he, they were so willing to talk about what they truly felt. And because they know that like, They're so held back by just being mutants that they can't even hide their emotions.

Yeah. Damn. I'm trying my best to find the screen grab I got of, cause Aaron, what you said about them being very open, the characters being very open about how they feel, their emotions and, you know, not being afraid to like, you know, get a little in there and, you know, a little feely about stuff. The sisterhood between Jean Grey and Storm, you know, and this is coming, you know, from a hetero, you know, a hetero male perspective.

Even I really enjoyed seeing that bond between two strong women and that sisterhood. Obviously the obvious differences between them. I know, and I'm not trying to speak on her behalf, but I know for Blythe, that was really believable. That was something that she really liked seeing was like, wow, these two strong female characters having that sisterhood and sharing those emotions.

There was a killer quote between the two of them that I cannot - recall off top of my head, but it was like a good wordplay. And it was like, I'll be the wind, I'll be the wind of your thought. I don't want to even try to - I know exactly what you're talking about. Unless we know it, I don't even want to say it because it was that good.

But if, to quickly go back to, there's no way I could have brought up quotables in this show and not mention one of the best quotables in this entire fucking show. The name's Gambit. Remember it, you know? -huh. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. That's a good one as well. Man. I have one final question for us before we head into fun facts and we kind of round out this review. I want to ask each of you and I'll start us off here just to kind of get the conversation going.

What was your favorite episode of the series and then who was your favorite character as well? So for me, the characters are all great across the board. I think there should be a big argument for Rogue in this series. Magneto had a lot of play as well. I think that Gambit obviously has his moment in episode five that, you know, that Genosha moment was insane. But for me, I think this show, really put a lot of slim doubters to sleep. Cyclops is a fucking badass in this series. I love it.

I've always... Slim doubters is a great name for Cyclops haters. Aaron, you got it? Okay, you got it. Yeah. So have them mind your weather and they'll have to weather your mind. Bars. Yeah, bars. So yeah, so Cyclops is by far my favorite character in the series. He's obviously the clear leader. Cyclops has been my favorite X -Men for... I don't know where it really started. It could have been honestly Marvel versus Capcom back in the day, but I just remember always being really behind him.

Like he's like, in my opinion, in the Marvel universe, one of the true leaders. And he's kind of considered a little bit of a boy scout and sort of a mouthpiece for, you know, Professor Xavier in certain aspects. But I think he truly cares about the team. And while he can be kind of a dummy in some of the Claremont stuff every once in a while, like most of these characters are, what this show does and how they kind of frame Scott is perfect for what the show is trying to do.

Favorite episode was episode number five, Genosha. Incredible, just really good. I will say my favorite fight though is between the Sentinel Prime people and the X -Men. At one point, talking about anime and Spire, they get together and there's this close -up of, I think someone is throwing a punch and it looks like right out of a manga. It looked like a Dragon Ball panel. The fist is large. And you see like the lines behind it. I think Rogue has a similar kick later on in the series.

Cable has one in the last episode where he like punches the thing. It's all very cool. So yeah, but episode five, which I think for a lot of people is the best episode. Remember his name of the episode. Yeah, episode five stands out because I think for me that was the turning point. A close second, I think, would be episode nine, Tolerance is Extinction, part two, which I believe is the episode where they all get suited up in...

You know, storms in a classic 70s suit and so cyclops, but, I think for me it's a, it's a personal, I guess all of this is personal, but them, margin, you know, the rent making me reminisce about the arcade game, and the, the pride of the X -Men pilot, just such like, you know, it, it touched me. It resonated with me in a different way. So that was probably my second favorite. Chris, when that episode where they all turn, when we first see the Sentinel prime people, I think one of the most.

badass scenes is Wolverine falling through the sky and you know, like fighting his way, you know what I'm saying? Like slashing his way through all these prime sense. As he's falling, I thought it was something epic. And obviously Nightcrawler, you know, picking up the three swords. You know, it's like, whoa, they added a third one. Of course his tail. Yeah, there's a lot of great, I think overall the action in this was such a nice.

touch because it, you know, they could have easily leaned one way into where it's very soap opera and you know, we are getting a lot of dialogue and emotions, but I love that they went no stops of the action. It felt like a big moment. So those would be my two favorite episodes. I think favorite characters that come to mind. I've always been a Cyclops fan. I think it, I think all big brothers kind of automatically gravitate towards the leaders.

And sometimes those leaders can be a little boy scouted. They can, you know, you know what I'm saying? They could be a little corny. I think, you know, I get the same. look of like, you know, Cyclops is your favorite. When I tell people Leo is my favorite turtle, right? There's something about being a leader that, you know, there is a burden that comes with that, right? Like you've got to be the example, the role model. We can't all be Wolverine, you know, there's, there's bigger things at play.

And I thought they did a great job of, of showing the weight that is on Cyclops's shoulders this episode. And. the difficulty that comes of being a leader and being the prodigal son of Professor X. And not only that, but Cyclops had a lot of badass moments, like the giant optic blast. That speech he has with Cable at the end was extremely emotional and heart touching.

The fact that they slowed things down and he was having a conversation with them at whatever, it looked like a restaurant, a diner or something. So I'd say Cyclops and - Well, also really quick, when he jumped out of the plane in the first episode and he uses his blast to land. And the way he's scooting around the warehouse. Off the rip. And I would probably say for a very close second, this show made me appreciate Storm in a whole different way.

I feel like Storm is one of those characters that has such a loud fan base and she's got such a very dedicated and loving - fan base, like people who love Storm don't just mildly like her. Like they really, really like her. And I think I, after this show, I think I'm kind of in that fan base where not only is she, you know, does her costumes look cool. I'm a big fan of like the, the, the retro seventies costume. Not only is her powers awesome, but w you know, I guess one critique I had.

was like, man, Storm didn't have these big moments and these bad -ass, when she got her powers back, I felt like she didn't really display the God level that she's at, but that's not really Storm, right? She's kind of like the empathetic, the mother role. She's wise, right? She's revered as a God in her home country. There's a certain responsibility and way that she carries herself. And no, I don't think that she needed to be. you know, the Wolverine or, you know, have these giant moments.

I think she, her role in this was excellent. Like, you know, her moments with Jean Grey, even though they weren't a bunch of action, like were, were really sentimental. And I think the actress absolutely like brought her A game. If anything, I think she might've been the best. I mean, everyone brought an incredible performance, but there's something of Storm that every time she spoke, you really felt like she was, she was really putting her heart and soul into this. Okay. She got.

fucked in X -Men Age of Apocalypse. She got fucked. I'm just saying. Very true. Halle Berry should have never touched the character. That's right. No, no, no. Age of Apocalypse was when she was the kid, man. And she wasn't even like a god. Like she was just like this. No, I know what you're saying. My point still stands. Halle Berry should have never touched the character. Same with Catwoman. Moving on. My favorite character was absolutely and will always like revolving was Cable, man.

Like, Cable for me, I'm a huge Cable fan. I remember when I was a kid, after watching, like, I was a huge reader when I was a kid. I got this novel and it was all about Cable and like this, you know, him being in the future. And then at one point, you know, Jean Grey and Cyclops are actually, you know, we see them transported. And this is probably where that book kind of is going to touch into, where they're transported into the future with a young Cable.

The adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I was like, I've always, since then, I've been a fan of Cable and the lore and like how, and I wish they would have talked about it a little bit more in the show about how he actually has to use his psychic, like he is such a strong telepath that he - To hold back the TK or the techno. Yeah, the techno virus. Yeah. So he's like, he keeps it in arm form and on that part of his body. Cause if he doesn't, it'll overtake him.

And I'm like, man, I wish they would have talked about that so much more. I don't know much about X -Men, but I - Fucking know that and I wish that was a part of it But if cable had a hell of a hell of a moment when he's fighting gene gray and he what he said He's like my mother is one of the most powerful telepaths in the world things like that don't tend to skip a generation Yeah, you like Kami Kami, huh?

You know, well, it's making of people who get their arm ripped off and beaten with it Yeah, cable in this series. Can I finish? Can I finish? Can I finish? Listen, I'm gonna let you finish but Beyonce had the best album of the year. I gotta say, like, I just like you guys, well actually as episode 10, I think episode 10 was my absolute favorite. The last one. Yeah. Yeah. and that mostly is because we see a lot of these characters in that last fight with Bastion.

We see a lot of these characters just going off, man. Like they go off on these motherfuckers and like even Jubilee, like Jubilee, like she gets that moment where we finally. That's the one thing that we did not get enough of in this series. And I hope we get more of it later on. Like I said, I want to see the growth of her into her powers, into her character. I want to see her start doing some heavy fucking damage.

Like she fucked up Bastion quite a bit during that fight, but she did not tap into her powers nearly enough. And that scene with that final fight when they're just beating his ass and you could tell like he's just kind of like, he's kind of like taking it. But they even go back to Genosha. And I thought that that was a great touch, like take it back to where he really started messing with them.

That kind of wrapped up like the episode with me was with the, you know, with the mid -credits scene as well, which I thought was amazing, as well as the, you know, right before, you know, when we kind of get the cliffhanger for the next season. I'm so excited because I've always loved, and I'll say, spoiler alert, I've always loved the cartoon version of Apocalypse. Yeah. And so I'm excited to see them do him like some justice versus age of apocalypse X -Men bullshit.

If I may really quick, because I feel like I would be doing a disservice to myself if I didn't also mention to round out my top characters, I think I have to say Magneto because Magneto also was on that same caliber of Storm where every single scene he was in, he kind of stole the show, whether it be something he said, you know, the emotion. I think the voice actor played every scene really well.

It felt like depending on what was going on, that was the way he emoted and the things he would recall. But also just overall, seeing Magneto also be a force of nature, quite literally. He stops the whole world of that wave and getting an idea of, wow, this is a guy that is practicing restraint and he don't got a lot of it. He don't got a lot of patience for it. And I think just seeing Magneto kind of show how OP he is.

And I'm hoping Storm maybe gets that opportunity, but I think I enjoy the differences where it is Magneto is, you know, he's got a reason to be filled with rage and Storm like, you know, is kind of like that balance, but Magneto also. That scene where Professor Xavier mind blasts Magneto was insane. Yeah. Like he's just like he came a may of him like his fucking brain. And I'm just like, also shout out to shout out to old Magnus getting it with rogue old man still got game. Come on, man.

Magneto came in, stole the school from Cyclops. Yeah. So again, it's a menace, man. He was a smooth talking silver haired silver fox. Yeah, for sure. All right, let's get into our fun fact. Let's round up this conversation, Aaron. Let's speed through these. I'll take three. Aaron, you take three and then bother if you want to take three. We'll do that. We'll just kind of go down the line.

So when Cyclops feels lost and he tries to figure out how to lead the X -Men after the passing professor Xavier, he finds a photo of the original X -Men team in their original comic book uniforms that includes Scott, Jean Grey's Marvel Girl, Hank McCoy's Beast, Bobby Drake's Iceman, who we don't see in the series at all. I don't think. And also we don't see, I don't know if we see Warren Warrington's angel at any point during the season either.

I think we maybe see Archangel at an episode five during the Genosa episode, but I don't remember seeing Warren at all. Yo, fuck Professor Xavier by the way. That dude's a total bitch. Why? Why don't you like Professor X? Fucking went off world just to get some pussy. Some bird pussy. Some pussy. Morph's costume was adapted from his second look in the 2001 Exile series, minus the cape he wears in the comics, by writer Judd Winnick and artist Mike McCone.

The Exiles are a band of alt -reality versions of X -Men characters who band together for a multiverse -spanning adventure. Genean Scott's wedding portrait is a recreation of 1994's X -Men 30 from writer Fabian Nikiza, excuse me, and artist Andy Kubert, the issue in which they get married in the comics. One of the few X -Men comics I actually own. In the eighth episode, it's a pretty cover. It is. Yeah. Beautiful. So in the eighth episode, General William Stryker shows up on the TV.

He is a classic X -Men villain from the story. God loves man kills by writer Chris Claremont and artist Brent Eric Anderson. I feel like you just don't even need to say Chris Claremont anymore. You just fucking know that it's like, you know, I just want to say I heard a really funny story. Just quick sidebar.

Chris Claremont told this story at one of his many con visits where he talked about how in the original pitch for God Love Man Kills the original artist was not supposed to be Eric Anderson. It was actually supposed to be Neil Adams. So and Neil Adams dropped out last minute. So it was Eric Anderson, or excuse me, Eric Anderson who had to fill in for him. So imagine, I mean, God Love Man Kills is my favorite X -Men, you know, story of all time. Imagine Neil Adams on that book as well.

Now to put it in a whole different. I mean, I mean, it's already like a top tier book. Well, if Neil Adams at his prime, crazy. Yep. In the first episode, a Daily Bugle paper can be seen with the headline at the top that reads Hellfire Gala. The Hellfire Gala is a yearly event where mutants come together and celebrate mutant kind with dressing up and a fancy dinner.

The story is also written by Eddie Brock, aka Venom, with photos by Peter Parker, which actually we see at one point we see a cameo of. Peter Parker and Mary Jane just watching the TV. And Flash. Yeah, and then it was when Genosha happened. And then recognizable mutants in Genosha include Wizkid, Leech. Leech scared. Blod Herman. Pixie. Good, Aaron. Thank you. The fallen and out reality version of Warren Worthy in the third.

Nature Girl, Gentle, Multiple Man, Exodus, Dazzler, Boom Boom, Archangel, Squid Boy, Mero, and many more. So two Warringtons there. The big fucking dude with the mohawk, he's lifting like, who is that? I don't know, but I know he's one of the Exile, or no, he's one of the, fuck. X Factor? Are you talking about Strong Guy? It might be Strong Guy, that's what it is. That's one of the characters I recognized, but I didn't know his name. But, Leech never be afraid again.

For my tidbits in Easter Eggs, starting with episode four. Forge is working in his basement when a photo can be seen of him and the X Factor team. Which includes Quicksilver, Havoc, Polaris, Multiple Man, Strong Guy, and Wolfsbane. We mentioned Peter David early on. Peter David being one of the writers for X Factor and really being responsible for fleshing out the team and all of these characters I just named were in his X Factor or in his X Factor book.

So I highly recommend if you never read that series, it was like a different take on, you know, the X -Men kind of canon. These, you know, X Factor was working with the government. So there's that aspect going for it. All right, moving on. Sunspot's address is 1 Claremont Avenue.

It's obviously a reference to Sunspot's co -creator, Chris Claremont, but also the name that gets brought up anytime anyone talks about X -Men comics because he wrote so many X -Men comics starting from 1975 all the way well into 1991. And honestly, even into the 2000s, he started getting back into writing X -Men. And last but not least, Rogue and Nightcrawler refer to themselves as siblings, which is a reference to Mystique.

In the comic books, Mystique is the biological mother of not only Nightcrawler, but also adopted Rogue when she was young, making them step siblings. Yeah. So maybe, I don't know if people know this or not, but Mystique and Destiny, I think Destiny is the biological mother of Nightcrawler and Mystique is technically the biological father of Nightcrawler because of her powers. I thought Asriel was the biological father. There's a lineage there, but I think it's changed. It's changed.

Again, timey wimey X -Men stuff, I think. But let's see here. In the eighth episode, Cable, Cyclops and Gene travel together to a location with the lead on Bastion, which turns out to be his childhood home. Boxes of memories fill the place, including a poster for the Stark Expo, which is pretty cool. The Marvel Universe cameos in the finale include Silver Samurai, Iron Man in his suit that he wore in the original animated series. Captain America shows up again.

Daredevil. Doctor Strange, Black Panther, Cloak and Dagger, who are also mutants as well. The Winter Guard, which is Valentine, I'm gonna say this name incorrectly, Valentine, Shatalova, Crimson Dynamo, Omega Red, and Darkstar. And we also see Alpha Flight, which is Norstar, Aurora, and Puck, and with Frenzy and Psylocke. So that was pretty cool to see all them together. Why is Psylocke hanging out with Alpha Flight? I don't know, but that's still a cool little reference.

And it makes it feel this universe bigger. I think I've read something where the...

Producer I think producer, you know director producer Larry Houston was his name But I guess like he had recommended they do that and at first they were kind of timid but you know, they decided, you know, let's just put it in that last episode and Obviously, that's something everyone has been talking about right is all the cameos and you know whatnot And I think it does a great job of making this universe feel bigger, you know, obviously it's like it's you know, it's X -Men It's

in it's in the Marvel Universe. It wouldn't be right. I if you didn't play on the Marvel Universe's natural lore, which is, or foundation, which is that this is all connected. But something about seeing Daredevil, I don't know, for me, I was like, yeah, like, well, you know what I'm saying? It's like Daredevil being a badass and he looks good. Obviously he made a couple of appearances in the Spider -Man animated show, but I just got a soft spot for seeing Daredevil show up in an X -Men cartoon.

Yeah. When Bashing arrives on Asteroid Rogue relocates the fight to the moon. While not identified by name, the ruins they crash into mark as a blue area of the moon beyond containing the Citadel of Watu, the Watcher. This is also where the X -Men fought the Dark Phoenix. So that's pretty cool. With most of the X -Men presumed dead, Forge takes it upon himself to start assembling a new team. Six months after E -Day, he's assembled a list of mutants that are likely recruits.

The poster Forge makes resembles the famous cover of Uncanny X -Men number 141, which started the Days of Future Past storyline. The poster lists Archangel as Presumed Dead and Cable, Jubilee, and Sunspot as AWOL, or Away Without Leave in case you don't know that acronym. It notes that Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch are off -world and Shadowcat, AKA KittyPride, is alive but missing. This leaves the only potential recruits as Colossus, Magic, Dust, Iceman, Havoc, Exodus, and Emma Frost.

While Xavier and Magneto are trapped in a collective mindscape together, there are many references to Onslaught, the unholy combination of both Professor Xavier and Magneto's Consciousness I have such a soft spot for onslaught as convoluted and Pure 90s gimmicky power that yeah that that that was That is like a character.

I grew up with you know it was one of those books I pulled from my dad's you know collection and was like yeah This is like the coolest you know I'm saying it's it reeks of just coolness. You know the design the concept, he was also the last boss in Marvel vs. Capcom 1. It's just the 90s. Yeah, so I won't lie, I did get a little nerd boner as they're alluding to onslaught throughout this entire season.

From Professor X mind wiping Magneto to Magneto having amnesia and him being inside of his mind, it's all accumulating to onslaught. And I think that's what I'm really excited about is all the potential. Because we got to see them do these cool remixes. to these classic stories. And I think they're gonna do, and do justice to some of these stories that, you know, to a lot of X -Men fans aren't the best material. So I'm excited to see how they remix and approach Onslaught.

In the next season, I want Magneto and Xavier to do like a fusion. The fusion dance? And they turn it on, Onslaught. It's like a fat version of Magneto. I gotta say this though, before I forget, because I know we got a couple more fun facts, but I gotta ask the question, and this is another fucking thing.

in the MCU continuity or just the Marvel continuity, the X -Men continuity, you're telling me we have future fucking time travel, we got aliens, the Shi 'ar Empire, we got fucking Professor Xavier going into space, getting his freak on with an alien empress, and we still can't fix his goddamn spine? Keep the soup there there are certain things no comics you just don't touch, you know You don't yeah, you don't give Bruce's parents back You don't fix the thing either like you talk about mr.

Fantastic the smartest man in the universe can't figure out how to fix his friend He got you better believe that he could like you Charles Xavier can't grow hair or be it'd be be able to walk like there are certain things just don't touch I can't believe I'm gonna bring this up but all day on Twitter today. I saw people reposting Seeing you guys remember that that excellent PlayStation fighting game and I cannot recall the name of it outside.

I think it might have been called, it wasn't children of Adam, but it was an X -Men fighting game and Professor X was an unlockable character and they had him in his chair and he had some killer combos, but just looking back at it, it's like, why would you guys even throw Professor X into this fighting game and not have him in his She -R suit or something like that?

So. Yeah. Yeah, we just kind of funny if they just threw him without his chair and he just had to like come on All right, the last two tidbits to share when Jean and Scott are sent forward in time 3960 ad they meet a tribe called the Eskani who are raising the young Nathan Summers in a post -apocalyptic Wasteland this is a nod to the 1994 for issue miniseries the adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix by writer Scott Lobdell and artist Jean Ha where a time display Scott, Summers and

Jean Grey finally get the chance to raise their son under the alias Slim in Red. To further complicate matters, Mother Ascani was eventually revealed to be Rachel Summers, another child of Scott and Jean from a different, ultimate future. I'm sure that makes sense to everybody. And last but not least, the team was sent back in time to meet Nsab Anor, who is Apocalypse. This is how he looked in his original, in his origin comic, which is 1996's Rise of Apocalypse.

by Terry Kavanaugh and Adam Polina. In this series, Egypt is ruled by King variant Ramu Tut and 3600 BC, which becomes an important plot point in Apocalypse's origin. Which if I can use this as a catapult to the ending, like this is how you do an ending for a show, but also set up, you know, the next season because there are so many story arcs. It isn't just one thing. It's like, okay, you've got Jane and Cyclops time displaced.

And I guess that same thing could be said about Magneto, Xavier and beasts and all of them. They're also time misplaced as well. And then you've also got a proper time where it's Forge and Bishop having to reassemble the X -Men. And then there's the apocalypse and Gambit teaser at the end. You know what I'm saying? It's like so much thrown at you and only in the X -Men do you have an embarrassment of riches of stories to tell. And a little bit, part of me is a little trepid about...

Okay, this is gonna be a lot to juggle and all these storylines to try to make cohesive. But I think my, I guess my confidence and faith is kind of high after this season. You know, it could easily go downhill from here, but my faith is kind of high. You can't doubt that they have the right approach to do it. But you know what?

I say that my confidence is high after the season, but there is that thing in the back of my head where it's like, well, how much of this was DeMeo orchestrating this and keeping this together? Like, that is the part where I'm like, They got to get this shit fixed. I'm not saying that he was the only guy that wrote.

I mean, obviously, like if you look at the credits, like certain episodes he did not write, you know, there's other writers involved and I'm not saying that they can't step up and make a great product, but. Well, they already got season two done. So. We're good for season two, at least. Season three is when we need to stop worrying, I think. We got a couple of years. Hopefully. All right. Thank you, Chris. I feel a lot better now. All right. We've talked about this show at Nausium.

Clearly, we all liked it, but let's do our final thoughts here. Aaron, I'm going to pass the baton off to you. What are your final thoughts on X -Men 97 season one? Phenomenal job. Again, I take back the doubt that I had watching the first episode because I understand, like I said, it was a good transitional point from childhood to adult show. and that understanding that we all brought with us into a new generation of watching this.

Again, very well done as somebody who, just like you Chris, who knows very little about the X -Men universe, they did everything very well to where I wasn't lost and I enjoyed it all and I'm really excited for the next season. Bader, how about you?

Yeah, I'm gonna keep this brief because I feel like if you don't understand what, you know, if you didn't get my final thoughts out of all of this, then I don't know what to say, but I will keep it brief and say that I will give this four out of five David A. Wieners. Winer. I think, Winer, sorry, Winer. Trust me, that's why he's named after our ratings system. That's what we thought initially.

Yeah, I think the only things that go against it is that I think the pacing in the beginning was a little sluggish and it took a while to finally get the bigger picture. Obviously, that could have just, I mean, this is my personal rating, so whatever. So for me, yeah, I think that the pacing in the beginning was a little sluggish and there are things that if I'm being real, I could have done without.

Maybe the mojo episode of focus maybe in Aaron's point like maybe someone like cable or you know another character that Didn't get as much spotlight, but that's maybe being a little selfish. The show is damn near perfect, but I'm a little hesitant to call it perfect If I'm being honest, but a four out of five is strong as hell. So four out of five I'm gonna give it a three point five by the way. Okay, three point five. Okay Now I don't feel bad at all for yeah all day. That's a plus.

I'll tell you guys In the history of the Oblivion Bar podcast, I've only given one thing five stars, and that was Top Gun Maverick. And we've reviewed a lot of things, haven't we, Aaron? A lot of things on the show. Actually, I do remember that episode. I do remember listening to that episode. One might argue that we talk about too many things, but I'll tell you, X -Men 97 is the poster child of what DC should do, what any other adaptation into a comic book. kind of story.

I know I'm not, I'm just kind of spinning my wheels trying to figure out how to describe what this is. But you know, when you adapt comics into other media, I think X -Men 97 is the perfect version of that. Me personally, like I said, issue, or not issue, issue. Episode four was kind of slower, but I still enjoyed it. Like I said, it was my least favorite, but it was not bad by any stretch.

And what I think what we're able to learn from these characters just in a short 10 episodes is pretty incredible. I think a lot of people had some reservations about the way it looked initially. But I think those were put to bed pretty quickly. The moment that you saw Scott falling from the earth and uses his concussion blast to land safely, I was like, OK, we're in good hands here. And I just I feel like this tickles every part of my brain that I love in terms of adaptation with comics.

Like the only thing better than this is the comics in my opinion. So I'm going to do something for the second time in the history of the Oblivion Bar podcast. I'm going to give X -Men 97 a five out of five David A. Weiner's. my. I've been mad at that. You know, and that was a great recap and rating and justification, Chris. I wanna go back and say, I said that the show kinda maybe suffered from being sluggish. What I meant, I don't think the show was sluggish at all.

I think the show sometimes was almost too much, too fast, where you thought you'd settle into a story or you were getting familiar and then it was like on to the next. You want a little more time to breathe? Yeah, yeah, and I think maybe there were, also, like my comic book head is like, no, I, this is not how the inferno ends or why do we only give it one episode?

So I think sometimes it was almost too fast, but when you look at it holistically, you're like, okay, yeah, they had a theme and story to go for, but I ain't mad at her perfect rating. I mean, if anything deserves it, this show is a easy, you know, easy debate. I can't, you know, I appreciate that Chris has given this and Top Gun, because again, to each their own. you know, however you take it, however you... There were some amazing things. The show did some amazing things.

But to be honest, this wasn't... This is one of those things where I wasn't like, I need to watch it. I need to watch... Like, I wanted to finish it because it was really, really good, but I didn't need to, like, finish it in a day. There are other things that I could have done, you know. So for me, it's not necessarily a perfect... But also, again, that's the relationship that I have with the X -Men and some of the characters in it. But yeah, I appreciate you giving it a four or a five.

Give me five out of five. I think for me a 3 .5 is, is yeah, that's not, that's, that's where I want to be at. Hey, look, man, this is, this is a personal rating type thing, man. I think it's very interesting that when you look at the oblivion bar, I feel like I'm the guest. He's like explaining the rating scheme. This is like, this is all you, man. You do what you want to do. And I'm over here saying wiener. Again, that's why, that's why he's named by me already. I know my place.

Well, I'll tell you like you fucking guessed. You're going to sit back in the third chair right now, mister. You might as well, the way you said it was like, you basically called me a mutie. You know, like some of the derogatory terms that you use, an X -Men, mutie. You're like a mudblood and a mutie. I was always just thinking, you mudblood. I'll tell you, I mean, five out of five feels good to me. And I'll tell you the reason why is because I was genuinely - It feels good to me.

It's because what you had just said there, Bodder, I think that's where I decided initially that like, this has the legs to be my ideal version of the series is that - Throughout the week, if I had a moment where I had sort of a lull in entertainment, which we just have entertainment being thrown at our face constantly. We're eating good, boy. Wednesday was not only an event for new comics, but now it's an event for new X -Men. I'm so weird.

And you know, man, sometimes just being a part of the moment, I think you get a certain lens to it. Some people would call it rose -colored lens. And I think maybe that could be true, maybe in the hindsight, years from now we'll look at this and maybe there'll be some more flaws.

But, you know, man, just being in the moment and seeing the excitement for this show and, you know, like people, you know, our age and older talking like, I'm watching this show on Saturdays, bringing me back to being a kid watching Saturday cartoons. And, you know, the fact that new episodes were dropping on new comic book day as people that, you know, Wednesday Warriors, like, you know what I'm saying? Like there was an energy and air to this.

that I'm already, I think I'm already going to miss. But I wanna go ahead and say, and I wish I would have brought this up earlier so it wasn't buried until the end, but there is one more episode coming out, but it's technically the making of. You know, Marvel Studios has been doing like these. The assembled episodes? Yeah, the assembled episodes. And I was so happy to learn that they're not skipping that for this, you know, even though it's animated.

I guess they did it for what if, but they're doing like a behind the scenes documentary type thing. for this and I think that's a nice send off to have a chance to appreciate what went into making this. Because I think this story is fascinating too. The fact that they resurrected this, they brought in the OG creators and all that. So I think honoring that is important too. If they don't talk about why Bo Dumeo is so obsessed with OnlyFans during that simple episode, then what are we doing here?

I need to know what's going on. It's gonna be just B -roll of him just staring at you. my God. If there's a scene at some point in the series where you just see him scrolling. And like has the thousand -yard stare. We know what he's looking at. We know what he's looking at. He's jacking off in the corner. We're like, okay. I guess you got to get fired. All right, everybody that'll do it for our review of X -Men 97.

Let's get into my favorite segment here on the oblivion bar podcast, Aaron's arcade. It's time for Aaron's Arcade. Error Cade is sponsored by G Fuel, whether you're a casual gamer, content creator, an everyday Joe, or an esports pro. G Fuel's sugar -free antioxidant and vitamin -fortified focus enhancing and high -performance energy products will give you the edge you need to feel your grind. While stock and making gful .com use our code OBP at checkout for 10 % off your entire order.

That's OBP at checkout. Did you guys catch that? Yeah. Just checking. Okay. The galaxy's OBP. Okay. Cool. All right. Go ahead. Can I finish? I'm gonna let you finish. I'm gonna let you, but I'm gonna need that code. Yeah. OBP at checkout. Okay. It stacks. All right. Stacks. the galaxy's last line of defense. enlist in the Helldivers and join the fight for freedom across the hostile galaxy in a fast, frantic, and ferocious third -person shooter. How about a nice cup of liberty?

All right, so I am playing Helldivers 2. If you guys haven't heard from Patreon, or we're on our Patreon show, The Grid, man, Helldivers 2 is probably the most fun I have ever had in a, like, online game. I have ever played. Like normally I hate teams where I have to, or I hate games where I have to be teamed up with people, but this game is phenomenal and it is so much fun. You literally kind of create your own background to the story. Like there's no real like storyline.

It's just think of like Starship Troopers. You have this galaxy, the humans are at war. There's three different factions. There's humans, there's the automatons, and then there's the bugs. The only good bug is a dead bug. Okay. And. You get to choose who you fight against on different missions. You can go to the automatons side of the galaxy or you can go to the bug side of the galaxy, but you're always going to be a hell diver. You drop into the planet with your basic loadout.

You get to change and customize your, your stratagems, which are these like codes that you put in kind of like up down, left, right, left, right down, you know, and then you throw this little orb and then you get like this, like just, I don't know what do you call it? Like a, like a supply drop from space where it's whatever you're calling it. Sometimes it it's, well, it's like, it's like, it's like literally just, just. boom, it just lands in front of you.

Sometimes it has like a cool down, whatever, but you can order guns, you can order like support items, like backpacks that have like these like roving laser rifles on them. It's like, it's so customizable. The loadouts are so amazing. The character development, like it really isn't anything. The only thing you can kind of change is your helmet, your cape and your armor. Not all of them have different effects, but some of them do.

Like there's engineers, there's heavy armor and there's medium level armor. And sometimes a lot of you have like extra grenades or extra stimpaks, but literally, literally you're in a team of four going around this, this, this planet or different parts of this planet, you know, doing different missions. And it is like, you can do a, each mission at most is 40 minutes. You can do it in 10, you can do it in five. You can do the, take it the entire time.

And you literally have to defend your, your extraction point for about two minutes before your, your Pelican comes in and saves you. So much fucking fun. Like I cannot, I have been obsessed with this game since I first loaded it up. Okay. So again, there's barely a story. You kind of make it up as you go. The community has such an involvement, like the, Airhead Studios who created it issued like last weekend, you had to destroy the entire community had to destroy 2 billion, automaton robots.

Unfortunately, the community, if they, if they did destroy all 2 billion, they would have unlocked a special new like weapon, but they didn't. They only got 78 % of the way there. So they failed it. So yeah, it was crazy, but it's so fun because they're literally issuing this kill order to the entire player base of this game. And it's just, you all have to work as this like entire army and it's so much fun. I love the game. So I highly recommend it.

If I'm going to give anything a five out of five, I'm going to get Helldivers 2 a five out of five David A. Winer's on the game scale. So fuck that Chris, fuck your five out of five. Okay. How about some nice. A nice cup of liberty. You know what I'm saying? This game is so much fun. Go check it out. Again, you guys can check me out. Actually, I shouldn't say it anymore because I don't really stream anymore. You can go to your Twitch channel. I just won't be streaming there.

Yeah, I just won't be streaming there. Yeah. Go play Hell Dive or Sue. Can they add you as a friend online? Yeah, yeah. So you can find me like my Steam code or whatever. I'll put it on my social media, but I'm at Better Actions on Twitter, at Better Actions on, at Better Actions TTV on Instagram. I'll put my friend code on there, my Steam code, people can add me, we can go on submissions and fuckin' you know, spread some democracy. Spread some controlled democracy, man, it's fuckin' awesome.

All right, let's go to my favorite part of the show. Good to your friend of mine, Chris's Corner. It's time for Chris's Corner.

Alrighty this week for Christmas corner we're gonna be talking about doom number one written by Sanford green and Jonathan Hickman Illustrated by Stanford green and in the near future doom alone must save the Marvel universe legendary creators Jonathan Hickman and Sanford green send dr Doom on a journey unlike he has ever undertaken before with Valeria Richard at his by aside doom goes on a quest to harness more power than any human has ever wielded before in order to stop Galactus

from bringing about the death of the universe now I want to give a big big shout out to our special co -host here this week, Bodder, who had Sanford Green on his show last week. It was a great conversation. And we actually read this comic, Bodder, I can say now he shared it with me a while ago and it was very good. And everyone knows I'm a giant Doctor Doom fan. He's my favorite villain in all of com. I won't even say villain.

I'll make a bold claim here that I think Doctor Doom is the greatest anti -hero in all of comics. And he is one of my favorite just characters in general. I'm, I'm, As I'm recording here with everyone, as I'm talking to you currently, I'm looking at multiple Dr. Doom commissions behind me, you know, in my recording studio. So big, big fan of Victor Von Doom, excited to eventually see him in the MCU. This comic is exactly what I want from like a Dr. Doom comic.

It's sort of just brain candy and well, brain candy implies that it's stupid. It's not, it's not stupid. It's just, it's just action wall to wall. Like, We get the introduction of what Doom is doing, what Valyria is there for, and then after that is madness. So, Botter, do you want to speak on this at all? Since you had Sanford on the show last week.

You know, I'm actually really excited to hear that this book resonated with you so much because I know how much you revere and really liked the character of Dr. Doom because Dr. Doom fans are sort of like Storm fans. Like there isn't no middle ground. Like you really either really like Dr. Doom or you don't really know how to feel about them. this. particularly comic, I think also, you know, same way that X -Men 97 kind of made me like a new, you know, diehard Storm fan.

This is one of those books where even if you don't know the lore of Dr. Doom or all the big moments and, and whatnot, you could read this and have a new appreciation for him. And just overall, it's just a fun, action -filled, great looking book. And I guess there's another layer for me, the fact that I had an opportunity to talk to Sanford and, you know, we had a two hour discussion and... had the interview and whatnot. He is so likable. He's humble.

He's soft -spoken, extremely intelligent, extremely gifted. And there's just so much likability to him. And then hearing how much he reveres the character and how long he's been a fan, you see that come through in this book. You know that it's a labor of love. And I think even if you don't listen to the interview, you can appreciate the book. But there's something more that I appreciate this book after talking to him.

just knowing that his mission was to put Doom on the map and this being a love letter to the character. I think it's a great, it is a solid one shot and I'm here for more giant size one shots. I think the only minutia critique I could have is that I think I just, and this is just coming full greed, I just want more.

I kind of wish it would have ended in maybe a little more clear way, but when you talk to Sanford, he says that Marvel offered him the opportunity to, do more, make this like a mini series. And he was like, nah, I'm gonna tell my story and I'm a bounce. And I respect this shit out of that artistry that he just wanted to tell a story. He didn't go for the cash grab. And we got such a great book.

And I thought I was saying like a hot take when I said it on the interview, but I've seen this kind of echoed online as well, that this is probably one of some of his best artwork out there, which is saying a lot, because the man is extremely talented. Like you look at a bit of Root or even...

You know his stuff his work on DC and just over the years it's all been great But there's something about this like it really comes through the pages that doom is one of his favorite characters that he took this seriously and the fact that you know He's he's credited as co -writer But if we're being real and I've also seen this online that a lot of people are They see Hickman and you know, it's a doom book and they automatically think Hickman wrote this and I do want to state that in the

interview He says like Hickman was very, I won't say hands off, but he was like, hey, this is your story. I'm here for the ride and I'm just gonna help where I can. So, kudos to Sanford Green for not only drawing a great book, but writing an awesome, awesome story and just summation of Dr. Doom as a character. Yeah, when you read it too, it's not a Hickman book. You maybe see some seeds of Hickman, but like Hickman has a very heady sort of over -explained - For sure. Sort of narrative.

I gotta say this, I gotta give credit to Greg and the first issue club for this joke. But Greg, I listened to their episode today and Greg spotlighted Doom. So I think it's cool that you spotlighted Doom. I had Sanford on and Greg brought it up. Greg might say you like. But Greg said, you know, this isn't a Hickman book because you didn't have to read any emails or charts. You didn't need to decipher anything. It's been on my head all day. Yeah. This came out recently, right?

Yeah, Wednesday of this week. Yeah. OK. man, I didn't grab this one, I wanted to, I knew it, like I saw this one, I was like, I wanna read this. I think this is a book that a couple years from now will be in conversation of like, some of the all time great one shots, like even the ending aside, I think that all the rest of it is perfection. Yeah. And also speaking of Doom, he shows up in X -Men 97. We didn't mention that. He shows up during a meeting at one point. I forgot to mention that.

Yeah, because him and Baron Zemar are both like, yo, we're not that evil. Relaxed. You're a little far. And it was the same thing with The Rocketeer. There's this mobster and he finds out that Neville Sinclair, who's the baddie of the movie, he's like, yeah, I'm a fucking criminal, but I don't work with Nazis. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think Carnage and Joker have that exchange. Doesn't Joker do that to the Red Skull as well during the Amalcom comics or something? okay. I'm sorry. Yeah, I'm mistaken.

Yeah. I thought Carnage and Joker had a... I think they do have a moment where - They could have a moment too. Where Carnage realizes, shit, you are insane. But to your point, I think there's a scene with Red Skull and Joker and Joker's like, whoa, buddy. I'm a psychopathic murderer, but I'm not a Nazi. There is no filter with who I kill. I kill everybody. But I didn't know that was a Rocketeer joke. That's cool. Thank you, Aaron.

Yeah. No, I the one thing I was always just thinking about this doom cover is Maria Wolf did a one in 25 ratio. yeah, and it's sick. And I wish I would have grabbed it at C2E2 speaking about C2E2. It was there, but something I don't know. I was like, I know I'm going to get the A cover and I got that really nice painted cover. Have your grandma. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah. Do number one. Highly recommend. I cannot recommend enough.

I told Bada the other day, I read it three times in a row after I read it back to back to back and it's a double it's double size. So. That'll do it for Chris's Corner and that'll do it for episode 156 of the Oblivion Bar podcast. I almost forgot for a moment. Before we head out of here, Bodder, thank you so much for hanging out with us all night. Thanks for talking all things X -Men 97. Before we end the show, can you tell the folks how they can find you, how they can find the short box?

Look, I know how good of a host and producer Chris is. I know that he's going to have all of that shit in these show notes. So I'm going to say if you want to check out the short box podcast, if you enjoyed my blabbering, these last two hours or however long this episode comes out. We're probably splitting it too. that'd be great. Yeah. Then come on over to the short box.

I've got plenty of episodes with Chris on there if you need like a, you know, to dip your toe in and you need some familiar voice. But like I said, I've been doing this since 2012. I've interviewed a lot of people. I've covered a lot of topics. I've got a great set of co -hosts as well in some of those older episodes. And I think if you enjoy the Oblivion Bar podcast. And I think you'll enjoy the short box. And thank you. And I want to say thank you guys for having me on, man.

This was a really big honor and always been a fan of the show. And I think you guys have one of the best chemistry, some of the best chemistry in all of comic podcasting. That's my boo right there. That's my boo. I'm pointing at Aaron right now. You guys, you can't see it, but it's with its penis. It's with my, what Bodder said earlier, my nerd boner. All right, Aaron, take us out of here. Take us out of episode one. fine. About time.

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And if I may say, if I may also try to make Oblivion Bar History and toss in another five out of five, five out of five attempt right there, Aaron. Thank you. I give that attempt five out of five. I was really impressed by the one breath take. reading of the patrons list. There's been a couple of times where he's got it all in one take. So that's impressive. I just need to like it's a practice thing. It's like you got to you got to get those lungs as tight as you can.

Everyone next week for episode one fifty seven, we're going to be covering Furiosa. We're going back to Australia, back to the Mad Max franchise. So be on the lookout for that review of Furiosa. Very excited to see that next week with you, Aaron. So you know what I did before this episode? What's that? I rewatched Mad Max, Fury Road again. I cannot wait to read. Watch that. That is like one of my favorite movies.

That is one of the few movies I've ever seen three times in theater back to back and I cannot wait to rewatch it to prepare for Furious. So you're a Mad Max fan. I'll be honest. I've never watched the old ones. It's Mad Max, Fury Road was like, you know, that movie single -handedly got me into the franchise. I should probably go back and rewatch it. That's not rare either. I think a lot of people started with Fury Road. Mel Gibson did really, really good in the originals.

They're, they're, they're. They follow the same premise as a lot of early like movie franchises where they just kind of get bonkier, like, you know, we're in weirder. I will say this, however, without Mad Max walking, crawling and walking, we would not have had water world with Kevin Costner, Kevin Costner, Mel Gibson had to walk. So Kevin Costner could run. I'm just saying that one of those is the greatest. One of the greatest franchises of all time. And the other one is water world.

One of them is an amazing attempt at being a great franchise and the other one is starred by an anti -semitic asshole. that's yeah, you're not wrong there. But I will say this, if you love Mad Max Fury Road, you will love the fact that if you go back and watch it, there is a lot of lore that follows the evolution of the Mad Max series. There's a lot of lore that goes into it and how We who we think is Max may not actually be Okay. Thank you Aaron.

Well, we will talk about that next week on episode 157 So make sure you guys come back for that but until then from Aaron and I and botter Thank you so much for listening to the oblivion bar podcast. We will see you all next week for episode 157