Hi, everybody. This is Chandler, and this is Chris, and this is Neil. And you're listening to X Read the podcast. Yay, we are back with another episode, episode ninety eight, with author Neil Clyde. Welcome, Neil. We're so happy to have you. Neil. Hello, Hello Eddie. Thanks for having me. Oh my gosh, thank you so much for being here. We're excited to talk to you because you are the
author of the upcoming The Phoenix Chase. This kind of novelization of X Men lore, which is not cannon but can be cannon to people, I guess, but I still love all the novelizations. Yeah, no, it's it's fun. It's it's so it's for a company called Aconide Books. They license
out from with Marvel. They do a bunch of Marvel books. They've done Escardian themes, Heroine's Untold, a bunch of different and so one of their fanners is School of X and they do all these like X Men books, but it's set during the Brian Bendus Penned era, so like twenty fifteen, like twenty third fourteen and a little earlier. And so it's cannon in the sense that it sort of ties into that continuity, but it kind of it's sort of said in what they call it their own sort of parallel universe.
So it's like right next to six sixteen, it's six to eighteen or whatever, right close enough to be kissing cousins, but sort of far enough to be its own thing. Right, it's just basically an excuse so the editors don't have to read all the books and be aware of that. It's like, you know, we don't want to update all of our writers on all
the novels. Yeah. No, And for like a continuity guy like me, it's great because I'm like, I want to tie it into all this stuff, and they're like, you don't have to, like, but I want to. I want to. Well I love that want and desire. Yeah. So your your Marvel School of X novel, The Phoenix Chase. It features kid Omega's coming out May second, twenty twenty three, swords literally around the corner. It's available for pre order right now through anywhere you get
your books, comic shops. Actually it's in the Mark steamond previews, I believe. So go and get your comic sort of get a bunch of copies and yeah, and then it comes out May second, right before the Guardians of the Galaxy movie and Free comic book Day. Oh really well timed. Yeah, absolutely, But this is not your first Kid Omega story. It is not. So Aconite did an anthology for the School of X Banner called School of X and my first story, Kid Omega Faces. The music appeared
in that in that book, and it was a lot of fun. It's kit Omega basically talking to a human and telling them about this crazy time travel story that he and his pal Glob went on. And it's basically the two of them bouncing around X Men history. But why Quentin, So you've done this story and you've got Phoenix Chase what and you're wearing a Quinn Choir T
shirt. By the way, I'm a huge fan of the character. I know there are people who are much larger fans than I am, Folks who are Twitter accounts and Tumblers and you know Instagrams that are really devoted to Quentin
And I just think he's a fascinating character. I think he's got this really great, like sarcastic trickster vibe that you see in Loki or you see in a lot of those sort of characters, like anti hero type characters, and like he's what it's great about him, especially in the era that I get to write him, is that he is still kind of a jerk, but starting to move into that phase where he's like wants to not be the character
how he first appeared. Right when he first appeared in the Grand Morriscen era, he started off as you know, a regular mutant kid in the school, and then you know, stuff happened to him and he became this real sort of like I don't want to know vilan is the right word, but rebel, I guess is the best is the best term. Anarchist, right, And you saw him a couple he did a couple of appearances where he
like an in the beginning of Schism. He came out and he was a guy that basically kicked off schism, and you saw a lot of that from his earlier appearances where he was just kind of like Magneto was right, mutant revolution, I don't really buy into everything that Charles Xavier's saying, and I'm
gonna sort of up end the mutant patriarchy and matriarchy or whatever. Right, And over time, as he appeared in the Vendus books, and also eventually as the character got a little older and did at his stint in West Coast of Venders and now obviously as you're seeing him in X Force right on the
correct area Krocoa era, he's definitely mature. Is maybe not the best word for Quenton, because I don't know that Quentin will ever fully mature, but he's come to terms with what it means to be responsible a little bit. And so what's great about it for me in this sort of playground that I kind of get to monkey around with, he's definitely starting to figure out what it means to be responsible and what it means to not be selfish, and
what it means to really value other people. And so you saw a little bit of that in the short story where he basically learned what it meant to sacrifice, right, what sacrifice, personal sacrifice means. And that's what the story was about, because, like I said, it was a time prowl
story. It was him following Magneto across time and looking at like the various iterations of Magneto you know, over X Men history, starting from like Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, you know, him and Piro and Blob and the Toad and all them, all the way up to Magneto and Cyclops creating the Exabered Institute, right, So them being kind of the co headmasters, and you know we you know, we tease different things, like you know, Secret
Wars was teased in their and BT's active vengeance and all the various touch points that you really saw Magneto along the way, and it's Quinton basically seeing that, like when you see mcgneto was right, The question really comes down to it is which mcneto right? When was mcneto right? Was he right at the beginning? Was he right when he started to become good? Was he right? Durning the gym lillierro Like, when what's Mgneto right? And what
was he right about? And so that's really what Quinton's arc in that story is about really coming to Rips what it means to basically look at his hero because he's really admires Mgneto and say, if he can grow, why can't I. We really took that and used it as sort of a catalyst for the story that everyone's going to read in May, which in the Phoenix Chase, it's about Quinton really kind of maturing even further Earth and coming into his
own as as a hero and learning what it means to not just really like fire off from the gut and kind of shoot first and ask questions later,
but understand what it means to marry chaos with diplomacy a little bit. And the great thing is that we get the probably gets to partner him with Alex Summers Havoc, who's a fantastic character, because you've got two characters really with a lot of daddy issues, yes, and two characters, you know, one who's super confident to his detriment and one who is not so confident to his detriment, and looking at that sort of like teacher student relationship, how
the two of them really learn together from each other over the course of the book. I will say that one of the elements of the book that really excites me is that it features the Star Jammers, one of my favorite teams. I love Cosmic x Men, so I need to know who is your favorite Star Jammer and why. So I'm a Courser fan. There's sort of love or hate with this family, but I'm a Summers family like I'm a fan, So this book really touches except for Adomax, who are not really
sure how people sort of land on Adomax. But the key Summers family members all really appeared in this book, so you get Scott, Alex, Corsair, and even Mom Catherine's in the book for a little bit. And then because we're going to tee this up in a little bit, but Vulcan also plays a large part of the book table. I love that MESSI Summer's drama,
and I like Coursair because he's got the visual flamebuoyance. He's like Air Force Space Pirate Captain Dad that is really just out there, kind of doing his Errol Flynn meets Ton Solo, and just something about the character has always really drawn I've always been drawn to that character. All the other ones are really great too. I mean, I'm a big fan of the entire team. Of course, there's definitely the draw for me. I also love Coursera,
so totally agree. On your Instagram, you posted the Marvel Legends wave that's coming out the Chode build a figure and it's a wave that features Corsair, Kit Omega, Emma Frost, Chamber, Money Fang and Chode and you said five out of seven characters are in your book. So which characters of those are going to appear in the novel? Well, let's see if you can guess. I mean, there's some obvious ones obviously. Yeah, So I'm gonna say Chode, Coursair and kit Omega are obvious. Kit Omega obviously.
Yeah. I want to say I am a Frost just because I love her so much and I really wanted to be in the book. Yeah, I'm hoping. And then I'm gonna say it's Fang. I was hoping it's Monee because why not. It would be so amazing to have money in there. But it's Faying because we're in R space, right. So Emma, Emma appears at the beginning, Um, you know, like like like I said, it's set during that sort of Zebo Institute Vendis era where they're up
in that you know, Weapon X facility. Um, and so Emma's part of the team. And so at the beginning you see a lot of those characters Cyclops and Emma and some others. And Fang appears at the end of the book, which I don't want to give away too much, but yeah, he's in there. Two of those figures already, so I'm excited. I've pre ordered them as well. I'm so excited. Something I'm excited about is video games. Because when you fired up the camera and I saw what
was behind you, I was filled with joy. You have an X Man arcade cabinet, just like Handler dies. Me and him are obsessed with this. We go head to head and battle it out every time I come over. So is your X Men cabinet your social hub? Is this something that you play a lot? And what is your character of choice in the game? Yeah, so I'd be play it a lot. I play it a couple times a week if I can social hub. I mean, like, I have a family, so it's if my kids are playing, I'll play
with them. Sorry about this. I didn't actually get it for the X Men. It comes with two other games, and I got it for the Captain America game that it comes with, which I played in high school like religiously, like every day, and I haven't played it in years. And when our kid went up and makes the games came out and said, oh, it's gonna be packaged with this other game, I'm like, that's the
game I want. I spent I want to say wow, about four or five months in high school trying to beat that game just Sunday after Sunday, just with a bag of quarters. And then we got the game and my son and I put it together together. I'm beat it in like Mets because because it's free to play, it's fantastic. But I do love the X Men game. And when we play, I'm Cyclops. It's the force beams. He moves quick. It's a Summers person. You love Summers brothers.
I actually I'm I'm a big Colossus fan too, so sometimes I like I'll juggle between the two of them. Um, I just don't love Colossus as a character in the game. He doesn't move as fast. It's a little bit more cumbersome. If I can't get to Cyclops, I'll take Peter very well, very well. Well, I'm a nightcrawler, stand I love. I love being Nightcrawler in that game. He's my favorite. In fact that I play other characters, I just don't under I don't even know what to
do. He's got a cool power like the like the criss cross teleport. Asian and Wolverine's kind of got almost the same thing, but it's his arms, right, So it's the criss cross, but instead of the teleporting, it's his slash. So I'm all about Storm in this game, doesn't she have that like knife? If I recall the ice pick? Come on, you know I'm talking about it's the wand. Yes, a wand which never
had one, but in the video game she hasn't want Yes. I thought it was a Mandela effect for half a second where everybody thought that that was real, but it never existed and I just found out. Thank you for confirming that it was a wand. Yes. Nobody likes Dazzler. Oh. I know a lot of people that play with Dazzler that would refuse to touch another character except for Dazzler. So I will say there's a lot of Dazzler fans with that game that bought this cabinet specifically for this game. I think,
all right, I don't know that, but I'm glad. I'm glad that they're Dazzler fans out in the world. We love that, So Dazzler Army of fans. You can go at Neil on Twitter and stuff. I'm not coming down on Dazzl. I like the character of Davil. I just don't know people who use her in the game. Yes, well they will make themselves now and I'm sure Dazzler, yes, absolutely. All right,
well let's get into this issue. Well, first of all, I'm really curious, so we're by the way, audience, we're going to be recapping X Men Emperor Vulcan number one. Now, why did you choose this issue for our show? As I may have mentioned, there's a lot of Marvel
and X Men continuity. In the Phoenix case, Quinton and Alex with the star Jammers, they're out on a scavenger hunt to find an aspect of the Phoenix, and so it's a big grand space adventure and it ties into a couple parts of X Men continuity, and one of the larger parts is Vulcan's
reign as emperor. When you've got, you know, a book that really is focusing on a Summer's father and son and talking about one letting the other one down and self esteem issues across the family, you can't not talk about
Gabriel Summers, right, and how he really affected that family. And to be honest, just to sort of spoil something, sorry, this book from my perspective, or for these characters perspective, it's actually the first time that Courser and Alex see each other after Corsett Courser comes back from the dead. For those folks who don't know if a larger spoiler in the comics, Vulcan
killed his father. At one point, he kills Corsair and Alex then became the captain of the Star Jambers. Havoc became the captain of the Star Jamdlers. And so in the book you get kind of that first moment of the two of them seeing each other after Corsair's resurrected, and they have a lot to unpack, and there's a lot of that as part of the book. And so one of the things they have to unpack is clearly Vulcan. And without giving too much more away, a lot of what you see from a
like dynastic saga that is Emperor Vulcan. A lot of what you see really ties in to some key parts of the Phoenix Chase. Well, let's set the era this book. It came out in November of two thousand and seven. The top film was American Gangster starring Russell Crowe and Denzel Washington. Have either of you seen this film? Nope? No, this is a prime Oscar season. So I'm surprised that if the number one film of nove is not registering at all, We're all also talking about how long ago is this?
Now we're sixteen years ago or something. It's crazy to think that two thousand and seven was so long ago. Yeah, that's oh my lord, it's quite a bit. Yeah, this is probably maybe a good field Lope, Russell Crowe, Denzel Washington, good actors. Well, these songs you may have heard of. The top song of November of two thousand and seven is a tie. It is kiss Kiss by Chris Brown and t Pain and
Apologized by Timberland and one Republic. How's it going? She wants that love e Devey lovey dovey kiss kiss kiss kiss something that I don't remember all the words that I got. The other one? Is it too late to apologiz You's it too late? Yea, yeah, that's it. That's it one, that one I know, the first one not so much. Yeah, all right, well either way, songs of the era. All right,
let's let's dive into this. X Men Emperor Vulcan number one published November two thousand and seven, written by Christopher Yost, art by Paco Diaz, titled Gabriel Summers also known as Emperor Vulcan, and on the cover, it's a pretty dynamic cover. It's actually really caught my eye, so I love it. Well. First of all, of course, we get this amazing giant image of Vulcan and his missing eye, because I guess Deathbird took out one of his eyes. I can't remember now. I read that Vulcan saga that
the fall of Shear so long ago. We do you get to mention of the eye. I have to go sort of look again, and I don't remember whether it was death Bird or Diken. Mm. Well, we'll get to it. We'll get to it. I know who it is. I totally remember now. Oh, but I don't want to spoil it because it's kind of like a good artistic moment, you know, a power dynamic thing. So we'll get there. We will expose how his eye was slashed from his face by the end of the day. Remember I remember who it is
now, Yep, yep, yep. We'll get there. And by the way, that character who we will get to also was in the book. Below we see Alex Summers leading the star Jammers minus Hepsiba. I noticed that she was absent. I think she left the team after Coursier died for a little while. Yes, she was living on Earth. That's right, she was on the X Men. She lived in the X Mansion. Yep, yep. I think post of Courser's death, she didn't want to be on
the Jammer and so they had a weird team at the time. Rachel Summers was on the team. Who's in the book and this guy Corvis I don't
remember too much about. Yeah, Corbus, he is a she Are, a member of the she Are who has the Phoenix Blade, which is a sword m du and dued with the power of Phoenix, or a portion of the power of Phoenix, right, and they and they were dating at some point, I remember, yes, and then and then Polaris is on the team and then chowed Raza and yes, that's the that's kind of like theah
the core team. A war Path was was in the story, but I think he went back to Earth with Hepsiba and a couple other the characters of the Fall of Sher Empire. But now we are guests in this core team of the New Star Jammers. I actually loved all of their dynamic in this book. I can't wait to get into The only character we haven't mentioned is Lelandra. She's also on the cover, correct, land I can't ever not say it like that. All Right, we open and on the inside cover
we have our very first at blert. It says, ahoy, and there's a picture of a girl fishing and it's for Old Spice. This was pre the Old Spice guy, right, yeah, okay, pre the Old Spice guy. It is a very sexy lady and she is fishing. There's a bear behind her. It is I don't see her fishing in this outfit. I r l so definitely a fantasy here. She's wearing really high boots, but they're not like waiters, you know, which are worn like pants with
overalls. They're kind of just buccaneer boot styles with Daisy Duke jeans. And she's got a tied up shirt and a picnic basket. I guess for fish to put in, is she supposed to be wearing the Old Spice? Or B Is she supposed to be attractive by the Old Spice? Or c? Does the Old Spice have nothing to do with the ad? Is the bear wearing the Old Spice? Right? Correct? The tagline says smell intriguing. So maybe she's wearing it and it intrigues the bear and the fish around her.
Zoom into my bear face though, is that bear happy? Is he going? Oh? Is looking? Is not angry bear? No, it's definitely looking like what's over there? Okay, she's wearing it. One month later, the old Spiceman was born, right exactly. It changed everything. Yeah, he's on a horse. On the first page, we have a previously an X Man, which made me think immediately of the animated series.
Previously an x Men Vulcan, one of Charles Xavier's former students and brother to the x Men, Havoc, was long thought dead, but recently he resurfaced. Deeply traumatized by his childhood, he left Earth to revenge himself on the Shear, the alien empire that killed his mother and enslaved him as a boy, and along the way he fell in love with the princess turned criminal outcast Deathbird. Together they drove Lelandra, a Deathbird's sister and the Empress of the
Shear, from her throne. Havoc and the fellow x Men Polaris and Marvel Girl fought alongside the star Jammers and Havoc's father Corsair to prevent this and avoid a civil war, but ultimately Vulcan killed his father and wed Deathbird. In so doing, he cemented his position as the leader of the Shear and ushered in a new age of tyranny. Now the star Jammers, led by Havoc, have joined forces with Landra's rebels to put an end to the mad reign
of Emperor Vulcan and then pan down to the Star Destroyer exactly. I was gonna say, it feels like that text, that that scrolling text of Star Wars. That's why I'm paired my cabinets here, my X Men and my Star Wars cabinet. I love it. I love it. Yes, So yeah, are we opened on a scene of war. We see this alien race and they're saying that there's a development with the sher and so they say the time has come. These are characters who will become more important to the
rest of the series. They become the antagonists. Guy or Tall. I think, oh, yes, okay, yeah, so this is just the precursor to the end of the issue. Got it. This is sort of like the flashback to sort of what happened to them and kind of setting up their story a little bit. Yeah, and the name of the race is something really interesting, which we will reveal at the end, because I was just like, what, that's what your name means, like for real,
So it's tay Tuned Centers for that excitement too. These creatures, they kind of look almost reptilian, amphibious, kind of like a starfish but kind of black. I don't know, what would you describe these aliens, like like a bug vibe from them, like, oh yeah, like a beetle. Yeah, kind Yeah, they reminded me a lot of I don't know if y'all are Hulk fans, but from like World War Hulk, Like the character Meek is raised a little bit got that kind of like sort of tadpoleis sort
of bug kind of feel to it. Well, they're not the only ones that are in space. We also have some she Are empirere soldiers in their ship and they're detecting a strong electromagnetic field, but they can't detect the source. And then he realizes, you know, the captain who has fabulous feather hair. By the way, I love the Shear Race for this feather hair. I want to grab it off their head. And say put it on my head, let me fly around with that. It's cool. But anyway,
this she are guy, he's just like electromagnetic god preserve. It's a trap all warbirds to condition black, which I mean, I guess that's code red in Star Trek speak. Those star Jammers are here, and the star Jammers appear through a portal in space and guess who appears on their screen. It's Choed. She are warbirds. You should be wise to surrender now never Chode shall put you into the not wise category. Then yeah, and then on the next page we have this and dynamic team shot. Oh it looks
so good. It says star Jammers take them down. Neil, what do you think about this page? There's not much really I can say. But then there's the team. They're They're fantastic. And it's weird because I spent so much time really diving into like Alex Summers as a character, and he's got all these self esteem issues, and I just that's one of the things I love about this issue is that he keeps saying that he does, but you see him here and it's like he's like natural born leader. He's taken
over. He's ready he's ready to go, and I just don't get it. I don't get it, and I think most of the characters around him don't. And you see a lot of that kind of discussed in not just this issue, but the series itself. I will say that Corvus, who is the sheer guy with a big sword, he has definitely inspired me for some cosplay looks because I was like, ooh, I would I love a big anime sword. So I was really excited to see Corvus in this team.
And of course we got to talk about Polaris in that classic look. I love this look. She steals the entire issue. I'm sorry, but to me, this whole issue stars Polaris Is. Look look at that braid in her hair, that headpieces on point. As far as costume construction, I can't see how anybody in real life would be able to fight or do any battle in this. But she's looking fierce, bab before strategy. I don't know, Yore practicality all right, you just you just coined a new
slogan. I'm going to see you on a T shirt in a week. I love Havocs look because it's like Tron. It reminds me of a Tron light cycle suit. It does I was just about to say that, yes, and he is serving us Tron totally. I'm I'm always kind of torn about this, this era of Havoc with this costume. I'm a big fan of the classic right. I like the giant rings on his head, the simple black suit with the you know, with the concentric circles. I'm a
big fan of classic Havoc costume. But there's something about Tron Havoc that is kind of compelling. I don't know what it is. So I like the costume, but I still kind of wish he was just always wearing that simple black with the just huge rings. I love this next kind of area of
banter with the team. So Havoc says, remember we need the captain alive, to which Lorna replies, I'm pretty sure he was talking to you, Rachel I stopping crazy months ago, which of course is a play on the fact that Polaris has always dealt with, you know, mental health issues, and she's just she gets too powerful, So you know, that was a trope always. You know, once women characters get too powerful, they just turned crazy. And I'm so glad they stepped away from that, and they're
just allowing her to be a badass in current comics. But then it goes to Rachel, and Rachel says, I'll do my best, no promises. But Corvus's line is my favorite. You X men talk far too much in battle. I love it. I want them to talk even more more banter. Oh, he looks so cool. I'm so inspired to make that outfit. Something about a giant sword. It's just something about Final Fantasy character. I just and I love Final Fantasy. So I'm going to disagree with you
here, Chandler. I have a strong opinion. I just feel as if this guy looks like he is Wolverine escaped from the Kingdom Heart. Yes, he's definitely, Yes, a Kingdom Hearts Wolverine. Accurate assessment. Well, I was kind of going through the list of star jammers to bring into the book. He was one I didn't dig in too much. Something I just don't like the character. I don't know what it is. It's just me. Maybe he is a little shallow I find in the in the in the
books, you don't really get deep with him. He just is a powerful sword. Wheelder who was dating Rachel. Yeah, I'm also a big fan of Star Star Jammers Classic, so I focus a little bit more on on those those characters. And I brought Hips of A back so oh good. I was gonna say that she's missing in this because you know she's such a core team member. Well, my book has corsairs, so she came back. They overcome the team. They turn on the TV and Lelandra and the
General Cardom. They convinced the Armada that they need to turn themselves over to the resistance and fight Emperor Vulcan. Now on the next page, we have our next it's got milk. Oh, this is a fun one. Oh got milk. So classic, so two thousand and seven. It has massi Oka. I'll read what it says. It says Massioka from Heroes, right, correct, he played Hero on Heroes. It says mined by massi body by milk, my hero think hard. It's milk. Some studies suggest teens
who choose it instead of sugary drinks tend to be leaner. Plus, the protein helps build muscle, So grab a glass. Then you can change the future too. Got milk, And that's how old this book is. Hero's was still on and popular at the time, Save the Cheerleader and Save the World. This is super timely that he's in this book because this book came out right around the time I went to San Diego Comic Con for the first time. I went to San Diego Comic Con that summer after this issue dropped,
and I met Massioka. I happened to be at some San Diego Comic Con party and was sort of standing with all the comics folks and feeling like a little like impository. But I had a few in me and said, I'm gonna go talk to some people. And at the time, my wife was pregnant with our first child, and she was here in New York, and it's got to be late at night, Friday night or Saturday night,
one of them, you know whatever. And I decide I'm gonna go talk to Massioca because if we watch Heroes and I'm going to have him call my wife. And so I kind of sidle up to Massioca with that like drunk courage, and I'm like, hey, Massie, you don't know me. I don't really know you. I love your show. My wife we watched it together. She's back home in New York. Would you do me a favorite and just call it? And she's pregnant with our kid, would you
mind calling her and saying hi? And he was like sure. So I call my wife up on the phone. It's got to be two in the morning here in New York. I wake her up and I'm like, hey, listen, I have someone who wants to talk to you. And he's very nice. Area he talks to her. If minute, you know, a couple of minutes, I hope everything goes well. You know, you're grabbing a kid, your husband's a nice guy, blah blah blah blah blah. And that's it. The conversation ends. I said, talk to you
tomorrow, go back, go back to sleep. I say thanks to him, and I walk away. That's it. And then later on my way back to the hotel, I actually had a text for my wife saying who the hell was that? And I'm like, that was Massioka from Heroes and She's like, why don't you just say that. I would have said more to him, but it was it was like a fun thing that happens.
One year later, I'm back at San Diego Comic Con and I'm at a completely different party and I'm online for the bar and three people ahead of me as Massioka, and I'm like, what the hell, and I kind of lean over. I'm like, listen, you probably don't remember this, but last year, and I told him the whole story. I just wanted to let you know we had a boy. He's great, thank you so much. And he kind of looked at me like this, like very frightened person.
And I'm glad to hear that and kind of quickly left the bar of mine. And that is my massi Oka story. I love it. I love it. Yeah, I've met massi I've worked on the show Heroes actually, so it's really crazy to see an ad with a hero star because it brings back so many memories. It was my first big job moving to Los Angeles. I worked on season one, two, and three of the show.
And I love your story because I did that to a friend once with Jerry O'Connell and I was on a set that I was working on and he was one of the actors and I had him call my friend and she to this days, she's just like that was one of the best moments ever because I unlike you. I said, hey, I've got Jerry O'Connell here that wants to talk to you, and he goes, hey, it's Jerry O'Connell anyways, right, So I think I think the fact that I had a
couple of drinks in me I forgot to tell her who it was. And I was just like, oh, Chilo, it is by his voice, ran that literally didn't happen. It's so confused. She's like, oh, it's nice to night, thank you. Yes, I'm pregnant. Think really exactly, it's just a random person at comic con. I'm what a fun little trip down memory lane. Oh my gosh. We open this new scene with this she Are warrior. He is trying to hold up it looks like a spear of some sort and he says death to the False Emperor, Death
to the WHOA. Okay, this is not good because this soldier is being blasted at full force and he's disintegrating into a skeleton, and Vulcan is standing there when we fist full of power and he says, I'll have to start over. I couldn't hear over the screaming. Oh my gosh, look at that skull on the bottom of the floor. Just the smoke coming out of its eye. This guy he means business. This guy's like, no joke, no joke. Brothers. They are they are a laugh riot, those
Summers brothers. Well, yes, So he is in the throne room, he's holding court, and he wants to know whether they're his people like him or not. He said, did you just say that I wasn't loved by the r people Iraqi? My lord folk, and I would not dishonor you by attempted to steve you, even if it meant my life. This year
empire is tearing itself apart. And then he goes on to explain that there's some people that are still supporting him because he's married to a death Bird and she's kind of in the faan, so they're kind of like art right, But most everybody else is just like, no, this guy is a pretender. This guy is not even fit to be on the throne. This guy is not cool. What are you doing? This is one of the things that really kind of drew me to the Shire, or that drew me to
this series, is that it's Game of Throne's X Men style. I mean, it's definitely family stabbing each other in the back. I mean, you've got a guy who took over to the throne by killing the former emperor and then marrying a sister, and then his and the other sister is trying to get the throne back from If you're a fan of like Game of Throne in Succession, in any of those shows where you've got like family battles, you
know when in Fighting Ember of Vulcan is for you. Yeah, I know, it's it's great, and the whole fall if she are leading up to it's so good. So yeah, listeners, if you have not gone back to listen to that or read that era, you definitely should. It's a lot of fun. Can we talk about the ferose fashion on Deathbird? This outfit she is wearing is this should be at the how fire Gala? This
is how fire Galla worthy to me. Starting from the bottom, it looks like she's got these kind of feathered knee high boots, and then she's got this body suit that comes up to her waist with a deep V. And then she has basically a metal looking braw boostier thing but with her abdomen showing. And then she has a shoulder shrug thing that turns into these feathery sleeves that droop down, and then of course her epic headgear. Oh, those sleeves are the best. Though. This is one of my top looks.
I think I love the look. I can tell the artists really loves to draw women, Like all the women look fantastic, the men look okay. It's like I can tell that this artist, Paco Diaz, he loves to draw himself a lady. Speaking of men, guess who's in the in the room? Gladiator. First time I ever saw a Gladiator, I'll never forget X in the animated series just seared into my memory totally. Anytime I see him just throwing backs across the ocean, like, You're like, how is
that possible? You've been a character of this. He's been around for a long time. I mean, this is a guy. He was in Contest, the Champions, he was in everything. And when you think about just like that whole X Men cosmic like scene, you can't talk about it without Gladiator, without the Imperial Guard. Well, they don't like what they hear from this rocky guy. They don't want to hear this slander, that this blasphemy that the people don't love vulcan, so death Bird takes a claw to
his face and scripts him across the mouth. How he I know, she says, I think the Chancellor is a politician who likes to play mind games, but he would do well to remember that you are emperor now, whether the Secret Order likes it or not. And then he wants to hear about why his brother and the star Jammers are not dead yet, and we cut to another spot in R space where the star Jammer and Armada of Rebel.
You know, this is all the Star Wars kind of reference. They're talking about cutting off supply lines, crippling the empire, all the strategy, and everybody's like, hey, Alex is kind of like really into this. He's really good at leading. Employers is like, just give him a minute. He's going he's going to going to ruin it. At some point, m they say that, wow, you're really good at strategy, and he's like, no, that's my brother and then my father. They're born leaders,
not me. And Polaris has like told you, Joe and Rachel totally denounces Kingdom. Hearts Wolverine escape. She's all like no, no, no, no, yeah, no longer dating. But then they end up landing on a planet and Havoc and Corvus are having a chat and he Corvius wants to know how to get back with Rachel and Havoc's advices. She likes cheeseburgers m and we cut to the bar where Rachel is using her psychic powers to stack up some shot classes because she's kind of bored, and she says, man,
I could go for a cheeseburger and my sweatpants. I missed my sweatpants. I love her. That's like all the time, I want sweatpants. Back in two thousand and seven, alien bar like this that was super stylized. That's like a dream, that's like something that you would never see. It was so fantastical. But now it's like, all right, well, we have one of these in Disneyland, and there's another one on Hollywood Boulevard called scumm and Villany Cantina, which is really cool. I highly recommended if
you're in the Hollywood area. We've got a couple of cool bar scenes in the book, and one of the most fun parts of kind of writing those scenes was getting to spend a lot of time like looking up species of Marvel aliens and populating the bars with like old school aliens from like the seventies and the eighties and even a couple from the nineties, and just kind of naming
as many alien races as I could. And I actually thought a lot of them were not going to fly because you know, it's two esoteric ords. You know, people won't know, but they're all in there. I love it. What was your favorite alien race that you just discover that you're like, whoa, this is like really funny and or weird. This is awesome. I'm putting it in. I wasn't as weird as I could be,
I'll be honest with you. A lot of it was recognizable aliens like xan Darians and pop up the ends, like the bar owner is like a pop up the end, which was actually kind of fun. It was like the Impossible Man, that character from The Fantastic Four. It's like a shape shifter. My favorite reference though, is there's a lot of like planets and stuff that kind of get thrown around, and at one point of Corsair references the planet Seagroom seven, which is a planet. There's a Hercules mini series that
Bob Layton did way back in the early eighties. I want to say where the last issue, he goes to this planet Seagroom seven, where it's like the best distillers in the universe. They make the best drinks in the universe, and basically they give him like this really powerful drink that he uses to
like get blacktus somewhat drunk. And so I've always loved that issue and I've loved that planet, and they actually referenced it in an episode of modoc on Hulu, one of the episodes actually using those characters in it, which is really a lot of fun. So I got to like reference that planet, which was fantastic. I was really happy to kind throw that in there.
Back with Polaris and Rachel, Rachel is on the hunt for information to find out what part of the Shier Empire murdered her family, and she found out that there is a secret Order within the Shire Empire and she is going to find them after they take down Vulcan, and she is going to kill them. I'm really hungry because you said secret order, and I thought in and out secret Order menu, Rachel Summers would be very happy to go have on with you as long as you bring out Oh yeah, I'm into it.
Me and Rachel, we need to go on a date. So back at Chandelar. What a beautiful city with you know, these towers that are huge, many moons are in the sky as well, and lots of ships. There's all sorts of citizens walking around talking about how they do not like the current emperor. This is the gossip moment, when he gets to hear what's
being said about him around town. And this one like older she are dude, He's like I heard he was a slave that de Ken took him in and was betrayed, murdered, all that piping tea another Arthur mutant like Lelandra's shame Xavier. And then he continues on they should take him out and shoot him in the head before he destroys the empire. There must be a true Sheer on the throne. This hooded figure looks up and sees a giant screen, a big JumboTron, and it's vulcan looking on majestic. It says kill
the false emperor in the Shire language. Yes, he's pulling a princess jasmine. You know, he has escaped the palace. He doesn't want to be a princess anymore, and he puts up his hood and just so she could be amongst the street urchins and learn how to how to be out of the palace. So how do you say death Birds name cal c Kelies? I always say Kelisi, which is not it? This is like Kelsey, Like oh, it's just like totally like like generic Kelsey Kelsey and just spelled so
special. Yeah. And she's in her in her robe too because she doesn't want to be recognized. And she's all like, the Emperor should not travel without an imperial guard escort. And he's all like, they are just as likely to try and kill me as anyone else. You're the true king. You got this, you came, you conquered, you married me. You know, I believe in you. And she goes, now, let's go kill some star chambers. Yeah, they get to make out too. It's
very romantic. It's like super villainy romantic. You know, you asked why I picked this issue. A lot of this like byplay between Vulcan and Death Bird. A lot of the political drama definitely comes into play in the novel. There's a lot of what has been set here that gets kind of called back to, you know, Bulcans sort of self esteem issues, Alex's self esteem issues, their relationship Bulkan and Deathbird relationship. A lot of that is
really what helps power, especially in the back half of the novel. Well, now we're back in space in a place that might tickle. Why because it's called feathers Edge. Eh eh okay. Just see, Polaris is cloaking the ship with her amazing powers. She is giving all her might and effort and flair aboard the ship and covering everybody in some sort of electro magnetic field. The approach the feathers Edge space station and there's a bree bree, bree,
and there is a huge explosion. There's incoming captain the energy signature. The she are are here, lots of them, and they find out that Emperor Vulcan has arrived with his armada. They knew Darjammers were going to attack the station. Vulcan says, my empire spies are good. Kill the X men, kill Kardoom and Lelandra, the others will fall in line. And we have Gladiator with his arms folded in the foreground and we get a close up on Vulcan's lips and he says now and then all of a sudden explosions.
Boom boom, ka ka boom. The star Jammers spaceship is trying to fly through all of these explosions in space, and Havoc is shouting evasive maneuvers. This is definitely like one of those epic Star Wars Star Trek final battles in the air, throwing a little bit of Starship troopers in there. This is an epic space battle. Yes, at the end of issue one, right m I know, they really brought it. And just when you think like, there's what, how are they going to get out of this?
How's Lelandra and the star Jammer is going to escape, when suddenly rooom kaboom, there's a massive explosion on Vulcan ship and everything explodes and we see that it is surrounded by a giant army of bug looking ships. Oh my gosh, look at all those ships in there. And some of those ships look like beetle bugs, they look like zwords, they look like these anthropomorphic ships. Oh. I love how the sheer ships are the shaped like their hair.
They look like the feathers. They look like the feathers, feather shape of their head and their hair. That's funny and Vulcan isn't a ship talking to glad Eaters, and he says, or should we kill them all? Tell me, glad Eater, you said before that the sire who defected had no honor? Would you kill them all? I serve Emperor. It is not my place to decide. And when you took my eye, was that service or was that your decision? Oh there's the tea right there, everybody,
Gladiator, Gladiator himself is the one that took Vulcan's eye. Throw Yeah, totally, his own bodyguard. So much, so much political craziness, but yeah, it's it's our pal glad to eat. So Lelandra and Akari and Polaris everybody. They are in shock. They're like, what what, what does happened? Dear God? And they said that they are getting this message in and they are finding out that they appeared to be calling themselves the sky are tall. So Choate says, hmm, they appear to be calling
themselves that she are tall, bold Choice and Wolverine kingdom. Hearts escape. He says, she are tall, but that means Rachel's comes in. She says death to the she are the name of their race means death to the she are close up on Havoc's eyeballs. Mmmm to be can continue their whole race? You guys is named after killing the she are people. Yes, wow, that's that's some dedication there. But she are a kind of bastards, I will say. I agree. They are jerks. They're horrible,
They are the Lanisters. One of the things that I thought was super fascinating when I was doing a lot of the research is that one of the stories before this was the Sheer basically coming to Earth and killing all of Jean Brady's family, right, like eliminating that bloodline except for Rachel, yes, her parents everything. Yeah, yeah, And like how can you make these guys allies after that? Right? They came and killed an entire lineage like of
humans, mutants and you know what have you. What I love about the fact is that Rachel is the one to say that at the end, because you end this issue on are these guys allies? Are the enemies? Do I work with them and kill you know, death to the Sher? Or do my partner with the Sher to fight this new threat? And so that's what I think the series sets up. Yeah, Flelandra and Xavier never got cozy. The X Men would totally be enemies with the she Are easily.
Oh yeah, it's all because of that two households both alike in dignity and fair Verona, that made it it's possible for them to even consider being, you know, in league with she Are. What's interesting is that if you look at the two teams, you know, teams like the X Men and then she Are Slash Imperial Guard, that whole military monarchy, whatever you want to call it. Over to the years, there's like a love hate really
like their enemies, the friends, their friends, their enemies. You know, there's a crossover around the time of where my book is set, called The Trial of Jean Gray, where if you've read it, it's it's great. It's it's a crossover with the Guardians of the Galaxy where they basically that she are put a time displaced Geen Gray on trial for of her what she will do, what you will do? Right, And it's it's a it's a great for us over but like again, enemies but kind of allies,
but kind of enemies. And so really, when I said Game of Rooms, you know, it's such a great comparison because you just have these political machinations between the various factions, and then when you look at the larger universe and you look at, you know, the rest of the Galactic Council, it becomes this wonderful, messy thing that I was really happy that I got to play in a little bit. I'm excited for this book to come out.
Just to reminder everybody, it comes out May second. You can pre order it now, but if they want to learn more about you, where do they find you online? I am on Twitter and Instagram Neil Clyde all one word for both of them. I post a lot of about the book, but I also post a lot about comics and Disney and food and my writing which is sporadic. But you can follow me on both those and the book comes out, Like you said, May second, School of X the
Phoenix Chase from Aconite Books slash Marvel. Really really really excited for it to come out. I hope everybody enjoys it. I hope everybody has as much fun with it as I had writing it. And we spent most of the time talking about Havoc and the star Jammers and the Sheer, but the start of the show is our pal Quentin choir kit Omega and he will never let you forget that. Definitely read it because writing him is always a joy,
just his sarcastic, chaotic nature. Just it's a gift for almost any writer. So thank you Grant Morrison for creating him. I really hope you all like the book. Thank you so much for being on the show. We really appreciate you coming on and bringing us a book that I've never read before. I never even knew that there was an X Men Ember of Vulcan mini
series, So thank you so much. Yeah, I'm glad I could bring you into the cause of it insanity that was Emperor Vulcan and that time period because all the books around then, you know, yos Ember Vulcan, Brue Bakers, X Men, Brian bendesss x Men, and they're just fantastic And if you have chance, you know, those of you who are listening, go back and read them or reread them or what have you, because they're
just so much fun. And thanks for definitely thanks for having me. I appreciate you giving me a chance to come on and chat about star Jammers and of course Aaron is Glorious Mustache. 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 x reads podcast, That's the Letter, x our ads Podcast on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Thanks so much for listening by