Latest / Vigilante Vibes Podcast / Ep. 102. Let's talk X-Men with the Escape the Mojoverse Podcast!

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Ep. 102. Let's talk X-Men with the Escape the Mojoverse Podcast! · Vigilante Vibes Podcast

0:16
Hello to all the comic fans, Marvel geeks, and all the nerds
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in between. Welcome to another episode of
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the Vigilante Vibes podcast where we talk all things Marvel
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along with other fandoms, but without the toxicity that's
0:25
taking up way too much space in each and every fandom.
0:28
I'm your host, Megan Nicole, and today I have two very special
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guests with me. You've probably heard of their
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excellent podcast, Escape the Mojoverse.
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If you haven't, what are you waiting for?
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As soon as this episode's over, you have to go look them up
0:40
because you won't be disappointed.
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So you can thank me later. They're fantastic.
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Please welcome Matt and Allison. Hello.
0:48
Hello. I'm so excited you guys are on.
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I've been such a big fan of yours for so long.
0:53
Yeah. Thank you so much.
0:54
Yeah, we're so excited. We're we're big fans of yours as
0:56
well. Well, great.
0:57
Why don't you tell us a little bit about you guys?
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So we're both teachers and outside of that, the, the
1:09
Allison, I've known each other for a long time and I got back
1:14
into comics in like 2020-2021, right around the like the middle
1:22
of the first wave of the pandemic.
1:24
And I really struggled to get my partner into comics.
1:29
It's really hard to like, you know, you want to share things,
1:32
especially when you're like so cooped up with each other.
1:35
And eventually, I think during the fall of X, it sort of hit a,
1:44
a breaking point where we were like, I'm going to tell you the
1:49
things that I have like, like my, my brains gonna make me tell
1:53
you something. It would probably be better if
1:55
we just like record these conversations and like, maybe we
1:59
try it. It was, it was the, the, the, I
2:02
think the cute part of this story that we've never told is
2:05
that it's like the lead up to our wedding that we decided to
2:08
do the podcast. It's like the month before the
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wedding, we were like, what if we in August?
2:14
So we started, we got married in May, but we were like OK in.
2:17
August, we'll launch. We got married in June.
2:19
The beginning of June? No, we did at the beginning of
2:25
June, and that's similar. OK, I know the date.
2:29
I'm sorry, getting myself in trouble, but we were like, we're
2:35
gonna launch this thing and we're gonna do it about the
2:38
X-Men cuz that was sort of what I was the most focused on.
2:43
I think I thank God every day that I hadn't gotten the
2:49
obsession I now have with like ROM V's Carnage series or we
2:56
would have a much different worst podcast.
2:59
I love Carnage, but I don't think people want to listen to
3:01
me talk about it that long. But then I just drug Allison
3:05
into it. And I think over the last like 8
3:07
months, you've sort of like, I think this is the time where
3:10
maybe you take over the narrative of this.
3:12
Yeah, so I'll, I'll catch it. Catch the ball.
3:15
You're passing to me. I wasn't really into comics
3:19
growing up. I was much more of a book girly,
3:22
much more into novels. I think the very first comic
3:26
book I ever got was it was a free comic book, a Powerpuff
3:30
Girls comic book that I think was being distributed by Burger
3:34
King. And I really liked it.
3:36
I read it a bunch, but I I didn't really think about.
3:40
I like, I saw that. I saw the X-Men movies, but I
3:42
never really read the comics. And then Matt just kept going on
3:45
and on about, about all of the Krakoa stuff.
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And I was like, I don't know what any of this means.
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I have no background. I have no visual.
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I'm just listening. And I was like, you know what?
3:55
Yeah, maybe we should make this a thing.
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And I feel like just since August, I feel like I am much
4:00
more enriched in the comic sphere.
4:04
However I do I am I everyday I realize that there is more and
4:08
more X-Men I do not know. Every time I think I know
4:11
something, there's like 10 more things that I'm like I I
4:15
discover that is something I need to explore.
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So I've really enjoyed it this this little adventure that we've
4:24
been doing together and I'm having a lot of fun.
4:27
So Matt was into the comics 1st and you jumped into X-Men comics
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of all comics? Like it is so complicated.
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Where did you start at? So we started reading modern
4:43
times from the ashes when that started.
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So I completely skipped Krakoa and just starting with this new
4:49
one. So I am probably, I have a much
4:51
nicer opinion of it than a lot of people do.
4:53
But with that, and then we were sprinkling in like the
4:57
foundation, like the basics, like the X-Men one O 1.
5:00
So I've read the Phoenix Saga, the Dark Phoenix Saga, and I've
5:04
read other things that are important.
5:10
Yeah. New X-Men, Astonishing X-Men.
5:14
And then on January we did a marathon where we read all of
5:18
New Mutants, which I really enjoyed.
5:21
I really liked New Mutants and it has definitely more of a if
5:25
you're only used to the movies, what you think the X-Men are
5:28
going to be. So I really, I really enjoyed
5:31
the new Mutants and I didn't call them the new X-Men.
5:34
They are the new mutants. I keep switching the names.
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So, so it's kind of been just going back and forth between
5:41
reading what's coming out this month, but also going and
5:44
getting my prerequisites of sorts so I can understand stuff
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a little bit more like we read the magic miniseries.
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So when the Magic solo come came out, I knew what they were
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talking about. So I've, I've really enjoyed it.
6:00
I like being able to go back and forth.
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It's not just, I'm not just, I'm not sitting down and starting
6:04
with X-Men #1 let's go and do that because that's going to
6:08
take forever and it's going to be boring.
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I'm just kind of jumping around and and and being led by Matt,
6:14
who knows much more about it than I do.
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I'd say that's fair, Matt. How's it feel that now that
6:20
she's finally into it? It good.
6:23
Honestly, I'm I'm really impressed with my with Allison's
6:29
how far she's come really like it's it's really interesting to
6:35
think like this time last year, Allison had never picked up a an
6:41
X-Men comic at all. And then a week or two ago,
6:45
Alison did a solo interview with Erica Schultz about the Laura
6:49
Kinney book and totally fielded questions and understood what
6:54
was going on and was able to kind of banter in a way that I
6:59
don't think that they would have been able to do until pretty
7:03
recently, right? Like it's been really, I always
7:06
say this about Allison and I try not to.
7:08
I don't really have to come onto your podcast and just like gas
7:11
my spouse up but. You should look.
7:14
You forgot what day you were married, so you might as well
7:18
want. To do that, I did.
7:19
You know what? Actually, you're right.
7:20
That's. What's the number?
7:21
What's the number, Matt? It's 6-7, so it's June 7th.
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Yeah, I know the 6-7. I just didn't.
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I was in my head. May was the 6th month.
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That was really what I was doing.
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No, the Allison is has a such a high learning curve.
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Like you will start as a beginner very like in a lot of
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things, but the like anybody will.
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But you're you're you're learning.
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You get so good at things so quickly.
7:50
Thank you. It's the autism.
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Yeah, a little bit. But yeah, no, I, I, I'm really
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impressed that she's been able to handle as much as she has.
8:03
We do 2 episodes a week like it it, but half of them are the
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X-Men. So on Mondays we talk about the
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X-Men and on Fridays we talk about kind of whatever we want.
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That kind of gives us some leeway to talk about other
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comics, I think like. A thing I really enjoyed was I
8:19
brought to Matt a web comic that I had read that I actually this
8:24
artist. They have a very finished name,
8:27
Otava. Otava Hekila.
8:30
Heck, Kayla, that's what OK. And he started making a comic, a
8:34
web comic that was updating not even like regularly, just
8:37
whenever he could put it out when I was in high school and I
8:41
would go back to the I had bookmarked the website and I
8:42
would just go back to it all the time.
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It was called Judeka. He never finished that one, but
8:48
he because he stopped it in like 2016.
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But he's made other complete like small comics since then.
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And so we got to have an episode where I showed Matt those comics
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and I got to explain like why they're special to me.
9:00
Because like, this is something I kind of grew up with and I got
9:02
to see the artist grow as I was kind of growing as well.
9:07
And I just really enjoyed that. So we got to do some of that.
9:10
We get to read some Deadpool. We get to read, we get to kind
9:13
of do whatever. And I I really, I like the
9:16
freedom, but I also like coming back to the home base of X-Men
9:19
too. I feel that I have somewhere I'm
9:24
like, OK, I want to only talk about this in this series, but
9:27
then I have other episodes where I come back and just talk about
9:29
other things I like. It's nice that there is some
9:32
control to the chaos and comics are chaotic like X-Men comics.
9:38
That's a lot to dive into. Even with the new stuff, that is
9:42
a lot. So that's very commendable.
9:45
It is like your question earlier is very true, right?
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The X-Men is like if you were going to really try and get
9:50
someone into comics, you usually start with like a solo series
9:53
like a Batman or a Superman or Spider Man.
9:56
Like it's pretty easy to pick up for a non comics reader any of
10:00
those books because you're only considering the world of that
10:04
one character. We just did Scarlet Witch and it
10:07
was so much simpler. A great series.
10:10
Steve Orlando, Scarlet Witch, everybody should be reading.
10:12
And I'm so excited for this new mini, but it's if we'd started
10:17
with Scarlet Witch instead of starting with, OK, you're not
10:20
gonna understand everything, it's gonna take some time to
10:23
totally get everything that's happening, then I don't think we
10:26
could have gotten you into the X-Men at all, really.
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I think you kind of have to dive in head first.
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You kind of have to challenge yourself.
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A little bit. And you definitely have to make
10:37
sure you actually like it, because if you're forcing
10:39
yourself to get into it and doing all the background and
10:42
trying to figure out you're just going to hate it, it's just a
10:45
chore. So it's hard to find one you
10:47
gravitate to. Comics know if you're pure of
10:50
heart, if you're if you're reading them with good
10:53
intentions. I also like that Matt is pretty
10:58
good at being like, hey, I think you'll like this one.
11:00
So we'll focus on that when speaking.
11:03
Just Speaking of getting married again, when we got married, we
11:06
gave everyone in our in our like wedding party.
11:10
Matt picked out a comic like an omnibus or a trade specifically
11:14
for that person that he thought they would like.
11:18
And I, I slowly, Matt's trying to get everyone else in our
11:22
friend circles into comics. It's not going as well as me
11:25
because again, I'm in the same house.
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I'm trapped. No, but I'm doing this all of my
11:30
free will, but like twice I'm I'm good, I'm good, but but
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trying to get other people into it.
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And people really like the gifts and as our friends have read
11:41
them and like they've asked for other suggestions, Matt's given
11:45
comic books to people at work to borrow and read like Matt's
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trying to get the word out. What?
11:52
That is true. I'd never done that before.
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But after we did that, it was like, I have this like work.
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You have like work friends and it's like, you know, are we
11:59
really friends? Like, do we have anything in
12:01
common other than the fact that we kind of struggle through
12:04
labor together, but especially in a school building, right?
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Like you have so much to say. It's like, oh God, this kid,
12:11
right? Like this is the person that's
12:12
driving me insane, right? Or the admin or whatever.
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And you don't really know if you're friends with someone.
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And I think sharing like media with them, sharing like, hey,
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this is a story that really means a lot to me.
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Do you want to check it out? It is so rewarding when it
12:30
works. It can be really, it can really
12:32
hurt you when it doesn't work. It can really like you try not
12:35
to like put your heart on it too much.
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You're like, and if you don't like it, you don't like it.
12:38
But if they love it, it really feels like amazing.
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And I think that has been the most rewarding thing about
12:44
Escape the Mojiverse, is that for the most part, there really
12:47
hasn't been anything that you didn't have some appreciation
12:52
for. I mean, because the everything
12:56
that goes into making a comic is work.
12:58
Like there's art that I could never do.
13:00
There's writing and plot line threading that I could never do
13:03
to. There's stuff that and there's
13:05
editing, there's the printing of it.
13:07
Like there's so many hands that go into it that like even if I
13:10
don't like the comic, there's something good about it.
13:12
There's something worth praising, which I don't think is
13:16
true for every art form. I think that like if someone
13:20
writes a bad article and you read it and you don't like it,
13:23
it's kind of like, well, that's it.
13:25
That's I don't have anything else to say about it.
13:27
But a comic book has so many different things going on, like
13:30
what came before it? What does it have to connect to?
13:32
Is this part of a bigger thing? Is this the history of what is
13:35
this author's other work? Does it relate to that?
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It's there's so much to go into it.
13:39
It's basically just like being in a in an English class all the
13:42
time and I really like it. I will say there there's been a
13:46
comic or two, I was like, there was absolutely not a single
13:48
thing I liked about that stupid thing.
13:51
Oh, I have one. I have one that I've read so far
13:53
that I didn't like anything about.
13:55
What is it? It was if Donald Duck was
13:57
Wolverine, which I know is for children.
13:59
I know it's for children. But like still.
14:02
But it was, it was so funny. It's like the 6th or 7th episode
14:07
we ever did. And Allison goes so hard
14:11
negative about it. And it's it's of course like
14:16
it's not for you. It's like the thing, it's not
14:18
for us, but. I just don't see any child
14:21
enjoying it. I think honestly now, if you
14:24
went back to it knowing some of those stories, like, you know,
14:27
Dark Phoenix and you know some of The Wolverine stories, I
14:30
think you might at least go, I see what they're doing there.
14:34
Because if you don't have the background and it's just making
14:37
allusions to stories you don't know.
14:39
There's two things I don't like. It's Donald Duck if he was
14:42
Wolverine, and those stupid Eminem ads on the back of all
14:45
the comics. God, you really?
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I think, I think they're getting better, but I think they're
14:49
really boring visually and I think their marketing department
14:52
can do a lot better. In your defense, every single
14:57
X-Men comic in the month of March had.
15:00
That had the same boring thing on the back of it.
15:04
It was. Maybe it's just.
15:05
The red Eminem walking towards you and then in the background
15:08
the silhouette of him like he's at a Sears catalog.
15:12
It's. Actually it's.
15:13
Banner walking away sad is what he's doing, but.
15:18
Those are those are the and and I didn't, I guess I didn't love
15:21
the Fallen Angels mini series of New Mutants.
15:23
That was a rough spot. But the actual comics, I'm like,
15:26
there's something here, there's something there, there's always
15:29
something to be appreciated. I read a comic one time and oh I
15:34
cannot remember the name of it but it was so stupid.
15:37
It was about a pop star who was also part demon but like she
15:44
didn't know she was part demon and it was just.
15:46
It tried so hard to be modern. It tried so hard.
15:50
It was like slay queen, slay demon and it was like, I hope
15:55
this thing burns like just sets on fire in my hands.
15:59
Like it's like, it's like, you know, it's like a 40 year old
16:02
white man who wrote it and it's like play queen, yes.
16:05
And it's like, I, I know it hurt your soul to write it.
16:09
How do you think I felt reading it?
16:11
I'm offended. What about you, Matt?
16:16
What's some What's some comics you hate?
16:18
Yeah. Is there something that really
16:19
grinds your gears? OK, so I have maybe a different
16:22
relationship with comics that I hate.
16:24
I have Allison talked about having autism.
16:27
I have obsessive compulsive disorder.
16:29
Like legitimately I'm diagnosed and I've been living with it for
16:32
a very long time. I hated a comic when I was a kid
16:38
that I am obsessed with. Like to say that I hate it is
16:42
actually probably incorrect. I am fascinated with it.
16:46
It's Weapon X by Frank Teary. It is a grim, grimy,
16:52
misogynistic, really brutal comic about a concentration camp
16:57
where for mutants that is like the main characters, the main
17:03
character of which is the guy, the human guy who runs the
17:06
concentration camp. It has so many like really
17:10
problematic and, and awful things that happen and it's not
17:14
a good experience, but I'm so fascinated by it because its
17:20
existence I think is really interesting.
17:22
Right? Like I, it was right around the
17:24
time that the comics Code had ended and the idea that like the
17:29
comics code had been censoring comics, self censoring, but
17:33
censoring comics for 40 or 50 years and all of a sudden they
17:37
had the freedom to do anything. And so they're pushing against
17:41
it. And it's a story about people in
17:42
prison fighting against being in prison.
17:45
So it's it's oddly, by being a bad time, it is formating the
17:53
art, right. It is a bad time because the
17:56
characters are kind of having a bad time.
17:58
Frank Teary, I think is a really brilliant writer and he can
18:01
write a good book about bad people.
18:04
He's currently writing Sabertooth.
18:07
I always call it Sabertooth. Dead and loving it.
18:08
It's called Sabertooth. The dead don't talk.
18:12
The dead don't talk but we it is just known as Saber tooth dead.
18:16
Loving it in our house. I'm never going to think of it
18:18
another name ever. I'm going to, if I go to Dallas
18:21
fan Con, I'm going to tell Frank Terry that.
18:23
I call it that. But I, the book is not great,
18:30
but there are moments in it that work against all odds that I
18:37
can't totally hate it. So I really, and I struggle with
18:40
this with all art. When I, I, I see something that
18:44
is totally broken. I kind of like bad movies.
18:46
I kind of like bad like art because it, I can see the pieces
18:50
of it, right. And so I think like the last
18:55
time I had a really bad time reading a comic, it's probably
19:00
Avx really. And that is more of me, the
19:03
fandom version, like less the like artistic, like I wanna talk
19:06
about what it means and more the like why are you playing with my
19:09
toys wrong kind of guy. And Avx feels like that a lot to
19:14
me as somebody who not honestly, the X-Men are not really poorly
19:18
characterized. It's Captain America who's
19:20
really poorly characterized. Just walking onto Genosha and
19:23
beating up like poor brown kids, really.
19:27
And it's it's just not a good look for a character who like, I
19:33
think can become a really like nasty character in the wrong
19:39
hands, right? Captain America is already this
19:41
loaded thing, right? Like, America is not a neutral
19:45
idea, but Captain America is supposed to represent the best
19:49
of what we could possibly be. And the second that you let him
19:52
represent more what America really is, he becomes nasty.
19:58
Yeah. It becomes very much US agent.
20:02
You can see a lot of a lot of parallels there.
20:05
Definitely. Yeah, Speaking of US, Agent,
20:08
he's about to be in Thunderbolts.
20:11
Do you guys, do you watch the X-Men movies?
20:14
Do you dabble in the current MCU very often?
20:17
We never really see you film, certainly.
20:19
Yeah, we've been completely up to date.
20:21
I don't. I feel like we missed one.
20:26
You didn't see the Eternals I? Watched it later.
20:29
It was it was during the pandemic that that came out,
20:31
too, yeah. I feel like it was something
20:33
after Quantomania that we missed.
20:35
Oh, you also did not see Thor Four.
20:39
I saw Thor 4. Thor 4/4 Thors.
20:42
Yes, you don't need to see it just.
20:44
Don't sorry, we make dumb names for every movie.
20:46
I'm just not realizing we don't call any movie by its actual
20:49
name. We just have a little silly name
20:51
that we call it and it's just the language we speak that's.
20:54
Cute though. Yeah, we're excited for
20:56
Thunderbolts, though. I am.
21:00
No, I am. I am too.
21:01
I, No, I, I, I am too. I think I'm a little bit more
21:04
excited for Fantastic Four, but maybe that's just because I just
21:06
watched the trailer. We did just watch the trailer.
21:09
That trailer. And I've read some Fantastic
21:12
Four comics and I really like it.
21:13
Honestly, the thing that OK, so the quickest way to get me to
21:16
read a book is to put a romance in it, especially if it's a
21:20
romance with like like a like an ugly guy.
21:25
That sounds weird. Like no, like Ben Grimm and the
21:28
under Alicia master. Yeah, like Ben Grimm and Alicia
21:31
masters. Love that.
21:32
Or like a Beauty and the Beast kind of story.
21:34
I love a beauty and the beast kind of story, so Ben Grimm
21:39
always at beta Rayville Reddit like every if you show me
21:43
anything like that, I'm going to instantly want to read it.
21:46
So I've I've literally there is a really for what I know of it
21:52
bad miniseries of Dazzler and beast called Beauty and the
21:55
beast and I want to read it so bad, but Matt keeps saying it's
21:58
so bad. It's so bad you don't want to
21:59
read it. I want to.
22:00
Read it. It's Dazzler.
22:02
And who? It's Beast.
22:03
Yeah. Hank McCoy.
22:05
I need to read that. You might, honestly.
22:08
That bad? Like honestly.
22:10
It's four. It's only four comics.
22:12
Like it's not long. The usual Dazzler way.
22:15
Only a few comics for her. Exactly it was during her is
22:20
either during or right after her her solo run or original solo
22:24
run, which is I love the dazzler original solo run.
22:28
Actually, I we have the Omni. Can you can you go get the Omni
22:33
just to do a visual? Bit for me.
22:35
But I know this is an audio podcast.
22:37
I'll do it. But then when you talk, I'll get
22:38
it. When you talk, let me, let me
22:39
finish what I was just saying. Gotcha.
22:41
The Beauty and the Beast is Beast and Dazzler trying to
22:46
become famous in Hollywood and then they get sucked into a
22:50
fighting ring that is sort of run by Doctor Doom.
22:56
Maybe. It is the dumbest book I've ever
22:58
read. I wouldn't say it's bad so much
23:01
as it is like inessential and kind of dumb.
23:06
Sounds good, inessential, and kind of dumb.
23:09
I thought I was going to make a joke but it just didn't quite
23:12
get there for me. I.
23:12
Feel that sometimes it just doesn't land in your head and
23:16
it's like, you know, it doesn't work.
23:17
It just. And that's why I appreciate
23:19
comics writers, because they can always complete the thought.
23:22
Yeah, I can never. I could never.
23:25
Look at this giant Dazzler omnibus.
23:29
Oh my gosh. It is the biggest book in our
23:31
whole house and if we're where there's ever an intruder, we
23:35
will definitely use it as. There is there are two things
23:39
Matt has said that he that they will use to hurt an intruder,
23:42
which has never happened and never will.
23:45
It's that that Dazzler Omnibus and my mechanical keyboard,
23:51
which is surprisingly heavy. One time for an intruder I used
23:57
a juicer. Oh, really?
24:00
I broke it. Yeah, yeah, It was my my, my
24:04
husband. Boyfriend at the time.
24:06
It was his cousin. And I didn't know it was his
24:08
cousin. Oh.
24:09
My gosh. So he intruded.
24:11
He did. He did.
24:13
It's your house. It was at my house and he had
24:16
like just moved in so like I didn't know he was coming in and
24:18
out all times of the night. I had no idea.
24:21
I thought he was a normal dude and I picked up the juicer and
24:25
threw it at him because I saw only the back of him and he
24:29
stayed in at night for the remainder of his time and I lost
24:35
a juicer. Yeah, you hit him with a juicer.
24:37
So he he was like I I guess I'm gonna I have a curfew.
24:40
He. He was like, you could say that
24:43
really put him in a squeeze. There it is that landed.
24:48
That, that wasn't. That wasn't that good.
24:49
That wasn't. Good, that was.
24:50
Oh, give yourself some credit. It was.
24:51
Great. OK, OK, I will.
24:53
So Speaking of Dazzler, what did you guys think of Jason Lowe's
24:57
Dazzler run? I thought it was really fun.
25:00
I think it has a very distinct mood separate from the rest of
25:03
the X-Men comics. It's very like Saturday morning
25:06
fun and like not too. It doesn't get too down.
25:11
It's has a very light kind of atmosphere and I really like
25:14
that. Yeah, Jason Logan's what is
25:17
interesting about Ali, which is that she, unlike a lot of the
25:22
X-Men, wants to be famous. Like there is this like that's a
25:27
unique desire for an X-Men character and that she likes
25:31
being famous. She likes being a superstar.
25:35
And I loved the tone of that book.
25:37
I loved the art of the art of that book is really great.
25:40
They're so. Whimsical and pretty.
25:42
There is one joke in that book that is so funny.
25:45
We've talked about this on our podcast.
25:47
In the very first issue, there's these protesters who are outside
25:50
the Dazzler concert, and there's a guy who has a sign that says
25:55
God hates Dazzler. And The funny thing about that
25:59
is Dazzler dated the Beyonder. So that guy's not totally wrong
26:06
that God hates Dazzler. He means it differently, like he
26:10
means it bad. And it's a reference to really
26:12
reprehensible real world politics, obviously.
26:15
But it is funny that like, I mean, you're not totally wrong.
26:20
A God hates Dazzler for sure. Hey I got a question.
26:23
Is there anyone that Dazzler hasn't dated?
26:28
Iceman. She gets a yeah, probably
26:30
Iceman. Iceman got around though, went
26:32
before he was out. He dated a lot of women, as a
26:36
lot of hot closeted men will do, right?
26:41
It's yeah, No, they definitely didn't.
26:45
Dazzler. And you know, honestly, Allie,
26:48
the thing that's preventing Allie from dating things is
26:50
dating people is that she was out of publication for a long
26:53
time. 100% yes. She would be such a big hoe bag
26:58
if we got more of her and I'm here for it.
27:00
And I wish we I hope we get more of her I love.
27:03
Well, in the mini she had like a little thing with Domino that I
27:06
was very interested in seeing further.
27:08
Off I kind of felt like that was the direction that was going
27:11
because there's this whole fight where like she's teaching her
27:14
how to like like Kickbox and they do like this like
27:17
submission hold and yeah, she has a boyfriend that's off
27:20
panel. But then when we come back in
27:23
Contest of Champions or concert of champions, sorry, concert of
27:27
champions, she's broken up with that boyfriend and she's still
27:30
kind of talking about that domino.
27:32
And so I I think if they would let Jason Lowe canonically make
27:37
Ally bisexual or or pansexual, I think that they probably would
27:42
have guessed on panel. But that's such a like, you have
27:45
to really like make the decision what the character is going to
27:48
be sometimes. I could see it though with
27:53
Allison, like she's that kind of woman.
27:56
Like I don't care, this is what I want.
28:00
Everyone already hates me for being mutant, why not come out?
28:03
Because let's be honest, a lot of her lyrics were 100% coming
28:07
out lyrics. Definitely.
28:09
It's it's like Out and Proud is like the title of the main song
28:12
on the album. Yeah, that was, if there was one
28:15
thing I was. And it's not a disappointment of
28:17
the artist or the writer. It was that like, it felt like
28:21
the book wanted to say something about that and it never really
28:24
got to it. And then when Concert of
28:26
Champions came out this month, I was like, OK, maybe this will be
28:30
the book. And it still kind of doesn't.
28:33
Jason Lowe is writing a story for the Hellfire Vigil, which,
28:38
yes, does make me hopeful that maybe, like, that's a moment,
28:41
right? I imagine a lot of big reveals
28:44
will happen in that book. So if we were gonna do Ally and
28:48
Domino, 2 characters I love and would be happy to see together,
28:52
maybe this is the moment for it, you know?
28:56
Yeah. Plus he has all those other
28:58
writers joining him. So I feel like that would be the
29:01
moment to do it because definitely with every other
29:03
writer, it kind of shows like they're like, we support this,
29:07
we're all on board with him. I think that would be the time
29:10
to do it. Definitely, I think we will get
29:14
a a couple of romance. How do you are you?
29:15
Are you excited for the the Hellfire Vigil?
29:19
Yes, I'm so happy. I love the lineup.
29:23
I love all that's involved. I love that it's Luciano Vecchio
29:27
is the artist of the cover artist.
29:29
He is so talented. I've interviewed him before.
29:32
He is the sweetest man of all time who said he's always loved
29:38
X-Men because he can connect with them, because he's gay and.
29:43
Yeah, and ever since then I've been obsessed with all of his
29:46
work. He's amazing and I want to adopt
29:48
him, but I don't think it's going to work.
29:50
Probably not, he probably won't let you adopt him, but he is
29:53
you. You're absolutely right.
29:55
It's such an incredible X-Men artist.
29:57
When he did so I I was not super familiar with his work until he
30:01
did Resurrection of Magneto. And Resurrection of Magneto is
30:05
such a beautiful looking book. Al Ewing is great, but the heart
30:08
in that book is the star. And then and then Luciano
30:11
Vacheco got to do the end basically of Fall of X, that
30:14
beautiful shot of the phoenix like uppercutting enigma.
30:20
The end of Fall of X is a lot of like what is happening but the
30:25
art. Is incredible, yeah, that's
30:27
something I'll never take away from it.
30:29
The Fall of X, it was very, if you're not familiar with the
30:34
comics, it's very, very confusing.
30:35
You don't know where to go. And you're like, OK, so I just
30:37
read the next one in the series. You're like, no, you read the
30:40
next one in this series and then this one.
30:42
And when you come back to it, you'll be 10 page, you'll be 10
30:46
stories ahead. And it's so hard.
30:49
They did so, so much. To say nothing of the fact that
30:54
Wolverine was taking place like months before it, even though
30:58
it's coming out at the same time it was telling a story of a
31:02
right before all of that happens and you're saying you're
31:07
supposed to read House of All of the House of X and then Rise of
31:10
the Powers of X. But The thing is, only near the
31:13
end, really, are you supposed to do that?
31:15
So it's like at first you're supposed to read Fall of the
31:17
House of X, Fall of the House of X, Fall of the House of X.
31:20
Then in the middle you switched it to going back and forth and
31:24
that. Is.
31:25
Untenable. Like I truly, I like some of the
31:29
story that's told there. I think the artists and writers
31:31
are really good. But the reason that that rises
31:35
there, oh gosh, what's this era called From the Ashes was
31:39
important was that there was bloat.
31:42
Like they they had come to a point where they needed sort of
31:45
a reset. Yeah, which I think a lot of lot
31:50
of comics should look into doing because you really are.
31:53
You do come to a point where you've done everything that you
31:56
can do with a character. Also with multiple characters
32:00
lives like Krakow, we did so much with Krakowa, it makes
32:03
sense why they reboot it. And with how many comics there
32:07
are in for X-Men, no one can jump in, just ask Allison.
32:12
So the reboot was for it's difficult.
32:15
Yeah, the reboot was for people like Allison who wanted to jump
32:18
in. Who wants to know these
32:19
characters but doesn't want to wait?
32:21
Let's read 50 years plus of work.
32:24
I, I think it's actually a really good time to start
32:27
reading the X-Men because all of the characters are kind of
32:30
starting in the same place. They're all starting with we had
32:33
a paradise and we've lost it and how are we moving on from there
32:36
as opposed to like tuning in? This person is a robot Cyborg
32:41
from the future and the past and, and it's like, wait, what?
32:46
That's very, very true. Plus they've they've already
32:49
given us so much in From the Ashes, so much so that they're
32:54
kind of cutting the fat and getting rid of their ending.
32:57
NYXX Factor X Force. Do you have any ideas what you'd
33:02
like to see in their place? Well, I and we've we've talked
33:12
about this on with you on our show.
33:13
I loved X force, but so I would love to see something by Jeffrey
33:19
Thorne. I think Jeffrey Thorne is a
33:20
really like thoughtful writer. I I wanna see where Betsy and
33:27
Rachel go like I wanna see. Where I was gonna say Betsy and
33:29
Rachel. I wanna see Betsy and Rachel.
33:31
Yeah, I wanna see where Sage goes.
33:33
I, I, I wish I cared who tank was.
33:36
I can, I can admit that that the cut off, getting it cut off at
33:40
10 really makes that mystery sort of like go, well, I guess
33:44
you know, whatever. But I with X Factor, I think
33:51
honestly, letting Jason Lowe do a book would be a really good
33:54
replacement because Mark Russell is brilliantly funny.
33:58
And the things that work about X Factor are the fact that it it
34:03
tries to be a humorous book, that it is cutting and and and
34:07
political. And Jason Lowe has a really
34:11
sweet heart and is very fun. Can't help but be funny.
34:16
Like even his Werewolf by night, which is a red band book, is
34:21
pretty funny. Like, it really cannot help
34:25
himself. So I think a humor book that
34:27
that he's in charge of would be cool.
34:30
You know, I would love to see, I would love to see Alex Pacnardel
34:36
get maybe an ongoing. I like Sentinels a lot, too.
34:41
Yeah. We really loved Sentinels
34:44
especially. It was so underrated.
34:47
Yeah, I think it's hard to get X-Men fans on board for the
34:52
pitch for that book. But if you read any of it,
34:55
you're like, it's not a pro Sentinel book like that.
34:58
That book is very, it's like RoboCop is not pro robot cop,
35:02
right? Yeah.
35:05
It was very it was very grounded for an X-Men centered book.
35:09
And I feel like people are like, why do I want to watch read this
35:13
about a Sentinel? It's like you just don't get
35:15
open your eyes. And then, sorry, I think there's
35:20
a, there was a similar thing, not to bring it back to The
35:22
Hunger Games 'cause I always bring it back to The Hunger
35:24
Games or Star Trek. But when they first announced
35:29
Ballad of Songbirds and Stinks, a lot of people were like, I
35:31
don't want to read from President Snow's point of view.
35:34
Like, why would that? I don't want to read from a bad
35:36
guy's point of view. But in unlike the Sentinels,
35:40
which are rather sympathetic characters, when you read Ballad
35:43
of Songbirds and Stinks, it's very you just like watch him be
35:46
a psychopath and you're like, Oh my God.
35:49
And so I think that just because it's from the point of view of a
35:52
character we're not supposed to agree with doesn't mean it does
35:55
not have artistic merit. I think there's a lot of stories
35:59
that tell a story where where characters act in ways that you
36:03
don't agree with and that's OK to and then it's OK to look at
36:07
it from their point of view. It doesn't make you bad.
36:08
It doesn't make the writer bad. It's just exploring a concept.
36:12
And I think those are the tend to be very, very interesting
36:15
stories. I agree with that.
36:18
I feel like you need more than one perspective to get the full
36:22
story. Definitely.
36:23
I think I mean, and villain books have worked forever.
36:26
They've always had villain books.
36:28
It's not really like a more modern idea.
36:30
One of the best Marvel books, I think publishing is Carnage.
36:34
I said this earlier and now I actually am going to make this a
36:37
Carnage moment on your podcast. Sorry, Miguel.
36:39
I love carnage. I'm here for it.
36:41
I think that the Carnage book that is publishing and has like
36:44
the book that's been coming out since basically since like
36:47
Absolute Carnage, then ROM V's run and then Tarun Grobeck and
36:54
oh gosh, right now it's Eddie Brock Carnage, right?
36:57
All of those they have like that's Charles Solee and, and,
37:01
and Turin Gronbach and Romvi and Alex Packnadel and Cody Zieglar.
37:05
These are five of the best modern comics writers working
37:10
today. They write incredible books and
37:13
Carnage works because it's a it's a horror book.
37:16
It's a book about not about Carnage.
37:18
It's about how do you fight Carnage?
37:20
Like, how do you get away from this, like eldritch force of
37:24
hate, like, and, and the Eddie Brock Carnage book right now is
37:28
so good because Eddie's just so screwed, you know, from the
37:33
moment and he always is. Eddie's a great.
37:36
I don't always love Eddie Brock the character, but I do like
37:40
when he's his backs up against the wall when he's happy, he's
37:43
kind of a miserable character to be around.
37:45
But when he's he's miserable. Oh God, I like Eddie Brock, but
37:48
he's miserable because I can relate to being like feeling
37:51
stuck and being like, what are my options?
37:55
And they're all bad. And the Eddie Brock Carnage book
37:57
right now, Oh, that's a beautiful looking book.
38:00
There's these moments where we go into pitch black and it's in
38:03
Eddie's mind and Carnage looks like the devil.
38:06
He's wearing like a fedora and a suit.
38:09
And it's such a, it's such a funny gag from the guy who wrote
38:15
curse words. And gosh, a billion, 8 billion
38:20
genies like these books that are like hilarious and and mean.
38:26
And that's exactly what Carnage should be, right?
38:29
A funny like, like Freddy Krueger, right?
38:31
It's like that where they become this sort of gonzo comedy horror
38:35
because laughing and being afraid are closer than I think
38:38
we we ever know. So yeah.
38:42
But that doesn't mean I like Carnage the character.
38:45
It doesn't mean I think what he does is good.
38:47
It means that the book is good. Well, it's like we all, we all
38:52
look at Doom and we're like, he's badass, but we're not
38:55
saying like, but like he does do bad things, but he's still cool.
39:01
I comics, I feel like if you're only rooting for the heroes, if
39:05
you only want to read their stories, they're only getting
39:07
half of the comic because Magneto is a great example.
39:12
Sometimes he's a good guy, sometimes he's not, but you take
39:16
him for everything he is. Yeah, he's always Co.
39:19
And I think that's, I think because that's at the basis of
39:23
telling stories is stories are we want to explore something
39:28
that maybe we didn't necessarily experience in our life or we
39:32
want to go, we want to walk through these emotions in a safe
39:34
place. And so that's what stories are.
39:37
It's we can read about something really traumatic or something
39:41
like a terrible murder or this terrible thing happening to
39:44
someone because it's a safe space to experience that because
39:46
no one's getting hurt because it's a comic book or it's a
39:49
novel. It's a safe place to explore
39:52
those emotions, where we can explore our fears and we can
39:55
also laugh at them. Mark Russell came on our show
39:59
and said a really interesting thing about his book and
40:02
specifically about the bad guys in in X Factor.
40:05
And he was like, you don't have to like every character you
40:10
write, but you have to care for them.
40:12
You have to like. And he says every character I
40:15
write is a part of me. And it's a part of me that
40:18
deserves to say it's peace. So it's a part of it's like
40:22
this, this thought, this idea. And, and by giving it weight by
40:26
like giving like, OK, let's let's go through the thought
40:28
process of this bad person of this like buffoonish, like
40:34
capitalist who's running X Factor.
40:37
And by doing it, it becomes this kind of real, like very like
40:40
prescient, like, oh, these are the actual people who are really
40:44
running the real world right now in a way that is funny and makes
40:48
you upset and feels real. And and then by doing that, you
40:54
understand havoc. You understand the characters
40:57
who are up against this person or, and especially because they
41:00
have to just deal with them. It's not like they can punch
41:02
this guy, right? They have to just like put up
41:05
with him. I think that that's that thought
41:08
process is so on the page at all times with his books.
41:15
That's really interesting. I love how he said that.
41:17
It's like, I've never heard it that way, but it makes total
41:21
sense so. He's a very eloquent man.
41:27
We thought we were gonna interview him for like an hour.
41:29
We did it in 30 minutes and he answered every single question
41:32
as eloquently as possible. It's one of the shortest
41:35
episodes of escaping a bunch of birds.
41:38
Oh, I had a few like that. Erica Schultz was like that.
41:41
Stephanie Phillips was like that.
41:42
They gave you every single answer you could want, but they
41:46
had the answer at the ready and I was like, oh, I respect it.
41:51
Very nice. So as we get to the end of our
41:55
episode, thank you guys so much for being on.
41:57
By the way, I have loved this conversation.
41:59
Yeah, this was so fun. Yeah, so why don't you tell our
42:03
listeners where they can find you?
42:08
Well, you can. Matt should do this.
42:13
Every time Allison still on the podcast says the wrong thing.
42:16
It's OK though. We are escaped the Mojiverse on
42:20
Instagram and Mojiverse pod on Blue Sky.
42:22
We do not do Twitter any more other than to like post the
42:26
episode. But I'm not going to interact
42:27
with you on Twitter. So if you want to talk to me and
42:29
talk to Allison, we are on Blue Sky and we're on Instagram.
42:34
I'm Matt, parent on Blue Sky and she's Allison parents on Blue
42:38
Sky as well. Yeah.
42:41
Don't look for us on Instagram because we are teachers and we
42:43
have private Instagrams because children will, especially middle
42:48
school children, they're going to look for you.
42:50
Yeah. Well, great, and whoever is
42:54
listening to this episode, you can look in the show notes right
42:56
below the episode to find the links to their public pages so
43:01
you are able to follow them. So thank you for listening to
43:05
this episode of Vigilante Vibes. Wherever you're listening, click
43:07
that subscribe button so you don't miss any of my amazing
43:10
guests like Matt or my other amazing guests like Allison.
43:13
Thanks for listening. I hope you enjoyed it.
43:15
Have a marvelous night.