Episode 41 - Shadow and Flames Beyond! With Magik!

Hey Everyone, we have a special guest this week. Mr. John Klein III, the host of Shadow and Flame With Magik podcast. This is Part 1 of a Comic Book  Podcast Crossover. We chat Comic Book Crossovers, X-Men, and specifically about Magik from Ashley Allen and German Peralta.

John can be reached on Bluesky and everywhere else: @jackalsiii.bsky.social

shadowandflamewithmagik.com

His podcast can be found at: 

https://open.spotify.com/show/4ni7QBIN4wind5sVWqqI4M

https://www.youtube.com/JackalsiII

His son also has a budding Youtube channel:

 https://www.youtube.com/@WalkerDWorld

Please Send Questions and Feedback to Any of the following:

Bluesky: @comicbooksbeyond.bsky.social
Instagram: @comicbooksbeyond
Gmail: comicbooksbeyond@gmail.com

Check us out on Youtube as well!

Comic Books Beyond would like to thank:  The Crew of the Talking Comics Podcast, Brandon McNulty, Lisa and Brad from Comic Book Couples Counseling, Alex Jaffe, Jeremy Whitley, John Klein III and Jimmy Gaspero. 

Friend of and Inspiration of the Podcast, Mr. Bob Reyer of the Talking Comics Podcast, could use a little help. He currently has a Go Fund Me going, which I wanted to share.  If you are at all interested in helping out the Pod, please consider Donating to his Go Fund Me. He's a gem of a person, and a genuine human. 

https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-bob-reyer-a-hero-in-need/cl/d?utm_campaign=pd_ss_icons&utm_content=amp20_control&utm_medium=customer&utm_source=copy_link&attribution_id=sl%3A9ed7a0a3-5830-446c-9076-e45817964dd5&ts=1772029214

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:02

Hey everybody, and welcome to a very special episode of Comic Books Beyond, because we are joined by a very special guest, uh, my friend, who is the host of the Premier Kitty Pride Lockheed and Magic podcast, Shadow Flame with Magic. I have Mr. John Klein the third. John, floor is yours, sir.

SPEAKER_00 0:26

Thank you, Adam. Thanks for having me on the show. Yeah, uh appreciate the nice introduction. Off to a great start.

SPEAKER_01 0:34

So, John, can you give us your uh comic book origin story, please?

SPEAKER_00 0:38

Sure. I started life. Um, I grew up at an army base, and so my mom was always great about driving us. Whenever we went to church, we um would stop by the uh R R X first and pick up whatever comics. So I started off life as a Spider-Man fan, and then um came across uh Excalibur had uh uh Terry Kavanaugh, uh editor at the time and combo writer. He was editing Spider-Man The Adjectives book, and he was also writing Excalibur at the time, and so he had Excalibur show up in Spider-Man 25, and then they showed up in and then he showed up in Excalibur like the next month in like issue 63 or something, and I was like, Well, I like these groups, and then I liked them even more, and pretty much started reading Excalibur pretty much month in and month out after that, and really grew to love Kitty Pride and her pet dragon Lockheed and or pal Lockheed, and uh yeah, and so pretty much try rave both those trains until the Spider-Man franchise, and my mother was very supportive, was trying to get me both comics, and I I think back about her budget, where I was like, she just was wasting so much, but she's a great mother, and um, but yeah, and then just at one point I come to a crossroads and I went X-Men and haven't regretted it ever since.

SPEAKER_01 2:08

That is an awesome story. Um, so don't make fun of me. I've never actually read Xcaliber. That's like on the part of the X-Men verse that I just never touched too much of.

SPEAKER_00 2:17

Oh, sure. Well, it's skippable nowadays, but I mean Chris Caramont, Alan Davis launch it. It's the only longest running X uh uh Marvel comic that I own every issue of, and they have spin-offs and annuals and mini-series, but yeah, I'm a sucker for the Excalibur team.

SPEAKER_01 2:35

That's awesome. Uh I so little spoiler ahead for the show. Um, I'm definitely doing a full Claremont reread starting this year, and it will probably go well into next year because there is a uh ton of Claremont.

SPEAKER_00 2:52

Yeah, 16 and a half years of Uncanny Alone.

SPEAKER_01 2:55

Yeah, and that's not counting what new mutants. Yeah. Um he did Excalibur Exiles, the Wolverine mini-series. I think he might have started the Wolverine Maxi, I don't remember. And he's done a bunch of stuff since, I know.

SPEAKER_00 3:12

So yeah, it's no, it's it's a daunting task, but I mean, if you're gonna get into the X-Men, Claremont's definitely the way into it.

SPEAKER_01 3:21

Yeah. So, um, now we've uh got a pivot away from comics really quick, because no one survives this show without going through this question. So, John, you uh you get a$50 budget here. Uh what's your lunch order? Oh, dude. And you can go wherever you want, and you can even make up a mythical restaurant that only exists in the the X-verse. Well, I would what's your what's your budget here? Maybe someone just says, hey, you're a nice guy, you got 50. Where are we going? What are we getting?

SPEAKER_00 3:51

Well, nice. I'm from Yuma, Arizona, and my favorite restaurant there is Chili Peppers, so this will also be my go-to like last meal if I could pick a last meal before. Um, but it'd be chili peppers, the bean, rice, and cheese burrito, a mochaca burrito, a large horchata, uh jalapeno poppers, and then extra salsa because I just can't get enough of it.

SPEAKER_01 4:15

And now how spicy are we talking?

SPEAKER_00 4:18

Oh, it's it's just um like the a whisper of spice, really. But it's delicious though. Like the bee refried beans are amazing, the cheese just melts perfectly. The rice is there for texture, I guess. But and the mochaca is just an oily mess of like Mexican beef and oils. I can't imagine what else is in it, but it probably takes a month off your life, but it's delicious, and I love it so much. I mean, sometimes that's worth it. Yeah, right? Who's gonna be 88?

SPEAKER_01 4:50

I do I do love a uh nice burrito, so that's if uh if I ever swing out through Arizona, I'll definitely be there, man.

SPEAKER_00 4:57

Yeah, no, you should it's a permanent red spot throughout the entire year on ivory weather map, so you can go there dressed pretty warmly, except for the summers, you would die there, so you wanna get one of those water bottles and spray yourself down.

SPEAKER_01 5:11

No, you're you said you're in Arizona. Uh I'm in upstate New York, uh, Binghamton area. Uh, did I hear you say you were like originally from upstate New York at one point?

SPEAKER_00 5:21

Oh, my parents are. They're from Oneida, New York.

SPEAKER_01 5:24

That's like an hour from me.

SPEAKER_00 5:26

Oh, nice! Yeah, I've only been I haven't been there since I was five, and I barely like I have a memory of like my aunt's house where she had like a stairwell that like go into the attic. Like one of those like classic, like it's just like fireman pool with like as many steps as like limited, like as necessary to get you there, but and I always think about how like you couldn't like how do you put any boxes up there?

SPEAKER_01 5:52

I I have no idea. I I it's really cool that we're like kind of uh have that little like six degrees of separation of kind of that closeness. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:01

And I live in Montana currently with my f my wife and son.

SPEAKER_01 6:05

Oh, you're in so you're in Montana now and you just hang out in Arizona when you can?

SPEAKER_00 6:10

Yeah, but we haven't gone back in oh no, it's like been three years, but I'm due to go back eventually. But that's my home though. I was there you know from like five to got married at 25. Yeah, like I was there for like 20 years, so oh well, that's really awesome.

SPEAKER_01 6:25

Uh I also got married around 25. I was 25 or 26. I would have to do the math. I don't remember. I I remember the exact date I got married. I'm 37 now. But right, so that would have been I'm 42.

SPEAKER_00 6:40

I'm so much older than you, but that's my life now. You're not that much older.

SPEAKER_01 6:45

I mean you're you're four years older.

SPEAKER_00 6:47

My boss and my co-worker at work are both 37, and every so often it comes up where I'm like, oof, you guys.

SPEAKER_01 6:57

I I had a much younger boss once, but he was really cool. So yeah, I mean I can't be yeah, I I couldn't complain. My my boss now is equally as cool and a little bit older than me.

SPEAKER_02 7:09

And oh nice.

SPEAKER_01 7:11

I really like the um tradition you do on your show where whatever age you're turning, you review some of your favorite issues. Uh so with that, I just wanted to like turn it over to you a little bit. Do you want to promote your podcast? Maybe like tell us why you got into podcasting. That would be cool.

SPEAKER_00 7:27

Well, um, thank you for the segue. Uh yeah, the every my birthday's um the last day of January, so I usually build up my first months of podcasts with the episode the issue numbers of the series that um correspond to my soon-to-be age. And it started on my podcast or my website, Shadow and Flaming with Magic.com, and um, because you know, I think I I I the website started 13 years ago, and I feel like podcasts weren't even a thing then, maybe. And so I was like, well, I this would be a fun thing to do every Monday or so. And then um when I started the podcast like three years ago, um I was like, oh, I should just do this, but now, but now that I'm well, I guess we said our ages, but um there's not that many comic books anymore that go past issue 40 now, so like but I got I think I did eight this year, so and it's always I I'm a huge fan of the website comic um League of Comic Book Geeks, and like I could just pull up my collection, sort it by issue number, and then be like, oh, there's 20 like there's eight at issue 45s next year, so it's one of those things, but yeah, it's it's been fun, plus it's um gives me a chance about talk about retro comics, and I just you know the comics of yesterday are time tested, and they're just a joy to read.

SPEAKER_01 8:59

Oh, yeah, definitely. And yeah, um, so your podcast is called Shadow in Flame with Magic. Did I say that right? I always say SFWM. Um so you're uh specifically talking about three major characters most of the time, but uh you sometimes touch on some other stuff. I've I've heard a couple of the episodes where you've had like Spider-Man chats and just general X-Men stuff.

SPEAKER_00 9:24

Oh yes. Yeah, um yeah, nowadays I review um usually I've been doing a retro comic to launch it, the episode, and then I do pretty much anything that X-Men, a mutant, can even appear in. So like uh Inferno Hulk, uh issue seven that comes out in a month or so is gonna have Magic and Cyclops and the X-Men starting a big X-Men arc. So I'm looking forward to maybe getting more Hulk into my life, and the previous three issues have been great, and but yeah, every so often the X-Men get out of their tiny little pocket and explay with the other Marvel characters, but they really can play by themselves.

SPEAKER_01 10:10

Oh, yeah, definitely. And so one of the reasons that I wanted to uh have John in the show is uh I'm an I'm a pretty big fan of X-Men. I think I can say I've read more X-Men comics than I have any other property that exists in comics. That being said, I am so behind on X-Men that I am out of the loop. So um I stopped reading comics in like 2017-18, I forget exactly when. Uh, I don't know. Colin Bunn was doing uh Uncanny, Jeff Lemire was writing X not Extraordinary. Or wait, no, I think it was called Extraordinary. Um and Oh yeah. And uh there was the old man Logan series going on. There was a version of all new X-Men, it was after the Bendis stuff. So I think I I looked it up, I stopped reading right around the Avengers versus or the X-Men versus Inhuman stuff.

SPEAKER_02 11:10

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:11

And I when I went back to reread it, I'm like, I kind of understand why I, you know, it wasn't so hard because some of that stuff was not great.

SPEAKER_00 11:21

No. That's sort of when I quit buying monthly comics because I was getting them through the Hastings Entertainment chain of stores, and they went through like two different owners, and then they just shut Hastings down, and I lost my local comic book shop and had to like rely on podcasts to tell me what was going on because it was during an awkward time where digital comics weren't a thing.

SPEAKER_01 11:44

They weren't that good back then. No, like I I was just gonna go all digital just because I I couldn't really afford comics. Like I had bought my first house in I want to say it was 2016, and it was like a year, year and a half later. You kind of don't realize how much more expensive owning a house can be for the first couple of years, right? Because everything will break. Just notice to everyone on the on the world when you're buying your first house, set aside an extra five grand because your fridge is gonna break, your your uh washing machine is gonna break, your dishwasher is going to break, and that's gonna happen in one weekend, and you're gonna have an awkward Thanksgiving. Yes. Oh sorry about that. It's all good. Um, but yeah, no, I so like I just kind of fell out of it, and I had the opportunity to get back in, and like uh X-Men was one thing I wasn't sure if I wanted to do because I know how crazy X-Men was when I was reading it, and I come back to look and I saw there's like 20 X books published a month right now, and apparently I don't like being negative. I've heard a lot of like negative stuff on the X-Men stuff right now, yeah, and I I I haven't read it for all for myself, except for the two books we're talking about today. Nice. And uh, you know, I we're we're uh so we're talking about one book on this show, then um, you know, guys, uh secret of the industry here. Podcasting a lot like rock and roll is kind of scripted. So we're doing a good old-fashioned comic book crossover. Uh, I'm we're we're gonna end the recording and you know, when we finish our business here, and then we're gonna hop over to John's John's show and we're gonna put both episodes up. Now, unlike comic book crossovers, hopefully, if you don't want to listen to both, you don't have to. We want you to listen to both. But um I I I just kind of wanted to chat a little bit about just the nature of comic book crossovers. Like my show's kind of like intro to getting people to read comics. That's what I want people to do. Just read in general, but I love comics, so we're gonna talk about comics. Um, so what are your thoughts on comic book crossovers, John?

SPEAKER_00 14:00

Oh, I'm a big fan. Um, I know recently we had the Batman Deadpool, Deadpool, Batman ones, which I'm not much of a Deadpool guy, but the backup features were all pretty great. And uh we're having Superman Spider-Man this year. I think one of those comes out April and the other one May. And those all sound great too. And I'm Spider-Man and Superman are easier sale in my head, but even those have great um backup features too. But there's some uh legendary great ones like J-O-A Avengers with uh Kurt Busick and George Perez.

SPEAKER_01 14:38

I never got to read that one, but it I want to so bad.

SPEAKER_00 14:41

Do you copy my I I have this gorgeous hardcover and the individual issues?

SPEAKER_01 14:48

Oh my god, that is a treasure, sir.

SPEAKER_00 14:51

Yeah, I think they call it the treasure edition.

SPEAKER_01 14:53

I mean, that's one that uh I you can't buy that one digitally, I believe. You can't just walk into a store and buy that one. That is that is on my list of things I would like to have.

SPEAKER_00 15:04

But they are doing a reprint of individual issues starting in May.

SPEAKER_01 15:08

I will probably try to get those just so I can have some version of it. Um I'm buying a couple singles right now, like um, so one funny thing that kind of happened why I wanted to talk about crossovers a little bit. So I think crossovers are kind of a uniquely comic book thing. Like the medium really just lends itself to them. Like you occasionally have a TV show crossover, but it's more for like sillies. And I mean that's what comic book crossovers are too in marketing, but it's so cool that we have this whole universe we get to play in, and the books can cross over whenever they want. And I like it personally when the books cross over as a reward and not like a um I don't want to put I try not to be negative, but like there's some times where it does feel like a bit of just a marketing ploy or punishment.

SPEAKER_00 16:00

Well, I mean the c Marvel is famous for their infamous Mar um summer crossovers where you gotta buy all nine issues and everyone's gonna show up. And it's like I wish I like I'm still a little burnt out from two crossovers ago. So I'm not anticipating Armageddon out soon, but I'm like, I'll wait in slowly as the X-Men get involved, but so I I recently started reading Amazing Spider-Man again.

SPEAKER_01 16:26

Like my my forever books that I'll just pretty much buy no matter whose name's on them, um, are kind of like Amazing Spider-Man, Batman, Detective, and Nightwing, and usually Batgirl 2. Um on the Marvel side, I would love for it to be, you know, whatever the main Xbook is, but I'm not even sure what the main Xbook has been for a while, because for a long time it was uncanny. Then we had a time where we didn't have uncanny, and then I got more confused, right?

SPEAKER_00 16:56

Um I think X-Men Unite is supposed to be the main ship, but I think it was the first issue came out last week, and it's people it wasn't the slam dunk I was trying to make it out to be, like, but I recognize the people's product, but it has Kitty Pride as a main character, so I'm like, she's the only book she's in monthly, so give and I I wish I could follow titos, but my budget, I'm like, I got I but I picked three characters and I'm sticking with those guys, so I love your resolve on that.

SPEAKER_01 17:24

That's you just just the fact that you're so dedicated to you know uh Kitty Pride, Lockheed and Magic. I just think that's great.

SPEAKER_00 17:32

Unfortunately, Magic is super popular. When I went Magic, it was either going to be Magic or Rachel Summers, but Rachel was in the middle of the Shi R. And due to um Brub Ed Brubaker's um Rise and Fall of the Shiar Empire, and I was like, why were you because ideally having and I own every appearance of Lockheed, and so I own a bunch of Kitty Pride and Magic and Rachel, and um, but so I had a good chunk. I I could have gone either way, and Magic was dead at the time, unfortunately. And so I was like, well, it'd be cheaper to go Magic, and I don't want to follow Rachel at the moment. And now Magic's like in Fortnite, she's in Marvel Rivals, she's in that token fighting game coming out, like she is everywhere, and so I'm just like, well, now I feel like I can I won't buy it if I know she's on a cover, I can support a title, but I'm just like, she I might not buy every comic she's in, but I do add it to my wish list though.

SPEAKER_01 18:33

You can always scourge uh scour the back issue bins, yeah, exactly. Um it's funny you mentioned Rachel. Um did you uh ever listen to the podcast Jay and Miles Explain the X-Men?

SPEAKER_00 18:46

I you know what? For whatever reason, I have a blind spot for Miles. I mean, I love them. I know Jay Edden's amazing follow on Blue Sky, but Oh, 100%. Like I go I went Connor um Calibro and I went Oh gosh, oh gallo, wow, the Excalibur podcast, and um, and yours, mine. Oh, comic book uh queers is another one I listened to, but so I feel like I don't know for what reason I just I I haven't repped Miles and Jay, but I should though.

SPEAKER_01 19:18

I I would definitely give them a listen. I've been listening to them from the beginning again. Uh they they they uh I I was listening to them for a long time, then I fell off. They brought I I got to the one episode today where uh Jay brought up um I think his exact words was um Rachel is a continuity black hole. Oh, okay. Because I that's like Scott and Jean's kid from an alternate timeline with a swapped consciousness and stuff's moved around, and yeah, it's it's wild, but um during the uh cross time caper, which is an earthy Excalibur arc that goes on too long, like when people ask, and no one ever asks, but if anyone ever asks, like, hey, when can I jump off this?

SPEAKER_00 20:08

I'm like, as soon as you have the thought, because it doesn't pay off much. But there's that thing where they go to all these different um time um dimensions and there's no Rachel. I'm like, well, yeah, what's the chances of every Earth having a future daughter of Scott and Gene that goes back in time from an alternate? I'm like, yeah, there's a reason, Rachel, you're the only one that exists. Like they're like the scenarios to recreate her in every timeline would be crazy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:38

Um, are you reading um so this is gonna be the last thing on just general crossover stuff till we get into the issue or into to into this uh week's issue? Um, so are you reading um Amazing Spider-Man right now by any chance?

SPEAKER_00 20:52

No, I was reading the space issues because I thought Warlock was in there, but it's it happens to be a different transmode person, or whatever Warlock is these days. Technic. I know, I know Warlock. My your fan your audience was like shouting at me like he's part of the Technark. I know, I know he is.

SPEAKER_01 21:15

Um so I uh I I've been back into Amazing Spider-Man, like it's one of my forever books, like I said, that I call it. And I've been really enjoying this current run for a little bit. The space stuff was cool, but I actually really liked the on-earth stuff even more.

SPEAKER_00 21:30

Sure. And I love Joe Kelly, like he's one of my favorites.

SPEAKER_01 21:34

Oh, he's he's great. Uh I Kill Giants is one of my favorite stories. It's it's a great story.

SPEAKER_00 21:39

Oh, sure. Yeah. When I started reading buying X-Men and Uncanny monthly, it was him and Steve Siegel. Uh because Excalibur ended, and they brought Kitty, Nightcrawler, and Colossius over. And um at a at San Diego Comic Con, either in '98 or two thousand one, um I met Joe Kelly. He was signing a bunch of like X. X-Men comics. I was like, hey, I really love your Deadpool um series, and like as if I said a password, like he pulled up a Deadpool comic and was like, here you go, and sign it for me. I was like, Well, this is amazing.

SPEAKER_01 22:11

Oh, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 22:12

Nowadays it's the reverse that Deadpool is so popular, but and then like he was like it was a secret sidebook that like diehards knew about.

SPEAKER_01 22:21

I have um some of the original issues of Deadpool. I bought them in like a pack of like uh our uh CVS, like our grocery or not grocery store, uh pharmacy. Uh they used to just like sell overflow comics. Like I didn't really have a comic store. We had some stores that happen to have like some comics on the rack, so that's where I would get my stuff. And in this magical pack, I got Dead Deadpool 3 and 4, um, one of the X-Men Annuals, which apparently is worth a couple bucks. Uh or not X-Men, uh X-Force, uh some The Beast spinoff, and a couple other things. Like I have some of the Siegel uh issues of Uncanny that you mentioned. I was actually looking for an issue I wanted to show you tonight, but I I couldn't find it.

SPEAKER_00 23:06

Oh, there's some good issues there. I know they were immediately taking off the book because of sales and editorial nonsense, but I was like, I stand by the Kelly Siegel era, but I know it's not for everyone.

SPEAKER_01 23:19

That's one I'll definitely read. I don't know if I'm gonna read all of Uncanny. Like, you can't read all of X-Men, it's impossible. I mean, if you read maybe 10 issues a day, every day, never missed a beat, and kept up on every book coming out, you might do it in five years. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 23:35

Well, I always say start with 129 and just like move on from there. Like there's not that many, or maybe giant size and then go uncanny 129.

SPEAKER_01 23:44

That's a really good way to go. Like, uh, because but I'm partial. No, no, you you have a point because that's story, because it that's the first kitty story, and yeah, that's and Emma, and then you get Dazer the very next issue, so who has that? It's been forever since I've read that story arc. Uh, I'm I'm doing a I'm gonna finish out the Silver Age stuff. I just Oh, oof, bless you. It's you do like one to two issues a day, you skip the butt you skip the the uh the just the the narration boxes, right? Um, and then you just kind of you don't really need to read all of the words.

SPEAKER_00 24:21

Well, you're skipping the narration boxes. There's that whole movement about what is it, Kirby without Lee or something like that, where because like Jack Kirby way they did the Marlowe method, and I guess I'm explaining it not to you but to the audience, but um like Stan Lee would have like an outline, Kirby would like take the rough three sentences, make a comic, and then give it back to Stan, and then he would do the dialogue. But if you just read the art, like sometimes the art's telling you a completely different story than what the dialogue's telling you.

SPEAKER_01 24:54

Yeah, or sometimes it's telling you the exact same story. Oh, or sometimes the rest of your artist. Yeah, sometimes the dialogue is just uh I'm gonna punch you in the face, and Iceman punches a guy in the face. Right.

SPEAKER_00 25:07

Alan Davis has a legendary Excalibur run because he did both the writing and the artist, and he's a legendary artist, but you can tell his early plots are like it's like a very green writer writing for a legendary artist. So it's like, no, writer, trust your artist. But I imagine it's hard when the artist is yourself and you're just like, I gotta give him more like plot to do. Like, no, like trust it. But he's he his run gets amazing, though.

SPEAKER_01 25:34

And that was Alan Davis on what did you say that was Excalibur or Exiles?

SPEAKER_00 25:38

Yeah, Excalibur. It's like 36 to like 48 or something. Like it's not long enough, but it's a good chunk of change there.

SPEAKER_01 25:47

That is something I'm definitely gonna check out because I've never read Exiles or Excalibur. I haven't actually read much um I haven't read much early X-Factor. I've read entirely too much X-Force. I think I'm skipping all of that stuff because I don't need to be able to do that.

SPEAKER_00 26:01

Yeah, I'm not X-Force guy.

SPEAKER_01 26:03

Uh Uncanny X is worth reading. Uh Rick Reminder's Uncanny X-Force is good.

SPEAKER_00 26:12

And Kitty's in that for a couple issues herself. Is she? So I got a couple of my issues. Oh, nice.

unknown 26:18

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 26:19

Um, so the one of the reasons I actually asked you about Spider-Man earlier.

SPEAKER_00 26:23

Um this is just kind of And I'm a big Ben Riley fan too, so I was gonna ask you if Ben's in that title at all. Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:30

You Ben is currently in the Spider, is he's been a pretty major player the past couple issues.

SPEAKER_00 26:36

Uh he's not Chasm anymore or Casm?

SPEAKER_01 26:40

Uh it's complicated and I don't want to spoil anything for you. Well, that's been writing for you. Yeah, no, it's been I never read all of the clone saga, but I it's on those things where someone explained it to me, and like, I don't know if I want to read all of this. I will someday just to say I did it, but um, that's one that's an example of probably one of the biggest crossovers in history.

SPEAKER_00 27:06

Um, it's it's probably like well, I read that live or in the moment too. So, like I I know the clone saga. My my poor mother was buying every part of that thing. Your mother is a saint. She really was.

SPEAKER_01 27:19

Is um that because that was Web of Spider-Man, Amazing Spider-Man, Spectacular Spider-Man, or just regular Spider-Man.

SPEAKER_00 27:28

I think there was like a couple other things in there sensational, and then they would just do something called Maxim Clonage, Alpha and Omega, where it's like, all right, guys, with Spider Side, I think was his name.

SPEAKER_01 27:40

Like uh, and and right now there's a crossover that kind of irritated me a little bit because I'm reading Amazing, and I didn't even know this crossover was happening. I don't really look at previews because I don't want to be spoiled on stuff.

SPEAKER_00 27:54

Oh shoot, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:55

It'll be all about previews, but yeah, we actually kind of talked about that off off air at one point. Um, and we'll probably talk about it a little bit. Uh that'll be on your show though. Um sure, sure. I'm on so on um uh right now in Spider-Man, there's to get the whole story, you have to read Amazing Spider-Man, you have to read Venom, you have to read uh the mini-series, which is just called Death Spiral. Then apparently there's like two tacked on. It's solicited as part nine of or part like one of nine. So I wasn't reading Venom, nothing against Venom or LUing, just I have to be wise with my budget and no, I get that completely. Yeah, it's uh I I I s I buy the singles to support my local shop, and just like I have my forever books, and when they cross over, okay, this is an extra ten dollars a month that I gotta spend.

SPEAKER_00 28:47

And um, so you know and modern-day comics, like to Marvel's credit, they do give you that recap page right at the beginning, so you can get ideas of it, but yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:56

Like, I could probably be fine without it, but it also just kind of feels weird at the same place. Like, you have part one of nine, and then it goes to uh Venom is part three of nine. Like, well, could I just do I want to just spend five bucks or do I want to uh just skip this part of the story? But I mean it's still like five bucks, I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 29:18

Well, it's like in my memory, um X-Men Second Coming where hope is born and the battle for hope. And like in my mind, it sort of stops once Magic gets put into limbo and gets her own miniseries, and then there's like eight more parts to that story, but Magic jumps out and kitty's in a containment suit, so I don't have any memories of how that story ends. But apparently there's like four more parts where I'm just like, yeah, I don't know. My my memory stops here.

SPEAKER_01 29:49

Yeah, and like it's comic books, so kind of one one thing I like I like to bring up a lot is you can pretty much start wherever, but you there's some spots that are better to start for other. Um when I had uh when I had Alex Jaffe on the show, he said people get into comics because their dad's brother's friend had one random issue of like a 12-part series and said, Here you go, read this, and like that's what he did, and that's what I did. My uh one of my first comics is um Wolverine 79 from Fatal Attractions Era. Um, nice, yeah. If you haven't seen that cover, um look it up because that's not what you should be handing a four-year-old. Oh, sure.

SPEAKER_00 30:30

Yeah, there's some questionable yeah, yeah. But you know, I know I can't get my son into comics, but he likes the movies at least in cartoon series, but the comics themselves, he's just like, okay. You might get the interest someday. Like it. Yeah, I mean, he has a collection because I buy my comics. Um, well, that's another reason why I like solicitations because I need to know where my kiddie pride and magic appearances are. But sometimes I buy one that they don't show up, and I'm like, well, here you go, kid.

SPEAKER_01 30:59

Fair enough. Uh no, are you a variant guy by any chance?

SPEAKER_00 31:04

Um I would I use DCBS, and so if the main cover doesn't catch my eye, I will take a chance on a variant cover. But though I did for X-Men Unlimited buy every cover um Kitty was on, which I think was four covers, but wow. I don't seek them out. I'm I'm a one box is enough in my collection per issue. But that that's fair.

SPEAKER_01 31:26

Yeah, I'm I'm a whatever cover. I I like you know, the the A cover just for um sorting purposes, because like when you go to look up the cover, and you know, the other thing that I don't like that Marvel does right now, and it's it's a DC problem too, but uh they relaunch everything in 12 issues, which to your point earlier, eventually Marvel does 10 now. If that. And like when you're 88 and looking for books to review, it's it's it's gonna be slim picks.

SPEAKER_00 31:54

You're gonna get I think I think about it every so often where I'm like, do they even do issue 50s anymore?

SPEAKER_01 32:00

I'm like, alright. The longest running one that I've seen recently, it might have been Charles. No, they even relaunched Charles Soul Daredevil. I think Fantastic Four got into the mid-40s. I imagine they're gonna re-wind.

SPEAKER_00 32:17

But I feel like it pushed for 50, though. Kelly Thompson's no, Kelly McCorbicks. No, no, no, I think you're right. Kelly Thompson, right?

SPEAKER_01 32:28

I was gonna say, I thought it was Kelly Thompson who had a longer run, and I'm I haven't read that one yet, but I love Kelly Thompson, so that's on my list.

SPEAKER_00 32:35

Yeah, no, no, of course it's Kelly Thompson.

SPEAKER_01 32:37

Alright. So since we're uh coming, I think longer on time than we we thought we were gonna go anyway. No, no, no, you're fine. I don't I don't want to keep you. You have a wife and kids. I have a wife and kids. They're they're already asleep. Um they got enough of me at dinner, so uh uh so do we do you want to introduce the book we're talking about on this show? Oh sure. I didn't pick these, I had to default to the expert here. I have the privilege of talking to pretty much the magic expert on the on the internet. So I it's like it goes like Chris Claremont and then John, I think.

SPEAKER_00 33:14

I appreciate that. Uh yeah, so we're gonna do Magic, um her second series. Uh it was 10 issues, all of them by Ashley Allen, the writer. Uh and then oh no, I didn't my notes. The main artist was Herman Perata, and then he has a fill-in artist every so often, who's also great. And then he's paired with color artist Arthur Helsey, and then letter VC's Ariana Maurer, who's great. And um Yeah, I want to say there's 10 issues, so I bet he does six, and there's four fill-ins.

SPEAKER_01 33:52

That sounds about right. We're only we're only really gonna talk about plot points from issue one today. Usually we try to like keep it as uh unspoilerific as possible, and um, you know, I've uh so I we we've gone into a little bit of your history with magic, and you know, I I'm a big time X-Men fan. Magic is um the she was never one of like my absolute favorite characters, but I really always liked Magic. And uh so I kind of realized uh the other day, uh so I grew up on X-Men 92. Uh, you know, that cartoon. Oh, sure, yeah. She wasn't really in there except for like one small part. Um so I think Colossius flashback. Yep. So and I think that's straight out of uh what uh giant size? Giant size, yeah. That's that's I was like, I was gonna say big time, but I'm like, that's not true.

SPEAKER_00 34:45

I own many Colossius comics because of a young Ileana in there.

SPEAKER_01 34:49

So Colossus is one of my favorites, but uh when he goes to save uh Ileana from you know being trampled by like a train or a tractor, I can't remember what it was. Um he said the name Ilyana, and I kind of like the way he said it. And uh so I'm the mutt of people that come from that region. I'm like Russian, Lithuanian, Polish, and I thought you know Iliana's a nice name. If I ever had a daughter, I would name her Ileana. Uh and then then I decided I don't want kids because that's expensive and stressful.

SPEAKER_00 35:23

So they are expensive, and then at one point they turned 12 when they're done with you. But maybe that's just my personal journey I'm on at the moment.

SPEAKER_01 35:33

Oh, I did hear the uh one episode, one or two episodes. I think you had your son on to talk about. Uh was it X-Men 97?

SPEAKER_00 35:40

Uh, he's been on quite a bit. He was very easy to get uh to book at one point, but um yeah, I mean we he was pretty good for being on most movie podcast um Marvel movies and then X-Men 97 episodes, and then well, I they haven't already made X-Men 97 episodes, so it's been harder to get him booked again.

SPEAKER_01 36:04

Well, I hope he comes back because those episodes were adorable.

SPEAKER_00 36:07

Oh, well, thank you. He's my most recurrent, I think he's on 13 episodes. I think last time I checked. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, I like it as a time capsule too.

SPEAKER_01 36:18

Oh, yeah, definitely. And and he's like 12-13 now, like early teenager.

SPEAKER_00 36:22

He is, and since we're talking about him, um, if anyone wants to go on YouTube for Walker D World, that's his YouTube channel, and he probably will love he's trying to do a Minecraft series right now.

SPEAKER_01 36:34

Oh, cool. I'll I'll link it in the show notes.

SPEAKER_00 36:37

Oh, well, thanks. I always have the hardest time. If I don't type Walker D World Mario, I don't get his channel pop up immediately, but he's trying, he's out there hustling.

SPEAKER_01 36:47

Yeah, shoot me the link. I will uh throw it in the show notes. Oh, and we're gonna throw your podcast in the show notes, obviously, too. Oh, sure. And I'm everywhere online, so yeah, you're too much. Pretty easy to no, we're fine. So uh here's what we're gonna do. Uh I'm just gonna read through my notes a little bit. I'm gonna ask John a couple questions. Um, so I have this listed as published between January 2025 and September 25. Uh, it's available in uh trade paperback, two volumes. The first is called Unleashed, the second is called Shadow of Resistance. That just came out last month. Um, I read this all on the Marvel Unlimited digital app. Uh, I'm assuming, John, you read this in singles.

SPEAKER_00 37:31

Yeah, yeah. I bought them. I'll show you my copy of the issue one. Yeah, right. It's pretty good. Yeah. Probably shouldn't credit this guy. It's the David Nakayama cover. Oh, David Nakayama. Uh I purposely didn't choose the Jay Scott Campbell covers. I love I love Jay Scott Campbell, but I was like, I want something that's more film closer to the Herman Peralta art style.

SPEAKER_01 37:56

Fair. Uh I liked most of the covers on there. There was one that was a little cheesecakey from my taste, which I didn't, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:04

Which is Jay Scott Campbell. I mean, love him or don't love him.

SPEAKER_01 38:07

Like, you know, it sort of falls under uh I I don't have strong feelings one way or the other. Like, I'm not the world's biggest art guy.

SPEAKER_00 38:15

Um I like Danger Girls, so I always have a soft spot for Campbell.

SPEAKER_01 38:20

That's fair. Um, if I had to pick a favorite Marvel artist, this one might sound weird, but uh Humberto Ramos, I got to meet him a long time ago. He's everything he does is just so top-tier. I love the way he draws superheroes more than he draws people, and I think that's why I like him so much. Like his faces are kind of cartoony, but his like like his Spider-Man looks so good.

SPEAKER_00 38:47

Yes, and well, Spider-Man's he's a perfect Spider-Man artist. Oh, 100%. Right, Chris Baccolo's great too, in that same sort of anime type of but their own proper style. I'm more of a Paw Smith. I haven't named my favorite artist. But Paw Smith's artist makes me happy.

SPEAKER_01 39:03

What's uh some of his titles? I just don't know where it's.

SPEAKER_00 39:05

Oh, he's one uncanny 166 to 175. It's a perfect run with a Watt. Oh, I'm just gonna launch into my Paw Smith thing. I just heard myself doing it. But yeah, it's uh and then Watt Simonson does 171. My Paw Smith's my era of X-Men. Um he ends the brood saga started by Dave Cochram, and then he ends the um issue 175, and then John Armita Jr. does the last five pages of the Scott and Madeline wedding. And so it's just like a perfect 10 issues of like content there. And Mastermind shows back up, and it was called the trade pegbrass called um From the Ashes, and which it bugs me at this current era of X-Men we're in, is also called From the Ashes. Like, can you not keep one title sacred?

SPEAKER_01 39:56

Yeah, when I get there, I will let you know as soon as I get to that spot.

SPEAKER_00 40:02

Oh, yeah, you're gonna notice because it Dave Cochram to Paul Smith. I mean, it's visually pleasing, but you're gonna be like, wait, who's this guy?

SPEAKER_01 40:12

Nice. Um, so let's get back to the uh book we're talking about today. Uh so I don't really have any uh disclaimers here. There's nothing like really that stood out to me that is like we need to like warn people about. Uh it's X-Men, so you're constantly dealing with themes of you know prejudice and racism. Um, and with Ileana, her story is really dark. And one of the things that I liked about this story was it was this, I would call this a horror story. Um, and I and I I I love horror, I'm a big horror guy. Um, but this wasn't like any kind of exploitative that I thought, like some bad stuff happens, it's horror. Um, as far as my recap goes, more or less Magic is trying to move on with her life, and she's uh she's not trying to have a birthday, but people are trying to have a birthday for her. But she realizes there's other stuff going on in the world. Uh she kind of just runs amok of some anti-mutant protesters, and uh, you know, more some demons pop up because it's X-Men and it's magic, and magic and demons go hand in hand. She was she was uh raised primarily in limbo for I forget how many years. She has a demon seven years that we got the expert, and she has a demon named uh Dark Child, uh kind of attached to her soul. Am I saying that right? Or is it just Liddy's?

SPEAKER_00 41:39

Well, it used to be like a video game power-up where she could turn dark dark child mode, but then this run definitely implies that Dark Child is her evil alternate like persona that it's always itching at her neck to like get back out.

SPEAKER_01 41:56

Yep. And I I actually forgot about the Dark Child stuff because last time I was written Magic was like, I don't think they brought it up much in uh uh the uncanny or ex I think it was Uncanny she was in uh from um the Colin Bunn era. Oh, sure. I I can't swear to it though.

SPEAKER_00 42:15

Um I don't remember that as well. I know she went to limbo, but yeah, I don't think she ever went went grotesque with her appearance.

SPEAKER_01 42:24

Yeah, and um so she falls in with some some demons start attacking her, because of course they do. It's X-Men. We meet another character named Cal, whose family uh has been kind of responsible for managing these demons, uh like this specific demon, uh, who I already forget the name of. Yes. Uh, but that doesn't matter too much. Um, but more or less magic is kind of sucked into this because she uh feels she could have you know saved more people because some people do die. Uh, and then the rest of the rest of the story that we're not going to um spoil. Uh we have a couple good callbacks to Claremont. That's stuff that I liked. Um the one I caught right away. There's a callback to the demon bear, which I think is one of the first, if not the first, uh new mutant story. Uh and can we spoil the guest character that shows?

SPEAKER_02 43:20

It's the first good one.

SPEAKER_01 43:22

Pardon? Can we do can we spoil the guest character that shows up? Do you think that's okay?

SPEAKER_00 43:26

Oh, I think so. Um plus it gives you benefits to um Ashley Allen's currently writing Magic and Colossius, like in stores now, but she's also writing Moonstar, Danny Moonstar's very first ongoing series. And I love Danny. She with Magic are the team supreme of New Mutants, and so she's just like a top tier new mutant. Like, I mean, and there's probably like what, 12 members of New Mutants, but if you're gonna make a tier list, Danny and Magic are in the top.

SPEAKER_02 43:58

Oh, yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_00 43:59

And And I love Danny so much. And I think Demon Bears, like issues 15 to 20, something like that. But you can skip from New Mutants graphic novel to Demon Bears. Like I don't know about those first couple. Um I think my collection starts. Yeah. I mean, there's a reason why they made one new mutants movie and it was Demon Bear. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 44:23

Oh my god, you're right. I totally forgot about that. I watched that story. I watched that show on mute with my friend because it was sleeping, so we like just read subtitles.

SPEAKER_00 44:36

I mean, Anya and Joy Taylor is the perfect magic. I wish she wasn't racist in that movie. Like I get that it's to cause tension with Danny, but there's better ways to make tension between two characters.

SPEAKER_01 44:48

That's not even that accurate to the character from anything I remember.

SPEAKER_00 44:52

I mean, she's yeah, that's what I'm saying. Like, you could have just made them the new girl who's pretty, and then the other girl doesn't like her, and then be like, alright. But Lockheed's in that movie, too. So we got our first live action Lockheed, so I do love that.

SPEAKER_01 45:05

Part of me wants to re-watch this now, but I don't think I'm gonna re-watch it.

SPEAKER_00 45:10

I mean, the casting choices are over, like the guy from Stranger Things is Cannonball. I'm like, really? I mean, that's what he used his Stranger Things like clout to get. But I'm like, all right, buddy. But Danny's great cat, like physically, Danny's perfectly cast, magic's cast, Wolf's Bane's good. Um I think I'll stop there. I think the girls were very well cast.

SPEAKER_01 45:36

All right, so about two.

SPEAKER_00 45:37

Yeah, but Daddy Moonstar is here, and we're teased a little, but yeah, she will show up in the second half. Well, I think she's in the middle, in the middle of the year.

SPEAKER_01 45:46

She shows up pretty early. It's it's not the first issue, but I want to say it's like the third, maybe. Yeah. It's a dramatic page reveal. The only issue of this that I didn't really it's not that I didn't like the issue. Um there is an issue where we go to limbo, and it just seems so out of place with the rest of the story. Oh. Uh, because it was just too it it felt like um, you know, uh, because that was Madeline Pryor who was in that issue, right? Oh, of this series? Yeah, because she uh because uh magic goes to limbo, chats with Madeline, they kill some demons together, and then she just kind of continues on, and it just seemed like just like a kind of a break issue. It was a fine issue, but like I think that's one the fill-in artists too. Oh, that that might have been why they did that then. Uh that that makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 46:38

Yeah, because I yeah, I think it breaks up between this and then the second arc. But I like Madeline Pryor, and especially her ruling limbo is pretty a nice turn for her, but um, yeah. And that's another rabbit hole we could go down very deeply, and you would need an actual X expert for that one because oh, my my uh I I also heard today on the same podcast I rec I referenced uh Jane Miles, uh X-Men is where continuity goes to die because they just do whatever they want, and yeah, I um well I like Jonathan Hickman's viewpoint of continuity of just being like you know, pull forward the what you need for your story and then leave what doesn't work behind. Like, because continuity should be like our memories of like this feels right, like a sense memory, like well, this feels right.

SPEAKER_01 47:29

I would say continuity should be a reward, not a chore. Yes, it's and sometimes X-Men gets that right, sometimes it doesn't. Um, so we're I'm gonna actually defer to you on this one. So so thematically, I'd say this story is kind of about finding your place in the world, uh, or just being true to yourself. Uh, I it's it's pretty straightforward with that one, and maybe we can say that about your book too, but we'll get to that on your show. Sure. Um, this did actually flare up my uh X-Men along with the other book we read. Um, so do you think this was, first of all, do you was this a good representation of the character magic? Do you did you like this take on the character?

SPEAKER_00 48:15

Oh, yeah, I love this take, and maybe the dark child stuff is questionable, but it has such a great payoff where it's like, oh I see what all this was all about. And so, but I think that is in the second half, like it feels towards the end. But um, but yeah, I think if you want to know who this magic gal is all about, Ashley Allen's you're in great hands of her.

SPEAKER_01 48:39

Yeah, I I I think I overall liked this series. Um, and it's been so long since I've had anything, you know, with magic in my life that it was just nice to have that. It was good that and and I think this one it didn't go on too long or anything. The my my major criticism of this story is I kind of thought the villain was just a little generic in a way, if that makes sense. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 49:04

Well, I I keep having to go a fandom. His name is Crow Demon, which I in my mind I'm always like, oh, he has a cool demon name, but no, he's crow demon. He's a cowboy with demon aesthetic. Like, you know.

SPEAKER_01 49:18

And there's another character who's like kind of our introduction into that world, and he's fine. That's the best thing I can say about him. He's he's not a bad character, he's just kind of there to do his job, and that's all he got.

SPEAKER_00 49:30

And even the society Danny works for, I'm like, sure.

SPEAKER_01 49:34

Yeah, pretty much.

SPEAKER_00 49:35

I'm just here for the character dynamics, which is pretty much comics for me, and X-Men in particular. Like, uh, even this issue alone has like a five-page fight sequence, and I'm just like, fight, fight, fight. Like, sure.

SPEAKER_01 49:48

Like, let's get back to fights are always crazy.

SPEAKER_00 49:51

I mean, it looks amazing, but I'm just like, all right.

SPEAKER_01 49:54

It's for me, it's about the characterization and like what I can take away from it. So exactly, you know, and I think this one was good. Um, of the two, so I'm actually gonna go a little bit out of order. Um, so I I've already covered that this does make me want to read more, and we've already alluded that if you're gonna read X-Men, uh, you should probably jump into the Chris Claremont stuff, or as John would put it, just just one issue 129, go from there. And I honestly I kind of agree. You're skipping Dark Phoenix, but Well no, 129's the beginning of Dark Phoenix.

SPEAKER_00 50:27

So wait, right.

SPEAKER_01 50:30

What's the big story right before that that you're skipping?

SPEAKER_00 50:32

Oh, pro Proteus. Proteus, okay. Which I have vague memories of. Colossius loses or be um it's a good Colossius story, but 129 is where I that's where my heart is.

SPEAKER_01 50:47

129 is days of future past, which that leads into Dark Phoenix. That that's my bad.

SPEAKER_00 50:52

No, uh one Dark Phoenix or Days of Future Past is 141 and 142, so it's many years after Dark Phoenix. Why is my brain just not working today?

SPEAKER_01 51:04

I always thought.

SPEAKER_00 51:04

Well, because it feels like those stories are right next to each other.

SPEAKER_01 51:07

Yeah, because that's all the stuff.

SPEAKER_00 51:09

Well, they're both kitty cover comics, too. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 51:13

Cause wasn't no, no, not to be the jerk who no stop. You're fine. It's okay you you you are I heard my nerd voice being like, oh wait, excuse me. Let me push my glasses up my news.

SPEAKER_00 51:26

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 51:28

Um, actually. So uh I I've got a few things left on this one that I think we can probably wrap up here and send it over to your side. Um so in terms of new reader friendly, so let's I'll give a recap of the new reader-friendly scale. So I I say it's one to five, one is the easiest to get into, five is the hardest to get into. My examples for one is like absolute Batman. You can pick that up and go. Um, my example on number five, let's use an X-Men example. Um, let's say uh Avengers or X-Men versus in humans, you're gonna be confused if you just start there. Uh so my rating on this one is I'm actually gonna give this a three. Now, I was able to follow this one, so it's right in the middle, but I knew who Danny Moonstar was. I knew Magic's power set. I hadn't read all any of the Krakoa stuff. I have not read that era at all. Um, there was some stuff. I I want to read it. I just I don't know where I'm going yet. I don't know. Uh there was just some stuff where I'm like, I don't know if I just know this because I knew it or if I was able to pick it up. So what's your where do you where do you land on the new reader friendly between one and is the easiest to get into in five, the hardest?

SPEAKER_00 52:46

I would definitely say not a one just because magic is a very continuity. I mean, maybe not. You can summer like Ben just could summer up in like two sentences of like mutant girl lost seven years in limbo, now badass. But um, there I just did it for you. Uh, but uh I would say a three feels right, but in my heart, I just want to give her one point closer to perfect, so I would say a two. But you have to recognize, like, you might have questions about who this gal is, but I feel like you get her personality and character pretty well.

SPEAKER_01 53:20

So from the non-expert, we have a three. From the actual expert, we have a two, so it's probably somewhere in the middle. So two to three, two to three in there. I I think you're gonna be fine to pick this one and go up with it. So if uh if if say someone didn't want to read comic books from 40 years ago or however long uh that was, what where else would you direct people today if they wanted to get into X-Men?

SPEAKER_00 53:46

Oh sure. Um well X-Men United um by Eve E Wing, Ewing, sorry. Uh she just launched X-Men United. It's supposed to be the main flagship title. But like X-Men, I will usually say if you have a favorite character you're already inclined to, like pick that character, find out what book they're in, and then follow forth. But like Gail Simone's Uncanny has been pretty great. Jed McKay's X-Men that has Magic as one of the main characters is pretty good. But they're all like the X-Men are now two months away from their big Age of Revelation crossover that just happened. So we're pretty much at a good starting, fresh start again. Um, and X-Men Unite is a brand new number one, so that's pretty good. So I'll say you start there because it's supposed to be the new flagship, the new direction. Emma Frost um has a psychic school, and so every any X-Men can show up now, ideally, is the I think supposed to be the sailing point.

SPEAKER_01 54:49

I liked the idea of X-Men United. I did get to read that issue. I had a couple issues with that one. Like, I don't think it was a bad book or anything, and we're not really gonna talk about it, but I'll just say um my my main issue was I feel like when you have 50 characters in one book, I'm gonna get lost.

SPEAKER_00 55:11

And a lot of there's five characters I had to look up, and I was like, Who are these people? I was like, Am I supposed to know them? Because I feel like I know most of these guys.

SPEAKER_01 55:20

Oh, you looked them up, huh? I I was just like, Well, I'm lost.

SPEAKER_00 55:23

So it was well, the character page even has them like on a roll, like these, like you're gonna know these students. I'm like, I don't know these students, but it turns out they all have like five to ten appearances, so I'm like, oh, so they're like background characters.

SPEAKER_01 55:37

The um the characters from the book we're about to talk about on your show did show up, and I liked them, so yes. Um the uh Me too.

SPEAKER_02 55:46

I love those guys.

SPEAKER_01 55:47

The setup at the end, I don't know how I feel about it. Like, you know what I'm talking about, like the last page. Oh, yeah, the Cyclops of It All. Yeah, the Cyclops of It All. That's we'll have to see where that goes. I don't I don't know how I feel about that one.

SPEAKER_00 56:00

Well, I guess maybe to stay on topic with this, if you're gonna if you like Miss Magic, Magic and Colossius is now on its second issue, and it's as great as this is, plus they have Colossius. I'm gonna try to pick it up. Honestly, it's a successor series. Nice, but um, I think issue three comes out in a couple weeks, so there's time to get on board. But Magic to Magic and Colossius, the perfect segue.

SPEAKER_01 56:29

Yep. Okay, so I'm gonna pick that one up if I can. If not, just gonna hit it up on Unlimited because Unlimited is a pretty nice service.

unknown 56:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 56:37

Um Unlimited has a strange um Scarlet Witch uh Strange Tales, Tales as in pet like a dog tail, and issue five of that has a kitty pride locky prank war. That's a delight of a comic book.

SPEAKER_01 56:50

That is awesome.

SPEAKER_00 56:51

I've been reading and also lovable Lockheed is exclusive to Marvel Unlimited as well. And I love that series too. Nathan Stockman's on there. I keep buying every one of these infinity comics they put into a physical print, hoping one day they'll get lovable Lockheed, but that's my cross to bear.

SPEAKER_01 57:09

I've been reading uh It's Jeff, the um because when I when I like read something really dark and depressing, I just flip over to it's Jeff. I'm gonna read that because he's just great.

SPEAKER_00 57:19

It's great every time.

unknown 57:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 57:21

So, John, do we have any final thoughts on magic? I think we're both like pretty decently high on this one. Like, um, yeah, I I would say, you know, I I would maybe buy a trade of this someday if it came out. Like, I know the trades are out there, but I don't know if I need to. Like, that's my quality rating. Like, it's on unlimited, I can go back to it. It's just not one I definitely need to own. I know she's your girl, so she uh she I'm assuming you have the singles. Did you pick up the trades?

SPEAKER_00 57:48

No, if I'm usually if I have the singles, I'm good. But if they and I don't have omnibus money, like I'll share that for free. But it's just like, but I would love to buy a complete magic, you know, 10-issue arc as a book. Like that would be amazing on a shelf.

SPEAKER_01 58:04

I've been slowly getting rid of stuff and trying to upgrade to either hardcover or like omnibus. Um yeah, like omnibis suck to buy up front, but you get your value. And also check your local ollies if you have one of those. I just found one, but oh I'm sorry. Um, but anybody in the audience, if you have a local ollies, I just found Kelly Seuss DeConic Captain Marvel, all of it for 35 bucks. So it was like 45 issues of comics, and most of them are really good. There's like one or two issues in there I don't like, and that's it's otherwise some of the best comics I've read.

SPEAKER_00 58:41

The next onnibus, if I could afford it, will be the south the JM Damantis Sal Pacima Spectacular Spider-Man onnibus. It's my favorite Spider-Man run of all time, but I don't have 150 to just throw on a book, but I'm just like, and we just lost Sal Pacima recently. He's my favorite Spider-Man artist, and um I just Sal Pacima's like when I think Spider-Man, like it's Sal Pacima's Spider-Man, so I'm happy you're not saying John Romita Jr. Oh yeah. Well, I like John Ramita. I was code on his X-Men run, but Spider-Man in the Rain by JRJR, like I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 59:19

There's I'm a 90s kid, so same. I mean, there's there's good John Romita Jr. Lately. I've just not been clicking with his art for some reason. Alright, John. Sure. Let's get it wrapped up over here. Do we have any closing thoughts on magic? Or do you have any? No, just it's a great run. I love the character. Do you do you have any overall uh positive messages you want to put into the air before uh we go over to your show?

SPEAKER_00 59:41

Oh, um, that's like this is a great comic. Thanks for letting me um gab about it and all the side tangents I took us down. And yeah, I mean, I think the X-Men line at the moment's pretty solid. I mean, I wouldn't recommend reading everything. If it wasn't for the podcast, I'd probably be reading four of the titles, honestly. But in my mind, there's more good than bad, but then there's books I'm just like, oh, they're they published that. That's right. I forget about the title.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:11

Like we were talking a little bit offline, and like you you I brought up that there's too many books right now, and you said like it's maybe it's something for everyone. And I kind of get that approach, but on the same token, like maybe carve it down to like 10 titles and focus on quality, or maybe have a rotating book that's ongoing that you can get your solo adventures in. I don't know. That's one thing I would like to see.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:33

I mean, there's gotta be a solution to it, but I mean they must sell. Yeah, I guess.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:38

Or or they put so little risk into it it doesn't matter. That's the other thing I worry about sometimes.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:44

Right, they gotta fill the shelves with something.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:48

So, John, how can uh our listeners get a hold of you? Oh, sure.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:51

Thank you. Yeah, I'm uh Jackal S I I I on nearly every platform. As soon as I hear there's a new platform, I gotta be quick to get my name out there. Um, I'm on TikTok, YouTube, uh Blue Skies mostly. Um the website's Shadow and Flame with Magic.com. The podcast is that without the dot com. Um uh the podcast socials, which I don't treat it as my main social, so it doesn't have as many followers, but it's SNFWM on Instagram and Blue Sky. Pretty much it just reposts the stuff I do, so but it's a good catch-all for things. Um, if you like Lockheed, which I hope people do, there's a subreddit, um, Lockheed the Dragon that I would love to get more people going to, but oh, is that is that your subreddit? It is my subreddit. One day I was like, because there's a daily um magic and a daily kitty pride. I was like, you know what? Someone should be doing daily Lockheed. And after a week of like, well, clearly it should be me. Like that meme about like maybe it's my turn, my power to grab, but and it would have bugged me after a week of like thinking about it. I was like, um, yeah. So we're we're almost at 500. I don't know what you call them predators, but it's getting there. We're slowly chipping at it.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:18

That's awesome. Yeah, and I I don't get 500 anything on my show yet yet. We're still very new. Uh and so one of their other reasons I I've always liked John, like he's also a solo podcaster. I am hopefully getting more people to get on the show as a couple of my friends who just recently guested are coming back for more because I guess they like to also talk. Um but John, it has been a pleasure. This was awesome. Oh, well thank you, sir. In true comic book fashion, we are going to wave a magic wand and we are gonna jump over to John's show. Both of these episodes are coming out same day. Uh, we'll talk off the air like whenever we want to post them. And we'll just uh we'll like tease each other on like blue sky a little bit. I put up a uh kitty prize or no, I think it was the cover, the first cover of the one of magic today. Um, just for the Monday hashtag. So all right, guys. Well, thank you so much. I've been your host. Be good, uh, be good to each other out there, take care of your people, and we'll talk to you very soon. And you should really jump over to John's show because uh John's show is a much bigger show than ours, and uh I'm really excited to hold it.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:32

It's popular online, but I don't know how many listeners I'm actually getting.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:37

All right, guys, we'll see you for uh part two of the crossover. The best part of this crossover is you don't have to spend five bucks on each one of us. Or buy the variant covers. Oh yeah, no variant covers for this one. All right, thanks everybody. Bye. Well, guys, thank you so much for listening. If you'd like to get a hold of me through email, I'm at comicbooksbeyond at gmail.com, and I'm at comic books beyond on Blue Sky, Instagram, TikTok, and we're also on YouTube. Some of the podcasts are gonna go there, but we're also working on some extra content for YouTube as well. I'd like to give a thank you to the crew of the Talking Comic Books podcast, Brad and Lisa of Comic Book Couples Counseling, Alex Jaffe, Jeremy Whitley, Bran McNulty, Jimmy Gasparo and the crew of Comic Book Yeti, and John Klein III of Shadowflame with Magic. Most importantly, I'd like to thank all of our listeners and supporters. Be good to get each other out there and take care of your people. We'll see you next time.