התמלול המלא של Unspoken Issues #176.5 - Halloween Bonus - X-Men & Ghost Rider: Brood Trouble in the Big Easy

Plot and Pencils by 76 00:04:03.789 --> 00:04:07.210 Jim Lee, Scott Lobdell on script, Inks and Finishes, Jim 77 00:04:07.250 --> 00:04:10.219 Lee and Art to Bear, Colors by Joe Rosas, Letters 78 00:04:10.259 --> 00:04:15.340 by Tom Orszakowski, and also Lois Buhalas. And then finally, 79 00:04:15.599 --> 00:04:17.879 wrapping things up, is Part 4, Gross Rider No. 27, Vengeance. 80 00:04:20.250 --> 00:04:24.810 pure and simple hit shelves may 12th 1992 written by 81 00:04:24.850 --> 00:04:27.889 howard mackie pencils by ron wagner inks by mike witherby 82 00:04:28.029 --> 00:04:32.660 collars by gregory wright letters by janice chang so yeah 83 00:04:32.720 --> 00:04:34.779 there you go my goodness like i said jim lee 84 00:04:34.899 --> 00:04:38.579 x-men big fan um you're coming into this you're reading 85 00:04:38.620 --> 00:04:41.160 ghost writer or at least you're paying attention to ghost 86 00:04:41.180 --> 00:04:42.540 writer at this point in time right. 87 00:04:43.740 --> 00:04:47.569 Yes now I do believe this might be the first 88 00:04:47.610 --> 00:04:50.529 time I've actually read any of these actual issues. 89 00:04:50.850 --> 00:04:51.290 Oh, wow. 90 00:04:51.310 --> 00:04:53.250 Okay. Well, I can't swear to it. So I was 91 00:04:53.329 --> 00:04:55.589 into X-Men around this time, but I did not become 92 00:04:55.629 --> 00:05:00.110 a big X-Men or mutant family fan until probably a 93 00:05:00.110 --> 00:05:00.889 little after this. 94 00:05:01.509 --> 00:05:01.709 Okay. 95 00:05:02.129 --> 00:05:04.949 I had X-Men number one. I had X-Force number one 96 00:05:05.269 --> 00:05:09.269 and most of those X-Force early issues, but I didn't 97 00:05:09.290 --> 00:05:13.079 become like a regular X-Men or uncanny X-Men reader until 98 00:05:13.100 --> 00:05:15.550 I think after Jim Lee had already left. probably around 99 00:05:15.560 --> 00:05:19.009 the time the Executioner song started. And I definitely had 100 00:05:19.050 --> 00:05:22.410 Ghost Rider 25 as a kid, and I definitely jumped 101 00:05:22.449 --> 00:05:24.610 back in for Rise of the Midnight Suns and started 102 00:05:24.629 --> 00:05:27.560 picking that book up consistently around then, but I don't 103 00:05:27.629 --> 00:05:30.759 think I had issues 26 and 27. Okay, okay. I 104 00:05:30.779 --> 00:05:33.399 may have read these at some point over the last 105 00:05:33.420 --> 00:05:35.860 30-plus years, but I don't think I had any of 106 00:05:35.879 --> 00:05:36.879 these issues as a kid. 107 00:05:37.420 --> 00:05:40.050 So we couldn't figure out, like, anybody coming out and saying, okay, hey, 108 00:05:40.079 --> 00:05:42.670 this is why we did this, but there's some ideas 109 00:05:42.730 --> 00:05:45.819 as to why it may have occurred. Let's talk about 110 00:05:45.930 --> 00:05:51.430 Adjectiveless X-Men first because we're only at issue eight. Issue 111 00:05:51.610 --> 00:05:59.129 one launches months earlier. It sells approximately 8.1 million copies. 112 00:06:00.069 --> 00:06:03.019 Still recognized by Guinness as the best-selling single comic book 113 00:06:03.060 --> 00:06:03.699 edition ever. 114 00:06:04.740 --> 00:06:05.899 It's the big tamale. 115 00:06:06.259 --> 00:06:08.000 So obviously this is a hot book. Jim Lee, one 116 00:06:08.019 --> 00:06:11.519 of the hottest artists at the time. And this book 117 00:06:11.579 --> 00:06:14.019 has just flew off the shelves. So we're not too 118 00:06:14.060 --> 00:06:17.199 far out from like this thing being a record holding. 119 00:06:17.519 --> 00:06:21.379 The number one was a record holding book. Now, Ghostwriter, 120 00:06:21.500 --> 00:06:25.230 Howard Mackey has talked about how unexpectedly huge the Danny 121 00:06:25.269 --> 00:06:29.569 Ketch Ghostwriter became. According to Mackey, early issues required multiple 122 00:06:29.629 --> 00:06:32.449 printings and the title at points was competing with Marvel's 123 00:06:32.490 --> 00:06:36.569 biggest sellers. In another interview, he described Ghost Rider during 124 00:06:36.629 --> 00:06:39.970 this period as essentially a license to print money and 125 00:06:40.029 --> 00:06:42.800 said the character was frequently requested as a guest star 126 00:06:42.879 --> 00:06:45.620 because of what he could do for sales. And of course, 127 00:06:45.639 --> 00:06:48.879 the numbers back that up. Comicron's historical circulation data puts 128 00:06:48.920 --> 00:06:52.800 Ghost Rider at an average of roughly 357,000 copies per 129 00:06:52.860 --> 00:06:56.899 issue in 1992. The very next issue after this crossover, 130 00:06:57.259 --> 00:07:00.860 Ghost Rider 28 launches, just like you said, Rise of 131 00:07:00.879 --> 00:07:04.800 the Midnight Suns. And that sold more than 600,000 copies. 132 00:07:05.699 --> 00:07:08.480 So yeah, Ghost Rider is a very popular character at 133 00:07:08.500 --> 00:07:10.819 this point in time. But here's the creative connection for this. 134 00:07:11.720 --> 00:07:14.540 Howard Mackey had already written Marvel and Ghost Rider together 135 00:07:14.720 --> 00:07:19.079 in Marvel Comics Presents 64 through 71. That was actually 136 00:07:19.120 --> 00:07:23.240 the first major Wolverine-Danny Ketch Ghost Rider encounter. Marvel itself 137 00:07:23.300 --> 00:07:27.250 now identifies that storyline as beginning their crossover history. Mackey 138 00:07:27.870 --> 00:07:32.189 then wrote the 1991 Prestige format special, Did we do 139 00:07:32.250 --> 00:07:34.430 Ghost Rider, Wolverine, Punisher, Hearts of Darkness on here? 140 00:07:34.610 --> 00:07:35.870 We did indeed. 141 00:07:36.250 --> 00:07:40.910 So Mackie writes that, and this is probably our biggest 142 00:07:41.069 --> 00:07:43.930 clue here, because Mackie later recalls that after the sales 143 00:07:43.990 --> 00:07:48.110 figures come back on Hearts of Darkness, X-Men editor Bob 144 00:07:48.170 --> 00:07:51.389 Harris approaches them and says, hey, how about doing some 145 00:07:51.449 -->

00:07:55.319 work over at the X-Office? Now, Mackie describes Harris calling 146 00:07:55.360 --> 00:07:57.939 him over and essentially asking whether he had ever wanted 147 00:07:57.980 --> 00:08:01.379 to do anything with the X-Books. Now, that eventually leads 148 00:08:01.439 --> 00:08:04.439 to Mackie's work on Gambit and other X projects, which 149 00:08:04.839 --> 00:08:07.220 a lot of what is established with Gambit's kind of 150 00:08:07.240 --> 00:08:10.870 like background, from my understanding, is a large part thanks 151 00:08:10.990 --> 00:08:11.990 to Howard Mackie. 152 00:08:12.629 --> 00:08:15.529 Well, I do remember reading that Gambit miniseries. 153 00:08:16.170 --> 00:08:16.889 Yeah, yeah. 154 00:08:16.970 --> 00:08:17.870 Back in the day, yeah. 155 00:08:18.269 --> 00:08:22.870 So, all right. But yeah, so Mackie's the ghost writer writer, 156 00:08:23.329 --> 00:08:26.129 and he's already working Wolverine ghost writer stories. His Wolverine 157 00:08:26.149 --> 00:08:29.089 ghost writer Punisher sells extremely well. Bob Harris is editing 158 00:08:29.129 --> 00:08:31.959 the X books. Bob Harris is also editing these Ghost 159 00:08:32.000 --> 00:08:34.870 Rider X-Men crossover issues, and suddenly Mackie is helping build 160 00:08:34.950 --> 00:08:39.610 out Gambit's New Orleans mythology here. Now, where were the 161 00:08:39.789 --> 00:08:46.620 X-Men in 1992? You were everywhere. They were everywhere. Jim Lee, 162 00:08:46.649 --> 00:08:49.279 Chris Claremont, X-Men No. 1 had launched in 1991 and 163 00:08:49.340 --> 00:08:53.279 split the enormous X-Men roster into two major squads. This 164 00:08:53.320 --> 00:08:55.100 story we get right here is following, I think, the 165 00:08:55.139 --> 00:08:57.700 Blue Team, which I think there was the Blue and 166 00:08:57.720 --> 00:08:58.460 there was the Gold. 167 00:08:58.870 --> 00:09:00.629 Yeah, the gold was Uncanny X-Men. 168 00:09:00.830 --> 00:09:06.250 Yeah, okay. So our blue team here is Cyclops, Wolverine, Beast, Rogue, Gambit, Psylocke, 169 00:09:06.269 --> 00:09:10.120 and Jubilee. Now by issue eight, Chris Claremont's gone. He 170 00:09:10.179 --> 00:09:13.080 left the new series after X-Men number three. And now 171 00:09:13.120 --> 00:09:15.559 Jim Lee's plotting the book with Scott Lobdell scripting these 172 00:09:15.600 --> 00:09:20.039 particular issues. So we're very much kind of reading the 173 00:09:20.100 --> 00:09:22.700 tail end of the Jim Lee as active regular X-Men 174 00:09:22.720 --> 00:09:26.860 storyteller period because it's, I think, within three issues after this. 175 00:09:28.059 --> 00:09:28.990 I think it's issue 11. 176 00:09:28.990 --> 00:09:30.830 Yeah, I was going to say, I don't think he 177 00:09:30.850 --> 00:09:33.289 made it to issue 12. I can't remember exactly what 178 00:09:33.309 --> 00:09:34.149 his last issue was. 179 00:09:34.470 --> 00:09:37.570 I'm fairly certain it's 11. And then he's, this is, 180 00:09:38.210 --> 00:09:41.629 this is 92. And we know what's happening in 92. 181 00:09:41.629 --> 00:09:45.879 It's the launch of Image Comics. So, but anyway, as 182 00:09:45.919 --> 00:09:48.259 far as storyline goes, Bishop has just arrived from the 183 00:09:48.299 --> 00:09:51.620 future and is convinced that one of the X-Men will 184 00:09:51.659 --> 00:09:55.179 eventually betray and destroy the team. X-Men number eight plays 185 00:09:55.200 --> 00:10:00.000 directly with that storyline. Meanwhile, the Gambit-Rogue relationship is still 186 00:10:00.059 --> 00:10:04.529 in its early stages here. And this crossover actually starts 187 00:10:04.549 --> 00:10:07.529 to open up part of Gambit's life that neither Rogue 188 00:10:07.549 --> 00:10:10.909 nor most of the X-Men knew anything about. Now, again... 189 00:10:12.570 --> 00:10:14.889 Remy Lebeau at the time, man of mystery. And then 190 00:10:14.909 --> 00:10:17.210 you got Bishop coming back and saying, like, I think 191 00:10:17.330 --> 00:10:20.070 somebody's going to betray the X-Men. And he zeroes in 192 00:10:21.090 --> 00:10:25.259 on Gambit in this first issue. Now, you were reading 193 00:10:25.299 --> 00:10:27.039 Ghost Rider at the time. Actually, I want to give 194 00:10:27.059 --> 00:10:30.299 you the floor because I know you know 25 pretty well. 195 00:10:30.440 --> 00:10:33.000 So can you kind of give the listeners a good 196 00:10:33.039 --> 00:10:34.840 idea of where Ghost Rider was at at this point? 197 00:10:35.529 --> 00:10:38.409 Well, yeah, Ghost Rider, the classic 70s Ghost Rider was 198 00:10:38.610 --> 00:10:41.450 Johnny Blaze. But he was reinvented in the 90s with 199 00:10:41.509 --> 00:10:46.679 Danny Ketch as the new Ghost Rider. And in issue 25, 200 00:10:46.679 --> 00:10:50.879 big anniversary issue of that book, he's fighting it out 201 00:10:50.940 --> 00:10:55.120 with Blackout, one of his nemeses, Vampire. Blackout had already 202 00:10:55.139 --> 00:10:57.039 gotten his ass kicked pretty bad a couple times by 203 00:10:57.059 --> 00:11:00.539 Ghost Rider. So he thought, I'll go after Danny Ketch 204 00:11:00.610 --> 00:11:05.129 when he's not Ghost Rider before he transforms. and he 205 00:11:05.289 --> 00:11:08.110 rips Danny's throat out, which seems to kill him, but 206 00:11:08.169 --> 00:11:13.970 also he turns into Ghost Rider anyway. So we're at 207 00:11:14.009 --> 00:11:18.399 a point when this crossover takes place where Ghost Rider 208 00:11:18.580 --> 00:11:20.399 is kind of out there on his own as his 209 00:11:20.519 --> 00:11:23.200 own character, and he doesn't know what's going on with 210 00:11:23.220 --> 00:11:26.059 Danny Ketch, but he seems to be dead, and so 211 00:11:26.799 --> 00:11:29.919 as we see in the Ghost Rider issues in this crossover, Danny, 212 00:11:30.110 --> 00:11:32.409 his soul is still out there kind of wandering, so 213 00:11:32.450 --> 00:11:34.149 he's kind of stuck in a limbo state. 214 00:11:34.690 --> 00:11:37.149 All

right, yeah. Couldn't have said it better myself. If 215 00:11:37.210 --> 00:11:39.769 I were to ask you who the Brood were, would 216 00:11:39.789 --> 00:11:40.750 you be able to tell us? 217 00:11:41.750 --> 00:11:44.990 See, I could tell you a little bit. I have 218 00:11:45.070 --> 00:11:49.100 not read a ton of the Claremont Burn classic X-Men era. 219 00:11:49.139 --> 00:11:52.840 I've read Dark Phoenix Saga and some other selected stories 220 00:11:52.919 --> 00:11:54.600 from that era, but I haven't read it all. I 221 00:11:54.639 --> 00:11:57.940 believe the Brood is, I believe it was inspired by... 222 00:11:59.259 --> 00:12:03.740 The movie Alien, I think it's pretty obvious. I think 223 00:12:03.779 --> 00:12:07.470 Claremont has pretty well admitted to that. I don't think 224 00:12:07.490 --> 00:12:08.019 it's a secret. 225 00:12:08.970 --> 00:12:10.389 If he came in and said, no, I don't know 226 00:12:10.409 --> 00:12:13.809 what you guys are talking about. Dude, come on. 227 00:12:14.970 --> 00:12:18.409 They're kind of like giant insect-like aliens that kind of 228 00:12:18.450 --> 00:12:23.210 take over people's bodies. There's not a facehugger element or 229 00:12:23.289 --> 00:12:26.169 chestburster element, I don't think. They just kind of infect 230 00:12:26.210 --> 00:12:28.169 people and take them over and they become part of 231 00:12:28.190 --> 00:12:28.509 the brood. 232 00:12:28.840 --> 00:12:32.799 Yeah, I don't think this story really gives you much 233 00:12:32.879 --> 00:12:34.179 more insight into that either. 234 00:12:34.200 --> 00:12:36.720 Yeah, they're just the bad guys in this. 235 00:12:36.620 --> 00:12:42.299 Story, basically. Apparently their first appearance was Uncanny X-Men number 155. 236 00:12:42.299 --> 00:12:47.139 But yeah, there's always a Brood Queen, and there's the 237 00:12:47.179 --> 00:12:50.259 multitude of Brood after that, and they're trying to infect people, 238 00:12:50.320 --> 00:12:52.679 and they can infect people and take over their bodies. 239 00:12:53.120 --> 00:12:56.450 I was looking to see the Brood Queen has always been, 240 00:12:56.500 --> 00:12:59.610 I couldn't really find a definitive answer, but I thought 241 00:12:59.629 --> 00:13:02.909 maybe did the Brood Queen, was that an invention that 242 00:13:03.029 --> 00:13:04.250 happened after Aliens? 243 00:13:05.049 --> 00:13:05.460 I don't know. 244 00:13:05.480 --> 00:13:08.820 The sequel to Alien, which is when the alien xenomorph 245 00:13:08.879 --> 00:13:11.600 queen was introduced, did then clear my mind and go, hey, 246 00:13:11.659 --> 00:13:14.320 I should do a Brood Queen. Right. But from what 247 00:13:14.379 --> 00:13:16.799 I could tell, just based on what I'm sure are 248 00:13:16.899 --> 00:13:20.649 AI Google results, it looked like the Brood Queen pre-existed 249 00:13:20.669 --> 00:13:22.110 the Aliens sequel. 250 00:13:22.509 --> 00:13:24.470 All right. Well, they got one on them then. And 251 00:13:24.509 --> 00:13:27.039 we see that sort of in these issues where If 252 00:13:27.100 --> 00:13:31.320 they infect somebody who's powerful, they get those powers or 253 00:13:31.340 --> 00:13:34.799 they keep those powers in those cases. So obviously infecting 254 00:13:35.200 --> 00:13:37.860 a mutant that has powers is a big deal because 255 00:13:37.879 --> 00:13:41.620 that just makes this broodling or whatever they are now 256 00:13:41.879 --> 00:13:44.710 a powerful addition to the army, I guess is probably 257 00:13:44.730 --> 00:13:47.429 the best way to put it. Okay. And then it 258 00:13:47.509 --> 00:13:50.289 says here, one final historical note. It does say the 259 00:13:50.309 --> 00:13:52.850 story didn't originally carry brood trouble in the Big Easy 260 00:13:52.889 --> 00:13:56.740 prominently as some massive line wide event title. Marvel officially 261 00:13:56.779 --> 00:13:59.519 collected the four chapters together the following year in August 262 00:13:59.539 --> 00:14:02.539 of 93 as X-Men and Ghost Rider brewed trouble in 263 00:14:02.580 --> 00:14:03.759 the Big Easy. 264 00:14:03.840 --> 00:14:06.820 That trade, and I've definitely seen that before. Once I 265 00:14:06.860 --> 00:14:09.720 saw the cover, I remember probably when I was working 266 00:14:09.740 --> 00:14:11.570 at the comic shop, there was probably a copy of 267 00:14:11.610 --> 00:14:11.870 it there. 268 00:14:12.230 --> 00:14:13.919 What's the cover look like? Is it like a mashup 269 00:14:13.950 --> 00:14:15.409 of something that's going on in the book? 270 00:14:16.230 --> 00:14:19.909 It's an original cover. It looks like, if I had 271 00:14:19.929 --> 00:14:23.529 to guess, there's a signature here, but the image I'm 272 00:14:23.549 --> 00:14:26.750 looking at is a little... cloudy i think it's probably 273 00:14:26.789 --> 00:14:30.610 ron garney probably the ghostwriter artist at the time this 274 00:14:30.649 --> 00:14:35.230 was released oh okay no it's actually it's wagner it's 275 00:14:35.330 --> 00:14:38.299 so wagner did the cover to the trade well very. 276 00:14:38.179 --> 00:14:40.179 Cool at least i wonder i'd never seen it so 277 00:14:40.200 --> 00:14:41.279 i'm gonna have to go out and look and see 278 00:14:41.299 --> 00:14:43.080 what it looks like at some point all right i've 279 00:14:43.100 --> 00:14:44.519 got a summary ready to go but i don't want 280 00:14:44.539 --> 00:14:46.740 to get into that before you get to your any 281 00:14:46.779 --> 00:14:48.299 other notes before i jump into it. 282 00:14:48.940 --> 00:14:50.820 No i'm ready All right, here we go. 283 00:14:50.860 --> 00:14:53.210 I'm going to give you a rundown of everything that 284 00:14:53.250 --> 00:14:55.090 happens in these four issues, and I'll try to keep 285 00:14:55.110 --> 00:14:57.710 it as brief as I can. Here we go. All right, 286 00:14:58.409 --> 00:15:00.480 so the story kicks off in X-Men number eight, where 287 00:15:00.559 -->

00:15:04.240 Bishop has just joined the team and is already causing problems, 288 00:15:04.879 --> 00:15:08.000 mainly because he believes Gambit may be the mysterious X-Traitor 289 00:15:08.200 --> 00:15:11.559 responsible for destroying the X-Men in the future. While Bishop 290 00:15:11.600 --> 00:15:13.809 keeps a close eye on Gambit, the team is interrupted 291 00:15:13.850 --> 00:15:20.909 by the arrival of Belladonna Boudreau, Gambit's estranged wife. Belladonna 292 00:15:20.950 --> 00:15:23.750 reveals that she comes from the Assassin's Guild in New Orleans, 293 00:15:23.850 --> 00:15:27.220 while Gambit was raised by the rival Thieves Guild. Their 294 00:15:27.240 --> 00:15:30.120 marriage had been arranged to bring peace between the two clans, 295 00:15:30.159 --> 00:15:33.429 but the peace fell apart after Gambit killed Belladonna's brother 296 00:15:33.470 --> 00:15:37.769 in self-defense and left New Orleans. Now the two guilds 297 00:15:37.809 --> 00:15:40.649 are at war again, and Belladonna believes Gambit may be 298 00:15:41.009 --> 00:15:43.460 able to help put it to an end, so the 299 00:15:43.600 --> 00:15:46.240 X-Men agree to travel with him back to New Orleans. 300 00:15:47.019 --> 00:15:49.720 At the same time, Ghost Rider is also making his 301 00:15:49.759 --> 00:15:52.480 way into the city. Danny Ketch has been mortally wounded. 302 00:15:52.950 --> 00:15:55.809 forcing Ghost Rider to remain transformed, and Ghost Rider is 303 00:15:55.870 --> 00:15:58.340 searching for Johnny Blaze in hopes that Blaze may be 304 00:15:58.409 --> 00:16:01.879 able to help save Danny. That brings us into Ghost 305 00:16:01.940 --> 00:16:04.620 Rider number 26, where the feud between the Thieves and 306 00:16:04.639 --> 00:16:08.940 Assassins Guild is becoming increasingly violent. Members of the Thieves 307 00:16:08.980 --> 00:16:12.120 Guild are being murdered by a mysterious assassin, and Ghost 308 00:16:12.179 --> 00:16:14.909 Rider is drawn into the situation after witnessing the killing 309 00:16:14.990 --> 00:16:18.509 of a thief and his pregnant wife. Ghost Rider pursues 310 00:16:18.529 --> 00:16:21.370 the killer underground and discovers that something much worse is 311 00:16:21.409 --> 00:16:25.039 happening beneath New Orleans. The Assassin's Guild has been infiltrated 312 00:16:25.080 --> 00:16:27.539 by the Brood. Now, let me just tell you, that 313 00:16:27.580 --> 00:16:30.220 was out of nowhere for me. Like, I didn't expect 314 00:16:30.299 --> 00:16:32.740 the Brood to be a part of this storyline at all. 315 00:16:33.639 --> 00:16:33.860 Yeah. 316 00:16:34.240 --> 00:16:36.039 So, yeah, it kind of took me by surprise. 317 00:16:36.059 --> 00:16:38.509 I wonder if it was just like Jim Lee wanted 318 00:16:38.529 --> 00:16:39.529 to draw the Broods. 319 00:16:40.190 --> 00:16:42.490 Yeah, could be. I don't know. 320 00:16:42.549 --> 00:16:45.669 I've actually been on the Marvel Unlimited app. I've been 321 00:16:45.730 -->

00:16:49.970 reading Jim Lee's Uncanny X-Men run, kind of going through that. 322 00:16:49.990 --> 00:16:50.429 Oh, yeah. 323 00:16:52.149 --> 00:16:54.190 I have only read the first, like, probably five or 324 00:16:54.210 --> 00:16:56.210 six issues so far. So I don't know if the 325 00:16:56.250 --> 00:16:58.269 Brood had showed up in that run. I know that, 326 00:16:59.210 --> 00:17:02.470 at least according to Rob Liefeld, when Jim Lee jumped 327 00:17:02.529 --> 00:17:05.470 on the X-Men, Uncanny X-Men book, he was really pushing 328 00:17:05.509 --> 00:17:07.349 for Claremont to kind of revisit a lot of, to 329 00:17:08.509 --> 00:17:10.880 kind of sequelize a lot of the classic stories he 330 00:17:10.930 --> 00:17:11.890 wrote with John Byrne. 331 00:17:12.410 --> 00:17:12.819 Oh, really? 332 00:17:13.460 --> 00:17:15.200 So I don't know if the Brood showed up in 333 00:17:15.420 --> 00:17:17.779 that or if this was the first time he got 334 00:17:17.819 --> 00:17:18.539 a crack at him or. 335 00:17:18.519 --> 00:17:21.400 What I can't recall I was reading X-Men at the 336 00:17:21.440 --> 00:17:26.329 time and I think there's a good possibility that might 337 00:17:26.349 --> 00:17:29.289 be something I missed in there but gosh I want 338 00:17:29.329 --> 00:17:32.490 to say we're gonna Jim Lee's gonna be on there 339 00:17:32.529 --> 00:17:36.349 for a little bit like you're he does he come 340 00:17:36.390 --> 00:17:40.579 in after Inferno happens or is it before I think. 341 00:17:40.490 --> 00:17:43.640 It's I believe I believe it's after because I believe 342 00:17:43.700 --> 00:17:48.319 Extinction Agenda was the first like crossover that he was 343 00:17:48.579 --> 00:17:49.819 on uncanny x-men. 344 00:17:49.559 --> 00:17:53.099 For i'm thinking of sylvestre's then probably because i know 345 00:17:53.140 --> 00:17:56.579 that he was i'm thinking of stuff pre-inferno i did 346 00:17:56.640 --> 00:17:58.500 pick up the first jim lee x-men off of the 347 00:17:58.539 --> 00:18:00.839 shelf i do have that because i can see the 348 00:18:00.880 --> 00:18:03.859 cover right now havoc why did you kill storm but 349 00:18:03.900 --> 00:18:05.660 yeah i have that and i'm trying to think if 350 00:18:05.740 --> 00:18:07.680 i'm pretty sure i was keeping up with the title 351 00:18:07.779 --> 00:18:09.380 shortly thereafter and i'm trying to think of how many 352 00:18:09.420 --> 00:18:12.940 years he has before adjectiveless x-men happens. 353 00:18:13.299 --> 00:18:15.400 I don't think it was that long. I think it 354 00:18:15.420 --> 00:18:17.309 was maybe only like two years or so. 355 00:18:17.329 --> 00:18:17.930 Okay. All right. 356 00:18:18.549 --> 00:18:20.670 I don't know that for a certainty, but. 357 00:18:21.190 --> 00:18:24.230 All right. Well, so Ghost Rider pursues a killer underground, 358 00:18:24.269 --> 00:18:27.970 discovers something much worse happening beneath New Orleans. The Assassin's 359 00:18:28.009 --> 00:18:31.109 Guild has been infiltrated by the Brood, the parasitic alien 360 00:18:31.170 --> 00:18:34.509 race that reproduces by implanting eggs into living hosts and 361 00:18:34.569 --> 00:18:40.009 transforming them into Brood themselves. The brood immediately become interested 362 00:18:40.109 --> 00:18:42.849 in Ghost Rider because of the supernatural power inside him. 363 00:18:42.970 --> 00:18:46.089 They overpower him and implant him, hoping to create a 364 00:18:46.170 --> 00:18:49.730 brood version of the Spirit of Vengeance. Meanwhile, the X-Men 365 00:18:49.750 --> 00:18:51.829 arrive in New Orleans and discover the bodies of the 366 00:18:51.869 --> 00:18:55.390 murdered guild members. Wolverine picks up a very familiar scent 367 00:18:55.490 --> 00:18:58.299 and leads the team underground, where they discover the brood 368 00:18:58.319 --> 00:19:02.119 infestation for themselves. The X-Men fight their way through the tunnels, 369 00:19:02.279 --> 00:19:04.299 but just when they think they may be gaining the 370 00:19:04.319 --> 00:19:07.119 upper hand, they come face to face with something far worse. 371 00:19:07.849 --> 00:19:11.269 a fully transformed, brood-infected Ghost Rider. 372 00:19:12.210 --> 00:19:12.829 Don't, don't. 373 00:19:14.150 --> 00:19:17.109 No kidding. X-Men number nine, though, picks up right there 374 00:19:17.170 --> 00:19:20.880 with the team battling both the brood and Ghost Rider. 375 00:19:21.019 --> 00:19:24.220 The fight breaks apart the underground tunnels separating the X-Men 376 00:19:24.259 --> 00:19:28.200 into smaller groups. Wolverine and Beast end up confronting Ghost 377 00:19:28.240 --> 00:19:32.029 Rider directly, and Wolverine starts carving him up, only to 378 00:19:32.069 --> 00:19:36.720 discover that Ghost Rider heals almost instantly. But Beast notices 379 00:19:36.779 --> 00:19:40.279 something important. The transformation is not complete. There's still a 380 00:19:40.380 --> 00:19:45.049 human presence inside Ghost Rider fighting against the Brood. Elsewhere, 381 00:19:45.269 --> 00:19:49.349 Gambit and Belladonna finally confront some of the emotional baggage 382 00:19:49.390 --> 00:19:52.180 between them. Belladonna makes it clear that she never wanted 383 00:19:52.220 --> 00:19:54.519 Gambit to leave after their wedding and that she would 384 00:19:54.539 --> 00:19:57.420 have gone with him had he only asked. Gambit admits 385 00:19:57.480 --> 00:19:59.539 that leaving alone was the one decision he felt he 386 00:19:59.559 --> 00:20:02.289 could make for himself, but it clearly left a lot 387 00:20:02.440 --> 00:20:06.289 unresolved between them. The team also discovers the Brood's real plan. 388 00:20:06.589 --> 00:20:09.289 They have not simply been using the Assassin's Guild as hosts. 389 00:20:09.970 --> 00:20:12.849 They are specifically interested in the children of the Thieves' 390 00:20:12.950 --> 00:20:17.410 and Assassins' guilds because generations of unusual

abilities within the 391 00:20:17.450 --> 00:20:22.859 families have made the children valuable potential hosts. Psylocke realizes 392 00:20:22.880 --> 00:20:25.839 that the Brood's control over Ghost Rider may be reversible, 393 00:20:26.220 --> 00:20:29.519 and she uses her psychic knife, psychic blade, to enter 394 00:20:29.559 --> 00:20:34.289 his mind. Belladonna also... I have no idea what Belladonna's 395 00:20:34.329 --> 00:20:37.049 power set is, but she can do this too... Belladonna 396 00:20:37.109 --> 00:20:40.470 joins her, and together they enter Ghost Rider's astral plane, 397 00:20:40.630 --> 00:20:43.710 where they discover Danny Ketch is still alive but trapped inside. 398 00:20:44.369 --> 00:20:47.609 The brood infestation has not fully separated Danny from Ghost Rider, 399 00:20:47.750 --> 00:20:50.609 and Psylocke realizes that if she can sever the psychic connection, 400 00:20:51.130 --> 00:20:53.910 they may be able to save him. Psylocke reaches Danny 401 00:20:53.950 --> 00:20:56.410 and cuts the brood's connection to him, while Belladonna attacks 402 00:20:56.450 --> 00:20:59.829 the brood presence directly. She succeeds in destroying it, freeing 403 00:20:59.890 --> 00:21:03.509 Ghost Rider from the infection, but the effort costs Belladonna everything. 404 00:21:04.160 --> 00:21:08.279 She collapses in Gambit's arms and asks him whether if 405 00:21:08.359 --> 00:21:11.039 he had truly been given a chance, if he would 406 00:21:11.059 --> 00:21:13.890 have chosen her. Gambit tells her that he would have 407 00:21:13.910 --> 00:21:19.490 chosen no one else. Belladonna dies, leaving Gambit devastated. But 408 00:21:19.529 --> 00:21:22.869 there is no time to grieve. The guild children are 409 00:21:22.910 --> 00:21:26.390 still missing and the Brood Queen is still alive. Now 410 00:21:26.410 --> 00:21:28.880 this takes us into Ghost Rider number 27, where the 411 00:21:29.000 --> 00:21:32.410 X-Men continue searching the tunnels beneath New Orleans. Their first 412 00:21:32.430 --> 00:21:35.200 priority is finding the children, and eventually they locate them 413 00:21:35.299 --> 00:21:39.720 trapped in the brood's goo-like material. Cyclops and the majority 414 00:21:39.740 --> 00:21:42.519 of the X-Men begin freeing the children and leading them 415 00:21:42.579 --> 00:21:46.849 toward the surface, while Ghost Rider, Gambit, and Wolverine break 416 00:21:46.910 --> 00:21:50.289 away to hunt down the brood queen. Gambit wants revenge 417 00:21:50.309 --> 00:21:53.490 for Belladonna, Ghost Rider wants vengeance for everyone the brood 418 00:21:53.509 --> 00:21:57.230 have killed, and Wolverine just wants the brood gone. The 419 00:21:57.269 --> 00:21:59.829 trio fights through wave after wave of brood until they 420 00:21:59.869 --> 00:22:02.740 finally reach the queen. She attempts to escape and make 421 00:22:02.839 --> 00:22:05.559 one final attack with the children, but Ghost Rider's motorcycle 422 00:22:06.039 --> 00:22:09.339 arrives just in time. Ghost Rider wraps his chain around 423 00:22:09.359 --> 00:22:11.369 the queen, drags her away from the X-Men, and pulls 424 00:22:11.390 --> 00:22:16.089 her to the surface. And that's where things get extremely violent. 425 00:22:17.410 --> 00:22:21.099 Ghost Rider literally tears the Brood Queen's skeleton out of 426 00:22:21.119 --> 00:22:25.019 her body, only for the skeleton itself to keep fighting. 427 00:22:25.819 --> 00:22:29.369 Johnny Blaze finally arrives, armed with his Hellfire shotgun, and 428 00:22:29.430 --> 00:22:33.930 joins the battle. Between Ghost Rider, Blaze, Wolverine, Gambit, and Cyclops, 429 00:22:33.970 --> 00:22:38.099 the Brood Queen gets absolutely annihilated. Blaze blows her head off. 430 00:22:38.400 --> 00:22:42.759 Wolverine stabs the severed head through the eye. Gambit, I think, 431 00:22:42.819 --> 00:22:45.980 then blows it apart with a charged card and Cyclops 432 00:22:46.019 --> 00:22:49.119 destroys what remains of the body. The brood threat is 433 00:22:49.180 --> 00:22:52.380 finally ended. The children are saved and Gambit thanks Ghost 434 00:22:52.420 --> 00:22:55.079 Rider for his help. But the story closes with one 435 00:22:55.119 --> 00:22:58.660 loose end. The mysterious assassin responsible for murdering members of 436 00:22:58.680 --> 00:23:01.930 the Thieves Guild has survived and is watching from the shadows. 437 00:23:02.450 --> 00:23:04.869 He promises that his feud with Gambit, the X-Men, and 438 00:23:04.890 --> 00:23:08.539 Ghost Rider is far from over. And that is Brood 439 00:23:08.579 --> 00:23:11.720 Trouble and the Big Easy. Four issues of Gambit family drama, 440 00:23:11.819 --> 00:23:15.140 brood horror, Ghost Rider getting turned into an alien monster, 441 00:23:15.240 --> 00:23:18.880 Wolverine cutting loose, and one of the most over-the-top villain 442 00:23:18.900 --> 00:23:21.200 deaths you're going to see in a comic book. So 443 00:23:21.789 --> 00:23:24.069 there you go. All right, Chris Armstrong, I need to 444 00:23:24.089 --> 00:23:26.970 drink water. You have the floor. What are your thoughts 445 00:23:27.049 --> 00:23:27.650 on this story? 446 00:23:29.309 --> 00:23:32.769 Yeah, this one is pretty fun. We see Bishop in 447 00:23:32.869 --> 00:23:35.650 X-Men number eight. Bishop is new. This is, I think, 448 00:23:35.849 --> 00:23:37.549 I guess this would be his first appearance in the 449 00:23:39.650 --> 00:23:42.990 adjective list in X-Men. Although I know that their issue three, 450 00:23:43.059 --> 00:23:45.579 I think, had like an X-Men versus X-Men battle. So 451 00:23:45.619 --> 00:23:48.059 maybe he was in there as well. But this seems 452 00:23:48.099 --> 00:23:51.019 to be his first time visiting with the blue team. 453 00:23:51.779 --> 00:23:54.519 He meets Forge for the first time here and calls 454 00:23:54.559 --> 00:23:55.200 him Genesis. 455 00:23:55.380 --> 00:23:56.279 Genesis, yeah. 456 00:23:56.440 -->

00:23:58.940 Which is interesting. Yeah, which I guess that's what he's 457 00:23:58.980 --> 00:24:00.640 known as in the future. I don't know if that 458 00:24:00.700 --> 00:24:03.910 ever gets followed up on. But I looked it up, 459 00:24:03.960 --> 00:24:08.190 and Bishop's first appearance was in Uncanny X-Men 282, which 460 00:24:08.230 --> 00:24:13.670 was in November of 91. So that was less than 461 00:24:13.730 --> 00:24:18.279 six months before this. The Bishop vs. Gambit stuff is cool, 462 00:24:18.339 --> 00:24:21.539 and it's very familiar to me because of the X-Men cartoon. 463 00:24:21.990 --> 00:24:23.210 Yes. Mostly. 464 00:24:23.369 --> 00:24:26.390 That's one of the Bishop time travel Days of Future 465 00:24:26.430 --> 00:24:30.819 Past adaptation that they do in the X-Men. Is it 466 00:24:30.890 --> 00:24:33.420 in season one of the original X-Men cartoon or maybe 467 00:24:33.440 --> 00:24:34.740 season two? I think it's season one. 468 00:24:35.220 --> 00:24:36.700 Oh boy, I couldn't tell you for sure. 469 00:24:36.740 --> 00:24:40.579 But it really was, it was an impactful one for me. 470 00:24:40.640 --> 00:24:43.519 I thought it was really cool to see some time 471 00:24:43.559 --> 00:24:46.880 travel stuff, see an old Wolverine, an old Forge in there. 472 00:24:47.140 --> 00:24:50.200 And when he comes back, I'm pretty sure he blames Gambit, right? 473 00:24:50.240 --> 00:24:53.180 That's who he points at is the villain oh yeah 474 00:24:53.519 --> 00:24:55.859 i can't remember for certain because it's been a while 475 00:24:55.900 --> 00:24:57.720 i've seen it but it seemed to me like they 476 00:24:57.740 --> 00:24:59.799 played it out in the animated series just like they 477 00:24:59.819 --> 00:25:03.190 do here in this book but um we get a 478 00:25:03.230 --> 00:25:08.769 little downtime for the x-men and we get this iconic 479 00:25:09.569 --> 00:25:12.450 psylocke image in the bathing suit coming out of the 480 00:25:12.519 --> 00:25:13.529 water out. 481 00:25:13.259 --> 00:25:16.940 Of the swimming hole Listen, I think I'm on record 482 00:25:17.400 --> 00:25:22.180 as talking about Jim Lee drawing some women, some lovely ladies. 483 00:25:22.480 --> 00:25:25.440 It was the half issue of Divine Right. 484 00:25:25.880 --> 00:25:29.910 Divine Right. And I'm like, holy, this is my panel. Spoiler, 485 00:25:29.950 --> 00:25:31.970 I'm not picking her for my panel as much as 486 00:25:32.049 --> 00:25:35.470 I'd like to. But she is. Yeah, this is this. 487 00:25:35.690 --> 00:25:39.589 It's so funny because Scott cannot keep his thoughts straight 488 00:25:39.769 --> 00:25:43.319 while Gene is right there by him. Like he cannot talk. 489 00:25:43.940 --> 00:25:46.640 Which is hilarious, but yeah, anyway, sorry I interrupted you. 490 00:25:47.119 --> 00:25:48.720 Oh, you're good. We'll see more of that in the 491 00:25:48.759 --> 00:25:52.609 next issue, I think. Of the Scott and Psylog stuff. 492 00:25:53.289 --> 00:25:56.369 Jubilee is pretty annoying in this. 493 00:25:56.710 --> 00:25:57.529 Oh, boy. 494 00:25:57.569 --> 00:26:00.730 I didn't dislike Jubilee as a kid, maybe because I 495 00:26:00.769 --> 00:26:02.589 was a kid, and so I kind of identified with 496 00:26:02.750 --> 00:26:06.109 the kid character. I mostly remember her really from the 497 00:26:06.250 --> 00:26:08.730 animated series more than anything, but yeah, she's pretty annoying 498 00:26:08.769 --> 00:26:09.099 in this, but. 499 00:26:09.920 --> 00:26:11.319 I don't know how long it's been, but I didn't 500 00:26:11.359 --> 00:26:13.920 have a chance to screenshot it, but we get a nineties, 501 00:26:13.980 --> 00:26:14.619 not reference. 502 00:26:15.289 --> 00:26:17.390 Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. 503 00:26:17.470 --> 00:26:18.750 I was like, Holy crap. 504 00:26:19.009 --> 00:26:19.509 You found it. 505 00:26:19.650 --> 00:26:21.369 I was like, this is the first time I've seen 506 00:26:21.410 --> 00:26:23.390 one of these in a while. So, but yeah, she 507 00:26:23.569 --> 00:26:27.269 is like over the top. Like, I think that might 508 00:26:27.309 --> 00:26:29.490 be one of my notes is about how. 509 00:26:30.789 --> 00:26:32.029 Little on the mouth side. 510 00:26:32.289 --> 00:26:35.319 She like, she's always talking about like, well, yeah, that's 511 00:26:35.359 --> 00:26:37.039 what I was going to do. You're lucky. I didn't 512 00:26:37.059 --> 00:26:40.910 kick your butt. And they're like, hey, you can tag along, 513 00:26:40.990 --> 00:26:43.750 but they should have told her to keep her mouth shut, too. 514 00:26:43.789 --> 00:26:45.970 But yeah, she is a little on the, just like 515 00:26:46.009 --> 00:26:51.589 you said, she's a kid in this crazy world, so. Yeah. Anyway. 516 00:26:52.269 --> 00:26:56.869 Belladonna, I remember mostly from that Gambit miniseries, which, now 517 00:26:56.890 --> 00:26:59.710 did that come out before or after this? I'm assuming 518 00:26:59.750 --> 00:27:00.190 it was after. 519 00:27:00.630 --> 00:27:04.250 It's gotta be after, because he's, is Belladonna in it? 520 00:27:04.970 --> 00:27:06.329 She is. She's not dead. So. 521 00:27:06.690 --> 00:27:07.650 Okay. Okay. 522 00:27:08.109 --> 00:27:10.730 Yeah, and not surprisingly, I don't think, because this is 523 00:27:10.769 --> 00:27:11.250 a comic book. 524 00:27:11.470 --> 00:27:13.130 Well, let me look here, because I feel like that 525 00:27:13.190 --> 00:27:19.849 thing comes out in 94. Let me see. Gambit miniseries. No, 526 00:27:19.869 --> 00:27:22.289 it comes out in 93. Well, it says 93 to 94. 527 00:27:22.269 --> 00:27:23.009 Limited issue. 528 00:27:23.029 --> 00:27:25.710 Probably late 93. 529 00:27:25.710 --> 00:27:28.490 Yeah. Howard Mackey and Lee Weeks focusing on New Orleans, 530 00:27:28.529 --> 00:27:31.130 the Thieves Guild, and Belladonna. Now, granted. 531 00:27:31.150 --> 00:27:33.849 I'm pretty sure Gambit thinks she's dead until that. 532 00:27:35.329 -->

00:27:38.059 Oh, okay. So she shows back up. So that happens 533 00:27:38.099 --> 00:27:40.359 in actual time. It's not like a flashback or anything 534 00:27:40.380 --> 00:27:40.660 like that. 535 00:27:40.680 --> 00:27:45.700 I think so. And I think this assassin might be 536 00:27:45.779 --> 00:27:47.759 in it as well. It's been a long time since 537 00:27:47.779 --> 00:27:48.160 I read it. 538 00:27:48.359 --> 00:27:50.240 It would make sense for him to show back up 539 00:27:50.319 --> 00:27:52.460 because they made a point to be like, this dude 540 00:27:52.529 --> 00:27:55.289 isn't done. So, okay. 541 00:27:55.509 --> 00:27:58.490 All right. That's really all I've got for X-Men number eight, 542 00:27:58.509 --> 00:28:00.369 the first issue. And then, of course, we get Jim 543 00:28:00.430 --> 00:28:04.210 Lee's rendition of Ghost Rider, who I don't love his 544 00:28:04.269 --> 00:28:06.829 Ghost Rider as much a fan as... of Jim Lee 545 00:28:06.869 --> 00:28:09.289 as I am. I think part of it is, is 546 00:28:09.410 --> 00:28:12.789 he doesn't really give him, he seems too small for 547 00:28:12.829 --> 00:28:15.549 some reason, or maybe too toned. Like he draws him 548 00:28:15.569 --> 00:28:18.589 kind of muscular, even though he's a skeleton. Oh yeah. 549 00:28:19.109 --> 00:28:21.849 I mean, it goes better just being kind of, kind 550 00:28:21.869 --> 00:28:25.759 of bigger, like bigger shoulders and like more filled out, 551 00:28:25.819 --> 00:28:27.619 I guess. I don't know. There's something a little off 552 00:28:27.720 --> 00:28:29.039 to me about it. 553 00:28:29.059 --> 00:28:29.299 Yeah. 554 00:28:29.640 --> 00:28:32.480 And this is Art Tiberius, the Inker, right? And Jim 555 00:28:32.519 --> 00:28:33.759 Lee himself, I think it says. 556 00:28:33.819 --> 00:28:33.980 Yeah. 557 00:28:35.109 --> 00:28:38.890 Not Scott Williams who a lot of people I've seen 558 00:28:39.049 --> 00:28:42.410 kind of credit Scott Williams as being like the secret 559 00:28:42.470 --> 00:28:45.309 sauce to a lot of Jim Lee that's the guy 560 00:28:45.349 --> 00:28:49.839 he almost always has seeking his stuff and I think 561 00:28:49.880 --> 00:28:51.880 you can kind of tell that in this issue a 562 00:28:51.920 --> 00:28:55.000 little bit or maybe it's just because this is a 563 00:28:55.019 --> 00:29:00.000 little earlier Jim Lee I think of prime Jim Lee 564 00:29:00.079 --> 00:29:05.299 as kind of like the Wildcats area really But either way, 565 00:29:05.319 --> 00:29:08.940 this is a really beautiful issue, so I'm not trying 566 00:29:08.960 --> 00:29:09.640 to dog him or anything. 567 00:29:09.660 --> 00:29:12.359 Yeah, and it's funny, like, I love how they try 568 00:29:12.400 --> 00:29:16.099 to include this as part of the story. And granted 569 00:29:16.160 --> 00:29:18.200 it is, because when we look at this, this is. 570 00:29:18.420 --> 00:29:19.480 The last page, you mean? 571 00:29:19.640 --> 00:29:22.339 Yeah, Ghost Rider shows up

in the very last page. 572 00:29:22.940 --> 00:29:26.549 Yeah, it's really a three issue. I guess Belladonna does 573 00:29:26.589 --> 00:29:28.369 kind of set up the reason why they go to 574 00:29:28.430 --> 00:29:29.730 New Orleans and everything, but yeah. 575 00:29:30.119 --> 00:29:32.599 And a lot of this is like X-Men number eight 576 00:29:32.680 --> 00:29:35.470 feels a lot like an X-Men story with Ghost Rider 577 00:29:35.910 --> 00:29:37.950 folded into it at that point. We spent a lot 578 00:29:37.970 --> 00:29:39.769 of time with Bishop joining the team. We got the 579 00:29:39.809 --> 00:29:42.160 extra storyline going on. We got Rogue and Gamut and 580 00:29:42.200 --> 00:29:45.519 then Belladonna showing up. Ghost Rider barely appears until the 581 00:29:45.539 --> 00:29:48.269 very end. I didn't mind that because I understand we 582 00:29:48.289 --> 00:29:49.789 got to get Belladonna in here to kind of set 583 00:29:49.829 --> 00:29:51.170 up why in the world are the X-Men going to 584 00:29:51.190 --> 00:29:54.299 New Orleans? Makes sense. but I'm also, I'm big at 585 00:29:54.339 --> 00:29:57.640 this time. I love the Bishop Gambit X trader stuff 586 00:29:57.859 --> 00:29:59.859 because this, I don't think this is the last time 587 00:29:59.900 --> 00:30:02.119 these guys are going to get into it. And the 588 00:30:02.259 --> 00:30:06.299 fight that they have in here is it's great. First off, 589 00:30:07.000 --> 00:30:11.500 Bishop's arms are as big as like freaking Gambit's chest. 590 00:30:11.579 --> 00:30:14.380 I swear he like he decks Gambit and he goes flying. 591 00:30:14.960 --> 00:30:17.980 Bishop is this massive dude. And Gambit is just number one. 592 00:30:18.910 --> 00:30:20.890 He's trying to be cocky. He's trying to be mysterious. 593 00:30:20.990 --> 00:30:23.490 And Bishop has none of it. Like, the thing that 594 00:30:23.509 --> 00:30:26.539 sets Bishop off is when Gambit just pokes him in 595 00:30:26.579 --> 00:30:31.240 the chest. And then Bishop just decks this guy. But 596 00:30:31.259 --> 00:30:34.200 they continue fighting throughout this issue. And then the one 597 00:30:34.240 --> 00:30:36.539 thing that gets them to stop is the whole boysenberry 598 00:30:36.579 --> 00:30:39.990 pie or whatever. The pie ends up in Rogue's face. 599 00:30:40.549 --> 00:30:43.029 And they're just like, oh, man. And they start laughing 600 00:30:43.069 --> 00:30:45.250 and trying to basically just get her to calm down. 601 00:30:45.690 --> 00:30:47.509 Rogue could tear both their heads off if you wanted. 602 00:30:47.529 --> 00:30:48.009 Yeah. 603 00:30:48.640 --> 00:30:49.259 I don't blame him. 604 00:30:49.619 --> 00:30:51.559 So I like that. But what you really start to 605 00:30:51.599 --> 00:30:53.480 see and it kind of picks up here is through 606 00:30:53.500 --> 00:30:57.500 this whole story, really the main character I feel like 607 00:30:58.119 --> 00:31:00.440 is going to end up being Gambit. He's going to

608 00:31:00.460 --> 00:31:02.619 be the guy that this whole story kind of sort 609 00:31:02.640 --> 00:31:06.119 of revolves around. His backstory, his wife has showed up. 610 00:31:06.660 --> 00:31:08.740 We've got the Thieves Guild, the Assassins Guild. This is 611 00:31:08.839 --> 00:31:11.440 kind of his town. He takes kind of like the 612 00:31:11.500 --> 00:31:16.440 lead at the beginning in the next issue. So there's 613 00:31:16.460 --> 00:31:18.500 a lot of that set up. And I do like 614 00:31:18.539 --> 00:31:21.660 the Belladonna stuff. I do feel like by the end 615 00:31:21.680 --> 00:31:23.259 of this, we need a little bit more. We should 616 00:31:23.279 --> 00:31:25.880 have had a little bit more time with her. But obviously, 617 00:31:25.920 --> 00:31:29.940 Howard Mackey's maybe got plans for that Gambit series to 618 00:31:29.960 --> 00:31:32.579 give us more of that. I don't mind the Hatfield-McCoy 619 00:31:32.619 --> 00:31:34.559 thing that they got going on where, hey, we got 620 00:31:34.579 --> 00:31:37.160 to have a marriage so we can bring the clans 621 00:31:37.180 --> 00:31:41.309 together or whatever. I also like how Belladonna complicates developing Gro-Grog. 622 00:31:41.470 --> 00:31:42.349 That's what we're going to call it. 623 00:31:42.769 --> 00:31:44.069 Yeah, that's their couple name. 624 00:31:45.049 --> 00:31:49.809 Grog. Yeah, that role, that sounds beautiful. The developing Gambit-Rogue relationship. 625 00:31:50.170 --> 00:31:54.490 Gambit and Rogue are clearly attracted to each other. And boy, howdy, 626 00:31:54.569 --> 00:31:56.910 are they? This is one of those comic romances that 627 00:31:57.089 --> 00:32:01.069 I remember pretty well. Then Belladonna walks in and basically says, 628 00:32:01.250 --> 00:32:05.170 oh yeah, he's my husband. And Gambit's got some explaining 629 00:32:05.190 --> 00:32:08.400 to do now. But what I do like about this is, 630 00:32:08.519 --> 00:32:11.819 as we find out in later issues, you expect Belladonna 631 00:32:11.920 --> 00:32:14.119 and Rogue to be at each other's throats or something. 632 00:32:14.539 --> 00:32:17.680 And that's not what happens. These two now have this 633 00:32:17.720 --> 00:32:20.779 kind of commonality. And there's a point in the next 634 00:32:20.859 --> 00:32:24.789 issue where they're comparing notes on Remy. So anyway, I 635 00:32:24.829 --> 00:32:26.170 like that dynamic. I think it's fun. 636 00:32:26.190 --> 00:32:27.950 Do you want to pick a panel for each issue? Yes. 637 00:32:28.650 --> 00:32:31.690 Yeah, yeah, let's do it. I'll go first, and I 638 00:32:31.710 --> 00:32:35.990 already talked about it. It's Bishop decking Gambit. 639 00:32:36.549 --> 00:32:37.230 That's a good one. 640 00:32:37.329 --> 00:32:39.490 I remember when I picked this issue up, and it 641 00:32:39.529 --> 00:32:43.670 was all because I wonder if Wizard had hit the 642 00:32:43.750 --> 00:32:46.930 shelves at this point, hadn't it? Yeah. Like in 92? 643 00:32:46.930 --> 00:32:49.170 So I bet you I probably picked up, and I already, 644 00:32:49.329 --> 00:32:51.099 you know, you know this well enough about me. I'm 645 00:32:51.119 --> 00:32:53.740 a big fan of the time travel tropes, and man, 646 00:32:53.779 --> 00:32:58.039 back in 92... You couldn't get enough of that because 647 00:32:58.279 --> 00:33:01.299 it was becoming more frequent, but it wasn't as common 648 00:33:01.400 --> 00:33:04.480 as nowadays as it is. So this X-Men from the 649 00:33:04.519 --> 00:33:06.799 future coming back to stop somebody from betraying him, I 650 00:33:06.819 --> 00:33:08.980 was like, oh my gosh, this is a cool character. 651 00:33:09.460 --> 00:33:11.440 And then I see Jim Lee's rendition of him on 652 00:33:11.579 --> 00:33:14.380 X-Men number eight. I don't have an issue of X-Men 653 00:33:14.420 --> 00:33:16.700 number one in my collection. I don't know if I 654 00:33:16.740 --> 00:33:19.220 have any other X-Men prior to this. I'd have to 655 00:33:19.269 --> 00:33:22.250 go back and look through the covers. But this one 656 00:33:22.549 --> 00:33:25.710 I recall having off the shelf and in a bag 657 00:33:25.799 --> 00:33:29.180 shortly thereafter because Jim Lee's art on this was fantastic 658 00:33:29.220 --> 00:33:32.089 and this is Bishop's issue. So anyway, there you go. 659 00:33:32.099 --> 00:33:34.920 That's my panel. It's Bishop decking Gambit. 660 00:33:36.940 --> 00:33:39.589 I'm going to, even though I talked some smack about 661 00:33:39.670 --> 00:33:42.630 his rendition of Ghost Rider, I'm going to go ahead 662 00:33:43.750 --> 00:33:46.890 and pick the final panel of the issue, page 20, 663 00:33:46.890 --> 00:33:53.079 panel 7. It's Ghost Rider tearing ass on that demonic motorcycle. 664 00:33:54.299 --> 00:33:56.019 And that's not the last time we'll see this cop, 665 00:33:56.039 --> 00:33:58.160 I don't think. The cop that tries to pull him 666 00:33:58.240 --> 00:33:59.930 over because I think he's going to show back up 667 00:33:59.970 --> 00:34:02.450 here later. That's good stuff. Yeah, that's a good one. 668 00:34:02.890 --> 00:34:06.829 I like it. All right. So we get into the 669 00:34:06.869 --> 00:34:09.409 following issue, and that's where Ghost Rider finds out about 670 00:34:09.449 --> 00:34:11.500 the brood. I'll just talk about my thoughts on the 671 00:34:11.519 --> 00:34:15.590 brood here. Once they show up, again, I wasn't expecting it. 672 00:34:16.150 --> 00:34:18.010 I wasn't expecting them to be the villains, but I 673 00:34:18.090 --> 00:34:22.320 think they fit here, in my opinion. It's weird, but 674 00:34:22.380 --> 00:34:26.000 I feel like it fits. You get this... When Ghost 675 00:34:26.059 --> 00:34:28.440 Rider shows up, I wasn't expecting, like, holy crap, they're 676 00:34:28.460 --> 00:34:30.000 going to take over the Ghost Rider. They're going to 677 00:34:30.019 --> 00:34:32.360 take him over, and we get this, like, alien body 678 00:34:32.400

--> 00:34:36.739 horror element that's mixed with some supernatural stuff now, which 679 00:34:37.199 --> 00:34:39.539 is crazy. I want to say Brood Ghost Rider is 680 00:34:39.559 --> 00:34:42.179 probably the coolest concept in this whole crossover. 681 00:34:43.179 --> 00:34:45.650 I kind of wonder if that was, like, the whole 682 00:34:45.710 --> 00:34:50.210 reason they did this is because Mackie wanted to bring 683 00:34:50.230 --> 00:34:50.710 that out. 684 00:34:50.989 --> 00:34:56.349 I think visually... He looks great when he's infected. And 685 00:34:56.369 --> 00:34:59.849 it also gives us a great reason to have the 686 00:34:59.929 --> 00:35:01.489 classic superhero battle. 687 00:35:02.730 --> 00:35:03.250 Yeah. 688 00:35:03.369 --> 00:35:06.159 What you came to see is some kind of superhero 689 00:35:06.199 --> 00:35:08.780 battle between Ghost Rider and the X-Men in some way. 690 00:35:09.320 --> 00:35:10.900 I'll kind of leave it at that because I don't 691 00:35:10.960 --> 00:35:13.400 think we get into the fight until the next issue. 692 00:35:13.420 --> 00:35:14.980 Right, that happens in X-Men 9, yeah. 693 00:35:15.059 --> 00:35:16.480 All right, well, I'm going to go ahead and stop there. 694 00:35:16.679 --> 00:35:17.179 What's your thoughts? 695 00:35:19.059 --> 00:35:22.199 Yeah, the one thing I'm curious about with these Assassin's 696 00:35:22.320 --> 00:35:25.460 Guild and the Thieves' Guild, like, we open up in 697 00:35:25.480 --> 00:35:31.230 this Ghost Rider 26 issue with this assassin murdering one 698 00:35:31.250 --> 00:35:35.150 of the thieves, and it's like, are they both mutants? 699 00:35:35.230 --> 00:35:36.409 Why do they both have superpowers? 700 00:35:36.429 --> 00:35:40.559 Yeah. You have no idea why this is happening. I 701 00:35:40.599 --> 00:35:45.989 think it's alluded to later... um but but yeah you 702 00:35:46.469 --> 00:35:49.050 and there is actually a moment where it's about ready 703 00:35:49.070 --> 00:35:52.510 to be explained and gambit jumps in is like i 704 00:35:52.550 --> 00:35:56.349 don't you be talking about my secrets now you're like 705 00:35:56.369 --> 00:35:59.599 oh man wait a second yeah there's something there's something. 706 00:35:59.280 --> 00:36:02.099 Yeah belladonna you know has powers too so yeah. 707 00:36:02.019 --> 00:36:04.320 There's something going on with both of these families where 708 00:36:04.340 --> 00:36:08.239 they have these powers and i listen i x-men fan 709 00:36:08.260 --> 00:36:10.460 but i don't really know this is probably explained i 710 00:36:10.500 --> 00:36:13.219 assume in the gambit miniseries or something yeah probably which 711 00:36:13.260 --> 00:36:16.739 i'm so there's probably some explanation as to why this 712 00:36:16.989 --> 00:36:19.289 why this is going on but yeah they and i 713 00:36:20.530 --> 00:36:23.670 is our assassin i assume is not brood infected right 714 00:36:23.769 --> 00:36:27.269 like this guy that's going around

killing these thieves he's 715 00:36:27.289 --> 00:36:29.710 working with them but he's not like. 716 00:36:30.769 --> 00:36:34.090 Yeah i kind of thought he he was until i 717 00:36:34.130 --> 00:36:36.760 remembered that i think he shows up in that gambit 718 00:36:36.820 --> 00:36:40.019 series and he looks the same okay um and i 719 00:36:40.059 --> 00:36:43.139 don't know why he would be independently out there and 720 00:36:44.179 --> 00:36:47.019 all the other infected brood i think pretty much get 721 00:36:47.059 --> 00:36:51.269 killed in this right so maybe not so maybe not 722 00:36:51.309 --> 00:36:53.710 maybe he's just working for the brood queen here. 723 00:36:53.550 --> 00:36:56.829 I know the brood queen acknowledges him like yeah one 724 00:36:56.849 --> 00:37:01.179 of our assassins got got a little bit too excited 725 00:37:01.219 --> 00:37:03.480 or something like that. So I don't know. He doesn't 726 00:37:03.539 --> 00:37:05.039 look like it. We'll just put it that way. He's 727 00:37:05.119 --> 00:37:08.739 basically just a shadow with a mouth and eyes and 728 00:37:09.710 --> 00:37:13.190 obviously able to kill people pretty easily with bare hands. 729 00:37:13.869 --> 00:37:15.570 The reason I thought he might be is he's got 730 00:37:15.889 --> 00:37:19.690 almost kind of like a beak-like thing, part of his face. 731 00:37:20.090 --> 00:37:20.409 Okay. 732 00:37:21.329 --> 00:37:23.199 Just the shape of it. He doesn't look like a brood, 733 00:37:23.320 --> 00:37:24.920 but he doesn't look like a human either. 734 00:37:24.940 --> 00:37:25.539 Right, right. 735 00:37:27.079 --> 00:37:29.519 He's got like a tongue that is kind of long. Yeah, 736 00:37:29.820 --> 00:37:32.260 I don't know. I think he's just probably a weird 737 00:37:32.280 --> 00:37:33.420 mutant of some sort. 738 00:37:33.800 --> 00:37:34.099 Yeah. 739 00:37:36.000 --> 00:37:37.889 The only other thing I really got for this issue, 740 00:37:38.130 --> 00:37:40.789 I think, is I'm not a huge fan of Ron 741 00:37:40.809 --> 00:37:45.269 Wagner's portrayal of Ghost Rider as a brood. 742 00:37:45.570 --> 00:37:46.849 Yeah, this is. 743 00:37:46.869 --> 00:37:51.559 Hey, let's just give him really long bone spikes. 744 00:37:52.199 --> 00:37:52.420 Yeah. 745 00:37:54.500 --> 00:37:56.460 And I like Ronald Wagner. I think he's a pretty 746 00:37:56.480 --> 00:37:56.920 good artist. 747 00:37:57.199 --> 00:38:01.239 And here's the thing. Like, sometimes I didn't understand. Back 748 00:38:01.280 --> 00:38:03.239 in the day, I did not understand that the cover 749 00:38:03.340 --> 00:38:05.400 art could be different than what the interior art is 750 00:38:05.440 --> 00:38:05.840 going to be. 751 00:38:05.860 --> 00:38:08.969 Yeah, Jim Lee's doing the covers for all these issues. 752 00:38:09.179 --> 00:38:11.610 So if you are stupid like me and you're like, 753 00:38:11.650 --> 00:38:14.469 holy crap, Jim Lee's doing a Ghostwriter book, and you 754 00:38:14.510 --> 00:38:16.469 go and grab it and you see Ron Wagner, his 755 00:38:16.530 --> 00:38:19.829 art's good. But you have a book that has Ghostwriter 756 00:38:19.849 --> 00:38:22.369 in it done by Jim Lee and another one done 757 00:38:22.409 --> 00:38:26.280 by Ron Wagner. And, my goodness, I just, it's tough 758 00:38:26.320 --> 00:38:30.300 to follow, I think, in my opinion. But, again, if 759 00:38:30.320 --> 00:38:33.199 you're reading Ghost Rider, you probably appreciate the fact they 760 00:38:33.219 --> 00:38:34.000 kept the artist on. 761 00:38:34.400 --> 00:38:38.090 Andy Cooper was about to be the Ghost Rider artist 762 00:38:38.260 --> 00:38:40.260 starting with, I think he started with The Rise of 763 00:38:40.280 --> 00:38:41.159 the Midnight Suns. 764 00:38:41.849 --> 00:38:44.369 Oh, did he? How long is Wagner on the book, then? 765 00:38:44.389 --> 00:38:45.610 He's on it for a while, right? 766 00:38:45.969 --> 00:38:47.949 I feel like he was, I think he might have 767 00:38:47.969 --> 00:38:51.769 been the issue 25 artist as well. I'm not, I 768 00:38:51.789 --> 00:38:57.010 know Mark Kishara and I think Javier Salteras were the 769 00:38:57.090 --> 00:39:00.360 artists on the early issues up through like the teens anyway. 770 00:39:01.280 --> 00:39:03.500 But the lineage, I don't know. I know Wagner was 771 00:39:03.539 --> 00:39:05.019 on there for a while, then Kubert, and then I 772 00:39:05.119 --> 00:39:09.000 think Brent Blevins did some issues before I kind of 773 00:39:09.019 --> 00:39:11.539 started losing track of the series. Okay, actually I've got, 774 00:39:11.559 --> 00:39:15.420 I pulled up the marble.com. I was just curious. So yeah, 775 00:39:15.440 --> 00:39:19.659 it looks like Teixeira ended his run on issue 19. 776 00:39:19.659 --> 00:39:25.179 Then it was Ron Wagner for 2021. Teixeira is back 777 00:39:25.219 --> 00:39:26.139 for 22 and 23. Then Cooper for 24. Wagner is 778 00:39:30.139 --> 00:39:32.579 on there for the next three, 25, 26, 27. Then 779 00:39:33.400 --> 00:39:38.300 Cooper for the Midnight Suns era. Then Blevins takes over 780 00:39:38.360 --> 00:39:41.789 after that. And Mike Manley, Ron Garney kind of becomes 781 00:39:41.949 --> 00:39:42.949 a quick succession. 782 00:39:43.570 --> 00:39:44.369 Okay. All right. 783 00:39:44.389 --> 00:39:46.230 Do you want to do a panel? 784 00:39:46.650 --> 00:39:49.309 Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Panel. I've got my panel right here. 785 00:39:49.550 --> 00:39:49.750 But. 786 00:39:50.679 --> 00:39:52.369 Let's see if it's the same one. So you get 787 00:39:52.389 --> 00:39:54.889 to go first. And if I have to pick another panel, 788 00:39:54.909 --> 00:39:56.030 I'm going to have to pull the comic up. 789 00:39:57.690 --> 00:40:01.300 I've got page nine, panel three. It's when the cop 790 00:40:01.340 --> 00:40:06.000 has pulled over the X-Men and Wolverine slices off the 791 00:40:06.039 --> 00:40:09.019 barrel of his gun that's pulling him to

death. 792 00:40:09.039 --> 00:40:10.889 With his middle claw, just to add a little more 793 00:40:11.030 --> 00:40:13.610 edge and attitude to it. Okay, good one. I did 794 00:40:13.650 --> 00:40:16.369 not pick that one. I'm really surprised you didn't pick 795 00:40:16.409 --> 00:40:18.800 this one. I don't know where this is located at, 796 00:40:18.840 --> 00:40:21.380 but all I know is it's just one panel of 797 00:40:21.449 --> 00:40:26.119 Ghost Rider with his fist right in his face. And 798 00:40:26.159 --> 00:40:28.360 he's got the spike glove and he's looking right at 799 00:40:28.380 --> 00:40:30.719 the reader. He's got the red flare in his eyes 800 00:40:30.760 --> 00:40:34.480 and he says, the power of vengeance. 801 00:40:35.440 --> 00:40:35.719 Nice. 802 00:40:35.739 --> 00:40:38.559 And it's just that one panel of his face and 803 00:40:38.599 --> 00:40:42.530 his fist. And my gosh, give me a count. how 804 00:40:42.550 --> 00:40:45.869 many times bro is going to say vengeance. He's going 805 00:40:45.889 --> 00:40:47.940 to say quite a bit, but if there's any time 806 00:40:47.960 --> 00:40:49.639 that he said it and I love the way that 807 00:40:49.659 --> 00:40:53.579 it looked, it's right here. So, all right. All right. 808 00:40:53.599 --> 00:40:55.420 Good pick. Good pick. All right. Well then, yeah, go 809 00:40:55.440 --> 00:40:58.059 ahead and roll into X-Men number nine then. All right. 810 00:40:58.099 --> 00:41:01.070 So going into the next issue, which would be X-Men 811 00:41:01.119 --> 00:41:02.989 number nine. What's your thoughts? Yeah. 812 00:41:04.030 --> 00:41:10.909 Neith, New Orleans. That's the cover blurb. Uh, Pretty B.A. 813 00:41:10.949 --> 00:41:14.929 cover from Jim Lee with Wolverine and Ghost Rider in 814 00:41:15.110 --> 00:41:18.690 a pitched battle. It's just regular Ghost Rider on the cover. 815 00:41:18.750 --> 00:41:21.429 It's not the rude, infected version. I like it opens 816 00:41:21.530 --> 00:41:24.159 up with the Jubilee as the X-Men are all watching 817 00:41:24.900 --> 00:41:29.380 Ghost Rider transform here. She's saying, color me curious, but 818 00:41:29.460 --> 00:41:31.340 does anyone know if I'm too young to join the 819 00:41:31.380 --> 00:41:35.230 New Warriors? I'm always happy to see a New Warriors 820 00:41:35.250 --> 00:41:39.039 shout out. You mentioned the classic knot from Jubilee is 821 00:41:39.099 --> 00:41:42.260 in this issue when she's about to get attacked by 822 00:41:42.280 --> 00:41:45.900 the infected ghost rider. What do you think of Jim 823 00:41:45.960 --> 00:41:49.400 Lee's brood ghost rider? I, okay. 824 00:41:49.659 --> 00:41:53.880 So it isn't as awesome as I thought it would be. 825 00:41:54.800 --> 00:41:58.110 Like I was expecting more. Ron Wagner's is fine. And 826 00:41:58.239 --> 00:42:01.280 Jim Lee's is fine. I just, I think that it 827 00:42:01.380 --> 00:42:04.340 could have been a little bit better in my opinion. 828 00:42:04.480 --> 00:42:07.630 We only get really one good look at it. Um, 829 00:42:07.789 --> 00:42:11.869 I think at one point and yeah, yeah, we get, 830 00:42:12.010 --> 00:42:13.510 we see it every once in a while, but there's 831 00:42:13.590 --> 00:42:17.449 not like, do we get one big panel of it? 832 00:42:18.030 --> 00:42:22.010 Like just on page two, we get a big shot 833 00:42:22.050 --> 00:42:24.349 of him kind of standing there with the brood queen 834 00:42:24.369 --> 00:42:28.190 behind him. He basically just gives him like a Xenomorph head, 835 00:42:28.409 --> 00:42:33.010 you know, like, an elongated skull. He's got a tail 836 00:42:33.230 --> 00:42:38.090 that comes out like a brood tail, but... And more teeth. Yeah, yeah, 837 00:42:38.110 --> 00:42:42.869 definitely got more teeth. Early on, we get another classic 838 00:42:42.909 --> 00:42:47.349 Jim Lee X-Men image that a shot of Wolverine with 839 00:42:47.429 --> 00:42:50.210 his arms up and his claws out attacking some brood. 840 00:42:50.230 --> 00:42:53.610 I'm pretty sure I saw that reprinted in Wizard several 841 00:42:53.659 --> 00:42:59.239 times over the years. We get the fight between Wolverine 842 00:43:00.039 --> 00:43:04.929 Wolverine and Ghost Rider is pretty epic. We don't see 843 00:43:04.969 --> 00:43:08.369 a ton of it. Again, this is... Yep. There's a 844 00:43:08.409 --> 00:43:10.510 lot of action in this issue, but we don't see 845 00:43:10.570 --> 00:43:13.969 a ton of just Wolverine versus Ghost Rider. We get 846 00:43:14.130 --> 00:43:15.130 some of that action, but. 847 00:43:15.269 --> 00:43:18.969 Yeah, I'm right there with you. This isn't Wolverine versus Lobo, 848 00:43:18.989 --> 00:43:21.849 I guess, level of, like, you don't get to see 849 00:43:21.869 --> 00:43:27.030 the fight, but it happens. But it's not exactly like this, again... 850 00:43:27.679 --> 00:43:29.340 This could have I feel like there could have been 851 00:43:29.400 --> 00:43:33.929 some way more dynamic panels between these two fighting. And really, 852 00:43:33.969 --> 00:43:36.489 the only thing we get is like Wolverine just hacking 853 00:43:36.510 --> 00:43:39.869 the out of them. And you see blood flying, which 854 00:43:39.929 --> 00:43:41.929 is pretty crazy. And I was like, oh, damn, he's 855 00:43:42.010 --> 00:43:44.489 really going to town. And then they immediately like two 856 00:43:44.510 --> 00:43:46.989 panels later, Ghost Rider's like, yeah, just let none of 857 00:43:47.010 --> 00:43:49.289 that really did anything because I heal immediately. 858 00:43:49.309 --> 00:43:49.449 Yeah. 859 00:43:50.340 --> 00:43:51.760 And which is, which is pretty cool. 860 00:43:51.800 --> 00:43:51.940 Yeah. 861 00:43:52.280 --> 00:43:57.690 Again, it's an interesting fight because you've got Wolverine, the 862 00:43:57.730 --> 00:44:00.030 best he is at what he does. And he is 863 00:44:00.110 --> 00:44:03.230 like one of the hottest characters at this point, ghostwriter, 864 00:44:03.409

--> 00:44:07.130 just the same, but they both come from two different 865 00:44:07.150 --> 00:44:12.349 walks of power sets. One is like this practically invincible mutant. 866 00:44:12.489 --> 00:44:15.469 And the other one is practically an invincible demon. And 867 00:44:15.780 --> 00:44:18.760 so they're, they're both just Wolverine's going to hurt Wolverine. 868 00:44:19.210 --> 00:44:21.230 I don't think Ghost Rider is. Ghost Rider's going to 869 00:44:21.250 --> 00:44:24.800 probably take the punishment and possibly say ow when it happens, 870 00:44:24.840 --> 00:44:27.420 but immediately afterward, it's not going to be much. So 871 00:44:27.880 --> 00:44:29.860 it's kind of like when I first read Punisher versus 872 00:44:29.900 --> 00:44:34.519 Wolverine in the African saga, I was like, damn, damn, Frank, 873 00:44:34.559 --> 00:44:36.900 you are out of your element, man. You're going to 874 00:44:36.920 --> 00:44:40.110 get your ass handed to you. With Wolverine and Ghost Rider, 875 00:44:40.139 --> 00:44:42.289 it wasn't exactly the same thing. It was sort of like, okay, well, 876 00:44:42.329 --> 00:44:45.489 who's going to win? You don't know because they both 877 00:44:45.530 --> 00:44:48.869 are just unstoppable machines when they want to be. Ghost 878 00:44:48.909 --> 00:44:51.510 Rider always has that weird supernatural penance stare stuff. Now, 879 00:44:51.590 --> 00:44:53.150 none of that's happening with the brood in him, though. 880 00:44:53.650 --> 00:44:56.190 So that's all off the table because the brood is 881 00:44:56.230 --> 00:44:59.639 just like, oh, man, hey, my skull's on fire. But 882 00:44:59.679 --> 00:45:02.320 I don't think he has the brood, whatever it is, 883 00:45:02.360 --> 00:45:05.219 the infected broodling in there, has no idea it can 884 00:45:05.239 --> 00:45:08.239 do the penance stare or anything like that, which, surprisingly enough, 885 00:45:08.619 --> 00:45:10.900 that doesn't happen at all in this series. 886 00:45:11.280 --> 00:45:12.940 No, we don't see that in any of these. I'm 887 00:45:12.980 --> 00:45:16.530 kind of curious how you're saying that if, there's ever 888 00:45:16.590 --> 00:45:21.570 been a time in their history where Wolverine is hit 889 00:45:21.590 --> 00:45:23.210 with the Penance Tear, because that's something that I think 890 00:45:23.230 --> 00:45:26.429 would really affect him, especially after he got his memories back. 891 00:45:26.570 --> 00:45:28.449 Oh, yeah, dude. Wow. 892 00:45:29.110 --> 00:45:31.190 But, of course, the Penance Tear was really just a 893 00:45:31.210 --> 00:45:34.110 Danny Ketch Ghost Rider thing, and he doesn't really exist anymore. 894 00:45:35.050 --> 00:45:35.389 Oh, yeah. 895 00:45:35.550 --> 00:45:38.050 That's a good point. I mean, pretty much since the 896 00:45:38.139 --> 00:45:41.960 end of the Howard Mackey Danny Ketch Ghost Rider book 897 00:45:42.000 --> 00:45:44.760 in the late 90s, it's pretty much always been Johnny Blaze. 898 00:45:44.840 --> 00:45:47.679 And there's been Danny's still around and there's been different 899 00:45:47.800 --> 00:45:51.800 like versions of him. You know, I even haven't sent 900 00:45:51.840 --> 00:45:54.820 us what he does. I think, was that a HeroQuicks 901 00:45:54.860 --> 00:45:56.210 or something he sent us of? And he's like, when 902 00:45:56.230 --> 00:45:57.389 did this happen to Danny Ketch? 903 00:45:57.449 --> 00:45:59.789 And I was like, we don't talk about that. 904 00:46:00.710 --> 00:46:03.510 But anyway, again, not a lot of great Wolverine versus 905 00:46:03.530 --> 00:46:05.510 Ghost Rider stuff. And some of the best action in 906 00:46:05.550 --> 00:46:10.130 this issue, which has a lot, is like Cyclops blasting 907 00:46:10.730 --> 00:46:14.750 Ghost Rider with a optic blast and some of the 908 00:46:14.889 --> 00:46:17.079 X-Men going against the Brood. It's a lot of cool action, 909 00:46:17.099 --> 00:46:19.099 just the main event and stuff wasn't as impressive as 910 00:46:19.219 --> 00:46:23.179 I kind of hoped it would be. Also, Psylocke, a 911 00:46:23.260 --> 00:46:25.780 little bit of a tramp, maybe? 912 00:46:26.480 --> 00:46:29.820 You know, it's funny. I remember reading issue eight back 913 00:46:29.840 --> 00:46:32.190 in the day, and I collected a few issues after that, 914 00:46:32.230 --> 00:46:35.449 but I have no idea how this love triangle resolves, 915 00:46:35.570 --> 00:46:38.610 or even if it is considered that. But yeah, she's 916 00:46:38.670 --> 00:46:43.630 definitely like, Scott's not married at this time, right? Right, right. 917 00:46:43.670 --> 00:46:44.449 He's not married to Jean. 918 00:46:44.530 --> 00:46:46.170 That's still a year or two away. 919 00:46:46.289 --> 00:46:49.630 But she's definitely like, you're on the market, brother. And 920 00:46:50.150 --> 00:46:54.210 then they have this discussion in the tunnels. And let's 921 00:46:54.269 --> 00:46:56.719 make sure that we just focus on the mission right now. 922 00:46:56.800 --> 00:46:57.880 We've got a job to do here. 923 00:46:58.989 --> 00:47:01.059 Right in the middle of, in the heat of battle. 924 00:47:01.280 --> 00:47:02.440 We just fell through the roof. 925 00:47:03.139 --> 00:47:04.260 Hey, the blood's pumping. 926 00:47:04.639 --> 00:47:06.420 It's like, dude. But yeah, yeah. 927 00:47:06.460 --> 00:47:08.139 We've been watchmen. We know how it can go. 928 00:47:08.159 --> 00:47:11.309 Ha ha ha. I don't know how this resolves itself. 929 00:47:11.449 --> 00:47:13.010 I have no idea. But I know there's going to 930 00:47:13.030 --> 00:47:14.840 be a point where Quan and. 931 00:47:14.849 --> 00:47:16.130 Or Jean hint to it. 932 00:47:16.530 --> 00:47:21.369 She knows what's going on, and she doesn't exactly appreciate that. So, yeah, 933 00:47:21.469 --> 00:47:23.130 I don't know. It's cool that we get these kind 934 00:47:23.150 --> 00:47:24.909 of like, everybody falls through the roof, now we get 935 00:47:25.010

--> 00:47:28.590 these times to spend with these couple separated teams to 936 00:47:28.630 --> 00:47:30.800 figure out how they're going to do things. But yeah, 937 00:47:30.840 --> 00:47:33.960 we just get more of the romance, or not romance, 938 00:47:34.119 --> 00:47:36.559 whatever you want to call it here, bad romance from 939 00:47:36.760 --> 00:47:41.059 Scott and Psylocke. So, but yeah. Sorry. 940 00:47:41.099 --> 00:47:43.800 The only other thing I've got in this issue is 941 00:47:43.880 --> 00:47:46.440 there was a funny line from Jubilee about the New 942 00:47:46.460 --> 00:47:51.039 Warriors earlier. And then what is this page 12? I 943 00:47:51.219 --> 00:47:54.320 think when they're kind of releasing some of these people 944 00:47:54.340 --> 00:47:55.739 from their cocoons or whatever. 945 00:47:55.760 --> 00:47:58.000 I remember what you said. 946 00:47:58.179 --> 00:48:00.570 We're still alive. Still in the trails off. She's like, 947 00:48:00.590 --> 00:48:03.309 what's the matter? And then behind her, it's the brood 948 00:48:03.369 --> 00:48:07.789 infected ghost runner going to me. I the matter. which 949 00:48:08.070 --> 00:48:10.110 starts the fight back up again. That was a pretty 950 00:48:10.130 --> 00:48:12.909 cool moment, but yeah, that's all I got for this issue. 951 00:48:13.329 --> 00:48:17.019 Okay, well, I like the way that they save Ghost 952 00:48:17.079 --> 00:48:21.079 Rider here. Psylocke and Belladonna enter his mind and find 953 00:48:21.119 --> 00:48:23.519 Danny Ketch trapped inside, and it kind of gives us 954 00:48:23.579 --> 00:48:27.239 a very X-Men solution to a Ghost Rider problem. Now, granted, 955 00:48:27.260 --> 00:48:29.840 they don't save Danny, but they save Ghost Rider and 956 00:48:29.860 --> 00:48:32.760 Danny from being infected by the brood. Because Danny is 957 00:48:32.780 --> 00:48:35.679 still mortally wounded. He's still like, if he comes back, 958 00:48:35.699 --> 00:48:37.199 and I think you explained this way back when we 959 00:48:37.219 --> 00:48:39.099 were talking about Ghost Rider 25, but I'm pretty sure 960 00:48:39.119 --> 00:48:42.530 if he transforms back into Danny Ketch, then he's dead. 961 00:48:43.010 --> 00:48:44.389 So they've got to figure out a way, and that's 962 00:48:44.449 --> 00:48:46.969 why Ghost Rider's kind of rolling around trying to find Blaze, 963 00:48:47.050 --> 00:48:50.409 because we've got to get this predicament figured out. And 964 00:48:50.429 --> 00:48:53.070 I think the whole mortally wounded thing is what turns 965 00:48:53.170 --> 00:48:56.800 out to actually kind of help Danny and the Ghost Rider, 966 00:48:57.199 --> 00:49:00.099 it prevents the brood from completely taking control. I don't 967 00:49:00.119 --> 00:49:01.880 know if I'm looking too far into that. 968 00:49:02.179 --> 00:49:06.599 Yeah, it seems a little cloudy, but I think that's 969 00:49:06.679 --> 00:49:07.539 a factor at least. 970 00:49:07.860 --> 00:49:08.360 Okay. 971 00:49:08.500 --> 00:49:12.090 If Danny and Ghost Rider were still together, the brood 972 00:49:12.110 --> 00:49:14.150 infection may have been permanent maybe or something. 973 00:49:14.190 --> 00:49:16.289 Got you. All right. We kind of already talked about, 974 00:49:16.449 --> 00:49:19.250 I wanted a bigger Wolverine Ghost Rider fight. And when 975 00:49:19.269 --> 00:49:21.389 you look at the Jim lee cover like that promises 976 00:49:21.489 --> 00:49:26.039 absolute war between these two and you get something but 977 00:49:26.099 --> 00:49:29.219 man i feel like it's just a missed opportunity to 978 00:49:29.380 --> 00:49:36.039 really just deliver what those signature x-men panels look like 979 00:49:36.099 --> 00:49:39.099 back then or those pages sometimes those splash pages could 980 00:49:39.119 --> 00:49:42.869 have been something that so much greater. But aside from that, 981 00:49:42.909 --> 00:49:46.659 that's really kind of all my, all my notes here. I, again, I, 982 00:49:46.710 --> 00:49:49.230 I like the concept of the brood ghost writer. I 983 00:49:49.289 --> 00:49:52.860 think it's really cool, but my, yeah, my next few 984 00:49:52.889 --> 00:49:55.719 notes will be on how this thing ends and, and 985 00:49:55.860 --> 00:49:56.659 let's get into that. 986 00:49:56.800 --> 00:50:00.599 One of the, sorry, the last exchange here, similar to, 987 00:50:00.880 --> 00:50:02.559 I don't know if it was spirits of venom or 988 00:50:02.659 --> 00:50:05.639 one of the other books we covered where somebody had 989 00:50:05.659 --> 00:50:08.900 a similar response to ghost writer, but here he says, 990 00:50:09.650 --> 00:50:13.010 I am here until vengeance is served. And Gamit's response 991 00:50:13.030 --> 00:50:16.579 is vengeance. Mizumi, you do not know the meaning of 992 00:50:16.619 --> 00:50:23.989 this word. Forgive my attempt at a Cajun accent. But 993 00:50:24.889 --> 00:50:28.389 it's like if anybody knows the meaning of this ghost phrase. 994 00:50:29.380 --> 00:50:31.559 Like Ghost Rider is the guy that's going to know 995 00:50:32.099 --> 00:50:33.679 what vengeance is. 996 00:50:33.699 --> 00:50:34.760 Yeah. 997 00:50:35.460 --> 00:50:37.780 But yeah, Gambit's got to try to be a badass. 998 00:50:38.019 --> 00:50:40.340 Like Gambit just doesn't know Ghost Rider. I don't know. 999 00:50:41.320 --> 00:50:44.050 All right. Well, let's go ahead and pick a panel. 1000 00:50:44.090 --> 00:50:46.190 Me first. And I already picked it. I talked about 1001 00:50:46.210 --> 00:50:48.510 it earlier. It was what I think is the best 1002 00:50:48.730 --> 00:50:53.010 Jim Lee brood rendition of Ghost Rider ever. which I 1003 00:50:53.070 --> 00:50:56.650 think it's brood ghost rider coming up behind Scott and 1004 00:50:56.730 --> 00:50:59.829 grabbing him from behind, like having his hand across his face. 1005 00:51:00.530 --> 00:51:03.070 I think that right there is, for me, is probably 1006 00:51:03.110 --> 00:51:08.539

the best looking ghost rider brood, ghost rider infected brood 1007 00:51:08.619 --> 00:51:09.500 thing across over there. 1008 00:51:09.659 --> 00:51:13.139 A lot of these, again, with the brood infected ghost rider, 1009 00:51:13.159 --> 00:51:14.980 a lot of them, it just like, there's not a 1010 00:51:15.019 --> 00:51:19.340 lot of, detail or definition in the face and i'm 1011 00:51:19.360 --> 00:51:21.380 not sure what was going on there with that the 1012 00:51:21.440 --> 00:51:22.599 way he did it but. 1013 00:51:22.639 --> 00:51:24.869 Yeah yeah it's almost like he avoided it for some 1014 00:51:24.889 --> 00:51:27.909 reason but this doesn't look too bad no i think 1015 00:51:27.949 --> 00:51:29.510 this looks i think this one looks good but i 1016 00:51:29.550 --> 00:51:31.150 feel like it could have been so much better but 1017 00:51:31.989 --> 00:51:33.210 anyway what's your panel. 1018 00:51:33.909 --> 00:51:37.599 Mine also has brood ghost rider it's page 13 panel 1019 00:51:37.599 --> 00:51:41.659 3 it's the shot of scott unleashing the optic blast 1020 00:51:41.800 --> 00:51:47.400 on brood ghost rider with a zark sound effect Perfect. 1021 00:51:47.820 --> 00:51:50.559 All right. Okay. Well then let me go ahead and 1022 00:51:50.579 --> 00:51:52.260 I'll get into my notes here and then I'll turn 1023 00:51:52.280 --> 00:51:54.949 it over to you for these final parts. The artwork 1024 00:51:55.030 --> 00:51:56.730 is a big part of why I enjoyed this so much, 1025 00:51:56.789 --> 00:52:00.329 especially the Jim Lee issues. Ron Wagner's ghostwriter work is 1026 00:52:00.570 --> 00:52:02.989 perfectly fine. There's nothing there that takes me out of 1027 00:52:03.010 --> 00:52:05.909 the story or anything like that. But following Jim Lee 1028 00:52:05.969 --> 00:52:07.550 in 1992 is an impossible assignment. 1029 00:52:07.829 --> 00:52:08.050 Yeah. 1030 00:52:08.409 --> 00:52:11.239 Like that's really tough. The issues immediately took me back, 1031 00:52:11.280 --> 00:52:13.639 took me back. I talked about X-Men number eight and 1032 00:52:13.699 --> 00:52:16.010 how I felt there when I was reading that. But 1033 00:52:16.090 --> 00:52:22.860 my only note with this last issue is the finale 1034 00:52:23.820 --> 00:52:30.639 is gloriously early nineties Marvel insanity. Like I, so I 1035 00:52:31.579 --> 00:52:36.119 was confused at first because the brood has come up 1036 00:52:36.159 --> 00:52:38.500 to the surface. Ghost rider has followed it up there. 1037 00:52:39.079 --> 00:52:42.550 The X-Men are like quickly behind him and it's just 1038 00:52:42.679 --> 00:52:47.579 ghost rider versus the brood queen. And, Ghostwriter grabs the 1039 00:52:47.619 --> 00:52:53.500 brood queen by the teeth and starts. And I just 1040 00:52:53.960 --> 00:52:56.579 the next thing I know is the brood queen is 1041 00:52:56.659 --> 00:53:01.570 laying on the ground and Wolverine Wolverine says something like 1042 00:53:01.630 --> 00:53:03.250 the

old bag of bones. And I was like, what 1043 00:53:03.269 --> 00:53:06.050 is he talking about? Like, he's insulting her, she's dead, 1044 00:53:06.070 --> 00:53:07.829 and he called her an old bag of bones or something. 1045 00:53:08.230 --> 00:53:11.429 But what ended up happening, and this doesn't click until, like, 1046 00:53:11.690 --> 00:53:16.300 a couple seconds later, because the skeleton gets up and says, 1047 00:53:16.360 --> 00:53:18.179 I don't need skin, and I'm like, wait a second. 1048 00:53:18.300 --> 00:53:18.519 Yeah. 1049 00:53:18.900 --> 00:53:20.030 I missed something here. And. 1050 00:53:21.780 --> 00:53:25.420 It's when you look at that panel of ghostwriter grabbing 1051 00:53:25.599 --> 00:53:28.019 what I thought was grabbing the teeth of the brood queen, 1052 00:53:28.460 --> 00:53:31.940 he is grabbing its upper lip and pulling it. And 1053 00:53:32.019 --> 00:53:35.619 he pulls the dude. Imagine if this was an image comic, 1054 00:53:36.079 --> 00:53:40.059 like that panel where the skin comes off of the 1055 00:53:40.099 --> 00:53:44.619 thing is going to be explicitly bloody. It's going to be, 1056 00:53:45.079 --> 00:53:48.739 it's just going to be gory. Not happening here though. Yeah. 1057 00:53:48.800 --> 00:53:51.280 Wagner pretty much gives us a before and after. Yeah. 1058 00:53:52.110 --> 00:53:54.610 But then you have to once you start reading Wolverine's 1059 00:53:54.630 --> 00:53:56.070 dialogue and then you go back and you look at 1060 00:53:56.110 --> 00:53:58.510 that panel, you're like, holy crap. So, yeah, he pulls 1061 00:53:59.050 --> 00:54:02.519 somehow he pulls the skeleton out of the skin and 1062 00:54:02.539 --> 00:54:05.500 it just gets crazy from there because I thought, oh, wow, 1063 00:54:06.019 --> 00:54:08.760 I thought legitimately that's kind of how things were going 1064 00:54:08.800 --> 00:54:11.280 to end. Like I thought the bag of bones comment 1065 00:54:11.320 --> 00:54:14.150 was going to be a ha ha funny moment. It's dead. 1066 00:54:14.469 --> 00:54:17.050 Let's move on. Let's wrap up some things up. But no, 1067 00:54:17.550 --> 00:54:22.269 it gets back up. It continues to fight. Johnny Blaze arrives. 1068 00:54:22.329 --> 00:54:25.170 I've already talked about this in the synopsis. He blows 1069 00:54:25.210 --> 00:54:28.389 her head off. He's like, Ghost Rider's like hellfire shotgun. 1070 00:54:28.409 --> 00:54:31.030 And he's like, okay, no problem. He blows the thing's 1071 00:54:31.110 --> 00:54:34.650 head off. And then Wolverine comes over and takes his 1072 00:54:34.710 --> 00:54:37.369 claw and stabs it straight through the eye. And then 1073 00:54:37.429 --> 00:54:39.889 Gambit charges his car and throws it at it and 1074 00:54:40.010 --> 00:54:43.920 blows the head to Smithereens. And Cyclops is like, everybody's 1075 00:54:43.960 --> 00:54:46.099 got to get their stuff in here. 1076 00:54:46.260 --> 00:54:47.679 Everybody gets to do their stuff. 1077 00:54:48.820 --> 00:54:52.000 Cyclops blasts it with its with his optic blast and he, 1078 00:54:52.199 --> 00:54:55.400 it explodes. And I, at that point I had to 1079 00:54:55.440 --> 00:54:58.960 take back any complaint that I had, but anyway, classic, 1080 00:54:59.059 --> 00:55:01.179 this is a very over the top death scene for 1081 00:55:01.199 --> 00:55:03.920 this brood queen, which is just, it's kind of nice 1082 00:55:04.159 --> 00:55:07.619 to see it happen. But also if it was image, 1083 00:55:07.920 --> 00:55:10.760 if it was image comics, it would have been three 1084 00:55:10.800 --> 00:55:14.570 or four like huge splash pages of this thing getting 1085 00:55:15.170 --> 00:55:17.550 absolutely destroyed. So you have the floor. 1086 00:55:19.110 --> 00:55:22.409 Yeah, this one not as action-packed quite as the last issue, 1087 00:55:22.510 --> 00:55:25.070 but Ghost Rider's back, and he got his faculties back. 1088 00:55:25.750 --> 00:55:26.269 Yep. 1089 00:55:27.449 --> 00:55:30.670 And now we get more of the team-up era, or 1090 00:55:31.150 --> 00:55:35.670 portion of this story. And really, what we really want 1091 00:55:35.710 --> 00:55:38.909 to see is Gambit, Wolverine, and Ghost Rider, so they 1092 00:55:38.929 --> 00:55:43.369 kind of split off on their own and leave the 1093 00:55:43.409 --> 00:55:45.730 rest of the X-Men, for the most part, to rescue people. 1094 00:55:46.679 --> 00:55:49.019 for the bulk of the issue. Dan, we saw him 1095 00:55:49.039 --> 00:55:51.059 a little bit in the X-Men issue, but here we 1096 00:55:51.119 --> 00:55:54.920 see him in, like, the SoulScape or the Astral Plane 1097 00:55:54.940 --> 00:55:57.010 or Limbo or wherever he's at. He still has that 1098 00:55:57.619 --> 00:55:59.650 strong connection to Ghost Rider. 1099 00:55:59.889 --> 00:56:03.269 Well, there's always this, like, he's walking toward the light. Like, 1100 00:56:03.309 --> 00:56:04.469 that happens in two issues. 1101 00:56:05.170 --> 00:56:05.329 Yeah. 1102 00:56:05.369 --> 00:56:09.519 Like, he's walking toward this light and... And as a reader, 1103 00:56:09.539 --> 00:56:12.639 you're probably like, oh, he's going to die. He's going 1104 00:56:12.679 --> 00:56:14.840 to die. He's walking toward the light. Stay away from 1105 00:56:14.860 --> 00:56:19.260 the light. But he's walking toward it. So, yeah, Danny Ketch, 1106 00:56:19.920 --> 00:56:22.989 not exactly. That problem has not been solved. And when 1107 00:56:23.030 --> 00:56:25.389 we end this, Blaze and Ghost Rider are driving off. 1108 00:56:26.260 --> 00:56:28.809 And Ghost Rider's like, hey. And he kind of informs 1109 00:56:28.849 --> 00:56:29.769 Blaze what's going on. 1110 00:56:29.909 --> 00:56:32.530 We also get a butt shot from Danny. His clothes 1111 00:56:32.550 --> 00:56:34.630 get burned off. 1112 00:56:34.889 --> 00:56:36.789 I don't recall that. All right. 1113 00:56:37.199 --> 00:56:39.380 Yeah, I'm glad to see Blaze come back into the 1114

00:56:39.420 --> 00:56:43.940 story because this is right before Rise of the Midnight Suns. 1115 00:56:44.000 --> 00:56:47.500 So they're pretty much, Blaze has a line towards the 1116 00:56:47.539 --> 00:56:49.880 end there. Don't think this makes us partners or anything, 1117 00:56:49.940 --> 00:56:52.849 but that's exactly what's going to be happening in the 1118 00:56:52.889 --> 00:56:53.570 next couple months. 1119 00:56:53.590 --> 00:56:57.150 Blaze is rolling in with the Carnival too, which I 1120 00:56:57.250 --> 00:56:59.809 remembered from reading Rise of the Midnight Suns because he's 1121 00:56:59.849 --> 00:57:02.230 coming in there with the Carnival and they're sort of 1122 00:57:02.269 --> 00:57:03.630 going to be helping him out a little bit every 1123 00:57:03.690 --> 00:57:04.190 once in a while. 1124 00:57:04.909 --> 00:57:08.670 Yeah. The Quentin Carnival was kind of the supporting cast 1125 00:57:08.710 --> 00:57:12.230 for the Spirits of Vengeance issues once that series started going. 1126 00:57:15.389 --> 00:57:18.110 The only other thing I've really got is we see 1127 00:57:18.150 --> 00:57:21.469 this assassin at the end and he says, I'll see 1128 00:57:21.550 --> 00:57:24.070 all you again soon. He kind of lumps Ghost Rider 1129 00:57:24.090 --> 00:57:25.690 in there. I don't know that Ghost Rider ever sees 1130 00:57:25.730 --> 00:57:26.510 this guy again. 1131 00:57:26.530 --> 00:57:28.380 Yeah, I was wondering, is he going to be showing 1132 00:57:28.409 --> 00:57:29.449 back up at some point? 1133 00:57:29.570 --> 00:57:31.579 Yeah, but I do think he shows up in that 1134 00:57:31.619 --> 00:57:34.599 Gambit series later. But that's pretty much all I got. 1135 00:57:34.619 --> 00:57:37.079 I think we've pretty much covered everything else in this issue. 1136 00:57:37.400 --> 00:57:40.500 The skinning of the Brood Queen, the way they dispatch her, 1137 00:57:40.559 --> 00:57:41.219 is pretty sweet. 1138 00:57:41.900 --> 00:57:44.679 Yeah, I agree. I did put on here, I had 1139 00:57:44.699 --> 00:57:46.570 a really good time with this. I think four issues 1140 00:57:46.610 --> 00:57:48.429 was just a little too short. I feel like there 1141 00:57:48.449 --> 00:57:50.969 could have been a couple more issues, especially with maybe 1142 00:57:50.989 --> 00:57:53.929 giving Belladonna a little more room. They bring Johnny Blaze 1143 00:57:53.969 --> 00:57:56.110 into this story. I'd like to have seen him a 1144 00:57:56.110 --> 00:57:57.849 little bit earlier, to be honest. It would have been 1145 00:57:57.869 --> 00:57:59.730 nice to see him kind of show up. 1146 00:57:59.739 --> 00:58:02.150 I think they just had to get them... team back 1147 00:58:02.250 --> 00:58:04.349 up so that they can be together at the beginning of. 1148 00:58:04.349 --> 00:58:07.510 The next story crossover that specs start i would have 1149 00:58:07.550 --> 00:58:10.070 liked to have seen an expanded wolverine ghost rider confrontation 1150 00:58:10.130 --> 00:58:13.289 i mentioned that and maybe explain the assassin and the 1151 00:58:13.329 --> 00:58:16.909 broods plan a little better but this is absolutely concentrated 1152 00:58:16.909 --> 00:58:20.570 1992 marvel jim lee gambit bishop wolverine ghost rider the 1153 00:58:20.610 --> 00:58:25.289 brood body horror ridiculous one-liners we get our 90s not 1154 00:58:25.349 --> 00:58:29.530 reference in here and a completely excessive ending I'd easily 1155 00:58:29.590 --> 00:58:32.989 recommend this to anybody. Anyways, an X-Men or Ghost Rider person, 1156 00:58:33.050 --> 00:58:34.780 I think they could find some fun in this. 1157 00:58:35.119 --> 00:58:35.320 Yeah. 1158 00:58:35.380 --> 00:58:36.900 Folks, if you can get your hands on it, go 1159 00:58:36.940 --> 00:58:37.550 out there and read it. 1160 00:58:38.380 --> 00:58:40.639 Just my final thoughts, I guess, on the crossover as 1161 00:58:40.679 --> 00:58:44.599 a whole. Very fun stuff. The only real complaint I have, again, 1162 00:58:44.619 --> 00:58:47.219 like you said, could have used a little more Ghost 1163 00:58:47.280 --> 00:58:54.010 Rider versus Wolverine and a little more explanation about the guilds, 1164 00:58:54.260 --> 00:58:57.349 the Assassin's Guild and the Thieves Guild in New Orleans and, like, 1165 00:58:58.030 --> 00:59:01.179 They all have superpowers. Maybe that's stuff that they address 1166 00:59:01.260 --> 00:59:04.059 later and we find out more about that later. But 1167 00:59:04.300 --> 00:59:08.300 a really fun 90s era, early early 90s era marvel 1168 00:59:08.320 --> 00:59:09.980 crossover i liked it quite a bit. 1169 00:59:10.539 --> 00:59:13.139 Yeah all right now we can pick a panel do 1170 00:59:13.159 --> 00:59:14.570 i go first this time or you know. 1171 00:59:14.449 --> 00:59:16.989 You do right you do i don't know you do 1172 00:59:17.369 --> 00:59:19.449 you go all right i'll go ahead it's page nine 1173 00:59:19.550 --> 00:59:24.769 panel four on the right one yeah It's Ghost Rider 1174 00:59:24.829 --> 00:59:29.090 in the foreground with Wolverine and back-to-back in the background, 1175 00:59:29.309 --> 00:59:32.280 getting ready to go on the hunt for the brood. 1176 00:59:32.300 --> 00:59:34.159 I won't share my screen. 1177 00:59:36.300 --> 00:59:39.719 I kind of figured that one, but based on your reaction, 1178 00:59:39.820 --> 00:59:41.000 that was probably it. 1179 00:59:41.219 --> 00:59:42.820 Oh, son of a bitch. All right. 1180 00:59:42.960 --> 00:59:46.280 The Danny Kitsch butt shot is still open. Oh, yeah. 1181 00:59:46.599 --> 00:59:49.139 I didn't know it was there. Obviously, it didn't leave 1182 00:59:49.179 --> 00:59:51.889 that much of an impression on me. Okay. All right. 1183 00:59:52.050 --> 00:59:53.869 I don't know why I didn't think of this before. 1184 00:59:55.840 --> 01:00:01.199 So I'm going to go with one panel. This should 1185 01:00:01.219 --> 01:00:03.400 have been just immediately what I thought

of after you 1186 01:00:03.420 --> 01:00:06.030 took the one that I did have. And that is 1187 01:00:06.090 --> 01:00:11.489 going to be this one right here. where he grabs 1188 01:00:11.769 --> 01:00:15.010 the tooth of the brood queen ghost rider grabs the 1189 01:00:15.050 --> 01:00:18.309 tooth you have no idea what's happening you just look 1190 01:00:18.329 --> 01:00:21.150 at him stretching the upper lip of the brood i 1191 01:00:21.889 --> 01:00:24.570 didn't know what was going on after that although this 1192 01:00:24.650 --> 01:00:27.010 next one after that where he's holding the skin and 1193 01:00:27.070 --> 01:00:30.000 just saying vengeance come on but i'll go with the 1194 01:00:30.099 --> 01:00:31.719 one that took me by some i had to go 1195 01:00:31.760 --> 01:00:33.539 back and look at twice to understand what was going 1196 01:00:33.619 --> 01:00:35.960 on and then realize oh my gosh what is he 1197 01:00:36.000 --> 01:00:38.679 doing So, yeah, it's where Ghost Rider is peeling the 1198 01:00:38.719 --> 01:00:42.269 skin back of the brood queen about ready to rip 1199 01:00:42.309 --> 01:00:45.550 its skeleton out. We aren't going anywhere just yet. For 1200 01:00:45.570 --> 01:00:48.420 a couple more moments, you and I. Uh-oh. You and I. 1201 01:00:48.429 --> 01:00:54.610 Cool-o-meter time. The cool-o-meter, my friend. The cool-o-meter. And look 1202 01:00:54.650 --> 01:01:00.809 what is uncool at the very bottom. The uncool is not. 1203 01:01:02.409 --> 01:01:07.179 This is 1992, and we're saying not is uncool? Are 1204 01:01:07.219 --> 01:01:10.559 you kidding me? All right, we're going from uncool to 1205 01:01:10.639 --> 01:01:13.820 cool here in the issue. We've got impersonal computers. I 1206 01:01:13.840 --> 01:01:15.639 have no idea what they're talking about. I don't know 1207 01:01:15.679 --> 01:01:19.409 if they're making a commentary about how, because obviously personal 1208 01:01:19.449 --> 01:01:20.789 computers is a different thing. 1209 01:01:21.150 --> 01:01:22.769 I assume that's what they're talking about. 1210 01:01:22.789 --> 01:01:27.590 All right. and then our next one perceived value. Oh, right. 1211 01:01:27.730 --> 01:01:29.610 I've boy, I don't know if, I don't know if 1212 01:01:29.670 --> 01:01:33.269 that's a commentary on the speculator market. I don't know. 1213 01:01:33.630 --> 01:01:39.719 Identity politics. Okay. I've never heard this term before. Couch cowboys. 1214 01:01:40.679 --> 01:01:42.579 Yeah. That's new news to me. Yeah. 1215 01:01:42.679 --> 01:01:45.760 I don't, I don't, I have no idea. All right. 1216 01:01:46.280 --> 01:01:49.150 So this is 92 and all of a sudden I'm like, 1217 01:01:49.210 --> 01:01:51.820 now I got to know what, like, political stuff is 1218 01:01:51.840 --> 01:01:53.639 going on because the next one is U S Japan 1219 01:01:53.679 --> 01:01:58.300 trade relations. That's, that's not as uncool as not, but it's, it's, 1220 01:01:58.480 --> 01:02:01.280 it's

there. Flora abundance. 1221 01:02:02.320 --> 01:02:03.369 No idea what it is. 1222 01:02:03.570 --> 01:02:08.090 Nope. Pair bonding. Okay. These are all terms I got 1223 01:02:08.110 --> 01:02:13.889 to look up. Mystery wins. Okay. And now we're about 1224 01:02:13.929 --> 01:02:14.909 the middle of the quarter. 1225 01:02:14.949 --> 01:02:17.280 What children are going to know? Like B, this was 1226 01:02:17.300 --> 01:02:23.579 still a, a, a, A kid's medium at this time, 1227 01:02:23.619 --> 01:02:24.039 for sure. 1228 01:02:24.059 --> 01:02:28.579 Yeah, and this is also kind of fairly pre-internet. We're 1229 01:02:28.619 --> 01:02:29.260 on the verge. 1230 01:02:29.699 --> 01:02:29.989 Yeah. 1231 01:02:30.260 --> 01:02:33.110 I think 93 is when I really am like, okay, 1232 01:02:33.550 --> 01:02:35.989 I have access to my buddy's computer and he has 1233 01:02:36.050 --> 01:02:38.989 a cool thing I can do on this thing called Yahoo. 1234 01:02:39.530 --> 01:02:42.010 That happens in 94 for me. 1235 01:02:42.110 --> 01:02:42.489 I think. 1236 01:02:42.610 --> 01:02:46.929 And granted, I lived in rural Ohio, not too far 1237 01:02:46.989 --> 01:02:50.570 from the city, but regardless... I can't go grab a 1238 01:02:50.610 --> 01:02:54.250 dictionary very easily and look up floor abundance or do 1239 01:02:54.329 --> 01:02:57.110 I care to, but I don't know what the term 1240 01:02:57.150 --> 01:02:59.820 mystery wins is. I'm going to have to look that up. 1241 01:03:00.389 --> 01:03:03.519 Institutional memory. I don't know why this is on the 1242 01:03:03.559 --> 01:03:08.949 cool meter character generators. What is that? Is that a, 1243 01:03:09.400 --> 01:03:09.800 are they. 1244 01:03:09.699 --> 01:03:13.280 Like, maybe I'll bet that's an RPG thing. 1245 01:03:13.820 --> 01:03:17.750 Okay. All right. Then tech noir. All right. We're making 1246 01:03:17.769 --> 01:03:18.829 our way to cool here. 1247 01:03:18.849 --> 01:03:21.050 Yeah. I've heard that term. 1248 01:03:21.170 --> 01:03:24.530 Yeah, I know that term. Demystification. I've heard that term 1249 01:03:24.570 --> 01:03:31.920 as well. Now, this is either a term or the band. 1250 01:03:32.280 --> 01:03:34.039 I would think it's the band. I think this is 1251 01:03:34.099 --> 01:03:34.900 right in their heyday. 1252 01:03:35.320 --> 01:03:38.639 Yeah, I think you're right. Spin doctors. Then we have 1253 01:03:38.760 --> 01:03:41.960 paradigm shift. Yeah, dude, these are all terms like kids 1254 01:03:42.000 --> 01:03:43.429 are not going to have any idea what in the 1255 01:03:43.449 --> 01:03:47.320 world this means. And then. We are only three from 1256 01:03:47.360 --> 01:03:53.199 the top here. The new Commonwealth of Independent States. Okay. 1257 01:03:53.889 --> 01:03:55.510 Charge parity violation. 1258 01:03:55.530 --> 01:03:57.550 Okay. 1259 01:03:57.869 --> 01:03:59.289 This is the weirdest clue. 1260 01:03:59.329 --> 01:04:04.630 A lot of these things are probably related to events 1261 01:04:05.670 --> 01:04:09.429 that happened around this time. But I just, I don't 1262 01:04:09.449 --> 01:04:10.269 know how clued in. 1263 01:04:11.070 --> 01:04:12.369 I'm certainly not. 1264 01:04:12.929 --> 01:04:16.409 People from the ages of 10 to 14 are going 1265 01:04:16.429 --> 01:04:18.989 to be calling a lot of this stuff. 1266 01:04:19.869 --> 01:04:23.360 I am certainly not. And then the top, the very 1267 01:04:23.639 --> 01:04:27.280 coolest thing on the Cool-O-Meter was ralphing. 1268 01:04:27.300 --> 01:04:30.480 All right. Never thought that was cool. 1269 01:04:30.820 --> 01:04:31.940 Okay, let me just tell you. 1270 01:04:32.059 --> 01:04:33.739 I've always been a nerd, so. 1271 01:04:34.719 --> 01:04:36.159 Ralph-ing to me is throwing up. 1272 01:04:36.369 --> 01:04:37.519 Yeah, that's all I know of it. 1273 01:04:37.530 --> 01:04:40.670 Chris Armstrong, we talked. We talked for quite a bit about... 1274 01:04:40.730 --> 01:04:42.909 We talked about Ghost Rider. We talked about the X-Men. 1275 01:04:42.949 --> 01:04:44.550 We talked about the Brood. We had a good time 1276 01:04:44.590 --> 01:04:46.849 doing it. Let's go ahead. Let's get on out of here. 1277 01:04:46.889 --> 01:04:48.550 You got any other thoughts before we get into plugs? 1278 01:04:49.750 --> 01:04:51.260 I think I've said it. We've done it. 1279 01:04:51.289 --> 01:04:53.130 All right. Well, go ahead and get into plugs here, man. 1280 01:04:53.150 --> 01:04:54.570 What do you got on your agenda? 1281 01:04:55.369 --> 01:04:59.639 You can find me on the social medias, whether it 1282 01:04:59.679 --> 01:05:04.489 be Twitter, Instagram, Blue Sky, whatever, at BrotherMan34. Got a 1283 01:05:04.510 --> 01:05:08.409 couple of movie podcasts I do with my buddy AJ. 1284 01:05:09.090 --> 01:05:11.530 One is Small Screeners. We talk about directed video and 1285 01:05:11.550 --> 01:05:14.269 made-for-TV movies. And we've got another one called Because Movies. 1286 01:05:15.010 --> 01:05:18.010 We discuss just whatever movie stuff we feel like and 1287 01:05:18.050 --> 01:05:20.989 combine those on whatever podcatcher you're using. 1288 01:05:21.849 --> 01:05:24.469 All right. Very good. Well, ladies and gentlemen, go check 1289 01:05:24.530 --> 01:05:27.889 out the Source Material Comics podcast feed. We've got all 1290 01:05:27.929 --> 01:05:29.829 sorts of great shows on there. We have this show, 1291 01:05:29.869 --> 01:05:32.949 which is just 90s comics all the time. That's Unspoken Issues. 1292 01:05:33.480 --> 01:05:36.239 And then we have the Source Material Comics podcast where 1293 01:05:36.280 --> 01:05:38.920 it's us talking about comic books of any era. And 1294 01:05:38.960 --> 01:05:41.719 then we have the Snap Material podcast where me and 1295 01:05:41.760 --> 01:05:43.980 Evan Bevins get together and we talk about Marvel Snap. 1296 01:05:44.000 --> 01:05:46.619 And then we also have the Source Material War Journal 1297 01:05:46.639 --> 01:05:50.300 where I make my way through the ongoing series of 1298 01:05:50.320 --> 01:05:52.239 The Punisher. I think I'm up to issue 20 now. 1299 01:05:52.340 --> 01:05:54.510 So if you want to check out my thoughts on 1300 01:05:54.550 --> 01:05:56.989 that as I go through it, feel free to check in. 1301 01:05:57.130 --> 01:05:58.429 All right, we're getting out of here. That over there 1302 01:05:58.449 --> 01:06:00.530 is Chris Armstrong. I'm Jesse Starcher. Thank you very much 1303 01:06:01.010 --> 01:06:02.010 for joining us. Have a good one. 1304 01:06:02.500 --> 01:06:04.659 Bye-bye.