Issues: Defenders #15-16, Hulk #180-182, Giant-Size Fantastic Four #4

What’s that we see? Some light shining in the distance of this dark, dark void? Well first, we have to wade through baby villains, a scrappy new Canadian anti-hero, an obscure Fantastic Four antagonist, and so so much Hulk stuff. But two new writers enter our world, a guy named Len Wein and a kid named Chris Claremont. Wonder if they can save us?

Topics Include:

Our Steve Englehart mea culpa. Pat was right about Frank Miller. LEN WEIN! Flying from New York to New Mexico with a jetpack. Toad or Lorelei. “How to Grow the Ultimate Mutant in a Tube.” Kyle Richmond, Boy Tycoon! Jetpack physics. Doctor Strange has an exclamation quota. A bunch of babies. Hulk stuff. The Wendigo. Introducing… The Wolverine! Multiple Georges. Hammer and Anvil and their powerful chain. The Fantastic Four are assholes. Madrox the Multiple Man. “Someone knock the original baby unconscious.”

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Issues: Marvel Team-Up #4, Avengers #103-104 & #110-111, Captain America #172-175

The X-Men are STILL CANCELLED so Matt and Pat continue to scrape the bottom of that barrel, looking for X-Men appearances in other Marvel comics. We manage to find some, but with far less X-Men and far more… other guys.

Topics Include:

Matching X-Men and Pokemon. Gerry Conway! Dr. Hans Jrgromsahn. Morbius is NOT A VAMPIRE. What do Spider-Man’s webs smell like? Spider-Man assaults Jean Grey. Angel is feelin’ himself. Hawkeye’s worst costume. Blob erasure. Why is there no MCU Rick Jones? More dinosaur abuse. Big sexy T-Rex legs. Magneto doesn’t wanna carry the X-Men. “Dance sexy, daughter!” Moonstone is a person. “Cheez! Double Cheez!” Captain America’s very good plan. Captain America’s very bad plan. Did Richard Nixon kill himself?

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Issues: Hulk #150, Amazing Adventures #11-17, Hulk #161, Hulk #172

The X-Men are cancelled and we're swimming in a dark, tideless sea of 1970's Marvel comics, grasping around for any mutant life-rafts we can find. This one has a weird energy, folks. With no main series to guide them, Matt and Pat have to generate their own momentum and they certainly try their best.

Topics:

Will we ever get the intro right? The X-Men do their jobs. Are my pants ruined? Is everything ruined?? Is the Hulk ever good? Dr. Alan Grant. Concentric circles. Metabolic time sense? Surely that’s all we’ll ever hear from the Maddickses. Mike Plug. Harvey Fierstein as Bernard the Poet. Iron Man DEAD! Buzz Baxter & Patsy Walker! Mastermind’s bad plan. The diamond underworld is a small world. "Like soap through a fist!" Blob and Unus got a good thing goin' on. Fine, no more curses! Sherlock Holmes’ stupid apartment. Linda Donaldson's a bad wingman. Quasimodo again?? Hank can’t kiss his girlfriend. SECRET EMPIRE! An old flame returns. Halloween in Rutland, VT! Juggernaut and his pink hole in the sky. Tom Fagan’s Halloween Party. Full suit, furry face. JIM STARLIN! He is BLUE. No respect for Mounties. Ugh, the Mimic. CANADA! No, the Hulk is never good. Batman.

Write in to Pat's Email Corner: [email protected]

Instagram: @mutantmenacepod

It’s the end of an era. The X-Men go out like a… well, you’ll hear the metaphor. Neal Adams and Roy Thomas both say goodbye, but not together as the X-Men get cancelled! And Matt and Pat are, unexpectedly, super bummed about it.

Other Topics:

Has Pat been punched in the face? Magneto is back, bitch! Warren gets beat up. The X-Men fight wolves. Savage Land Mutates. Buster Crabbe/Tarzan Inception. Ben Casey: Revizzzited. SUNFIRE! Angel loses a fight with a plane. Matt’s embarrassing mistake. ANTS! Havok’s very bad no good speech. The original international X-Men. Neal Adams leaves ☹ Guess who’s still alive? What happened to Changeling? Godzilla with Humphrey Bogart’s face. The Hulk shows up…. “What a Rebe.” NOBODY LOVES THE HULK.

Write in to Pat's Email Corner: [email protected]

Instagram: @mutantmenacepod

FULL SWING into the legendary NEAL ADAMS/ROY THOMAS run and Matt and Pat are finally absolutely loving the X-Men. We finally meet Havok in earnest and a vampiric pterodactyl named Sauron.

Other topics: 

Instagram: @mutantmenacepod

Hosts of Escape the Mojoverse, Allison and Matt Parent, join Matt and Pat to tackle the Butt Pages (#buttissues) of the last several issues of the X-Men. We talk about their podcast and the confounding origins of Angel and the Beast!

Check out Escape The Mojoverse: https://shows.acast.com/escape-the-mojoverse

Write in to Pat's Email Corner: [email protected]

Instagram: @mutantmenacepod

We talk about:

How do we make our podcasts? MATTamathically or MathaMATTically? White Guy Pharaoh. Kitty Pryde’s favorite word. Batman in our esophagi. Bring Esophagus Man To Life! The most well-attended high school football game in history. The 2025 Matt and Pat Marble Peach Basket Competition. Hank is incredible at football, but is he good at jumping? An electric triple-sword. Taking over the world with three solar panels. Smelling your own gas. Check out this guy’s shoulder blades! Most men can wear shoeboxes. UNCLE BOB. How to be the world’s worst roommate: Piss, Piccolo, and Porn.

We're coming now to the end of the long, epic, generational Arnold Drake run and things start getting good!? Legendary artist Neal Adams joins the book with past writer Roy Thomas, and the two immediately revive THE SENTINELS. Plus, the first appearance of Alex Summers and Matt and Pat absolutely lose their minds at a Cyclops moment.

We also talk about:

Scott Summers is a bad brother. Why is Cyclops always waking up in museums? WHO IS THIS PHARAOH GUY? The Angel loses the same fight twice. Waiting in a sarcophagus for my boss to need me. The LIVING Pharaoh. Cyclops smashes-- well, actually, you should just wait and listen to this one. "NOT RAYS!" Searching the whole Earth for a super-villain. NEAL ADAMS joins Marvel's worst-selling book. Scott is immune to (further) brain damage. "My son... the Super Hero!" Beating up cops in two countries. A very unfortunate and offensive slur (like seriously, not joking, this sucks). X-Men on the run from the law. LARRY TRASK AND THE SENTINELS REBORN.

Write in to Pat's Email Corner: [email protected]

Instagram: @mutantmenacepod

Matt and Pat get bold this episode and cover SIX WHOLE ISSUES of the very short but very interesting Arnold Drake run on The X-Men. Sandwiched between two of the worst issues we’ve ever read are three of the best we’ve ever read.

We talk about:

MAGMAR IS THE UGLIEST POKEMON. X-Men Legends. Making the pencils kiss. Who is Arnold Drake? A robot hidden inside a robot. Kirby, Sonic, and a guy with fire hands. The Joe Rogan podcast for the Left. JIM STERANKO IS HERE. Arnold Drake falls asleep while writing. LORNA DANE IS HERE. Just preparing bodies for a funeral in my apartment. “There are beings in there that feast on the human soul itself!” MESMERO IS HERE. A legitimately epic argument. Cyclops’ Rat List. “A warm hunk of girl.” A Kevin-McAllister-ass plan gone wrong. Scott designs himself a cute costume. Barry Windsor-Smith’s disappointing debut. Iceman doesn’t think women should vote. Blastaar sucks. Issue 53 sucks. History Stan’s Soapbox moments!

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PLUS, Issue #53 of The Avengers!

A brand new writer, Gary Friedrich, joins the X-Men creative team and PROMPTLY DESTROYS THEM. 

Also, Matt went to a comic book convention, Pat is 40, Pat explains beepers to Matt, and we talk about what the word "mutant" really means in the Marvel Universe

We talk about:

Magneto is glad Professor X is dead he SWEARS! Quicksilver can fly. Toad is back and weirder than ever. NO TRAPS. Cyclops has no regard for sailors. Marvel's prototypical super-hero: THE RED RAVEN. Wait, what is a "Red Raven"? Every idea is Angel's idea. Warren Worthington has ADHD. "No one tells Cyclops to halt!" Mutant Separatism. Seymour the Skydiver joins the Loser League. THE AVENGERS. Everyone is an unreliable narrator. The REAL Juggernaut is back. Foggy Nelson is a defense attorney. Globules. Warlocks eaws huwt. Hank McCoy's "Wonderous Wench." THE ICEMAN COMETH.

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It’s a wrap on Factor Three, folks, as the X-Men’s final confrontation with the MUTANT MASTER wraps up. You know, the MUTANT MASTER, the biggest villain ever in X-Men history? He would go on to… oh, I guess this is his last appearance…

We also get the Origins of Cyclops and Professor X and some background on Roy Thomas’s X-Men experience.

We talk about:

Comedy club etiquette. “Horatio at the Bridge?” NO TIME FOR THAT NOW. Roy Thomas can’t talk normal. Contract-tracing the “Holy Hannah” pandemic. Fred Duncan’s dudes. Don Heck was famous for drawing machines? A major punch-fest. A political rant. New costumes!! The REAL Frankenstein. Stop calling me “Tiger.” Grotesk. Professor Xavier’s Solar Orbs. An amazing trainman. A convincing disguise.

Email us: [email protected]

Instagram: @mutantmenacepod