Episode 138: Exit Cyclops, enter podcast

Inessa reads her very first X-men comic and this one tells the entire history of the X-Men! We go deep into the meta elements of this comic. The navel gazing continues as Brian talks about the struggle to reconcile his past and present self! We discuss why we’re starting with issue 138! We talk about “the male gaze” for the first, but by no means the last time! Buckle up, true believer! Cyclops may be leaving, but we’re just getting started!

This is more or less where things began for me. I was eight years old and I read comic books, because that’s what eight year olds do, I guess. I don’t know where the money came from. Allowance? Probably. Anyway, I don’t know why I picked up the X-Men, or why I picked up this issue. I have a vague sense that I had read issue 130 previously, but that only brings up more questions. The other thing I can’t remember is how many of the original Lee/Kirby run I had read. Reprints were pretty easy to come by and I know that I had read the first few issues of the book. I knew Magneto, Toad, The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Maybe I knew who Cyclops was when I saw that he was exiting? I can’t be sure.

And of course, it doesn’t really matter. Like Led Zeppelin - another very important cultural influence - I think the reality is that I can’t remember what my life was like before I was aware of them. At eight, the X-Men were in my brain, fully formed. I was committed to those characters and committed to their struggles. So, I know that I was aware of how sad Cyclops was.

I sympathized. He’d not had an easy life, as he made clear for many pages. As an adult, I get the sense that this issue was analogous to a clip show - the laziest of hacks for television producers who have a seasonal order to fill. Just film 5 minutes of a framing device and run clips of old episodes. But this issue isn’t like this. Scott’s reminiscence feels earned. And why wouldn’t we want to catch our breath after issue 137? (which I hadn’t read) This was the exhale, the sorrow, the taking stock. Scott measures the episodes of his life and has to confront the idea that he’s not sure what it amounts to. He still can’t know where he belongs, but he’s sure it isn’t where he is.

So Scott leaves. And we begin. Because as sure as the sun will rise, there will be an issue 139. Life moves on, no matter how we feel about it.