Jessika: [00:00:00] Okay. That's pretty good. All right,
Mike: I always get nervous whenever you say something like that.
Jessika: When I chuckle a little bit before I actually say what it is,
Mike: Mm-hmm.
Jessika: don't worry. I've started to figure out my own tells. It's been a long journey.
[INTRO MUSIC]
Jessika: Hello. Welcome to Ten cent Takes the podcast where we are brainwashed into fighting to the death one issue at a time. My name is Jessica Frazier and I'm joined by my co-host, the glimmering gentleman, Mike Thompson.
Mike: I don't know what sound effect to make for that.
Jessika: you can't make that like sparkle noise. Why can't you make that sparkle noise on
command?
Mike: know, right.
Jessika: That sound that isn't made with human [00:01:00] vocal chords?
Mike: Hello.
Jessika: Well, how you doin' friend?
Mike: I'm good. Um, it's really hot as we are recording this, but
Jessika: So hot?
Mike: I have been organizing the giant pile of comics that I had sitting in the garage for a year. So it's been a productive day. I'm very happy. It's now just boxes as opposed to piles on top of the boxes.
Jessika: Yes. And it looks really good. I got a little, I got to go hang out with Mike and Sarah the other day for a little bit, he showed me a tour of the new home, which I was very excited about, but
also his little comic setup.
Mike: I can't believe it took us that long to get you.
Jessika: I know. It's okay. Stuff comes up, you know, we're still in a panini.
Whatcha gonna do so
well, the purpose of this podcast is to celebrate comic books in ways that are both fun and informative. We want to look at their [00:02:00] coolest, weirdest, and silliest moments, as well as examine how they're woven into the larger fabric of pop culture and history. And if you're enjoying the show so far and wanna help us grow, it would be a huge help if you would rate and or review us on Apple Podcasts, because that really helps with discoverability.
And in fact, while we're on that topic, Mike, did you know that we're getting incredibly close to 10,000 downloads?
Mike: I had an inkling because you and I may obsessively check our downloads almost every day.
Jessika: We do obsessively check our downloads. I'm not gonna lie to you. so if you wanna make us really happy, like go on there and download a bunch of stuff because Mike and I always go, Ooh. that being said, we are going to be doing a giveaway.
Mike, take it away. Do you wanna give us some deets?
Mike: Yeah. So as I am going through the piles of stuff, I'm [00:03:00] setting aside books for two different bundles. We are gonna have a bundle of nineties gimmick covers, and then we are also going to have a bundle of legit cool dollar bin discovery comics. So all you have to do is leave us a review on whatever platform you are listening on, if they have a review feature, and then send us a screenshot and anyone who has left us a review in the past is also eligible. just grab a screenshot of what you wrote about us and send it our way. We'll throw your name into the hat and then we will do a drawing on July 31st and contact the winners.
Jessika: Yeah, so thanks Mike. I appreciate you, uh, giving us some prizes to send out to people. There, there might be a couple other little goodies that we send with that little bundle. I'm just saying. this week we are going to be delving into a four issue limited series that caused superheroes and fairytales to collide Marvel's Beauty and the Beast featuring Dazzler and [00:04:00] X-Men's Beast. But before we take that emotional plunge, Mike, what is one cool thing you've read or watched recently?
Mike: Hmm. I recently read Never Landers, it was written by Tom Taylor, and I apologize because a lot of these are names that I'm not familiar with, and so if I mispronounce them, I am deeply sorry. But it was colored by Miss, Venita Veak and Jean Francois Bulo Art was by Jon Sommariva.
It was lettered by Wolf Game sma and edited by Christopher Hernandez. I picked up the graphic novel at Flying Colors when we were both at the Liam Sharp signing, and I gave it to my stepkids. Both of them loved it, and I finally got around to checking it out, and I also loved it.
Jessika: Nice.
Mike: Yeah, it's a modern day Peter Pan story.
It follows Bee who is a runaway of color and her chosen family of other runaways. They [00:05:00] meet a new kid named Paco when he ends up saving Bee's life in the subway. And it turns out Paco was a lost boy. And he brings the group to Neverland, which is like very different than the version that we grew up on.
Peter Pan is gone. Tinkerbell is now leading an army of fairies and has like the filthiest potty mouth you've ever seen.
Jessika: Yes.
Mike: It's very good. she and her army are barely fending off an invasion of pirates in airships. The pirates are trying to steal the land's magic and Bee's group are the final hope to save the place.
The comic is wonderful. Like, I can't think of another word for it. Taylor is honestly, he's one of those writers who could teach a masterclass on storytelling, and this book is no exception. He's taken a lot of established concepts and twisted them in a way that it all feels pretty fresh. The cast is super diverse and Sommariva's artwork is just very polished.
Like the overall style is kind of, kind of [00:06:00] a fantasy cyberpunk. I don't quite know how else to describe it, but it's also really bright and colorful, and I can't say enough good things about this. It's really fun too. So basically, if you like good stories and cool art, check this out.
Jessika: Very cool. Well that was very appropriate to our theme this week as well.
Mike: Kind of.
Jessika: Bringing in bringing in a fairytale situation.
Mike: What about you?
Jessika: Well, I went to see across the spider verse in theaters. Oh my freaking God. Oh,
it was so good.
Mike: I took my stepson to see that a couple of weeks ago, and it was really good.
Jessika: I honestly think I'm gonna go see it again at some point.
Mike: Yeah.
Jessika: It was really, really good.
Mike: it's one of those movies that I keep thinking about.
Jessika: Yes, yes. There were so many funny things and I'm not gonna do any spoilers cause I hate spoilers. There were so many funny parts though.
Mike: Oh my God.
Jessika: [00:07:00] And I'm gonna talk to you about a couple things offline, just because there were a couple of things I thought were very, very funny and I don't wanna give away, but it was, it was just such a cool experience seeing it on the big screen. This is one of those movies I'm really glad and I saw it on the even bigger screen, like the
IMAX one, so that's cool. Yeah, it has the reclining seats, all that jazz, like phenomenal experience.
Mike: Yeah. I like, we, we saw it at our local one because the local theater never seems to sell out, if I have my choice, I'd rather go to the one in downtown Petaluma. But the problem is, is we saw it opening weekend and everything was sold out.
Jessika: Right, right. No, I saw it since I saw it this last week. and I caught it like kind of later in the evening. There really weren't that many people there, and I was just like right in the middle. There was nothing blocking me. And the, the seating's really good there too, so they do a good job of not having heads and stuff in your way.
So
Mike: Yeah.
Jessika: So yeah, guys, this was seriously worth the watch there. I [00:08:00] will warn you though, there are a few like flashing sequences, which may mess with some viewers who are sensitive, just as a heads up. but the colors and the animation style choices were so neat and it was genuinely a good time.
And like, honestly, at the end of it, I just wanted to see more, which I think is the mark of a good film.
Mike: Yeah.
Jessika: It also does a really good job of giving the viewers information about the storyline in case they weren't privy to the other candidate events prior to this film. So I think it was even good for viewers who maybe aren't caught up with all of the characters that are pictured.
Mike: Yeah, it's funny because my stepson and his friend came with us to the movie and they were both really grumpy about the fact that, you know, it ends on a cliffhanger
and, which, I mean, like, I'm not spoiling anything.
Everybody knew that that was coming, but like my friend and I were there with him and They were like griping about that.
And then my friend was sitting there and he was like, have you never read a comic series as it's coming [00:09:00] out?
Jessika: seriously. That's the whole, yeah, that's the whole jam.
You have to wait.
Mike: I think they may not have, because my stepson, he only reads graphic novels. He doesn't read singles. So I was like, oh. I was like, well, you're in for a rough awakening, my friend.
Jessika: Whew, man. Welcome to our world. Oh, the inability to binge, I think that's, uh, really changed.
So yeah, I, I suggest everyone go see it if you can. You will not regret it or watch it when it comes out. Whatever. Either way, see it. It was really good. All right, well, Mike, are you ready to shimmer into our main topic?
Mike: Not really like, this was, man, like I was not a fan of this
like,
Jessika: Look at this.
We're already starting off with the opinions.
Mike: I don't know man. It's late at night.
Jessika: It is late
Mike: right to brain wrinkles and be done?
Jessika: Oh my God. We say this so often. [00:10:00] It's a wonder.
Mike: I know.
Jessika: So today we're going to be talking about Marvel's 1984 to 1985, 4 issue limited series, Beauty and the Beast starring Alison Blair or Dazzler and X Men's Beast, Dr. Hank McCoy. So before we get into the content, however, let's talk about the reason we're doing this series. So short answer is that I found this entire set as well as an additional copy of Numbers two through four at that amazing sale that happened to be over a year ago now at Outer Planes in Santa Rosa.
So Mike was able to get all of them except for the first one from me, which was cool. I like to be able to find things that we can both read,
Mike: Yeah. It's also, available on Marvel Unlimited. That's how I read it
Jessika: Oh, perfect. There we go.
Mike: Well,
Jessika: And God again, seriously, I feel like I'm never gonna get through all of the content that I bought during [00:11:00] that sale. So you'll be hearing about this in our future episodes.
Mike: was gonna say, you're making a, dent on that content, so
Jessika: sure. Trying, but let's be honest, I bought four boxes of content while I was there.
Mike: Yeah. Yeah, I remember that.
Jessika: Yep. Like
whole boxes,
sometimes too many to fit in a box.
Mike: the one that I really remember is that you and I, basically, we would go with other people and they'd be like, all right, like, I'm kind of bored and we, we would like get grumpy cuz we were there for an hour and we were just like, okay, fine.
I guess we can go do other stuff. And then you and I went one time and we spent like two or three hours just,
Jessika: We were there for such a long time.
Mike: just like pawing through all the comics. And we came up with like, wanna say we had like a box and a half each. It was
Jessika: Yeah, that was, that was the time I had to actually pull my car up.
Mike: Yeah. That was good.
Jessika: Yeah, I had to sit in like a loading zone, which was not actually a loading [00:12:00] zone with my flashing lights on and just pray.
Mike: Oh man.
Jessika: Oh, So this series caught my eye for several reasons. Firstly, I love X-Men generally really like the Beast as a character. I didn't realize at the time that this was Dazzler who was featured with him, but I was super stoked to find that out, that it was after I picked this topic because I'd actually been wanting to do an episode on her anyway, so this will be a good intro into her character before we do another deep dive coming up here soon.
Mike: I didn't realize it was Dazzler either.
Jessika: yeah.
Mike: so here's the thing, it's one of the covers features her in like this red outfit. I thought it was the Scarlet Witch. And I had come across this book several times at Brian's and I was like, oh, whatever. It's the Scarlet Witch. I don't care. And I just kept it moving on.
No, it's fucking Dazzler.
Jessika: Yep. So, yeah, I will be doing a deep dive on Dazzler.
Mike: I'm here for it.
Jessika: not next deep dive. Yeah. But the one after that, so in a [00:13:00] few weeks, in like a month and a half, you guys will see another Dazzler episode from us.
Mike: Yeah.
Jessika: the other reason that this spoke to me is because of my connection and, well, more than slight obsession with Beauty and the Beast as a story. I have read dozens of different iterations of the story and was absolutely obsessed with the Disney animated film as a kid. In fact, that film impacted my life in a very, very real way because as a kid seeing that film, I was, again, I was obsessed and I was obsessed with the idea of being able to speak the other language featured in the film, which is French.
And as a child, when that movie came out in the nineties, I vowed that I was going to learn the language that the characters from one of my favorite films spoke. Fast forward to today, I have a bachelor's in the French language. I'm bilingual, and I even had the opportunity to live in France for about a year before I finished my [00:14:00] degree.
so let's just say that if something is tagged with Beauty in the Beast, I am likely to be tempted to consume it.
Mike: That's great.
Jessika: Yeah. So, and as problematic as the, as the whole concept is, I get it. Like I get it, but it's, it really did, like, it was a catalyst for other things in the future I'm a very motivated individual, let's just say. I wasn't really able to find a lot of information about the series, like the background of the series other than publication and like synopsis information. But this is right smack in the middle of the timeline when many of the other Marvel Limited series were published, including Spellbinder, which we covered in episode 57 back in April, Firestar, which was published in 1986, which we covered back in, episode 49 in December of last year, along with The Gargoyle, which was published in 1985, which we discussed episode 45 last November.
And that's [00:15:00] just to name a few. And I actually really like these Marvel mini and limited series, so you're sure to get more of these from me in the future. Also, for better or worse, because some of these are definitely superior to others.
Mike: Yeah, I came across a note in Wikipedia on one of the pages that I was looking at. Cause I was like, trying to get a little background on this too. I don't know that much about Dazzlers background at this point of her existence. So I was just trying to get it. Apparently they did this series as part of a, an effort to recapture some of the female readership that had been dropping off for a while.
Jessika: Okay.
Yeah, that makes sense.
Mike: yeah, I know that they were doing that with a couple of series and it was like right around the same time, like you said, with all of these other series that seemed to have more, you know, in quote strong female characters, but how strong they actually were is up for debate.
Jessika: Right.
Mike: Yeah.
Jessika: So yeah, since we're kind of short on extra info about the series, we're gonna take a look at the characters just a little bit [00:16:00] and where we may have seen them in the past. So, as I mentioned, the series follows Hank McCoy Beast, who is a part of the X-Men and Defenders.
And we've talked about him in the past episodes, most notably when we discussed the Star Trek and X-Men Crossover Comics and Novel, which we talked about with friends of the pod, SJW Comic Book Club.
Mike: Yeah, that was fun.
Jessika: good time. Yeah.
Mike: He was like really popular, like at this time in Marvel. Cause I think he was also in the Avengers
Jessika: Oh yeah, I think so too.
Mike: and he was in X Factor. like, he was kind of everywhere. I remember reading a bunch of stories where he would just show up as the guest and I'm like, who is this chuckle fuck?
Like, all right.
Jessika: I kinda felt that way the first couple times we ran into him and like the miniseries. I was like, why the fuck is Beast here? Like, especially when we did the crossover, I was like,
Mike: Mm-hmm.
Jessika: Why?
Mike: Yeah.
Jessika: But I, but he grew on me, honestly. He did grow on me. So Dazzler is a somewhat [00:17:00] new character to me, but I, again, I had been interested in covering her and had found the first couple of her self-titled comics in the dollar bin at that same sale.
So I was pretty primed already to talk about her. This has also sparked me wanting to do a deep dive. So I'm not gonna go super super far into her character because we're gonna get into that when I do that deep dive in a few weeks. But I did want to mention that this takes place after Dazzler the Movie, if you're familiar with Dazzler in general.
Um, and that's gonna hold relevance later in our story. as I mentioned before, Beauty and the Beast is four-issue limited series published every other month by Marvel from December, 1984 to June, 1985. The story was by Anne Nocenti, penciled by Don Purlin, inked by Kim de Molder, lettered by Joe Rosen Colors, were by George Russos for issue number one, and then was handed to Petro Scot for issues two through four. Michael Higgins was editor, and [00:18:00] Jimmy Shoots was our E I C. issue number one was published in December of 1984, and it's just titled Beauty in the Beast, part one.
This issue starts off with Dr. Doom being incredibly mopey and monologuing in his chamber of secrets, which looks a lot like Ariel's, cavern of tchotchkes if
Mike: It so does,
Jessika: It
so does
Mike: there's some line about how this is like his inner sanct and only like the most trusted can come visit, the art that moves him. I'm like, oh,
Jessika: he's literally the only one allowed in that room. Yeah.
Mike: He is such a basic bitch.
Jessika: He's so basic. He basically, uh, our first sequence is his him going, look at this stuff, Isn't it neat? I was like, oh, no, Dr. Doom. So the reader is reminded that Dr. Doom is the dictator of Latveria, a small Balkan country and would-be conqueror of the world.[00:19:00]
He waxes poetic about his hated enemies, the Fantastic Four, until he is interrupted by one of his henchmen who informs him that they have received a transmission from dun, dun dun, his son gasp. Dr. Doom is pissed off at A, being interrupted, and b being reminded of his offspring.
Mike: Like
Jessika: Very salty. So grumpy. Then we get backstory about Dr. Doom finding out about his son after years of being away, only to not accept him as his own, all because of his personal narrative that he needed to be alone, to be the villain, he needed to be. So fucking roundabout and stupid, not logical.
And all
Mike: It's so emo.
Jessika: Dr. Doom and the audience are able to find out Dr. Doom's son is an adult at this point and he's in California. Meanwhile, Beast is bouncing into Hollywood, hoping to be discovered, but finding pretty quickly that people are not ready or willing [00:20:00] to accept a mutant in the streets, let alone on the silver screen. This becomes even more apparent when Beast comes across a decrepit, abandoned theater advertising Dazzler the Movie. However, there was some incredibly negative and hateful graffiti drawn all over the ad and the singer's image, at which point Beast starts to get the idea that he may not be as welcome there as he had once thought and marveling that people could be so hateful towards someone.
So beautiful.
Mike: Yeah. And the backstory for this is that. At some point, like I think towards the end of her series or with the movie special, she had come out as a mutant in response to like, the public sentiment and it backfired. So suddenly she went from being a star to kind of getting just dropped by everybody.
Jessika: Exactly. Yeah. So that evening, Dazzler is attending an upper crust party, wearing an absolutely stunning pink fitted strapless evening gown, plunging [00:21:00] back, matching choker and earrings. Phenomenal. she's recognized pretty quickly by this handsome, if not a little slimy James Bond type in a tux named Alex. I will say right now, do not ever trust anyone named Alex.
Mike: Speaking from personal experience.
Jessika: Personal experience alone.
Mike: I don't think I ever, nope. I've never dated Alex.
Jessika: There you go. , my brother's name is Alex. So he convinces her to go for an audition for an opportunity he promised would be quote unquote, safe, even though she is leery due to the social climate regarding mutants. When she gets there the next day, she sent through a suspiciously quick audition and she is asked to sign a very long contract, which she doesn't seem to stop very long to read.
Mike: No, she [00:22:00] never does. It's just like, just sign here and here and
here.
Jessika: We then see a progression of Alex pushing Dazzler's boundaries, plying her with alcohol and pushing her into a pool for publicity, and it all culminates in a bad review of her in the newspaper, talking about how she's basically a party girl and she loses her shit, pushing her to go to the theater that Alex had been pressuring her to act for, run by a man named Hugo. and this is the point when Dazzler and Beast collide as Beast is invited to what amounts to the set of a mutant theater and Dazzlers there, and she has realized that she doesn't really have control of her powers at this point for some reason
Mike: Yeah, like lights leaking out of her hands. I think
Jessika: Right.
It was pretty bad. And Beast is getting into an altercation with another of the mutant actors, Rocker. Oh, and fun fact, they're fighting over who gets to pick her up.
Yuck.
Mike: dumb.
Jessika: Yeah. So the big shot Hugo shows up and we get a shot of him paying off Rocker for a [00:23:00] previous quote unquote job he took care of. And Hugo also makes a jab at Beast, calling the duo Beauty and the Beast. Hugo meanwhile is telling Dazzler how lucky she is that she's working for him after the spectacle she'd made of herself. Basically, and even though all the shit was set up and saying that they have a symbiotic relationship, it was so gross. But Dazzler runs off. She got the ick and Hugo sends a goon after her stating that she was valuable property and she runs off and lights shining off of her like she's the fucking sun and goes to hide so nobody can see her.
Which, good luck.
Mike: I'm really curious, when you started reading this and you got to this point, were you getting the vibe this dude was gonna eventually like have her doing adult films? I
Jessika: I wasn't sure what was happening, but I knew it was gonna be bad news. I I knew it was gonna be some, yeah, it definitely, it did. It did have that vibe. I [00:24:00] definitely was like thinking in that direction when I first got to it. Like, yeah, folks, let's just say if that's where you think this is going. There will be a flip here soon There shall be a twist.
So the next day, Beast sees a newspaper article stating that Dazzler disappeared and Beast starts waxing poetic about, because everybody fucking wax poetic in this fucking thing about how he can't get her out of his head and decides to insert himself in the situation and goes to rockers to try to find out more info about her.
And he catches rocker in a robe and, and rocker. . By the way, is this like, horse face dude,
with like horse hooves? Yeah. So he catches rocker and a robe enjoying his statue collection. It's also very trinket
like cave feeling, which is a bunch of horses and CentOS and Beast [00:25:00] starts beef with him and they just start fighting like there are breaking Rocker's precious statues and elsewhere.
Dazzler is not doing well. She is almost entirely light, it's consuming her, but a group of people find her and bring her in to help her. So back at Rocker's, Beast is getting the better of Rocker and forces him to call Hugo to get a status update on their search, which results in an address of where they think that she is. So Beast threatens Rocker not to follow him and starts to make his way to the given address. He busts past the inhabitants of the house and finds Dazzler as bright as ever and lets her know that he's there and vows to take care of her.
Mike: Oh
Jessika: Yeah.
Mike: like Beast is exhibiting a lot of like, toxic Alpha male bro
Jessika: Yes, yes. Yeah. He would be the first guy to be like, I wanna take care of you
and then get mad
that she wasn't like doing enough. Because you know, [00:26:00] I dunno. So stupid. I hate it. Yeah. You know, at one point he like shows up at a trilby.
He doesn't actually, but he should have.
Mike: Oh yeah. A hundred percent. A hundred percent.
Jessika: issue number two, this was published in February of 1985. It was titled Heartbreak Hotel. And we pick up right where we left off with Dazzler at the house where she was taking refuge and with Beast watching over her. And she's trying to hide herself out of embarrassment. And it's super clear that she's uncomfortable with him being there, but he's still fucking there. And Beast basically talks her into confiding in him coercion much. And we, the reader, get a recap about the previous issue while she's picking the eyeball out of a stuffed bear for some reason,
Mike: Yeah, that was like a weird thing. I didn't quite understand that.
Jessika: I didn't get that either. I don't know. She's needed to do something with [00:27:00] her hands or something. So we find out about the house where they ended up. It's deemed a heartbreak hotel. It's run by a woman named Kate and set up specifically to act as the sort of home for wayward individuals.
Mike: I think they're all mutants, right?
Jessika: They are mutants.
Yeah. So we also find out that one of the other occupants, Mickey, also called Poltergeist, either has a Poltergeist attached to her or she is the Poltergeist. So that's fun and different.
Mike: I like, do we know if Mickey was, I thought Mickey was a boy, but Mickey has drawn very androgynous.
Jessika: Very androgynous. I wanted Mickey to be a girl because I thought there was something between her and Spider Woman, which is why she keeps dreaming of Spider-Woman
Mike: Yeah. I, I know that Mickey, so cuz the character's name is Poltergeist. I know that they appeared in the Spider-Woman series. I don't know specifically what happened, but they keep on bringing up how Mickey thinks Spider-Woman is dead when she's really not.
Jessika: Yeah, [00:28:00] right. So we then get a montage about Beast and Dazzler spending more and more time together and growing closer. Dr. Dub shows up one page, you know, looking at sheep. And shepherds in his land, cuz that's kind of what's there
when one of his henchmen gives him this poor henchman. It's the same guy every time.
Gives him a message about his son. It is, I think it's his butler, uh, about his son who had been seen with Dazzler. Wow. So Dr. Doom basically screams about he has no son because, you know, narcissism
Mike: It's so dumb.
It's
Jessika: stupid. so
back at Heartbreak Hotel, what if Hugo's huge henchmen are there to collect Dazzler? Beast fights him, but Dazzler ultimately ends the fight. Alex is also there and Dazzler changes her demeanor when she sees him almost like she's under some sort of a spell and [00:29:00] tells Beast that she needs to go to the theater.
So back at the theater, it turns out that the performance is more along the lines of a gladiator fight than an actual, like play or acting. So she gets out there and she starts singing. She's doing her, you know, she's doing her thug bizzle, but she's booed with the crowd yelling that she should be fighting.
So she does, and the cheers she receives when she's gaining the upper hand on her opponent drives her to want more of the crowd's approval.
she almost like gets power hungry from it,
Mike: well, and the other thing is that because she, her whole power set is like changing audio into light.
Jessika: right?
Mike: her attacks more powerful and stuff too,
Jessika: Oh, there you go.
So she comes close to killing the other opponent and sees what she's doing and she's horrified. But the rest of the mutants crowd in not wanting to lose their audience. Beast busts in and starts fighting people, and Dazzler confronts Alex who [00:30:00] turns the narrative around on her classic douche style.
Mike: Oh yeah.
Jessika: Yeah, he's doing all of the classic narcissism, like he's like gaslighting her.
He is like, it's like all the things. So Dazzlers not doing super hot with the info. She's rightfully upset at the fact that they're running a mutant gladiator fighting ring. And the other actors try to convince her that it was an accident, that things got so out of hand and Alex gives her something else to drink with the reader actually getting to view rocker, putting something in her drink like some pills.
Mike: Yeah. It's like, yeah, I saw that and I was like, Ooh, that's,
Jessika: Yeah.
Mike: That's
dubious.
Jessika: yeah, so Beast busts in the room because ain't nothing keeping this guy out of any room he wants to be in, apparently. So she's super happy to see him, but her powers start to go wild again, and she [00:31:00] tries to shoo him away, basically saying she needed to stay with the other weirdos because that's what she deserved.
Paraphrasing, but Beast yells at her, chastising her about her choices, and then goes to cry on the stoop of the Heartbreak Hotel because everybody's emo.
Mike: Yep.
Jessika: So end of issue. Issue number three was published in April of 1985 and was titled Showtime. We start off with Beast and Dazzler enjoying a day at the beach until they move from a remote part of the beach to the populated portion where people started talking about them trying to instigate beast into a fight, which he almost, he was almost baited into Beast, tries to talk Dazzler out of going back into the fighting pits, but she heads off anyway.
And at the theater, the mutants are practicing fighting and Dazzler is absolutely kicking butt. Hugo starts trying to boss people around, but Alex calls him a tyrant, asking Hugo, who all the mutants are listening to. Anyway, with Hugo, calling Alex a chump. [00:32:00] Threateningly, you chump. later Dazzler is hanging out with rocker and another mutant and rocker shows off a new scar he has from fighting with both of the mutants, convincing Dazzler that they were signs of honor and were something to be desired in the theater.
So Dazzlers thinking of the Beast as she fights someone wielding a legit spiked mace. Beast meanwhile has apparently taken up residence at the Heartbreak Hotel physically as well as emotionally
and is brooding, but is convinced to follow his heart by another of the inhabitants. And at the theater at Alex is making an example of one of the mutants threatening him if he did not follow the code they had set up for fights.
They don't really get into what the code is, but he broke it.
Mike: Yeah.
Jessika: So that evening Beast meets up with Dazzler who's wearing an incredibly racially insensitive outfit. She's wearing like next to nothing with a Native American style headdress,
Mike: It's like a buck skin bikini.
Jessika: basically.
Mike: And then she's got the full like eagle [00:33:00] feather headwear,
Jessika: Beast sees that she has this big old scar going down her neck and gets hella pissed stating that they had brainwashed her, which fair assessment doctor. But he takes it a little too far and grabs some red lipstick and like draws lines all over her face. Fucking
toxic.
Mike: yeah, he sits there and he is like, well, you should have some war paint too, if this is what you want. And I was like, dude,
Jessika: It was gross. Don't fucking touch people like that. yeah, nobody in this is great. Beast Leaves and Dazzler feels like she needs to stick around the theater still. And Beast then is snooping around the theater and finds like a lab,
like a laboratory along with a vial with just Dazzlers name on it.
Like
Mike: I love how there's an entire plot element hinging on the idea that a bunch of theater kids are advanced super scientists capable of, you know, mad scientist chemistry.
Jessika: Nerds. On nerds. On
Mike: Yeah. It's like, all right.
Jessika: They're giving the [00:34:00] nerds a lot of credit here.
Mike: Yeah. Tell me that you've never actually hung out with theater kids without telling me.
Jessika: My God, seriously. this leads beast to understand that they have been dosing her with something. Of course, obviously. So back at Heartbreak Hotel, Mickey has apparently previously known Spider Woman, like we talked about incorrectly, thinks her to be dead, and Mickey and the other residents go to save Dazzler, who is at the arena and accidentally kills someone.
Just kind of goes me
about it.
Mike: Yeah.
Jessika: Beast meanwhile has been found out in the lab and he is bonked over the head and injected with some other sort of serum that Hugo says will bring out the beast. Next we see Dazzler, who is dressed in a fancy princess dress. She's the prettiest princess and she's for some reason now acting in a version of Beauty and the Beast.
And so Beast comes onto the scene, clearly not himself, drooling, he's looking [00:35:00] rage-y. Dazzler's confused about what he is doing there and Beast starts trying to fight her. So we get some fighting montage where Dazzlers getting more and more amped up by the crowd. She sends him flying into a rose bush and she's like burning the roses around him.
The crowd's cheering Kill the Beast. So she's about to take action on the crowd's chance when she just like snaps out of it. She like looks into his eyes or something.
Mike: it's.
Jessika: I don't know. So Hugo's pissed and he says that this is like the climax of the show. He like comes on stage all
mad. This is the climax of the show.
You're blowing it. So Hugo shouts for the other to kill Dazzler and Beast. And a fight starts to break out with dazzler throwing lights outs at people. And Alex shows up in a fucking cape
looking all self-righteous.
Mike: so weird. It's I don't know what vibe they were going for, but it's a
Jessika: I don't either. Such a weird look. So he states the fight is [00:36:00] over, but Hugo says, not without a killing. And Alex convinces the mutants to kill Hugo giving the crowd the blood for which they thirsted.
Mike: Doesn't he basically say something along the lines of like, well, the mutant gladiators, they only follow one person and they should kill the person that they don't follow. And the idea is that he's been like manipulating them all so that they follow him.
Yeah.
Jessika: and probably dosing all of them is the vibe.
Mike: Yeah. It's whatever.
Jessika: Yeah.
we then get, you know, one more page of Dr. Doom who's being abusive to his henchman or his butler, again, who's just trying to give him information I might add. This guy needs to find a new job, and the butler thinks about the fact that for someone who doesn't care about anyone else, he sure does care about these other two, as Dr. Doom goes to find Beast and Dazzler, and he specifically says, beast and Dazzler.
Mike: Yeah.
Jessika: So issue number four, don't worry [00:37:00] everyone, this is the last one. It was published in June, 1985, and it was titled Checkmate.
Mike: I like how as we go through this more, your summaries are getting shorter and shorter.
Jessika: isn't it the best? Yeah, I know the first couple. It's like, gotta do some background. Nope. You know what's happening now, let's,
Let's
just
get the fuck through it. the issue starts off with Dr. Doom finding Hugo's Body, but Gasp, Hugo was actually a robot who was created by Dr. Doom himself. Fucking course.
Mike: Of course.
Jessika: So Beast and Dazzler are being held prisoner, but for some reason their chain hanging upside down because why not? I guess
Mike: I
Jessika: Alex and the mutant.
Mike: Whatever. I
Jessika: Yeah. I
don't have no idea why. I think it was just like, so they could have her body upside down. Like I'm a hundred percent sure. That's [00:38:00] why. Alex and the mutant entourage roll in and Alex is in like full villain attire at this point. He is wearing all green. He is wearing thigh high boots and a tight green bodysuit and an even longer and more wild cape.
Mike: like here's my thing with this is that it is clearly designed by him because no costume designer in the theater would actually send out an actor looking like this.
Jessika: no, It was awful
Mike: It's so bad.
Jessika: and it was like a totally different color vibe. He like did this like maroon and yellow thing with
the, the one, he came out with the cape before and I was like, okay, okay. Very Gaston.
And this was pre Disney Beauty and the Beast, so
Mike: Yeah. But then this outfit that he has now, it's like clearly modeled after Dr. Doom because there's like a lot of greens and stuff, but it's like the gold helmet. it's a lot of clashing colors that don't vibe well. Like they don't compliment each other. They just look bad together.[00:39:00]
Jessika: 100%. 100. but during this, that makes a lot of sense because during this monologue from Alex, we find that he is in fact the son of gasp, Dr. Doom going.
Mike: like, I don't know.
Jessika: Meanwhile, Mickey and her companion Link are looking for Beast and Link is doing damage control as Poltergeist is messing with shit on the way , they, they didn't need to be in this, honestly. They did not need to be in this back at Alex's lair, he's showing the overt signs of having daddy issues.
I mean, what other reason would he have to be practicing his knife, throwing with a picture of his father? I'm just saying Rocker is starting to question things at the theater as well, stating that Alex's speech is about natural selection sound like Hitler's rhetoric.
Chef's kiss, which yikes, what a category to be put in, my guy. Think about it. So Dr. Doom is creeping watching all of this go down like just from the shadows, because of [00:40:00] course he is. Rocker, having had his change of heart goes and releases Dazzler and Beast from their upside down captivity where they go right to the arena for some reason, inexplicably only to find Alex with all of his mutant minions with Alex giving the command to kill them. Mickey and Link fight their way in and we get a montage of Dazzler and Beast kicking some mutant butt with Rocker helping them out. Poltergeist and Link, get in on the fight, and Poltergeist is actually fucking some shit up for Alex, who is none too pleased about the situation and grabs Mickey by the throat. Link jumps in and gets really close to killing Alex while just holding back. But Alex gets up and again, sics his mutants on them for another melee, so much melee and Dazzler shoots him up with light knocking his ass to the ground. Dr. Doom finally jumps in, basically berating his son about his pathetic mutant Army calls him a [00:41:00] disgrace and leaves, and like this whole situation basically broke the spell for the others, I guess
because Rocker screams that they're all free, and Beasts and Dazzler walk out hand in hand, and they have a heart-to-heart moment about finding each other in the world, in the Heartbreak Hotel.
And that is the end of this series. Fin. Yeah. So we're gonna talk about it now.
Mike.
Mike: like,
Jessika: to
We have to. What did you think of Dazzler and Beast's characters in this series?
Mike: Okay. So it's weird. I really like Dazzler, but I realized I haven't read much of this incarnation of the character. I really became aware of her after she joined the X-Men in the late eighties, and it felt like a pretty strong, confident character, and that that wasn't this version of her that we got.
Meanwhile, the Beast in this era was totally different from the one he is [00:42:00] today, who objectively is not a good person in the current era of Marvel. He's become one of those "ends justify the means" authority figures these days. But back then he was like, you know, they made him this like fun loving superhero.
Like he was sort of this cheese ball almost lethario. He's extremely gregarious at this point in Marvel's history, kind of bigger than life, but that was also masking some pretty deep insecurities. Like a big part of his character, if I remember it right, is that he was always trying to be a ladies man, and there was something deeply wounded about his personality during this time.
Like he was always this guy who had a lot of self-loathing and wanted to be loved, but he, couldn't seem to realize that you have to really love yourself in order for other people to love you.
Jessika: Yeah. I really wanted this to, I wanted them to be better.
Mike: yeah, exactly.
Jessika: Yeah. Like, I like the idea of Dazzler and I think that, like you said, I think that she could be a really strong character, but she really just felt like a damsel
Mike: Yeah, she's also like, [00:43:00] she's, kind of, naive throughout this whole
Jessika: Yeah. Yeah. I agree.
you had lots of red flags that she just completely missed.
Mike: but also it was one of those things where I'm like, you were a good enough character to have your own long running comic series. I would not want to read one issue where you're this naive damsel in distress. Like, so
clearly there was something better going on there.
Jessika: Yeah, no, I agree. Well, what did you think of their dynamic as a couple? Like are there any characters in the X-men universe that you might pair with either Beast or Dazzler instead of each other?
Mike: I mean, they have the chemistry of like week-old soda. It was like the flattest thing ever. Like it's so fucking flat. it was funny cuz I was listening to an episode of If Books Could Kill with Michael Hobbes, one of his shows, and he was talking about someone else's writing style.
And he was like, it's like, was it, he said it's like where George Lucas is trying to write love dialogue in episode two of Star Wars and [00:44:00] it's like, I get it. You're a writer, you're writing. And that is how I felt every time there was lovey-dovey dialogue between Beast and Dazzler, it was just, ugh,
Jessika: 100%. Yes.
Mike: nothing about the relationship that felt fun or believable.
Like I, when I started really enjoying Dazzler as a character, she was like kind of in a relationship with Longshot. They were this sort of power couple, they overthrew mojo. But the big thing with Dazzler is I feel like you need someone to pair her with, like who's fun and kind. I could see her
with Nightcrawler, like especially if like you wanna show her looking beyond appearances because he's a very deep character, but he's very fun loving.
or maybe Mystique since I know that Dazzler is considered a queer icon in Comics now, but I think that could be pretty cool. Beast is harder, honestly. I think you need someone more serious to ground him. but they have to be smart enough to keep up with him.
So like maybe Moira McTaggart or maybe Val Cooper, she was [00:45:00] kind of a supporting character who was a psychologist specializing in mutants and actually helped run a couple of government sponsored mutant teams. But she was also like kind of an antagonist because she was on the government side and the government has not always been.
Friendly towards mutants. I think that could make for a real interesting relationship between these two characters who were together, but they're oftentimes on opposite sides of the table.
Jessika: Totally.
Mike: But yeah, I I do not understand why people thought that these two characters would match up.
Jessika: I think it would be really funny if like, this existed in canon, but like he also dated Jubilee.
Mike: Jubilee was a child. Stop it.
Jessika: Oh, well, no. If she was older. I mean, if she was older, older Jubilee. Not like child
Jubilee.
but like if she was old. Yes, exactly.
Mike: Okay.
Jessika: Exactly. But yeah, just because it would, be funny to see the jump, you know what I mean? Like why are you dating the same type?
Mike: Yeah. Fair.[00:46:00]
Jessika: I don't know who I'd pair with Dazzler. I feel like she'd, she's very like outgoing and gregarious and,
Mike: Well, and she's also like very competent in all the comics that I read her in now. And I really like that about her. Like,
Jessika: Yeah.
Mike: yeah, basically if any character came in now and treated her like Beast did in this series, she would basically just kick him to the curb.
She'd be like, get the fuck outta here.
Jessika: Yeah. Oh my God, I hated it. Well, what were your feelings on the villains in this series? How did you feel about the father son villain sub-plot?
Mike: Sorry,
I fell asleep. Oh my. Like, it was so boring. All the villains were so boring, but like, especially Dr. Doom and his son so boring, Dr. Doom had no reason to be involved in this. There was no point in him being in this comic, he should be out seducing Reed Richards and Namor and trying to get them to have a threesome because he's clearly [00:47:00] in love with both of them, but instead he's just fucking monitoring his son via Doombot, who was also like a secondary villain, but then wasn't Jesus Christ like I honestly think setting up an exploitative mutant death match would've been pretty villainous.
But Flynn then was like, I'm gonna go lead a mutant rebellion in Latveria, and it feels so outta left field. Like, I hated it. there was no real tie in to Doom or Latveria for most of the series. He keeps on showing up for one page at a time. and like you said, like he was ranting about the Fantastic Four and he is like, but let me go deal with this other thing.
I'm like, fuck off, get outta here. We don't even see his son focusing much on it until the last issue. And I was originally expecting the villains to start. I don't know, like, like, like I said, I was originally expecting the villains to be like, making kind of like dubious consent adult films where they're just like, well, this is the only work you can get.
Or maybe even snuff films like that could have been interesting.[00:48:00] I think honestly that would've been pretty horrifying. But, but no, we, uh, just get a vague bit of nonsense about staging gladiatorial fights as a cover for an invasion, and then we don't even get a real showdown with Doom at the end.
I honestly think that we could have had several other villains who would've worked better. This came out around the same time as Longshot, did the series, which introduced us to Mojo. I don't understand why Marvel didn't try doing something with him, because the Hollywood angle would've been like a perfect fit for Mojo.
Since his whole shtick is creating television experiences that can then be broadcast across his home dimension,
like, seems like a no-brainer, but whatever.
Jessika: Right.
Mike: Sorry. I had opinions
Jessika: No, no. You're allowed to have them. Please have all of the opinions. Yeah, the only thing that I found interesting about the dynamic was the fact that they were kind of leaving you in the dark until, you know, [00:49:00] towards the end about who the villain's son was. You know, who the, you know, who
Mike: like
Jessika: they, they tried to do a little thing.
They tried to make it sound like it was the beast and da da da da da. And, you know, they did a whole roundabout thing. That was the only interesting thing for me out of that dynamic. I don't think either of them really needed to be there personally. You could have had Hugo just be the villain,
Mike: Oh
Jessika: like non robotic Hugo, or, or fucking robotic Hugo with Dr.
Doom and no fucking son. You know what I mean?
Mike: yeah.
Well, the thing is that Dr. Doom has a son, I think named Kristoff. And so I was like, oh, is this Kristoff's first appearance? Is this where they reveal? I'm like, that'd be kind of interesting. N no, apparently this guy is like mentioned one other time and then they just never talk about him again.
Jessika: not only does Dr. Doom say, I have no sons, but he has two sons, actually.
Mike: Uh, it's [00:50:00] convoluted and weird. Like, I think he like clones his mind into, I don't, whatever. I don't even care anymore.
Jessika: Dr. Doom do you mean? Dr. Deadbeat?
Mike: Yeah, pretty much.
Jessika: He owes like
18 years of child support.
Mike: like you. Like
those motherfuckers never pay what they owe.
Jessika: That's how these stay rich. What did you think of the plot overall? Did you think it was necessary to the candidate of X-Men or the Marvel comic book universe?
Mike: No, at
Jessika: Nope. There it is. There it is.
Mike: nope. Next question.
Jessika: That's, that was pretty much how I felt about it too. That's why I worded it that way. It was leading. So what was your take on the art and how each of the characters were portrayed?
Mike: It's passable. Like it's, it's sort of weird because I was reading it on Marvel Unlimited and they've remastered everything, so the colors really pop, but the result is that it also feels very flat at the same time. The other thing [00:51:00] is that Dazzler feels really sexualized with a lot of her looks like.
I mean, we already talked about that Native American outfit. She wears in one of her fights Meanwhile Beast looks like just this blue blob for most of the comic. Like there's, there's one moment where he's caught in the rain and he gets this like dreamy look with his hair because it's not like spiking up anymore.
It's like curled down. And I was like, oh, are we gonna get Sexy Beast? I can kind of get behind this. Cause that'd be kind of funny. and no, he's just routinely a blue blob for most of the comic. And there's also like a lot of wide flat shots, like at the same kind of camera angle. like, it wasn't bad.
It just, it wasn't anything to write home about. It was, it was kind of like the 1980s version of Machine Teen when we talked about that, where I was like, it's fine. It's a five out of 10.
Jessika: Right. Yeah, that's, I mean, that's how I felt about it too. The only frames that I found were interesting were ones where she was having trouble controlling her light.[00:52:00]
Mike: Yeah, that was interesting. I'll give you that.
Jessika: But, but those were, those were cool in the ways that they kind of shot out the rays and that kind of stuff. But other than that, you're right especially with her costuming, I swear her skirt was always like torn up by the end of it. And like, when Beast finds her, she's laying on the bed, seductively like passed out and like there's a big, like her skirts ripped again, you know? And she's got this big old slit now because
action.
Mike: it's very clear they're, doing like the superhero romance thing, which I get, theoretically they wanted to get, female readers back. But at the same time, you gotta tell a good story.
Jessika: and it feels like she wasn't consenting through Most of this is
Mike: No.
Jessika: too, though. She was just being coerced by either Alex or by
Like she didn't really have autonomy.
Mike: Yeah, and I
mean, Beast himself was no prize. Like he doesn't even have the excuse of I was getting brainwashed. He's just an asshole.
Jessika: [00:53:00] Right. He's like, he's like, but I'm a doctor. Okay, my guy.
Mike: Like, all right.
Jessika: Those are the legs you're standing on. We need to have a conversation. Well, do you have any final thoughts on the series?
Mike: Yeah. This is the second mini series that you have made me read, starring a major member of the Defenders team and it's the second time I found myself bored more than anything else,
Jessika: You are welcome.
Mike: the Gargoyle is the first series that we read, and both of us were not into that. Go back and listen to that episode. If you wanna hear us just bitch about a comic. I mean, this was like, I don't know. Again, this is one of those series where it's like, it was just, it was more boring than anything else, which thankfully we don't have a lot of, even if we don't like a comic, there's usually a lot of stuff that we can talk about and we can call out things that we liked.
But this, yeah. it just, it felt very forced. Like a lot of the dialogue was so ham-fisted, like I said.
Jessika: I agree. [00:54:00]
Mike: and the plot felt so forced and I was just like, why? Why did they force someone to do this? I get it. You were getting a paycheck when you were creating this stuff. But like, come on, Anne.
Like.
Jessika: Yeah. that's how I felt about it as well. Yeah. I was really hoping for more out of this, you know, based on my enthusiasm for the topic.
Mike: Yeah, I'm sorry.
Jessika: But that's okay. It is what it is. You didn't write it, know, I'm not even gonna blame Anne all that much.
Mike: No, I like,
Jessika: So.
Mike: something that was like an edict from on high.
Jessika: Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, I did like her princess dress.
That was a vibe. , I wish it hadn't gotten torn up as much. It was also a vibe,
Mike: Yeah.
Jessika: but, yeah. Well, it sounds like that's it for our conversation about Marvel's Beauty and the Beast. How do you feel about glittering on to our brain wrinkles?
Mike: Get me the fuck outta here.
[00:55:00]
Jessika: Well, we have reached brain wrinkles, which is that one thing, Comics or Comics adjacent we just cannot get out of our heads. So Mike, what is it for you this week?
Mike: I cannot stop thinking about the utter failure of The Flash at the box office.
Jessika: Lawl.
Mike: Look, I wrote about this on Twitter, where I was looking at the box office results and it's been pretty wild. Like we are recording this on the movies third weekend in theaters, and it turns out it was pulled out of 1500 theaters yesterday.
So the already disappointing numbers are about to get dire, and it's wild to me how there were all these different circumstances surrounding this movie to kind of like swirl and create the perfect storm of problems that brought us to this point. First and foremost, Ezra Miller
Jessika: What a trash human
Mike: and their myriad controversies, which I do not have the time or energy to discuss in any real detail,
Jessika: [00:56:00] no.
Mike: but, Warner Brothers like.
Doubled down on the movie, they publicly backed Ezra. It was noted in interviews that the movie was never in danger, even with all of the legal problems and controversies, which started before they actually began filming.
Jessika: Yes.
was fucking gross.
Mike: like one hand, I'm actually glad to see this project fail. Warner Brothers has been backing a lot of the wrong people and projects since they got acquired by AT&T and then merged with Discovery.
And I've got no problem seeing some of those chickens come home to roost. But it's also astounding to me because this feels like as studio just ineptly dropping the ball. And I even like saw some people who were like arguing about how the Flash isn't actually all that popular or well known and that's why it's failing.
And I'm like, are we just gonna pretend that they didn't just end the TV show after nine fucking seasons?
Like you can't.
Jessika: exactly.
Mike: can't make that argument. It's just, it's wild to me. no [00:57:00] bigger point. It's just I've been, I've been kind of cackling while I watch all this unfold.
Jessika: Yeah.
Mike: So that's me. What about you?
Jessika: Well, I, Ugh. So listen, this is not super related to comics, but it is kind of, but the Supreme Court has been doing us real dirty
Mike: Fuck, man I saw a thing today where it was saying, we are all Spider-Man, because these motherfuckers are the sinister six and it's the six
Jessika: Yeah.
Mike: judges. And I was like,
Jessika: Yeah. We have, you know, them striking down affirmative action. We have, you know, the L G B T Q protections, that certain businesses can refuse services to people who are queer. and that was based on not even a real situation, like just a situation
like brain child by somebody brain. It's like, cool.
Now we're making, we're making, you know, decisions [00:58:00] based on situations that haven't even happened in real
life. That's
Mike: Does, this mean that I can sue someone because I'm worried that they might badmouth me in the future?
Jessika: I think that's a, I think that's
what this precedent
is setting, honestly. Yeah. Yeah. So I think we should all work on that premise. And honestly, like we already know that one in 10 people is Spider-Man.
Mike: Yep.
Jessika: So like, do you want it to be 10 of 10 people? Like, honestly, like, honestly, but yeah, no, it's, it's just been really disappointing.
, I'm worried about people, especially in more conservative states, but I'm also worried about the more conservative states and what they plan to do with, like the constitution for example, if they can get a quorum. So, you know, it's just, I feel like there are a lot of people who are really in danger, even in the more progressive states
and like always, always not to, undermine the fact that, even though I do live in a progressive state that there are a lot of people who live in conservative [00:59:00] states who don't have the option to leave.
You know? Cause that's a privilege to be able to get up and move.
Mike: Yep.
Jessika: So I'm sorry I left it on kind of a sad note, but.
Mike: It's okay. It's been, uh, the last couple of weeks politically have been tough.
Jessika: Yeah,
Mike: they're always tough, but like, it feels like,
especially the last couple of days,
Jessika: Yeah. It's really disappointing. So, yep. So that's our show for this week, folks. We will catch you next week with a dollar bid discovery. Then after that we are going to talk about another Beauty and the Beast series
Mike: Very excited
Jessika: based on the TV show, Beauty and the Beast in 1987.
That was it. Yeah. So, but by the way, I remember watching that show.
Mike: I do too. It was, yeah. I'm excited to rewatch it.
Jessika: I am rewatching it right now,
Mike: Oh, good.
Jessika: so, All right folks. Well, we [01:00:00] will catch you for those upcoming episodes, but until then, we will see you in the stacks.
Mike: Thanks for listening to Tencent Takes. Accessibility is important to us, so text transcriptions of each of our published episodes can be found on our website.
Jessika: This episode was hosted by Jessika Frazer and Mike Thompson, written by Jessika Frazer and edited by Mike Thompson. Our intro theme was written and performed by Jared Emerson Johnson of Bay Area Sound. Our credits and transition music is Pursuit of Life by Evan McDonald and was purchased with a standard license from Premium Beat.
Our banner graphics were designed by Sarah Frank, who's at Look Mom draws.com.
Mike: If you'd like to get in touch with us, ask us questions, or tell us about how we got something wrong, please head over to tencent takes.com or shoot an email to Tencent takes gmail.com. You can also find us on Twitter. For now, the official podcast account is Tencent, takes all one word. Jessika is Jessikawitha, and Jessika is spelled with a K, and Mike is Vansau, v A n s A U.
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Mike: Stay safe out there.
Jessika: and support your local comic shop