The Mutant Ages

Maddy, Ryan, and Todd convene to analyze the first half of Deadpool (2016), which we probably didn't need to divide into two parts because it turns out this movie is really simple. Also, most of these jokes do not hold up! Bounty hunter Wade Wilson meets a hottie named Vanessa, finds out he has cancer, dumps her so she doesn't have to watch him die, then participates in an experimental treatment p...

Maddy and Ryan do a miniature listener mail that is mostly just a return to The Mutant Ages: The Comic Book, because we didn't have that many emails to read this time around. We answer questions about how to fix The Gifted (the question everybody wants to know the answer to) and how we would go about writing Bobby's coming-out story on X-Men '97 if it were up to us. Next episode: Deadpool Part 1 (...

Maddy and Ryan finally reached the season 1 finale of The Gifted, titled "X-Roads," and it's not bad. Finally, there's a plot on this show! Lorna breaks with the rest of the Mutant Underground by deciding to resort to violence in respond to Dr. Krieger's evil plan, which then leads to a larger shake-up at the episode's conclusion. Andy and Lauren also end up resorting to violence once Jace Turner...

The Gifted aired its finale in two parts, and this is the first half. Unfortunately it's also the more boring half; we'll get to the real action in the next episode. In "eXtraction," Thunderbird, Eclipse, Blink, Lorna and the Cuckoos work together to break into Humanity Today, an anti-mutant conference that Dr. Campbell (or as we always call him, Dr. Krieger) is attending alongside anti-mutant big...

With a title like "3 X 1," you'd think this episode of The Gifted would be all about the Cuckoos, but mostly this episode is about the Struckers deciding to leave the Mutant Underground only to return once again by the time the episode ends. Why does Reed Strucker love to walk in circles? We do still get to see some fun moments with Esme and her sisters, and we get a little bit of new information...

Maddy, Ryan, and Todd read the five-issue comic book series "X-Terminators" and loved it. We go over the major plot beats and outline all the reasons why it's great and everyone should read it. Namely that it's four women being hilarious hot messes who love each other and love ribbing on each other. They get into some hot water with Dazzler's shitty ex-boyfriend and then bomb their way out of it....

"eXploited" is by far the best episode of The Gifted yet, with Esme Cuckoo's machinations on full display and tons of other great scenes in the mix. Blink, Dreamer, and the Strucker kids are in captivity at Trask Laboratories, and the torture has begun. The Strucker parents track down Jace Turner and try to convince him he's doing the wrong thing, and it actually works ... but unfortunately, Esme'...

Maddy and Ryan watch one of the best episodes of The Gifted in a long time, in which Esme Cuckoo continues to keep the plot moving along and gets the Mutant Underground on board with breaking in to Dr. Campbell's lab to rescue her family members (the other Cuckoos, not that any of the characters on the show know that). We also talk about Deadpool & Wolverine quite a bit, since Maddy had seen it by...

Finally, it's an episode of The Gifted that is pretty much okay. Not amazing, but okay! Esme Cuckoo is here at last for an anti-climactic entrance that does not foreshadow how significant her role is going to end up being, but Maddy and Ryan are very glad to see her nonetheless. Reed Strucker tracks down his estranged father and finds out some family secrets, such as the fact that he has a repress...

Maddy and Ryan watched an episode of The Gifted together live on the air and review it as they go, because that was a lot more fun than trying to do it any other way. In "eXtreme measures," Reed Strucker finds out that his daughter's new boyfriend Wes used to be a thief in order to survive on the streets, and that's a problem for some reason. Jace Turner continues participating in Sentinel Service...

Maddy and Ryan invite Todd onto the show for a debrief about X-Men '97 and a massive mailbag from listeners with questions about X-Men '97. If we could rewrite the show, what would we have done? Why didn't Morph get a real arc? And where was Storm? All of this and more on a super-long listener mail episode that (sadly) doesn't even contain The Mutant Ages: The Comic Book at the end. Given we spent...

Maddy and Ryan settle in for the somewhat anticlimactic ending to X-Men '97, featuring a confusing death scene for Bastion and a lot of leftover questions about what exactly was going on. Magneto's earth-destroying plan from "Part 2" remains unexplained, although his storyline with Xavier is the strongest (and creepiest) part of this finale. The best part of the episode is its ending, which sets u...

Maddy and Ryan analyze "Tolerance Is Extinction Part 2," in which Magneto has some truly epic monologues, but a plan that makes no sense. What did Magneto do to planet Earth, exactly, in "Part 1" of this trilogy? Whatever it is, it's going to cause the world to end in 12 hours, unless Magneto reverses course. He's chosen to return to Asteroid M, but he doesn't seem to care that much about convinci...

The first episode in X-Men '97's three-part finale has its ups and downs. The ups: Bastion's Prime Sentinels are here and they're straight out of a horror movie, evocative and cool. Trish Tilby is one of them! Kurt Wagner is also here and he's got three swords (one for his tail). The downs: Storm still isn't back yet, Rogue is asleep (for some reason?), and Jubilee isn't acting like herself. Basti...

X-Men '97 gets back on track again with "Bright Eyes," an incredible episode about Rogue having a well-deserved mental breakdown in the wake of "Remember It." We get some actual closure in the form of Gambit's funeral and the various characters' reactions to it, then Rogue wrecking shop at a military base and then at Gyrich's mysterious holding facility. The big reveal, which came as a relief but...

Ryan and Maddy were expecting "Lifedeath Part 2" to fit what its title suggests, but instead, this isn't so much an episode about Storm and Forge as it is an episode about Lilandra and Xavier. Our least favorite Professor is considering whether he should return to Earth or erase all of his memories of it so he can get married to Lilandra, and we all know which one he'll choose, even before he gets...

Now more than ever, Ryan and Maddy are warning all of you about spoilers in this week's review of X-Men '97. You really need to see "Remember It" for yourself in order to understand why, but be warned that it's an absolutely devastating watch, especially when it comes to the queer metaphor in the mutants' story. This is an episode about Genosha, and if you've read the comics, you have some idea of...

Ryan and Maddy have hit the first episode of X-Men '97 that they don't completely adore, and it's got a lot to do with the representation of Mojo in this episode. But also, as the world's number one Jubilee fan, Ryan has a lot of thoughts on the writing of Jubilee in this episode and not all of them are positive. We're both not sure what to make of the speedy rendition of Lifedeath that happens in...

Madelyne Pryor has quite the complicated backstory in Marvel Comics, and it's fascinating to see how X-Men '97 chose to shorten and adapt her story. A lot of the changes really work, but the whole episode moves so damn fast that Maddy and Ryan can only conclude that this should have been a two-parter. The Goblin Queen deserved more time to cook!! Perhaps the real star of this episode is Morph, who...

Maddy and Ryan convene for the double-header premiere episodes of X-Men '97, which just may be the best-ever X-Men adaptation in our lifetimes, as well as the emotional pinnacle of this podcast's run up to this point. We analyze every single frame and line of dialogue in both episodes, and perhaps the only problem with that is for some reason we called X-Cutioner by the wrong name (X-Terminator) a...

Next week, the Mutant Ages will pivot to X-Men '97 and go back to weekly episodes, but until then, Ryan and Maddy have one more (terrible) episode of The Gifted to recap and review. Is this episode as bad as they say it is? Or are they just impatient to get to X-Men '97? Why not both! In this episode, Blink quits the team (good), Dreamer tries to seduce John (bad), and Reed Strucker has lost his w...

Ryan and Maddy return to The Gifted for an episode in which the characters literally walk in circles. To be fair to Reed Strucker, there is an actual plan involved in doing this, and it does work, but is it interesting to watch? Not really. There are some great moments in this episode, though, such as when Blink finally confronts Dreamer over the brainwashing routine. Next episode: "got your siX,"...

Maddy, Ryan, Todd, Katie, and the other Ryan (Truman) convene to hyper-analyze the X-Men '97 trailer, shot by shot. Why is Magneto addressing the UN? Who is the bun in Jean's oven? Is that even really Jean Grey, or is it Madelyne Pryor? We have so many questions, and we can't wait for March 20th. Next episode: "boXed in," The Gifted, for real this time lol E-mail us your feedback at themutantages@...

Maddy and Ryan respond to questions from listeners and get off-topic even more often than usual, with discussion ranging from their cosplay/convention memories to Ryan's fanfiction.net account and a very real-sounding list of episode synopses for X-Men '97. In the second half of the episode, The Mutant Ages: The Comic Book has become The Mutant Ages: The Manga. Next episode: "boXed in," The Gifted...

Ryan and Maddy struggle through "eXit strategy," the fourth episode of The Gifted, which features a prison break that results in Lorna (and Reed) finally rejoining the Mutant Underground. You'd think that would make us happy, and Emma Dumont does get some incredible moments as Lorna, but other than that this episode is a total slog. Blink's character has been completely reduced to "woman who has a...