Mutant Menace

Issues: Marvel Graphic Novel #4, New Mutants #1-3, Uncanny X-Men #167 It's a brand new day on Graymalkin Lane! Where a rebuilt Xavier Mansion hosts a brand new group of young mutants - you might even call them The New Mutants! Join us as we meet each member of this future-star-studded team and watch them write their own origin story, define themselves and their villains, and even take on the freak...

It's an epic tale of tragedy and heroism. Of good and evil. Of monsters and heroes. Of mutants and bugs. And it all takes place within these 6 issues. It's THE BROOD SAGA. The X-Men are shuffled off to space to fight a menace that legitimately proves too much for them to handle. It's a wild, emotional ride and we just absolutely loved it. Topics discussed:  Was Illyana in Limbo a filler issue...

Folks, prepare yourselves for some truly Strange Tales as the X-Men hold hands with Dracula, take a quick trip to Limbo, and ignore time and space! We even get some incredible Spider-Man and Fantastic Four action, with the debut of a brand new mutant! Plus, some very impressive creative teams! Join us! Topics discussed: Bill Sienkiewicz! A very rude entrance. Harmony Young. Brothers blastin. India...

Get ready listeners - this episode, we introduce an iconic character with an iconic guest, Abby Denton! Comedian and writer of Gamer Mom! We're talking Avengers, ROM Spaceknight, and the X-Men all facing off with this...villain?!? Who IS this woman?? Topics discussed: Jeez what DON'T we discuss? Local pro wrestling circuits. Gamer Mom. Digimon. San Francisco. Spider-Woman. Carol Danvers? The prett...

Buckle up, folks; we're going to space this episode! But first, we have to stop by and hang out with our friend Spider-Man! Get ready for adventures across New York, Earth's orbit, and the Shi'ar Empire, making friends like Corsair and the Starjammers along the way! A LOT of X-Men down, and an eerie forecast of things to come. Topics discussed: Guy Ritchie’s X-Men. Dog ate a book. Marvel movies. J...

Issues: Marvel Fanfare #1-4, Marvel Treasury #27, Marvel Team Up #100 (back-up story), X-Men Annual #5 We're not puffyfaffing around this episode! We're getting to it! We've got so many stories to tell you! Among them: A story about the Savage Land, Sauron, Angel, Mutates, and Spider-Man! A pointless short story about Angel beating up an underdog on behalf of his evil father! A story about how all...

Back in the X-Men’s main title, the X-Men are doing X-Men stuff! For example, fixing the Danger Room, visiting an old petrified friend/friend who may or may not be a Sun God, switching bodies, and telling bedtime stories! Also, we finally learn the origin of Magneto!? Topics discussed: Studying Kermit. Kitty’s new costume sucks! Being “precise” about “broads.” Curling with Colossus. Magneto the De...

Issues: Uncanny X-Men #147, Rom #17-18, Spider-Woman #37-38, Marvel Treasury #26 The X-Men take some time off of their regular title to hang out with some pals in ROM, Spider-Woman, and Marvel Treasury! The boys say goodbye to an old frenemy, hello to some new characters, and get a cool new poster. Topics Discussed: ROM. A murderous, yet agreeable, Wolverine. Bill Mantlo hates people with disabili...

Goodbye, John Byrne; we hardly knew ye! It's time to move on to bigger, fresher things like... Dave Cockrum?  The infamous Claremont/Byrne run ends with a Kitty Pryde solo story that whips ass, followed by a Cyclops soio story that's... you know... it's fine. Then the X-Men get wrapped up in a big ol' Arcade/Dr. Doom catastrophe and we get... Dark Storm!? Topics discussed:  Stealing a Ch...

Plus X-Men Annual #4! Hot off the heels of one of the most famous X-Men stories of all time, we take a short respite with… ONE OF THE GREATEST X-MEN STORIES OF ALL TIME. A story made even more salient, unfortunately, by current events. Plus, we get a recap issue, we get to know Kitty a bit more, and we take a brief pit stop in HELL (?) First, though, we spend some time imagining an X-Men Stardew V...

GIANT-SIZED SPECTACULAR This is a big one folks. An epic episode for an epic story. The Dark Phoenix Saga is one of the most transformative and dramatic chapters in all of X-Men history and listen, it’s every bit as good as (or better than) you’d imagine. These 9 issues bring in the Hellfire Club, Sebastian Shaw and Emma Frost, Dazzler, KITTY F’IN PRYDE, Senator Robert Kelly, and a bunch of unforg...

Issues Covered: The Champions #11-17, Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man #17-18, Incredible Hulk Annual #7 We’re losing our goddamn minds. In the second installment of our marathon record of the entire 1975 run of the Champions, we start falling apart! Were humans even meant to podcast this long?  Topics Discussed: John Byrne is here! The Two-Gun Kid makes an appearance. Bill Mantlo sti...

Matt and Pat are depriving themselves of sleep so that they can bring you a marathon episode of TEN ISSUES of THE CHAMPIONS in a row! It's gonna be a wild ride, as we catch up with former and future X-Men Angel and Iceman in Los Angeles.  New Russian teacher Black Widow, guest lecturer Hercules, delivery boy Ghost Rider, and students Angel and Iceman all meet up on the campus of UCLA and the...

Not much of an intro this week. We've really gotta start doing more X-Men related stuff, I guess. But then we get into a rip-roaring, intense few issues where we finally meet the elusive MUTANT X (remember? from the door?)! Also, just fair warning, there’s some pretty rough stuff in this one (CW: descriptions and discussion of sexual assault and rape) Topics Include: Angus MacWhirter?? Jean and Mo...

PLUS: Power Man & Iron Fist #56-57  After an unbelievably long journey, the X-Men FINALLY MAKE it home! But first, they have to stop in Calgary, Alberta and fight a brand new super-team named ALPHA FLIGHT. And THEN they make it home... BUT FIRST AGAIN they have to visit Iron Fist, obviously, and meet up with the worst cameo villain ever. And THEN they make it home. And INSTANTLY have to d...

The last we saw the X-Men, they were in dire straits! Most of the team was about to be buried under a flood of lava in an underground laboratory in the middle of the Antarctic, while Beast and Phoenix had collapsed in the frozen wastes, after barely escaping with their lives. Is this just 5 issues of everyone being dead? Let's dig in and find out! Topics Discussed: Vacation Scott. The X-Men have s...

Issues: Marvel Team-Up #69-70, Defenders #62-65 Last we saw Alex Summers, Havok, and Lorna Dane, Polaris, they were being blasted point-blank by the god-tier-power-level Firelord. So what happened to them next? Matt and Pat, brave podcast adventurers that they are, venture to find out! Detour with us as we scour the Marvel Universe for HAVOK and POLARIS. Topics Include: We'll FINALLY get an origin...

Issues:  X-Men #109-113 Pat won’t stop getting horned-up for the X-Men, but it’s hard to blame him when we’re reading comics as hot as these ones! With John Byrne fully on board the book, this chunk of issues sees the return of some major villains, and a robot spoon-feeding Wolverine. Topics Include: Pat’s fuzzy. John Byrne is HERE! NUDITY. Lilandra’s struggle with government bureaucracy. Kur...

Issues:  X-Men #106-108, Marvel Team-Up Annual #1, Marvel Team-Up #53, Iron Fist #15 It's a stunning conclusion to the X-Men's first galactic adventure AND Dave Cockrum's first X-Men run. Matt and Pat also fill you in on some of the other stuff that's been going on with the X-Men in other Marvel books... unfortunately. Topics Include: Bill Mantlo. The Letterin' Rosen Boys! "Nobody cramps my s...

WELCOME NEW LISTENERS! You're just in time for the return (?) of a beloved character who we were POSITIVE died last issue! Matt watched New Mutants (2020), Pat visited a bunch of comic book stores, and we take a trip through to the end of Chris Claremont's second year on The X-Men, as a bunch of weird stuff happens and it might be connected? Topics Include: Furry Nightcrawler. The Month of 100 Edi...

Matt and Pat cover the entire first year of the legendary CHRIS CLAREMONT run on the X-Men. From Moira MacTaggert to the fate of Thunderbird to Steven Lang to Polaris’s new name to the return of the Sentinels to the fate of Jean Grey. It’s a wild ride as the comic book gets truly, utterly good. Topics include: The issue number is a LIE. NAAD. Joe Harris’ button thing. “I love a man named Gort.” Th...

Before Matt and Pat took on one of the most important X-Men issues of ALL TIME, we needed to bring in a heavy hitter. Alex Goldman, from the podcast Hyperfixed, joins us to tackle the introduction of some of the most beloved characters in comic book history and a big island that’s also a mutant. Topics include: Sleeping in the Superman movie. Flying around in a cloud. Cat eyes. The X-Men arcade ga...

In this SPECIAL BONUS RECAP EPISODE, lucky listener Sine Wave Seán joins Matt and Pat (who are actually the lucky ones!) to bring listeners up to speed on all we’ve been through so far in the first 66 issues of the X-Men and the first 16 episodes of Mutant Menace! We tell you all about the X-men so far, including: The Beast aka Hank McCoy, cool hippy stoner Iceman aka Bobby Drake, performative abo...

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...

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...