The Mutant Ages

Logan's in a whale! Maddy and Ryan were very punchy while recording this episode because it was late at night. We somehow manage to straddle the line between silly and serious, talking about how Logan's in a whale (no, really, he's inside of a whale for most of this episode) and also about how this episode depicts an abusive relationship between Rogue and her long-lost boyfriend Cody. Also, this e...

Would it shock you to learn that "Lotus and the Steel" is full of over-the-top Japanese accents and stereotypical storylines? Maddy and Ryan weren't shocked. We've seen X-Men: The Animated Series before. And we know how this works: Wolverine is going to leave the state of New York only to find that the entire rest of the planet is rife with helpless peasants who desperately need his help. We were...

Maddy and Ryan return with a very special listener mail episode focused around a long email we received from a level designer for the Quake conversion game Ravages of the Apocalypse, which The Mutant Ages hosts have been playing on our YouTube channel (youtube.com/themutantages). Join us as we reflect back on what video games and the modding community were like in the late '90s, and also learn a l...

Finally, an X-Men: The Animated Series episode that does right by the Morlocks. It just so happens to be a Christmas special. Ryan is obsessed with all Christmas specials, so he's on board by default, but Maddy also liked this one since it does the classic X-Men: The Animated Series move of mixing levity with intense political commentary. X-Men Spotlight: Leech! Also Morph? Not really. E-mail us y...

After the dark themes in "Sanctuary Part 1," Maddy and Ryan were expecting more political commentary in "Sanctuary Part 2," and it delivers. But we weren't expecting this episode to be so hilarious, and also so... horny? And it's not just our imagination! Although we do realize that's what we do on this show. This episode is an example of X-Men: The Animated Series doing what it does best; it's go...

"Sanctuary: Part 1" is a very serious episode of X-Men: The Animated Series, so our politics section gets quite serious as a result. Would Maddy and Ryan go to the queer version of Asteroid M, if it existed? That depends on whether it's founded by someone we like as much as we like Magneto. This episode also contains a very lengthy digression about D-Men (if you don't know what that is, you're goi...

Somehow, Ryan and Maddy survived watching all four parts of X-Men: The Animated Series' four parter, "Beyond Good and Evil," and all of the Apocalypse monologues that entails. Their reward? The fourth part contains a lot of bad-ass Magneto moments. Except there's also Apocalypse doing a PowerPoint presentation about the nature of time and space. Can't win 'em all. X-Men Spotlight: There isn't one!...

Ryan and Maddy have grown weary of watching X-Men: The Animated Series' four-part chunk of episodes all about Apocalypse's convoluted time travel plan, but at least now they're 75% of the way through it. Part 3 isn't any better than Parts 1 and 2, but we do have a pretty great time mocking it, and Cable's got some great lines in this episode. We also get some great listener emails this week, inclu...

The "Beyond Good and Evil" four-part series, originally intended as the finale for X-Men: The Animated Series, continues to trot out more unexpected cameos in its second episode. This time, Psylocke joins the gang and rebuffs Warren's pathetic advances with both backflips and ace political arguments. Also, Magneto is here now, but he's working with Apocalypse, so we're more confused than happy abo...

Mr. Sinister is back. The Nasty Boys are back. Cable and his cube are back! This episode seems like it would be a huge hit with Ryan and Maddy, and we did indeed enjoy those three aspects. But unfortunately, the rest of the episode is about Bishop getting lost in the time stream and Apocalypse having an existential crisis because it turns out that murdering a bunch of people for no reason ISN'T em...

Time travel is real, and it's still real in the second half of the "One Man's Worth" two-parter of X-Men: The Animated Series. Unfortunately, it's going to continue to be real in the next four-part series of episodes we'll be watching after this, so get ready for more of Maddy and Ryan losing their minds over time travel inconsistencies! That's the only thing that this episode is actually about. W...

How much can we really dislike an episode that shows us the death of Professor Xavier not once but twice? Ryan and Maddy watched the first half of the two-parter "One Man's Worth" from X-Men: The Animated Series, and their heads are spinning from all of Bishop's time travel. Also, this one's for all the Logan/Storm shippers out there. You will like this episode for sure, even though most of it doe...

Maddy and Ryan watched the second half of the X-Men: The Animated Series "Proteus" two-parter, and you know what? It sucked. What is up with this show bringing the good ideas in the first half of a two-parter and then dropping a big turd for the second half? In this episode, Logan cries and avoids doing his job, Rogue has some good lines (but she's the only one), and Kevin's conservative father re...

Maddy and Ryan were long overdue for some intense political allegory on X-Men: The Animated Series. Here we go! The first of this two-parter titled "Proteus" delivers some piping hot queer subtext (and text). Moira has a secret son who she's locked in a basement and forced to undergo mutant conversion therapy. Meanwhile, the kid's dad is a conservative politician who wants to make Scotland great a...

After enduring X3, Maddy and Ryan were glad to dig into this palate cleanser: it's a sweet one-shot episode about Morph and Wolverine's rekindled love affair. Cyclops is jealous, and who could blame him? Meanwhile, Beast keeps quoting poetry, and Xavier is so nice that it's downright uncharacteristic. By the way, the fourth season of X-Men: The Animated Series was supposed to start with a two-part...

We all know that X3 is bad. But we had to watch it anyway, because that's what we do on this show. Ryan and Maddy brought their friend Todd Harper (@drtoddharper on Twitter) on as a guest to help us properly snark our way through this depressing trainwreck of a film. Join us as we reflect back on X3's important themes, such as, "should female characters really have that much power," and "maybe gay...

Logan's memories, or lack thereof, are on full dramatic display in this week's episode, to the delight of Ryan and Maddy. Beast follows Logan on a wild goose chase to Canada where we meet the rest of Team X (more like "team ex," at least as far as Logan is concerned). Sabretooth is here, along with Silver Fox and Maverick, and there's a whole lot of meltdowns and bad decisions on everyone's part (...

This might be the episode that Ryan and Maddy have watched the highest number of times in their lives. Is it the best episode of X-Men: The Animated Series? Absolutely not. But it is the episode in which Wolverine meets Nightcrawler... and falls in love... with Jesus Christ. What???? Yeah, we don't know either. X-Men Spotlight: Kurt Wagner, a.k.a. THE AMAZING NIGHTCRAWLER! E-mail us your feedback...

Finally, we reach an actual good episode of X-Men: The Animated Series. And it's an episode all about... the Juggernaut? Maddy and Ryan were as surprised as you. Professor Xavier is still being his usual charming self (ha ha), to the chagrin of the rest of the X-Men. It also takes us almost the entire episode to figure out the real reason why the Juggernaut is at the bottom of the ocean at the beg...

"Orphan's End" is the worst episode of X-Men: The Animated Series that Maddy and Ryan have watched thus far. It doesn't make any sense, so if our recap doesn't make sense, it's not our fault okay? In this episode, we find out that the X-Men have a monorail, and also, that every member of the team besides Cyclops and Storm is too busy to be bothered with the alien space battle taking place in New Y...

Iceman changes the whole gravitational pull of X-Men: The Animated Series with his big cameo, because now all of a sudden everyone has a crush on him and can't stop fighting over him and also with him. You'd think that would be a big hit with Maddy and Ryan, except this episode is overwritten and surprisingly boring. Also, Bobby just isn't acting like himself, and neither is anybody else. But, hey...

Maddy recorded and edited this episode on her laptop while she was out of town, so her recording quality isn't as good as it should be, but you know what else wasn't as good as it should be? This episode of X-Men: The Animated Series! Xavier is on his worst behavior (as usual), but the rest of the X-Men are all acting pretty self-absorbed, too. All except for Beast and Storm, the only ones who get...

Technically this episode is titled "The Dark Phoenix Part 3 - Dark Phoenix," but you get it. This episode is about the Dark Phoenix, duh! It's also about Wolverine and Cyclops finding solace in each others' arms, and Xavier trying to convince them both that it would be a good idea to kill Jean Grey. Meanwhile, Gambit is horny, and Rogue has to clean up after everybody else's mess. It's another X-M...

Ryan and Maddy revisit what turns out to be the first episode of X-Men: The Animated Series that Ryan ever saw as a youngster. It's not a bad place to start! We've got the debut of Jean Grey's new mega-goth Dark Phoenix outfit, some fun side-eyeing from Emma, and a power struggle between Shaw and Mastermind that probably wasn't supposed to be sexual but nonetheless is. Or at least, we say it is, b...

Ryan and Maddy watch Dazzler's first official appearance in X-Men: The Animated Series, and we are "Dazzled" by how weird her characterization is. This episode is nonetheless a fun watch that also introduces the Hellfire Club (without using a naughty word like "hell" in the process) and a much more faithful adaptation of Emma Frost, everyone's queen. Jean Grey gets tossed from man to man, and the...