Days of Future Podcast: Examining the X-Men

Finally breaking our COVID-19 quarantine silence, in this episode we return to briefly catch-up on how we're both handling the ongoing lockdown. Thankfully, we also remembered this is meant to be an X-Men podcast, so conversation eventually turns to the newly announced NEW MUTANTS release date (again!) and whether we think it will actually happen this time, Rob Liefeld's comments about Disney slee...

Trev & Joe check in with their personal quarantine updates, before discussing the current perilous state of the comic book industry, and finally revealing the listener-determined winner of this year's Mutant March Madness tournament of Best Mutant Powers. Then, in one of the craziest things to ever happen on our show, an inter-dimensional rift opens, sucking us all inside and depositing listeners...

The actual March Madness might not have happened this year, but we've got your back, with the return of our annual Mutant March Madness tournament. This year, we're pitting 64 mutant abilities against each other, in a battle to determine the best power of them all. Included are powers from the comics AND X-Men cinematic universe. Determining factors include how cool the power looks, how handy it w...

As the world hunkers down into a pandemic-created quarantine, we've decided to spend this valuable time diving into one of the strangest pieces of X-Men history, the April 1983 one-shot "Obnoxio the Clown vs. The X-Men." This issue saw the mascot of the then recently-cancelled Marvel humor magazine "Crazy" invited to the X-Mansion to perform for Kitty Pryde's birthday. Unfortunately, he just so ha...

Why the heck was one of the new Dawn of X titles called "Fallen Angels," you ask? Well, it turns out the name (and name only) is, apparently a reference to a New Mutants spin-off mini-series by Jo Duffy and Kerry Gammill from 1987. In this totally bonkers eight-issue miniseries, Sunspot (Bobby da Costa) runs away from his New Mutant teammates, with alien buddy Warlock in tow, and soon the two find...

In what feels like the saga that never ends, we are once again being promised (threatened with?) an upcoming release of Josh Boone's THE NEW MUTANTS. In this episode, we take a look at the recently released new trailer, and discuss our thoughts on both the trailer and the upcoming release in general. Are we still excited to see the movie? What do we think are the best-case scenarios for the film,...

After a bit of a holiday break, we're back to talk all things...Star Wars? That's right, instead of our usual off-topic tangents (and on the perhaps foolish belief that you all like just listening to us talk about ANY nerdy stuff), we've decided to dedicate an entire episode to our thoughts on STAR WARS EPISODE IX: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER and Disney+'s THE MANDALORIAN. It's a very interesting time f...

It's Christmas time, that time of the year when we celebrate a jolly old man with a white beard...that's right, Chris Claremont! On this episode, we're taking a look at director Patrick Meaney's documentary "Chris Claremont's X-Men," now available on Amazon Prime. The doc takes an in-depth look at Claremont's long original run on the X-Men books, honoring his legacy and mourning a business model t...

It's Thanksgiving, and a reunited Trev & Joe are thankful for "Dawn of X," the start of the Jonathan Hickman overseen, post-HoxPox relaunch of the X-Men comic line. And so, in this episode, we share our thoughts on the first issues of the brand new X-Men, Marauders, Excalibur, New Mutants, X-Force, and Fallen Angels titles. What do we think of each individual book, and how do these initial issues...

Disney+ has arrived, and while everyone is busy obsessing over THE MANDALORIAN (and fretting over "Maclunkey"), let's not forget that means we suddenly have access to a wide variety of animated X-Men fare. On this episode, we discuss the three X-Men animated series that are available on the service - the classic '90s X-MEN: THE ANIMATED SERIES, the high-school based X-MEN: EVOLUTION, and the surpr...

For our fifth annual Halloween episode, we're taking a look at 1985's "Heroes for Hope: Starring the X-Men" one-shot, a special issue put together by Marvel to help raise awareness about hunger in Africa, with all proceeds for the book going towards African famine relief. A surprisingly dark, psychological horror-tinged tale that sees the X-Men battling an ancient demon that can summon their great...

HoX PoX is complete! Jonathan Hickman's epic, and much-publicized 12-issue relaunch of the X-Men universe wrapped up last week, so now - on the eve of the "Dawn of X" series of new monthly X-titles - it's time for us to look back at the complete HoX PoX saga. What did we think of "House of X" and "Powers of X" overall? Who were our favorite characters, and what were the most exciting moments? Do w...

We're back! That's right, it's our long-awaited Season Two premiere, and we're celebrating with a belated, but nonetheless exciting look at the third and final season of FX's LEGION. After a controversial second season, Noah Hawley's mind-bending look at David Haller, the troubled son of Charles Xavier, returned and wrapped up this past summer. Were we satisfied with the resolution? And how do we...

It's the season one finale of Days of Future Podcast (don't worry, we explain within), and we're going out with a bang! First up, we discuss the MCU Phase Four announcements from San Diego Comic Con, assessing the cinematic universe the X-Men will eventually be entering in the (near?) future. Then, we take a look at all of the upcoming X-universe comic titles that were announced at SDCC. What do w...

In 2001, writer Peter Milligan and artist Michael Allred took over X-FORCE, ditching the characters fans already knew and loved for a completely new cast and a bold new concept - a satirical book about a mutant superhero team that were also reality TV stars. Eventually re-launching with the new title X-STATIX, this insanely creative title would be ultimately short-lived, but go on to enjoy a stron...

The Fox era is officially over (yeah, yeah, we know...NEW MUTANTS...but whatever), and so we figured it was a good time to look at the entire Fox X-Film franchise and offer our definitive rankings of the twelve films. How similar are our lists? Which films do we believe stand above the rest, and which do we consider unwatchable? And what is our overall impression of the entire franchise? Listen on...

It is finally upon us. Nearly 20 years after it started, the Fox X-MEN franchise comes to a close with DARK PHOENIX, which arrived in theaters this past weekend to an embarrassing critical drubbing and dreadful box office results. But does the film really deserve the reaction it received? We're here to share our thoughts on the highs and lows of the film - What does it get right? What does it get...

In 1984, writer Chris Claremont and artist Barry Windsor-Smith offered up a different type of superhero story in X-Men #186. "Lifedeath: A Love Story" finds a recently de-powered Storm being tended to by Forge - the man who, unbeknownst to her, is himself partly responsible for her losing her mutant abilities. How does a woman once worshipped as a super-powered goddess face a future with no powers...

In the much anticipated return of the film commentary series, Trev & Joe are once again joined by our friend (and fellow X-Nerd) Tom, to provide a running audio commentary for 2014's X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST. This star-studded follow-up to both FIRST CLASS and the original X-MEN trilogy is one of the most successful, critically acclaimed entries in the Fox X-MEN franchise. Why is this particular...

In the grand tradition of Marvel's classic "What if" series, which explored alternate versions of beloved characters and stories, this episode takes a look at a world where Trev and Joe don't host an X-Men podcast, but instead have a long-running Avengers podcast. And wouldn't you know it...it's just in time to review the much anticipated AVENGERS: ENDGAME, the 22nd film in the MCU, currently obli...

In this episode, we take a look back at the recently completed second season of FOX's THE GIFTED. How did the second year stack up against the "better than you would think but still not GREAT" first season? Which characters were improved, and which lost some luster? Was this year's storyline more compelling? What did we think of the live-action depiction of the Morlocks? Most importantly, is the s...

With it now more or less assured that the X-Men will soon be coming to the MCU, in this episode we discuss which directors we would most like to see handed the reins, and why.  Plus, we once again speculate on the future of THE NEW MUTANTS based on Maisie Williams' recent comments about the lack of planned reshoots, and examine the recent news about superstar comic writer Jonathan Hickman returnin...

Last year, we held a Mutant March Madness tournament to determine the best X-Men comic character of all time. This year, the tourney is back, but we're turning our attention to the live-action realm, as we pit 64 of the most iconic live-action X-Universe characters against each other in a last-mutant-standing battle. Included are characters from the X-MEN and DEADPOOL film franchises, as well as T...

A brand new DARK PHOENIX trailer (two, if you also count the International version) has dropped, and we're here to share our thoughts. The surprising(?) reveal of a major character death, the continued mystery of who exactly Jessica Chastain is playing, oddly familiar looking setpieces, and a questionable make-up job for Mystique...we eXamine it all, including the overall fan reaction to the trail...

The year is 1980. Mount St. Helens is about to erupt, Ronald Reagan is on his way to being elected President, and over in Hollywood, megastar Bo Derek is preparing to star as Dazzler in what will be the first live-action blockbuster movie from Marvel. That's right, decades before we were all wowed by how impressive AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR was, we almost had an even more ambitious cinematic superher...