Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men

Art by David Wynne. Wanna buy the original? Drop him a line! In which this episode is way more topical than it was when we recorded it; Apocalypse makes a terrible Statue of Liberty; there are no reliable narrators; Robbie Robertson and Carmen Sandiego are your new OTP; Emplate is creepy in any universe; lawful evil is still evil; and partial universe reboots come with some fairly silly problems....

Art by David Wynne. Wanna buy the original? Drop him a line! In which Magneto is a drama llama in any universe (but a remarkably decent parent in at least one); the soap opera hits the Age of Apocalypse; Weapon X is a man made of red flags; Gambit has an OT3; the better man wins; some blanks are better left unfilled; and we would probably not fare too well on Earth-295. X-PLAINED: The other Magnus...

Art by David Wynne. Wanna buy the original? Drop him a line! In which we enter the Age of Apocalypse! X-PLAINED: One way to solve a problem The story so far Earth-295 X-Men: Alpha Age of Apocalypse Collector’s Preview What makes Age of Apocalypse a surprisingly good jumping-on point to the X-Men The story so far AoA vs. the Clone Saga An Age of Apocalypse that might have been AoA vs. Earth Askani...

Art by David Wynne. Wanna buy the original? Drop him a line! In which Sunspot is a bad enough dude to save the president; Black Air is nowhere near as fun as WHO; we reach the end of Fabian Nicieza’s X-Force run; Rictor and Shatterstar talk about feelings; Gambit does not go gently into that good night; Scott and Jean choose family over continuity; Legion Quest comes to a close, along with Earth-6...

Art by David Wynne. Wanna buy the original? Drop him a line! In which Goldballs is still a better name than Egg; we continue our progress towards Earth-295; Legion pulls a Stryfe; we’re still pretty shaky on how to pronounce “M’Kraan”; Xavier and Magneto were absolutely and unquestionably doing sex in the 1970s; it’s time time; the Watcher is watching you masturbate; and what happens immediately b...

Art by David Wynne. Wanna buy the original? Drop him a line! In which we sit down with writer Chip Zdarsky to talk crossovers, continuity, metaphors, and X-Men / Fantastic Four ! X-PLAINED: X-Men / Fantastic Four A reunion Richards kids The state of Franklin Richards’ powers Balancing characters in team books Superhero teams as families Several metaphors Chip’s definitive X-Men Reed Richards vs. C...

Art by David Wynne. Wanna buy the original? Drop him a line! In which Jay is writing a Cyclops one-shot; It is honestly truly almost Legion Quest; Mystique plays the long game; sometimes filler is a good thing; Havok is a geophysicist, not a geographer; Lila definitely stole it; and more stories should be set in space junkyards. X-PLAINED: How Betsy Braddock got her original body back Marvel Snaps...

Art by David Wynne. Wanna buy the original? Drop him a line! In which the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning should really be the setting of a stoner comedy; Garrabed Bashur’s brain is probably 90% porn by now; the tide always takes the castle; William Drake remains terrible; Adam X the X-Treme deserved better; Jay pitches a series; disability is not a boolean and exclusively medically-defined s...

Art by David Wynne. Wanna buy the original? Drop him a line! In which Warpath and Colossus should start a support group; X-Force gets a new HQ; we make an unprecedently large number of musical-theater references; Cable is a highly qualified individual; tranq darts don’t work like that; Emma Frost gives fairly decent advice; the malls of Boston will never be the same again; and we need mutant body...

Art by David Wynne. Wanna buy the original? Drop him a line! In which the future is not great at codenames; spot foil is cool as hell; Mountjoy is bafflingly business-themed; Bishop goes full Point Break ; Jean Grey and Lorna Dane should absolutely be friends; and Jay & Miles are heading to ECCC 2020! X-PLAINED: Lola vs. L.O.L.A. A very good cat Bishop #1-4 Lucas Bishop Earth-1191 X.S.E. A sur...

Art by David Wynne. Wanna buy the original? Drop him a line! In which Jay would absolutely fight Christmas; we welcome guest X-Pert s Christina Strain and Chip Zdarsky ; a gift arrives; we consider the relationship of Generation X to Generation X; it is really not okay to leave your discarded skins lying around; D.O.A. is inordinately delightful; Chamber is the punk Shadow; Gateway goes to school;...

Art by David Wynne. Wanna buy the original? Drop him a line! In which Moonstar really wasn’t fooling anybody; Bird Brain is somehow still alive; Cassidy Keep is weird; Gene Ha draws excellent Storm; Reeva Payge makes her sole comics appearance; and Shinobi Shaw is wrong about everything. X-PLAINED: A not-particularly-cunning disguise Upcoming coverage X-Force Annual #3 X-Men Annual #3 The MLF Reig...

Art by David Wynne. Wanna buy the original? Drop him a line! In which Sauron is a huge nerd; the Savage Land is where Marvel stores the weird stuff; an etymology detour does not come from the X-Pert you’d expect; and Storm will straight-up stab you. X-PLAINED: Responsible weapon storage X-Men Unlimited #6-7 A very large creative team Sauron (more) (again) Blood-derived powers The Mutates A pterosa...

Art by David Wynne. Wanna buy the original? Drop him a line! In which Excalibur gets a regular writer again; we judge a book against against its covers; nothing good ever comes from being sexy on Muir Isle; and the soul sword’s real power is cutting through continuity. X-PLAINED: Stegron Dinosaur powers Excalibur #83-85 (The Soul Sword Trilogy) Warren Ellis on Excalibur Excalibur (more) (again) Be...

Art by David Wynne. Wanna buy the original? Drop him a line! In which Professor is too cool for the Phalanx; fatphobia is significantly more dangerous than Fred Dukes; Strong Guy catches a plane; Emma Frost will not let you coast; Jubilee says goodbye to the X-Men; and it’s probably for the best that we have avoided corporate advertisers. X-PLAINED: Mr. M Thor: Metal Gods Ship (more) (again) The P...

Art by David Wynne. Wanna buy the original? Drop him a line! In which Chris Eddleman joins us for a close look at House of X and Powers of X ; Doug Ramsey is highly relevant; resurrection is problematic in a universe with a documented afterlife; there is no reasonable in-continuity justification for the lack of trans Marvel characters; and your OT3 is canon. X-PLAINED: The Phalanx (more) (again) (...

Art by David Wynne. Wanna buy the original? Drop him a line! In which we have been on All the Podcasts; Full Shred Thrash is easier to say that it sounds; the Phalanx uses dial-up; Cable is a very large man; Larry Hama writes excellent banter; Cyclops has been progressively desensitized to plane crashes; Cameron Hodge is never graceful in defeat; and Final Sanction is actually about family. X-PLAI...

Art by David Wynne. Wanna buy the original? Drop him a line! In which Ship was inside Cable all along; Life Signs is the Two Towers of the Phalanx Covenant (but only in the bad ways), it’s lucky that the Phalanx doesn’t have WiFi; Nightcrawler embraces chaos; and we promise the crossover gets better next chapter. X-PLAINED: How Cable got his Ship back Miles’s official stance on candy corn The Two...

Art by David Wynne. Wanna buy the original? Drop him a line! In which we’re finally both back in the virtual studio; Generation X is the new Inferno; the Phalanx Covenant begins; we’re not talking about Hickman in our coverage of this story; Banshee is the adult in the room; the Phalanx is pretty sexist; and gross powers are cool. X-PLAINED: Blink Peter Sís The Phalanx Covenant “Generation Next” (...

Art by David Wynne. Wanna buy the original? Drop him a line! In which we hear from two generations of Stokeses for the price of one, buying comics for your son is a great way to rationalize reading them yourself, you should probably be reading The Immortal Hulk, and a 30-year comics hiatus ain’t stopping Steve. X-PLAINED: A well-loved copy of Fantastic Four #1 Marvel vs. DC in the Silver Age Requi...

Art by David Wynne. Wanna buy the original? Drop him a line! In which Seanan and Jay break down their favorite X-Villains; technically everyone is always cosplaying Mystique; Magneto remains the gold standard; and we have some concerns about Eye Boy. X-PLAINED: Candy Corn, and our official stance thereon Halloween candy economy Which X-Character to dress as for your office Halloween party X-Villai...

Art by David Wynne. Wanna buy the original? Drop him a line! In which Excalibur  addresses a number of dangling plot threads, Britanic finally gets (somewhat) interesting, Kitty really wants Douglock to be Doug, Professor Xavier and Moira MacTaggert are the best exes, and the future has peculiar priorities. X-PLAINED: The life and death of Jamie Braddock Excalibur #81 Douglock (more) (again) Inker...

Art by David Wynne. Wanna buy the original? Drop him a line! In which Emma Frost is a better Iceman than Bobby Drake; Generation X is aggressively foreshadowed; Malcolm and Randall are the Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to Bishop’s Hamlet; and we launch a campaign for our own Multiversal designation. X-PLAINED: The first time the X-Men met Emma Frost Uncanny X-Men 314-315 X-Men Annual #18 A game sho...

Art by David Wynne. Wanna buy the original? Drop him a line! In which Havok goes surfing; Malice eats a poodle; Strong Guy’s ex is a big jerk; Sinister’s gotta Sinister; and Miles learns about a meme. X-PLAINED: The Puppet Master X-Factor #103-105 Comparative Summers brooding Perks of being a mutant geologist and/or geophysicist Malice and Polaris’s complicated history A somewhat convoluted plan S...

Art by David Wynne. Wanna buy the original? Drop him a line! In which Glen Danzig was the most popular Wolverine fancast for a weirdly long time; breasts have physical mass; the Shi’ar empire is not your friend; Deathbird should not be left in charge of anything alive; Jubilee learns about privilege; Sinister is not subtle; plasma is the new magnetism; Scott and Jean return from the future; and Ni...