Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men

Art by David Wynne. No print this week, but you can contact David to purchase the original! In which we ring in the new year with Cable’s on-page debut; it’s really the ’90s now; we enter the third major era of New Mutants; what Liefeld lacks in craft he makes up for in energy; we pitch a new “What if–” line; Rusty and Skids are terrible superheroes; X-Factor ha...

Art by David Wynne. Prints and cards available at the shop , or contact David to purchase the original. In which writer Dennis Hopeless returns to the show for an informal introduction to the (first) mutant messiah; Cable is the best-case retcon scenario; Summerses don’t get to retire; calculating relative character age remains functionally impossible; Cable is Marsha to Stryfe’s Jan;...

Art by David Wynne. Prints, cards, and coffee mugs available at the shop , or contact David to purchase the original. In which Spotlight on Starjammers is basically a RPG module; Jay may or may not have developed superpowers; artfully tattered clothing is a Summers family tradition; the Starjammers kill a planet; Raza may or may not be super progressive; and Professor X dies (again). X-PLAINED: Th...

Art by David Wynne In which we continue to follow the post-Siege Perilous X-Men; Dazzler finally makes her big-screen debut; Callisto gets a day job; Colossus gets a ponytail; still more X-Men fake their deaths; Jean Grey gets tentacles; Professor Wolverine is a jerk; and Jay overthinks Community . X-PLAINED: The new-new Howling Commandos Hit-Monkey Uncanny X-Men #259-263 Dazzler: The Movie (again...

Art by David Wynne. Prints, cards, and coffee mugs available at the shop , or contact David to purchase the original. In which author Sarah Kuhn joins us to talk about Asian-American and Asian-British representation in superhero comics; Psylocke is the literal embodiment of British imperialism; Jubilee speaks for us all; representation isn’t a Boolean state; Wolverine fails at pop culture re...

Art by David Wynne. Prints, cards, and coffee mugs available at the shop , or contact David to purchase the original. In which we find the idea of Jack Kirby as G-d deeply comforting; “Jercules” is our new favorite insult; the difference between camp and divinity is good backlighting; Zeus does not have the moral high ground; Ron Lim’s Captain Britain is the definitive cad; the D...

Art by David Wynne. Prints and cards available at the shop , or contact David to purchase the original. In which the Cross-Time Caper continues; alliteration is awesome; someone else’s geopolitical conflict is not an appropriate place to play out your pirate fantasies; we are definitely not actually going to eat Alan Davis’s brains; Jamie Braddock is Evil Rex Racer; Widget eats a car;...

Art by David Wynne. Prints and cards available at the shop , or contact David to purchase the original. In which Deadpool and X-Men ’92 artist Scott Koblish joins us to present the Summers Family Tree as you’ve never experienced it before; the X-Men go to Dante’s Hell; Dr. Strange gets his Virgil on; Wolverine sniffs snakes; Iceman has probably killed a lot of people; and X-Men f...

In which the plot thickens; Jay and Miles fix Avatar ; Ship is a good bro; you are in space right now ; the Beginagains go full This Island Earth ; Cyclops weaponizes love; voting is really important; and you’re listening to ten straight hours of soft jazz and subversion on ZZ-105 X-PLAINED: The other Dazzler (Bertram Worthington) Our newest t-shirt X-Factor #48-50 A metaphor within a metaph...

Art by David Wynne. Prints and cards available at the shop , or contact David to purchase the original. In which Rusty is an honorary Bluth; we bid a sad farewell to Bret Blevins; Hogan the Grim is probably the best at bedtime stories; Asgard has really tight hat game; Hela is a remarkably competent supervillain; there are some sound effects you have to earn; Rusty and Skids fight the Vulture; and...

Art by David Wynne. Prints and cards available at the shop , or contact David to purchase the original. In which Jubilee is the sassiest Xenomorph; Lady Deathstrike is way too good for the Reavers; Wolverine gets a sidekick; Forge arm wrestles the Shadow King; Moira takes a cavalier approach lab safety; Magneto’s motives get kind of reconciled; Legion is a chaos gamer; Mystique and Destiny b...

Art by David Wynne. Prints and cards available at the shop , or contact David to purchase the original. In which writer Charles Soule joins us for a (spoiler free) discussion of  Death of X and how to make mortality matter in universes where death is a revolving door. X-PLAINED: Fang Who’s really trying to kill off the X-Men Death of Wolverine Death of X Charles Soule’s favorite death...

Art by David Wynne. Prints and cards available at the shop , or contact David to purchase the original. In which “Cross-Time Caper” is something of a misnomer; Excalibur is an awful lot of fun to summarize; none of us will ever live up to Oscar Wilde’s expectations; Captain Britain secretly derives his powers from genre; sometimes things turn out to be simple; Kitty Pryde is bett...

Art by David Wynne. Prints and cards available at the shop , or contact David to purchase the original. In which X-Factor goes to space; Miles gets judgmental about spelling; Paul Smith returns to an X-title; Celestials are a pain; Judgment War is the Star-Trekkiest story that doesn’t actually involve Star Trek; monster ladies are super important; if you can be a green dude, you should be a...

We’re celebrating International Podcast Day with a bonus mid-week episode! In which Jay and Al settle down in the living room to talk about cats, conventions, X-karaoke, Summers Brothers road trips, and what Al has planned for those New Mutants he’s been collecting in New Avengers ! SOME RELEVANT LINKS: You can find all of our RCCC minicomics right here ! Here’s the original SPLI...

Art by David Wynne. Prints and cards available at the shop , or contact David to purchase the original. In which we get back on the continuity train; everything is the aftermath of Inferno forever; you should never fight a tractor or a horse without first putting on some damn pants; Vincent Price would’ve made a terrific Doctor Strange; Rusty Collins never really gets a fair break; Boom Boom...

Art by David Wynne. No prints this week, but you can contact David to purchase the original! In which we return to Rose City Comic Con and somehow manage to one-up last year’s Stryfe cold open; Greg Pak has secretly written all of the X-books; Cullen Bunn may or may not be watching you RIGHT NOW; the X-Men distill down to murder and kissing; Toshiro Mifune should be everybody; Miles swears f...

Art by David Wynne. Prints and cards available at the shop , or contact David to purchase the original. In which Logan Bonner, Max Carleton, and Crystal Frasier hike up their boxers and join us at the gaming table for an X-Men: Evolution tabletop adventure; what happens in virtual reality stays in virtual reality; Shadowcat is great at boats; Jubilee and Boom Boom blow up everything ; Havok tries;...

Art by David Wynne. Prints and cards available at the shop , or contact David to purchase the original. In which everyone dies (or something); every Summers is miserable in their own way; we are pretty done with Nanny and the Orphanmaker; Lady Deathstrike is a surprisingly astute art critic; the X-Men’s digital invisibility does not extend to the White Pages; we venture into slightly less ch...

Art by David Wynne. Prints and cards available at the shop , or contact David to purchase the original. In which Jay and Miles return to Rose City Comic Con; “Having a Wild Weekend” is the mash-up t-shirt of Excalibur stories; swears are for everyone; Arcade is not a subtle villain; we love Art Adams a lot; Minor-Domo is the Harvey and/or Janet of the Mojoverse; Kitty gets another new...

Art by David Wynne. Prints and cards available at the shop , or contact David to purchase the original. In which the back-up stories of Atlantis Attacks are way better than the main event; the Serpent Society is hilarious; Longshot finds a rock; the S.U.R.F.E.R.S. are no Neutrinos; our volume of digressions is inversely proportional to our investment in this crossover; Jay overthinks sunglasses; a...

Art by David Wynne. In which Jay may or may not have sold their voice to a sea witch; Gambit and Deadpool are somewhat lackadaisical superheroes; everything Fat Cobra does is amazing; Miles is a prepared gentleman; Gambit is there to look pretty and throw something; and there is now a Ben Acker vocaloid hovering around the studio. X-PLAINED: Acker & Blacker Thrilling Adventure Hour X-Men #214,...

Art by David Wynne. Prints and cards available at the shop , or contact David to purchase the original. In which everything is worse with Nazis; Excalibur gets its groove back; Meggan has an identity crisis; Kitty gets a crush; a dragon gets interdimensional sanctuary; and the Cross-Time Caper starts not with a bang, but a foomp . X-PLAINED: The death of Lilandra Neramani Excalibur #8-11 The best...

Art by David Wynne. Prints and cards available at the shop , or contact David to purchase the original. In which Elisabeth hacks the Matrix; Magneto is the worst at small talk; Hela overreaches; parents just don’t understand human speech; everything is better with super-rings; Selene has a Xena moment; almost anything can be solved with a kiss; and even if you transform Doug Ramsey into a gi...

Art by David Wynne. Prints and cards available at the shop , or contact David to purchase the original. In which you really can’t compete with Cable; the X-Men may or may not ditch a funeral; Nanny extrudes the grappling arms; Boom Boom is more responsible than she looks; Jean Grey is the cool stepmom; we posit an alternate explanation for Brexit; and ravens are the best dinosaurs. X-PLAINED...