Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men

  Art by David Wynne. Prints, cards, and travel mugs available until 2/15/2015 in the shop , or contact David for the original. In which we cover 21 issues in one episode; Secret Wars is a toy commercial; Jim Shooter’s X-Men are not the X-Men to which we are accustomed; Doctor Doom makes a surprisingly benevolent god; Secret Wars II is neither secret nor a war; The Beyonder learns to poop; an...

Art by David Wynne. Prints and cards available until 2/1/2015 in the shop , or contact David for the original. In which Miles has a brush with nostalgia; Angelica Jones is secretly a Thomas Hardy protagonist; it doesn’t need to make sense if it’s awesome; and Emma Frost really needs a mustache to twirl. X-Plained: Trevor Fitzroy Firestar (Angelica Jones) Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends Nostalgi...

Art by David Wynne. Prints and cards available until 2/1/2015 in the shop , or contact David for the original. In which Nimrod is probably an honorary Summers by this point; Claremont hits a centennial; it’s probably pretty hard to get an unconscious person into tight leather pants; the X-Men finally encounter a world that actually hates and fears them; and the Power Pack fits somewhat uneasily wi...

Art by David Wynne. Prints available until 1/25/2015 in the shop , or contact David for the original. In which writer G. Willow Wilson joins us to talk about her new run on X-Men ; the Future is really confusing; we consider the many iterations of Rachel Grey; Storm probably has strong feelings about climate change; and writing for a shared universe takes some seriously fancy footwork. X-Plained:...

Art by David Wynne. Prints and travel mugs available until 1/11/2015 in the shop , or contact David for the original. In which Miles and his Doom voice return triumphant; we reach an understanding regarding Lila Cheney; Mob science is pretty shoddy; Magneto has fancy hair; New Mutants Xavier is Best Xavier; no one is more goth than Cloak and Dagger; and you can have Rachel’s Speed Racer references...

Art by David Wynne. Prints and travel mugs available until 1/11/2015 in the shop , or contact David for the original. In which we welcome back Emergency Backup Co-Host Chris Sims; comics writers are basically supervillains; Cyclops is not here to have fun; Spider-Man flirts with objectivism; Murderworld is probably not financially sustainable; you should totally cosplay the Proletarian; Arcade may...

Art by David Wynne. Prints available until 1/15 in the shop , or contact David for the original. In which we launch our first-ever giant-size special; God Loves, Man Kills is the definitive X-Men story; Bobby makes his R&MXtXM on-air debut; we repopulate the world with X-writers; Rachel is really excited about x-plaining X-Cutioner’s Song ; Miles takes a strong stance on Wolverine’s mask; we a...

Art by David Wynne. Prints available in the shop until 12/28, or contact David for the original! In which we play Six Degrees of Lila Cheney; Cannonball gets a makeover; Earth does not in fact blow up; the X-Men like their s’mores with thinly veiled allegories; and Magik dabbles in erotic friend fiction. X-Plained: Strong Guy Annuals New Mutants Annual #1 (Steal This Planet) Lila Cheney Both versi...

Art by David Wynne In which literally every character in Dazzler: The Movie is the absolute worst ; Beauty and the Beast is secretly kind of awesome; Ann Nocenti is an editorial war-bard; Rachel issues a hat-related retraction; and we would read the hell out of Tales from the Heartbreak Hotel . X-Plained: The many mutations of Hank McCoy Alison Blaire Dazzler: The Movie Dazzler’s corporate origins...

Art by David Wynne. Prints available here through Sunday, December 14! In which we venture forth into an age undreamed of, there are so many reasons to have Northstar on your team, Selene is the worst guest, Rachel X-Plains Conan, Cyttorak is the Mordenkainen of the Marvel Universe, Miles loves Doctor Strange, we have some fairly serious Captain America feelings, the X-Men completely fail at hide-...

Art by David Wynne! Prints here, or contact David for the original. In which we dive into two crossovers; our DCU is the DCAU; the Greys just cannot catch a break; Darkseid is basically Santa Claus; the Phoenix Force has Cyclops feels; Baron Karza is the sonic screwdriver of supervillains; and the Enigma Force is aptly named. CONTENT NOTE: The Micronauts portion of this episode involves not-partic...

Art by David Wynne In which we hit the definitive arc of New Mutants ; Bill Sienkiewicz blows our minds; Rachel gets choked up over a credits spread; Rahne gets a makeover; Doug Ramsey is justifiably flustered; and Warlock is a friend to household appliances. NOTE: This episode includes a lot of art talk. While doing so is not strictly necessary to follow the discussion, we recommend listening wit...

Art by David Wynne In which there is a whole, whole lot going on; we continue to have no use for Michael Rossi; Wolverine should be an advice columnist; Forge makes bold fashion choices; the health of a timeline is directly tied to the awesomeness of Storm’s hair; and the X-Men get their first dark-future refugee. X-Plained: Dire Wraiths ROM Tailoring Uncanny X-Men #182-188 Just how much story can...

  Art by David Wynne   In which the New Mutants are the Bobbsey Twins to the X-Men’s Sam Spade; Nina da Costa is Ms. Frizzle; New Mutants does a Rachel-and-Miles cold open; Selene is the Elizabeth Bathory of lava; Rahne likes Sam, Sam likes Amara, Dani likes Bobby, and Bobby likes everyone; Gil and Art are no Harvey and Janet; Miles has a Del Preston moment, Magma is a Horta; and if some...

In which Cyclops is the worst at vacations, Mystique is your favorite MurderMom™, Havok is eternally ABD, Kitty Pryde does science, Callisto doesn’t give a damn about her bad reputation, Xavier has a Troy Barnes moment, Miles may be the only person with fond memories of Secret Wars , and Rachel finally gets to make Spalding Gray references. X-Plained: Fantomex Uncanny X-Men #176-181 Reset issues S...

Art by David Wynne. In which we welcome back Greg Rucka, Rachel makes a valiant effort to read Secret Wars , Earth-200500 is still the best Earth,  Kitty Pryde and Wolverine is kind of dodgy, Ogūn is low-rent Mister Sinister, Miles talks about empathy, Greg has an Edna Mode moment, and we all love Kitty Pryde. X-Plained: X-Men #153 Kitty’s Fairy Tale Earth-5311 Earth-200500 (again) Kitty Pryde and...

Storm #1 cover art by Victor Ibañez Rachel caught up with Greg Pak during NYCC–on no sleep, and on the con floor, so apologies in advance for the sound–to talk about Storm,  Storm , team vs. solo titles, post-colonial X-Men, and more. Note: This was recorded on October 9, so the “last issue” referenced in the interview is  Storm #3.

Adam X the X-Treme, updated by David Wynne! In which we sit down with two of our favorite X-artists for an hour of continuity, character design, and a lot of wine; Corsair is the coolest; Emma Frost is a secret viewpoint character; Bishop is the anti-Booster Gold; Adam X the X-Treme gets a new hat; and none of us know how to pronounce “Bachalo.” X-Plained: The secret X-origins of Kris Anka and Rus...

Art by David Wynne. In which Danielle Moonstar is the Wolverine of the New Mutants, Henry Peter Gyrich is the Walter Peck of the Marvel Universe, Michael Rossi is no Peter Corbeau, Xavier is a Brood Queen (who is a jerk), Bob McLeod draws really good teenagers, the New Mutants do an after-school special, Chris Sims drops in for some emergency X-Plaining, Elsie Carson is the Harvey and Janet of Hyd...

Art by David Wynne, after Katsushika Hokusai. In which Wolverine gets his first miniseries, Yukio is still (and forever) the best, we categorically reject the classification “manic pixie dreamgirl,” everything is noir as hell, Wolverine gets an Iron Giant moment, Storm is too cool for your dress code, and we finally made “Probably a Summers Brother” t-shirts. X-Plained: X-23 The 1982 Wolverine min...

Art by David Wynne. In which Professor X is (canonically!) a jerk, Miles has Sidrian Hunter feelings, Kitty Pryde is Clarissa Darling with a dragon, we introduce a drinking game, the X-Men do Barbarella , Rachel has a ‘shipper moment, Rogue joins the team, Storm gets a haircut, Mastermind is still the worst, and Madelyne Pryor is underrated. X-Plained: Lockheed Uncanny X-Men #168-175 Reset issues...

Art by David Wynne. In which Rachel and Miles return triumphant, the X-Men get a second ongoing series, we hit peak Moira MacTaggert, R-A-H-N-E is definitely pronounced “rain,” Sam Guthrie is the nicest henchman, Claremont is hit-and-miss on cultural diversity, and Bobby da Costa is the teenageriest teenager of them all. X-Plained: Nova Roma The New Mutants and The New Mutants Marvel Graphic Novel...

Art by David Wynne In which Rachel and Miles celebrate an anniversary with a retrospective of one of the great romances of the Marvel universe; the Summers/Grey family tree is more of a transdimensional strawberry patch; the X-Men play some football; Professor Xavier is not a jerk; and Scott Summers and Jean Grey are the power couple of existentialism. X-Plained Summers kids Scott and Jean Feeling...

Art by David Wynne In which special guest Kurt Busiek is the J. Robert Oppenheimer of X-Men, Rachel and Miles learn to love the Silver Age, Cyclops gets a job, Bernard the Poet falls from grace, we really wish X-Men: The Secret Years was a real book, everyone recites poetry, and we still don’t get around to Marvels . X-Plained: METOXO, the Lava Man The true, secret purpose of Rachel and Miles X-Pl...

In which Claremont levels up; the Brood are legitimately scary; Colossus is an ethical dude; Nightcrawler and Wolverine share beers in the face of certain death; Storm turns into a space whale; we are Carol Corps for life; New Mutants are really into Magnum, P.I .; Kitty meets a dragon; and Xavier dies (again). X-Plained: Broo The Brood Saga ( X-Men #161-167) Paul Smith Space fashion A really terr...