Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men

In which there’s nothing inherently wrong with monster-of-the-week; Marrow’s makeover extends to her font; Red Skull gets a Power Glove; Marvel sets up a slate of spinoffs; and you should hire Matt Hunter to produce your podcast! X-PLAINED: What Danger’s been up to lately Uncanny X-Men #371 X-Men #91 X-Men Annual 1999 Crossover cover design Skrullverine Machine Man Dethlok vs. Dethklok Jack Truman...

In which Roadhouse is basically a Wolverine story; Spider-Man does crimes; space names are derivative; there are lots of good reasons to yell at Professor Xavier; the X-Men do Doctor Who ; Galactus is not interested in your puny human feelings; Marrow gets a new look; the Skrulls need a crash course in UI; and we overthink bones. X-PLAINED: The time the Skrulls did “A Piece of the Action” The trou...

SPOILER WARNING: ALL OF THEM, NONSTOP In which Barry Windsor-Smith is too sexy for television; we know what happens when unstable molecules get struck by lightning; X-Men gets political and does it spectacularly; this Captain America would not sew the cape; Magneto continues to throw things into space; and they kissed and we missed it. X-PLAINED: Fabian Cortez’s name X-Men ’97 episodes 6-10 Lifede...

SPOILER WARNING: ALL OF THEM, NONSTOP In which we put the comics on hold to take a look at X-Men ’97 ; it is still always Inferno in here; Wolverine is best used sparingly; a Marvel show finally embraces politics; Wolverine is best in small doses; Madeylne Pryor still always deserves better; Jubilee grows up; and we are all in on this series. X-PLAINED: “Beyond Good and Evil” X-Men: The Animated S...

In which Magneto is not full of mirth; nobody real or fictional likes Fabian Cortez; when you’re a speedster, every problem is a metaphorical nail; The Zealot makes some valid points; and when Quicksilver declares himself your conscience, it’s time to examine your life. X-PLAINED: How Magneto got his powers back Morally ambiguous hair Genosha (more) (again) Magneto Rex #1-3 Magneto vs. Conan Trish...

In which we remain fascinated by Magneto’s robot butler; murder is Logan’s love language; the Juggernaut punches a hole in reality; Professor Xavier makes it weird; and Storm lectures several gods. X-PLAINED: Silly mutant powers Uncanny X-Men #368-369 X-Men #88 Alan Davis’s X-Men run Magneto’s robot butler Joseph’s funeral Nun-sense A voyage to another dimension Eyebrow power Ejulp The Trion The o...

In which we celebrate our tenth anniversary by X-Plaining what may be the most reviled X-arc; you should not try this at home; Mystique is so much better than this story; Azazel is a really boring devil; Nightcrawler should probably be missing a hand; the Xavier School definitely does not have an HR department; and we would prefer that you not pee on Iceman. X-PLAINED: Nightcrawler’s (most recent)...

In which artist Russell Dauterman joins us to discuss super-powered costume design! X-PLAINED: Why it’s important to get a professional to design your superhero costume Why Miles doesn’t trust the government Russell’s history at Marvel Designing for the Hellfire Gala Mutant fashion The word “fashionize” Iconic looks Modernizing superhero costumes Powers vs. personality Punk goddess Storm Designing...

Feral’s back – just in time to wreck Jay’s voice again! (And Siryn’s, but we’ll get to that later.) ( X-Force #88) In which timeline math is almost never worth it; Tarot comes back from the dead (kind of) (maybe); Magma makes a heel turn; “King Bedlam” would be a great name for a ska band; not every nude man can turn into a bear; and you don’t have to talk to your sup...

In which everything is an event these days; Skin may or may not have a skeleton; everyone has a crush on Synch; we are intrigued by Integer; and it’s hard to be Emma Frost. X-PLAINED: War of the Mutants Generation X #50 X-Man #50 Nate Grey (again) Adrienne Frost Science Dark Beast (again) Gene Nation Vessel Hemingway Membrain Fever Pitch Dark Opsidian Iron Maiden Wynter Tattoos More science Intege...

Ah, the age-old question: would you scissor your clone while yelling? ( Uncanny X-Men #367) In which the Magneto War comes to a close. X-PLAINED: X-Men #86-87 Uncanny X-Men #367 Quite a few other things, which we’ll add to this post tomorrow! NEXT EPISODE: Nate Grey meets Generation X! Check out the visual companion to this episode  on our blog ! Find us on  Apple Podcasts  or  Spotify ! Jay...

In which not every story needs to be an event; Alan Davis returns to the X-line; X-mansion security is not what it once was; Rogue needs some new fantasies; and Magneto wants a country. X-PLAINED: A poor governance decision X-Men: The Magneto War #1 Uncanny X-Men #366 Astral demerits A very dramatic dream The yolk of oppression Several Acolytes Nightcrawler’s nightcap Our standards for advertisers...

In which it’s difficult to flee with soup; Miles may or may not be haunting the X-Men; Colossus collaborates involuntarily; Marrow is full of surprises; Magneto is a dick; Jay continues to carry a torch for Secret Wars: Siege ; and you should totally come to our birthday party. X-PLAINED: Several rather pointed allusions X-Force #86 Uncanny X-Men #365 X-Men #85 Almost Reno, NM Where mutants come f...

In which we walk down X-Plain Memory Lane; everyone needs Bitch Planet; HoX/PoX wouldn’t stay on shelves; we learn how to make sure a comic doesn’t get canceled; Marvel should have kept publishing those Krakoa-era anthology TPBs; X-Men is indeed a soap opera; and you can jump in here ’cause we’re all confused. X-PLAINED: The most crowded X-year Books With Pictures, official...

In which Marrow remains a connoisseur of dead rats; Jay has opinions about the NYC Subway system; U.L.T.I.M.A.T.U.M. are snazzy dressers; Doctor Doom gets excited about Onslaught; Magneto can have a rocket pack if he wants; villainous game recognizes villainous game; weird retcons are the best retcons; and you should totally come to our birthday party. X-PLAINED: A peculiar side effect of Wolverin...

In which Banshee should eat the rich; the real Monet is way more of a jerk than the fake one; the Marvel Universe is the world inside your brain-case; Maggott joins and quits Generation X at almost the speed of Sunfire; Dracula gives Chamber the D; and if Jay and Miles die in this episode, they die in real life. X-PLAINED: Dracula as a universal standard Earth-441 Generation X #48-49 The missed po...

From organic steel to organic… whatever that is. ( X-Men #83) In which the Hunt for Xavier remains vaguely disappointing; Gambit is good with kids; nanomachines are the new unstable molecules; Marrow is a walking armory; and we recommend comics for babies. X-PLAINED: The Hunt for Xavier, Part 2 Babies and/or ghosts Chekhov’s repowering X-Men #83-84 Uncanny X-Men #364 Cerebro / Cerebro Prime...

In which we reach the beginning of an end; Jay totally forgot Gambit was there; we’re all living in the Mary Purcelliverse; the X-Men split the party; and we explore The Bay Area’s Bohemian Hotbed of Student Anarchy. X-PLAINED: Mary Purcell (sort of) The re-defaulting of the X-Men Uncanny X-Men  #362-323 X-Men #82 Nebraska Pyro (Saint John Allerdyce) and his endless illness Legacy Virus variations...

In which Gambit knows how to make an entrance; Rogue and Gambit only have relationship conversations during superhero fights; Wolverine fights a shark; and we have opinions on how to handle certain aspects of backstory. X-PLAINED: One way to take over Madripoor Uncanny X-Men #361 X-Men #81 Wolverine: Black Rio The X-Men’s rapid slide back to the status quo Steve Comicraft The fork of loneliness Cy...

“Hot Topic Rennfaire” was a somewhat controversial choice for X-Force’s prom theme. ( X-Force #85) In which the overlap between  Rocky Horror  and ‘90s  X-Force  fans is probably pretty significant; Pandemonia has priorities; the warehouse gets an evil, sexy glowup; swears are great; Johnny Blaze’s motorcycle probably shouldn’t still be on fire; and there is no single definitive...

In which Colossus has had a rough time of it; the X-Men are at their best in bar fights; Bronze-age Wolverine was a jerk; Ursa Major deserves more page space; kids dig Nightcrawler; and we imagine an X-Men newspaper comic strip. X-PLAINED: Notable incidents in Iceman’s romantic history X-Men: Liberators #1-4 Nostalgia Friendship A bar fight Province 13 General Sergei Several dead deer Gregor and V...

  Illustration by David Wynne In which we have had an eventful year; Longshot is a classic folk hero; writer Kieron Gillen makes a triumphant and mildly terrifying return to the show; and you remain the best listeners of any podcast, ever. X-PLAINED: Our tenth birthday party! 2023 Longshot vol. 2 #1 Longshot as a folkloric archetype Longshot (more) (again) Dismal Nitch, Washington The Thingee...

In which the X-Men turn 35; we pause to celebrate the death of Henry Kissinger; Jay is a space nerd; Marrow hang-dries her delicates; space shuttles are not rockets; the band gets back together; and the Danger Room isn’t the first piece of X-tech to get sentience and a robot body. X-PLAINED How Excalibur got a Blackbird Uncanny X-Men #360 X-Men #80 Many callbacks The Benassi Rocket The Cassini Pro...

In which we take a retrospective look at X-Factor and Excalibur : where the series began, where they went, and what’s in store after the ends of their first volumes. X-PLAINED: What Rictor’s been up to X-Factor Excalibur NEXT EPISODE: A Corbeau cameo! The visual companion to this episode is scattered through the last eight years of visual companions, mostly under the X-Factor and Excalibur tags. F...

In which we reach the end of Larry Hama’s run on Generation X ; Gaia remains remarkably normal for someone who has spent millennia chained up alone in a citadel; Synch practices radical forgiveness; we ponder the nature of Emma Frost and Sean Cassidy’s relationship; and Forge is extra unqualified to lecture on ethics. X-PLAINED: How Jubilee stopped being a vampire The Draco , kinda Generation X #4...