The Mutant Ages

"Out of the Past, Part 2" isn't nearly as hilarious as "Part 1." It's downright spooky, actually, thanks to some impressive animation and sound design choices on the part of the X-Men: The Animated Series season three creative team. Except, uh... Maddy and Ryan also thought the writing was a bit boring. We wanted Lady Deathstrike to give us more silly monologues about her feelings! At least we sti...

Maddy and Ryan strap in for the third season premiere of X-Men: The Animated Series, featuring... an unfair portrayal of Lady Deathstryke and tons of flashbacks to Wolverine's Weapon X trauma? Wait a second, this is X2 deja vu! "Out of the Past, Part 1" also has Jubilee and Gambit in tow to help Wolverine when he's in a jam, but not before listening to him deliver some monologues alone in the dark...

Maddy and Ryan revisit X2, the live-action sequel to X-Men, and once again they've brought back podcaster and movie critic Mary Ellen (of Let's Watch 2 Movies fame) to provide her unbiased thoughts. Ryan admits he saw this movie eight times in cinemas, and Maddy recounts all of the spoofs that she and Ryan made of this movie's scenes as teenagers. Meanwhile, Mary Ellen has some important questions...

Ryan and Maddy reach the end of season two of X-Men: The Animated Series, and as usual, the show brings its two-part finale to a delightful conclusion. We're back to discussing our problematic fave Mr. Sinister and queer-coded villains, for the billionth time, but we spend most of the episode giggling about the over-the-top sex dungeon that the X-Men have ended up in. The Nasty Boys make their fin...

Just like Professor X reuniting with the X-Men, Maddy and Ryan have reunited for yet another episode of X-Men: The Animated Series. We're almost as excited to talk to one another as Jean Grey is excited to talk to Xavier, although the two of us aren't also wearing handcuffs placed on us by Mister Sinister. Or maybe we are, figuratively? He has certainly stolen our hearts and minds in this week's e...

Maddy and Ryan return to recapping X-Men: The Animated Series, and the latest episode introduces them to Mojo, who they like even though the show doesn't want them to. He may be an evil alien overlord who eats producers for lunch, but he's funny, okay? Anyway, this episode is a fun one-off that gives X-Men: TAS the opportunity to get into meta commentary about 90s TV trends, violence in cartoons,...

Maddy and Ryan look back on a bunch of commercials from the '90s featuring X-Men action figures and games that we wish we'd had... and also, some toys that we actually DID have. These commercials are hilarious. Not always intentionally so. Strap in as we take '90s-era marketing firms to task for not letting Storm and Rogue do enough! Also, predictably, this episode features tons of Maddy and Ryan...

Ryan and Maddy recorded this episode late at night, and unfortunately for them, X-Men: The Animated Series doled out a serious political episode with a grim Friends of Humanity subplot. Your two favorite insomniacs do their best to analyze the show's deep dive into Hank McCoy, a.k.a. Beast, and his turbulent emotions with regard to a new but all-too-fleeting romance. This episode is a metaphor for...

At last, Ryan and Maddy got to watch an episode they actually enjoyed again. This time, it's a bit unexpected, given how much they mocked this episode during their jaded teenage years. As adults, Ryan and Maddy liked seeing Rogue's poignant backstory as well as the show's depiction of the inner-workings of her mind. This is also finally an episode where Jean Grey gets to use her powers... which se...

Remember the episode "Time Fugitives Part 1"? Ryan and Maddy sure do. We just watched it... twice. "Time Fugitives Part 2" is technically a new episode, but in name only. This week's episode of X-Men: The Animated Series is a real slog, but we watched it so that you don't have to. And, really, you do NOT have to watch it. Allow us to recap the ongoing adventures of Cable and the Cube, featuring Ca...

Maddy and Ryan continue their journey through the second season of X-Men: The Animated Series, and they've reached another terrifying and prescient episode about the Friends of Humanity, Marvel Comics' anti-mutant terrorist group. "Time Fugitives, Part 1" weaves a confusing web of time travel shenanigans with our favorite time jockeys, Bishop and Cable, but it also manages to stuff in a metaphor f...

THE TITHE! This episode isn't called "The Tithe." But it should be. Ryan and Maddy watched "X-Ternally Yours," an X-Men: The Animated Series episode that tells us Gambit's backstory, but it doesn't make any sense. It's hilarious, though, and who doesn't enjoy hearing voice actors with their best (worst) approximation of Cajun accents telling you about the tithe? You'll never find out what the tith...

This week's episode of X-Men: The Animated Series is all about Wolverine, so we can't help but like it, even though it's not THAT good. But Ryan did own a copy of it on VHS as a young boy, so that's important to note. (Maddy didn't, which is very sad.) Anyway, this episode is called "Repo Man," and it's all about Logan's exes trying to repossess him. In other words, it's about Alpha Flight, which...

This week, Maddy and Ryan wish they had paid more attention in history class, because they're pretty sure that X-Men: The Animated Series' take on the dissolution of the Soviet Union didn't involve a tentacled super-mutant laying waste to Eastern Europe. That's what happens in "Red Dawn," but don't worry--the X-Men are on the scene, ready to intervene in an international incident! Meanwhile, Jubil...

Sometimes, X-Men: The Animated Series is packed with prescient political allegories. And sometimes... it's not. The third episode of the show's second season isn't political and it's not even accurate to the comic books. In spite of that, we enjoyed the heck out of it. This week, Maddy and Ryan cover Storm's manufactured backstory in X-Men: TAS, as well as her canonical backstory from the comic bo...

Welcome to the Mr. Sinister Show! Mwahahhaa!! Maddy and Ryan have a villain-packed episode for you this week. The second episode of season 2 of X-Men: The Animated Series is all about our favorite campy villain and his henchman, who call themselves The Nasty Boys. This episode has some serious moments, but it's mostly goofy and delightful — and the queer subtext is barely subtext at this point. It...

Maddy and Ryan return to X-Men: The Animated Series for the premiere of the second season, a strong episode that walks the line between serious political commentary and goofy fun times. Guess what? Morph's back, and he's ready to play all sorts of mind games on the X-Men. Meanwhile, the Friends Of Humanity are also playing mind games on the X-Men, except that's way less fun to watch. X-MEN SPOTLIG...

The Mutant Ages delve into a live-action adaptation for the first time, and they also have their very first guest: Mary Ellen from Let's Watch 2 Movies, the other podcast that Maddy co-hosts at Atomic Blue Productions! Welcome, LW2M fans, to a show that discusses queer subtext in the X-Men and also tries to turn that subtext into text at every turn. We hope you all enjoy this visitation of Maddy a...

Maddy and Ryan have just wrapped up watching the first season of X-Men: The Animated Series, and they'd like to remind you that Magneto was right... among other things. Magneto has captured Senator Kelly and the X-Men try to intervene, but before they can do that, the Sentinels rush in to capture Senator Kelly themselves. Now that humans and mutants have a common enemy in these big plastic robots,...

Ryan and Maddy check out the second half of X-Men: The Animated Series' adaptation of Days of Future Past, and it's a lot stronger than Part 1. This episode smooths over the rough edges of Bishop and Wolverine's future together, plus it solidifies the threesome between Bishop, Wolverine and Gambit. And by "solidifies," we mean, "it's not canon, but come on. Just watch that poker scene!" Anyway, th...

This week, Maddy and Ryan watch Part 1 of X-Men: The Animated Series' adaptation of Days of Future Past, and we get amped up about Wolverine's butt. Even more than usual. You know who else is amped about Wolverine's butt? Bishop! According to us. The X-Men: TAS adaptation of Days of Future Past moves fast and takes some shortcuts through comic book canon. In this episode, Bishop acts like a total...

The "Come the Apocalypse" episode of X-Men: The Animated Series can't possibly be canon. For starters, none of the X-Men remember Archangel, which contradicts future episodes. Meanwhile, Rogue and Mystique don't recognize one another, either. In spite of this episode's plot holes and multiple confusing fight scenes, Ryan and Maddy enjoyed it a lot... because they were laughing at it, not with it....

Maddy and Ryan delve into "The Cure," a metaphor-heavy episode of X-Men: The Animated Series that makes it crystal clear how mutant powers serve as a metaphor for being gay. In this episode, we meet Warren Worthington III, a closeted mutant who's super-rich and funding a "cure" for his mutation. The inventors of the alleged "cure" are Mystique and Apocalypse, though, and you just can't trust those...

This week on Maddy and Ryan's X-Men: The Animated Series rewatch, we meet Colossus, from Russia! You know he's from Russia because he just can't stop telling us that. We also meet the Juggernaut, who is the actual focus of this episode, not that we want him to be. Wolverine and Jubilee become besties with a killer sense of teamwork, but aside from that, this episode is a real snooze. Let us recap...

Maddy and Ryan discuss "Slave Island," in which our X-Men: The Animated Series heroine Jubilee puts up with the worst vacation ever, thanks to Gambit. Storm also gets plenty of moments to shine in this episode, and she even gets a cute scene with her girlfriend Rogue. (According to the writers of the show, they're not canonically dating, but they're TOTALLY dating.) This episode also introduces us...