The Mutant Ages

Get ready for a deep dive into all of Scott Summers' memories! Luckily we have Emma Frost to accompany us on this journey, as opposed to Xavier, who would delete everything without telling anybody about it. Emma also offers to delete some memories for Scott -- specifically, all memories of Jean, since he's threatening to quit the X-Men due to not being able to get over her. We're pretty sure that...

This is a rare episode that comes with a content warning for parental abuse and self-harm. It's also an episode of Wolverine and the X-Men that made Maddy and Ryan very sad ... but also very impressed by the storytelling on display here. Warren has finally become proud of his mutant self and wants to use his powers to help other mutants (and/or queer people). Unfortunately, his dad doesn't approve...

Maddy and Ryan have finally hit the home stretch of Wolverine and the X-Men, and it's all uphill from here, at least in the sense of our review scores increasing. In "Backlash," the Sentinels become a true threat, and Wolverine admits Kitty was right when she said they should've trashed the robot manufacturing bay rather than attempting to steal data for later. Most of this episode is a long fight...

Maddy and Ryan start looking forward to the X-Men anime while watching Wolverine and the X-Men's very clunky adaptation of Mariko and Logan's romance, as well as the Silver Samurai's rivalry with Logan. Unlike in the comic books and the live-action movie The Wolverine (2013), this version of Mariko has a lot less agency and is mostly treated as an object for two men to fight over. The only good pa...

We head back to the future (again) in "Badlands," another stellar episode of Wolverine and the X-Men where a traumatized Polaris has filled the shoes of her father, Magneto, and rips apart Sentinels while trying to kill Xavier. Ironically, Maddy and Ryan actually like this show's version of Xavier, who seems a lot more human and well-rounded in this episode, as opposed to the selfish, closeted, ri...

Ryan and Maddy open up the listener mailbag once more to talk about Monica Rambeau, whether the Marvel universe should still have banks, villain theme songs, and so much more ... culminating, of course, in another episode of The Mutant Ages: The Comic Book. THE MUTANT AGES VILLAINS ALBUM CAN BE FOUND HERE: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6hSPv3PMxlgYKiY2Nytp0H?si=d7214546e40f4767 Next week's epi...

Wolverine and the X-Men returns to the Mojoverse in "Hunting Grounds," an episode named after Mojo's reality TV show in which the Reavers hunt down mutants for sport. It's like the Hunger Games, or Battle Royale, except Mojo did it first, thank you very much. Kurt and Wanda get abducted by Spiral and forced to participate in the deadly game for Mojo's amusement, and Kurt doesn't want to play along...

Maddy and Ryan face a serious challenge in "Stolen Lives," what may be the worst piece of X-Men fiction we've ever seen in the history of this show. It has a lot in common with the notoriously bad X-Men Origins: Wolverine movie, except replace Silver Fox with Mystique. That's right! On this show, the love of Mystique's life isn't Destiny, as it was on X-Men Evolution. Instead, it's Logan. Because...

The time has come for Rogue and Domino to break up in "Battle Lines," another heart-breaking banger of an episode from Wolverine and the X-Men. If only they were all this good! Maddy sides with Magneto (as usual) on this week's episode, while Ryan deals with his disappointment over his boyfriend Logan's behavior on this show. It's weird to see Wolverine so flustered and out of his depth. Meanwhile...

Come up to Mr. Sinister's lab! See what's on the slab. It's Scott Summers, who's only there because he got tricked ... definitely not because he's second-guessing his sexuality. Jean Grey has been missing for two years, and suddenly Scott feels very guilty that he hasn't been looking for her. Sinister takes advantage of the situation, which isn't difficult to do, because Scott's sanity is quite fr...

Time for a mandatory episode in which Wolverine fights Sabretooth and has nine flashbacks to Weapon X. Nine! Nine flashbacks! We can't do this anymore, Logan. Neither can Hank, who gets a talking-to from Rogue for putting up with Logan's bullshit. Meanwhile, Kitty and Bobby are organizing the X-Mansion library according to how gay each book is, and we'd rather watch an entire episode about that. X...

Magneto has finally achieved his life's dream in founding Genosha, but what exactly does that mean? Kurt tries to figure out his old rival's political motivations, and so do Maddy and Ryan, because Wolverine and the X-Men doesn't make it clear. Meanwhile, Mystique heads to the X-Mansion in disguise and, after messing around and kicking everyone in the face, heads back to Genosha and ensures Kurt's...

Finally, Bishop gets to be cool in "Future X," the ninth episode of Wolverine and the X-Men. Instead of shooting his gun and never hitting a single target, Bishop actually gets to use his powers to take out a ton of Sentinels and rescue Professor X and Cerebro from getting misused and abused by the robot dictators. Even Xavier gets to be kinda bad-ass in this episode, although he still can't seem...

Wolverine and the X-Men gets back on track with "Time Bomb," a more serious episode about the Brotherhood kidnapping the mutant Nitro from the MRD. The weird part is, Nitro turned himself in; his power is that he explodes, but he can't control when it happens, and it harms everybody except him. Sounds like exactly the type of mutant that Charles Xavier would abandon, and that is somehow what happe...

Who put this Avengers episode into our X-Men show? Maddy and Ryan struggle through "Wolverine vs. Hulk," one of the weakest episodes so far in Wolverine and the X-Men. Nick Fury is here, and although he's still Logan's ex-boyfriend, he's apparently regressed into an anti-mutant bigot who is also bad at his job. Meanwhile, the Hulk is also here, and so is... the Wendigo? Sure. Why not! X-Men Spotli...

Maddy and Ryan are witnessing Wolverine and the X-Men go off the rails this week with "X-Calibre," the episode that introduces Nightcrawler and also a ton of other characters who don't need to be there. Somehow, this one episode manages to cram together a storyline about cargo ships mistreating mutants while transporting them to Genosha, plus Nightcrawler acting as a solo vigilante who saves those...

Gambit makes his official entrance on Wolverine and the X-Men in "Thieves' Gambit," and you know he's sexy, mes amis. Maddy and Ryan talk about his voice actor Phil LaMarr, who makes Gambit sound a bit like his performance of Hermes from Futurama. More importantly, this episode features a lot of flirty cat-and-mouse games between Wolverine and Gambit, because Forge developed an anti-mutation colla...

"Overflow" is the fourth episode of Wolverine and the X-Men, and this show still feels like a continuation of X-Men Evolution (to Maddy and Ryan's delight). Professor X uses time travel and the astral plane to wake Wolverine up in the middle of the night, telling him that Storm is about to destroy all of Africa for no reason. Turns out there is a reason, and it's the Shadow King. This episode lets...

Emma Frost is here, at last! Maddy and Ryan watched "Hindsight, Part 3," which is another all-timer featuring a flirtatious Warren, a closeted Bobby, Logan and Beast bickering like a married couple, and Magneto proving he and Xavier are the *original* bickering married couple. Luckily we have the one and only Ms. Frost here to sort it all out, hmm? X-Men Spotlight: Who else??? Next week's episode:...

Wolverine and the X-Men plunges into political intrigue in its second episode, featuring young Warren Worthington and his father, who hates his mutant son and is a key donor to Senator Kelly's campaign to introduce mutant registration. Meanwhile, the X-Men are back together, but all that really means is Hank and Logan are dating again, and no one else particularly wants to hang around with them. R...

Maddy and Ryan review the pilot episode of Wolverine and the X-Men, which feels like X-Men Evolution, except now it's all grown up... and dealing with some serious political oppression. There are multiple flashbacks in this episode, and it moves fast, but somehow, it all works (maybe because these aren't Weapon X flashbacks again). Also, Beast and Wolverine are two gay dads and they do a prison br...

Imagine this: Tony Stark, Pepper Potts, and James Rhodes are all teenagers in high school together, but they're still superheroes... or at least, super-rich, in Tony's case. That's the premise of Iron Man Armored Adventures, starring the teenage version of Iron Man. In this mutant-themed episode, Tony and his pals meet Jean Grey; she's on the run from Magneto, a mutant extremist trying to recruit...

Maddy, Ryan and Todd continue the second half of their review of X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), so if you missed the first half, go back to last week's episode. We analyze the metaphorical heroin that Xavier and Hank take in order to diminish their powers and the overall impact this has on the mutant metaphor in the film. We also talk about the hit-or-miss portrayal of Mystique in the film, al...

Ryan, Maddy, and Todd reunite for another live-action movie episode, and it's X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014). This is our first time splitting a movie episode into two parts, and thank goodness, because we managed to spend the entire first hour of this episode dissecting the first ten minutes of this movie (!!!) and losing our minds over the decision to give Kitty Pryde psychic time-travel powe...

Ryan and Maddy dive into the listener mailbag to answer questions about other interpretations of the mutant metaphor (such as for autism), which X-Men like to watch bad movies, whether or not Mystique's shape-shifting makes her similar to a lizard, and the ethics of telepathy. We close out with the season two premiere of The Mutant Ages: The Comic Book! Next week's episode: X-Men: Days of Future P...