Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men

As Mentioned in Episode 43 – It’s Not a Secret If It’s in the Title

Listen to the episode here!

 

30 comments

  1. I was daft enough to still own a copy of Secret Wars and my 5 year old son found it. Now I have to read him a issue every night before bed.

    I don;t have a question I’m just after your pity.

  2. Why is it that the only SWII pictures I recognize here are the ones with the Molecule Man? I’m pretty sure I didn’t read it all; why did I read those bits?

  3. I hate to be the bearer of bad news but at the end of New Avengers #29 Hank Pym shows up out of space and time having just found the Beyonders (yep, three of em). Hickman’s Avengers and New Avengers have been acting like All-New and Uncanny X-men in the way they trade story lines back and forth, and seem to be carrying most of the pre-Secret Wars story.

    1. That’s the Time Runs Out stuff, right? I seem to recall a solicitation for an upcoming issue with a very Beyoner-esque, jheri curl fellow looking sinister on an upcoming cover.

        1. It is the “Time Runs Out” stuff, and it iss Maximus on the cover of New Avengers #29 from January. The Beyonders are the reveal on the last page, and look like…what you imagine aliens look like.

          I’ve really enjoyed Hickman’s run. One highlight is his hinting that Beast is more villain in his actions than not.

          1. Ah, my mistake. I just thought he looked Beyonder-ish and with the event kind of leading into/kicking off this year’s Secret Wars, I took a stab at it. I’m really lacking in my knowledge of and exposure to anything to do with the Inhumans. Thanks for the info guys!

  4. Inspired by your lovely podcast, I’m currently attempting to read all of Uncanny on Marvel Unlimited starting with All New, All Different and I just arrived at the point where Secret Wars I crosses over. I figured “What’s another dozen issues when I’m already reading hundreds?” so I read it all. You’re right that it’s not good. The plot goes in a million different directions with no rhyme or reason and the characterization is way off. But you know…I didn’t hate it. I’d say I enjoyed it more than Sixis or the Fear Itself crossover from a couple of years ago, actually. A lot of the ridiculous character interactions were fun and I found Klaw to be delightful.

    1. Yeah, it’s goofy as hell and doesn’t make much sense, but there’s an infectious enthusiasm to it. Secret Wars II, on the other hand…

  5. Boom Boom! The Secret Wars are a mess, but my favorite podcast has entered a Marvel Universe in which my very favorite character exists, and that’s really exciting.

    1. My first recollection of Boom Boom was from the X-men arcade she was a decent character with playing with her. I sort of thought she was Jubilee, with a different name when I was a kid.

      1. I think that was Dazzler, actually – although her powers in the game are way more like Boom Boom’s. I guess that was still more accurate than Wolverine’s weird laser-claws, though.

        (She was the character I always played as!)

        1. Yeah, Dazzler basically had Boom Boom’s powers in that game, and with the short haircut she had at the time, she kinda looked like her too.

      2. Just piping in, yes it was Dazzler in the X-men arcade game. “I am Magneto, master of magnet! “Same style as the old Pryde of the X-men TV show. And yes I always pick Dazzler while playing that game 🙂

  6. If Deadpool is a member of the X-Force despite being originally a villain of new mutants and x-force. Why is he never considered a member of the x-men if X-force is made up of at one point in time X-men members. What is your take on Deadpool?

    1. In-continuity: since that incarnation of X-Force was covert and most X-characters weren’t aware it existed, it was never officially affiliated with the X-Teams the way something like the New Mutants or even X-Factor Investigations were.

      Out-of-continuity, which is to say in my and Rachel’s opinion: while Deadpool overlaps a fair bit with X-stuff, his solo books tend to be very much off in their own corner of the Marvel Universe and very tonally different from the X-Books. Plus, we’re already covering a rather ridiculous quantity of books – gotta draw the line somewhere!

        1. Nah…he’s like Wolverine. He’s super overexposed and overly praised, but he’s still a good character. His latest solo series by Duggan and Posehn, has been really solid. Just the right mix of wacky and poignant.

  7. I have a question unrelated to the various secret wars.

    Since cargo shorts are now part of iceman’s costume, how many times would bobby say “oh man” before answering if you asked him which dave matthews album was his favorite?

      1. (Incidentally: If anyone ever wants to do something like this, we are pretty much down with it as long as you run it by us first if you plan to sell it. If it’s just for personal use, have at.)

  8. A few items/opinions:

    1) “I’ll Tumble 4 Ya” (spelled like that) was a Top Ten hit in 1982 by the British band Culture Club, so that’s why it’s spelled “4” in Johnny Storm’s dialogue, though of course there may be a pun on “Fantastic 4” there also.

    2) Jim Shooter was apparently opposed to the Peter/Kitty romance due to their age difference, so he took the opportunity of writing SW I to drive a Zsaji-shaped wedge between them. Say what you will about Shooter being overbearing, but as with Dark Phoenix’ death, his heavy hand was motivated by moral conviction, not corporate interests.

    3) I have always suspected that Spider-Man’s black costume was done to make him easier to draw, but I have never seen corroboration from the inside.

    4) Neither Secret War series makes great reading, but at least SW I has the great “Doom can’t control his imagination” sequence, and SW II has the admittedly ham-fisted fish-out-of-water satire of an idiot god struggling to understand our zany world.

    5) The parallels between Shooter and the Beyonder are brought out nicely by Howe. But, looking at Boom-Boom’s monologue about rejection, I think she is Shooter also. It’s lonely at the top, and can feel like the bottom.

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