Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men

127 – Disaster City

Art by David Wynne. Prints and cards available at the shop, or contact David to purchase the original.
Art by David Wynne. Prints and cards available at the shop, or contact David to purchase the original.

In which we get back on the continuity train; everything is the aftermath of Inferno forever; you should never fight a tractor or a horse without first putting on some damn pants; Vincent Price would’ve made a terrific Doctor Strange; Rusty Collins never really gets a fair break; Boom Boom is in over her head; and Brett Blevins takes his place as the definitive New Mutants artist.

X-PLAINED:

  • Mirage’s on-again-off-again Valkyrie career
  • Asgardia
  • The New Mutants’ previous Asgard adventures
  • The best single issue of all time
  • The Naglfar
  • A proposal for a new calendar
  • New Mutants #77-80
  • The Ust-Ordynski Collective (again) (more)
  • There’s Stuff Going On: The Doctor Strange Story
  • A very bad decision
  • Why unicorns are the worst
  • Doctor Stephen Sanders / Doctor Strange / Doctor Dad
  • Let’s Make a Deal
  • Whether arson counts as a personality trait
  • Several nefarious plans
  • Creative growth
  • Disaster City
  • Fun with the Technarchy
  • Mindful representation
  • Miles’s dad’s comics collection

NEXT EPISODE: Judgment War!


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9 comments

  1. So according to the first Google result (which means it must be 100% accurate) I found while Googling “myers briggs arson”, the crime associated with ESFP individuals, such as Miles, is drunk and disorderly. Also, the weapon of choice for ESFP is a shuriken.

    It could be worse. Apparently I’m a murderer who would use a sniper rifle. This is starting to read like a bad game of Clue.

  2. Since Dani hasn’t shown up since Fearless Defenders, she might still have her Valkyrie powers. I kinda want her to show up in Mighty Thor, honestly. I think she’d be a fun guest star. It would be cool.

    I get the feeling Miles had entirely too much fun reading all those Russian place names.

    The next time we see Illyana is, of course, in the midst of horrific tragedy. Because Illyana is not allowed to be happy.

    I do feel bad for Rusty and Skids. I think I like Skids more in theory than in practice. Like, I want to like her, but she just doesn’t get much to do, so she ends up being boring and bland. Rusty was always bland to me. It’s a shame.

    Huh, I just looked up Blevins on Wikipedia, to see what he’s done since New Mutants. Apparently, he mostly does paintings now. It’s interesting, his paintings are still clearly his style, but they’re also different. They’re good stuff.

    Boom-Boom is amazing in this arc, but she is amazing in every arc, because she is always amazing.

    I just read the Thor story that reveals that Fandral was Robin Hood. It’s an odd story, but fun.

  3. Well, actually…(I always wanted to say that!) Hela could move her Hel back to it’s proper place in Niffleheim from Mephisto’s Hell after the Fear Itself crossover (Journey into Mystery #631)… well, yes, this was also Loki’s doing (because in Thor everything begins and ends and possibly middles with that jerk).

    Also my first comment here so: Hi!

  4. Been listening to this with interest as I had given up on the New Mutants completely by this point (and never went back apart from the one Claremont issue with Empath and Magma discussing comparative and practical theology) so am learning along with you.

    One quick question re Jay’s alternative to Dani’s ice machine… had Dani actually met Iceman? Inferno is the only time I can think of where they might have crossed paths (Since Bobby hadn’t been to the Xavier School in years) and she was injured at that point so he might not have easily spring into her mind. Probably missing at least a major crossover, but I can’t recall it offhand.

  5. For what it is worth, there’s a remake of Let’s Make a Deal that has been on many CBS syndicated channels since 2009. It’s hosted by Wayne Brady. They still have the Zonk prizes and the crazy costumes. (http://www.cbs.com/shows/lets_make_a_deal/)

    Was always a fan of the X-Terminators. It was the series that first got me into comics (back around 1 BI). Don’t know why, but they always felt like people I would want to hang out with (if I wasn’t a shy INFP). Wish I would have known to follow them into the New Mutants. It would have been a lot fun following my new friends into Asgard.

  6. So, today I loaded this and Baxter Building 21 on my phone to go for a hike. Then I listened to two podcasts in a row making an aside to tell me about the ‘Lets make a deal’-show, giving two different reasons why it was ridiculous. Odd.

  7. This arc always made me sad as a kid because it meant the true end of the New Mutants to me. It still makes me sad now in my thirties just thinking about it and I haven’t even dug them out to reread yet. Poor Dani. 🙁

    Also, I’m happy to finally be caught up on your podcast after a very long (but enjoyable) time listening to the archives. I love your show! It’s so nice to hear people who enjoy the x-books as much as I always have, especially the 1980s era as that’s also what I grew up reading as a kid in the 90s. I’ve been having lots of fun reading along when I can via Marvel Unlimited and digging through my long boxes.

  8. So, to give a much belated yet hopefully helpful “Well Actually” – Stephen Sanders was the secret identity for Stephen Strange granted to him by Eternity back in Doctor Strange #182 (for September of 1969) after Strange outed himself publicly as the Sorcerer Supreme to rescue Eternity from Nightmare, who had abducted and imprisoned Eternity and was planning to use the power of Eternity to end the world.

    However, the bonds that Nightmare had placed upon Eternity weren’t actually, well, binding, and he could have broken out at any time – and only did so after Strange demonstrated that he would put everything on the line to free Eternity and save Earth. Strange assumed that Eternity altering reality to grant Strange a new secret identity was a form of gratitude – I’m going to assume that it was more as an apology for his massive act of douchebaggery.

    The only reason I’m posting about this now is because I’ve caught up in my reading list on the Complete Marvel Reading Order to the point where Doctor Strange gets the “Doctor Sanders” identity.

    As an aside, Roy Thomas and Gene Colan’s run on Doctor Strange is definitely worth reading – it’s very well written, and Colan’s art absolutely fits with the material, and I’d argue that Colan’s surrealistic visuals for the Astral Plane and other universes of existence might even top (to a degree) Steve Ditko’s psychedelia from his tenure on the character.

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