Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men

222 – A Tale of Two Betsys

Art by David Wynne. Wanna buy the original? Drop him a line!

In which it has been a pretty intense month; there is a lot to unpack about Psylocke; we are confused by hip teen lingo; Cyclops definitively lacks game; organized crime is anything but; and the mystery of the third Summers brother officially begins.

X-PLAINED:

  • How the Maximoffs joined the Avengers
  • X-Cutioner’s Song fallout
  • An X-ceptionally convoluted set of retcons
  • X-Men #20-23
  • How not to repair an airplane
  • One way to get out of an awkward conversation
  • Several Betsys Braddock
  • Revanche
  • Dubiously organized crime
  • Kwannon
  • Nyorin’s diary
  • Awkward family conversations
  • Mike Milbury
  • Twin Peaks Season 3
  • Akira Yoshida

NEXT EPISODE: Dracula in Vegas!


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18 comments

  1. I’m just dropping by to say thank you for giving me warm feelings at the start of my Monday. One of the worst things about the last elections here in Brazil has been finding out so many people around me are ok with fascism, but the upside of that is learning there are many more awesome people around the world standing with those of us who are against it. Thank you.

  2. I assume that Jubilee doesn’t like the Professor using the word “rug” because it is also a slang term for a wig, and what with him being bald and all she keeps having mental images of him in wildly inappropriate wigs.

  3. Ah, at last! X-Men #20 was the first mutant book I ever bought myself, and I read it so many times. I was totally hooked from then on. I’ve been looking forward to this episode for a couple of years!

  4. loved the episode! as usual, you guys did a great job explaining a confusing story. Jay makes a rare Cyclops-related error in this episode. Scott recognized Madelyne’s resemblance to Jean immediately. When he first meets her in Uncanny X-Men #168 (penultimate panel), he thinks “her voice — her face — it can’t be! it’s impossible!” While Scott may be aloof, he recognized this one right away.

  5. I really hope you guys can get Fabian Nicieza on here someday. Not just to explain what was going on with the whole Psylocke/Revanche nonsense, but I definitely want to hear some insider discussion on that.

  6. This is the initial confusion portion of what I consider the Tragic Tale of The Woman Known Only as Kwannon. When J&M get to the mid-30s of this book, where we only get the full story after Kwannon’s death, it’ll make sense why I consider one of the sadder characters in the X-canon.

    RE: the big tub – maybe it’s supposed to be one of those nice big private tubs in Japan where people wash themselves first in a sit-down shower and then sit in the tub for a good calming soak at the end of the day. Those things (at least as I’ve seen in anime/manga & on TV) are pretty big, and if I had money to spare, I’d totally have one installed for maximum relaxing soak time. I’m sure you could do The Sex in one, but it’d mean draining it before the entire household has been able to use it & probably wouldn’t be appreciated.

  7. you guys said they have the others’ mind, in their bodies. i thought it was that each body had a mind that was 50/50% split between the 2 minds. no?

    1. Since Betsy continued to think of herself as Betsy, and Kwannon as Kwannon. I think the bulk of the minds were shifted between their brains, and it was only some areas of bleedthrough, like handily sharing ninja training.

    2. This story also differs from the upcoming re-retcon a few months after – we’ll talk more about where things ended up when we get to that episode!

  8. I don’t know that one can really say that Sinister’s “brothers” heralded *several* decades of nonsense, but I completely appreciate that it feels like several decades.

  9. I hopped into the X books mid the Kwannon retcon. I was young enough to be impressed by the complex story telling. I mean, I didn’t understand it, which surely was a sign that it was intricate and well planned and maybe I was missing appropriate back issues. There was no chance that what was really going on was a fluster cluck with pretty pictures. Right?

  10. Wasn’t there a Peter David X-Factor issue where Alex called the X-Men to give them a heads-up that Mister Sinister was around? Not that such a gesture would be well communicated in this period of Marvel’s history. I seem to remember a previous episode where it was stated that Alex did that.

  11. Long time listener, Even though I’ve been away for a bit. But this episode brings it home. White Psylocke was/is my favorite superhero, and I know the ins and outs of her story, and I’ve met with and Spoken to Fabian Several times. He always admits to Psylockes body issues and how it’s never been truly addressed over the years as a downside to him writing her, and making it messy.

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