Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men

254 – Carry Each Other

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

In which Nicole Miller is fashion designer to Earth-1218 and Earth-616, Jay rejects the word “bestest”, we kind of want to just read every word of X-Men #30 aloud, One is a perfect wedding song for Scott and Jean, and you save the last dance for who brought you.

X-PLAINED:

  • The perils of animated weddings
  • X-Men: The Wedding Album
  • Nonstandard trim sizes
  • Misattributed Oscar Wilde quotes
  • Shatterstar’s favorite Olympic event
  • Jean Grey’s short-lived modeling career
  • Computo, Commander of the Robot Hive
  • A most excellent wedding dress
  • Cursive fonts in comics
  • Jean Grey and Jubilation Lee, ambiguously excellent chosen family
  • X-Men #30
  • An event decades in the making
  • Wolverine, Master of Penmanship
  • Charles Xavier, reader stand-in
  • The largely forgotten Madelyne Pryor
  • The understandably tentative Rachel Summers
  • The bow-tie scene
  • A phenomenal two-page spread
  • A set of perfect vows
  • A bittersweet song for a bittersweet couple
  • Victor Creed, vengeful kitty-cat
  • Rogue and Gambit, best worst wedding guests
  • Video albums vs. Instagram
  • Beast and Banshee, jazz combo
  • Scott and Jean as a couple vs. individuals
  • The necessity of Scott and Jean’s relationship context

NEXT EPISODE: Goodbye, Phoenix. Hello, Britanic.


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12 comments

  1. Storm may be the first guest to get married, but not the first guest to have a wedding. Alex and Lorna have a wedding but don’t get married. But you might wish to forget that.

  2. That fashion illustration just makes me think of my old wish that Rob Liefeld’s career choice should be somehow retroactively turned into (women’s) fashion designer not comic book artist. (Just think about it: Women’s clothing, WITH POCKETS!!!!!)

  3. Does using an alien costume machine in your basement count as “custom tailored”? Because that’s where I’m betting they got their tuxes. Why go to a tailor when you have a magic costume machine?

  4. This issue does such of a great job of showing the human side of the X-men. It hits home that, behind all the pageantry of the event, relationships are built on the little but meaningful interactions between people every day. This is as true in real life as it is in superhero comics.

    And some of the best Professor X moments in all of comics.

  5. Uh… hey Steve, I probably should’ve told you this before the ceremony but I’m already married…I guess it wouldn’t be an X-Men themed relationship without some massive secret complication, though, right? Hubby?

    *Sniff* Wow, what a beautiful ceremony!

  6. A “Renew Your Vows” (or “Mr. and Mrs. X”) style book about Scott Summers and Jean Grey having married couple adventures is basically my dream Marvel book.

    I’d especially love if their various time traveling/extra dimensional kids were involved as well – a mutant equivalent to the punk rock family hijinx in “Hopeless Savages!”

    1. Sounds like an obvious book for Reed and Sue and their children to make a guest appearance in, although it would make for awkward moments with Rachel for obvious reasons.

      Incidentally, can I mention how irritated I am that Dan Slott decided to age up Valeria? She was far more interesting as a superintelligent and vaguely sinister five-year old.

      1. Indeed, the Richards clan would fit right in!

        I haven’t read Slott’s FF yet. He’s very hit and miss with me, though his She-Hulk run is one of my all time favorite comics. That doesn’t sound like the most interesting move for Valeria, but then again, Franklin was probably overdue for a growth spurt that sticks.

        I’m just excited that Jeremy Whitley is writing the new FF, which will now include fully 50% of Power Pack! Whitley’s Unstoppable Wasp and his creator owned Princeless and Raven: the Pirate Princess are all wonderful.

  7. I have to read Warren’s comment as completely tongue in beak.. I mean cheek, and because even Warren isn’t THAT clueless, but does love teasing his friends. (And I don’t for a moment either bride or groom did anything but take it in the same spirit and probably laughed out loud.)

    I sort of assume that if there are two of the same person at any X-Men event, that one of the is Mystique, and everyone else is just so thankful that that means she hadn’t murdered the original person she’s impersonating that they just roll with it.

    Alternatively, it’s a variation on “Phooey, the Fourth Triplet”. When artists drawing comics featuring Huey, Dewey and Louie they sometimes got confused and drew too many arms or legs visible for three ducks, or in some cases just too many ducks. If they made it to print (and they often did) the fourth duck in such cases was nicknamed “Phooey”.

    Or, if we’re going for a No-Prize, we have a mutant with the uncontrollable power to morph into someone else nearby and they just came for the buffet. The fact they ended up as the father of the bride is a little awkward, but given the groom’s son is older than his dad, it’s not even the weirdest Summers’ family dynamic going on there.

  8. Various thoughts:-

    – I hope our hosts aren’t too attached to Scott and Jean not being back to being a couple, because I’m fairly sure that it’s only a matter of time, and, cynically, I would not say all that much time.

    – I’m a big fan of Cyclops as a character. He’s probably the X-character I care about the most. But Good Lord, teen Jean laid it on a bit thick. “As scared as I was on the inside, I felt brave even deeper inside because I was fighting beside Cyclops, who just about exuded confidence out of every pore..that, and the fact that as horrifying a creature as this Magneto person was, Scott somehow sensed there was more to him than just his ‘evilness.’ I wonder. How does someone who’s not even a telepath known so much about people?” I will give Lobdell this, he found a way to make the thought of Jean-Logan romance fill me with a tremendous sense of relief, and this is the first time I have ever felt that way about it.

    -Not that Logan is your best option for romance if you care about analogies. Umm, fire and ice don’t make each other stronger than they are as separate parts. He’s the best he is at what he does, as long as he’s not trying to do this.

    – Also, I’d be grateful if no comic ever refers to “the ol’ Canuckle-head’s parts” ever again.

    – Why can’t Cable dress like that all the time? He looks so much better in pinstripes, and I love the way he set off his look with that rose. Seriously, if I’m remembering The Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix correctly, everyone in his hellish future looks like a Hollywood biblical epic crossed with Mad Max. Where exactly did Cable learn to be so stylish?

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