Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men

383 – A Dude and His Ninjas

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

In which the Crimson Dawn is secretly a bad Daredevil arc; shadow-based transportation requires careful lighting; Dark Phoenix Saga references will not always do you favors; and Earth is big.

X-PLAINED:

  • Atlan the Dolphin
  • Psylocke and Archangel: Crimson Dawn #1-4
  • What the Crimson Dawn arc should actually be
  • Archangel (more) (again)
  • Psylocke (more) (again)
  • The Crimson Dawn (to what extent it can be explained)
  • Tar, Proctor of the Crimson Dawn (again)
  • Kuragari
  • Aesthetics of the Crimson Dawn
  • Undercloaks
  • How not to deliver a present
  • The worst thing about living in NYC
  • Sooooo much Orientalism
  • One way to put out a fire, I guess
  • “Infiltration”
  • Skeleton storage
  • The Overdrawn at the Memory Bank problem
  • Energy shuriken
  • Soul economics
  • Ninja Turtles on X-teams
  • Which X-Man would win a Pinewood Derby race

NEXT EPISODE: Risque!


NOTE: Jay’s Gollum voice is unfiltered. He can just do that at will, and it’s kind of upsetting.


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13 comments

  1. Liiiiquiiiiiid (snake)!!

    Ohhh you guys are so fragile/sensitive. Evverything’s “problematic” and triggering to you.
    SO hung-up on that type of stuff.

    Nice! You gotttta kill an underling, if they fail u. Standard bad-guy protocol.

    Hahaha (Angels metal pipe X-Men 1 cover). Of all the things to put in his hand, they went with a piece of steel pipe. He should have just had a crowbar or a chain in his hand like he’s in the video game Road Rash.

  2. This series remains a guilty pleasure for me. I would never describe it as “good” but I do find it pretty fun.

    Given that it happens right after the Excalibur issues with the Crimson Dawn I’m surprised it wasn’t in the most recent Epic Collection of Excalibur since Ben Raab wrote it. After all, that weird New Mutants: Truth or Death was collected in that volume and it had less of a connection to Excalibur minus the writer.

    1. “Truth or Death” has the link that two (and a bit) of the members of Excalibur were also New Mutants: Wolfsbane and both parts of Douglock.

      This is very unconnected to Excalibur given that neither character has ever been a member of team. Though, yes, you’d have thought that Brian and Betsy being twins might have brought Brian into the story but since she seems to be more of a plot device than a character, that shouldn’t surprise me.

      1. It’s been decades since I read Truth or Death and I had considered, at least, the Wolfsbane connection. It’s inclusion in the Epic Collection still feels random.

  3. A character with a nominal female lead who is instead playing second fiddle to the male lead and their story? What is this, a Rogue miniseries?

    “Undercloaks” is such a weird name for your underlings. It’d be like naming your minions “Waistcoats” or “Sportsocks”. Are there upper management “Overcloaks”, or are they surplice to requirements. (…I’ll get my coat)

    Betsy has an interactive ninja solid hologram projector program just… in her living room? Really? And they react to her psychic knife? That’s one heck of a cable deal she got.

    I wonder if the D.O.U.G. program was one Doug had written for the Danger Room and he’d just included himself as the final boss ninja because he thought it would be funny?

    As a long time Doctor Who fan, I know that any time a character say “Now isn’t the time to explain this” or “I’ll explain later” they never do explain it, so I think Gomurr is of the same mindset.

  4. Our hosts asked the question of whether Warren and Betsy have anything that bonds them beyond similar traumas. What a silly question! There’s also shared class prejudice.

  5. Never thought twice about angel’s accessory on the issue 1 cover.
    Are we sure it’s not a t-shirt cannon?

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