Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men

400 – Loud Noises

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

In which legacy numbering is best left alone; all roads lead to the Antarctic; we finally learn Gambit’s big secret; Erik the Red gets yet a third identity; no one soils the Juggernaut; Maggott saves the day; and we have somehow made (technically more than) 400 of these things.

X-PLAINED

  • Spat
  • The tragic loss of the Cyber Comics
  • How not to back up your work
  • Uncanny X-Men #350
  • X-Men #70
  • A shambles
  • What’s been happening since Operation Zero Tolerance
  • A very fancy cover
  • Insufficient outerwear
  • Senses
  • Justice as a decorating theme
  • Baffling statuary
  • The return of Erik the Red
  • Erik the Red (again)
  • Ferris
  • Gambit’s big secret
  • A large number of continuity errors
  • A total dick move
  • De-icing
  • Untitled Marrow Game
  • A big fight
  • Living room surgery
  • Legal documents
  • Favorite anniversary issues
  • Dangling plot threads

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18 comments

  1. Happy 400th episode y’all!

    Glad this coincided with one of my favorite eras of the book (ill-starred though it ends up being) Interested to see y’all’s take on it.

  2. Once again I must deal with the mockery of you pedantic podcasters! Once again you have alleged that I have no idea what the sex is!

    Allow me to correct your misinformation in this smear campaign I must suffer. Obviously I know what the sex is. I have often engaged in the (what the dictionary confirms is the appropriate word) amorous exploits. Why, I have had so many partners that I have lost count. I have done so much of the sex… type… stuff that I should be instructing you. In fact, my latest partner has said that I have learned so much I am almost ready to try it with at least my shirt off. And maybe even my shoes!

  3. Happy 400th! Here’s my no-prize effort for Spat’s costume: the de-aging ray *personally* de-ages Spat, but also sends her *clothing* backwards through history (the comic book version of history) at an exponentially faster rate than her physical form. This is an additional reason she’s angry at Gambit – she had a few minutes of comfortable modern clothes before having to deal with a brief stint of Victorian and early modern fripperies, years of itchy homespun wool, and now entirely insufficient and impractical saber toothed tiger skins.

  4. Well, this was a depressing episode of the podcast.

    So, this is the first time that I’m reading either of these. And after slogging through some years of X-books that have rarely risen above “OK, I suppose,” for me — it was quite a feeling suddenly to discover that I really liked reading an issue of something with “X-Men” in the title.
    Not so much the Seagle issue, which might be various things: leftover Lobdellism, a certain overwrought tendency in the writing, and, OK, probably the fact that I just don’t get the appeal of Gambit and probably never will.

    But the Joe Kelly issue is a real shot in the arm for me, a sudden visceral sense of “This person is actually trying to hold my attention and they’re damn good at it.”

    And then our evil hosts keep bringing up what’s going to happen with Seagle and Kelly’s period on these books…

    1. I can’t speak for anyone else, but Gambit’s initial appeal to me was that he looked cool and he was great with the ladies (and I was not). It’s unfortunate that too many of his early appearances involved non-consensual kissing. I remember wondering how he got away with that while I would have quickly found myself laid out for even thinking of attempting something like that.

      1. For my part, Gambit is *so* OTT in how he’s designed to be a character that teenage boys will find Cool!, that he annoys me. And when I think of things that on the other hand I like about the character — there sort of isn’t anything?

        I think someone here once said that Claremont’s idea was that Gambit was inverse-Sinister, a child’s idea of a superhero. If that’s true, it might have worked for me.. I’d also be up for a character rooted in actual New Orleans and its complex, difficult, and interesting history. Unfortunately, they went with the Assassins’ Guild and Thieves’ Guild nonsense instead.

        1. I know I liked Gambit when I was younger because the “throw exploding playing cards” thing seemed incredibly cool, and I was still big into Ninja Turtles, so the bo staff was a plus. And Rogue liked him, and Rogue was cool, so Gambit must be cool, too.

          He started to drop in my eyes during that issue where it turned out he was married, but still trying to woo Rogue, which I thought didn’t seem OK at all, and the character never really recovered. Although I didn’t mind him trying to play mentor to X-23 in her Marjorie Liu-written ongoing series, but he was supporting cast, so the focus wasn’t so much on him.

          Nowadays, yeah, I still like the exploding playing cards, but there’s not much else. If I’m going to read about a thief, I’d rather just read about the Black Cat (thank goodness for Jed MacKay)

        2. If Looney Tunes ever do an X-Men cartoon riff, I want to see Pepe Le Pew in the role of Gambit (The OUT-RAY-JEOUS accent, the absolute conviction of his own irresistibility to the opposite sex, the consent issues… alas), along with Taz as Wolverine (“He’s the best there is at what he does, and what he does is unintelligible), Lola Bunny as Rogue, and Tweety as Jubilee. (Still working on the others, Bugs doesn’t work as Cyclops, and Storm is proving troublesome given the relatively few female characters they have in Looney Tunes)

    2. I share your lack of enthusiasm for Gambit, but even by my usual standards I couldn’t get into this who thing.

      Why would ANYONE (especially Mister Sinister) approach Gambit for help in putting together a team of ruthless murderers? Where would he know the likes of Arclight and Scalphunter from, as they’re not the sort of people he’d have run with? He’s a thief, in de Teeve’s Guild and everything, not the Assassin’s.

      Now Sabretooth knowing these guys I could buy, he’s just the sort of person to know where to find seven people with a combination of close range and long range powers designed to take down pretty much any mutant, at short notice. But the thief with dubious fashion sense and steel capped boots? Nah…. not buying it.

  5. Wow! 400 episodes! I have to say, you’re 400th episode was much better than that bizarre 400th issue of Uncanny X-Men. Of course, that’s a personal take and no one who liked that issue should feel bad.

    I remember reading Uncanny #350 when it first came out and being completely baffled by the end of the issue. Rogue’s 180 kind of came out of nowhere as far as I was concerned. Especially since she basically leaves him to freeze to death.

    I’m still a little sad to this day that we never got real runs from Mark Waid, Joe Kelly or Steve Seagle. Editorial of the day sucked.

      1. Ohhh shit. You KNOWW Apocalypse ain’t playin’, when he brings out “mewling”.

        Burning skull mountain throne ??!

  6. Sorry, should also have said, happy anniversary to the podcast!

    And best wishes to David, whose work has been superlative throughout!

    When I bought the header art to THAT episode from him some years ago, you know the one, I also had him do me something to counterpoint it which he came through with flying colours on!

  7. Re: Rogue leaving Gambit out there on his own

    I agree. Yes, that is out-of-character for Rogue. As characterized to this point, she would take him with her or at least send him off when they got back. But you know who it is very in-character for?

    Gambit. Gambit with all his guilt for what he did, self-hate, and all the shame for the secrets he kept hidden for so long amongst the people heavily affected. Gambit would TOTALLY leave Gambit out in Antarctica to fend for himself in a sorry state and abandon him as his penance. And you know who just had prolonged contact with Gambit’s power, personality, and memories?

    Rogue.

    Out-of-character for Rogue, super in-character for Gambit-influenced Rogue.

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