April 2025 – Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men

As Mentioned in Episode 485 – The House of Correction

April 30, 2025 Miles Leave a comment

Listen to the episode here.

Being the boss means you get the yellow pouches! (Generation X #63)

Teenagers! (Generation X #63)

The new and… improved… Emma Frost. (Generation X #63)

DEAR GOD THOSE PANTS (Generation X #63)

Remember, this issue came out before we knew what happened to Synch… (Generation X #63)

NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE (Generation X #64)

Fashion? (Generation X #64)

Fashion! (Generation X #64)

Jubilee, you are the worstbest. (Generation X #64)

The most dangerous game! (Generation X #64)

Super-speed, part one! (Generation X #65)

Super-speed, part two! (Generation X #65)

I see no flaws with this plan. (Generation X #65)

We have our complaints about this era, but… man, it can just be so charming! (Generation X #65)

I have so many questions, and yet I do not want them answered. (Generation X #66)

Miles just saw Eraserhead at a David Lynch retrospective, and you know that mix of revulsion and pity you feel toward the baby in that movie? …yeah. (Generation X #66)

Banshee, you rule and we’re sorry everyone always forgets you exist. (Generation X #66)

An only slightly less abrupt ending than that of X-Factor #149. (Generation X #66)

NEXT TIME: Yes, really.

485 – The House of Correction

April 27, 2025 Jay 13 comments

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | RSS

In which we go back to the future of Generation X; Jay once again gets pedantic about lettering; Generation X takes on the carceral state; we take a deep dive into the late ‘90s; Jubilee does her best Nick Fury; and superpowers should be noisier.

X-PLAINED:

Earth-14042
Marvel Disk Wars: The Avengers
Generation X #63-66
Revolution and Counter X (more) (again)
An evil Oyster
Warden Coffin
The Decency Defecit
Some shit we wish was fictional
Underpants
Souped up powers
Newsgroups
The Columbine school shooting
The Grid
Cable vs. ISDN Internet
Jonathan Somers
Generation X’s new costumes
The House of Correction
Hacking
Trophies
Baxter
‘90s X-Men outside of comics
How superpowers sound

NEXT EPISODE: Mutant X May begins!

Check out the visual companion to this episode on our blog!

Find us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify!

Jay and Miles X-Plain the X-Men is 100% ad-free and listener supported. If you want to help support the podcast–and unlock more cool stuff–you can do that right here!

Buy rad swag at our Dashery shop!

As Mentioned in Episode 484 – Hell Tuba

April 20, 2025 Miles 2 comments

Listen to the episode here.

A miniseries based on a miniseries! (X-Men: Magik #1)

What are we looking at? Not sure. Is it rad? Definitely. (X-Men: Magik #1)

To paraphrase: it doesn’t have to be practical if it’s AWESOME. (X-Men: Magik #1)

Not the most efficient way to blow up a bunch of Teslas, but certainly stylish. (X-Men: Magik #1)

Only one of them got the note about the dress code. But which? (X-Men: Magik #1)

The Battle for Hell’s Deep. (X-Men: Magik #1)

So, like, what if the sky broke and then cut off your goddamned head, is my question (X-Men: Magik #2)

Everyone’s outfits are very long. (X-Men: Magik #2)

Did we mention that this series is in a hell dimension? (X-Men: Magik #2)

(Pushes up Norse glasses:) Technically, Surtur’s sword Twilight would only be on fire if he’d entered Asgard upon the day of Ragnarök, and… (X-Men: Magik #2)

And then sometimes the art is suddenly beautiful. (X-Men: Magik #2)

(wailing guitar solo) (X-Men: Magik #2)

I now pronounce you Hell-Lord and Sorceress! (X-Men: Magik #3)

Hey, tell us more about Lord Militant Phemous and his Huscarls! (X-Men: Magik #3)

Meanwhile, in the Hell-actic Senate… (X-Men: Magik #3)

You get out of the sky and finish your evil-chrome-skeleton-god dinner this instant, young man! (X-Men: Magik #3)

All hail the Hell Tuba! (X-Men: Magik #4)

Welp, there you have it. (X-Men: Magik #4)

Hey, it’s Death’s Head II! Hi, Death’s Head II! (X-Men: Magik #4)

I’m pretty sure Judas Priest has a song about this. (X-Men: Magik #4)

We need to start a metal band just so we can use this as an album cover. (X-Men: Magik #4)

The last day of summer camp is always bittersweet. (X-Men: Magik #4)

NEXT TIME: Generation X versus that thing!

484 – Hell Tuba

April 20, 2025 Miles 5 comments

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | RSS

In which the 2000 Magik miniseries is not a good comics series but is an excellent heavy metal concept album; Nightmare has a nightmare; and tubas work differently in Hell.

X-PLAINED:

Belasco: the early years
Magik (2000 series) #1-4
Magik (Amanda Sefton) (Jimaine Szardos) (more) (again)
Some art stuff
The realm of Nightmare
The Splinter Realms
The Soul Sword (Amanda Sefton version)
An Archfiend of the Pit
Nugent
Chekhov’s Hell computer (and its secretions)
Kurt Wagner’s short and bizarre career in the church
Vitchen
Several cool demon battles
The Dread Dormammu
Gleeg
A problem
Muspelheim
Twilight (sword)
Some Mephisto nonsense
Hades, maybe
Epithets
A convocation
Weird Hell guys
Duke Bleys
The Archenemy
The Hell Tuba
The most demonic brass instrument
Some time travel bullshit
Stories where Emma Frost is at her best
Villain reuse

NEXT EPISODE: Generation X gets new threads!

Check out the visual companion to this episode on our blog.

Find us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify!

Jay and Miles X-Plain the X-Men is 100% ad-free and listener supported. If you want to help support the podcast–and unlock more cool stuff–you can do that right here!

Buy rad swag at our Dashery shop!

As Mentioned in Episode 483 – Piotr Lovely Locks

April 13, 2025 Miles 2 comments

Listen to the episode here.

I appreciate that Shadowcat’s new costume involves her perpetually flipping the (very sharp) bird. (X-Men: Black Sun #1)

I mean, it could be worse – you could be Colossus. (X-Men: Black Sun #1)

[Epic metal begins] (X-Men: Black Sun #1)

Is Nightcrawler trying to distract from his awful new color scheme by diving at the reader crotch-first? (X-Men: Black Sun #1)

A different look than usual, but I’m not mad at it. (X-Men: Black Sun #1)

SEEMS FINE. (X-Men: Black Sun #1)

Except that one time! And kind of that other time! (X-Men: Black Sun #1)

Chekhov’s removable skeleton. (X-Men: Black Sun #2)

I mean, we’re not not going to show the shattered-moon-and-mountain-of-skulls every time it comes up. (X-Men: Black Sun #2)

Magik x-plains the miniseries. (X-Men: Black Sun #2)

After this, Warren will be required to take a Defensive Swooping class. (X-Men: Black Sun #2)

Oof – right in the outfit! (X-Men: Black Sun #2)

(bonk) (X-Men: Black Sun #2)

A warm welcome back to Polaris’s chest-skull! (X-Men: Black Sun #3)

“Listen, it’s not my fault I’ve been a terrible boyfriend to every woman I’ve dated! And it definitely doesn’t imply anything!” (X-Men: Black Sun #3)

“Hey! That’s my favorite nipple you almost cut off!” (X-Men: Black Sun #4)

Dude needs to hydrate. (X-Men: Black Sun #4)

We’d normally say not to mess with perfection, but that’s not a bad evolution of the Phoenix costume! (X-Men: Black Sun #4)

Now that’s a demon. Well, Ru’tai. (X-Men: Black Sun #4)

The origin of Magik’s bare midriff! (X-Men: Black Sun #4)

You’re missing a bloodstone and a Banshee! (X-Men: Black Sun #5)

Paging Doctor Belmont… (X-Men: Black Sun #5)

Way better than throwing a Poké Ball. (X-Men: Black Sun #5)

Hey, now there are SIX bloodstones! At least Belasco’s throne is rad. (X-Men: Black Sun #5)

From the Arcane Tome of Evil Fashion. (X-Men: Black Sun #5)

BOOM! (X-Men: Black Sun #5)

What if Magik was She-Ra? (X-Men: Black Sun #5)

NEXT TIME: Magik gets metal.

LINKS AND FURTHER READING

On Yom Kippur, you fight your own skeleton.

483 – Piotr Lovely Locks

April 13, 2025 Miles 9 comments

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | RSS

In which a lot has happened in the Six Month Gap (and we even get to learn about some of it); we’d missed Claremontian narration; Miles has questions about Colossus’s ponytail; the Soulsword is basically a Poké Ball; the Shadow Pope is cooler than the regular Pope; and Magik has a secret.

X-PLAINED:

Some big news
X-Men: Black Sun #1-5
Phoenix and Psylocke’s sorta-power-swap
Implied continuity
The N’Garai
Belasco
Limbo
Magik (Illyana Rasputin)
New costumes
Priests vs blood magic
An impressively overcomplicated evil plot
Chekhov’s skeleton
Body swaps and/or possession
Thunderbird (Neal Sharra)
Pilgrimm and the Ru’tai (again, surprisingly)
Astral meetups
Confusing bloodstone math
A Triple-Tech
Magik (Amanda Sefton)
Counting X-generations
Our favorite X-decades

NEXT EPISODE: More Magik!

Check out the visual companion to this episode on our blog.

Find us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify!

Jay and Miles X-Plain the X-Men is 100% ad-free and listener supported. If you want to help support the podcast–and unlock more cool stuff–you can do that right here!

Buy rad swag at our Dashery shop!