As Mentioned in Episode 456 – Until/Unless

July 24, 2024 Miles Leave a comment

Listen to the episode here.

Techno-organic cover #1! (Uncanny X-Men #371)

Cheer up, Chuck – it’s just naptime at your school! I guess they all forgot their red and blue mats. (Uncanny X-Men #371)

I’m not so sure about this plot development, but… she’s just so happy! (Uncanny X-Men #371)

Hey, don’t judge: you look way grosser under your outer layer. (Uncanny X-Men #371)

“Dis was not in Gambit’s horoscope!” (Uncanny X-Men #371)

The Phalanx Covenant by Doctor Seuss. (Uncanny X-Men #371)

Techno-organic cover #2! (X-Men #91)

Take that, Billy G! You know what you did. (X-Men #91)

I love these weird faces and terrifying bone-trees! (X-Men #91)

Oof, brutal. (But nice dress, Rogue!) (X-Men #91)

URRKK indeed! (X-Men #91)

And for one panel, we were joined by the spirit of Bill Sienkiewicz. (X-Men #91)

Techno-organic cover #3! Yep, that’s Colossus’s arm from the last cover – we didn’t realize they connected until our listener Alex pointed it out on the blog! (X-Men Annual 1999)

This montage is way more efficient at describing continuity than our podcast. (X-Men Annual 1999)

Colonel Nicholas J. Fury, leading with guns and crotch. (X-Men Annual 1999)

Red Skull loves the Power Glove. It’s so bad. (X-Men Annual 1999)

Miles learned about the field of neurosurgery’s Thumbtack Technique back in college. (X-Men Annual 1999)

Go, Gadget, Go! (X-Men Annual 1999)

Yes, we know Douglock’s robo-suspenders started out as a miscoloring of his New Mutants uniform, but… they kinda work? (X-Men Annual 1999)

None of these new series will make it past a year. (X-Men Annual 1999)

NEXT TIME: Cecilia’s back!

456 – Until/Unless

July 21, 2024 Miles 3 comments

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In which there’s nothing inherently wrong with monster-of-the-week; Marrow’s makeover extends to her font; Red Skull gets a Power Glove; Marvel sets up a slate of spinoffs; and you should hire Matt Hunter to produce your podcast!

X-PLAINED:

What Danger’s been up to lately
Uncanny X-Men #371
X-Men #91
X-Men Annual 1999
Crossover cover design
Skrullverine
Machine Man
Dethlok vs. Dethklok
Jack Truman (Agent 18) (to some extent)
A nice dress
An awkward reunion
Gambit as a mentor
Billy G.
A daring but silly rescue
Several upcoming series
Marrow’s bone bikini and/or pubes
Whether Rogue can absorb animals

NEXT EPISODE: Cecilia Reyes returns from retirement!

Want to hire J&MXPtXM producer Matt Hunter to produce your podcast? Email him!

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 TeePublic shop!

As Mentioned in Episode 455 – Space, Geeks, and Galactus

July 19, 2024 Miles Leave a comment

Listen to the episode here.

Where the streets have no [right angles in their fr]ame (X-Men #89)

“Hey, this gravestone’s taken! Get your own!” (X-Men #89)

Perhaps our very favorite Spider-Man. (X-Men #89)

Still more competent than the Great Lakes Avengers. (X-Men #89)

Kitty meets “Kitty”. (X-Men #89)

PICTURED: the computer lab Jay and Miles worked in back in college. (X-Men #89)

You’re all dead! And wear red! And from your employers you have fled! (X-Men #89)

Just a hell of a nice cover. (Uncanny X-Men #370)

I mean, Fake-Vision’s not wrong. (Uncanny X-Men #370)

“Over”-acting? I don’t understand what that phrase means. (Uncanny X-Men #370)

“As you know, Skrull-Bob…” (Uncanny X-Men #370)

That is an exceptionally Muppet-y Skrull. (Uncanny X-Men #370)

Superbeings to the left of me, space pirates to the right… (Uncanny X-Men #370)

Skrull-ternative medicine. (Uncanny X-Men #370)

Hey, those Skrulls are Muppet-y too! (X-Men #90)

In which Alan Davis draws everybody. (X-Men #90)

Okay, so Professor X’s plan doesn’t work, but… hell of a speech, Chuck. (X-Men #90)

“I said just a little off the top!” (X-Men #90)

Welp, here we go. (X-Men #90)

Who designed this thing?! (X-Men #90)

Well damn. (X-Men #90)

“You come around here often, reflection?” (X-Men #90)

NEXT TIME: Douglock’s back!

X-Discussion: July 2024

July 1, 2024 Miles 16 comments

Uncanny X-Men #700 cover art by Pepe Larraz and Marte Gracia

Hey, it’s another month, and another X-Discussion post! June went by fast.

A reminder about our ground rules (which are especially relevant since Fall of X just finished):

Keep your posts at least tangentially comics-related, please!
If you want to share a link, talk about why you’re sharing it and what you think – this post should be about what you have to say, not just links!
Spoilers are okay, but please mark anything from the last three months like:
***SPOILER***
Miles is really a clone of Stilt-Man!
No AI-generated content.
Be respectful! We don’t have to agree about everything, but don’t be a jerk!

454 – X-Men ’97, Part 2

June 30, 2024 Miles 13 comments

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SPOILER WARNING: ALL OF THEM, NONSTOP

In which Barry Windsor-Smith is too sexy for television; we know what happens when unstable molecules get struck by lightning; X-Men gets political and does it spectacularly; this Captain America would not sew the cape; Magneto continues to throw things into space; and they kissed and we missed it.

X-PLAINED:

Fabian Cortez’s name
X-Men ’97 episodes 6-10
Lifedeath I & II: a surprising adaptation
Varying levels of going in blind
A somewhat different and possibly better Forge
The Adversary vs. the Owl Queen
Stormiest and least-Stormy costumes
Professor Charles Xavier, Official Space Boyfriend
Colonialism vs. Identity
Delayed catharsis
The narrative power of altered opening credits
What makes allyship effective (and not)
Justified mutant anger
The worst version of Nina DaCosta
What makes Prime Sentinels scary
Summers family feels
The best damned fight scenes out there
Bastion, robo-avatar of conservative white patriarchy
Simultaneous crossovers
A psychic gay bar
A last boss arena
Acolyte equivalencies
Phoenix Ex Machina
Crying
Whether Magneto was right
Apoca-futures and Apoca-pasts
A bulletin board and our hopes for its contents
Soft Serve
Kitty Pryde’s coffee shop AU
X-Men ’97 as the perfect gateway

NEXT EPISODE: Skrulls!

LINKS AND FURTHER READING:

The Judgment of Magneto by Asher Elbein

No visual companion this week!

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 TeePublic shop!

X-Discussion: June 2024

June 1, 2024 Miles 33 comments

Episode posts are great for comments and discussion about our episodes themselves, but we want to try something new – a place to discuss episode-unrelated X-topics each month! Want to enthuse/complain about the latest issue of X-whatever? Want to talk about an old comic you love? An X-related event you attended? A cool comics article you found? This is the place!

But first, some ground rules:

Keep your posts at least tangentially comics-related, please!
If you want to share a link, talk about why you’re sharing it and what you think – this post should be about what you have to say, not just links!
Spoilers are okay, but please mark anything from the last three months like:
***SPOILER***
Miles is really a clone of Paste-Pot Pete!
No AI-generated content.
Be respectful! We don’t have to agree about everything, but don’t be a jerk!

As Mentioned in Episode 449 – Dressing the X-Men, with Russell Dauterman

May 12, 2024 Miles Leave a comment

Listen to the episode here!

The Marvel Art of Russell Dauterman!

Storm’s X-Men Red design.

The Scarlet Witch’s new design.

Nightcrawler’s original design by Dave Cockrum.

Hellfire Gala redesigns!

And some close-ups.

Jean Grey costume variant cover for X-Men #1.

Rogue costume variant cover for Excalibur #18.

Gambit costume variant cover for Gambit #5.

Thor costume variant cover for Thor #31.

Speaking of Thor – Russell’s wraparound cover for The Mighty Thor #1.

More covers! Here’s Marauders #1.

Scarlet Witch #3.

Giant Size X-Men: Jean Grey & Emma Frost #1.

Variant cover, X-Men Legends #1.

Variant cover, X-Men ’97 #1.

NEXT EPISODE: Jay & Miles live at the Clinton Street Theater!

LINKS AND FURTHER READING

You still have a few days to be part of The Marvel Art of Russell Dauterman Kickstarter campaign!
Hear Russell and Kris Anka talk Adam X and more on Episode 27 – NYCC 2014 Special!
Russell’s website!
Russell on Instagram!

As Mentioned in Episode 448 – Skamageddon

May 5, 2024 Miles Leave a comment

Listen to the episode here.

The two Emma Frosts: Shadowy and Pouty. (X-Force #87)

James Proudstar x-plains Uncanny X-Men #281. (X-Force #87)

Reconnecting via X-Factoring. (X-Force #87)

Now that is a lair. (X-Force #87)

Magma’s back! And she’s a jerk! (X-Force #87)

Meet Paradigm. (X-Force #87)

The New New Mutants vs. the New Hellions. New. (X-Force #88)

We can accept covering Empath’s face with word balloons – but hey, show some respect to Firestar! (X-Force #88)

Feral’s back – just in time to wreck Jay’s voice again! (And Siryn’s, but we’ll get to that later.) (X-Force #88)

Life got complicated since the last time these two saw each other. (X-Force #88)

X-Force’s x-treme tactics have just saved us like half an issue of misunderstandings! (X-Force #88)

The techno-organic virus: bad for free will and not great for skin health. (X-Force #88)

Paradigm x-plains X-Force. (X-Force #89)

This party sucks! (X-Force #89)

Blood relation has no inherent virtue. (X-Force #89)

Aww, there’s plenty of logic! Just look at the little manual that comes with most Tarot decks! (X-Force #89)

Among Dani’s new powers is the ability to turn robot-guys into eggs. (X-Force #89)

Kind of a weird font choice. Times New Armageddon? (X-Force #89)

Feral never misses an opportunity to learn the worst possible lesson. (X-Force #90)

Tarot, is that really a new manifestation of your mutant power, or did you just rob a Spirit Halloween? (X-Force #90)

Welp, I guess the entire West coast is completely demolished and will take decades to rebuild. Funny how no other comics have mentioned that… (X-Force #90)

Sorry, Jesse. Your brother is the absolute worst. (X-Force #90)

Sam Guthrie: annoying people into virtue since 1980-something. (X-Force #90)

BADDA BOOM (X-Force #90)

Aww. (X-Force #90)

NEXT TIME: Talking X-costumes with Russell Dauterman!

LINKS AND FURTHER READING:

Want one of our 10th Anniversary prints? Contact Books With Pictures!
The Judgment of Magneto by Asher Elbein

448 – Skamageddon

May 5, 2024 Miles 5 comments

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Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | Email | RSS

In which timeline math is almost never worth it; Tarot comes back from the dead (kind of) (maybe); Magma makes a heel turn; “King Bedlam” would be a great name for a ska band; not every nude man can turn into a bear; and you don’t have to talk to your supervillain relatives.

X-PLAINED:

The Triune Understanding
Birthday party follow-up
X-Force #87-90
Legacy and continuity
Bedlam (Jesse Aaronson)
Tarot (Marie-Ange Colbert)
Goat Simulator
King Bedlam (Christopher Aaronson)
The New Hellions
Perils of body-swapping
Linear time
Science
Armageddon Man
Paradigm
Senator Owen Danville
Family
A fancy hat
Madame Web
Many natural disasters
Early Genoshan history
Longshot as a villain

NEXT EPISODE: Dressing the X-Men with Russell Dauterman!

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 TeePublic shop!