As Mentioned – Page 29 – Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men

As Mentioned in Episode 190 – Local Yokels

April 1, 2018 Jay One comment

Listen to the episode here.

“And have you been a good or bad little, um, whatever-you-are this year?” (Wolverine: Bloodlust)

That smirk in the second panel! (Wolverine: Bloodlust)

If I had a dollar for every date of Wolverine’s that has ended like this… (Wolverine: Bloodlust)

“Time to get back to my roots: Naked in Canada.” (Wolverine: Bloodlust)

If you were wondering if these people are about to die terribly, the answer is yes. (Wolverine: Bloodlust)

This could not have gotten more grim if it were an ’80s Power Pack crossover. (Wolverine: Bloodlust)

Welcome to the Alshra. Hope you survive the… y’know. (Wolverine: Bloodlust)

‘Kay. (Wolverine: Bloodlust)

And that, kids, is what happens when your artist gets tired of drawing all the rips in the costume. (Wolverine: Bloodlust)

One of the better psychic duels. (Wolverine: Bloodlust)

Well, that’s convenient.

Those SFX, tho. (Wolverine: Bloodlust)

nope (Excalibur: The Possession)

NEXT EPISODE: Rogue and Gambit, with writer Kelly Thompson!

As Mentioned in Episode 187 – Mermaids at the Center of Time

March 4, 2018 Jay 8 comments

Listen to the podcast here.

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

Spoiler: They’re not actually that secret.

This panel really never stops being satisfying.

A surprisingly elegant fall overboard.

Is this Annie’s first comics appearance?

A few variations on Jean’s origins come up over the years, but most of them hew fairly close to this one.

If I had a dollar for every time I’d woken up like that…

In the next panel, he tries to lend them a copy of Atlas Shrugged.

Not cool, Jean.

FUN FACT: Our friend Max went to college in New England, and apparently ice sculpture contests are TOTALLY A THING.

HI, BUBBA.

This looks both tremendously fun and tremendously unsafe.

He straight-up bogarted the entire winter carnival.

This gag really never stops working.

If you’ve ever wondered what sound an ice-enclosed energy-gun cane makes blowing up in the stratosphere, now you know.

Thanks to Doctor Internet, I can accurately identify Nightcrawler’s favorite movie as The Mark of Zorro.

That is quite a caption.

I’d really love to see a full-color version of this splash.

IT’S A METAPHOR.

The oracle!

Remember this from the Nightcrawler limited series?

Consider us warned.

NEXT EPISODE: Live from ECCC!

And here’s a photo of Jay’s mom cosplaying Cable:

As Mentioned in Episode 186 – Right in the Melee

February 25, 2018 Jay One comment

Listen to the podcast here!

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

Sunfire’s new costume. (Uncanny X-Men #284)

Spoiler: Nah. (Uncanny X-Men #284)

The shiniest Predators. (Uncanny X-Men #284)

This is gonna seem more ironic in a few pages. (Uncanny X-Men #284)

That’s our Sunfire! (Uncanny X-Men #284)

Yep. The folks in the Predator masks look… exactly like humans. (Uncanny X-Men #284)

Spoiler: The cake is a lie. (Uncanny X-Men #285)

Interdimensional travel faces. (Uncanny X-Men #285)

A very expository landing. (Uncanny X-Men #285)

I would make a “No groveling! This is a proper Soviet household!” joke, but I feel like The Twelve Chairs might be an excessively deep cut even by my standards. (Uncanny X-Men #285)

Oh, hey, it’s a mysterious stranger! Doubt he’ll turn out to be anyone important. (Uncanny X-Men #285)

The Martha Stewart of whatever this dimension is called. (Uncanny X-Men #285)

Meanwhile in a different genre… (Uncanny X-Men #285)

LOOK AT THAT EXCELLENT LIZARD FACE. (Uncanny X-Men #285)

We give Portacio a lot of grief over his costume designs, but this one is really cool. (Uncanny X-Men #285)

He’s explaining the basic tenets of Socialism. (Uncanny X-Men #285)

“Ha! My brother was drawn by Dave Cockrum! You’re no brother of mine!” (Uncanny X-Men #285)

Okay, but Beast and Cyclops did it better. (Uncanny X-Men #286)

Aw, those scamps. (Uncanny X-Men #286)

See this? This is why the world is probably doomed. (Uncanny X-Men #286)

It’s rough being a regular in an ongoing superhero comic. (Uncanny X-Men #286)

NOT OKAY. (Uncanny X-Men #286)

Team-up move! (Uncanny X-Men #286)

“Fortunately, there’s this podcast…” (Uncanny X-Men #286)

NEXT EPISODE: The not particularly secret lives of the X-Men!

LINKS & FURTHER READING:

Come see us at Emerald City Comic Con!
You can hear all about “Judgment War” in Episode 128 – A Stupid Way to Die, and Episode 133 – Feisty Little Fellow from the Stars.
And here’s the Kids in the Hall “Inexperienced Cannibal” sketch.

As Mentioned in Episode 185 – Becoming Wolverine

February 18, 2018 Jay Leave a comment

Listen to the episode here.

LINKS & FURTHER READING:

As Mentioned in Episode 184 – Sweetcakes

February 11, 2018 Jay 3 comments

Listen to the episode here!

For all its flaws, this arc has its moments. Here is one of them. (The Incredible Hulk #390)

Also, let’s all take a moment to admire Rick Jones’s impeccable early-’90s fashion sense. (The Incredible Hulk #390)

And good times were had by all. (The Incredible Hulk #391)

One more Rick Jones fashion moment for the road. (The Incredible Hulk #391)

That’s kind of ingenious, actually. (The Incredible Hulk #391)

Welcome to the deeply depressing main event. (X-Factor #76)

“You can tell, because of his mustache.” (X-Factor #76)

You’d think gods would have less generic armor. (X-Factor #76)

And then Rahne did some killing. (X-Factor #76)

There is literally no good reason to have this in the story; but then, there’s literally no good reason for most of this story. (The Incredible Hulk #391)

“Good talk! So, back to paternalistic interference?” (The Incredible Hulk #392)

How does that… Why would you even… (The Incredible Hulk #392)

That panel in the middle, tho. (The Incredible Hulk #392)

Larry Stroman is back, and everything will be okay, except I guess for a lot of things, because this is a superhero comic. But still! Larry Stroman is back! (X-Factor #77)

Remember that time the Mutant Liberation Front looked legitimately and ironically awesome? Because that happened. (X-Factor #77)

At least Vic Chalker died as he lived: in a large robot suit. (X-Factor #77)

Not technically the most dangerous game, but definitely not recommended. (X-Factor #77)

RAHNE’S HAIR IS SO COOL (X-Factor #77)

X-Factor’s modular uniforms are really rad. Good job, Val. (X-Factor #78)

Know what else is rad? Tempo. Tempo is rad as hell and deserves so much better than the MLF. (X-Factor #78)

Maybe this is the explanation for everyone’s weird eye spots? (X-Factor #78)

[Insert canned laughter here.] (X-Factor #78)

Ouch. (X-Factor #78)

NEXT EPISODE: Tom Taylor and the true meaning of friendship!

As Mentioned in Episode 183 – Mutant Death Factor

February 4, 2018 Jay 7 comments

Listen to the podcast here.

All of those facial expressions are great. (X-Men #4)

Ewwwww. (X-Men #4)

File this one under “references that haven’t aged all that coherently.” (X-Men #4)

She yelled so hard it changed the shape of the panels! (X-Men #4)

These jerks and their delightful wardrobe! (X-Men #4)

Why is he allowed to live there, again? (X-Men #4)

That is… an outfit. (X-Men #4)

You can almost hear the inchoate yelling. (X-Men #5)

Cerebro is officially ridiculous. I mean, more ridiculous than usual. (X-Men #5)

Psylocke, just admit that you were sunbathing. No one will judge you. (X-Men #5)

More Fenris fashions. (X-Men #5)

“We worked really hard to reconcile the continuity between these two titles, and we wanted to make damn sure that you appreciated the effort.” (X-Men #5)

Cyclops was right. (X-Men #5)

That’s actually a really cool way to transition into a flashback. (X-Men #5)

“In addition to a Mutant Death Factor, I come with my own exposition!” (X-Men #6)

Someone’s crossed the X-axis! (X-Men #6)

He’s also got a dark pink tie in some panels. (X-Men #6)

SERIOUSLY WHAT ARE THOSE THINGS HE’S STUCK IN (X-Men #7)

Psylocke is the master of the deadpan plot twist. (X-Men #7)

If you don’t automatically hear this line delivered by Christian Kane as Eliot Spencer, I don’t know what to tell you. (X-Men #7)

Maverick. (X-Men #7)

It’s rough to be Alison Blaire. (X-Men #5)

I unironically love this trio of dramatic poses; and also the fact that I absolutely believe that these characters would pose dramatically before fights. (X-Men #6)

Aw. (X-Men #6)

NEXT EPISODE: Larry Stroman somehow manages to make the MLF look cool. (Also, there’s a Hulk crossover.)

LINKS & FURTHER READING

COME SEE US AT EMERALD CITY COMIC CON! We’ll be at T-11 in Artist Alley all weekend; check back here for panel and party details!
I’m fairly sure I’ve linked to “Class of ’64” before, but it’s one of the best-developed reimaginings of the X-Men I’ve found, in or out of canon.
Unfortunately, R. Orion Martin’s “X-Men of Color” series no longer appears to be online, but you can learn more about it here and here. (Also worth reading: Darryl Ayo’s rebuttal to Martin’s article.)

As Mentioned in Episode 182 – Lunch With Technet

January 28, 2018 Jay 3 comments

Listen to the podcast here!

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

Man, I missed Alan Davis. (Excalibur #42)

“If brute force won’t work, salmonella will!” (Excalibur #42)

It was REALLY hard not to just include every single good facial expression in this issue. (Excalibur #42)

…Sure, why not? (Excalibur #42)

Seriously, though, this? This is perfect comics. (Excalibur #42)

Horatio Cringebottom and Bert. (Excalibur #42)

Ewwww. (Excalibur #42)

He’s gotten… taller. (Excalibur #42)

THIS COVER. Alan Davis, how are you even real? (Excalibur #43)

Jay made a bunch of really inappropriate valentines back in 2013. This was probably the best one. (Excalibur #43)

Dude, you can’t blame someone for their weird sex dreams. That’s just uncharitable. (Excalibur #43)

Brian Braddock is a big jerk. (Excalibur #43)

*SLOW CLAP* (Excalibur #43)

Meet your new OTP. (Excalibur #43)

Seriously, they are so good. (Excalibur #43)

China Doll is not wrong. (Excalibur #43)

MEGGAN DESERVES BETTER. Always. (Excalibur #43)

Pretty much a perfect one-panel summary of Excalibur. (Excalibur #43)

Pitch: A comic where Brian always talks like this, for no apparent reason. (Excalibur #44)

Meggan X-Plains Meggan. (Excalibur #44)

It’s sort of surprising that he’s not used to this sort of thing by now. (Excalibur #44)

You know you’d have asked, too. (Excalibur #44)

Damnit, Micromax. (Excalibur #44)

Meet Brother Brit-Man. (Excalibur #44)

A possibly familiar t-shirt, as it appears in X-Men Gold Annual #1. (Want one of your own? You can get it right here!)

NEXT EPISODE: More tentacles to hug with!

As Mentioned in Episode 181 – Badgers Everywhere

January 21, 2018 Jay 4 comments

Listen to the podcast here!

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

What you see is pretty much what you get. (X-Force #1)

Welcome to X-Force! Hope you like leaping! (X-Force #1)

The most amazing thing about this page is the idea that an actual body is supposed to be in that armor. (X-Force #1)

Aw, that’s a noble sentiment! Hope you can keep it up! (X-Force #1)

Two whole pages later.(X-Force #1)

Is there an adult lubricant called Bodyslide? If not, there probably should be. (X-Force #1)

Boom Boom, never change. (X-Force #1)

Guys, that’s not how… ah, never mind. Have fun. (X-Force #1)

G.W. Bridge leverages S.H.I.E.L.D.’s significant spy network to keep a running tally of who has been naughty and who has been nice. (X-Force #1)

Lies? Continuity error? Retcons? WHO EVEN KNOWS ANYMORE? (X-Force #1)

THIS DELIGHTFUL SCAMP! (X-Force #1)

I spent hours combing through and comparing Shatterstar’s use of numbers in this arc. If you are expecting a useful revelation to follow that, you’re out of luck. (X-Force #2)

“No, two BLADES, not two… oh, never mind.” (X-Force #2)

Not pictured: Probably a really enthusiastic hug where Juggernaut picked up Black Tom and spun him around a bunch. (X-Force #2)

Siryn’s costume is actually pretty rad. (X-Force #3)

This commute is the worst. (X-Force #3)

What. (X-Force #3)

Cable, what are you even wearing? (X-Force #3)

That word balloon, though. (Spider-Man #16)

LOOK AT THAT FACE IT IS SO EXCELLENT (Spider-Man #16)

Dispatches from a more innocent time. (Spider-Man #16)

Cannonball is the best, but the faces in this issue are generally just incredibly good. (Spider-Man #16)

Did Todd McFarlane ever draw Judge Dredd? God, I hope so. (Spider-Man #16)

I’m honestly not sure what graphic enucleation would have added to this page; but you do you, I guess? (Spider-Man #16)

PLEASE STOP TRYING TO MAKE “SHATTY” HAPPEN. Please. (X-Force #4)

Remember when they only killed in self-defense, LIKE TWO ISSUES AGO? (X-Force #4)

MAYBE BECAUSE OTHERWISE YOU DROP THEM DOWN ELEVATOR SHAFTS (X-Force #4)

Somewhere, there’s a universe where Mignola drew a bunch of X-Force, and the ’90s were a very different time. (X-Force #4)

NEXT EPISODE: The not even remotely triumphant return of Technet!

LINKS & FURTHER READING

The concerns expressed in Tom Lehrer’s “MLF Lullaby” don’t age wildly well, but it’s still a catchy song.
Mr. Burns, A Post-Electric Play is definitely a thing on Earth-4935, only instead of a Simpsons episode, it’s the Pizza Hut X-Men comic where Cyclops doesn’t think it’s cool to have an adventure in Cyberspace.

As Mentioned in Episode 180 – Lawful Badass

January 14, 2018 Jay 3 comments

Listen to the podcast here.

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

What you see is pretty much what you get. (Uncanny X-Men #281)

Cybernetic fuckboys. Don’t worry, they’re all going to die soon. For now. Mostly. (Uncanny X-Men #281)

That is… certainly some dialogue, there. (Uncanny X-Men #281)

And that’s why she’s the boss. (Uncanny X-Men #281)

“We eat dinner naked. It’s very sexy. And then we do the sexy dishes, sexily.” (Uncanny X-Men #281)

Oh, no! Not Bevatron! (Uncanny X-Men #281)

If you had told me a year ago that there was armor worse than Cameron Hodge’s ruby quartz armor, I would not have believed you. Mea culpa. (Uncanny X-Men #281)

Oh, no, not again. (Uncanny X-Men #281)

OH HELL YES. (Uncanny X-Men #282)

Professor X is kind of a sore winner. (Uncanny X-Men #282)

And then, suddenly, Storm was telekinetic. (Uncanny X-Men #282)

That’s gotta sting. (Uncanny X-Men #282)

“But first, The Very Hungry Caterpillar.” (Uncanny X-Men #282)

Earth-1191 is AMAZING. (Uncanny X-Men #282)

I really want to know if all these criminals dressed up special for the occasion, or if this is just what everyone hangs out looking like in the future. (Uncanny X-Men #282)

ABOUT DAMN TIME. (See what I did, there?) (Uncanny X-Men #282)

“Ha, ha!” (Uncanny X-Men #283)

Aw, this kid. (Uncanny X-Men #283)

“I’m going to the comics shop to cancel my subscription RIGHT NOW!” (Uncanny X-Men #283)

Bishop, I know you come from a difficult timeline, but even you have to appreciate how rad that Walt Simonson Archangel design is. (Uncanny X-Men #283)

Are… Iceman and Colossus levitating? (Uncanny X-Men #283)

This is why we–or at least the Upstarts–can’t have nice things. (Uncanny X-Men #283)

NEXT EPISODE: Guns ‘n’ Pouches!

As Mentioned in Episode 179 – Sincerely, An Evil Individual

January 7, 2018 Jay 5 comments

Listen to the episode here.

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

This really should have been a #1. (X-Factor #71)

If ever a first page set the tone… (X-Factor #71)

I made a list of people who draw Polaris’s hair better than Larry Stroman, and there were no names on it, because no one draws Polaris’s hair better than Larry Stroman. (X-Factor #71)

Cursive! (X-Factor #71)

Team dossiers, and some Twin Peaks name-dropping! (X-Factor #71)

Well, shit. (X-Factor #71)

This gag was pretty much inevitable. (X-Factor #72)

The extremely doomed Professor Vic Chalker. (X-Factor #72)

Poor guy. (X-Factor #72)

THAT CROWD, THO (X-Factor #72)

Aw, Madrox. (X-Factor #72)

So, that happened. (X-Factor #73)

Seriously, there’s just a page and a half, mid-fight, dedicated to gratuitous Rocketeer references. (X-Factor #73)

(Including the plane. Which, yes, is later confirmed to be wood.) (X-Factor #73)

And yet, somehow, it’s STILL better than Alex’s M-Word speech 25 years later. (X-Factor #73)

Remember when Alex Summers had principles? SIGH. (X-Factor #73)

B.D.? I dunno if I see it… (X-Factor #73)

Oh. Yeah, never mind. I see it.

Rahne really looks like she’s here to offer you your heart’s desire in exchange for your heart, or something equally creepy and folklorish. (X-Factor #74)