Blog Posts – Page 34 – Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men

As Mentioned in Episode 161 – Do You Even Howl, Bro?

August 27, 2017 Jay 6 comments

Listen to the podcast here.

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

FlameCon Saturday: ABD Squad! (Yes, Tea’s shirt says what you think it does. Yes, Jay’s hands light up. Yes, we think we’re funny.)

FlameCon Party: Billy and Teddy from Young Avengers #15

FlameCon Sunday: Mod Silver Age Emma and Scott.

Excalibur #32

Not unprecedented, until you realize that the whole thing is a fantasy Margaret Thatcher is having in therapy. (Excalibur #32)

YOU SEE WHAT I MEAN?! (Excalibur #32)

Don’t mess with Kitty’s crushes. She’ll cut you. (Excalibur #32)

That is PERFECTLY RESPECTABLE penmanship, thank you very much. (Excalibur #32)

Welcome to St. Subtext’s School for Young Ladies. (Excalibur #32)

(Excalibur #33)

“Also, I’m a superhero.” (Excalibur #33)

(Excalibur #34)

“But you can call me… MR. RAD!” (Excalibur #34)

Let the hijinks commence! (Excalibur #34)

Well, that could’a gone worse. (Excalibur #34)

‘Kay. (Excalibur #34)

Seriously, if I had a dollar for every time I’d woken up like this… (Excalibur #32)

TOO SOON, MESMERO. (Excalibur #33)

Do those abs go all the way… wait, no, that doesn’t even make sense. (Excalibur #33)

But if he can hypnotize her just by making eye contact, why bother doing this? Just to mess with her for fun? Total dick move.(Excalibur #33)

[Ron Howard voice]: There were mistakes. (Excalibur #33)

Oh, great. These assholes, again. (Excalibur #34)

AND THAT’S WHY YOU ALWAYS LEAVE A NOTE! (Excalibur #34)

GOOD JOB, EVERYBODY! (Excalibur #34)

Trust me, they’re delightful together. (Excalibur #35)

Well, that escalated quickly. (Excalibur #35)

Aw, kiddo. (Excalibur #35)

Right. That guy. (Excalibur #35)

“But not the one from Alaska. The indefinite article.” (Excalibur #35)

And they all lived grumpily ever after. (Excalibur #35)

Our hero! (Excalibur #36)

It’s a nuanced issue, okay? (Excalibur #36)

This is why we can’t have nice… uncontrolled nuclear things? (Excalibur #36)

Best fight dialogue? Best fight dialogue. And check out that word-balloon cut! (Excalibur #36)

We certainly did not see that coming. (Excalibur #36)

And it DIDN’T ONCE OCCUR TO YOU that this might end badly? (Excalibur #36)

I have no idea what the moral of this story is, but it’s sort of heartwarming anyway. (Excalibur #36)

NEXT EPISODE: The angriest naked man!

LINKS & FURTHER READING:

Special thanks to Gavia Baker-Whitelaw for helping us assemble the St. Searle’s marginalia!
Listen to our FlameCon X-Tra Bonus Episode!
The MacDonald Hall books are delightful, and you should read them all immediately.
If you didn’t get Jay’s joke about St. Searle’s, this is for you.
The International Association of Master Penmen, Engrossers, and Teachers of Handwriting is the kind of thing you’ll like, if you like that kind of thing.
We talked about Kitty Pryde and asynchronous social development in Giant-Size Special #1!
D’Spayre last turned up on the podcast in Look Upon My Man-Thing and D’Spayre!

As Mentioned in Episode 160 – Hank McCoy and the Hickey of Destiny

August 20, 2017 Jay 4 comments

Listen to the podcast here.

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

Rowr. (X-Factor: Prisoner of Love)

Beast goes hardboiled. (X-Factor: Prisoner of Love)

“Join me on the windowsill, that we may exchange portentous but vague endearments.” (X-Factor: Prisoner of Love)

This seems like it’s going to be a really big deal, but it’s not. (X-Factor: Prisoner of Love)

Eldritch horrors, amirite? (X-Factor: Prisoner of Love)

One of the coolest things about the art in Prisoner of Love is how well Guice makes not-actually-supernatural things look really eerie. (X-Factor: Prisoner of Love)

Well, that can’t be good. (X-Factor: Prisoner of Love)

This page is kinda Prisoner of Love in a nutshell: the symbolism is basically illusory, but it’s so stylish that I don’t really care. (X-Factor: Prisoner of Love)

THAT OUTFIT, THO. (X-Factor: Prisoner of Love)

“This would be so much cooler if one of us could turn into a bear.” (X-Factor: Prisoner of Love)

That’s rough, buddy. (X-Factor: Prisoner of Love)

Well, then. (X-Factor: Prisoner of Love)

AND NOW, CYBURAI! (X-Factor #63)

That window looks super technoorganic, though, right? (X-Factor #63)

NICELY DONE, BOBBY. (X-Factor #63)

“We’ll go rescue your girlfriend in a sec, but first check out our rad new costumes!” (X-Factor #63)

The Cyburai.

Nah, sorry, these are the actual Cyburai. Still definitely a boy band, though. (X-Factor #63)

Spoiler: Optimus Prime dies. (X-Factor #64)

Cheer up, emu kid. (X-Factor #64)

Possibly the most awkward ending image ever. (X-Factor #64)

NEXT EPISODE: Kitty Pryde enrolls at St. Subtext’s Academy for Young Ladies.

LINKS & FURTHER READING

Come see us at Rose City Comic Con and New York Comic Con!
Seriously, Bobby’s powers would be super deadly.

As Mentioned in Episode 159 – Childhood’s End

August 13, 2017 Jay 14 comments

Listen to the episode here.

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

The face of an almost-ten-year-old Miles with no idea what’s on the horizon.

New Mutants #98

That smirk, though. (New Mutants #98)

The weirdly protracted death of Emmanuel da Costa. (New Mutants #98)

Yeah, there’s no way this dude’s coming back. (New Mutants #98)

Somewhere, Dean Pelton is having feelings. (New Mutants #98)

One of many, many homages to the cover of X-Men #138. (New Mutants #99)

LIEFELD KICK! (New Mutants #99)

“I’ve been busy TRAINING MY HAIR TO SWIRL DRAMATICALLY ON CUE.” (New Mutants #99)

New Mutants: the ballet! (New Mutants #99)

Cable, that’s really not how pants–you know what? Never mind. (New Mutants #99)

This goddamn panel. (New Mutants #99)

Oh, man. Right in the feels. (New Mutants #99)

Just spitballing here, but is it maybe because… it’s the final issue? (New Mutants #99)

The end of an era. (New Mutants #100)

You’re not wrong, Cable. (New Mutants #100)

You know you wanna cosplay it. (New Mutants #100)

Feral’s a fun kid, isn’t she? (New Mutants #100)

On one hand: this is a mess. On the other hand: it’s also pretty awesome. The Liefeld conundrum. (New Mutants #100)

That’s not how swords… I mean… damnit. (New Mutants #100)

CABLE, YOU PUT THOSE EXTRA TEETH RIGHT BACK WHERE YOU FOUND THEM. (New Mutants #100)

Okay, that’s a really fun last page. (New Mutants #100)

Next Episode: Beast has a sexistential crisis!

LINKS & FURTHER READING

Come see Jay at FlameCon this weekend!

As Mentioned in Episode 158 – No Focus, Less Direction

August 6, 2017 Jay 4 comments

Listen to the podcast here.

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

“Oh, like THAT’s a big deal or something.” (Uncanny X-Men #273)

That’s a lot of X-Men. (Uncanny X-Men #273)

Bobby, you incorrigible scamp! Way to EXPLODE THE PIPES IN THE SOLE BATHROOM SHARED BY EIGHTEEN PEOPLE. (Uncanny X-Men #273)

The original creative teams will be played by Storm in this panel. (Uncanny X-Men #273)

Awk-ward. (Uncanny X-Men #273)

Telekinetics don’t need shower curtains. (Uncanny X-Men #273)

We unironically adore this ridiculous pair of panels. (Uncanny X-Men #273)

This is a lot creepier if you remember that the Shadow King took over Jean permanently in one of the earths Excalibur visited… (Uncanny X-Men #273)

Meanwhile, in the sexy, sexy Savage Land… (Uncanny X-Men #274)

Between the art and the cascade of dramatic Magneto captions, this splash kinda encapsulates the whole arc. (Uncanny X-Men #274)

Whoa. (Uncanny X-Men #274)

To be fair, that was always a really iffy battle tactic. (Uncanny X-Men #274)

“Also, am I imagining the sudden switch to romance comic framing?” (Uncanny X-Men #274)

No one gets dressed more dramatically than Magneto. (Uncanny X-Men #274)

Zaladane: boring as hell, but damn does she know how to dress! (Uncanny X-Men #274)

That’s prudent, I suppose, for a certain value of the term. (Uncanny X-Men #274)

Please note that:
A) Ka-Zar is calling Rogue “Red” despite the fact that her hair is clearly brown.
B) A mostly-naked man and his tiger buddy are clearly not REMOTELY the weirdest things those S.H.I.E.L.D. troops have shared a transport with.
(Uncanny X-Men #275)

It sure is 1991. (Uncanny X-Men #275)

Every goddamn time. (Uncanny X-Men #275)

Where’s an editorial footnote when you actually need one? (Oh, fine, I’ll do it: See Classic X-Men #12 and #19, respectively! -Jaded Jay) (Uncanny X-Men #275)

Well, that’s convenient timing! (Uncanny X-Men #275)

Murder is negotiable, but frontal nudity? NEVER. (Uncanny X-Men #275)

NEXT WEEK: The end of New Mutants!

LINKS & FURTHER LISTENING

The Lightning and the Storm (Miles & Elisabeth’s now-complete Thor podcast)
Jay’s Instagram

As Mentioned in Episode 157 – Melted to Slag

April 30, 2017 Jay 10 comments

Listen to the episode here.

Art by David Wynne. Contact David to purchase the original!

I’m trying to imagine the Punisher in a bunch of different man-on-the-street segments, and it’s never not funny. (Uncanny X-Men #272)

Dramatis Personae and their dramatic wigs. (Uncanny X-Men #272)

Oh, dear. (Uncanny X-Men #272)

“Also, Nightcrawler had a ghost friend briefly.” (Uncanny X-Men #272)

One of Hodge’s more pronounced Mojo moments. (Uncanny X-Men #272)

Okay, that’s legitimately impressive. (Uncanny X-Men #272)

[Insert Rocketeer reference here.] (Uncanny X-Men #272)

MIND, SPIRIT, and BODY! (Uncanny X-Men #272)

Seriously, though, how is Wolverine’s mask staying on? Discuss. (New Mutants #97)

‘Kay. (New Mutants #97)

Zowie! (New Mutants #97)

Scary Rahne is so good. (New Mutants #97)

“Topless Havok will lead us to victory!” (X-Factor #62)

Included for scale, mostly. (X-Factor #62)

Neither of you deserve her. (X-Factor #62)

Wonder Twins Powers, go! (X-Factor #62)

Damn, that’s satisfying. (X-Factor #62)

That, too. (X-Factor #62)

Spoiler: It’s the second one. (X-Factor #62)

NEXT EPISODE: Jay and Miles take a three-month hiatus. See you in August!

As Mentioned in Episode 156 – Genosha Strikes Back

April 23, 2017 Jay 6 comments

Listen to the episode here.

Art by David Wynne. Contact David to purchase the original!

Just in case you’ve forgotten since last week! (Uncanny X-Men #271)

Here, have some New Mutants, while we’re at it. (Uncanny X-Men #271)

The Technicolor Knight Returns! (Uncanny X-Men #271)

When even Evil!Sexy Moira has better scientific ethics than you, you’ve got some thinking to do, Moreau. (Uncanny X-Men #271)

“I mean, I know I played a central role in subjugating an entire people and subjecting them to unspeakable horrors, but sometimes I felt kinda bad about it!” (Uncanny X-Men #271)

She’s not wrong, dude. (Uncanny X-Men #271)

Awk-ward. (Uncanny X-Men #271)

Ahhh, THERE it is! (Uncanny X-Men #271)

Spoiler: Nah. (Uncanny X-Men #271)

Liefeld kick! Take a drink! (New Mutants #96)

“Also can I draw on her face with a sharpie?” (New Mutants #96)

When threatened, the wild Jubilee will fan out her tail in a display meant to intimidate predators. (New Mutants #96)

Jean’s face, tho. “Ugh, AGAIN.” (X-Factor #61)

Because we never get tired of those dramatis personae pages. (X-Factor #61)

Bogdanove’s Hodge really is the best Hodge. (X-Factor #61)

I’m pretty sure this is the first hint we’ve gotten at Cable’s mutant powers. (Based on eventually-established continuity, he should be dying of the T-O virus right now, but that wouldn’t be written in until much later.) (X-Factor #61)

These nerds. (X-Factor #61)

I wonder what’s in Xavier’s telepathically-derived files! (X-Factor #61)

That Charles Xavier keeps detailed files on which of his students want to bang each other is the least surprising thing I’ve read in my life. (X-Factor #61)

“I mean, except for the chokehold part! (X-Factor #61)

NEXT EPISODE: Revenge of the return of the X-Men!

LINKS & FURTHER READING

“Politics and the English Language,” by George Orwell, is one of Jay’s favorite essays of all time.
Now you, too, can be robot Jean Valjean.
Here’s Elle Collins’s X-Men reboot pitch at the late, great Comics Alliance.

As Mentioned in Episode 155

April 16, 2017 Jay 8 comments

Listen to the episode here.

Art by David Wynne. Contact David to purchase the original!

“I HATE THIS SHIRT!” (X-Men #270)

X-Men… (X-Men #270)

…and New Mutants. (Not pictured: X-Factor.) (X-Men #270)

Look, dude, I am PRETTY SURE they have schedules in the future and you’re just being a dick. (X-Men #270)

Strong Guy FTW! (X-Men #270)

The X-Men, summed up in a single perfect panel. (X-Men #270)

“It’s impossible! Unless there was an unscrupulous redhead, or I guess if he got bored…” (X-Men #270)

Fortunately, the Genoshans were able to outfit them with strategically placed shadows and thought balloons. (New Mutants #95)

THAT’S NOT REASSURING. (New Mutants #95)

My first kiss was basically exactly like this. (New Mutants #95)

Well, then. (New Mutants #95)

The weirdly anticlimactic death of Warlock. (New Mutants #95)

In the land of Genosha… and Manhattan… and some random airstrip… and, look, they use this basic plotline a lot. (X-Factor #60)

Ah, THAT’S the Hodge we know and love! (X-Factor #60)

“Son, do you have a license for that esoteric paraphernalia?” (X-Factor #60)

Boom Boom’s dad is a jerk. (X-Factor #60)

Awwww, they’re learning! (X-Factor #60)

You’d think they’d eventually wise up and get clothes resistant to their own and each other’s powers, but, no. (X-Factor #60)

This is just delightful. (X-Factor #60)

Scott, that’s not how you–you know what? Never mind. (X-Factor #60)

I know they hadn’t been retconned to be father and son yet, but this is some great accidental foreshadowing all the same. (X-Factor #60)

NEXT EPISODE: This asshole, again.

LINKS & FURTHER READING

For more on Miles’s upcoming project, Thor: The Lightning and the Storm, check out http://www.thelightningandthestorm.com!

Jay & Miles Review the X-Men, Episode 119

April 13, 2017 Miles 18 comments

Week of 4/12/2017

Week of 4/12/2017:

In which Jay and Miles talk about the future, Old Man Logan may or may not be beginning its climax, X-Men: Blue is pretty great, and Weapon X works better than it should.

REVIEWED:

Old Man Logan #21 (2:40)
* X-Men: Blue #1 (5:29)
Weapon X #1 (14:44)

*Pick of the Week

Filmed at Books With Pictures in Portland, OR.

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