In which writer Si Spurrier joins us to talk Nightcrawler, the unsustainability of Krakoa, bringing back Legion, the stuff growing on Dr. Nemesis’s head, Welsh accents, founding (and not founding) a mutant religion, and—yes—Onslaught.
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!
In which we cover somewhat peculiar content under somewhat peculiar circumstances; nobody does it like Alan Davis; in this house, we appreciate Gracie Gamble; Bernard the Poet makes a comeback; nominal errors are not what they appear; and you should probably not leave your children with most of the X-Men.
X-PLAINED:
Ravencroft vs. Ravenscroft
Unusual recording circumstances
ClanDestine #1-8
X-Men/ClanDestine #1-2
Destines including but not limited to:
Rory (Crimson Crusader)
Pandora (Imp)
Adam
Walter
Kay (Cuckoo)
Dominic (Hex)
Samantha (Argent)
Newton
Gracie Gamble
Elalyth
The Relative Stranger Protocol
Lenz
Dr. Hywel Griffin
GRYPHON
Earth-95710
Synraith
How normal people unwind
A dimensional rift and affiliated tentacles
How to draw sexy ladies without wrecking your comic
A big fight
X-sitters
The evolution of Hank McCoy’s personality
NEXT EPISODE: The Way of Si Spurrier
LISTENER CHALLENGE: Send your takes on the ’90s stylings of Bernard the Poet to xplainthexmen(at)gmail(dot)com, and we’ll publish ’em all in a deeply dubious poetic extravaganza!
Check out the visual companion to this episode on our blog!
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!
This would usually be a skip week, but the world is still being a jerk, so we made you a bonus, entirely unedited, and almost entirely off-topic episode. This time, we talked about wizards.
In which William Stryker is exceptionally difficult to kill; the terminology around Emplate’s powers is absolute nonsense even by comic-book standards; inkers deserve more credit; we would totally read comics about Murmur the Softpoken Mummy; Bishop comes to the rescue; and nothing really resolves.
X-PLAINED:
What happened to William Stryker
Gratuitous use of the adjective “genetic”
Emplate (again)
Generation X #12-14
Inks
Penance’s original backstory
Pining
A really unpleasant reunion
Accent problems
Gayle Edgerton
Vincente
Bulwark
D.O.A.
A somewhat chaotic victory
Mutant teams from non-anglophone countries
X-characters Miles would like to write
NEXT WEEK: HAWK TALK
NEXT EPISODE: ClanDestine!
Check out the visual companion to this episode on our blog.
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!
In which Miles discovers owl legs; Iceman dwells in subtext; Dark Beast overperforms; Daredevil is a delightful trash fire of a person; Graydon Creed’s presidential run is somewhat less shocking in 2021; Rogue does not enjoy playing ‘Got your nose’; and Mister Sinister is not a friend to public transportation.
X-PLAINED:
Post-Decimation resurrections
Owl legs
Uncanny X-Men #331
X-Men #51-52
Iceman’s complicated personal life
Casual crossovers
The facial hair of Warren Kenneth Worthington III
The terrible decisions of Matt Murdock
How to subtly test your in-laws for mutant powers
What Mister Sinister sounds like
A bad plan
The debut of Bastion
DNA
Foreshadowing
NEXT EPISODE: Emplate Sucks
Check out the visual companion to this episode on our blog.
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!
In which Swimsuit Catalog is not an actual style of martial arts; Onslaught dabbles in vandalism; Crule is a special guy; we identify briefly with X-Force; and Charles Xavier is the Keyser Soze of Onslaught.
X-PLAINED:
Externals on Krakoa
Relative levels of violence in X-books
X-Force #52-54
Camp Hayden, KY
Onslaught-facilitated power-ups
Gideon (again)
At least one apparent death
How it feels to be us
Businesswear
Whether Cannonball is an external
Nazis in the Captain Britain Corps
Doop
NEXT EPISODE: Sinister vs. Public Transit
Check out the visual companion to this episode on our blog.
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!
This would usually be a skip week, but the world is still being a jerk, so we made you a bonus, entirely unedited, and almost entirely off-topic episode. This time, in honor of the 1995 film’s 1337-week anniversary, we talked about the finest movie about technology ever made, Hackers.
Topics, roughly:
Hackers
Mister The Plague
What David Bowie and Angelina Jolie have in common
Razor & Blade
The glory of Matthew Lillard
Counterculture
Queer (sub)text
Focal characters
Jay’s sequel pitch
In retrospect, we should have talked way more about Phreak, played amazingly by Renoly Santiago. Sorry, Renoly! That’s what we get for doing Hawk Talk without our usual outlines.
In which we take a break from the lead-up to Onslaught; Hannah Conover is the queen of dangling plot threads (and also of the Brood); Wolverine is the strangest angel; William Conover is the chillest minister in the Marvel Universe; and Excalibur writer Tini Howard gives us the inside scoop on Gambit’s trench coat.
X-PLAINED:
Mutant Brood
The Brood vs. Brood X cicadas
X-Men vs. Brood: Day of Wrath #1-2
Theological origins of John Ostrander
Hair
An unspoken motif in pin-up art
Reverend William Conover (more)(again)
Hannah Conover (more)(again)
The Brood (more)(again)
The Brood Empress
The Firstborn
Atypical Queen-Broodling power dynamics
Brood of the future
A strange angel
What Gambit’s trench coat is made of
NEXT WEEK: Hawk Talk
NEXT EPISODE: The end of the Externals!
Check out the visual companion to this episode on our blog.
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!
In which the podcast turns seven; Matt has officially edited half the podcast; a lot of things are made by metal; Doctor Strange is a big weirdo; Gambit is a scoundrel, not a villain; Wolverine goes goth; Onslaught could probably use a better herald; Bishop fires two guns whilst going aaaaaaa; and we commit to making what sense we can of Onslaught.
X-PLAINED:
How Betsy got her body back
Several simultaneous anniversaries
Uncanny X-Men #329-330
X-Men #50
Some ninja bullshit
A lot of less-benign-than-it-looks racism
Excellent use of a neon sign
An odd couple
The evolution of art tools
Steam vs. metal
Gomurr the Ancient
The Ebon Vein
Catastrophic magic
Our favorite iterations of Doctor Strange
The Crimson Dawn
How one becomes Gomurr the Ancient
Tar (Proctor of the Crimson Dawn)
Post (Herald of Onslaught)
An entity who may or may not be Onslaught
Continuity party tricks
Survivors of the Age of Apocalypse
NEXT EPISODE: Brood X!
Check out the visual companion to this episode on our blog.
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!
In which Nate Grey has the soul of a man in a mesh shirt; Black Air is somehow even worse than you thought it was; Hulk does not want to be x-treme teen from alternate dimension; we are excited as hell for the upcoming Frasier/Ewing Gamma Flight; and Moira MacTaggert is (sometimes) the adult we need.
X-PLAINED:
Nate Grey’s (possible) demon zombie baby
What Excalibur’s been up to lately
Excalibur #94-95
X-Man #12
Yet another take on roughly the same dark future
Dark-future disambiguation
Bangs
The Black Wall
Leather vs. vinyl
Sentinels pooping sentinels
Nate Grey (more) (again)
Gamma Flight
Excessively silly diagnostic technology
Squeezits(TM)
A minor intervention
X-characters most likely to lead a successful book club
Warlock on Krakoa
NEXT EPISODE: The Herald of Onslaught (for real, this time, we promise)!
Check out the visual companion to this episode on our blog!
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!
