Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men

Miles Reviews the X-Men, Episode 27

Week of February 25, 2015.

In which Miles once again holds down the fort, and Rachel is too tired to come up with more engaging copy than this.

Reviewed:

  • All-New X-Men #38 (00:19)
  • Spider-Man and the X-Men #3 (1:46)
  • Amazing X-Men #17 (3:08)
  • Wolverines #8 (4:29)
  • Uncanny Avengers #2 (6:15)

Pick of the Week: Avengers World #17; which is neither technically an X-book nor of this week, but is good enough that we don’t care. (8:19)


RACHEL ADDS:

I kind of love Miles’s vague implication that I’m cooling my heels in Mexico until things blow over.

Here are my very short and sleep-deprived addenda to the reviews:

All-New X-Men #38
Often, “very Bendis” is a compliment. This is not one of those times: the cleverness comes at the expense of characters’ voices. Not exactly bad, but frustrating. I’m pretty damn excited about Teen Space Pirate Cyclops to the rescue, though; and the fact that that probably means a more organic end to the Cyclops ongoing than the abrupt cancellation I was sort of expecting.

Spider-Man and the X-Men #3
This is the ideal use of this team, and I feel really good about it and also about Ernst busting down walls. The first few issues were fun but kind of flailing; here, it feels like the book is really finding its voice and catching its stride.

Amazing X-Men #17
Too busy cracking up at the return of one of my favorite dumb Silver-Age villains to objectively review this.

Wolverines #8
Um, actually, Miles, both Fang’s debut and the incident in which Wolverine stole his costume took place during the M’Kraan Crystal storyline, not the Dark Phoenix Saga.

That said, there is literally nothing about this issue that I did not enjoy immensely. Also, I really hope that Fang and Volstagg turn out to be buddies, because they obviously should be.

Uncanny Avengers #2
Meh. I’m having trouble caring about this storyline. I recognize that Acuña is objectively good at what he does, but at the same time, his art completely fails to hold my attention, which sort of sums up my feelings on this series in general.

-Rachel, who is not actually on the lam in Mexico; although she has learned a lot over the last few days about the laws and logistics concerning international transport of human remains.


These video reviews are made possible by the support of our Patreon subscribers. If you want to help support the podcast–and unlock more cool stuff–you can do that right here!

Rachel and Miles Review the X-Men – Episode 26

Week of February 18, 2015

In which we spoil the hell out of Uncanny X-Men #31, Rachel has Mystique feelings, and Kris Anka draws the best bitchface ever forever.

Reviewed:

  • *Uncanny X-Men #31 (1:00)
  • Legendary Star-Lord #9 (5:08)
  • Storm #8 (6:23)
  • Wolverines #7 (8:45)
  • Magneto #15 (10:56)

*Pick of the week (13:02)


These video reviews are made possible by the support of our Patreon subscribers. If you want to help support the podcast–and unlock more cool stuff–you can do that right here!

Miles Reviews the X-Men, Episode 25

Week of February 11, 2015.

In which Rachel is out sick, Miles perseveres in the face of adversity, and X-Force goes out with a bang.

Reviewed:

  • Guardians of the Galaxy #24 (0:37)
  • X-Men #24 (2:01)
  • Nightcrawler #11 (3:58)
  • All-New X-Men #36 (5:35)
  • Cyclops #10 (7:07)
  • Wolverines #6 (8:35)
  • *X-Force #15 (9:39)

*Pick of the week (11:24)


These video reviews are made possible by the support of our Patreon subscribers. If you want to help support the podcast–and unlock more cool stuff–you can do that right here!

Rachel and Miles Review the X-Men, Episode 24

Week of February 4, 2015.

In which Wolverines is extraordinarily pretty, the Guardians of the Galaxy play D&D, and we disagree about Mister Sinister.

Reviewed:

  • The Black Vortex #1 (0:24)
  • Wolverines #5 (2:41)

Pick of the Week: Agent Carter, S1E5 (5:20)


These video reviews are made possible by the support of our Patreon subscribers. If you want to help support the podcast–and unlock more cool stuff–you can do that right here!

Rachel and Miles Review the X-Men, Episode 23

Week of January 28, 2015.

In which we carefully avoid spoiling Uncanny X-Men and remain disappointed by the lack of Wolverines heists; and Rachel mispronounces Bachalo but doesn’t realize until she’s already editing the video (oops).

Reviewed:

  • Uncanny Avengers vol. 2 #1 (0:27)
  • *Uncanny X-Men #30 (2:59)
  • Wolverines #4 (4:17)
  • Spider-Man and the X-Men #2 (5:52)
  • Amazing X-Men #16 (6:57)

*Pick of the Week (8:22)


These video reviews are made possible by the support of our Patreon subscribers. If you want to help support the podcast–and unlock more cool stuff–you can do that right here!

Rachel and Miles Review the X-Men, Episode 22

Week of January 21, 2015

In which All-New X-Factor ends, Iceman is his own best foil, and Jordie Bellaire is a hell of a colorist.

Reviewed:

  • All-New X-Men #35 (00:26)
  • Wolverines #3 (2:19)
  • X-Factor #20 (3:45)
  • *Magneto #14 (5:01)

*Pick of the Week (7:18)


These video reviews are made possible by the support of our Patreon subscribers. If you want to help support the podcast–and unlock more cool stuff–you can do that right here!

Rachel and Miles Review the X-Men, Episode 21

Week of January 14, 2015

In which we continue to be frustrated by Cyclops, but everything else is pretty great.

Reviewed:

  • Wolverines #2 (00:23)
  • X-Force #14 (2:23)
  • *Amazing X-Men #15 (4:59)
  • Cyclops #9 (7:26)
  • Nightcrawler #10 (9:39)

*Pick of the week (11:24)


These video reviews are made possible by the support of our Patreon subscribers. If you want to help support the podcast–and unlock more cool stuff–you can do that right here!

Jasper and Kestrel X-Plain the X-Men

Best fan video ever?

Best. Fan. Video. Ever.

We’ve written a bit about Jasper and Kestrel (they switched names for the video, for reasons that remain a mystery) over here. They belong to our very good friends Katie and Dave, and they’re pretty much the best kids ever. They’re also super into X-Men: we’re already counting the days until they’re old enough to take over the podcast.

As for the origins of the video, Katie writes:

Jasper and Kestrel have listened to the podcast in bits and pieces (they don’t have the attention span for the whole thing). Every morning this week we’ve put on music, mostly a Tune-Yards album, over breakfast– but today they asked if they could learn about the X-Men instead. Sure! As I went to put it on, I asked them if they thought they could do a show like your show.

“Yes, but at a different age than now,” said Kes.

“How do they even know so much?” asked Jasper. So we talked about how one way to know a lot about a thing is to read it from when you were a little kid, but that you guys also had to study and do research (what’s that?) to make the show. Kestrel said that she was gonna learn all about the X-Men for when she was bigger.

I put on the show, and they listened to the first few minutes of Ep 3. After the cold open & intro, Jasper asked me to stop it, and then we started playing with saying the lines to introduce the show. They asked me to make a video explicitly to send to you & M “because it would make them laugh so so much.” So. That happened.

ETA: It occurs to me that there are enough parents of young X-fans here that it might be worth setting up an open thread or something for discussion/resource pooling. Is that something people would find useful?

Rachel and Miles Review the X-Men, Episode 20

Week of January 7, 2015

In which we hit our 20th round of video reviews, G. Willow Wilson rocks X-Men, and we kind of fixate on a guy with some birds.

Reviewed:

  • *Storm #7 (00:46)
  • Death of Wolverine: The Weapon X Program #5 (3:04)
  • All-New X-Factor #19 (5:10)
  • Wolverines #1 (7:37)
  • X-Men #23 (9:51)

*Pick of the Week (14:22)


These video reviews are made possible by the support of our Patreon subscribers. If you want to help support the podcast–and unlock more cool stuff–you can do that right here!

Rachel and Miles Review the X-Men, Episode 19

Week of December 24, 2014

In which we sneak out of Christmas to review funnybooks, and Sixis finally (finally!) ends.

Reviewed:

  • All-New X-Factor #18 (0:33)
  • Axis #9 (2:37)
  • All-New X-Men Annual #1 (3:51)
  • *Uncanny X-Men #29 (5:56)
  • Death of Wolverine: The Logan Legacy #7 (8:08)
  • Cyclops #8 (10:24)
  • Magneto #13 (12:16)

*Pick of the Week (14:31)


Video reviews are made possible by the support of our Patreon subscribers. If you want to help support the podcast–and unlock more cool stuff–you can do that right here!