Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men

As Mentioned in Episode 192 – Meet the N-Men

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Art by David Wynne. Wanna buy the original? Drop him a line!
All-new, all-different! (Excalibur #45)
And that’s why you don’t bring Technet on a stakeout. (Excalibur #45)
LOOK AT THESE DELIGHTFUL INDIVIDUALS (Excalibur #45)
She’s not wrong. (Excalibur #45)
Really, really good use of shadows, there. (Excalibur #45)
MEET THE N-MEN! (Excalibur #45)
Remember this guy. He’s gonna be a major antagonist. (Excalibur #45)
Ah, Joyboy, we hardly knew thee. (Excalibur #45)
Meggan contains multitudes. (Excalibur #46)
Aw, Zombie Thor looks so happy to be there. (Excalibur #46)
If things like peeing in solitude are important to you, you should probably not join Excalibur. (Excalibur #46)
Nightcrawler: canonically EXTRA heroic. (Excalibur #46)
*Rimshot* (Excalibur #46)
Sparkly! (Excalibur #46)
Meggan’s true form has SERIOUS hair. (Excalibur #46)
Aw, Widget. (Excalibur #46)
One of the all-time classic Excalibur covers. (Excalibur #47)
THE GREATEST LOVE STORY IN COMICS. (Excalibur #47)
Hi, Cerise! (Excalibur #47)
Damnit, Merlyn. This is why we can’t have nice things.(Excalibur #47)
Kurt, if you don’t know which book you’re in by now, I don’t know what to tell you. (Excalibur #47)
They do this with THE WHOLE STORY, and it warms my shriveled heart. (Excalibur #47)
NEXT EPISODE: A Bishop in the house!

LINKS & FURTHER READING:

192 – Meet the N-Men

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

In which Alan Davis’s Excalibur is a spiritual sibling to The Muppet Show; Captain Britain gets a Captain Britain lesson; Opal Luna Saturnyne has no time for your nonsense; Meggan and Rachel take a brief detour into a Hammer film; Earth-148 is extra heroic; no member of Excalibur will ever use a bathroom in peace; Cerise joins the team; Technet embraces the future; and the end of the world is nigh.

X-PLAINED:

  • Pixie’s powers and parentage
  • Several eccentricities of Jay’s apartment
  • Excalibur #45-47
  • Earth-148 (Ee’rath)
  • Comics pacing vs. podcast pacing
  • Technet (more) (again)
  • Amelia Witherspoon and several references related thereto
  • The N-Men
  • How to Captain Britain
  • The multiversal significance of the lighthouse
  • A portentous chess game
  • A particularly aggressive retcon
  • The return of the Neuri
  • The real Meggan
  • Necrom
  • A heroic death
  • The true curse of Excalibur
  • Some very specific citations
  • A reunion
  • Kylun (Colin McKay)
  • A blessed event
  • Cerise
  • Whether Rogue can control Cyclops’s powers
  • Laura Kinney’s upcoming reversion to X-23

NEXT EPISODE: Bishop joins the X-Men!

ENTIRELY IRRELEVANT UPDATE: The wall on which Jay was attempting to mount a desk turned out to be plaster over sheetrock. Office plans are being revised accordingly.

Check out the visual companion to this episode on our blog!

Find us on iTunes or Stitcher!

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!

We’re in the process of migrating our official shop to TeePublic! Click over to check it out! (You can still find the designs we haven’t moved yet at Redbubble.)

191 – Unconscionably Sexy (feat. Kelly Thompson)

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In which writer Kelly Thompson joins us to talk Rogue and Gambit; Antarctica is Earth’s answer to the Blue Area of the Moon; Kelly unfreezes one of the great X-romances; Rogue has walked a mile in everyone’s shoes; you should probably not take romantic cues from fictional characters; Gambit should always wear hot pink; and continuity is fundamentally messy.

X-PLAINED:

  • What happened in Antarctica
  • The Trial of Gambit
  • Rogue and Gambit
  • Narrative tension vs. growth
  • Dueling accents
  • Kelly’s defining Rogue and Gambit stories
  • The cool-versus-creepy line
  • Making deep cuts accessible
  • The evolution of Rogue
  • The future of the X-line
  • Favorite costumes
  • Equal-opportunity objectification
  • Fundamental contradictions of continuity
  • Hawkeye team-ups
  • Date night with Rogue and Gambit
  • MTV’s Are You the One
  • RomCom hybrids

NEXT EPISODE: Meet the N-Men!

Check out the visual companion to this episode on our blog!

Find us on iTunes or Stitcher!

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!

We’re in the process of migrating our official shop to TeePublic! Click over to check it out! (You can still find the designs we haven’t moved yet at Redbubble.)

As Mentioned in Episode 190 – Local Yokels

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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)
nope (Excalibur: The Possession)
nope (Excalibur: The Possession)
nope (Excalibur: The Possession)
nope (Excalibur: The Possession)
nope (Excalibur: The Possession)
nope (Excalibur: The Possession)
NEXT EPISODE: Rogue and Gambit, with writer Kelly Thompson!

190 – Local Yokels

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In which the term “bloodlust” shows up a lot in popular culture; Wolverine pees between panels; Michael Higgins has a lot to answer for; Jay wants to fight a comic book; Nightcrawler’s limbs have never seemed more potent; Florida kids don’t understand basements; and Doug Ramsey didn’t die for this.

X-PLAINED

  • Chaos War
  • Destiny’s diaries
  • Wolverine: Bloodlust
  • Excalibur: The Possession
  • Bloodlust
  • Several approaches to sound effects
  • The greatest sound effect
  • Perfect binding
  • Several men who may or may not be Santa Claus
  • The Christmas spirit
  • Saskia
  • The Hair
  • Some varyingly graphic murders
  • The Alshra
  • The Neuri
  • Wendigo rules
  • Adamantium vs. healing factor
  • Where Wolverine pees
  • A statement of enmity
  • Potent limbs
  • Mr. Kaplan
  • Weird happenings
  • A man who is very obviously Merlin
  • Some pedagogy
  • An unfavorable Ed Wood comparison
  • The Changeling (again)
  • X-Force P.R.
  • Space bros

NEXT EPISODE: Romance and Banter with Kelly Thompson!

Check out the visual companion to this episode on our blog!

Find us on iTunes or Stitcher!

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!

We’re in the process of migrating our official shop to TeePublic! Click over to check it out! (You can still find the designs we haven’t moved yet at Redbubble.)

As Mentioned in Episode 189 – How Do You Solve a Problem Like Nate Summers?

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A day in the life of a never-nude pterosaur. (X-Force #5)
That’s a lot of teeth, Toad. (X-Force #5)
Somewhere, Bruce Banner has just felt a great disturbance in the force. (X-Force #5)
I keep changing my mind about my favorite part of this page. Right now, it’s Zero mugging facelessly at the reader. (X-Force #6)
Seriously, why does the Brotherhood have so many teeth? Are they EVIL TEETH? (X-Force #6)
Genuinely unsure whether Toad is supposed to have two or three rows of teeth in this one. (X-Force #6)
That’s a lot of bathtub. (X-Force #6)
My bad–on second look, they are not actually making PB&Js. (X-Force #6)
If I have to keep seeing these teeth, so do you. (X-Force #7)
t e e e e e e e e e e e e t h (X-Force #7)
Feral vs. Thornn. (X-Force #7)
It’s okay. He’ll be back. And possibly immortal? It’s complicated. (X-Force #7)
NEXT EPISODE: BLOODLUST!

LINKS & FURTHER READING:

189 – How Do You Solve a Problem Like Nate Summers?

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In which Jay’s mom broke the Internet; correct credits are important; everyone has a Danger Room; no one needs that many teeth; there are so many reasons to laugh at Stryfe; the Watcher is probably affiliated with Pepperidge Farm; Boom Boom is the Rogue of X-Force; and Cable’s pouches are definitely full of menstrual products.

X-PLAINED:

  • The Franklin Richards of Earth X
  • The One True Cable
  • X-Force #5-7
  • Pocket-Size Juggernaut
  • A novel approach to trauma surgery
  • A moment of intersectionality
  • Teeth of the early ’90s
  • Soft pink bags of rice-paper flesh
  • A villain speech
  • X-Force’s bathtub
  • Several Shel Silverstein poems that may or may not be about superheroes
  • Cooking with Boom Boom
  • Why the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants keeps the “Evil” in their name
  • Thornn (Lucia Callasantos)
  • Phantazia
  • Writers vs. Scripters
  • Sex Ed at the Xavier School
  • The Worst Twitter Thread

NEXT EPISODE: BLOODLUST! (But not inquiry.)

Check out the visual companion to this episode on our blog!

Find us on iTunes or Stitcher!

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!

We’re in the process of migrating our official shop to TeePublic! Click over to check it out! (You can still find the designs we haven’t moved yet at Redbubble.)

ECCC 2018 Gallery – Part 2 – Look at All These X-Men

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One of our favorite parts of any convention is the kickass cosplay! Here are some of the many, MANY X-Men (and a few others) from Emerald City Comic Con:

WE FOUND A HONEY BADGER!!! (Well, she found us. BUT STILL! HONEY BADGER!)
Gambit and All-New Jean!
I would 100% buy that Jubilee and Rule-63 Quentin Quire have a mermaid friend.
Speaking of Rule-63, this Emma Frost was killing it!
Janet K. Lee’s art nouveau Emma Frost! (Jay helped make this one.)
A really, REALLY good swashbuckling Nightcrawler!
We first met this punk Storm in 2015, and she continues to be The Absolute Coolest.
Okay, fine, EVERY punk Storm is the coolest. <3
(Same Storm as previous.)
We know they’re not technically X-Men, but NOBODY cosplays Clea, and when I saw this one I kind of freaked out, and she was very gracious about it. (Dr. Strange is okay, too, I guess. But CLEA!)
Several Disney-X mash-ups!
The cutest Pixie!
X-23…
…and her evolved form, Best Wolverine!
This Rule-63 Jubilee was the first X-Men cosplayer we spotted all weekend!
It’s not a convention without at least one Dazzler!
This group is SO GOOD, as is the entirely accidental Young Avengers photobomb in the background.
That shirt. THAT. SHIRT.
Gambit!
Another really good group. I don’t think Cyclops has ever had a beard in canon (not counting his terrrrrible Ultimate version), and that’s a shame.
Rogue!
There was surprisingly little Gifted cosplay, but this Polaris was cool enough on her own to more than make up for the absence of her compatriots.
Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead!
Closing with another non-X-Men costume, because this tiny Hela is amazing and we love her.

ECCC 2018 Gallery – Part 1 – We Drew Some X-Men

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We’re juuuuust about recovered from Emerald City Comic Con (be sure to check out the live episode), and finally ready to show off our mountains of photos! First up: All the table sketches we remembered to photograph!

(Not pictured: A handful of solos, a couple collaborative pieces, and the marriage proposal Jay was so bewildered that someone asked him to draw that he totally forgot to document it. If you got a sketch from us that isn’t pictured here, please feel free to share it in the comments!)

Emma Frost, by Jay
Cannonball, by Miles
Husk, by Jay
Icarus, by Miles
Boom Boom, by Jay
Maggott, by Miles
Magik, by Jay (t-shirt cribbed shamelessly from Waiting for the Trade.)
Mister Sensitive, by Miles
Warlock, by Jay, who wishes he got to draw Warlock more often
Quentin Quire, by Miles
Nightcrawler, by Jay, in one of our zines
Shatterstar-with-a-mustache, by Miles
Emma Frost redux, by Jay
Usually we only draw X-Men, but if you ask Jay to draw Lois Lane, he will draw Lois Lane.