Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men

61 – Even Horses

37 comments

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | Email | RSS

Art by David Wynne. Prints and cards available until 6/21/2015 in the shop, or contact David for the original.
Art by David Wynne. Prints and cards available until 6/21/2015 in the shop, or contact David for the original.

In which the band gets back together; Dani faces down Death; Sam takes Lila home to meet his mom; revenge is a dish best left unserved; there is nothing sadder than Warlock confused by the concept of death; Kitty Pryde has a some opinions about identity politics; and X-Men has not been great with textual representations of neurodiversity.

NOTE: Given some of the material covered in this episode, we wanted to link a few resources below, for anyone who might need them:

X-PLAINED:

  • The rotating members of the Guthrie family
  • New Mutants #41-45
  • One way to end a friendship
  • A respectable number of dubious decisions enacted over several issues
  • An epic showdown with an anthropomorphic personification
  • Additional Guthries
  • The Xavier Institute PTA
  • The worst Hellion (more) (again)
  • Legion (more) (again)
  • The second-saddest issue of New Mutants
  • The life and death of Larry Bodine
  • A somewhat bleak recurring continuity error
  • Depression and mental illness in X-canon
  • Care and storage of comic books
  • Autism in X-canon

NEXT WEEK: GIANT-SIZE SUMMER SPECIAL SUPER TABLETOP TEAM-UP!

You can find a visual companion to this episode on our blog!

Find us on iTunes or Stitcher!

Rachel 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!

Buy prints of this week’s illustration at our shop, or contact David Wynne for the original!

Rachel and Miles Review the X-Men, Episode 41

15 comments

Week of June 10, 2015 –

In which we become X-canon as hell, Hell’s Kitchen goes to Hell; and we finally pronounce Scott Koblish’s name right.

REVIEWED:
Inferno #2 (0:23)
*Secret Wars Journal #2 (3:31)
X-Men ’92 Infinite Comics #2 (6:08)

*Pick of the Week (9:56)

Rachel and Miles X-Plain the X-Men is 100% ad-free and listener supported. These video reviews–and everything else here–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!

Choose Our Adventure

33 comments

This weekend, we’ll be sitting down to record our Giant-Size Summer Special. As you may recall, our first Giant-Size Special was basically a suuuuuper long episode, but this one’s gonna be something else altogether:

Game writer and designer and friend of the podcast Logan Bonner has modified the amazing old Marvel Super Hero Adventures game to be played as it was never intended: in the spirit of the 90s animated series! And this weekend, he’s coming down from Seattle to run an adventure for us.

In addition to Logan, we’ll be joined at the gaming table by two guests: Mikey Neilson of Chronicles of the Nerds, and our very own AdministratriX Tina!

But first, we’ve got a job for you:

As Mentioned in Episode 60 – Rachel Summers and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

4 comments

Listen to the podcast here!

Art by David Wynne. Prints and cards available until 6/14/2015 in the shop, or contact David for the original.
The last thing you see before you die. (Uncanny X-Men #206)
Do you ‘ship Storm and Bree Morrell now? You probably should. (Uncanny X-Men #206)
The outfits in this arc are just 100% amazing. (Uncanny X-Men #206)
Damnit, Rachel. This is why we can’t have nice things. (Uncanny X-Men #206)
“Teamwork! Our only weakness!” (Uncanny X-Men #206)
“It’s Madelyne! They’ve shot her! And dyed her hair! And given her fairly extensive cosmetic surgery!” (Uncanny X-Men #206)
Wolverine hates Arizona. (Uncanny X-Men #207)
We were going to make up a drinking game based around how many times Wolverine really or metaphorically kills Rachel in this story, but you would die of alcohol poisoning by the end of the first issue. (Uncanny X-Men #207)
Spoiler: It’s a metaphor. (Uncanny X-Men #207)
THE OUTFITS, THO. (Uncanny X-Men #207)
…And again. (Uncanny X-Men #207)
Same song, different issue. (Uncanny X-Men #207)
Neither of you is wrong. You’re just both assholes. (Uncanny X-Men #207)
Well, that escalated quickly. (Uncanny X-Men #207)
THOSE. OUTFITS. THO. (Uncanny X-Men #208)
Kitty tells it like it is. (Uncanny X-Men #208)
Damnit, Selene. (Uncanny X-Men #208)
Feelings are boring. Murder is awesome. (Uncanny X-Men #208)
It really sucks to be a mortally wounded telepath, y’all. (Uncanny X-Men #208)
Oh, SNAP. (Uncanny X-Men #208)
What. Selene. No. What are you even doing. No, Selene. (Uncanny X-Men #208)
No, but seriously: costume satin, right? (Uncanny X-Men #208)
Well, then. (Uncanny X-Men #208)
Never not funny. (Uncanny X-Men #209)
And then, it got weird. Weirder. (Uncanny X-Men #209)
‘Kay. (Uncanny X-Men #209)
That one time a member of the Inner Circle wore a costume so bad it actually killed him. (Uncanny X-Men #209)
Fun fact: this is the second time they’ve pulled this particular move. (Uncanny X-Men #209)
Okay, that’s actually pretty awesome. (Uncanny X-Men #209)
Seeya in Excalibur, kid! (Uncanny X-Men #209)
Next Week: New Mutants breaks our hearts, over and over and over.

LINKS AND FURTHER READING LISTENING:

60 – Rachel Summers and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

47 comments

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | Email | RSS

Art by David Wynne. Prints and cards available until 6/14/2015 in the shop, or contact David for the original.
Art by David Wynne. Prints and cards available until 6/14/2015 in the shop, or contact David for the original.

In which Rachel Summers went to sleep with Wolverine’s claws in her dreams and now there’s claws in her lungs and when she got out of bed this morning she tripped on her traumatic backstory and by mistake she dropped the Phoenix Force in the sink while the water was running and she could tell it was going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

X-PLAINED:

  • Freedom Force
  • Supervillains’ day jobs
  • Uncanny X-Men #206-209
  • The X-Men’s first brief tenure in San Francisco
  • Terrible house guests
  • Lindsay McCabe
  • David Ishima
  • Bree Morrell
  • A metaphorical ghost story
  • Lycanthropy, but dumber
  • The crossing of several ethical lines
  • Death by narrative stasis (and also impaling)
  • Craft night at the Hellfire Club
  • Death by costume satin (and also heart failure)
  • One way to write someone out of a book
  • Our favorite Summers kids
  • X-Music

Special thanks to Elle Collins

NEXT WEEK: The New Mutants break your heart.

You can find a visual companion to this episode on our blog!

Find us on iTunes or Stitcher!

Rachel 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!

Buy prints of this week’s illustration at our shop, or contact David Wynne for the original!

Rachel & Miles Review the X-Men, Episode 40

13 comments

Week of June 3, 2015 –

In which one series ends better than another, Marguerite Bennett is your god now, and Secret Wars continues to be a suspiciously well-constructed summer event.

REVIEWED:

  • Wolverines #20 (00:49)
  • All-New X-Men #41 (6:37)
  • Giant-Size Little Marvel AvX #1 (11:04)
  • *Years of Future Past #1 (12:44)
  • Secret Wars #3 (16:34)
  • X-Tinction Agenda #1 (21:03)

*Pick of the Week (23:34)

Rachel and Miles X-Plain the X-Men is 100% ad-free and listener supported. These video reviews–and everything else here–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!

June 2015 Shirt of the Month – Three Wolverine Moon, by Tyler Crook

3 comments

Screen Shot 2015-05-30 at 11.09.34 PM

Because sometimes correct taxonomy* has to take a back seat to the rule of cool.

3 Wolverine Moon_announcementart

Artist Tyler Crook (B.P.R.D., Harrow County) brings your wildest dreams–and our favorite persistent error–to howling life on this stunning shirt, which features not only a luminous full moon, but two entire Wolverines more than t-shirts with only one Wolverine on them.

Three Wolverine Moon is available on a wide variety of shirts, which can be worn consecutively or concurrently for additional simultaneous Wolverines; as well as tote bags, throw pillows, and stickers. It’ll be up in our shop until July 1, 2015, after which it will disappear forever.

*Yes, we are aware that wolverines are not wolves. That’s what makes it funny.

 

As Mentioned in Episode 59 – X is for Xtinction, with Chris Sims & Chad Bowers

4 comments

Listen to the podcast here!

Art by David Wynne. Prints and cards available until 6/7/2015 in the shop, or contact David for the original.
What you see is pretty much what you get with this one. (X-Men ’92 promotional art.)
Not your mama’s Westchester: Meet Baron Kelly and his warwolves. (X-Men ’92 #1)
The early ’90s distilled into a single cover image. ((X-Men vol. 2 #14)
The cover of X-Factor #85 features three men with at least four men’s worth of individual muscles between them.
Animated Cyclops in a nutshell. (X-Men Collector’s Edition #4)
We have no idea where this comes from, but, yes.
What’s more ’90s than Sentinels attacking the X-Men while they’re playing LASER tag at the Westchester mall? Hint: NOTHING. (X-Men ’92 #1)
The gatefold cover of X-Men vol. 2 #1.
MASTER OF WORD BALLOONS! X-Men vol. 2 #1
Partying like it’s 1991. (X-Men vol. 2 #1)
Next Week: Rachel Summers and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

LINKS AND FURTHER READING:

 

59 – X is for Xtinction, with Chris Sims and Chad Bowers

20 comments

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | Email | RSS

Art by David Wynne. Prints and cards available until 6/7/2015 in the shop, or contact David for the original.
Art by David Wynne. Prints and cards available until 6/7/2015 in the shop, or contact David for the original.

In which Chris and Chad teach us to stop worrying and love the ‘90s; the line between parody and homage is thin and flexible; everything happens at the mall; no one wants to play volleyball with Cyclops; and we totally fail to resolve the question, “Does a mall babe eat chili fries?”

WARNING: This episode contains minor spoilers for X-Men ’92 #1.

X-PLAINED:

  • The Westchester Wars
  • Battleworld
  • X-Men ’92 #1
  • Digital vs. print pacing
  • A continuity error
  • Narrative restrictions of Battleworld
  • The actual X-Men of 1992 (and the post-Claremont X-Universe)
  • X-Men Adventures
  • X-Men Collector’s Edition
  • Mutatant Genesis
  • X-Cutioner’s Song
  • Early Deadpool
  • Piecing together the Marvel Universe from trading cards
  • The X-Men animated series
  • Concurrent and complimentary adaptation
  • Cassandra Nova ‘92
  • The fine line between homage and parody
  • Definitive story arcs of the 1990s

NEXT WEEK: Rachel Summers and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

You can find a visual companion to this episode on our blog!

Find us on iTunes or Stitcher!

Rachel 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!

Buy prints of this week’s illustration at our shop, or contact David Wynne for the original!

Rachel & Miles Review the X-Men, Episode 39

16 comments

Week of May 27, 2015 –

In which it’s all Secret Wars all the time; Dennis Hopeless is a consistent source of Feels; Old Man Logan fills the Wolverine-Western-shaped hole in our lives; Jubilee wins; and we are forced to radically rethink some assumptions about big summer crossover events.

REVIEWED:
*Inferno #1 (0:27)
Secret Wars Journal #1 (4:42)
X-Men ’92 Infinite Comic #1 (7:17)
Old Man Logan #1 (11:05)

*Pick of the Week (13:42)

Rachel and Miles X-Plain the X-Men is 100% ad-free and listener supported. These video reviews–and everything else here–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!