Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men

As Mentioned in Episode 296 – Hard Choices

Listen to the episode here.


296 – Hard Choices

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

In which Magneto doesn’t really do work/live divide; Amazing X-Men is a bit of a misnomer; Exodus is the lawful evil to Fabian Cortez’s chaotic evil; smoking is bad for you; moisture molecular inversion is fairly definitely not a real thing; Earth-295 Quicksilver and Earth-616 Cyclops would probably get along; OSHA would probably like a word with the Madrii; Gambit had ONE JOB; and there are no superheroes in the Age of Apocalypse.

X-PLAINED:

  • An unlikely team-up
  • Relative amazingness
  • Amazing X-Men #1-5
  • Color separations
  • Comics credits
  • The Brotherhood of Mutants and/or Chaos
  • The Great Human Airlift
  • Exodus (more) (again)
  • Best Quicksilver (Earth-295)
  • Abyss
  • A dubiously aerodynamic cape
  • One last job
  • Several points of semantic distinction
  • Lone Nanny & Cub
  • The most punchable man on Earth-295
  • A difficult choice
  • What it means to be X-Men
  • Dick Valentine
  • Jamie Madrox (Earth-295)
  • A world without superheroes
  • Universe numbering

NEXT EPISODE: X-Man!

CORRECTION: The line about fence-straddling that Jay attributed to Wonder Woman was in fact spoken by Hawkgirl.


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Rachel & Miles Review the X-Men, Episode 34

Week of April 22, 2015:

In which Black Vortex and Amazing X-Men wrap up, Juan Doe is the best at what he does, we are certainly not raising cyborg bees, and there is a lot to say about All-New X-Men #40.

REVIEWED:

  • Black Vortex: Omega #1 (0:44)
  • Wolverines #15 (2:55)
  • Amazing X-Men #19 (5:02)
  • *All-New X-Men #40 (6:55)
  • All-New X-Men #40 extended discussion (spoilers!) (9:53)

*Pick of the Week (15:52)

You can read Rachel’s Playboy.com op-ed about All-New X-Men #40 here (and now also at rachelandmiles.com!).


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!

Rachel and Miles Review the X-Men, Episode 31

Week of March 25, 2015.

In which Nightcrawler comes to an end, Rachel finally learns to appreciate Black Vortex, we have some feelings about Cyclops and Havok, and you should totally come to the ECCC meetup this Saturday.

REVIEWED:

  • Nightcrawler #12 (0:55)
  • Amazing X-men #18 (2:22)
  • Wolverines #12 (3:14)
  • *Uncanny X-Men #32 (5:02)
  • All the Black Vortex Tie-Ins (7:30)

*Pick of the Week (10:36)


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 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 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 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!

Rachel and Miles Review the X-Men, Episode 17

Week of December 10, 2014

In which we face another eight-book week, Miles makes Nauck faces, and Leverage-but-in-the-1940s-and-starring-Mystique-and-Destiny is Rachel’s favorite imaginary TV show.

Reviewed:

  • X-Men #22 (00:48)
  • Axis #7 (1:29)
  • Spider-Man and the X-Men #1 (2:43)
  • X-Force #13 (4:19)
  • Nightcrawler #9 (5:33)
  • *Amazing X-Men #14 (6:19)
  • Death of Wolverine: The Logan Legacy #6 (8:33)
  • Uncanny X-Men Annual #1 (10:44)

*Pick of the Week (12:46)

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!

NIGH INVULNERABLE WHEN BLASTIN’ t-shirts and stickers are available in our shop until the end of December.

Rachel and Miles Review the X-Men, Episode 15

Week of November 26, 2014

In which we really want a Nightcrawler-and-Northstar road-trip buddy movie and are guardedly optimistic about Cyclops.

Reviewed:
Cyclops #7 (00:25)
*Amazing X-Men #13 (2:37)
Death of Wolverine: The Logan Legacy #5 (6:06)
Wolverine and the X-Men #12 (8:48)

*Pick of the week (11:18)

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 10

Week of October 22, 2014

In which we compare a comic book to Nerds Rope (TM), and you should really be reading X-Force already.

Reviewed:

  • Amazing X-Men #12
  • Axis #3
  • Cyclops #6
  • X-Force #11*
  • All-New X-Factor #15
  • The Logan Legacy #2

*Pick of the week

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!