Daredevil – Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men

As Mentioned in Episode 298 – Unlikely Avengers

June 21, 2020 Jay Leave a comment

All of our TeePublic profits this month are going to Trans Lifeline! Have you always wanted a mask that says THEY’RE NOT LASERS? Now’s your chance!

Listen to the episode here.

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

Seriously, can we not? (X-Universe #1)

Don’t worry; they all die in about a page and a half. (X-Universe #1)

“…ladies.” (X-Universe #1)

Blark 4 Lyfe (X-Universe #1)

See what we mean about the Darkseid thing? (X-Universe #1)

Damnit, Matt. (X-Universe #1)

These badasses! (X-Universe #1)

This should really have been the cover to #1. (X-Universe #2)

They’ve got names, and they’re not recognizable characters in a series that’s all about recognizability, so–yep, gonna die. (X-Universe #2)

DAMNIT, Matt. (X-Universe #2)

Clint Barton? James Rhodes? Lester Whatshisname? Who even knows, anymore? (X-Universe #2)

GOOD JOB, VICTOR VON DOOM. (X-Universe #2)

HE COULD STILL BE ALIVE (X-Universe #2)

That’s an awfully fancy red herring, there. (X-Universe #2)

NEXT EPISODE: What didn’t happen!

298 – Unlikely Avengers

June 21, 2020 Jay 10 comments

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In which the moments of X-Universe are better than the whole; the code name “Dirigible” carries some inherent risks; Tony Stark is often more interesting without Iron Man; Clint Barton is no James Rhodes; there is somehow a Matt Murdock who makes even worse choices than the one from Earth-616; nobody should ever trust Mikhail Rasputin; and the baby’s name really doesn’t matter.

X-PLAINED:

J. Jonah Jameson’s stance on mutants
A way to get cool stuff AND support Trans Lifeline
X-Universe #1-2
Gwen Stacy (Earth-295)
Some really obnoxious white savior tropes
The Marauders (Earth-295)
How to waste Arcade
Spider-nostalgia
Owl noises
Tony Stark (Earth-295)
Clint Barton and/or James Rhodes (Earth-295)
Dr. Donald Blake (Earth-616)
Dr. Donald Blake (Earth-295)
Blark
Mikhail Rasputin (Earth-295)
Ship, but not Ship
Ben Grimm (Earth-295)
Sue Storm (Earth-295)
Bruce Banner (Earth-295)
A great many overplayed references
Matt Murdock (Earth-295)
Manuel de la Rocha (Earth-295)
Victor Von Doom (Earth-295)
Marte and Rafe McGuffin
The Upscale Program
A very hazardous plan
The Stryfe Force
The dreams of Donald Blake
A red herring named Frankie
Augmented humans in a mutant-centric world
How Wolverine communicates with animals
How Professor X lost his hair

NEXT EPISODE: What-ifs and might-have-beens!

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!

Buy rad swag at our TeePublic shop! This June, we’ll be donating all of the profits to Trans Lifeline!

As Mentioned in Episode 112 – Embers of Inferno (feat. Sam Humphries)

June 10, 2016 Jay 4 comments

Listen to the episode here!

Art by David Wynne. Prints and cards available at the shop, or contact David to purchase the original.

“So, y’know–business as usual.” (Amazing Spider-Man #313)

The Ghostbusters references just keep coming! (Amazing Spider-Man #313)

HE’S NOT WRONG. (Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man #146)

This is in fact literally what it is like to work in publishing, all the time. (Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man #147)

CAN WE TALK ABOUT HOW JARVIS’S MOM IS A HUGE WRESTLING AFICIONADO? (Avengers #298)

Well, then. (Avengers #298)

He does this every time he fights a possessed machine. (Avengers #298)

No, seriously. Every time. (Avengers #299)

Stories involving Nanny and the Orphanmaker are never not super sad and messed up. (Avengers #299)

That one time the Avengers got back together in a tie-in to someone else’s crossover event. (Avengers #300)

Never leave your house. Seriously. (Power Pack #42)

Actually, no. Your house isn’t safe, either. (Power Pack #42)

And then a group of young children looked back nostalgically at the time they fought Sabretooth in a sewer. (Power Pack #44)

Aw. (Power Pack #44)

LIES. (The Mutant Misadventures of Cloak and Dagger #4)

For full effect, you have to imagine the narration being read by David Attenborough. (Daredevil #262)

And that was how Daredevil beat up a vacuum cleaner. (Daredevil #262)

It’s actually pretty surprising that no one else thought to do anything with possessed hospital equipment, because that is TERRIFYING. (Daredevil #263)

Officer Drillbit, in all his glory. (Daredevil #265)

For 1989 Daredevil, this ending is positively chipper. (Daredevil #265)

NEXT EPISODE: So. Much. Wolverine.

112 – Embers of Inferno (feat. Sam Humphries)

June 5, 2016 Jay 47 comments

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In which we cover (almost) all of the Inferno tie-ins with the help of writer Sam Humphries; the Marvel Universe used to be really X-Centric; Jarvis is unstoppable; Daredevil fights a vacuum cleaner; it’s probably best not to ask about the whole Celestial Madonna thing; Power Pack gets incredibly upsetting; working in comics makes you appreciate crossovers on a whole new level; and we’d all really have liked to have seen Guy Davis’s Inferno.

X-PLAINED:

Peter Quill’s brief music career
Widget
The Amazing Spider-Man #311-313
Spectacular Spider-Man #146-148
Web of Spider-Man #47-48
Avengers #298-300
Power Pack #42-44
Daredevil #262, 263, 265
Cloak and Dagger (vol. 3) #4
Fantastic Four #322-324
Inferno, as a whole
The fate of Madelyne Pryor
Jay’s Madelyne Pryor song
How working in comics taught us to appreciate crossovers
Our ideal Inferno artists

NEXT EPISODE: So. Much. Wolverine.

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

Find us on iTunes, Google Play, 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!

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

As Mentioned in Episode 106 – The X-Terminators

April 25, 2016 Jay 5 comments

Listen to the podcast here.

Art by David Wynne. Prints and cards available at the shop, or contact David to purchase the original.

Hi, Bill Gaines! (X-Terminators #1)

In which Bogdanove goes full Silver-Age romance-cover! (X-Terminators #1)

And so it was. (X-Terminators #1)

Wellp. (X-Terminators #1)

Can Bogdanove draw Boom Boom forever, please? (X-Terminators #1)

THIS KID IS AWESOME. (X-Terminators #1)

The cartoonishness of this series is really, really fun. (X-Terminators #1)

“Classic goblin behavior.” Did she learn about this in school? (X-Terminators #1)

JAIL BREAK TIME! (X-Terminators #1)

Boom Boom vs. vending machines. (X-Terminators #2)

I love the extent to which Hostess Fruit Pies became a running joke within actual Marvel comics. (X-Terminators #2)

So doomed. (X-Terminators #2)

This is probably a little too niche to describe as “every parent’s worst nightmare,” but I’m sure it hit home for someone. (X-Terminators #2)

#WINNING (X-Terminators #2)

Seriously, though–wouldn’t it be funnier if this were just a regular Viewmaster? (X-Terminators #2)

I can’t find the Ghostbusters production photo this is an homage to, but I swear it exists. (X-Terminators #3)

The living landscape of NYC quickly becomes legitimately terrifying, without ever quite losing its cartoonishness. (X-Terminators #3)

Incidental transitional panel, or hidden pitch for a whole new series? (X-Terminators #3)

Magic spells are ridiculous. (X-Terminators #3)

THOSE FACES. (X-Terminators #4)

You know that feeling when a crossover flies in from nowhere and whacks you in the back of the head? Yeah. (X-Terminators #4)

OKAY, THEN. (X-Terminators #4)

Wouldn’t that be multiplying it by 100? (X-Terminators #4)

Are… pigeons particularly notorious for meekly accepting destruction? Is that a thing? (X-Terminators #4)

And they all lived happily ever–HA, NO, JUST KIDDING. GO READ NEW MUTANTS. (X-Terminators #4)

NEXT WEEK: The fall of Magik.

LINKS & FURTHER LISTENING:

The entire Nextwave theme song.

106 – The X-Terminators

April 25, 2016 Jay 40 comments

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In which Nextwave is both canon and not-canon; Inferno officially begins; X-Terminators is basically a cartoon; Bill Gaines cannot catch a break; Artie and Leach are superbabies; Takeshi Matsuya is fantastic; you should probably never take our advice about anything; Boom Boom is pretty good at superhero costume design; Walter Peck was right; Miles still won’t stop saying that one line about stealing a baby; N’astirh is no pigeon; and “No Mutant Is an Island” is a patently inaccurate statement.

X-PLAINED:

The Beyond Corporation
The Defilers
X-Terminators #1-4
The first 35 issues of X-Factor, briefly
Two teams with the same name
Fredric Wertham
Bill Gaines
Crotus
Babies
A boarding school that may or may not be Phillips Exeter Academy
Muffy
Saint Simon’s Academy
Wiz Kid (Takeshi Matsuya)
Nuprin
Medical advice from goblins
The Goblin Buster
Metareferential snack food
RadSport Sport Fashion Outfitters
An exceptionally specific Ghostbusters reference
Helen and Tim
Dubious spell semantics
How not to incorporate a crossover into a miniseries, and vice versa
“No Mutant Is an Island”
A brief history of Magneto’s helmet
Definitive Magnetos

NEXT WEEK: The fall of Magik.

Special thanks to multiversal metacontinuity wizard Al Ewing for the last-minute assist on the cold open!

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

Find us on iTunes, Google Play, 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!

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

As Mentioned in Episode 88 – …Just Before Dawn

December 21, 2015 Jay One comment

Listen to the podcast here.

Art by David Wynne. Prints and cards available at the shop, or contact David to purchase the original.

You never forget your first ship. (X-Factor #24)

“I mean, if those ridiculous spring arms aren’t evil, I don’t know what is.” (X-Factor #24)

Vannapocalypse White. (X-Factor #24)

This and the following seven panels are the bottoms of eight pages of X-Factor #24, running parallel to the bulk of the action taking place above.

(X-Factor #24)

And then, Caliban joins the rest of the cast. (X-Factor #24)

Okay, this looks bad. (X-Factor #24)

Recognizable presidents are few and far between in comics. (X-Factor #25)

Remember that time Power Pack straight-up killed an old lady? Because that DEFINITELY HAPPENS in this issue. (X-Factor #25)

As a former student of Charles Xavier, Iceman knows that the most expedient solution to any crisis is to fake his own death. (X-Factor #25)

Well, that was cathartic. (X-Factor #25)

Look at those sharp new costumes! (X-Factor #26)

Aw, Hank. (X-Factor #26)

ABOUT DAMN TIME. (X-Factor #26)

AND THEN! (X-Factor #26)

NEXT WEEK: Giant-Size Winter Special #2!

LINKS & FURTHER LISTENING:

Teen Titans Wasteland is amazing, and you should listen to it right now.
Learn more about the Emu War in Interesting Times!

88 – …Just Before Dawn (Fall of the Mutants, Part 3 of 3)

December 21, 2015 Jay 27 comments

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In which X-Factor finally comes out ahead; Jay and Miles weigh in on the X-Men: Apocalypse trailer; En Sabah Nur is better at theater than tactics; no one does scale like Simonson; Iceman pulls an Xavier; Cyclops and Marvel Girl totally do it; and we conclude our three-part coverage of Fall of the Mutants.

X-PLAINED:

A potential (but unlikely) vector for resurrecting Cyclops-616
Events vs. crossovers
Our thoughts on the X-Men: Apocalypse trailer
X-Factor #24-26
Power Pack #35
Incredible Hulk #340
Captain America #339
Fantastic Four #312
Daredevil #252
Newsletters of Apocalypse
Some deeply dubious immunology
The fall of Caliban
Sense of scale
The kiss we’ve been waiting for
Teen Titans Wasteland
A recognizable ruse
A thematically significant crash landing
Some long-awaited resolution
How to judge an original-5 book
Sweatsuits of Apocalypse
The iconic X-Factor costumes
Fall of the Mutants tie-ins
Emus
The best-dressed X-Men

NEXT WEEK: GIANT-SIZE WINTER SPECIAL #2!

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!

As Mentioned in Episode 66 – The Mutant Massacre, Part 2

July 20, 2015 Jay 4 comments

Listen to the episode here!

Art by David Wynne. Prints and cards available until 7/26/2015 in the shop, or contact David for the original.

If this week’s illustration reminds you of last week’s, that’s because they’re two parts of this rad panorama! Again, prints are available until 7/26/2015 in the shop, or contact David for the original.

Mystique, what are you even doing? (X-Factor #9)

This, again. (X-Factor #9)

Passing privilege in action! (X-Factor #9)

That’s actually pretty clever. (X-Factor #9)

MOPPETS. (X-Factor #9)

Meanwhile in Apartment 3G… (X-Factor #10)

WRONG CHOICE, ANGEL. (X-Factor #10)

One horseman down, three to go. (X-Factor #10)

Damn, Jean. (X-Factor #10)

Ouch. (X-Factor #10)

OUCH. (X-Factor #10)

There is never a worst time to be a Power kid than during an X-line crossover. (Power Pack #27)

Everyone hates X-Factor. (Power Pack #27)

It really does kind of cheapen Sabretooth’s menace when a bunch of kids can take him down–even these kids. (Power Pack #27)

COMICS FOR KIDS. (Power Pack #27)

And then everything was sad forever. (Power Pack #27)

BEHOLD THIS MAJESTIC THUNDER GOD AND HIS MAJESTIC BEARD! (The Mighty Thor #373)

No, but seriously, though. (The Mighty Thor #373)

Thor has frog friends. (The Mighty Thor #373)

Have we mentioned that we love Thor? We love Thor. (The Mighty Thor #373)

There’s a reason that Walter Simonson is the gold standard for epic dialogue. (The Mighty Thor #374)

Aw. (The Mighty Thor #374)

There’s a lot of straight-up killing on the hero side of this event. (The Mighty Thor #374)

(X-Men #9, specifically.) (The Mighty Thor #374)

Thor: Definitely the best dude you know. (The Mighty Thor #374)

It’s funny, because miscommunication. (X-Factor #11)

“Run! It’s a crossover issue!” (X-Factor #11)

X-Factor drinking game: Drink every time someone has to explain the relationship between X-Factor and the X-Terminators. (X-Factor #11)

Halfway there, Apocalypse! (X-Factor #11)

Ouch. (X-Factor #11)

On the upside: Boom-Boom! (X-Factor #11)

NEXT WEEK: The New Mutants party like it’s 1299!

LINKS & FURTHER READING

Listen to Episode 65–The Mutant Massacre, Part 1–here!
You can find the Mutant Massacre reading order here.
Have you read Walter Simonson’s run of The Mighty Thor yet? You should really go do that. It starts here.

66 – The Mutant Massacre, Part 2

July 20, 2015 Jay 25 comments

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In which we wrap up our first official two-parter; Gambit ruins everything; Rachel has a theory about Mister Sinister; Marvel communication technology is behind the times; Trish Tilby is tired of your bullshit; Walter Simonson is the best of the best; X-Factor pulls it together; Power Pack gets uncomfortably dark; Miles has Thor feelings; and even more mutants die.

NOTE: This episode is the second of a two-parter! If you haven’t listened to Episode 65, where we cover the first half of the mutant massacre, you should probably do that before you listen to this one!

X-PLAINED:

Masque
Tentacle disambiguation
More of the Mutant Massacre
A Sinister hypothesis
Several Marauder-related retcons
X-Factor #9-11
Power Pack #27
The Mighty Thor #373-374
Trish Tilby
Artie & Leech
Several awkward reunions
Walter Simonson
The fall of Angel
Apocalypse’s horsemen
Yet another crossover that will probably scar the Power kids for life
Franklin Richards
Thor, Donald Blake, and Sigurd Jarlson
The best issue of any comic, ever.
The Tunnelers
Ongoing repercussions of the Mutant Massacre
Rachel & Miles’s horseman identities
Which X-Men could and should wield Mjolnir

NEXT WEEK: The New Mutants party like it’s 1299!

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!

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