Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men

As Mentioned in Episode 523 – This World of Liars

Listen to the episode here.


523 – This World of Liars

Illustration by David Wynne

In which Wolverine learns to fly; pants are a basic human right; we decide to cherry-pick our Xorn retcons; Xavier’s eyebrows follow his mind; and the first year of New X-Men ends with a bang.

X-PLAINED:

  • The origin of the Shi’ar Imperial Guard
  • New X-Men #124-126
  • The current state of Charles Xavier’s body
  • G-Type
  • Neosaurus
  • Plutonia
  • Schism
  • Oracle
  • Stuf
  • Gladiator (more) (again)
  • Angel disambiguation
  • Several plans
  • Mutant justice
  • Several miracles of magnetism
  • Mummudrai
  • Horror movie shit
  • Subtle visual foreshadowing
  • A ruse
  • Education
  • Long-lost family members
  • What may or may not come after this

NEXT EPISODE: Fantomex!


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

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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!

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As Mentioned in Episode 514 – Plan 9 From Westchester

Listen to the podcast here.



LINKS & FURTHER READING:

If you’re interested in getting involved in community activism, here are some good places to start:

514 – Plan 9 From Westchester

In which we provide some inroads to resisting fascism in your community; pacifism has amazing abs; Cyclops and Wolverine play revolutionary chicken; Amelia Voght fails to live up to her narrative potential; Jean Grey continues to make spectacularly bad choices; Polaris deserves better; and Wolverine finally gets to stab Magneto.

X-PLAINED:

  • Community action and aid
  • X-Men #112-113
  • Uncanny X-Men #393
  • Genosha (more) (again)
  • Northstar (more) (again)
  • Dazzler (more) (again)
  • Sunpyre (more) (again)
  • Hector Rendoza (more) (again)
  • Paulie Provenzano (more) (again)
  • Frenzy (more) (again)
  • Amelia Voght (more) (again)
  • St. Sebastian thirst traps
  • Sewer adventures
  • Post-Apocalypse Cyclops (more) (again)
  • Awkward conversations about feelings
  • Implausible knitting
  • The Age of Apocalypse X-Babies
  • A protracted confrontation
  • Bad strategy
  • A confusing ruse
  • Some stabbing
  • What happens to the unlikeliest X-Men
  • Jean Grey as Charles Xavier’s heir
  • Best potential uses of Hector Rendoza

NEXT EPISODE: The secret (retconned) origin of Wolverine!


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

Find us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify!

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 Dashery shop!

As Mentioned in Episode 513 – Eve of Destruction

Listen to the episode here.



LINKS AND FURTHER READING:

513 – Eve of Destruction

In which Jay and Miles make an announcement; the X-Men are down to bare bones; Cyclops and Corsair are stunningly bad at feelings; Trish Tilby is stunningly bad at journalism; Magneto says goodbye to nuance; and Jean Grey assembles a team.

X-PLAINED:

  • X-Corps vs. X-Corp
  • A thing that will be happening in a few months
  • The story so far
  • Uncanny X-Men #391-392
  • X-Men #111
  • The state of the X-Men
  • A short-lived Cyclops costume
  • A reunion
  • A sorry excuse
  • Resolution, somewhat
  • Genosha (more) (again)
  • Conflict of interest
  • Several excellent villain speeches
  • Joanna Cargill (Frenzy) (again)
  • Jean-Paul Beaubier (Northstar) (again)
  • Hector Rendoza
  • Yet another angry mob
  • Paulie Provenzano (Omerta)
  • Leyu Yoshida (Sunpyre)
  • Ice skating in Rockefeller Center
  • Our picks for a new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants

NEXT EPISODE: Eve of Destruction concludes!


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

Find us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify!

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 Dashery shop!

493 – Now a Major Motion Picture

In which the first X-Men film turns 25 (and holds up remarkably well).

X-PLAINED:

  • A startling absence
  • The X-Men’s big-screen debut
  • An X-film that might have been
  • X-Men (2000), in general; and related publications
  • Some very casting
  • What makes a good adaptation
  • Wolverine’s hair
  • Those costumes
  • The cinematic X-Men
  • The cinematic Brotherhood
  • Sabretooth’s eyebrows
  • Condensed backstories
  • The movie magic of magnetism
  • The worst toy of all time
  • Going to school with superheroes
  • Things we’d like to have seen in the movie

NEXT EPISODE: The origin of Thunderbird! (Not that one.) (Or that one.)


The visual companion to this episode is the film X-Men (2000).

Find us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify!

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 Dashery shop!

As Mentioned in Episode 491 – Live from the Library

Listen to the podcast here.



LINKS & FURTHER READING

491 – Live from the Library

In which we record live from the Library of Congress; time travel complicates everything; X-Men is a fundamentally queer narrative; we attempt to summarize a lot of history very fast; and when identities are politicized, claiming them becomes a political act.

X-PLAINED:

  • LC-GLOBE
  • The first openly queer X-Man
  • Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men
  • Why we do what we do
  • Why the X-Men are worth studying
  • Returning nuance to critical discussion of media
  • A brief(ish) history of X-Men and queerness in X-Men
  • Iceman Watch
  • Retroactive foreshadowing
  • The mutant metaphor
  • Found family
  • Subtext
  • Text
  • Facets of mutant activism
  • Coming-out stories
  • Various vectors of diversity
  • Some comics Jay wrote
  • Comics in libraries
  • Where to start with Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men
  • X-Men for horror fans
  • Our favorite X-Men lineups
  • Identity politics
  • The T-O virus vs. the Legacy Virus

NEXT EPISODE: Brain Sharks!


This episode doesn’t exactly have a traditional visual companion, but you can click through the entire slide deck from the live show–and find links to the essays we mentioned–on our blog.

Jay has some additional thoughts on identity politics, which you can read here.

Find us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify!

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 Dashery shop!

 

488 – There Goes the Moon (Mutant X May, Part 3)

In which we reap the consequences of our choices; possession is 18/10 of the law; Sinister dresses for the occasion; Hank gets his groove back; Havok of Earth-1298 is a jerk; Hank loses his groove; Captain America blows up the moon; the Beyonder experiences a stirring; Dracula makes a deal; and Mutant X May comes to an end.

X-PLAINED:

  • The aftermath of Mutant X
  • Mutant X #19-32
  • Mutant X Annual 2001
  • The story so far
  • Character color coding
  • Some telepathic misdirection
  • Apocalypse of Earth-1298
  • Charles Xavier of Earth-1298
  • Professor X’s Juggernaut-fightin’ mullet
  • A whole lot of possession
  • Fake Galactus
  • Several fears
  • X-Man of Earth-1298
  • Child batteries
  • The worst place for a portal to the Negative Zone
  • How Hank McCoy became the Brute
  • Vampire problems
  • The Marauders of Earth-1298
  • The Outcasts of Earth-1298
  • Cloak & Dagger of Earth-1298
  • James Hudson of Earth-1298
  • The Avengers of Earth-1298
  • The Beyonder of Earth-1298 who is also kind of the Goblin Force
  • Several additional superheroes
  • A last stand
  • The appeal of alternate timelines
  • Earth-1298’s best glow-ups

NEXT EPISODE: Attack of the Meatspore Stormtroopers!


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

Find us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify!

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 Dashery shop!