Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men

Tag: giant-size special

As Mentioned in Episode 474 – Giant-Size Special #13 (feat. Anthony Oliveira)

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Hey, that’s not what Warlock looks like in this series! (Warlock #1)
Jeez, Doug’s coffin needs to put up a NO TRESPASSING sign or something. (Warlock #1)
We had to really try to not just post all of Warlock’s transformations in this visual companion. (Warlock #1)
Meet Hope! No, not that one. The other one. (Warlock #1)
Anime hair, robot dinosaurs, and angst! (Warlock #2)
Classic (x2). (Warlock #2)
Warlock’s health is readable through the length of his cape. (Warlock #2)
Meet the Psi-Cops! (Warlock #3)
Our core cast! (Warlock #4)
Terry Gilliam’s been trying to make this movie for decades. (Warlock #4)
Jack Kirby smiles from the afterlife. (Warlock #4)
We love these kids. Wish they’d stuck around. (Warlock #4)
Mainspring can villain-splain with the best of them. Also… toucan? (Warlock #5)
I mean, to Warlock’s credit, it is pretty cool. (Warlock #5)
Team-up time! (Warlock #6)
“Alas, poor Bastion! I knew him-” SPAKKOW! (Warlock #6)
An oversimplification of the events of this story? Yes. Still hilarious? Also yes. (Warlock #7)
Friendship! (Warlock #7)
Grade A villainy, Mainspring! (Warlock #7)
I WANNA CLIMB IT. (Warlock #8)
“I know writers who use subtext, and they’re all cowards.” (Warlock #8)
If dad bods were evil. (Warlock #8)
/ FIGHT / TRANSFORM / MAGIC / ITEM / (Warlock #9)
“Eel” catch you later, dad! (Warlock #9)
When strength of identity meets strength of robot dinosaur. (Warlock #9)
If most of the cast will never be seen again, that’s not a bad panel to go out on. (Warlock #9)
Avengers Academy: Marvel’s Voices Infinity Comic by Anthony Oliveira!
NEXT TIME: Demon Bear!

LINKS AND FURTHER READING

474 – Giant-Size Special #13 (feat. Anthony Oliveira)

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Classic (x2). (Warlock #2)

In which the Warlock ongoing series is fun, and fun is good; people should maybe leave Doug Ramsey’s grave alone; Tony Stark is probably not in touch with the Indigo Girls; the heroes skate awfully close to the “no killing” line; Bastion gets exhumed, rehumed, and re-exhumed; you should really read the Avengers Academy Infinity Comic; and you remain the best listeners of any podcast, ever.

X-PLAINED:

  • X-related characters of Avengers Academy
  • Warlock vol. 5, #1-9
  • Warlock (more) (again)
  • M-Tech
  • Jay’s Bluey Test for all-ages media
  • The visual semiotics of Warlock
  • Project Mainspring
  • Hope (Esperanza Ling)
  • Chi-Chee
  • Psi-cops
  • Gatekeepers
  • Technarchs
  • The transmode virus
  • A fancy hat
  • Many guest stars
  • The Phalanx (more) (again)
  • Psiren
  • Psimon
  • The techno-mechanic virus
  • Complicated feelings
  • Psycho Man (more) (again)
  • Astro-computers
  • Hope’s actual powers
  • Template
  • Magus (more) (again)
  • Avengers Academy Marvel Voices Infinity Comic
  • Why there are so many Canadian comic-book writers
  • Superhero comics vs. religious texts
  • Defining heroism
  • Escapade
  • Captain America of the Railways
  • Bloodline
  • Red Goblin
  • Moon Girl
  • Kid Juggernaut
  • Blackheart
  • Ongoing storytelling
  • Emplate as a queer character
  • Marcus Wetherell
  • What else to read if you love Avengers Academy Marvel Voices Infinity Comic
  • The 11th Annual Super Doctor Astronaut Peter Corbeau Awards for Excellence at X-Cellence
  • Many people to whom we are profoundly grateful

NEXT EPISODE: The return of the Demon Bear!

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!

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As Mentioned in Episode 435 – Giant-Size Special #12 (feat. Kieron Gillen)

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Listen to the podcast here! And stay tuned for details of our 10th birthday party, coming April 13 at Books With Pictures!

Illustration by David Wynne
Just look at that cover! (Longshot vol. 2 #1)
Strong Fantastic Planet vibes, no? (Longshot vol. 2 #1)
Meet the Thingee! (Longshot vol. 2 #1)
Heaven, sort of. (Longshot vol. 2 #1)
The Statler and Waldorf of Baum, Kansas. (Longshot vol. 2 #1)
Aw, Betty. (Longshot vol. 2 #1)
Bad times. (Longshot vol. 2 #1)
Residents of the Albony Avenue Sanitarium. (Longshot vol. 2 #1)
The true form of the Thingee. (Longshot vol. 2 #1)
And straight on ’til morning. (Longshot vol. 2 #1)

435 – Giant-Size Special #12 (feat. Kieron Gillen)

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Illustration by David Wynne

In which we have had an eventful year; Longshot is a classic folk hero; writer Kieron Gillen makes a triumphant and mildly terrifying return to the show; and you remain the best listeners of any podcast, ever.

X-PLAINED:

  • Our tenth birthday party!
  • 2023
  • Longshot vol. 2 #1
  • Longshot as a folkloric archetype
  • Longshot (more) (again)
  • Dismal Nitch, Washington
  • The Thingee
  • Baum, Kansas
  • Corn
  • Betty
  • Barrie, Kansas
  • The Albony Avenue Sanitarium and several of its residents
  • Innocence, broadly
  • The Wuggly Ump, by Edward Gorey
  • Love
  • Immortal X-Men
  • Nathaniel Essex and several significant clones thereof
  • Defining Mister Sinister
  • Making Charles Xavier sympathetic
  • Reset phrases
  • Eternals
  • The 10th Annual Super Doctor Astronaut Peter Corbeau Awards for Excellence at X-Cellence
  • Many people to whom we are grateful

NEXT EPISODE: X-Men: Liberators

NOTE: If you want to avoid Immortal X-Men spoilers in our interview with Kieron Gillen, you can skip to 01:38:50 for the Corbeau Awards!

Special thanks to:

  • Matt Hunter
  • Dylan Higgins
  • Al Kennedy
  • Max Carleton
  • Kieron Gillen
  • Tea Fougner
  • Anna Stokes
  • All of our patrons
  • All of you listening, always <3

“Sinister Is Cloning This Town” performed by Steve and Erin Pence

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!

As Mentioned in Episode 396 – Giant-Size Special #11

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Listen to the episode here.

Art by David Wynne. Wanna buy the original? Drop him a line!
Illyana Rasputin knows what you did. (New Mutants: Truth or Death #1)
Bernard Chang channels Bob McLeod. (New Mutants: Truth or Death #1)
Bernard Chang channels Paul Smith. (New Mutants: Truth or Death #1)
“Well, you would have, but you left him at the altar and Rogue and Gambit took your spot…” (New Mutants: Truth or Death #1)
I’ve missed these kids. (New Mutants: Truth or Death #1)
Well, Monet is actually two kids, and… (New Mutants: Truth or Death #1)
Wolfsbane x-plains smooching. (New Mutants: Truth or Death #1)
And that jerk seagull doesn’t even care. (New Mutants: Truth or Death #1)
Basically, you’re all going to end up either awesome, dead, or ignored by most writers. (New Mutants: Truth or Death #2)
“Did you bring me a present, Uncle Mikhail?” (New Mutants: Truth or Death #2)
How to make a long conversation visually compelling, part one. (New Mutants: Truth or Death #2)
Bernard Chang channels Bill Sienkiewicz. (New Mutants: Truth or Death #2)
It’s easy to forget how much more control of her powers Rahne gained over a decade of comics. (New Mutants: Truth or Death #2)
Karma: even scarier than Magik. (New Mutants: Truth or Death #2)
Aww kid (New Mutants: Truth or Death #2)
Look at all that science! (New Mutants: Truth or Death #3)
If this was Mystique instead of Karma, she’d turn into an eagle right after saying that. (New Mutants: Truth or Death #3)
Now that is a title page. (New Mutants: Truth or Death #3)
When Best Teenagers become Best Young Adults. (New Mutants: Truth or Death #3)
How to make a long conversation visually compelling, part two. (New Mutants: Truth or Death #3)
It’s cool, Doug, you’ll come back to life and marry a large wife. (New Mutants: Truth or Death #3)
Aww hell yeah (New Mutants: Truth or Death #3)
Poor counterpart-less Magma and Karma look so bored. (New Mutants: Truth or Death #3)
Pure, uncut nostalgia. (New Mutants: Truth or Death #3)
NEXT EPISODE: Sabretooth betrays an X-team! Again!

LINKS AND FURTHER READING:

396 – Giant-Size Special #11

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

In which we spend too long trying to place a time-travel miniseries in continuity, Al Kennedy does us a solid, Bernard Chang draws some excellent New Mutants young and old, Al Ewing x-plains X-Men: Red, Forearm and Random play Nintendo, and we reveal the winners of The Ninth Annual Super Doctor Astronaut Peter Corbeau Awards for Excellence at X-Cellence!

X-PLAINED:

  • Jay’s spatial and temporal whereabouts
  • Cannonball, Mirage, Magik, Sunspot, Wolfsbane, Karma, Magma, Cypher, Warlock, and Douglock
  • New Mutants: Truth or Death
  • Kitty Pryde and Illyana Rasputin, gal pals
  • Triple-dog dares
  • Nova Roma, or not
  • Mikhail F**king Rasputin
  • The arrogance of reality warpers
  • How to write Magma
  • The Technarchy and the Phalanx
  • Hardee’s X-Men: Time Gliders
  • Farmboy chic
  • Bernard Chang’s 21 Panels
  • Branching vs. overwriting timelines
  • The effects of de-aging and history rewriting on immunology
  • Found family
  • She Who Swam With The Acanti
  • Sleep-Eeze Mattresses Starring The Hulk
  • Arrako
  • Continuity synchronicity
  • S.W.O.R.D. as a workplace drama
  • The moral downfall of Abigail Brand
  • The leadership styles of Storm, Magneto, and Sunspot
  • Himbo disambiguation
  • The fates of Armor, Risque, and Peeper
  • Mysterium Clicker
  • Santa Claus
  • The Ninth Annual Super Doctor Astronaut Peter Corbeau Awards for Excellence at X-Cellence

(Note: Our interview with Al Ewing contains spoilers for X-Men: Red!)

NEXT EPISODE: Sabretooth betrays an X-team! Again!

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!

As Mentioned in Episode 358 – Giant-Size Special #10

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Art by David Wynne. Wanna buy the original? Drop him a line!
I’d have picked this off the rack for its title treatment alone. (Daydreamers #1)
Skrull or Green Goblin? You be the judge! (Daydreamers #1)
(No fingernails were used in the construction of this possibly-imaginary boat.) (Daydreamers #1)
Damnit. (Daydreamers #1)
The first sign (heh) of the direction this universe is headed… (Daydreamers #2)
A passel of unlicensed guest stars. (Daydreamers #2)
WHAT THE DUCK?! (Daydreamers #2)
Howard’s idyllic not-actually family. (Daydreamers #3)
It’s weird, right? (Daydreamers #3)
Ouch. (Daydreamers #3)
This whole sequence is both very creepy and very sad. (Daydreamers #3)
Franklin deals with grief. (Daydreamers #3)

LINKS & FURTHER DUCKERY

 

358 – Giant-Size Special #10

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

In which Hub & Lisa X-Plain Howard the Duck; Jay & Miles X-Plain Daydreamers; and Jonathan Hickman X-Plains his tenure on the X-line!

X-PLAINED:

  • The many lives of Moira MacTaggert
  • Feral moppets
  • Man-Thing and several characters who closely resemble Man-Thing
  • Howard the Duck
  • At least one Nexus of All Reality
  • Duck sex
  • Daydreamers #1-3
  • Never-Never Narnozbia
  • Tana Nile
  • A shadowy hunter and his ship of empty souls
  • A reasonably good Dr. Seuss riff
  • Duckworld, or an appealing facsimile thereof
  • H.E.R.B.I.E.
  • Jonathan Hickman on X-Men
  • The 7th Annual Super Doctor Astronaut Peter Corbeau Awards for Excellence at X-Cellence

(Note: Our interview with Jonathan Hickman contains spoilers for September 2021’s Inferno #1!)

NEXT EPISODE: Excalibur!

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!

As Mentioned in Episode 319 – Giant-Size Special #9

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Listen to the episode here!

Art by David Wynne. Wanna buy the original? Drop him a line!
There’s… a lot of design happening here. (Further Adventures of Cyclops & Phoenix #1)
Even if the podcast couldn’t all be ink appreciation, the visual companion can! (Further Adventures of Cyclops & Phoenix #1)
Sir, this is a Wendy’s. (Further Adventures of Cyclops & Phoenix #1)
LOOK AT THAT BEARD. (Further Adventures of Cyclops & Phoenix #1)
THE DRAMA! (Further Adventures of Cyclops & Phoenix #1)
Tremble’s collection of human curiosities. (Further Adventures of Cyclops & Phoenix #1)
This might be my favorite look for Apocalypse. (Further Adventures of Cyclops & Phoenix #1)
This one’s pretty sharp, too, though. (Further Adventures of Cyclops & Phoenix #1)
What I’m getting here is that the Askani Sisterhood has been recruiting Asbury Park mermaids. (Further Adventures of Cyclops & Phoenix #2)
More artists should use color silhouettes–they can be such a cool effect! (Further Adventures of Cyclops & Phoenix #2)
Feelings… AND TEXTURES! (Further Adventures of Cyclops & Phoenix #2)
Marauder, schmaurader; I know a reaver when I see one. (Further Adventures of Cyclops & Phoenix #3)
The secret origin of ruby quartz! (Further Adventures of Cyclops & Phoenix #3)
“Sinister, you say? Ooh, that’s good. I should write that down.” (Further Adventures of Cyclops & Phoenix #3)
This is a bad plan and I do not want to be part of it. (Further Adventures of Cyclops & Phoenix #3)
LOOK AT THIS GLAM MOTHERFUCKER (Further Adventures of Cyclops & Phoenix #4)
Aw, he’s still got a heart, maybe, kind of. (Further Adventures of Cyclops & Phoenix #4)
Yeah, that’s not gonna happen. (Further Adventures of Cyclops & Phoenix #4)
TIME LOOP! TIME LOOP! (Further Adventures of Cyclops & Phoenix #4)

LINKS & FURTHER ADVENTURES

The written list of the SDAPCAfEaX winners will go up on Monday! If you are a creator who won and would like a physical award, drop us a line, and we will make it happen.

319 – Giant-Size Special #9 (feat. Vita Ayala, Tini Howard, and Leah Williams)

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

In which Jay and Miles receive a mysterious missive and are visited by three of our favorite X-writers; Further Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix is a pleasant surprise; Nathaniel Essex is the most dramatic man in the Marvel Universe; the sewers of Victorian London were a happenin’ place; Apocalypse isn’t even French; Beast is the flip-side of Sinister; community is for everyone; the Internet is (kind of) Krakoa; and death is fixable, but trauma might take a little more work.

X-PLAINED:

  • A quotation
  • Further Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix #1-4
  • A closed loop
  • Time travel with Scott Summers and Jean Grey
  • Mister Sinister (Nathaniel Essex)
  • A somewhat excessive visual aid
  • Beards
  • Cootie Tremble
  • The cultural context of sideshows
  • The first Marauders and/or Nasty Boys
  • Victorian Apocalypse
  • Strained allegories
  • Sanctity
  • Apocalypse vs. the Hellfire Club
  • Oscar the Somewhat Less Nasty Boy
  • Varyingly anachronistic costuming
  • The secret origin of ruby quartz
  • A very vague objective
  • A makeover
  • A closed time loop
  • Actual Cat Wizard Jonathan Hickman
  • Something Jay is not in fact going to pitch to Marvel
  • Creative dynamics and processes in the current X-line
  • Revolutionary joy
  • What’s cooler than one sword
  • The Sixth Annual Super Doctor Astronaut Peter Corbeau Awards for Excellence at X-Cellence

NEXT WEEK: Jay & Miles take a break

NEXT EPISODE: Excalibur gets several Peters and a wolf!

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!