In which we celebrate our tenth anniversary by X-Plaining what may be the most reviled X-arc; you should not try this at home; Mystique is so much better than this story; Azazel is a really boring devil; Nightcrawler should probably be missing a hand; the Xavier School definitely does not have an HR department; and we would prefer that you not pee on Iceman.
X-PLAINED:
Nightcrawler’s (most recent) parentage
Uncanny X-Men #428-434
X-Men Blue: Origins #1
The X-Men, like, in general
Nightcrawler (Kurt Wagner)
Some narrative choices
Mystique
Baron Christian Wagner
Marvel Europe
Azazel
Church sex
Nightstreaker
Isla des Demonas
Foibles of Warren Kenneth Worthington III
Annie and Carter Ghazikhanian
Abyss
Kiwi Black
The Cheyarafim and Neyaphem
Bad times with psychic therapy
Post-traumatic supervillainy
Uncool Hell
A miracle of magnetism
The only cool thing in Uncool Hell
A very elegant retcon
X-Muppets
Characters who deserve more page space
Miles’s favorite X-Person
What the Worthington Corporation does
A character who could reasonably be Azazel’s kid
NEXT EPISODE: Back to X-business as usual!
Check out the visual companion to this episode on our blog!
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Jay here! It’s 1:30 AM, I’m scrambling to get Episode 104 up, and I’m dead on my feet, so I’m gonna keep this one pretty cursory.
Four days is a lot of convention. I know there are shows where it’s standard, but we really, really felt the extra day today.
I don’t even know.
I’m really tired, y’all.
Some stuff happened?
OH! There was some really great cosplay.
And we did a bunch of sketches and forgot to take pictures of most of them.
The end of a con is always pretty bittersweet. We’re exhausted and very ready to be home, but we also had an amazing time and saw (and made!) a lot of very dear friends who we will now miss dreadfully!
Speaking of which, we have to send David back to the UK tomorrow, and that sucks, because he’s awesome. Someone invent safe and affordable teleportation now, please.
Ooh, maybe I should do a con highlights list! Yeah, I’m gonna do that.
ECCC 2016 HIGHLIGHTS:
MEETING YOU! We know our listeners are awesome, but, man, nothing drives that point home like meeting you in person. You are universally delightful. One of you brought Miles beer.
Meeting creators! Scott Koblish is a national treasure, y’all. Also, apparently a lot of people whose work we really, really love listen to the show; which is both awesome and intimidating as hell.
Seeing old friends and meeting new. Man, we’re going to miss you so much.
THE LIVE SHOW. Oh. My. God.
The Hamilton cold open actually gets its own list item, because I am incredibly proud of that ridiculousness, and because Scott Koblish is–again–a national treasure; because he not only dove headfirst into that ridiculousness, but did it again the next night at our birthday party while standing on a chair.
SPEAKING OF WHICH, our 2nd birthday party was so damn fun. Phoenix comics was amazing! You were amazing! The cake was amazing! Going to a bar and sitting down and eating non-cake afterwards and talking until stupid o’clock was amazing!
Okay, look, this is my favorite show. (Sorry, RCCC: you’re lovely and our hometown con, but ECCC got a seven-year head start working its way into my heart.) I know the people who run it. I know a ton of people who go. I know the city, and I have a great place to crash, and basically I love ECCC and I love all of you and this has been a nonstop-amazing four days. Thank you. So much.
I’m going to borrow some words from David, who’s already said it far better than I can at this point: “All in all, ECCC has been an amazingly fun adventure full of life affirming positivity. I keep wanting to do a (series of) tweet(s) acknowledging all the great people I’ve met this weekend, but there are just too many. I would inevitably forget someone, so it’s better if I don’t do it. Just know: if I spent time with you, I’m glad I did, you are awesome.”
AND HERE ARE A FEW PHOTOGRAPHS FROM TODAY:
LOOK AT THESE PUNK X-MEN LOOK HOW AWESOME THEY ARE
Someone wanted me to draw a Warlock book plate in their X-Men sketchbook. (You can only see a corner of it in this photo, but the sketch on the facing page is gorgeous X-Factor Cyclops by Ibrahim Moustafa.)Remember Tea, that terrific Namor from earlier in the show? Today she was dressed up as Little Marvels AvX Cyclops, complete with a Bucky Bear!The nice folks at We Love Fine gave me a magnetic Goat Simulator goat, which I have spent the evening gleefully attaching to every metal or metal-studded object I could find–including David, who was still wearing his con badge under his jacket.
(We didn’t try any new Lush stuff today. Also, I think we accidentally left a bunch of it back in Portland. Maybe I’ll fold the rest into the roundups of cosplay and sketches later this week…)
