Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men

An Open Letter to the Guy Who Arrived Late to the Live Show, Sat in the Front Row, Pulled Out His Phone, Asked Repeated Questions About Whether We Subscribe to Identity Politics, Then Stormed Out

Dear Guy Who Arrived Late to the Live Show, Sat in the Front Row, Pulled Out His Phone, Asked Repeated Questions About Whether We Subscribe to Identity Politics, Then Stormed Out,

Jay here. I answered your questions in the episode, but I also want to take a minute to talk about some things I haven’t previously mentioned on the podcast:

My kid has never seen the city where I grew up.

They have never visited my parents’ house.

See, if we go there, I can’t use public restrooms that align with my gender identity and presentation. If I have a medical emergency, doctors can refuse to treat me because I’m trans. If my child has a medical emergency, the police can take them away; again, because I’m trans.

Do I subscribe to identity politics?

I would love for my identity to be apolitical, random guy. I would love it if my very existence weren’t treated by lawmakers as tantamount to public pornography. I would love it if my access to necessary medical care—not just gender-affirming care, but any medical care—weren’t subject to public approval of my gender identity. I would love it if the current administration weren’t doing its level best to erase people like me from both history and existence.

Do I subscribe to identity politics?

Last December, someone filed a malicious report to CPS about my family. Why? We don’t know. Fortunately, the caseworkers who showed up were sympathetic; fortunately, the claim was something immediately and definitively disprovable; but I would love to live in a world where I didn’t have to wonder if it was because my spouse or I disagreed with someone on the Internet while openly queer—and in my case, openly trans.

Do I subscribe to identity politics?

When we started this show, I still identified as female. The majority of the criticism we got during those years was of my voice and appearance.

Do I subscribe to identity politics?

As I said when you first asked, I believe that when lawmakers and public figures politicize specific identities, those identities become—without the consent of the people who carry them—political.

When some identities and relationships but not others are treated as pornographic, publicly acknowledging those identities and relationships becomes a political act.

When your government is attempting to erase you, continuing to live honestly becomes a political act.

And here you come, strolling into my space with your phone and your bad-faith questions, ignoring our answers because they don’t align with your petty agenda, storming out like a displeased toddler when the rest of the crowd increasingly clearly demonstrates that they’re not on your side.

Do I subscribe to identity politics?

Motherfucker, I subscribe to reality.

X-TRA: Jay, Miles, and Jonathan Hickman Spoil the Hell out of Inferno

Inferno #4 is out; and, as promised, we’ve got a bonus interview with Jonathan Hickman–unedited this time, so please forgive the audio–going into the gory details of the miniseries and its finale! (Again, spoiler warning–we can’t emphasize this enough–we spoil Inferno, including its ending, real hard. Listen at your own risk.)

Strange Eyes and Brilliant Minds

Last night, Jay gave a talk about the mutant metaphor and representation at Books With Pictures in Portland, Oregon. Here’s most of it!

Minicomic Madness at RCCC

minicomics_rccc

WHOA DANG ROSE CITY COMIC CON WAS SO GOOD! We met a zillion of you, and you were universally delightful! We did a ton of panels and threw a ridiculous party! And we shared a booth with the splendid Al Ewing, and he and Jay took advantage of the weird plethora of index cards we always bring to shows and spent their spare moments making minicomics, which we’ve collected here for your edutainment!

Click through for road safety, karaoke, vacuum friendship, and more!

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What I Did on My Summer Vacation, by Jay (Age 33)

The closest approximation of Havok’s powers in the standard emoji set is concentric hearts.

I discovered this a few months back, texting with the amazing Tea Fougner. “It kind of fits,” I remember typing. “I mean, the movie version has very Care Bear powers.”

There followed a Step 3, with a series of question marks; but by the end of the conversation, we had decided to make and exchange Summers Brothers Care Bears.

(I also ended up making a tiny Captain America bear, which astute readers will recognize as a panel-accurate replica of the Captain America bear Cyclops canonically owns, which appeared for one panel sometime in the late ’90s. Jean won it for him at a fair. Comics are great, y’all.)

ANYWAY, here are some process photos and notes. ENJOY!

UPDATE: Tea just sent me a slew of Havok Bear process photos and notes, so those will be up next week!

Also, since I forgot to link it initially, you can see both bears in action in this video review!

 

 

Jay Reviews the X-Men, Episode 89

Week of June 22, 2016:

In which Jay grudgingly reviews YET ANOTHER book with Deadpool in the title (but enjoys it); A Year of Marvels is slightly baffling; and Katie P. drops by for the panel of the week!

REVIEWED:

  • *Deadpool V Gambit #1 (00:39)
  • A Year of Marvels: The Incredible #1 (02:37)

*Pick of the Week (04:49)

Filmed at Books With Pictures in Portland, OR. Special thanks to Katie Proctor.


Jay 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!

Come join us on Imzy!

Jay Reviews the X-Men, Episode 85

Week of May 18, 2016:

In which Miles takes a day off; All-New Wolverine continues to be an awful lot of fun; and Old Man Logan is bleak and brilliant.

REVIEWED:

  • All-New Wolverine #8 (00:34)
  • *Old Man Logan #6 (02:37)

*Pick of the Week (04:12)


Filmed at Books With Pictures in Portland, OR.

Jay 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!

Come join us on Imzy!

The Heartily Enjoyable Train Wreck of X-Men: Apocalypse

apocalypse

Jay here!

Reviewing media here always feels like straddling a fence. On one hand, I’m a professional critic, and that’s a lens that never really goes away. On the other hand, when I’m writing or talking at xplainthexmen.com, I’m largely speaking as a fan, to other fans; and my considerations change accordingly. Sometimes, if I’m lucky, those perspectives line up, and everything is smooth sailing.

Other times, it’s X-Men: Apocalypse.

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Late-Night Q&A with Jay and Chris

Jay here! X-Men ’92 co-writer and all-around rad dude Chris Sims was in town last week, and after a few days of weird theme parks, pizza, Powell’s, and blowing a LOT of quarters on the X-Men arcade game, we decided to sit down for a spur-of-the-moment late-night Q&A session, featuring fancy tea, a whooooooole lot of sunglasses, and PROBABLY not Chad Bowers hiding in nearby foliage:

Thanks to everyone who sent in questions!


Jay 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!

Come join us on Imzy!

The Whole Cyclops Has a Good Day Sketchbook, as of April 2016

Jay here! Because a handful of people have asked for them all in one place, here are the full current contents of the Cyclops Has a Good Day sketchbook, in chronological order.

(In the name of being precise about these kinds of things, I should note that these are not all of the Cyclops Has a Good Day drawings that I have–there are a good 6-10ish that are free-floating or digital–just the ones in the official sketchbook. I may add the others later, but they’re somewhat more scattered at the moment.)