In which Rose City Comic Con was in fact pretty awesome; we return to Marvel Presents; Colossus has a bad day; Ann Nocenti engages in some bipartisan satire; Cyclops has a bad day; Moira MacTaggert gets possessed again; Master Mold is really hard to kill; you should absolutely not send Jay naked leprechaun pictures; sentinels are basically rationalization engines; and that is really not how consciences work.
NOTE: In this episode, we said that the U.S.S.R. dissolved in 1989. That actually happened in 1991.
ADDITIONAL NOTE: THE NYCC PANEL HAS BEEN MOVED. IT IS ON THURSDAY, NOT FRIDAY.
X-PLAINED:
Sentinel Aesthetics
Prime Sentinels
“Colossus: God’s Country”
Butt physics
The Cold War
Colossus’s feelings about porn
The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library
Some varyingly dubious politics
The Cold Warriors
Alexander, who is probably not actually either Colonel Sanders or Howard Hughes
Bipartisan satire
Jay’s grandfather
An uncomfortable picnic
Limbs
Number Six (but not that one)
Terrible neighbors
“Cyclops: The Retribution Affair”
Bobbie and Mary Campbell
Master Mold (again)
Stephen Lang (again)
Servitors
A well-honed lobster alert system
The Retribution Virus
Conscience
A terrible party
Kitty Pryde’s Gal Pal Squad
Community Organizer Magneto
NEXT EPISODE: Live from Rose City Comic Con!
You can find a visual companion to this episode on our blog.
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!
We’re in the process of migrating our official shop to TeePublic! Click over to check it out! (You can still find the designs we haven’t moved yet at Redbubble.)
In which we return to Excalibur, and Excalibur returns to form; “Girls’ School from Heck” is way better than we remembered; Jay has strong feelings about penmanship; we examine the semantics of field hockey; the band gets back together; Dai Thomas has no time for your comic-book bullshit; and you should never, ever install a good/evil switch in your technological abominations.
X-PLAINED
The first appearances of Colonel Vazhin
Perks of home recording
FlameCon 2017
Jay & Miles at Rose City Comic Con
Excalibur #32-36
“Girls’ School from Heck!”
St. Searle’s School for Young Ladies
St. Trinian’s and a large number of references thereto
Regional variations in boarding school hijinks
Miss Rutherford
A poorly staged panel
Phoebe Huntsman
Kitty Pryde’s penmanship
Margaret Thatcher’s weirdly wholesome fantasies
The kinda-reformation of Mesmero
The end of Chris Claremont’s run on Excalibur
Some complicated contradictions related to the ethics of consumption
An abduction
The ethics of psychic interrogation (kinda)
Mariner disambiguation
A rescue
An unlikely partnership
Darkmoor Research Center
Dr. Walshe
A somewhat convoluted plot
Whether the Danger Room could function as a bathroom
The physics of Asteroid M
NEXT EPISODE: Weapon X!
You can find the visual companion to this episode on our blog.
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!
We’re in the process of migrating our official shop to TeePublic! Click over to check it out! (You can still find the designs we haven’t moved yet at Redbubble.)
Special thanks to Gavia Baker-Whitelaw for helping us assemble the St. Searle’s marginalia!
In which the Cross-Time Caper has finally outstayed its welcome; we bid a reluctant farewell to Alan Davis; Inferno may or may not finally actually be over; Evil Doug Ramsey rocks our socks; the Shadow King is not a particularly nuanced villain; Kitty Pryde celebrates a birthday; and Courtney Ross represents an awful lot of dangling plot threads.
X-PLAINED:
Nocturne
Excalibur #21-24
The end of the Cross-Time Caper
Post-Alan Davis Excalibur
Chris Wozniak
Crusader X
Earth-2122
How to track Excalibur
Phoenix-related telepathic idiosyncracies
Our general indifference to the Shadow King
An alternate history of Earth-811
Earth-23238
An extended Judge Dredd riff
Puberty
Another John Byrne cameo
Several variations on Courtney Ross
Kitty Pryde’s 15th birthday
Nightcrawler’s beard
The Siege Courageous
NEXT EPISODE: Giant-Size Winter Special, featuring Kid Apocalypse & Dennis Hopeless!
You can find a visual companion to this episode on our blog!
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!
We’re in the process of migrating our official shop to TeePublic! Click over to check it out! (You can still find the designs we haven’t moved yet at Redbubble.)
Art by David Wynne. Prints, cards, and coffee mugs available at the shop, or contact David to purchase the original.
In which we find the idea of Jack Kirby as G-d deeply comforting; “Jercules” is our new favorite insult; the difference between camp and divinity is good backlighting; Zeus does not have the moral high ground; Ron Lim’s Captain Britain is the definitive cad; the Demon Druid is the saddest supervillain; Archangel broods like it’s his day job; and Jay gets to do all the fun voices for once.
X-PLAINED:
The Upstarts
An inflatable Batman
New Mutants #81
Excalibur #20
X-Factor #47
Our favorite Magma story
The best insult
Pugilistic impunity
A context-inappropriate oath
The worst film festival
Fighting fire with Magma
The Demon Druid
A Satanic pirate tavern
Reactorhenge
The depths of fuchsia
Archangel’s deeply weird comfort mechanisms
Some dude named Greg
Publishing delays
NEXT WEEK: Lady Mandarin, feat. Sarah Kuhn
You can find the visual companion to this episode on our blog!
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!
We’re in the process of migrating our official shop to TeePublic! Click over to check it out! (You can still find the designs we haven’t moved yet at Redbubble.)
Art by David Wynne. Prints and cards available at the shop, or contact David to purchase the original.
Best cover, or best cover? (Nah, the best cover is Excalibur #4, but this one is pretty darn good, too.) (Excalibur #16)
Whoops. (Excalibur #16)
I’m throwing in some episode-irrelevant bonus swashbuckling this week, because that’s how much I love you. (Excalibur #16)
SO THERE. (Excalibur #16)
See?! Rachel’s barbarian-warrior costume is TOTALLY P.E.N.I.S.-five! (Excalibur #16)
See also: that one scene from Ghostbusters. (Excalibur #16)
Those are some very well-drawn tentacles. (Excalibur #16)
Remember that one time Kitty Pryde straight-up stabbed someone in the back? BECAUSE THAT HAPPENED. (Excalibur #16)
This is the last Alan Davis cover we’ll see for a while. Please join me in a moment of silent mourning. (Excalibur #17)
Much disguise very mystery. (Excalibur #17)
There is… a lot going on in these two panels. (Excalibur #17)
Except, wait, if this is just a super distant planet, then this ISN’T alt-Jean, except it still sort of is, and there’s also the Lockheed and OH GOD WHAT’S EVEN HAPPENING (Excalibur #17)
FUCK. YEAH. RACHEL. (Excalibur #17)
Nigel Frobisher: a jerk in any universe. (Excalibur #17)
You tried. (Excalibur #17)
‘Kay. (Excalibur #17)
AND THAT’S WHY YOU ALWAYS LEAVE A NOTE (Excalibur #17)
It’s like Freaky Friday, but only halfway. Vaguely Abnormal Friday. (Excalibur #18)
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN: I would like to lodge my official complaint regarding this shameless waste of Speed Racer homage. Yrs., Jay Edidin (Excalibur #18)
‘Kay. (Excalibur #18)
NOTHING WILL EVER BE OKAY AGAIN. (Excalibur #18)
Jamie is a creep, but his powers are super cool. (Excalibur #18)
I got nothing. (Excalibur #18)
False-flag X-Men covers are kind of a running joke in this series. (Excalibur #19)
NOPE. (Excalibur #19)
Oh, Emma. (Excalibur #19)
Well, that’s unsettling on a lot of levels. (Excalibur #19)
“And then I’m going to feed you ice chips while you’re asleep!” (Excalibur #19)
Art by David Wynne. Prints and cards available at the shop, or contact David to purchase the original.
In which the Cross-Time Caper continues; alliteration is awesome; someone else’s geopolitical conflict is not an appropriate place to play out your pirate fantasies; we are definitely not actually going to eat Alan Davis’s brains; Jamie Braddock is Evil Rex Racer; Widget eats a car; Rick Leonardi is the definitive fill-in artist; the problem is patriarchy; and everything’s sticky in Madripoor.
X-PLAINED:
X-Manga
Excalibur #16-19
Crosstime
A John Carter riff
A mysterious and dubiously reliable narrator
A terrible pick-up line
Kymri
Anjulie
Gender-neutral fantasy armor
Implicit fellatio in several media
Space Fred Savage
An alternate Jean Grey (and her untimely demise)
Tullamore Voge
A grand tourney
A deeply disappointing pastiche
ORZ-1
Dirty Pair (and a sustained riff thereon)
What makes a train sexy
Wolverine’s table manners
Jim Jaspers vs. Jamie Braddock vs. Jamie Jeffers
NEXT EPISODE: Fill-In Frenzy!
You can find a visual companion to this episode on our blog!
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!