New Mutants – Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men

As Mentioned in Episode 376 – Moore of This

June 19, 2022 Miles Leave a comment

Listen to the episode here.

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

You’ve come a long way from tick-tick-boom, Tabitha. (X-Force #63)

Dammit, X-Force! You were already living in the same house as the X-Men, and now you have their color scheme too? (X-Force #63)

When continuity is character. (X-Force #63)

Oh, great, it’s that dream again. (X-Force #63)

Yep, Lila Cheney is just that good. (X-Force #63)

“Alright, Agents! Just like we practiced: POSE!” (X-Force #63)

Ah, come on, Bobby – you’ve been to space and multiple other dimensions. Get over yourself. (X-Force #64)

Meanwhile in Spookytown (X-Force #64)

GAVEEDRA BENJAMIN SEVEN YOU PUT THOSE SWORDS DOWN RIGHT NOW OR I SWEAR (X-Force #64)

But… but ambush is the exact thing you just did! (X-Force #64)

We immediately love John Francis Moore’s Meltdown. (X-Force #64)

We’ve missed you, Julio. (X-Force #64)

Michael McCain, AKA Forearm, AKA a guy in a shirt best described as “normal”. (Cable & X-Force Annual 1997)

You put that down! Bad dog! Drop it! DROP IT! (Cable & X-Force Annual 1997)

Meltdown auditions for Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men. (Cable & X-Force Annual 1997)

Like the Rainbow Bridge but somehow more cosmic! Or at least differently cosmic. (Cable & X-Force Annual 1997)

Presenting Malekith the Accursed. (Cable & X-Force Annual 1997)

Is Caliban huge or is Shatterstar tiny? The world will never know! (Cable & X-Force Annual 1997)

Our high school English teacher always told us we needed to learn the rules of writing so we could more effectively break them. This page does that with its panel borders. (Cable & X-Force Annual 1997)

Mutants and dwarves and giants, oh my! (Cable & X-Force Annual 1997)

Hela: goddess of death and high fashion. (Cable & X-Force Annual 1997)

NEXT TIME: Do not mess with Domino.

LINKS AND FURTHER READING

Previously on Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men:
- Miles and guest x-pert Elisabeth Allie talked about the X-Men and Alpha Flight’s visit to the Viking citadel in Episode 47: The Price of Power!
- To learn about the New Mutants’ first visit to Asgard (and Mirage becoming a Valkyrie), check out Episode 48: Guitar Solos of the Gods!
- We discussed the New Mutants second visit to Asgard (and Mirage’s corruption by Hela) in Episode 127: Disaster City and Episode 132: Nornheim Lemonade!
Miles and Elisabeth Allie covered Walter Simonson’s entire epic Thor run in their limited-series podcast THOR: The Lightning and the Storm!

376 – Moore of This

June 19, 2022 Jay 6 comments

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In which we begin John Francis Moore’s run on X-Force; Latveria is less fun without Doctor Doom; there may still be a tiny clone of Meltdown running around; Forearm is a good pal; Marvel Asgard is a realm of crossover fan fiction; and you should totally watch both Our Flag Means Death and Doom Patrol.

X-PLAINED:

Blackbeard, somewhat
X-Force #63-64
X-Force & Cable Annual 1997
Life after Onslaught
Dimitri Fortunov
Dr. Doom’s time podium
New costumes
Liddleville
Latveria, 1941
Sturmfanger
Valkyrie (Brunhilde)
Aragorn (but not that one)
The Mutant Liberation Front (again) (briefly)
A large dog who may or may not have eaten a horse
Valkyries (more) (again)
What all the former New Mutants are up to
Yggdrasil and the Nine Realms (again)
Malekith the Accursed
Kindra the Dwarf (again)
Skadi the Frost Giant
Hela (again) (briefly)
Doctor Who analogs
What we miss about the Silver Age

NEXT WEEK: Hawk Talk

NEXT EPISODE: Domino goes solo!

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!

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As Mentioned in Episode 371 – Beware of Psychodrama

May 8, 2022 Miles Leave a comment

Listen to the episode here.

Before settling on paint and canvas, Piotr Rasputin’s first medium was the thought balloon. (Excalibur #104)

Douglock tries. (Excalibur #104)

Moira, I know a lot of us have been working from home for a while now, but you may have overdone the whole home-office thing just a tad. (Excalibur #104)

Douglock is so much less mean than Mystique usually is when angrily shapeshifting! (Excalibur #104)

LOOK SHE’S IN THE SHADOWS SHE COULD BE ANYONE OKAY (Excalibur #104)

Also, Dani never did that back in the day. (Excalibur #104)

Oh, Kitty. (Excalibur #104)

Pretty sure this cover was printed on black velvet. (Excalibur #105)

Bryan Hitch may be the first artist to make Wildside look genuinely intimidating. (Excalibur #105)

Kitty, those aren’t image inducers, they’re jackets, and you’re wearing one too. (Excalibur #105)

Sound effect as narrative tool. (Excalibur #105)

Kitty gave an emotional and heartfelt speech without using the N-word! (Excalibur #105)

Piotr Rasputin is the firestarter. Twisted firestarter. (Excalibur #106)

But seriously, this is one of the most visually engaging pages of backstory I’ve ever read. (Excalibur #106)

Meggan Puceanu, Actual Elf. (Excalibur #106)

Hey, it’s Frenzy! We love Frenzy! (Excalibur #106)

Jay is not okay with your thought-bubble-versus-computer-display redundancy, Moira. (Excalibur #106)

Excalibur, the comic where everyone is sexy all the time. (Excalibur #106)

Piotr, I think you put your pants on the wrong… you know what, you go, Russian cowboy. Now where did I put those singles… (Excalibur #106)

Metaphor by way of landmine. (Excalibur #106)

“And we’re going to ride bikes with Magneto and he’s going to take us to France!” (Excalibur #106)

NEXT TIME: No one rides bikes.

LINKS & FURTHER MISADVENTURES

We allude frequently to Warlock piloting around Doug’s corpse, which story we covered in Episode 91 – The Saddest Story Ever Told.

371 – Beware of Psychodrama

May 8, 2022 Jay 15 comments

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In which Douglock is Douglock; Kitty Pryde gets lost in nostalgia; it continues to suck to be Colossus; Professor Xavier is a jerk; the MLF makes one and only one valid point; Ben Raab’s Excalibur run begins; the Acolytes try to get the band back together; and the land mines are a metaphor that are also real land mines.

X-PLAINED:

Exodus
Excalibur #104-106
The current state of Excalibur
Douglock
B.P.R.D.
New Mutants #64 callbacks
Wolfsbane’s default form
Nostalgia
The Xavier Protocols (again)
The MLF (again)
The Mysterious Moonstar
Selby
The Prodigy
Character shifts between writers
Age of Jay and Miles
How not to write a letter in a comic book
Assless chaps
Land mines
Unuscione
Scanner
Mutant lawyers
Cyclops’s color vision

NEXT EPISODE: Magneto, now with his own miniseries!

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!

316 – Return to Megalopolis: At the Movies with the New Mutants

December 6, 2020 Jay 16 comments

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In which we review the New Mutants’ film debut.

NEXT EPISODE: Rogue, Gambit, and feelings!

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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 281 – Memories

January 19, 2020 Jay 10 comments

Listen to the podcast here.

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

Meet Code Blue. No, not that one. The other one. (X-Force #40)

Feral, disguised. (X-Force #40)

SERIOUSLY HE LOOKS JUST LIKE GRAYDON CREED (X-Force #40)

Well, that, too. (X-Force #41)

Domino’s other mutation is a really complicated relationship with gravity. (X-Force #41)

Happier times. (X-Force #41)

Feral’s font has leveled up. This is not a drill. (X-Force #41)

Huh. (X-Force #41)

James, I know you think you’re tough, but you are absolutely unequipped for a snark fight with Emma Frost. (X-Force #42)

“No, a GOOD reason.” (X-Force #42)

THE ACCENT (X-Force #42)

Would the world survive these two on a team together? (X-Force #42)

NEXT EPISODE: We get really intense about Adam X the X-Treme.

LINKS & FURTHER ILLUSTRATION:

Go check out Aimee Fleck’s terrific Polaris redesign!

281 – Memories

January 19, 2020 Jay 9 comments

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In which Warpath and Colossus should start a support group; X-Force gets a new HQ; we make an unprecedently large number of musical-theater references; Cable is a highly qualified individual; tranq darts don’t work like that; Emma Frost gives fairly decent advice; the malls of Boston will never be the same again; and we need mutant body diversity now.

CONTENT WARNING: This episode involves discussion of child sexual abuse, murder, and cruelty to animals. If you want to skip that part, head to 34:42 for happier times!

X-PLAINED:

An early adventures of the brothers Proudstar
The new New Mutants trailer
Starlight Express
X-Force #40-42
Feral (Maria Callasantos) (more) (again)
X-Force’s new digs
Little Shop of X-Force
Thornn (Lucia Callasantos)
Code Blue
Cable’s law degree
How tranq darts (don’t) work
A lot of murder
Several family reunions
A terrifying team-up
Body diversity and fat representation in X-books
Feral’s Jellicle name
Cats, kind of, I guess

NEXT EPISODE: We get really intense about Adam X the X-Treme.

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 278 – A Sheep in Wolf’s Clothing

December 22, 2019 Jay One comment

Listen to the podcast here.

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

Fun times with the MLF. (X-Force Annual #3)

They were really pushing the idea that he was Roberto. (X-Force Annual #3)

I get that it’s supposed to be a bad thing; but, man, Dani’s horse got AWESOME. (X-Force Annual #3)

“Of course, they won’t need to figure out my password if they walk in on me journaling in IMAX.” (X-Force Annual #3)

The Collective Man! (X-Force Annual #3)

These two are just really not good at false identities, are they? (X-Force Annual #3)

Sometimes a family is a ghost and her imaginary baby. (X-Force Annual #3)

Alas, contrary to the implications of this cover, Storm will not be seduced by a giant statue of a lady in this story. (X-Man Annual #3)

“Chess is sexy, right?” (X-Man Annual #3)

Gene Ha draws a really terrific Storm. (X-Man Annual #3)

Do they usually? (X-Man Annual #3)

“Squares.” (X-Man Annual #3)

She’s not wrong. (X-Man Annual #3)

(It’s okay; it’s only a dream.) (X-Man Annual #3)

These are the most lackluster Lords Cardinal I’ve ever seen. (X-Man Annual #3)

“Even sixth base?” (X-Man Annual #3)

I unrepentantly love this silliness. (X-Man Annual #3)

Ugh, seriously, so good. (X-Man Annual #3)

NEXT EPISODE: NEXT EPISODE: Giant-Size Winter Special, feat. Christina Strain & Chip Zdarsky…

…hope you survive the experience!

LINKS & FURTHER ATROCITIES:

Listen to Miles talk about people who turn into dinosaurs on Battle of the Atom!
Here is a fairly remarkable Marxist examination of Sex House; because, why not?
Should you be so inclined, you can watch the entire series here. It’s worth noting that the first few episodes do not reflect the tone of the series as it progresses. (Content Warning: I don’t even know anymore.)
We delved into Reignfire’s weird, weird origins in the cold open to Episode 238 – Meet Them Where They Are.
Jay co-wrote a serial Thor novel! You can subscribe to it here, if you are so inclined.

278 – A Sheep in Wolf’s Clothing

December 22, 2019 Jay 13 comments

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In which Moonstar really wasn’t fooling anybody; Bird Brain is somehow still alive; Cassidy Keep is weird; Gene Ha draws excellent Storm; Reeva Payge makes her sole comics appearance; and Shinobi Shaw is wrong about everything.

X-PLAINED:

A not-particularly-cunning disguise
Upcoming coverage
X-Force Annual #3
X-Men Annual #3
The MLF
Reignfire (more) (again)
Moonstar (more) (again)
An unconventional way to keep a secret diary
A bittersweet semi-reunion
3Peace
Murphy Keep
A ghost, maybe
The kind of thing that happens at Cassidy Keep
An excellent burn
Leather
“Neurotoxins”
Sex House as the definitive artifact of the 2010s
How not to draw someone having a nightmare
A very short-lived version of the Hellfire Club
How not to villain
Coming to terms with bad fictional tech

NEXT EPISODE: Giant-Size Winter Special, feat. Christina Strain & Chip Zdarsky!

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!