Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men

Ah, the age-old question: would you scissor your clone while yelling? (Uncanny X-Men #367) In which the Magneto War comes to a close. X-PLAINED: X-Men #86-87 Uncanny X-Men #367 Quite a few other things, which we'll add to this post tomorrow! NEXT EPISODE: Nate Grey meets Generation X! 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! Buy rad swag at our TeePublic shop!

In which not every story needs to be an event; Alan Davis returns to the X-line; X-mansion security is not what it once was; Rogue needs some new fantasies; and Magneto wants a country.

In which it’s difficult to flee with soup; Miles may or may not be haunting the X-Men; Colossus collaborates involuntarily; Marrow is full of surprises; Magneto is a dick; Jay continues to carry a torch for Secret Wars: Siege; and you should totally come to our birthday party. X-PLAINED: Several rather pointed allusions X-Force #86 Uncanny X-Men #365 X-Men #85 Almost Reno, NM Where mutants come from The Aguilar Institute (more) (again) Abandoned towns Mary the telepathic moppet (more) (again) Odysseus Indigo The Damocles Foundation Sibling names The Fundamental Attribution Error A haunting Christmas beer Christmas ghost exquisite corpse Bill Jones A rescue mission Essential stories of the ‘90s Our weird favorites Siege Our upcoming 10th birthday party (more) (again) NEXT EPISODE: Magneto War begins! Check out the visual companion to this episode on our blog! RSVP to our birthday shenanigans! 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! Buy rad swag at our TeePublic shop!

Jay is dealing with an ongoing family medical emergency, so episode releases may be somewhat unpredictable for the next few weeks. Thank you for your patience!

In which we walk down X-Plain Memory Lane; everyone needs Bitch Planet; HoX/PoX wouldn't stay on shelves; we learn how to make sure a comic doesn't get canceled; Marvel should have kept publishing those Krakoa-era anthology TPBs; X-Men is indeed a soap opera; and you can jump in here 'cause we're all confused. X-PLAINED: The most crowded X-year Books With Pictures, official best comics shop in the world Our upcoming 10th birthday party Katie Pryde’s X-history Prioritizing marginalized nerd identities Lapsed X-readers X-sprawl The Dawn of X books that worked (and the one that didn’t) The frustration of discontinued collection formats The perfect number of X-books (again) Drama and kissing What we want after Fall of X Readers’ single issue vs collection preferences The power of the preorder Katie’s (naming) origin story Readers versus speculators How to organize a comic book store Non-X recommendations for X-fans The glory of Judge Dredd X-Men who can be trusted to watch a comic book store NEXT EPISODE: Deviants, Christmas ghosts, and Magneto! LINKS AND FURTHER READING: Books With Pictures in Portland, Oregon The Books With Pictures Podcast RSVP to our birthday shenanigans! 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! Buy rad swag at our TeePublic shop!

In which Marrow remains a connoisseur of dead rats; Jay has opinions about the NYC Subway system; U.L.T.I.M.A.T.U.M. are snazzy dressers; Doctor Doom gets excited about Onslaught; Magneto can have a rocket pack if he wants; villainous game recognizes villainous game; weird retcons are the best retcons; and you should totally come to our birthday party.

In which Banshee should eat the rich; the real Monet is way more of a jerk than the fake one; the Marvel Universe is the world inside your brain-case; Maggott joins and quits Generation X at almost the speed of Sunfire; Dracula gives Chamber the D; and if Jay and Miles die in this episode, they die in real life. X-PLAINED: Dracula as a universal standard Earth-441 Generation X #48-49 The missed potential of 13,000-year-old teenager Gaia The Jay Faerber run of Generation X Emma and Banshee’s forgotten X-friendship That time that Moira ripped off Banshee’s skin and wore it like a Halloween costume (again) Cordelia Frost, Emma’s younger sister Adrienne Frost, Emma’s older sister Interpersonal arguments by way of Asgardian combat scenarios Jubilee, fox; versus M, scorpion Alaska, moping capital of the Marvel Universe Clever scene transitions Constantine Francis Slaughter IV and his mustache Puberty as body horror Husk’s breakup haircut Slug emulation Generation X / Dracula Annual 1998 The Council of Cross-Time Draculas Chamber’s goofy face Vampire fonts Jubilee’s bunny slippers Charlie Brown in Snow Valley Count von Count (again) Monsters as class metaphor What would happen if Synch synced with Legion Who would pronounce Cable like Britta Perry pronounces bagel NEXT EPISODE: Victor Von Doom X-Plains the X-Men. 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! Buy rad swag at our TeePublic shop!

From organic steel to organic... whatever that is. (X-Men #83) In which the Hunt for Xavier remains vaguely disappointing; Gambit is good with kids; nanomachines are the new unstable molecules; Marrow is a walking armory; and we recommend comics for babies. X-PLAINED: The Hunt for Xavier, Part 2 Babies and/or ghosts Chekhov’s repowering X-Men #83-84 Uncanny X-Men #364 Cerebro / Cerebro Prime Cerebrite Alpha Cerebrite Beta X-Men serial numbers What Gambit’s friends call him How Miles stopped worrying and learned to love Gambit Evil robot sperm Mary Purcell Multiple-monitor displays A computer with a computer AI The Florida facility Post Pile-Driver X A glimpse into the butt of all humanity Comics for babies Name-based powers NEXT EPISODE: Generation X has Dracula problems! 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! Buy rad swag at our TeePublic shop!

In which we reach the beginning of an end; Jay totally forgot Gambit was there; we’re all living in the Mary Purcelliverse; the X-Men split the party; and we explore The Bay Area’s Bohemian Hotbed of Student Anarchy. X-PLAINED: Mary Purcell (sort of) The re-defaulting of the X-Men Uncanny X-Men #362-323 X-Men #82 Nebraska Pyro (Saint John Allerdyce) and his endless illness Legacy Virus variations Going home again Running back and forth in quarries Marrow, who’s come a long way The two forms of fire: skeleton monsters and sexy ladies Cerebro (the evil one) San Francisco and Tajikinistan Asphalt ball pits A topsy-turvy nonsensical impossible hell Nina the Mannite Desire, love, loss, and fear Skulls and spines The New (New) Brotherhood of Mutants Cerebrites Alpha and Beta A lost, smelly fish Ambiguous art Blood, sweat, and fears Which mutants would cause the most chaos at holiday gatherings Hopes for post-Fall society NEXT EPISODE: 2 Hunt 2 Xavier 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! Buy rad swag at our TeePublic shop!

In which Gambit knows how to make an entrance; Rogue and Gambit only have relationship conversations during superhero fights; Wolverine fights a shark; and we have opinions on how to handle certain aspects of backstory.

"Hot Topic Rennfaire" was a somewhat controversial choice for X-Force's prom theme. (X-Force #85) In which the overlap between Rocky Horror and ‘90s X-Force fans is probably pretty significant; Pandemonia has priorities; the warehouse gets an evil, sexy glowup; swears are great; Johnny Blaze’s motorcycle probably shouldn’t still be on fire; and there is no single definitive X-Men experience. X-PLAINED: Master Pandemonium X-Force #85 X-Force/Champions Annual 1998 What X-Force has been up to lately The regrettable absence of Doctor Doom Possession Community Cougars (euphemistic) The thrift cycle Rusty Collins on Krakoa Fashion An eons-old accord between the Houses of Chaos and the Lord of Valhalla Jennifer Kale The list Swears A statue of Hades Various appendages sticking out of the earth Hercules The mystic power of sarcasm The greatest fear of a Titan Monet St. Croix vs. the Count of Monte Cristo Good X-books for your fifteen-year-old niece NEXT EPISODE: Wolverine vs. Vampires (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!

In which Colossus has had a rough time of it; the X-Men are at their best in bar fights; Bronze-age Wolverine was a jerk; Ursa Major deserves more page space; kids dig Nightcrawler; and we imagine an X-Men newspaper comic strip.

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!

In which the X-Men turn 35; we pause to celebrate the death of Henry Kissinger; Jay is a space nerd; Marrow hang-dries her delicates; space shuttles are not rockets; the band gets back together; and the Danger Room isn’t the first piece of X-tech to get sentience and a robot body. X-PLAINED How Excalibur got a Blackbird Uncanny X-Men #360 X-Men #80 Many callbacks The Benassi Rocket The Cassini Probe The All-New, Slightly Off X-Men The Grey King (Addison Falk) Chaos and/or Xhaos (Dan Dash) Mercury Rapture (Sister Joy) Crux (Cristal Lemiuex) Landslide (Lee Broder) The Founder Super Doctor Astronaut Peter Corbeau (again) The Mutant Defense Net Heroic narration Lack of spacefaring continuity Friendship Technology Costumes All-New All-Different Dungeons & Dragons NEXT EPISODE: GIANT-SIZE WINTER SPECIAL #10 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!

In which we take a retrospective look at X-Factor and Excalibur: where the series began, where they went, and what’s in store after the ends of their first volumes. X-PLAINED: What Rictor’s been up to X-Factor Excalibur NEXT EPISODE: A Corbeau cameo! The visual companion to this episode is scattered through the last eight years of visual companions, mostly under the X-Factor and Excalibur tags. 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!

In which we reach the end of Larry Hama’s run on Generation X; Gaia remains remarkably normal for someone who has spent millennia chained up alone in a citadel; Synch practices radical forgiveness; we ponder the nature of Emma Frost and Sean Cassidy’s relationship; and Forge is extra unqualified to lecture on ethics.

No notes. (Generation X Underground Special #1) In which Synch is a more versatile character than he originally got credit for; “eep” and “eek” are likewise underused; space makes everything better; Nate Grey is the proto-himbo; and if you can decipher the secret code in this episode, you, too, can win a Silver Surfer jet ski! X-PLAINED: Diablo Generation X Underground Special X-Men Unlimited #30 X-Man: All Saints Day Jim Mahfood Skin’s video-game preferences Strange superpowers Poster pirates Visual representations of the passage of time “Banshee’s Angels” Charlie’s Angels The infamous donut-day riots Perfect costumes Adequate restraints for small children The raw power of funk Generation X vs. the Beat Generation The greatest disco event in the universe Nate Grey Some kid named Jerome Countess Absynthia Von Mort Transylvania Dr. Cindy’s Castle The state of Phoenix affairs The color bar at the top of the page in ‘90s comics NEXT EPISODE: Generation X suits up! Check out 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!

In which birds have no business in sex dreams; feelings are complicated and allegories are imperfect; Mystique made some valid points; Psycho-Man is good at UI; Callisto was right; and the label “Omega-level mutant” actually kind of makes sense.

Dracularmy (X-Men Unlimited #21) In which you should stop hatin’, there’s a big difference between fill-ins and filler, Snow Valley needs higher Ferris wheel standards, Todd DeZago must really hate video rental clerks, and we’re all monsters - some of us just smell better than others. X-PLAINED: Strong Guy’s hellacious history The nature and purpose of X-Men Unlimited X-Men Unlimited #20-21 Rock Trolls (Chambliss, Nettles, and Munson) What Asgard was up to in 1998 Magik vs magic The Snow Valley Harvest Festival Jubilation Lee, one of the guys Eagles vs Hats Fatman, Beardlady-o, Stickman-o, & Frogman-o Tic Tac Toe fundamentals Angry mobs Paige Guthrie, Angry Mom The many potential applications of Husk’s powers Falls Edge, VA vs Eagle Ridge, WV Payphones & video rental stores X-friends Rutland, VT (again) Melvin J. Weals Helen Back The Donnybrook Country Club Cat Fancier & Motorcycle Conventions The Shi’ar Wardrobe Transmogrifier Steel (the Shaq one) The worst pun we’ve ever seen in a comic Earth: the Hipster Planet Which X-Men throw the best and/or wildest Halloween parties Fan-casting X-voices NEXT EPISODE: The X-Men team up with the Fantastic Four! 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!

Love and chaos. (Excalibur #125) In which you shouldn’t invite nazis to your wedding, there’s a lot of multiverse, Captain Britain and Meggan are pretty heteronormative but make it work, everybody forgot Feron, and the next husband will be Gatecrasher’s. X-PLAINED: Captain Britain varieties The history of Brian Braddock and Meggan Puceanu, abridged Excalibur #124-125 Mutants most likely to jump out of a cake The Crazy Gang (again) Meggan’s crush on Colossus Colossus’s guilt about Meggan’s crush on Colossus A surprise bridal shower The return of Captain UK Brian Braddock’s teetotaling techniques Mimic’s ever-changing facial hair Glorious, glorious chaos Poor, poor Feron Multiple awkward conversations The return of Widget and also everyone else Lightning Force (dammit) A lengthy but not exhaustive list of Captains Britain So many cameos ...Seriously, so many cameos Dai Thomas’s anti-iron Shockingly healthy communication Bouquet brawls and garter gar-nage A bittersweet ending Nightcrawler’s best outfit The universe where the X-Men X-Plain Jay & Miles Our hypothetical post-finale Excalibur lineup NEXT EPISODE: The return of X-Factor! Kind of! 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!