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Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men — Arts
Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men

Because It’s About Time Someone Did

Latest Episodes:

29 – Mutant in a Box Nov 03, 2014

Show notes

In which Cyclops is the worst at vacations, Mystique is your favorite MurderMom™, Havok is eternally ABD, Kitty Pryde does science, Callisto doesn’t give a damn about her bad reputation, Xavier has a Troy Barnes moment, Miles may be the only person with fond memories of Secret Wars, and Rachel finally gets to make Spalding Gray references.

X-Plained:

Fantomex
Uncanny X-Men #176-181
Reset issues
Scott Summers’s second-worst honeymoon
Cephalopod disambiguation
Project Wideawake (more) (again)
Valerie Cooper
Foreshadowing
Public displays of affection
Leech
How X-Men age
A sewer wizard
Doug Ramsey
Secret Wars
Japan
Mystique’s kids
Douglock
Mystique’s powers
The other X-Men Forever

Next Week: The New Mutants gets weird!

You can find a visual companion to the episode – and links to recommended reading – on our blog.

Find us on iTunes or Stitcher!

Support us on Patreon!

Send us your submissions to the Stealth / Plainclothes Cosplay Contest until the end of the day on Friday, November 7!

Art by David Wynne. — 28 – What’s New, Shadowcat? (Featuring Greg Rucka) Oct 27, 2014
Show notes

Art by David Wynne.

In which we welcome back Greg Rucka, Rachel makes a valiant effort to read Secret Wars, Earth-200500 is still the best Earth, Kitty Pryde and Wolverine is kind of dodgy, Ogūn is low-rent Mister Sinister, Miles talks about empathy, Greg has an Edna Mode moment, and we all love Kitty Pryde.

X-Plained:

X-Men #153

Kitty’s Fairy Tale

Earth-5311

Earth-200500 (again)

Kitty Pryde and Wolverine #1-6

Samurai eyefucking

Ogūn

Special cuddles

Some really dodgy stuff

The best Kitties Pryde

Professor K.

Smart kids in fiction

Why we love Shadowcat

Point-of-entry characters and gender

Costume theory

Our favorite new podcast

Next Week: Cyclops is the worst at vacations.

You can find a visual companion to the episode – and links to recommended reading – on our blog.

Find us on iTunes or Stitcher!

Support us on Patreon!

Like this weeks’ art? You can get prints here until 11/2, or contact David to inquire after the original!

Storm #1 cover art by Victor Ibañez — X-TRA – Greg Pak at New York Comic Con Oct 23, 2014
Show notes

Storm #1 cover art by Victor Ibañez

Rachel caught up with Greg Pak during NYCC–on no sleep, and on the con floor, so apologies in advance for the sound–to talk about Storm, Storm, team vs. solo titles, post-colonial X-Men, and more.

Note: This was recorded on October 9, so the “last issue” referenced in the interview is Storm #3.

Adam X the X-Treme, updated by David Wynne! — 27 – NYCC 2014 Special with Kris Anka and Russell Dauterman Oct 19, 2014
Show notes

Adam X the X-Treme, updated by David Wynne!

In which we sit down with two of our favorite X-artists for an hour of continuity, character design, and a lot of wine; Corsair is the coolest; Emma Frost is a secret viewpoint character; Bishop is the anti-Booster Gold; Adam X the X-Treme gets a new hat; and none of us know how to pronounce “Bachalo.”

X-Plained:

The secret X-origins of Kris Anka and Russell Dauterman

Definitive books and artists

Favorite characters and series

Mephistoid spacesuit logistics

Emma Frost as a reader stand-in

The secret origin of Psylocke’s pants

Uncanny X-Men

The best flashback montage ever

Underappreciated / underdeveloped characters

All the Rogues

Plot twists

Bishop

Dream teams

Sexy dudes with sexy abs

How to update Adam X the X-Treme

Next Week: What’s New, Shadowcat?

You can find a visual companion to the episode – and links to recommended reading – on our blog.

Find us on iTunes or Stitcher!

Support us on Patreon!

Art by David Wynne. — 26 – The Other Team America (featuring Chris Sims) Oct 12, 2014
Show notes

Art by David Wynne.

In which Danielle Moonstar is the Wolverine of the New Mutants, Henry Peter Gyrich is the Walter Peck of the Marvel Universe, Michael Rossi is no Peter Corbeau, Xavier is a Brood Queen (who is a jerk), Bob McLeod draws really good teenagers, the New Mutants do an after-school special, Chris Sims drops in for some emergency X-Plaining, Elsie Carson is the Harvey and Janet of Hydra, and Team America is generally sort of baffling.

X-Plained

Viper

Brood stuff

The original New Mutans (more) (again)

The New Mutants #1-6

Denial

Dani vs. the Danger Room

Mall stories

Neighborhood kids

Henry Peter Gyrich

Sebastian Shaw (again)

Project Wideawake (sort of)

Michael Rossi

A poorly-timed crossover

Gabrielle Haller

A profoundly unethical relationship

A Very Special Episode

Overkill

Magnum, P.I.

Team America (but not that one)

Elsie Carson, middle manager of Hydra

The Girl With the Silver Eyes

X-Men reading order

The visual companion for this episode will go up mid-week, due to New York Comic-Con generally kicking our asses (Among MANY other things, Rachel is tweeting–mostly cool X-cosplay pics–from the show floor, and Miles is working at the Dark Horse booth. Come say hi!). Meanwhile, for further supplemental material, we recommend reading Chris’s in-depth history of Team America:

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Find us on iTunes or Stitcher!

Support us on Patreon!

Art by David Wynne, after Katsushika Hokusai. — 25 – The Best at What He Does Oct 06, 2014
Show notes

Art by David Wynne, after Katsushika Hokusai.

In which Wolverine gets his first miniseries, Yukio is still (and forever) the best, we categorically reject the classification “manic pixie dreamgirl,” everything is noir as hell, Wolverine gets an Iron Giant moment, Storm is too cool for your dress code, and we finally made “Probably a Summers Brother” t-shirts.

X-Plained:

X-23

The 1982 Wolverine miniseries

Uncanny X-Men #172-173

Rachel’s Wolverine feelings

An auspicious road trip

Early Frank Miller

A really epic team-up

Plug’n’play storytelling

How to tell a good Wolverine story

Mariko Yashida

Honor

Shingen Yashida

Yukio

The Inverse Law of Ninjas

The Forty-Seven Ronin

Silver Samurai

Viper

A Ninja meet-cute

The Cyclops / Wolverine double standard

The secret origins of Wolverine’s mask and hair

Next Week: The New Mutants meet Team America!

You can find a visual companion to the episode – and links to recommended reading – on our blog.

Find us on iTunes or Stitcher!

Support us on Patreon!

Stormerella print — 24 – Ororo, Queen of the Galaxy Sep 28, 2014
Show notes

Art by David Wynne.

In which Professor X is (canonically!) a jerk, Miles has Sidrian Hunter feelings, Kitty Pryde is Clarissa Darling with a dragon, we introduce a drinking game, the X-Men do Barbarella, Rachel has a ‘shipper moment, Rogue joins the team, Storm gets a haircut, Mastermind is still the worst, and Madelyne Pryor is underrated.

X-Plained:

Lockheed

Uncanny X-Men #168-175

Reset issues

A one-sided rivalry

The lowest-drama X-romance

The Cream of Wheat box as a metaphor for infinity

Kitty’s Kostume Korner

Rachel’s questionably-canon ships

The Morlocks

Class privilege and the mutant metaphor

Callisto

Caliban

Sunder

Plague

Masque

A dubbing error

Gender dimorphism in superhero media

Storm’s first major character arc

Our single favorite superhero artist

Rogue

Rogue’s accent

A Charles Xavier we can believe in

Yukio

Punk Storm

Madelyne Pryor

Closure

Cyclops vs. formalwear

Art Challenge: Send us your Kitty Pryde costume redesigns–any era, any codename–to xplainthexmen(at)gmail(dot)com

Next Week: Claremont and Miller’s Wolverine!

You can find a visual companion to the episode – and links to recommended reading – on our blog.

Find us on iTunes or Stitcher!

Support us on Patreon!

Art by David Wynne. — 23 – Meet the New Mutants Sep 21, 2014
Show notes

Art by David Wynne.

In which Rachel and Miles return triumphant, the X-Men get a second ongoing series, we hit peak Moira MacTaggert, R-A-H-N-E is definitely pronounced “rain,” Sam Guthrie is the nicest henchman, Claremont is hit-and-miss on cultural diversity, and Bobby da Costa is the teenageriest teenager of them all.

X-Plained:

Nova Roma

The New Mutants and The New Mutants

Marvel Graphic Novels

Greenberg the Vampire

call-backs

Karma

Wolfsbane

Sunspot

Cannonball

Mirage

Whitewashing in superhero comics

The mercurial Guthrie family

Xi’an the Obscure

The Dr. Claw Effect (and why Dr. Doom and Arcade are exceptions)

Donald Pierce

Eras of New Mutants

Lila Cheney

The Hellions

Next Week: The X-Men do Barbarella

You can find a visual companion to the episode – and links to recommended reading – on our blog.

Find us on iTunes or Stitcher!

Support us on Patreon!

scottandjeanv3_cropped — 22 – Through Death and Through Life Sep 07, 2014
Show notes

Art by David Wynne

In which Rachel and Miles celebrate an anniversary with a retrospective of one of the great romances of the Marvel universe; the Summers/Grey family tree is more of a transdimensional strawberry patch; the X-Men play some football; Professor Xavier is not a jerk; and Scott Summers and Jean Grey are the power couple of existentialism.

X-Plained

Summers kids

Scott and Jean

Feelings

X-Men #32

The worst date ever

Madelyne Pryor

Plot-relevant prosopagnosia

Three proposals

X-Factor #53

Uncanny X-Men #308

“Fatal Attractions”

That one panel that gets us every time

X-Men vol. 2 #30

Some really excellent wedding vows

The best kiss in X-Men

Cats Laughing

Why “One” is actually a pretty decent first dance

Existential ramifications of fictional romance

Next week: Rachel and Miles take a much-needed vacation.

Week after next: The New Mutants!

You can find a visual companion to the episode – and links to recommended reading – on our blog.

Find us on iTunes or Stitcher!

Support us on Patreon!

Famous Five — 21 – Kurt Busiek at the Coffee-a-Go-Go Aug 31, 2014
Show notes

Art by David Wynne

In which special guest Kurt Busiek is the J. Robert Oppenheimer of X-Men, Rachel and Miles learn to love the Silver Age, Cyclops gets a job, Bernard the Poet falls from grace, we really wish X-Men: The Secret Years was a real book, everyone recites poetry, and we still don’t get around to Marvels.

X-Plained:

METOXO, the Lava Man

The true, secret purpose of Rachel and Miles X-Plain the X-Men

The Phoenix retcon

Archival pocket dimensions

Enid Blyton’s X-Men

Early-to-mid-20^th Century American Jewish Socialism

Why the X-Men are terrible mutant P.R.

Band names of the Silver Age

An X-Men series that might have been.

Why Cyclops should be the Rachel Maddow of Marvel

Quicksilver’s childhood dreams

The Coffee-a-Go-Go

Bernard the Poet

Zelda Kurtzberg

The Barefoot Beats

Next week: The wedding of Scott Summers and Jean Grey!

You can find a visual companion to the episode – and links to recommended reading – on our blog.

Find us on iTunes or Stitcher!

Support us on Patreon!

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