Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men

Because It’s About Time Someone Did

SPOILER WARNING: ALL OF THEM, NONSTOP

In which Barry Windsor-Smith is too sexy for television; we know what happens when unstable molecules get struck by lightning; X-Men gets political and does it spectacularly; this Captain America would not sew the cape; Magneto continues to throw things into space; and they kissed and we missed it.

X-PLAINED:

Fabian Cortez’s name

X-Men ’97 episodes 6-10

Lifedeath I & II: a surprising adaptation

Varying levels of going in blind

A somewhat different and possibly better Forge

The Adversary vs. the Owl Queen

Stormiest and least-Stormy costumes

Professor Charles Xavier, Official Space Boyfriend

Colonialism vs. Identity

Delayed catharsis

The narrative power of altered opening credits

What makes allyship effective (and not)

Justified mutant anger

The worst version of Nina DaCosta

What makes Prime Sentinels scary

Summers family feels

The best damned fight scenes out there

Bastion, robo-avatar of conservative white patriarchy

Simultaneous crossovers

A psychic gay bar

A last boss arena

Acolyte equivalencies

Phoenix Ex Machina

Crying

Whether Magneto was right

Apoca-futures and Apoca-pasts

A bulletin board and our hopes for its contents

Soft Serve

Kitty Pryde’s coffee shop AU

X-Men ’97 as the perfect gateway

NEXT EPISODE: Skrulls!

LINKS AND FURTHER READING:

No visual companion this week!

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!

SPOILER WARNING: ALL OF THEM, NONSTOP

In which we put the comics on hold to take a look at X-Men ’97; it is still always Inferno in here; Wolverine is best used sparingly; a Marvel show finally embraces politics; Wolverine is best in small doses; Madeylne Pryor still always deserves better; Jubilee grows up; and we are all in on this series.

X-PLAINED:

“Beyond Good and Evil”

X-Men: The Animated Series and our respective feelings about it

X-Men ’97, episodes 1-5

Watching X-Men ’97 with and without context

Making animated Cyclops work

The Magneto’s-hair-length morality index

Politics

Voices

Adaptation pacing

Agency

Abcissa

Foreshadowing

Time compression

Horniest Rogue

Death in cartoons

A metaphor

Nonbinary identity in 1997

Character evolution

NEXT EPISODE: Episodes 6-10

No visual companion this week!

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!