In which artist Russell Dauterman joins us to discuss super-powered costume design! X-PLAINED: Why it’s important to get a professional to design your superhero costume Why Miles doesn’t trust the government Russell’s history at Marvel Designing for the Hellfire Gala Mutant fashion The word “fashionize” Iconic looks Modernizing superhero costumes Powers vs. personality Punk goddess Storm Designing for drawability Magic hair Russell’s influences Definitive Rogue costumes X-Men ‘97 Best X-team cos...
May 13, 2024•1 hr 1 min•Season 1Ep. 449
Feral's back - just in time to wreck Jay's voice again! (And Siryn's, but we'll get to that later.) (X-Force #88) In which timeline math is almost never worth it; Tarot comes back from the dead (kind of) (maybe); Magma makes a heel turn; “King Bedlam” would be a great name for a ska band; not every nude man can turn into a bear; and you don’t have to talk to your supervillain relatives. X-PLAINED: The Triune Understanding Birthday party follow-up X-Force #87-90 Legacy and continuity Bedlam (Jess...
May 06, 2024•56 min•Season 1Ep. 448
In which everything is an event these days; Skin may or may not have a skeleton; everyone has a crush on Synch; we are intrigued by Integer; and it’s hard to be Emma Frost. X-PLAINED: War of the Mutants Generation X #50 X-Man #50 Nate Grey (again) Adrienne Frost Science Dark Beast (again) Gene Nation Vessel Hemingway Membrain Fever Pitch Dark Opsidian Iron Maiden Wynter Tattoos More science Integer Trauma Multiversal designations The Morlock Tunnels NEXT EPISODE: X-Force vs the New Hellions Chec...
Apr 29, 2024•44 min•Season 1Ep. 447
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 ...
Apr 15, 2024•52 min•Season 1Ep. 446
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.
Apr 08, 2024•49 min•Season 1Ep. 445
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) Od...
Apr 01, 2024•1 hr 9 min•Season 1Ep. 444
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 ident...
Mar 11, 2024•55 min•Season 1Ep. 443
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.
Mar 03, 2024•56 min•Season 1Ep. 442
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 forg...
Feb 26, 2024•52 min•Season 1Ep. 441
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 worr...
Feb 12, 2024•46 min•Season 1Ep. 440
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 f...
Feb 04, 2024•53 min•Season 1Ep. 439
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.
Jan 29, 2024•59 min•Season 1Ep. 438
"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 latel...
Jan 15, 2024•52 min•Season 1Ep. 437
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.
Jan 08, 2024•53 min•Season 1Ep. 436
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...
Jan 01, 2024•2 hr 53 min•Season 1Ep. 435
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) Mercur...
Dec 18, 2023•1 hr 1 min•Season 1Ep. 434
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....
Dec 11, 2023•56 min•Season 1Ep. 433
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.
Dec 04, 2023•53 min•Season 1Ep. 432
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 V...
Nov 20, 2023•1 hr 8 min•Season 1Ep. 431
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.
Nov 13, 2023•54 min•Season 1Ep. 430
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 ...
Nov 05, 2023•49 min•Season 1Ep. 429
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 ...
Oct 23, 2023•53 min•Season 1Ep. 428
In which we have grown to love Adam Pollina; the Vanisher is delightfully awful; Ekaterina Gryaznova gets a new look; Domino rejoins X-Force; superheroes actually have a conversation instead of fighting; Cannonball rejoins X-Force; we don’t even remember recording this one; and something cool is coming (stay tuned).
Oct 16, 2023•55 min•Season 1Ep. 427
In which the Shi’ar have zero chill; Bishop and Deathbird do space opera; we travel to the far-future year of 2018; Alanna Nerimani stretches the definition of “bird”; Deathbird is the cool aunt; Bishop needs a break from dark futures; and Bishop and Sauron have an intimate encounter.
Oct 09, 2023•59 min•Season 1Ep. 426
In which moose are nothing to mess with; Cyclops requests a reality check; Bachalo does Kirby; Rogue absorbs a catchphrase; and the Shadow King needs a villain song.
Sep 26, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 425
In which everything is Havok’s fault; Jay is a bad influence; Polaris makes some valid points; Jamie Madrox is the Bobby Drake of X-Factor; and X-Factor vol. 1 ends with a bang.
Sep 18, 2023•55 min•Season 1Ep. 424
In which subtlety is not Sabra’s strong point; Moira takes a vacation; Meggan broods; you should take care in referencing the Dark Phoenix Saga; Excalibur may or may not shave Mimic; and Captain Britain is a silly man. X-PLAINED: Ghosts Excalibur #121-123 The Mutant Underground Empathic recon An extremely disgruntled kiss Kitty’s new costume Several of Legion’s personalities A mysterious disk A very fancy trash can and/or ice cream maker Ice cream of Cloud City A good dog Remains of Operation Ze...
Sep 11, 2023•52 min•Season 1Ep. 423
In which the X-Men’s membership is a complicated subject; not all angels know each other; we need to talk about Beast’s Wasp costume; Cecilia Reyes speaks for all reasonable folk; Storm gets a mysterious package; and reading comics day-and-date may not be for everyone.
Aug 28, 2023•1 hr•Season 1Ep. 422
In which one letter can make a big difference; it’s just not Arcade without giant pinballs; Colossus is nobody’s fool; Margali Szardos is not a relative you want to stay in touch with; Nightcrawler turns to the jerk side; and Jay and Miles pitch an X-Men kids’ show.
Aug 21, 2023•47 min•Season 1Ep. 421
In which Jay sits down with scholar Christopher Michael Roman to discuss his recent book, Queering Wolverine in Comics and Fanfiction: A Fastball Special; alongside queer theory, porous bodies, and nontraditional mentorship.
Aug 14, 2023•48 min•Season 1Ep. 420
