Buckle up, folks; we're going to space this episode! But first, we have to stop by and hang out with our friend Spider-Man! Get ready for adventures across New York, Earth's orbit, and the Shi'ar Empire, making friends like Corsair and the Starjammers along the way! A LOT of X-Men down, and an eerie forecast of things to come. Topics discussed: Guy Ritchie’s X-Men. Dog ate a book. Marvel movies. J.M. DeMatteis! Wolverine touchin' butts. Wolverine at Ren Faire. Bunkies. Roman orgies. Robot heads ...
Nov 13, 2025•2 hr 9 min•Season 1Ep. 34
Issues: Marvel Fanfare #1-4, Marvel Treasury #27, Marvel Team Up #100 (back-up story), X-Men Annual #5 We're not puffyfaffing around this episode! We're getting to it! We've got so many stories to tell you! Among them: A story about the Savage Land, Sauron, Angel, Mutates, and Spider-Man! A pointless short story about Angel beating up an underdog on behalf of his evil father! A story about how all African people know each other! And a story about the Badoon. Topics discussed: Extremely accurate ...
Nov 06, 2025•1 hr 53 min•Season 1Ep. 33
Back in the X-Men’s main title, the X-Men are doing X-Men stuff! For example, fixing the Danger Room, visiting an old petrified friend/friend who may or may not be a Sun God, switching bodies, and telling bedtime stories! Also, we finally learn the origin of Magneto!? Topics discussed: Studying Kermit. Kitty’s new costume sucks! Being “precise” about “broads.” Curling with Colossus. Magneto the Designer. “Hey, Cyclops!” RONALD REAGAN IS HERE! The Bermuda Triangle. Magneto’s philosophy. BONK! Why...
Oct 30, 2025•2 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 32
Issues: Uncanny X-Men #147, Rom #17-18, Spider-Woman #37-38, Marvel Treasury #26 The X-Men take some time off of their regular title to hang out with some pals in ROM, Spider-Woman, and Marvel Treasury! The boys say goodbye to an old frenemy, hello to some new characters, and get a cool new poster. Topics Discussed: ROM. A murderous, yet agreeable, Wolverine. Bill Mantlo hates people with disabilities. Ham-fisting. “So there’s two Steves?” A 15-year-old playing with trucks. Breaking your vow to ...
Oct 23, 2025•1 hr 43 min•Season 1Ep. 31
Goodbye, John Byrne; we hardly knew ye! It's time to move on to bigger, fresher things like... Dave Cockrum? The infamous Claremont/Byrne run ends with a Kitty Pryde solo story that whips ass, followed by a Cyclops soio story that's... you know... it's fine. Then the X-Men get wrapped up in a big ol' Arcade/Dr. Doom catastrophe and we get... Dark Storm!? Topics discussed: Stealing a Christmas Tree. Home Alone/Alien. Brent Anderson! A demon era. MAN THING!? Paolo for Loser League. Reverse pool-hu...
Oct 16, 2025•1 hr 57 min•Season 1Ep. 30
Plus X-Men Annual #4! Hot off the heels of one of the most famous X-Men stories of all time, we take a short respite with… ONE OF THE GREATEST X-MEN STORIES OF ALL TIME. A story made even more salient, unfortunately, by current events. Plus, we get a recap issue, we get to know Kitty a bit more, and we take a brief pit stop in HELL (?) First, though, we spend some time imagining an X-Men Stardew Valley. Topics Include: A funeral, but other than that it’s pretty funny. Cyclops’ Brain damage. Holo...
Oct 09, 2025•2 hr 4 min•Season 1Ep. 29
GIANT-SIZED SPECTACULAR This is a big one folks. An epic episode for an epic story. The Dark Phoenix Saga is one of the most transformative and dramatic chapters in all of X-Men history and listen, it’s every bit as good as (or better than) you’d imagine. These 9 issues bring in the Hellfire Club, Sebastian Shaw and Emma Frost, Dazzler, KITTY F’IN PRYDE, Senator Robert Kelly, and a bunch of unforgettable random henchmen like “Murray” and “Jacko.” Plus, the return of Angel, a creepy old villain, ...
Oct 02, 2025•2 hr 55 min•Season 1Ep. 28
Issues Covered: The Champions #11-17, Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man #17-18, Incredible Hulk Annual #7 We’re losing our goddamn minds. In the second installment of our marathon record of the entire 1975 run of the Champions, we start falling apart! Were humans even meant to podcast this long? Topics Discussed: John Byrne is here! The Two-Gun Kid makes an appearance. Bill Mantlo still the worst. Stilt Man?!? The Stranger?!? Kamo Tharn?!? Hive?!? This is all so stupid (Pat, you can't do ...
Sep 25, 2025•2 hr 20 min•Season 1Ep. 27
Matt and Pat are depriving themselves of sleep so that they can bring you a marathon episode of TEN ISSUES of THE CHAMPIONS in a row! It's gonna be a wild ride, as we catch up with former and future X-Men Angel and Iceman in Los Angeles. New Russian teacher Black Widow, guest lecturer Hercules, delivery boy Ghost Rider, and students Angel and Iceman all meet up on the campus of UCLA and the absurdity just continues from there. Strap in and get yourself a pizza because this is gonna get weird. To...
Sep 18, 2025•2 hr 31 min•Season 1Ep. 26
Not much of an intro this week. We've really gotta start doing more X-Men related stuff, I guess. But then we get into a rip-roaring, intense few issues where we finally meet the elusive MUTANT X (remember? from the door?)! Also, just fair warning, there’s some pretty rough stuff in this one (CW: descriptions and discussion of sexual assault and rape) Topics Include: Angus MacWhirter?? Jean and Moira are serving looks on Muir Island. Just who the hell is this Jason Wynnegarde guy?? We don’t trus...
Sep 11, 2025•2 hr 11 min•Season 1Ep. 25
PLUS: Power Man & Iron Fist #56-57 After an unbelievably long journey, the X-Men FINALLY MAKE it home! But first, they have to stop in Calgary, Alberta and fight a brand new super-team named ALPHA FLIGHT. And THEN they make it home... BUT FIRST AGAIN they have to visit Iron Fist, obviously, and meet up with the worst cameo villain ever. And THEN they make it home. And INSTANTLY have to deal with a new dork who puts them in a big pinball machine. Topics Include: Former Canadian Prime Minister...
Sep 04, 2025•2 hr 17 min•Season 1Ep. 24
The last we saw the X-Men, they were in dire straits! Most of the team was about to be buried under a flood of lava in an underground laboratory in the middle of the Antarctic, while Beast and Phoenix had collapsed in the frozen wastes, after barely escaping with their lives. Is this just 5 issues of everyone being dead? Let's dig in and find out! Topics Discussed: Vacation Scott. The X-Men have sex. Wolverine's torn picture. A menacing nude man. The crew from the Thing fails to learn a lesson. ...
Aug 28, 2025•2 hr 12 min•Season 1Ep. 23
Issues: Marvel Team-Up #69-70, Defenders #62-65 Last we saw Alex Summers, Havok, and Lorna Dane, Polaris, they were being blasted point-blank by the god-tier-power-level Firelord. So what happened to them next? Matt and Pat, brave podcast adventurers that they are, venture to find out! Detour with us as we scour the Marvel Universe for HAVOK and POLARIS. Topics Include: We'll FINALLY get an origin for the Living Pharaoh... right? Nooo not Professor Craig's office! White men dressed as pharaohs. ...
Aug 21, 2025•1 hr 56 min•Season 1Ep. 22
Issues: X-Men #109-113 Pat won’t stop getting horned-up for the X-Men, but it’s hard to blame him when we’re reading comics as hot as these ones! With John Byrne fully on board the book, this chunk of issues sees the return of some major villains, and a robot spoon-feeding Wolverine. Topics Include: Pat’s fuzzy. John Byrne is HERE! NUDITY. Lilandra’s struggle with government bureaucracy. Kurt and Scott have a tough conversation. Piotr, the oblivious unicorn. Captain Alpha! “By Lenin’s Beard!” Th...
Aug 14, 2025•1 hr 50 min•Season 1Ep. 21
Issues: X-Men #106-108, Marvel Team-Up Annual #1, Marvel Team-Up #53, Iron Fist #15 It's a stunning conclusion to the X-Men's first galactic adventure AND Dave Cockrum's first X-Men run. Matt and Pat also fill you in on some of the other stuff that's been going on with the X-Men in other Marvel books... unfortunately. Topics Include: Bill Mantlo. The Letterin' Rosen Boys! "Nobody cramps my style!" Duplicates again... Where have the X-Men never gone? A Barrach'an Shovel Beast. Nude Fang. A call-b...
Aug 07, 2025•2 hr 6 min•Season 1Ep. 20
WELCOME NEW LISTENERS! You're just in time for the return (?) of a beloved character who we were POSITIVE died last issue! Matt watched New Mutants (2020), Pat visited a bunch of comic book stores, and we take a trip through to the end of Chris Claremont's second year on The X-Men, as a bunch of weird stuff happens and it might be connected? Topics Include: Furry Nightcrawler. The Month of 100 Editors. Jean Grey, who did NOT die… Everyone wants to kill Nightcrawler. The X-Men are going to Irelan...
Jul 31, 2025•1 hr 49 min•Season 1Ep. 19
Matt and Pat cover the entire first year of the legendary CHRIS CLAREMONT run on the X-Men. From Moira MacTaggert to the fate of Thunderbird to Steven Lang to Polaris’s new name to the return of the Sentinels to the fate of Jean Grey. It’s a wild ride as the comic book gets truly, utterly good. Topics include: The issue number is a LIE. NAAD. Joe Harris’ button thing. “I love a man named Gort.” Thunderbird punches a jet. A very respectful death. The narrator taunts Cyclops. Why is there a cairn ...
Jul 24, 2025•2 hr 11 min•Season 1Ep. 18
Before Matt and Pat took on one of the most important X-Men issues of ALL TIME, we needed to bring in a heavy hitter. Alex Goldman, from the podcast Hyperfixed, joins us to tackle the introduction of some of the most beloved characters in comic book history and a big island that’s also a mutant. Topics include: Sleeping in the Superman movie. Flying around in a cloud. Cat eyes. The X-Men arcade game. A bunch of Aztec gods stomping around. "Lorna Dale?" Recruiting X-Men by race-baiting. Another t...
Jul 17, 2025•1 hr 38 min•Season 1Ep. 17
In this SPECIAL BONUS RECAP EPISODE, lucky listener Sine Wave Seán joins Matt and Pat (who are actually the lucky ones!) to bring listeners up to speed on all we’ve been through so far in the first 66 issues of the X-Men and the first 16 episodes of Mutant Menace! We tell you all about the X-men so far, including: The Beast aka Hank McCoy, cool hippy stoner Iceman aka Bobby Drake, performative about everything except friendship and ice cream Angel aka Warren Worthington III, the happy-go-lucky r...
Jul 15, 2025•1 hr 38 min
Issues: Defenders #15-16, Hulk #180-182, Giant-Size Fantastic Four #4 What’s that we see? Some light shining in the distance of this dark, dark void? Well first, we have to wade through baby villains, a scrappy new Canadian anti-hero, an obscure Fantastic Four antagonist, and so so much Hulk stuff. But two new writers enter our world, a guy named Len Wein and a kid named Chris Claremont. Wonder if they can save us? Topics Include: Our Steve Englehart mea culpa. Pat was right about Frank Miller. ...
Jul 10, 2025•1 hr 38 min•Season 1Ep. 16
Issues: Marvel Team-Up #4, Avengers #103-104 & #110-111, Captain America #172-175 The X-Men are STILL CANCELLED so Matt and Pat continue to scrape the bottom of that barrel, looking for X-Men appearances in other Marvel comics. We manage to find some, but with far less X-Men and far more… other guys. Topics Include: Matching X-Men and Pokemon. Gerry Conway! Dr. Hans Jrgromsahn. Morbius is NOT A VAMPIRE. What do Spider-Man’s webs smell like? Spider-Man assaults Jean Grey. Angel is feelin’ him...
Jul 03, 2025•2 hr 11 min•Season 1Ep. 15
Issues: Hulk #150, Amazing Adventures #11-17, Hulk #161, Hulk #172 The X-Men are cancelled and we're swimming in a dark, tideless sea of 1970's Marvel comics, grasping around for any mutant life-rafts we can find. This one has a weird energy, folks. With no main series to guide them, Matt and Pat have to generate their own momentum and they certainly try their best. Topics: Will we ever get the intro right? The X-Men do their jobs. Are my pants ruined? Is everything ruined?? Is the Hulk ever goo...
Jun 26, 2025•2 hr 3 min•Season 1Ep. 14
It’s the end of an era. The X-Men go out like a… well, you’ll hear the metaphor. Neal Adams and Roy Thomas both say goodbye, but not together as the X-Men get cancelled! And Matt and Pat are, unexpectedly, super bummed about it. Other Topics: Has Pat been punched in the face? Magneto is back, bitch! Warren gets beat up. The X-Men fight wolves. Savage Land Mutates. Buster Crabbe/Tarzan Inception. Ben Casey: Revizzzited. SUNFIRE! Angel loses a fight with a plane. Matt’s embarrassing mistake. ANTS!...
Jun 19, 2025•1 hr 50 min•Season 1Ep. 13
FULL SWING into the legendary NEAL ADAMS/ROY THOMAS run and Matt and Pat are finally absolutely loving the X-Men. We finally meet Havok in earnest and a vampiric pterodactyl named Sauron. Other topics: Always in our hearts: @canadawolverine. Danger AKA Havok. Pompeii jerk-off guy, Pompeii jerk-off city. More Sentinel bureaucracy. "TRASK'S TREACHERY TRASK'S TREACHERY." Fight the Sun! Mr. Anderson. Bobby's girl friend. “Observe the Monitron!” A rip-off fantasticar. What IS the sound of evil? Don't...
Jun 12, 2025•1 hr 58 min•Season 1Ep. 12
Hosts of Escape the Mojoverse, Allison and Matt Parent, join Matt and Pat to tackle the Butt Pages (#buttissues) of the last several issues of the X-Men. We talk about their podcast and the confounding origins of Angel and the Beast! Check out Escape The Mojoverse: https://shows.acast.com/escape-the-mojoverse Write in to Pat's Email Corner: mutantmenacepod@gmail.com Instagram: @mutantmenacepod We talk about: How do we make our podcasts? MATTamathically or MathaMATTically? White Guy Pharaoh. Kitt...
Jun 09, 2025•1 hr 23 min
We're coming now to the end of the long, epic, generational Arnold Drake run and things start getting good!? Legendary artist Neal Adams joins the book with past writer Roy Thomas, and the two immediately revive THE SENTINELS. Plus, the first appearance of Alex Summers and Matt and Pat absolutely lose their minds at a Cyclops moment. We also talk about: Scott Summers is a bad brother. Why is Cyclops always waking up in museums? WHO IS THIS PHARAOH GUY? The Angel loses the same fight twice. Waiti...
Jun 05, 2025•1 hr 33 min•Season 1Ep. 11
Matt and Pat get bold this episode and cover SIX WHOLE ISSUES of the very short but very interesting Arnold Drake run on The X-Men. Sandwiched between two of the worst issues we’ve ever read are three of the best we’ve ever read. We talk about: MAGMAR IS THE UGLIEST POKEMON. X-Men Legends. Making the pencils kiss. Who is Arnold Drake? A robot hidden inside a robot. Kirby, Sonic, and a guy with fire hands. The Joe Rogan podcast for the Left. JIM STERANKO IS HERE. Arnold Drake falls asleep while w...
May 29, 2025•2 hr•Season 1Ep. 10
PLUS, Issue #53 of The Avengers! A brand new writer, Gary Friedrich, joins the X-Men creative team and PROMPTLY DESTROYS THEM. Also, Matt went to a comic book convention, Pat is 40, Pat explains beepers to Matt, and we talk about what the word "mutant" really means in the Marvel Universe We talk about: Magneto is glad Professor X is dead he SWEARS! Quicksilver can fly. Toad is back and weirder than ever. NO TRAPS. Cyclops has no regard for sailors. Marvel's prototypical super-hero: THE RED RAVEN...
May 22, 2025•1 hr 55 min•Season 1Ep. 9
It’s a wrap on Factor Three, folks, as the X-Men’s final confrontation with the MUTANT MASTER wraps up. You know, the MUTANT MASTER, the biggest villain ever in X-Men history? He would go on to… oh, I guess this is his last appearance… We also get the Origins of Cyclops and Professor X and some background on Roy Thomas’s X-Men experience. We talk about: Comedy club etiquette. “Horatio at the Bridge?” NO TIME FOR THAT NOW. Roy Thomas can’t talk normal. Contract-tracing the “Holy Hannah” pandemic....
May 15, 2025•1 hr 57 min•Season 1Ep. 8
This episode starts with a conversation about trash hoarding and ends with a conversation about the etymology of the term “69”… So…. Buckle up? Werner Roth’s reign of terror continues as Ross Andru and Don Heck join the art team. Matt and Pat ponder over the trials of our intrepid team of mutants and plea to our future robot overlords. We talk about: Where are Juggernaut’s beautiful thighs? Mansplaining to Jean Grey. The most disappointing Dr. Strange cameo in history. Two losers living in their...
May 08, 2025•1 hr 41 min•Season 1Ep. 7
