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-20th 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.

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