Art by David Wynne. Wanna buy the original? Drop him a line!

In which Jay has exciting news, Rick Leonardo draws an impressively creepy mad scientist’s lair, the clouds are purple and so is the prose, Powers of X gets a subtle prequel 21 years early, Cable’s own tolerance has finally reached zero, and we summarize Bastion’s backstory way, way faster than Bastion does.

X-PLAINED:

Machine Man (X-51) (Aaron Stack)

Operation Zero Tolerance (more) (again)

Jay’s upcoming parental leave

Bastion (Sebastion Gilberti)

M-Tech

Powerman 5000

Cable & Machine Man Annual 1998

Hobgits and their sound effects

Street Fighter: the Roleplaying Game

Batroc ze Lepair

Jack Kirby’s 2001: A Space Odyssey

X-51 / X-23 overlaps

Classic Summers Family Bullshit

Psionic soapboxes

What makes Bastion a compelling villain

The necessity of companions

Master Mold 3.0 & Nimrod 2.0

Machine Man & Bastion Annual 1998

Terrible font choices

ZORCH

Cable vs. floors

The carbon footprint of robotic fascism

Marvel Comics Presents #17-24 (just a little)

Incredible Hulk Annual #7 (just a tad)

The Siege Perilous

The future of Machine Man

The hypothetical 2022 version of Bastion

Historical events in which we’d love to see long-lived mutants take part

NEXT WEEK: We take a break for the holidays!

IN TWO WEEKS: The Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men 2022 Giant-Size Winter Special!

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