Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men

By Jay Edidin & Miles StokesArts Books Visual Arts

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Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men episodes

February 16, 201544 – Assembling Legion, with Si Spurrier
Art by David Wynne. Prints, cards, and travel mugs available until 2/22/2015 in the shop, or contact David for the original.
In which Legion grows from setting to protagonist; Rachel is a master of narrative rationalization; “Claremont” is a verb; Warlock befriends an airplane; Xavier owns a significant mistake; New Mutants does a deep dive into power dynamics; you should go read X-Men: Legacy already; and Si reveals the true secret nature of reality.
X-PLAINED:
Blindfold (Ruth Aldine)
Luca Aldine
Legion (David Haller)
Mental illness in fiction
New Mutants #26-28
Socialized medicine
Appropriate gym apparel
Rachel’s favorite scene from any X-book, ever
Claremonting
Jack Wayne
Cyndi
Jemail Karami
Roughly 20 years of condensed continuity
The Age of Apocalypse
Age of X
X-Men: Legacy vol. 2
Father issues
David Haller’s accent
The Origamist
Santi Sardina
A visual metaphor
The true secret nature of reality
Professor Y
The Franklin Richards Universe Hypothesis
NEXT WEEK: Spotlight on Storm
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53 min
February 09, 201543 – It’s Not a Secret If It’s in the Title
Art by David Wynne. Prints, cards, and travel mugs available until 2/15/2015 in the shop, or contact David for the original.
In which we cover 21 issues in one episode; Secret Wars is a toy commercial; Jim Shooter’s X-Men are not the X-Men to which we are accustomed; Doctor Doom makes a surprisingly benevolent god; Secret Wars II is neither secret nor a war; The Beyonder learns to poop; and Boom-Boom is the best thing to come out of Secret Wars.
X-Plained:
Secret Wars
The not-particularly-secret origin of Secret Wars
Binary morality
Battleworld
The Wrecking Crew
Klaw
The Beyonder
Molecule Man
Doki-Doki Universe
Titania and Volcana
Zsaji
Secret Wars II
The Passion of Jim Shooter
Stewart Cadwall
What people do
Tie-ins
Pooping
What it means to be Spider-Man
Boom-Boom (Tabitha Smith)
The time a bunch of superheroes saved the universe by killing a baby
NEXT WEEK: Legion, with Si Spurrier!
You can find a visual companion to this episode on our blog!
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Buy prints of this week’s illustration at our shop, or contact David Wynne for the original!
47 min
February 01, 201542 – A Firestar Is Born
Art by David Wynne. Prints and cards available until 2/1/2015 in the shop, or contact David for the original.
In which Miles has a brush with nostalgia; Angelica Jones is secretly a Thomas Hardy protagonist; it doesn’t need to make sense if it’s awesome; and Emma Frost really needs a mustache to twirl.
X-Plained:
Trevor Fitzroy
Firestar (Angelica Jones)
Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends
Nostalgia
X-Men, if sometimes the main characters were bears
Inexplicably Australian Wolverine
Ms. Lion
Marvel Divas
Sudsy fun
Superhero sitcoms
Firestar #1-4
Basic palmistry
Generic mean girls
Coen Brothers YA
The reinvention of Emma Frost
Some epic gaslighting
Butter Rum
Mutivac
Miles’s favorite star-crossed ‘ship
Why Thunderbird I has stayed dead
Contextual definitions of “organic”
NEXT WEEK: Secret Wars
You can find a visual companion to this episode on our blog!
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Buy prints of this week’s illustration at our shop, or contact David Wynne for the original!
38 min
January 25, 201541 – Hated and Feared
Art by David Wynne. Prints and cards available until 2/1/2015 in the shop, or contact David for the original.
In which Nimrod is probably an honorary Summers by this point; Claremont hits a centennial; it’s probably pretty hard to get an unconscious person into tight leather pants; the X-Men finally encounter a world that actually hates and fears them; and the Power Pack fits somewhat uneasily with the grown-up Marvel Universe.
X-PLAINED:
Nimrod
Uncanny X-Men #193-195
Thunderbird II (James Proudstar)
Situation-inappropriate attire
The worst Hellions
Firestar (Angelica Jones)
Why you call ahead before breaking into NORAD
Leadership
Public opinion
Juggernaut fights
How the X-Men wake up
Nazgûl
Tyranny of the Masses: The Robot
The Voltron Special
The Power Pack
Navigating crossovers
NEXT WEEK: Firestar!
You can find a visual companion to this episode on our blog!
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Buy prints of this week’s illustration at our shop, or contact David Wynne for the original!
47 min
January 19, 201540 – Give Them Something to Punch (With G. Willow Wilson)
Art by David Wynne. Prints available until 1/25/2015 in the shop, or contact David for the original.
In which writer G. Willow Wilson joins us to talk about her new run on X-Men; the Future is really confusing; we consider the many iterations of Rachel Grey; Storm probably has strong feelings about climate change; and writing for a shared universe takes some seriously fancy footwork.
X-Plained:
Jubilee
Shogo (a little)
The future vs. the Future
X-Men vols. 1-4
The logistics of stepping into a book mid-series
Pigeonholing and “girl” books
The proper pronunciation of Kamala
Storm (again)
Psylocke
M
Rachel Grey (again)
Cross-title coordination
Writing in a shared universe
Super-powered ecology
The gender politics of telepathy
Writing and dialogue across media
Marginalization, intersectionality, and the mutant metaphor
Next Week: Pink robots from the future!
You can find a visual companion to this episode on our blog!
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Buy prints of this week’s illustration at our shop, or contact David Wynne for the original!
44 min
January 12, 201539 – Forever Alone Together
Art by David Wynne. Prints and travel mugs available until 1/11/2015 in the shop, or contact David for the original.
In which Miles and his Doom voice return triumphant; we reach an understanding regarding Lila Cheney; Mob science is pretty shoddy; Magneto has fancy hair; New Mutants Xavier is Best Xavier; no one is more goth than Cloak and Dagger; and you can have Rachel’s Speed Racer references when you pry them from her cold, dead hands.
X-Plained:
Spider-Man crossovers
Cats
Marvel Team-Up Annual #6
New Mutants #22-25
Phone calls with bears
Glam day at the Hellfire Club
Rahne’s fairytale
Cloak & Dagger
Drugs
Eldritch curtains
A seriously flawed evil plan
Harry’s Hideaway
The Sam and Dani Show
Magneto’s hair
Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch’s parentage
Waiting for the T
Whether Cloak and Dagger are mutants
How to buy original art
NEXT WEEK: G. Willow Wilson!
You can find a visual companion to this episode on our blog!
Find us on iTunes or Stitcher!
Support us on Patreon!
Buy prints of this week’s illustration at our shop, or contact David Wynne for the original!
49 min
January 05, 201538 – Welcome to Murderworld (Feat. Chris Sims)
Art by David Wynne. Prints and travel mugs available until 1/11/2015 in the shop, or contact David for the original.
In which we welcome back Emergency Backup Co-Host Chris Sims; comics writers are basically supervillains; Cyclops is not here to have fun; Spider-Man flirts with objectivism; Murderworld is probably not financially sustainable; you should totally cosplay the Proletarian; Arcade may or may not secretly be the Archie Andrews of Earth-616; and Doctor Doom remains absolutely delightful.
X-Plained
Captain Britain
Arcade
Francisco Scaramanga
The vastly inferior Arcade of Earth-1610
Uncanny X-Men #123-124, 146-147, 197
Chris’s first X-Men
A really sweet truck
Spider-Man’s brief flirtation with objectivism
What the X-Men do on their night off
Hella nipples
Murderworld
Miss Locke
Mr. Chambers
Marvel comics in the Marvel Universe
A large number of elaborate deathtraps
Soviet Nick Fury
The Proletarian
Hostage-wrapping
Phil and Tobe
One way to celebrate your birthday
Avengers Arena
Miss Coriander
The best non-X Arcade stories
The end of Axis Sixis
Arcade at the Arcade
NEXT WEEK: Cloak and Dagger!
You can find a visual companion to this episode on our blog!
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Buy prints of this week’s illustration at our shop, or contact David Wynne for the original!
46 min
December 28, 201437 – Giant-Size Special #1
Art by David Wynne. Prints available until 1/15 in the shop, or contact David for the original.
In which we launch our first-ever giant-size special; God Loves, Man Kills is the definitive X-Men story; Bobby makes his R&MXtXM on-air debut; we repopulate the world with X-writers; Rachel is really excited about x-plaining X-Cutioner’s Song; Miles takes a strong stance on Wolverine’s mask; we award some awards; and it’s all your fault.

X-Plained
God Loves, Man Kills (Marvel Graphic Novel #5)
William Stryker
An inappropriate analogy
Keeping it interesting
Favorite episodes
Bridging the fan/critic divide
Our ongoing obsession with bit characters
The challenge of keeping Charles Xavier relevant
X-Planation Curation
Several stories we’re really looking forward to covering
X-Writers on a desert island
Internet fights
Favorite stories vs. best stories
Stupid hats of the Marvel Universe
Dr. Doom as Tim Gunn
Havok vs. ceiling fans
Educational standards of the Marvel Universe
The First Annual Super Doctor Astronaut Peter Corbeau Awards for Excellence in X-Cellence
NEXT WEEK: Rachel and Chris Sims X-Plain Arcade
CORRECTION: In this episode, Rachel claims that there is only one Super Doctor Astronaut Peter Corbeau in the Marvel Multiverse. This is patently untrue. There are numerous versions of Super Doctor Astronaut Peter Corbeau in the Marvel Multiverse, who may or may not be able to combine Voltron-style into a giant Corbeau Singularity.
You can find a visual companion to this episode on our blog!
Find us on iTunes or Stitcher!
Support us on Patreon!
Buy prints of this week’s illustration at our shop, or contact David Wynne for the original!
1 hr 53 min
December 21, 201436 – Steal This Podcast
Art by David Wynne. Prints available in the shop until 12/28, or contact David for the original!
In which we play Six Degrees of Lila Cheney; Cannonball gets a makeover; Earth does not in fact blow up; the X-Men like their s’mores with thinly veiled allegories; and Magik dabbles in erotic friend fiction.
X-Plained:
Strong Guy
Annuals
New Mutants Annual #1 (Steal This Planet)
Lila Cheney
Both versions of Cats Laughing
The Vrakanain
Chris Claremont Book Club
Uncanny X-Men Annual #8 (The Adventures of Lockheed the Space Dragon and His Pet Girl Kitty)
Some dubious campfire games
Illyana’s Space Opera
Space pirate X-Men
Some long-awaited resolution
NEXT WEEK: Rachel and Miles’s Giant-Size Special #1, featuring God Loves, Man Kills!
You can find a visual companion to this episode on our blog!
Find us on iTunes or Stitcher!
Support us on Patreon!
Buy prints of this week’s illustration at our shop, or contact David Wynne for the original!
48 min
December 15, 201435 – Post-Disco Panic
Art by David Wynne
In which literally every character in Dazzler: The Movie is the absolute worst; Beauty and the Beast is secretly kind of awesome; Ann Nocenti is an editorial war-bard; Rachel issues a hat-related retraction; and we would read the hell out of Tales from the Heartbreak Hotel.
X-Plained:
The many mutations of Hank McCoy
Alison Blaire
Dazzler: The Movie
Dazzler’s corporate origins
The original plans for the actual unmade Dazzler movie
Severely off-model Storm
Ziggy the Butler
Several frankly horrifying courtships
Roman Nekoboh
Eric Beale
Beauty and the Beast (but not that one)
The correct way to open a miniseries
Ann Nocenti
Alexander Flynn
The importance of voice in writing Beast
Max Rocker
The Heartbreak Hotel (but not that one) and its residents
Nocenti narration
Some really dubious underground theater
The worst hat
What Dazzler’s been up to lately
NEXT WEEK: Rock’n’Roll Annuals… IN SPACE!
ART CHALLENGE: Join us in a world where Beauty and the Beast spinoff Tales from the Heartbreak Hotel is a real, published comic–and send us your fan-art from that series!
You can find a visual companion to this episode on our blog!
Find us on iTunes or Stitcher!
Support us on Patreon!
Buy prints of this week’s illustration at our shop, or contact David Wynne for the original!
52 min