The X-Men Files

We talk about Obama hanging out in our closet, the private lives of public politicians, a thin argument against libertarianism and Inessa finally learns what a mutant is.

This one is action packed! We cover Alec Baldwin, SLP taping speed for VHS cassettes, the appeal of murder/suicide, how Nightcrawler doesn't get enough credit for packing a punch and - most significantly - just how much fun it is to watch a smoking clown. You don't want to miss this one!

A gripping recap is followed by a conversation about lots of comics that AREN'T the X-Men. We get back on track with a discussion of the thematic themes in this issue and superhero stories generally. We also learn who our favorite X-Men characters are!

The audio for this one is good, I promise! The issue is also back on track. We meet the Shi'ar, one of Brian's favorite alien societies. We learn that Professor X is really more of a concubine than a fiance, Kitty has fun with clothes, you can't just walk around dressed up as a space pirate, even in Manhattan and we get our first look at the Brood! This is a nice one. We didn't even swear!

Full disclosure: the audio for this one is terrible. I don't know what happened. Happily, subpar audio is matched with a subpar issue. Corsair is back, but not much else happens. Even I might not want to listen to this one.

To help Ilyana fall asleep, Kitty tells a story in which a character named Kitty is a asleep and having an erotic dream. It's a night time Roman à clef! The X-Men play themselves, with a special guest appearance from Dark Phoenix. Brian talks about how stories tell the story of people telling stories to other stories, but he really just wishes that he could listen to  Sherman Hemsley tell stories.

Mind swapping and body horror! When's the ideal time to kill Hitler? The Girl Scouts, the Illuminati and the Hellfire Club are all basically the same thing! Also, weather will always rip the clothes right off of you, and we talk about leotards!

This is a great one! Kitty leaves Xavier's school, Ororo and Emma Frost have a significant encounter, Peter wears a Speedo, we encounter a preppy, and Brian explains to his Jewish wife why he's uncomfortable using the word "Jewish".

How do we cram a double-sized issue into a single-sized episode? Easy! We record when Brian is in a bad mood. Bad mood or not, we can't resist the allure of silver fox Magneto and his, actually, not-all-that-crazy ideas. We also learn that Tolkien doesn't create good villains, but Don Draper is even worse than Tony Soprano. 

We all saw 2020's The X-Men on Saturday night and we're here with our thoughts. First, though, we waste a lot of time talking about what happened and where we were living in July 2020! It's boring and no one cares! But, we do get to the film, which we both agree is not bad and has played a significant role in helping craft the comics-heavy world we live in.