recursal/Fanatic-Fandom huggingface dataset:
Episode 100 – Unexpected Wonder, with Chris Claremont

*Art by David Wynne*

## Episode Description

In which Miles follows his heart; subtext becomes text; and we celebrate a very special milestone with a very special guest.

## Note

For a comprehensive visual companion to this episode, we recommend reading Uncanny X-Men #94-279, 381-389, and 444-473; X-Men vol. 1 #59; X-Men vol. 2 #1-3, 100-109, and 165; New Mutants #1-54, 63, and 81; Excalibur vol. 1 #1-19, 21-25, 27, and 32-34; X-Treme X-Men #1-46; X-Men Forever #1-25; and dozens of additional annuals, miniseries, ongoings, one-shots, graphic novels, and more.
Episode 235 - Fatal Extractions (Fatal Attractions, Part 2)

*Art by David Wynne*

## Episode Description

In which Magneto may or may not own a Namor body pillow; Cyclops probably doesn’t color-code his files; Colossus is Not Okay; bats are nature’s flashers; there are a lot of reasons to be mad at Fatal Attractions; Charles Xavier is surprisingly durable; the X-Men know their Aeschylus; Jean Grey goes in through the face; and bringing Wolverine to fight the guy who controls metal was probably not a great idea.

## X-Plained

* Mutant Alpha
* *Uncanny X-Men* #304
* *X-Men* #25
* False foreshadowing
* Costume storage and display
* Relative moral event horizons
* The character dehabilitation of Magneto
* The Magneto Protocols
* How Cyclops organizes his files
* An excellent eulogy
* The complicated legacy of Illyana Rasputin
* Several noteworthy absences
* A memorable funeral
* The ‘behold’ thing
* A protective mesh of electromagnetic fire
* A well-played callback
* A strategically dubious plan
* Several *Prometheus Bound* quotations
* An uncharitable assumption
* The blood-brain barrier
* A severe costume injury
* The definitive scene of Fatal Attractions
* The root of Onslaught
* Which X-Men would podcast
* Our preferred comics formats

## Listener Questions

This article needs a transcription of the episode questions.
Episode 040 - Give Them Something to Punch

*Art by David Wynne*

## Episode Description

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

## Listener Questions

* Willow, what character are you most excited to get your hands on someday that you haven't been able to write yet?
* I'm already on board for your run on adjectiveless X-Men, but I have a serious question about it: Will there be fun times and shenanigans?
Episode 214 - Stryfe’s Burn Book

*Art by David Wynne*

## Episode Description

In which “wolves” proves a remarkably broad category in the 616; we at least nominally wrap up X-Cutioner’s Song; Stryfe could really use a style guide; we issue our first-ever music challenge; Jubilee is an agent of chaos; Gambit’s powers are a metaphor; Charles Xavier has a complicated relationship to disability; the quality of Jay’s penmanship is a matter of official record; Boom Boom is a remarkably good costume designer; Cannonball comes into his own as a leader; and every “WHAT?!” you hear on this show is fresh and original.

## X-Plained

* Wolves, to a very limited extent
* Jay & Miles (kinda) at NYCC
* Transcripts
* X-Cutioner’s Song
* *Stryfe’s Strike File*
* *Uncanny X-Men* #297
* *X-Force* #19
* A gentle bird caught in a swirling tornado of lust and desperation
* Shades of me
* Shades of you
* Shades of them
* Our first-ever music challenge
* Some foreshadowing
* Nostalgia
* A very nice hug
* The one good side effect of Stryfe’s technoorganic virus
* Charles Xavier vs. disability politics
* Several practical jokes in very poor taste
* Teacher-student bonding
* An excellent epithet
* Some lettering choices
* An extended Hail Caesar riff
* The Clooney Scale
* An enduring mystery
* Clone powers
* Exclamatory logistics

## Listener Questions

This article needs a transcription of the episode questions.
Episode 055 – How Nightcrawler Got His Groove Back

*Art by David Wynne*

## Episode Description

In which Secret Wars II ruins everything (more) (again) (forever); Rachel Summers hates the Beyonder almost as much as we do; Miles gets mad at comics; Nightcrawler does not do gritty well; Lady Deathstrike gets wired; and we consult our favorite 3-year-old for book recommendations.

## X-Plained

* Rogue vs. Carol Danvers
* Life before social media
* Uncanny X-Men #202-205
* Alpha Flight #33-34
* Phoenix II vs. the Beyonder (twice)
* The Reverse Gwen Stacy
* Still more miracles of magnetism
* Kitty Pryde disambiguation
* SFLANNG!
* Good times in Murderworld
* The third-worst honeymoon
* Lady Deathstrike (Yuriko Oyama)
* Spiral’s Body Shop
* The Reavers
* One way to build a Wolverine antagonist
* Skirting the Comics Code
* Sound-effects lettering as a narrative device
* Good X-books for a 3-year-old

## Listener Questions

* Did Rogue ever make peace with Carol Danvers over stealing her powers/memories/etc.?
* I'd like to find a way to introduce my daughter to comics and she's 3 years old. I randomly picked up a *Tiny Titans*book, but the first couple of stories featuring girl characters were aboutboys and clothes. I'd prefer to introduce her to the Marvel Universe anyway. Do you know of any good X-Men books for a very young person?
Episode 060 – Rachel Summers and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

*Art by David Wynne*

## Episode Description

In which Rachel Summers went to sleep with Wolverine’s claws in her dreams and now there’s claws in her lungs and when she got out of bed this morning she tripped on her traumatic backstory and by mistake she dropped the Phoenix Force in the sink while the water was running and she could tell it was going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

## X-Plained

* Freedom Force
* Supervillains’ day jobs
* Uncanny X-Men #206-209
* The X-Men’s first brief tenure in San Francisco
* Terrible house guests
* Lindsay McCabe
* David Ishima
* Bree Morrell
* A metaphorical ghost story
* Lycanthropy, but dumber
* The crossing of several ethical lines
* Death by narrative stasis (and also impaling)
* Craft night at the Hellfire Club
* Death by costume satin (and also heart failure)
* One way to write someone out of a book
* Our favorite Summers kids
* X-Music

## Listener Questions

* Do either of you have a favorite among the many future-alternate-future-time-travelly Summers children? I thought mine was Rachel until I was reading *X-Factor* and suddenly learned about Ruby. What gives Summers/Grey/Frost/Pryor children such staying power? Why don't more X-families have grown up alternate future kids running around?
* I just discovered Lila Cheney via *Captain Marvel*#9, and it's got me thinking about music and the X-verses. Are there any particular artists you guys associate with Dazzler, Lila, or other mutant musicians that I should be aware of? Are you aware of anyone writing songs for them? I refuse to believe it hasn't been done, but I'm having trouble finding any. How about music in general that you associate in general with X-Men or specific characters?
Episode 188 - Live from ECCC, feat. Bret Blevins, Rachelle Rosenberg, & Ramon Villalobos

## Episode Description

In which Jay makes a sartorial switch; Hope Summers is less confusing than you might expect; we are very happy to present our first all-artist convention special; Ramon kills his idols; Rachelle deciphers the past; Bret (re)defines New Mutants; a long-time mystery is resolved; colorists deserve more respect; the Xavier School *probably* has an actual curriculum; and a lot of X-Men have really cool hair.

*Ed. note: This episode came with two visual companions. The second may be found here.*

## X-Plained:

* The adventures of Hope Summers
* Several Phoenix hosts
* The time Quentin Quire became a Shi’ar god
* Jay’s mom
* Our panelists’ definitive X-Men
* *E for Extinction*
* Killing your idols
* Coloring as archaeology
* Visually defining the X-Men
* New Mutants that might have been
* Favorite costumes
* The actual color of Storm’s ’90s costume
* Editorial direction vs. editorial mandate
* Practical considerations in costume design
* Actual education at the Xavier School
* Wolverine’s assorted children
* The best hair in the X-Men

## Listener Questions

This article needs a transcription of the episode questions.
Episode 062 – Giant-Size Special 2

*Art by David Wynne*

## Episode Description

In which we welcome Logan Bonner, Mikey Neilson, and AdministratriX Tina to the gaming table for an original X-Men Animated Adventure; the real enemy is BS&P; Australia is kind of terrible; Rogue is concerned about kangaroos; Wolverine taps into the power of love; Storm makes a long-distance call; and Cyclops plans for failure (but not color-coded labels).

## Featuring

* Logan Bonner as Writer, Gamemaster, and Broadcast Standards & Practices
* Tina Abate as Wolverine
* Mikey Neilson as Storm
* Rachel Edidin as Cyclops
* Miles Stokes as Rogue

## Listener Questions

* Since you two are now reformed evil mutants in the *X-Men '92* universe, what were your powers and motivations, and what causes you to want to reform?
Episode 233 - Electromagnetism Unlimited

## Episode Description

In which *X-Men Unlimited* begins; Cyclops’s powers remain wildly inconsistent; electromagnetic fields are the gamma rays of the early ‘90s; Siena Blaze should probably take some science courses; Magneto is a complex dude; and the Marvel Universe could really use adequate mental healthcare.

Special thanks to consulting X-Pert @beccastareyes!

## X-Plained

* Tradeoffs
* *X-Men Unlimited*
* Several other Unlimited series
* The Gregorian calendar
* Chris Bachalo
* Storm’s-eye view
* Electromagnetic fields
* Diverse approaches to problem-solving
* One of Cyclops’s many issues
* An unfortunate encounter with Magneto
* A memorial
* Magneto, his origins, and his many pseudonyms
* The Victor Von Doom paradox
* A terrible plan
* Physical mannerisms in comics
* An unfortunate encounter with Magneto, revisited
* Mental healthcare in the Marvel Universe
* What happened to the Soul Sword

## Listener Questions

This article needs a transcription of the episode questions.
Episode 072 – Thrown Under the Plot Bus

*Art by David Wynne*

## Episode Description

In which Dazzler is not a team player; Longshot is the Zonker Harris of the X-Men; Juggernaut is That Guy; Rachel and Miles channel Statler and Waldorf; and Alex Summers is seriously never, ever going to finish grad school.

## X-Plained

* Mutant X
* The only well-adjusted Scott Summers in the Multiverse
* The Goblin Entity
* Uncanny X-Men #217-219
* The evolution of the X-Men’s lineup
* Standards for a good twist
* Doonesbury
* Several Dungeons & Dragons analogies
* A dubious literary allusion
* Flying jeeps
* CrimeBros
* The fundamental tragedy of Longshot
* Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart and several homages thereto
* Geordie and Rupert
* Havok (more) (again)
* Car-wreck sex
* An unfortunate end to a camping trip
* The Plot Bus
* Several ways to stat Rogue up as a D&D character
* Narrative-friendly power sets

## Special Thanks

* The wonderful Adam Warrock, for letting us sample his song “Teamwork” in this episode! You can listen to the full track here, and find more of Adam’s work at adamwarrock.com.
* Harrison Barber for his X-Pert D&D advice (not to mention nearly fifteen years of tolerating our nonsense at the gaming table)!

## Listener Questions

* I'm working on a 5th Edition D&D game where all the characters and story are based around X-Men. Still a fantasy setting and all. Example: Wolverine is a fighter dwarf, Magik is a warlock, Magneto is a wizard healer (Mageneto). One of my player's wants Rogue though, and I'm stuck on how to do her. You're both X-Men and D&D fans. Any suggestions?
* What do you think makes for an interesting power set? Should it be broad and powerful, or oddly specific and limited? How much should it reflect the user's personality?
Episode 153 - Mermaid Parade

## Episode Description

In which Miles gets an etymology lesson; Nightcrawler is the most dateable guy in the X-Universe; Meggan is basically all the cryptids; Michael Higgins must be stopped; Alistair Stuart is terrible at adulting; we really hope Brian wasn’t too attached to that airplane; and in retrospect, there probably should have been a Spalding Gray joke in there somewhere.

## X-Plained

* The Montesi Formula
* *Excalibur* #28-31
* The Gilded Lady
* The quintessential post-college experience
* The word “cooter”
* Relative gullibility
* A generally unacceptable issue
* Loungewear
* Vampires, kind of
* Some uncomfortably colonial imagery
* Krakoa, Jr.
* The Vega Men
* The aftermath of Axis
* Colossus’s probable politics

## Listener Questions

* What happened to the AXIS inversions? Sabertooth's has stuck apparently, but did Havok's? It seemed like Tony Stark changed back at some point too, but when? How? Speaking of Havok, why did Reed Richards fix Doctor Doom's face but not his at the end of Secret Wars?
* I've been arguing with a friend and I need this settled. Would Colossus support Russia in our current political landscape?
Episode 272 - Children of the Phalanx (the Phalanx Covenant, Part 2 of 3)

*Art by David Wynne*

## Episode Description

In which Ship was inside Cable all along; Life Signs is the *Two Towers* of the Phalanx Covenant (but only in the bad ways), it’s lucky that the Phalanx doesn’t have WiFi; Nightcrawler embraces chaos; and we promise the crossover gets better next chapter.

## X-Plained

* How Cable got his Ship back
* Miles’s official stance on candy corn
* The Two Towers of the Phalanx Covenant
* *X-Factor* #106
* *X-Force* #38
* *Excalibur* #82
* A monastery party
* Douglock (more) (again)
* Forge-O-Vision
* How Steven Lang got mixed up with the Phalanx
* Stages of Phalanx development
* Babel
* Giuseppe Russo, shepherd
* The Phalanx, but dogs
* Shinar
* What you get when you meet a stranger in the Alps
* Whom we’d like to see draw the Phalanx
* Mindwifery
* Adulthood
* “Stealth”
* Where baby Phalanxes come from
* Teamwork
* Good stories about Hope Summers
* What happened to Paul Bailey

## Listener Questions

This article needs a transcription of the episode questions.
Episode 352 - Onslog

*Art by David Wynne*

## Episode Description

In which Onslaught: Phase 2 does not live up to the promise of Phase 1; Hulk is not the most trustworthy individual; Miles is his own best audience; Sentinels know their continuity; and true heroism is scored by James Horner.

## X-plained

* The Phoenix Five
* Onslaught thus far
* *The Incredible Hulk* #445
* *Invincible Iron Man* #332
* *Avengers* #402
* Pea Soup Hulk
* Falcon’s late cousin Jim
* The word “ebon”
* Tunneling logistics
* An uncomfortable lesson
* *Immortal Hulk* and why you should be reading it
* Fancy hats
* *Science Made Stupid*
* Teen Tony Stark (more) (again)
* Sneaking
* Onslaught’s best epithet
* The sound of heroism
* Thor’s “shirt”
* Headgear

## Listener Questions

This article needs a transcription of the episode questions.
Episode 046 - Shadows Over Cairo

*Art by David Wynne*

## Episode Description

In which we bid a fond farewell to Bill Sienkiewicz; Secret Wars II continues to ruin everything; the New Mutants end up in an improbable number of gladiatorial arenas; Shadowcat’s secondary mutation is queer subtext; Magik gives no fucks about your crossover event; Warlock transcends storytelling conventions; and Karma rejoins the team.

## X-Plained

* The chronologically inconsistent mobility of Professor Xavier
* The Shadow King
* New Mutants #29-34
* Steve Leialoha
* The Arena (more) (again)
* Evil group projects
* Easter eggs
* Rachel Summers: butch fashion icon
* Some major failures of positive size diversity in comics
* Madripoor
* Ashake
* The incredible changing Guthries
* The wickedest club in Cairo
* Default X-teams
* Cypher’s powers

## Listener Questions

* The X-Men seem to keep defaulting back to some combination of Cyclops, Jean, Storm, Wolverine, and a young girl mutant (Kitty, Jubilee, Rogue, etc.) What is it about this combination that people keep falling back on? Do these characters work particularly well together, are they just individually more popular, or does it really correspond to a time of particular popularity, like the mid-90s?
* What are Cypher's actual powers? He's "good at language", but sometimes that means learning or speaking new languages, sometimes it means a persuasive speaker, once it even made him a good computer programmer. What can he actually do? And can his character be redeemed?
HAWK TALK - Formative Novels

## Episode Description

This would usually be a skip week, but the world is still being a jerk, so we made you a bonus, entirely unedited, and almost entirely off-topic episode. This time, we talk about the (non-comic) books we grew up on!

## Hawked:

* *Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy* series by Douglas Addams
* *The Dark is Rising* sequence by Susan Cooper
* *The Chronicles of Prydain* series by Lloyd Alexander
* *Seaward* by Susan Cooper
* ~~*The Seeker*~~
* *The Black Cauldron*
* *A Wrinkle in Time* by Madeleine L'Engle
* *Legion* TV series
* Scholastic Book Fairs
* *The Hero and the Crown* by Robin McKinley
* *Midnight Hour Encores* by Bruce Brooks
* *Xanth* series by Piers Anthony
* *The Incarnations of Immortality* by Piers Anthony
* *Letters to Jenny* by Piers Anthony
* *Elfquest* by Wendy & Richard Pini
* *Ender's Game* by Orson Scott Card
* *Draonriders of Pern* series by Anne McCaffrey
* *The Rowan* by Anne McCaffrey
* Harper Hall trilogy by Anne McCaffrey
* Charles Dickens
* *Sophie's Choice*, book & movie
* Kevin Kline's Increasingly Inaccurately Named Trifecta
* *The Road to El Dorado*
* *Bored of the Rings*
* *Magic Kingdom for Sale- Sold!* series by Terry Brooks
* *Dragonlance* book series
* *The Record of Lodoss War* series
* Tom Robbins
* Christopher Moore
* Marge Piercy
* Barbara Kingsolver
* Availability of books in youth
* *X-Men: Onslaught*
* *Berserk* manga
* *Uncle Tungsten* by Oliver Sacks
* Jay, enthusiasm enthusiast
* *How to Do Nothing* by Jenny Odell
* *You Look Like a Thing and I Love You* by Janelle Shane
* Matt Hunter appreciation
Episode 189 - How Do You Solve a Problem Like Nate Summers?

## Episode Description

In which Jay’s mom broke the Internet; correct credits are important; everyone has a Danger Room; no one needs that many teeth; there are *so many reasons* to laugh at Stryfe; the Watcher is probably affiliated with Pepperidge Farm; Boom Boom is the Rogue of X-Force; and Cable’s pouches are *definitely* full of menstrual products.

## X-Plained:

* The Franklin Richards of Earth X
* The One True Cable
* *X-Force* #5-7
* Pocket-Size Juggernaut
* A novel approach to trauma surgery
* A moment of intersectionality
* Teeth of the early ’90s
* Soft pink bags of rice-paper flesh
* A villain speech
* X-Force’s bathtub
* Several Shel Silverstein poems that may or may not be about superheroes
* Cooking with Boom Boom
* Why the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants keeps the “Evil” in their name
* Thornn (Lucia Callasantos)
* Phantazia
* Writers vs. Scripters
* Sex Ed at the Xavier School
* The Worst Twitter Thread

## Listener Questions

This article needs a transcription of the episode questions.
Episode 260 - Professor Power’s Prodigal Podcast

*Art by David Wynne*

## Episode Description

In which we explore the aftermath of Multiple Man’s death; X-Factor has a lot of feelings; it probably sucks to grieve with Charles Xavier; neither power nor responsibility is particularly fun; we finally find out who was trying to kill Polaris; Professor Power makes it to the big leagues; and the ‘90s were one long leg day.

## X-Plained

* Vectors of Malice transmission
* *X-Factor* #101-102
* *X-Factor Annual* #9
* The aftermath of Jamie Madrox’s death
* Several ways to grieve
* Captain Capitalism and Plucky the Girl Wonder
* A foiled robbery
* Several guest stars
* Multiple Man’s Muir Island years
* Several assassination attempts
* Some shady government shenanigans
* Beatrice Conners (sort of)
* A surprisingly muscular astral projection
* Haven’s deeply dubious origin story
* Professor Power
* A surprisingly muscular android
* One way to clean a room
* Creative uses of mutant powers
* Top-ten lists

## Listener Questions

This article needs a transcription of the episode questions.
Episode 253 - Autumn in the Uncanny Valley

*Art by David Wynne*

## Episode Description

In which an engagement begins; Jean Grey’s Walden Puddle counterpart is definitely Nicole; Cyclops is the telepathic equivalent of a pit trap with spikes at the bottom; Charles Xavier’s subconscious is very dialogue-heavy; nobody ever has appropriate professional boundaries; Cable dabbles in passive aggression; and the best is yet to come.

## X-Plained

* Some of Blaquesmith’s recent activities
* *Uncanny X-Men* #308-310
* A very sweet retcon
* Thanksgiving “traditions”
* How to scare crows
* Emplates
* Feelings and telepathy
* A proposal
* A misprint
* Thanksgiving at the Xavier School
* A somewhat alarming manifestation of a conscience
* The lies Charles Xavier tells himself
* Xavier’s depression beard
* The evolution of Amelia Voght
* Angry Claremontean Narrator: The Movie
* The anticlimactic return of Carl “X-Cutioner” Denti
* An unexpected resolution
* Foreshadowing
* Trans voices in the larger comics conversation

## Listener Questions

This article needs a transcription of the episode questions.
Episode 151 - Czars of Kung Fu

## Episode Description

In which Laura easily is worth a dozen Old Mans Logan; Charlotte Jones is the EveryCop; Genosha remains a fairly versatile allegory; Hydra are totally Nazis; Jubilee gets the best sound effects; Rogue has a bad day; and it’ll take more than a sun to stop Lila Cheney.

## X-Plained

* Graydon Creed
* Logan oversaturation (more) (again)
* Uncanny X-Men #264, 268, 269
* A somewhat convoluted status quo
* Death by Derrida
* New York’s sewers (kind of) (maybe)
* The Misty Knight rule
* Jackets of the ’90s
* Cap’s cape
* Mustache metaphysics
* The Press Gang (again)
* *VR.5*
* The Doctrine of Hot Pursuit
* Dazzler, in handy grenade form
* A prescient scenario
* Jim Lee signature cocktail dresses
* A dubious approach to first aid
* Wolverine’s sexy friends
* Nazi ducks
* Seraph
* Ivan Petrovitch
* Sexy subversion
* Rogue vs. Carol Danvers
* Mutants vs. the Terrigen Mists
* TaXonomy of ambiguously X-characters

## Listener Questions

* I just read and loved Si Spurrier's *X-Club* miniseries, but I'm confused by the different relationship that mutants have with Terrigen compared to present comics. Though the Terrigen there will evidently kill Nemisis when he's exposed to it, it does actually imbue him with extraordinary abilities. Moreover, Rao successively synthesizes a cure to save Nemesis. Did I miss something that took Rao's cure off the table in current comics?
* If Captain Britain had an ongoing series, would you consider it an X-book? What about Longshot? I'm not asking about your coverage, just the metaphysics.
Episode 086 – Legends (Fall of the Mutants, Part 1 of 3)

*Art by David Wynne*

## Episode Description

In which we begin our 3-part coverage of Fall of the Mutants; Roma is very good at her job; strange things are afoot in Dallas; Mystique’s parenting skills are somewhat lopsided; Neal Conan is awesome; Havok gets a soapbox; Storm and Forge flirt with godhood; Rogue’s costume exists in a state of quantum uncertainty; Colossus is the organic steel wrench in the gears of chaos; and the X-Men die for real (but get better).

## X-plained

* Crossovers vs. events
* The Fall of the Mutants
* Uncanny X-Men #225-227
* A really great marketing campaign
* The Adversary (again)
* Roma
* The Starlight Citadel
* Retcons as applied pareidolia
* A metaphor that is also a real chess piece
* A sort-of stabbing
* Neal Conan & Manoli Wetherell
* Literally hard-hitting journalism
* A whole new world
* Another variation on the Rogue’s-costume drinking game
* A really improbable plan
* The death and resurrection of the X-Men
* Mutant metabolisms

## Listener Questions

* Do all, most, or many mutants require a specific source to recharge their powers? For those that don't, is it just basic metabolism? If Angel has a long day of dodging things, can he get in a mondo cheat meal without regretting it later? If Dazzer becomes deaf, would she effectively lose her powers?
Episode 044 - Assembling Legion

*Art by David Wynne*

## Episode Description

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

## Listener Questions

* Legion's big bad was the psychic projection of his father Charles Xavier. It's clear this is not the real Xavier, who at this point in continuity had been killed by Cyclops. Even so, how much of this is Legion's own perception and hangups about his difficult relationship with his dad, and how much is a reflection of the actual dark side of Charles Xavier which we've seen throughout the comics for 50+ years?
* How did Legion go from comparable age with The New Mutants to comparable age to the students in the Jean Grey school during Legacy? Time Paradox? Suspended animation? Being stuck eternally as a teenager as punishment for creating the Age of Apocalypse?
Episode 147 - The Beginning of the End of the Beginning

## Episode Description

In which the New Mutants get a new status quo (and new costumes); we have deeply mixed feelings about Rob Liefeld; Cable is the comprehensive sex-ed to Xavier’s staunch denial and Magneto’s abstinence-only; Rictor gets a new dad by right of arms; and you should totally come party with us at Emerald City Comic Con!

## X-Plained

* Feral Wolverine
* Jay & Miles at Emerald City Comic Con
* *New Mutants* #90, 91, 93, and 94
* Early Rob Liefeld
* Caliban vs. Sabretooth
* Vertical spreads
* Stately Xavier Ruins
* How to confuse Freedom Force
* Imaginary fashions of the early ’90s
* How Rictor’s father may or may not have died
* The New Mutants’ new uniforms
* A lovingly-rendered butt
* Improv with Apocalypse
* The mystery of Rictor’s shirt
* Seismic weaving
* The Japanese branch of the MLF (Kamikaze, Sumo, and Dragoness)
* The Mutual Liberation Front
* *Diana, Warrior Princess* (again)
* Several kisses
* Sleet

## Listener Questions

* Who do you think was portrayed the best in the X-Men nineties cartoon? I'd ask who was portrayed the worst, but we all know it's Cyclops.
* My seven-year-old daughter recently told me she liked superheroes but they were only for boys. Thanks to your show (I don't actually read any comics but I love the show) I responded by listing about twenty female super heroes in less than a minute. But by making my list, I realized that an awful lot of them had ambiguous motivations or had gone through phases as villains. Jean Grey, Psylocke, Rogue, etc. Do female heroes really turn evil more than male heroes, and if so, why?
Episode 138 - What Would Dazzler Do?

## Episode Description

In which we continue to follow the post-Siege Perilous X-Men; Dazzler finally makes her big-screen debut; Callisto gets a day job; Colossus gets a ponytail; still more X-Men fake their deaths; Jean Grey gets tentacles; Professor Wolverine is a jerk; and Jay overthinks *Community*.

## X-Plained

* The new-new Howling Commandos
* Hit-Monkey
* Uncanny X-Men Vol 1 #259-263
* *Dazzler: The Movie* (again)
* Freddie Stanacheck
* Eric Beale
* What Dazzler would do
* Peter Nicholas
* Jenny Ransome and Phillip Moreau (again)
* *Twin Peaks* references, canonical and otherwise
* Genoshan foreign policy
* The value of allegory
* Some regrettable X-costumes
* That time Jean Grey got tentacles
* Molly the cat
* Dubious medical ethics
* Hardcase and the Harriers
* An unlikely pizza party
* A theoretical *Community*/*X-Men* costume party

## Listener Questions

* If Troy and Abed threw an X-men themed party for the rest of the characters in *Community*, who would everyone come dressed as?
Episode 008 - What We Talk About When We Talk About Claremont

## Episode Description

In which Chris Claremont defines the X-Universe; Sunfire quits the team (again); Nightcrawler is the best; the narrator is nobody’s friend; Colossus is a good kid; Cyclops has a long series of bad days; everyone is a bondage Viking; Rachel is a space pedant, we meet the Phoenix, and Wolverine is the Batman of Marvel.

## X-Plained

* Polaris’s kinda-powers
* Our first crossover event
* How much we love you
* Chris Claremont, and why he’s the definitive X-writer
* Comics In Focus: Chris Claremont’s X-Men
* Why Nightcrawler is the best point-of-view character
* The long game
* Tom Orzechowski’s dimension-folding lettering skills
* Claremontisms
* The malicious narrator
* Count Nefaria
* Sliding-scale ransom
* The life, death, and occasional reanimation of Thunderbird
* Friendship
* The care and feeding of cairns
* Erik the Red
* Quiet moments
* Sentinels and X-Sentinels
* Steven Lang
* The (first) death and return of Jean Grey
* Accents

## Listener Questions

* Why is Wolverine put on every X-team and Avengers team, even though his main character trait is "grizzled loner"?
Episode 120 - Observed by a Family of Lizard People

*Art by David Wynne*

## Episode Description

In which everything is worse with Nazis; Excalibur gets its groove back; Meggan has an identity crisis; Kitty gets a crush; a dragon gets interdimensional sanctuary; and the Cross-Time Caper starts not with a bang, but a *foomp*.

## X-Plained

* The death of Lilandra Neramani
* *Excalibur* #8-11
* The best name in Hollywood
* Still more of Inferno’s aftermath
* A basketball game
* Blackbird disambiguation
* Several long-delayed reunions and one subsequent resolution
* Alastaire Stuart (and his banana)
* Tourists who are also lizards
* Lightning Force
* A number of unfortunate encounters
* The difference between Errol Flynn characters and Errol Flynn
* The fall of Nigel Frobisher
* The switch that turns the engine invisible
* What may be the world’s least subtle euphemistic use of the term “roommate”
* How the discourse around comics has changed since the ’80s
* Jubilee vs. power creep

## Listener Questions

* Have you ever read a comic that was published in the 80s or 90s and thought "This would never be allowed today"? I'm thinking specifically of Psylocke, because I can't help but wonder if her changing races would have raised some hackles had it been done today.
* Most characters powers seem to creep slowly stronger. Do you find it interesting that Jubilee's went the opposite direction, from blowing up buildings to barely inconveniencing foes?
Episode 021 - Kurt Busiek at the Coffee-a-Go-Go

*Art by David Wynne*

## Episode Description

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

## Listener Questions

* What's the one Silver Age storyline you can constantly go back to without getting bored?
* Kurt, have you read X-Men First Class? Because it occurs to me -- that strikes me as the most recent-ish X-Men series that's been most in that spirit.
* Would you consider writing an Untold Tales of X-Men featuring the Silver Age team like you did with Spider-Man? What are the types of storylines you'd want to focus on if you did?
Episode 102 – Baby Race 2000

*Art by David Wynne*

## Episode Description

In which Beast’s DNA is basically held together with spit and baling wire; Boom Boom wins MVP; Angel goes full goth; Cameron Hodge loses his head; Cyclops is basically a Silent Hill protagonist; and the Nebraska Department of Social Services is probably not adequately equipped to deal with Mister Sinister.

## X-plained

* The Horsemen of Death
* *X-Factor* #32-35
* Xartans
* Superheroic triage
* A vague prophecy
* Fake Avengers
* Fake-band disambiguation
* KiLLeR DWaRfS
* Crippled Puppies
* Audiophile Apocalypse
* Shopping
* Dubiously zealous trademark protection
* Acronym disambiguation
* The death of Candy Southern
* The not-exactly death of Cameron Hodge
* Nanny
* Orphan-Maker
* Baby Race 2000
* An orphanage that is also a metaphor
* Unreliable narration
* The dubious partnership of Mister Sinister and Apocalypse
* Best iterations of Boom Boom

## InfernoWatch

* Malicious inanimate objects
* Early signs of Marvel Girl’s returning telepathy
* First clues of Cyclops’s connection to Sinister
* First mention of Goblin Queen by name

## Listener Questions

* Hey there, long time listener, first time question asker on the internet. Why does Mr. Sinister keep running running with Apocalypse? Team Blue Bros. seems to show up together often in the comics and the cartoon. Other than the reductive genetic "remake the human race" angle, I don't understand the tag-team. I thought Sinister would be smart enough to know better. Maybe I'm overestimating him.
* I think Boom Boom was at her best in Nextwave. Thoughts?
Episode 256 - Mullets of Time and Space

*Art by David Wynne*

## Episode Description

In which you raised a lot of money for Trans Lifeline; we continue to miss Alan Davis; Rory Campbell should not be narrating a climactic event; Daytripper needs to dial up her eldritch patter; the universe is dubiously self-correcting; Britannic is not nearly weird enough; and we have ongoing concerns about the anatomy of incarnate concepts.

## X-Plained

* The X-Men of Earth-77995
* *Excalibur* #75-77
* Daytripper
* A somewhat pointless sacrifice
* Rough times in the timestream
* Britannic
* X-theology
* D’Spayre’s butt
* The rest of D’Spayre
* Margali Szardos
* The blood-brain barrier
* Acrobatic flirtation
* The Winding Way
* Stark emptiness
* A shocking possible resurrection
* *Major X*
* Essential characters

## Listener Questions

This article needs a transcription of the episode questions.
Episode 301 - Can't Beat the Real Thing

*Art by David Wynne*

## Episode Description

In which we enter our fourth century of podcasting with brand new theme music; we have both Wolverine questions and wolverine questions; it is extremely rough to be Bishop; the creator of Garfield may or may not live in a sewer on Earth-616; Rogue needs better coping mechanisms; bigotry is depressingly timeless; and everything is Onslaught now.

NOTE: The Garfield strips Jay mentions appeared in newspapers, on purpose, in October 1989.

## X-Plained

* Joseph’s Brotherhood of Evil Mutants
* Our new theme music
* *X-Men Prime* #1
* A genuinely cool cover gimmick
* What happened after the end of the world
* Boundaries
* War crimes vs. fashion crimes
* Destruction of real landmarks in fiction
* A mysterious assailant
* Actual embodied chaos god Jim Davis and his Earth-616 namesake
* Several memorable Garfield stories
* Marrow (Sarah Rushman)
* The secret origin of the Morlocks
* A friendship we miss
* Unhealthy coping mechanisms
* The perennially dubious journalistic ethics of Trish Tilby
* Dennis
* The death of Dennis
* Flaws of the mutant metaphor (more) (again)
* Several refugees from Earth-295
* Mr. Summers and Mr. Summers
* The secret origin of the Genoshan mutates
* The Acolytes
* The continuing relevance of the mutant metaphor (more) (again)
* Cross-universe characterization
Episode 197 - Wolverine and the Honker of Doom

*Art by David Wynne*

## Episode Description

In which Wolverine is an eternal teenager; most of what Jay knows about Hawaii comes from *Lilo and Stitch*; Shiv is a complicated fellow; Nightcrawler represents an unattainable beauty standard; the Easter Bunny flies at dawn; *Wolverine: The Jungle Adventure* is delightful; Logan inadvertently starts a cult; Gahk does as she pleases; Jay and Miles are going to FlameCon; and we are all now Honkers forever.

## X-Plained:

* What Bloodscream and Roughouse have been up to
* Albert and Elsie Dee
* An unorthodox vocal warm-up
* *Wolverine: Bloody Choices*
* *Wolverine: The Jungle Adventure*
* The Wolverine formula
* Kamehameha Day (which Jay mispronounced; sorry!)
* Mr. Bullfinch
* Mr. Kapeland
* Shiv
* Doc Corbel
* Nick Fury’s penmanship
* How retail works
* Secret agents, maybe
* A stimulating combination
* Karate pants
* A darker, grittier version of the Easter bunny
* Wolverine’s apocryphal childhood
* Characters who can pull off the Wolverine hairstyle
* Don Adams as Wolverine
* Win/win murder scenarios
* Two adult men discussing their feelings
* Honkers
* Cargo cults
* The Tribe of Fire
* Gahck
* Some romance
* A Spiny Honker
* The Honker of Doom
* Pit traps, with and without shallow holes
* A dastardly but ineffectual plot
* Apocalypse, kind of
* One of Wolverine’s many kids (who may or may not be Erista)
* Jay & Miles at FlameCon 2018
* How to get us at your local convention
* Reading comics with Miles’s dad
* Seriously, though: *honkers*

## Listener Questions

This article needs a transcription of the episode questions.
Episode 096 – Horsemen of the Playground

*Art by David Wynne*

## Episode Description

In which we play Evolutionary War Mad-Libs; it’s probably a bad sign when Apocalypse decides you need an intervention; Dani is (briefly) the new Doug; horses are jerks; it’s probably really dangerous to be Longshot; Storm has the coolest friends; the High Evolutionary is very high indeed; and we make a (very token) nod to Valentine’s Day.

## X-plained

* Secret Origins of the High Evolutionary
* Evolutionary War
* The actual history of eugenics in America
* *X-Factor Annual* #3
* *New Mutants Annual* #4
* *Uncanny X-Men Annual* #12
* *Classic X-Men* #22
* Purifiers (but not those purifiers)
* Stack
* Purge
* How to tell when an event has major psychic repercussions
* A Silver-Age callback
* An Apocalypse-style intervention
* Toga Steve (Val-Or)
* The return of Bulk and Glow Worm
* Equal-opportunity Hellfire lingerie
* Mirage’s power upgrade
* Miles vs. puberty vs. Uncanny X-Men
* The coolest civilization ever
* Colossus’s illegitimate kid
* The cutest sound effect
* Origins of the Scott/Jean/Logan love triangle
* Stuff Jay likes and Miles doesn’t
* The Elle Collins Theory of Podcast Roles

## Listener Questions

* I was wondering if you could tell me when the Cyclops/Jean/Wolverine love triangle first became a thing? Was that created in the 90s, or did the movies make it up entirely?
* It seems like you two usually agree, but when you don't, that Miles likes it and Jay doesn't. Are there any examples of things that Jay likes and Miles doesn't?
Episode 293 - The Monster Under the World

*Art by David Wynne*

## Episode Description

In which not all Mondos are created equal; the kids are only rarely all right; the Age of Apocalypse is not Magneto’s fault; Sugar Man is the stuff of universal nightmares; “cartoonish” is not necessarily a plus; and the Age of Apocalypse is not particularly sustainable.

## X-Plained

* *Generation Next* #1-4
* The tradition of YA horror in X-books
* Bachalo unchained
* Whose fault the Age of Apocalypse is
* Adaptive technology vs. Apocalypse
* Chamber of Earth-295
* Husk of Earth-295
* Skin of Earth-295
* Mondo of Earth-295
* Vincente Cimetta
* Know-It-All (Claudia)
* An abysmal training exercise
* Colossus of Earth-295
* Shadowcat of Earth-295
* Gardner Monroe (Flashback)
* Quietus
* Sugar Man
* The Portland and/or Seattle Core
* Illyana Rasputin
* Ace
* Human collaborators
* A gratuitous Monty Python reference
* The difference between mass and volume
* Number Six
* The fall of Generation Next
* Growing up in the Age of Apocalypse
* Illyana 2.0
* Subtext vs. queerbaiting

## Listener Questions

This article needs a transcription of the episode questions.
Episode 271 - Abs for Days (The Phalanx Covenant, Part 1 of 3)

*Art by David Wynne*

## Episode Description

In which we’re finally both back in the virtual studio; *Generation X* is the new Inferno; the Phalanx Covenant begins; we’re not talking about Hickman in our coverage of this story; Banshee is the adult in the room; the Phalanx is pretty sexist; and gross powers are cool.

NOTE: Jay was right: LiveJournal first launched in 1999.

## X-Plained

* Blink
* Peter Sís
* The Phalanx Covenant
* “Generation Next” (but not Generation Next)
* *Uncanny X-Men* #316-317
* *X-Men* #36-37
* Yet another way to do a crossover event
* Some very good visual branding
* What we’re not covering
* Sexy Banshee
* Retired Colonel Gayle Cordbecker
* Monet St. Croix (kind of)
* Coaxing
* Early days of the Internets
* Everett Thomas (Synch)
* The fate of Sara Grey
* Phalanx Phashion
* Angelo Espinosa (Skin)
* Clarice Ferguson (Blink)
* Some guy allegedly named Gregor
* Harvest
* A very expensive house
* An apparent death

## Listener Questions

This article needs a transcription of the episode questions.
Episode 075 – By Their Deeds You Shall Know Them

*Art by David Wynne*

## Episode Description

In which Masque is the worst Morlock; makeouts are a good reason to learn to control your powers; Cyclops and Marvel Girl are terrible role models; Iceman is the heart of X-Factor; Cameron Hodge finally shows his hand; the kids are all right (and probably the only ones who are); and we’ve basically given up on X-Factor ever learning to use doors.

## X-Plained

* The Right
* The Ani-Mator
* X-Factor #16-20
* Training with X-Factor
* Skids’ backstory
* Motivational makeouts
* Miles’s Thor-ner
* Thor #377-378
* Why you don’t make deals with frost giants
* The mystical realm of Pittsburgh
* Redundant funeral graffiti
* A totally rad villain speech
* The evolution of Iceman
* Dubious flight safety precautions
* Rictor (Julio Esteban Richter)
* Some really epic gaslighting
* A probably-inevitable confrontation
* Supervillain team-building exercises
* Park maintenance

## Listener Questions

* Considering he was from ancient Egypt and had basically slept through the entire Christian era, why does Apocalypse use so much imagery from the book of Revelation? That's basically his whole schtick, down to his name.
* Something that's been driving me crazy about the X-Men comics since I began reading them as a first grader is that they're supposedly hated and feared by the general population, but it only seems like they're hated and feared by the most radical of radical villains and extremists. While the rest of the world is as indifferent to them as to any other young hero. I think the problem comes from there not being a good reason to hate and fear them, which is what happens when the only new X-Men are already heroic and virtuous before they even get powers. Where are all the terrible bullies who are then blessed with super strength, or the nerd who gets the power to mind control people that picked on them? Do you think the mutants that become the the X-Men should be made up of regular jackasses like I was in high school, or do you think the X-Men were already the X-Men in spirit before the powers?
Episode 025 - The Best at What He Does

*Art by David Wynne*

## Episode Description

In which Wolverine gets his first miniseries, Yukio is still (and forever) the best, we categorically reject the classification “manic pixie dreamgirl,” everything is noir as hell, Wolverine gets an Iron Giant moment, Storm is too cool for your dress code, and we finally made “Probably a Summers Brother” t-shirts.

## X-Plained

* X-23
* The 1982 Wolverine miniseries
* Uncanny X-Men #172-173
* Rachel’s Wolverine feelings
* An auspicious road trip
* Early Frank Miller
* A really epic team-up
* Plug’n’play storytelling
* How to tell a good Wolverine story
* Mariko Yashida
* Honor
* Shingen Yashida
* Yukio
* The Inverse Law of Ninjas
* The Forty-Seven Ronin
* Silver Samurai
* Viper
* A Ninja meet-cute
* The Cyclops / Wolverine double standard
* The secret origins of Wolverine’s mask and hair

## Listener Questions

* Can you No-Prize x-plain how it's okay for Wolverine to be on the black-ops X-Force assassination squad who smoke bad guys **and** become headmaster of a school a very short time later in Wolverine and the X-Men? Why are all the X-Men okay with this?
* Is Wolverine's mask specifically designed to fit over his majestic hair without squashing it, or did he just design the mask as a tribute to his hair?
HAWK TALK - Doctor Internet

## Episode Description

This would usually be a skip week, but the world is still being a jerk, so we made you a bonus, entirely unedited, and almost entirely off-topic episode. This time, we talked about the Internet.

## Topics, roughly

* Blazing fast 28.8 Kbps dial-up
* AOL CDs
* Final Fantasy, MIDI-style
* Angelfire vs. Carrd
* The Gaming Intelligence Agency
* The Brunching Shuttlecocks
* The finest memes of the early 2000s
* Chaos
* Social media, as explained by Jay
* Social media, as baffles Miles
* Podcasts vs. the Internet
Episode 047 – The Price of Power

*Art by David Wynne*

## Episode Description

In which Emergency Backup Co-Host Elisabeth Allie saves the day; the Berserkers are not the breakout hit you’ve been waiting for; Paul Smith continues to be awesome; nothing good ever happens in the Danger Room; Charles Xavier dabbles in cosplay; Nightcrawler has serious hat game; Rachel Summers lacks healthy coping skills; your life would be way more epic if Claremont narrated it; Northstar is a surprisingly good prom date; Loki is a total dick; and Longshot is totally Miles’s favorite.

## X-Plained

* Madelyne Pryor
* X-Men/Alpha Flight vols. 1&2
* The Berserkers
* An unconventional model of family therapy
* Aggressive foreshadowing
* NPC dialogue
* Jazzercise superheroes
* Superhero color theory
* Sasquatch
* Aurora
* Those Who Sit Above in Shadow
* Norse fashion of the ‘80s
* Very specific superpowers
* Some sweet boots
* The price of power
* A deus ex machina squared
* Kitty and Piotr’s first date
* Snowbird’s powers
* Miles’s favorite X-Man

## Listener Questions

* Aren't Snowbird's powers because she gets power from the great magical beasts of Canada? I think that's why she's effected so quickly in the X-Men vs. Alpha Flight mini.
* Apologies if this has already been answered, I have a really terrible memory. We know that Rachel's favorite X-Person is Cyclops, but who is Miles'?