recursal/Fanatic-Fandom huggingface dataset:
Episode 057 – Apocalypse Soon

*Art by David Wynne*

## Episode Description

In which Miles tries to find things to like about Bob Layton’s X-Factor run; Cyclops’s life is literally an anxiety dream; X-Factor is very Leverage; Layton’s Angel is just godawful; Rachel is all about the Red Scare; Frenzy is awesome; and we bid a fond farewell to producer Bobby Roberts.

## X-Plained

* An Apocalypse that might have been
* Mid-80s X-title thematic disambiguation
* The limited value of nostalgia
* Creative history of X-Factor
* X-Factor #2-5 and Annual #1
* The baffling reinvention of Vera Cantor
* Tower (Edward Pasternak)
* Dubious didactic strategies
* Carl Maddicks
* Artie Maddicks
* Muffin the kitten
* Bad timing
* Soviet mutant policy
* Soviet robot disambiguation
* The Doppelganger (Wolfgang Heinreich)
* A ruse
* Alexei Garnov, Mentac the Living Computer, Concussion, Iron Curtain, and Siberian Tiger
* The worst phonetic accent we have ever seen.
* The Alliance of Evil
* Frenzy (Joanna Cargill)
* The color of Beast’s fur
* Our favorite X-Men toys

## Note

Many thanks to Bobby Roberts for 57 spectacular episodes of production, advice, and boundless patience. You are the best, and we love you forever.

## Listener Questions

* Have you ever read the *Amazing Adventures* Beast story arc from 1972 detailing how he mutated into his furry form? I would be kind of interested in your opinion on what color Beast's fur actually is. It started out as grey in*Amazing Adventures*#11 thru #14, then changed to black in #15. Of course, comic books used blue to show black highlights back then, so I've always believed that, as years passed, writers simply forgot that Beast's fur was supposed to be black and started referring to it as blue by mistake.
* Do you guys have favorite ToyBiz figures? Has this or any other X-Men merchandising played a role in developing and furthering your fandom?
Episode 192 - Meet the N-Men

*Art by David Wynne*

## Episode Description

In which Alan Davis’s *Excalibur* is a spiritual sibling to *The Muppet Show*; Captain Britain gets a Captain Britain lesson; Opal Luna Saturnyne has no time for your nonsense; Meggan and Rachel take a brief detour into a Hammer film; Earth-148 is extra heroic; no member of Excalibur will ever use a bathroom in peace; Cerise joins the team; Technet embraces the future; and the end of the world is nigh.

ENTIRELY IRRELEVANT UPDATE: The wall on which Jay was attempting to mount a desk turned out to be plaster over sheetrock. Office plans are being revised accordingly.

## X-Plained:

* Pixie’s powers and parentage
* Several eccentricities of Jay’s apartment
* *Excalibur* #45-47
* Earth-148 (Ee’rath)
* Comics pacing vs. podcast pacing
* Technet (more) (again)
* Amelia Witherspoon and several references related thereto
* The N-Men
* How to Captain Britain
* The multiversal significance of the lighthouse
* A portentous chess game
* A particularly aggressive retcon
* The return of the Neuri
* The real Meggan
* Necrom
* A heroic death
* The true curse of Excalibur
* Some very specific citations
* A reunion
* Kylun (Colin McKay)
* A blessed event
* Cerise
* Whether Rogue can control Cyclops’s powers
* Laura Kinney’s upcoming reversion to X-23

## Listener Questions

This article needs a transcription of the episode questions.
Episode 285 - Immediately if Not Sooner

*Art by David Wynne*

## Episode Description

In which Goldballs is still a better name than Egg; we continue our progress towards Earth-295; Legion pulls a Stryfe; we’re still pretty shaky on how to pronounce “M’Kraan”; Xavier and Magneto were absolutely and unquestionably doing sex in the 1970s; it’s time time; the Watcher is watching you masturbate; and what happens immediately before the end of the world is often as important as what happens immediately after.

## X-Plained

* Balls
* Legion (more) (again)
* *Uncanny X-Men* #320-321
* *X-Men* #40
* Establishing stakes
* Slang of the mid-1990s
* Time travel as a dick move
* Issues vs. episodes
* The M’Kraan Crystal (more) (again)
* Hebrew vowels
* Latent time travel abilities
* Charles Xavier’s “first” bar fight
* An exceptional caption
* A very bad narrative choice
* The death of Charles Francis Xavier
* A load-bearing moment in time
* Jahf the Guardian
* Waiting for the end of the world
* The best-drawn kiss in X-Men, ever
* The many Krakoas
* Integrating Legion into Dawn of X

## Listener Questions

This article needs a transcription of the episode questions.
Animals

Haven and Hearth has many different wild creatures. Some are skittish, others complacent, and certain animals are downright hostile.

* Tetrapods
	+ Badger
	+ Bat
	+ Bear
	+ Boar
	+ Chicken
	+ Deer
	+ Fox
	+ Frog
	+ Horse
	+ Rabbit
	+ Rat
* Bugs
	+ Ants
		- Ant Larvae
		- Ant Pupae
		- Ant Soldiers
		- Ant Queen
		- Ant Empress
		- Aphids
	+ Dragonfly
	+ Earthworm
	+ Grub
	+ Lady Bug
	+ Silk Moth
	+ Spider
* Fish
	+ Asp
	+ Brill
	+ Burbot
	+ Carp
	+ Catfish
	+ Eel
	+ Grayling
	+ Ide
	+ Lavaret
	+ Plaice
	+ Perch
	+ Pike
	+ Roach
	+ Ruffe
	+ Salmon
	+ Silver Bream
	+ Trench
	+ Trout
	+ Zander
Episode 292 - Weekend at Sinister’s

*Art by David Wynne*

## Episode Description

In which it is probably not actually possible to be too nasty for Earth-295; Sinister is on nobody’s side but his own; Vulcan is *still* the worst Summers in the multiverse; the Bedlam Brothers are too delightful for the EMF; Heaven is just straight-up Rick’s Bar now; Polaris of Earth-295 is the saddest Polaris; Scott Summers and Jean Grey make a good team in most universes; and the metaphors of 1995 read very differently in 2020.

## X-Plained

* Nathaniel Essex of Earth-1610
* A regrettable tattoo
* #Creators4Comics
* Scott Summers (Cyclops) of Earth-295
* Alex Summers (Havok) of Earth-295
* *Factor X* #1-4
* Working for the Man
* Costume design as narrative
* The EMF (Elite Mutant Force)
* Northstar and Aurora of Earth-295
* Sam and Elizabeth Guthrie (Cannonball and Amazon) of Earth-295
* Jesse and Terrence Aaronson (Bedlam Brothers) of Earth-295
* Heaven (the bar)
* Scarlett McKenzie of Earth-295
* Someone who is not Magneto
* The Brain Trust
* Lorna Dane (Polaris) of Earth-295
* An obscene monument
* Innuendo of several sorts
* That time Jean Grey got captured
* Resistance of various sorts
* Poetic almost-kinda justice
* One more fallen angel
* Villains of the Age of Apocalypse

## Listener Questions

This article needs a transcription of the episode questions.
Episode 067 – Shadow of the Technarch

*Art by David Wynne*

## Episode Description

In which the New Mutants get unstuck in time; Robert the Bruce is surprisingly shallow; Sentinels dabble in decoupage; Rachel pitches a comic; there’s no such thing as a happy Magneto flashback; you should probably respect teenagers more than you do; the seeds of Inferno are sewn; and Doug Ramsey hacks the planet.

## X-Plained

* Messing with the past
* New Mutants character themes
* You Can’t Do That on Television
* New Mutants #47-50
* Constructive stabbing
* Sad Darin Morgan Magneto
* Adventures in time and space
* Tactical retreat
* Several dark alternate futures
* Earth-8720
* Decoupage of Future Past
* A singularly evocative Sentinel
* Earth-87050
* Magneto’s terrible, terrible life
* The New Mutants vs. Magus
* Peak Magma
* Karma’s codename
* Soul Sword continuity

## Listener Questions

* Why is Xian's codename Karma? It doesn't really seem to fit her powers, and she's not a member of any of the faiths that explicitly believe in the concept of karma, so why did she choose it? Did she even choose it? Is there an in continuity reason for her codename? Is there a real world x-planation?
* Illyana's Soulsword confuses me. In the Magik miniseries, it's a concentrated part of her soul, like Storm's acorn, making it personal to her. So in Excalibur they make a big deal about Kitty being one of the few who can use it. But then not long after: Doom is waving it around, then Alice Wright says it's made of soulsteel and there can only be one soulsteel weapon. Then in Claremont's Nightcrawler, it's some kind of ancient inherited weapon thing. And there's inconsistency in what it can actually damage.
Episode 191 - Unconscionably Sexy (feat. Kelly Thompson)

## Episode Description

In which writer Kelly Thompson joins us to talk *Rogue and Gambit*; Antarctica is Earth’s answer to the Blue Area of the Moon; Kelly unfreezes one of the great X-romances; Rogue has walked a mile in everyone’s shoes; you should probably not take romantic cues from fictional characters; Gambit should *always* wear hot pink; and continuity is fundamentally messy.

## X-Plained:

* What happened in Antarctica
* The Trial of Gambit
* *Rogue and Gambit*
* Narrative tension vs. growth
* Dueling accents
* Kelly’s defining Rogue and Gambit stories
* The cool-versus-creepy line
* Making deep cuts accessible
* The evolution of Rogue
* The future of the X-line
* Favorite costumes
* Equal-opportunity objectification
* Fundamental contradictions of continuity
* Hawkeye team-ups
* Date night with Rogue and Gambit
* MTV’s *Are You the One*
* RomCom hybrids

## Listener Questions

This article needs a transcription of the episode questions.
Episode 141 - Reason to Go to the Devil

## Episode Description

In which we ring in the new year with Cable’s on-page debut; it’s *really* the ’90s now; we enter the third major era of New Mutants; what Liefeld lacks in craft he makes up for in energy; we pitch a new “What if–” line; Rusty and Skids are terrible superheroes; X-Factor has probably given up on a lot of things; we speculate at gratuitous length on the content of Cable’s pouches; you have reason to go to the devil; and Cable makes a lot more sense when you realize he’s of, by, and for teenagers.

## X-Plained

* How the Legacy Virus got loose
* *New Mutants* #86-89
* Cable’s on-page debut
* Rob Liefeld
* The third major era of New Mutants
* A shift in the balance of power
* A comics shop to probably avoid if you time-travel back to the mid 1990s
* The stupid adventures of Rusty & Skids
* Yet another Acts of Vengeance tie-in
* Nitro
* An accidental prison break
* Cops, or maybe protestors
* The Mutant Liberation Front
* Feet
* A goody two-shoes man-stealing redheaded werewolf
* Wildside
* Reaper
* Strobe
* Thumbelina
* Tempo
* Forearm
* Zero
* Stryfe
* Stryfe’s armor
* Spooning with Cable

## Listener Questions

* How did Cable die in Second Coming but come back in X-sanction a year later just in time for AvX?
* Is there any aspect of Cable's design or power set that you think could be removed (some examples: light up eye, scarred eye, metal arm, time-travel, telekinesis) without losing the essence of what Cable is all about? Or is Cable only Cable as a result of his many parts?
Episode 175 - Lady Windemere's Fanclub

## Episode Description

In which Gambit is transatlantically terrible; Rick Leonardi is the poor man’s Alan Davis (but in a good way); we try and fail to care about British royals; Miles should probably read some Oscar Wilde already; Jay has a lot of feelings about *The Rocketeer*; Shadowcat gets a genuinely stylish costume; and we would read the *hell* out of a series about Destiny, Mystique, and Wolverine’s WWII adventures.

## X-Plained

* Why Gambit isn’t welcome in the United Kingdom
* *X-Men: True Friends* #1-3
* The poor man’s Alan Davis
* Trad night
* Laird Alasdhair Kinross and his nonthreatening but convenient heterosexuality
* Inexplicably absent familial relationships
* Queen Lilibet the Second
* Lady Regina Windermere
* Several notable British fascists of the 1930s
* A snazzy airplane
* Several nefarious plots
* Formal pajamas
* The mystery of the Hypercolor™ kilt
* A large number of strong feelings about *The Rocketeer*
* Kitty Pryde’s best costumes
* Weaponized cosmic queerness (again)
* Power, agency, and the Dark Phoenix Saga
* How characters end up with their specific mutations.

## Listener Questions

* Hi! I've been thinking about the Dark Phoenix Saga and how a lot of its themes are dependent, at least from my perspective, on the idea that women with power and agency are bad. Since it's still an incredibly well told story I'd like to know if you have any other personal interpretations of the story that aren't rooted in that sexist idea.
* Is there ever any discussion as to why mutants end up with their specific mutations? Some are obviously hereditary (Magneto and Polaris) while others seem random (Magneto and Wanda and Pietro, but maybe the Maximoffs aren't the best family for this question) and what about mutant kids of human parents? Blame Sinister?
Episode 279 - Giant-Size Special 8

*Art by David Wynne*

## Episode Description

In which Jay would absolutely fight Christmas; we welcome guest X-Perts Christina Strain ~~and Chip Zdarsky~~; a gift arrives; we consider the relationship of *Generation X* to Generation X; it is really not okay to leave your discarded skins lying around; D.O.A. is inordinately delightful; Chamber is the punk Shadow; Gateway goes to school; the *Generation X* TV movie is very, very bad; telepathy is free; the grown-ups are all right; home sucks; freedom rocks; Mondo deserves better; Matt Frewer did most things first; Kevin McNulty has appeared in literally everything; and you remain our favorites, ever.

## X-plained

* Mutation, for some value of the term
* Holidays and the observation thereof
* December 9
* Jay’s ideal Christmas
* How Chris Bachalo’s name is pronounced (more) (again) (sorry)
* Several promotions
* Generation X
* *Generation X* #1-4
* *Generation X*
* Husk (Paige Guthrie)
* M (Monet St. Croix)
* Skin (Angelo Espinosa)
* Synch (Everett Thomas)
* Chamber (Jonothon Starsmore)
* The New Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters
* Counting Genises
* The housekeeping implications of body horror
* The M retcon
* Continuity in costume design
* The Danger Grotto
* Emplate (somewhat)
* D.O.A.
* Penance (not that one)
* Scrabble burns
* An alternate take on power duplication
* Mondo ()
* The return of Nanny and the Orphanmaker
* Eliot ()
* A tentative friendship
* How the Age of Apocalypse comes to Generation X
* A movie that never fails to disappoint
* The vagaries of adaptation
* The best on-screen Emma Frost
* Gang emails of the 1990s
* Refrax
* Buff
* William Castle
* The comedic genealogy of Max Headroom
* Hatley Castle
* The 2019 Super Doctor Astronaut Peter Corbeau Awards for Excellence at X-Cellence

## Listener Questions

This article needs a transcription of the episode questions.

## Links and Further Festivity

* Jay Smooth’s timeless “In Defense of Humbug” turns 10 years old this year!
* The movie with the hipster fuckghost is *The Spirit of Christmas*, which involves disappointingly little ghostfucking but surprisingly accurate 19th-century bartending.
* Otterness’s “Life Underground” statues in NYC’s 14th St./8th Ave. Subway station have a lot in common with Bachalo’s marginalia.
* For more on the intersection of mutant and real-world politics, check out our 2017 RCCC special, Welcome to the Mutant Revolution!
* Follow Christina Strain on Twitter…
* …and check out her upcoming Netflix original movie, *Finding Ohana*!
Episode 051 – The X-Istentialists

*Art by David Wynne*

## Episode Description

In which Rachel and Miles go to Emerald City Comicon; six people try to share one microphone with varying success; you will never love anything as much as Kris loves Broo; Marguerite may or may not be a time-traveling supervillain; Peter is Laser Guy; Kieron joins an X-team; Hell is other X-Men; everyone lies egregiously; and it all comes back to Namor’s abs.

## X-Plained

* Namor’s last name
* Several Secret Wars titles
* Wiz Kid
* Favorite characters
* Lady Deathstrike’s new look
* Seanan McGuire’s cats
* Machetes of Future Past
* Emily Aster
* Asteroid P
* Secret origins
* Points of entry
* Headcanon
* The Wolverine and the X-Men Season 2 that might have been
* The pros and cons of an isolated X-universe
* The X-Istentialists
* Hela’s Angels
* Namor’s abs
* What defines the X-Men
* Mr. Sinister
* Our X-movie wish lists
* Wes Anderson’s X-Men (both of them)

## Note

Special thanks to Jean, who let us borrow her mic and pop filter at the very last second when we realized we’d left ours in Portland! <3

## Listener Questions

* With the recent news of Sansa Stark and others being cast in X-Men: Apocalypse, what are some things you guys would like to see in upcoming X-Men films? With the the announcement that Apocalypse will be the the last movie Jennifer Lawrence will appear in, I am hoping we'll see her and Destiny and their partnership and relationship that was hinted at so much in the comics.
Episode 177 - The Less You Know

## Episode Description

In which we discuss several Very Special Issues; the real cautionary tale is not to trust Hank McCoy; horses are vehicles of lies and heartbreak; the X-Men shill for a state fair; whatever you’re doing, Cyclops is here to stop you; smoking is a gateway to some really weird vices; and we want YOU to design the latest X-Men PSA!

## X-Plained

* The alternate-timeline terrible choices of Hank McCoy
* Our wholly unfounded theories about Spongebob Squarepants
* *Be X-Tra Safe With Blockbuster KidPrint and the X-Men*
* VHS tapes
* Blockbuster KidPrint
* Mariano Nicieza
* Some Fundamental Problems With Superhero PSAs
* A man who may or may not be D-Man
* Terrence
* Why Cable should deliver more PSAs
* Why D.A.R.E. doesn’t work
* Varying coherent cautionary tales
* *The Uncanny X-Men at the State Fair of Texas*
* A tragic lack of carnies
* Danny the centaur and his very intense feelings about horses
* Several exciting attractions at the State Fair of Texas
* Big Tex
* Activities
* *Smokescreen*
* Bret Jackson
* Some of the lesser-known danger of smoking
* Whether Danny Rand can turn into a centaur
* Hanging out and other gateways to delinquency
* The South Side Social Club
* Jake
* Etiquette of following teenagers around
* A villainous plan so ineffective that it’s actually kind of sad
* X-Men you should hire for your PSAs
* Our thoughts on the Disney/Fox merger
* Where to find Bloodstorm
* Baby Jumping

*Ed. note: The results of the listener challenge announced in this episode were announced here between episodes 192 and 193.*

## Listener Questions

* What do you think of the idea of Disney buying Fox and thus the X-Men becoming part of the MCU. Good idea? Bad idea?
* Where can I learn more about my new favorite *X-Men Blue* character, Bloodstorm? She's the coolest! I was so mad when she died I skipped the issue where she came back, but I'm really happy to see her on the current Cross-Time Caper story.
Episode 241 - Conducive to Moral Subversion

*Dave is moving this week. We miss you, Dave!*

## Episode Description

In which Quicksilver wants you to know that he’s not cool; X-Factor gets a new government liaison; a danger room on a jet is a terrible idea; this team is bad at feelings; Forge is a pretty okay boss; and it remains exceptionally difficult to be Rahne Sinclair.

## X-Plained

* Several deaths of Scott Summers
* *X-Factor* #93-96
* X-Factor (more) (again)
* A somewhat tragic meeting
* A costume and the response thereto
* A very brief adventure
* A political reference
* Feelings
* Art therapy with Quicksilver
* Random (more) (again)
* Mr. Dibbles
* Havok’s hair
* The new boss (as literally and idiomatically distinct from the old boss)
* Some history
* Haven (kind of)
* Navigating mental health triggers in comics
* The difference between isolation and quarantine

## Listener Questions

This article needs a transcription of the episode questions.
Episode 193 - Sewers of Tomorrow

*Art by David Wynne*

## Episode Description

In which we pour one out for Malcolm and Randall; Cyclops is the worst at fun; Storm is better than you and always will be; Bishop forgets his first name; the X-Men can’t tie bow ties; Iceman’s dad is spectacularly awful; Mikhail Rasputin may have some lingering issues; and Doug Ramsey would probably have been pretty entertained by *Hackers* if he had survived long enough to see it.

## X-Plained:

* Whether Professor Xavier is dead
* Marvel time vs. podcast time
* *Uncanny X-Men* #287-290
* *The Wit and Wisdom of Henry McCoy*
* A dance of death and destruction
* Styglut
* Future flashbacks
* Sewers of tomorrow
* The Witness
* “Fun”
* Blood math
* A mysterious letter
* A terrible date
* Several capes
* The return of the cyburai
* A theoretical *Hackers* crossover

## Listener Questions

This article needs a transcription of the episode questions.
Episode 207 - Blood and Metal

*Art by David Wynne*

## Episode Description

In which Miles has a Dracula problem; we are really, really excited about FlameCon; Fabian Nicieza is the unsung hero of the early ’90s; Jay *doesn’t* explain the Iranian Hostage Crisis; Cable does not have a good history with trademark disputes; *Cable: Blood and Metal* is secretly an allegory for the X-books of the early 1990s; friendship and explosions don’t have to be mutually exclusive; and history evokes but doesn’t quite repeat itself.

## X-Plained

* Dracula disambiguation
* One way to stop a vampire invasion
* Wang beams
* *Cable: Blood and Metal* #1-2
* The continuing miracle that is Fabian Nicieza
* Cable (as established in 1992)
* Stryfe
* The Wild Pack and/or Six Pack
* The ongoing evolution of John Romita, Jr.
* Tolliver
* Several heists of varying quality
* Numerous patches and their contents
* How the Wild Pack became the Six Pack
* An idiom, examined
* A total dick move
* Muscles-and-guns power creep
* Guns of tomorrow
* The *McNinja* point
* A brief flirtation with *Magic: The Gathering*
* A typo that became canon
* The new She-Ra
* The new, improved Garrison Kane
* European nipple lasers
* Mr. Richter
* The evolution of Cable

## Listener Questions

This article needs a transcription of the episode questions.
Episode 113 - Play It Again, Patch

*Art by David Wynne*

## Episode Description

In which Wolverine gets an ongoing series; the constitution of Madripoor is probably just a list of pulp noir genre conventions; Tyger Tiger is a kinder, gentler crimelord; Jessica Drew gets possessed a lot; the Silver Samurai and Lindsay McCabe are our dream team; Joe Fixit is a font of endless delight; and someone should probably sit Wolverine down and explain how disguises work.

## X-Plained

* The Murasama
* The other Murasama
* Life after Inferno
* Madripoor
* *Wolverine* #1-10
* The Princess Bar
* O’Donnell
* The hierarchy of *Casablanca* references
* Roche
* Razorfist
* The Inquisitor
* Sapphire Styx
* Tyger Tiger
* What makes a good solo series
* Lindsay McCabe
* Wolverine’s signature drink
* Possession pants
* Silver Samurai (again)
* Patch
* Bloodsport & Roughouse
* Archie Corrigan and his plane
* Landau, Luckman, & Lake
* Chief Tai
* General Nguyen Ngoc Coy
* Prince Baran and His Remarkable Pants
* Joe Fixit
* The worst possible way to celebrate someone’s birthday

## Listener Questions

* I was wondering if you had any specific online resources that you use for tracking down old back issues, particularly ones from the 80s and early 90s?
* Why are there so many blue mutants?

## Content Note

*CONTENT NOTE: Episode 113 contains fairly extensive discussions of fictional violence, including gun violence. If you don’t want to listen to that right now, that is absolutely okay. If you want to listen to it later, it’ll still be here. And if you never want to listen to it, that is absolutely okay, too.*

We were on the fence about whether to post this episode today. We ultimately decided to go ahead, for two reasons:

There’s value in routine in the face of tragedy.

There are times when continuing to exist visibly and publicly is itself an act of defiance.

Love and solidarity to everyone who’s grieving right now, and especially to our Florida friends and family, and to fellow members of the queer community.

-Jay & Miles
Episode 131 - The Reaver Bunch

## Episode Description

In which Jubilee is the sassiest Xenomorph; Lady Deathstrike is way too good for the Reavers; Wolverine gets a sidekick; Forge arm wrestles the Shadow King; Moira takes a cavalier approach lab safety; Magneto’s motives get kind of reconciled; Legion is a chaos gamer; Mystique and Destiny break our hearts; queer erasure in fiction reflects erasure in life; and the Shadow King is not even a little bit subtle.

## X-Plained

* That one time Donald Pierce pretended to be Cyclops for like a year
* The post X-Men X-Men
* What may be our deepest cut yet
* *Uncanny X-Men* #252-255
* *Where’s Wolverine?*
* The Reaver Bunch
* Major-League lumpoids
* Robot dingoes
* A prescient vision
* Trouble at sea
* Several significant deaths
* Subtext and queer erasure
* The key of agony
* Smile noises
* Non-mutants we’d team up with the X-Men

## Listener Questions

* I'd forgotten that Havok and Madelyne had had a romantic relationship in *Uncanny X-Men*, so my question is, has there ever been an arc or alternate universe where Scott and Lorna have been romantically involved?
* Which Marvel character that isn't currently a mutant or X-Man do you think could be worked onto any of the X-Man teams with little to no alteration done to the character's bio and background?
BONUS: Jay, Miles, and Jonathan Hickman Spoil the Hell out of Inferno

## Episode Description

*Inferno* #4 is out; and, as promised, we’ve got a bonus interview with Jonathan Hickman–unedited this time, so please forgive the audio–going into the gory details of the miniseries and its finale! (Again, spoiler warning–we can’t emphasize this enough–*we spoil* Inferno*, including its ending, real hard*. Listen at your own risk.)
Episode 244 - Terminal Nudity

*Art by David Wynne*

## Episode Description

In which X-Men don’t get to take vacations; Jay makes a somewhat belated announcement; sometimes Gambit is legitimately pretty cool; the assassins get a day-glo-up; *The Crow* holds up surprisingly well; Gambit gets exiled *again*; and Artie and Leech damn well better get to live happily ever after.

## X-Plained

* Rogue and Gambit’s honeymoon
* A thing that Jay is working on
* Brood Trouble in the Big Easy
* Bella Donna Boudreaux
* *Gambit* #1-4
* The New Orleans trilogy
* “X-Ternally Yours”
* The tithe collector
* Things about which your mama may or may not have warned you
* Dramatic captions
* Candra
* The Thieves’ and Assassins’ Guilds
* The pact
* Julian Boudreaux (again)
* Henri LeBeau and his mustache
* Critical nudity
* Terminal nudity
* Marius Boudreaux
* Accent inconsistencies
* Draping
* Jean Luc LeBeau
* Treachery most foul
* (Select elements of) Gamit’s origin story
* How thieves get kids
* Gambit as a romantic hero
* Ungrateful children of the Marvel Universe
* Petite Chou
* Clubbing with Gambit
* Subtlety (for some value of the term)
* Lifestyles of the rich and immortal
* The Church of Lost Thieves
* The Elixir of Life
* An undersold side effect
* A very lucky break
* Artie and Leech’s probable adult lives
* Villains we’d like to see on the X-Men

## Listener Questions

This article needs a transcription of the episode questions.
Episode 194 - Brood Trouble in the Big Easy

## Episode Description

In which Ghost Rider has some fairly serious medical issues; you should probably never invite Bishop to a picnic; Gambit’s past catches up with him; it’s always Mardi Gras in Fictional New Orleans; Wolverine is thrilled; and Jay swears a solemn vow.

## X-Plained:

* The Tithe
* The Momentary Princess
* The T’ieves Guild
* Why real New Orleans doesn’t have catacombs
* *X-Men* #8-9
* *Ghost Rider* #26-27
* The abstract idea of Nicholas Cage
* Genesis
* The last of the X-Men
* A sick burn
* A picnic
* Boundaries
* Bella Donna Boudreaux and her many apostrophes
* Ghost Rider
* Psegway
* Julian Boudreaux
* How not to respond to a speeding ticket
* The Bootie Man
* Horse names vs. katana names
* Cathartic excess
* X-holidays
* Doomsday
* Good characters from awful events

## Listener Questions

This article needs a transcription of the episode questions.
Episode 078 – The Eye Killers and Other Cautionary Tales

*Art by David Wynne*

## Episode Description

In which we persevere in the face of adversity; Storm goes on a quest; Mr. Sinister makes his first appearance; Dazzler learns about teamwork (again); it still sucks to be Havok (but not as much as it sucks to be Madelyne Pryor); you should probably put down that cactus; the Murder Grampas join Freedom Force; Storm’s life is a metal-album cover; and the X-Men are doomed as hell.

## X-Plained

* The Mr. Sinister / Summers family time loop
* Uncanny X-Men #220-224
* Actual and potential origins of Mr. Sinister’s name
* How Longshot’s powers work in combat
* Teamwork (again)
* Representing sound and silence in a visual medium
* A protracted fight
* Forge (again)
* Naze (kind of)
* The Adversary
* Eye Killers
* One of many reasons not to masturbate with a cactus
* The X-Men in San Francisco
* Madelyne Pryor vs. fate
* Storm vs. Forge
* Character names vs. code names
* X-Makeovers

## Listener Questions

* I was wondering if either or both of you generally call the X-Men by code names or by their real names? I know it's always Scott, Jean, and Kitty for me, but I tend to stick with code names like Storm, Gambit, and Beast. I'm not sure what it means exactly, but I was just wondering if you or other X-fans x-perience the same thing?
* I'm currently working on a men's wear fashion collection inspired by the women of the X-Men universe. I'm fascinated especially with Dazzler's recent character redesign both esthetically and from a story perspective. Are there other examples of X-women undergoing dramatic esthetic transformations in terms of their wardrobe that you could point me towards? And what's your take on the Dazzler makeover?
Episode 178 - Giant-Size Special 6

## Episode Description

In which we enter a new era of X-Men; Magneto reluctantly returns to villainy; Jay tries to like *X-Men* volume 2; when in doubt, you should open your story with a space fight; Nick Fury has *so many pouches*; experimenting on babies unsurprisingly backfires; psychic powers are pink; Claremont deserved better; Producer Matt makes his on-air debut; and you (yes, you!) are *once again* the recipients of a Super Doctor Astronaut Peter Corbeau Award for Excellence in X-Cellence.

## X-Plained

* Loa
* The 1991 relaunch of *X-Men*
* *X-Men* Vol 2 #1-3
* Chris Claremont’s departure from Marvel
* *X-Men* vs. *Uncanny X-Men*
* Blue Team
* Gold Team
* Why Magneto is emblematic of Claremont’s vision for the X-Men
* Why there are so many copies of *X-Men* #1
* How comics sales are counted
* Our very different perspectives on *X-Men* #1
* A space fight
* Revision vs. reversion
* What may or may not be in Nick Fury’s pouches
* Daring loungewear worn well
* Fabian Cortez
* Flatscans
* Disproportionate escalation
* The Acolytes
* Delgado, kind of, maybe
* Several notable absences
* The Magneto Protocols
* That one time Magneto got turned into a baby
* Some dubious science
* A semi-invisible plane
* Code Silver
* Further miracles of magnetism
* Producer Matt Hunter
* Chiptunes
* Podcasting about video games
* The Fourth Annual Super Doctor Astronaut Peter Corbeau Awards for Excellence at X-Cellence
* Best X-Toon holiday episodes

## Links

OUR PRODUCER MATT HUNTER IS A SUPER RAD DUDE! HERE IS WHERE YOU CAN FIND HIM ON THE INTERNET:

* Soundcloud
	+ mechlo
	+ Moon Talk
* Twitter
* Mixcloud

## Listener Questions

* Would you have split the members of the Blue and Gold team up differently?
* Both *X-Men: The Animated Series* and *X-Men: Evolution* have holiday episodes. Which one do you think best represents the holiday season?
* Why do you think Kitty Pryde wasn't in the 90s cartoon when she's such an iconic and important character? Nothing against Jubilee, just curious.
* If you could date anyone in the X-Universe, who would it be? Or, who would you chose for your co-host?
Episode 161 - Do You Even Howl, Bro?

## Episode Description

In which we return to *Excalibur*, and *Excalibur* returns to form; “Girls’ School from Heck” is way better than we remembered; Jay has strong feelings about penmanship; we examine the semantics of field hockey; the band gets back together; Dai Thomas has no time for your comic-book bullshit; and you should never, ever install a good/evil switch in your technological abominations.

## X-Plained

* The first appearances of Colonel Vazhin
* Perks of home recording
* FlameCon 2017
* Jay & Miles at Rose City Comic Con
* *Excalibur* #32-36
* “Girls’ School from Heck!”
* St. Searle’s School for Young Ladies
* *St. Trinian’s* and a large number of references thereto
* Regional variations in boarding school hijinks
* Miss Rutherford
* A poorly staged panel
* Phoebe Huntsman
* Kitty Pryde’s penmanship
* Margaret Thatcher’s weirdly wholesome fantasies
* The kinda-reformation of Mesmero
* The end of Chris Claremont’s run on *Excalibur*
* Some complicated contradictions related to the ethics of consumption
* An abduction
* The ethics of psychic interrogation (kinda)
* Mariner disambiguation
* A rescue
* An unlikely partnership
* Darkmoor Research Center
* Dr. Walshe
* A somewhat convoluted plot
* Whether the Danger Room could function as a bathroom
* The physics of Asteroid M
Episode 157 - Melted to Slag

## Episode Description

In which the X-Tinction Agenda reaches its *Return of the Jedi*; Wolverine is a weaponized nuisance; HR would like a word with Gambit; Havok gets framed; Cameron Hodge is the great unifier; Genosha is revolting; you don’t get to make a threatening speech about someone else’s powers; Jean Grey is tired of your bullshit; and Jay and Miles may or may not dive into the Siege Perilous!

## X-Plained

* The Law of Conservation of Plot Elements
* *Uncanny X-Men* #272
* *New Mutants* #97
* *X-Factor* #62
* The Story So Far
* Glasses fashions in comics
* The difference between Batman and the Punisher
* How to tell that something has gone terribly wrong
* Acceptable pants
* Some really sketchy judicial process
* A ruse
* Several retcons concerning Wolverine
* Consequence-free impaling
* Chekhov’s genetic engineering
* Louise Simonson’s final issue of *New Mutants*
* The relative durability of mutants
* A number of prescient threats
* This one time Jay and Miles got paid to throw a bunch of printers down a flight of stairs
* Summers Brothers team-ups
* A very cathartic fight
* Thoughts on books as physical artifacts and collecting comics
* Places to jump into long X-series on Marvel Unlimited
* Our plans for the hiatus

## Listener Questions

* Do you collect individual issues, or stick to trades, and what are your most prize issues of any book, doesn't have to be X-Men. I know that Jay, you've worked in comics, maybe Miles too, so I'd love to hear your take on collecting. When you work on a book, do you think that down the road, someone might be bagging it to keep it mint, seeking out that variant, etc, or do you think only of your craft?
* I just got Marvel Unlimited and have been reading mostly short runs or series that don't cross over a lot. However I am very interested in reading a long running X-Series and don't know where to start. I was thinking Grant Morrison's run would be a good place to start, or X-Factor Investigations. Any recommendations for mostly self-contained X-Men to binge-read?
Episode 125 - Giant-Size Special 4

## Episode Description

In which Logan Bonner, Max Carleton, and Crystal Frasier hike up their boxers and join us at the gaming table for an *X-Men: Evolution* tabletop adventure; what happens in virtual reality stays in virtual reality; Shadowcat is great at boats; Jubilee and Boom Boom blow up *everything*; Havok tries; and Team Reckless Endangerment wins the day!

## Featuring

* Logan Bonner as Writer and Gamemaster / Erik the Rad
* Max Carleton as the Shadowcat / Pirate Kitty
* Crystal Frasier as Jubilee / the Genie
* Jay Edidin as Havok / the Corsair
* Miles Stokes as Boom Boom / Boomavara
Episode 019 - Acorns and Swords

## Episode Description

In which we continue our delve into the eldritch end of the X-Universe, Illyana Rasputin has a rough childhood even by X-Men standards, Kitty Pryde is a Niven fan, Limbo is way metal, Vincent Price is our Belasco, and Rachel and Miles have feelings about female friendships in Claremont’s X-Men.

## X-Plained

* Mikhail Rasputin
* Hell dimensions, including but not limited to
	+ The Void
	+ The Dark Zone
	+ The Hill
	+ Limbo
	+ The other Limbo
	+ Yet a third Limbo
* Reincarnation
* Illyana Rasputin
* Magic vs. Magik
* Uncanny X-Men #160
* Octopusheim
* Stepping Disks
* Otherplace
* Belasco
* Emergo
* S’ym
* Storm and Illyana: Magik #1-4
* Bloodstones
* Yet another set of alternate X-Men
* Friendship
* The Soulsword
* Podcasting

## Listener Questions

* Do you guys have any handy hints or trusty tips for setting up a podcast?
* Can you X-plain why Cyclops is from Alaska and Havok is from Hawaii?
Episode 222 - A Tale of Two Betsys

*Art by David Wynne*

## Episode Description

In which it has been a pretty intense month; there is a lot to unpack about Psylocke; we are confused by hip teen lingo; Cyclops definitively lacks game; organized crime is anything but; and the mystery of the third Summers brother officially begins.

## X-Plained

* How the Maximoffs joined the Avengers
* X-Cutioner’s Song fallout
* An X-ceptionally convoluted set of retcons
* *X-Men* #20-23
* How not to repair an airplane
* One way to get out of an awkward conversation
* Several Betsys Braddock
* Revanche
* Dubiously organized crime
* Kwannon
* Nyorin’s diary
* Awkward family conversations
* Mike Milbury
* *Twin Peaks* Season 3
* Akira Yoshida

## Listener Questions

This article needs a transcription of the episode questions.
Episode 158 - No Focus, Less Direction

## Episode Description

In which we return triumphant from hiatus; it’s still always Inferno in here; no one should ever under any circumstances date Cameron Hodge; Kenneth is a fundamentally hilarious name; Magneto’s family gets retconned to death; Pterosaurs are still the absolute worst; and Magik totally deserves a sidekick.

## X-Plained

* Ka-Zar’s real name
* Shanna the She-Devil
* Our new production set-up
* What we did on our summer vacations
* Previously on *X-Men*
* Further limits of the mutant metaphor
* *Uncanny X-Men* #273-275
* A crisis of leadership
* A comic that is a metaphor that is also a comic
* Cable’s OkCupid profile
* Changing creative dynamics on the X-line
* Archangel’s middle name
* Gambit vs. Wolverine
* Censorship Steam
* The protean X-bathroom
* Magneto’s retconned family
* Colonel Semyanov
* A perhaps ill-conceived team-up
* The Self-Styled Mistress of Magnetism
* Some remarkably lucky timing
* The semantics of heel turns
* Gender and sidekicks
* Mr. Sinister’s powers

## Cold Open

Zaladane, Ka-Zar and Shanna the She-Devil.

## Listener Questions

This article needs a transcription of the episode questions.
Episode 087 – It’s Always Darkest… (Fall of the Mutants, Part 2 of 3)

*Art by David Wynne*

## Episode Description

In which the New Mutants learn that they are not, in fact, immortal; Louise Simonson finds her stride; the Ani-Mator makes Cameron Hodge look downright reasonable; hating humans is Magneto’s security blanket; Doug Ramsey dies; and we continue our coverage of the Fall of the Mutants.

## X-plained

* Sugar Man
* New Mutants #59-61
* Bird Brain
* The Ani-Mator
* The Ani-Mates
* Stylistic whiplash
* Why you always leave a note
* The death of Doug Ramsey
* Black Condor’s amazing origin story
* Interpersonal dynamics in New Mutants
* Parsing ongoing series
* Why Doug died
* 616 characters we’d trade for their Battleworld counterparts
* Storytelling trends and the decline of though balloons

## Listener Questions

* If you could have any iteration of an X-character from Battleworld replace the usual 616 version, what would you choose?
* So I was reading The Mutant Massacre and some of the X-Factor stuff that followed (the Archangel arc) , and noticed they were using thought bubbles as a storytelling device quite often. As someone who didn't get into comics until the mid-2000s, I've only ever really seen this used in older comics I've sought out. I was wondering if you knew when this device started to get phased out in favor of either narration captions by a single character or no inner monologue at all, which seems quite common now? I actually quite like how it's used in X-Factor, as it allows me as a reader to see how all the characters are being emotionally affected by all the terrible things they encounter.
Episode 154 - Leaning into the Metaphor (feat. Sina Grace)

## Episode Description

In which incoming *Iceman* writer Sina Grace joins us to talk about the coolest X-Man; Adult Bobby Drake gets the spotlight; no one looks too closely at the jokester; the mutant metaphor works both globally and personally; and we are all a little horrified by how long ago Grant Morrison’s *New X-Men* run happened.

## X-Plained

* The Apocalypse Seed
* What ice powers sound like
* Ice puns and Memento-style tattoos
* Adult coming-out stories
* Intersectionality and representation
* Iceman on his own
* The most Sinister of teases
* Cargo shorts
* Bobby’s assorted ex-girlfriends
* Omega-level ice powers vs. anxiety
* Mike Carey’s *X-Men*
* Bobby’s buds Cannonball and Rogue
* Yas Northstar
* Respecting continuity, avoiding overwhelm
* Advice for your younger (and older) self

## Listener Questions

* Iceman and Beast?
* I think one of the most important elements of minority sexual identity development is getting to know other queer people. Are we going to see Iceman have more non-romantic interactions with existing queer characters?
* Bobby's relatively uniquely positioned to have a conversation with an older or younger version of himself. Given the same opportunity, what's the one thing you'd want to warn your younger self about, and what's the one thing you'd like to remind an older version of yourself in twenty to thirty years.
Stake Claim

The ability to stake a claim on land, making it and everything on it your property. An important benefit of having a claim is that other players which you do not approve of via Kinship can not enter land on your claim, take items or pick up constructions from it, or destroy property... without trespassing or other skills that is.

Claims can be built after acquiring the Yeomanry Skill for 4000 LP, and 4 Bones, 1 Beautiful Dream, 4 Stone, and 5 logs are acquired.
Episode 038 - Welcome to Murderworld

*Art by David Wynne*

## Episode Description

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

## Listener Questions

* Which is the greatest non X-Men Arcade story?
* Sharxkin has some questions about how the dubious crossover event Axis (or, if you prefer, Sixis) wrapped up.
* Has Arcade been in video games? Why hasn't he been in more?
Episode 079 – Bear on a Boat

*Art by David Wynne*

## Episode Description

In no one trusts Magneto; Dr. Druid is the comfiest superhero; She-Hulk wants to punch a meteor; Rachel and Miles are really bad at both nature and maritime law; boat fights are the best fights; everyone makes terrible choices; and James Jaspers should really have been disbarred by now.

## X-Plained

* Darkstar vs. Dark Star
* X-Men vs. Avengers #1-4
* Magneto’s narrative milestones
* Dr. Anthony Druid
* A most peculiar meteor
* The Soviet Super Soldiers
* Vanguard
* Darkstar
* The Titanium Man / Gremlin
* Ursa Major
* Floridian vs. Australian fauna
* Crimson Dynamo
* Dock parties with the X-Men
* Secrets of Asteroid M
* Cartoonish pursuit
* The drinking rules of costume semi-destruction
* The Laws of the Sea
* Why you should put your multi-team brawls on a boat
* An abrupt creative shift
* The Light
* Several miracles of magnetism
* An ethical dilemma
* The (other) trial of Magneto
* Magneto heel turns
* Picking which tie-ins to read
* The Secret Convergence on Infinite Podcasts

## Listener Questions

* I, too, have been going through and trying to read all the X-related comics from the the past few years, and I'm eagerly awaiting Excalibur as I've only read bits and pieces. However, I find that I can read through the main series rather quickly, but the events, guest appearances, and other non X-comics and other team books that happen to have X-characters tend to bog me down. How do you go about deciding what to read outside of the regular series run? I imagine this is going to get more difficult as time goes on, and the X-Men characters start appearing everywhere. I'm looking at **you**, Wolverine.
* I was re-reading *Astonishing X-Men* and it brought up some questions for me about Kitty's phasing. I always assumed she was all solid or all not. But clearly she must be able to selectively phase in order to go through walls but not sink through the floor at the same time. When she's going through solid matter, it appears that she can control the rate, so it's effectively like levitating. The trickiest thing would seem to be as in the beginning of*Astonishing* when she comes up through the floor. Do you think she's standing on a ladder? Or would it be that once she's in solid matter she's able to move herself up so she can jump up and reach the ceiling, or go up through the wall and be fine? I guess it's tricky to think too hard about Kitty's powers because if she can float through rock because she's doing some kind of molecular magic, why couldn't she do the same with the molecules of the air and fly?
Episode 258 - True Believers, Opportunists, and Crooks (feat. Lisa Winters)

*Art by David Wynne*

## Episode Description

In which Lisa Winters pinch-hits for Jay, we take a trip to the newspaper funnies and back, Spider-Man and Beast are natural BFFs, nothing good ever happens at the Brand Corporation, and “mutant” can be a pretty fuzzy concept.

## X-Plained

* Bessie the Hellcow
* *Spider-Man: Mutant Agenda* (the newspaper strip storyline)
* *Spider-Man: Mutant Agenda* (the comic book miniseries)
* *Spider-Man: Mutant Agenda* (the cartoon episodes)
* Four-color hoards
* Three-panel newspaper comic structure
* Sunday strips (and their Mark Trail deceptions)
* Hero Jaws – a breakfast-based theory
* Spider-Man (Peter Parker)
* The Brand Corporation
* The Beast (Henry McCoy)
* Narratively convenient Spider Sense
* Hobgoblin (Jason Macendale Jr.)
* Goblin gliders
* Picket signs (\*air horn sound\*)
* Finger blasters (heh)
* Laser cages
* Arcade’s superpower flowcharts
* Mutants: newspaper versus comic continuity
* Coming home to the 90s
* Lisa’s favorite X-Man
* Beast’s versatile character design
* Spider-to-X ratios
* Dark, tortured heroes
* Herbert Landon’s selective memory
* Confirmation bias
* Anti-mutant cancer goo
* Ironic reversals
* Wolverine, the most marketable mutant
* Evil British accents
* The most adaptable Spider-Man / X-Men crossovers
* The X-Men and the newspaper funnies

## Listener Questions

This article needs a transcription of the episode questions.