Month: March 2024
444 – Damnit, Magnus
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In which it’s difficult to flee with soup; Miles may or may not be haunting the X-Men; Colossus collaborates involuntarily; Marrow is full of surprises; Magneto is a dick; Jay continues to carry a torch for Secret Wars: Siege; and you should totally come to our birthday party.
X-PLAINED:
- Several rather pointed allusions
- X-Force #86
- Uncanny X-Men #365
- X-Men #85
- Almost Reno, NM
- Where mutants come from
- The Aguilar Institute (more) (again)
- Abandoned towns
- Mary the telepathic moppet (more) (again)
- Odysseus Indigo
- The Damocles Foundation
- Sibling names
- The Fundamental Attribution Error
- A haunting
- Christmas beer
- Christmas ghost exquisite corpse
- Bill Jones
- A rescue mission
- Essential stories of the ‘90s
- Our weird favorites
- Siege
- Our upcoming 10th birthday party (more) (again)
NEXT EPISODE: Magneto War begins!
Check out the visual companion to this episode on our blog!
RSVP to our birthday shenanigans!
Find us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify!
Jay and Miles X-Plain the X-Men is 100% ad-free and listener supported. If you want to help support the podcast–and unlock more cool stuff–you can do that right here!
Buy rad swag at our TeePublic shop!
A Brief Update
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Jay is dealing with an ongoing family medical emergency, so episode releases may be somewhat unpredictable for the next few weeks. Thank you for your patience!
YOU’RE INVITED!
HOT DAMN, Y’ALL. Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men is turning ten entire years old on Saturday, April 13, and you’re all invited to our birthday party–and our first live show since pre-pandemic days! We’ll be starting the day with a live show–X-Plaining a story we once swore never to cover–at Portland’s historic Clinton Street Theater. Then we’ll break for lunch and reconvene that afternoon at comic-shop extraordinaire Books With Pictures for a 10th birthday blowout, complete with cake, party favors, and some really, really cool X-clusive merch (including the 10th anniversary print by Colleen Coover that you can see a sliver of above (and which you’ve seen in its entirety if you’re a patron–remember, keep it secret, keep it safe!))!
HERE ARE THE DETAILS:
THE SHOW:
- WHAT: Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men LIVE
- WHEN: Saturday, April 13, 10:00-11:45 AM
- WHERE: Clinton Street Theater, 2522 SE Clinton St., Portland, OR
- NOTE: MASKS WILL BE MANDATORY AT THE LIVE SHOW. We’ll have ’em at the door for anyone who doesn’t bring their own.
- ADDITIONAL DETAILS: All-ages if you don’t mind your kids learning swears.
THE PARTY:
- WHAT: Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men’s 10th Birthday Party
- WHEN: Saturday, April 13, 2:00-5:00 PM
- WHERE: Books With Pictures, 1401 Division St., Portland, OR
- NOTE: This will be an outdoor event. Plan accordingly!
- ADDITIONAL DETAILS: All-ages, costumes encouraged, birthday cake, birthday pie, party favors, X-clusive merch
RSVP FOR ONE OR BOTH EVENTS HERE! While you’ll probably still get in if you just show up, we’d really appreciate it if you’d RSVP–it helps us plan for the events and, in case of overflow, will make it more likely that you’ll get in.
AND HERE ARE THE ANSWERS TO SOME QUESTIONS THAT WE ANTICIPATE OR HAVE ALREADY FIELDED AT LEAST ONCE:
How much are tickets?
Free.
Wait, the party and the show are both free?
Yeah.
Can I still go if I don’t RSVP?
If there’s room, sure. But we need to figure out things like how many party favors to make and how many pies to bring, so we would really appreciate it if you RSVP.
Wait, there are party favors?
Oh, yes.
Like what?
It’s a surprise. (Unless you’re a patron, in which case you’ve already gotten a sneak peek at one of ’em.)
Will you have merch for sale?
At the party, yeah: We’ll have a handful of in-person-x-clusive merch, including Colleen Coover’s completely rad 10th Anniversary print!
I will not be there, but I want a print or other swag. How can I get it?
Connect with someone who’s going and arrange for them to pick it up and send it to you. We recommend using the Discord, but you can also @ us on Bluesky and we’ll boost your signal!
Do I have to wear a mask?
To the show, yes. To the party, no.
How come?
Because accessibility.
I don’t want to.
Suck it up, buttercup.
Can I bring my kids?
If you’re okay with the possibility that they’ll hear some swears, sure!
Can I bring my horse?
We would strongly prefer that you not.
Can I wear a costume?
We encourage you to do so.
What if it’s not an X-Men costume?
You do you, buddy.
Are the X-Men really confusing enough to merit a full decade of X-planatory podcasts?
Apparently.
443 – X-Retail (feat. Katie Pryde of Books With Pictures)
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In which we walk down X-Plain Memory Lane; everyone needs Bitch Planet; HoX/PoX wouldn’t stay on shelves; we learn how to make sure a comic doesn’t get canceled; Marvel should have kept publishing those Krakoa-era anthology TPBs; X-Men is indeed a soap opera; and you can jump in here ’cause we’re all confused.
X-PLAINED:
- The most crowded X-year
- Books With Pictures, official best comics shop in the world
- Our upcoming 10th birthday party
- Katie Pryde’s X-history
- Prioritizing marginalized nerd identities
- Lapsed X-readers
- X-sprawl
- The Dawn of X books that worked (and the one that didn’t)
- The frustration of discontinued collection formats
- The perfect number of X-books (again)
- Drama and kissing
- What we want after Fall of X
- Readers’ single issue vs collection preferences
- The power of the preorder
- Katie’s (naming) origin story
- Readers versus speculators
- How to organize a comic book store
- Non-X recommendations for X-fans
- The glory of Judge Dredd
- X-Men who can be trusted to watch a comic book store
NEXT EPISODE: Deviants, Christmas ghosts, and Magneto!
LINKS AND FURTHER READING:
- Books With Pictures in Portland, Oregon
- The Books With Pictures Podcast
RSVP to our birthday shenanigans!
Find us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify!
Jay and Miles X-Plain the X-Men is 100% ad-free and listener supported. If you want to help support the podcast–and unlock more cool stuff–you can do that right here!
Buy rad swag at our TeePublic shop!
As Mentioned in Episode 442 – MimeQuest 64
Listen to the episode here.
LINKS AND FURTHER READING:
- RSVP for our live episode and 10th birthday party on April 13th in Portland!
- Follow us on Bluesky!
- Jay’s Voice of Latveria episode about X-Men / Doom Annual 1998!
- And a Mutant: Intersectionality in Marjorie Liu’s Astonishing X-Men by Stephanie Burt!
442 – MimeQuest 64
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | RSS
In which Marrow remains a connoisseur of dead rats; Jay has opinions about the NYC Subway system; U.L.T.I.M.A.T.U.M. are snazzy dressers; Doctor Doom gets excited about Onslaught; Magneto can have a rocket pack if he wants; villainous game recognizes villainous game; weird retcons are the best retcons; and you should totally come to our birthday party.
X-PLAINED:
- A peculiar side effect of Wolverine’s healing factor
- Jay & Miles on Bluesky (and other social media)
- Our upcoming 10th birthday party and live show (and related announcements)
- X-Men Unlimited #22
- X-Men/Doctor Doom Annual 1998
- An unpleasant way to wake up
- That’s so Kraven
- Avengers and transit cops
- U.L.T.I.M.A.T.U.M.
- Flag Smasher
- Some miscellaneous New York Subway trivia
- Audience stand-ins (and how the reading experience changes when the audience stand-in isn’t human-passing)
- Additional New York Subway trivia
- Premonitions of Onslaught
- An X-Men highlight reel
- A delightful little retcon
- One way to ruin X-Men #137
- Healing factor preferences
NEXT EPISODE: Miles and Katie Pryde X-Plain Comics Retail!
Check out the visual companion to this episode on our blog!
RSVP to our birthday shenanigans!
Find us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify!
Jay and Miles X-Plain the X-Men is 100% ad-free and listener supported. If you want to help support the podcast–and unlock more cool stuff–you can do that right here!
Buy rad swag at our TeePublic shop!