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In which Seanan and Jay break down their favorite X-Villains; technically everyone is always cosplaying Mystique; Magneto remains the gold standard; and we have some concerns about Eye Boy.
X-PLAINED:
- Candy Corn, and our official stance thereon
- Halloween candy economy
- Which X-Character to dress as for your office Halloween party
- X-Villains
- What makes Magneto tick
- Magneto as a Holocaust survivor
- What makes a villain redeemable
- Face turns
- The last DDR machine in New York, and denizens thereof
- An X-Villain musical
- Mystique
- How to make Daken work
- Avengers as antagonists
- Sinister’s goals
- Bringing back Cameron Hodge
- Meggan vs. Brexit
- Heel turns
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*Patiently yearning for that moment when favorite character, Clarice, is introduced in podcast.*
Not that I don’t enjoy interstitial episodes, but it feels like Phalanx has been coming for longer than Inferno was.
I just want to offer one slight correction as another Big Leverage Fan.
The portrait is of an aged up Nate Ford, but I believe the name of the fictional founder of Leverage Incorporated is referred to as “The great Harlan Leverage The Third”
I do love these more casual episodes.
Dazzler with pink hair is basically Jem, right? 😀 (Though if I had to pick between Dazzler and The Misfits, Sorry Alison, but their songs ARE better)
Speaking of which, have you good people seen Rage Gear Studio’s X-Jem crossover?
Jaz and the Hard Light Projections: https://ragegearstudios.tumblr.com/post/121695852661/the-debut-of-jaz-and-the-hard-light-projections-at
And The Sisterhood of Mixfits: https://ragegearstudios.tumblr.com/post/186968128451/the-sisterhood-of-mixfits-are-making-their-debut
Sinister’s origin would start out Gilbert and Sullivan in the first half, but turn into full blown 70’s pastiche rock-opera after the interval.
Love the idea of the Cuckoo’s vocal harmony being disrupted by the loss of Esme and Sophie.
Emma’s poetry contributions both sound absolutely spot on.
Double dactyl’s sound like something Nightcrawler should be a natural at…
Warlock writing mathematics based poetry which he knows only his selfsoulfriend will understand is all kinds of adorable, of course.
I was going to say that Doug can do the performative side of his abilities, since he was able to convince Amara to trust him completely (just after he nearly beat her to death under Selene’s control and she was understandably freaked out) with a few words in a lanaguge he created especially for that exchange with her, but the idea of the Cuckoos pretending there’s just one them is too good to miss out no.
Of all the things I expected from this episode, reasoning that Meggan/Gloriana might go full villain because of Brexit is not one of them, but by all the demons of heck I am right there with her. I actually want to go and look for a cape, whilst sorting out my villainous goatee.. and possibly a flamethrower.
As a guy who has fried 2 Nintendos and a cordless phone just by touching them, the idea that I’m a low-level mutant made my freaking day. Thank you!
Thank you as well for bringing up why “When they did it” is so important. Social standards varying over the decades plays a HUGE role in ANYone’s redeemability, here AND in the 616.
Yes! Can’t wait for next week. The guest I’ve been asking for for years. All hail the original owner of… the box!
My understanding is that, though Claremont wrote the story, it was Dave & Paty Cockrum who came up with the idea of Magneto being a holocaust survivor. Apparently they were furious when John Byrne returned him to villainy in Acts of Vengeance.
I’ve listened to this podcast for many years and I’ve agreed with the content and politics almost 100% until today!!!
Candy Corn is terrible!
That is all 🙂
P.S. Sauron writes Double dactyls obviously
Yeah, I didn’t want to go there, but in the spirit of solidarity I have to agree that it is an awful… substance (I can’t even bring myself to call it confectionery),
I have to admit that I agree with nearly every word of this post and I’m unsure if that should bring me happiness or sadness because I really wanted to post that terrible Sauron pun.
Aaaaa MOST enjoyable X-Discussion to get to listen in on. Thank you for it.
What’s the current status of Cameron Hodge. Is he still affiliated with the Phalanx? If so, it feels like there’s room for the character in Hickman’s X-Men if he wants to go in that direction.
Last I remember about ten years ago, he was working with the Purifiers when he (and his technoganic army of Smile-Face things) were permanently killed by Warlock, who absorbed all their life forces (because Doug asked him too in the middle of the fight. Doug knew it was something Warlock would never choose to do, but saw it as the only way they could win).
Warlock later purged himself of their life energy (basically he ralphed up a lot of glowing “stuff”) because he felt he had no right to gain any benefit from lifeglow he had taken by breaking his usual golden rule about not taking lifeglow from sentient beings.
I don’t think Cameron Hodge has been seen since, though I’m sure reconstructing himself form a pile of Tehcnarch barf wouldn’t even make it into the top five of his most horrible moment.
Alternate explanation for the number of goofy power-appropriate names: one mild precog with a baby-future predicting business, popular for a brief period however many years ago.
Agreed that Inferno isn’t a musical. However, it absolutely should be an opera.
Make it revolve around Illyana and Madelyne, and be told only from their two perspectives. Illyana deals with the Darkchild in the first act, and Maddy with the Goblin Queen in the second. Leave out EVERYTHING that one of those two women isn’t directly involve in. Very broad strokes backstory at the top can be provided by a chorus of Limbo denizens and Manhattan cars/vacuums/sidewalks/buildings. Leave the audience as lost in, but wrapped up by, the story as an 80s era reader finding whatever they could at the newsstand will be.
Illyana getting to watch her own past while she ends her story is a great theatrical device. Madelyne’s power and range of emotions belong on a stage. The story beats that can’t be fully explained can be more than fully emoted in song. We’d get each of those women’s stories, and we’d get an opera level production of Limbo and Inferno Manhattan.
Disney’s theme-park engineers could do great things with a Limbo-possessed opera hall.
I’m surprised that they didn’t say that Sauron wrote Double Dactyls. That seems like a real missed opportunity.