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In which we decide to stop recognizing the nominal difference between X-Men and Uncanny X-Men; time travel may or may not wait for you; Mister Sinister has probably appeared in at least one Ed Wood film; we are a pro-Tingle podcast; X-Men is about family; the Braddock twins catch up; Sailor Moon > Shinobi Shaw; Generation X is inducted into the baseball tradition; and Storm does what she does with Morlocks in sewers.
X-PLAINED:
- Franklin Richards’ impressive lineage
- 311
- Yet another structure for annuals
- X-Men Annual 1995
- Uncanny X-Men #325
- Serious academic discussions
- Faye Livingstone
- Mister Sinister’s Hollywood adventures
- Tyler Dayspring / Tolliver / Genesis (again)
- Teenage optimism
- An absolutely nonsensical villainous plot
- A Hank McCoy that might have been
- Friendship
- Fraternal correspondence
- Romance
- Morlocks
- The first time Storm stabbed a Morlock leader in the heart
- Gene Nation
- A really excessive cover
- An intergenerational baseball game
- Another fairly nonsensical villainous plot
- The second time Storm stabbed a Morlock leader in the heart
- X-horror
- Other media X-fans may enjoy reading, playing, or watching
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The podcast has caught up to when I started reading X-Men. Not the best era but I liked it at the time. Also, I’m fairly sure Kang and Reed’s dad are related but not the same person. Kang continuity gets messy.
Kang is a decendant of Nathanial Richards from 200 years past the future where Nathanial was a Warlord, who was named after the founder of that civlilisation, he may also be related to Doom, in a manner that lead him to think he was Doom for a while. Also there are other Kangs who are not the Nathanial Richards (not that one) Kang, who make up the council of Kang’s, that included Nebula who may or may not be the one related to Thanos, and most recently in Spider-ham Kang-eroo.
I got cross eyed before I could finish that paragraph.
WHAT???!!
Another potential close to the spiel:
“And that’s not even getting into his rival/nemesis Immortus, lord of Limbo–”
“Waaaaiiiiit…”
“Different Limbo. Anyway, Immortus is another time traveler who sometimes teams up with Kang but more often tries to foil his plans, which is ironic because he’s–”
“Another descendant of Reed Richards?”
“Noooo….”
“An alternate universe version?”
“Closer….”
“Hang on, he’s not–”
“Kang, but 15 years older.”
Kang isn’t Reed Richards’ father. Nathaniel Richards is certainly a time traveler but the two characters are separate. There’s also been nothing definitive as to whether Kang is descended from the Richards’ family or Doctor Doom.
Miles’ Millenial jokes and Jay pointing out they were generaton x at the time, remind me that i once read, how the original plan for Gene Nation was for them to be second generation Morlocks who instead of hiding in the tunnels like their parents did, would proudly present themself to normal humans in all their deformities, but also being very violent and agressive like a street gang which would make them clash with the heros.
Which then turned into them being mutant terrorist from a weird pocket dimension who happily kill people for fun.
That their name also seems to be inspired by the LGBTQ activist organization Queer Nation which formed in New York during the early 90’s and used confrontational tactics to raise awareness, also carries some really unfortunate implications if true.
And so ends the story of Marrow, a character designed to die after only 3 appearances in an attempt at imitating a much more well remembered fight involving Storm showcasing that she can stab somebody when lifes are on the line.
Or not.
Poor girl is stuck in a fairly bad spot now. She is well known enough that many even casual fans known her, in part because of being Marvel vs. Capcom 2 though, but not interesting enough for writers to actualy care about using her it seems. Also too unredeemed to work as anti-hero but too softend up by her time on the X-men to be a believable villain anymore.
It’s fairly interesting that really everything that has gone wrong for her in life up until that point is duo to other mutants and one guy who later proclaims himself a mutant so he can sit on the council of a mutant nation.
Which actualy includes herself, since when we remember that Cable issue Sarah first showed up in, it was HER decision to stay on The Hill. She actualy had a chance to get out of that place, but was too scared to.
Proving once again that sometimes we really are our worst enemy.
Also that she really should have taken Thornn’s hand and later join up with Artie and Leech. She is like the Fifth Beatle of adorable mutant kids who jumped out of the chance to form the band and tried her luck with a hardcore mutant metal punk band which fairly quickly faded into obscurity.
Besides her plan being stupid in itself. Marrow was fighting a highly skilled person like Storm with several pieces of her ripcage missing and a big hole in her chest only covered by an external metal plate. Either she was really overconfident or she actualy had a death wish. Weirdly both sound in character for what we later learn about her.
I really enjoyed Marrow’s early days in the Kelly run as the resident shit-strirrer in the X-Mansion post OZT. She brought an antagonistic energy to the book in a way that the book really needed, but lacking the courage of their convictions soon boiled down to “lol no, I just want to be pretty.”
Miles, you helped me to realize why I love Final Fantasy XIII so much. I’ve played through the trilogy about 4 times and I couldn’t verbalize why it resonated so strongly with me. Aside from identifying with Lightning so strongly.
As for other “X-Men like” media, I have always enjoyed Fairy Tail for it’s massive plot lines and long simmering subplots. Black Lagoon is another good one that is basically just Madripoor without Wolverine.
Comic book wise, Wildcats and Cyber Force were basically the X-Men that Jim Lee and Marc Silvestri wanted to do. I don’t know if I’d recommend them, though.
Did anyone catch the name of the books that Jay recommended in the questions portion of the show?
Bob Proehl’s “Resonant Duology” series “The Nobody People” and “The Somebody People”
Though I suspect you’ll become more familiar with them next week, as the author is going to be a guest on this very podcast.
Another- X-Men-ish media might be considered to be the “Wild Cards” shared world anthology series.
Though these days it perhaps has more resonance with certain takes on the Inhumans Terrigen Mist cloud wandering earth and transforming people, the idea of Wild Cards is that an alien virus is accidentally released on Earth which causes rapid and bizarre mutations in humans.
Since the results are a gamble, a lot of it’s references are based on cards: Most people die as they become something nonviable (Draw the Black Queen), some are left living but are monstrously mutated to some extent (Jokers) or, rarely, develop superhuman abilities either useful (Aces) or useless (Deuces), but it might happen to anyone at any time, from any walk of life.
It also seems apt to mention it in relation to the parallels between the “pretty” mutant/Aces and the Morlocks/Jokers.
The series has some… issues, but Claremont did write for it, and added a couple of semi-regular characters to the mix.
I’ve been on the fence about reading the Wild Cards books. However, now that I know Claremont was a contributor I am going to make the plunge.
Episode 311: Jay and Miles Come Original
Episode 311: Amber is the Color of their Energy Blasts
… Those are the only 311 originals I can think of right now.
I had no idea Eve6 were named for an X-Files story. Thinking about pop-culture inspired band names makes me wish Fallout Boy were a better band, because *damn* that’s a good band name (and a great Simpsons homage).
Oooh, also “The Bright Sessions” and it’s sequels.
Set in a world where “Atypicals” are people who possess a genetic gift giving a wide variety of abilities, the Governments of the world know they exist, though most people don’t, and have organisations in place to track and aid them, for good or ill, depending on context. (The main one we meet in the US is “The institute”)
Dr Bright is a therapist who specialises in Atypicals, and we’re introduced to her world through her patients: an artistic telepath, a woman with anxiety issues who keeps time-travelling, a high school jock who is an empathic sensitive (if you think handling YOUR teenage bullshit was tough, try feeling EVERYONE’S teenage bullshit, ALL THE TIME!) and the cast grows as the world is built, as does some of the truth about Dr bright herself.
Some excellent characters and concepts.
Upon further contemplation, I would also add Nightbreed which is pretty close to a Morlock movie. And though I’ve never seen any of them, I have heard the later Fast and Furious movies being described as perfect X-Force movies.