As Mentioned – Page 28 – Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men

As Mentioned in Episode 194 – Brood Trouble in the Big Easy

April 22, 2018 Jay 4 comments

Listen to the podcast here.

Cyclops may not have a lot of people skills, but he’s pretty good at boundaries. (X-Men #8)

Last panel of Forge being awful, I promise (for now). (X-Men #8)

Aw, they all posed. (X-Men #8)

Never meet your heroes. (X-Men #8)

Once you see the Pikachu in Psylocke’s swimsuit, you’ll never unsee it. (X-Men #8)

“We have fun, don’t we?” (X-Men #8)

And that’s why you always leave a note! (X-Men #8)

Meet Mrs. Gambit. (X-Men #8)

Trolling law enforcement is one of the subtler perks of being Ghost Rider. (X-Men #8)

“…Lord Byron!” (Ghost Rider #26)

Oh. Him, too, I guess. (Ghost Rider #26)

I mean, yeah, he’s a dick; but this is pretty excessive. (Ghost Rider #26)

The two most dramatic men in New Orleans. (Ghost Rider #26)

TBH, those outfits are pretty understated by Assassins Guild standards. (Ghost Rider #26)

AND THAT’S WHY YOU ALWAYS LEAVE A NOTE! (Ghost Rider #26)

I give him some flack, but nobody draws grossed out teenagers like Jim Lee. (X-Men #9)

The inside of Ghost Rider’s mind; and, coincidentally, the cover of his first hit single. (X-Men #9)

(It’s okay. She’ll be back later.) (X-Men #9)

Meanwhile in the upside down… (X-Men #9)

Um, yes. She does. You already know that, Wolverine. (X-Men #9)

X-Men crossovers are pretty hard on guest stars. (X-Men #9)

I’m just gonna leave this here, sans comment. (X-Men #9)

NEXT EPISODE: Mike Mignola’s X-Force!

As Mentioned in Episode 193 – Sewers of Tomorrow

April 15, 2018 Jay 8 comments

Listen to the podcast here!

Art by David Wynne. Wanna buy the original? Drop him a line!

On one hand: These dudes are pretty rad. On the other hand: being able to detect normal humans is a pretty ridiculous mutant power. (Uncanny X-Men #277)

John Romita, Jr. can be hit-or-miss, but he definitely draws some rad miscreants of the future. (Uncanny X-Men #277)

WOMP. (Uncanny X-Men #277)

Compulsory Fitzroy Hair Appreciation Moment(TM). (Uncanny X-Men #277)

The Witness, in all his really creepy glory. (Uncanny X-Men #277)

Can you imagine trying to have a conversation with this dude? (Uncanny X-Men #277)

I don’t understand what’s happening with Cyclops’s torso; and, frankly, I don’t want to. (Uncanny X-Men #278)

“Look! A distraction!” (Uncanny X-Men #278)

The first appearance of the letter… (Uncanny X-Men #278)

…and the second, FROM THE SAME FLIPPIN’ PAGE. (Uncanny X-Men #278)

Thaaaaat’s our Archangel! (Uncanny X-Men #278)

Can confirm. -Jay (Uncanny X-Men #278)

*Today, at least. (Uncanny X-Men #278)

Long Island cops are clearly unfamiliar with Cyburai. (Uncanny X-Men #279)

Mystique is exceptionally bad at helping. (Uncanny X-Men #279)

Damnit, Forge. (Uncanny X-Men #279)

Storm’s reaction is appropriate. (Uncanny X-Men #279)

Bobby. Have you MET your parents? (Uncanny X-Men #279)

Best. Date. Ever. (Uncanny X-Men #279)

Remember that time Mikhail Rasputin turned a random skater into a tree? Because that certainly happened. (Uncanny X-Men #280)

Hanging out naked in the rain? This dude is DEFINITELY learning the ropes from Storm. (Uncanny X-Men #280)

DAMNIT, Forge. (Uncanny X-Men #280)

NEXT EPISODE: Brood trouble in the Big Easy!

LINKS & FURTHER READING

Learn all about the Cyburai in Episode 160 – Hank McCoy and the Hickey of Destiny!
Laura Dern is precious and must be protected at all costs.

As Mentioned in Episode 192 – Meet the N-Men

April 8, 2018 Jay Leave a comment

Listen to the podcast here!

Art by David Wynne. Wanna buy the original? Drop him a line!

All-new, all-different! (Excalibur #45)

And that’s why you don’t bring Technet on a stakeout. (Excalibur #45)

LOOK AT THESE DELIGHTFUL INDIVIDUALS (Excalibur #45)

She’s not wrong. (Excalibur #45)

Really, really good use of shadows, there. (Excalibur #45)

MEET THE N-MEN! (Excalibur #45)

Remember this guy. He’s gonna be a major antagonist. (Excalibur #45)

Ah, Joyboy, we hardly knew thee. (Excalibur #45)

Meggan contains multitudes. (Excalibur #46)

Aw, Zombie Thor looks so happy to be there. (Excalibur #46)

If things like peeing in solitude are important to you, you should probably not join Excalibur. (Excalibur #46)

Nightcrawler: canonically EXTRA heroic. (Excalibur #46)

*Rimshot* (Excalibur #46)

Sparkly! (Excalibur #46)

Meggan’s true form has SERIOUS hair. (Excalibur #46)

Aw, Widget. (Excalibur #46)

One of the all-time classic Excalibur covers. (Excalibur #47)

THE GREATEST LOVE STORY IN COMICS. (Excalibur #47)

Hi, Cerise! (Excalibur #47)

Damnit, Merlyn. This is why we can’t have nice things.(Excalibur #47)

Kurt, if you don’t know which book you’re in by now, I don’t know what to tell you. (Excalibur #47)

They do this with THE WHOLE STORY, and it warms my shriveled heart. (Excalibur #47)

NEXT EPISODE: A Bishop in the house!

LINKS & FURTHER READING:

For an introduction to Technet, check out Episode 89 – Giant-Size Special #3; and Episode 98 – Between Alien Visitations and Drunken Sulks!
The comment thread about Emilia Witherspoon’s origins
We discussed Diana: Warrior Princess at more length in Episode 34 – Mordenkainen’s Marvelous Mutants.

As Mentioned in Episode 190 – Local Yokels

April 1, 2018 Jay One comment

Listen to the episode here.

“And have you been a good or bad little, um, whatever-you-are this year?” (Wolverine: Bloodlust)

That smirk in the second panel! (Wolverine: Bloodlust)

If I had a dollar for every date of Wolverine’s that has ended like this… (Wolverine: Bloodlust)

“Time to get back to my roots: Naked in Canada.” (Wolverine: Bloodlust)

If you were wondering if these people are about to die terribly, the answer is yes. (Wolverine: Bloodlust)

This could not have gotten more grim if it were an ’80s Power Pack crossover. (Wolverine: Bloodlust)

Welcome to the Alshra. Hope you survive the… y’know. (Wolverine: Bloodlust)

‘Kay. (Wolverine: Bloodlust)

And that, kids, is what happens when your artist gets tired of drawing all the rips in the costume. (Wolverine: Bloodlust)

One of the better psychic duels. (Wolverine: Bloodlust)

Well, that’s convenient.

Those SFX, tho. (Wolverine: Bloodlust)

nope (Excalibur: The Possession)

NEXT EPISODE: Rogue and Gambit, with writer Kelly Thompson!

As Mentioned in Episode 187 – Mermaids at the Center of Time

March 4, 2018 Jay 8 comments

Listen to the podcast here.

Art by David Wynne. Wanna buy the original? Drop him a line!

Spoiler: They’re not actually that secret.

This panel really never stops being satisfying.

A surprisingly elegant fall overboard.

Is this Annie’s first comics appearance?

A few variations on Jean’s origins come up over the years, but most of them hew fairly close to this one.

If I had a dollar for every time I’d woken up like that…

In the next panel, he tries to lend them a copy of Atlas Shrugged.

Not cool, Jean.

FUN FACT: Our friend Max went to college in New England, and apparently ice sculpture contests are TOTALLY A THING.

HI, BUBBA.

This looks both tremendously fun and tremendously unsafe.

He straight-up bogarted the entire winter carnival.

This gag really never stops working.

If you’ve ever wondered what sound an ice-enclosed energy-gun cane makes blowing up in the stratosphere, now you know.

Thanks to Doctor Internet, I can accurately identify Nightcrawler’s favorite movie as The Mark of Zorro.

That is quite a caption.

I’d really love to see a full-color version of this splash.

IT’S A METAPHOR.

The oracle!

Remember this from the Nightcrawler limited series?

Consider us warned.

NEXT EPISODE: Live from ECCC!

And here’s a photo of Jay’s mom cosplaying Cable:

As Mentioned in Episode 186 – Right in the Melee

February 25, 2018 Jay One comment

Listen to the podcast here!

Art by David Wynne. Wanna buy the original? Drop him a line!

Sunfire’s new costume. (Uncanny X-Men #284)

Spoiler: Nah. (Uncanny X-Men #284)

The shiniest Predators. (Uncanny X-Men #284)

This is gonna seem more ironic in a few pages. (Uncanny X-Men #284)

That’s our Sunfire! (Uncanny X-Men #284)

Yep. The folks in the Predator masks look… exactly like humans. (Uncanny X-Men #284)

Spoiler: The cake is a lie. (Uncanny X-Men #285)

Interdimensional travel faces. (Uncanny X-Men #285)

A very expository landing. (Uncanny X-Men #285)

I would make a “No groveling! This is a proper Soviet household!” joke, but I feel like The Twelve Chairs might be an excessively deep cut even by my standards. (Uncanny X-Men #285)

Oh, hey, it’s a mysterious stranger! Doubt he’ll turn out to be anyone important. (Uncanny X-Men #285)

The Martha Stewart of whatever this dimension is called. (Uncanny X-Men #285)

Meanwhile in a different genre… (Uncanny X-Men #285)

LOOK AT THAT EXCELLENT LIZARD FACE. (Uncanny X-Men #285)

We give Portacio a lot of grief over his costume designs, but this one is really cool. (Uncanny X-Men #285)

He’s explaining the basic tenets of Socialism. (Uncanny X-Men #285)

“Ha! My brother was drawn by Dave Cockrum! You’re no brother of mine!” (Uncanny X-Men #285)

Okay, but Beast and Cyclops did it better. (Uncanny X-Men #286)

Aw, those scamps. (Uncanny X-Men #286)

See this? This is why the world is probably doomed. (Uncanny X-Men #286)

It’s rough being a regular in an ongoing superhero comic. (Uncanny X-Men #286)

NOT OKAY. (Uncanny X-Men #286)

Team-up move! (Uncanny X-Men #286)

“Fortunately, there’s this podcast…” (Uncanny X-Men #286)

NEXT EPISODE: The not particularly secret lives of the X-Men!

LINKS & FURTHER READING:

Come see us at Emerald City Comic Con!
You can hear all about “Judgment War” in Episode 128 – A Stupid Way to Die, and Episode 133 – Feisty Little Fellow from the Stars.
And here’s the Kids in the Hall “Inexperienced Cannibal” sketch.

As Mentioned in Episode 185 – Becoming Wolverine

February 18, 2018 Jay Leave a comment

Listen to the episode here.

LINKS & FURTHER READING:

As Mentioned in Episode 184 – Sweetcakes

February 11, 2018 Jay 3 comments

Listen to the episode here!

For all its flaws, this arc has its moments. Here is one of them. (The Incredible Hulk #390)

Also, let’s all take a moment to admire Rick Jones’s impeccable early-’90s fashion sense. (The Incredible Hulk #390)

And good times were had by all. (The Incredible Hulk #391)

One more Rick Jones fashion moment for the road. (The Incredible Hulk #391)

That’s kind of ingenious, actually. (The Incredible Hulk #391)

Welcome to the deeply depressing main event. (X-Factor #76)

“You can tell, because of his mustache.” (X-Factor #76)

You’d think gods would have less generic armor. (X-Factor #76)

And then Rahne did some killing. (X-Factor #76)

There is literally no good reason to have this in the story; but then, there’s literally no good reason for most of this story. (The Incredible Hulk #391)

“Good talk! So, back to paternalistic interference?” (The Incredible Hulk #392)

How does that… Why would you even… (The Incredible Hulk #392)

That panel in the middle, tho. (The Incredible Hulk #392)

Larry Stroman is back, and everything will be okay, except I guess for a lot of things, because this is a superhero comic. But still! Larry Stroman is back! (X-Factor #77)

Remember that time the Mutant Liberation Front looked legitimately and ironically awesome? Because that happened. (X-Factor #77)

At least Vic Chalker died as he lived: in a large robot suit. (X-Factor #77)

Not technically the most dangerous game, but definitely not recommended. (X-Factor #77)

RAHNE’S HAIR IS SO COOL (X-Factor #77)

X-Factor’s modular uniforms are really rad. Good job, Val. (X-Factor #78)

Know what else is rad? Tempo. Tempo is rad as hell and deserves so much better than the MLF. (X-Factor #78)

Maybe this is the explanation for everyone’s weird eye spots? (X-Factor #78)

[Insert canned laughter here.] (X-Factor #78)

Ouch. (X-Factor #78)

NEXT EPISODE: Tom Taylor and the true meaning of friendship!

As Mentioned in Episode 183 – Mutant Death Factor

February 4, 2018 Jay 7 comments

Listen to the podcast here.

All of those facial expressions are great. (X-Men #4)

Ewwwww. (X-Men #4)

File this one under “references that haven’t aged all that coherently.” (X-Men #4)

She yelled so hard it changed the shape of the panels! (X-Men #4)

These jerks and their delightful wardrobe! (X-Men #4)

Why is he allowed to live there, again? (X-Men #4)

That is… an outfit. (X-Men #4)

You can almost hear the inchoate yelling. (X-Men #5)

Cerebro is officially ridiculous. I mean, more ridiculous than usual. (X-Men #5)

Psylocke, just admit that you were sunbathing. No one will judge you. (X-Men #5)

More Fenris fashions. (X-Men #5)

“We worked really hard to reconcile the continuity between these two titles, and we wanted to make damn sure that you appreciated the effort.” (X-Men #5)

Cyclops was right. (X-Men #5)

That’s actually a really cool way to transition into a flashback. (X-Men #5)

“In addition to a Mutant Death Factor, I come with my own exposition!” (X-Men #6)

Someone’s crossed the X-axis! (X-Men #6)

He’s also got a dark pink tie in some panels. (X-Men #6)

SERIOUSLY WHAT ARE THOSE THINGS HE’S STUCK IN (X-Men #7)

Psylocke is the master of the deadpan plot twist. (X-Men #7)

If you don’t automatically hear this line delivered by Christian Kane as Eliot Spencer, I don’t know what to tell you. (X-Men #7)

Maverick. (X-Men #7)

It’s rough to be Alison Blaire. (X-Men #5)

I unironically love this trio of dramatic poses; and also the fact that I absolutely believe that these characters would pose dramatically before fights. (X-Men #6)

Aw. (X-Men #6)

NEXT EPISODE: Larry Stroman somehow manages to make the MLF look cool. (Also, there’s a Hulk crossover.)

LINKS & FURTHER READING

COME SEE US AT EMERALD CITY COMIC CON! We’ll be at T-11 in Artist Alley all weekend; check back here for panel and party details!
I’m fairly sure I’ve linked to “Class of ’64” before, but it’s one of the best-developed reimaginings of the X-Men I’ve found, in or out of canon.
Unfortunately, R. Orion Martin’s “X-Men of Color” series no longer appears to be online, but you can learn more about it here and here. (Also worth reading: Darryl Ayo’s rebuttal to Martin’s article.)