Listen to the podcast here.
No gallery this week–instead, Max put together a visual addendum covering stuff we talked about while watching but forgot to mention in the episode:
LINKS & FURTHER READING:
Category: Blog Posts
Jay Reviews the X-Men, Episode 89
Week of June 22, 2016:
In which Jay grudgingly reviews YET ANOTHER book with Deadpool in the title (but enjoys it); A Year of Marvels is slightly baffling; and Katie P. drops by for the panel of the week!
REVIEWED:
*Pick of the Week (04:49)
Filmed at Books With Pictures in Portland, OR. Special thanks to Katie Proctor.
Jay and Miles X-Plain the X-Men is 100% ad-free and listener supported. These video reviews–and everything else here–are made possible by the support of our Patreon subscribers. If you want to help support the podcast–and unlock more cool stuff–you can do that right here!
Come join us on Imzy!
Susan X-Plains Prompt Critical
Kickass scientist Susan Beaver–who’s also the former associate director of the Reed Research Reactor–joined us in Episode 114 – Meltdown to talk about the actual science of nuclear reactors. Unfortunately, the downside of talking about complex science on a comics podcast is that there’s never enough time to go into as much depth as we’d like. Luckily for us–and you–Susan was kind enough to write a follow-up, discussing some of the terms and concepts we had to gloss over in the episode proper. -Jay
Let’s talk about nuclear fission.
As I got to say in the episode, the fourteen-page rundown of basic nuclear fission and the Chernobyl disaster that starts of Havok and Wolverine: Meltdown is surprisingly accurate, aside from attributing the human errors to a nefarious conspiracy rather than a combination of bad design and bad judgment. But one thing that the artistic overview doesn’t explain is a term that comes up a couple times in the comic, and that’s the term “prompt critical”.
It surprised me to see that term come up in the comic, since most of the time when people in entertainment industries throw around concepts regarding nuclear reactors they’re getting them wrong. (If you’ve ever had a career that gets depicted in movies and television shows–I’m looking at you, CSI techs and nurses–you know exactly what I mean.) So to see the comic getting a lot right was a welcome surprise. Radiation signs posted the correct way up instead of rotated 30 degrees! Neutron moderation! Control rods! And, of course, the sinister-sounding (not Sinister-sounding, though in this comic you have to be careful) phrase “prompt critical.”
So what happens when a nuclear reactor goes prompt critical?
As Mentioned in Episode 114 – Meltdown
Listen to the episode here.
Art by David Wynne. Prints and cards available at the shop, or contact David to purchase the original.
Welcome to your new favorite miniseries. (Havok & Wolverine: Meltdown #1)
The first 14 pages are a primer on reactor physics and the Chernobyl disaster. (Havok & Wolverine: Meltdown #1)
Also some vaguely sinister chess-playing. (Havok & Wolverine: Meltdown #1)
No, seriously: that’s just straight-up James Dean. (Havok & Wolverine: Meltdown #1)
If you’re not sold on the book by now, please reconsider your priorities. (Havok & Wolverine: Meltdown #1)
Move over, Neal Adams. This is our definitive representation of Havok’s powers. (Havok & Wolverine: Meltdown #1)
Kent Williams is terrifying and wonderful. (Havok & Wolverine: Meltdown #1)
Why, yes, we are going to include every cover. Why? (Havok & Wolverine: Meltdown #2)
Look at how much information this panel conveys. (Havok & Wolverine: Meltdown #2)
General Meltdown! (Havok & Wolverine: Meltdown #2)
Wait for it… (Havok & Wolverine: Meltdown #2)
…and done. (Havok & Wolverine: Meltdown #2)
Havok latches onto genre conventions like a baby duck impressing on the first thing it sees. (Havok & Wolverine: Meltdown #2)
It was really, really hard not to just include the whole damn miniseries in this visual companion. (Havok & Wolverine: Meltdown #2)
(Havok & Wolverine: Meltdown #3)
Well, then. (Havok & Wolverine: Meltdown #3)
I cannot get over the way Muth paints Scarlett’s hair. (Havok & Wolverine: Meltdown #3)
One of my favorite sequences from the entire series. (Havok & Wolverine: Meltdown #3)
Dr. Meltdown and his trusty overlays. (Havok & Wolverine: Meltdown #3)
Best image of Havok, or best image of Havok? Hint: Best image of Havok. (Havok & Wolverine: Meltdown #3)
The palpable violence of the action sequences is really, really spectacular. (Havok & Wolverine: Meltdown #3)
And onward. (Havok & Wolverine: Meltdown #4)
In which Havok transforms from James Dean to a young Peter Capaldi. (Havok & Wolverine: Meltdown #4)
THIS PAGE (Havok & Wolverine: Meltdown #4)
So, so doomed. (Havok & Wolverine: Meltdown #4)
No narrative reason for including this. I just really, really love the art. (Havok & Wolverine: Meltdown #4)
The problem with falling too deeply into a character is that you also end up with their genre-specific weaknesses. (Havok & Wolverine: Meltdown #4)
Ouch. (Havok & Wolverine: Meltdown #4)
Well, that’s one way to do it. (Havok & Wolverine: Meltdown #4)
The way Havok’s powers change when they go out of control is really, really amazing. (Havok & Wolverine: Meltdown #4)
No, seriously. (Havok & Wolverine: Meltdown #4)
HOW COULD NO ONE HAVE REACHED BACK TO THIS SERIES? IT’S A GOLDMINE. (Havok & Wolverine: Meltdown #4)
NEXT EPISODE: The X-Men Anime.
Jay & Miles Review the X-Men, Episode 88
Weeks of June 8 & June 15, 2016:
In which the X-Men join Civil War II; Uncanny X-Men is baffling but compelling; and there’s FINALLY an interesting story about Apocalypse!
REVIEWED:
- Civil War II: X-Men #1 (00:41)
- Uncanny X-Men #8 (05:17)
- *All-New X-Men #10 (09:00)
*Pick of the Week (12:46)
Filmed at Books With Pictures in Portland, OR.
Jay and Miles X-Plain the X-Men is 100% ad-free and listener supported. These video reviews–and everything else here–are made possible by the support of our Patreon subscribers. If you want to help support the podcast–and unlock more cool stuff–you can do that right here!
Come join us on Imzy!
As Mentioned in Episode 113 – Play It Again, Patch
Listen to the episode here.
NOTE: Normally the visual companion is annotated; but frankly, I don’t have it in me to be witty about Wolverine today. Sorry. -Jay
Art by David Wynne. Prints and cards available at the shop, or contact David to purchase the original.
Wolverine #1
Wolverine #2
Wolverine #2
Wolverine #2
Wolverine #2
Wolverine #3
Wolverine #3
Wolverine #3
Wolverine #3
Wolverine #4
Wolverine #4
Wolverine #6
Wolverine #8
Wolverine #10
NEXT EPISODE: Havok & Wolverine: Meltdown
As Mentioned in Episode 112 – Embers of Inferno (feat. Sam Humphries)
Listen to the episode here!
Art by David Wynne. Prints and cards available at the shop, or contact David to purchase the original.
“So, y’know–business as usual.” (Amazing Spider-Man #313)
The Ghostbusters references just keep coming! (Amazing Spider-Man #313)
HE’S NOT WRONG. (Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man #146)
This is in fact literally what it is like to work in publishing, all the time. (Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man #147)
CAN WE TALK ABOUT HOW JARVIS’S MOM IS A HUGE WRESTLING AFICIONADO? (Avengers #298)
Well, then. (Avengers #298)
He does this every time he fights a possessed machine. (Avengers #298)
No, seriously. Every time. (Avengers #299)
Stories involving Nanny and the Orphanmaker are never not super sad and messed up. (Avengers #299)
That one time the Avengers got back together in a tie-in to someone else’s crossover event. (Avengers #300)
Never leave your house. Seriously. (Power Pack #42)
Actually, no. Your house isn’t safe, either. (Power Pack #42)
And then a group of young children looked back nostalgically at the time they fought Sabretooth in a sewer. (Power Pack #44)
Aw. (Power Pack #44)
LIES. (The Mutant Misadventures of Cloak and Dagger #4)
For full effect, you have to imagine the narration being read by David Attenborough. (Daredevil #262)
And that was how Daredevil beat up a vacuum cleaner. (Daredevil #262)
It’s actually pretty surprising that no one else thought to do anything with possessed hospital equipment, because that is TERRIFYING. (Daredevil #263)
Officer Drillbit, in all his glory. (Daredevil #265)
For 1989 Daredevil, this ending is positively chipper. (Daredevil #265)
NEXT EPISODE: So. Much. Wolverine.
You Made (Wearable) Art!
Jay & Miles Review the X-Men, Episode 87
Week of June 1, 2016:
In which X-Men ’92 wraps up its first arc; Old Man Logan can’t have nice things; Fin Fang Foom looks like our cat; and Books With Pictures may or may not have destroyed Alderaan.
REVIEWED:
- X-Men ’92 #4 (01:03)
- Old Man Logan #7 (04:08)
- *All-New Wolverine #9 (07:44)
*Pick of the Week (10:54)
Filmed at Books With Pictures in Portland, OR.
Jay and Miles X-Plain the X-Men is 100% ad-free and listener supported. These video reviews–and everything else here–are made possible by the support of our Patreon subscribers. If you want to help support the podcast–and unlock more cool stuff–you can do that right here!
Come join us on Imzy!
X-TRA – Jay and Miles Overthink X-Men: Apocalypse
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In which we release a mid-week bonus episode and generally spoil the hell out of X-Men: Apocalypse!
This episode comes courtesy of our rad Patreon subscribers. If you want to join their ranks and help keep us on the air and ad-free–and unlock more cool stuff–you can do that right here!