In which Jay sits down with scholar Christopher Michael Roman to discuss his recent book, Queering Wolverine in Comics and Fanfiction: A Fastball Special; alongside queer theory, porous bodies, and nontraditional mentorship.
CONTENT NOTE: This episode includes graphic discussions of physical trauma as well as consensual if weird fictional sex.
NEXT EPISODE: Colossus and Meggan finally go to Dudleyworld, sort of!
No visual companion this week, but if you want to pick up Chris’s book, you can do that here!
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!
Run, Penance! The retcons are coming for you! (Generation X #40)
Hey, that’s not how telepathy works! (Generation X #40)
I’d be responding with a lot more middle fingers and lawsuits than Synch is here. (Generation X #40)
Monet, I know your brother is super evil and all, but do you really have to be so mean about it? (Generation X #40)
I see someone just earned their Villainous Wordplay merit badge! (Generation X #40)
Huh, that was easy. (Generation X #40)
…as Disney’s copyright lawyers back slowly away… (Generation X #40)
This issue’s an odd and somewhat troubling one, but damn that art is great. (Generation X #41)
Jubilee: from youngest X-Man to youngest Gen X’er. (Generation X #41)
AAAAAAAHHHHHHH (Generation X #41)
And once more I say AAAAAAAHHHHHHH (Generation X #41)
I’m impressed we can tell Emma and Paige apart for once, but what really impresses me is EVERYTHING ABOUT JUBILEE’S HAIR (Generation X #42)
Is… is this how flirting works? Have we been doing it wrong? (Generation X #42)
We’ll get to this. (Generation X #42)
The color of PAIN (Generation X #42)
It must be hard to be Just Some Dude in the Marvel Universe. (Generation X #42)
Why Gaia is probably actually a Neutrino from TMNT, figure 1. (Generation X #42)
Why Gaia is probably actually a Neutrino from TMNT, figure 2. (Generation X #42)
Hi, Elsie-Dee and Albert! Bye, Elsie-Dee and Albert! (Generation X #42)
I feel like Emma makes that face at Sean a lot. (Generation X #43)
This run may be baffling and bizarre, but I can’t say I’m not having a good time. (Generation X #43)
FUN FACT: Did you know that 1996’s Super Mario RPG was the first time Princess Peach, then called Princess Toadstool, used a frying pan as a weapon? (Generation X #43)
Oh right, these guys. (Generation X #43)
NEXT EPISODE: Queering Wolverine with Dr. Christopher Michael Roman!
Run, Penance! The retcons are coming for you! (Generation X #40)
In which the St. Croix family is constructed largely of retcons; Generation X adjusts surprisingly quickly to a massive status quo shift; Psi-War is coming soon to a podcast near you; Snow White – I mean, Bianca LaNeige – has an intriguing but exceptionally minimal backstory; and if you die in this podcast episode, you die in real life.
X-PLAINED:
Hellfire Club history
Generation X #40-43
MillXnials
Mercy General Hospital vs Our Mother of Mercy Hospital
Ambiguous psionic overlap
Nicole & Claudette & Monet & Marius St. Croix
The Downtown Stomp
Synch, agreeable and bland (for now)
Vincent Adultman
The nature of Penance
A glacial but effective pace
Bianca LaNeige, evil Snow White from space
Warpy, Stinky, Spiky, Windy, Greasy, Brainy, and Blurry
The Enchanted Forest of Oregon
Claremont:Body Swaps::Hama:Getting Stuck In Other Dimensions
Jay vs. Accents
Terminal Dream Syndrome
A surprisingly gruesome fill-in
An underrated era for Emma Frost
Betty & Veronica, presenting like mandrills
Zak the Neutrino
Albert & Elsie-Dee (briefly)
The Dodsons vs Mike Allred
Dr. Bronner’s uncredited Marvel career
Our coverage of Ultimate X-Men (or lack thereof)
Dr. Phil Zimbardo’s xplainthexmen study
NEXT EPISODE: Queering Wolverine with Dr. Christopher Michael Roman!
Check out the visual companion to this episode on our blog!
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!
This is the branch of S.H.I.E.L.D. that shows up to assure you that all you saw was a weather balloon. (X-Force #77)
I’m never gonna be able to see a superhero conversation on a swingset without thinking of the Justice League Unlimited episode “Epilogue.” (X-Force #77)
In which S.H.I.E.L.D. agents are scarier in suits; Reignfire is the new Erik the Red; “background assets” would be a very funny euphemism; it’s always either time travel or clones; and you should probably not get a corporate logo tattooed on the side of your head.
X-PLAINED:
Crimes of Dark Beast
X-Force #77-80
The Mutant Liberation Front
Reignfire (repeatedly)
Video Renaissance
Almost Reno, NM
The inversion of several common tropes
Small towns
Different kinds of mutants
X-Force Fun Facts
Skids (Sally Blevins)
Several continuity errors
Some kidnappings
Sexiness without prurience
Background assets
Dr. Joshua (again)
(Henry Wallinger)
Psychic shenanigans
Las Vegas
Word-balloon disambiguation
X-Force’s new HQ
Historical X-Men we’d like to see
NEXT EPISODE: Generation X and the Seven Dwarves
Check out the visual companion to this episode on our blog!
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!
In which you, too, can use Cerebro; Jubilee is here, for some reason; the Xavier School should absolutely not be accredited; Hulk Hands would solve many of Rogue’s problems; Sauron gets a gun; Psylocke pulls a Lois Lane maneuver; you really shouldn’t spring a Phoenix costume on anybody; Joseph has (another) identity crisis; and Canada has problems.
X-PLAINED:
Miles at SDCC
Uncanny X-Men #353-355
X-Men #73
A running motif
Wolverine’s sons
Margaret Stone
“fun”
The location of the original X-jet
A red herring
Sauron (more) (again)
Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy… in space!
How to ship a pterodactyl
Mighty appendages
The Agee Institute
Boundaries
Wallpaper
Joseph (more) (again)
New Year’s Resolutions
Sebastian Shaw and his wraith buddy (again)
The X-Men’s answering machine
What Wolverine does
Alpha Flight
Canada problems
A crossover
Phoenix problems
Jean Grey’s ‘90s costume
Found families
What makes the Dark Phoenix Saga an X-Men story
NEXT EPISODE: Reignfire, resolved!
Check out the visual companion to this episode on our blog!
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!
In which we are incapable of X-Plaining the Great Lakes Avengers; Pete Wisdom evolves; Douglock hacks the island; Nightcrawler cosplays Nightcrawler; and we find ourselves bafflingly defensive of the Bamfs.
X-PLAINED:
How to recruit Unus the Untouchable to your super-team
What Excalibur has been up to
Excalibur #118-120
An excellent use of danger room technology
Some fairly deft metacommentary
Colossus vs. another tree
Bamfs and the character assassination thereof
Nightmare
Characterization via lettering
Several nightmare scenarios
Pete Wisdom vs. Nightmare
Meggan’s true form (again)
A poorly conceived romantic gesture
Foreshadowing
Relative Bamf quality
Other Marvel villains we’d like to see menace the X-Men
Our thoughts on Legion and The Gifted
NEXT EPISODE: A pterodactyl with a gun!
Check out the visual companion to this episode on our blog.
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!
