Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men

5 – The Retcon That Walks Like a Man

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In which the Bronze Age begins; Dave Cockrum is your god now; the band gets together; Sunfire joins the team; cultural sensitivity is not Marvel’s strong suit; Sunfire quits the team; it sucks to be Cyclops; Professor X crosses a moral event horizon; Sunfire joins the team; Ed Brubaker channels Thomas Hardy; you are probably a Summers brother; and Sunfire quits the team.

X-Plained:

  • Bamf-Voltron Nightcrawler
  • Giant-Size X-Men #1
  • The worst hat of the Marvel Universe
  • The Mostly-New, Mostly-Different X-Men
  • A business-casual angry mob
  • The limits of creative good intentions
  • Tractor punching on the Ust-Ordynski Collective
  • The correct spelling of “fine”
  • Canada
  • Sunfire’s utter disdain for everything, including you
  • Krakoa: The Island That Walks Like a Man!
  • Characteristics of good X-fights
  • Yet another miracle of magnetism
  • X-Men: Deadly Genesis
  • Summers Family Continuity (Introductory)
  • More hats
  • The Muir-MacTaggert Research Facility
  • Summers Family Continuity (Intermediate)
  • The Charles Xavier Scale of Supervillainy
  • Relative immunity
  • Wolverine’s ubiquity

AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION:

  • What would you do with thirteen X-Men?
  • Help us find all-ages-friendly Marvel Girl stories!

You can find a visual companion to the episode – and links to recommended reading – on our blog.

Find us on iTunes or Stitcher!

As Mentioned on Episode 4 – American History X-Men

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The Steve Rude covers are the hands-down best part of X-Men: Children of the Atom.
Seriously. This is off the rails. Steve Rude, man.
X-Men: Children of the Atom really, really, really wants to be the Dark Knight Returns of X-Men. It’s not.
X-Men: Children of the Atom tries so hard to make Fred Duncan a noir protagonist. (Hint: nope.)
Bear in mind that Children of the Atom came out in 1999, and is nominally set in the same year.
Oh, hi, guys. (Children of the Atom)
Charles Xavier: the worst ever, forever. (Children of the Atom)
I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU HIRED HITLER! (Children of the Atom)
After the Rave-Up, they’re going to go do some crimes, like go get sushi and not pay. (Children of the Atom)
Deep stealth Hank McCoy. (Children of the Atom)
Hank dabbles briefly in victim blaming. (Children of the Atom)
Jack “Tricky Dick” Winters. (Children of the Atom)
Well, yes–that’s sort of the problem. (Children of the Atom)
Magneto chews the scenery and regurgitates it into your brain like you are a baby bird of villainy and he is your mother and I think this metaphor kind of got away from me. (Children of the Atom)
Okay, that’s pretty cool: the opening narration of X-Men #1 closes Children of the Atom.
X-Men: First Class, but not THAT X-Men First Class.
Take THAT, Silver-Age gender politics! (X-Men: First Class)
Even the least creepy version of Professor X is still pretty creepy. (X-Men: First Class)
Aw, these dudes. (X-Men: First Class)
Cyclops #1–a one-shot that’s part of the First Class continuity, in which Cyclops actually has a good day.
For more fun, low-angst X-Men in the spirit of First Class, we recommend the hell out of this X-Men / Power Pack miniseries.
How much do we love X-Men: Season One? SO MUCH.
Jean Grey: Now available with a point of view and distinct personality! (X-Men: Season One)
We also appreciate that X-Men: Season One understands the importance of X-Plaining the X-Men.
This comic book, y’all. (X-Men: Season One)
Iceman: chronically under-appreciated, chronically awesome. X-Men: Season One
Most of all, X-Men: Season One is about a bunch of screwed up teenagers figuring out how to be a team. It’s a really neat book.
No one draws shifty faces like Jamie McKelvie. (X-Men: Season One)
Bobby invents Dance Pants in 2019. Don’t tell him. He needs to stumble on it himself.
Rachel and Miles X-Plain the X-Men t-shirts: Now available! (Stickers, too.)
We Are Comics is a campaign to show—and celebrate—the faces of our community, our industry, and our culture; to promote the visibility of marginalized members of our population; and to stand in solidarity against harassment and abuse. See our full post here.
Next week on Rachel and Miles X-Plain the X-Men!

Links and further reading:

The X-Axis Silver Age X-Men Index (archived)

Marvels

X-Men: Children of the Atom

X-Men: First Class

X-Men: Season One

We Are Comics

Redbubble Shop

4 – American History X-Men

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In which Rachel finally gets to say “WHAT?!,” we examine three variations on the Silver Age, Twin Peaks is reality TV, we can’t believe you hired Hitler, Angel is not Batman, even the most sympathetic Xavier is still pretty creepy, Cyclops has a good day, Marvel Girl is not going to throw a dinosaur for you, Iceman is the Troy Barnes of the X-Men, and we say a fond farewell to the Silver Age.

X-Plained:

  • The X-Axis
  • X-Men: Children of the Atom
  • Hard-sell noir
  • How to party like it’s sometime between 1986 and 1991, as filtered through 1999
  • The perils of over-referencing
  • Why Marvel is in the Tommy Westphall Universe
  • The worst guidance counselor ever
  • Villain speeches
  • X-Men: First Class (but not that one)
  • Fun, and several places to find it
  • Angst-free X-Men
  • Gender politics of superheroism
  • X-Men: Season One
  • Teenagers
  • The solution to the Silver-Age-Jean Grey problem
  • Why Iceman matters
  • The Silver Age cram book

You can find a visual companion to the episode – and links to recommended reading – on our blog.

Find us on iTunes or Stitcher!

We Are Comics

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R_M_wearecomics

We are Miles Stokes and Rachel Edidin, and we are comics. We’re industry professionals and long-term fans; and we host the podcast Rachel and Miles X-Plain the X-Men.

Almost 19 years ago, in junior high, we tentatively made friends through the language of borrowed books and the common belief that the stories we care passionately about are only made richer by sharing them. We were both alienated, screwed-up kids who looked at comics and found points of identification, sources of hope–and each other. Decades later, we still do.

We believe that comics are for everyone. And we want to see an industry, community, and critical media that reflects that value.

(We Are Comics is a campaign to show—and celebrate—the faces of our community, our industry, and our culture;  to promote the visibility of marginalized members of our population; and to stand in solidarity against harassment and abuse. See Rachel’s solo post here, and submit yours here, or hashtag it “i am comics” on your own tumblr.)

You Sent Us Art!

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You sent us more art! YOU ARE AWESOME!

From Nick Johnson, care of Andrew Foley, a new Magnetostache that wins a (web-exclusive!) M&R No Prize for also explaining the streamlining of Magneto’s helmet:

Magetostash001

And from David Wynne, who’s well on the way to becoming the unofficial illustrator of this podcast, here’s 90s-animated-series Cyclops gearing up for a good day:

wynne_happycyclops

Speaking of Cyclops, Alex Pappademas has written a really fantastic defense of the character over at Grantland, which we highly recommend checking out.

This week, we’re going to be wrapping up our Silver Age coverage with a look at some alternate takes on the era–so, as always, if you’ve got questions, drop ’em in the comments below or our tumblr ask-box, or tweet ’em to @RaeBeta with the hashtag #xplainthexmen!

Rachel and Miles X-Plain the X-Men AND Cover Your Torso

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After Episode 2, we couldn’t get this image out of our head–so we hired designer and all-around rad dude Dylan Todd to make it a reality, then slapped it on some t-shirts and stickers at our TeePublic shop!

magnetoshirt

 

 

And if you’re pining to flag our team colors, we’ve also got Ming Doyle’s sweet X-Men #137 homage pinup, likewise available as a t-shirt or sticker:

pinupshirt

 

Go buy some stuff!

As Mentioned in Episode 3 – Cartoons, Lies, and Video Tape

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Listen to the podcast here!

The X-Men as they appear in the 90s cartoon opening sequence.
We really just never get tired of Cyclops blowing up robots.
Mr. Sinister is here for your logical causality and possibly also your glam rock!
Creepy Gambit would like you to buy a comic book in which he is probably even creepier in that than in the cartoon it’s based on.
Bruce Timm’s love letter to Broadcast Standards & Practices.
Mojo gets meta.
The first-season lineup of X-Men: Evolution.
X-23 is not pleased with your Harley Quinn comparisons.
In 1989, Dwayne McDuffie sent this pitch to Marvel to make a point about some trends pervasive among their black characters.
Ten years after McDuffie’s letter, Marvel introduced Spyke in X-Men: Evolution: A black kid on a skateboard, who is related to the only other black character on the show.
Nothing you tell us will convince us that Lin-Z from Jem and the Holograms is not secretly Dazzler.
Wolverine and the X-Men was a damn fine show, and the fact that it only ran for one season should be a crime with actual, legal repercussions.
Remember that time X-Men: Evolution did a straight-up homage to girl-gang movies? (S2E10, “Walk on the Wild Side”)
Beast sports a Howard the Duck t-shirt to visit Jean Grey in the hospital…
…but testifies before the Senate in briefs. He’s a complex dude.
Jean Grey’s Jim Lee-designed costume is not our favorite.
This is Morph as he appears in the 90s X-Men cartoon. Don’t get too attached.
In the podcast, Rachel said Morph made his comics debut in Exiles, totally forgetting that he’d previously appeared in Age of Apocalypse. Sorry!

We didn’t actually mention this, but you should probably watch it anyway:

For more Chris Sims, check out:

Chris’s X-Men episode guides at Comics Alliance

War Rocket Ajax

Movie Fighters Kickstarter

For more on X-Men, X-Men Evolution, and Wolverine and the X-Men, check out:

X-Men (90s series) on Toonzone

X-Men Evolution on Toonzone

Wolverine and the X-Men on Toonzone

 

3 – Cartoons, Lies, and Video Tape

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Featuring Emergency Backup Co-Host Chris Sims!

In which Rachel and Chris X-plain three cartoons and track a disagreement to its source; Gambit is definitely the worst person you know; Broadcasting Standards and Practices is tired of your death ceremonies; Storm doesn’t have an inside voice; and we finally get around to mentioning that one dude with the claws.

X-Plained:

  • Weaponized creepiness
  • The evolution (and Evolution) of X-Toons
  • Why you hate Cyclops (and Rachel doesn’t)
  • Adaptation overload
  • Broadcast standards, practices, and laser rifles
  • How to order pizza like a weather goddess
  • A paramilitary after-school club
  • G-Rated Wolverine
  • Comics based on cartoons based on comics
  • Morph
  • The Batman Standard
  • The Wolverine and the X-Men trifecta of perfection
  • Why the Mojoverse works better on TV
  • Dazzler’s secret second job
  • Basic jacketry

CORRECTION: In this episode, Rachel mentions that Morph’s first comics appearance is in Exiles. It’s not: he’s in Age of Apocalypse. Mea culpa.

You can find a visual companion to the episode – and links to recommended reading – on our blog.

Find us on iTunes or Stitcher!

The Many Mustaches of Magneto / Ask Rachel and Chris

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Wow. Wow. You wonderful weirdos. Last week, we bemoaned Silver-Age Magneto’s lack of a properly villainous mustache, and you have filled that void with distilled awesomeness. Click through for the many miraculous mustaches of the master of magnetism…

David Wynne also drew the kickass Lazerwolf we posted last week.
We’ve already posted Tyler Crook‘s novel(ty) solution to Magneto’s naked upper lip, but we love it enough that we’re posting it again. Deal with it.
Ma’at Crook explores two iconic stache styles, complete with a bonus era-appropriate plaid suit!
Vid Tuesday complements his Magnetostache with some splendid Silver-Age-style patter.

This week, Miles is off at C2E2. He’ll be working at the Dark Horse Comics booth all weekend, so if you’re there, swing by for a high five.

Meanwhile, Rachel will be holding down the fort with Emergency Backup Cohost Chris Sims, X-Plaining some of the (numerous and often terrible) X-Men animated series. If you have questions for Rachel and Chris, please stick ’em in the comments here or our tumblr ask box, or tweet ’em to @RaeBeta, with the hashtag #xplainthexmen!