Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men

Tag: kurt wagner

416 – The Screaming Room

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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!

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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!

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As Mentioned in Episode 405 – Morally Purple

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So, that’s a thing. (Cable #-1)
Honestly, I kinda wish Cable had sported this look for longer. (Cable #-1)
THE BOW TIE (Cable #-1)
Cable’s future may be kind of dystopian, but it’s also rad as hell. (Cable #-1)
Damn, bro. (Cable #-1)
On one hand, yes, he’s very dashing. On the other hand, they are definitely foster siblings. (Excalibur #-1)
Hey, we know that guy! (Excalibur #-1)
This is Sabu. Don’t get attached. (Excalibur #-1)
Harry Leland knows how to dress to impress. (Generation X #-1)
I know it’s a byproduct of the foreshortening plus slightly murky colors, but from at least one angle, it looks like Hank has a human-skin rug. (Generation X #-1)
And then they never talked to or mentioned each other again. (Generation X #-1)
Rachel’s cloak is SO GOOD. (Uncanny X-Men #-1)
this genocidal disco motherfucker (Uncanny X-Men #-1)
Tanya, NO. (Uncanny X-Men #-1)
NEXT EPISODE: More flashbacks!

LINKS & FURTHER BACKSTORY

405 – Morally Purple

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In which Jay returns; babies are bad at pretty much everything; continuity flies straight out the window; Cable should speak English with a Scottish accent; Harry Leland knows how to dress; Tanya Trask makes the same time travel mistake everyone makes; and we love Al Kennedy forever.

X-PLAINED:

  • Sentry (but not that one)
  • Babies
  • Flashback
  • Cable #-1
  • Excalibur #-1
  • Generation X #-1
  • Uncanny X-Men #-1
  • The preturn of Angus McWhirter, angry hovercraft-rental guy
  • Hippie Cable
  • Veins of science
  • Yet another time travel loop
  • What may or may not be how Nightcrawler quit the circus
  • Sabu
  • “Science”
  • A large volume of dubious continuity
  • Larry Trask (more) (again)
  • Jay’s cosplay aspirations
  • Sanctity (Tanya Trask)
  • The Twelve (somewhat)
  • A possible splinter timeline
  • The X-Men of 1602
  • Rube Goldberg

NEXT EPISODE: Flashback continues!

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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!

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As Mentioned in Episode 402 – What the Damn?!

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Shadowcat, Douglock, and… Hard-Boiled Harry?! (Excalibur #114)
Sari St. Hubbins, Fashion Plate: Part 1. (Excalibur #114)
Colossus would have bought a hat too, but then where would he keep all that hair? (Excalibur #114)
Captain Mustache, Part the First. (Excalibur #114)
I’m a firestarter, twisted firestarter (Excalibur #114)
Katherine Pryde, experienced superhero. (Excalibur #114)
Sari St. Hubbins, Fashion Plate: Part 2. (Excalibur #114)
Captain Mustache, Part the Second. (Excalibur #115)
Banshee is so muscly! And his cape is so foldy! (Excalibur #115)
Mel Rubi’s Douglock. (Excalibur #115)
Miles’s average day in IT looks pretty much like this. (Excalibur #115)
“Plus some Externals, but… I don’t think any of us really want to spent the time to talk about them.” (Excalibur #115)
He is so sweet. (Excalibur #115)
“Freakin’ last boss of Ninja Gaiden sends me all the way back to the beginning of the level even when I still have lives left..!” (Excalibur #115)
When Meggan’s happy, I’m happy. (Excalibur #115)
Aww jeez you two (Excalibur #115)
It’s been an honor, Shepherd. (Excalibur #115)
Check out that sweet shadow-invisible hand! (Excalibur #116)
Mel Rubi does Paul Smith. (Excalibur #116)
Where did that costume end up? You should break it out again, Captain Kate! (Excalibur #116)
So that mutagenic agent made the Sidri… swole? (Excalibur #116)
“It’s-a-me, Stereotype!” (Excalibur #116)
Pete Wisdom in: Terminator 2. (Excalibur #116)
Triple-wielding! (Excalibur #116)
Additional swordplay – this time, in callback form! (Excalibur #116)
They pulled his collectivism out through his belly button..? (Excalibur #116)
Hey, that’s not what Kitty wears in her SHIELD miniseries! Kinda wish it was, though. (Excalibur #116)
NEXT EPISODE: Kitty Pryde goes to work for The Man

402 – What the Damn?!

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Captain Mustache, Part the Second. (Excalibur #115)

In which Marvel UK was a wild ride; everyone has a definitive Kitty Pryde; Sari St. Hubbins studies her X-Men; Moira MacTaggert discovers contagion theory; ideas do not stories make; Meggan is the heart of the team; and Excalibur inches towards its finale.

X-PLAINED:
  • Marvel UK
  • Digitek
  • Excalibur #114-117
  • What Excalibur’s been up to
  • Tunnels vs. sewers
  • An unexpected callback
  • Slang
  • The mutability of Kitty Pryde
  • Friendship
  • Sari St. Hubbins
  • Fashion
  • One way to get around a power inhibitor
  • A frosted tips outline
  • Viruses
  • Phalanx love
  • Greebling
  • A substantial retcon
  • Excalibur vs. the Sidri
  • Marvel characters’ musical associations
  • Whether there have been more X-Men or Avengers
NEXT EPISODE: Kitty Pryde goes to work for The Man

Check out the visual companion to this episode on our blog!

Find us on iTunes or Stitcher!

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!

Buy rad swag at our TeePublic shop!

As Mentioned in Episode 387 – You’ve Got Vid-Mail

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Art by David Wynne. Wanna buy the original? Drop him a line!
Colossus is a good friend and will call you on your bullshit. (Excalibur #111)
Rory Campbell, now with two legs and excessive foreshortening. (Excalibur #111)
I hate this party. (Excalibur #111)
Daaaaaamn, Kurt. (Excalibur #111)
Welcome to the CITADEL OF SCIENCE! (Excalibur #112)
Now we are bros. (Excalibur #113)
Meet the Knights of Wundagore! They are delightful. (Excalibur #113)
NEVER LET THIS MAN BABYSIT YOUR CHILD (Excalibur #113)
Doug, no. Letterer, NO. (Excalibur #112)
Moira’s hair got LONG. (Excalibur #113)
AW! (Excalibur #113)
They just don’t make dens of sin and iniquity like they used to. (Excalibur #112)
Je suis un chic type / Qui joue la guitare. (Excalibur #113)
Shades of Transmetropolitan.(Excalibur #113)
NEXT EPISODE: Shang-Chi!

LINKS & FURTHER MISUNDERSTANDINGS:

387 – You’ve Got Vid-Mail

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

In which Colossus is good at friendship; nobody notices when Amanda Sefton disappears; evil peaked in the disco era; and Pete Wisdom had hot claws before it was cool.

X-PLAINED:

  • Fun times on Mount Wundagore
  • Excalibur #111-113
  • Rob Stotz
  • Brooding
  • Friendship
  • Rory Campbell (again)
  • The return of Sebastian Shaw
  • MIS departments
  • Two versions of the same conversation
  • A palette-swapped wardrobe
  • Invincible Head Technique
  • A polite murderer
  • Ogun, again
  • A brief possession
  • Mount Wundagore
  • Bova
  • Sir Ram
  • Ursula
  • Lord Gator
  • The Knights of Wundagore
  • Ace Duck
  • The High Evolutionary
  • Artistic turnover
  • A kiss
  • Were-girlfriends
  • A sin-filled and disreputable club
  • “Je Suis Rick Springfield”
  • Storylines we’d like to see from bystanders’ perspectives
  • Professor X’s crush on Marvel Girl

NEXT EPISODE: Shang-Chi!

Check out the visual companion to this episode on our blog.

Find us on iTunes or Stitcher!

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!

Buy rad swag at our TeePublic shop!

As Mentioned in Episode 382 – Seven Swords

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Art by David Wynne. Wanna buy the original? Drop him a line!
TECHNOLOGY! Large men putting screwdrivers into things, turning them, and adjusting them! (Excalibur #107)
Nobody trusts Spiral. (Excalibur #107)
Meet the Dragons of the Crimson Dawn! (Excalibur #107)
Do you ship it? We kinda ship it. (Excalibur #108)
The part of Marvel Editorial will be played by Daytripper in this sequence. (Excalibur #108)
Built your own atom storage box! (Excalibur #109)
That’s a lot of swords! (Excalibur #109)
Xiandu X-Plains the Dragons of the Crimson Dawn. (Excalibur #110)
I don’t know what makes this panel so funny, but it really is. (Excalibur #110)
NEXT WEEK: Hawk Talk
NEXT EPISODE: More Crimson Dawn

LINKS & FURTHER BACKSTORY

 

382 – Seven Swords

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

In which Brian Braddock has grown as a person; we remain unimpressed by the Crimson Dawn; Marvel discovers email; seven swords to two people is a pretty good ratio; everyone hates Spiral; and love may or may not save the world.

X-PLAINED:

  • Where Brian Braddock is these days
  • Excalibur #107-110
  • Post-Onslaught fallout
  • Excalibur (more) (again)
  • The difference an inker makes
  • Nigel McWhirter
  • A trip to London
  • Spiral (again)
  • Engineering outfits? I guess?
  • A machine which would be Cerebro
  • Several flashbacks
  • The most meta bike shorts
  • Time-travel safety
  • Forgotten characters who turned out to be secretly evil
  • A character moment that may actually be an art error
  • Shamrock (Molly Fitzgerald)
  • Email
  • The Dragons of the Crimson Dawn
  • A ghost
  • X-folks who knit
  • Best X-guest star moments

NEXT WEEK: Hawk Talk

NEXT EPISODE: Yet more Crimson Dawn

Check out the visual companion to this episode on our blog.

Find us on iTunes or Stitcher!

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!

Buy rad swag at our TeePublic shop!

As Mentioned in Episode 371 – Beware of Psychodrama

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Before settling on paint and canvas, Piotr Rasputin’s first medium was the thought balloon. (Excalibur #104)
Douglock tries. (Excalibur #104)
Moira, I know a lot of us have been working from home for a while now, but you may have overdone the whole home-office thing just a tad. (Excalibur #104)
Douglock is so much less mean than Mystique usually is when angrily shapeshifting! (Excalibur #104)
LOOK SHE’S IN THE SHADOWS SHE COULD BE ANYONE OKAY (Excalibur #104)
Also, Dani never did that back in the day. (Excalibur #104)
Oh, Kitty. (Excalibur #104)
Pretty sure this cover was printed on black velvet. (Excalibur #105)
Bryan Hitch may be the first artist to make Wildside look genuinely intimidating. (Excalibur #105)
Kitty, those aren’t image inducers, they’re jackets, and you’re wearing one too. (Excalibur #105)
Sound effect as narrative tool. (Excalibur #105)
Kitty gave an emotional and heartfelt speech without using the N-word! (Excalibur #105)
Piotr Rasputin is the firestarter. Twisted firestarter. (Excalibur #106)
But seriously, this is one of the most visually engaging pages of backstory I’ve ever read. (Excalibur #106)
Meggan Puceanu, Actual Elf. (Excalibur #106)
Hey, it’s Frenzy! We love Frenzy! (Excalibur #106)
Jay is not okay with your thought-bubble-versus-computer-display redundancy, Moira. (Excalibur #106)
Excalibur, the comic where everyone is sexy all the time. (Excalibur #106)
Piotr, I think you put your pants on the wrong… you know what, you go, Russian cowboy. Now where did I put those singles… (Excalibur #106)
Metaphor by way of landmine. (Excalibur #106)
“And we’re going to ride bikes with Magneto and he’s going to take us to France!” (Excalibur #106)
NEXT TIME: No one rides bikes.

LINKS & FURTHER MISADVENTURES

  • We allude frequently to Warlock piloting around Doug’s corpse, which story we covered in Episode 91 – The Saddest Story Ever Told.