In which we sit down with two of our favorite X-artists for an hour of continuity, character design, and a lot of wine; Corsair is the coolest; Emma Frost is a secret viewpoint character; Bishop is the anti-Booster Gold; Adam X the X-Treme gets a new hat; and none of us know how to pronounce “Bachalo.”
X-Plained:
The secret X-origins of Kris Anka and Russell Dauterman
Definitive books and artists
Favorite characters and series
Mephistoid spacesuit logistics
Emma Frost as a reader stand-in
The secret origin of Psylocke’s pants
Uncanny X-Men
The best flashback montage ever
Underappreciated / underdeveloped characters
All the Rogues
Plot twists
Bishop
Dream teams
Sexy dudes with sexy abs
How to update Adam X the X-Treme
Next Week: What’s New, Shadowcat?
You can find a visual companion to the episode – and links to recommended reading – on our blog.
Tweet it at @xplainthexmen, or hashtag it #xplainthexmen on Twitter.
Why haven’t you answered my question yet?
When we get a question–an X-Plaining question, we mean, not, say, an immediate logistical question–we drop it into a massive spreadsheet, from which we then pull questions for the podcast. As of this FAQ, that spreadsheet contains over 300 questions, of which we have so far explicitly answered around 70 (and covered about that many others within the bodies of episodes).
We usually answer 2-3 questions every episode. Here are some of the factors that go into why we do or don’t pick any given questions for any given episode:
Relevance: We try to pick questions that connect–at least tangentially–to what we’re covering in that episode.
Novelty: If we’ve covered a question already–either explicitly, or in the body of an episode–we probably won’t revisit it. We’re working on an index of questions we’ve answered in previous episodes; when it’s up, we’ll update this FAQ to reflect that.
Tone: Are you being a dick? Are you trying to bait us into bad-mouthing creators or other members of our community, or asking something super personal? We are not into that. Is your question a statement of fact or opinion–or a long diatribe–followed by the word “right”? We are also not into that.
Utility: If your question can be answered with a simple Google search, we will probably not answer it on the podcast.
Scope: We are good at doing research and entertainingly justifying our opinions. We prefer not to speculate on other people’s private lives and personal motivations, and we don’t have a secret channel to creators’ intentions or the “real” truth about things that have been written inconsistently in canon. If your question is about one of those things, we will probably not answer it.
Channels: Did you send the question to the podcast contact form, e-mail it to the podcast address put it in our blog comments, ask through the rachelandmiles Tumblr askbox, or tweet to @XplaintheXMen? If not, your question has fallen down the Memory Hole, to be feasted upon by the Memory Eels who dwell therein.
THAT SAID:
There is one and only one way to make absolutely sure we answer your question: a few of our Patreon subscriber levels include a certain number of bespoke answers, which we will hand write, seal with wax, and mail to you in the dead of night. You can find out more about those here.
Why didn’t you publish / why did you delete my comment?
We are super lucky: most of our listeners–at least the ones who comment here–are rad as hell and make the job of moderating the comments incredibly easy. However, sometimes we come across a comment that we would rather not have on our site. Here are some examples of comments we have removed:
Accidental double-posts. These account for the overwhelming majority of the deletion we have done thus far.
Posts that contain no content or obviously posted mid-typing.
Promotional links that have no bearing on the post you’re commenting on or the conversation you’re entering. Our comments section is not free ad space.
Speculation about creators’ personal lives.
Speculation about our personal lives.
Comments about Rachel’s appearance and/or requests that she smile more, take off her sunglasses, &c. (The same would apply to comments about Miles; we just haven’t gotten any).
Rape jokes or things that are so close to being rape jokes that the line is essentially academic.
What else might get a comment deleted?
Off the top of our heads?
Threats or incitement to violence of any sort directed at real people.
Blatantly sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic, ableist, or otherwise bigoted language.
Blatant derailing.
Outing anyone else’s personal information, including real names.
Use of sock puppets.
NSFW content, or links to NSFW content without warnings.
Blatant spoilers for current or very recent media.
Gratuitous meanness.
Note, however, that these aren’t hard guidelines, nor a comprehensive list. We reserve the right to remove or edit comments according to our judgment (Incidentally: if we alter the text of a comment, we’ll *always* make a note of that within the comment).
I found an e-mail address for Rachel on her professional website / via an article she wrote. Can I send my podcast question there?
You can, but it’ll go straight to the Memory Eels. Seriously, there are like six ways to send a question to the podcast. Use one of those.
Why haven’t you answered my e-mail yet?
We get a lot of e-mail. If it’s something super time-sensitive, please nudge us.
Photo courtesy of Bobby Roberts. Used with permission.
Our producer, Bobby Roberts, is fucking awesome. Long ago, when we first moved to Portland, he was half of the only local DJ team we have ever not only voluntarily listened to but actively sought out. These days, Bobby is the warm, beating heart of local geek culture, and somehow manages to be both the coolest and the nicest person we know.
You know that Bobby is awesome, because you’ve been complimenting his work for months now. He’s the man behind the curtain: the guy who takes the podcast from a couple jerks rambling about funnybooks to a pretty tight, professional-sounding show.
Since week one, you’ve been asking us for more info about the production-and-editing end of things, so this week, Rachel sat down with Bobby to learn his dark eldritch secrets. Read on for production tips, mic talk, favorite X-Men, and more; then go binge-listen to Welcome to That Whole Thing, which is, frankly, way better than what we do here.
In which Chris Claremont defines the X-Universe; Sunfire quits the team (again); Nightcrawler is the best; the narrator is nobody’s friend; Colossus is a good kid; Cyclops has a long series of bad days; everyone is a bondage Viking; Rachel is a space pedant, we meet the Phoenix, and Wolverine is the Batman of Marvel.
X-Plained:
Polaris’s kinda-powers
Our first crossover event
How much we love you
Chris Claremont, and why he’s the definitive X-writer
Comics In Focus: Chris Claremont’s X-Men
Why Nightcrawler is the best point-of-view character
The long game
Tom Orzechowski’s dimension-folding lettering skills
Claremontisms
The malicious narrator
Count Nefaria
Sliding-scale ransom
The life, death, and occasional reanimation of Thunderbird
Friendship
The care and feeding of cairns
Erik the Red
Quiet moments
Sentinels and X-Sentinels
Steven Lang
The (first) death and return of Jean Grey
Accents
You can find a visual companion to the episode – and links to recommended reading – on our blog.
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.
Hot damn! We were Matt’s pick of the week on War Rocket Ajax! You should really listen to the whole podcast, because Matt and Chris are awesome, but the really important part–where they say nice things about us–starts at 15:37.
For those of you clicking over from WRA, welcome! You can find an intro to the show here, more on the Rachel and Miles here, and podcast episodes here (as well as on iTunes and Stitcher).
In which we introduce the villains of the Silver Age: Magneto makes some valid points, Mastermind is a Nice Guy of OkCupid, the Scarlet Witch predicts Cat Breading, the Trasks should really have known better, and the Comics Code Authority is down with pterosaurs.
X-Plained:
Common characteristics of enduring X-villains
Mutant identity politics and moral relativism
Context-agnostic Juggernaut flashbacks
An unorthodox approach to anthropology
Cyclops’s greatest diplomatic achievement
Silver-Age haberdashery
An innovative modification to vampire mythology
Cultural assimilation
The propaganda-and-sweater-vest machine
Hex bolts
Supplemental reading
You can find a visual companion to the episode – and links to recommended reading – on our blog.
Meanwhile, we’re gearing up for our second episode. If you’ve got an X-question–especially iconic villains of the Silver Age–drop it in the comments below or our tumblr ask-box, or tweet it to @RaeBeta with the hashtag #xplainthexmen!
