Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men
504 episodes - English - Latest episode: 12 days ago - ★★★★★ - 1.6K ratingsBecause It's About Time Someone Did
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Episodes
445 – Dick War
April 08, 2024 02:14 - 49 minutes - 67.5 MBIn which not every story needs to be an event; Alan Davis returns to the X-line; X-mansion security is not what it once was; Rogue needs some new fantasies; and Magneto wants a country.
444 – Damnit, Magnus
April 01, 2024 01:33 - 1 hour - 94.5 MBIn which it’s difficult to flee with soup; Miles may or may not be haunting the X-Men; Colossus collaborates involuntarily; Marrow is full of surprises; Magneto is a dick; Jay continues to carry a torch for Secret Wars: Siege; and you should totally come to our birthday party. X-PLAINED: Several rather pointed allusions X-Force #86 Uncanny X-Men #365 X-Men #85 Almost Reno, NM Where mutants come from The Aguilar Institute (more) (again) Abandoned towns Mary the telepathic m...
A Brief Update
March 24, 2024 17:17 - 10 seconds - 250 KBJay is dealing with an ongoing family medical emergency, so episode releases may be somewhat unpredictable for the next few weeks. Thank you for your patience!
443 – X-Retail (feat. Katie Pryde of Books With Pictures)
March 11, 2024 00:41 - 55 minutes - 75.7 MBIn which we walk down X-Plain Memory Lane; everyone needs Bitch Planet; HoX/PoX wouldn't stay on shelves; we learn how to make sure a comic doesn't get canceled; Marvel should have kept publishing those Krakoa-era anthology TPBs; X-Men is indeed a soap opera; and you can jump in here 'cause we're all confused. X-PLAINED: The most crowded X-year Books With Pictures, official best comics shop in the world Our upcoming 10th birthday party Katie Pryde’s X-history Prioritizing marginal...
442 – MimeQuest 64
March 03, 2024 20:46 - 55 minutes - 76.4 MBIn which Marrow remains a connoisseur of dead rats; Jay has opinions about the NYC Subway system; U.L.T.I.M.A.T.U.M. are snazzy dressers; Doctor Doom gets excited about Onslaught; Magneto can have a rocket pack if he wants; villainous game recognizes villainous game; weird retcons are the best retcons; and you should totally come to our birthday party.
441 – Dracu-tastic
February 26, 2024 03:06 - 52 minutes - 72.1 MBIn which Banshee should eat the rich; the real Monet is way more of a jerk than the fake one; the Marvel Universe is the world inside your brain-case; Maggott joins and quits Generation X at almost the speed of Sunfire; Dracula gives Chamber the D; and if Jay and Miles die in this episode, they die in real life. X-PLAINED: Dracula as a universal standard Earth-441 Generation X #48-49 The missed potential of 13,000-year-old teenager Gaia The Jay Faerber run of Generation X Emma a...
440 – Fightin’ and Ballin’
February 12, 2024 03:58 - 45 minutes - 62.9 MBFrom organic steel to organic... whatever that is. (X-Men #83) In which the Hunt for Xavier remains vaguely disappointing; Gambit is good with kids; nanomachines are the new unstable molecules; Marrow is a walking armory; and we recommend comics for babies. X-PLAINED: The Hunt for Xavier, Part 2 Babies and/or ghosts Chekhov’s repowering X-Men #83-84 Uncanny X-Men #364 Cerebro / Cerebro Prime Cerebrite Alpha Cerebrite Beta X-Men serial numbers What Gambit’s friends call ...
439 – Fishfic
February 04, 2024 20:59 - 52 minutes - 72.4 MBIn which we reach the beginning of an end; Jay totally forgot Gambit was there; we’re all living in the Mary Purcelliverse; the X-Men split the party; and we explore The Bay Area’s Bohemian Hotbed of Student Anarchy. X-PLAINED: Mary Purcell (sort of) The re-defaulting of the X-Men Uncanny X-Men #362-323 X-Men #82 Nebraska Pyro (Saint John Allerdyce) and his endless illness Legacy Virus variations Going home again Running back and forth in quarries Marrow, who’s come a lo...
438 – The Man of Harsh Business
January 29, 2024 00:02 - 58 minutes - 80.7 MBIn which Gambit knows how to make an entrance; Rogue and Gambit only have relationship conversations during superhero fights; Wolverine fights a shark; and we have opinions on how to handle certain aspects of backstory.
437 – Dismember the Titans
January 15, 2024 03:19 - 51 minutes - 71.3 MB"Hot Topic Rennfaire" was a somewhat controversial choice for X-Force's prom theme. (X-Force #85) In which the overlap between Rocky Horror and ‘90s X-Force fans is probably pretty significant; Pandemonia has priorities; the warehouse gets an evil, sexy glowup; swears are great; Johnny Blaze’s motorcycle probably shouldn’t still be on fire; and there is no single definitive X-Men experience. X-PLAINED: Master Pandemonium X-Force #85 X-Force/Champions Annual 1998 What X-Force has be...
436 – The Feel-Good Movie of the Summer
January 08, 2024 00:55 - 53 minutes - 72.9 MBIn which Colossus has had a rough time of it; the X-Men are at their best in bar fights; Bronze-age Wolverine was a jerk; Ursa Major deserves more page space; kids dig Nightcrawler; and we imagine an X-Men newspaper comic strip.
435 – Giant-Size Special #12 (feat. Kieron Gillen)
January 01, 2024 03:27 - 1 hour - 155 MBIllustration by David Wynne In which we have had an eventful year; Longshot is a classic folk hero; writer Kieron Gillen makes a triumphant and mildly terrifying return to the show; and you remain the best listeners of any podcast, ever. X-PLAINED: Our tenth birthday party! 2023 Longshot vol. 2 #1 Longshot as a folkloric archetype Longshot (more) (again) Dismal Nitch, Washington The Thingee Baum, Kansas Corn Betty Barrie, Kansas The Albony Avenue Sanitarium and s...
434 – Return to Cape Citadel
December 18, 2023 03:21 - 1 hour - 84.1 MBIn which the X-Men turn 35; we pause to celebrate the death of Henry Kissinger; Jay is a space nerd; Marrow hang-dries her delicates; space shuttles are not rockets; the band gets back together; and the Danger Room isn’t the first piece of X-tech to get sentience and a robot body. X-PLAINED How Excalibur got a Blackbird Uncanny X-Men #360 X-Men #80 Many callbacks The Benassi Rocket The Cassini Probe The All-New, Slightly Off X-Men The Grey King (Addison Falk) Chaos and/or ...
433 – Looking Back at Looking Back
December 11, 2023 05:16 - 56 minutes - 77 MBIn which we take a retrospective look at X-Factor and Excalibur: where the series began, where they went, and what’s in store after the ends of their first volumes. X-PLAINED: What Rictor’s been up to X-Factor Excalibur NEXT EPISODE: A Corbeau cameo! The visual companion to this episode is scattered through the last eight years of visual companions, mostly under the X-Factor and Excalibur tags. Find us on iTunes or Stitcher! Jay and Miles X-Plain the X-Men is 100% ad-free and list...
432 – Weird Little Adventures
December 04, 2023 02:41 - 53 minutes - 72.8 MBIn which we reach the end of Larry Hama’s run on Generation X; Gaia remains remarkably normal for someone who has spent millennia chained up alone in a citadel; Synch practices radical forgiveness; we ponder the nature of Emma Frost and Sean Cassidy’s relationship; and Forge is extra unqualified to lecture on ethics.
431 – Doctor Jennifer Murder’s Drop-In Deathatorium
November 20, 2023 04:22 - 1 hour - 93.8 MBNo notes. (Generation X Underground Special #1) In which Synch is a more versatile character than he originally got credit for; “eep” and “eek” are likewise underused; space makes everything better; Nate Grey is the proto-himbo; and if you can decipher the secret code in this episode, you, too, can win a Silver Surfer jet ski! X-PLAINED: Diablo Generation X Underground Special X-Men Unlimited #30 X-Man: All Saints Day Jim Mahfood Skin’s video-game preferences Strange superpow...
430 – The Bad Feelings Box
November 13, 2023 01:02 - 53 minutes - 73.9 MBIn which birds have no business in sex dreams; feelings are complicated and allegories are imperfect; Mystique made some valid points; Psycho-Man is good at UI; Callisto was right; and the label “Omega-level mutant” actually kind of makes sense.
429 – Slightly Sticky
November 05, 2023 23:18 - 48 minutes - 67.2 MBDracularmy (X-Men Unlimited #21) In which you should stop hatin’, there’s a big difference between fill-ins and filler, Snow Valley needs higher Ferris wheel standards, Todd DeZago must really hate video rental clerks, and we’re all monsters - some of us just smell better than others. X-PLAINED: Strong Guy’s hellacious history The nature and purpose of X-Men Unlimited X-Men Unlimited #20-21 Rock Trolls (Chambliss, Nettles, and Munson) What Asgard was up to in 1998 Magik vs magi...
428 – Naked in a Cake
October 23, 2023 03:21 - 53 minutes - 73.4 MBLove and chaos. (Excalibur #125) In which you shouldn’t invite nazis to your wedding, there’s a lot of multiverse, Captain Britain and Meggan are pretty heteronormative but make it work, everybody forgot Feron, and the next husband will be Gatecrasher’s. X-PLAINED: Captain Britain varieties The history of Brian Braddock and Meggan Puceanu, abridged Excalibur #124-125 Mutants most likely to jump out of a cake The Crazy Gang (again) Meggan’s crush on Colossus Colossus’s guilt a...
427 – Standard Deviation
October 16, 2023 01:23 - 54 minutes - 74.9 MBIn which we have grown to love Adam Pollina; the Vanisher is delightfully awful; Ekaterina Gryaznova gets a new look; Domino rejoins X-Force; superheroes actually have a conversation instead of fighting; Cannonball rejoins X-Force; we don’t even remember recording this one; and something cool is coming (stay tuned).
426 – A Gift from the Lower Regions
October 09, 2023 02:17 - 59 minutes - 81.7 MBIn which the Shi’ar have zero chill; Bishop and Deathbird do space opera; we travel to the far-future year of 2018; Alanna Nerimani stretches the definition of “bird”; Deathbird is the cool aunt; Bishop needs a break from dark futures; and Bishop and Sauron have an intimate encounter.
425 – Shooting the Moose
September 26, 2023 01:47 - 1 hour - 85.2 MBIn which moose are nothing to mess with; Cyclops requests a reality check; Bachalo does Kirby; Rogue absorbs a catchphrase; and the Shadow King needs a villain song.
424 – Times Change
September 18, 2023 02:28 - 55 minutes - 75.7 MBIn which everything is Havok’s fault; Jay is a bad influence; Polaris makes some valid points; Jamie Madrox is the Bobby Drake of X-Factor; and X-Factor vol. 1 ends with a bang.
423 – Moby Dick Ice Cream
September 11, 2023 01:57 - 51 minutes - 70.7 MBIn which subtlety is not Sabra’s strong point; Moira takes a vacation; Meggan broods; you should take care in referencing the Dark Phoenix Saga; Excalibur may or may not shave Mimic; and Captain Britain is a silly man. X-PLAINED: Ghosts Excalibur #121-123 The Mutant Underground Empathic recon An extremely disgruntled kiss Kitty’s new costume Several of Legion’s personalities A mysterious disk A very fancy trash can and/or ice cream maker Ice cream of Cloud City A good ...
422 – Cairn Touch This
August 28, 2023 02:05 - 1 hour - 82.6 MBIn which the X-Men’s membership is a complicated subject; not all angels know each other; we need to talk about Beast’s Wasp costume; Cecilia Reyes speaks for all reasonable folk; Storm gets a mysterious package; and reading comics day-and-date may not be for everyone.
421 – Dudleyworld or Bust
August 21, 2023 01:10 - 47 minutes - 43.5 MBIn which one letter can make a big difference; it’s just not Arcade without giant pinballs; Colossus is nobody’s fool; Margali Szardos is not a relative you want to stay in touch with; Nightcrawler turns to the jerk side; and Jay and Miles pitch an X-Men kids’ show.
420 – The Legendary House of Wolverine, feat. Christopher Michael Roman
August 14, 2023 01:25 - 47 minutes - 43.9 MBIn 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.
419 – Stuff Happens
July 30, 2023 00:06 - 41 minutes - 38.4 MBRun, 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 Hosp...
418 – Reignfirefighters
July 24, 2023 02:48 - 51 minutes - 47 MBJay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men, Episode 418 - Reignfirefighters: 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.
417 – Pterodactyl with a Gun
July 17, 2023 02:48 - 58 minutes - 53.9 MBIn 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.
416 – The Screaming Room
July 03, 2023 02:29 - 57 minutes - 52.5 MBIn 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.
415 – Stardust
June 26, 2023 02:00 - 48 minutes - 44.6 MBIn which Gambit does Stardust; Wilbur Weston holds no one’s redemption; Gambit is unequivocally bisexual; Lucifer is kinda goofy; and we still don’t know what’s in the box.
414 – Blackwater Boy Band
June 19, 2023 01:47 - 50 minutes - 46.2 MBIn which Wild Child makes an unlikely Santa Claus; Sabretooth champions continuity; Random’s last name should’a been Violence; Forge doesn’t have to like you; and Mackie’s X-Factor run gets interesting—right before its untimely end.
413 – Convergence (feat. Douglas Wolk)
June 05, 2023 01:41 - 1 hour - 57.3 MBIn which X-Force goes to Exploding Colossal Man; Douglas Wolk may or may not have superpowers; Karma gets girlfriends; we are already tired of Reignfire; Meltdown and Sunspot initiate a love triangle; and Jay is writing some more X-Men.
412 – Yappin’ and Scrappin’
May 28, 2023 22:17 - 54 minutes - 49.9 MBIn which Kelly and Seagle's X-runs begin with immense promise; dark psychic residue gets just everywhere; Storm's past is literally buried; Wolverine is just saying is all; Cecilia Reyes's job doesn't deserve her, and Cyclops and Phoenix are the worst at being normal. X-PLAINED: The Grey family reunion X-Men #71-72 What counts as an Uncanny X-Men #138 cover reference Baggage and also suitcases Steve Seagle’s (scuttled) Phoenix plans Bone whiskers Telemarketer power moves Cec...
411 – Tearaway Pants
May 22, 2023 02:27 - 1 hour - 86.2 MBIn which we actually kind of like a Sabretooth story; we’re not asking for viscera, here; all pants on Earth-616 are tearaway pants; we’d like to see more Wolverine stories about bodily autonomy; Gambit’s hallucinations have hallucinations; and there are probably too many X-books.
410 – Jubilee, Don’t Eat That
May 08, 2023 02:01 - 47 minutes - 65.2 MBIn which the M-Plate Saga continues; Jay gets into the spirit of the day; we briefly give up on our primary mission; the story is coordinated if not coherent; Miles is not allowed to continuity-shame about Tolkein; Gaia is extra chill; Dirt Nap discovers altruism; and Jubilee should absolutely not have eaten that.
409 – Lurid Malarkey
May 01, 2023 02:42 - 49 minutes - 68.6 MBIn which nobody is sure what Emplate actually eats; airport food is not a good peace offering; Larry Hama writes a good Jubilee; the St. Croix siblings merge; and we honestly have no idea what a token is.
408 – Yabba Yabba Yabba
April 24, 2023 02:34 - 48 minutes - 66 MBIn which Bishop gets another miniseries; splinter timelines make fun narrative sandboxes; the X.S.E. goes detecting; the Statue of Liberty never fares well in dystopian futures; “Booger” is not a name you give yourself; and we can’t believe it’s taken us this long to make a hanky code joke about Bishop.
HAWK TALK – Independent Comics
April 17, 2023 02:05 - 35 minutes - 49 MBThis would usually be a skip week, but thanks to some generous donors to Equality Florida, Hawk Talk is back! This week: independent comics! X-PLAINED What makes a comic independent Superbutch Little Garden 44 Presidents and a Letter to a Cat Finder Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (again) Elfquest Nexus Prince of Persia Love & Rockets Jim Ottaviani's science comics Wet Moon
407 – Freshening Up
April 10, 2023 03:08 - 48 minutes - 66.4 MBIn which X-Factor bounces from one rock-bottom to another; Sabretooth gets his (murderous) groove back; Dark Beast embraces the iMac aesthetic; the tip was righteous; Mystique multitasks like a pro; and Shard Bishop has come unstuck in time.
406 – The Most Dangerous Mini-Game
April 03, 2023 02:07 - 55 minutes - 75.6 MBIn which we disagree about the value of Stan Lee intros; everybody wants Wolverine; Mister Sinister lurks; Haley Blanding deserves better; Thunderbird fights a tiger; and Xavier and Magneto do their usual thing.
405 – Morally Purple
March 28, 2023 01:24 - 55 minutes - 76.6 MBIn 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.
404 – Marvel UK, Yes?
March 13, 2023 02:19 - 1 hour - 101 MBAnd now for something completely different. (Death's Head II #1) In which Death's Head gets around universes; AIM fails to recognize closed narrative loops; we need more huscarls in comics; time travel occasionally solves the problems it creates; and we bid a fond farewell (for now) to Al Kennedy. X-PLAINED: Death's Head Death's Head II #1-4 Marvel UK Death's Head I Minion Earth-8410 The far future of 2020 Dr. Evelyn Necker How to dress for time travel Reed Richards's m...
403 – Sneaky-Peeky Stuff
March 06, 2023 06:55 - 1 hour - 86.9 MBDid the Astral Plane used to be this cramped? (Kitty Pryde: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. #3) In which Shadowcat gets a new miniseries; people don't talk that way (but probably should); holograms are magic; the Helicarrier gets possessed; Wolverine fights a computer; and Miles and Al pitch live-action X-series. X-PLAINED: Possession Shadowcat (Kitty Pryde) (more) (again) Kitty Pryde: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. #1-3 A surprising helicopter Frictionless bed sheets S.H.I.E.L.D. vs. S.H.I.E.L.D....
402 – What the Damn?!
February 27, 2023 03:12 - 58 minutes - 79.9 MBCaptain 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 S...
401 – True Tales of Double-Entry Bookkeeping
February 13, 2023 06:23 - 1 hour - 88.1 MBAnd now for something completely different. (Generation X Holiday Special #1) In which Santa Claus makes problematic choices; we make good on a promise; Sebastian is the new Deadpool; Skrulls get stuck as animals more than you’d think; Nanny and Orphan-Maker celebrate; and Jubilee stops worrying and learns to love Christmas. X-PLAINED Santa Claus’s flirtations with villainy A new direction for Generation X Larry Hama Al vs. U.S. geography Generation X #32-33 Generation X Holiday ...
400 – Loud Noises
February 06, 2023 04:54 - 1 hour - 99.5 MBArt by David Wynne. Wanna buy the original? Drop him a line! In which legacy numbering is best left alone; all roads lead to the Antarctic; we finally learn Gambit’s big secret; Erik the Red gets yet a third identity; no one soils the Juggernaut; Maggott saves the day; and we have somehow made (technically more than) 400 of these things. X-PLAINED Spat The tragic loss of the Cyber Comics How not to back up your work Uncanny X-Men #350 X-Men #70 A shambles What’s been happening ...
399 – The Cybertronic Spree
January 29, 2023 21:20 - 1 hour - 91.3 MBArt by David Wynne. Wanna buy the original? Drop him a line! In which the X-Force road trip era begins; Team X takes on a new dimension; Dani Moonstar gets her subtext back; pointing out a stereotype doesn’t excuse using it; Tabitha Smith generally deserves better; platypuses are underrepresented in the superhero genre; Hell becomes Stryfe; and Domino gets back in the game. X-PLAINED A dastardly plot X-Men 2099 Road trips X-Force #71-74 Team X A Love & Rockets reference Stan a...
398 – Shanna the Wee Devil
January 16, 2023 03:54 - 1 hour - 93.2 MBArt by David Wynne. Wanna buy the original? Drop him a line! In which the rest of the X-Men return from space; Maggott is the new cool; Gambit's past catches up with him; Chris Bachalo takes over as regular artist on Uncanny X-Men; Deathbird flirts singularly aggressively; Eany and Meany eat a truck; dating a telepathic ninja is going to take some getting used to; and Havok predictably remains ABD. X-PLAINED Motormouth (Harley Davis) Motormouth and Killpower Uncanny X-Men #347-349 ...