Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men

Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men, Episode 530 - Not for Beginners

In which we remain frustrated with Morrison’s Magneto; Esme Cuckoo’s hat game is lacking; and the status quo dies with Jean Grey.

X-PLAINED:

Dubious X-relationships

Some excellent songs from an excellent show

New X-Men #149-150

Various atrocities and catastrophes

The resistance, such as it is

Magneto’s limits

A rebirth

Neutron warheads

The cavalry

Yet another death of Magneto

Yet another death of Jean Grey

A peculiar epilogue

A legacy of retcons

A miasma of bleakness and futility

The Xorn retcon

Disability in “Planet X”

Miracles of Magnetism

NEXT EPISODE: The future!

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Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men, Episode 529 - Magneto Was Wrong

In which many plot threads come together; Charles Xavier is a catastrophically bad listener; you should probably not live in the Marvel Universe; bridges are really important; there’s nothing sexy about dying of heat exhaustion; and we judge Morrison’s Magneto and find him wanting.

X-PLAINED:

What Xorn did after dying

The story so far

New X-Men #146-148

Beast’s typing gloves

Several innovative ways to type loudly

Doomed plans

A manufactured confrontation

A trap

Magneto reimagined

Visual depictions of sweat

“New Genosha”

Death and rebirth

Whether Magneto has a place in New X-Men; and if so, what

A name for an era

NEXT EPISODE: Yet another death of Magneto

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Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men, Episode 528 - Welcome to the Slippery Slope

In which friends don’t let friends drink sparkling wine at the Hellfire Club; Cyclops is a Silent Hill protagonist; Fantomex is a cool dude; John Sublime has his grubby little fingers in everything; and three men do a lot of things to avoid going to therapy.

X-PLAINED:

What happened to the World

Weapon XVI

New X-Men #142-145

Fantomex (more) (again)

The Weapon Plus program

A large number of things men will do instead of going to therapy

How to murder a nice, romantic mood

The Hellfire Club, the rest of the time

Jake Danials Whisky

A drinking contest

The Mysteries of Harris Burdick

The World

Weapon XV

A series of B&Es

Advanced Idea Mechanics (A.I.M.)

Car cops

Weapon XV’s feelings

Weapon Plus’s secret space headquarters

Education at the Xavier School

Gender-swapped superheroes and heirs to superheroes

NEXT EPISODE: Magneto, unmasked!

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Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men, Episode 527 - Whodunnit?

In which Jean Grey crosses several lines; Emma Frost is killed; Bishop and Sage visit from X-Treme X-Men; mutants are weird; the plot thickens; Emma Frost is resurrected; and we learn several secrets of fly reproduction.

X-PLAINED:

The brothers Xorn

A question of reading order

New X-Men #139-141

Cosmic force problems

A showdown

A brief tour through the mind of Emma Frost

A murder most foul

Bishop (briefly) (again)

Sage (briefly) (again)

Many suspects

One way to get drugs, I guess?

A mysterious shack and its mysterious contents

Perils and advantages of being a living computer

A murder weapon

Angel and Beak’s excellent babies

A resurrection

A subtly remarkable taxicab

The advent of mixed-case lettering in Marvel comics

How Angel and Beak’s reproductive cycle corresponds to actual fly reproduction

NEXT EPISODE: Assault on Weapon Plus

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Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men, Episode 526 - Vengeful Mutants on Drugs

In which you should use drugs only with caution; a famous shirt makes its debut; Wolverine is the new Mary Worth; and you were never Quentin Quire’s age (unless you were).

X-PLAINED:

What Quentin Quire’s been up to since discorporating

New X-Men #135-138

The Special Class

Basilisk

Ernst

Dummy

No Girl

Whether the Xavier School should admit human students

Quentin’s new look

Kick (more) (again)

The Omega Gang

That one t-shirt

How to punch up your Power Point presentation

A somewhat fraught camping trip

The Special Class vs. U-Men

A secret

Some kind of weird affair

A riot, of sorts

Wolverine’s unfortunate soul patch

What actually happened to Jumbo Carnation

Telepathic deconstruction

The Cuckoos vs. Emma Frost

A somewhat mysterious secondary mutation

Denouement

The subsequent evolution of Quentin Quire

What’s happening to xplainthexmen.com when the show ends

The telepathy-telekinesis overlap

NEXT EPISODE: Murder!

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Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men, Episode 524 - House in a House

In which Xorn goes out on the town; silverware is morally neutral; Cyclops pursues dubious counsel; the X means ten; and Fantomex is eminently enjoyable.

X-PLAINED:

The parentage of Hope Summers

New X-Men #127-130

Mutant Town

A monster who is not a monster but is, perhaps, a metaphor

X-Corporation Paris

The whole Phoenix situation

Fantomex

Weapon XII

A gene-hazard

Corporal Animal

E.V.A.

The Weapon Plus program (somewhat)

The World (somewhat)

The Shi’ar Empire vs. Earth

Xorn variations

NEXT EPISODE: A Memorial of Magnetism

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Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men, Episode 523 - This World of Liars

In which Wolverine learns to fly; pants are a basic human right; we decide to cherry-pick our Xorn retcons; Xavier’s eyebrows follow his mind; and the first year of New X-Men ends with a bang.

X-PLAINED:

The origin of the Shi’ar Imperial Guard

New X-Men #124-126

The current state of Charles Xavier’s body

G-Type

Neosaurus

Plutonia

Schism

Oracle

Stuf

Gladiator (more) (again)

Angel disambiguation

Several plans

Mutant justice

Several miracles of magnetism

Mummudrai

Horror movie shit

Subtle visual foreshadowing

A ruse

Education

Long-lost family members

What may or may not come after this

NEXT EPISODE: Fantomex!

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Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men, Episode 522 - Fetus Fight

In which Marvel goes wordless; Cassandra Nova breaks space; none of the X-Men have media training; and Gus was the best dog ever.

X-PLAINED:

Erik the Red (more) (again)

Kin Crimson

A big messy bag of mutant glory

New X-Men #121-123

‘Nuff Said

A journey into Charles Xavier’s mind

What Emma is drinking

A fetus fight

The criminal culpability of a fetus

Space problems

A cosplay challenge

Space

Charles Xavier’s weird last wish

A press conference

Teen romance

The Stepford Cuckoos

Gus

Charles Xavier’s age

Nanosentinels

Stuf

Pre-ride safety announcements from the X-Men

Whether Cassandra Nova should’ve been a component of Onslaught

NEXT EPISODE: Cassandra Nova vs. the X-Men (Round 2)!

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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!

Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men, Episode 521 - Snowflakes

In which John Sublime sucks; Angel Salvatore rules; trauma does not justify evil; and you should never, ever, ever mess with Jean Grey.

X-PLAINED:

A horrifying revelation

The universe where Jay and Miles work for Cassandra Nova

New X-Men #118-120

John Sublime (more) (again)

The U-Men

Psychic energy, gender-reveal party-style

The Stepford Cuckoos

One way to disperse a mob

An uncivil conversation

The death and/or discomfort of many U-Men

An awakening of sorts

Squaring the phoenix

Hank McCoy’s “coming out”

NEXT EPISODE: The Shi’ar invade!

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Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men, Episode 520 - Head Like a (Black) Hole

In which several individuals are not what they seem; John Sublime sucks; Cyclops talks Xorn down from a cosmic ledge; we meet the inimitable Beak; and Cassandra Nova makes herself (limitedly) known.

X-PLAINED:

John Sublime

Marvelscope™

New X-Men 2001 Annual

New X-Men #118

Xorn

X-Corporation

The U-Men

Ao Jun (and his super gross mutant power)

Synchronized heists

Psychometry vs. telepathy

A big eventual twist

Beak (Barnell Bohusk)

A kiss

Some really fucked up use of telepathy

Some Moira MacTaggert continuity nonsense

NEXT EPISODE: U-Men vs. X-Men

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In which we start the Morrison Run; Professor X gets his hands on Chekhov’s gun; Cassandra Nova raises X-villains to a new level of weird; and humanity is running on borrowed time.

X-PLAINED:

No-Girl

New X-Men #114-117

Grant Morrison and their approach to the X-Men

Superhero fashion

Cerebra

Beast’s new look

Ugly John

Interpersonal dynamics

Cassandra Nova (somewhat)

Donald Trask

Master Molds

Wild Sentinels

Emma Frost (more) (again)

Negasonic Teenage Warhead (the original)

The fall of Genosha

Secondary mutations

The most strapless bra of all time

The Black Bug Room

Summers problems

Official X-Men and the designation thereof

Wonder Man and mutants

NEXT EPISODE: Beast has a bad day

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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!

Buy rad swag at our Dashery shop!

Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men, Episode 519 - Mapping the X-Gene (feat. Dr. Jey McCreight)

In which Dr. Jey McCreight joins us to discuss all things X-Genetics!

X-PLAINED:

The genetics and taxonomy of Marvel’s merry mutants

NEXT EPISODE: The Morrison run begins!

Follow Dr. Jey on Bluesky, and check out Beyond X and Y!

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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!

Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men, Episode 517 - Sliding Scale Ransom

In which we totally forgot to record a cold open (sorry); a lot of characters die (but not in Earth-616); Vampires may already be in command of America’s atomic arsenal; and we revisit a favorite.

X-PLAINED:

What If vol. 2 #9

What If vol. 2 #24

What If: Magik #1

Rahne Sinclair (moppet stage)

The deaths of the Silver Age and All-New-All-Different X-Men

Fancy television

Sliding-scale ransom

Then Ani-Men, somewhat

The Living LASER, somewhat

An orgy of satiation

Wolverine, Lord of the Vampires

Several highlights of Tarot: Witch of the Black Rose

Vampire nonsense

The Darkhold

The Montessi Formula

Some alligators

August 5

Frank Punisher, Vampire Hunter

What If vol. 2 #37 (briefly)

A kinder alternate history

A singularly beautiful montage

The Soul Staff

Summers family connections

How Wolverine climbs

Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men, Episode 516 - The Evolution of Magneto (feat. Asher Elbein)

In which Asher Elbein joins us to discuss the complicated intersections between Magneto, big feelings, and international politics.

X-PLAINED:

Some complicated intersections between Magneto, big feelings, and international politics.

Check out links to some of what we discuss in this episode on our blog.

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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!

Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men, Episode 515 - Origins

In which we do a thing and are not even sorry.

X-PLAINED:

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Next Episode: Magneto, with Asher Elbein!

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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!

In which we provide some inroads to resisting fascism in your community; pacifism has amazing abs; Cyclops and Wolverine play revolutionary chicken; Amelia Voght fails to live up to her narrative potential; Jean Grey continues to make spectacularly bad choices; Polaris deserves better; and Wolverine finally gets to stab Magneto.

X-PLAINED:

Community action and aid

X-Men #112-113

Uncanny X-Men #393

Genosha (more) (again)

Northstar (more) (again)

Dazzler (more) (again)

Sunpyre (more) (again)

Hector Rendoza (more) (again)

Paulie Provenzano (more) (again)

Frenzy (more) (again)

Amelia Voght (more) (again)

St. Sebastian thirst traps

Sewer adventures

Post-Apocalypse Cyclops (more) (again)

Awkward conversations about feelings

Implausible knitting

The Age of Apocalypse X-Babies

A protracted confrontation

Bad strategy

A confusing ruse

Some stabbing

What happens to the unlikeliest X-Men

Jean Grey as Charles Xavier’s heir

Best potential uses of Hector Rendoza

NEXT EPISODE: The secret (retconned) origin of Wolverine!

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Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men, Episode 513 - Eve of Destruction

In which Jay and Miles make an announcement; the X-Men are down to bare bones; Cyclops and Corsair are stunningly bad at feelings; Trish Tilby is stunningly bad at journalism; Magneto says goodbye to nuance; and Jean Grey assembles a team.

X-PLAINED:

X-Corps vs. X-Corp

A thing that will be happening in a few months

The story so far

Uncanny X-Men #391-392

X-Men #111

The state of the X-Men

A short-lived Cyclops costume

A reunion

A sorry excuse

Resolution, somewhat

Genosha (more) (again)

Conflict of interest

Several excellent villain speeches

Joanna Cargill (Frenzy) (again)

Jean-Paul Beaubier (Northstar) (again)

Hector Rendoza

Yet another angry mob

Paulie Provenzano (Omerta)

Leyu Yoshida (Sunpyre)

Ice skating in Rockefeller Center

Our picks for a new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants

NEXT EPISODE: Eve of Destruction concludes!

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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!