298 – Unlikely Avengers

Art by David Wynne. Wanna buy the original? Drop him a line! In which the moments of X-Universe are better than the whole; the code name “Dirigible” carries some inherent risks; Tony Stark is often more interesting without Iron Man; Clint Barton is no James Rhodes; there is somehow a Matt Murdock who makes even worse choices than the one from Earth-616; nobody should ever trust Mikhail Rasputin; and the baby’s name really doesn’t matter. X-PLAINED: J. Jonah Jameson’s stance on mutants A way to get cool stuff AND support Trans Lifeline X-Universe #1-2 Gwen Stacy (Earth-295) Some really obnoxious white savior tropes The Marauders (Earth-295) How to waste Arcade Spider-nostalgia Owl noises Tony Stark (Earth-295) Clint Barton and/or James Rhodes (Earth-295) Dr. Donald Blake (Earth-616) Dr. Donald Blake (Earth-295) Blark Mikhail Rasputin (Earth-295) Ship, but not Ship Ben Grimm (Earth-295) Sue Storm (Earth-295) Bruce Banner (Earth-295) A great many overplayed references Matt Murdock (Earth-295) Manuel de la Rocha (Earth-295) Victor Von Doom (Earth-295) Marte and Rafe McGuffin The Upscale Program A very hazardous plan The Stryfe Force The dreams of Donald Blake A red herring named Frankie Augmented humans in a mutant-centric world How Wolverine communicates with animals How Professor X lost his hair NEXT EPISODE: What-ifs and might-have-beens! 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! This June, we’ll be donating all of the profits to Trans Lifeline!