In a world that fears and persecutes them, Jon and Andrew put their differences aside and team up to critique one of Jon’s greatest pop culture enemies: the X-Men movies!  Not that they’re all bad, mind you – much of our discussion focuses on Logan, which we both thought was very, very good – but nothing really resembles the term “wasted potential” as much as this series.  Going back to the beginning, we chart the trajectory of a series that has continuously failed its mandates: creatively, commercially, and, most importantly, culturally. We tackle many of the usual issues with the series, such as focusing on a few characters at the expense of the many– like Young Wolverine, Old Wolverine, and Overexposed Wolverine – but also while pointing out that most of those characters tend to be white, male, and straight in a series that is supposed to be allegorizing the evils of prejudice against minorities and representing diversity. Which all ties into our discussion of Logan, which, among its many interesting and intriguing subtexts, is an acknowledgement of just what kind of failure the series has been.  A good, interesting show about a series that should be far, far more than what it is, and would be especially needed now if it could ever manage to get its shit together.

Content Advisory:  Wolverine (and lots of him…), the repetitiveness of Wolverine, why First Class is overrated, Jon hypocritically confusing Zoe Saldana and Zoe Kravitz while explaining why First Class is overrated (note from Jon: My bad. To be fair, I also mess up Jason Marsden’s name. No I mean, James Marsden. I think…), Andrew’s vocalization of the X-Men animated series theme, Andrew and Jon’s vocalization of the X2 theme, lots of X-Men history, Hugh Jackman, actor porn, bad casting decisions, X-Men Lite, mysterious pasts (and shit), and (GASP) pretentiousness.