For our last full-size episode of 2025, we wrap up our All My Xs miniseries on Marvel Comics' X-Men franchise with one of the big crossover events of the Jonathan Hickman era – The Hellfire Gala!

The mutant nation of Krakoa makes its debut on the world stage with one hell of a coming-out party, filled with celebrity guests, fantastic costumes, behind-the-scenes intrigue and a truly out-of-this-world fireworks display!

Can Emma Frost keep this star-studded affair on the rails? What's with Beast's heel turn? What the heck is Charles Xavier wearing? And can this story get past the velvet rope and into that social event of the season known as … The Comics Canon?

In This Episode:

· The Tom Stoppard of superhero comics

· A truly baffling cameo

· Great artists steal

· Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy

· Pluribus on Apple TV

· The Mighty Nein on Amazon Prime

Join us in two weeks – on Christmas Eve – for a fun mini-episode! Then, on Jan. 7, we discuss one of the best-reviewed books of 2025: Drome by Jesse Lonergan!

Until then:Please consider donating to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund Impress your friends with our Comics Canon merchandise! Rate us on Apple Podcasts! Send us an email! Hit us up on Facebook or Bluesky!

And as always, thanks for listening!

All My Xs, our decade-by-decade exploration of the X-Men, crashes the first gay wedding of a Marvel Comics superhero in 2012's Astonishing X-Men #51, by Marjorie Liu and Mike Perkins!

But first, we take a detour 1992 as Northstar becomes the first Marvel character to come out as gay in Alpha Flight #106, by Scott Lobdell and Mark Pacella! (And even better, we're introduced to that most valuable piece of IP, Major Mapleleaf!)

Can a well-intentioned Very Special Issue of Alpha Flight survive a collision with the "extreme" art and storytelling trend of the 1990s? And can everyone's favorite mutant Olympian turned Canadian superhero survive a run-in with that Big Fat Geek Wedding known as … The Comics Canon?

Recommended in This Episode:

· Batman: Dark Victory

· Death by Lightning

· Wynd Vol. 1: The Flight of the Prince

· Damage Control Vol. 1

Join us in two weeks as All My Xs finally reaches the 2020s with a look at the event of the season … the Hellfire Gala!

Until then:Please consider donating to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund Impress your friends with our Comics Canon merchandise! Rate us on Apple Podcasts! Send us an email! Hit us up on Facebook or Bluesky!

And as always, thanks for listening!

All My Xs, our miniseries on Marvel Comics' X-Men, takes a little detour to introduce the Canadian superteam Alpha Flight in 1979's Uncanny X-Men #120-#121 by Chris Claremont and John Byrne and 1983's Alpha Flight #1 by John Byrne!

First, the Canadian government wants Wolverine back – and if his friends in the X-Men get in the way, well, too bad for them!

Next, Alpha Flight gets their own ongoing title, just in time to lose their government funding! And to make matters worse, they still have to deal with the gargantuan menace of Tundra!

Can the X-Men stop a group of government agents from forcibly detaining one of their own citizens? Can Curt and Kevin keep from saying "eh" every other sentence? And can Canada's premier team of heroes take off to that Great White North known as … The Comics Canon?

In This Episode:

· Curt makes a correction – and recounts a dream

· Why Alpha Flight are better than the Avengers

· Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas: Revised & Updated Edition

· Final Destination Bloodlines

· X-Men #106

· Alpha Flight #16

· Uncanny X-Men #118-119

Join us in two weeks as we look at the wedding of Northstar in Astonishing X-Men #51 (and his official coming out in Alpha Flight #106)!

Until then:Please consider donating to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund Impress your friends with our Comics Canon merchandise! Rate us on Apple Podcasts! Send us an email! Hit us up on Facebook or Bluesky!

And as always, thanks for listening!

Halloween is right around the corner, so we're temporarily hitting pause on All My Xs (again) to revive our horror series Tomb of the Crypt and discuss The Closet, by James Tynion IV, Gavin Fullerton and Chris O'Halloran, published by Image Comics!

Things aren't going particularly well for Thom. He and his wife Maggie are packing for a cross-country, and his son Jamie keeps talking about a monster in his bedroom closet. If only the kid would give this monster thing a rest – they're going to be in Portland in a week, and that closet will be a continent away! Problem solved, right? … Right?

Can Maggie cut him some slack for not throwing out a box of souvenirs from the woman he cheated on her with? Can Jamie really leave his closet monster behind? And can this three-issue story make it intact to that cabin in the woods known as … The Comics Canon?

In This Episode:

· Casey Kasem's famous meltdown

· This guy, right?

· Curt and Kevin's spooky-themed song recommendations

Join us in two weeks as we return to All My Xs by taking a step back to the 1980s for Uncanny X-Men #120-121 and John Byrne's Alpha Flight #1!

Until then:Please consider donating to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund Impress your friends with our Comics Canon merchandise! Rate us on Apple Podcasts! Send us an email! Hit us up on Facebook or Bluesky!

And as always, thanks for listening!

Superstar writer Grant Morrison updates the X-Men for the 21st century as All My Xs, our decade-by-decade miniseries on Marvel's mega-popular mutant franchise, continues with a discussion of E Is for Extinction – specifically, New X-Men issues #114-117 and #121 – by Morrison, Frank Quitely and Ethan Van Sciver, published by Marvel Comics!

It's not a shock that the writer behind Vertigo's The Invisibles would remake the X-Men into a cooler-than-thou team of leather-jacketed badasses. But what might come as a surprise is just how over-the-top dark and edgy this book gets – and that's before an intriguing new villain slaughters an island nation of several million mutants!

What is the terrible secret linking Cassandra Nova to Professor X? Does E really stand for "edgelord"? And can the coolest-looking teachers at the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning break into that invitation-only faculty lounge known as … The Comics Canon?

In This Episode:

· Curt wonders what "lost in the sauce" means

· Grant Morrison's X-Men manifesto

· The Skull: A Tyrolean Folktale, by John Klassen

· Uncanny X-Men #159 and 160

Join us in two weeks as we mark the spookiest time of the year with a look at The Closet, by James Tynion IV and Gavin Fullerton!

Until then:Please consider donating to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund Impress your friends with our Comics Canon merchandise! Rate us on Apple Podcasts! Send us an email! Hit us up on Facebook or Bluesky!

And as always, thanks for listening!

After a brief but worthwhile interruption, All My Xs, our decade-by-decade look at Marvel's X-Men franchise, returns with 1991's Weapon X, written and drawn by Barry Windsor-Smith!

Originally serialized in Marvel Comics Presents #72-84, this Wolverine story largely focuses on three members of the shadowy Weapon X program, which captures a scrappy loner named Logan, gives him an adamantium skeleton and claws, and turns him into a ruthless killing machine.

Will the evil Professor, along with Dr. Cornelius and Carol Hines, suffer any consequences for what they've done? What's the deal with that twist, anyway? And can this popular X-Men-adjacent storyline survive a confrontation with that super-soldier program known as … The Comics Canon?

In This Episode:

· Wait, why does he need an adamantium skeleton, exactly?

· Moss Introduces Jen to the Internet

· Curt casts Weapon X

· Low-Down Road by Scott Von Doviak

· Conan the Barbarian #16, "The Frost Giant's Daughter"

· The Whole Wide World

Join us in two weeks All My Xs – and the X-Men – roll headlong into the 2000s with Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely's New X-Men: E Is for Extinction!

Until then:Please consider donating to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund Impress your friends with our Comics Canon merchandise! Rate us on Apple Podcasts! Send us an email! Hit us up on Facebook or Bluesky!

And as always, thanks for listening!

Content warning: Sexual assault, pedophilia

On this episode, we welcome The Flop House podcast co-host, current Harley Quinn writer and former The Daily Show With Jon Stewart head writer Elliott Kalan for a discussion of the 1978 graphic novel A Contract With God, written and illustrated by Will Eisner!

This collection of standalone stories, centered around a fictional tenement building in the Bronx, finds Eisner (perhaps best known as the creator of The Spirit) drawing on his own life to examine the relationship between man and God and the Jewish-American experience in 1930s New York.

Can Frimme Hersh, filled with grief and rage following the death of his adopted daughter, draft an unbreakable compact with the Almighty? And can this groundbreaking work enter into a legally binding covenant with that higher authority known as … The Comics Canon?

In This Episode:

· The Tenement Museum

· Harley Quinn Vol. 1: Destructive Comics

· Sadie Mouse Wrecks the House

· Joke Farming: How to Write Comedy and Other Nonsense

Join us in two weeks as All My Xs resumes with a look at Wolverine: Weapon X by Barry Windsor-Smith!

Until then:Please consider donating to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund Impress your friends with our Comics Canon merchandise! Rate us on Apple Podcasts! Send us an email! Hit us up on Facebook or Bluesky!

And as always, thanks for listening!

Content warning: Gun violence, including against children

Our decade-by-decade miniseries on the X-Men, All My Xs, reaches the 80s with a look at the 1982 standalone graphic novel God Loves, Man Kills, by Chris Claremont and Brent Anderson, published by Marvel Comics!

The X-Men have faced evil mutants, sinister aliens and even a sentient island, but they may be up against their toughest opponent yet: a white-haired televangelist! The Reverend William Stryker doesn't just preach hatred of mutants to his millions of followers – he also employs a paramilitary strike force known as the Purifiers to hunt them down and kill them in cold blood. When they seemingly kill Professor Xavier, Cyclops and Storm, the rest of the X-Men are left reeling – and on the run for their lives.

Can the X-Men find common cause with their arch-nemesis, Magneto? Can they rescue their friends and defeat the Stryker Crusade? And can they survive that Spanish Inquisition known as … The Comics Canon?

In This Episode:

· The evolution of Kitty Pryde

· The problem with Professor Xavier

· Holler: A Graphic Memoir of Rural Resistance

· Weapons

· The Comics Courier

· Curt and Kevin discuss their Comics Canon coffee mugs

Join us in two weeks as we take a break from All My Xs to discuss Will Eisner's A Contract With God!

Until then:Please consider donating to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund Impress your friends with our Comics Canon merchandise! Rate us on Apple Podcasts! Send us an email! Hit us up on Facebook or Bluesky!

And as always, thanks for listening!

All My Xs, our decade-by-decade miniseries on Marvel's merry mutant franchise, rolls into the 1970s with a look at The Phoenix Saga from X-Men #101, 104-105 and 107-108, published by Marvel Comics!

Superstar writer Chris Claremont starts coming into his own in these issues, which introduce the Phoenix, reestablish Magneto as the X-Men's primary big bad, and inject a healthy dose of space opera (and more than a few Star Trek shoutouts) into this once-moribund title! And if that weren't enough, artist extraordinaire Dave Cockrum hands the book off to blockbuster artist John Byrne, kicking off one of the most impactful writer-artist runs in comics history!

Join us as we ask the burning questions: Do you think this Phoenix character will catch on? What's the deal with Eric the Red's costume? And can these pulse-pounding issues survive an encounter with that M'Kraan Crystal known as … the Comics Canon?

In This Episode:

· Sean Cassidy, 70s pop superstar

· Spoiler alert for 1986's X-Factor #1

· Star Wars and The Phoenix Saga: a timeline

· Wolverine: Old Man Logan Vol. 0: Warzones! and Vol. 1: Berzerker

· A specific moment from the first season of X-Men 97

· "No More Critics" from Matt Goldberg's Commentary Track newsletter

· Imperial #1

· Kevin's shocking confession about Fantastic Four: First Steps

Join us in two weeks as we forge ahead into the 1980s and the X-Men graphic novel God Loves, Man Kills!

Until then:Please consider donating to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund Impress your friends with our Comics Canon merchandise! Rate us on Apple Podcasts! Send us an email! Hit us up on Facebook or Bluesky!

And as always, thanks for listening!

In this episode, we kick off All My Xs, a decade-by-decade look at everyone's favorite Marvel mutants, the X-Men! First up, it's the swingin' 60s – 1969, to be exact, and X-Men #57-61, by Roy Thomas and Neal Adams, published by Marvel Comics!

Adams's creative and energetic artwork enlivens these issues, in which Scott Summers' brother, Alex, gets a cool costume to go with his new codename, Havok, and Larry Trask revives his late father's mutant-hunting robots, the Sentinels! And before they can catch their breath, the X-Men find themselves facing off against the energy-draining half-man, half-Pteranodon known as … Sauron!

Did Larry Trask program these Sentinels with extra snark? Was Karl Lykos bitten by a radioactive Pteranodon? And can our young mutant heroes survive that Danger Room training session known as … The Comics Canon?

In This Episode:

· Cyclops uses an unfortunate slur

· A highly sketchy use of Cerebro

· What if Karl Lykos had been reading Portnoy's Complaint?

· X-Men #62-63: Strangers … in a Savage Land! and War in the World Below!

· The new Fantastic Four movie

· Cow Tools Daily on Bluesky

Join us in two weeks as we revisit the birth of the Phoenix with a look at X-Men #101, 104, 107 and 108!

Until then:Please consider donating to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund Impress your friends with our Comics Canon merchandise! Rate us on Apple Podcasts! Send us an email! Hit us up on Facebook or Bluesky!

And as always, thanks for listening!

Galactus makes his big-screen debut this week in Fantastic Four: First Steps*, which means it's the perfect opportunity to discuss his second-ever comics appearances in The Mighty Thor – specifically, issues #160-162 and 168-169, by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, published by Marvel Comics! (For his comics debut, we humbly direct you to our very first episode from 2016!)

First, it's the war to settle the score, the brawl to end it all, as the Devourer of Worlds squares off against none other than Ego the Living Planet! And the Son of Odin and the Rigellian robot known as the Recorder are caught in the middle! It's classic 60s Lee/Kirby space opera at its most grandiose!

Then, we get a … somewhat disjointed look at Galactus' origin, including a rap session between Big G and the God of Thunder!

PLUS: We discuss James Gunn's Superman!

Does Thor stand a chance against this most colossal of foes? Will Odin act in a frustrating manner? (Spoiler: Yes!) And "Shall a God Prevail" against that sentient bioverse known as … The Comics Canon?

(*No, we're not counting the purple space cloud in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. Would YOU?)

In This Episode:

· Actual sound footage of the Recorder!

· You should never have to see Galactus' knees

· Hush now! Odin's stories are on …

· How DO you pronounce Ra's al Ghul?

· Thor God of Thunder Vol. 4: The Last Days of Midgard

· Fantastic Four #171-175: Galactus vs. the High Evolutionary

Join us in two weeks as we kick off a miniseries on everyone's favorite Marvel mutants with a look at 1969's Uncanny X-Men #57-61 by Roy Thomas and Neal Adams!

Until then:Please consider donating to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund Impress your friends with our Comics Canon merchandise! Rate us on Apple Podcasts! Send us an email! Hit us up on Facebook or Bluesky!

And as always, thanks for listening!