Art by David Wynne. Wanna buy the original? Drop him a line! In which we hear from two generations of Stokeses for the price of one, buying comics for your son is a great way to rationalize reading them yourself, you should probably be reading The Immortal Hulk, and a 30-year comics hiatus ain’t stopping Steve. X-PLAINED: A well-loved copy of Fantastic Four #1 Marvel vs. DC in the Silver Age Requirements for an acceptable Doctor Doom The perils of competitive newsstand shopping Comics conventions: the days before Hall H The Long Game Bill Sienkiewicz: best of the best The Worst Comic Book Guy What makes the X-books special The experimental storytelling of New Mutants The Original Five The Long Box (and the Easter basket) Contagious enthusiasm Returning to the Marvel Universe as a lapsed reader Art styles over the years Tragic tales of mail-order chameleons The joys of the mainstreaming of nerddom Superhero movies as message pill pockets Fin Fang Foom HoX/PoX freakouts as father/son bonding Acid in vampires’ faces and other childhood traumas NEXT EPISODE: The Phalanx Covenant (finally) begins! 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!