Art by David Wynne. Wanna buy the original? Drop him a line! In which Jay has exciting news, Rick Leonardo draws an impressively creepy mad scientist’s lair, the clouds are purple and so is the prose, Powers of X gets a subtle prequel 21 years early, Cable’s own tolerance has finally reached zero, and we summarize Bastion’s backstory way, way faster than Bastion does. X-PLAINED: Machine Man (X-51) (Aaron Stack) Operation Zero Tolerance (more) (again) Jay’s upcoming parental leave Bastion (Sebastion Gilberti) M-Tech Powerman 5000 Cable & Machine Man Annual 1998 Hobgits and their sound effects Street Fighter: the Roleplaying Game Batroc ze Lepair Jack Kirby’s 2001: A Space Odyssey X-51 / X-23 overlaps Classic Summers Family Bullshit Psionic soapboxes What makes Bastion a compelling villain The necessity of companions Master Mold 3.0 & Nimrod 2.0 Machine Man & Bastion Annual 1998 Terrible font choices ZORCH Cable vs. floors The carbon footprint of robotic fascism Marvel Comics Presents #17-24 (just a little) Incredible Hulk Annual #7 (just a tad) The Siege Perilous The future of Machine Man The hypothetical 2022 version of Bastion Historical events in which we’d love to see long-lived mutants take part NEXT WEEK: We take a break for the holidays! IN TWO WEEKS: The Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men 2022 Giant-Size Winter Special! 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!