Episode 244: The Closet

Posted on October 29, 2025 by Kevin Moreau

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:

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!

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Episode 243: New X-Men – E Is for Extinction

Posted on October 15, 2025 by Kevin Moreau

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: Continue reading →

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Episode 242: Weapon X

Posted on October 1, 2025 by Kevin Moreau

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!

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Episode 241: A Contract With God (With Elliott Kalan)

Posted on September 17, 2025 by Kevin Moreau

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: Continue reading →

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Episode 240: X-Men – God Loves, Man Kills

Posted on September 3, 2025 by Kevin Moreau

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!

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Episode 239: X-Men – The Phoenix Saga

Posted on August 20, 2025 by Kevin Moreau

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: Continue reading →

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Episode 238: X-Men – The Sentinels Live! and In the Shadow of … Sauron!

Posted on August 6, 2025 by Kevin Moreau

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: Continue reading →

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WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU’RE EXPECTING GALACTUS: The Fantastic Four Finally Take Flight on Film

Posted on July 26, 2025 by Kevin Moreau

THE RIGHT STUFF: The Thing (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), the Invisible Woman (Vanessa Kirby), Mr. Fantastic (Pedro Pascal) and the Human Torch (Joseph Quinn) greet their public in The Fantastic Four: First Steps. (Marvel Studios)

Review by Curt Holman

“The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine” was emblazoned above the title of Fantastic Four comics for decades. Jack Kirby and Stan Lee launched the superhero line of Marvel Comics with Fantastic Four in 1961, and for years the book vied with The Amazing Spider-Man as the company’s flagship title.

When I was a kid discovering comics in the 1970s, Fantastic Four became my fast favorite and I took the “World’s Greatest” label at face value, and not as part of the company’s signature hype. The sci-fi-inflected adventures of Marvel’s “first family” of mutated heroes, anchored by the wisecracking rock monster Ben Grimm, made the title a perfect piece of dynamic escapism and a showcase for how comics can put flights of fancy to paper.

Hollywood eventually embraced superheroes for big-budget adaptations, but the Fantastic Four posed a challenge as one of the most fanciful, least-grounded properties. Multiple filmmakers over the decades strained to bring the team to the big screen, frequently foundering with misguided efforts to make the material more “realistic” and in the process losing its goofy, phantasmagoric spirit.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps triumphs where the likes of Tim Story and Josh Trank struggled, showing genuine love for and confidence in the comic’s blend of gee-whiz optimism and anything-goes imagination. Rather than diminish the team to better belong in the “real” world, First Steps heightens their setting, placing them in a retro-futuristic version of 1960s New York. Continue reading →

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Episode 237: The Mighty Thor – And Now … Galactus!

Posted on July 23, 2025 by Kevin Moreau

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:  Continue reading →

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INVEST IN KRYPTO: Good Ideas Compete in James Gunn’s Cluttered But Colorful Superman

Posted on July 12, 2025 by Kevin Moreau

 

BIG RED S: Superman (David Corenswet) arrives at the Fortress of Solitude in James Gunn’s Superman. (Warner Bros.)

Review by Curt Holman

It’s no surprise that in James Gunn’s splashy Superman, the titular Man of Steel saves lives. Protecting the innocent has always been his thing.

But this Superman (David Corenswet) doesn’t just rescue the citizens of Metropolis from the latest disaster. He sticks up for distant, smaller countries when war-mongering neighbors send in tanks. If a fire-breathing kaiju goes on a rampage, he looks for a non-lethal means to stop it. In the midst of a spectacular fight scene, he’ll even take a second to move a lowly SQUIRREL out of harm’s way.

Corenswet makes Superman a delightfully wholesome goody two-shoes, in sharp contrast to Henry Cavill’s glowering demigod in Zach Snyder’s divisive take on DC superheroes. Superman, written and directed by James Gunn, represents a sharp, sunshiny change of course and a launching pad for a renewed DC franchise on the big and small screen. Continue reading →

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