Join your host Garhdo as they look at the history of the Uncanny X-Men for the 60th anniversary of these astonishing heroes. A team of mutants superheroes protecting a world that hates and fears them, the X-Men have long served as an allegory for many minority groups seeking greater civil rights, while also providing tremendous action stories as they built into a blockbuster comic franchise. How did they become so big? What stories drove their growth and influenced the medium around them? Learn the first part of that story here as Garhdo goes through the first thirty-five years of the X-Men, from their creation under Stan Lee and Jack Kirby to their growth under Chris Claremont and his collaborators to record breaking heights.

• 0:00 Intro
• 0:47 Strike Delay
• 2:48 My First Comics Were Random X-Men Issues
• 26:10 First Class
• 55:55 Second Genesis
• 1:12:52 The Phoenix Saga
• 1:42:49 New Mutants
• 2:12:42 Worldwide Phenomenon
• 2:42:19 Breaking the X-Men
• 3:09:51 The Blue and Gold Teams
• 3:39:38 Generation Next
• 4:09:15 Age of Apocalypse
• 4:29:43 End of an Age
• 5:17:04 Outro
• 5:25:13 Sign-Off

Season 5, Episode 11

April 16th 2024

The X-Men served as my gateway into American superhero comics, and they remain one of my favourite franchises, full of some of my favourite characters, and for the 60th anniversary of the franchise I had planned to do a retrospective on the comics, as the X-Men have wavered throughout their history as being both a part of, and apart from, the rest of the Marvel Universe in a way that is fascinating, especially considering their concept as being distrusted by the world in general. Not only that but the exploration of mutants as a minority, in the hands of so many talented writers, has served as a way of many isolated young people in their own minority communities, including myself as a queer youth, being able to find inspirational heroes that helped them to feel represented in a way they may not normally see in media. And so this episode began that exploration of the X-Men and their entire history in the Marvel Universe, and while it remains currently unfinished, it remains one of my priority projects.