8 – What We Talk About When We Talk About Claremont

In which Chris Claremont defines the X-Universe; Sunfire quits the team (again); Nightcrawler is the best; the narrator is nobody's friend; Colossus is a good kid; Cyclops has a long series of bad days; everyone is a bondage Viking; Rachel is a space pedant, we meet the Phoenix, and Wolverine is the Batman of Marvel. X-Plained: Polaris's kinda-powers Our first crossover event How much we love you Chris Claremont, and why he's the definitive X-writer Comics In Focus: Chris Claremont's X-Men Why Nightcrawler is the best point-of-view character The long game Tom Orzechowski's dimension-folding lettering skills Claremontisms The malicious narrator Count Nefaria Sliding-scale ransom The life, death, and occasional reanimation of Thunderbird Friendship The care and feeding of cairns Erik the Red Quiet moments Sentinels and X-Sentinels Steven Lang The (first) death and return of Jean Grey Accents You can find a visual companion to the episode – and links to recommended reading – on our blog. Find us on iTunes or Stitcher! Next week: Leprechauns!