<figure id="attachment_24019" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-24019" style="width: 1024px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://www.xplainthexmen.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/X525.jpg"><img decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-24019" src="https://www.xplainthexmen.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/X525.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="618" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.xplainthexmen.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/X525.jpg?w=1024&#38;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/www.xplainthexmen.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/X525.jpg?resize=300%2C181&#38;ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/www.xplainthexmen.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/X525.jpg?resize=768%2C464&#38;ssl=1 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-24019" class="wp-caption-text">Illustration by David Wynne</figcaption></figure> <p>In which Warren Kenneth Worthington III is a terrible teacher; we are all Magneto’s children; Sooraya Qadir deserves a better origin story; teenagers have a lot of feelings; and we meet one of the modern age’s most controversial mutants.</p> <p>X-PLAINED:</p> <ul> <li>The destiny of Quentin Quire</li> <li><em>New X-Men</em> #131-134</li> <li>An underattended funeral</li> <li>How to fly? Kinda? I guess?</li> <li>A kiss</li> <li>A friendship</li> <li>Another bit of ruby quartz marginalia that will never be mentioned again</li> <li>A somewhat ill-founded psychic metaphor</li> <li>Emma Frost’s Dark Phoenix costume</li> <li>Some kind of weird affair</li> <li>Echoes of 9/11/2001</li> <li>Genosha, a year later</li> <li>Ghosts</li> <li>Polaris’s paternity</li> <li>Shocker (the mutant one)</li> <li>The last words of Genosha</li> <li>Islamophobia post 9/11</li> <li>Sooraya Qadir (Dust)</li> <li>An attempted hijacking and the aftermath thereof</li> <li>Some Shi’ar nonsense</li> <li>X-Corporation Mumbai</li> <li>Jumbo Carnation</li> <li>Telepathy class</li> <li>An artist’s interpretation of the fate of mankind if mutants are not driven out, as predicted by Bolivar Trask</li> <li>Accountability</li> <li>Professor X’s weird little paintings</li> <li>X-adjectives</li> <li>Best and worst X-Men with whom to share a psychic rapport</li> </ul> <p>NEXT EPISODE: Quentin Quire’s teen angst bullshit gets a body count!</p> <hr /> <p>Check out the visual companion to this episode <a href="https://www.xplainthexmen.com/2026/05/as-mentioned-in-episode-525/">on our blog</a>.</p> <p>Find us on <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/jay-miles-x-plain-the-x-men/id862258051">Apple Podcasts</a> or <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/3dB4KyeOeylfiIVImshFY2?si=ee5e912a53114820">Spotify</a>!</p> <p>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 <a href="https://www.patreon.com/xplainthexmen">right here</a>!</p> <p>Buy rad swag at <a href="https://xplainthexmen.dashery.com/">our Dashery shop</a>!</p>