Battle Of The Atom: An X-Men Podcast

Zack Jenkins and Adam Reck have a simple but effective premise: rank every X-Men story from best to worst. With over 427 episodes released biweekly since 2017, they have covered an enormous amount of ground. The format keeps things focused. Each episode tackles a specific story arc or run, the hosts share their takes, and then it gets slotted into the ever-growing ranking. The fun is in the disagreements. Zack and Adam clearly know their stuff but come at the material from different angles, which means you get genuine debate rather than two people agreeing for an hour. Their theme music, pulled from the X-Men Arcade Game, sets the tone immediately: this is a show made by people who grew up loving these characters. The podcast is connected to ComicsXF, a broader comics criticism site, which gives their analysis a bit more structure than your average fan podcast. Episodes are clean-rated and run about an hour, making them easy to fit into a commute. Some listeners have noted that the comedy bits can occasionally overshadow the comics discussion, but most find the balance works. If you want a show that will tell you definitively whether the Dark Phoenix Saga deserves its reputation or if Fatal Attractions is actually overrated, this is where you go.