Daredevil Villains #19: Biggie Benson
DAREDEVIL #47 (December 1968)
“Brother, Take My Hand”
Writer, editor: Stan Lee
Penciller: Gene Colan
Inker: George Klein
Letterer: Artie Simek
Colourist: Not credited
Biggie Benson is another random crime boss who shows up in Daredevil as a one-off villain. I could stop there. But there are a few reasons to spend more time on this issue. The least interesting of those reasons is that Biggie isn’t strictly a one-off villain; he comes back looking for revenge in a couple of issues time. But that’s just to get the plot rolling.
A better reason to pay attention to this story is that it introduces Willie Lincoln, who shows up periodically as a supporting character for the next year or so. Since the supporting cast still consists entirely of Foggy Nelson, Karen Page and Debbie Harris, any new recurring character is at least somewhat noteworthy.
But more than that, this is A Very Special Issue, and we haven’t had one of those yet.
We open with a flashback to a few months ago, as Daredevil visits Vietnam to entertain the troops with a display of acrobatics. In the audience is Willie, who is losing his sight after being injured in battle. Willie is a huge Daredevil fan, and apparently he’s insisted on hanging around in order to see his idol in person. This being the Silver Age, the melodrama is cranked up to 11, and so Willie’s sight gives out on him in the middle of Daredevil’s performance.
The X-Axis – w/c 25 March 2024
(Again, before anyone asks, no, I’m not doing X-Men ’97, for essentially the same reasons that I’m not doing Ultimate X-Men: it’s not part of the core X-Men line, and it doesn’t interest me enough for me to spend money on it.)
X-MEN UNLIMITED INFINITY COMIC #132. By Steve Foxe, Steve Orlando, Nick Roche, Yen Nitro & Travis Lanham. In this issue, Wiz Kid and Trinary fight off hackers in one of those cyberspace stories that I thought had gone out of fashion twenty years ago. We’re twelve issues into this arc and if there’s meant to be a point to any of it beyond killing time with a farewell tour of Krakoan D-listers, I honestly have not got the slightest clue what it is. I’m afraid my patience has run out.
RISE OF THE POWERS OF X #3. (Annotations here.) The Rise half of this event continues to feel much more coherent than Fall, without the same sense of last-minute changes of plan being accommodated. Perhaps any changes hit the other side more extensively – maybe this plotline was always going to pay off around now, or it’s been easier to skip to the end by jumping over the failed ascensions of Orbis Stellaris and Dr Stasis. And RB Silva’s art makes this book feel convincingly epic, as well. But for all the epic time travel and cosmic weirdness, this issue is built around Professor X finally getting to confront Moira about the collapse of Krakoa. Which means it’s really a story about how he feels about the compromises he was driven into, and also that Moira gets to be written as something more than a one-dimensional lunatic, an approach which pretty much killed the character after Hickman left. Going back to an earlier version of Moira helps to re-establish her as someone to invest in, and she’s really needed that.
Wolverine #46 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
WOLVERINE vol 6 #46
“Sabretooth War, part 6”
Writers: Benjamin Percy & Victor LaValle
Penciller: Cory Smith
Inker: Oren Junior
Colourist: Alex Sinclair
Letterer: Cory Petit
Editor: Mark Basso
COVER / PAGE 1. Sabretooth operates on Wolverine’s brain. Not something that actually happens in the issue, at least not literally.
PAGES 2-6. Sabretooth briefs Wolverine for their “mission”.
Last issue, Sabretooth came to Krakoa looking for what he described as “something those mutants left behind”, and which he evidently expected to find in Forge’s lab. Wolverine came after him, only for Sabretooth to instantly zap him with the enslaved Quentin Quire, and place Wolverine in a scenario where they were Team X teammates again, about to go on a mission. That’s where we come in.
From the way this plays out, Quentin is obviously doing something a bit more subtle than simply making Wolverine see illusions. Clearly on some level Wolverine is reacting to the world around him, or he wouldn’t be swimming when he believes himself to be parachuting. But on a conscious level, he’s apparently experiencing the version of events on the right hand side of the page.
X-Force #50 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X-FORCE vol 6 #50
“Violent Answers”
Writer: Benjamin Percy
Artist: Robert Gill
Colour artist: Guru-eFX
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Editor: Mark Basso
COVER / PAGE 1. It’s the final issue of this run so X-Force pose for the camera. Look, some of them are even smiling.
PAGES 2-4. Beast II and Wonder Man reach Beast Prime.
We’re picking up from the end of the previous issue, with Beast II and Wonder Man heading out to sea in search of the Krakoa-era Beast, and X-Force opening fire because they figure this new Beast has already turned bad on them. The Krakoan Beast – helpfully wearing a distinctive suit at this point – promptly punts Wonder Man back to the surface.
PAGE 5. Recap and credits.
Rise of the Powers of X #3 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
RISE OF THE POWERS OF X #3
“The Ex Life of Moira”
Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artist: R.B. Silva
Colour artist: David Curiel
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Editor: Jordan D White
COVER / PAGE 1. Moira, on a bench, is approached by someone holding a gun. This is Moira as she appeared in the opening scene of Powers of X #1, where she approaches Charles Xavier and tells him about her earlier lives. The gun is presumably intended to be the same one that Professor X is holding when he approaches a much younger Moira in the issue itself.
PAGE 2. Young Moira leaves the house expecting her powers to emerge.
As established in House of X #2, Moira is reborn with the full memories of her previous lives but has to go through the motions of being a child in her first few years. This is the day when her powers are expected to emerge; until then, she can die permanently. We saw a version of this same scene at the start of issue #2, from Enigma’s perspective. In this version, from Moira’s perspective, her mother Lady Kinross is more clearly visible. Enigma’s version also has a panel of her looking rather downbeat before she leaves the house; here she seems more enthusiastic.
Daredevil Villains #18: The Jester
DAREDEVIL #42 (July 1968)
“Nobody Laughs at the Jester!”
Writer, editor: Stan Lee
Penciller: Gene Colan
Inker: Dan Adkins
Letterer: Sam Rosen
Colourist: not known
It’s been a while since Daredevil introduced a new villain with a proper concept and some real fanfare, but the Jester certainly gets that treatment. He’s not just on the cover and in the title of the story. He gets the whole opening scene to establish his schtick. Then, after a brief check in with Matt and co (who are mourning the “death” of Mike Murdock last issue), we’re back to the Jester so that he can tell us again how great he is, and explain his back story. Of the first ten pages of issue #42, seven are pure Jester. Today he may be a D-lister, but in his debut he’s a major new villain.
The Jester is a man in a jester costume who robs a bank vault with sleep pellets and some gimmicked toys. Then he makes his getaway by flagging down a passing car, which he steals by knocking out the driver with a yo-yo. But as the Jester drives home, he wishes had had an audience to applaud him. It’s the one thing he regrets about turning to crime.
Even so, the Jester is delighted with his achievements. “With my superb skills, my titanic talents, I’ll reach the most dizzying heights of all! Never has a dedicated arch-criminal been endowed with the background, the training, the natural genius that I myself possess! Here, among my innocent-looking, specially-modified toys, I am ready to launch a crime campaign the like of which the world has never known!”
The X-Axis – 18 March 2024
X-MEN UNLIMITED INFINITY COMIC #131. By Steve Foxe, Steve Orlando, Phillip Sevy, Yen Nitro & Travis Lanham. I think we’re far enough into this arc now to be pretty confident that it’s not going to miraculously come together into something coherent. Which isn’t to say that it’s outright nonsensical or anything, but it’s weirdly diffuse and unfocussed, meandering from character to character and relying on a rather dull plot about Selene and the Externals to hold it all together. This issue, X-Corp decide that it might be a good idea to send a Madrox dupe into Selene’s clutches to die, and use nanotech to spy on her. Which… I mean, I just don’t buy that any of the Madrox dupes are fine with that just because they’re dupes, rather than because they’re heroic. Which is certainly how this story seems to be playing it.
X-MEN: FOREVER #1. (Annotations here.) Apparently this started life as Immortal X-Men #19, which would have been out a couple of months ago, before getting reworked into a miniseries for scheduling reasons. It’s a curious choice on Marvel’s part, but on the whole I think it works out reasonably well. The jump forward in time to Rise of the Powers of X #1 allows for a few surprises and reveals to be set up, and then this book gets to go back and fill in the connective tissue, so you get the best of both worlds. That said, it doesn’t feel at all like the first issue of a miniseries, not least because it doesn’t really set up any story that’s independent of Rise of the Powers of X; as a tie-in issue of Immortal X-Men, it would have made much more sense. Still, Marvel do love their #1s. The best parts of this naturally relate to the expansion of earlier Immortal plots, and it works very nicely as a part of that larger jigsaw. As an issue #1, it’s a little weird.
X-Men: Forever #1 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X-MEN: FOREVER #1
“A Ghost”
Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artist: Luca Maresca
Colour artist: Federico Blee
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Design: Tom Muller, Jay Bowen & Kat Gregorowicz
Editor: Jordan D White
X-MEN: FOREVER. There have been two previous series called X-Men Forever (plus a sequel X-Men Forever 2), neither of which have anything to do with this book. The official solicitations and the trailer page give the title for this book as X-Men: Forever, with a colon. The cover says X-Men Forever. The credits page has it both ways. I’ll go with the solicitations.
COVER / PAGE 1. An unconscious Jean Grey lying in a Phoenix-shaped pool of blood in what appears to be a snowbound forest. This doesn’t happen in the issue, though we do see Jean lying in a circle of blood on page 12.
PAGE 2. Flashback: Irene and Raven attend a concert.
This is the first performance of Elgar’s Enigma Variations, which took place at St James’ Hall on 19 June 1899. Irene and Nathaniel Essex both mentioned having been at this performance in the flashback that opens Immortal X-Men #1. We were told there that Irene had had a fit at the opening of the Nimrod variation; Sinister remembered someone having a fit but didn’t know Irene at the time. More of that scene shortly.
The establishing shot in panel 1 is pretty much a copy of a drawing of the Hall in 1858, artist unknown. (It happens to be the picture that illustrates the Hall’s Wikipedia entry but hell, it’s out of copyright.)
Resurrection of Magneto #3 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
RESURRECTION OF MAGNETO #3
“Falls the Shadow”
Writer: Al Ewing
Artist: Luciano Vecchio
Colour artists: David Curiel & Jesus Aburtov
Letterer: Joe Sabino
Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Editor: Jordan D White
COVER / PAGE 1. The Shadow King grips Magneto.
PAGES 2-4. Annihilation confronts Storm.
Issue #2 ended with Storm and Magneto arriving together in a black space and being confronted by what was strongly implied to be the Shadow King; that’s confirmed in this scene. Somehow, since the last issue Storm has been separated from Magneto and is now being confronted by Annihilation instead of the Shadow King. We’ll see later on that Storm can apparently unite with Magneto again through an effort of will, so either this is an illusion, or at least it’s the sort of magical weirdness that Storm is in a position to override once she understands it.
The X-Axis – w/c 11 March 2024
X-MEN UNLIMITED INFINITY COMIC #130. By Steve Foxe, Steve Orlando, Phillip Sevy, Yen Nitro & Travis Lanham. In which Gambit and Feint go to New Orleans to see if Candra knows what Selene is up to with the Externals. On the one hand, this does actually do something useful: it follows up on Feint becoming a proper X-Man, of sorts, in Dark X-Men, and on Gambit taking her with him at the end of the issue. Basically Candra explains that Selene is planning to sacrifice a bunch of mutants so that she and her allies can become invulnerable as well as immortal. Well, at least we’re advancing the plot, but bringing in yet more characters to do so only compounds this arc’s lack of focus, and the book still has the basic problem that – with the exception of a couple of characters created independently and retconned into the group – the Externals simply aren’t interesting. If you’re going to bring back a concept that’s been largely ignored or used simply as a plot device for a quarter century, you need a compelling case about what it is that everyone else has missed, and this arc doesn’t have one.
FALL OF THE HOUSE OF X #3. (Annotations here.) Well. I mean, I’ve read worse. But it’s not good, and as an anchor series paying off a whole era of the X-Men it’s really not good. I’m inclined to give the creators the benefit of the doubt that some sort of backstage chaos has been going on, given oddities like entire trailed storylines going missing, cliffhangers not connecting with the next issue and such like. Or Alia Gregor turning out to be important to the plot of this series when basically nobody has done anything with her in a year or more, even though X-Men‘s “Fall of X” issues seem to have been marking time with Latverian filler. Or… you get the idea.
