Charts – 16 October 2026
One of those weeks where at least the album chart is doing something.
1. Taylor Swift – “Patient Zero”
Three weeks. Taylor Swift is in the happy position of having fans who buy physical product in large numbers, and who are willing to wait for it to come out. So she shipped another 33,000 CDs last week, which would very nearly have been enough to get her to number 1 even before looking at her streaming points. And her streaming is substantial, but if she didn’t have those CDs, she’d be at number 8. The number one would be Jamie Miller’s “Babydoll” (and “Rein Me In” would once again be claiming to be the rightful number one on the basis of unadjusted streams).
15. Pink featuring Nate Ruess – “Just Give Me A Reason”
Apparently they’ve just rediscovered this over on TikTok. It is a good song, to be fair. It spent two weeks at number 2 in 2013, when it had the misfortune to be kept off number 1 by a one-week resurgence for PJ & Duncan’s “Let’s Get Ready to Rhumble” after Ant & Dec performed it on their ITV show.
The X-Axis – 14 October 2026
DNX #3. (Annotations here.) Three issues into this five issue series, it feels oddly structured. I get the format of putting the core plot in this book and the side quests in X-Men itself – I don’t particularly like it, because the climax of an X-Men story ought to be happening in X-Men, but it’s a venerable way of doing things and Marvel’s standard operating practice. But that plot essentially involves the X-Men defeating 3K in the first half of the book and Magneto getting cured off panel. So does that mean the X-virus is going to be taken care of in the next two issues? That feels like a bit of an anticlimax. I mean, it can’t go out of control in the way that it did in “Age of Revelation” because this is a shared universe. I guess you could permanently transform Juniper and leave it at that. But… it feels like we’re speed running things here.
X-MEN #39. (Annotations here.) The X-Men tie-in is stronger, fortunately. This is Greycrow’s solo story, and basically completes the face turn that leads to him joining the X-Men. And that’s a storyline that’s been well built over time, starting with Hellions in the Krakoan era and moving into the Psylocke and X-Men books. Rehabbing this particular character ought to be a major task, and having him repeatedly insist that he doesn’t think it’s possible either has been a nice hook to get him there. Yes, Z*E*R*O are decidedly one-dimensional – as the extremist wing of an already extremist O*N*E, they’re a slightly shaky idea to start with – but I can kind of accept the concept of the low-ranking members who don’t realise how dodgy their organisation actually is and think it ought to be dodgier. Besides, they’ve appeared in two issues now, both times in the dramatically vital role of cannon fodder. And the Glob Herman twist is very well executed – taking the time to give him thirteen issues in a coma gives it all the more impact when we get to this point.
Generation X-23 #9 annotations
GENERATION X-23 #9
“Have a Nice Trip
Writer: Jody Houser
Artist; Marco Renna
Colour artist: Erick Arciniega
Letterer: Ariana Maher
Editors: Mark Basso & Alanna Smith
COVER: Wolverine (Laura) fights the scorpion robot thing that hasn’t got a name yet.
PAGES 1-7. The Generated beat up some bigots.
“An actual wolverine given to us by a super hero who talks to squirrels.” Jonathan was given to Laura and Gabby by Squirrel Girl in All-New Wolverine #7.
“These past few months…” The next scene confirms that we’ve jumped forward three months from the previous issue. That fits with the Generated’s performance having improved. This is apparently the Generated’s first outing against actual bad guys, and while they’re at the lowest level, they’re still at least plausibly capable of doing Surprise! some harm.
X-Men #39 annotations
X-MEN vol 7 #39
“Siege”
Writer: Jed MacKay
Penciller: Netho Diaz
Inker: Sean Parsons
Colourist: Arthur Hesli
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Tom Brevoort
COVER. John Greycrow defends Glob Herman from Z*E*R*O.
PAGE 1. Abbie Bennett briefs Z*E*R*O.
Z*E*R*O. This group previously appeared in issue #19, as a splinter group of exceedingly anti-mutant O*N*E agents who consider the main organisation insufficiently radical. They attempted to kill Revelation, with predictable lack of success. Strictly speaking, it was Bei who killed the Z*E*R*O agents, not Revelation himself. Abbie Bennett is a new character, and I don’t think her husband was actually named in the original story.
DNX #3 annotations
DNX #3
Writer: Jed MacKay
Artist: Federico Vicentini
Colour artist: David Curiel
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Tom Brevoort
COVER: The X-Men and the FF fight 3K.
PAGE 1. The virus spreads through Juniper.
This picks up directly from the cliffhanger of issue #2, where the Chairman released the X-virus in Juniper after being prevented from doing so in Philadelphia. Since Juniper isn’t a real place, I do wonder whether the idea is going to be that the virus is contained but Juniper is permanently transformed.
The Trask Statute. The mysterious statue of Bolivar Trask, which appeared in Juniper mysteriously, was the subject of the Juggernaut solo story in X-Men #34.
Daredevil Villains #90: Izanami
DAREDEVIL #294-296 (July to September 1991)
“The Infernal Mysteries” / “Through the Eyes of the Enemy” / “Balancing Act”
Writer: DG Chichester
Pencillers: Lee Weeks (#294-295) and Ron Garney (#296)
Inker: Al Williamson
Colourist: Max Scheele
Letterer: Jack Morellli
Editor: Ralph Macchio
After our detour into the annuals, we’re back with the main title, and we’ve reached DG Chichester’s run as writer. He takes over from Ann Nocenti with issue #292, and with a couple of exceptions, he’ll be with us all the way through to issue #342, although he took his name off the last few issues. He started his career as an editor on the Epic imprint before writing some of the largely-forgotten Shadowline books; by this point, he had been writing Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD for a year or so.
Penciller Lee Weeks had y joined the book for Ann Nocenti’s final arc. This was his first regular assignment on a Marvel Universe title, following runs on the New Universe title Justice and the licensed book Destroyer. But he’ll only be around until issue #300 before moving on.
Nocenti ended her run by putting the toys back in the box, up to a point. She finished with Daredevil returning to New York and reclaiming his identity from the imposter Bullseye. This left the book ready to return to a more traditional status quo, and Chichester wasn’t going to follow in Nocenti’s more experimental footsteps. The first part of his run draws heavily on Frank Miller concepts, but stylistically it’s arguably more of a return to pre-Miller material (though he’ll have some format-breaking stories of his own in due course). It’s very dense and wordy, and more conventional in style than either Miller or Nocenti. And this was in the early 90s, when other books were leaning into the Image style.
Charts – 9 October 2026
Last week, Taylor Swift released the special edition of her last album and placed three tracks in the top 5, while nobody wanted to risk going up against her. This week, Drake releases the special edition of his album…
1. Taylor Swift – “Patient Zero”
Two weeks. Apparently Taylor Swift really cares about maximising her time at number one, because a batch of around 11,000 pre-ordered CD singles were released to fans ahead of schedule this week when it looked like she might need them to hold on. In the event, she did need them – if they’d shipped in the release week, she would have been number 2 behind Sienna Spiro. Swift has form for this – she did the same thing to get herself two weeks at number 1 with “I Knew It, I Knew You”.
The two other new tracks don’t fare so well. Both of them fall below “The Fate of Ophelia”, which re-enters at number 17. “Babylon” drops from number 4 to number 28; “Cleveland”, which was number 3 last week, vanishes entirely under the three song rule.
As for Drake, it turns out that he doesn’t even get the highest new entry.
16. Noah Kahan – “Draw You Out”
The X-Axis – 7 October 2026
MIDNIGHT X-MEN #1. (Annotations here.) I’m not sure yet whether I’m going to continue covering this book – it’s not part of regular continuity and there are only so many hours in the day – but it’s the only X-book out this week and there are a few things worth saying about it.
First of all, the reason why it’s the only X-book out this week is that Marvel changed their original plans for the Midnight line. Instead of debuting them one at a time, they cleared a week for them and sent an unambiguous signal that people should be paying attention. Obviously this isn’t a trick you can pull too often – it works precisely because it’s rare – but in a broader sense, it’s good to see Marvel making a real effort to launch something instead of just throwing it out there. After all, they got me to buy all three of them.
Midnight X-Men #1 annotations
MIDNIGHT X-MEN #1
“Teeth”
Writer: Jonathan Hickman
Artist: Matteo Della Fonte
Colourist: Arthur Hesli
Letterer: Cory Petit
Editor: Jordan D White
COVER: That’s an image of Nightcrawler with Storm in the background. As with all the Midnight books, the cover only shows a vertical stripe of the art, but the full page art appears on the interior.
I’m not sure I’ll be covering this book regularly, but it’s the only X-book out that week, because Marvel decided to give the three Midnight books a clear run this week – the others being Midnight Spider-Man #1 and Midnight Fantastic Four #1. They are, in fact, rather less grimdark than the promotion for this line might have led you to expect.
PAGES 1-6. Cardinal Stryker visits Kurt Wagner.
The Midnight Universe. For the most part, the Midnight Universe as seen in this week’s three titles looks pretty normal on the surface. It comes across as a world where the fantastic elements of the regular Marvel Universe are mostly hidden from view so far as the general public are concerned. Mostly, but not entirely.
Charts – 2 October 2026
In which Taylor Swift releases the special edition of her last album and everyone else stays out of her way.
1. Taylor Swift – “Patient Zero”
3. Taylor Swift – “Cleveland”
4. Taylor Swift – “Babylon”
These are from the special edition of “The Life of a Showgirl”, which duly returns to number 1 for a fifth week. There are four new tracks on the album, but the three song limit excludes “Pink Clouding”. “Patient Zero” is the official single. It’s decent enough for a midtempo Taylor Swift track that didn’t make the main album, though I could live without that bridge section.
