Charts – 10 November 2013
It’s a busy week, particularly if you count all the re-entries from Eminem singles that were disqualified from the chart under the instant gratification rules last week. (I won’t bother.) Meanwhile, the number 1 slot changes hands for the sixth straight week. Hmm.
39. Awolnation – “Sail”
Amazing X-Men v2 #1
I’ll return to this storyline in full once it’s over, obviously. But in the interests of balance, let’s have a quick look at Amazing #1.
To all intents and purposes, this is a relaunch of Astonishing X-Men, the one-time flagship title that was allowed to wander into obscurity over the years, and didn’t even get invited to the last crossover. As with any new X-Men title, the immediate question is, what (if anything) marks it out from the rest of the line?
Fantomex Max #1-2
Fantomex Max is a four-issue miniseries, so normally I would wait for the end of the run before reviewing it. But I won’t be buying the other two issues, so we might as well cover it now.
Hmm. I’ve kind of spoiled the ending, haven’t I?
In theory, Fantomex Max isn’t a bad idea. Wolverine Max has turned out alright – and yes, I’ll get around to reviewing vol 2 at some point, honestly. But basically, that book has correctly identified the opportunities offered by an out-of-continuity, adults-only take on Wolverine. You can jettison all the convoluted continuity, get to the core of what makes the character work, and avoid having to tiptoe around things that have a place in a comic about a violent man with knives prone to short bursts of shocking violence.
Charts – 3 November 2013
If you were expecting a bunch of tracks from Lou Reed’s back catalogue, well, no. ”Perfect Day” was at 45 and “Walk on the Wild Side” at 53, for those wondering. ”Transformer” re-enters the album chart at 35, but otherwise it seems Lou Reed just isn’t the sort of artist whose death inspires downloads. Can’t imagine that’s something he’d be losing much sleep over.
37. M.A.D. – “Toyboy”
Battle of the Atom
I usually put the issue numbers in the post titles, but they won’t really fit here, will they? So (deep breath) - X-Men: Battle of the Atom #1-2, All-New X-Men #16-17, X-Men #5-6, Uncanny X-Men #12-13, and Wolverine and the X-Men #36-37.
This is what you might call an old-school crossover. What Marvel usually do these days is to have a core miniseries, and a bunch of other stories taking place against the backdrop of that core story. But this is a ten-part serial running through four different titles and two bookends over the course of two months. The way we used to do things, back in the day. ”The day”, in this context, being the 1990s.
House to Astonish Episode 113
We have a nice lean 75 minutes for you this time round, talking about DC relocating to Burbank, the end of Fables, the Daredevil Infinite comic, Winter Soldier: The Bitter March, Marvel’s Japanese animated show, the latest comings and goings in comics-related litigation and the Mighty Avengers 1 script release SNAFU. We’ve also got reviews of Sandman: Overture, Damian, Son of Batman and Velvet, and The Official Handbook of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe is trying not to hurt its stiff upper lip. All this plus Batman’s sexytime habits, a left hand pouring water on the carpet and someone being sued by their own trousers.
The podcast is here, or here on Mixcloud, or available via the player below. Let us know what you think, in the comments, via email, on Twitter or on our Facebook fan page.
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Charts – 27 October 2013
Hell in a Cell 2013
Not much in this week’s X-books to talk about, though I’ll try to do something about the second Wolverine Max TPB in the next couple of days. In the meantime – wrestling!
The Hell in a Cell PPV is a hangover from the period when the WWE wanted to give all of their B-shows a theme. It is arguably one of the worst ideas they ever had. The Hell in a Cell match – basically a cage match in a bigger cage – had been very well promoted for years in a way that made it synonymous with Really Big Matches. But having an annual show which was required to feature the match, and then failing to plan months in advance to ensure that was actually any reason to do so, has largely gutted the gimmick’s drawing power and turned it into simply a glorified cage match. Of course, in terms of the rules, that’s all it ever was, but that’s not the point. Presentation is everything.
Charts – 20 October 2013
X-Men Legacy #16-18 – “Wear the Grudge Like a Crown”
There’s a podcast this weekend! No, really! You can find it just one post down from here.
Meantime… X-Men Legacy #16-18. This week’s issue might not obviously look like the end of a storyline, but according to the solicitations, it is indeed the cut-off point for the end of the third trade. (That trade, incidentally, is entitled “Revenants”, despite the Revenants being the entirely unrelated baddies over in Uncanny X-Force. Left hand, meet right hand. You must have so much to talk about.)
Legacy is a book with an uneasy relationship to superheroes. On the one hand, the character is firmly rooted in a lot of X-Men baggage. On the other, the book’s central schtick is to have Legion reject the X-Men’s approach and looking for a different and supposedly more proactive approach, which perhaps inevitably casts the X-Men as slightly clueless throwbacks. You can read that as Legion’s take on the team – he is the narrator, after all – but it generally feels as if writer Si Spurrier is using Legion to express, shall we say, a fair degree of ambivalence about the whole genre.
