The X-Axis – w/c 13 May 2024
X-MEN UNLIMITED INFINITY COMIC #139. By Steve Foxe, Steve Orlando, Phillip Sevy, Yen Nitro & Travis Lanham. Well, I guess at least it seems to be building to some sort of climax. But it’s still just throwing characters at the wall for no good reasons – Velocidad? El Aguila? This hasn’t worked; at least it must be over soon.
X-MEN: FOREVER #4. (Annotations here.) Since X-Men: Forever is effectively the last arc of Immortal X-Men, this is sort of the end of Kieron Gillen’s run… although it isn’t, really, because it leads into the finale of Rise of the Powers of X. I still think that labelling these four issues as a separate miniseries was an odd call – they make much more sense viewed as issues of Immortal – but the book does deliver a satisfying resolution to Mystique and Destiny’s arc, as well as paying off Hope’s messiah role. You can argue about whether the plot mechanics of Enigma’s attempt to alter history actually make sense, but that’s a standard issue with time travel stories. It works on a character level for Enigma and for Hope’s mother, and that’s what really matters.
X-Men Forever #4 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X-MEN: FOREVER #4
“No Hope”
Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artist: Luca Maresca
Colour artist: Federico Blee
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Design: Tom Muller, Jay Bowen & Kat Gregorowicz
Editor: Jordan D White
COVER / PAGE 1: Hope enters a glowing portal, casting the shadow of the Phoenix behind her. This is the final issue of X-Men: Forever, which in turn is an extension of Immortal X-Men – although the story continues into Rise of the Powers of X #5.
PAGES 2-3. Destiny and Mr Sinister talk.
This is the former Quiet Council meeting chamber, in somewhat dilapidated condition. Even through Krakoa (the persona) is back on the island, it hasn’t taken its established position in the room. Unusually, Destiny has removed her blank face mask – dropping both her normal role and her usual distanced persona.
As in the previous issue, Destiny is in despair: all the timelines that she can see involve Enigma winning and her beloved Mystique dying. Sinister has two counter-arguments to reassure Destiny. First, as I pointed out last time, the Phoenix plan involves altering the timeline from the outside – so Destiny wouldn’t be able to see it until it happens. Second, Sinister claims that his own exploration of the future using his “Moira Engine” shows that Destiny vastly overestimates the chances of Mystique dying. He theorises that Destiny’s concern for Mystique causes her to pay disproportionate attention to those timelines.
House to Astonish Presents: The Lightning Round Episode 20
And now for something… slightly different. This time round, we’re stepping beyond the bounds of the regular Thunderbolts title to look at the 2001 miniseries Citizen V and the V-Battalion, with chat about two-fisted journalist Jim Daring, HR disasters and the horniest comics in Marvel history.
The podcast is here, or available via the embedded player below. Let us know what you think, in the comments below, via email, on Bluesky or on our Facebook fan page, and if you haven’t got a House to Astonish t-shirt, why not treat yourself? You deserve it.
Charts – 10 May 2024
Well, this is a chart with a theme, isn’t it?
1. Sabrina Carpenter – “Espresso”
Two weeks, and still doing very well. The Taylor Swift tracks are on their way down the chart, which means that Hozier returns to number 2, but the obvious challenger is Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)”, which is up to 3.
10. Kendrick Lamar – “Not Like Us”
11. Kendrick Lamar – “Euphoria”
17. Drake – “Family Matters”
28. Kendrick Lamar – “Meet The Grahams”
That’s on top of Drake’s “Push Ups” at number 30, and “Like That” by Future & Metro Boomin featuring Kendrick Lamar at number 20 (back up ten places – it doesn’t count towards his three song limit because he’s only a guest).
The X-Axis – w/c 6 May 2024
X-MEN UNLIMITED INFINITY COMIC #138. By Steve Foxe, Steve Orlando, Phillip Sevy, Yen Nitro & Travis Lanham. Part 18 of the story that will not end. In this issue there is a fight scene, and then next issue we are promised a fight scene. Foxe and Orlando have both done good work during the Krakoan era, but this is just pointless.
FREE COMIC BOOK DAY 2024: BLOOD HUNT / X-MEN #1. (Annotations here.) This was released for Free Comic Book Day last Saturday, but like all Marvel’s FCBD issues, it was added to Unlimited on Wednesday. Gail Simone and David Marquez take on the unenviable remit of trailing their upcoming Uncanny X-Men run without giving away too much about how the Krakoan era ends – and doing so in a story which is also meant to be suitable for new readers brought in by FCBD, not just an exercise in hint-dropping for the regulars. In ten pages. What that means in practice is a fairly standard “hero saves a mutant civilian from some bullies” story of the sort that wouldn’t have been out of place in the 1980s and a few pages of subplot to introduce Uncanny‘s new villains.
With all that in mind, it’s perfectly fine, but it’s not immediately gripping. It does have a vibe of “Fall of X, but less so”. Granted, Fall of X would have been vastly improved by being Fall of X, but less so. Still, the new villains are a bit too close to Orchis to be immediately engaging – maybe that’ll change when we learn more about them. And perhaps the execution of “Fall of X” has created an intractable problem that the new books are just going to have to meet head on: In theory, we’re coming off months of horrific human rights abuses and the defeat of Orchis ought to be an upswing for the books. But because “Fall of X” was done in such a way as to hold out the possibility of Krakoa’s return, when that doesn’t happen, the ending becomes a down beat instead. So we’re back repeating the same loss of Krakoa that we already did six months ago. That’s a problem, but it’s not the fault of anything that this story is doing.
Free Comic Book Day 2024: Blood Hunt / X-Men #1 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers and page numbers go by the digital edition.
FREE COMIC BOOK DAY 2024: BLOOD HUNT / X-MEN #1
“The Fire Still Burns”
Writer: Gail Simone
Artist: David Marquez
Colour artist: Edgar Delgado
Editor: Tom Brevoort
Welcome to the post-Krakoan era. This issue has a 10-page X-Men story, which is the first output of the new editorial office, and a prologue to Gail Simone and David Marquez’s Uncanny X-Men run. The other half of the issue is a prologue to the Blood Hunt crossover, but that’s beyond our remit here.
I haven’t decided yet how we’re going to do this post-Krakoa. The original idea of doing annotations was tied to the fact that the line was heavily interlinked, and it looks like the post-Krakoa line will be dialling that back. And not all books necessarily lend themselves to the annotation approach anyway – I probably wouldn’t be doing it with Wolverine if we hadn’t already come this far. Right now, I’m planning to do something along the lines of the annotations posts for the three core X-Men titles, and at least the first issues of the other ongoings, and then decide what seems to make sense.
Aside from that, the scene-breakdown format isn’t always the best way of talking about story points, so I’m thinking of tweaking that. Let’s test a different approach…
Wolverine #49 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
WOLVERINE vol 7 #49
“Berserker”
Writers: Victor LaValle & Benjamin Percy
Artist: Geoff Shaw
Colour artist: Alex Sinclair
Letterer: Cory Petit
Editor: Mark Basso
COVER / PAGE 1. Wolverine leaping into battle in his adamantium armour.
PAGE 2. Flashback: Sabretooth is caught by Cypher’s seed.
This is a recap of issue #47. We saw Sabretooth emerging from the seed cocoon on page 23 of issue #48, so this issue is going back to fill in what happened in the meantime.
PAGE 3. Recap and credits.
PAGES 4-5. Sabretooth meets therapist Cypher.
This is a callback to scenes from the first Sabretooth miniseries, where Cypher similarly inserted himself into Sabretooth’s experiences in the Pit, in an attempt to reason with him. (This Cypher is also accompanied by a Warlock, taking the form of his pad.) This isn’t the real Cypher, but a persona programmed into the seed by Cypher before he gave it to Nekra in Sabretooth #5. He does, however, claim that the Cypher we saw in Sabretooth was the real one.
X-Men: Forever #3 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X-MEN: FOREVER #3
“Unhappy in Their Own Way”
Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artist: Luca Marseca
Colour artist: Federico Blee
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Design: Tom Muller, Jay Bowen & Kat Gregorowicz
Editor: Jordan D White
COVER / PAGE 1. Destiny and Mystique fight, while Nightcrawler tries to intervene.
PAGES 2-3. Krakoa releases Cypher.
Cypher was spirited away by Krakoa in Immortal X-Men #13 and hasn’t been seen since. The only reason Krakoa gives in that issue is “I must protect him.” (Hope is able to understand that by copying Cypher’s powers, but then she loses contact with him, so she can’t ask Krakoa to elaborate.) Obviously, Krakoa anticipated the fall of Krakoa; they explain here that they could “sense the changing of the seasons”, though whether that’s a vague precognitive power or something else isn’t clear. It’s also a pun on “fall”, of course. Cypher has apparently slept peacefully through the whole “Fall of X” phase. It’s ambiguous whether he’s been within Krakoa itself or concealed somewhere on the island where Professor X couldn’t locae him.
“They tell me about the gala…” X-Men: Hellfire Gala 2023.
Daredevil Villains #22: Stunt-Master
DAREDEVIL #58 (November 1969)
“Spin-Out on Fifth Avenue!”
Writer: Roy Thomas
Penciller: Gene Colan
Inker: Syd Shores
Letterer: Sam Rosen
Colourist: not credited
Editor: Stan Lee
Roy Thomas created a lot of new villains for Daredevil. Very few of them had any lasting impact. Stunt-Master is as close as we get to an exception.
Not because he stuck around in Daredevil, mind you. We’ll see him again in issues #64 and #67, after which he vanishes. But in 1974, he was dusted off to join the supporting cast of Ghost Rider, and he stuck around in that book for a couple of years. By the standards of the new villains created in Roy Thomas’ Daredevil run, this qualifies as a resounding success.
But that’s a little unfair. Roy Thomas’ strongest ideas, and his top priorities, were more about the book’s existing cast. He could see perfectly well that Matt and Karen’s relationship needed to advance somehow. So the previous story ended with Matt unmasking to Karen, allowing the book to move on to a new status quo. In this phase, Foggy is the DA, Matt is the assistant DA. Karen loves Matt, but she wants him to retire as Daredevil. Matt says he will. Soon. Really. Honest. Karen gets increasingly frustrated and alarmed until the penny drops that he’s never going to do it.
Charts – 3 May 2024
It’s mostly a quiet week on the singles chart, but hey, we’ve got a new number one!
1. Sabrina Carpenter – “Espresso”
By a razor thin margin – the equivalent of 484 sales – but it’s still number one. I’m not hugely surprised that Taylor Swift only managed a single week, since “Fortnight” isn’t the most instant thing she’s ever released. I’m more surprised that it’s Sabrina Carpenter who replaces her, rather than Hozier returning to the top. The song itself is perfectly good; it’s the sort of thing you can see Dua Lipa having a big hit with. But Sabrina Carpenter has never got above number 19 before, and while she’s not a one-hit wonder, this is miles bigger than anything else she’s released. We’ll see if she can follow it up – her persona might be the sort of thing that only makes sense once she becomes a star.
