Daredevil Villains #41: Black Spectre
DAREDEVIL #108-112 (March to August 1974)
“Cry… Beetle!” / “Dying for Dollar$!” / “Birthright!” / “Sword of the Samurai!” / “Death of a Nation?”
Writer: Steve Gerber
Penciller: Bob Brown (#108-109, 111), Gene Colan (#110, 112)
Inker: Paul Gulacy (#108), Don Heck (#109), Frank Chiaramonte (#110), Jim Mooney (#111), Frank Giacoia (#112)
Letterer: John Costanza (#108), Artie Simek (#109-110), Tom Orzechowski (#111), Annette Kawecki (#112)
Colourist: Petra Goldberg (#108-109, 112), Linda Lessmann (#110-111)
Editor: Roy Thomas
There are several noteworthy things about the Black Spectre arc. On the most basic level, it takes the book back to New York. Foggy Nelson, who we haven’t seen since issue #87, has been shot by a sniper, and Matt Murdock returns to Manhattan to help out. At first, the story presents this as a brief visit. But Matt won’t go back to San Francisco until issue #116, and even then it’s just to tie up loose ends. The reality is that from issue #108 onwards, this is a New York book again.
As for Moondragon, who was introduced with great fanfare in the last story, she’s instantly written out.
But that’s not the most striking thing about the storyline. Until now, Steve Gerber’s Daredevil has been a fairly normal comic, at least by the standards of Steve Gerber. Sure, there’s Angar the Screamer and his LSD powers. But the book has mostly stayed within normal Marvel parameters. Even when it’s ventured into stranger territory, it’s drawn on Jim Starlin concepts.
Charts – 29 November 2024
It’s been a long time since we had a genuinely busy week. Now we’ve got one, and surprisingly, it’s not just the Christmas records that are responsible.
1. Gracie Abrams – “That’s So True”
Four weeks. She must have a good chance of hanging on until whatever Christmas record dethrones her, since she heads up a static top 3. Bear in mind that almost all the Christmas records are at the disadvantage of being permanently downweighted, because they’re back catalogue tracks – Abrams would have been number one this week anyway, but not by much.
4. Kendrick Lamar – “Squabble Up”
5. Kendrick Lamar & SZA – “Luther”
6. Kendrick Lamar featuring Lefty Gunplay – “TV Off”
The maximum three tracks from his sixth album “GNX”, which got a surprise release and enters at number 1 on the album chart. His only previous UK number 1 album was “To Pimp a Butterfly” in 2015; the two albums since then both got stuck at number 2. “Damn” (2017) landed behind Ed Sheeran’s “Divide” in its seventh week, but “Mr Morale & The Big Steppers” (2022) was beaten by the first week sales of a Florence & The Machine album that had far less staying power.
The X-Axis – w/c 25 November 2024
X-MEN: FROM THE ASHES INFINITY COMIC #25. By Tim Seeley, Eric Koda, KJ Díaz & Clayton Cowles. Apparently this is the final issue, though that really just means that they’re changing the name of the book. You can’t keep naming it after the relaunch forever, after all. It’s the end of the Thanksgiving arc with Beak and his family, and it doesn’t do anything that will come as a huge surprise. At the end of the last issue, Beak was downcast and depressed to learn that the Beast hadn’t been working on a cure for his daughter after all. In this issue, a chance encounter restores his sense of hope. It’s very sentimental – it’s playing the dying child card, after all – but you can get away with that in a holiday story. And it does get away with it, through some gentle pacing and some nicely observed detail both in writing and art. It’s a lot better than a summary makes it sound.
UNCANNY X-MEN #6. (Annotations here.) This is a transition issue between the “Red Wave” arc and the “Raid on Graymalkin” crossover – although you could equally bill it as the first part of “Raid on Graymalkin”, since it sees two of the main cast get captured and carted off to jail. But it’s got a fill-in artist, Javier Garrón, which might explain why it’s being classed as something separate. Good art, though – closer to Nick Bradshaw than regular artist David Marquez, but a clean line and a storng sense of body language suit the book.
Uncanny X-Men #6 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
UNCANNY X-MEN vol 6 #6
“The Change in Ourselves”
Writer: Gail Simone
Artist: Javier Garrón
Colourist: Matthew Wilson
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Tom Brevoort
THE X-MEN:
Wolverine still hasn’t regained his eyesight, even though some time has obviously passed since the last issue (as Marcus has had time to get the Outliers into school). This is unusual for Wolverine but nobody comments on it, so it may just be an editorial decision to drag Wolverine’s healing powers back into more sensible territory than it’s been pitched at in recent years.
He explains that he’s depressed because he recently acquired a bottle of tequila for outliving the last of a bunch of army friends. We saw Logan collect this bottle from a dying friend near the start of issue #1, but the criteria for him “winning” it weren’t explained. Rogue‘s conclusion is that Wolverine has PTSD which has never been properly treated, which seems reasonable enough – many stories over the years have suggested that Wolverine’s healing factor attempts to deal with psychiatric injury but only in rather unhelpful ways, such as suppressing painful memories. Wolverine isn’t convinced, ahd points out that she isn’t a therapist.
Gambit proves surprisingly effective at persuading Calico to accept that she’s a mutant – he ascribes it to her needing a new parent figure. Parenthood is a major theme of this series so far, and the basic premise of Sarah Gaunt’s character.
Charts – 22 November 2024
We may be about to be hit with the Christmas deluge, but it turns out we’re getting one last surge of actual new entries before the snowfall.
1. Gracie Abrams – “That’s So True”
That’s three weeks. It has peaked, though. The top 3 is static, with “Sailor Song” at 2 and “APT” at 3.
4. Sam Fender – “People Watching”
This is the lead single (and title track) from his third album. The previous two albums both went to number 1, though, and a three year gap has done him no harm. It’s only his third top ten hit, and one of those was as a guest on a Noah Kahan single. The other was his biggest hit, “Seventeen Going Under”, which reached number 3. This one is on similar lines, although I’m fairly sure it’s the only hit single of the year to mention kittiwakes.
The X-Axis – w/c 18 November 2024
X-MEN: FROM THE ASHES INFINITY COMIC #24. By Tim Seeley, Eric Koda, KJ Díaz & Clayton Cowles. Well, we’ve done the Thanksgiving stuff, so it’s time for the plot. There’s a reason of sorts for the Bohusk family to show up at the Factory without anyone expecting them, though it doesn’t exactly work. One of the kids is seriously ill, and the Beast is meant to be finding them a solution. But it turns out that conversation was back on Krakoa, and the current version of the Beast doesn’t know anything about it. Now, on a mechanical level, this doesn’t really work – what, the Beast said “drop by wherever I happen to be at Thanksgiving next year”? And if you stop to think about it, would that version of the Beast have actually done anything about it anyway, or would he just have been fobbing Beak off? But even so, it’s a good moment as Beast tries to bluff his way through the conversation and the penny drops for Beak that nobody’s been looking at this problem at all. That works, and Koda’s art really sells Beak as a beleaguered everyman.
EXCEPTIONAL X-MEN #3. (Annotations here.) You might question billing the trainee book as an X-Men title, but the comic itself is working. Okay, yes, there are a few suggestions around the edges here that Eve Ewing has some odd ideas about the extent of Kate and Emma’s early relationship, and the kids are remarkably relaxed about mind control… but the three new mutants are well defined characters, with Carmen Carnero’s art really helping to get their personalities across through their body language. And we have a distinct hook on the trainee book, with Kate wanting to help them to live in the normal world, Emma wanting to draw them into the X-Men’s orbit, and the kids having their own views on matters. It’s basically a character driven title relying on the regular cast for conflict, but it’s making that work. One of the successes of the “From the Ashes” period.
Storm #2 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
STORM vol 5 #2
“Death by Voodoo”
Writer: Murewa Ayodele
Artist: Lucas Werneck
Colour artist: Alex Guimarães
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Editor: Tom Brevoort
STORM:
Storm is still sick from her exposure to radiation in the previous issue; she’s coughing up blood and losing some of her hair. Nonetheless, she has no trouble taking down a group of pirates off the coast of Nigeria. the captain isn’t especially grateful. She wears a white costume for this, rather than the black one from last issue, so apparently she’s going to be cycling through the wardrobe.
For treatment, Storm heads to the Night and Daye Hospital for the Extramundane in Arkansas (see below), which she’s apparently learned about from the Avengers. The X-Men are apparently the only major superhero group not to contribute to this facility, although they’ve evidently never used it either. Still, Storm decides she ought to be making a contribution and hands over what she describes as a ruby that belonged to her mother. If this is meant to be the ruby from her 1970s costume, then that’s a continuity error, because X-Men vol 2 #60 already established that she stole that jewel from Candra. But maybe she just has two really big rubies lying around. Anyway, Storm learns that she has “radiation syndrome” which is going to kill her in six hours, and is packed off to Dr Voodoo for help.
Phoenix #5 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
PHOENIX #5
Writer: Stephanie Phillips
Artists: Alessandro Miracolo & Marco Renna
Colour artist: David Curiel
Letterer: Cory Petit
Editor: Annalise Bissa
PHOENIX
Last issue, Phoenix fought Gorr and was seemingly killed by him. The final page showed her body stirring, Perrikus’ narration talked about how she always came back stronger from death, and the final panel showed her coming back to life surrounded by the Phoenix Force effect. But… no, this issue opens with her just dead again, and she comes back to life on page 11 in a way that looks different. So god knows what we were meant to take from the final page of the previous issue, but in practice we should apparently just ignore it.
While dead, Jean meets Eternity, who gives her a pep talk about needing to think like a cosmic entity instead of an overpowered human. A similar point was made in issue #1 when she let Perrikus escape the prison. Eternity is basically arguing that if Jean is going to be Phoenix, then that means transcending her humanity and ascending outright to the Marvel pantheon of cosmic beings – even saving the odd planet here and there is small scale stuff.
Wolverine #3 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
WOLVERINE vol 8 #3
“Hunter and Hunted”
Writer: Saladin Ahmed
Artist: Martín Cóccolo
Colour artist: Bryan Valenza
Letterer: Cory Petit
Editor: Mark Basso
WOLVERINE:
Nice and straightforward, this issue.
Wolverine is still trying to protect the new Wendigo from Department H, whom he correctly assumes will try to kill the creature. His reasoning is that (1) Department H are hunting the Wendigo because they blame it for the murders that Cyber committed in issue #1, and (2) Cyber was only in the area to commit those murders in the first place because he was looking for Wolverine. This chain of events is hardly Wolverine’s fault, but it fits with his general view that he brings disaster to innocent people when he tries to hang around with them (just as he blamed himself for the death of the wolf pack in issue #1). Last issue, he placed somewhat more emphasis on the idea that the new Wendigo was itself trying to resist its violent instincts, and he still stresses that point here.
In this interpretation, Wolverine isn’t exactly prone to berserker rage, but is prone to acting on instinct, so that he’s likely to respond violently to an attack in the moment. This takes the form of momentary lapses rather than uncontrollable violence; he has to make an effort to resist his instincts, but he can do it.
Exceptional X-Men #3 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
EXCEPTIONAL X-MEN #3
Writer: Eve L Ewing
Artist: Carmen Carnero
Colour artist: Nolan Woodard
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Editor: Tom Brevoort
THE X-MEN:
Kate Pryde demands that Emma let the three teenagers go, and complains about Emma’s controlling nature, for several pages before giving in and fighting her. Kate is either immune to, or able to resist, Emma’s telepathy. There’s a precedent for this, with a handful of late Claremont stories claiming that Kate is resistant to telepathy while phased (we’re talking about the likes of X-Men: True Friends #2 here, mind you). Or, alternatively, she just has plenty of psychic training.
After Priti calms the situation, Kate grudgingly concedes that Emma is basically trustworthy and would be a very good teacher for the youngsters. However, she draws the line at taking the kids to a hidden base, and insists on training them in their community, in line with her general agenda in this series of wanting to return to the human world. Even then, she resists calling this project a “mutant dojo”. She tries to talk the kids out of aspiring to be heroes, though she accepts that they need enough training to defend themselves. She also disapproves of giving the kids codenames and costumes when they’re completely untrained and unqualified; it’s precisely what Professor X did with her, but she now thinks that was wrong. She’s hugely unimpressed with Emma ambushing the kids with a psychic illusion to see how they react.
