Charts – 19 June 2026
Well, someone still cares about being number one.
1. Taylor Swift – “I Knew It, I Knew You”
Two weeks, but that turns out to be because they held back over 40,000 CD copies to ship in week two. That accounts for more than half of its chart point this week; on streaming alone, it would have been number 7. That means we can be fairly sure that it won’t be number 1 next week. But hey, at least she has the satisfaction of stopping…
2. Olivia Rodrigo – “Stupid Song”
This is the release week single from her third album “You Seem Pretty Sad For A Girl So In Love”, which enters the album chart as her third number 1. She also has “The Cure” at number 3 and “Drop Dead” at number 5, so this is still very much her week. The album has enough points to beat the rest of the top 10 combined, and while a majority of that comes from first-week physical sales, she would have been number 1 by a wide margin on streaming alone.
The X-Axis – 17 June 2026
UNCANNY X-MEN #30. (Annotations here.) Part 1 of “Mars Needs Mutants”, though the suspect-looking alien invasion is more of a B-plot in this issue, while we focus on the Outliers finally going to that school dance that was mentioned back in issue #21. That issue came out last September, which feels like an awfully long time for that kind of subplot to come to a head, but there we are. And this is playing to the book’s strengths, so I’m happy to see it. There are a ton of character subplots going on here, which means that the main story can get away with being fairly lightweight – though I really do like Rogê Antônio’s art on the opening scene with the alien abduction. I’m less sure about the Greymalkin material – why aren’t they just releasing the likes of Dazzler, even if they want to hand over everyone else to a legitimate prison? And please let’s not sent Blob back to being a villain, he was so much more enjoyable as a bartender. But a pretty fun opening issue for the arc.
X-MEN UNITED #4. (Annotations here.) This book has been rough so far, but issue #4 is at least a step in the right direction, with a more manageable cast and a focus on character interaction. Still, it remains a puzzling book. Issue #1 set up Graymatter Lane as a school, but it seems to have lost interest in that whole angle. And while it’s more of an editorial issue, I’m baffled by the decision to have Ben Liu show up in this book with apparent control of his powers, since it cuts across his long-term storyline in Jed MacKay’s X-Men. Ben being able to do something useful with his powers ought to be a big moment in that book, not something that’s already happened off panel before an issue of X-Men United. And yes, the set-up of this issue is downright contrived – I can just about believe that Scott gets talked into a team-building RPG game by Bobby, but Emma? Really? Come on. And the art is perfectly acceptable but rarely much more than that (though Palma does seem to be enjoying the splash page reveal of the RPG world). So there’s a way to go, but… like I say, a step in the right direction.
Inglorious X-Force #6 annotations
INGLORIOUS X-FORCE #6
“Less Than Zero”
Writer: Tim Seeley
Artist: Michael Sta. Maria
Colour artist: Romulo Dajardo Jr
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Editor: Mark Basso
COVER: X-Force, with Kali in the background.
X-FORCE:
Cable. The previous issue ended with Cable turning out to be possessed by some green monster thing, wiping Domino’s memories and abandoning her. We’ll come back to Domino below, but so far as this issue is concerned, Cable seems to have no memory of any of this. We see him briefly turn into the same monster form for a single panel while he’s remotely directing X-Force’s fight against the Mutant Liberation Front in this issue, but he doesn’t seem to remember anything about it afterwards. Presumably, all this is ultimately going to explain the memory gaps that prevented him from remembering who killed Kamala in the future timeline in issue #1. Most likely, it’s going to be him, and the idea is that he wrote down the names of the X-Force members because they’d be able to stop him, not because they were suspects at all.
Oblivious to all this (or possibly being directed by the creature on some level), Cable turns his attention to the new Mutant Liberation Front from issue #1. His rationale is that his “one of us” message must have meant that some other mutant was responsible, and the MLF are a candidate because Kali is radicalising its members against other mutants who aren’t on board with their politics, such as Stryfe.
X-Men United #4 annotations
X-MEN UNITED #4
“Ancient Orc Oaken Arclight”
Writer: Eve L Ewing
Artist: Tiago Palma
Colour artist: Brian Reber
Letterer: Joe Sabino
Editor: Tom Brevoort
COVER: Cyclops and Deathdream under attack from some sort of frost monster. Not a scene from the issue.
THE X-MEN:
Iceman. His solution to the tension between Scott and Emma in issues #1-2 is to get them to play what he describes as a specially tailored version of Ancient Orc Oaken Arclight. From the sound of it this would normally be a standard issue Dungeons & Dragons style RPG, but for this purpose. Iceman seems to be a fan, though god knows who he’s been playing it with in the past. Maybe there was a regular game on Krakoa.
Somehow, he’s actually convinced Scott and Emma to play along with this, and he’s roped in Rogue and Ben Liu to help out. Nobody else seems to be quite as keen on the actual game as him, but they do seem to be on board with it as a team building exercise, with varying degrees of reluctance. The game he’s designed seems pretty generic, but then he is doing it with rookie players. It’s clearly intended as a scenario to force Scott and Emma to work together, but it doesn’t get anywhere near his intended plot points before actual monsters show up to derail things.
Uncanny X-Men #30 annotations
UNCANNY X-MEN vol 6 #30
“Mars Needs Mutants”
Writer: Gail Simone
Artist: Rogê Antônio
Colour artist: Matthew Wilson
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Tom Brevoort
COVER: Jubilee, Wolverine and Nightcrawler react to a B-movie-style alien invasion. The story title is presumably a reference to the 1968 TV movie Mars Needs Women.
THE X-MEN.
The previous issue ended with Rogue saying that she was planning to go on a journey to see someone who could help Gambit, and asking Monet and Quicksilver to run the X-Men in her absence. In fact, in this issue, Monet and Quicksilver are still sorting out the mess at Greymalkin Prison, so apparently not enough time has passed for anything to happen about this. Nonetheless, Rogue doesn’t appear in this issue.
Gambit. He takes Calico to the collectible store to buy a present for Jitter. It’s not spelled out here, but the pairings with the individual Outliers match the mentoring assignments from issue #9 (other than Nightcrawler, who ought to be with Jitter – he’s otherwise engaged, and she doesn’t appear much in this story). In this issue, Gambit seems to be behaving relatively normally – he argues with the store owner when he’s mean to Calico, but only goes beyond that when the man overreacts by threatening him with a baseball bat. He shows up at the dance in chaperone role, again seeming fairly normal.
Charts – 12 June 2026
You know, I think we might finally be rid of “Rein Me In”.
1. Taylor Swift – “I Knew It, I Knew You”
This is from the soundtrack of Toy Story 5, and yes, this collection of clips from previous Toy Story films is the official video. It’s a song written specifically for the film, from Jessie’s perspective. Taylor Swift doing her best Randy Newman, basically.
It’s her seventh UK number one single. The others are “Look What You Made Me Do” (2017), “Anti-Hero” (2022), “Is It Over Now (Taylor’s Version” (2023), “Fortnight” (2024), “Opalite” (2025) and “The Fate of Ophelia” (2025). The list skews very heavily to the later part of her career, though there’s a degree of bad luck in there, since she had number 2 hits in 2009, 2012 and 2014.
The X-Axis – 10 June 2026
X-MEN #31. (Annotations here.) This is the first part of a new arc, as the X-Men’s Science Team – in other words, the supporting cast plus Kid Omega – investigate a weird gravitational anomaly in Canada, where chunks of mountain are floating around. In other words, we’re picking up on Schwartzchild, who was kicked off the 3K ship back in issue #24 and has apparently been lying unconscious in a ditch ever since. Given that Schwartzchild ends up as an X-Man in “Age of Revelation”, presumably we’re heading towards a face turn here, if the other 3K victims in the cast will tolerate having him around. While the floating chunks of rock make sure that there’s something to look at here, the bottom line is that this is a character issue for the supporting cast – the only villain is Schwartzchild, and he’s out cold. I like the idea of Beast trying to establish a non-combatant wing of the X-Men, particularly as he’s trying to set himself up in opposition to his counterpart from 3K, and it’s good to see the likes of Ben and Xorn get some development. A solid start to the new arc.
WOLVERINE #21. (Annotations here.) Sort of a downtime issue, with Nightcrawler dragging Wolverine to Waikiki for some relaxation. There’s a random fight with Titania and the Absorbing Man, who happen to be passing, and that’s pretty much it in terms of the issue’s plot. More broadly, it seems we’re doing a storyline where Wolverine’s healing factor isn’t working, and it’s hitting the broader theme of Wolverine bringing trouble with him which is sort of his own fault for rising to the bait. But all this feels quite familiar, and it’s a middling issue in terms of plot. Julius Ohta’s art is the strong spot here – he does give us a nice sense of Wolverine starting to relax, and then getting into self-pity at the end. And his fight scenes are pretty energetic. Overall, it’s fine.
Wolverine vol 8 #21
WOLVERINE vol 8 #21
“Broken”
Writer: Saladin Ahmed
Artist: Julius Ohta
Colour artist: Jesus Aburtov
Letterer: Cory Petit
Editor: Mark Basso
COVER: Wolverine and Nightcrawler. Wolverine still has all his claws, presumably to avoid spoilers for the previous issue in the solicitations.
WOLVERINE:
In issue #19, he lost the adamantium on his right-hand claws and broke the claws themselves while fighting the Adamantine. As the issue starts, he’s back at home – Haven House from Uncanny X-Men, which hasn’t been mentioned up to this point – and still recuperating. He’s having nightmares about events from the series to date: Mastermind posing as his mother in issues #11-12, and losing Silver Sable after being rejected by the New Morlocks last issue. He’s moping about how he breaks nice things by being around them, and misses Sable more than he expected.
X-Men #31 annotations
X-MEN vol 7 #31
“Anomaly”
Writer: Jed MacKay
Penciller: Tony S Daniel
Inker: Mark Morales
Colourist: Fer Sifuentes-Sujo
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Tom Brevoort
COVER: The X-Men’s Science Team in action. The cover gives the story title as “Anomaly, part 1”, but the credits page just has it as “Anomaly”.
THE X-MEN:
Aside from Kid Omega, the regular field team don’t appear in this issue – instead, it’s a story about the Science Team, comprising Beast, Magneto, Xorn, Animalia, Ben Liu and the aforementioned Kid Omega. For most purposes I class these guys as the supporting cast, but they’re clearly the stars of this issue.
The Beast. He describes himself as the team’s “provisional field leader”, so apparently they’re a new thing. We’re not told exactly what’s prompted that, but the previous arc saw Beast going on a rare field mission and saving the day by being the one person who tried to deal with Leviathan in a non-violent way. Possibly this has encouraged him to take a more active role generally in offering an alternative version of the X-Men. If so, he seems rather defensive about it, reminding his team of (mostly) non-combatants that they’re not a “paramilitary strike force”.
Housekeeping
Annotations will be up on Friday this week. In the meantime, why not listen to this week’s podcast?
