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.
The X-Axis – 4 October 2026
DNX #2. (Annotations here.) This is the busiest week we’ve had in ages. Three ongoing titles, one event mini, one event tie-in, two miniseries and an out of continuity mini that seems worth a look anyway. So yes, we’re going to take some of this fairly quickly.
DNX is going for the now hallowed Marvel crossover format where the main story clearly belongs in Title A, but for some reason it’s taking place in Miniseries B while Title A does character spotlights in the margins. I don’t really get the thinking, but if doesn’t really matter as long as you’re willing to think of this issue as X-Men #37.5. The first two issues of DNX basically consist of the X-Men storming 3K’s Mothership and failing to stop the release of the virus, while Hank and Reed discuss how they’re going to retrieve the message from Magneto’s DNA. And all of that is pretty much how you’d expect it to play out, the only real twist being the misdirection about the release site – it feels like we should probably have got to this point by the end of issue #1, if you’re going to make it a separate miniseries. Then again, if these were just issues of X-Men, I probably wouldn’t be saying that, would I?
X-Men United #7
X-MEN UNITED #7
“Shadow Play, part 3”
Writers: Eve L Ewing & Evan Narcisse
Penciller: Ruairí Coleman
Inkers: Ruairí Coleman & Victor Olazaba
Colour artist: Brian Reber
Letterer: Joe Sabino
Editor: Annalise Bissa
COVER: Wolverine fighting Blade.
It’s been seven weeks since the last issue came out, but that is indeed how it was solicited. For what it’s worth, the original solicitation for this issue had Eve Ewing as the sole writer, and Tiago Palma (who drew issue #6) as the artist, but describe the same plot.
PAGES 1-3. Wolverine and Blade squabble.
Wither. He and Blade showed up at the end of the previous issue, with Wither asking for help and claiming that it was an emergency. This story is his first significant appearance in the X-books since he died in X-Force #25 in 2010, although it was established that he had been resurrected on Krakoa. He was last seen in Love Unlimited Infinity Comic #43-44, a Gwenpool story, where he seemed to have gained control of his powers. The story is a bit hazy about where that stands – he claims at one point that he was unwilling to go to the Storm Sanctuary because his powers were so dangerous, but later on he tells Bloodline that what’s happened to him has “messed with his control”, which implies that he was in control.
Uncanny X-Men #36 annotations
UNCANNY X-MEN vol 6 #36
“Wild Ride, part 4: Rights of Rage”
Writer: Gail Simone
Artist: Luciano Vecchio
Colour artist: Matthew Wilson
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Tom Brevoort
COVER: Gambit staring vacantly in the foreground, with his Eye of Agamotto crying blood behind him.
PAGE 1. Flashback: The Iron Cathedral.
So yeah, I feel like sticking with this format again for a while. It’s probably a better fit for this issue anyway.
The Iron Cathedral. This was first mentioned by Rogue in issue #33, and was mentioned again by Repent at the end of the previous issue, which also showed an image of it. That panel was rather clearer than this issue in showing it to be in the open air, with other parts of the landscape visible around it.
X-Men #38 annotations
X-MEN vol 7 #38
“Magneto”
Writer: Jed MacKay
Penciller: Tony S Daniel
Inker: Mark Morales
Colourist: Fer Sifuentes-Sujo
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Tom Brevoort
COVER: A montage of images of Magneto in various costumes from the course of his career. From left to right, the black and red costume is from Uncanny X-Men vol 4 (the Cullen Bunn run where Sabretooth was on the team); the purple costume is from when he first joined the X-Men; the white costume is from Uncanny X-Men vol 3 (the Brian Bendis “Mutant Revolution” run), although it also cropped up a lot in the Krakoa era; and the red and purple one is Silver Age Magneto. The present day Magneto is seated in front of them.
PAGE 1. Magneto remembers being attacked by the Chairman.
This is from the end of issue #36. The dialogue in the first two flashback panels is from that issue, but the final line – “There. I understand that I am doing you a terrible indignity, so please let it all out” – is original.
The other panels show Magneto in a blank landscape which is apparently the interior of his own mind. Note that in his own mind, he still presents in the classic Magneto costume.
