Charts – 3 December 2021
It’s the most predictable time of the year!
That’s seven weeks at number one. As we’ll see, the march of the Christmas singles is upon us – there are no new entries this week without a Christmas element. She’s almost certain to get shouldered aside next week, since Ed Sheeran has a Christmas single out. The other two Adele tracks, “I Drink Wine” and “Oh My God”, are at 5 and 6.
16. The Pogues featuring Kirsty MacColl – “Fairytale of New York”
Well, here we go again. This reached number 2 on release in 1987, and it’s charted every Christmas since 2005. Last year it spent five weeks in the top 10, peaking at number 4.
The Incomplete Wolverine – 1995
Part 1: Origin to Origin II | Part 2: 1907 to 1914
Part 3: 1914 to 1939 | Part 4: World War II
Part 5: The postwar era | Part 6: Team X
Part 7: Post Team X | Part 8: Weapon X
Part 9: Department H | Part 10: The Silver Age
1974-1975Â |Â 1976 | 1977 | 1978 | 1979Â
1980 | 1981 | 1982Â | 1983Â |Â 1984Â |Â 1985
1986Â | 1987 | 1988Â | 1989 | 1990 | 1991
1992Â |Â 1993 | 1994
When we left off, Wolverine was making his way back to New York after a year of touring the world and reflecting on his mortality – only for the whole storyline about his healing factor failing after his adamantium was removed to be summarily dumped. We’re in the mid-nineties now…
WOLVERINE vol 2 #89
“The Mask of Ogun”
by Larry Hama, Fabio Laguna, Joe Rubinstein & Marie Javins
January 1995
When the Ogun demon mask – supposedly destroyed in Kitty Pryde & Wolverine – shows up as an exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum, with Ogun’s spirit still hanging around, Wolverine and Ghost Rider investigate. Wolverine still has conflicted feelings about his old mentor, and is reluctant to simply kill him. But Ogun says the two of them are stuck in a loop where he, the “scientific warrior”, will be killed again and again by Wolverine, “the untamed beast.” Wolverine refuses to succumb to his bestial side, and claims to have split the difference between the sides of his personality. He destroys the mask, briefly exposing a second Wolverine underneath, who instantly vanishes into smoke and dust.
Apparently Ogun was trying to attack Wolverine by turning a part of himself against him, but it didn’t work because of the mental balance techniques that Wolverine learned long ago from Ogun himself. Or something. It’s all rather cryptic – it’s not really clear what Ogun is trying to achieve here, if indeed he has any goal in mind other than playing his role in a pre-ordained loop. Hama does come back to Ogun later, so the main aim may simply have been to get him back into play.
Oh, and Wolverine mentions in this story that he’s given up smoking.
House to Astonish Episode 195
A relatively quiet few weeks of news means a compact and bijou episode, but we still find time to talk about Amazon’s postponed assimilation of Comixology, Gina Gagliano leaving Random House Graphic, the launch of Zestworld, Oni signing with Lunar for distribution and Marvel’s announcement of Secret X-Men. We’ve also got reviews of King of Spies and Justice League Dark Annual, and the Official Handbook of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe is an absolute unit. All this plus a cross between luge and Cluedo, a shop selling lemons and the gentrification of Neopets.
The podcast is here, or here on Mixcloud, or available via the embedded player below. Let us know what you think, in the comments below, on Twitter, via email or via our Facebook fan page. And as always, remember that you can get our highly stylish t-shirts from our extremely convenient 24-hour shop on Redbubble.
Marauders #26 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
MARAUDERS #26
“Many Happy Returns”
by Gerry Duggan, Matteo Lolli & Rain Beredo
COVER / PAGE 1: Iceman fights Fin Fang Foom.
PAGE 2. Data page. It’s an opening quote by Iceman, talking about how his participation in terraforming Mars in Planet-Size X-Men #1 has led him to rethink (again) the upper limits of his powers. This is a common theme for Iceman stories.
PAGES 3-4. Sebastian and Emma take Harry Leland to the Hellfire Club Mansion in New York.
We’ll find out in a few pages time that this is Emma helping to ease Harry back into life after his resurrection. Harry Leland was a member of the classic line-up of the Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club who debuted in the Dark Phoenix Saga; he died fighting Nimrod in Uncanny X-Men vol 1 #209, as shown in flashback on page 4. By the standards of an Inner Circle member, he did show some genuine loyalty to his colleagues and he died semi-heroically fighting by their side; his depiction in this story as a basically genial fellow is broadly in line with his earlier appearances.
X-Men: The Trial of Magneto #4 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X-MEN: THE TRIAL OF MAGNETO #4
“Verdigris”
by Leah Williams, Lucas Werneck, David Messina & Edgar Delgado
COVER / PAGE 1:Â Three intertwined Scarlet Witches – one in the centre, one upside down, and one apparently made of branches.
PAGE 2. “Data page”, though in the magical designs used in this series (note the parchment effect). The spiral text is a description of the sensation of being reborn, with the narrator finally recollecting that they brought this about themselves. Presumably, this is Wanda describing the events of the flashback that follows.
PAGE 3. Flashback: The Five resurrect Wanda.
This presumably happens between pages 4 and 13 of issue #2. Hope takes the initiative to resurrect Wanda (just as she quietly ignored resurrection protocols to bring back Scout in New Mutants #21. As Hope points out, the Five are essentially untouchable because they’re vital to resurrection; they haven’t done much to use that political power.
New Mutants #23 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
NEW MUTANTS vol 4 #23
“The Truth Shall Set Them Free”
by Vita Ayala & Rod Reis
COVER / PAGE 1. The New Mutants looking down on us as scary dolls.
PAGES 2-3. Lost Club enter the Shadow King’s mind.
The previous issue ended with Lost Club arriving at the Shadow King’s home to find him standing over the unconscious New Mutants. We’re not told how the Shadow King wound up unconscious, though the art seems to suggest that Cosmar zapped him.
Once they enter the Shadow King’s mind, the art goes crazy, and stays that way for much of the issue. Rob Reis’s art on New Mutants is clearly influenced by Bill Sienkiewicz’s seminal run on the original title in the early 1980s, and that’s particularly clear here. The general thrust of the story (enter a mindscape and rescue the lost-child core persona) also seems like a homage to the first Legion arc from New Mutants vol 1 #26.
No-Girl, normally a disembodied brain in a jar, manifests on the astral plane with a body (albeit with a visible brain). Her psychic form is wearing a standard X-Men uniform, which presumably means she sees that as an important part of her persona despite the criticisms she’s made of Krakoa in this arc. Rain Boy and Cosmar also both look more human here, though not entirely so.
Charts – 26 November 2021
I mean, it’s not exactly a shock, is it?
1. Adele – “Easy on Me”
2. Adele – “Oh My God”
4. Adele – “I Drink Wine”
Adele’s fourth album, “30”, duly enters as her fourth number one, and would be dominating the singles charts if it weren’t for the three song limit. “Easy on Me” spends its sixth week at number one, while the two tracks that lead the pack are “Oh My God” and “I Drink Wine”.
X-Force: Killshot Anniversary Special #1
X-FORCE: KILLSHOT ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL #1
by Rob Liefeld, Chad Bowers, Bryan Valenza, Federico Blee & Mirza Wirawan
So this is a thing.
Commemorating the 30th anniversary of X-Force #1, this is a 33-page one-shot written and drawn by Rob Liefeld – the other listed creators are the scripter and the colourist – which… does pretty much what you’d expect?
Maybe not, actually. Liefeld sets up a perfectly decent premise for an anniversary one-shot. Cable is still fighting Stryfe through time and space, and for this mission he’s gathered an assortment of allies from across history, to take on Stryfe and his Mutant Liberation Front. There’s a passing mention that this version of the MLF is also from the past, or maybe an alternate timeline or… whatever, really. Not the same ones that are on Krakoa, which is the bit that actually matters.
So we know how that sort of premise plays out in an anniversary oneshot, right? You use it to gather cast members from across 30 years of continuity, you team them up in a supersquad, you play the hits. And god bless him, for Liefeld loses sight of that point pretty quickly.
X-Men #5 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X-MEN vol 6 #5
“Fearless, Chapter Five: Don’t Piss Off Polaris”
by Gerry Duggan, Javier Pina, Zé Carlos & Erick Arciniega
COVER / PAGE 1. A close-up of Dr Stasis (presumably), holding a scalpel, while his faceplate shows a reflection of a monster fighting Cyclops and Wolverine. It doesn’t help that this is the first time we’ve even had a clear view of Dr Stasis’s faceplate, but some of the red trim was visible in issue #3, and we also see it at the end of the issue.
The original solicitation for this issue read “The X-Men’s new nemesis finally makes himself known to them, bringing his creations to bear. Mutants may have conquered death, but their foes are all too living…” This is not really what happens in the issue – which has a scene where the X-Men fight some of Stasis’ creations, but not where he makes his own involvement known – so you have to wonder if the cover is a hangover from an earlier story concept.
PAGES 2-4. The X-Men fight the Reavers in Mexico.
The opening narration is a straight recap of the premise of the new Reavers, as established over in Duggan’s Marauders. Although they’re mostly made up of former mercenaries, their main motivation is supposed to be revenge on mutants for their injuries – from the look of it, they’re also taking on unrelated mercenary work now, but they also suggest that they were deliberately trying to provoke a fight with the X-Men.
Wolverine #18 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
WOLVERINE vol 7 #18
“Auction of Secrets”
by Benjamin Percy, Paco Diaz, Java Tartaglia & Dijjo Lima
PAGE 1: Generic shot of Wolverine still standing after gunfire. Nice lighting and integration of the logo, though. (Remember the days when characters still standing after this sort of damage was something that only happened in Lobo?)
PAGE 2. Jeff Bannister and Maverick at the hotel.
This continues directly from the end of the previous issue, when Maverick picked up the quarter that Bannister had dropped and returned it to him. Percy writes Maverick throughout this arc as if he’s mainly motivated by money, which isn’t really the traditional take on him – he’s a lifelong mercenary but he was hardly an antihero in his 90s solo title.
The final panel is probably meant to light Maverick so that the shadows on his face reflect the design on his mask, but it winds up looking a bit odd.
