Charts – 29 December 2013
Welcome to the annual Weird Chart. Once upon a time, the two charts after Christmas were basically a write-off because the shops were closed for so long. In the download era, that’s no longer a consideration, but almost nobody releases new material in Christmas week because of the near impossibility of getting anyone to pay attention. Next week’s chart will be a bit closer to normal, as Pitbull tries to sneak himself a number one.
In the meantime, we have a chart in which the top 75 is basically shoved into a blender and rearranged in a random order. This is because, even though there’s no new material available, there are plenty of people who got gift cards or MP3 players for Christmas, and who want to fill them up. Cue the march of the re-entries…
Longshot Saves The Marvel Universe
Marvel’s publishing strategy over the last year or two has shifted away from the scattering of under promoted miniseries that used to reliably prop up the bottom end of the chart, and understandably so, since most of them were basically thrown out there to die unmourned and unnoticed. A few of these books do still emerge, though, and since they’re no longer a dime a dozen, they get a bit more attention than before.
Longshot Saves The Marvel Universe is one of these oddities. Whatever may have prompted Marvel to publish a Longshot miniseries written by Christopher Hastings (the creator of Adventures of Dr McNinja) and drawn by Jacopo Camagni (who’s done a scattering of work on the likes of Marvel Adventures: The Avengers), it surely wasn’t visions of dollar signs.
House to Astonish Episode 116
It’s our Christmas gift to you – a slightly belated podcast featuring discussion of the casting of Ant-Man, Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s Sandman movie, Shia LaBoeuf’s plagiarism, Matt Fraction leaving Inhuman and Zeb Wells leaving Elektra, the return of Stray Bullets, Mike Carey and Salvador Larocca’s X-Men OGN and Stephen Wacker’s job move. We’re also reviewing The Illegitimates, The Midas Flesh and Harley Quinn, and the Official Handbook of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe is just your dad really.
Hear! Al briefly sing a They Might Be Giants tune. Boggle! At both Paul and Al admitting that they really don’t get one of the most celebrated newspaper strips of all time. Wonder! If there is no awards ceremony because Al was too disorganised to ask for nominations (yes). All this plus a clown car, a pint of drawing pins and the Coen brothers movie that’s happening behind the DC offices.
The podcast is here, or here on Mixcloud, or available via the player below. Let us know what you think, in the comments, on Twitter, via email, or on our Facebook fan page. Don’t forget that we’ve got our t-shirt store open 24/7 if you want to spend some of that Christmas money Granny gave you, and we’ll see you again in the new year.
Uncanny X-Force #10-15
Hey, six issues of Revenants! You know, the story we started back in issue #1!
The pace of Uncanny X-Force might charitably be called stately. It’s not “decompressed” in the classic sense; plenty happens. But much of what happens is layers of complication that drag out a fairly basic plot way beyond its natural lifespan. We’re now a year into the title’s life, and not only are we still on the first storyline, but the titular team hasn’t even formed yet! And they’re being cancelled in a couple of months!
Charts – 22 December 2013
Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to our annual detour into the utterly predictable parallel world of the Christmas Chart, where regular music fears to tread. In fact, it’s so predictable that for the most part irregular music fears to tread here as well, leaving us with what’s mostly a motley collection of reality show tie-ins and failed Facebook campaigns.
Let’s take the album chart first, since it’s dead. “Swings Both Ways” by Robbie Williams is the Christmas number one. Literally nothing else is happening. Right, onto the singles.
40. John Newman – “Love Me Again”
Originally a number 1 hit in July, I’m honestly not sure why this is suddenly back.
39. Little Mix – “Little Me”
Cable & X-Force #15-17
A three-parter of which it can truly be said, “That was three issues of Cable & X-Force.”
This series completed its initial storyline in issue #14, with Hope having joined the team, and the source of Cable’s visions having been explained. Now, we get something that’s actually quite rare in modern superhero comics – a routine story in which the heroes simply have an adventure within their status quo. It’s not something that fits very well with the fashion for making every story long enough to justify a collected edition.
Charts – 15 December 2013
It’s the final chart before Christmas number one, which means it’s a calm week before next week’s flurry of novelty records overambitiously going head to head with the X Factor winner (for, yes, they’ve gone back to gunning for the Christmas Number One this year).
Still, there’s a bit of activity this week – and some massive climbers that would have been high new entries if they hadn’t snuck into the low thirties last week…
This week’s token back catalogue re-entry. Good to see Andrew Ridgley remains financially secure.
36. Sub Focus – “Turn Back Time”
Uncanny X-Men #15.INH
So this is Marvel’s new thing, then – sticking file extensions on the end of issue numbers to signal crossover stories. Hallelujah. With this out of the box thinking, the industry is saved.
Uncanny X-Men #15.INH doesn’t work. Or at least, it doesn’t work if you’ve been skipping the build-up to Inhumanity – which I have. But since this issue’s primary purpose is apparently to advertise Inhumanity to Uncanny X-Men readers, you would certain hope that it would be aiming to capture the interest of people coming to the event fresh. In this, it fails.
WWE TLC
One of the strangest cards the WWE has given us in quite some time. TLC is usually a pretty minor show. It’s a hangover from the days when hardcore matches – and specifically Tables, Ladders and [steel] Chairs – were regular features in the WWE, something they’ve wisely moved away from in recent years. It now sits on the schedule as an odd little quirk, with matches somewhat toned down from earlier years. It’s the December show, and usually marks time before the “Road to Wrestlemania” gets under way with the Royal Rumble in January.
Which made it something of a surprise when, out of nowhere, and with only three weeks of promotion, they announced…
1. WWE Title & World Heavyweight Title – Tables Ladders & Chairs Match: John Cena © v Randy Orton ©. Yes, completely out of nowhere, it’s the long overdue unification match between the Raw and Smackdown titles.
Charts – 8 December 2013
Everything’s in mid storyline this week, and I still haven’t found time to read that second Wolverine Max TPB, so let’s do this while it’s fresh. It’s a quiet week on the release schedule, as we’re entering the phase where regular record promotion winds down for the Christmas break. Which leaves the number one slot wide open for a change.
39. Justin Bieber – “Change Me”
The penultimate “Music Mondays” track is another one that would not normally have been considered for singles release in a million years. Actually, looking back, this seems to be a weirdly uncommercial album for somebody like him. This is the lowest charting of the nine released to date, but the tenth and final song is getting a music video and some degree of regular promotion, so I expect it to do better.
