The X-Axis: w/c 3 April 2023
So, the review backlog has got to unwieldy proportions. It’s time to go for a fresh start and round out each week with a quick run through of all the week’s X-books. This week, that means…
IMMORAL X-MEN #3. (Annotations here.) The Sins of Sinister crossover enters its third month, with Sinister and Rasputin as practically the only characters left in a galaxy dominated by corrupted versions of the Quiet Council who have all gone to seed. Alessandro Vitti is the artist for this final phase, and I rather like the smeary griminess of it all; it’s sci-fi, but long after everything started falling apart. The structural gimmicks of the story are a tricky balancing act but I think it’s worked nicely so far, with the three books following different threads even if you do need to be reading all the titles to fully understand what’s going on. But what I really like is the meta theme that’s emerged both here and in Storm and the Brotherhood of Mutants #2: as readers, our inclination is to root for the timeline to be reset, but the handful of remaining heroic characters, true to their never-say-die ideals, want to stop that happening. Because of course they do. It’s the destruction of the universe. That’s a nice little subversion of the tropes.
WOLVERINE #32. (Annotations here.) Well, if you enjoy monologues covering basically the same territory as the previous issue, only again, you’ll love this issue, in which Beast spells out everything he spelled out in the previous issue, only again. All that being said, my basic problem with the Beast storyline isn’t the premise so much as the fact that it was allowed to escalate to absurd proportions before anyone acted against him. I do wonder whether this is a book that suffered from the decision to extend the Krakoan period, since if it had ended as originally scheduled, then Beast’s schemes would have come crashing down not too long after his secret conquest of a South American nation came to light, which would have worked fine. Instead it’s had to try and keep finding ways to escalate.
Wolverine #32 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
WOLVERINE vol 7 #32
“Weapons of X, part 2”
Writer: Benjamin Percy
Artist: Juan José Ryp
Colourist: Frank D’Armata
Letterer: Cory Petit
Design: Tom Muller with Jay Bowen
Editor: Mark Basso
COVER / PAGE 1. The real Wolverine amidst an army of Beast’s clones.
PAGES 2-4. Beast’s Wolverine clones kill Lord Stewart.
Lord Stewart is a one-off character. Some publishers try to avoid using the names of real people; Marvel’s legal department is apparently made of sterner stuff.
“Since the UK pulled out of the treaty…” Back at the first Hellfire Gala, thanks to the machinations of Coven Akkaba over in Excalibur.
The Krakoan flowers were sourced via Maverick, as he confirms in passing on page 15. It’s rather odd for Lord Stewart to plant the things here and then express surprise that the local wildlife are eating them (particularly as the stag will be part of a herd that he deliberately keeps for hunting purposes), but then he’s probably not meant to be very bright.
Beast presumably deems this an assassination-worthy event because Stewart is trying to break the monopoly on Krakoan plants, but that’s hardly much of an excuse. And, of course, the poor stalker is there to make sure that we have an unequivocal victim.
The Wolverine clones are all wearing the same control collars that Beast put on the real Wolverine in the previous arc – implying that there would be a real risk of this going very badly wrong for him if one of them happened to get cut free.
Immoral X-Men #3 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
IMMORAL X-MEN #3
“Sins of Sinister, part 8: Our Nine-Hundred-Years-and-Counting Mission”
Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artist: Alessandro Vitti
Colourist: Rain Beredo
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Design: Jay Bowen
Editor: Jordan D White
COVER / PAGE 1: Sinister and Rasputin on the run from Exodus.
PAGE 2. Data page, with an opening quote from Candide. Candide is a satire on Gottfried Leibniz’s philosophy. Basically, Leibniz argued that if a better world was possible, God would have created that world instead. Therefore, this must be as good as it gets, and what appear to us to be flaws must in fact be optimum in the grand scheme of things, albeit for reasons that we may not be able to grasp. (This philosophy is often referred to as “optimism”, which didn’t have its modern meaning in Leibniz’s day; for modern readers, “optimum-ism” is probably a fairer reflection of what he was getting at.) The basic joke of Candide is to bombard the characters with things that are obviously just plain bad and watch them try to rationalise it away.
PAGES 3-8. Rasputin boards Prayerworld 537-2389 and retrieves a mission.
“Psychic log: the mission continues.” As with the story title, this echoes Star Trek. Rasputin’s ponytail is used as an icon to mark her narration. She makes sure to tell us at the outset that she believes they’re working to save the universe. The crew members who were aboard the Marauder when Sinister stole it last issue have apparently all died and gone unreplaced.
Charts – 31 March 2023
Nothing if not predictable…
1. Ed Sheeran – “Eyes Closed”
This is the lead single from his next album, predictably entitled “-” (or “Subtract”, if you must insist on saying it out loud). It’s an Ed Sheeran ballad single in the fairly well established mould. It is worth saying that it only reached number 1 thanks to first-week sales of the fan-marketed CD single, which is obviously a one-off – but that doesn’t mean it won’t gain in actual streaming next time round. Sheeran tracks tend to have staying power.
It’s his fourteenth number one single, which is the joint third highest total for any artist – the Beatles had 17, and Elvis Presley had 21. Sheeran is now tied with, um, Cliff Richard and Westlife. It seems inevitable that he’ll beat them, and I’d give him a strong chance of overtaking the Beatles.
“Flowers” by Miley Cyrus drops to number 2 after ten straight weeks at number 1, and most of the top 10 is uneventful. However…
The Incomplete Wolverine – 2011
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
1974-1975 | 1976 | 1977 | 1978 | 1979
1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985
1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 | 1990 | 1991
1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997
1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003
2004 |2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009
2010
It’s 2011, we’re still in the Utopian era, and we’re midway through the “Wolverine Goes To Hell” storyline. The first arc in that storyline already took us through to January 2011. When we left off, Wolverine had just been summoned back to his body, which was still occupied by demons.
Oh, and brace yourselves, because this is an insanely busy year.
WOLVERINE vol 4 #6-8
“Wolverine vs the X-Men”
by Jason Aaron & Daniel Acuña
February to April 2011
While his possessed body fights the X-Men, Wolverine fights the (literal) demons inside his mind, who are “razing” parts of his personality to make room for themselves – something that seems to have no impact whatsoever in later stories, so evidently they don’t do that much damage.
Wolverine defeats the demons with help of Emma Frost, a “Phoenix” who appears to be part of his subconscious, and a ghost of Nightcrawler who’s strongly implied to be genuine. Basically, Logan can purge the demons if he finally lets Jean Grey go – and he does, but only so he can take revenge on the people who banished him to Hell. He regains control of his body just as Cyclops was about to kill him (on the logic that it’s probably what Wolverine would have wanted).
This is really an extended fight scene. It comes across as an oddly extended coda to the main event in the previous arc, but it’s quite fun on its own terms.
Sabretooth & The Exiles #5 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
SABRETOOTH & THE EXILES #5
“Station Five”
Writer: Victor LaValle
Artist: Leonard Kirk
Colour artist: Rain Beredo
Letterer: Cory Petit
Design: Tom Muller with Jay Bowen
Editor: Mark Basso
COVER / PAGE 1. Sabretooth fights alt-Sabretooths. There aren’t many established alt-Sabretooths who are particularly noteworthy or recognisable beyond one-off What If stories, but that’s the Age of Apocalypse Sabretooth with his back to us in the foreground. (He’s been dead since 2013, though, which is why he’s not in this arc.) The one on the right is simply another Sabretooth in traditional costume. On the left we have someone who certainly looks like he ought to be recognisable, but nobody’s coming to mind. The guy lying unconscious on the ground is just a Sabretooth in a suit, an outfit which he sometimes shows up in for Wolverine stories, particularly in the Hama years.
Betsy Braddock: Captain Britain #2 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
BETSY BRADDOCK: CAPTAIN BRITAIN #2
“Two Captains, One Country”
Writer: Tini Howard
Artist: Vasco Georgiev
Colourist: Erick Arciniega
Letterer: Ariana Maher
Design: Tom Muller with Jay Bowen
Editor: Sarah Brunstad
COVER / PAGE 1. Captain Britain and Captain Carter fight the Furies.
PAGES 2-4. The Captain Britain Corps repel Morgan Le Fey and her Furies.
This continues directly from the end of issue #1. Basically, Morgan’s plan is to find her own, more pliable Captain Britain and use her as a vehicle to promote her own vision of Britain. Last issue, she tried recruiting Captain Pretani of Earth-5411 who, being a member of the Captain Britain Corps, had no interest whatsoever.
Morgan presumably retreats, not because the Furies aren’t capable of doing serious damage to the Corps – they evidently are – but because this fight isn’t achieving her wider goal, which is to find a stooge. We’ll see later that the Furies are unimpressed by her priorities.
Charts – 24 March 2023
Well, there’s still not much going on at the top end of the chart.
That’s ten weeks, which matches the run of Harry Styles’ “As It Was” last year. The next target is Ed Sheeran’s “Bad Habits”, which lasted eleven weeks in 2021. But since Sheeran has his own single out this week, I don’t fancy Miley’s chances there.
10. Metro Boomin with the Weeknd & 21 Savage – “Creepin'”
This isn’t technically a new entry – the track has been around since December, it’s already had five weeks in the top 10, and it’s climbing from number 33. The reason for the climb is the remix with P Diddy, but since it’s not the lead version of the track, he doesn’t get a chart credit. Hence, it remains the case that he hasn’t had a hit single since 2011. Diddy was also on Mario Winans’ “I Don’t Wanna Know”, which “Creepin'” is essentially a cover of.
Storm and the Brotherhood of Mutants #2 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
STORM & THE BROTHERHOOD OF MUTANTS #2
“Sins of Sinister, part 7: No Hope”
Writer: Al Ewing
Artist: Andrea Di Vito
Colourists: Jim Charalampidis & Rachelle Rosenberg
Letterer: Ariana Maher
Design: Jay Bowen
Editor: Jordan D White
COVER / PAGE 1. A very elderly Storm, holding a miniature Destiny in an energy ball reminiscent of Orbis Stellaris’ sphere. Make of that what you will.
PAGE 2. Data page. The mock-3D effect was also used on the data pages in the previous issue; this one seems to be echoing Star Wars.
The Interstellar Compact. The Compact was mentioned by Hope in Immoral X-Men #2, where it was described as simply an alliance of alien races which the mutants were cheerfully destroying. Hope’s account suggested it was on its last legs. The information that Orbis Stellaris is behind it is new, I think.
Planet Arakko was destroyed in Sins of Sinister #1.
Varon appears to be new, as far as I can see.
Freedom Force were mentioned in a data page in Immoral X-Men #2: “We still can’t get ahold of Storm, but I hear we cornered Freedom Force. We finally got Mystique, the little traitor.” Originally, Freedom Force was the name used by Mystique’s Brotherhood of Evil Mutants when they worked for the US government in the late 1980s; the name was ironic there, but it’s played (more) straight here.
Marauders #12 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
MARAUDERS vol 2 #12
“Pre-Genesis, part 2”
Writer: Steve Orlando
Artist: Eleonora Carlini
Colourist: Matt Milla
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Design: Tom Muller
Editor: Jordan D White
COVER / PAGE 1. Kate with the Mysterium box.
This is the final issue of Marauders vol 2, and it’s very obviously a “wrap up the storylines” issue, particularly with the B and C plots. The A plot feels more like it was meant to get to this point around now anyway.
PAGE 2. Fang fights Brimstone Love in Madripoor.
This picks up from the cliffhanger of the previous issue, in which Fang tracked down Brimstone Love to take revenge for his torture in Annual #1. He was accompanied by Lockheed and, rather arbitrarily, Johnny Dee – who hasn’t appeared in this book before and seems a weird character to throw in at the last minute, though at least his highly specific powers are important to the plot here. As in earlier appearances, Johnny Dee maintains that the creature in his chest has a mind of its own.
PAGE 3. Recap and credits.
PAGE 4. Polaris creates the Seed.
Picking up from the A-plot of the previous issue, this is Polaris using the genetic source material of Genosha to fill the mysterium box that will go back in time to create Threshold, and then (much, much later) make its way into Kate’s hands at the start of the Orlando run. The Seed, and the fact that it was Kate’s box, were both established in issue #9.
