New Mutants #31-33
NEW MUTANTS vol 4 #31-33
“The Sublime Saga”
Writer: Charlie Jane Anders
Main story artist: Alberto Alburquerque
Main story colourist: Carlos Lopez
“Young Shela & Morgan” artists: Ro Stein & Ted Brandt
“Young Shela & Morgan” colourist: Tamra Bonvillain
Letterer & production: Travis Lanham
Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Editor: Sarah Brunstad
Now, I quite like Escapade as a concept. But I can see why this arc might annoy people. New Mutants has been drifting for a little while, wandering from arc to arc without all that very much to tie it all together, beyond drawing on the cast of the 1980s series. And to cap off the series, we have a three issue arc by a completely different creative team, which has not a great deal to do with anything that came before, and that foregrounds a completely new character.
It’s not exactly the last three issues of the series, since there’s a follow-up mini, New Mutants: Lethal Legion, starting in March. But it’s fair to say that this is not a New Mutants story in any terribly meaningful way. Mirage and Karma show up at the start of part 1 to lament the state of creative writing on Krakoa. Wolfsbane’s in the whole thing, but she doesn’t really do a great deal (and certainly nothing that has anything to do with her ongoing storyline about her missing son). Martha Johanssen is in it a lot, and she’s at least a regular supporting character. But… no, it’s not a New Mutants story, let’s be honest.
Charts – 10 February 2023
The top three has now been static for a month, which is… exciting…?
1. Miley Cyrus – “Flowers”
Four weeks. It’s still miles ahead of anything else, and it’s holding Raye’s “Escapism” – a former number 1 – in the number 2 place. Of somewhat more interest is the fact that SZA’s “Kill Bill” has spent five straight weeks at number 3. That’s not quite the biggest hit of her career, if you count her guest appearance on Doja Cat’s “Kiss Me more” – which had a total of six weeks at number 3 – but it’s far and away her breakout hit single as a solo act.
8. PinkPantheress – “Boy’s A Liar”
Officially, this is a re-entry for the track that spent a week at number 38 at the end of January, but the version now being pushed is the Ice Spice remix. Clearly she’s making a big difference here, but since it hasn’t officially been nominated as the lead version, she doesn’t get a chart credit.
Storm & The Brotherhood of Mutants #1 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
STORM & THE BROTHERHOOD OF MUTANTS #1
“Storm’s Seven”
Writer: Al Ewing
Artist: Paco Medina
Colourist: Jay David Ramos
Letterer: Ariana Maher
Design: Tom Muller with Jay Bowen
Editor: Jordan D White
STORM & THE BROTHERHOOD OF MUTANTS. This is X-Men Red, re-titled for the duration of the “Sins of Sinister” crossover. In practice, this is X-Men Red #10A. It’s part 2 of the crossover.
By the way, my plan for this year is to generally limit annotations to ongoing titles (or books like this that are stand-ins for them), partly so that I can make some time to catch up on reviews. I’m making an exception for Sabretooth partly because I’ve already started it and partly because it’s really good, but I’m going to skip over Bishop: War College and save that one for reviews.
COVER / PAGE 1. Storm being generally impressive amidst what’s presumably meant to be the rubble of Arakko.
The logo has a Sinister diamond in Storm’s name, but don’t worry, fans, she’s still herself. As pointed out in Sins of Sinister #1, Sinister can’t take advantage of Storm’s resurrections to mess with her mind, because she renounced the option of resurrection in order to prove herself to the Arakkii in X-Men Red #4.
Charts – 3 February 2023
It’s a fairly quiet week. The top 5 is static, which means the number 1 is still…
… which has double the points of the number 2 single as it spends a third week at number one. It’s a good record but I’m surprised it’s doing quite this well – it’s certainly not simply Miley’s star power, since her previous number 1 was back in 2013. It does stand out, genre-wise, in the current chart, which can’t hurt.
11. KSI featuring Oliver Tree – “Voices”
Well, that remix thing finally gave Oliver Tree a mainstream hit, so let’s have a go at capitalising! And that means… a collaboration with KSI? Okay, then. It actually enters one place below “Miss You”, which is still in the top 10 after a total of 11 weeks. The song itself is fairly conventional; the video is – well, Oliver Tree’s an idiosyncratic director, and he’s evidently not minded to shift on that. I can see this making the top ten, though. And it doesn’t have any of that awkwardness of cloning a bootleg remix…
The Incomplete Wolverine – 2009
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
We’re just past Secret Invasion, and in the early days of “Dark Reign”. The Wolverine solo title is in the middle of “Old Man Logan” right now, but that takes place in an alternate timeline and doesn’t feature on our list.
X-FORCE vol 3 #11
“Who the Hell is Eli Bard?”
by Craig Kyle, Christopher Yost, Alina Urusov & Clayton Crain
January 2009
Warpath recounts Eli Bard’s origin story to his teammates.
UNCANNY X-MEN vol 1 #506
by Matt Fraction, Terry Dodson, Rachel Dodson & Justin Ponsor
February 2009
Wolverine attends a briefing on Simon Trask’s anti-mutant activities, and the X-Men give sanctuary to various ex-mutants (despite Wolverine pointing out that they don’t have the facilities.
Legion of X #10 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
LEGION OF X #10
“Among Us Stalk the Sentinels”
Writer: Si Spurrier
Penciller: Netho Diaz
Inkers; Sean Parsons & Álvaro López
Colourists: Java Tartaglia & Ruth Redmond
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Design: Tom Muller with Jay Bowen
Editor: Sarah Brunstad
COVER / PAGE 1: Everyone fights Nimrod. This is a very loose interpretation of what’s happening in the story itself, where Nimrod isn’t exactly there in person. Professor X can be seen in the centre, cradling Legion (which happens on the astral plane). Nightcrawler is there, although he’s otherwise occupied in the story itself. And for some reason that’s Rogue and Gambit on the right.
PAGES 2-3. Professor X realises he’s made a terrible mistake.
So, the giant psychic thing is an astral plane version of a Technarchy, summoned by the Babel Spire that Nimrod is building on Krakoa. Legion ought to be the natural defence against this thing, but Professor X knocked him out with a psychic trojan last issue because he was expecting a fight. In fairness to the Professor, for many years Legion’s routine was that things always went wrong and all manner of damage was caused by his efforts – but that changed quite some time ago, and the Professor obviously hasn’t been paying all that much attention. The very fact that he hasn’t noticed the change is indictment enough, and it’s at least partially to do with Professor X being in denial about Legion being anything much to do with him.
X-Force #37 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X-FORCE vol 6 #37
“Unmasked”
Writer: Benjamin Percy
Artist: Robert Gill
Colourist: GURU-eFX
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Design: Tom Muller with Jay Bowen
Editor: Mark Basso
COVER / PAGE 1: The Man with the Peacock Tattoo removes his mask, which must have been terribly itchy with X-Force inside. Wolverine is shown with X-Force here, but he’s not in the issue – presumably, this takes place while he’s still missing over in his own title, thanks to the Beast imprisoning him.
PAGE 2. Carlos Pacheco obituary.
PAGES 3-5. Deadpool annoys his teammates.
Omega Red threw Deadpool off the waterfall before, in issue #30. But aside from that, what is he doing, staring at the wall? Is he meditating? Does he suspect that something is behind there, maybe to do with one of Beast’s schemes?
House to Astonish Episode 201
It’s 2023! And you know what that means! That’s right, more 2022! Join us as we dish out the golden gongs in the comics industry’s most Scottishy-podcasty awards, the Homies! Now in its titantic tenth year! Who won (we’ll tell you!)? Who lost (we won’t tell you!)? EXCITING!
The podcast is here, or available via the embedded player below. Let us know what you think, in the comments, on Twitter, via email or on our Facebook fan page. And T-shirts! They’re going to be big, trust us!
Charts – 27 January 2023
Well, we’re getting back to the normal rhythm of the singles chart – which is to say, quiet, but there’s some movement..
Two weeks – which is more than either of her previous number ones managed. It’s easy to forget how long Miley Cyrus has been around – her first hit was in 2008, so she’s now into her sixteenth year of having hits. It could easily have been longer, since one of her Hannah Montana tracks got to number 43 in 2007. Her previous number ones were a decade ago.
The top five is completely static, so that’s certainly familiar.
9. Headie One – “Martin’s Sofa”
To be honest, this leaves me completely cold. I think you maybe have to be invested in Headie One and his back story. Which is a shame, because it’s called “Martin’s Sofa”, which is clearly a great title. But as a record, it’s very one note. Anyway, it’s Headie One’s fifth top 10 hit. All the others had very high profile guest stars on them – as in, AJ Tracey, Stormzy, Dave and Drake – so it’s significant that he’s making the top ten completely under his own power here.
Sabretooth & The Exiles #3 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
SABRETOOTH & THE EXILES #3
“Station Three”
Writer: Victor LaValle
Artist: Leonard Kirk
Colourist: Rain Beredo
Letterer: Cory Petit
Design: Tom Muller with Jay Bowen
Editor: Mark Basso
COVER / PAGE 1. Nekra and Sabretooth fight. I assume that red and white swirly background is meant to say “astral plane”, though it’s really more “Jim Steranko”.
PAGE 2. Recap and credits.
PAGE 3. Establishing shot of the astral plane.
Third Eye, as our narrator, describes this version of the astral plane as “the classics”. It’s basically the Ditko Dr Strange version of the astral plane, complete with something in the bottom right that resembles the window from Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum.
PAGE 4. Sabretooth and the Exiles in the astral plane.
In keeping with the general swirliness of the astral plane, the art gives us a breakdown in the passage of time, with a page that’s simultaneously a series of panels and a single static splash page. Everyone appears much as they do on Earth, complete with Nanny and Orphan-Maker in their armour.
