A.X.E.: Eternals #1 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
A.X.E.: ETERNALS #1
Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artist: Pasqual Ferry
Colourist: Matt Hollingsworth
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Tom Brevoort
COVER / PAGE 1. This is the third of the A.X.E. one-shots, and the cover forms a single image with the Avengers and X-Men one-shot covers.
PAGES 2-3. Recap and credits.
PAGES 4-7. The heroes inside the Progenitor.
The group are still fighting their way through the Progenitor’s body, which is where we left them in A.X.E.: X-Men. Jean ended that issue particularly determined to destroy the Progenitor.
“The gag we used on Sinister.” As seen in A.X.E.: Judgment Day #1, when he was a prisoner.
“The First Principle.” The Eternals are compelled to follow (or at least not to contravene) three principles, the first being “Protect Celestials.” The Progenitor counts as a proper Celestial to them, and apparently that extends to its immune system. In Judgment Day #5, the Eternals deliberately allowed the mutant psychics access to their minds in order to bypass the principles via mind control.
The X-Cellent
THE X-CELLENT #1-5
“New Blood, New World”
Writer: Peter Milligan
Artist: Michael Allred
Colourist: Laura Allred
Letterer: Nate Piekos
Editor: Darren Shan
If I’m being honest, I’d forgotten about this one until the collected edition showed up on the list for this week. I mean, I’ve got a review backlog, but it doesn’t stretch back to July. Except for this one. And part of it is that it didn’t really register with me that the thing had finished. It’s a five issue miniseries that ends with an issue that in no way feels like it was meant to come last. It’s really quite strange.
Not that X-Statix wasn’t always strange, of course. Does it even really count as an X-book? It’s always been semi-detached from the rest of the Marvel Universe. Technically it’s canon, and it has guest stars from the wider Marvel Universe. But of its own characters, only Doop appears anywhere else. For the rest – a couple of cameos in Thunderbolts and Brotherhood, I believe, and that’s about it. The Marvel Universe can handle the co-existence of Howard the Duck and the Punisher, it can handle Doop, but when it comes to the rest of X-Statix, there’s something that the Marvel Universe finds… indigestible. Even though there’s nothing really stopping you from writing the characters straight.
Charts – 7 October 2022
A busy week for new entries – so to make up for it, we have a static top 5.
1. Sam Smith & Kim Petras – “Unholy”
Which means two weeks for these guys.
6. Ed Sheeran – “Celestial”
This is, of all things, a track promoting Pokémon Scarlet & Violet, the upcoming instalment in the long-running children’s cock-fighting simulator franchise. The actual song is typical Ed Sheeran with no Pokémon content; you can see why somebody thought it was good enough to merit actually promoting it as a proper single, but you can also see why he gave it up to a side project in the first place.
Marauders #7 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
MARAUDERS vol 2 #7
“Here Comes Yesterday, part 1”
Writer: Steve Orlando
Artist: Eleonora Carlini
Colourists: Rachelle Rosenberg & Matt Milla
Letterer: Ariana Maher
Design: Tom Muller
Editor: Jordan D White
COVER / PAGE 1. Kate Pryde (and Lockheed) look up at… well, presumably that’s Amass in merged form.
PAGE 2. Obituary for Mike Pasciullo.
PAGE 3. Stringfellow and Scratch argue.
This continues the Theatre of Pain subplot which has been running in the background and looks set to stay there for a while yet. The previous issue also opened with a page of Scratch addressing a Theatre of Pain audience, while being watched by Lockheed, who in turn was being watched by Dirt Nap (the rat). The previous subplot was placed in Philadelphia; this one is in Waterbury, Connecticut.
X-Men Red #7 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X-MEN RED vol 2 #7
“The Winning Side”
Writer: Al Ewing
Artist: Stefano Caselli
Colour artists: Federico Blee & Fer Sifuentes-Sujo
Letterer & production: Ariana Maher
Design: Tom Muller
Editor: Jordan D White
COVER / PAGE 1. Storm fights Isca in the Great Ring chamber. This is another Judgment Day tie-in.
PAGE 2. Obituary for Mike Pasciullo.
PAGES 3-7. The aftermath of Magneto’s battle with Uranos.
Issue #6 ended with Storm, Magneto & co setting off to confront Uranos. Magneto defeated Uranos in A.X.E.: Judgment Day #4, and this picks up directly from the end of that scene. (Despite what it says on the recap page, at least the vast majority of this story takes place during Judgment Day #4, not after Judgment Day #5.)
“You have new gods now.” This comes from the end of Magneto’s speech to the human ambassadors in House of X #1.
Resurrection. In issue #4, Magneto and Storm both destroyed their backups in order to disavow the possibility of resurrection, and prove themselves to their Arakkii colleagues. Magneto’s refusal to waver on this in his last moments was something that impressed the Progenitor in Judgment Day #4. Storm is clearly less wedded to the idea – at least when it becomes a reality – and immediately proposes resurrecting Magneto even without the benefit of a backup. She seems clear that this would work, despite having presented the backup deletion as a crucial factor in issue #4. Presumably she’s anticipating the return of a blank-slate Magneto in that situation.
A.X.E.: X-Men #1 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
A.X.E.: X-MEN #1
Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artist: Francesco Mobili
Colourist: Frank Martin
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Tom Brevoort
COVER / PAGE 1. Jean Grey in front of the Progenitor. It’s part of a single image with last week’s A.X.E.: Avengers one-shot. As noted last week, these three one-shots are essentially part of the A.X.E.: Judgment Day miniseries, albeit with different artists.
PAGE 2. Obituary for Mike Pasciullo.
PAGES 3-4. Recap and credits.
PAGES 5-7. The heroes (and Sinister) discuss their next step.
This picks up from the end of A.X.E.: Avengers, where Iron Man was judged by the Progenitor and realised that the very fact that the Progenitor was still judging him proved that it hadn’t really made a final decision to end the world.
“I’ve stolen one Celestial’s power before and it ended very badly for me.” Mr Sinister is referring to the time he co-opted the power of the Dreaming Celestial, in the early issues of Gillen’s Uncanny X-Men vol 2.
Iron Man. Wolverine describes him as “an addict on a hope high, and I’m glad one of us is.” A few points from that. Firstly, Iron Man is the only traditional Avenger in the group and therefore the most conventional and traditional superhero here – but by Avengers standards he’s normally the morally dubious one. Of course, he’s also a futurist and in that sense all about optimism for the future. Second, Wolverine is presumably alluding deliberately to Iron Man’s long history of alcoholism (which has recently reared its head again over in his solo title with a stint in rehab). Third, note that Wolverine suggests that Iron Man is the sole optimist in the group even though Ajak just agreed with him. Since Ajak’s religiosity is partly pre-programmed, Wolverine may not take it very seriously – or, not being that religious himself (unless Jason Aaron’s writing), Wolverine may attach rather more weight to Iron Man’s secular optimism.
X-Men: Hellfire Gala
X-MEN: HELLFIRE GALA #1
“Time Flies When You’re a Mutant”
Writer: Gerry Duggan
Artists: Kris Anka, Russell Dauterman, Matteo Lolli & CF Villa
Colourists: Matt Milla & Matthew Wilson
Letterer: Cory Petit
Design: Tom Muller with Jay Bowen
Associate editor: Lauren Amaro
Senior Editor: Jordan D White
So yeah, this came out ages ago. As in, July. I was thinking at one point that I’d treat it as the first chapter of the next block of Gerry Duggan issues, which is kind of what it is, but it’s also off to the side a bit. So. Let’s just do it now.
The first Hellfire Gala was a line-wide crossover, but an unusual one. It wasn’t unified by a single story; it was all the different books showing what their characters were up to at the same event. There was a big reveal – the terraforming of Mars. There was a secondary reveal – the new X-Men line-up. And there was a cliffhanger – the Scarlet Witch got killed. But it wasn’t a single story, as such. It was different, and it worked quite well.
Charts – 30 September 2022
Four number 1s in as many weeks? It’s like the old days.
1. Sam Smith & Kim Petras – “Unholy”
Now this was close. They were behind in the midweeks and wound up taking it by about a 2% margin. Still, it’s another new number one, shoving David Guetta back down to number 2.
Sam Smith’s chart career started with guest vocals for the likes of Disclosure and Naughty Boy, but over time it was the ballads that tended to be the big hits. This is a big swerve back in a much more camp and theatrical direction, and it clearly works. To put that in context, it’s Sam Smith’s eighth number one hit, but the others came between 2013 and 2018. The 2020 album “Love Goes” was not especially successful by their standards, failing to get any singles into the top 10 and only going gold where its predecessor had gone double platinum. A good time for a rethink, then.
The Incomplete Wolverine – 2005
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
We’re midway through the Mark Millar / John Romita Jr run. It already carried us through the first couple of months of the year, and when we left off, Wolverine had just been captured by the good guys after his brainwashed rampage on behalf of the Hand. If you haven’t read this storyline, you can probably guess what happens in the second half.
WOLVERINE vol 3 #26-31
“Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.”
by Mark Millar, John Romita Jr, Klaus Janson & Paul Mounts
March to August 2005
S.H.I.E.L.D. deprogram Wolverine by putting his mind through repeated simulations in which his normal personality can finally reassert itself. When the Hand attack with a bunch of brainwashed villains, Wolverine has to be woken ahead of schedule to fight them, but his normal personality is indeed restored. The attackers include a bunch of minor villains that Wolverine hasn’t encountered before – Slyde (Jalome Beacher), S.H.O.C. (Todd Fields), the Spot (Johnny Ohnn), Vibro (Alton Vibereaux), Poison (Cecilia Cardinale) and Leap-Frog (Buford Lange). In a completely random bit of continuity, the scientist who cures Wolverine, Dr Weinberg, is the former Rabble-Rouser, a one-off Human Torch villain from 1964.
Naturally, Wolverin sets out for revenge and atonement. In practice, this means killing everyone he can get his hands on from HYDRA, the Hand or the Dawn of the White Light cult. Basically it’s a mirror of the first half, except now he’s going after the villains. S.H.I.E.L.D. also fret about whether he’s really deprogrammed, but nothing really comes of that.
In the course of his casual slaughter – and this arc is really casual about having Wolverine kill large number of bad guys – the brainwashed Northstar is captured. As for Elektra, she was never under Hand control after all, and she was just playing along. Finally, Wolverine and Elektra lead SHIELD against the bad guys. Elsbeth is apparently killed in a missile strike, while Gorgon is turned to stone by his own powers and shattered. His ridiculously OTT powers are better suited to being a one-off villain, which is how Millar seems to have conceived him.
X-Men #15 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X-MEN vol 6 #15
“Collapse Theory”
Writer: Gerry Duggan
Artist: Joshua Cassara
Colourist: Guru-eFX
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Design: Tom Muller with Jay Bowen
Editor: Jordan D White
COVER / PAGE 1. The Children of the Vault with the defeated X-Men. Don’t worry, it’s only a dream.
PAGE 2. Data page. An opening quote from Forge. Note that he’s treating Krakoa as a government like any other. When Forge was first introduced, he was a weapon designer for the US government, and he designed the neutraliser device that led Storm to lose her powers for a while.
PAGE 3. Forge and Cyclops make their way through the jungle.
This is apparently part of the simulation which Forge creates for the Children of the Vault (as explained later), but it’s repeated on page 16 in the real world.
“You wanted to know what I was doing for the Council so much that you put me on the X-Men.” Cyclops did indeed nominate Forge onto the X-Men without asking him in X-Men: Hellfire Gala, leading Forge to assure Professor X that it wouldn’t interfere with “Project Blackbox.” We’ll find out in this issue what Project Blackbox actually is.
