Charts – 12 August 2022
Activity!
1. LF System – “Afraid To Feel”
Six weeks and counting. That’s bad for an act who are currently on the list of pure one-hit wonders – one number one hit and nothing else, ever. Wikipedia understandably doesn’t add names to their list until a year has passed, on the logic that you’re not really a one-hit wonder until you’ve had a reasonable opportunity to achieve a follow-up. Right now, the latest name on their list is Nathan Evans. Remember sea-shanties? Strange times.
4. KSI featuring Tom Grennan – “Not Over Yet”
Even though he reminds us at the start of the video that he’s a YouTube guy, KSI is emphatically a proper pop star in the UK – this is his tenth top ten hit, and it’s certainly not a novelty record. Presumably it’s the first single from his next album. As for Tom Grennan, this is his highest chart position; he’s had three previous top ten hits, but his previous best was number 7 for “Little Bit of Love”.
Ms Marvel & Wolverine #1
MS MARVEL & WOLVERINE #1
Writer: Jody Houser
Artist: Zé Carlos
Colourist: Erick Arciniega
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Editor: Mark Basso
Well, here’s one for the completist file – at least from an X-books’ perspective. Not so much for Ms Marvel, of course. I really don’t get Marvel’s publishing approach to this character – you’d have thought the TV show would be a good reason to get her solo series up and running again, but instead we’re getting Infinity Comics and team-up books.
In classic Marvel style, while this is labelled Ms Marvel & Wolverine #1, it’s actually the first issue of a miniseries where, you guessed it, every issue is called Ms Marvel & Insert Name Here #1. Because you wouldn’t want people to be able to figure out what issue to read them in, would you? Or have something that they can actually call the series? Or make it straightforward to find them on Marvel Unlimited?
A.X.E.: Judgment Day #2 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
A.X.E.: JUDGMENT DAY #2
Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artist: Valerio Schiti
Colourist: Marte Gracia
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Tom Brevoort
COVER / PAGE 1. The reanimated Celestial looms over the heroes (not looking quite the way it ends up in the actual story).
PAGES 2-3. Recap and credits.
PAGE 4. Meet the civilians.
The first appearance of all six of these characters, as far as I’m aware. Arjan’s confidence that the heroes will save him is ironic given what happens to him later in the issue. There are of six of them, matching the number of the Hex, which may or may not be significant.
The narrator is identified later in the issue as the new Celestial god that Ajak is in the process of raising. The caption style is clearly reminiscent of the “machine” narration from Eternals, though.
Tom’s T-shirt has the image of Bruttu, a one-off character from Tales of Suspense #22 (1961). That story involves Bruttu being a comic book character who then inspires one Howard Lindley to become a real-life Bruttu, so the existence of Bruttu merchandise in the Marvel Universe is entirely reasonable.
Charts – 5 August 2022
In which Beyoncé has an album out. But first…
1. LF System – “Afraid to Feel”
That’s five weeks, but it only holds on by the equivalent of about 3,000 sales. Still, even past its peak, it’s able to keep Beyoncé at bay.
2. Beyoncé – “Break My Soul”
14. Beyoncé – “Cuff It”
16. Beyoncé – “Alien Superstar”
That’s the maximum three tracks from her album “Renaissance”, which enters the album chart as her fourth UK solo number one. ( “Cuff It” and “Alien Superstar” are just album tracks; “Break My Soul” is the trailer single, which has been on the singles chart for seven weeks now, mostly hovering between 4 and 6.
The Incomplete Wolverine – 2003
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
When we left off, we were in the middle of a mob storyline, though we’d taken a diversion to deal with some guest appearances. And now, back to the main story.
WOLVERINE vol 2 #183-185
“…And Got Yourself a Gun” / “When in Rome…” / “Sleeping with the Fishes”
by Frank Tieri, Sean Chen, Tom Palmer & Edgar Tadeo
December 2002 to February 2003
As per his deal with Freddo, Logan starts going after the operations of rival crimelord the Roman. The Roman turns out to be a gang leader who publicly feigns insanity, dressing as an ancient Roman. He does things like feed annoying henchmen to his pet lions. It works better than you’d think; he feels like a Silver Age Batman character who’s wandered into an otherwise straight crime story. Anyway, being a moron, Freddo is so delighted with Logan’s work that he tries to offer him a permanent job, despite sensible underboss Delcavvo trying to warn him off it. When Logan turns him down, Freddo starts scheming to force Logan into working for him. Meanwhile, the Roman and Delcavvo both try to have Logan killed, and get absolutely nowhere with it. In the end, Logan kills the Roman, but winds up striking a deal to hand over Freddo to Delcavvo, who has him killed.
Issues #181-185 are the peak of the Tieri run; they have dry humour that actually lands, and they don’t have the repetitive sadism that plagues a lot of his run. This is a largely forgotten arc because it has no wider impact, but it’s really pretty good.
Legion of X #4 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
LEGION OF X #4
“Pillow Talk”
Writer: Si Spurrier
Artist: Jan Bazaldua
Colourist: Federico Blee
Letterer & production: Clayton Cowles
Design: Tom Muller with Jay Bowen
Editor: Sarah Brunstad
COVER / PAGE 1. Hmm. Well, that’s Nightcrawler and Zsen in the foreground. Standing over them are Mother Righteous in the middle (who doesn’t appear in this issue), Loki to the right, and… presumably another trickster god component on the left, though I don’t recognise him. And in the background is the silhouette of Galactus, which has nothing to do with the content of this issue at all. It’s quite an odd cover. The actual solicitation text seems perfectly consistent with the published issue, though.
PAGE 2. George Pérez obituary.
PAGE 3. Switch is rescued.
We’re not told who his rescuer is, though since he has purple skin and custom speech balloons, he should be pretty hard to miss.
Switch’s psyche was trapped in this jar last issue. Considering how important he is, it seems odd that Switch has been entrusted to Paulie diCosta, who has no experience in this field at all and doesn’t particularly want to be there himself.
X-Men Red #5 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X-MEN RED vol 2 #5
“The Hour of Uranos”
Writer: Al Ewing
Artist: Stefano Caselli
Colourist: Federico Blee
Letterer: Ariana Maher
Design: Tom Muller with Jay Bowen
Editor: Jordan D White
COVER / PAGE 1: Cable, still with a twinkle in his eye even in adverse circumstances.
PAGES 2-3. Destiny’s warning is relayed to the Great Ring.
The lead-in for this scene is on page 9 of A.X.E.: Judgment Day #1, where Magneto, Cable and Nightcrawler decided that they would relay Destiny’s warning about an imminent Eternal attack to the Great Ring, while Storm joined the Quiet Council meeting on Krakoa. Abigail Brand wasn’t seen in that issue, so presumably Magneto and co went out of their way to alert her – partly because of the seriousness of the problem, and partly because this whole affair is completely unrelated to any of her schemes.
Immortal X-Men #5 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
IMMORTAL X-MEN #5
“Meditations on the X”
Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artist: Michele Bandini
Colourist: David Curiel
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Editor: Jordan D White
COVER / PAGE 1. Exodus in action above Krakoa (with what looks to be one of the Hex visible on the ground below). Obviously, it’s Exodus’s turn for his spotlight issue.
PAGES 2-3. Flashback: Exodus has a vision of the Phoenix in the desert.
Black Knight: Exodus. The flashbacks in this issue heavily reference the 1996 one-shot Black Knight: Exodus by Ben Raab and Jimmy Cheung, because it’s Exodus’s origin story. In the original story, the Black Knight (Dane Whitman) and Sersi attempt to return to the mainstream Marvel Universe from the Malibu Ultraverse. They wind up stuck in the time of the Crusades, with Dane possessing the body of the period Black Knight, Eobar Garrington. (I’ll come back to that.)
House to Astonish Presents The Lightning Round Episode 10
It’s the big 25th issue spectacular, and there are 25 supervillains just waiting to make the Tbolts’ lives harder (because they’ve been having such an easy time of it up until now), so we’ve got an extra-big bumper special episode for you, as we take on issues 24-26. Waffle Christ cereal! Mark McGwire vs peeing the bed! Me not connecting the mic properly so I sound like I’m talking through a megaphone from across the room!
The episode is here, or here on Mixcloud, 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 hey! Has there ever been a better time to buy a House to Astonish t-shirt at our Redbubble store? I don’t think there has, and I’m the guy who asked the question, so you know I’m not biased!
X-Men Unlimited Infinity Comic #42-43
X-MEN UNLIMITED INFINITY COMIC #42-43
“Cypher in the Cryptolect”
Writer: Alex Paknadel
Artist: Damian Couceiro
Colourist: Felipe Sobreiro
Letterer: Joe Sabino
Editor: Lauren Amaro
X-Men Unlimited Infinity Comic, by far the longest running of the Infinity books, has settled into a role as a quirky diversion for X-completists. Is that the sort of material that draws people in to Marvel Unlimited? Maybe it is. Maybe the audience for an archive subscription service (albeit one that covers pretty much the entire Marvel line on a three-month lag) is the hardcores and what you need to offer them is something, well, if not essential, at least additive.
So here’s a two-part Cypher story. Doug’s prominent in the Krakoan era but it’s not all that often that he actually gets to do anything – which is fine, since it has more impact when he actually does. Still, this is an actual Cypher story, written by Alex Paknadel, who was also responsible for the recent Maggott arc. Either he likes playing with underused characters, or this is just what’s available on X-Men Unlimited.
