Charts – 26 November 2021
I mean, it’s not exactly a shock, is it?
1. Adele – “Easy on Me”
2. Adele – “Oh My God”
4. Adele – “I Drink Wine”
Adele’s fourth album, “30”, duly enters as her fourth number one, and would be dominating the singles charts if it weren’t for the three song limit. “Easy on Me” spends its sixth week at number one, while the two tracks that lead the pack are “Oh My God” and “I Drink Wine”.
X-Force: Killshot Anniversary Special #1
X-FORCE: KILLSHOT ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL #1
by Rob Liefeld, Chad Bowers, Bryan Valenza, Federico Blee & Mirza Wirawan
So this is a thing.
Commemorating the 30th anniversary of X-Force #1, this is a 33-page one-shot written and drawn by Rob Liefeld – the other listed creators are the scripter and the colourist – which… does pretty much what you’d expect?
Maybe not, actually. Liefeld sets up a perfectly decent premise for an anniversary one-shot. Cable is still fighting Stryfe through time and space, and for this mission he’s gathered an assortment of allies from across history, to take on Stryfe and his Mutant Liberation Front. There’s a passing mention that this version of the MLF is also from the past, or maybe an alternate timeline or… whatever, really. Not the same ones that are on Krakoa, which is the bit that actually matters.
So we know how that sort of premise plays out in an anniversary oneshot, right? You use it to gather cast members from across 30 years of continuity, you team them up in a supersquad, you play the hits. And god bless him, for Liefeld loses sight of that point pretty quickly.
X-Men #5 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X-MEN vol 6 #5
“Fearless, Chapter Five: Don’t Piss Off Polaris”
by Gerry Duggan, Javier Pina, Zé Carlos & Erick Arciniega
COVER / PAGE 1. A close-up of Dr Stasis (presumably), holding a scalpel, while his faceplate shows a reflection of a monster fighting Cyclops and Wolverine. It doesn’t help that this is the first time we’ve even had a clear view of Dr Stasis’s faceplate, but some of the red trim was visible in issue #3, and we also see it at the end of the issue.
The original solicitation for this issue read “The X-Men’s new nemesis finally makes himself known to them, bringing his creations to bear. Mutants may have conquered death, but their foes are all too living…” This is not really what happens in the issue – which has a scene where the X-Men fight some of Stasis’ creations, but not where he makes his own involvement known – so you have to wonder if the cover is a hangover from an earlier story concept.
PAGES 2-4. The X-Men fight the Reavers in Mexico.
The opening narration is a straight recap of the premise of the new Reavers, as established over in Duggan’s Marauders. Although they’re mostly made up of former mercenaries, their main motivation is supposed to be revenge on mutants for their injuries – from the look of it, they’re also taking on unrelated mercenary work now, but they also suggest that they were deliberately trying to provoke a fight with the X-Men.
Wolverine #18 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
WOLVERINE vol 7 #18
“Auction of Secrets”
by Benjamin Percy, Paco Diaz, Java Tartaglia & Dijjo Lima
PAGE 1: Generic shot of Wolverine still standing after gunfire. Nice lighting and integration of the logo, though. (Remember the days when characters still standing after this sort of damage was something that only happened in Lobo?)
PAGE 2. Jeff Bannister and Maverick at the hotel.
This continues directly from the end of the previous issue, when Maverick picked up the quarter that Bannister had dropped and returned it to him. Percy writes Maverick throughout this arc as if he’s mainly motivated by money, which isn’t really the traditional take on him – he’s a lifelong mercenary but he was hardly an antihero in his 90s solo title.
The final panel is probably meant to light Maverick so that the shadows on his face reflect the design on his mask, but it winds up looking a bit odd.
X-Men Unlimited Infinity Comic #5-12: “X-Men Green”
X-MEN UNLIMITED INFINITY COMIC #5-12
“X-Men Green”
by Gerry Duggan, Emilio Laiso and Rachelle Rosenberg
Readers who don’t subscribe to Marvel Unlimited may well wonder if there’s anything going on in the Infinity Comics that they need to know about. The short answer is, not really. Most of them – and there’s a pretty steady stream of them – are essentially fill-in stories. But there are exceptions, mostly with stories that focus on minor characters whose status quo is of no real interest to any of the ongoing titles. One such book has been dutifully exploring the back story of Kushala, a character from Doctor Strange and the Sorcerers Supreme. Another is X-Men Unlimited Infinity Comic, which focusses its second arc on Nature Girl and Curse.
Curse is a background character from the Krakoan era and fair game for this sort of thing. Nature Girl was one of the pupils from Wolverine and the X-Men, and used to be a relatively high profile character – she was used in the last run of Generation X - but she’s fallen badly off the radar. That leaves her free for a story like this, which radically changes her status quo. And to be fair, it’s by the regular writer of X-Men, which is a sign that Marvel want you to take this book reasonably seriously.
Charts – 19 November 2021
Once again, the singles chart has to thank the album market for providing it with some activity.
1. Adele – “Easy On Me”
That’s five weeks, her joint biggest hit. “Someone Like You” also managed five weeks total, with a week’s interruption. The record that knocked it off for a week was “Don’t Hold Your Breath” by Nicole Scherzinger, which I haven’t thought about for over ten years until I looked it up just now.
Adele’s album is out today, so we can assume she’ll have two more singles on next week’s chart.
3. Taylor Swift – “All Too Well (Taylor’s Version)”
18. Taylor Swift – “State of Grace (Taylor’s Version)”
22. Taylor Swift – “Red (Taylor’s Version)”
Here we are again with Taylor Swift’s project of re-recording her back catalogue. At the start of the year, she released a re-issue of “Fearless”, her 2009 album; “Love Story” got to 12, “Mr Perfectly Fine” to 30. “Wildest Dreams”, released out of sequence as a single, got to 25. But now we’ve reached the second album release, “Red”, which was her first number 1 album in 2012, and the start of an uninterrupted run of number one albums that continues this week with… er, “Red (Taylor’s Version)”.
X-Force #25 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X-FORCE vol 6 #25
“The Edge”
by Benjamin Percy, Robert Gill & Guru-eFX
COVER / PAGE 1: Wolverine faces off against the surfers that he meets later in the issue. The fact that they’re all shooting at him kind of gives the twist away.
The previous issue ended with the under-the-influence Colossus killing Kayla and then being approached by Professor X. That storyline isn’t mentioned at all in this issue, presumably because it does indeed lead into the cliffhanger of Inferno vol 2 #2. Instead, we have something… completely unrelated.
PAGES 2-4. Wolverine collects his surfboard from Forge.
Apparently, this is what Wolverine asked Forge to make for him (or rather, was about to ask for before he was interrupted) way back in issue #4. It’s… an adamantium covered surfboard. Right. I’ll come back to that.
We’re told that Wolverine is still waiting for something else from Forge, so that’s a dangling plot.
S.W.O.R.D. #10 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
S.W.O.R.D. vol 2 #10
“Triple Threat”
by Al Ewing, Jacopo Camagni & Fernando Sifuentes
COVER / PAGE 1: Well, it’s a S.W.O.R.D. station exploding with Wiz Kid, Cable and Storm in the background.
PAGES 2-4. Wiz Kid starts his day.
Last issue ended with the revelation that Wiz Kid is Henry Gyrich’s man inside S.W.O.R.D.. He was sitting right in front of Abigail Brand when he was talking to Gyrich, though, so there was always a suggestion that it might be a bluff. Much of this issue is devoted to teasing the possibility that Wiz Kid might genuinely have turned on S.W.O.R.D., specifically because he sees no real difference between humans and mutants in terms of the way they treat him, in particular as regards his wheelchair use.
Charts – 12 November 2021
At last, a busy week.
Not right at the top, admittedly. The top three is all non-movers, with Ed Sheeran at both 2 and 3 (and he’s at 6 too). “Easy on Me” gets a fourth week at number 1; it still needs a fifth to match 2011’s “Someone Like You”.
5. Arrdee – “Flowers (Say My Name)”
This is Arrdee’s third top ten hit and the biggest – marginally, following two number 6s. It is what it is. The chorus draws on both “Flowers” by Sweet Female Attitude (number 2 in 2000) and “Say My Name” by Destiny’s Child (number 3 the same year). “Flowers” is a heavily referenced track – Nathan Dawe’s cover reached number 12 in 2019, and Pinkpantheress used it on “Pain” earlier this year, which got to 35.
Excalibur #25 annotation
As always, this post containers spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
EXCALIBUR vol 4 #25
“Come Fate Into the List”
by Tini Howard, Marcus To & Erick Arciniega
COVER / PAGE 1. Captain Britain and Arthur fight while falling from the Starlight Citadel.
PAGES 2-5. Betsy and Tom Lennox in the Green Lagoon.
Page 2 is intercut with flashback to the battle against Merlyn’s forces which was in progress at the end of the previous issue. As we establish in the next scene, Excalibur wound up retreating to the Citadel, and Betsy apparently takes some time here to return to Earth and check in on the newly-resurrected S.T.R.I.K.E.. Which seems a bit lacking in urgency, but I guess it’s a long-term siege, so why not.
S.T.R.I.K.E. were resurrected at the request of Pete Wisdom in a subplot in issue #22, and this is the first time we’ve seen them since. They were a S.H.I.E.L.D. equivalent from the supporting cast of old UK Captain Britain stories. Tom Lennox, in particular, was Betsy’s love interest. Specifically, this group were S.T.R.I.K.E.’s psychics – the organisation itself was bigger.
