Jean Grey vol 1: “Nightmare Fuel”
Jean Grey has been around since 1963 and has never previously had a solo series. Given Marvel’s enthusiasm for X-Men spin-offs, this can be a bad sign about the character’s suitability to carry a solo title. And we’ll get to that. But I like this book. Issue to issue, it’s been good fun; it works in the format of largely self-contained stories all helping to advance a bigger picture. And despite a barrage of different artists, it’s good to look at.
But at the same time there are some niggles and some odd choices – this is practically Jean Grey Team-Up, and sometimes that feels forced.
Charts – 27 October 2017
A veritable barrage of new entries this week… between numbers 30 and 40.
1. Post Malone featuring 21 Savage – “Rockstar”
First up, “Rockstar” gets its fourth week at number one. As for the other two Post Malone singles, “I Fall Apart” is a non-mover at 19, and “Congratulations” falls back to 29. “Silence” by Marshemello featuring Khalid climbs 9-3, and “Perfect” by Ed Sheeran moves 11-7 – re-entering the top 10, but still short of its number 4 peak when it was released in advance of the album. “Finders Keepers” by Mabel featuring Kojo Funds moves 10-8. And our highest new entry is…
15. Taylor Swift – “Gorgeous”
Charts – 20 October 2017
Nearly forgot to cover this one. Two new entries, the higher one at 33. Fortunately we’ve got a few videos to round out the post…
1. Post Malone featuring 21 Savage – “Rockstar”
Three weeks. And both the other Post Malone tracks climb as well – “I Fall Apart” moves 22-19, and “Congratulations” edges up to 26. It’s been hanging around the top 40 since mid July and that’s as high as it’s got. Under current chart rules, you can’t have more than three hits at a time (as a lead artist, at any rate), so it’s entirely possible that some of his other tracks might be getting spillover as well.
“Lonely Together” by Avicii featuring Rita Ora edges up to 4, which makes it his biggest hit since 2013.
5. CNCO & Little Mix – “Reggaetón Lento”
Cable vol 1: “Conquest”
I have given quite some thought to this story, trying to work it out.
I mean, I follow it. I follow it just fine. It’s simple. There’s a thingummy called the Time Sword which is desperately powerful, and it’s been split into five parts which are scattered through time. A baddy called Conquest is trying to collect the pieces, so that he can re-create the Time Macguffin and use it to control reality. Cable is chasing after him. So we get a bunch of time jumps where Cable visits various eras, and each time Conquest has been there before him, and there are a bunch of local goons with futuristic technology for Cable to fight. After a while Cable meets up with an Incan priest (who has a load of Eternal technology, unrelated to Conquest) and finds out where the other two pieces are.
Charts – 13 October 2017
It’s a milestone! “Shape of You” by Ed Sheeran finally drops out of the top 40. After forty weeks.
Meanwhile…
1. Post Malone featuring 21 Savage – “Rockstar”
That’s two weeks. There’s a noticeable spillover effect for Post Malone’s other work, as he now has the maximum three tracks in the top 40. “I Fall Apart” climbs from 40 to 27 this week on the back of its viral exposure, and previous single “Congratulations” climbs to a new peak of 27 in its fifteenth week on the top 40. The parent album “Stoney” reaches a new peak of 12; it’s been out since Christmas but didn’t reach the albums top 40 until last month.
“Havana” by Camila Cabello featuring Young Thug climbs to number 2; it’s the sales chart number one, but that means less and less.
8. J Balvin & Willy William – “Mi Gente”
Iceman vol 1: “Thawing Out”
Brian Bendis has a tendency to leave undeveloped ideas in his wake, and in an era where incoming writers tend to treat their first issue as a fresh start, those undeveloped ideas tend to stay that way. But deciding that a character who’s been around since the 60s is actually gay is the sort of thing that has to be followed up.
And it has been, for the most part, in All-New X-Men and latterly in X-Men Blue. But that’s the teenage version who travelled through time; we also have the original, who’s had rather less attention. Sensibly enough, that’s the version used by Sina Grace and Alessandro Vitti. Grace is an interesting choice; as a creator, he’s mainly known for autobiographical indie books, but he was also an editor for Robert Kirkman titles like Invincible.
Charts – 6 October 2017
Not a huge amount going on, but there’s still a bit to talk about…
1. Post Malone featuring 21 Savage – “Rockstar”
Such as a new number one! “Rockstar” has moved 5-2-1. It’s also been number one in Australia, Canada and several European countries, so the world is in the mood for a sense of vaguely washed-out shellshock, I guess. That’s 2017 for you.
X-Men Blue #10-12: “Toil and Trouble”
With Secret Empire out of the way, X-Men Blue returns to its storylines in progress. We’re not quite pretending here that Secret Empire didn’t happen; the plot point of Scott and Jean’s mental link remains, and gets followed up. But quite how it came about, we’re not talking about. The really awkward stuff, it seems, we’re just going to ignore. It’s the “No Man’s Land” solution, as I suspected.
So instead, this is mainly a Beast story, as Cullen Bunn continues to follow up the storyline established by Dennis Hopeless on All-New X-Men about Hank’s dabbling in the occult.
X-Men Gold #12 – “Kologoth”
May as well knock this one off quickly, and get up to date with X-Men Gold. There’s an issue to spare before a crossover with X-Men Blue (which gets a couple of pages of set-up in the epilogue, but we’ll worry about that another time). So this is the origin story of Kologoth.
Kologoth is the mystery new guy who showed up in the mind-controlled Brotherhood of Evil Mutants in the first couple of issues, and later turned out to be an alien. One of the things which Marc Guggenheim has done reasonably well in this series is laying the groundwork for his subplots and checking in on them periodically; the book has taken its time building up the character before putting him in the foreground.
Charts – 29 September 2017
I’ll warn you now, there’s nothing much happening until we reach the bottom end of the top thirty.
1. Sam Smith – “Too Good at Goodbyes”
Three weeks now, which is his longest run at the top, overtaking the Comic Relief re-issue of “Lay Me Down” which managed two weeks in 2015. It’s very marginal, though – his lead was the equivalent of 693 sales – so he probably won’t be there much longer.
And now, a long list of tracks which are climbing…“Rockstar” by Post Malone featuring 21 Savage moves 5-2. “Havana” by Camila Cabello featuring Young Thug is up 7-4. “Lonely Together” by Avicii featuring Rita Ora goes from 10 to 8. “1-800-273-8255” by Logic featuring Alessia Cara and Khalid is up from 17 to 12. “Hurtin’ Me” by Stefflon Don & French Montana climbs from 20 to 14. “What Lovers Do” by Maroon 5 featuring SZA… oh, hold on, this one’s got a video now.
18. Maroon 5 featuring SZA – “What Lovers Do”
