Summerslam 2011
(If you’re here for this weekend’s podcast thread, it’s two posts down.)
And now: notionally, the second-biggest pay-per-view of the WWE year. Personally, I’ve always thought the Royal Rumble was bigger, but Summerslam has been around longer, so there it is.
I’m rather pushed for time this weekend, so it’s fortunate that the WWE have chosen to help me out by not announcing very many matches. At time of writing, only four have been officially promoted on TV; a fifth was belatedly added on the web site, though at least it continues from a TV storyline. And so far, that’s it. In fairness, that’s partly because some planned undercard matches have been derailed by injuries, but it’s still a card that lacks depth.
Charts – 7 August 2011
(If you’re looking for the podcast, it’s one post down…)
These are bleak times. Looters stalk the streets of England. The global economy teeters on the brink of collapse. And 2010 X-Factor fourth-placed finalist Cher Lloyd has released a very bad single.
I think this may be the first time I’ve seen a number 1 single where the YouTube “dislikes” outnumber the “likes” by two to one.
House To Astonish Episode 66
Slightly early this time round, we’ve got a solid hour of chat for you, with discussions of Miles Morales, Laurence Fishburne being cast as Perry White, the Superman and Catwoman costume shots, the relaunch/returns of Fantastic Four and Astro City and DC’s licensed books going digital-only. We’ve also got reviews of Severed, Mystic and Spider-Island: Cloak & Dagger and the Official Handbook of the Official Handbook looks like death. All this plus 616 Celine Dion, a squeaky dog toy and supervillains on Craigslist.
For some reason the mic didn’t register with the laptop, so this episode sounds a bit echoey. C’est la vie.
The show is here, or here on Mixcloud. Let us know what you think, either in the comments below, on Twitter, via email or on our Facebook fan page.
EDIT: I’ve taken down the embedded player as it has apparently annihilated our bandwidth allocation (I’m being told we’ve used twice our monthly allocation in two weeks). Sorry folks. I’m looking into transferring to a different podcast host so we may not have these problems forever but in the meantime it’s back to the old ways of doing things.
The X-Axis – 7 August 2011
No podcast this week, but regular listeners will surely want to check out our special bonus video thing, one post down. Thanks again to the Thumbcast for actually making the video.
But now, this week’s comics. It’s a week relatively light on X-books, and big on interesting new releases – I’m sure we’ll come back to one or two of these on next week’s podcast. (Any suggestions, stick them in the comments thread.)
Fear Itself: Wolverine #2 – In a week full of interesting new releases, this is perhaps not going to be the top of anyone’s discussion list (except for mine, because it’s alphabetically first). But it’s a perfectly fine little miniseries, and if they’d spliced it into Wolverine proper as three extra issues, I don’t think anyone would be complaining.
Special bonus video thing!
We mentioned a while back that we were recording a segment for the Thumbcast’s upcoming video episode. And here it is, for those of you who’ve always wanted to know what Al’s sofa looks like.
Don’t forget to check out the Thumbcast’s website and post nice things.
Charts – 31 July 2011
Death has a way of prompting people to pick up a singer’s back catalogue, and so this week sees the inevitable Amy Winehouse memorial chart. She’s at number 1 on the album chart with “Back To Black”, while debut album “Frank” reappears at 5, and the double-album combined reissue is at 10 – thus giving her three top ten albums even though she only made two.
But with plenty of songs to choose from, her singles sales have been split multiple ways. And so it is that, unnoticed and largely unloved, JLS still get their scheduled number 1, with “She Makes Me Wanna.”
The X-Axis – 31 July 2011
If you haven’t listened to this week’s podcast yet, then it’s just one post down. Reviews include Daredevil #1, Amazing Spider-Man #666 (the first part of Spider-Island) and Our Love Is Real…
…none of which are going to be covered here, since it’s another of those weeks when there’s a ridiculous quantity of X-books, so I’m going to focus on those.
Astonishing X-Men #40 – Why is Astonishing X-Men?
This is not entirely a sarcastic question (though it’s that too). With a fifth monthly X-Men title about to launch and no sign of anything being junked to make room for it, one has to ask what the point of them all is. On a purely commercial level, of course, the answer is “completists will buy them”. But let’s consider the point of view of the editors and creators tasked with filling those pages.
House To Astonish Episode 65
Episode 65 of House to Astonish (65! How time flies.) is now live, with plenty of chat about Brian K Vaughan and Fiona Staples’ Saga, the new Fables series, Roman Dirge’s putative Lenore movie, The Sixth Gun moving to SyFy, a big round-up of Marvel-related announcements and the summary judgements in the Kirby estate lawsuit. We’ve got reviews of Amazing Spider-Man, Daredevil and Our Love Is Real and the Official Handbook of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe speaks with forked tongue. All this plus the writing skills of a hole in the ground, supervillainous Edinburgh Fringe shows and what happens when you play a comic backwards.
The podcast is here, or here on Mixcloud. Let us know what you think, either in the comments below, on Twitter, via email or on our Facebook fan page.
X-23 #10-12
“Touching Darkness”
Writer: Marjorie Liu
Artist: Sana Takeda
Letterers: Clayton Cowles and Cory Petit
Editor: Jeanine Schaefer
See, I said I’d get to some of these storylines sooner or later…
When I read the final issue of this three-parter, I thought it was a bit of a mess. Reading the arc again, though, I’m coming round to it. It has its problems – and they’re mainly in part 3 – but they don’t really undermine the central story Marjorie Liu was telling here.
Charts – 24 July 2011
First things first: there is no Amy Winehouse on this week’s chart. The chart week runs from Sunday through to Saturday, and so the inevitable posthumous sales rush won’t make its presence felt until next week. As of right now, it looks like she could well top the album charts, and land “Back to Black” inside the top 10.
But there is no Amy Winehouse on this week’s chart. Nor is there much else.
The Wanted spend a second week at number one with “Glad You Came”, heading up a completely static top five. There are several climbers, but it’s mostly rebounds from songs that have been around forever; the only vaguely notable one is Enrique Iglesias’ “Dirty Dancer” climbing eleven places to number 21. And there are three new entries, all outside the top twenty.
