The X-Axis – 24 July 2011
Al and I have just finished recording a five-minute segment for our friends at the Thumbcast, which should be on their upcoming video episode. So, yes, if you want to know what Al’s sofa looks like, your time is nigh. We’ll let you know when it’s up (or maybe just embed it here).
I am, honestly, still intending to get around to a full review of that X-23 arc from a fortnight ago, as well as the New Mutants arc that ended last week. Meanwhile, this week we have… not a great deal, frankly. With one obvious exception, nobody seems to want to release new stuff on the eve of San Diego. So, here’s this week’s one big new release, plus the X-books:
Daredevil #1 – This may be billed as a first issue but it would be more accurately described as the start of Mark Waid’s run, since the break from the past isn’t as complete as all that.
Charts – 17 July 2011
Founded on the principle that there simply must be a gap in the market for another boy band, the Wanted were created by the same person who assembled the Saturdays. Heavily marketed to the core boy band demographic, they’ve got the sort of fanbase that rushes out to buy things in the first week if you hype it enough in advance. “Glad You Came” was hyped well in advance of its release, which is why it’s the new number one.
House To Astonish Episode 64
A couple of days late, but we’ve made it at last, with talk about DC’s fill-in creators, Marvel’s New Stores initiative, Diamond Digital and the end of the Xeric grant. We’ve also got reviews of All Nighter, X-Men: Schism and The Red Wing, and the Official Handbook of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe meets Dale Earnhardt Jr. All this plus Roger Hargreaves’ Mr Terrific, a retailer-shaped hole and the expository sounds of the Germans.
The podcast is here, or on Mixcloud here. Let us know what you think, either in the comments thread, on Twitter, via email or on our Facebook fan page.
The X-Axis – 17 July 2011
Well, what an interesting week it’s been. The Murdochs must be praying for the news cycle to move on – where’s a good natural disaster when you need one?
Just in case you didn’t spot the housekeeping notice a couple of posts down, we’re recording the next podcast tomorrow evening, so it’ll be up soon enough. Oh, and as promised last week, I will get around to doing a separate piece on X-23 #12. Not that X-23 ever exactly tears up the comments thread, but the story did read a lot better the second time through, so… we’ll come back to it. Same deal with New Mutants #27, which is the last part of “Unfinished Business”.
It’s the start of Schism proper, following the all-important Prelude to Schism miniseries which has done so much to build goodwill from the fans. More on that below.
Oh, and there’s a couple of first issues from last week that I didn’t get around to reviewing. So we’ll cover them too in this busy, busy week.
Money in the Bank 2011
In theory, “Money in the Bank” is one of the WWE’s B-shows – which is to say, it’s not the Royal Rumble, Wrestlemania, Summerslam or Survivor Series, and therefore it’s automatically second-tier. But it’s a more interesting show than most, for several reasons.
First (and least important), it’s the show before “Summerslam”, and so it ought to set up major storylines to be resolved at that show. For that reason alone, it shouldn’t be a throwaway.
Second, the Money in the Bank Ladder Match has been well protected as a gimmick since it debuted in 2005. The idea is that a bunch of wrestlers compete in a ladder match with the winner being the first one to retrieve a briefcase suspended above the ring. Inside that briefcase (supposedly) is a contract entitling them to a shot at their show’s version of the world title, whenever they want it. The “whenever” bit has been taken literally, meaning that if the winner is prepared to ambush the champion, they’re pretty much guaranteed to get the title. With the exception of Rob Van Dam in 2006, everyone has been prepared to screw the champion in this way – making it an excellent gimmick for rising heels, or wrestlers who are about to turn heel.
Thirdly, this year’s show has the benefit of a particularly strong storyline on Raw, which has got an awful lot of attention from the core fans. Whether its appeal translates to a broader audience remains to be seen; but people are talking about it.
Housekeeping
We’re recording the podcast on Monday, so it’s going to be a couple of days late, due to not existing yet.
Charts – 10 July 2011
A brace of new entries right at the top of this week’s chart help to disguise the fact that it’s otherwise pretty much moribund – there are three new entries total, and only a couple of climbers of any significance.
The new number 1 is “Louder” by DJ Fresh featuring Sian Evans, which is currently being used in a Lucozade advert. For the benefit of overseas readers, Lucozade is an energy drink. That means it’s full of sugar but does a lot of branding work to associate itself with sports.
The X-Axis – 10 July 2011
And in the week when News International cancelled the News of the World, we ask – what’s the betting that they relaunch it in September with a new creative team? (Dark News of the World #1, perhaps.)
There’s a veritable torrent of X-books and other new releases this week, so I’ll come back later to X-23 #12 (the conclusion of the Jubilee arc) and some of the other issue #1s. That leaves…
Fear Itself #4 – For the first time, I think I actually preferred this issue to Flashpoint, though it’s close. At long last the series gives a clear and coherent explanation of the plot, so now we know what’s supposed to be at stake and why. The Serpent is Odin’s long-lost brother, erased from history, who wants to dethrone Odin. He’s empowered by fear. The point of all the random stuff going on in other books is to spread fear on Earth so that he’ll get stronger and he can take on Odin. And Odin plans to cut off the Serpent’s power by destroying Earth himself.
Charts – 3 July 2011
This week’s chart is dominated by the effects of the Glastonbury Festival, that much loved annual event in which London media types get to tell us how they went to a field and saw some mud. Personally, I’ve never been that keen on festivals – I went to T in the Park a few times back when I did student radio, but even then I kind of saw it as a massively inconvenient trek to see bands who’d usually have been better in a proper venue.
But the festival circuit is an established part of the UK calendar, and Glastonbury is the established top festival, which means it gets tons of radio and TV coverage from the BBC (particularly today when there are acres of space to fill on the digital channels).
Jason Derulo’s “Don’t Wanna Go Home” is still at number 1. But the highest new entry at number 3 is “Best Thing I Never Had” by Beyonce, who was one of this year’s headline acts.
X-Men: Prelude to Schism
“Prelude to Schism”
Writer: Paul Jenkins
Artists: Roberto de la Torre, Andrea Mutti, Will Conrad, Clay Mann, Jay Leisten & Seth Mann
Colourists: Lee Loughridge with Chris Sotomayor
Letterer: Rob Steen
Editor: Nick Lowe
We’ve all seen plenty of bad comics. But far rarer is the truly inexplicable comic. The one where, no matter how you twist and turn it, you just can’t figure how anyone could have thought it was going to work. Prelude to Schism is a book that doesn’t work in concept or in execution.
“Schism” itself is the X-books’ upcoming summer crossover. They’ve already told us that it shakes up the line and sees the X-Men splitting into two groups, one led by Wolverine, the other still following Cyclops. (Which accounts for two monthly titles. What happens in the others, heaven only knows.) It’s obviously a big deal for the line, and they’re promoting it heavily – so you might expect that Prelude to Schism would be some sort of lead-in to the big event. A prelude, as it were, to “Schism”.
