The X-Axis – 3 July 2011
If you’ve listened to this week’s podcast (just one post below), you’ll know that the last two weeks weren’t exactly replete with notable new releases. And while I skipped the X-Axis last week, it’s been a fairly quiet period for the X-books too, with just six books in two weeks. Unless you count Namor, which I don’t. I’m starting to get a vague sense that everyone is killing time right now, waiting for the end of Flashpoint, the end of Fear Itself, or the start of Schism – delete as applicable.
Still, here’s some stuff that came out in the last two weeks:
Flashpoint: Reverse Flash #1 – Er… yes. This is a one-shot by Scott Kolins and Joel Gomez (not, as the cover claims, a three-issue miniseries), which I rather foolishly assumed might in some way be important to the plot of Flashpoint, what with the Reverse Flash being the main villain and all. Silly me. What it actually contains is a recap of the Reverse Flash’s back story – not a direct copy of Geoff Johns’ recent story from Flash, but certainly covering similar ground. It’s tempting to say that the problem here is the odd decision to hire artist Scott Kolins as a writer, and there’s no doubt that Johns got the same basic idea across far more effectively and charmingly in his story. But then, it’s not like the editors gave Kolins much to work with – if the finished product is anything to go by, the remit here was “Recap the plot.” Joel Gomez’s art is patchy – bits of it look rushed, and there’s a blockiness that doesn’t really work for the Flash, but then there are also a couple of nicely rendered panels and some sweet material near the end with Barry Allen as a child. Still, not a good comic.
House To Astonish Episode 63
One of us hasn’t received any comics for two weeks, and there has been very little new or exciting out in the past fortnight, so for a bit of a break from the norm we’ve got our usual news round-up (looking at the sad loss of Gene Colan, the launch of Avenging Spider-Man, DC’s digital plans and the Green Lantern movie’s performance) followed by a full episode’s worth of rumination on (largely) comics-related topics suggested by our followers on Twitter. Listen! to our views on superheroes in skirts. Hear! our thoughts on this summer’s comics-related movies. Hark! at us getting the name of The DFC wrong. All this plus Fat Alfred and the Cosby Kids, a tiny little evil moustache and Captain Genocide.
The podcast is here, or here on Mixcloud. Let us know what you think, in the comments below, on Twitter, via email or on our Facebook fan page.
Charts – 26 June 2011
We have a new number one! And it’s crap.
That’s “Don’t Wanna Go Home” by Jason Derulo, a track which has almost nothing to recommend it beyond the bits it lifted from other, better records. Imaginatively, the video features Derulo dancing in a warehouse. Never seen that before.
It’s the lead single from Derulo’s second album, and his second number one following “In My Head” last March, which was just the right side of forgettable. I assume everyone knows the source material here, but the hook comes from “The Banana Boat Song” by Harry Belafonte (number 2 in 1957).
Here he is performing it with the Muppets.
Thought for the day: digital sales
In the comments thread for the previous post, somebody asked whether DC’s new “day and date” policy would make the sales chart meaningless.
A fair question – we won’t have access to the digital sales figures, and like any other distribution channel, they could make a big difference to the overall picture.
But (via Bleeding Cool) we do know roughly how many digital comics DC are selling right now – because Dan DiDio has been telling retailers at their promotional roadshows.
As of now, DC’s print comics outsell digital by a factor of …
Some more DCU thoughts…
No X-Axis today (as I mentioned last time, I’m not getting the books until next week). But since I have some spare time, here’s some more thoughts on the DCU relaunch. Or at least vaguely related to the DCU relaunch.
I’ve looked at the individual titles before. Now let’s think about the bigger picture.
Here’s what we know. DC are relaunching their entire superhero universe in September, and revising continuity yet again. Some characters remain broadly the same, some have their back stories changed, and the entire population of the WildStorm universe is being retroactively folded into DC history. To make way for all this, a load of titles are being cancelled, and those that are continuing are wrapping up (or at least guillotining) outstanding storylines in order to make way for a clean relaunch.
So it’s a new continuity, but incorporating large chunks of the previous one. Though we don’t really know which chunks, save for a handful of specific stories that have been mentioned in interviews. It all sounds rather similar to 1985’s Crisis on Infinite Earths, which similarly attempted to consolidate multiple superhero universes into one, rebooting some characters at the same time.
Charts – 19 June 2011
“Changed The Way You Kiss Me” by Example is still number one – though it was behind in the midweeks, so it was clearly a close run thing. It probably won’t manage a third, but stranger things have happened.
The thwarted single that topped the midweek charts, only to find itself at number 2 on Sunday, is “Bounce” by Calvin Harris featuring Kelis.
The X-Axis – 19 June 2011
First, a housekeeping announcement – no X-Axis next week, because I happen to know I won’t be getting my books in time to write it. Might write something else instead. Probably won’t.
This is also a podcast weekend, so check a couple of posts below for the latest episode of House to Astonish, where Al and I are talking about the rest of the DCU 52, and review the first issues of 15 Love, Graveyard of Empires and Kirby Genesis.
Loads of X-books this week, and they’re mostly pretty decent, too…
Daken: Dark Wolverine #10 – The first issue proper of Rob Williams’ run sees Daken arriving in Hollywood and trying to get his foot in the door of the local underworld. Unfortunately, it turns out that his information about Los Angeles is rather out of date, so he’s going to have to start from the ground up.
Capitol Punishment 2011
In June 2010, the WWE’s pay-per-view show was Fatal Four-Way. That show was part of the WWE’s short-lived obsession with giving every pay-per-view its own gimmick. The theory was that filling a card with four-way matches would in some way be of interest to somebody. It wasn’t, really.
Fortunately, the company seems to have figured out that not everything needs to be a gimmick show. So this year the June show has been retitled Capitol Punishment, for no particular reason other than that it’s coming from Washington. This is a low priority show. July gets Money in the Bank, which is used to mark out future headliners; August is Summerslam, traditionally treated as a major part of the calendar. Capitol Punishment… is filling a slot in the diary. In a couple of matches, the WWE is taking the opportunity to experiment with new pairings – but basically, nobody’s really pretending that this is anything other than a show for the hardcore.
It may also be one for the purists. Unusually, there are no gimmick matches on this show at all. Not even a tag match. It’s seven regular singles matches, and I can’t remember the last time that happened.
House To Astonish Episode 62
September is coming, and with it 52 new DC first issues. We’ve got a round-up of all 52, as well as a sprint through the rest of the solicitations, a look at Frank Miller’s Holy Terror, some chat on the opening of the Spider-Man musical and discussion of the impending X-Men relaunch. We’ve also got reviews of 15 Love, Graveyard of Empires and Kirby Genesis, and the Official Handbook of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe makes a love connection. All this plus a selection of guest ales, Millie Collins’s nephew Millie Collins and the influence of Halley’s Comet on Marvel’s publishing schedules.
The podcast is here, or here on Mixcloud. Let us know what you think, in the comments below, on Twitter, via email or on our Facebook fan page.
Charts – 12 June 2011
After last week’s bout of suspended animation, this week’s chart is rather more interesting. There’s a new entry at number one – “Changed The Way You Kiss Me” by Example, the lead single from his third album.
Elliot Gleave (E.G., hence Example) started off as a rapper before dramatically shifting tack on his previous album to reinvent himself as an electro act. This is his seventh hit – all of which followed the change of direction – but his first number one. It’s certainly his best single to date, and it feels to me like a more successful version of what he was trying to do on the last album. Leaving aside guest appearances, his biggest hit until now was “Kickstarts”, a perfectly good record which made number 3 a year ago, but doesn’t quite click in the same way the new track does. Looks like he’s found himself a niche. This has a tough fight to stay at number 1 for a second week (Calvin Harris is ahead on the midweeks), but it’s going to be up there.
