“That One Fella, He’s Trouble” – Savage Wolverine #18
With this issue, Savage Wolverine drops its format of rotating creative teams with each arc, and brings us a standalone story by Jen Van Meter and Rich Ellis. Van Meter’s a name I haven’t heard in quite some time – she’s best known for the Oni series Hopeless Savages, but that was a good while back.
Savage stories don’t have to take place in present day continuity, which gives the freedom to do stories set throughout the twentieth century. That’s clearly something that attracts a lot of writers, and here we have another historical story. It’s 1963, and there’s tension in a small town because the local bigots want to stop some people who aren’t white from going to a rally. Logan is passing through and sorts it out. Boil it down and that’s basically the plot.
Origin II
The first Wolverine Origin miniseries came out some twelve years ago, and time has not greatly altered my feelings about it. In a nutshell, the nicest thing to be said about Origin is that it can be easily ignored, because although it ads some pointless complications to the character’s history, none of them seem to matter sufficiently to require mentioning again. But of course, the very fact that it can be so easily ignored is testament to how ineffective it is as an origin story.
Kieron Gillen and Adam Kubert’s Origin II gestures towards keeping the tone of the earlier series, but fortunately doesn’t have to mess about with country house costume drama. It also comes somewhat closer to functioning as an actual origin story, in as much as it takes Logan from an outcast living with wolves in the wilderness through to a status somewhat closer to the way we know him today.
Charts – 4 May 2014
Extreme Rules 2014
For American viewers, we now seem to be firmly in the post-PPV era. The WWE’s website may still list these shows under the heading of “pay-per-views”, but American viewers can get them far more cheaply by subscribing to the Netflix-style “WWE Network”. Would you rather pay $40 just for this show, or subscribe to the whole network for six months at $10 a month? The answer ought to be obvious. Conventional PPV providers are predictably enraged, and the satellite companies (though not the cable ones) have responded by refusing to carry the show at all. If that seems like an odd decision, since any orders are better than none, then bear in mind if they allow WWE to act like this, they encourage other PPV providers to follow suit.
Initial Network subscription numbers are at the low end of expectations (and certainly at the low end of announced expectations, which always seemed very bullish). One theory is that if you didn’t subscribe for Wrestlemania, you certainly won’t be subscribing for a C-level show like this. Another way of looking at it is that a large chunk of the audience just doesn’t feel comfortable with streaming yet, especially as they haven’t done a particularly great job of promoting all the devices that can access the show. If that’s the position, then the satellite companies’ stance may just encourage more people to take a second look at the Network.
House to Astonish Episode 125
Happy Free Comic Book Day! Paul and I have got over an hour and a half of discussion for you, talking about FCBD itself, the sad passing of Al Feldstein, the changes to the Comixology app, the news from C2E2 (including the death of Wolverine, the Tenth Realm storyline, the new Storm and Star-Lord ongoing series, the 100th Anniversary issues from Marvel, the revival of Dark Horse Presents and the Young Guns 2 initiative) and the Chew animated movie. We’ve also got reviews of Southern Bastards, Batgirl Annual and Amazing Spider-Man, and the Official Handbook of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe learns what you should say if someone asks you if you are a god. All this plus the Soule Pole, the digital trees of Luxembourg and Big Paddy’s Corporate Tax Shack.
The podcast is here, or here on Mixcloud, or available through the embedded player below. Let us know what you think, in the comments below, on Twitter, via email or on our Facebook fan page.
Don’t forget to pick up your tickets for the House to Astonish Live show in Edinburgh on May 31 (more information on which can be found here), and remember that we have super-chic shirts available at our Redbubble store.
Charts – 27 March 2014
“Wrath” – Savage Wolverine #14-17
Let’s bring us up to date before the next wave of books comes out tomorrow. (And yes, I’ve given up hope on ever getting round to Wolverine Max any time soon.)
The cover for issue #14 – officially, it’s #14.NOW, but let’s smile and nod and ignore that – is presumably joking with its strap line “From the master of noir, Richard Isanove, comes a thrilling new adventure”. Isanove is best known as a colourist on books like Origin, Dark Tower and 1602; so far as I can recall, this is his first high-profile assignment as a writer or artist.
Still, you can see where the noir tag is coming from.
“Rogue Logan” – Wolverine #1-4
I seem to be slipping behind a bit. So let’s take a quick look at this story, which finished last week. (I’m going to skip the epilogue to the first Amazing X-Men arc, since, well, it’s an epilogue to a story I’ve already reviewed.)
Wolverine is one of the more dubious relaunches of the second wave of Marvel Now, featuring as it does exactly the same writer and no genuine fresh start. Instead, this “new” series actually begins with the second phase of a storyline that started with… well, with the previous relaunch.
Charts – 20 March 2014
Another batch of dance records! Oh, and Elyar Fox.
38. DJ Snake & Lil Jon – “Turn Down For What”
Well, that video certainly isn’t making MTV UK’s daytime top 40 rundown. This track has gone platinum in the USA, and it’s been climbing from the lower reaches for a few weeks now. DJ Snake is a French producer, getting his first UK hit (if 38 counts as a hit). Lil Jon has had quite a few hits in America, but his only previous UK appearance was as a guest rapper on Jay Sean’s “Do You Remember”, which made number 10 four years ago.
29. Showtek & Justin Prime featuring Matthew Koma – “Cannonball (Earthquake)”
Third hit for the Dutch brothers Showtek, following last year’s top 5 hit “Booyah” and the current David Guetta collaboration “Bad”. They do a lot of collaborating; this one, with Justin Prime, another Dutch DJ, started out as an instrumental back in 2012. But for this release, it’s had vocals added from Matthew Koma, who was previously the featured vocalist on Hardwell’s “Dare You” – a number 18 flash in the pan in January.
13. Meridian Dan featuring Big H & JME – “German Whip”
A crossover grime hit – well, kind of. It was number 6 in the midweeks, so sales must have been pretty front loaded. JME was one of the guest rappers on Wiley’s “Can You Hear Me? (Ayayaya)”, which made number 3 in 2012, but the others are chart newcomers.
Supposedly, a “whip” is an early motoring term which has been dusted off and repurposed as meaning “car”. Originally (if you believe the internet) it actually meant a steering wheel, on the logic that it was equivalent to the coachwhip. But close enough.
11. Elyar Fox – “A Billion Girls”
Follow-up to “Do It All Over Again”, which made number 5 in January. Diminishing returns are already in evidence. At time of writing, it’s at 34 on iTunes, so this looks like another front loaded pop song selling predominantly in first-day fan purchases. Actually, it’s not a horrible record, but the window for achieving any sort of crossover looks small.
3. Shift K3y – “Touch”
UK garage – we haven’t had that in a while. Shift K3y is 20-year-old producer Lewis Jankel, who has a few high profile remix assignments under his belt. Unusually in this day and age, he’s doing his own vocals on this track. He’s got a good voice, though I can’t help thinking the video director could have done him a few more favours.
1. Kiesza – “Hideaway”
Debut hit for house singer Kiesa Rae Ellestad. She’s from Calgary, but that’s Brooklyn in the video. She’s a trained ballerina, which might explain why somebody decided to try a one-shot video like this. Apparently she’s got a broken rib in this video, which can’t have been fun.
This sold 136,000 copies, though that does include several weeks of pre-order sales. It’s the ninth straight week to see a change of number 1, and that’ll be continuing next week. Admittedly one of those weeks was “Happy” returning to the top. But otherwise, we seem to be back in a pattern of records entering at the top after advance promotion. Interestingly, most of the artists in question have been relative newcomers rather than established fan base acts – Sam Smith, Route 94, Duke Dumont, 5 Seconds of Summer, Aloe Blacc, Sigma and now Kiesza. Still, it’d be nice to see something break from the pack and stay at the top a bit longer.
On the album chart:
- “Caustic Love” by Paolo Nutini at 1. It’s the fastest selling album of the year, not that that’s a huge achievement these days. The single “Scream” rebounds to 22 this week.
- “Meet the Vamps” by the Vamps at 2. A pretty solid debut for a teen pop band. The single “Last Night” predictably drops 2-14 on the singles chart.
- “Homo Erraticus” by Ian Anderson at 14. The sixth solo studio album from the front man of Jethro Tull. Again, it speaks volumes about the state of the album market that he’s now getting to number 14, when none of his previous releases got above 35. Single: “Enter the Uninvited”.
- “One Day Like This” by Rhydian at 19. Yes, the guy who came second in the 2007 season of X Factor is still recording. It’s the expected selection of classical crossover covers. With this release, he apparently becomes only the second X Factor alumnus to make it to five albums (the other being JLS). Admittedly, one of his five albums was a low-selling Welsh language release, but still, five albums. Single: “Nights in White Satin”. It’s in Italian, so as to be extra classy.
- “Do The Beast” by the Afghan Whigs at 40. Astonishingly, the first time the indie veterans have actually made the albums top 40 – 1996’s “Black Love” only got to 41. Single: “Algiers”. (I still think their 1993 single “Debonair” was inexplicably overlooked.)
