Wolverine and the X-Men #31-35 – “Hellfire Academy”
How stupid is too stupid?
It’s a question that’s come up a lot ever since Schism, where Jason Aaron introduced the current version of the Hellfire Club – a quartet of evil twelve-year-olds who seized control of the Hellfire Club and moved on to become the main villains of Wolverine and the X-Men. These characters don’t work. But why not?
Charts – 25 August 2013
Five new entries, four of them in the top ten. It’s a busy week at the top and a dead one at the bottom – though it’s also one of the increasingly rare weeks were the number one sold fewer than 100,000.
14. Matt Cardle & Melanie C – “Loving You”
X-Men #4
The Arkea story finished in issue #3, the “Battle for the Atom” crossover doesn’t start until issue #5 – let’s round out that first collection!
Actually, though, that’s unfair. This isn’t a filler issue; Wood could easily have strung out the Arkea arc for four issues if he’d wanted. If anything, four issues would be more common these days. Instead, this issue seems to be trying to take a moment to lay down some markers for future stories and character directions, before the big crossover comes along and subsumes everything for two months.
Astonishing X-Men #62-65 – “Frozen”
If you haven’t listened to this week’s special bonus podcast, one post down, then do. I’m not in it, but it’s great.
There’s one more issue to come out in this series, but that’s the epilogue and wrap-up. We’ve reached the end of “Frozen” itself (which is going to be the bulk of vol 12, if you’re getting the collections), and thus Marjorie Liu’s last full storyline.
It’s a simple enough idea. In the previous arc – the “X-Termination” crossover – Iceman picked up a bit of Apocalypse’s power, and so he’s both powered up and going mad. The result is that the world plunges into a new ice age, while duplicate Icemans run around making contact with his ex-girlfriends. The story can’t quite make up its mind whether the Apocalypse seed is meant to be a big reveal. It’s pretty much signalled up front in the recap page of part 1, but the actual story seems to start off trying to suggest some uncertainty about what’s going on. It doesn’t really matter, though, since the seed is just a macguffin anyway. (more…)
The Shed Of Ideas – Episode One
By way of something to tide you over in anticipation of House to Astonish’s full-blown return, here’s an hour of questions, answers and general messing around featuring me and previous guests Cara Ellison, Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie, where we answer questions on comics-based video games, gritty superhero TV shows, all-ages comics, Marvel Now Wave 2, the future of the Ultimate universe and loads more.
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 that our stylish and charming House to Astonish shirts will keep you warm and contribute to Paul’s son’s college fund, and can be found at our Redbubble store.
House to Astonish: The Shed of Ideas
By way of update on the podcast, after having had a good think about it Paul and I have decided that it’s likely to be a couple of months or so before it returns on a regular basis. However, there are going to be a few bonus episodes between now and then, which aren’t the podcast as we know it. One of these will be a Thought Bubble interview special, another will (hopefully) be a NYCC interview special. The third is the Shed of Ideas, where games journalist, comics reader and previous guest Cara Ellison and I will be taking questions on any comics-y subjects that take your fancy.
This isn’t HtA episode 112 – that’ll probably surface nearer to Christmas – but it’s a bit of fun to tide you over for a bit. We may even have special guests. Stay tuned. In the meantime, please let us have your questions in the comments below, or on Twitter (I’m @housetoastonish) – this is going to be recorded tomorrow (25 August), so you may need to be quick…!
Charts – 18 August 2013
Summerslam 2013
(Probably the only thing I’m going to post today, but then it’s a week of middle chapters, plus some books I’m still getting in physical form and haven’t received yet…)
Summerslam is traditionally the second-biggest pay-per-view of the year behind Wrestlemania (a distant second, admittedly), as well as the occasion for the WWE’s annual excursion to California. I suspect I’m going to be a bit busy to sit down and watch a three-hour show, and one which is basically a two-match card anyway, but let’s run it down anyway.
1. WWE Title: John Cena (c) v Daniel Bryan (Special Guest Referee: Triple H). Ah, now there’s quite a lot going on here. While I’m sure this’ll be given plenty of time with the expectation of having a good match, there are a number of major storylines circulating around this one.
Charts – 11 August 2013
All-New X-Men #15
Nice of Marvel to give me a light week this time round.
Volume 3 of the All-New X-Men collections covers issues #11-15, but this is a self-contained issue filling the gap before we get to “Battle of the Atom” next month. That provides an opportunity for a guest artist – David Lafuente, an ideal choice for Bendis’ stories. Not only is his work nice to look at, but he’s a cartoonist who does wonderfully expressive characters. His people can act, in short, which is what you need to give these scenes the depth and heart required for them to work.
