The X-Axis – Catch-up #2
Thanks to the nuptials of our beloved overlord, it’s a holiday weekend here in the UK. And that means disruption to the postal service, which in turn means that I haven’t got this week’s comics yet. Not that I’m particularly bothered about that, to be honest – I’m still catching up on the books that came out while I was on holiday.
In the meantime, let’s catch up some other new books that started while I was away. We already talked about Butcher Baker, Journey into Mystery and Super Dinosaur on the last podcast, but here are a few other new titles from the last few weeks:
Dark Horse Presents #1 – The direct market has never been entirely sympathetic to anthology titles, but the original Dark Horse Presents was an exception to the rule, which managed to carve out a space for itself for 157 issues. Admittedly, this was a period when the market was also strong enough to support Marvel Comics Presents, of which the less said the better, but DHP had a fairly impressive track record of big name contributors producing high profile work like “Sin City” and “Hellboy”.
WWE Extreme Rules
Since I was out of the country for Wrestlemania, it’s been a couple of months since I’ve written one of these PPV previews. And we return with a show that is not exactly a classic.
“Extreme Rules” is a lame duck show for several reasons. First, it’s the show that has to follow Wrestlemania. It’s the time of year when the company goes into a rebuilding phase, having completed its major storylines and not given much thought to the new ones. Often that results in a show full of desultory rematches to tie up loose ends.
Second, this is the show that started life as “ECW One Night Stand”, and then went on to become a themed show full of (supposedly) ultra-violent gimmick matches. But the WWE has moved away from that sort of thing in recent years, partly in order to keep their TV PG-rated (which goes down well with the sponsors and toy license holders), and partly because the long-term injury rate to wrestlers just wasn’t worth it. So “Extreme Rules” has drifted some way from its roots; it’s still a show full of gimmick matches, but not necessarily ones that are particularly out of the ordinary.
Charts – 24 April 2011
Late in the week, I know, but at least I’m still in time to get this post done before the new chart on Sunday.
“Party Rock Anthem” by LMFAO spends its second week at number one, and looks set for a third. But even so, it’s a busy week, with ten new entries. The turnover of hits has slowed down a lot in the last couple of years; swapping out a quarter of the chart used to be fairly routine, but we don’t see it as much in the digital era.
That’s the highest new entry – “Unorthodox” by Wretch 32 featuring Example, at number 2. Does the video really need a definition of the word “unorthodox” in the first few seconds? I have more faith in the viewers than that. Anyway, this is the second hit for Wretch 32, who reached number 5 in January with “Traktor”. It’s also the biggest hit for guest rapper Example, beating the number 3 peak of “Kickstarts” last year.
House To Astonish Episode 58
We’re back, with discussion of Tokyopop’s closedown, Dark Horse’s layoffs, Marvel and Boom!’s licensing interactions and Greg Capullo’s move to the Bat-books. There are also reviews of Journey Into Mystery, Butcher Baker and Super Dinosaur and the Official Handbook of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe goes futuristic (or possibly retro). All this plus a time-travelling nipple, an imaginary moustache and Sherlock Holmes 2099.
The podcast is here, or here on Mixcloud. Let us know what you think, in the comments below, by email, on Twitter or on our Facebook fan page.
The X-Axis – 24 April 2011
Welcome back for the first regular X-Axis column in, ooh, ages. I’ve got a three week backlog of comics to review, so in this post I’m just going to cover the the recent X-books (some in more detail than others). I’ll hopefully get to the other interesting releases in a later post – and no doubt Al and I will be talking about three of them tomorrow when we record a new episode of the House to Astonish podcast. Should be up in the course of Monday, and then we should hopefully be back on the regular schedule for the foreseeable future.
Daken: Dark Wolverine #8 – This is part 2 of “Collision”, the crossover with X-23. As you’d expect, the story shifts to Daken’s perspective, though the book is still playing its usual trick of leaving Daken’s actual motives and plans obscure even while he’s narrating the story. He’s not an unreliable narrator so much as an incomplete one who doesn’t bother explaining himself to the reader, leaving it up to us to decide when he’s genuinely planned everything out in advance, and when he’s just winging it.
Charts – 17 April 2011
Now these, I’m really behind with…
When we left off, it was 20 March, and Adele’s “Someone Like You” had just been knocked off number one by Nicole Scherzinger’s “Don’t Hold Your Breath”. That was four charts ago. So what’s happened since?
Well, Nicole Scherzinger’s first week sales didn’t hold up, so on 27 March, “Someone Like You” returned to number one for a fifth week. After that, for the two weeks I was out of the country, we had “On The Floor” by Jennifer Lopez featuring Pitbull.
The X-Axis Catch-up
Welcome back!
It’s been a few weeks since I’ve written one of these, and we’re going to be in catch-up mode for a little while. As I write this, I haven’t got around to reading any of the books that came out while I was away. They ought to be showing up at the weekend, along with this week’s comics, in a massively unwieldy pile. (For those of you who’ve asked, the plan is to record the next podcast on Monday.)
But let’s make a start on the backlog, by looking briefly at the X-books that came out just before I left. Yes, comics from three weeks ago. Only on House to Astonish!
Age of X Universe #1 – By the time you read this, “Age of X” will be more or less finished. I’m still about two thirds of the way through, of course. But it’s been a good story, in part because it’s turned out to be a rather more interesting idea than it first seemed. On the surface, “Age of X” is just another dystopian parallel Earth; but with Mike Carey it’s never going to be that simple, and indeed it seems pretty clear at this point that it’s not “real” at all. Everyone’s holed up in a fortress which is probably the interior of Legion’s mind, and unknown to them, the outside world doesn’t really exist. The attacking soldiers seem generic because they literally aren’t real characters at all.
Normal service will resume shortly.
Chances are that by the time you read this I’m back in the country. Chances are that I’m also probably asleep.
Normal content will resume in the next couple of days. Thank you for your patience.
Housekeeping
In case you’re checking by for the X-Axis, a podcast or a Wrestlemania preview, just a reminder that we’re taking a short break and we’ll be back in a couple of weeks.
The X-Axis – 27 March 2011
Welcome to British Summer Time! I knew if I left that clock long enough it would become right again.
It’s a podcast weekend, so don’t forget to check the post below, where Al and I are talking about Green Lantern, Xombi and FF, along with the usual rundown of the news and solicitation.
Important housekeeping announcement! For those of you who didn’t listen to the end of the podcast, I’m taking a short break, so we’re skipping the next podcast, and it’s probably going to be three to four weeks before the next X-Axis.
Loads of X-books this week, and not a great deal else, so let’s get to it…
Captain America & Batroc the Leaper – Continuing their intriguing “more is more” marketing strategy, Marvel have a ton of Captain America one-shots out this month, of which this is one. Given the volume of Captain America minis already released in anticipation of the upcoming movie, one suspects that these books are doomed to be read by weary completists and devoted fans of the creators. But Kieron Gillen and Renato Arlem’s Batroc story is worth your time. There’s not much Captain America in it; it’s really an attempt to rehabilitate Batroc, and a very effective one too. As a back-up reprint of Tales of Suspense #85 shows, when Batroc was first introduced, he may have been ridiculously French (“Nom du chein! Batroc feels zee terrible anger!”), but he was also played as an honourable warrior who was a serious threat to the hero. Years of repeated failure have stripped the character of that aura of credibility, leaving him to hang around the fringes of the Marvel Universe as a Silver Age relic. Gillen turns that to his advantage, playing up Batroc as an underdog who really just wants to do his best as an ordinary man taking on super-soldiers and cyborgs. Even Batroc knows he’s not going to win; but it’s the trying that counts. It’s a nice way of giving back some dignity to a Z-list villain, and one of the best single issue stories I’ve read in a while.
