X-Men Blue: Origins #1 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X-MEN BLUE: ORIGINS #1
Writer: Si Spurrier
Artists: Wilton Santos (with Oren Junior) & Marcus To
Colour artist: Ceci De La Cruz
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Editor: Sarah Brunstad
COVER / PAGE 1: Mystique and Nightcrawler (in his Spider-Man costume) in action together. I think the thing in the background is meant to be the Stark Sentinel from Uncanny Spider-Man #4.
X-Men Blue: Origins. The title is a play on the ongoing series X-Men Blue that ran for 36 issues in 2017-2018.
PAGES 2-5. Flashback: Mystique resists Professor X’s mental control and falls off a cliff.
This is a straight recap of a scene in X-Men: Hellfire Gala 2023 #1. We were told in that issue that her body was taken away by the sea, and naturally she showed up again in New York in Uncanny Spider-Man #1.
The recap narrator is the mysterious Bamf that hangs around talking to Nightcrawler, invisible to everyone else, in Uncanny Spider-Man; for present purposes, though, he just gives us a bare-bones recap of Hellfire Gala.
PAGE 6. Flashback: Mystique escapes the Hellfire Gala.
Basically, Mystique picks herself up pretty much immediately, already obsessing about “my baby” (as she has been in Uncanny Spider-Man). She kills and replaces a random Orchis soldier and escapes that way.
Realm of X #4 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
REALM OF X #4
“The Promised Day”
Writer: Torunn Grønbekk
Artists: Diógenes Neves & Rafael Pimentel
Colour artists: Rain Beredo & Dono Sánchez-Almara
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Editor: Lauren Amaro
COVER / PAGE 1: Saturnyne watches as the cast are trapped in an hourglass. This doesn’t really have much to do with the story.
PAGE 2. Sif learns what’s happening in Vanaheim.
Sif took over as guardian of the Bifrost in King Thor #4 (2019) following the death of her brother Heimdall, and now has the same all-seeing powers that he used to. The Bifrost itself has actually been destroyed for most of her tenure, but it was recently restored in Immortal Thor #1. Although we don’t see the Bifrost in this issue, it’s mentioned twice as something that exists, so evidently we’re after that issue. That also means that Thor is wrongly drawn in the costume from his previous series throughout this issue, though that’s a minor error; he’s allowed to have more than one set of clothes.
Saturnyne has been magically preventing communication between Asgard and Vanaheim throughout this series, which we’ve seen mainly in the form of the prayers and messages from Vanaheim failing to generate a response from Thor. Curse used her powers to shut down that effect at the end of issue #3; Saturnyne’s “What did you do?” line is repeated from that issue.
Charts – 24 November 2023
The Christmas deluge is on its way. But it’s not here quite yet.
1. Jack Harlow – “Lovin On Me”
Two weeks. This is actually growing on me, even though everything tells me I ought to hate it.
12. Tate McRae – “Exes”
Boldly, a new release just before Christmas, and with the previous single “Greedy” returning to its peak of number 3 this week, after spending ten straight weeks in the top 10. If you’re releasing singles at now, then either you’re not interested in airplay or (more likely) you’re hoping to be one of the singles poised to benefit from the post-Christmas crash when nothing else is around. That’s probably the plan here, but it’s… not very good?
The X-Axis – 20 November 2023
X-MEN UNLIMITED INFINITY COMIC #114. By Steve Foxe, Steve Orlando, Guillermo Sanna, Java Tartaglia & Travis Lanham. This is turning out to be a nice little arc. Firestar’s undercover role in Orchis is at best a B plot in X-Men, but in Unlimited it gets some room to breathe. Not only do we get some reaction from Firestar-adjacent characters who know what’s going on and those who don’t, but we’re also finally getting to the question of what on Earth Judas Traveller – also a mutant – has been doing in Orchis all this time. He’s basically there because he figured they were going to win, but he’s played quite nicely here as someone who’s hedging his bets at the same time, and starting to believe in Firestar as a potential ally in an organisation full of people who want to kill them both. And there’s something in the idea that Firestar is believable in this role precisely because Jean didn’t have time to do anything more than pick someone at random, meaning that she’s wound up assigning a mutant that nobody would regard as the first choice for the job. Guillermo Sanna pitches her acting quite well. I’m enjoying this.
IMMORTAL X-MEN #17. (Annotations here.) It may not quite match up neatly with Jean Grey‘s final issue in terms of Jean’s state of mind, but this picks up the general theme of Jean being stuck in confused versions of her past rather nicely, with the clever device of having her “narrate” the book entirely with fragments of dialogue from (mostly) iconic appearances – plus a couple that aren’t quite so well known but fit the narrative requirements so well that Gillen would have been mad to pass them up. The Mother Righteous storyline also seems to be building to some kind of climax, while Mr Sinister makes his pitch for an alliance of convenience with Xavier. Quite how we’ve ended up with two comics drawn by Juan José Ryp in a single week, I’m not sure – but his autumnal Krakoa is beautifully rendered, and other than a slightly odd sequence with Apocalypse crushing Exodus’s head, which feels a bit like wires got crossed somewhere, it’s a good issue.
Uncanny Spider-Man #4 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
UNCANNY SPIDER-MAN #4
“Slice and Dice”
Writer: Si Spurrier
Artist: Lee Garbett
Colour artist: Matt Milla
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Editor: Sarah Brunstad
COVER / PAGE 1. Nightcrawler and Spider-Man fighting a Stark Sentinel.
PAGES 2-5. Nightcrawler watches Spider-Man deal with an anti-mutant mob.
Nightcrawler decides to leave it to Peter to deal with this – and he’s probably right that Peter’s better placed to try and calm the mob than he is. But the little ghost Bamf clearly sees this as another example of Kurt hiding from his problems. And he’s probably right too.
The Bamf also tells us directly that he isn’t an illusion. Admittedly, he would, wouldn’t he? But that’s consistent with issue #1, where he seemed to be able to shield Kurt from the Stark Sentinel’s detection.
Wolverine #39 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
WOLVERINE vol 7 #39
“Last Mutant Standing, part 3”
Writer: Benjamin Percy
Artist: Juan José Ryp
Colour artist: Frank D’Armata
Letterer: Cory Petit
Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Editor: Mark Basso
COVER / PAGE 1. Wolverine and the Black Panther fight Orchis.
This should be a fairly short one, because it’s simply another one-shot story with a guest star. Nothing wrong with that, mind you.
PAGES 2-4. Jun Wei is rejected by the Wakandan Prime Minister.
Wakanda. The current status quo in Black Panther is that T’Challa has been exiled, and the country is currently supposed to be undergoing a transition to democracy under the leadership of Prime Minister Folasade.
Jun Wei is the same Orchis officer who was kidnapped and briefly controlled by Chronicler over in X-Force.
“As you know, we are responsible for the exile of the mutants from Earth…” This is Orchis’s standard explanation of what happened in Hellfire Gala.
“Wakanda was wise not to sign the treaty with Krakoa.” Wakanda has indeed always been listed as refusing to enter into a treaty with Krakoa, on a list otherwise populated mainly by dodgy regimes. The official reason given was that the Wakandans simply didn’t need Krakoan drugs, and so Krakoa had no leverage with them. Black Panther has become rather more equivocal in its depiction of Wakanda over the last few years, but it’s still positioned here very clearly as taking the moral high ground. (Though not, apparently to the extent of actually offering mutants asylum.)
Immortal X-Men #17 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
IMMORTAL X-MEN #17
“The White Hot Danger Room”
Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artist: Juan José Ryp
Colour artist: David Curiel
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Editor: Jordan D White
COVER / PAGE 1. Jean Grey in contemporary costume, surrounded by images of her from various points in her life. From left to right, that’s:
- A Jean we can’t see enough of to place.
- Late 1980s X-Factor Marvel Girl
- Late 1960s X-Men Marvel Girl
- Phoenix / Black Queen from the Dark Phoenix Saga.
- Early 1990s X-Men Jean Grey
- Early Silver Age Marvel Girl
- Phoenix in X-Men #101, rising from the water with Cyclops in front of her.
- X-Men Red Jean Grey
- Morrison/Quitely New X-Men Jean Grey
- Another Jean too small to identify.
Charts – 17 November 2023
Predictably, the Beatles don’t manage two weeks. Their chart score last week was heavy on the physical sales, and while some more physical copies were released in week two (which is why they were number one on the midweeks), reality has reasserted itself. “Now and Then” drops to number 6 in its second week, still eminently respectable.
So does that mean that cässo finally gets his week at number 1 with “Prada”? Well, no. It doesn’t.
1. Jack Harlow – “Lovin On Me”
That’s Jack Harlow’s first number one, though he was unlucky not to make it with “First Class”, which spent five weeks locked at number 2 behind Harry Styles. I wouldn’t have placed it as an obvious number 1, but it does grow on you, and the midweeks have it staying for a second week.. It’s (presumably) the lead single from his next album. The sample is from a 1995 track called “Whatever (Bass Soliloquy)” by Cadillac Dale, which doesn’t seem to have been a hit anywhere on release.
“Lovin On Me” is a slight surprise as a number 1, not because of the Beatles, but because it comes out in the same week as…
The X-Axis – w/c 13 November 2023
X-MEN UNLIMITED INFINITY COMIC #113. By Steve Foxe, Steve Orlando, Guillermo Sanna, Java Tartaglia & Travis Lanham. Infinity Comics don’t really lend themselves to writing reviews of individual chapters, since they’re often just extended scenes – something that’s absolutely fine when you’re releasing on a weekly schedule. This is one such issue, and on those terms, perfectly decent. It’s Firestar trying to help Orchis capture her ex-fiancée Justice in order to keep up her cover. We don’t see much of Justice in the X-books, despite the fact that he’s a relatively high profile mutant, but it makes sense to bring him over for a Firestar arc. If you want to have Firestar feel uncomfortable about how she’s perceived by her friends while undercover, Justice is a much better choice for that role than any of the regular X-Men. The plot is exactly what you’d expect, but it’s handled quite nicely, with Justice knowing Firestar well enough to get that none of this makes sense, and Firestar bringing up uncomfortable bits of past continuity in order to sell him on her supposed sincerity.
JEAN GREY #4. (Annotations here.) Some of the Fall of X minis are already ending, others are on their penultimate issue. That was quick. At this point, it seems clear enough that some books are central to key storylines (X-Men, Immortal X-Men, X-Men Red, Invincible Iron Man); some are just carrying on with their own thing (Wolverine, X-Force, Legion of X / Uncanny Spider-Man); and… well, the publishing schedule says we still need more books. Jean Grey is three issues of What If…? stories based on points in Jean’s life, with a fourth issue that spells out the message we’re meant to be taking from the first three. That message, more or less, is that Jean shouldn’t be second guessing her past choices because anything else that she could have done would have been worse. For that to work, you have to accept that the Phoenix Force is being honest with her. But if it’s not, what’s the story? Even taking it at face value, though, I don’t think this sticks the landing. I’ve generally enjoyed this series as what it is, but I’m not convinced it’s taken Jean anywhere. It’s not as if this sort of self-doubt has been a key character note; if anything, Gerry Duggan tends to write her as supremely confident in her power and her moral choices, albeit with the occasional bit of hand-wringing about that time Dark Phoenix committed genocide. This issue is working hard to sell the idea that the last few issues have taught us something important about Jean, and I’m really not convinced that they have.
Children of the Vault #4 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
CHILDREN OF THE VAULT #4
“Kill the Future!”
Writer: Deniz Camp
Artist: Luca Maresca
Colour artist: Carlos Lopez
Letterer: Cory Petit
Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Editor: Sarah Brunstad
COVER / PAGE 1. Cable and Bishop fight the Children of the Vault.
PAGE 2. Cable threatens to shoot the City.
This is where we left off last issue.
PAGE 3. Recap and credits.
PAGE 4. Rodrigo Muñoz reacts – kind of – to the battle.
We saw Rodrigo before in issue #1. He was the kid wandering around the lithium fields just before the City showed up overhead.
As Martillo explained in issue #2, the Children’s “Message” transforms people “first in mind, then in body”; most humans will die in the process, but the tiny minority who survive will become Children of the Vault. Clearly, Rodrigo is some way into his transformation.
“Tierra Desnuda”, the name of Rodrigo’s Children-built “Tomorrow Town”, was previously given in issue #1.
