House to Astonish Episode 203
We’re back (back! Back!) with more comics chat, remembering John Romita Sr and Ian McGinty, talking about #ComicsBrokeMe, Image moving distribution to Lunar, Marvel and DC’s upcoming launches and Ram V and Felipe Andrade’s Rare Flavours. We’re also reviewing Void Rivals and Ultimate Invasion, and the Official Handbook of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe is the O.G. All this plus Monty Python’s flying robots, passive drowning and a guest appearance by Roger McGough.
The episode is here, or available via the embedded player below. Let us know what you think, in the comments, on Twitter, via email or on our Facebook fan page. And t-shirts? Well, now you come to ask about it, I’m sure we have some of them over at our Redbubble store, let me just check
Service announcement
No annotations this week and next, because I’m on holiday. I’ll do a weekly review round up at some point over the next couple of days, though, and the next Incomplete Wolverine will be up on Sunday, covering 2014. There should also be a new House to Astonish episode coming up shortly.
Normal service will be resumed in two weeks time.
Charts – 23 June 2023
Not the most memorable of top 10s. We have a static top four, and nine of the ten songs were there last week too. So for a third week…
1. Dave & Central Cee – “Sprinter”
… is number one.
11. Leigh-Anne – “Don’t Say Love”
That would be Leigh-Anne Pinnock of Little Mix, whose surname has apparently been deemed unsuitable for solo status. The fact that she misses the top 10 is likely to cause a bit of concern, but Little Mix tracks have climbed from mid-table entries before, so the jury is still out. The track itself is… okay, I guess?
The X-Axis – w/c 19 June 2023
Well, all this week’s regular titles got annotations posts already, so we can take this one fairly quickly. Oh, hold on, there’s also…
X-MEN UNLIMITED INFINITY COMIC #92. By Jason Loo and Antonio Fabela. This is the start of a new arc, with the Madrox family and the Fantastic Four. If that seems random… well, it is, but Madrox did make his first appearance in an issue of Giant-Size Fantastic Four, which is something. It’s okay, I guess. It’s mostly inconsequential slice of life stuff, which isn’t especially gripping, though there’s a nice idea of X-Corp scientist-version Madrox looking for the approval of Reed Richards. And then a completely random villain shows up at the end, which is… choppy pacing, at least. But it’s fine.
X-FORCE #41. (Annotations here.) The previous issue seemed to set up one of those “jump after jump through time” stories, but it seems we’re just doing two. Which is cutting to the chase, I guess. I suppose the point of this arc is to give the rest of the X-Force cast their own showdown with Beast, in the form of alternate timeline versions, while Wolverine gets to deal with the real deal in his own book… but it does feel a bit secondary. There doesn’t seem to be much going on here beyond some time travel shenanigans, but there are a couple of likeably absurd ideas, like Beast concealing his clones in major world heritage sites so that nobody will disturb them. Mainly, though, it all feels a bit inconsequential to me.
New Mutants: Lethal Legion #4 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
NEW MUTANTS: LETHAL LEGION #4
“When I Was A Lad”
Writer: Charlie Jane Anders
Penciler: Enid Balám
Inker: Elisabetta D’Amico
Colourist: Matt Milla
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Design: Tom Muller with Jay Bowen
Editor: Sarah Brunstad
COVER / PAGE 1. The New Mutants face off against Nefaria and his Lethal Legion.
PAGES 2-5. The New Mutants fail to escape and make their stand.
The Voluptuous Cherry Orchard is not real, as far as I can tell. But residents of Westchester County who are looking for cherry blossom next spring can find a list of recommended locations here.
Moonstone. Escapade describes her as “the chaotic-neutral version of Captain Marvel”, admittedly with some uncertainty. Traditionally, I wouldn’t really describe her as chaotic – she’s a meticulous planner and manipulator, if anything – though “neutral” may be fair enough when looking at her career in the round. Karla is more interested in her own personal comfort than in power or wealth as ends in themselves. She is, however, comparably powerful to Captain Marvel, and served as the Captain Marvel stand-in in a version of the Dark Avengers. As Carol’s standing has risen over the last few years, Moonstone maybe gets some spillover credibility boost as a result.
Betsy Braddock: Captain Britain #5 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
BETSY BRADDOCK: CAPTAIN BRITAIN #5
“Thou Art More Near Thy Death”
Writer: Tini Howard
Artist: Vasco Georgiev
Colourist: Erick Arciniega
Letterer: Ariana Maher
Design: Tom Muller with Jay Bowen
Editor: Sarah Brunstad
COVER / PAGE 1. Betsy and an assortment of other Captain Britains in action.
This is the final issue of the series, and this time round it doesn’t seem to be in line for a relaunch after the season break. While this book and Knights of X were more or less insta-cancelled, it’s only fair to note that between those two titles and Excalibur, Tini Howard’s run comes to 36 issues, which is a more than respectable total.
Taken together, this issue and the previous one show definite signs of racing to wrap up plots that were intended to play out over a much longer period, but that’s how these things tend to go.
PAGES 2-4. Captain Britain, S.T.R.I.K.E. and Excalibur make plans.
The pile of action figures and the doll’s house on the table belong to Maggie Braddock, who was using them to make plans for the attack on Morgan’s home at the end of the previous issue.
X-Force #41 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X-FORCE vol 6 #41
“The Ghost Calendars, part 2”
Writer: Benjamin Percy
Artist: Paul Davidson
Colour artist: Guru-eFX
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Design: Tom Muller with Jay Bowen
Editor: Mark Basso
COVER / PAGE 1: The makeshift X-Force on a mound of skulls – Colossus, Wolverine, Domino, Omega Red, elderly Kid Omega and alt-future Deadpool. (The real one was left behind last issue.)
PAGES 2-5. Beast buries clones of himself at world heritage sites.
It’s not entirely clear whether this is something Beast is actually up to now, or simply part of the back story of the future timeline, but it doesn’t really matter. Beast’s basic idea here is audaciously silly: the best way to make sure his clones survive into the future is to hide them within world heritage sites, because nobody’s going to mess about with them. Which kind of begs the question of how he got in in the first place, and how he expects that shallow grave in Stonehenge to go unnoticed, but let’s assume he’s bribing or mind controlling people or whatever.
Over in Wolverine, Beast was paranoid about his clones undermining his control, but presumably he’s not so bothered about these guys, because he doesn’t expect to be around. Or perhaps these are more spare clone bodies in which he can be resurrected with his own mind, as happened (somehow) in the epilogue of Wolverine #30. But probably not, because Quentin’s explanation last issue was that Beast “has planted various versions of himself to influence the future.” He described them as “experimental hatchlings and mutations”.
Charts – 16 June 2023
Intro.
1. Dave & Central Cee – “Sprinter”
Dave and Central Cee hang on for a second week, and the other two tracks from the “Split Decision” EP both climb – “Trojan Horse” moves 14-12, and “UK Rap” 17-14.
2. J Hus featuring Drake – “Who Told You”
More UK rap, but it’s not quite enough to shift Dave. This is comfortably J Hus’s biggest hit – he made it to number 5 in 2019 with “Must Be”, but he hasn’t made the top 10 since then. His only other top 10 hit was in 2017, when “Did You See” managed a week at 9. This is the second single from his upcoming album, following “It’s Crazy”, which could only manage number 15. Drake’s name is likely hurting here, even though his actual contribution is on autopilot. But the record itself is also one of J Hus’s more commercial tracks.
The X-Axis – w/c 12 June 2023
WOLVERINE #34. (Annotations here.) This is the heaviest week we’ve had in a while, which is not usually a good thing. It’s also a week with a lot of middle chapters where there isn’t much new to be said. This, for example, is part 4 of “Weapons of X”, with half an issue of action sequences in a curiously icebound North Sea, followed by a weird scene of Wolverine and Beast in a restaurant. Beast is a cartoon villain at this point, and you’d struggle to say there’s any real character interest to this, but there’s still something surreal about the way this arc is playing out that I do find quite endearing. Juan José Ryp is okay on the routine action scenes, but he excels when he’s asked to do something grotesque. Two pages of Beast repulsively eating a lobster is an unusual request, but Ryp can certainly pull it off.
X-MEN RED #12. (Annotations here.) Jon Ironfire fills in the back story of how he wound up on Mars, which means most of the issue is the White Sword and his 100 champions, plus a bit of Genesis. Al Ewing has done sterling work on this book in reinventing Arakko and making it much more interesting than the one-dimensional concept that had been established beforehand. As a result, he has got me interested in the characters on Arakko itself. But the White Sword and Genesis haven’t had the benefit of that work, and while they’re given a bit more nuance here than they had in the past, I can’t say I’m immediately interested in seeing more of either character. Honestly, we’ve barely seen Genesis when she wasn’t under the influence of Annihilation, and despite her prominence in “X of Swords”, her main function has been as something for Apocalypse to react to. I’m somewhat interested in knowing what Apocalypse has been up to. Genesis, though, still needs serious work to persuade me that there’s anything to her.
Wolverine #34 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers and page numbers go by the digital edition.
WOLVERINE vol 7 #34
“Weapons of X, part 4”
Writer: Benjamin Percy
Artist: Juan José Ryp
Colourist: Frank D’Armata
Letterer: Cory Petit
Design: Tom Muller with Jay Bowen
Editor: Mark Basso
COVER / PAGE 1: Wolverine attacks Beast’s giant walking skull base thingy.
For the purposes of this post, there isn’t very much to say about this issue – it’s pretty much self-explanatory, much of it is an extended action sequence, and there aren’t many references to other issues. None of that is a criticism, by the way; it’s just the sort of issue this is.
PAGES 2-7. Wolverine and Maverick get Jeff Bannister to call off the army.
This picks up from the end of the previous issue, where Beast had just blown up an oil pipeline between Norway and the UK, drawing the attention of both Wolverine and Maverick on the one hand, and Jeff Bannister on the other – who, for some reason, has been put in charge of a military unit. They’re attacking Wolverine because they’ve mistaken him for one of the Beast’s Wolverine clones.
