X-Men #16 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X-MEN vol 6 #16
“The Mutant We Left Behind”
Writer: Gerry Duggan
Artist: Joshua Cassara
Colourist: GURU-eFX
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Design: Tom Muller with Jay Bowen
Editor: Jordan D White
COVER / PAGE 1. Forge, wearing his Caliban-based harness.
PAGE 2. Obituary for Mike Pasciullo.
PAGE 3. Data page. Quote from Mr Sinister, which I can imagine he might have said somewhere. Obviously, in this context it’s a reference to the living suit that he’s produced for Forge.
PAGES 4-6. Flashback: Forge and Mr Sinister.
Forge is asking Sinister to create a suit for him based on the powers of three mutants: Mystique, Caliban and apparently a third yet to be identified. The obvious candidate would be Tempo, given the time distortion involved in the Vault.
Port Genosha whiskey is a recurring background feature from Duggan’s Marauders run. Tempo’s powers are responsible for its 50 year maturation.
Charts – 14 October 2022
Another fairly quiet week at the top end of the chart, but it picks up when we get further down.
1. Sam Smith & Kim Petras – “Unholy”
Three weeks. It’s peaked but it doesn’t have much in the way of competition – the top three remains static for a second week. The midweeks have the whole top 4 staying static next week too. Anyway, for our first new entry, we have to go out of the top 20 and meet…
23. Mimi Webb – “Ghost of You”
This is the follow-up to “House on Fire”, which reached number 6 in the spring. I’m not wild about it; there’s something very limp about that chorus production. Mimi Webb singles tend not to be slow climbers, though her debut “Good Without” was an exception. The midweeks have it at 27.
X-Force #32 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X-FORCE vol 6 #32
“The Hunt for X, part 3: Kraven Kills”
Writer: Benjamin Percy
Artist: Robert Gill
Colourists: GURU-eFX
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Design: Tom Muller with Jay Bowen
Editor: Mark Basso
COVER / PAGE 1. Kraven fights Omega Red.
PAGES 2-4. Kraven enters Arbor Magna.
Kraven’s narration recaps his origin story from Amazing Spider-Man vol 5 #16 (2019) and subsequent issues. Basically, he’s one of a number of clones that Kraven created in a last ditch attempt to give himself a son. For most purposes this Kraven is just a reset version of the original, but he does have the added wrinkle of being a nature obsessive who is in some sense unnatural).
Arbor Magna is remarkably undefended considering its importance. Granted, there’s a major crossover on at the moment, but shouldn’t the Five at least be there, taking shelter because of their vital role? (Honestly, this arc feels like it would have worked better without taking place in the margins of the crossover.)
Wolverine #25 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
WOLVERINE vol 7 #25
“Hell to Pay, part 2”
Writer: Benjamin Percy
Artist: Federico Vicentini
Colourist: Frank D’Armata
Letterer: Cory Petit
Design: Tom Muller with Jay Bowen
Editor: Mark Basso
COVER / PAGE 1: Wolverine, with claws extended and the Muramasa Blade over his shoulder.
PAGE 2. Wolverine reflects on religion.
I’m not altogether sure that drawing a parallel between religion and a crossover that was already called “Judgment Day” takes us very far, but okay. The tone of this suggests that Percy’s Wolverine isn’t a member of any religion himself, or at least a practising one – he sounds like he’s talking about other people – which would be the traditional take.
PAGES 3-4. Wolverine and Solem approach the Progenitor.
When we left off, Wolverine had persuaded Salem to help him kill the Progenitor in exchange for Wolverine helping Salem against the Hellbride and the Beast.
“No other place will make you realise how weak and small you are than the brutal elemental forces at work here [sic].” This is very similar to Wolverine’s narration about the primal nature of the sea in issue #19.
Legion of X #6 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
LEGION OF X #6
“Holding the Line”
Writer: Si Spurrier
Artist: Rafael Pimentel
Colourist: Federico Blee
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Design: Tom Muller with Jay Bowen
Editor: Sarah Brunstad
COVER / PAGE 1. An arrangement of hexagons with three showing Uranos and the rest showing the regular cast – Legion, Mother Righteous, Zsen, Nightcrawler, Pixie, Juggernaut and Banshee (in his “Ghost Rider” form). The significance of the hexagons isn’t obvious, since the Hex have nothing to do with this story – for that matter, Mother Righteous, Zsen, Pixie and Juggernaut aren’t in this issue either.
PAGE 2. The Progenitor confronts Legion.
Since the Progenitor is still in its day of judging people, we’re during A.X.E.: Judgment Day #4.
“Universe destroyer. Universe creator.” It’s not immediately obvious what the Progenitor is referring to here; he might mean Legion’s role in the events that created the “Age of Apocalypse” timeline, or the “Age of X” arc from Mike Carey’s X-Men run.
Immortal X-Men #7 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers and page numbers go by the digital edition.
IMMORTAL X-MEN #7
“Part 7: Red in Blue”
Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artist: Lucas Werneck
Colourist: David Curiel
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Design: Tom Muller, Jay Bowen & Kieron Gillen
Editor: Jordan D White
COVER / PAGE 1. Nightcrawler teleporting around.
PAGE 2. Obituary for Tom Palmer (1942-2022).
PAGES 3-5. Nightcrawler is optimistic.
This scene takes place at the end of A.X.E.: Judgment Day #4, ending at the point where the Progenitor (as seen in that issue) renders his judgment and starts trying to destroy the world. Nightcrawler is characteristically optimistic about everything – he has faith, after all. More to the point, Nightcrawler always wants to see the best in people, and fundamentally believes (or maybe needs to believe) that people are decent. Therefore, he expects the Progenitor to be satisfied with humans as a whole.
“Erik is dead, and we cannot return him without disrespecting his legacy.” Magneto died fighting Uranos in Judgment Day #4 and X-Men Red #7. He and Storm deleted their backups in X-Men Red #4 out of deference to Arakkii sensibilities on the subject of resurrection, to make themselves mortal. Magneto reiterated in X-Men Red #7 that he didn’t want to be brought back. Professor X implies here that Magneto could in fact be brought back even without the backups that were deleted, as did Storm in X-Men Red #7.
A.X.E.: Eternals #1 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
A.X.E.: ETERNALS #1
Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artist: Pasqual Ferry
Colourist: Matt Hollingsworth
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Tom Brevoort
COVER / PAGE 1. This is the third of the A.X.E. one-shots, and the cover forms a single image with the Avengers and X-Men one-shot covers.
PAGES 2-3. Recap and credits.
PAGES 4-7. The heroes inside the Progenitor.
The group are still fighting their way through the Progenitor’s body, which is where we left them in A.X.E.: X-Men. Jean ended that issue particularly determined to destroy the Progenitor.
“The gag we used on Sinister.” As seen in A.X.E.: Judgment Day #1, when he was a prisoner.
“The First Principle.” The Eternals are compelled to follow (or at least not to contravene) three principles, the first being “Protect Celestials.” The Progenitor counts as a proper Celestial to them, and apparently that extends to its immune system. In Judgment Day #5, the Eternals deliberately allowed the mutant psychics access to their minds in order to bypass the principles via mind control.
The X-Cellent
THE X-CELLENT #1-5
“New Blood, New World”
Writer: Peter Milligan
Artist: Michael Allred
Colourist: Laura Allred
Letterer: Nate Piekos
Editor: Darren Shan
If I’m being honest, I’d forgotten about this one until the collected edition showed up on the list for this week. I mean, I’ve got a review backlog, but it doesn’t stretch back to July. Except for this one. And part of it is that it didn’t really register with me that the thing had finished. It’s a five issue miniseries that ends with an issue that in no way feels like it was meant to come last. It’s really quite strange.
Not that X-Statix wasn’t always strange, of course. Does it even really count as an X-book? It’s always been semi-detached from the rest of the Marvel Universe. Technically it’s canon, and it has guest stars from the wider Marvel Universe. But of its own characters, only Doop appears anywhere else. For the rest – a couple of cameos in Thunderbolts and Brotherhood, I believe, and that’s about it. The Marvel Universe can handle the co-existence of Howard the Duck and the Punisher, it can handle Doop, but when it comes to the rest of X-Statix, there’s something that the Marvel Universe finds… indigestible. Even though there’s nothing really stopping you from writing the characters straight.
Charts – 7 October 2022
A busy week for new entries – so to make up for it, we have a static top 5.
1. Sam Smith & Kim Petras – “Unholy”
Which means two weeks for these guys.
6. Ed Sheeran – “Celestial”
This is, of all things, a track promoting Pokémon Scarlet & Violet, the upcoming instalment in the long-running children’s cock-fighting simulator franchise. The actual song is typical Ed Sheeran with no Pokémon content; you can see why somebody thought it was good enough to merit actually promoting it as a proper single, but you can also see why he gave it up to a side project in the first place.
Marauders #7 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
MARAUDERS vol 2 #7
“Here Comes Yesterday, part 1”
Writer: Steve Orlando
Artist: Eleonora Carlini
Colourists: Rachelle Rosenberg & Matt Milla
Letterer: Ariana Maher
Design: Tom Muller
Editor: Jordan D White
COVER / PAGE 1. Kate Pryde (and Lockheed) look up at… well, presumably that’s Amass in merged form.
PAGE 2. Obituary for Mike Pasciullo.
PAGE 3. Stringfellow and Scratch argue.
This continues the Theatre of Pain subplot which has been running in the background and looks set to stay there for a while yet. The previous issue also opened with a page of Scratch addressing a Theatre of Pain audience, while being watched by Lockheed, who in turn was being watched by Dirt Nap (the rat). The previous subplot was placed in Philadelphia; this one is in Waterbury, Connecticut.
