X-Men #12 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X-MEN vol 6 #12
“Controlled Demolition”
Writer: Gerry Duggan
Artist: Pepe Larraz
Colourist: Marte Gracia
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Design: Tom Muller
Editor: Jordan D White
COVER / PAGE 1. Just the X-Men posing in their tree.
PAGES 2-5. Cyclops fights Dr Stasis.
Cyclops initially assumes that Dr Stasis is an agent of Mr Sinister. Given his reaction, it doesn’t seem as if he was ever exactly on board with having Sinister in the Quiet Council (and why would he, given that he spent some of his childhood in Sinister’s orphanage and doesn’t exactly have happy memories of it).
The display case contains the fake EMT gear that Dr Stasis wore when he killed Cyclops in issue #7. He already had it in the case at the end of that issue.
X-Men Unlimited Infinity Comic #35-40
X-MEN UNLIMITED INFINITY COMIC #35-40
“Eany Come Home”
Writer: Alex Paknadel
Artist: Julian Shaw
Colourist: Dono Sánchez-Almara
Letterer: Joe Sabino
Editor: Lauren Amaro
If you’re going to have an entire series that’s exclusive to Marvel Unlimited, and you don’t want to do anything too important to continuity that might infuriate non-subscribers, then you may as well take the chance to do stories about little-used characters. And lo! A Maggott six-parter! That’s not something you get to say often!
Okay, granted, it’s an Infinity Comic. So when we say “six-parter” we actually mean something closer to “two-parter” in regular comics. But still, Maggott’s usually lucky if he gets any parts at all. I’m not sure he’s actually done anything bigger than a cameo since being killed off in Weapon X in 2003. You kind of wonder why he was even brought back. Maybe he was so obscure that everyone forgot he was dead.
Or maybe people kind of like the guy and didn’t really want him to be cannon fodder. He’s got a reputation as an awful character, but there’s nothing fundamentally wrong with him. He’s a weird concept – a guy with an external digestive system in the form of two semi-autonomous slug thingies, Eany and Meany that can eat through anything and power him up afterwards – and it’s probably fair to say that the early stories trying to make this seem fascinating and tragic didn’t quite land. But the idea is fine. And maybe it feels a lot less eccentric in 2022 than it did in 1997.
Charts – 17 June 2022
Well, no one saw this coming a few weeks ago.
1. Kate Bush – “Running Up That Hill”
Climbing to number one in its third week on chart, though it would have been there last week if it wasn’t for the fact that it’s an archive record whose streams are given lower weighting than new releases. Harry Styles’ “As It Was”, which drops to number 2 this week, is on its eleventh week of release and may have been hit by the downweighting rule this week too – but for once, that would just restore a level playing field. (EDIT: In fact, the chart compilers allowed Kate Bush’s label to invoke the “exceptional cases” rule and have the track treated as a new release – but Harry Styles’ sales haven’t been falling long enough for him to get hit by downweighting, so both tracks still remain on a level playing field.)
This is Kate Bush’s second UK number one, the first being her debut “Wuthering Heights” in 1978. “Running Up That Hill” reached number 3 on its initial release in 1985. This allows the chart company to claim a string of unlikely records for her. It’s the longest ever gap between number 1 singles by the same artist, at 44 years – the previous record is 42, held by Tom Jones. Mind you, he did it with two original records. But then again, the second one was a guest appearance on a Comic Relief single (“Barry Islands in the Stream” by Vanessa Jenkins & Bryn West featuring Tom Jones and Robin Gibb, from 2009). The record for the longest gap between number ones going purely by new releases for an active artist is held by Kylie Minogue, who had no number one hits between “Tears on my Pillow” in 1990, and “Spinning Around” in 2000, even though she kept having hits throughout.
Wolverine #22 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
WOLVERINE vol 7 #22
“Bad Gamble”
Writer: Benjamin Percy
Artist: Adam Kubert
Colourist: Frank Martin
Letterer: Cory Petit
Design: Tom Muller with Jay Bowen
Editor: Mark Basso
COVER / PAGE 1: Wolverine, Deadpool and Maverick face off against one another.
I’ll say right now: this is not an arc that particularly cries out for annotation, so this is going to be short. This is not a criticism. When I started doing these, I figured a lot more books would be like this.
PAGES 2-3. Deadpool rambles on to Wolverine.
The opening pages repeat the page layout from the same pages in the last two issues.
Deadpool might be vaguely suggesting that he wants to recapture the sort of double act relationship that he had with Cable (“my chipper go-getter alongside your world-weary grump”).
Most of the odd couples that Deadpool cites are obvious. Felix and Oscar (from Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple) are probably the most obscure, but there was a revival of that that ran for three seasons on CBS just a few years ago.
X-Men Red #3 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X-MEN RED vol 2 #3
“Loss”
Writer: Al Ewing
Artist: Stefano Caselli
Colourists: Federico Blee & Fernando Sifuentes
Letterer & production: Ariana Maher
Designers: Tom Muller with Jay Bowen
Editor: Jordan D White
COVER / PAGE 1: Magneto fights Tarn. This is misdirection – the fight does happen in the issue, but it doesn’t go anything like this.
PAGE 2. Cable is resurrected.
The opening four panels are Cable’s life flashing before his eyes, presumably as his memories are downloaded back into him. From left to right, we have a panel of Nathan as a baby, presumably being held by his mother Madelyne Pryor. It could be Jean Grey, who looked after him for a while, but we can see Wolverine’s hand in the foreground, which strongly suggests that it’s very soon after his birth. Next is the Kid Cable from the recent solo series, followed by the classic Cable in his Liefeld costume, and finally Cable dying in the previous issue (though come to think of it, he shouldn’t remember that).
PAGES 3-4. Cable and Thunderbird.
Since issue #1, Thunderbird has switched to the new costume that debuted in Giant-Size X-Men: Thunderbird #1.
X-Men Unlimited Infinity Comic #21, #27 and #34
X-MEN UNLIMITED INFINITY COMIC #21, #27 and #34
“Downtime”
Writer & artist: Jason Loo
Letterer: Joe Sabino
Editor: Lauren Amaro
X-Men Unlimited likes to intersperse short stories in between its longer arcs. This is something a little different – a three part story which the series comes back to in between arcs.
I kind of like the idea of that – a background story that Unlimited checks in on from time to time. But it doesn’t really seem to fit with this particular arc. Guido and Madrox – or rather, a Madrox dupe – are jet-skiing offshore from the X-Corp base when a bunch of little monsters attack. X-Corp retreat and the duo are left behind. They make their way to nearby Monster island, which turns out to have fallen under the rule of Xemnu. I’d say Xemnu was a ridiculously obscure villain, but he was used prominently in Immortal Hulk a couple of years ago, so he’s not quite in that category right now.
Anyway, Xemnu is running the place by mind control; they beat him and go home. And that’s pretty much it. The character angle is meant to be that Guido is mildly aggrieved at being stuck with a dupe instead of the real Jamie, but nothing really comes of that. It’s… mildly diverting, I guess? Gently pleasant? The art’s charming, which is the big strength of the story – but there’s really not much to it. It’s just a bit of whimsical filler.
Which is fine as far as it goes – it’s X-Men Unlimited, after all, it’s a freebie book. Still, the scheduling of the story is baffling to me. As I say, I quite like the idea of having a storyline going on in the background and being checked in on periodically. But that’s not what’s happening here. That gimmick needs a story that plays out over a longer period, with characters who are sidelined from the main action. This takes, what, 24 hours? And Guido appears prominently in the Declan Shalvey arc in between chapters one and two. And at that point, I don’t really get the point of spreading something so slight over such a long period.
Charts – 10 June 2022
Ten weeks, then, but with a big asterisk.
The big asterisk is that number 2 is “Running Up That Hill” by Kate Bush, which turns out not to be a one-week fluke based on Stranger Things, but is actually sticking around and climbing. Number 2 is its all time chart peak – it reached number 3 on release in 1985. But… “Running Up That Hill” is back catalogue, which means it’s on permanent downweighting, even though it’s functionally a new entry and hasn’t been on the top 40 since 2012 (when it was reissued to tie in with the London Olympics). And if its streams were being counted on the same basis as a new release, it would be Kate Bush’s second number one right now. The first was “Wuthering Heights”, her debut hit from 1978. Her final top 40 hit was “King of the Mountain” in 2005. If she had managed a second number one – and there’s a good chance she still could – then that would have been quite something.
13. LF System – “Afraid to Feel”
Free Comic Book Day: Avengers / X-Men / Eternals
FREE COMIC BOOK DAY: AVENGERS / X-MEN / ETERNALS
“Of Deviation and Mutation”
Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artist: Dustin Weaver
Colourist: Marte Gracia
Letterer: Cory Petit
Editor: Tom Brevoort
“Bloodline”
Writer: Danny Lore
Artist: Karen S Darboe
Colourist: Ian Herring
Letterer: Cory Petit
Editor: Annalise Bissa
“Let’s Talk About Krakoa”
Writer: Gerry Duggan
Artist: Matteo Lolli
Colourist: Rain Beredo
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Design: Tom Muller
Editor: Jordan D White
This is, to be honest, one of those comics where there seems to be a bit of ambiguity about what it’s, you know, actually called, which is always helpful when people might want to find it on Marvel Unlimited at some point. The cover has a Judgment Day logo. Marvel Unlimited has it listed as just Free Comic Book Day: Avengers / X-Men, with no mention of the Eternals. Let’s split the difference.
X-Men Unlimited Infinity Comic #29-33
X-MEN UNLIMITED INFINITY COMIC #29-33
“X-Men Green II”
Writers: Karla Pacheco (#29-32) and Steve Orlando (#33)
Artist: Emilio Laiso
Colourist: Rachelle Rosenberg
Letterer: Joe Sabino
Editor: Lauren Amaro
Apparently the thinking that everything should have a fresh #1 at the first opportunity doesn’t apply to Infinity Comics. I know it doesn’t really matter, but I rather like that. This is the second arc for Nature Girl’s “X-Men Green” team, who were introduced in a storyline written by Gerry Duggan earlier in the series. Duggan doesn’t return for this arc, but artist Emilio Laiso does, joined this time by Karla Pacheco… except for the final issue, which for some reason is credited solely to Steve Orlando. That’s weird, isn’t it? You’d figure that at the very least there’d be elements of the original plot being used. Hmm.
So. The original X-Men Green arc was a little ambivalent about Nature Girl’s group. On the other hand, Nature Girl was written as so far over the top – not just taking on the fossil fuel industry but killing shopkeepers over plastic bags – as to be a fanatic, and her group is rounded out by Sauron, who is a maniac, and Curse, who is just there to vent her urge to cause trouble. On the other hand, as soon as the story moved away on to more conventional eco-villains, it played her as much more sympathetic. This didn’t feel like nuance so much as a bit of a split personality in the story.
Giant-Size X-Men: Thunderbird #1
GIANT-SIZE X-MEN: THUNDERBIRD #1
“And When There Was One”
Writers: Steve Orlando & Nyla Rose
Penciller: David Cutler
Inkers: José Marzan Jr with Roberto Poggi
Colourist: Irma Kniivila
Letterer & Production: Travis Lanham
Design: Tom Muller with Jay Bowen
Editor: Sarah Brunstad
John Proudstar is a character in a strange position. He was introduced along with the rest of the new X-Men line-up in Giant-Size X-Men #1 (May 1975). He was dead by X-Men #85 (October 1975). He appeared in a grand total of three issues. He didn’t even die fighting a major X-Men villain. He got himself killed trying to punch Count Nefaria’s aeroplane to death.
Now, viewed from 2022, it’s maybe a little unfortunate that Giant-Size #1 introduces a new multi-ethnic team and then promptly gets rid of both Sunfire and Thunderbird. But viewed in terms of a team dynamic, you can see the thinking. The team introduced in Giant-Size #1 has not one but three characters who are defined largely as grumpy, unco-operative types. You don’t need three of that character. Early Wolverine will do the job just fine. On top of that, Thunderbird’s main power is to be big and strong… on a team that already has Colossus. He’s an aggrieved ex-soldier… on a team that already has Wolverine. He does wilderness back-to-nature type things… on a team that already has Wolverine. To be fair, Wolverine only really grows into that last role a bit later on, but the point remains that you don’t need Thunderbird to cover this territory.
