Charts – 16 June 2017
We’ll get back to reviews soon. I’ve been busy. In the meantime, here’s a quiet week on the singles chart. Five new entries, but three of them below 30…
1. Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee featuring Justin Bieber – “Despacito”
That’s six weeks, and it’s still miles ahead of the competition. It could be there for a while, in the absence of any obvious challengers – remember, even charity fundraisers now face the challenge of getting streams as well as sales. For example, Ariana Grande’s live version of “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” lands at 60 this week, which is because it sold respectably but didn’t get streams.
Meanwhile, “Unforgettable” by French Montana featuring Swae Lee climbs two places to 3.
5. David Guetta featuring Justin Bieber – “2U”
Charts – 9 June 2017
Prime time television still sells records. But first…
1. Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee featuring Justin Bieber – “Despacito”
Five weeks at number one. It’s the top streaming single of the week, but it’s not the top seller. That would be…
2. Ariana Grande – “One Last Time”
Generation X #1-2
We reviewed Generation X on the podcast a few weeks ago, but it turns out that the book is opening with a two-parter, so here we are already. This is a straightforward intro story – very straightforward – so, sure, if you’re going to start with this, best get it over with.
Be warned, this is basically going to be me putting in writing the same things I said on the show. Which is to say, there are good elements here, and some individually promising ideas, but right now it’s very much less than the sum of its parts.
Old Man Logan #21-24 – “Past Lives”
Coming a little late to the relaunch party, this is Jeff Lemire’s final arc on Old Man Logan before handing over to Ed Brisson. It’s a bid for closure.
Like All-New X-Men, Old Man Logan feels like a short-run concept, a second (or third) Wolverine while the real one is out of commission selling his death. Played that way, the natural ending would be pretty obvious: having found peace in the present, Logan heroically returns home to protect his loved ones anyway. Or some such thing. But Old Man Logan is selling pretty well by Marvel’s current standards, and it isn’t going away any time soon.
Charts – 2 June 2017
It’s election time.
1. Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee featuring Justin Bieber – “Despacito”
That’s four weeks, which – assuming you’re prepared to turn a blind eye to Justin Bieber’s bits – makes it the longest running foreign language number one ever. The previous record of three weeks is officially (i.e., in the eyes of the chart compilers) held by Manhattan Transfer’s “Chanson D’Amour”, from 1977, though that’s actually a mixture of English, French and “ra da da da da”.
4. Captain Ska – “Liar Liar”
Now here’s something a bit more contentious than usual.
Weapon X #1-3
So it’s this again, is it? In the X-books’ “back-to-basics” relaunch, I can’t say I was especially enthused to see Weapon X trotted out again, with the teaser story apparently setting up the old routine of baddies forcing people onto a team.
In fact, it’s not quite so clear that the book really is heading in quite that direction. The core group here is Lady Deathstrike, Logan, Sabretooth, Warpath and Domino. We already saw Deathstrike getting carted off in X-Men Prime. But now that the series is underway, what actually seems to be happening is that Weapon X want to capture these guys in order to copy their powers and use them to improve Weapon X’s own home-grown cyborgs.
Charts – 26 May 2017
After a brief flurry of activity, we’re settling back into the routine of a handful of new entries per week, some of which go on to climb the chart, slowly, ever so slowly…
1. Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee featuring Justin Bieber – “Despacito”
Three weeks at number one. Could be here a while, too.
3. Liam Payne featuring Quavo – “Strip That Down”
Charts – 19 May 2017
It’s a quiet week. Honestly, you might want to try the podcast, one post down. But anyway…
1. Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee featuring Justin Bieber – “Despacito”
Two weeks. Not much more to be said.
4. Shawn Mendes – “There’s Nothing Holdin’ Me Back”
Up one place. Did I mention last week that it’s overtaken “Treat You Better” to become his second-biggest hit? Well, it has.
6. Harry Styles – “Sign of the Times”
House to Astonish Episode 155
We’ve been away for a little while longer than usual, but that just means that there’s plenty for us to gab about. We kick off by discussing the sad death of Rich Buckler, then talk a little about the extra issue recently granted to Secret Empire (as well as the execution of the story so far); the upcoming “Doomsday Clock” story (as well as “The Button” and Watchmen more generally); the abrupt cancellation of Black Panther and the Crew and what it says about Marvel’s line overall; the announcements of Greg Pak and Takeshi Miyazawa’s Mech Cadet Yu, Ted Naifeh’s Heroines and Tom King and Mitch Gerads’ Mister Miracle; Scott Snyder’s last “proper Batman” story and Sony’s Venom movie. We’ve also got reviews of Grrl Scouts: Magic Socks and Generation X and the Official Handbook of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe shows three heads are not necessarily better than one (or none). All this plus Shogo Warriors, an evil interior decorator and a country that’s not doing an industry.
The podcast is here, or here on Mixcloud, 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 don’t forget, you can buy our terrific tees at our Redbubble store. You’ll look amazing.
X-Men: Blue #1-3
X-Men: Blue seems to be a bit less arc-bound than Gold, but this is where the artists hand over, so let’s run with it as a break point.
This is the successor title to All-New X-Men, focussed on the time-travelling original X-Men. Or version thereof, at any rate. And in keeping with the back to basics theme of this relaunch, we’re returning to the original five; Jean returns to the cast, and somebody else gets to pick up Idie and Evan. But the hook is that this time Jean is in charge and she’s sold them on an alliance with Magneto.
