New Mutants #1 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers are for the digital edition.
THE NEW MUTANTS: This is, technically, the fourth volume of New Mutants. The first is the original series which ran from 1983 to 1991 and featured the X-Men’s junior team. The second ran from 2003-4 and featured one of the trainee classes from the Morrison-era school – it’s the one that introduced characters like Elixir and Hellion. Volume 3, a reunion of the original team, ran for 50 issues between 2009 and 2012 (very few of which, to be honest, have stuck in the mind).
There’s also a few minis, all of which also feature versions of the original line-up. The launch of New Mutants in 1983 was effectively the point where the X-Men became a franchise. It’s interesting that this is the X-book that gets its opening arc co-written by Jonathan Hickman, along with regular writer Ed Brisson – though it’s this week’s X-Force that gets the deluxe edition treatment and seems to have the more important plot points. Hickman previously wrote both Cannonball and Sunspot in his Avengers run which, to be honest, I still haven’t read. Hickman’s idiosyncratic style of emphasis is quite noticeable in this issue’s dialogue.
(more…)X-Force #1 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers are from the digital edition. And really, this does contain spoilers.
X-FORCE: This is the sixth volume of X-Force. The first ran from 1991 to 2002 and covered the adventures of the New Mutants after Cable restructured them into a more paramilitary group (and then turned into X-Statix near the end). The second was a six-issue reunion mini from 2004-5. The third is the Kyle/Yost run from 2008-10, where X-Force was reused as the name for the X-Men’s black ops unit during the Utopia era; it was followed by another 35 issues as Uncanny X-Force. Volume 4 was the Marvel Now version from 2014-15 (the Si Spurrier book with Cable, Psylocke, Fantomex and the like). And the fifth volume is the run with the teen Cable that came immediately before House of X.
The running theme in all this is that “X-Force” tends to be attached to an X-Men spin-off team which is either a black ops unit or takes a more paramilitary approach to matters than the regular X-Men. This first issue, however, doesn’t actually feature an X-Force team at all, or even many characters doing anything particularly X-Force-like. Presumably all that emerges over the course of the first arc. But it does take a much grimmer tone than any of the other Krakoa-era books.
(more…)Dead Man Logan #7-12: “Welcome Back, Logan”
We may be comfortably into the Krakoa-era X-Men, but here’s one last book wrapping up from the previous era. Dead Man Logan may be billed as a twelve issue miniseries, but in practice it’s the final two arcs of Ed Brisson’s run on Old Man Logan, with art from the excellent Mike Henderson.
Old Man Logan is a problem character for the X-books. As a diversion for a few issues, which is how Mark Millar introduced him, he worked well enough – there was plenty about the Wastelands that was absurdly over the top, it being a Mark Millar comic and all, but the basic engine of the ageing western hero worked well for Logan. As a character brought back to the present day… well, it depends what angle you look at it from.
(more…)Charts – 1 November 2019
It’s the start of November – it’s time to get that album out for the Christmas market.
1. Tones & I – “Dance Monkey”
Five weeks, and after it seemed to have peaked, it’s growing again. Could be here for a while.
3. Selena Gomez – “Lose You To Love Me”
26. Selena Gomez – “Look At Her Now”
House to Astonish Episode 179
A relatively quiet period for comics news, but we’re talking about Kevin Feige being installed as Chief Creative Officer of Marvel, the Bloodshot movie, the Into The Spider-Verse sequel, Sky UK’s troubles showing the CW’s Crisis crossover, HBO Max’s Green Lantern and Strange Adventures series, Dark Horse collecting Michel Fiffe’s Panorama, and the closing of ComicBookDB and The MNT. We’ve also got reviews of Afterlift and The Sandman Universe Presents: Hellblazer and the Official Handbook of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe is a metal guru. All this plus comics industry execs who could break into your house and strangle you in your sleep, comics ASMR and what you get when Goodnight Sweetheart meets Flash Gordon.
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 remember, we’ve got some smashing shirts for sale over at our Redbubble store!
And as mentioned on the podcast, if you’re at the Thought Bubble convention in Harrogate next Saturday, come along at 2pm to see me team up with Gary Lactus and The Beast Must Die of SILENCE! for the second of this year’s SILENCE! To Astonish panels!
Excalibur #1 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers are from the digital edition.
EXCALIBUR: This is the fourth volume of Excalibur. The first volume ran from 1988 to 1998 and featured a British-based superhero team initially made up of Captain Britain, Meggan and some X-Men who had been separated from the main team (Shadowcat, Nightcrawler and Rachel Summers / Phoenix). It tended to go in for lighter antics than the rest of the X-books. The second volume is a largely-forgotten four-issue reunion miniseries from 2001. The third ran for 14 issues in 2004-5, and involved Professor X rebuilding in the ruins of post-massacre Genosha; aside from being an X-book, it really has no connection with the previous series. There’s also New Excalibur, another UK-based team, which ran for 24 issues in 2006-7.
This version of Excalibur features no members of the previous teams; the connection lies in Psylocke, Captain Britain’s sister.
COVER / PAGE 1: The team pose for us. Left to right, that’s Gambit, Jubilee, Apocalypse, Psylocke / Captain Britain II, Rictor (who doesn’t appear in the story) and Rogue. The background seems to be Krakoa, but in the foreground is what looks like the Otherworld scrying pool from the issue.
(more…)Charts – 25 October 2019
Ah well, another tumbleweed week.
1. Tones & I – “Dance Monkey”
Four weeks and counting, and with a massive lead over the competition (though it does seem to have peaked). It’s going to be here for a while. Wikipedia now lists 19 countries where this has been number 1. And below that… a singularly uneventful top 30.
“Circles” by Post Malone is up 4-3. “South of the Border” by Ed Sheeran featuring Camila Cabello & Cardi B climbs 7-4 – that’s the highest Cardi B has ever been. “Bruises” by Lewis Capaldi climbs 9-6. Aitch gets a third top 10 hit as “Buss Down” climbs 11-8. “Memories” by Maroon 5 climbs 19-10, which is their eleventh top 10 hit. The Harry Styles single that entered at number 3 last week drops to 11, which is not a good sign for his breadth of appeal. “Turn Me On” by Riton & Oliver Heldens featuring Vula climbs 16-12.
15. Meduza, Becky Hill & Goodboys – “Lose Control”
Read moreMarauders #1 – annotations
As always, this post features spoilers, and page numbers are based on the digital edition. And no, I’m not planning to do these for every issue of all the new titles, but the first issues of each seem worth a look.
MARAUDERS: It’s first time we’ve had a series of this title. In the context of the X-Men, the Marauders are Mr Sinister’s henchmen, who first appeared in Uncanny X-Men vol 1 #210 (1986) and committed the mass murder of the Morlocks. The original Marauders – or a bunch of them, at any rate – were last seen in Uncanny X-Men vol 5 #18 (2019), where they all died fighting the X-Men. In the meantime, this book seems to have no connection to the team whose name is clearly being evoked, and going back to the literal sense of marauding, which would fit with the piracy angle (though not so much the rescuing bit).
COVERS: The regular cast on their boat (whether they’re actually aboard it in this issue or not).
(more…)Charts – 18 October 2019
In which a whole bunch of records hit ten weeks on chart and get whacked by the chart rules on older hits, thus allowing… well, some climbers, because there’s still not a huge amount going on in terms of new releases.
1. Tones & I – “Dance Monkey”
Three weeks and counting. This is over ten weeks old as well, by the way, but it’s still growing, so it’s not in danger of being hit by the chart rules just yet. “Ride It” by Regard climbs 3-2, and…
3. Harry Styles – “Lights Up”
(more…)X-Men #1 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers are going by the digital edition.
X-MEN: This is the fifth volume of just-plain-X-Men, although confusingly the legacy numbering continues from the last run of Uncanny X-Men.
COVER (PAGE 1): The residents of the Summers House (plus the visiting Corsair) in the Blue Area of the Moon. More of that inside.
PAGES 2-3: A flashback to Charles Xavier giving Scott Summers a pair of ruby quartz glasses to control his optic beams. It’s a metaphor for Xavier giving Scott the confidence to embrace what makes him superhuman, of course – plus, there’s a parallel being drawn with the leader of Orchis, Killian Devo, but we’ll come to that. Scott’s visor can be seen sitting on a stand in the corner of the room.
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