Mighty Marvel Holiday Special: Iceman’s New Year’s Resolutions Infinity Comic #1
MIGHTY MARVEL HOLIDAY SPECIAL: ICEMAN’S NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS INFINITY COMIC #1
by Luciano Vecchio
Um, could we maybe have a think about coming up with more viable names for these things?
Anyway, with no regular X-books out this week, the X-Men round out the year with an Iceman Infinity Comic set on New Year’s Eve. Luciano Vecchio is best known as an artist; he’s worked on Ironheart and Champions. His previous writing credits for Marvel have been on short stories for the Voices anthologies, but this is closer to a full length story. And it’s absolutely fine, if squarely in the territory you’d expect from a holiday special comic.
It’s New Year’s Eve, and Iceman has decided to drop by Times Square to watch the ball drop. He’s on his own, so maybe the other mutants have stronger views on Covid. But the story was probably committed to this setting before Omicron took off, so fair enough.
Wastelanders: Wolverine #1
WASTELANDS: WOLVERINE #1
by Steven S DeKnight, Ibrahim Moustafa & Neeraj Menson
This came out on December 15, but I forgot about it.
I forgot about it because, well, it’s one of a series of Wastelanders one-shots that shipped in December. And the others star Hawkeye, Dr Doom, Black Widow and Star-Lord, so even though Wastelanders is set in the world of “Old Man Logan”, I don’t regard them as X-books.
Although, it’s the Wastelands, and with the best will in the world, I really couldn’t care less. I’ve never found the Wastelands interesting, and I have no interest in reading sequels there. The whole post-apocalyptic vibe does nothing for me and feels like it’s been run into the ground. And “…but with the Marvel Universe” isn’t the twist needed to bring it to life. Plus, Mark Millar’s original story was a one-last-mission number, which doesn’t lend itself to endless sequels anyway. Taking the character out of context for the Old Man Logan series kind of worked, but just doing more Wastelands stuff… I don’t get it.
Charts – 24 December 2021
If you liked the years of the X Factor winner’s single, you’ll love LadBaby!
1. LadBaby featuring Ed Sheeran & Elton John – “Sausage Rolls for Everyone”
Mark Hoyle has had the Christmas number one for the last three years, with essentially the same joke: do a cover version of a well known song but change the lyrics to be about sausage rolls. By having a fourth Christmas number one, Hoyle has matched the record set by the Beatles, although of course they did it organically, in the days before the Christmas Number One was a big part of British popular culture (for reasons now lost in the mists of time to younger generations). Hoyle is doing it as a campaign record.
X-Men: The Trial of Magneto #5 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X-MEN: THE TRIAL OF MAGNETO #5
“To Catch a Toad”
by Leah Williams, Lucas Werneck & Edgar Delgado
COVER / PAGE 1. Magneto and the Scarlet Witch dancing.
PAGE 2. The Scarlet Witch names her murderer.
This picks up directly from the end of the previous issue.
“No matter how your magic may or may not have affected Krakoa today…” Northstar is referring to the kaiju attack over the last couple of issues, triggered by Wanda’s traumatic identity crisis.
PAGE 3. Recap and credits.
PAGES 4-8. The Toad is summarily tried and exiled.
The Quiet Council here consists of Professor X, Magneto, Mr Sinister, Exodus, Mystique, Kate Pryde, Emma Frost, Sebastian Shaw, Nightcrawler and Storm. This is before Destiny and Colossus join the Quiet Council in Inferno (which is obvious from the timeline, as this story takes place in the days immediately following the Hellfire Gala).
Mighty Marvel Holiday Special – Happy Holidays, Mr Howlett Infinity Comic #1
MIGHTY MARVEL HOLIDAY SPECIAL – HAPPY HOLIDAYS, MR HOWLETT INFINITY COMIC #1
by Ryan North, Nathan Stockman & Chris O’Halloran
Yes, that’s the title. Don’t look at me.
Hey, it’s an X-book. And it’s probably meant to be canon, too. Not that anything’s ever likely to turn on whether this is canon or not, admittedly, but if it matters, it probably is.
So it’s a few years back – the costumes say early to mid 90s – and the X-Men are holding a party for the general public as some sort of public relations event. Which isn’t really the sort of thing they did back then, but sure, they probably should have. Professor X is there in his hover wheelchair, and he’s not openly associated with the X-Men at this point, but he is publicly known as a mutant rights activist so… again, sure. Okay. And Nightcrawler and Shadowcat are there too, but fine, they’re visiting. I mean, it doesn’t quite fit, but it’s not a big problem.
And the schtick is that everyone is having fun at this thing except for Wolverine, who doesn’t like joining in with fun things. Since this is a Ryan North comic, it’s not quite as basic as saying that Wolverine is a grinch. He just doesn’t particularly want to be part of this, he doesn’t really see what his unique skillset of razor sharp blades can contribute to the world of children’s entertainment, and he’d prefer not to be there. (“I’m not grumpy. I’m… I’m brusque. And content in solitude. There’s a difference.”)
Wolverine #19 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
WOLVERINE vol 7 #19
“The Old Mutant and the Sea”
by Benjamin Percy, Javi Fernandez & Matthew Wilson
COVER / PAGE 1. Well, it’s Wolverine on the surface with a monstrous sea creature below the surface.When I started doing these posts, I figured there would be plenty of X-books that weren’t that heavy on continuity and where the annotations would be pretty short. As it turns out, there weren’t. This one is getting there, though, so we might not be terribly long here.
PAGES 2-3. Wolverine hunts Krakoan wildlife while a corpse washes up on the beach.
Percy seems to be the only writer interested (however tenuously) in the idea that Krakoa has distinctive animals on it. Anyway, Wolverine is hunting this thing so that he can use it as bait in his hunt for the Leviathan later in the issue. This is the final issue of this volume of Wolverine and, perhaps rather tellingly, it opens with a callback to Wolverine’s first scene in X-Force #1. In that scene, he was also hunting Krakoan wildlife and arguing that the paradise of Krakoa would lead to people dropping their guard and becoming soft. (Intriguingly, with hindsight, the character he lectures about this theme is the Beast, who starts off X-Force much less paranoid than he eventually becomes.)
S.W.O.R.D. #11 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
S.W.O.R.D. vol 2 #11
“Final Frontier”
by Al Ewing, Jacopo Camagni & Dernando Sifuentes
COVER / PAGE 1. Storm, Cable and Brand fight the Lethal Legion. Not quite what happens in the issue itself.
PAGES 2-3. Manifold prepares to deal with S.W.O.R.D. Station One falling out of the sky.
Apparently we’re not calling it the Peak any more (and it’s about to become academic anyway). Anyway, after being blown up last issue as part of Abigail Brand’s convoluted plan, the station is falling to Earth over Australia, and Manifold and Cable are going to their powers to stop is causing a disaster.
We saw Baz before in issue #3, Manifold’s solo story.
The Winter Soldier was “Captain America for a while” during Ed Brubaker’s run, circa 2008.
Abigail Brand has drawn our attention before to the fact that Cable’s powers and his techno-organic virus are kept in balance, so that stretching him to his limits like this causes problems for him. As we’ll see, this seems to be part of her plan to depower him and get him out of her way.
Charts – 17 December 2021
Just one more chart week to go before Christmas… which means this is a dead week. Not the Christmas chart yet, so too early for the records that want a shot at number one. But swamped with Christmas back catalogue, so nobody else is releasing new music against it.
1. Ed Sheeran & Elton John – “Merry Christmas”
Two weeks. This is starting to grow on me slightly, but I’ll be interested to see if it can really keep charting in future years. It heads up a completely static top 7.
25. D-Block Europe featuring AJ Tracey – “Make You Smile”
This is… an anomaly. It’s not even a single, but a track from the Home Alone 2 mixtape, climbing from last week’s 42. It’s obviously positioned well to capitalise after the Christmas tracks vanish in two weeks time. “Overseas” is at still at number 12.
X-Force #26 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X-FORCE vol 6 #26
“Wipeout”
by Benjamin Percy, Robert Gill & Guru-eFX
COVER / PAGE 1. The rest of the cast look on as Wolverine dives into a live volcano after… well, who knows? Nothing much like it happens in the issue. There’s an eruption, but no diving into the lava with claws drawn. (And this looks to be a man’s hand, not Pike’s.)
This issue’s pretty simple, annotation-wise.
PAGES 2-4. Pike and her team bring the stolen babies to their submarine.
These are the Krakoan babies that they stole from the Bower last issue. The one that screams is Maximillian, who “nearly killed everybody in a hundred-yard radius” with his uncontrolled powers (according to Kid Omega last issue).
Pike’s unnamed employer is identified at the end of the issue.
PAGE 5. Recap and credits.
PAGES 6-9. X-Force investigate Pike’s attack, and Wolverine talks to Kid Omega about his break-up with Phoebe.
Last issue, Pike and her team entered Krakoa through the supposedly unmanageable Dead Mutant’s Cove, posing as Krakoan surfers, and Wolverine directed them to the Bower (not least because he was attracted to Pike, though he doesn’t say that in terms here).
Excalibur #26 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
EXCALIBUR vol 4 #26
“The Fantasy is Over”
by Tini Howard, Marcus To & Erick Arciniega
COVER / PAGE 1. Saturnyne, with Betsy as her knight, and her sword in a scrying pool that shows the rest of the cast. Unusually for 2021, we get a very old-school piece of lettering trailing the climax. In three mismatched fonts, none of which fit well with the logo, and all of which feel squeezed into a space in the corner. I’m really not sure what it’s doing there, since the cover as a whole doesn’t evoke anything retro, and it drags down a perfectly nice piece of art.
PAGE 2. Merlyn briefs his troops.
Merlyn captured the Starlight Citadel and renamed it the Lunatic Citadel last issue. Those are his siege engines in the background of the first panel.
Aside from Arthur himself, Merlyn is addressing groups from the various factions allied with him in previous issues: the Sevalith (the vampire guys), the Furies (the robot thing) and the Colony (the bees people). There are some more generic soldiers around as well. Saturnyne’s aide Ryl is still there, standing by Merlyn’s throne and apparently being accepted by him. Presumably she’s loyal to the throne rather than its current occupant.
