Wolverine #39 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
WOLVERINE vol 7 #39
“Last Mutant Standing, part 3”
Writer: Benjamin Percy
Artist: Juan José Ryp
Colour artist: Frank D’Armata
Letterer: Cory Petit
Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Editor: Mark Basso
COVER / PAGE 1. Wolverine and the Black Panther fight Orchis.
This should be a fairly short one, because it’s simply another one-shot story with a guest star. Nothing wrong with that, mind you.
PAGES 2-4. Jun Wei is rejected by the Wakandan Prime Minister.
Wakanda. The current status quo in Black Panther is that T’Challa has been exiled, and the country is currently supposed to be undergoing a transition to democracy under the leadership of Prime Minister Folasade.
Jun Wei is the same Orchis officer who was kidnapped and briefly controlled by Chronicler over in X-Force.
“As you know, we are responsible for the exile of the mutants from Earth…” This is Orchis’s standard explanation of what happened in Hellfire Gala.
“Wakanda was wise not to sign the treaty with Krakoa.” Wakanda has indeed always been listed as refusing to enter into a treaty with Krakoa, on a list otherwise populated mainly by dodgy regimes. The official reason given was that the Wakandans simply didn’t need Krakoan drugs, and so Krakoa had no leverage with them. Black Panther has become rather more equivocal in its depiction of Wakanda over the last few years, but it’s still positioned here very clearly as taking the moral high ground. (Though not, apparently to the extent of actually offering mutants asylum.)
Immortal X-Men #17 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
IMMORTAL X-MEN #17
“The White Hot Danger Room”
Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artist: Juan José Ryp
Colour artist: David Curiel
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Editor: Jordan D White
COVER / PAGE 1. Jean Grey in contemporary costume, surrounded by images of her from various points in her life. From left to right, that’s:
- A Jean we can’t see enough of to place.
- Late 1980s X-Factor Marvel Girl
- Late 1960s X-Men Marvel Girl
- Phoenix / Black Queen from the Dark Phoenix Saga.
- Early 1990s X-Men Jean Grey
- Early Silver Age Marvel Girl
- Phoenix in X-Men #101, rising from the water with Cyclops in front of her.
- X-Men Red Jean Grey
- Morrison/Quitely New X-Men Jean Grey
- Another Jean too small to identify.
Charts – 17 November 2023
Predictably, the Beatles don’t manage two weeks. Their chart score last week was heavy on the physical sales, and while some more physical copies were released in week two (which is why they were number one on the midweeks), reality has reasserted itself. “Now and Then” drops to number 6 in its second week, still eminently respectable.
So does that mean that cässo finally gets his week at number 1 with “Prada”? Well, no. It doesn’t.
1. Jack Harlow – “Lovin On Me”
That’s Jack Harlow’s first number one, though he was unlucky not to make it with “First Class”, which spent five weeks locked at number 2 behind Harry Styles. I wouldn’t have placed it as an obvious number 1, but it does grow on you, and the midweeks have it staying for a second week.. It’s (presumably) the lead single from his next album. The sample is from a 1995 track called “Whatever (Bass Soliloquy)” by Cadillac Dale, which doesn’t seem to have been a hit anywhere on release.
“Lovin On Me” is a slight surprise as a number 1, not because of the Beatles, but because it comes out in the same week as…
The X-Axis – w/c 13 November 2023
X-MEN UNLIMITED INFINITY COMIC #113. By Steve Foxe, Steve Orlando, Guillermo Sanna, Java Tartaglia & Travis Lanham. Infinity Comics don’t really lend themselves to writing reviews of individual chapters, since they’re often just extended scenes – something that’s absolutely fine when you’re releasing on a weekly schedule. This is one such issue, and on those terms, perfectly decent. It’s Firestar trying to help Orchis capture her ex-fiancée Justice in order to keep up her cover. We don’t see much of Justice in the X-books, despite the fact that he’s a relatively high profile mutant, but it makes sense to bring him over for a Firestar arc. If you want to have Firestar feel uncomfortable about how she’s perceived by her friends while undercover, Justice is a much better choice for that role than any of the regular X-Men. The plot is exactly what you’d expect, but it’s handled quite nicely, with Justice knowing Firestar well enough to get that none of this makes sense, and Firestar bringing up uncomfortable bits of past continuity in order to sell him on her supposed sincerity.
JEAN GREY #4. (Annotations here.) Some of the Fall of X minis are already ending, others are on their penultimate issue. That was quick. At this point, it seems clear enough that some books are central to key storylines (X-Men, Immortal X-Men, X-Men Red, Invincible Iron Man); some are just carrying on with their own thing (Wolverine, X-Force, Legion of X / Uncanny Spider-Man); and… well, the publishing schedule says we still need more books. Jean Grey is three issues of What If…? stories based on points in Jean’s life, with a fourth issue that spells out the message we’re meant to be taking from the first three. That message, more or less, is that Jean shouldn’t be second guessing her past choices because anything else that she could have done would have been worse. For that to work, you have to accept that the Phoenix Force is being honest with her. But if it’s not, what’s the story? Even taking it at face value, though, I don’t think this sticks the landing. I’ve generally enjoyed this series as what it is, but I’m not convinced it’s taken Jean anywhere. It’s not as if this sort of self-doubt has been a key character note; if anything, Gerry Duggan tends to write her as supremely confident in her power and her moral choices, albeit with the occasional bit of hand-wringing about that time Dark Phoenix committed genocide. This issue is working hard to sell the idea that the last few issues have taught us something important about Jean, and I’m really not convinced that they have.
Children of the Vault #4 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
CHILDREN OF THE VAULT #4
“Kill the Future!”
Writer: Deniz Camp
Artist: Luca Maresca
Colour artist: Carlos Lopez
Letterer: Cory Petit
Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Editor: Sarah Brunstad
COVER / PAGE 1. Cable and Bishop fight the Children of the Vault.
PAGE 2. Cable threatens to shoot the City.
This is where we left off last issue.
PAGE 3. Recap and credits.
PAGE 4. Rodrigo Muñoz reacts – kind of – to the battle.
We saw Rodrigo before in issue #1. He was the kid wandering around the lithium fields just before the City showed up overhead.
As Martillo explained in issue #2, the Children’s “Message” transforms people “first in mind, then in body”; most humans will die in the process, but the tiny minority who survive will become Children of the Vault. Clearly, Rodrigo is some way into his transformation.
“Tierra Desnuda”, the name of Rodrigo’s Children-built “Tomorrow Town”, was previously given in issue #1.
Jean Grey #4 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
JEAN GREY vol 2 #4
“Ashes to Ashes”
Writer: Louise Simonson
Artist: Bernard Chang
Colour artist: Marcelo Maiolo
Letterer: Ariana Maher
Design: Jay Bowen
Editor: Sarah Brunstad
COVER / PAGE 1. Assorted Jean Greys squabble over who gets to touch the Phoenix Force.
PAGE 2. Jean is surrounded by other Jean Greys.
This is where we left off last issue. Leaving aside the two Jeans who are shown only in silhouette, the other Jeans on page 2, from left to right, are:
- Jean in her costume from the 2018 X-Men Red series.
- Jean in X-Men #100, just before she becomes Phoenix.
- Dark Phoenix.
- The Goblin Queen.
- Late 1960s Marvel Girl
- Time-travelling “Silver Age” Jean Grey from All-New X-Men.
- Jean Grey from the Morrison/Quitely New X-Men.
Astonishing Iceman #4 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
ASTONISHING ICEMAN #4
“Out Cold, part 4”
Writer: Steve Orlando
Artist: Vincenzo Carratù
Colour artists: Java Tartaglia with Chris Sotomayor
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Designers: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Editor: Mark Basso
COVER / PAGE 1. Iceman and Spider-Man in action.
PAGE 2. Iceman races off from his citadel.
The previous issue ended with Iceman getting back home but quickly heading straight back out to deal with a problem in New York, which we saw was Feral (as a Hound) attacking Spider-Man. Mr Clean was fairly obviously engineering these events to lure Iceman away from the citadel and leave it unguarded. As we’ll see later on, Iceman has actually got some security measures in place – he’s not an idiot – but they don’t get the job done.
PAGE 3. Recap and credits.
Dark X-Men #4 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
DARK X-MEN vol 2 #4
“Up Jumped the Devil”
Writer: Steve Foxe
Artist: Jonas Scharf
Colour artist: Frank Martin
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Editor: Jordan D White
COVER / PAGE 1. Chasm in the foreground, with Feint, Gambit, Goblin QUeen and Havok behind.
PAGES 2-5. Gambit brings Rogue up to speed.
Rogue is appearing over in Uncanny Avengers. So far, we’ve glossed over the question of why the two married characters aren’t together – but then, Rogue is a previous Avengers, and somebody needs to keep an eye on the Limbo Embassy.
“What he is not used to … is being the most honourable, responsible person in the room.” I’m not sure it’s that unprecedented, given the time he’s spent in the Thieves Guild, or indeed his stint with the Marauders… but sure, Gambit is normally the wild card rogue, and he’s being forced here into playing the role of the last normal X-Man.
Charts – 10 November 2023
Really?
I mean, really?
1. The Beatles – “Now and Then”
Okay, so. This was at number 42 last week because it was released in time to get 10 hours of streaming registered for last week’s chart. That would have been an artificially low placing, because only a few streamers report data that late, and the figures for the others would have been estimated from their data earlier in the week (which, in the case of a last minute release, is zero).
However, it’s not number one thanks to streaming. Its chart score is equivalent to 78,200 sales, which includes 38,000 physical copies, and a further 10,000 odd downloads. No record has sold that volume of physical copies since the 2014 X Factor winner, because that’s just not how regular audiences consume music any more. Obviously, something that can be marketed as a last Beatles single appeals heavily to an audience who rarely pay attention to new releases and haven’t updated their format preferences in 20 years or more.
Daredevil Villains #7: Stilt-Man
Daredevil #7 doesn’t have a villain – it’s a fight with Namor the Sub-Mariner, who was just about to launch his own feature in Tales to Astonish. So we move on to…
DAREDEVIL #8 (June 1965)
“The Stiltman Cometh”
Writer, editor: Stan Lee
Artist: Wally Wood
Letterer: Sam Rosen
Colourist: Not credited
In the first instalment of this series, I asked whether people could name ten Daredevil villains. Well, here’s one that plenty of people remembered: Stilt-Man. (In fact, in this issue he’s Stilt Man or Stiltman. He won’t get the hyphen until later. But I’ll go with the more familiar version of the name here.)
Everyone remembers Stilt-Man, even if they don’t remember a single one of his stories. Once seen, he’s not easy to forget. He is iconically lame. Silver Age Marvel was fairly light on completely ridiculous villains, and when Marvel did stray into this territory, they often leaned into it. But in his debut, Stilt-Man is played mostly straight. He’s certainly presented as a real threat.
So thing that really makes him stick in the mind is the “what were they thinking” factor. Sure, it’s a struggle to keep thinking of new gimmicks for villains. But… stilts? Even if you’re picking words at random from the dictionary… stilts? Massive, clearly impractical, skyscraper-sized stilts? There’s something adorably mundane about the whole concept of a stilt-themed supervillain, no matter how extraordinary those stilts may be. Did someone have a traumatic childhood experience with a stilt? Even the pros look tentative and awkward moving on stilts. Their height doesn’t translate into an intimidation factor. Nobody has ever looked at a stilt-walker and thought, I bet they’d be dangerous in a fight.
