Uncanny Spider-Man #2 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
UNCANNY SPIDER-MAN #2
“Blue Streak”
Writer: Si Spurrier
Artist: Lee Garbett
Colour artist: Matt Milla
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Editor: Sarah Brunstad
COVER / PAGE 1. Nightcrawler fights the Rhino.
PAGES 2-3. Nightcrawler and Mystique.
We saw Mystique last issue, wandering around Central Park mostly in the form of a homeless person. Since Nightcrawler says they’ve had several previous encounters, this presumably isn’t an immediate continuation from the previous issue. Mystique suffered an aneurysm in X-Men: Hellfire Gala 2023 while resisting Professor X’s attempt to force her through the gates, which is why she’s incoherent here – although how she made it back to Central Park in this condition is unclear. It’s surely not a coincidence that she wound up in the same place as her son Nightcrawler.
Realm of X #3 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
REALM OF X #3
“First Blood Spilled”
Writer: Torunn Grønbekk
Artist: Bruno Oliveira
Colour artist: Rain Beredo
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Editor: Lauren Amaro
COVER / PAGE 1. Um…, well, that seems to be Mirage crying out on the Bifrost, with images of Thor and Sif overhead.
The original solicitation for this story reads: “No gods, only mutants! The date of the prophecy looms ahead, and despite their best efforts, the Vanir and their mutant protectors are ill-equipped to meet their destiny. Meanwhile, their enemy grows ever stronger, sinking their claws deeper into the misguided Curse. Lost and at the end of her rope, Dani beseeches her former friends in Asgard for help – but will reinforcements arrive in time to turn the tide, or have they truly been abandoned to their fate?”
Most of that solicitation is in the issue, but the closest it gets to Dani beseeching the Asgardians is four panels on page 13 where she stands under a tree and yells to the gods. Presumably it was planned to be a much more prominent plot thread when the cover was designed.
Dark X-Men #3 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
DARK X-MEN vol 2 #3
“Darker with the Day”
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. The Dark X-Men fight the Bamf Dragon.
PAGE 2. Flashback: Emplate arrives on Krakoa.
This is mostly recap of things we’ve already been told, although the actual panels are new.
- Panel 1 shows Emplate shortly after arriving on Krakoa, alongside Selene and Gorgon; Exodus is present, though it’s maybe an overstatement to say that he’s welcoming Emplate rather than tolerating him. Emplate’s actual arrival on Krakoa can be seen in the background in House of X #5.
- Panel 2 shows Apocalypse and Cypher introducing Emplate and Selene to their role of monitoring Krakoa to make sure that its feeding on mutant energy remains in safe limits. This hasn’t actually been seen before, but it was mentioned in X-Men #3 (2019).
- Panel 3 shows Emplate watching his three sisters from a distance; they’re not actively rejecting him, though it’s a pretty safe bet that they would. But the main emphasis of this panel is simply that he’s irrelevant to them.
- Panel 4 shows Azazel showing up to call in whatever debt it is that Emplate owes him – this arrangement has been clear in the previous two issues, but it’s not clear yet what the debt actually is.
Jean Grey #3 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
JEAN GREY vol 2 #3
“Obsession”
Writer: Louise Simonson
Artist: Bernard Chang
Colour artist: Marcelo Maiolo
Letterer: Ariana Maher
Design: Jay Bowen
Editor: Sarah Brunstad
COVER / PAGE 1. Jean Grey fights the Goblin Queen.
PAGES 2-4. Jean confronts “Madelyne”, and gets interrupted by Hope.
Okay, for once we’re going to take this a panel at a time.
Page 2 panel 1. So far in this series, we’ve been following Jean’s disembodied mind as she thinks back on her life, following her “death” in X-Men: Hellfire Gala 2023. We’ve already been through two possible scenarios where her life could have gone differently, but making the other choice turned out even worse. The previous issue ended with Jean turning her focus to her clone Madelyne Pryor, who ought to be familiar to everyone since she’s starring in Dark X-Men. But we’ll come to her back story in a bit shortly.
Page 2 panel 2. This is a jump pack to Jean’s disorientation at the start of issue #1, complete with fragmented images of many of the same events. From left to right:
Charts – 20 October 2023
Not a big-selling week, but quite a busy one anyway.
Two weeks. It was very close over “Prada” at number 2 – the equivalent of 800 sales, or roughly a 2% margin. It’s also one of the lowest-scoring number ones in a while, so I don’t fancy her chances of staying at the top for long. And while there aren’t any new entries in the top ten, there are a bunch of climbers. But we’ll come to that.
16. Fred Again & Jozzy – “Ten”
Perfectly timed, as the previous single “Adore U” hits its tenth week on chart, encounters the downweighting rule, and dives from number 8 straight out of the top 20. So that’s a second consecutive top 20 hit, and it’s not one of his more commercial tracks, either.
The X-Axis – w/c 16 October 2023
This is a fairly quiet week, but don’t worry – next week is ludicrous. It’s got X-Men: Days of Future Past – Doomsday #4, Alpha Flight #3, Dark X-Men #3, Jean Grey #3, Uncanny Avengers #3, Realm of X #3, Ms Marvel: The New Mutants #3, Uncanny Spider-Man #2, and Predator vs Wolverine #2. And X-Men Unlimited makes ten. Is this really an optimal schedule?
Anyway…
X-MEN UNLIMITED INFINITY COMIC #109. By Steve Foxe, Steve Orlando, Lynne Yoshii, Fer Sifuentes-Sujo & Travis Lanham. We’re getting to the point now. Rather than just doing a tour around Otherworld, as it first seemed, Sunfire winds up as a prisoner of Orchis so that he can learn about what happened to the mutants back on Earth, even if he’s not sure that he believes it. And with that angle, maybe there is a reason why we’re doing this story with Sunfire – it plays into the idea that he’s a semi-detached, fringe X-Man. On top of that, his mission has become pointless in his absence, except to the extent that Redroot is worth saving in her own right. At any rate, that’s the angle Moira seems to be taking with him. Naturally, Orchis have also got Redroot – this isn’t a complete deviation from the original quest – but we’re now getting to the turning point where Sunfire starts to fight back. (And, by the way, I’m glad we’re not spending multiple issues with him as a prisoner – cutting straight to the fight is the right call.)
Children of the Vault #3 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
CHILDREN OF THE VAULT #3
“War on Tomorrow”
Writer: Deniz Camp
Artist: Luca Maresca
Colourist: Carlos Lopez
Letterer: Cory Petit
Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Editor: Sarah Brunstad
COVER / PAGE 1. Bishop and Cable (with their big guns) in the foreground, with the Children floating over their City in the background.
PAGES 2-6. Bishop and Cable attack the City.
Last issue, Bishop and Cable captured Martillo and Cable obtained “access codes, layouts, City defence protocols” and so forth from him. This is them acting on that plan. The basic idea is to fire a “micro-singularity” at the City, simply as a distraction to leave the Children open to Orchis. We’ll see in the next scene how Cable and Bishop got Orchis to attack.
Most of the Children are just defending themselves here, but Capitán is singled out as the one who really looks down on the mutants. The previous issue established that he was the leader of the losing “Traditionalist” faction that argued for just wiping out humanity and starting over with the Children; the whole idea of posing as superheroes and assimilating (some of) the humans is a comparatively liberal plan pushed by Serafina.
Astonishing Iceman #3 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
ASTONISHING ICEMAN #3
“Out Cold, part 3”
Writer: Steve Orlando
Artist: Vincenzo Carratù
Colour artist: Java Tartaglia
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Editor: Mark Basso
COVER / PAGE 1. Iceman in action alongside Aaron Fischer.
PAGES 2-4. Aaron Fischer defends the Y-Men from Mr Clean.
Mister Clean. We’ve had a couple of issues of build to Orchis sending Mr Clean after Iceman – as we’ll see later, this attack is a deliberate attempt to lure Iceman out of hiding. I covered Mr Clean’s background in the annotations for the previous issue.
Aaron Fischer. Aaron Fischer debuted in 2021’s United States of Captain America miniseries. He’s part of the Captains Network, basically an assortment of grass roots Captain America imitators intended to represent the diversity of American society, who wind up being endorsed by Steve Rogers. Fischer is one of the most prominent characters from the Captains Network, having shown up subsequently in Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty and had a solo storyline in Love Unlimited Infinity Comic #49-54. In that storyline, he gained superhuman powers from an experimental super-soldier serum created by the Alchemax corporation.
House to Astonish Episode 205
Paul and I have a whirlwind recap of news from NYCC for your enjoyment this time round, as we look at the “faux-simile” Batman 428; John Constantine, Hellblazer: Dead in America; the Superman Superstars initiative; the formation of Ghost Machine; Avengers: Twilight; the Blood Hunt crossover; the creative teams of the new Ultimate line; and the end of the Krakoan era, as well as taking the time to remember Keith Giffen. We’ve got reviews of Batman: City of Madness and Midlife (How to Hero at Fifty), and the Official Handbook of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe is standing tall on the wings of its dream.
The podcast is here, or available via the embedded player below. Let us know what you think, in the comments, on Twitter or Bluesky, via email or on our Facebook fan page, and if you haven’t got yourself a lovely HtA t-shirt for use in keeping yourself warm/cool (delete as applicable dependent on hemisphere) then there’s no time like the present, so give yourself a present.
Daredevil Villains #5: The Matador
DAREDEVIL #5 (December 1964)
“The Mysterious Masked Matador”
Writer, editor: Stan Lee
Artist: Wally Wood
Letterer: Sam Rosen (uncredited)
Colourist: not credited
While the previous issue featured a goofy Silver Age villain who became increasingly grim in retrospect, there are no such concerns here. In Wally Wood’s first issue, we have the Matador, who is as Silver Age as it gets. He is an evil matador who commits crimes in the style of a matador while dressed as a matador. He is absolutely committed to the theme. He is wonderful. He really should be fighting Adam West, and isn’t that what you come to the Silver Age for?
Like any new villain, the Matador gets quite the build-up. He has been on a “one-man crime wave”. He is, we are assured, “the greatest threat to law and order in years”. Now, you may be wondering how exactly you commit crimes in the style of a matador. Does it just mean wearing a fancy costume and waggling a sword around? No, no it does not. In his first scene, the Matador robs an armoured truck by making it crash with his bullfighting skills. He stands in the middle of the road and confuses the driver by waving a cape around. And he is very pleased with himself. “What delicacy! What artistry! What magnificent daring!”
This issue isn’t just about the matador gimmickry, though. There’s an actual theme to this story. Eventually we get the Matador’s origin: he’s Spain’s most famous and controversial bullfighter, “Manuel Eloganto”. Ah, the sixties. Audiences turned on Manuel over his cruelty towards the bulls – we’re not told exactly what this involved, but since bullfighting already involves killing the bulls, I suppose any more detailed explanation would be a horrible tone clash. Manuel was so distracted by the booing that he got gored. Now that he’s better, he wants “revenge on all mankind”, and to do that, he’s going to manipulate the public into loving him. That’s not a means to an end, mind you. It’s the entire plot. He just wants to make the suckers love him.
