The X-Axis w/c 3 February 2025
ASTONISHING X-MEN INFINITY COMIC #9. By Tim Seeley, Edoardo Audino, KJ Díaz & Clayton Cowles. Yes, well, it’s a “fight and team up” story with Juggernaut and Captain America. Nice art, and I sort of get the idea of doing “unstoppable force against immovable object” with the shield – except Juggernaut’s not literally unstoppable these days, surely? But it boils down to a fight-and-team-up story, and one that feels just a couple of steps removed from the way these characters are normally written, at that. Bit underwhelming.
PHOENIX #8. (Annotations here.) Look, I’m willing to accept that I might not be in the most receptive mood for entertainment this week. But even allowing for that, this isn’t good. It doesn’t have the glaring plot holes of issue #7, to be sure, but it’s choppy, disjointed stuff. Why is Jean suddenly in a cocoon floating in space, when she was on a planet last issue? What exactly are we meant to be learning from revisiting the Dark Phoenix Saga with changes? When did Adani get back together with Perrikus? Since when are either of them interested in bringing back the Dark Gods? Since when are the rest of the Dark Gods even missing? I don’t actually mind the art on this book, for the most part, but it doesn’t always flow that well, and the black and yellow Phoenix design at the end feels like a distaff Nebulon.
Mostly, though, we’re eight issues into the series and I have no real idea what the point is of any of it. What’s this story actually about? It’s just yet another “Jean comes to terms with the Phoenix” and random stuff happening in the background, isn’t it? It more or less hangs together on a surface level, but it feels empty.
WOLVERINE #6. (Annotations here.) Romulus? Seriously, Romulus? I mean, if that’s the direction, I can absolutely see why you gave it six issues to build up goodwill with other stuff first. Because I’ve read every Romulus story, and here’s a complete list of the ones that weren’t crap:
That said, though, Saladin Ahmed has earned enough goodwill for me on the book so far that my reaction to the final page was at least confined to the realms of “deep scepticism”. Admittedly, this issue isn’t the best illustration of the book’s strengths either; it’s pretty much more of what happened in issue #5, with Laura being added in. The best bits are the Wendigo subplot, where the art is still doing a great job of making the poor guy seem lovable and baffled. But the main story is something along these lines. Adamantium is a knock-off of a true mythical metal, adamantine. So if you’re wanting a villain who can seize control of adamantine and turn it to his advantage, you’re looking for a Wolverine villain with a mythical angle. And in fact, ideally, you want “the myth that Wolverine is an echo of”, and… well, yes, that’s probably Romulus.
So I can see how you might find yourself going down this route. But at the same time, my god, that’s the Jeph Loeb take on Romulus – Daniel Way’s Romulus was just a manipulative mastermind dialled up to twelve and worked into rather more of Wolverine’s history than was entirely sensible, but Jeph Loeb’s Romulus stories are unintelligible drivel. Romulus is a character in need of massive salvage work to make him worth using, and I’m deeply unconvinced that Ahmed (or anyone else) can pull it off – or that, even if they can, it’s a more worthwhile effort than just creating a new character. But we’ll see – Ahmed’s a good enough writer that he surely has to have some reason for using Romulus. Right? Um… right?
Because I’ve read every Romulus story, and here’s a complete list of the ones that weren’t crap:
Genuinely cannot stop laughing at this. But it does drive home how much work and dedication went into The Incomplete Wolverine.
X-Force 10 will be Stephen Segovia’s last cover on X-Force. It’s not clear if this means that the series is being cancelled or just that Segovia is stopping doing the covers.
The sales figures for January are in:
Magik 1 sold more issues than any Marvel comics except Ultimate Spider-Man and Ultimate Wolverine. Pretty good.
Coming in right behind Magik 1 was Rogue 1. I’m shocked- I never thought a continuity implant limited series featuring Rogue would sell so well. I wonder if this means that Rogue will get an ongoing series. And if she does, how skimpy will her costume be? 🙂
Storm 4 is hanging in there pretty good- it made the top 25.
Exceptional X-Men 5 shot back up to number 36 in the rankings- so it’s selling less than the other X-Men titles as well as Magik, Wolverine, Storm and Laura but more than the lesser X-books like NYX and Phoenix.
Hellverine dropped to 58- which makes sense, since there probably isn’t enough room in the market for series for Logan, Laura and Akihiro.
Psylocke came in at 65- the lowest selling of the ongoing X-books. Admittedly, it came out in the last week of the month but I still don’t think a Kwannon series will sell any better than Betsy’s Captain Britain series did.
Sabretooth: the Dead Don’t Talk was the lowest selling X-book this month. It’s a nice contrast to Rogue 1, which was also a continuity implant. I didn’t realize Sabretooth was so unpopular compared to Rogue.
I’m shocked Magik sold that well. Will issue 2 see a major drop?
I think the (misplaced) controversy around Rogue got people interested in the Rogue book. Controversy makes people curious. With comics, there are also probably some speculators who think that maybe the series will become too controversial, where it won’t get a collection or somesuch, and end up a collector item.
I don’t know. Rogue was once very popular and there are people who miss that classic version of Rogue, but then again, look at Gambit who was once a hotter character than Rogue but can’t sell any comics in 2025. Is it because Gambit was a one-trick pony while Rogue can still get nostalgia buys?
Well, they were #1 issues, so there’s that.
I picture Paul getting to a page with Romulus and letting out this long, aggrieved sigh. “This character? Really?”
Given that MY reaction to Romulus was “Are you f***ing kidding?” I can’t blame Paul.
I tried to explain Romulus to my wife and got as far as “And then we all quietly agreed to never speak of it again, fifteen years ago.”
This just wasn’t a good week for X-Books. I guess that happens from time to time.
I’m liking Ultimates a lot, and this month was no exception. Alongside Ultimate Spider-Man, it’s been interesting to see how they handle the temporary universe. I wish I could get into Ultimate X-Men, but while I enjoy Peach Momoko’s covers, I’m instantly bored by her writing. Ultimate Wolverine might be the Ultimate X-Men book we were waiting for.
The Ultimate line has been a real surprise for me.
I wasn’t sold on the idea of bring it back, and the twist being that it was actually a new version of it all was a surprise but I’ve enjoy most of the books.
Ultimate Spider-Man has been, by far, my favourite of the line. It’s a great read, the art is excellent.
Black Panther has also been pretty good and Ultimates is getting better, though it had a slow start for me.
Ultimate X-Men has also left me cold. I appreciate the art and that it’s going for a totally different style of book, but it’s so incredibly slow and just isn’t coalescing for me.
“I think the (misplaced) controversy around Rogue got people interested in the Rogue book. Controversy makes people curious. With comics, there are also probably some speculators who think that maybe the series will become too controversial, where it won’t get a collection or somesuch, and end up a collector item.”
I must’ve missed that, what was the supposed controversy?
Not totally sure, really. I think it was that Rogue was wearing skimpy clothes on the cover, so some fans were convinced this mini was going to be the equivalent of the Frank Cho Shanna books. Brevoort responded by saying that no one has read the comic yet, so why are these people complaining?
I don’t follow any of this sort of meaningless “controversy for the sake of controversy” on social media. I picked up details based on quotes that were included on this site when the mini was announced.
@Chris V- That was one of the reasons. The other was that a lot of people don’t like the Rogue and Magneto ship because of the age gap. (And yes, I know Claremont said Magneto was physically in his early 30s at this point but Rogue wasn’t even 21 at this point- a lot people wouldn’t like a relationship between a guy in his early 30s and a girl under 21 either.)
I just finished reading Way’s Wolverine: Origins. It’s honestly better than I was expecting, except that the story grinds to a halt any time Romulus actually shows up.
I know Way was at least a little constricted by Loeb’s version of the character, but here, entirely unasked for by anyone, are four more interesting alternatives to who Romulus could be besides “Wolverine but bigger and meaner and smarter, sort of.”
1. Sabretooth. Don’t reinvent the wheel; it’s a boring answer, but still a better one than what we get.
2. Daken. Wolverine spends most the series trying to rescue Daken from Romulus’ influence; it would be nicely dark for that to never be an issue.
3. Wolverine. The series tells us repeatedly that Wolverine spent a lot of the 19th and 20th centuries being a ruthless mercenary; what can be more ruthless than a past self that set up Wolverine the sap, and now wants the body back? Granted, it’s ripping off a large chunk of the 1990s game Planescape Torment, but originality isn’t ever part of Romulus’ schtick.
4. No one. Romulus is just a title various people pick up, just a set of files and code phrases that tell you how to control Wolverine. There’s no big plan, no grand vision; Wolverine was tossed into a system that sees him as a tool not a person, and Romulus is nothing but the endless churn of incompetent lowlifes exchanging his reins. (If someone was feeling ambitious, a writer could have used this as a metaphor for the comics industry.)
Anyway, I’ve spent too much time thinking about Romulus. And I haven’t even read the Loeb stuff yet.
I really like #4 there, Person of Con. You could do a lot with it.
Person of Con, please become a writer. Those are great pitches.
I pretty much concur with everyone else here and in the separate regarding Romulus. Having suffered through Origins, some things are better left never mentioned again.
The duo of Way and Loeb from that time period was near enough a nightmare combination as none of their output can be considered good. Loeb seemed to get a pass from editorial possibly due to his tenure in the business, as creations like Red Hulk or A-Bomb are just daft. Not to mention how he pretty much drove the Ultimate imprint off a cliff into oblivion.
Origins should have been a mega important book with a writer as such, yet it ended up with Way for some reason to have the responsibility of adding to and unpicking Wolverine’s background. Also sincerest apologies to Paul & Al, but I hope The Lightning Round lasts long enough to tear apart his Thunderbolts run.
Breevort was asked about the taxonomist/ taxidermist confusion in Psylocke on his blog today:
TOBIA BRUNELLO:Am I mistaken or did you confuse the terms ‘Taxidermist’ (a person who stuffs dead animals) with ‘Taxonomist’ (a person who deals with the classification of living and non-living things) on the pages of Psylocke?
TOM: I didn’t confuse anything, Tobia, as I neither write nor directly edit PSYLOCKE. And neither, from what I can see, did Alyssa Moy or Darren Shan. The name of a new character can embody multiple things.
Now, someone needs to question Brevoort if he confused the author, Alyssa Wong, with a fictional character, Alyssa Moy.
Brevoort: Dammit! I don’t mess up names. For the last time, a writers name can be many things. I can be Tom Selleck sometimes too, can’t I?
“No no no, that’s what TaxonOmist means. This is the TaxonImist, that’s completely different!” (as of https://www.marvel.com/comics/issue/120375/psylocke_2024_4, until they fix it).
I will certainly cut him some slack, as I spelled his name wrong in my book and he was the one that pointed it out to me when I gave him a copy.
As demonstrated in the posts above, it’s quite easy to mix up Breevort and Brevoort. It’s a weird blind spot I still get wrong 25 years later.
According to Joe Casey, the Wolverines of Mass Destruction that will be introduced in Weapon X-Men are a step in introducing a major new villain called Weapon Exile.
In One World Under Doom news, in One World Under Doom 4 in May, Doom has banished the heroes (does that include the “villains” as well like Maddie and MODOK?) to a pocket dimension but Dormammu sees this as his opportunity to invade Earth.
@Michael: You misread. The 1WUD #4 solicit says “Dormammu has banished all other heroes to a pocket dimension, leaving Doom to stand alone against the Dark Lord of Chaos.”
@SanityorMadness- My bad. I guess Mordo betrays everyone else to Dormammu- again.