Giant-Size X-Men: Magneto #1 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
And before anyone asks, I haven’t read the Free Comic Book Day story, which isn’t available digitally. From the sound of it, it’s basically a bunch of cryptic teasers for X of Swords.
COVER / PAGE 1. Magneto, in shadow, looks at the camera.
PAGES 2-4. Magneto arrives at Mykines and asks to buy it from its owner.
Mykines is the westernmost of the Faroe Islands, which are about 200 miles north of Scotland. It does indeed have a lot of puffins. In real life, there’s a small village on the island, including a guest house for the small number of tourists (who are acknowledged in this scene, and who can reach the place by regular ferry and helicopter services). Most of the houses are now second homes; according to a BBC article about the Faroes written in 2018, the current permanent population is nine. The Greek-sounding name is thought to be a corruption of a Celtic term for “pig island”.
(more…)The Incomplete Wolverine, Part 2
In part 1, we were going through stories that were mostly designed to be read in sequence. We left off with Logan in New York in 1907, at the end of Origin II. Now we’re entering a rather more haywire phase, since writers tend to assume that Wolverine’s history between Origin and World War I is simply a bit of a blank. It isn’t, but it’s a scattershot period with a lot of travelling going on.
Flashback in WOLVERINE: WEAPON X #10
“Love and the Wolverine” by Jason Aaron & CP Smith
February 2010
Shortly after Origin II (“it wasn’t long after I first come down outta the wilderness”), Logan wanders to California and becomes an agricultural labourer, where he loses his virginity to a Mexican migrant worker (whose name he doesn’t know). And that’s the whole thing.
Somewhere around this point, apparently, Logan encounters the sadistic mercenary Shredder, from the 2003 miniseries Hulk/Wolverine: Six Hours. In issue #3 of that series, Logan claims that he met Shredder when he was “young … just starting to get control of my mutant powers” – whatever that really means, given the nature of Logan’s powers. As tends to be the way with one-off villains in need of instant credibility, Shredder nearly kills Logan, but he escapes.
Charts – 10 July 2020
Another album maxes out its singles chart allowance…
1. Jawsh 685 & Jason Derulo – “Savage Loved (Laxed – Siren Beat)”
Two weeks. That’s as far as Jason Derulo usually gets, but he did manage four weeks with “Want to Want Me” in 2015. Of course, the typical length of a run at number one has been creeping up since Jason was last having regular number ones.
The top 6 is completely static, and our highest new entry is…
7. AJ Tracey & Mabel – “West Ten”
(more…)X-Force #10 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
PAGE 1 / COVER. Black Tom Cassidy in attacking mode. This is another issue which doesn’t call for much in the way of annotation since it’s mainly the climax of plot threads from X-Force itself, but we’ll run through it quickly anyway.
PAGES 2-5. Wolverine, Domino and Kid Omega enter a Terra Verden temple and get separated by the evil plants.
Wolverine and Domino discuss her apparent decision to be restored to life without traumatic memories. Regular readers will know that this isn’t what happened – in issue #8, the dying Domino specifically told Colossus that she wanted to “remember everything” when she was revived. Colossus clearly lied about her instructions. Wolverine does, however, remember her expressing a different opinion previously – but whether he’s suspicious about how this came to pass, or simply doubting the wisdom of the decision from someone who must have been changing her mind frequently, is less clear.
(more…)The Incomplete Wolverine, Part 1
Because you can’t spell “quixotic” without an “X”.
So the Moira thing went well, but it goes without saying you’d be completely insane to do the same thing for a character like Wolverine. Still, we had a long gap this year with no new comics coming out, and so I thought I might go back and read Wolverine’s pre-X-Men back story in chronological order to see if it made any kind of sense.
And so in this series of posts, we’re going to go through Wolverine’s history in more-or-less chronological order – some of this stuff just can’t be placed precisely, but there are certainly clear phases of his life where appearances have to go. Obviously there’s got to be a cut-off point somewhere, but we’ll cover at least his history up to joining the X-Men and see where we go from there – I’ve read up as far as Uncanny X-Men #200 at time of writing, which is around the point where he’s fully developed into the familiar character. It’s also “Incomplete” because I can’t be 100% confident I’ve caught anything, but also because it’s clearly going to stop somewhere. Once the ongoing comics are coming out again, these will probably settle into a less frequent schedule than the Moira posts – the current material takes priority.
(more…)Charts – 3 July 2020
We’ve had busier weeks, but at least this week’s four new entries are somewhat eclectic.
1. Jawsh 685 & Jason Derulo – “Savage Love (Laxed – Siren Beat)”
Climbing to number 1 in its third week on chart. Producer Jawsh 685 joins the list of pure one-hit-wonders (one number 1 single and nothing else). Most people who achieve that do manage to get off the list – other than Jawsh 685, the most recent name on the list is Bradley Cooper, thanks to his duet with Lady Gaga in 2018 – and since he’s not principally a singer, he probably is going to stay on the list.
Read moreHouse to Astonish Episode 184
After our foray into the abyss that is the 1993 Marvel annuals, we’re back with a regular episode, talking about Denny O’Neil and Joe Sinnott, the recent wave of allegations of impropriety and harassment in comics, DC quitting Diamond, Marvel’s new Warhammer line, the culling of the Empyre crossover and the return of Bill & Ted under Evan Dorkin and Roger Langridge. We’re also reviewing Ash & Thorn and All-America Comix, and the Official Handbook of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe is full of both jeepers and creepers. All this plus Big Pando, two sickly ponies and a movie from 1997 about a chimp that wins the lottery.
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 as always, we have our swish t-shirts available, should you be in a position to actually leave your home, and these are for sale over at our Redbubble store.
Charts – 26 June 2020
I know I should be selling the post in the opening, but honestly, this is another of those weeks where very, very little is happening.
1 DaBaby featuring Roddy Ricch – “Rockstar”
This is spending its sixth week at number one, but it’s only just got a video. The theme is zombie apocalypse, not something that the song immediately suggests, but okay. And yes, that video was filmed during the pandemic – though the adherence to social distancing isn’t exactly 100% rigorous. Note that it’s now been on the charts for 10 weeks, so it’ll be eligible to get downweighted next week, if it’s far enough past its peak.
(more…)Charts – 19 June 2020
Not as completely dead as last week, but still quiet…
1. DaBaby featuring Roddy Ricch – “Rockstar”
Five weeks. It heads up a static top 4. “Dinner Guest” by AJ Tracey featuring Mostack climbs one more place to 5
8. Regard & RAYE – “Secrets”
(more…)Charts – 12 June 2020
The release schedule hasn’t completely ground to a halt during lockdown, but it’s certainly become more scattered. Which means that every now and again we get a week as ludicrously uneventful as this.
1. DaBaby featuring Roddy Ricch – “Rockstar”
Four weeks in total. And below it… not much, really. “Breaking Me” by Topic featuring A7S climbs one more place to number 4. “Dinner Guest” by AJ Tracey featuring Mostack, which has been hovering between 8 and 10 for five weeks, reaches the dizzy heights of number 6. “Secrets” by Regard & Raye climbs 18-12, and “Don’t Need Love” by 220 Kid & Gracey moves one place to 13. “Watermelon Sugar” by Harry Styles is another one-place climber, now at 15. “This City” by Sam Fischer, which spent three weeks at number 19, climbs to 17. “Party Girl” by Staysolidrocky climbs 24-18. “ILY (I Love You Baby)” by Surf Mesa featuring Emilee climbs, you guessed it, one place to number 25. “Who’s That What’s That” by Niko B climbs 33-26, which is practically eventful by the standards of this week. And behold this week’s highest – and indeed lowest – new entry…
40. Chris Brown & Young Thug – “Go Crazy”
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