Daredevil Villains #15: The Queega
Again, we’re skipping a couple of issues with returning villains – issues #26-27 feature the return of Stilt-Man and the final defeat of the Masked Marauder.
DAREDEVIL #28 (May 1967)
“Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Neighbor’s Planet!”
Writer, editor: Stan Lee
Penciller: Gene Colan
Inker: Dick Ayers
Letterer: Sam Rosen
Colourist: not credited
Yes, it’s a flying saucer issue. The aliens are really just little green men – well, they’re quite big green reptiles, I suppose, but you get the point. They aren’t even named in this issue. The name “Queega” comes from the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe.
Matt accepts an invitation to give a talk at Carter College on the legal aspects of flying saucers. About a third of the book is taken up with the romantic triangle before we even get to the College, where Matt plans to wing his way through a talk on a subject he knows nothing about. As it turns out, he just gives a fairly sensible talk about how the law would treat aliens if they ever showed up. In fact, you could make a case for this being one of the more legally sound issues of Daredevil. (Readers interested in the sum total of UK case law on this topic are directed to paragraph 23(2) of this decision.)
The talk is interrupted by the sound of a gunshot. Exciting!
It turns out that the shot was fired by Professor Tom Brewster, a UFO obsessive who claims to have stumbled upon some aliens in the woods. Rather surprisingly, Brewster is promptly arrested for firing a gun in a public place.
Naturally, Daredevil suspects that Brewster is telling the truth. So he investigates, and stumbles upon a flying saucer. The aliens seem surprised that “another human has discovered our presence on this primitive planet”, despite having set up base two minutes’ walk from a university campus. The aliens are reptilian semi-humanoids with weird energy halos. Wouldn’t you just know it, their main weapon turns out to be a ray that blinds people. Of course, it has no effect on Daredevil whatsoever. Unfortunately, they also have a secondary weapon: a delayed-effect freeze ray, which does work on him.
Charts – 9 February 2024
Sometimes I hope for a nice quiet week. Sometimes the charts really, really deliver.
1. Noah Kahan – “Stick Season”
Six weeks. It heads up a gloriously uneventful top four of non-movers.
40. Good Neighbours – “Home”
There you go. That’s this week’s new entries. They’re a London duo and this is their debut single. Entirely pleasant! It’s also climbing from last week’s number 81, so there’s every reason to think that it’s likely to go further.
The X-Axis – w/c 5 February 2024
X-MEN UNLIMITED INFINITY COMIC #125. By Steve Foxe, Steve Orlando, Nick Roche & Yen Nitro. Gosh, this is a quiet month, isn’t it? Another week with just two X-books and an Infinity Comic. It picks up in the last week of the month, but honestly, I’d be perfectly happy to see the line dialled back to something like this.
Anyway… the middle chapters of X-Men Unlimited arcs are often tricky to review, since the individual issues are fairly short. This issue is very much more of the same – whatever the notional plot about Selene kidnapping mutants might be, the actual point of this arc seems to boil down to checking in on a bunch of characters who didn’t merit a miniseries, so we can see what they’re up to. This issue, Captain Britain. There are a couple of obvious problems here. For one thing, the arc is completely unfocussed and scattershot, so there’s no real momentum towards anything. For another, every character is doing much the same thing: fighting random Orchis guys, or at least Orchis-adjacent thugs. And after several months of “Fall of X”, we’ve kind of beaten that one into the ground. There just aren’t enough variations on the theme to sustain it.
X-Men #31 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X-MEN vol 6 #31
“The Passenger”
Writer: Gerry Duggan
Artist: Phil Noto
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Editor: Jordan D White
COVER / PAGE 1. The X-Men fight Nimrod.
PAGE 2. Synch and Talon talk.
Talon was killed last issue while fighting the High Evolutionary, and Synch is acting as a host for her mind. As the issue goes on to spell out, Synch can only do this by using her powers to copy the absent Jean Grey – and, apparently, he has to keep doing it. As we’ve established in earlier issues, Synch ages when he uses his powers to copy absent mutants. We’re told later on that he was getting round this problem by copying Talon’s healing factor, but now that she’s dead, he can’t do that any more – so the effort of keeping her alive in his mind is going to kill him unless she can be decanted to somewhere else rather quickly. All of this was actually set up quite well in earlier issues of the series, making it all the stranger that Talon’s death was covered in such a rushed way.
“We’re about to launch an invasion of Earth…” In Fall of the House of X.
PAGE 3. Nightcrawler and Shadowkat tend to Synch.
When we left him last issue, Synch was in reasonably good shape, aside from having Talon in his head. Presumably it’s the stress of continually mimicking Jean’s powers that are the main issue here. Shadowkat seems to suggest that he copied Talon’s powers in his sleep, and got infected when he popped her claws, though if that’s the idea the art doesn’t really sell it – not only is there no blood, but his gloves are completely undamaged.
Daredevil Villains #14: The Leap-Frog
We jump forward quite a few issues here. So, just for the record: Issue #19 is more of the Gladiator and the Masked Marauder. Issues #20-21 are an Owl story, in which he kidnaps the judge who sentenced him to jail and forces Matt to defend him in a mock trial before a jury of criminals. It’s a lovely idea, but Stan couldn’t figure out a clever solution, so Daredevil just hits everyone with a stick. Issue #22 is the Tri-Man, but that’s just a robot built by the Masked Marauder. Issue #23 is another Gladiator / Masked Marauder story. Issue #24 is the Plunderer again. And that brings us to…
DAREDEVIL #25 (December 1966)
Writer, editor: Stan Lee
Penciller: Gene Colan
Inker: Frank Giacoia
Letterer: Art Simek
Colourist: Not credited
The most significant thing in this issue is the new storyline advertised on the cover. “Wow-eeeee!”, Stan proclaims. “Just wait’ll you meet ol’ Matt Murdock’s swingin’ twin brother!” Yes, it’s Mike Murdock, a notorious piece of Silver Age silliness.
Foggy and Karen find a letter which reveals that Matt is Daredevil. When Matt shows up a few minutes later, he improvises wildly, and claims that Daredevil is actually his twin brother Mike. Foggy can’t help remembering that he and Matt lived together for years with no mention of a twin brother. But Matt keeps digging – complete with thought balloons of the “what the hell am I doing” variety – and winds up promising that Karen and Foggy can meet brother Mike.
Charts – 2 February 2024
Still here, then?
1. Noah Kahan – “Stick Season”
As the number one in waiting throughout Christmas, I figured this would hang on long enough to get a couple of weeks after the festive rush. But no, here we are in February and week five. He’s seen off Ariana Grande; his biggest challengers right now is “Lose Control” by Teddy Swims, climbing to 3, and “Murder on the Dancefloor” continuing its revival run at number 2.
It’s a quiet week for new entries in the top end of the chart, so we move on to…
20. YG Marley – “Praise Jah in the Moonlight”
Debut hit. YG Marley is the grandson of Bob Marley, and the son of Lauren Hill, which is quite the pedigree. “YG” stands for “Young God”, apparently – his first name is Joshua. The song is partly based on “Crisis”, a 1978 album track by Bob Marley & the Wailers. We don’t get much reggae on the singles chart, but this is pretty appealing quite aside from the family name. It’s already been number one in New Zealand and made the Dutch top ten.
The X-Axis – 29 January 2024
X-MEN UNLIMITED INFINITY COMIC #124. By Steve Foxe, Steve Orlando, Phillip Sevy, Yen Nitro & Travis Lanham. This arc feels less like a story and more like a scramble to catch up on what a bunch of barely related characters were doing during Fall of X. Thunderbird! X-Corp! Shatterstar! Somnus! Cerebra! The notional main story here is that the Externals are rounding up mutants for Selene, which at least picks up on her trying to resurrect them in Immortal X-Men. But it feels like it’s being squeezed aside by all the unrelated stuff around it, and while Selene does have some actual star power as a villain, she’s still basically just doing what she normally does. And next issue is… something to do with Captain Britain? There’s way too much going on here, and none of it is cutting through.
WOLVERINE #42. (Annotations here.) Oh dear. A storyline co-written by Victor LaValle and Benjamin Percy sounded like a horrible style clash when it was announced. It avoids that trap, but largely because LaValle’s contribution is undetectable. Certainly, nothing that made his Sabretooth minis worth reading is to be found here. This is just a tiresome exercise in gore porn. Some of it is downright stupid, in a way that simply doesn’t work alongside the general horror tone that the book seems to be aiming for. But even the bits that strike a better balance are mainly just reminding me of why conventional Sabretooth stories were so boring. This is part 2 of 10 and another eight issues of this is going to be an absolute chore.
Dead X-Men #1 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
DEAD X-MEN #1
“Earth Intruders”
Writer: Steve Foxe
Artists: Jonas Scharf, Bernard Chang & Vincenzo Carratù
Colour artist: Frank Martin
Letterer: Cory Petit
Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Editor: Jordan D White
COVER / PAGE 1. Prodigy, Dazzler, Cannonball and Jubilee emerge from their graves. Not what actually happens in the story, but the whole billing of this series as Dead X-Men turns out to be a bit of a red herring so far as the actual plot is concerned. Poor old Frenzy doesn’t make the cover.
Dead X-Men is a four-issue miniseries, but it seems to be actually relevant to the line-wide storylines, which is why it’s getting annotations here.
PAGES 2-4. The X-Men make an abortive visit to a demonic timeline.
Okay, so.
The Treehouse is the X-Men’s former New York base. It’s not looking very healthy, but then nor is the rest of the city in this timeline.
The X-Men for the purposes of this series are Prodigy, Frenzy, Jubilee, Dazzler and Cannonball – in other words, the five who were voted onto the team in X-Men: Hellfire Gala 2023 and lasted a grand total of one panel before being killed by Nimrod. The other members of the Gala line-up are Synch, Talon and Juggernaut, all of whom survived and are currently appearing over in X-Men. But this is the majority of the rightful X-Men team.
Wolverine #42 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
WOLVERINE vol 7 #42
“Sabretooth War, part 2”
Writers: Benjamin Percy & Victor LaValle
Penciller: Cory Smith
Inker: Oren Junior
Colourist: Alex Sinclair
Letterer: Cory Petit
Editor: Mark Basso
COVER / PAGE 1. Sabretooth, with Wolverine’s head on a platter. Don’t worry, kids, it’s symbolic.
This one won’t take long.
PAGES 2-5. The Sabretooths capture Wolverine, and Sabretooth Prime has him strung up.
This continues directly from the end of the previous issue.
“I made a promise. Before you all tossed me in that Pit.” In House of X #6, Sabretooth’s last line before being dragged into the Pit was: “You think I’m just going to take this? I’m making a list and now you’re on it, along with your kids. And then their kids. I will make your line extinct.” He makes fairly generic threats to the Council throughout the scene, but nothing in this scene relates specifically to what he said in House of X #6.
Omega Red‘s tentacles are normally carbonadium, not adamantium. For most practical purposes, nothing turns on this.
House to Astonish Episode 206
Merry Chri… er… Happy New Y… um… Happy February? Welcome to the joint 15th anniversary and end of year wrap-up episode of House to Astonish, as Paul and I chat through the news of the past few weeks, including Blood Hunt‘s polybagged “Red Band” editions, Jason Aaron taking on the relaunched Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the 40th anniversary of Usagi Yojimbo and Criminal coming to Amazon Prime. On top of that, we have the 2023 Homies awards, where we (and you) give our picks of the best things we read last year, and the complete audio of the SILENCE! To Astonish panel from November 2023’s Thought Bubble festival. All this plus Alan Sugar action figures, being turned evil by a bop on the head with a bowling ball, and every comic character who is legally not Captain Marvel. There’s almost too much here! Don’t eat it all at once!
The episode is available here, or through the embedded player below. Let us know what you think, in the comments below, on Bluesky or (I guess) Twitter, via email or on our Facebook fan page. And look, if you don’t already know how good you would look in a House to Astonish t-shirt, I don’t know how much more I can emphasise that fact.
