“Wrath” – Savage Wolverine #14-17
Let’s bring us up to date before the next wave of books comes out tomorrow. (And yes, I’ve given up hope on ever getting round to Wolverine Max any time soon.)
The cover for issue #14 – officially, it’s #14.NOW, but let’s smile and nod and ignore that – is presumably joking with its strap line “From the master of noir, Richard Isanove, comes a thrilling new adventure”. Isanove is best known as a colourist on books like Origin, Dark Tower and 1602; so far as I can recall, this is his first high-profile assignment as a writer or artist.
Still, you can see where the noir tag is coming from.
“Rogue Logan” – Wolverine #1-4
I seem to be slipping behind a bit. So let’s take a quick look at this story, which finished last week. (I’m going to skip the epilogue to the first Amazing X-Men arc, since, well, it’s an epilogue to a story I’ve already reviewed.)
Wolverine is one of the more dubious relaunches of the second wave of Marvel Now, featuring as it does exactly the same writer and no genuine fresh start. Instead, this “new” series actually begins with the second phase of a storyline that started with… well, with the previous relaunch.
Charts – 20 March 2014
Another batch of dance records! Oh, and Elyar Fox.
38. DJ Snake & Lil Jon – “Turn Down For What”
Well, that video certainly isn’t making MTV UK’s daytime top 40 rundown. This track has gone platinum in the USA, and it’s been climbing from the lower reaches for a few weeks now. DJ Snake is a French producer, getting his first UK hit (if 38 counts as a hit). Lil Jon has had quite a few hits in America, but his only previous UK appearance was as a guest rapper on Jay Sean’s “Do You Remember”, which made number 10 four years ago.
29. Showtek & Justin Prime featuring Matthew Koma – “Cannonball (Earthquake)”
Third hit for the Dutch brothers Showtek, following last year’s top 5 hit “Booyah” and the current David Guetta collaboration “Bad”. They do a lot of collaborating; this one, with Justin Prime, another Dutch DJ, started out as an instrumental back in 2012. But for this release, it’s had vocals added from Matthew Koma, who was previously the featured vocalist on Hardwell’s “Dare You” – a number 18 flash in the pan in January.
13. Meridian Dan featuring Big H & JME – “German Whip”
A crossover grime hit – well, kind of. It was number 6 in the midweeks, so sales must have been pretty front loaded. JME was one of the guest rappers on Wiley’s “Can You Hear Me? (Ayayaya)”, which made number 3 in 2012, but the others are chart newcomers.
Supposedly, a “whip” is an early motoring term which has been dusted off and repurposed as meaning “car”. Originally (if you believe the internet) it actually meant a steering wheel, on the logic that it was equivalent to the coachwhip. But close enough.
11. Elyar Fox – “A Billion Girls”
Follow-up to “Do It All Over Again”, which made number 5 in January. Diminishing returns are already in evidence. At time of writing, it’s at 34 on iTunes, so this looks like another front loaded pop song selling predominantly in first-day fan purchases. Actually, it’s not a horrible record, but the window for achieving any sort of crossover looks small.
3. Shift K3y – “Touch”
UK garage – we haven’t had that in a while. Shift K3y is 20-year-old producer Lewis Jankel, who has a few high profile remix assignments under his belt. Unusually in this day and age, he’s doing his own vocals on this track. He’s got a good voice, though I can’t help thinking the video director could have done him a few more favours.
1. Kiesza – “Hideaway”
Debut hit for house singer Kiesa Rae Ellestad. She’s from Calgary, but that’s Brooklyn in the video. She’s a trained ballerina, which might explain why somebody decided to try a one-shot video like this. Apparently she’s got a broken rib in this video, which can’t have been fun.
This sold 136,000 copies, though that does include several weeks of pre-order sales. It’s the ninth straight week to see a change of number 1, and that’ll be continuing next week. Admittedly one of those weeks was “Happy” returning to the top. But otherwise, we seem to be back in a pattern of records entering at the top after advance promotion. Interestingly, most of the artists in question have been relative newcomers rather than established fan base acts – Sam Smith, Route 94, Duke Dumont, 5 Seconds of Summer, Aloe Blacc, Sigma and now Kiesza. Still, it’d be nice to see something break from the pack and stay at the top a bit longer.
On the album chart:
- “Caustic Love” by Paolo Nutini at 1. It’s the fastest selling album of the year, not that that’s a huge achievement these days. The single “Scream” rebounds to 22 this week.
- “Meet the Vamps” by the Vamps at 2. A pretty solid debut for a teen pop band. The single “Last Night” predictably drops 2-14 on the singles chart.
- “Homo Erraticus” by Ian Anderson at 14. The sixth solo studio album from the front man of Jethro Tull. Again, it speaks volumes about the state of the album market that he’s now getting to number 14, when none of his previous releases got above 35. Single: “Enter the Uninvited”.
- “One Day Like This” by Rhydian at 19. Yes, the guy who came second in the 2007 season of X Factor is still recording. It’s the expected selection of classical crossover covers. With this release, he apparently becomes only the second X Factor alumnus to make it to five albums (the other being JLS). Admittedly, one of his five albums was a low-selling Welsh language release, but still, five albums. Single: “Nights in White Satin”. It’s in Italian, so as to be extra classy.
- “Do The Beast” by the Afghan Whigs at 40. Astonishingly, the first time the indie veterans have actually made the albums top 40 – 1996’s “Black Love” only got to 41. Single: “Algiers”. (I still think their 1993 single “Debonair” was inexplicably overlooked.)
“Not Brand X” – All-New X-Factor #1-6
The top ten hits for All-New X-Factor on Amazon UK:
- The first trade paperback of this series, listed top.
- One Direction: Forever Young – Our X-Factor Story.
- The X Factor Party Box Karaoke Machine
- A USB battery charger.
- Rhydian’s self-titled album from 2008.
- The official Harry Styles A5 writing pad.
- A pair of leg warmers.
- Dare to Dream: Life as One Direction (100% Official).
- A wallet case for a Samsung Galaxy.
- An Alexandra Burke car tax disc holder. (Only £4.98, “top quality PVC”.)
Of these ten options, the trade paperback is your best bet.
House to Astonish Episode 124
Happy Easter! We’re back with another 90 minutes of comics chat, discussing Amazon’s purchase of Comixology, the launches of Grayson, Multiversity and Earth 2: World’s End, and Warren Ellis’s relaunch of the Project: Superpowers universe. We’ve also got reviews of Skinned, Batman: Eternal and Transformers: Windblade, and the Official Handbook of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe slices, dices and makes Julienne fries. All this plus Warren Ellis’s bungee transport, 800m Hurdles Man and Batman wearing a Spider-Man mask.
The podcast is here, or here on Mixcloud, or available via the embedded player below. Let us know what you think, via the comments below, on Twitter, via email or on our Facebook fan page.
Don’t forget that you can buy our delightful shirts at our Redbubble store, and tickets to our live show in Edinburgh for Alzheimer Scotland on 31 May through Brown Paper Tickets.
All-New X-Men #25
It’s a jam issue!
Does anyone actually like jam issues? And by that, I mean “like reading them”, not “like making them”. Rare indeed is the story that is actually improved by hurling 15 wildly different artists at it, in the same way that few songs have benefitted from the tender mercies of a charity ensemble cover version. Jam issues tend to end up with weird structures – like this issue, in which the Beast is visited by a mysterious figure who shows him a bunch of possible future timelines.
The result is not a story. It’s a bunch of pin-ups and a couple of gag strips with a framing sequence. Spin it how you want, but that’s the bottom line.
Charts – 13 March 2014
Hey, I haven’t reminded you about our live show for a couple of posts! Buy tickets here! May 31! It’s for charity!
Meanwhile, on the charts: re-recorded remixes, film soundtracks, and somebody gets a hit single after The Voice UK final!
40. Paolo Nutini – “Better Man”
The Trial of Jean Grey
Ah, a crossover! “The Trial of Jean Grey” runs through six issues of two Brian Bendis comics – All-New X-Men #22-24, and Guardians of the Galaxy #11-13. If you really want to indulge Marvel, the first two chapters officially appeared in issues #22.NOW and #11.NOW. But let’s not.
This story has basically two points to make, and doesn’t need six issues to make them. Nor is it even particularly clear about the points it is making.
“Haunted” – Marvel Knights: X-Men #1-5
Is there a place for the Marvel Knights imprint in 2014? The sales on the three recent Marvel Knights minis certainly aren’t encouraging.
When the original Marvel Knights imprint was launched, back in 1998, Marvel was a very different place; its titles stood out as creator-driven relaunches quite unlike the 90s house style that dominated at the time. Mid-90s Marvel’s conservatism may have been driven partly by the financial strictures of insolvency, but that still made the new books from Joe Quesada’s office look truly new.
