The X-Axis – 19 May 2013
For those who asked, I might do a Eurovision post later on. We’ll see how I’m doing for time.
First, though! Second-tier X-books!
Cable & X-Force #8 – The end of the second arc, which serves mainly to reinforce the book’s gimmick: Cable has prophetic visions of terrible things that are going to happen, and in order to avert those catastrophes, the team end up doing things that make them looks pretty terrible from the outside. As Domino puts it, “We’re Cable’s X-Force. We do inexplicable criminal things for little or no reward.”
Extreme Rules 2013
After the usual post-Wrestlemania lull, the WWE’s pay-per-view schedule gets back underway this weekend. Frankly, I probably won’t have time to watch this one anyway, but I can’t honestly say it’s a card that gives me a lot of reasons to regret that. (Except, perhaps, the two Shield matches.)
1. WWE Title – Last Man Standing Match: John Cena (c) v Ryback. Cena regained the WWE Title at Wrestlemania to the surprise of precisely nobody, since The Rock plainly wasn’t going to be sticking around forever. There was in fact some suggestion at one point that he would be doing the (normally) obligatory rematch, but that became academic when he suffered a legitimate injury at Wrestlemania. So he’s out of the picture for the foreseeable future at least.
House to Astonish Episode 106
We’re back, and we’ve got an hour and a half of comics discussion for you, with news on the passing of Dan Adkins, James Robinson leaving DC, Disney’s Big Hero 6 movie, Matt Fraction and Kelly Sue DeConnick’s t-shirts for charity and a run through the August solicitations. We’ve also got reviews of The Dream Merchant, Avengers: The Enemy Within and… well, something special, and The Official Handbook of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe is dressing for success. All this plus the Giraffe Wok, Avengers: Endless Breakfasttime and Doombots in pleather singing about crop rotation.
The podcast is here, or here on Mixcloud, or available via the player below. Let us know what you think, in the comments, on Twitter, via email or on our Facebook fan page.
And don’t forget, our t-shirts are on sale at our Redbubble store – look good, spread the word.
Charts – 12 May 2013
Would have had this up earlier, but as you may have noticed, the hosting company has been down for the better part of two days. Anyhow, the reign of Daft Punk continues, as does the comparative dearth of new entries.
40. The Black Eyed Peas – “Where Is The Love”
Er… yes. A number 1 hit from 2003, I’m not entirely sure why this is back in the chart. It’s supposedly because a bunch of Black Eyed Peas fans had a brief spurt of buying the track after the British news media started reporting Fergie’s retirement (referring to the football manager Alex Ferguson), but, uh, that can’t be true, can it?
For whatever reason, it gives will.i.am three singles on this week’s chart, plus a fourth that he wrote. We’ll come to that one.
39. Mariah Carey featuring Miguel – “Beautiful”
The X-Axis – 12 May 2013
If you like middle chapters that aren’t vastly dissimilar from the previous chapters of the same storyline, well, you’ll love this week’s offerings from the X-office!
Astonishing X-Men #62 – First, though, we have the start of a new storyline for the X-Men title everyone forgets is still being published. The last couple of issues were part of the god-awful “X-Termination” crossover, which didn’t have much to do with anything that’s happening in this title – by all appearances, Astonishing was simply parachuted in to try and prop up sales on the wrap-up of two dead titles. There’s a vague attempt in this issue to suggest that Iceman’s terribly shaken up by the events of “X-Termination”, but you kind of get the feeling that any story would have worked in that role as long as it involved something moderately horrible (and most of them do).
Charts – 5 May 2013
‘Tis the quietest of quiet weeks. Seriously, this isn’t going to take long.
38. Michael Molloy & Alex Evans – “Rise And Fall”
Michael Molloy was an 18-year-old aspiring songwriter who was killed in a coach crash last year while returning from the Isle of Wight festival; this is a demo he had previously recorded with partner Alex Evans. It’s quite good, in fact. If you’re wondering, that’s apparently Evans singing; Molloy wrote the song and is playing the guitar.
The X-Axis – 5 May 2013
We’ve got another backlog to clear. So what we’re going to do here is cover the books that came out last week, plus the ones I bought digitally this week…
A + X #7 – The lead story, by Zeb Wells and Dale Keown, is an Iron Man/Beast story that basically uses a generic threat as a backdrop for a bit of bickering. There’s a bit of a twist at the end, I guess, but the bottom line is that it’s moderately diverting page-filler (and it suffers from the fact that the character voices don’t seem quite right, so the bickering feels a bit flat anyway).
Chris Yost and the Orphans Cheeps studio turn in a Thor/Iceman story which is a bit more interesting, mainly because it’s beautiful to look at. Once again, the actual plot is pretty much a backdrop for a bit of character interaction – it’s very rare for writers to attempt anything more than a sketch, it seems, even when they’ve got half a book to play with. In this case, the Frost Giants are invading Earth again, and Thor is reluctantly saddled with Iceman to help fend them off.
House to Astonish Episode 105
It’s Free Comic Book Day, and it’s also New House To Astonish Day – Paul and I have got a hefty slice of comicsy chat for you, with discussion of the closure of Comics Alliance, Valerie Gallaher’s departure from MTVGeek, the blacklisting of The Outhouse by DC and the cancellation of the B&B column at CBR, as well as the end of X-Factor, the return of Spider-Man 2099, the Battle of the Atom crossover, Aw Yeah Comics’ partnership with Thrillbent, the return of Shaolin Cowboy, Dark Horse’s new Hellboy projects and Alex de Campi’s Grindhouse. We’ve also got reviews of Jupiter’s Legacy, The Movement and Mister X: Eviction, and the Official Handbook of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe is having trouble getting over its ex. All this plus a hyperbolic chamber, the Best Dog award and all the scandals you never knew about DC Comics.
The podcast is here, or here on Mixcloud, or available via the embedded player below. Let us know what you think, in the comments below, on Twitter, via email or on our Facebook fan page.
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Charts – 28 April 2013
Reviews will be coming in due course, but in the meantime, the great thing about chart posts is that you can generally make a good start on them in advance…
40. Amelia Lily – “Party Over”
“Tell me, is the party over?” asks Amelia.
Well, let’s see. “You Bring Me Joy”, number 2. “Shut Up (And Give Me Whatever You Got)”, number 11. This track, number 40. Position on iTunes as of right this moment now – 103.
Housekeeping
Just a quick note to say that this week’s podcast and reviews are going to be delayed for a few days, for assorted reasons. Watch this space, we’ll get back to you.
