Charts – 14 October 2012
Looks like we’re back in a phase of new entries going straight to number one each week. Rihanna’s “Diamonds” turns out to have been a bit front-loaded, dropping to 4 in its second week out. It’s a grower, though, so perhaps it’ll have a resurgence.
Before we get to the chart proper – yes, the Rolling Stones did release a new single last week, and no, it’s not on the charts (even though it’s surprisingly decent for a Rolling Stones single made after 1980). That’s because it’s being offered as an advance download for people pre-ordering their upcoming compilation album, and as such, it’s ineligible for the chart. Judging from the iTunes chart, if it had been eligible, it would probably have been somewhere in the 30s.
On with the chart.
40. Skrillex (feat. Sirah) – “Bangarang”
This has been hovering around the lower end of the chart for ages and never seems to entirely go away.
This was covered by Carolynne Poole on the first X Factor live show. Slightly surprising to see it in the chart, considering she came last. Minaj’s current single “Va Va Voom” is a non-mover at 20.
26. Disclosure (feat. Sam Smith) – “Latch”
The X-Axis – 14 October 2012
Crossover season is virtually over, and we’re now moving into the epilogue phase where the next stories are set up. Once again, that results in Marvel swamping the market this week, so let’s get to it…
Age of Apocalypse #8 – Anyone care? Really? Oh, alright.
This isn’t a bad issue, to be honest. Prophet and his crew have gone to Latveria in search of the notebooks of Reed Richards, which they hope might contain some clue to defeating Weapon X. Unfortunately, the notebooks don’t exist any more, and Dr Doom has his own plans for how to keep the mutants at bay until he can make his own plan for saving the world. That plan basically consists of trying to steal Weapon X’s power for himself on the logic that, hey, he’s bound to be an improvement, right?
Charts – 7 October 2012
It’s a podcast week, so don’t forget to check out the podcast thread one post below! And now…
Psy only managed one week at number 1, largely because he had the misfortune to run smack into a strong week for new releases – his sales actually went up from the previous week. He winds up at an eminently respectable number 2, and he looks set to hang around the top 10 for a few weeks yet.
Meanwhile…
37. Adele – “I Can’t Make You Love Me”
House to Astonish Episode 92
A couple of days late, but better late than never, we’ve got just over an hour and ten minutes of chat for you on Marvel’s latest wave of teasers, Mark Millar’s new role at Fox, the expanded line-up of the Avengers, IDW’s latest mega-crossover and David Lloyd’s Aces Weekly. We’ve also got reviews of Non-Humans, Uncanny X-Men and Detective Comics, and the Official Handbook of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe is the new Buzz Lightyear. All this plus the Avengers’ five-a-side football tournament, boob claws and the Secret Invasion point-and-click adventure.
The podcast is here, or on Mixcloud here, or available through the embedded player below. You can also find us on iTunes or via Stitcher.com (or their free iOS or Android apps).
Let us know what you think, either in the comments below, on Twitter, via email or through our Facebook fan page.
The X-Axis – 7 October 2012
So we’re finally here – the end of a storyline that’s been running for months, which in turn ends a storyline that’s been running for years. No wonder they’ve given it a pretty clear run – we have four X-books out this week, but three of them are effectively different perspectives on the same story. Strangely, that works better than you might expect.
Avengers vs X-Men #12 – I may do a separate post looking back on this crossover as a whole. But let’s talk about the finale and where it leaves us going forward.
Housekeeping
Just so you know, we’ll be recording the next podcast on Monday, most likely. Al’s out of town, and besides, I’ve got a cold, so it’d be an hour of intermittent coughing anyway.
Charts – 30 September 2012
Let’s stick with the countdown format, shall we? But before we start, a brief diversion.
You may have heard in the news that Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg’s apology for breaking an election pledge on tuition fees two years ago was “racing up the charts” in an autotuned remix. This was, of course, complete nonsense. The record exists – and it does indeed have 1.8m views on YouTube – but at no stage was it actually selling in any significant quantities. Naturally, this didn’t stop plenty of journalists from talking about it as if it somehow mattered. Its chart position is number 104. And to put that into perspective, there’s a knock-off cover version of Lucy Spraggan’s “Last Night” at number 74.
35. fun. (feat Janelle Monae) – “We Are Young”
A re-entry after two weeks spent at number 42. Nothing to see here, move along.
The X-Axis – 30 September 2012
The X-office continues to lurch back and forth between weeks of putting out virtually nothing, and weeks of putting out loads of X-Men titles all at once. I’m sure there must be some sort of thought process behind this approach, but I’d take rather more convincing that it’s a good one.
Anyway, Avengers vs X-Men may not technically be over, but it might as well be given that it doesn’t crop up in any of this week’s books. You’ll realise, of course, that that leaves at least a couple of these titles in the odd position of doing stories that take place after the crossover conclude but which require to tiptoe around actually revealing the ending. For the most part they manage that by finding something else to focus on, but again, it’s an odd scheduling choice.
Anyhow…
Astonishing X-Men #54 – Wow, this storyline is going on for ever and a day, isn’t it? We’ve been at this for, what, six issues now, and we’ve finally reached the stage of identifying the villain’s plan and giving some vague outline of her motivations. I realise we’ve had a diversion in there to do the wedding, but even so, this is moving at a snail’s pace.
Charts – 23 September 2012
The X-Axis – 23 September 2012
It’s a podcast weekend (though I’m told the sound quality is a bit dodgy on this one), so check it out one post down.
Otherwise… I’m horribly busy right now, but thankfully, Marvel have considerately obliged me by releasing virtually nothing this week. Which, come to think of it, kind of begs the question of what possessed them to put out so many X-Men titles last week instead of shunting a few of them into this week. But whatever. We’ve got one X-book and one AvX tie-in – if only barely – so let’s take a look at those…
Avengers #30 – One for the “outrageously tenuous tie-ins” file, if ever I saw one.
