House to Astonish Episode 91
We’re back with another episode of House to Astonish, where we’re discussing Greg Rucka’s views of Marvel and DC, Marvel’s “Superior” teaser, Justin Gray, Jimmy Palmiotti and Jerry Ordway’s Human Bomb, Ultimate Captain America as US President and the Dredd UK box office success, as well as taking a run through December’s solicitations. We’re also reviewing Team Seven, Ghost and Sword of Sorcery, and the Official Handbook of the Official Handbook is close to ending it all. All this plus people who sound like Crayola crayons, the optimum way to not watch Arrow and the return of a certain vaguely London-y comics creator impression.
Please be aware that there was something very strange about the audio this time round which we didn’t discover until after we recorded, which makes us sound like we’re sitting about ten feet away from the microphone, so you might have to turn this one right up. C’est la vie.
The episode is here, or here on Mixcloud, or available via the embedded player below. Let us know what you think, either in the comments below, on Twitter, via email or through our Facebook fan page. We’re also available on Stitcher.com or through their free iOS or Android apps.
For those of you who make it through to the end, What The Fox can be found here. Enjoy.
Charts – 16 September 2012
Quite an odd one this week, with the Sunday chart not bearing all that much resemblance to the midweeks for a change. That’s partly because of a last-minute download campaign, partly because the midweek number one had frontloaded sales that couldn’t last the week, and partly because of some tracks gaining real momentum during the week, including the first ever K-pop record to make the UK chart.
But first…
1. The Script (featuring will.i.am) – “Hall of Fame”
The run of new entries at number 1 comes to a halt. Unlike everything around it, this single has sustained its sales – and so it climbs from number 2 last week, to become the Script’s first number one. Their new album “#3” enters the album chart this week at number 2, which is very confusing.
The X-Axis – 16 September 2012
Hey, you know what the world needs this week? A truly ridiculous quantity of X-Men comics! Set the dial to excessive!
(Poor Astonishing X-Men must be wondering why it didn’t get to ship an issue this week. Everyone else did.)
Avengers vs X-Men #11 – And so here it is. The moment that must come in every crossover. The obligatory death of a character who hasn’t had a significant role in the story, but whose demise might justify a press release.
Night of Champions 2012
Of all the WWE’s second-tier themed pay-per-views, Night of Champions ought to be the easiest to write. The theme is, quite simply, that all the company’s championships will be defended on the same show. This is barely much of a concept at all, since most of the titles are defended on each show anyway. But it avoids having to shoehorn a gimmick match into a storyline that isn’t ready for it. You can just book some title defences.
Despite this seemingly easy remit, the build-up for Night of Champions 2012 has been more than a little shambolic. The problem for the writers is that the company actually spends very little time trying to build interest in the second-tier titles, and so most of the main storylines don’t involve them at all. The result has been one featured match that doesn’t have a title at stake at all, and two matches in which characters engaged in their own storylines have suddenly been shoved into a title match even though the defending champion has nothing to do with the story at all. Oh, and one match that is only taking place at all by accident.
Charts – 12 September 2012
We seem to be settling back into the routine of singles entering at number one. This is the fourth consecutive new entry at number one, and probably the least interesting of the bunch.
1. Ne-Yo – “Let Me Love You”
This is the lead single from Ne-Yo’s upcoming album, and it’s, y’know, above average, I guess. It’s also very much a typical single for the year, with an equally typical video, and I’m kind of struggling to think of anything else to say about it. Ne-Yo obviously rates it rather higher, describing it in his press release as a song that “if taken care of the right way, could help the world.” By teaching us to love or something.
The X-Axis – 9 September 2012
It’s a podcast weekend, so if you haven’t checked out the episode yet, it’s just one post down from here. (Actually, it’s one post down from here whether you’ve checked it out or not.) This week, we review Steed & Mrs Peel, Peter Cannon: Thunderbolts, and Phantom Stranger – which really is just as bad as we say it is.
Back with the X-books, it’s a quiet week – but that does give me the opportunity to catch up on the last handful of books that came out while I was on holiday! Um, because the next issues are now out…
Age of Apocalypse #6-7 – I sat down to write this with a vague memory that I had not yet reviewed issue #6. Then I tried to remember what had actually happened in issue #6. And I couldn’t.
House to Astonish Episode 90
It’s been a relatively quiet couple of weeks for comics news, but we’ve got plenty of discussion on the second month of Marvel NOW! teasers, the upcoming Morbius series, Jim Starlin’s possible rapprochement with Marvel, the CW’s new Wonder Woman pilot, the return of Elfquest, the new creative team on X-Men and the newly-unveiled Avengers roster. We’ve also got reviews of Peter Cannon: Thunderbolt, Steed & Mrs Peel and Phantom Stranger, and the Official Handbook of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe is so sad, so very very sad. All this plus the ambiguity sledgehammer, After Before Before Watchmen, Ready Salted X-Men and Paul Gambaccini in a leather catsuit.
The podcast is here, or on Mixcloud here, or available via the player below. Alternatively, you can get it on iTunes, or through Stitcher.com (or their free iOS or Android apps). Let us know what you think, in the comments below, on Twitter, via email or on our Facebook fan page.
Charts – 2 September 2012
The week in which we could have had a very, very odd battle for number one…
1. Little Mix – “Wings”
Coming soon to a Zumba class near you!
This is the first “proper” single from the winners of last year’s X Factor. It’s their second number one, following the version of “Cannonball” that was banged out as the winners’ single last Christmas, but this is the first real indication of where their career is going to end up.
The X-Axis – 2 September 2012
More catch-up, more new books…
AvX: Versus #5 – Considering that it literally is just a bunch of fight scenes – and you can’t accuse Marvel of false advertising on that one – it’s remarkable that this book has sold as well as it has. I can only assume that the upcoming anthology A+X is the result of somebody lobbying to keep the book around. In a way, this makes sense.
Of course, the problem is that AvX: Versus mostly hovers somewhere between tedious and utterly pointless, because writing a remotely interesting story based entirely on a fight scene is not easy, and frankly, pure undiluted action sequences don’t play to the strengths of a lot of these creators. I’m reminded somewhat of the “Nuff Said” month from a few years back, where creators were asked to do entirely silent issues for a month. Gimmicky as it was, the limitations should have been an interesting creative challenge. For the most part, the results showed that the creators were simply defeated by them. AvX: Versus has had much the same problem.
This issue’s first story – Hawkeye versus Angel, by Matt Fraction and Leinil Francis Yu – is an utter misfire. It’s not very interesting as a fight scene to start with, but the major problem is that nobody seems to have told Fraction or his editor anything about the Angel’s current status. Understandably looking for some sort of hook to hang the thing on, Fraction opts for class war. If you’ve got to come up with some sort of personal friction between these two, that’s not a bad idea.
