Excalibur #22 annotation
As always, this post contains spoilers and page numbers go by the digital edition.
EXCALIBUR vol 4 #22
“Treasures of Britain”
by Tini Howard, Marcus To & Erick Arciniega
COVER / PAGE 1. Excalibur as prisoners of Merlyn.
PAGES 2-5. Excalibur and the Beast visit Blightspoke.
Blightspoke. This is one of the various Otherworld realms that we saw during the “X of Swords” crossover. Generally, it’s been depicted as a sort of dumping ground for things from failed realities, with plenty of useful stuff there if you can get at it safely. The suggestion that the land is actively poisonous comes from a data page in Cable #5, though this is the first time it’s really come up.
The Beast is taking scientific measurements of samples from Blightspoke, which in itself seems like a perfectly innocuous thing to do. But over in X-Force, the Beast is mainly being written these days as a dangerously overconfident amoral schemer, so god only knows what he wants with this stuff, but it can’t be good.
“Logan says this place can be unwelcoming in more ways than one.” Wolverine fought Summoner in Blightspoke in Wolverine #7.
Charts – 9 July 2021
This is what you call a dead week.
Two weeks. And for our highest new entry we find ourselves going all the way down to…
32. Brent Faiyaz featuring Drake – “Wasting Time”
X-Men #1 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X-MEN vol 6 #1
“Fearless, Chapter One: In Threes”
by Gerry Duggan, Pepe Larraz & Marte Gracia
COVER / PAGES 1-2. The new X-Men team in battle in New York. That’s the main cover, obviously. There are tons of variants.
PAGES 3-5. The back story of Feilong.
This is the first appearance of Kelvin Heng, a self-made scientific genius who was on the verge of beginning his own project to terraform Mars when the Krakoans marched in and took the place over in Planet-Size X-Men #1. Though we didn’t see Feilong himself in that issue, we did see the probe sent by the company that shares his name. The word “feilong” refers to a flying dragon and isn’t particularly unusual as a name for a Chinese company. We establish here that Feilong went to the trouble of altering his own body so that he could live on Mars – an effort now entirely redundant following the Krakoan terraforming.
Nikola Tesla. We’re told that Feilong is a descendent of Nikola Tesla via his mother, described as “a Nobel Prize winner from Serbia”. Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) was indeed ethnically Serbian (though he was born in modern-day Croatia), but he emigrated to the United States in 1884 and had no children – indeed, no known relationships. However, Tesla’s name should be ringing alarm bells in a Hickman-adjacent comic, since he was a major character in Hickman’s much-delayed S.H.I.E.L.D.. In that series, he has super powers and goes by the name “Night Machine”. And he does have an adoptive son, Leonid.
X-Force #21 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X-FORCE vol 6 #21
“Fear of a Green Planet”
by Benjamin Percy, Joshua Cassara, Robert Gill & Guru-eFX
COVER / PAGE 1. X-Force fight Man-Slaughter.
PAGES 2-9. Flashback: X-Force encounter a Man-Thing.
More fully: Sage despatches X-Force to the Warroad site on the coast of Washington, which is spilling chemical and nuclear waste into the sea. Their job is to clean up the spill because, apparently, it could somehow threaten Krakoa. (It’s not really made clear why this is any more of a concern for Krakoa than any other global environmental issue, but perhaps X-Force are just feeling especially heroic today.) They encounter a Man-Thing-type creature, which they mistake for a bad guy, but which is actually trying to save the locals from mutated sea creaturs.
As usual, there’s an obvious parallel between the visuals for Krakoa (complete with red spherical things in the plantlife) and the long-established design for Man-Thing, particularly in the grimier style which this book tends to favour, and which plays down Krakoa’s island-paradise tropes.
Warroad is not, as far as I can tell, a real facility in Washington. There’s a town called Warroad in Minnesota, which doesn’t seem to have any particular significance here. Washington State does have a significance, because it was the setting for various scenes in Weapon Plus: World War IV – more on which below.
Hellions #13 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
HELLIONS #13
“Don’t Look Back, part 1: Weary Travellers”
by Zeb Wells, Rogé Antônio & Rain Beredo
COVER / PAGE 1: The returned Sinister clone stands triumphant over the “original.”
PAGE 2. An epigraph from Nightcrawler. These show up repeatedly in Hellions, even though the character himself rarely appears, but we haven’t seen one since issue #10. Obviously, they anticipate his spiritual leader role in Way of X. In this story, of course, it’s Sinister whose past is catching up with him.
PAGES 3-5. The Right despatch their Zeta team.
This is going back to the Hellions’ battle with the Right in issues #7-8. Since there are two entire storylines that have passed since then, either the rest of the Right have only just got around to investigating what was going on here, or this is technically a flashback. We’re told later on that over a month has passed since this story.
The specific Right members seen here appear ot be new, including Zeta Team. Zeta Team are wearing facepaint with the traditional Right smiley faces, but don’t have any of the other familiar high-tech armour. For whatever reason, their facepaint is in green and yellow, normally the colours of HYDRA rather than the Right.
Children of the Atom #5 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
CHILDREN OF THE ATOM #5
“Reinforcements”
by Vita Ayala, Paco Medina & David Curiel
COVER / PAGE 1. The Children of the Atom backed up, but also overshadowed, by the actual X-Men. And Maggott.
PAGES 2-3. Daycrawler escapes while the other Children of the Atom are captured by the U-Men.
Each issue so far has spotlighted a different member of the team. By elimination, we’re left with Daycrawler – but since the plot builds to a climax in this issue, there’s not as much space to focus on his character as there has been with some of his colleagues. Much of Jay Jay’s perspective in this issue is filled in by narration rather than flashbacks or scenes devoted to him.
This scene is a retelling of page 20 from the previous issue, from Daycrawler’s perspective rather than Marvel Guy’s – those the shift of perspective doesn’t make much difference. We already know from the remainder of issue #4 that the bad guys are a new version of the U-Men, the group that harvests mutant organs to try and upgrade humans; and that Daycrawler will return to rescue his teammates with the actual X-Men in tow.
House to Astonish Episode 192
It’s been a long old time, but we’re finally back, with discussion of X-Force: Killshot, Phoenix Song: Echo, the creative changeover on Amazing Spider-Man, Human Remains at Vault, Party and Prey at Aftershock, and Jeff Lemire’s upcoming pair of miniseries Mazebook and Primordial. We’ve also got reviews of Catwoman Annual and Black Cat Annual, and the Official Handbook of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Loves You. All this plus a mouthful of bugs, sad knitwear of tragic lives and a Reebok-clad Scottish indie band from 2001.
The podcast is here, or here on Mixcloud, or available via the embedded player below. Let us know what you think, in the comments, on Twitter, via email or on our Facebook fan page, and remember that there’s still plenty of summer days to come, so a swell House to Astonish t-shirt might be just the thing you need.
The Incomplete Wolverine – 1990
Part 1: Origin to Origin II | Part 2: 1907 to 1914
Part 3: 1914 to 1939 | Part 4: World War II
Part 5: The postwar era | Part 6: Team X
Part 7: Post Team X | Part 8: Weapon X
Part 9: Department H | Part 10: The Silver Age
1974-1975 | 1976 | 1977 | 1978 | 1979
1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985
1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989
Welcome to the nineties. But we haven’t reached Jim Lee quite yet – as we start off, the X-Men are still in Australia, and Wolverine has just taken a leave of absence to try and rescue Roughouse from captivity in Tierra Verde.
WOLVERINE vol 2 #19-23
“Heroes & Villains” / “Miracles” / “Battleground” / “Outburst!” / “Endings”
by Archie Goodwin, John Byrne, Klaus Janson, Michael Rockwitz & Glynis Oliver
December 1989 to April 1990
In Tierra Verde, Wolverine meets the local freedom-fighter and superhero La Bandera, and helps her fend off an assassination attempt by Tiger Shark (Todd Arliss). La Bandera’s mutant power is to inspire followers; she’s completely well intentioned, but Wolverine suspects that she’s too naive to get anywhere with her revolution. Meanwhile, further experiments have left the captive Roughouse covered in sores, and he is being cared for by Sister Salvation, a nun and healer who is also President Caridad’s ex-wife. Wolverine and La Bandera escape with Roughouse and Salvation, but Wolverine gets drugged with Tierra Verde’s weird tainted cocaine in the process. The cocaine turns out to be a vehicle for Spore, an ancient creation of the Deviants who was trapped in the ground after being destroyed by the Celestials, until someone started growing cocaine there. Since normal humans don’t survive very long, Spore wants a superhuman host, but Wolverine and Roughouse both manage to fight it off.
Charts – 4 July 2021
Ah, he’s back.
1. Ed Sheeran – “Bad Habits”
The lead single from Ed Sheeran’s fifth album, and… well, it’s one of his electropop efforts, and it’s fine, but nothing outstanding. It feels like it’s jumped straight to a slightly uninspired European remix from three years ago. Still, it’s his tenth number one, which is elite company – there are only six acts who have had more than ten number ones. Admittedly, one of them is Westlife.
Cable #11 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
CABLE vol 4 #11
“Depression”
by Gerry Duggan & Phil Noto
COVER / PAGE 1. A close-up of young Cable’s face, with the Light of Galador superimposed on top. This is a companion piece for the cover of issue #12, which shows the other half of the older Cable’s face. The sword is placed over Cable’s eye, mirroring the familiar glow of Cable Classic’s left eye.
PAGE 2. Epigraph. Cable says the line later in this issue, but it’s at least a double meaning here, referring both to Cable’s knowledge of the future, and to the fact that the readers probably know where all this is going.
PAGE 3. The Five debate whether to resurrect Cable Classic.
Last issue, Kid Cable was pressing for the original Cable to be resurrected in order to help deal with the threat of Stryfe. As hinted at last issue, his plan seems to be to get the Five on side, and then use Cerebro himself to download the relevant mind. Hope is naturally keen to assist, since she views Cable as a father figure – and she makes the reasonable point that the Five are so essential to Krakoan society that they can never really be punished.
