The X-Axis – w/c 18 November 2024
X-MEN: FROM THE ASHES INFINITY COMIC #24. By Tim Seeley, Eric Koda, KJ Díaz & Clayton Cowles. Well, we’ve done the Thanksgiving stuff, so it’s time for the plot. There’s a reason of sorts for the Bohusk family to show up at the Factory without anyone expecting them, though it doesn’t exactly work. One of the kids is seriously ill, and the Beast is meant to be finding them a solution. But it turns out that conversation was back on Krakoa, and the current version of the Beast doesn’t know anything about it. Now, on a mechanical level, this doesn’t really work – what, the Beast said “drop by wherever I happen to be at Thanksgiving next year”? And if you stop to think about it, would that version of the Beast have actually done anything about it anyway, or would he just have been fobbing Beak off? But even so, it’s a good moment as Beast tries to bluff his way through the conversation and the penny drops for Beak that nobody’s been looking at this problem at all. That works, and Koda’s art really sells Beak as a beleaguered everyman.
EXCEPTIONAL X-MEN #3. (Annotations here.) You might question billing the trainee book as an X-Men title, but the comic itself is working. Okay, yes, there are a few suggestions around the edges here that Eve Ewing has some odd ideas about the extent of Kate and Emma’s early relationship, and the kids are remarkably relaxed about mind control… but the three new mutants are well defined characters, with Carmen Carnero’s art really helping to get their personalities across through their body language. And we have a distinct hook on the trainee book, with Kate wanting to help them to live in the normal world, Emma wanting to draw them into the X-Men’s orbit, and the kids having their own views on matters. It’s basically a character driven title relying on the regular cast for conflict, but it’s making that work. One of the successes of the “From the Ashes” period.
Storm #2 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
STORM vol 5 #2
“Death by Voodoo”
Writer: Murewa Ayodele
Artist: Lucas Werneck
Colour artist: Alex Guimarães
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Editor: Tom Brevoort
STORM:
Storm is still sick from her exposure to radiation in the previous issue; she’s coughing up blood and losing some of her hair. Nonetheless, she has no trouble taking down a group of pirates off the coast of Nigeria. the captain isn’t especially grateful. She wears a white costume for this, rather than the black one from last issue, so apparently she’s going to be cycling through the wardrobe.
For treatment, Storm heads to the Night and Daye Hospital for the Extramundane in Arkansas (see below), which she’s apparently learned about from the Avengers. The X-Men are apparently the only major superhero group not to contribute to this facility, although they’ve evidently never used it either. Still, Storm decides she ought to be making a contribution and hands over what she describes as a ruby that belonged to her mother. If this is meant to be the ruby from her 1970s costume, then that’s a continuity error, because X-Men vol 2 #60 already established that she stole that jewel from Candra. But maybe she just has two really big rubies lying around. Anyway, Storm learns that she has “radiation syndrome” which is going to kill her in six hours, and is packed off to Dr Voodoo for help.
Phoenix #5 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
PHOENIX #5
Writer: Stephanie Phillips
Artists: Alessandro Miracolo & Marco Renna
Colour artist: David Curiel
Letterer: Cory Petit
Editor: Annalise Bissa
PHOENIX
Last issue, Phoenix fought Gorr and was seemingly killed by him. The final page showed her body stirring, Perrikus’ narration talked about how she always came back stronger from death, and the final panel showed her coming back to life surrounded by the Phoenix Force effect. But… no, this issue opens with her just dead again, and she comes back to life on page 11 in a way that looks different. So god knows what we were meant to take from the final page of the previous issue, but in practice we should apparently just ignore it.
While dead, Jean meets Eternity, who gives her a pep talk about needing to think like a cosmic entity instead of an overpowered human. A similar point was made in issue #1 when she let Perrikus escape the prison. Eternity is basically arguing that if Jean is going to be Phoenix, then that means transcending her humanity and ascending outright to the Marvel pantheon of cosmic beings – even saving the odd planet here and there is small scale stuff.
Wolverine #3 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
WOLVERINE vol 8 #3
“Hunter and Hunted”
Writer: Saladin Ahmed
Artist: Martín Cóccolo
Colour artist: Bryan Valenza
Letterer: Cory Petit
Editor: Mark Basso
WOLVERINE:
Nice and straightforward, this issue.
Wolverine is still trying to protect the new Wendigo from Department H, whom he correctly assumes will try to kill the creature. His reasoning is that (1) Department H are hunting the Wendigo because they blame it for the murders that Cyber committed in issue #1, and (2) Cyber was only in the area to commit those murders in the first place because he was looking for Wolverine. This chain of events is hardly Wolverine’s fault, but it fits with his general view that he brings disaster to innocent people when he tries to hang around with them (just as he blamed himself for the death of the wolf pack in issue #1). Last issue, he placed somewhat more emphasis on the idea that the new Wendigo was itself trying to resist its violent instincts, and he still stresses that point here.
In this interpretation, Wolverine isn’t exactly prone to berserker rage, but is prone to acting on instinct, so that he’s likely to respond violently to an attack in the moment. This takes the form of momentary lapses rather than uncontrollable violence; he has to make an effort to resist his instincts, but he can do it.
Exceptional X-Men #3 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
EXCEPTIONAL X-MEN #3
Writer: Eve L Ewing
Artist: Carmen Carnero
Colour artist: Nolan Woodard
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Editor: Tom Brevoort
THE X-MEN:
Kate Pryde demands that Emma let the three teenagers go, and complains about Emma’s controlling nature, for several pages before giving in and fighting her. Kate is either immune to, or able to resist, Emma’s telepathy. There’s a precedent for this, with a handful of late Claremont stories claiming that Kate is resistant to telepathy while phased (we’re talking about the likes of X-Men: True Friends #2 here, mind you). Or, alternatively, she just has plenty of psychic training.
After Priti calms the situation, Kate grudgingly concedes that Emma is basically trustworthy and would be a very good teacher for the youngsters. However, she draws the line at taking the kids to a hidden base, and insists on training them in their community, in line with her general agenda in this series of wanting to return to the human world. Even then, she resists calling this project a “mutant dojo”. She tries to talk the kids out of aspiring to be heroes, though she accepts that they need enough training to defend themselves. She also disapproves of giving the kids codenames and costumes when they’re completely untrained and unqualified; it’s precisely what Professor X did with her, but she now thinks that was wrong. She’s hugely unimpressed with Emma ambushing the kids with a psychic illusion to see how they react.
Charts – 15 November 2024
Already? Already?!?
1. Gracie Abrams – “That’s So True”
Two weeks, with a widening gap over the number 2 single, Gigi Perez’s “Sailor Song”; “APT” by Rosé and Bruno Mars fills out a static top 3. “I Love You I’m Sorry” drops to 20, while “Close to You” re-enters at 31 to give her a third hit. That’s a new peak for it; it previously got a single week at 35 in June.
12. Myles Smith – “Nice to Meet You”
Well, at least someone has released a regular old single and seen it enter at a reasonably high position. This piece of MOR jauntiness is the second top 40 hit for Myles Smith, after “Stargazing”, which peaked at number 4 in October and is still on the chart at 24. His overall chart record is rather mixed: the follow-up to “Stargazing” was “Wait for You”, which missed the top 50. And the parent album “A Minute” is also out this week, but it only reaches number 63.
The X-Axis – w/c 11 November 2024
X-MEN: FROM THE ASHES INFINITY COMIC #23. By Tim Seeley, Eric Koda, Arthur Hesli & Clayton Cowles. So this is the Thanksgiving issue, as Beak and his family show up at the X-Men’s headquarters in Merle, to the utter bewilderment of the team, who weren’t actually expecting them. It turns out that this is actually heading somewhere, since there’s a story continuing into the next issue that explains why Beak wanted to visit. But this issue is simply the improvised Thanksgiving dinner, a nice little scene in which the X-Men – even Quentin – tell Beak’s kids how great he is. And given her back story, it’s a nice touch to have Psylocke going out of her way to spend time with the kids. A perfectly nice little holiday issue.
UNCANNY X-MEN #5. (Annotations here.) This is billed as the concluding part of “Red Wave”. But you might be better off putting that out of your mind, since it suggests you should be expecting a bit more resolution than the story actually gives you. It’s the end of the current fight with Sarah Gaunt and her followers, to be sure, and it’s not simply the break point for the first trade paperback, which runs up to issue #6. It gives some clarification on Sarah’s delusions. But it doesn’t really resolve the questions of what she actually is, whether she’s a mutant or something else. And the Outliers don’t really play into the ending at all All of which is fine if you think of it as just issue #5 in an ongoing series, and that’s probably the better way of approaching it.
Psylocke #1 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
PSYLOCKE vol 2 #1
“Masks”
Writer: Alyssa Wong
Artist: Vincenzo Carratù
Colourist: Fer Sifuentes-Sujo
Letterer: Ariana Maher
Editor: Darren Shan
Volume 1, if you’re wondering, was a four-issue miniseries published in 2010, featuring the original Psylocke.
PSYLOCKE.
She’s been taking mercenary work on the side, which she isn’t telling the X-Men about. Specifically, in this issue’s opening, she’s hired by politician Mr Acker (he doesn’t get a first name) to rescue his daughter Mila Acker from kidnappers. Mr Acker is apparently very anti-mutant, but Psylocke has no apparent qualms about taking this mission, since it really is just a genuine hostage rescue. She also wipes everyone’s memories of her involvement. This seems to be Psylocke quietly doing more-or-less heroic things in her own time, or just finding ways to keep herself permanently occupied. Her private missions aren’t solely mercenary, though, since she goes to investigate an AIM MGH event with no client. (It’s possible she would have told the X-Men about this if she hadn’t been benched at the time.)
Cyclops insists on Psylocke taking a week or two off because she never stops working. Notably, he sticks to this line even though he knows she’s just come back from Palmdale, California – presumably, he assumes that she’s been on some sort of private mission that she won’t talk about. Psylocke responds by yelling about how the X-Men need all hands on deck because of the ongoing threat to mutants, but of course the mission she just went on had nothing to do with all that. Cyclops implies that he thinks Psylocke still hasn’t got out of the habit of viewing herself as a living weapon (as she was raised to by the Hand), and that he’s trying to steer her away from that.
NYX #5 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
NYX vol 2 #5
Writers: Jackson Lanzing & Collin Kelly
Penciler: Francesco Mortarino
Inker: Elisabetta D’Amico
Colourist: Raúl Angulo
Letterer: Joe Sabino
Editor: Annalise Bissa
THE CORE CAST:
Prodigy becomes a public figure after his fight with the Krakoan last issue, with the Truthseekers gathering outside his apartment, and anti-mutant laws being proposed by the City Council as part of Empath’s plan to foment racial hatred (of which more in a bit).
Sophie seems to have been convinced, at least to start with. But as the vote draws near, she turns on Empath’s group and decides to side with Kamala, David and co after all. She telepathically sends all the protestors home, apologises, and is immediately accepted by Kamala, though Anole and Laura are a lot less forgiving. To be fair, Kamala is mainly trying to get the group to focus on the real problem. Sophie claims that the Cuckoos voted on whether to join Empath’s plan, but doesn’t actually say how she voted. However, her dialogue with the Cuckoos towards the end of the issue strongly implies that the “vote” was unanimous.
Uncanny X-Men #5 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
UNCANNY X-MEN vol 6 #5
“Red Wave, conclusion: Thunder in our Hearts”
Writer: Gail Simone
Artist: David Marquez
Colour artist: Matthew Wilson
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Tom Brevoort
THE X-MEN
Rogue has been taking diction lessons, presumably out of insecurity about her accent. The opening flashback shows one of those lessons, “six months ago”; the part at the end is presumably her coming to her senses after being knocked out during her fight with Sarah Gaunt last issue, rather than something that actually happened.
We learn here that she absorbed some of Harvey X’s powers when she touched him in issue #1, which is why she was having psychic flashes over the last couple of issues.
Since her team don’t have any facilities to contain supervillains, she reluctantly hands the defeated Sarah Gaunt over to Corina Ellis, with a warning that they’ll be taking the Mansion back soon.
