House to Astonish Episode 199
We’re back, and we’re remembering George Pérez, Neal Adams, Tim Sale, Kazuki Takahashi and Pat McCallum, as well as discussing Oni-Lion Forge and Comixology’s recent personnel shifts, the upcoming Tim Drake: Robin series from DC, Marvel’s newest Spider-Man ongoing, the return (again) of Miracleman, the just-announced Wakanda miniseries and Ryan North and Erica Henderson’s Danger and Other Unknown Risks. We’ve also got reviews of Starhenge and Batman, and the Official Handbook of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe is very online. All this plus a photocopier and some tracing paper, the comic book version of the Magic Roundabout and a Weeping Angel but in reverse and useless.
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 through our Facebook fan page, and remember, a dog is for life, but a House to Astonish t-shirt is for eternity (NB: may not be for eternity).
Sabretooth #5 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
SABRETOOTH vol 4 #5
“The Magnificent Eight”
Writer: Victor LaValle
Penciller: Leonard Kirk
Colourist: Rain Beredo
Letterer: Cory Petit
Design: Tom Muller with Jay Bowen
Editor: Jordan D White
COVER / PAGE 1: Sabretooth looms over Krakoa. Symbolically. There are no Pym particles in this story.
PAGE 2. Data page. The quote from Paradise Lost continues “…these piercing fires as soft as now severe, our temper changed into their temper…” But the part quoted gets the point across.
PAGES 3-4. Sabretooth escapes, while everyone lies unconscious after the explosion.
“Kaiju. Genetically modified super-soldiers. Techno-Logan. This island has been through a lot.” The kaiju come most obviously from X-Men: Trial of Magneto. The genetically modified super-soldiers are the Russian Dolls from X-Force and Wolverine. “Techno-Logan” is the Phalanx-infested time-travelling future Wolverine from X Deaths of Wolverine.
“Krakoa reached out to every mutant near the eruption…” We’ve previously established that Krakoa drains small amounts of energy from the mutants on the island to survive, in amounts which are trivial from the perspective of individual mutants. The idea here is that when Krakoa takes significant damage, it needs to suddenly absorb a ton more energy, which knocks out all the mutants in the area. That feels like a vulnerability waiting for an outside attacker to exploit.
Legion of X #3 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
LEGION OF X #3
“We’re All Mad Here”
Writer: Si Spurrier
Artist: Jan Bazaldua
Colourist: Federico Blee
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Design: Tom Mulller with Jay Bowen
Editor: Sarah Brunstad
COVER / PAGE 1. The Legionnaires flee weird stuff in the astral plane. Loosely based on page 17.
PAGES 2-4. Weaponless Zsen reports to Ora Serrata; Nightcrawler briefs the Legionnaires; and Pixie welcomes Dr Strange to the Altar.
“I have accessed Krakoan surveillance files.” Zsen broke into the Pointe last issue to access them (and was presumably allowed to do so after the altercation with X-Force that we saw, or managed to access some before she was stopped.).
Banshee has been missing since yesterday. The previous issue ended with Banshee entering the Altar to recover after his possession by Switch, and being approached by Mother Righteous, who offered him “Such clarity. Such power. You’d never be alone again.”
Counselor Birdy. The telepath who served as Sabretooth’s sidekick in the early 90s. She was killed by Graydon Creed in Sabretooth vol 1 #4, but this week’s Sabretooth #5 has her resurrection being proposed (thus confirming that she’s a mutant). We see her later on, in the background of page 9.
Charts – 1 July 2022
Brace yourself for the least interesting singles chart of the year.
1. Kate Bush – “Running Up That Hill”
A third week. It’s not on course for a fourth (not least because its manual reset to be treated as a new release lapses after three consecutive weeks of declining sales, and that’s going to happen next week).
For our highest new entry we have to go all the way down to…
30. Drake – “Sticky”
The Incomplete Wolverine – 2002
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 | 1990 | 1991
1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997
1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001
We’re in the Frank Tieri run, and we left off with Wolverine teaming with Alpha Flight against Mauvais. Meanwhile, thanks to all the books being miles out of synch with one another, we’ve only had a single issue of the Morrison and Casey runs on New X-Men and Uncanny X-Men…
WOLVERINE vol 2 #173-175
“The Logan Files”
by Frank Tieri, Sean Chen, Norm Rapmund & Raymund Lee
February to April 2002
As per Mauvais’ warning in the previous arc, bad things do indeed start happening: Sabretooth, Omega Red and Lady Deathstrike start going after Wolverine’s loved ones, and use a hacked Weapon X device to shut down his powers. Sabretooth has escaped the Weapon X project and stolen a copy of all their data on mutants – which he keeps on, er, single floppy disc. (Even at the time, this was a bit much, and Weapon X #1/2 retcons it to make this just a part of what he took.) Deathstrike and Omega Red are working with Sabretooth in exchange for access to the data and Weapon X’s money, but Sabretooth is just stringing them along, since what he really wants is to lure Wolverine into yet another cat and mouse game.
Sabretooth takes Amiko hostage and gives Wolverine a choice: either they can fight directly, or Wolverine can run for it and try and rescue Amiko before Sabretooth gets to her. He also claims to have Weapon X’s “Logan Files”, which contain everything they know about Logan’s lost memories. Naturally, since Wolverine doesn’t have his powers and isn’t about to risk Amiko’s life, he runs for it. But he outwits his pursuer by setting traps. Sabretooth lures Wolverine to the Weapon X compound, where he finds a mortally injured Amiko and a “Logan Files” case that turns out to be empty. Sabretooth explains, apparently truthfully, that this really is everything that the current Weapon X project knows about Wolverine’s lost memories – the gaps are due to his healing factor erasing his traumatic memories (as established in Origin). Weapon X show up, Sabretooth escapes, and Wolverine collapses from his injuries. A Weapon X doctor declares him dead.
X-Force #29 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X-FORCE vol 6 #29
“The Hungry Mind”
Writer: Benjamin Percy
Artist: Robert Gill
Colourist: GURU-eFX
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Designers: Tom Muller with Jay Bowen
Editor: Mark Basso
COVER / PAGE 1. It’s a homage to the X-Men fighting Krakoa in Giant-Size X-Men #1, specifically the start of chapter 4 (“Krakoa – the island that Walks Like a Man!”)
PAGES 2-4. Kid Omega monologues while Black Tom gets attacked.
All pretty straightforward. The subtext is that Kid Omega seems to be reverting back to his more obnoxious persona following his break-up with Phoebe. Last issue he was more concerned about protecting Phoebe than anything else; getting rejected again appears to prompt him to go back to this arrogant “hero” persona. Consuming Black Tom gives Cerebrax access to his link with Krakoa.
PAGE 5. Recap and credits.
PAGE 6. Wolverine recaps the plot for Domino.
Apparently we really are going with the idea that magnetism can bend adamantium. Arguably there’s a precedent for that in the art in X-Men #25, where Magneto certainly doesn’t seem to be yanking solid lumps of bone-shaped adamantium out of Wolverine’s body, but I’d always taken that to be artistic license, since the whole premise of adamantium is that it’s indestructible. (The 1980s Official Handbook claims that even melting it doesn’t work, which seems…. questionable in the other direction.)
Sabretooth #4 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
SABRETOOTH vol 4 #4
“There and Back Again”
Writer: Victor LaValle
Penciller: Leonard Kirk
Inker: Craig Young
Colourist: Rain Beredo
Letterer: Cory Petit
Design: Tom Muller with Jay Bowen
Editor: Jordan D White
COVER / PAGE 1. Sabretooth in Krakoan form. We’ve seen him manifest briefly in this way during the series.
PAGE 2. Data page, with our opening quote. Ida Wells (1862-1933) was a civil rights leader and one of the founders of the NAACP. She was also an investigative journalist, which is the obvious reference point for the quote here, butLaValle most likely also has in mind the question of whether prisons achieve their stated functions.
PAGE 3-4. Third Eye saves everyone in the Pit.
Everything Third Eye tells us about his own background here is new. Third Eye mentions that he considered not saving Melter; in the previous issue, he assumed that Melter was drawn to Sabretooth as a possible father figure. In fact, Melter was apparently trying to kill Sabretooth, though he also recognised that he would potentially kill everyone else too. It’s ambiguous whether Third Eye still thinks Melter was just drawn to Sabretooth and something went wrong, or whether he recognises what Melter was trying to do but doesn’t approve of him putting everyone’s lives in danger. Either way, Third Eye decides that Melter deserves another chance.
X-Men Red #4 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X-MEN RED vol 2 #4
”Three Short Stories About Death”
Writer: Al Ewing
Artists: Juann Cabal, Andrés Genolet & Michael Sta. Maria
Colourist: Federico Blee
Letterer & Production: Ariana Maher
Design: Tom Muller withJay Bowen
Editor: Jordan D White
COVER / PAGE 1. Sunspot is resurrected at the feet of Rockslide.
PAGE 2. The Great Ring begin their discussion.
Magneto took the “Seat of Loss” – Tarn’s seat – by killing him last issue.
PAGE 3. Recap and credits. The “Meanwhile, elsewhere in the cosmos” paragraph relates to events from other books. The “recent assassination of the Shi’ar empress and Xavier’s daughter, Xandra”, is the as-yet-unresolved cliffhanger of Marauders #3. The “secret of mutant resurrection [was] revealed on Earth” in X-Men #12.
X-Men Unlimited Infinity Comic #41
X-MEN UNLIMITED INFINITY COMIC #41
“Birthday Side Quest”
Writer & artist: Jason Loo
Letterer: Joe Sabino
Editor: Lauren Amaro
It feels like only yesterday that I reviewed Jason Loo’s last single-issue Unlimited story, the one where Lila Cheney went speed dating. Actually, that was issue #28, and it came out in March…but it took me a while to get around to reviewing it.
This is very much in the same vein. It’s Jubilee’s birthday; she invites her former teammates from Generation X to join her in a fantasy-themed escape room. You might wonder whether Jubilee doesn’t have any other friends than the people she hung out with in a series from more than twenty years ago, who she might want to spend her birthday with… but then again, most of the candidates are currently in Knights of X, so maybe she doesn’t. Anyway, Jubilee wants to do it in full cosplay, and nobody else is really on board with that. And only about half the team show up, though that’s probably a good move given how many characters that would be.
If you remember the Lila Cheney story, you probably know where this is heading. There’s a bit of light comedy. Loo’s art is really good at that kind of thing – one thing this story does really well is make these characters look like old friends hanging out. But it’s got the same basic problem as the Lila story – rather than just commit to making “they hang out and that’s entertaining” into a plot, it randomly throws in a bunch of anti-mutant bigots in the second half so that the heroes can beat them up. That’s all a bit generic, and it doesn’t resolve anything that was set up in the first part of the story. Once again, it feels like Loo didn’t actually have an ending for the gentle character comedy he had set up, and just reached for the stock X-Men ending of the Krakoan era.
Yes, I get it, it’s satisfying when the bad guys get beaten up. But it’d be even more satisfying if it had something to do with the first half of the issue.
Marvel’s Voices: Iceman Infinity Comic
MARVEL’S VOICES: ICEMAN INFINITY COMIC #1-4
Writer, artist & colourist: Luciano Vecchio
Letterer: Joe Sabino
Editor: Sarah Brunstad
This is the second Iceman story that Luciano Vecchio has done for the Infinity Comics line, the first being the catchily titled Mighty Marvel Holiday Special: Iceman’s New Year Resolutions Infinity Comic #1. That’s the one with the ball drop moment, which I still think is one of the cleverest uses of the vertical scroll format I’ve seen.
Now he gets four issues – which equate to something closer to one and a half regular comics – under the Marvel’s Voices banner. The Marvel’s Voices anthologies are, let’s be honest, a bit patchy. For every good story there’s a vignette in which a character tells us, very directly, how important their identity is to them, without the burdensome obstacle of a plot. Still, patchiness is to be expected, because they’re Marvel anthologies. Very short stories are deceptively tricky to make work, and when you couple that with a remit to do identity-related stories, there’s an inevitable risk of hitting the point so directly that it feels very heavy handed. I’d rather see things given a bit more time to breathe.
Iceman does get a bit more room to breathe, over the course of four issues. But that’s four Infinite Comics issues, which doesn’t quite translate to regular issues. When Marvel collected the first four issues of X-Men Unlimited Infinity Comic in print, as X-Men Unlimited: Latitude, the solicitations say it clocked in at 64 pages. That’s roughly three regular issues.
