Sabretooth #1 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
SABRETOOTH vol 4 #1
“The Adversary”
by Victor LaValle, Leonard Kirk & Rain Beredo
SABRETOOTH. If you’re wondering, volume 1 was the 1993 miniseries, vol 2 was a 1998 one-shot, and vol 3 was a 2004 miniseries. This is another five-issue miniseries.
COVER / PAGE 1. A grinning Sabretooth in hell, with Krakoa visible behind him.
PAGES 2-5. Sabretooth is consigned to the Pit.
This is a reprise of Sabretooth’s “trial” and banishment at the hands of the Quiet Council in House of X #6. Sabretooth’s narration is new and replaces most of the spoken dialogue. But what remains is taken directly from that issue, except for Sabretooth’s final line: “No prison can hold me. I’ll be free before you even notice.” In fact, that issue came out in October 2019 and we haven’t seen him since.
X Lives of Wolverine #2 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X LIVES OF WOLVERINE #2
by Benjamin Percy, Joshua Cassara & Frank Martin
COVER / PAGE 1. Teenage Logan howling at the moon or something, with the image of Jean Grey (wearing Cerebro) behind him.
PAGES 2-5. Present-day Wolverine jumps into the body of his teenage self.
As with issue #1, this story is non-linear not only in absolute terms, but also in from Logan’s personal perspective. We don’t actually know in what order he visits the various parts of his life yet, but presumably that’ll become apparent in due course.
This scene has teenage Logan fighting a chained bear in a bar in the far north of Canada, with the time given as 1900. This seems to take place in the period between Origin and Origin II where he’s living in the mountain with a bunch of wolves. The people watching don’t seem surprised by his claws, so it’s after Origin #6. That issue is also where he has his first cage fight. And Origin II covers his departure from the wilderness – plus, it’s set in 1907.
Logan’s narrative returns to the subject of time, the general point here being that we are all insignificant on the eternal scale.
Charts – 28 January 2022
It’s a very quiet week on the singles chart.
Two weeks, and currently on course for a third. We have one new entry in the … er, top 38.
9. Digga D & Still Brickin’ – “Pump 101”
The sort of drill record that would be very radio friendly if it weren’t for… well, pretty much all the lyrics. Which is partly because it’s not really drill; it’s close to being a cover of G-Unit’s “Stunt 101” (number 25 in 2003). It’s Digga D’s third top ten hit, and the debut hit for Still Brickin’, whose motivation for choosing that name eludes me. He’s a Liverpool rapper who seems to be pretty obscure – no bio on Genius, no other tracks on Spotify. Maybe he feels strongly about vaccine disinformation.
Marauders Annual #1 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
MARAUDERS ANNUAL #1
“Hellfire & Brimstone”
by Steve Orlando, Creees Lee & Rain Beredo
MARAUDERS ANNUAL. This is the first Marauders Annual, and something of an odd release in the Krakoan era, when the X-books haven’t generally been doing annuals at all. It seems to exist as a one-shot serving as the launch for the upcoming Marauders vol 2 – billing it as Marauders Annual #1 rather than as Marauders vol 2 #1 allows it to ship during the season break.
COVER / PAGE 1. Daken, Kate and Psylocke fight Brimstone Love.
PAGES 2-4. Daken is ambushed while investigating a mass grave.
Greenwich, Connecticut. It’s a wealthy, largely white area, something that Daken also notes on page 12.
Daken. Wolverine’s son is joining the cast of Marauders in vol 2, and this is his introduction. He was previously a member of X-Factor, which is why he’s looking for proof of death – his main job is to find evidence that mutants have really died, so that they can be safely resurrected without awkward doppelgangers resulting. Although he repeatedly calls himself “Akihiro” in this scene (his surname), the recap page still calls him Daken. However, he’s dumped his X-Factor outfit in favour of a variant of his costume from his Dark Wolverine days. To be precise, the opening panel seems to be loosely based on the cover of Daken: Dark Wolverine #1.
We see on page 12 that Daken specifically asked the telepaths he mentions to look out for his mental signals.
X-Men #7 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X-MEN vol 6 #7
“The Secret Origin of Captain Krakoa”
by Gerry Duggan, Pepe Larraz & Marte Gracia
COVER / PAGE 1. The X-Men fly into action, with Cyclops as “Captain Krakoa”.
PAGES 2-4. Dr Stasis drugs his chimeras before sending them to battle the X-Men.
Stasis’ use of animal chimeras sets him up as a parallel to the High Evolutionary and his New Men, who we saw in issue #3. It also echoes the references in House of X and Hellions to Mr Sinister developing “chimera” mutants as a way forward.
Bornan is the same aide we saw with Stasis in issue #2.
PAGE 5. Recap and credits.
PAGES 6-7. Cyclops is resurrected.
This storyline isn’t told in chronological order, so this scene shows Scott being resurrected after his death at the hands of Dr Stasis (which he see later in the issue). Emma really just tells us what we already knew from last issue: Scott died in a way that was so public that he can’t simply go back to the X-Men in New York without giving away the secret of Krakoan resurrection.
X Deaths of Wolverine #1 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X DEATHS OF WOLVERINE #1
by Benjamin Percy, Federico Vicentini, Dijjo Lima & Frank Martin
X DEATHS OF WOLVERINE. This is the companion miniseries to X Lives of Wolverine, which started last week. The structure is obviously intended to echo House of X and Powers of X, the two parallel miniseries that launched the Krakoan era. As with that series, the first book is the relatively straightforward one, while this one seems to have a wider agenda. It also makes it rather clearer why these books were promoted as major stories for the line, something which wasn’t exactly apparent from Lives #1.
COVER / PAGE 1. A techno-organic version of Wolverine. We’ll see him later in the issue.
PAGES 2-6. Moira MacTaggert flees to Scotland.
This is a direct continuation from page 41 of Inferno #4, where Cypher and (very reluctantly) Mystique and Destiny depowered Moira, gave her the techno-organic arm we see here, and allowed her to flee Krakoa through the gate. Moira’s opening narration is just recapping the premise of her role in Hickman’s stories: she lived multiple past lives, she told Xavier and Magneto what she’d learned, and they were keeping her hidden beneath Krakoa until she was discovered and driven into exile.
House to Astonish Presents: The Lightning Round Episode 7
It’s time for another adventure with the Marvel Universe’s most neurotic super… er… heroes? Villains? Something along one of those lines, or possibly both. Anyway! We’ve got Graviton, Charcoal, and the addition of a crucial element of the Tbolts mythos, plus: A pug in a hoodie! Some French! An old lady from Elgin! It’s all go around here.
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 since it’s not yet the done thing to walk around without a shirt on, why not let us help you avoid that scenario by buying one of our great tees?
Charts – 21 January 2022
I love unexpected number ones.
1. Carolina Gaitan, Mauro Castillo, Adassa, Rhenzy Feliz, Diane Guerrero & Stephanie Beatriz – “We Don’t Talk About Bruno”
Or “The Cast of Encanto“, if you prefer, but that’s the official credit. “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” is a great song, but it’s an unlikely number one. It’s a song designed to advance the plot of a musical, and it doesn’t really make much sense if you haven’t seen the movie. And it’s a Disney song. Yes, “Let it Go” hung around the top 40 for ages, but it peaked at number 11.
Death of Doctor Strange: X-Men / Black Knight
THE DEATH OF DOCTOR STRANGE: X-MEN / BLACK KNIGHT #1
by Si Spurrier, Bob Quinn & Israel Silva
So here’s an early entry for 2022’s most “technically” technically-an-X-book. Tie-in to a wider event that doesn’t affect the X-Men in the slightest? Check! Co-starring with a character the X-Men have nothing to do with? Check! Written by that character’s regular writer? Well… as much as Black Knight has a regular writer. Spurrier wrote the recent Black Knight: Curse of the Ebony Blade miniseries, after all. So sure! Check!
Don’t worry if you haven’t been following Death of Doctor Strange, because it’s one of those stories that’s set up to have a bunch of tie-ins around the margins. All you really need to know about the main story is that with Strange dead, his barrier spell is fading and Earth’s dimension is being invaded by weird stuff. That’s literally it.
So… it’s a team-up between the X-Men and the Black Knight, is it? Well… depends how generous you’re feeling, to be honest.
X Lives of Wolverine #1 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X LIVES OF WOLVERINE #1
by Benjamin Percy, Joshua Cassara & Frank Martin
X LIVES OF WOLVERINE is one of two linked miniseries running over the next ten weeks, the other being X Deaths of Wolverine. It replaces most of the regular X-books during this period (but not all) and effectively serves as a season break before the next relaunch. This issue has been made available on Marvel Unlimited on its release date. I can’t imagine direct market retailers are going to be very happy about that, but that – and the reasons why Marvel might have done it – are a matter for another day. At any rate, if you have a Marvel Unlimited subscription, there is no need to buy this.
COVER / PAGE 1. Ten incarnations of Wolverine, all entwined in Omega Red’s tentacles. Specifically, the ten incarnations are:
- At the top, present-day Wolverine.
- Row 2, on the left, Wolverine as Weapon X.
- Row 2, on the right, Wolverine as he appeared in his debut in Incredible Hulk vol 2 #181.
- Between them, Wolverine as Patch, in the white dinner jacket from the early issues of his solo series.
- Row 4, on the left, a soldier Wolverine – I think this is Wolverine as shown in flashbacks to World War I.
- Row 4, on the right, Wolverine as a member of Team X.
- Between them, a Logan with no shirt and ragged trousers – probably Logan as a wilderness dweller after Origin.
- Row 6, on the left, what seems to be a cowboy Logan, presumably from his early post-Origin days.
- Row 6, on the right, Logan in the clothes from this issue, when he shows up at the Xavier Mansion.
- Right at the bottom, a Wolverine in a light grey version of his costume, probably from X-Force vol 3 (the Craig Kyle, Christopher Yost & Clayton Crain run).
