Weapons of Mutant Destruction
I’m way, way, way behind schedule on reviews at this point – this storyline is now two issues in the past – so time to start blitzing through the backlog. “Weapons of Mutant Destruction” is a crossover, running through Weapon X #4-6 and Totally Awesome Hulk #19-22, with a lead-in one-shot on top of that. Two of those issues are labelled as preludes, but it’s not altogether obvious why, since they’re both essential to the plot.
For a new series to hurl itself into an eight-part crossover with issue #4 is a strange choice. The original Generation X series did something similar, because it was launched only four months before “Age of Apocalypse”, and it did no favours for the book’s momentum. With Weapon X, it turns out to be less of a problem. Partly, that’s because both titles are written by Greg Pak, even if the tone clash is pretty substantial. Mainly, though, it’s because this is a continuation of the plot of Weapon X, guest starring the new Hulk, and taking over his book for four issues. Hope the Hulk readers liked it.
Charts – 8 September 2017
Ooookay… so I hoped that I would start catching up on reviews last week, but, well, my hope was misplaced. Anyway, let’s do the chart post first…
1. Taylor Swift – “Look What You Made Me Do”
Two weeks. It’s number one on sales, but not on streams, where Dua Lipa is back on top. My guess is that it won’t be number one for too long, because it’s not a song so much as an event, and the event has happened now. But we’ll see.
“Mi Gente” by J Balvin & Willy William climbs 9-5, and…
7. Taylor Swift – “…Ready For It?”
Charts – 1 September 2017
Hopefully I’ll start catching up on reviews over the next week – currently stuck in the queue are the “Weapons of Mutant Destruction crossover between Weapon X and Totally Awesome Hulk (which finished a few weeks back now), a couple of issues of Generation X, and the first arc of Jean Grey. We’ll get to them. Meanwhile…
1. Taylor Swift – “Look What You Made Me Do”
Judged as a song, Taylor Swift’s first UK number one is pretty mediocre. But it’s not a song, so much as the latest event in her personal brand-building – something which the video makes increasingly explicit as it goes on. The middle eight references her personality change, the lyrics are basically the continuation of an ongoing feud with an unspecified celebrity… it’s a record which exists primarily as a narrative incident in her tabloid storylines. If you wanted to be generous, you could make the case that at least it sounds different from most chart pop of 2017, I guess.
Charts – 25 August 2017
And there was me thinking “New Rules” might have sneaked a week at number one between bigger hits.
Second week, which is a bit of a surprise, but quite welcome. It’s number one on streaming, but only number 3 on sales.
2. Justin Bieber & BloodPop® – “Friends”
X-Men Gold #9: “Kitty Goes To Washington”
This came out two weeks ago. It’s labelled as “Kitty Goes To Washington, Part 1”, which I figured meant there would be a part two. But X-Men Gold #10 turns out to be “En’Kane, Part 1”. So apparently issue #9 was “Kitty Goes To Washington, Part 1 of 1”. So… okay then. Let’s run through it.
In fact, these divisions aren’t as hard and fast as they once were. Despite the story titles, Marc Guggenheim is writing X-Men Gold much more in the style of an 80s or 90s team book, with subplots fading in and out as they take their turn to come to the foreground. So “Kitty Goes To Washington” actually starts and finishes with subplot pages setting up the return of Omega Red, which is the next arc. Let’s leave them aside and worry about this one.
X-Men Blue #7-9: Secret Empire
We should be grateful for small mercies, I suppose. One such is that the X-books have largely managed to dodge the Secret Empire crossover – and X-Men Gold, which did a tie-in, largely ducked the event by using the side plot of Manhattan in the Dark Dimension (which it proceeded to largely ignore anyway). X-Men Blue, in contrast, knuckles down to the difficult business of doing three issues engaging with the meat of Secret Empire. It shouldn’t have bothered.
As we’ve discussed many times on the podcast, I have no particular issue with the premise of Captain America being remade as a Hydra spy by using a Cosmic Cube to retroactively change his upbringing. The underlying ideas seem to be that fascism’s appeal lies in a twisted version of conventionally heroic notions (patriotism, sacrifice for the group and so on) and, to a lesser extent, the danger of abandoning checks and balances with anyone, no matter how seemingly infallible. But those are ideas that seem like they want to play out on a smaller and more character-driven scale.
Charts – 18 August 2017
Well, I didn’t see this coming.
1. Dua Lipa – “New Rules”
So this is not a track you would have predicted as a number one. It’s the seventh single from her self-titled debut album, which was already out by the time “New Rules” started to be promoted as a single. Normally that would mean a promotional vehicle to remind people that the album is still out. And until now, Dua Lipa’s biggest hit was “Be The One”, which peaked at number 9. But here we are, with a climb of 36-19-9-5-1.
Generations: Wolverine & All-New Wolverine
Or Generations: The Best, if you prefer. Which is a better title, and kind of sort of what it says on the cover, but I’ll go with the solicitations and the digital listings.
So, just like last week’s Phoenix one-shot, this is a story in which a legacy character from the present goes back in time for no adequately (or even inadequately) explained reason, and meets the original. Sort of. I guess Phoenix wasn’t really the original Jean Grey. An earlier version, anyway. If there’s an explanation for any of this time travel stuff, it’s presumably going to show up somewhere else, and (plot mechanics aside) it’s of no relevance to this story, so let’s set it to one side.
This is effectively an extra issue of All-New Wolverine, by regular writer Tom Taylor. So that’s a good start. At first glance, though, All-New Wolverine doesn’t lend itself to this format, because Laura has met the original Wolverine plenty of times. They starred in X-Force together, for one thing. What can you do with them?
Charts – 11 August 2017
Movement!
1. Calvin Harris featuring Pharrell Williams, Katy Perry & Big Sean – “Feels”
We’re a good way into August, and here’s the eighth number one of 2017. And for the second time in a month, it’s number one with an asterisk, because “Despacito” remains number 1 on both the sales and the streaming charts. It’s purely the downweighting of “Despacito” streams (under the rule that applies to long-running hits which have passed their peak) that allows “Feels” to be number one. But since “Despacito” drops to 4 this week on the main chart, it does looks like we’re finally rid of it. “Feels” probably isn’t going to be here long either – it’s been out for two months, and it climbed 21-21-6-4-4-4-3-1 to get here, so it seems unlikely that a long run lies ahead of it. But who knows, these days?
Generations: Phoenix & Jean Grey
What is Generations? I partly know the answer, I guess. It’s a series of one-shots in which “legacy” versions of characters meet earlier versions of themselves, and it’s meant to set up new directions, or something along those lines. But as a story, what is it? Does it even have a plot?
If you’re not following the wider series (I’m not), and you’re buying this simply because it’s effectively a Jean Grey special (I am), then the set-up here is curious to say the least. The recap page has some cryptic stuff about “the Vanishing Point”, but what actually happens is that the present-day Jean Grey (the time travelling teenager) randomly finds herself in Claremont/Byrne X-Men during the period when Jean Grey was holidaying in Europe while she thought the X-Men were dead. And then at the end of the issue she goes home.
