Astonishing X-Men #62-65 – “Frozen”
If you haven’t listened to this week’s special bonus podcast, one post down, then do. I’m not in it, but it’s great.
There’s one more issue to come out in this series, but that’s the epilogue and wrap-up. We’ve reached the end of “Frozen” itself (which is going to be the bulk of vol 12, if you’re getting the collections), and thus Marjorie Liu’s last full storyline.
It’s a simple enough idea. In the previous arc – the “X-Termination” crossover – Iceman picked up a bit of Apocalypse’s power, and so he’s both powered up and going mad. The result is that the world plunges into a new ice age, while duplicate Icemans run around making contact with his ex-girlfriends. The story can’t quite make up its mind whether the Apocalypse seed is meant to be a big reveal. It’s pretty much signalled up front in the recap page of part 1, but the actual story seems to start off trying to suggest some uncertainty about what’s going on. It doesn’t really matter, though, since the seed is just a macguffin anyway. (more…)
The Shed Of Ideas – Episode One
By way of something to tide you over in anticipation of House to Astonish’s full-blown return, here’s an hour of questions, answers and general messing around featuring me and previous guests Cara Ellison, Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie, where we answer questions on comics-based video games, gritty superhero TV shows, all-ages comics, Marvel Now Wave 2, the future of the Ultimate universe and loads more.
The podcast is here, or here on Mixcloud, or available through the embedded player below. Let us know what you think in the comments below, on Twitter, via email or on our Facebook fan page.
Don’t forget that our stylish and charming House to Astonish shirts will keep you warm and contribute to Paul’s son’s college fund, and can be found at our Redbubble store.
House to Astonish: The Shed of Ideas
By way of update on the podcast, after having had a good think about it Paul and I have decided that it’s likely to be a couple of months or so before it returns on a regular basis. However, there are going to be a few bonus episodes between now and then, which aren’t the podcast as we know it. One of these will be a Thought Bubble interview special, another will (hopefully) be a NYCC interview special. The third is the Shed of Ideas, where games journalist, comics reader and previous guest Cara Ellison and I will be taking questions on any comics-y subjects that take your fancy.
This isn’t HtA episode 112 – that’ll probably surface nearer to Christmas – but it’s a bit of fun to tide you over for a bit. We may even have special guests. Stay tuned. In the meantime, please let us have your questions in the comments below, or on Twitter (I’m @housetoastonish) – this is going to be recorded tomorrow (25 August), so you may need to be quick…!
Charts – 18 August 2013
Summerslam 2013
(Probably the only thing I’m going to post today, but then it’s a week of middle chapters, plus some books I’m still getting in physical form and haven’t received yet…)
Summerslam is traditionally the second-biggest pay-per-view of the year behind Wrestlemania (a distant second, admittedly), as well as the occasion for the WWE’s annual excursion to California. I suspect I’m going to be a bit busy to sit down and watch a three-hour show, and one which is basically a two-match card anyway, but let’s run it down anyway.
1. WWE Title: John Cena (c) v Daniel Bryan (Special Guest Referee: Triple H). Ah, now there’s quite a lot going on here. While I’m sure this’ll be given plenty of time with the expectation of having a good match, there are a number of major storylines circulating around this one.
Charts – 11 August 2013
All-New X-Men #15
Nice of Marvel to give me a light week this time round.
Volume 3 of the All-New X-Men collections covers issues #11-15, but this is a self-contained issue filling the gap before we get to “Battle of the Atom” next month. That provides an opportunity for a guest artist – David Lafuente, an ideal choice for Bendis’ stories. Not only is his work nice to look at, but he’s a cartoonist who does wonderfully expressive characters. His people can act, in short, which is what you need to give these scenes the depth and heart required for them to work.
Charts – 4 August 2013
First up, the announcement you’ve all been waiting for – yes, the baby is finally here!
And he’s already showing a heavy comics influence – he came out on Wednesday, he was late, and the original creative team aren’t getting any money out of him.
We shall now celebrate his arrival in the traditional way – with a column I wrote on Monday but didn’t get around to posting until now.
39. AlunaGeorge – “You Know You Like It”
X-Men Legacy #13-14 – “Hope and Glory”
Well, I’m assuming this is a two-parter, at any rate. It doesn’t actually say so, but the collected edition for issues #13-18 is called “Revenants”, and the solicitations indicates that it’s going to be three two-parters. Legacy is one of those traditionally-minded titles that is structured primarily for the ongoing series, and just happens to include suitable breaks in the action to allow for convenient collection.
“Hope and Glory” is a story that illustrates much of what’s good and bad about the current incarnation of Legacy. David has come to Britain, no doubt with some mysterious and convoluted plan in mind as ever. For once, though, the story isn’t told from his point of view, but by guest star Pete Wisdom, cast as the beleaguered official to has to keep David under control. There’s a dodgy foreign leader in town, and Wisdom assumes that David is planning some sort of attack on him.
X-Men #1-3 – “Primer”
You know what? Let’s stick with this format for the moment. Because (a) I suspect it’s pretty soon going to be very ill-advised if not outright impossible to try and hold this blog to any specific schedule, and (b) while it would be going too far to suggest that there is nothing to be said about middle chapters of Uncanny X-Men and Wolverine: Japan’s Most Wanted, neither are they exactly the most inspiring things I could be writing about.
So. Brian Wood and Olivier Coipel’s X-Men relaunch completes its opening arc this week. Let’s talk about that.
The story in a nutshell goes like this. Jubilee returns to America with a baby in tow, who she says is an orphan she picked up in Budapest. She’s being followed by a guy who turns out to be the current host body for Sublime, the evil viral consciousness from Grant Morrison’s run. But Sublime’s main concern is the return of his long-banished sister Arkea, another virus who can also control machines, and who’s infecting the baby.
