The X-Axis – 23 October 2011
(If you’re here for the wrestling preview, it’s one post below.)
After the deluge of new material in September, things seem to be settling back into the normal routine. But we’ve got a few X-books, we’ve got the end of a major crossover, we’ve got the second issue of DC’s flagship title, and we’ve got a new title from Image.
Fear Itself #7 – Well, this certainly didn’t work. I have half a mind to do a separate post trying to figure out the plot glitches and random jumps that have plagued the series, but really, this issue illustrates the point. It’s the big climactic battle between the Serpent’s forces and everyone else – okay, fine. Iron Man returns from Asgard with the special weapons that will empower some characters chosen entirely at random and turn them into variant action figures. There’s no discernible rhyme or reason to the characters chosen, and no real attempt to suggest a logic to it. With all the world’s superheroes to choose from, Iron Man chooses to power up the Black Widow, Iron Fist, Hawkeye and the Red She-Hulk? Why?
Vengeance 2011
No, not the eccentric Joe Casey miniseries – the unwanted second October WWE pay-per-view. Mercifully, the next show is Survivor Series in late November. That’s supposed to be the main show of the fourth quarter, and the Rock’s supposedly going to be wrestling this year. So chances are it’s going get some proper attention from the writers. Vengeance, by contrast, is very much the next level down.
The company has had three weeks to build to this show, and the general consensus is that those three weeks of television have been pretty abject. In one of their occasional forays into outright soap opera, Raw is being built around a storyline where John Laurinitis (a long-serving backstage guy who’s inexplicably been shoved in front of the camera despite his acting being at decidedly sub-amdram levels) is trying to undermine Triple H’s authority so that he can usurp power. This is fine in theory, but dreadful in reality. Not only have they been rushing through the story, but the plot demands that everyone – including the lower card babyfaces – turns on Triple H due to the supposed chaos into which the show has descended. Of course, the WWE operates at a baseline level of ridiculousness so high that it would take a lot to make that story work, and they haven’t even come close.
Charts – 16 October 2011
At long, long last, the weekly turnover of number one singles comes to an end, as Rihanna’s “We Found Love” stays at the top for a second week – the first record to do so since “Glad You Came” by the Wanted in July.
Instead, this week’s highest new entry comes in at 3 – “Stereo Hearts” by Gym Class Heroes featuring Adam Levine.
This equals the peak of their 2007 (or 2006, if you’re American) breakthrough single “Cupid’s Chokehold”. You know, the one that sampled Supertramp. They had three top ten hits from that album, and they haven’t released anything since, though frontman Travie McCoy also had a number 3 hit last year with “Billionaire”.
House To Astonish Episode 70
We’re back, and better late than never, as we’ve got a round-up of absolutely tons of news out of NYCC for your delectation and delight. We’ve also got reviews of The Shade, The Strange Talent of Luther Strode and Power Play, and the Official Handbook of the Official Handbook is pretty hellish. All this plus masterless samurai, demonic Elvis impersonators and the harbinger of deathless inertia.
The podcast is here, or here on Mixcloud, or accessible via the player below. Let us know what you think, in the comments below, on Twitter, via email or on our Facebook fan page.
The X-Axis – 16 October 2011
It’s a podcast weekend, but as Al mentioned, we’re recording tomorrow night. (For what it’s worth, the plan is to review three books that don’t appear in this post at all. Original material, people!)
In the meantime, reviews! And since I’m starting this rather late in the day, I might skim over some of these a bit…
Batgirl #2 – Boy, this is a book where you can feel Gail Simone wrestling with a troublesome premise at every turn. Nobody was really crying out to see Barbara Gordon as Batgirl again, and the book seems to feel compelled to try and sell us on the concept. Simone has chosen to meet the problem head on in her first storyline, which feels like it ought to be a good idea in theory. So this first arc is all about Batgirl returning to action after her mysterious recovery from paralysis (the cause of which is evidently a long-term plot point), and we’ve got a Final Destination style villain whose own story is all about people escaping things that should have killed them.
Podcast admin
Howdy all. As mentioned briefly on the last episode of the podcast, I’m out of the country this weekend so we won’t have HtA 70 for you on Saturday. We’re aiming for Monday night (UK time) for the next episode, which is actually handy in that it allows us to cover the stories out of NYCC. So put it in your diaries, and we’ll see you then.
Charts – 9 October 2011
So near, Maroon 5! So near, but yet so far.
In a summer where the number 1 spot has changed hands weekly, “Moves Like Jagger” by Maroon 5 ft Christina Aguilera has been plugging away steadily just behind – with an excruciating chart run of 3-3-2-2-2-2-2. In terms of actually sustaining its sales, it is arguably the uncrowned number 1 single of the last two months. But on last week’s midweek chart, it looked like “Moves Like Jagger” was finally going to make it to the top for real.
And then, in the middle of the week, Rihanna suddenly released “We Found Love” and squashed them like a bug.
There is, as yet, no video for “We Found Love”, so please enjoy this placeholder graphic from Rihanna’s YouTube channel.
The X-Axis – 9 October 2011
A new month (and a quiet week for X-books, perhaps because they had the good sense to get most of the line out of the path of Schism #5) means we can get back to the regular format…
Last of the Greats #1 – This is an ongoing series from Joshua Hale Fialkov and Brent Peeples, though the concept doesn’t obviously seem to lend itself to a completely open-ended story. Basically it’s one of those “What if superheroes existed in the real world” set-ups, though it’s a bit more high concept than that.
The Greats are a bunch of Superman-type aliens who showed up twenty years ago and set about making the world a better place, rather in the manner of the Authority. Which is to say, while they probably are on the right side of the argument, they’re also doing it by force in a way that isn’t entirely helpful. So naturally the humans turn on them and wipe them out. Which means that by the time the massive alien invasion shows up, there’s only one of them left, and he’s not all that enthusiastic about leaving the house to help out.
Charts – 2 October 2011
We’ve had eleven straight number ones by British artists, but this week that run comes to a screeching halt thanks to what can only be described as a Spanish novelty record. Oddly enough, the last Spanish number one single (“Asereje” by Las Ketchup from 2002) was also a novelty record. But at least it wasn’t “Loca People” by Sak Noel. Caution: what follows is an irritating record with an extraordinarily bad video.
Sak Noel is a Spanish DJ who’s done pretty much nothing else of note (in terms of releases, anyway – apparently he also runs a music festival). The uncredited vocalist is Esthera Sarita, who’s pretty much a blank slate too.
DCU Week 4
Welcome to the second chunk of this week’s reviews. For those of you befuddled by the notion of downward scrolling, you’ll find the regular X-books here, this week’s podcast here, and a wholly unrelated wrestling column here. Oh, and check the podcast if you want to see what Al and I thought of Brian Bendis and Mark Bagley’s new creator-owned series Brilliant. (I’ve got seven DCU titles to cover here, I’m not going to review that one twice.)
Aquaman #1 – This one, however, I will come back to briefly. We talked about it on the podcast, and we weren’t greatly impressed by it – though I think I liked it more than Al did. But across the board, it seems to have been getting decent reviews. Which kind of mystifies me, to be frank, because as far as I can see, nothing bloody happens.
