House To Astonish Episode 68
We’ve managed to bring an episode in at under an hour for the first time in a while, with discussion of the good and bad press DC have received over the New 52, John Rozum leaving Static Shock, the Amanda Waller controversy, the announcement of Avengers: X-Sanction, the Spectre TV show and the opening of Little Island Comics. We’ve got reviews of Pigs, Ultimate Comics Spider-Man and Demon Knights, and the Official Handbook of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe is running a two-for-one deal. All this plus kiddy-on people, the most mysterious brand of apple and the link between Green Lantern and Michele Bachmann.
The podcast is here, or here at Mixcloud, on iTunes or accessible via the player below. Let us know what you think, either in the comments below, on Twitter, via email or at our Facebook fan page.
While we’re here, here’s another quick plug for my guest appearance on Scotland’s most petty and foul-mouthed SF podcast, The Thumbcast, where Iain Hepburn, Craig McGill and I talk a lot of daft nonsense about Apollo 18, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Fright Night, Star Wars on Blu-ray, Doctor Who, the New 52, SeaQuest DSV and a whole bunch of other stuff. Enjoy!
Charts – 11 September 2011
For the seventh consecutive week, we have another new number one. And since it drops to 3 in the midweeks, it’s a pretty safe bet that there’ll be an eighth on Sunday.
Yes, Pixie Lott is back, to start promoting her second album. The single is “All About Tonight”, and it’s her seventh hit (they squeezed a lot of singles out of that debut album). Pixie Lott is a classic example of the age-old promotional technique of insisting very loudly that somebody is a star until everybody gives up and believes you. She had two number 1 hits in 2009, “Mama Do” and “Boys And Girls”, both of which had a sort of pseudo-retro-but-way-too-polished thing about them. Passable enough songs, but produced into the ground.
This time round she has apparently decided that she’s the Saturdays, and reinvented herself as an electropop act. This is a very formulaic piece of songwriting – people in the music industry seem to spend an awful lot of time waiting for the weekend considering they don’t work 9 to 5 jobs in the first place – but it’s a decent chorus and they’ve got the production right this time.
DCU Week 1
As per the previous post, I’m going to split the reviews into two this month. So the X-books are one post down, and in this post we’re going to do (some of) the new DC titles.
Before we start: yes, I know it’s technically week two, of the relaunch, but I’m treating Justice League as week zero.
And no, I didn’t buy Detective Comics, Green Arrow, Hawk & Dove, Justice League International, or Men of War. Just to save you scrolling down.
Oh, and for those of you who missed the plug on Twitter, Al is the guest co-host on this month’s episode of The Thumbcast, which is well worth a listen.
Action Comics #1 – Well, this is the big one, isn’t it? As far as online fandom is concerned, at any rate. The challenge for Superman writers is his overfamiliarity; like Mickey Mouse, he’s so iconic that he’s a brand first and a character a distant second, if at all. With All-Star Superman, Grant Morrison addressed that problem by doing a definitive modern take on the classic (ie Silver Age) Superman set-up, but with Action Comics he’s taking a more radical approach.
The X-Axis – 10 September 2011
The big news this week, and for the next few weeks, is obviously the DC relaunch. There’s going to be a lot to talk about there.
But there are also quite a few X-books out this week. Because Marvel, being Marvel, have decided that a very good number of Wolverine comics to ship in a single week is three. To the uninitiated this might appear moronic, but they’ve been doing it for long enough that one would like to think somebody has deluded themselves into thinking it makes sense.
Anyway, rather than do a juggernaut mixture of X-books and DC first issues together, I’m going to split them into two columns this week. We’ll see how that goes.
Charts – 4 September 2011
For the sixth straight week, there’s a new entry at number 1. (And according to the midweeks, there’ll be a seventh on Sunday.) The main thing this tells us, to be honest, is that quite a few record labels have given up on the “On Air On Sale” thing and have gone back to promoting their singles in advance of release. And frankly, they seem to be getting better results that way, at least in terms of getting a high chart placing in their first week. And to be fair, nine out of the last ten number 1s are still on the chart, so it’s not like they’re all crashing straight out.
Oh, and if these things interest you, the last eight number one singles have all been by British acts. Which is actually quite uncommon.
Olly Murs drops to 2 in his second week, and his replacement at number 1 is…
Astonishing X-Men: Monstrous
Astonishing X-Men #36-37, 39, 41
Writer: Daniel Way
Pencillers: Jason Pearson, Sara Pichelli and Nick Bradshaw
Inkers: Karl Story, Sara Pichelli, Nick Bradshaw, Norman Lee, Jay Leisten and Craig Yeung
Colourists: Sonia Oback and Rachelle Rosenberg
Letterers: Cory Petit, Joe Caramagna and Clayton Cowles
Editor: Nick Lowe
As regular readers will know, I find that most storylines are improved by reading them in one sitting. Partly it’s because the structure comes across better. Partly it’s because it’s a re-reading, and you always see things that you didn’t spot the first time around. And yes, partly it’s because a lot of comics weren’t properly structured for the serial in the first place, even though it’s the format in which most readers will experience it.
The X-Axis – 4 September 2011
It’s a podcast weekend, so don’t forget to check out the show just one post down from here. Strangely enough, there’s a lot of stuff about the DC relaunch, but we’re also reviewing Angel and Faith and Secret Avengers.
And for once, it’s a very quiet week for the X-books – one regular title, one oddball obscurity – which means we’ve got time to talk about the other stuff.
Angel & Faith #1 – Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 was, shall we say, not an unmitigated success. By getting carried away with the lack of practical restrictions in comics, it lost sight of what made the original TV show work, and turned into a very strange cosmic superhero title – to such a degree that the final issue ended up carrying an editorial from Joss Whedon acknowledging that he’d taken a bit of a wrong turn and pledging a back to basics approach in Season 9.
House To Astonish Episode 67
Having managed (apparently, touch wood) to sort out our problems with our RSS feed, we’re back, with a load of chat about the sales on the New 52, the possible upcoming Deadman TV show, and the solicitations for November. We’ve also got reviews of Secret Avengers, Angel & Faith and Justice League, and the Official Handbook of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe has got it covered. All this plus random bricks, the further adventures of Cockney Frank Cho and vampires touching each other up.
The podcast is here, or here on Mixcloud or via the embedded player below. Let us know what you think, either in the comments below, on Twitter, via email or on our Facebook fan page. For anyone who needs to update their feed-readers, our new RSS feed is at http://
Wolverine #10-14
“Wolverine’s Revenge”
Writer: Jason Aaron
Penciller: Renato Guedes
Inker: Jose Wilson Magalhaes
Letterer: Cory Petit
Colourist: Matthew Wilson
Editor: Jeanine Schaefer
Jason Aaron clearly has long term plans for this book, considering he’s spent the better part of the year setting up the big reveal in the last issue, which isn’t even the end of the story. Having been banished to Hell by the Red Right Hand and spent nine issues getting out again, Wolverine finally gets to confront them. And what happens in the first four chapters can basically be summed as follows: Wolverine fights and kills a Mongrel, while one of the Red Right Hand has an extended flashback about why he hates Wolverine. Wash, rinse, repeat.
Charts – 28 August 2011
The phone-voting juggernaut that is X Factor is upon us once again. Of course, we’ll be in the audition shows for a while yet (and so far, they haven’t generated any surprise hits from the back catalogue). But this is always a good time of year to have an album out, if you’re connected with the show.
Last year’s winner, Matt Cardle, will presumably have his first “proper” single out in time for the first live show, that being the way these things usually work. So it falls to 2009 runner-up Olly Murs to land this week’s number 1, with the unexpectedly acceptable “Heart Skips A Beat”.
