The X-Axis – 21 November 2010
We’ve got tons of content on the blog this weekend. The double-length episode 50 of House to Astonish will probably go up more or less while I’m writing this, and check further down the blog for another music post and for a preview of tonight’s Survivor Series show.
Oh, and I’ve finally got around this week to listening to the Tom vs Aquaman podcast, which is basically recaps of Aquaman stories from the Silver Age. And it’s awesome, so I take this opportunity to endorse it for your relatively-bitesize listening pleasure.
This week’s X-books include Daken, X-23, X-Factor and adjective-free X-Men, and there’s also a bunch of debut issues and an anniversary. So…
Batman Incorporated #1 – Check the podcast for more discussion of this. But this is the launch issue of Grant Morrison and Yanick Paquette’s new ongoing Batman title, with a very odd and potentially interesting concept. As I understand it, Bruce Wayne is back from the dead, and he’s decided that he wants to expand the Batman brand. So he’s going to have, well, franchised Batmen all over the world. On one level, it’s a neat device to keep Dick Grayson in the Batman role, as the franchised Batman of Gotham. It’s also a seemingly ludicrous idea which, on further reflection is still ludicrous but potentially interesting. Batman is a substantial real-world brand, and the whole “dress as a bat to intimidate criminals” thing means that even in story, Bruce Wayne conceived the identity as a branding exercise. Of course, spawning hundreds of Batmen could dilute the brand, but you can cover that in the story. So it’s a weird idea but one that could work.
Survivor Series 2010
The WWE sure is making life easy for me with these columns. Once again, we’ve got a card that’s based around one or two core matches, with the rest filled out randomly at the last minute. Which means there’s less to say about them.
Survivor Series, in theory, is one of the major shows on the WWE’s pay-per-view calendar, although it long since drifted hopelessly from the original theme of ten-man elimination tag matches. It’s ironic that in a period when the WWE has generally been trying to build their shows around gimmick themes, Survivor Series has actually been going the other way, even while it holds on to the name as a relic from yesteryear. There’s one elimination match on this year’s show, and it’s very much a last-minute affair designed to get the Smackdown crew on the show.
The other thing to bear in mind about this show is that the WWE have got it into their heads that there’s a proud tradition of doing screwjob finishes in the main event at Survivor Series. This harks back to the notorious “Montreal screwjob” at Survivor Series 1997, when the outgoing Bret Hart was genuinely doublecrossed to bring about a result that he wasn’t willing to co-operate in. While the WWE seems to have finally stopped banging on about the resulting storyline – which it kept harking back to years after anyone in their right mind had stopped caring – the notion that you get weird double-cross finishes in Survivor Series main events seems to have taken root. Which is why they’re building this show around a main event whose central selling point is the promise of a ludicrous finish…
Charts – 14 November 2010
To the surprise of a lot of people, this week’s number one is “The Only Girl In The World” by Rihanna, which hangs on for a second week. So far as the record industry are concerned, this wasn’t really in the script. The general assumption was that Take That would top the charts with ease. But it turns out that the British really, really like that Rihanna record.
And so it’s a number 2 placing for “The Flood” by Take That.
For the benefit of the Americans out there, it’s worth recapping the story. Take That were a five-piece boy band who were hugely popular in Britain, and pretty successful in the rest of Europe, in the first half of the 1990s. With a core fanbase of teenage girls and a secondary fanbase of gay men (that’s not facetiousness, they started off playing the gay nightclub circuit), they updated the boy band format for a new generation and did it very, very well. And while the group had been manufactured, they served largely as a vehicle for songs written by one of their members, Gary Barlow.
The X-Axis – 14 November 2010
If you’re here for the podcast, then just a reminder that we’re skipping a week, and episode 50 will be up next weekend. (We did tell you on the last episode, but it was right at the end…)
It’s a very quiet week for the X-titles – just the two Forever titles – which is fortunate, to be honest, because I’ve not had time to read that many of this week’s books. But here are a few things I have read…
Amazing Spider-Man #648 – The lead-off issue for the new direction, which they’re billing as “Big Time.” Dan Slott’s been one of the writers on the book for years, but now that he’s the sole writer, he seems to be treating this as the start of an entirely new run. It’s a slight overstatement to say that this reads like a first issue – but only in the sense that it stops short of recapping Spider-Man’s origin and spelling out who J Jonah Jameson is. Against the background of kicking off a new Dr Octopus storyline, Slott takes us on a tour of Spider-Man’s supporting cast to remind us of what they’re currently up to, nudges a couple of characters like Marla Jameson into new roles for his new period, and sets up Peter Parker with a job that he’s actually suited for – a think tank role where he isn’t expected to work regular hours. And that seems to be the high concept; Peter finally gets a status quo where he doesn’t have to worry about the same thing that writers have been using as fallback drama for the last thirty years. In some ways a smart move, since all this “how can I pay the rent” stuff no longer works if readers are going to ask the obvious question “Have you considered borrowing some money from the Avengers?” On the other hand, I vaguely recall that they tried something similar at the start of the ill-fated John Byrne run and aborted it within six months, but hopefully Slott has a clearer idea of where he’s going with it.
Charts – 7 November 2010
(In case you’ve forgotten, or you just didn’t listen all the way to the end of last week’s podcast, House to Astonish episode 50 will be out next Sunday. In the meantime, regulars features…)
As expected from the midweeks, the top two singles trade places this week, with Cheryl Cole dropping to 2, and “The Only Girl in the World” by Rihanna climbing to number 1. With the charts having slipped back into the old ways of much-hyped singles entering at the top upon release – perhaps because that makes it possible to concentrate sales into a few days in a way that can’t be done when you’re promoting the third single from an album and it’s already available for download – it’s the first record to climb to the top since “Club Can’t Handle Me” by Flo Rida in August. (Yes, Bruno Mars went back to number 1 a couple of weeks ago, but he also entered at number 1 in the first place.)
It’s more of a European electropop record than an R&B track, which is hardly surprising, since it’s a Stargate production. And it’s a great single – stomping production, big chorus, and for once they’ve not gone overboard with the Autotune. One of the best number one singles of the year, actually.
The X-Axis – 7 November 2010
It’s getting late, there’s a lot to review, let’s get down to it. This week’s X-books include the first issues of Generation Hope and X-Men: To Serve and Protect, plus Wolverine #3 and, if you squint a bit, Namor #3. But first…
Amazing Spider-Man #647 – This is a triple-sized anthology issue, wrapping up the “Brand New Day” period, and so the five dollar price tag is pretty reasonable. Well, I say the “Brand New Day” period. They actually stopped using that tag months ago, and there’s something a bit contrived about dusting it off now. But this issue does mark the end of the thrice-monthly format and the team of writers, so there’s some legitimacy when it plays the “end of an era” card. In plot terms, this is a mixture of epilogue and tying up of loose ends, with a couple of throwaway elements to set up future stories. So we’ve got Vin Gonzales getting out of jail, Harry Osborn moving on, and Mary Jane showing up again to give her blessing to Carlie Cooper as the new love interest. Which some people won’t much care for, and in a sense, the fact that the creators still feel the need to do it can be seen as a demonstration that the reboot failed to extricate Peter from his marriage effectively.
Charts – 31 October 2010
Autumn – that very special time of the year when the leaves fall, the nights draw in, and anyone vaguely associated with The X Factor makes sure they have a new album out. This week, it’s judge Cheryl Cole, and the first single from her second solo album is “Promise This”.
Cole started off in 2002 as a member of Girls Aloud, the girl group formed on reality TV show Popstars: The Rivals, and who turned out to surpass all predictions for their durability. Wisely recognising that winning a talent show would only take them so far, their management more or less assigned them to become the front group for production studio Xenomania, leading to a string of generally well-received singles. Theoretically they’ve never split up; they went on hiatus in 2009 for the members for pursue solo projects – or, in other words, for Cheryl Cole to make solo albums, Sarah Harding to have a go at acting, and the other three to kill time. (Nadine Coyle’s first solo single will be on Sunday’s chart, and the midweeks have it at 26.) There’s no obvious sign of the group reforming.
Charts – 24 October 2010
I’m running behind on these again, so this is the chart from the week before last – plenty of new entries, few of them particularly noteworthy.
There’s a change at the top, but unusually, it’s the return of a previous number 1 – “Just The Way You Are (Amazing)” by Bruno Mars.
The X-Axis – 31 October 2010
They tell me there’s some sort of holiday on. If you are the sort of person who thinks that everything this weekend has to be Hallowe’en themed, then open another window, put it next to this one, and search Google Images for a pumpkin or something. Spooky.
Welcome to this not remotely special 31 October edition of the X-Axis, in which as usual I’ll be running through a bunch of X-books and a few other titles. It’s also a podcast weekend, so check the post below to hear Al and me discussing Carnage, Action Comics and JLA/99 as well as running down the latest solicitations and news.
Assorted reviews follow below the cut…
House To Astonish Episode 49
We’re back with another episode of House to Astonish, and we’re talking about Marvel’s pricing controversy and their Point One programme, as well as the January solicitations. We’ve also got reviews of Action Comics, Carnage and JLA/The 99, and the Official Handbook of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe has a close shave. All this plus nose hair, Bugs Bunny with a machine gun and a sweet transvestite from Transia.
The podcast is here, or here on Mixcloud. Let us know what you think, either in the comments below, on Twitter, by email, on our Facebook fan page or through the power of suggestion.
