Charts – 31 January 2020
Another week when the most notable thing on the singles chart is the release of an album…
1. Lewis Capaldi – “Before You Go”
Technically this has only just been promoted to single status – the video above came out a week ago – but the song has been on the chart as an album track for 11 weeks, and it’s spent a total of five weeks at number 2. It’s Capaldi’s second number one, following “Someone You Loved” last year – and the label was clearly very keen to get it to the top. Its total sales and streams are equivalent to 69,000 sales, but 13,000 of that comes from the release of a fan-targeted CD single, sold in advance on his website. It’s unusual for physical singles to play a part in getting a track to number 1 these days – Capaldi’s 13,000 copies of “Before You Go” was more than three times the sales of everything other physical single combined. Given that aspect, it probably won’t manage a second week.
(more…)The Complete Moira, part 5
For previous posts, see part 1, part 2, part 3 and part 4.
We left Moira just after the first Legion storyline. This time, we’ll be covering the rest of Chris Claremont’s first run on Uncanny X-Men. Frankly, this is all quite scattershot – Moira gets tied up in various storylines during this period but very few of them are really about her.
New Mutants vol 1 #44 by Chris Claremont, Jackson Guice & Kyle Baker (“Runaway!”, October 1986). Legion’s alternate personalities are causing trouble again. The New Mutants deal with it. Not much to see here, Moira-wise.
New Mutants vol 1 #46-47 and Uncanny X-Men #212-213 by Chris Claremont and various (December 1986 and January 1987). These are issues from the Mutant Massacre crossover, in which the Marauders slaughter the Morlocks. Magik teleports Moira to the X-Men Mansion so that she can co-ordinate the medical treatment of the survivors. This continues a tendency to treat Moira as a doctor even though she’s meant to be a scientist (and even though trained nurse Sharon Friedlander is right there with her). Storm also puts Moira in charge of the New Mutants during the crisis, but being the New Mutants, they promptly wander off to have an unrelated adventure with the Magus. New Mutants vol 1 #47 isn’t technically part of the crossover, but it has a subplot scene of Moira worrying about the missing New Mutants and discussing the situation with Magneto – their first on-panel discussion since he reformed. There’s not much to it, though.
(more…)Excalibur #6 annotations
Once again, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers are by the digital edition. This completes Excalibur vol 1, so a fuller review will follow.
COVER / PAGE 1. Captain Britain kneels before Apocalypse in the throne of Otherworld. Which doesn’t happen in the book, but makes the point about what’s really going on.
PAGE 2. Apocalypse is raised from the dead.
So, as I suspected last time, Apocalypse was sacrificing himself to complete his mystical ritual, in the confident belief that he would simply be resurrected. And indeed he is – as he confirms later, he was put to the head of the queue because of his position on the Quiet Council. This, of course, is cheating at magic, and in stories about magic, that sort of thing tends not to go well.
Professor X is evidently not impressed with these shenanigans, more because he considers it a misuse of the Resurrection Protocols. This has been presented as a quasi-religious thing, after all – or at least, that’s how the Krakoans are trying to portray it. Professor X does, however, address Apocalypse by his preferred name. Since I can’t type it and he still uses the old name when dealing with outsiders, I’m going to stick with Apocalypse.
(more…)Marauders #6 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition. And yes, this is very late. It’s also the end of the first trade paperback, so I’ll do a review of the first six issues in the near future.
COVER / PAGE 1. Kate Pryde and Bishop fight Hate-Monger and X-Cutioner.
PAGES 2-3. Recap and credits. For the first time in the Krakoa era, the credits page is limited to just one page, presumably in order to squeeze everything in – the actual story is 23 pages long.
This is “A Time To Reap” by Gerry Duggan, Matteo Lolli and Mario Del Pennino. The title couples with issue #5’s “A Time To Sow”. “A time to reap and a time to sow” is a loose paraphrase of Eccelsiastes. It’s the passage that was also used as a basis for the song “Turn! Turn! Turn!”, though that song uses a different version of the reap/sow lyric.
PAGES 4-6. Pyro and Kate fight Hate-Monger and X-Cutioner; X-Cutioner stabs Pyro.
(more…)Charts – 24 January 2020
It’s our first major unannounced album release of the year, giving us an unexpected new number one.
1. Eminem featuring Juice WRLD – “Godzilla”
12. Eminem featuring Ed Sheeran – “Those Kinda Nights”
17. Eminem – “Darkness”
The Complete Moira: Part 4
For part 1, see here. For part 2, see here. For part 3, see here.
With the Proteus arc over, Moira… well, drifts for a bit. This is the period where she becomes the X-Men’s scientist friend who pops up regularly to explain the plot.
X-Men vol 1 #133 and #135 by Chris Claremont, John Byrne & Terry Austin (“The Dark Phoenix Saga”, May and July 1980). Moira reviews some scans of Phoenix and confirms that it’s all looking very bad. Beyond that, she doesn’t get involved. Surprisingly, she doesn’t seem to be at Phoenix’s funeral in issue #138.
X-Men vol 1 #141 and Uncanny X-Men vol 1 #142 by Chris Claremont, John Byrne & Terry Austin (“Days of Futures Past”, January and February 1981). Moira and Charles Xavier testify before Robert Kelly’s senate committee on mutants. As you’d expect, Charles is keen to promote peace and tolerance, while Moira is mutteringly darkly about gas chambers – something that fits perfectly well with Hickman’s Moira.
Read moreWCharts – 17 January 2020
It’s mid January, so we’re starting to settle back into the routine.
1 Stormzy featuring Ed Sheeran & Burna Boy – “Own It”
Three weeks at number 1 (and a total of eight weeks in the top 5). But Stormzy also has another record out this week, which we might as well deal with right now…
21. Stormzy – “Still Disappointed”
Read moreThe Complete Moira: Part 3
Three posts into the series, we finally reach Moira’s first published appearance! (For part 1, see here; for part 2, see here.)
X-Men vol 1 #96 by Chris Claremont, Dave Cockrum and Sam Grainger (“Night of the Demon”, December 1975). And here we are. Moira shows up at the X-Men’s Mansion, responding to the invitation from Professor X (which we saw her receive in Classic X-Men #2). This is the point where she gets introduced to the X-Men, who at this point consist of Cyclops, Banshee, Storm, Colossus, Wolverine and Nightcrawler. Later retcons will establish that Moira has met Cyclops and Wolverine already, but neither of them remember it. Sean is immediately taken with Moira, kicking off their romantic subplot which will later settle into a long-term status quo.
Moira and Charles both tell the X-Men that she has been hired as the new housekeeper, to look after the house and the X-Men while he’s away. At that point, the demon Kierrok attacks, and Moira promptly gets a machine gun from the armoury to fight it – though Banshee actually bundles her to safety before she has the chance to use it, and the X-Men defeat Kierrok without her. This story is reprinted in Classic X-Men #4, which adds a page of Moira and Charles having a private conversation where they reminisce about their past relationship.
(more…)Fallen Angels #5 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and the page numbers go by the digital edition.
COVER / PAGE 1. Pin-up art of Psylocke and Cable. Is it just me, or is Psylocke’s left arm bent at a very strange angle?
PAGES 2-3. X-23 recruits Cable, Husk and Bling! as her squad.
Cable has been in this book all along; he’s a bit shaken by his encounter with the wraith thing from the previous issue, but mainly he wants to stop Apoth from “ending all difference”, which he considers genocidal. Despite this being the penultimate issue, however, he’s joined by two characters we haven’t seen before in this book.
Husk. This is the first time we’ve seen Paige Guthrie since she was killed and resurrected during House of X. She’s a weird character to use in this book. Psylocke and X-23 are here because they don’t really function well as part of Krakoan society; Cable is a bit of an outsider too, given his very different background and recent arrival in this timeline. But Husk has always been a very enthusiastic team player, even during her periods of instability. She seems to be here because she understands Krakoa’s policy to be that mutants no longer take action against threats that only affect humans, and she’s not comfortable with that.
(more…)Excalibur #5 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
PAGE 1 / COVER: Rogue in her bed of flowers, with Apocalypse standing over her.
PAGE 2: Recap. For some reason the recap says that Brian is “possessed by an evil sorceress” – he’s been corrupted by Morgan le Fey, but he isn’t really possessed by her in the normal sense of that term. The recap also clarifies that Coven Akkaba were telling the truth last issue when they claimed that Shogo’s dragonfire had damaged the fabric of Otherworld and allowed the invasion of mythical creatures which we saw there. In the previous issue, it was at least ambiguous whether this was actually a Coven Akkaba plan that they were trying to blame on Betsy to undermine here; here, it’s much clearer that they’re taking advantage of a genuine collapse of the boundaries between Earth and Otherworld, brought about by Shogo thanks to the manipulations of Apocalypse.
PAGES 3-4: Rictor rescues Gambit.
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