Old Man Logan #8
Following from the “Bordertown” three-parter, Old Man Logan gives us a one-shot story. And it’s time, yet once more, to contemplate the imminent collapse of society.
Now, these are apocalyptic times indeed. Pop culture – hell, culture generally – is not exactly going through one of its optimistic phases. Not that it particularly should be. And so sure, there ought to be something to work with in the hook of Old Man Logan, the thing that makes him different from the original Wolverine – which is not so much that he’s old, or even specifically that he was tricked into killing his version of the X-Men, but that he’s already lived through the collapse of the society around him.
Charts – 7 July 2016
Okay, so… yes, I was going to do a Watch With Father post before this, but it’s been a busy week, plus there’s been a lot of mesmerisingly distracting stuff on the news, plus there haven’t been any storylines wrapping up in the X-books. But we’re settling down again now, so we really should be getting back into a more regular schedule.
Meanwhile… in a terrifying and uncertain world, one thing is immutable.
1. Drake featuring Wizkid & Kyla – “One Dance”
Thirteen weeks. Thirteen. On a pure sales chart it wouldn’t even be in the top 10 any more, but it’s just not shifting from the streaming charts. The sales number one would be “This Girl” by Kungs vs Cookin’ on 3 Burners, which is stuck at number 2 on the combined chart for the fourth week.
So let’s take a step back to consider what on earth is going on here.
Charts – 1 July 2016
We’re going through another of those phases when all the X-books are in mid-storyline (not least because the three core X-Men titles are in the middle of a supposed crossover that isn’t actually crossing over), and with one thing or another I’ve been distracted from following up some of the other regulars, but we should be getting back to a more normal posting schedule over the next week or so. In the meantime, on the singles chart, all is quiet – three new entries, all outside the top 30.
1. Drake featuring Wizkid and Kyla – “One Dance”
And that’s twelve weeks. This is entirely due to continued streaming popularity – at this point, “One Dance” is number 9 on the pure sales chart – and there are starting to be murmurings that the chart compilers may be looking again at the weighting of sales to streams. Time will tell whether these sorts of extended runs are going to be the new normal in the current era, but it does seem to be something of a fluke, given more normal turnover of records at number 2 over the same period: “Cheap Thrills” by Sia (3 weeks), “This is What You Came For” by Calvin Harris featuring Rihanna (2 weeks), “Can’t Stop The Feeling” by Justin Timberlake (4 weeks) and “This Girl” by Kungs vs Cookin’ on Three Burners (3 weeks).
Charts – 23 June 2016
I was going to do a Watch With Father over the weekend but, well, I’ve been otherwise diverted. No matter! In these interesting times we need an oasis of stability, and the UK top 40 more than delivers.
1. Drake featuring Wizkid & Kyla – “One Dance”
Clinging on by a 5% margin over the number 2 single, it’s still here after eleven weeks at number 1. It is flagging in both sales and streams, but nothing else has come along to replace it yet. Even allowing for the general slowing of the chart in the streaming era, this is pretty amazing: only two records have ever had longer runs at number one, namely “Everything I Do (I Do It For You)” by Bryan Adams (16 weeks in 1991) and “Love is all Around” by Wet Wet Wet (15 weeks in 1994). Since its notional total sale of 60,000 is the lowest for a number 1 single since October, this surely has to be it – doesn’t it?
9. Sigala featuring John Newman & Nile Rodgers – “Give Me Your Love”
Charts – 17 June 2016
Dear god, really? Still…?!
1. Drake featuring Wizkid & Kyla – “One Dance”
And that’s ten weeks, matching “Umbrella” from 2007. “One Dance” was not number one in the midweeks, and it only held on by a relatively narrow margin – the equivalent of 178,000 streams, compared with its streaming total this week of 4.77 million. On a pure sales chart it would be number 9, but it’s the streaming data that matters these days.
Old Man Logan #5-7 – “Bordertown”
There’s a bit of a pattern emerging here.
Between issues #4-5, Logan shows up in the first Extraordinary X-Men arc and joins the X-Men. This series skips over all that and picks up with him taking one of his signature leaves of absence from the X-Men so that he can go off and spend some Logan time. This time, he goes up to small town Alaska, retracing his steps from his post-apocalyptic future.
Charts – 10 June 2016
Once again, the charts are refreshingly keen to make my life easy by having not very much happen.
1. Drake featuring Wizkid & Kyla – “One Dance”
That’s nine weeks. Just one more needed to match “Umbrella”‘s ten-week run from 2007. I’ve already explained why the change to streaming data, which has slowed down the charts generally, means that this isn’t strictly comparable, but it’s still impressive. If it does manage to match “Umbrella” – and the midweeks say it won’t, but you never know – then the next record in sight will be the epic 15 week run of Wet Wet Wet’s “Love Is All Around” in 1994. (more…)
House to Astonish Episode 146
In which Paul and I promise not to spend time chewing over the massively-masticated topics of Captain America’s Hydra cliffhanger and DC Rebirth’s unexpected additions to the DCU, then proceed to spend 15 minutes doing exactly that. We also chat through the Cinemax-optioned Scarlet; the Civil War II #3 midnight openings (and the candidates for the “big surprising death”); the director of the Flash movie and Superman’s upcoming guest spot on Supergirl. We’ve also got reviews of Detective Comics: Rebirth and Lumberjanes/Gotham Academy, and the Official Handbook of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe has bad gas. All this plus Piemaker pasty variant covers, Mark Millar suplexing Dan DiDio through a table and how they choose the Pope in the Marvel Universe.
The podcast is here, or here on Mixcloud, or available through the embedded player below. Let us know what you think, in the comments, on Twitter, via email or on our Facebook fan page.
Remember we have a Redbubble page, where you can avail yourself of this summer’s hottest fashion items (our shirts), and as I mentioned on the show, I made a SPECIAL GUEST mini-crossover appearance on SILENCE! issue 190 and The Winter Palace episode 34, so feel free to check those out too.
Charts – 3 June 2016
So, after a bit of experimenting, I’m thinking a better way of doing these things is to go back to doing them weekly and accepting that they’re going to be fairly short. Let’s try that for a bit and see how it goes. On this week’s singles chart…
1. Drake featuring Wizkid & Kyla – “One Dance”
Eight weeks at number one, the longest reign since “Umbrella”, but I’ve said before that these things aren’t entirely comparable, because adding streaming to the charts makes sustained replay appeal much more of a factor than it ever was in the past. On pure sales, this would be number 5 (and Justin Timberlake would be number 1). The top three has now been static for three weeks, with Timberlake and Calvin Harris in the other two slots. The era of stasis.
6. Clean Bandit featuring Louisa Johnson – “Tears”
All-New Wolverine #8-9 – “The Box”
After Squirrel Girl dropped by for issue #7, All-New Wolverine stays in surprisingly flippant mode for this two-parter, bafflingly billed as a “Road to Civil War II” tie-in. Now, I’m not reading Civil War II, because from the sound of it it’s basically Minority Report with Inhumans, which doesn’t sound like an improvement. So I can’t say for sure that these two issues contain nothing that’s relevant to Civil War II, but it’s certainly tempting to conclude that a “Road to…” banner is Marvelese for “even we couldn’t bring ourselves to claim this was an actual tie-in story”.
