Charts – 21 August 2011
Every year the charts needs at least a couple of token slow number 1s – hell, mid-pace will do – and this is one of those weeks. The fourth new number one in as many weeks (there’ll be a fifth on Sunday) is “Don’t Go” by Wretch 32 featuring Josh Kumra.
Isn’t that nice? Okay, lyrically it’s a fairly standard moan about his love life, but musically it’s one of the better number one singles of the year. Nice and laid back. Lovely hook.
The X-Axis – 21 August 2011
Alright, then. I’ve spent this afternoon watching Neil Gaiman at the Edinburgh Book Festival, and it’s another of those weeks when there’s frankly not much of interest on the shelves – so through a combination of lack of time and lack of anything particularly notable to write about, I’ll be sticking to the X-books again this week. (Something tells me this quiet period can’t have much more time to run.)
Generation Hope #10 – This is one of only two official tie-ins to Schism – not that it’s actually trailed in the Schism miniseries itself. It’s basically the same events as Schism #3, but told from Idie’s perspective. Which makes sense, because while she’s a key character in that issue, she’s also on the margins until right at the end.
Anti-mutant sentiment is on the rise again, and Idie’s kind of sympathetic – after all, she agrees that mutants are dangerously powerful and somewhat horrific, even though she’s one of them. So Laurie takes her to the opening night of the Mutant History Museum from Schism, to give her a crash course on X-Men history and why the bad guys are quite so bad. (And it’s a weirdly comprehensive museum – one wonders what the average visitor would have made of a gallery casually labelled “Alternate timelines”.) So the Hellfire Club attack, Scott and Logan have their squabble about whether she should get involved or not, and ultimately Idie steps in and kind-of saves the day by slaughtering a bunch of henchmen, much to the horror of the other characters who’ve put her in that position.
Charts – 15 August 2011
Somebody must have liked Cher Lloyd’s “Swagger Jagger”. It did get to number one, after all. But it drops to number 3 on its second week, and judging from the midweeks, it’ll be out of the top 10 on Sunday. Given that it had plenty of pre-release hype, the obvious conclusion is that it had little crossover appeal beyond her fanbase. Which might be because it was terrible.
The new number one looks like another one-week wonder. It’s the lowest-selling number one in almost two years, and it’s down to four on the midweeks. But at least this one is an overachiever.
The X-Axis – 14 August 2011
It’s been a busy weekend on the blog, so just to remind you: the Summerslam preview is here, the chart post is here, and this week’s podcast is here.
Which leaves the X-Axis. And since it’s a pretty quite week for new releases, and I’ve already written quite a bit, and I’m rather short of time, I’m just going to stick to the X-books themselves this week. There’s five of them, after all.
Daken: Dark Wolverine #12 – We’re now three issues in to Rob Williams’ first storyline, and his new direction for the book seems to be working nicely. He’s kept the inherited concept of Daken as a scheming manipulator, and Daken’s plan in this issue is indeed a characteristically overelaborate piece of showmanship designed not so much to succeed as to succeed in impractically over-the-top style. Unlike some previous issues, it actually does feel like a properly pre-planned scheme, too.
Summerslam 2011
(If you’re here for this weekend’s podcast thread, it’s two posts down.)
And now: notionally, the second-biggest pay-per-view of the WWE year. Personally, I’ve always thought the Royal Rumble was bigger, but Summerslam has been around longer, so there it is.
I’m rather pushed for time this weekend, so it’s fortunate that the WWE have chosen to help me out by not announcing very many matches. At time of writing, only four have been officially promoted on TV; a fifth was belatedly added on the web site, though at least it continues from a TV storyline. And so far, that’s it. In fairness, that’s partly because some planned undercard matches have been derailed by injuries, but it’s still a card that lacks depth.
Charts – 7 August 2011
(If you’re looking for the podcast, it’s one post down…)
These are bleak times. Looters stalk the streets of England. The global economy teeters on the brink of collapse. And 2010 X-Factor fourth-placed finalist Cher Lloyd has released a very bad single.
I think this may be the first time I’ve seen a number 1 single where the YouTube “dislikes” outnumber the “likes” by two to one.
House To Astonish Episode 66
Slightly early this time round, we’ve got a solid hour of chat for you, with discussions of Miles Morales, Laurence Fishburne being cast as Perry White, the Superman and Catwoman costume shots, the relaunch/returns of Fantastic Four and Astro City and DC’s licensed books going digital-only. We’ve also got reviews of Severed, Mystic and Spider-Island: Cloak & Dagger and the Official Handbook of the Official Handbook looks like death. All this plus 616 Celine Dion, a squeaky dog toy and supervillains on Craigslist.
For some reason the mic didn’t register with the laptop, so this episode sounds a bit echoey. C’est la vie.
The show is here, or here on Mixcloud. Let us know what you think, either in the comments below, on Twitter, via email or on our Facebook fan page.
EDIT: I’ve taken down the embedded player as it has apparently annihilated our bandwidth allocation (I’m being told we’ve used twice our monthly allocation in two weeks). Sorry folks. I’m looking into transferring to a different podcast host so we may not have these problems forever but in the meantime it’s back to the old ways of doing things.
The X-Axis – 7 August 2011
No podcast this week, but regular listeners will surely want to check out our special bonus video thing, one post down. Thanks again to the Thumbcast for actually making the video.
But now, this week’s comics. It’s a week relatively light on X-books, and big on interesting new releases – I’m sure we’ll come back to one or two of these on next week’s podcast. (Any suggestions, stick them in the comments thread.)
Fear Itself: Wolverine #2 – In a week full of interesting new releases, this is perhaps not going to be the top of anyone’s discussion list (except for mine, because it’s alphabetically first). But it’s a perfectly fine little miniseries, and if they’d spliced it into Wolverine proper as three extra issues, I don’t think anyone would be complaining.
Special bonus video thing!
We mentioned a while back that we were recording a segment for the Thumbcast’s upcoming video episode. And here it is, for those of you who’ve always wanted to know what Al’s sofa looks like.
Don’t forget to check out the Thumbcast’s website and post nice things.
Charts – 31 July 2011
Death has a way of prompting people to pick up a singer’s back catalogue, and so this week sees the inevitable Amy Winehouse memorial chart. She’s at number 1 on the album chart with “Back To Black”, while debut album “Frank” reappears at 5, and the double-album combined reissue is at 10 – thus giving her three top ten albums even though she only made two.
But with plenty of songs to choose from, her singles sales have been split multiple ways. And so it is that, unnoticed and largely unloved, JLS still get their scheduled number 1, with “She Makes Me Wanna.”
