The X-Axis – 19 June 2011
First, a housekeeping announcement – no X-Axis next week, because I happen to know I won’t be getting my books in time to write it. Might write something else instead. Probably won’t.
This is also a podcast weekend, so check a couple of posts below for the latest episode of House to Astonish, where Al and I are talking about the rest of the DCU 52, and review the first issues of 15 Love, Graveyard of Empires and Kirby Genesis.
Loads of X-books this week, and they’re mostly pretty decent, too…
Daken: Dark Wolverine #10 – The first issue proper of Rob Williams’ run sees Daken arriving in Hollywood and trying to get his foot in the door of the local underworld. Unfortunately, it turns out that his information about Los Angeles is rather out of date, so he’s going to have to start from the ground up.
Capitol Punishment 2011
In June 2010, the WWE’s pay-per-view show was Fatal Four-Way. That show was part of the WWE’s short-lived obsession with giving every pay-per-view its own gimmick. The theory was that filling a card with four-way matches would in some way be of interest to somebody. It wasn’t, really.
Fortunately, the company seems to have figured out that not everything needs to be a gimmick show. So this year the June show has been retitled Capitol Punishment, for no particular reason other than that it’s coming from Washington. This is a low priority show. July gets Money in the Bank, which is used to mark out future headliners; August is Summerslam, traditionally treated as a major part of the calendar. Capitol Punishment… is filling a slot in the diary. In a couple of matches, the WWE is taking the opportunity to experiment with new pairings – but basically, nobody’s really pretending that this is anything other than a show for the hardcore.
It may also be one for the purists. Unusually, there are no gimmick matches on this show at all. Not even a tag match. It’s seven regular singles matches, and I can’t remember the last time that happened.
House To Astonish Episode 62
September is coming, and with it 52 new DC first issues. We’ve got a round-up of all 52, as well as a sprint through the rest of the solicitations, a look at Frank Miller’s Holy Terror, some chat on the opening of the Spider-Man musical and discussion of the impending X-Men relaunch. We’ve also got reviews of 15 Love, Graveyard of Empires and Kirby Genesis, and the Official Handbook of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe makes a love connection. All this plus a selection of guest ales, Millie Collins’s nephew Millie Collins and the influence of Halley’s Comet on Marvel’s publishing schedules.
The podcast is here, or here on Mixcloud. Let us know what you think, in the comments below, on Twitter, via email or on our Facebook fan page.
Charts – 12 June 2011
After last week’s bout of suspended animation, this week’s chart is rather more interesting. There’s a new entry at number one – “Changed The Way You Kiss Me” by Example, the lead single from his third album.
Elliot Gleave (E.G., hence Example) started off as a rapper before dramatically shifting tack on his previous album to reinvent himself as an electro act. This is his seventh hit – all of which followed the change of direction – but his first number one. It’s certainly his best single to date, and it feels to me like a more successful version of what he was trying to do on the last album. Leaving aside guest appearances, his biggest hit until now was “Kickstarts”, a perfectly good record which made number 3 a year ago, but doesn’t quite click in the same way the new track does. Looks like he’s found himself a niche. This has a tough fight to stay at number 1 for a second week (Calvin Harris is ahead on the midweeks), but it’s going to be up there.
The DCU 52
Come September, DC will be relaunching the entire DC Universe with 52 new titles. As you might have gathered, Al and I will pick up the first issue of pretty much anything, if only to review it. But 52 in one month? Boy, that’s a lot.
On the other hand, I’m willing to throw a bit of time and money in it for the first month, in order to give a chance to the ones that sound like they might have something to offer.
So which ones do I really want to read? In a shameless bid to start an incredibly unwieldy comments thread, let’s go through them all and see. (I’m working here from the list on Bleeding Cool, by the way.)
1: Justice League by Geoff Johns and Jim Lee. It’s the flagship; it’s the lynchpin for the relaunch; it’s by the two guys who are supposed to be driving the line. It’ll probably be good, but at any rate it’ll be essential reading for industry-watchers. That’s 1.
The X-Axis – 12 June 2011
This is the quietest week for X-books in some time, which is perhaps appropriate since everyone’s attention is on comics that won’t be out until September. Marvel have a few second- and third-tier launches out, DC are holding off on everything for the moment… yeah, we’re kind of in limbo right now. Which is kind of odd considering that we’re also in the big “event” season, but it’s clear that DC’s Flashpoint is basically an alternate reality story that doubles as a means to an end, while Marvel’s Fear Itself is just stumbling through the motions.
In fact, DC might have picked a good time to do a relaunch of the line. Sure, they’re hoping to get in completely new readers, and maybe they will. But in the short term I’d sure they wouldn’t mind picking up readers from Marvel – and with Marvel’s line looking particularly stale and shopworn right now, I can see the long-suffering Marvel hardcore being more than usually willing to see how the DC relaunch turns out. You never know.
On the other hand…
Birds of Prey #13 – …is the sort of book that gives me pause about how far DC has really planned this whole thing.
Charts – 5 June 2011
Don’t get too comfortable, there’s nothing much to say. The charts really don’t get much less eventful than this.
Number 1 for a third week is “Give Me Everything” by Pitbull featuring Ne-Yo, Afrojack and Nayer. It looks like it won’t manage a fourth. Still, three weeks at the top is much longer than I’d have expected for this single, and for some reason that remains unfathomable to me, it’s one of the bigger hits of the year.
There are only two new entries this week, neither of them especially memorable.
The X-Axis – 5 June 2011
Welcome to a comics post that, I promise, will not have anything to say about the upcoming DC relaunch. If you want some thoughts on that, just check the previous post for this week’s podcast, where we talk about it plenty. Plus, reviews of Flashpoint: Secret Seven, Criminal and 50 Girls 50.
Six X-books this week, though one of them’s pretty much completist-only territory, as well as both of the summer event titles and the wrap-up of Jonathan Ross’s comic… so let’s get to work.
Astonishing X-Men #39 – With the series alternating back and forth between two different storylines, this issue returns to Daniel Way’s “Monstrous”. And is any connection between the two stories apparent here? No. None whatsoever. I’m used by now to the X-Men titles not referring to one another, but an X-Men title that doesn’t even refer to itself… that’s quite something.
House To Astonish Episode 61
Lots and lots of chat on the DC announcements this time round, as well as a few words on Dark Horse’s digital incentives and Valiant’s return. We’ve also got reviews of Criminal: Last Of The Innocent, Secret Seven and 50 Girls 50 and the Official Handbook of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe is a beautiful and unique snowflake. All this plus the Amazing Flying Buccelato Brothers, a song from the Lion King, Cockney Frank Cho and Alistair (Aged 4).
The podcast 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.
Charts – 29 May 2011
Looks like we’re heading into another fallow period on the singles chart. There are only three new entries on the current chart, and judging from the midweeks, it’ll be the same on Sunday.
In fact, the big event this week is on the album chart, where Lady Gaga is unsurprisingly number one with “Born This Way.” Perhaps nobody else feels like releasing records in the face of that juggernaut. And with the release of the album, sales on the four singles have also tailed off a bit; “Hair” surprisingly crashes straight out of the top 40 after just one week.
With nothing much in the way of competition, it’s a second week at number 1 for “Give Me Everything” by (deep breath) Pitbull featuring Ne-Yo, Afrojack & Nayer. In fact, the midweeks have it hanging on for three. I’d kind of figured this for a middling single making it to number 1 in a quiet week, but maybe I’m missing something.
