S.W.O.R.D. #6 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
S.W.O.R.D. #6
“This is What Comes Next”
by Al Ewing, Valerio Schiti & Marte Gracia
COVER / PAGE 1: Abigail Brand distributing mysterium to assorted aliens (who we can see reflected in its surface).
PAGES 2-6. Captain America and Dr Doom.
Although this is a “Hellfire Gala” tie-in issue, we open with the Gala itself already finished, and Captain America looking up at Mars, terraformed an hour or so earlier in Planet-Size X-Men #1. We previously saw some of Captain America’s reaction in the epilogue to Marauders #21: “Well, you solved one big problem, but I’m worried you might have made an even bigger mess. I just hope you all know what you’re doing.” The “one big problem”, we now know, was what to do with Arakko.
In sharp contrast to the triumphalist tone of Planet-Size X-Men, the tone here is almost mournful, laying all the stress on the fact that the non-mutants are being excluded from the sort of interplanetary expansion that he always saw as a hopeful vision of the future. Cap sees the main lesson here in terms of division and separation instead. And he’s right, of course – the mutants will be in full-on hubris mode for most of this issue too, so this is a very interesting way of starting the issue. It’s no accident that Captain America, the Marvel Universe saint, is being used for this role.
Wolverine #13 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
WOLVERINE vol 7 #13
“What They Did in the Shadows”
by Benjamin Percy, Scot Eaton, Oren Junior & Matthew Wilson
COVER / PAGE 1: Wolverine fights Deadpool, unnoticed by the Hellfire Gala guests. Not remotely the central focus of this issue, but if the cover had shown the real main action, it would have spoiled the plot of X-Force #20. This issue is effectively the second half of that story, and more of a bonus issue of X-Force than a Wolverine comic. Wolverine is in it for five pages, and has five lines of dialogue.
PAGE 2. The John Paul Leon tribute page.
PAGES 3-7. Wolverine stops a Terra Verdan from attacking a partygoer.
In X-Force #20, we learned that after X-Force stopped the telefloronic plant creatures from taking over Terra Verde in X-Force #10, the Beast used the plants to take complete control of the entire country. The Beast brought a bunch of zombified Terra Verdean diplomats to the Hellfire Gala with the intention of having them mingle and sing the praises of Krakoa to anyone who would listen. At the end of the issue, Sage discovered that the diplomats’ coding had been hacked (by someone unknown). As we see in this issue, the result is a bunch of diplomats who now have plant powers, and are understandably very angry indeed. Why they’re attacking an innocent guest is less clear.
Heroes Reborn: Weapon X & Final Flight #1
HEROES REBORN: WEAPON X & FINAL FLIGHT #1
“Freedom or Death”
by Ed Brisson, Roland Boschi & Chris O’Halloran
There are two X-Men one-shots which tie in to the Avengers’ Heroes Reborn event. I reviewed Heroes Reborn: Magneto & The Mutant Force #1 a few weeks ago, and wasn’t exactly impressed. So let’s say right now that Weapon X & Final Flight is much better. Which is to say that it functions properly as a story, and finds some kind of angle on the characters it’s using.
Even so, we’re deep into completist territory here. It’s hard to imagine why you’d buy this unless you were a Heroes Reborn completist, a Wolverine completist, an Alpha flight completist, or a close relative of one of the creative team. Of those constituencies, the Heroes Reborn completists will doubtless get the most out of it. Otherwise… well, it’s there, and it’s perfectly decent.
The basic premise of Heroes Reborn is simple. It’s a timeline where instead of the Avengers, you have the Squadron Supreme of America, who are essentially an evil version of the Justice League. And so they basically run America. That means Brisson has a fairly obvious angle to take as his starting point: how do they get on with the neighbours?
Charts – 18 June 2021
It’s static at the top.
1. Olivia Rodrigo – “Good 4 U”
Four weeks at number 1, and she still has three songs in the top 10 (with “Deja Vu” at 5, and “Traitor” at 8). The top 3 is static, with the Weeknd at 2 and Doja Cat at 3.
12. Mimi Webb – “Dumb Love”
This is the follow-up to her debut single “Good Without”, which has been on the chart for 12 weeks now and is currently a non-mover at its peak of number 9. I thought “Good Without” was a bit obvious; I like this more, though it’s very much a record for Heart FM. That said, we don’t get too much of this in the top 40 at the moment, which makes it a welcome part of the mix.
X-Corp #2 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X-CORP #2
“A Shark in the Water”
by Tini Howard, Alberto Foche & Sunny Gho
COVER / PAGE 1. A stylised picture of Monet at the gala, with the same mock pharmaceutical layout elements as we had in issue #1. The “mg” after the issue number seems to be standard, and the number of tablets is presumably the number of pages in the print edition (counting adverts).
PAGE 2. Monet prepares for the Hellfire Gala.
Sunspot was shown as being involved in X-Corp before he relocated to the Shi’ar Empire. We’re told later in the issue that he invested a lot of his own money, so he does indeed have a legitimate interest in what they’re up to.
Sebastian Shaw. Monet elects not to listen to his message at all. Again, though, Shaw has perfectly good reasons for contacting her – he’s the Black King of Hellfire Trading, with responsibilities for distributing the pharmaceuticals that X-Corp manufactures.
Professor X. Generally recapping the events of issue #1, and questioning Monet’s decision to reveal the X-Corp HQ at the end of the issue. He seems to be saying that she’s messed up the planned orderly release of a home office technology, and is exposing X-Corp to attention that it isn’t ready to deal with yet, since it doesn’t actually have the product ready to launch. Whether Monet actually has a proper plan, or whether she’s just arrogant, remains to be seen.
New Mutants #19 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
NEW MUTANTS vol 4 #19
” Party of the Century”
by Vita Ayala, Alex Lins & Matt Milla
COVER / PAGE 1: The New Mutants arrive at the Hellfire Gala, presumably to be greeted by Emma Frost.
PAGE 2. Warlock arrives at the Hellfire Gala.
This is a “green carpet”, presumably because of the plant-themed nature of Krakoa. The rope and bollards seem to be made of Krakoan plants too.
The guy with the beard is named later in the issue as Barry thee Artist, and he’s a new character. Presumably he’s one of the celebrities who was invited to the event.
PAGE 3. Recap and credits. As with most books this month, the layout is altered to suggest a Hellfire Gala invitation.
PAGE 4. Warlock & Mirage mingle with the guests.
I’ve no idea what Captain Marvel is referring to when she mentions Dani owing her a game of pool.
Planet-Size X-Men #1 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
PLANET-SIZE X-MEN #1
“Fireworks”
by Gerry Duggan, Pepe Larraz & Marte Gracia
Planet-Size X-Men. This one-shot is the first issue to bear the name. It’s a play on Giant-Size X-Men, of course.\
COVER / PAGE 1: Marvel Girl, Iceman, Storm and Magneto hovering on a rock in the shape of the X-Men logo, in front of a (presumably Martian) red background.
PAGES 2-6. The omega mutants begin terraforming Mars.
What’s actually happening in this scene is fairly self-explanatory – really, the plot of this issue boils down to “the mutants terraform Mars and teleport Arakko there, and do it all live for the attendees at the Hellfire Gala to watch”. It’s an exercise in showing it at length to emphasise the scale of the endeavour.
Attentive readers may be asking “Hold on, doesn’t Krakoa have a presence on Mars already?” Indeed it does, and the fact that it’s not mentioned in this issue rather suggests that it’s regarded as an unwelcome complication. We saw a flower being planted on Mars in House of X #1, and the resulting Red Farm in Marauders #8. But the script for House of X #1 clarifies that the Martian presence is in the Garden, a very small area of Mars which was already terraformed by Ex Nihilo during Jonathan Hickman’s Avengers run. This is the first time that the mutants themselves have tried to terraform the place.
Charts – 11 June 2021
We missed last week’s chart, so a bit of catching up to do here…
1. Olivia Rodrigo – “Good 4 U”
Three weeks, and doing nicely – it had 11.2 million streams last week. While it was only to be expected that her album “Sour” would get the maximum three tracks into the singles chart in its first week, they’re still there – “Deja Vu” is at 4, and “Traitor” is at a peak position of 5. And that means she has three singles in the top 5 – not unheard of, but very much A-lister territory.
The number two single is former number 1 “Body”, so it’s not facing an immediate challenge either. Once again, she has three singles in the top 10 – “Deja Vu” is at 5, and “Drivers Licence” re-enters at 6. “Re-enters” because of the three-song rule; evidently it was her fourth placed song last week, and the positions are reversed this time. When we last saw it, two weeks ago, it was at number 35, so the release of the parent album has really catapulted it back up the charts – this is its highest position since March, when its nine-week run at number 1 ended. “Sour” also spends a second week at number 1 on the album chart.
7. Arrdee – “Oliver Twist”
He’s a teenage rapper from Brighton, and he featured prominently on the multi-guest remix of “Body” – but he didn’t get a chart credit for that. So this is technically his first hit. The midweeks have it sticking around in the top 10.
Children of the Atom #4 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
CHILDREN OF THE ATOM #4
“Captured”
by Vita Ayala, Paco Medina & David Curiel
COVER / PAGE 1: The Young X-Men – as I guess we’re calling them – in battle with the new U-Men. Since it’s his spotlight issue, Marvel Guy is front and centre.
PAGE 2. Benny wants to be left alone.
Peter Corbeau Preparatory. In issue #1, the school was simply called “Corbeau Preparatory” (and we saw the sign on the building). The establishing shot in that issue bears very little resemblance to what we see here. Peter Corbeau was a scientist supporting character who originated in Incredible Hulk but showed up from time to time in X-Men as a friend of Professor X, particularly in the early years of the Claremont run.
Benny basically doesn’t like the company of others beyond a small circle of friends he feels comfortable with. Following the pattern of the previous issues, we’re taking turns with each character getting a spotlight issue, and it’s now his turn.
X-Men #21 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X-MEN vol 5 #21
“The Beginning”
by Jonathan Hickman, Nick Dragotta, Russell Dauterman, Lucas Werneck, Sara Pichelli, Frank Martin, Matthew Wilson, Sunny Gho & Nolan Woodward
PAGE 1 / COVER. Simply a generic image of some of the cast members of the X-books during the first phase of the Hickman run, with Krakoan vines arranged in a (largely obscured) X-pattern.
PAGE 2. Tribute to the late John Paul Leon.
PAGES 3-7. Professor X and Magneto talk to Namor.
Namor seems to have no desire to be here, which begs the question of why he showed up. Presumably, for all his disdain, he thinks that what the Krakoans are up to is at least sufficiently important to be worth keeping an eye on first hand. At the same time, while the Krakoans are succeeding in their immediate goals, he seems to have no real confidence in the goals themselves.
Professor X and Magneto have colour co-ordinated costumes, down to the customised Cerebro helmet. They’re very clearly positioned as a pair here. They remain keen to get Namor on side, as they have been from the dawn of the Krakoan era. Professor X’s first attempt to recruit him was in Powers of X #5, where Xavier similarly framed the pitch as “come home”. But despite some short stints with the X-Men, Namor has never identified particularly as a mutant, and certainly not primarily as one; he’s an Atlantean first and foremost. At any rate, in that issue Namor suggested that he didn’t think Xavier truly believed in his new posture of mutant superiority, and told him “don’t come back until you really mean it.” Clearly he remains unconvinced – but equally clearly, he has no interest in a mutant-centric agenda. He goes out of his way to claim that he’s superior to everyone, mutant or otherwise.
