House to Astonish Episode 186
We’re back, with a bunch of chat for you about DC’s Future State, the return of the Thunderbolts, delays to Marvel’s Eternals and Aftershock’s merger, we review Amazing Spider-Man and We Live, and the Official Handbook of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe brings you Sandman Done Right Done Right. All this plus Methadone Spidey, Miracle Dog and a Rainmate with a face.
The podcast is here, or on Mixcloud here, or available through the embedded player below. Let us know what you think, either in the comments below, on Twitter, via email, or via our Facebook fan page. And hey! You know what never goes out of style? Our t-shirts!
Excalibur #13 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
EXCALIBUR vol 4 #13
“X of Swords, Chapter 9”
by Tini Howard, R B Silva & Nolan Woodard
COVER / PAGE 1. The two Captain Britains fight.
PAGES 2-3. Recap and credits
PAGES 4-6. The Braddock siblings arrive at the Starlight Citadel.
“A mutant who became a hero to a people who were not her own.” Betsy as Captain Britain, of course, although the claim that she’s a hero to the people of Britain has been more often asserted in this series than actually backed up. Many of the claims in this narration would carry a bit more weight if we ever actually saw Betsy doing anything in a national-hero vein. But broadly, it’s making claims about the weight of playing the role of a national symbol, and the downplaying of personal views which is necessary if you’re going to be all things to all people – to the extent that you can.
(more…)Charts – 16 October 2020
The singles chart is mostly spillover from the album chart; the album chart is mostly back catalogue as the run-up to Christmas starts…
1. 24KGoldn featuring Iann Dior – “Mood”
Four weeks. It does have some sort of challenge this time, though…
2. Headie One featuring AJ Tracey & Stormzy – “Ain’t it Different”
11. Headie One featuring Young T & Bugsey – “Princess Cuts”
24. Headie One featuring Aitch – “Parlez-Vous Anglais”
Three tracks from Headie One’s album “Edna” (named after his late mother) enters the album chart at number 1 this week – that’s his fourth top 40 album (though the others were all officially mixtapes), and his first number one. Its predecessor “Music X Road” got to number 5 a year ago, so it’s not a surprise that his official debut album album would reach number one.
(more…)Cable #5 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
CABLE vol 4 #5
“X of Swords, Chapter 8”
by Gerry Duggan & Phil Noto
COVER / PAGE 1: Cable, Cyclops and Jean Grey on the SWORD base with scary aliens in the background.
This post is going to be short – Cable #5 is a straightforward horror story introducing a new race of aliens and with little continuity baggage.
PAGE 2. Cable, Cyclops and Jean wonder where everyone is.
We’re picking up from a scene in X of Swords: Creation – seven chapters ago – with no apparent interruption in time. I think we’re probably meant to take it that Scott, Jean and Cable’s mission over the closing pages of Creation took quite some time, and that they were quite badly out of synch with the rest of the storyline by the end of that issue, but it does read quite strangely, since there was no sign of that at the time.
(more…)New Mutants #13 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
NEW MUTANTS vol 4 #13
“X of Swords, Chapter 7”
by Ed Brisson & Rod Reis
COVER / PAGE 1: Magik and Cypher sparring.
PAGES 2-4. Magik calls Cyclops to call him home.
Cyclops and Cable are still on the SWORD orbital base, where we left them in X of Swords: Creation. The timeline of their subplot is deeply confused, since essentially no time seems to have passed for them while Chapters 2 to 6 have passed for everyone else, but I’ll come back to that in the Cable #5 annotations. At any rate, Magik is bringing them up to speed on the premise of the crossover. They don’t return immediately, and Magik will give them another call in Cable #5 to chase them up.
(more…)Hellions #5 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
HELLIONS #5
“X of Swords, part 6”
by Zeb Wells, Carmen Carnero & David Curiel
COVER / PAGE 1. Just a group shot of the team, with Psylocke holding swords.
PAGE 2. The now-usual epigraph from Nightcrawler. Here, he seems to be warning against using mutant powers for battle because (I suppose) mutants need to nurture something so personal to them. It sounds as thought he’s cautioning against the way some of the Hellions have turned out, and doesn’t feel like a ringing endorsement of the team.
PAGES 3-5. Flashback: Empath is resurrected.
(more…)The Incomplete Wolverine, part 9
Part 1: Origin to Origin II | Part 2: 1907 to 1914
Part 3: 1914 to 1939 | Part 4: World War II
Part 5: The postwar era | Part 6: Team X
Part 7: Post Team X | Part 8: Weapon X
When we left Logan, he’d just escaped from Weapon X and was blankly stumbling naked through a blizzard. Things can only go up from here!
WOLVERINE #900
“Hunger” by Karl Bollers & Stephen Segovia
May 2010
This anthology entry is the only full story to take place in the post-“Weapon X” wilderness period, though it’s still little more than a vignette. Still trailing wires, the befuddled Logan struggles to catch food. He stumbles upon a happy family in a log cabin and steps in to save them from a pack of wolves. Understandably, the family are terrified, and Logan leaves in silence. There’s a strong implication that Logan toys with eating the kid, but thinks better of it.
There are a few more flashbacks in this period:
Charts – 9 October 2020
Everyone under the sun has released an album this week. And quite a few people have released singles too. Deep breath…
1. 24KGoldn featuring Iann Dior – “Mood”
Three weeks. “WAP” is still at number 2, but there are some possible challengers a little further down. Number 3 is “Lemonade” by Internet Money featuring Don Tolliver, Gunna & NAV, climbing from 5. “You Broke Me First” by Tate McRae climbs 9-7. “What You Know About Love” by Pop Smoke climbs 14-9, to become his third top ten hit (all of which have come since July).
11. D-Block Europe featuring Aitch – “Holy”
Well, you know what you’re getting with D-Block Europe – essentially the same thing every time. Still, they’re such a consistent presence in the singles chart that there’s clearly an audience out there that wants to hear a lot of variations on this theme. This has one of their better choruses, but god, it’s past time for them to stretch their wings a bit.
(more…)Marauders #13 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
MARAUDERS #13
“X of Swords, chapter 5”
by Vita Ayala, Matteo Lolli & Edgar Delgado
COVER / PAGE 1: Storm, Black Panther and Shuri (who are in this issue), plus Wolverine (who has a cameo) and Jean Grey (who isn’t in it at all).
PAGE 2: The Chadwick Boseman tribute.
PAGE 3: An epigraph from a grateful person who was rescued by Storm. It’s credited to “S.A. Graham, Onslaught survivor”. I can only assume it’s someone who crossed paths with Storm during the Onslaught crossover of 1996.
PAGES 4-6. Storm and Kate Pryde talk.
Page 4 panel 2 is a flashback to X-Factor #4, and Polaris delivering Saturnyne’s cryptic clues about who should get which sword. This one was very obviously about Storm, who was worshipped as a goddess in her youth, and queen of Wakanda more recently.
(more…)X-Force #13 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X-FORCE vol 6 #13
“X of Swords, Chapter 4”
by Benjamin Percy, Viktor Bogdanovic & Matthew Wilson
COVER / PAGE 1. Wolverine in the hellfire with Solem waiting. Not exactly how it plays out in the issue.
This issue is a direct continuation from Wolverine #6, which shipped on the same day – it even has the same artist. I’m not going to repeat anything that was covered already in the post for that issue, which will keep this post shorter.
PAGE 2. Epigraph from the Silver Samurai.
PAGES 3-4. Flashback: Logan confronts the Hand in the temple.
Yomi is the Japanese word for the underworld or land of the dead.
PAGES 5-6. Credits and recap.
(more…)