Storm #7 annotations
STORM vol 5 #7
“Serpents, Salamanders and Storm Gods”
Writer: Murewa Ayodele
Artist: Luciano Vecchio
Colourists: Alex Guimarães & Fer Sifuentes-Sujo
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Editor: Tom Brevoort
STORM
Iron Man enlists her to help out with an issue in Brazil – this is presented as the first time they’ve worked together since issue #1, but that must be disregarding missions as members of the Avengers. Basically, a sample of an attempt to recreate the Super-Soldier Serum has been lost in a helicopter crash caused by a “weather anomaly”, which has plagued Brazil more generally. Storm takes the mission in order to retrieve the body of the pilot of a crashed plane, despite Iron Man’s distinct lack of explanaion of what’s going on here.
It’s downright odd that calling in a fellow Avengers is presented as a last resort, particular when it’s Storm and the crisis involves weather. Presumably this is tied in somehow with Iron Man’s secrecy about the mission.
Phoenix #10 annotations
PHOENIX #10
Writer: Stephanie Phillips
Artist: Alessandro Miracolo
Colour artist: David Curiel
Letterer: Cory Petit
Editor: Annalise Bissa
PHOENIX
She sees parallels between Adani’s back story and the way her own life changed when her powers traumatically emerged on the death of her best friend Annie Richardson. This origin comes from the Phoenix story in Bizarre Adventures #27, and involves Jean withdrawing from the world until Professor X comes along to help her out. In this issue, Jean presents it as a turning point that caused her to lose her childhood – not merely because of the immediate period that followed, but by setting her on a path to meet Professor X, join the X-Men and ultimately become Phoenix. (Some stories maintain that she was always destined to become Phoenix, but that’s arguably a chicken-and-egg matter, given the Phoenix’s confusing relationship to linear cause and effect.)
The Dark Gods assume that Phoenix has the power to destroy Adani, but won’t use it because her sense of empathy holds her back. This is correct as far as it goes, but Jean stops Adani anyway by showing empathy to her and persuading her to reject her power and become an innocent child again. The clear implication is that Jean would rather have remained normal and not become Phoenix (or even an X-Man) too.
Uncanny X-Men #13 annotations
UNCANNY X-MEN vol 6 #13
“The Dark Artery, part 1: Machinations of Dread”
Writer: Gail Simone
Artist: David Marquez
Colour artist: Matthew Wilson
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Tom Brevoort
THE X-MEN
Gambit. Sadurang claims that the Left Eye of Agamotto will corrupt him over time, eventually leading him to kill his family and friends. We don’t know whether that’s true or not, but it’s at least consistent with what we’ve seen so far – Rogue was claiming as early as issue #2 that the Eye was “affecting him somehow”.
In narration, he says that he had a “hard time growing up” as a visible mutant due to his eyes. He says that the nurse cried at his birth when she saw him; I’m not sure that’s been said before, but Gambit #1 (1999) does say that the Thieves Guild “cursed the babe as an abomination” because of his eyes. He’s privately hurt by people’s reactions to his eyes, but feels that if he hadn’t been a mutant he would have been a nobody – maybe a low-level criminal enforcer.
Rogue. Appears in two panels. She is cold.
Daredevil Villains #49: Mind-Wave
DAREDEVIL #133 (May 1976)
“Mind-Wave and his Fearsome Think-Tank!”
Writer, editor: Marv Wolfman
Penciller: Bob Brown
Inker: Jim Mooney
Colourist: Michele Wolfman
Letterer: Ray Holloway
Because we’re only looking at the Daredevil stories that introduce new villains, we’re going to get a very distorted view of Marv Wolfman’s run. He was on the series for nearly 20 issues, but he didn’t create that many new villains in that time. There are four new villains in his run, plus another one in an annual. The standout is obviously Bullseye, who we covered last time round. But there’s a gulf of quality between him and the others. For example, here we have “Mind-Wave and his Fearsome Think Tank!”
Mind-Wave is a man in a garish green and yellow costume who can read minds. He pilots a giant futuristic tank. The tank has satellite dishes all over it. Mind-Wave himself mans a gun, and two henchmen have their own little plexi-glass bubbles at the front. It looks like something from the GI Joe toy line, or maybe even Masters of the Universe. The narrator calls it a “clanking, titanium-steel destructoid”. Mind-Wave’s basic plan is to use the tank to create a distraction so that his henchmen can commit bank robberies.
Charts – 4 April 2025
Six new entries, three artists…
Three weeks, and continuing to grow – it had more than double the points of the number 2 single, “Pink Pony Club”. Meanwhile, “Carry You Home” climbs 10-9 (which is a new peak), and “Burning Down” is still at 24. “Ordinary” is finally making some headway in his home country, reaching the top 20 on the Billboard Hot 100, but it’s been a number 1 in much of Europe.
5. Ariana Grande – “Twilight Zone”
19. Ariana Grande – “Dandelion”
26. Ariana Grande – “Intro (End of the World)”
The X-Axis – w/c 31 March 2025
ASTONISHING X-MEN INFINITY COMIC #16. By Alex Paknadel, Phillip Sevy, Michael Bartolo & Clayton Cowles. Well, we’ve got to the point of bringing Sean, Paige and Angelo together for the partial Generation X reunion, but I can’t say this arc is doing much for me. It still feels too similar to the first arc. I’m not keen either on having random street level characters getting injections that turn them into the Hulk – diluting the big names for no real reason feels like it’s standing in for a lack of ideas that actually fit in this story. There’s something in the subplot about Paige’s depression, but otherwise this is an underwhelming arc.
X-MEN #14. (Annotations here.) Gosh, there’s a lot going on in this issue – and since X-Men has generally stuck to doing self-contained one or two-part stories when it isn’t involved in crossovers, that alone makes it feel like the book is kicking up a gear. It feels like we’re moving into the phase where things are starting to draw together Ryan Stegman is back on art, and I love the cover of this issue, with the broken glasses in the foreground. I’m not sure about that 3K table at all – how big is that thing? Do they have to yell to be heard on the other side? But the scene with Ben and Magneto is nicely done to continue the slow burn of Ben wanting to be an active character (even if I don’t remember any of this stuff about Magneto trying to mentor him), and the redesign of Wyre is a big improvement.
Hellverine #5 annotations
HELLVERINE #5
“The Mephisto Conspiracy”
Writer: Benjamin Percy
Artist: Raffaele Ienco
Colour artist: Bryan Valenza
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Editor: Mark Basso
HELLVERINE
This one won’t take long.
After being drowned by Mephisto’s water demon last issue, Akihiro is transported to Hell. Since Akihiro never actually made a deal with the devil, Mephisto separates him from Bagra-Ghul and tortures him, before trying to get him to sign up.
However, Akihiro has been studying the Book of Lamentation that Dr Strange gave him in issue #3, and we saw in issue #4 that he could work magic by using his claws to carve symbols into his own chest. Once separated from Bagra-Ghul, he’s able to claw a symbol into the demon’s chest – a “possession cipher”, apparently – that lets him reclaim the demon under his control. So Bagra-Ghul is now under Akihiro’s control and Mephisto’s plan to use him as a conduit has been thwarted, at least for now.
Psylocke #6 annotations
PSYLOCKE vol 2 #6
“House of Ghosts”
Writer: Alyssa Wong
Artists: Vincenzo Caratù & Moisés Hidalgo
Colour artist: Fer Sifuentes-Sujo
Letterer: Ariana Maher
Editor: Darren Shan
PSYLOCKE
The last issue ended with her seeing a monstrous ghostly image of herself and Betsy merged, which she chose to ignore. As this issue starts, she’s still experiencing these hallucinations, but she’s chosen not to tell the other X-Men. Since nobody’s noticed her being distracted up to now, it’s probably not long after issue #5.
Her rationale for not telling the other X-Men is partly that she assumed it was an after-effect of the Taxonomist’s hallucinogenics from the previous issue, which would wear off in time. Her narration says that “With the tensions between Rogue’s X-Men and ours, the last thing we need is any sign of instability.” Her paranoia about letting the team down makes sense; the bit about the two X-Men teams feuding is probably there mainly as foreshadowing for later in the issue. Given what we saw about the relations between the teams in “X-Manhunt”, this probably has to go very shortly after “Raid on Graymalkin”.
X-Men #14 annotations
X-MEN vol 7 #14
“Search and Rescue”
Writer: Jed MacKay
Penciller: Ryan Stegman
Inkers: Ryan Stegman & JP Mayer
Colourist: Marte Gracia
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Tom Brevoort
THE X-MEN
Cyclops. As in issue #1, he’s keen to have good relations with the town, and seems to trust Chief Robbins anyway – he offers the X-Men’s help to her before she’s explained what the issue is. He asks her to call him Scott.
Kid Omega. He doesn’t seem terribly worked up about Piper going missing, though he takes the task of searching for her seriously enough. He’s more concerned about Idie’s reaction and tries to make supportive noises about how it’ll all be fine, though he acknowledges that he isn’t good at this. Then he gets shot out of the sky and presumably spends the rest of the issue unconscious.
Charts – 28 March 2025
After a busy chart last week, we’re back to another virtually dead week for new entries – though some of last week’s newcomers are heading up the chart.
Two weeks. Streaming is up by about a quarter from last week, and it has a massive 80% lead over the number two single (the previous number one, “Pink Pony Club”), so this is a big hit. There’s spillover interest in his other singles too: “Carry You Home” and “Burning Down” reached new peaks last week at 20 and 28, but now climb to 10 and 23 respectively.
“Ordinary” is still making slow headway in Warren’s native USA, but it’s reached number one in Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Norway and the Netherlands.
26. Leon Thomas – “Mutt”
Debut hit. This is the title track from his second album, and it’s been out for six months. It’s been climbing from the lower reaches for a month, but a remix with Chris Brown seems to be responsible for kicking it into the top 40.
