The X-Axis – w/c 24 February 2025
ASTONISHING X-MEN INFINITY COMIC #12. By Tim Seeley, Edoardo Audino, KJ Díaz, Clayton Cowles, Darren Shan. So the thing about Black Tom going mad turns out to be a teaser for another storyline, which was perhaps inevitable given how much he’d been kept to the margins of the story after the set-up. What that leaves us with is a Juggernaut rehabilitation story with some very nice art but which feels like it’s way, way too late – the Juggernaut first joined the X-Men over twenty years ago, for heaven’s sake! Even his last run as a villain ended before Krakoa. This would be a good story if it wasn’t so detached from where the Juggernaut actually is right now, but… well, that’s a problem, isn’t it?
X-MEN #12. (Annotations here.) Mmm. I know Jed MacKay is Canadian, and I know this is kind of the status quo that was inherited from the previous editorial office, and I even think the new Vindicator is an interesting character, but… Canada is the North American country where the people who opposed Orchis are still in jail? Canada? Seriously? Because I don’t think you can do that story in 2025. At a bare minimum, it’s extremely tone deaf. At worst… look, I realise there are lead in times involved here and so forth, but my gut reaction to the whole angle was still a strong one. This sort of dissonance is likely to be an increasing problem for the X-books and Marvel in general in the coming months and years as the lead-in time issue fades away and the reality of writing X-Men stories for Disney under the second Trump administration sinks in – and I have a sinking feeling about how I’m going to feel about that. Maybe the creators will have a better idea of how to thread that needle. None of which is really a direct reflection on this issue, of course. But look, it’s the main thing I was left thinking about.
Hellverine #3 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
HELLVERINE vol 2 #3
“The Devil’s Orphan”
Writer: Benjamin Percy
Artist: Raffaele Ienco
Colour artist: Bryan Valenza
Letterer: Ravis Lanham
Editor: Mark Basso
HELLVERINE:
Mephisto has been taking locations where Akihiro suffered “great personal tragedy” and turning them into places that corrupt mutants in the vicinity and make them into serial killers. The incident at X-Force’s Greenhouse last issue was one of these places, the significance apparently being that Akihiro died there rather than anything to do with the mechanics of his resurrection.
It’s not entirely clear whether the people affected by these locations need to have any awareness of the relevant events; the people at the Greenhouse and Jasmine Falls presumably did, but it seems more likely that Mephisto is just somehow weaponising Akihiro’s emotional link to these places. At any rate, this means that Akihiro has to sort the problem out for magical reasons, rather than just handing the whole issue over to the experts.
X-Men #12 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X-MEN vol 7 #12
“Work Release”
Writer: Jed MacKay
Penciller: Netho Diaz
Inkers: Sean Parsons & John Livesay
Colourist: Fer Sifuentes-Sujo
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Tom Brevoort
THE X-MEN:
Cyclops. The alien mercenaries want him so that he can be used as a hostage to keep Phoenix under control – or at any rate, that’s what they understand that their unnamed employer wants. For once, he doesn’t really contribute a great deal to the X-Men’s victory, but he remains as calmly confident as ever while waiting for his team to sort it out. He offers to break Alpha Flight out of jail if they want, but seems to regard it as their choice whether to play along with Department H.
Juggernaut. He can be stopped with “inertia foam” – since he isn’t as powerful as he used to be, presumably he isn’t literally unstoppable any more. It’s also possible that the foam doesn’t completely stop him but slows his progress to such an extent that it comes to the same thing in the heat of battle.
Charts – 21 February 2025
In which a Canadian manages to lose a popularity contest with an American in 2025.
1. Kendrick Lamar – “Not Like Us”
The Superbowl half time show has never been a big deal in the UK before, but apparently this is a special year for some reason. “Not Like Us” reached number 6 on release last May and hung around for a decent amount of time – it had thirteen weeks in the top 40. It re-entered at 27 two weeks ago after the Grammys and climbed to 2 last week. Meanwhile, “Luther” climbs 10-4 and “All the Stars” climbs 11-5, so Kendrick has the maximum three tracks in the top 10.
Kendrick’s previous UK peak was number 4, shared by “Squabble Up” last year and, um, Taylor Swift’s “Bad Blood” from 2015. (“Luther” also climbs to that position this week.) The enduring popularity of “Not Like Us” would probably be galling for Drake at the best of times, but as it happens, he has a new album out this week. I’m sure we’ll be seeing the singles from that momentarily, right?
The X-Axis – w/c 17 February 2025
ASTONISHING X-MEN INFINITY COMIC #11. By Tim Seeley, Edoardo Audino, KJ Díaz & Clayton Cowles. So we have an absolutely ridiculous number of X-books out this week. Perhaps they’re trying to get through stuff before One World Under Doom gets fully under way. Maybe they needed to get some things done before the “X-Manhunt” crossover. Or maybe they knew they were announcing a bunch of cancellations this week and thought that if they put out ten X-books in a single week then the news would come as a blessed relief.
Look: I had no problem with the end of the Krakoan era. With the number of titles set there, I think there was a decent argument to be made that it had run its course, or at least that it was time to quit while they were ahead. And frankly, the post-Hickman back end of the Krakoan era was seriously patchy. Still, whatever came after it was always going to struggle to have the same impact. I think Tom Brevoort took a basically sensible approach in the circumstances by not even trying to compete on the “high concept” front and just going for a broad range of mostly standalone titles instead. I’m largely sympathetic to what the current office is trying to do, and there are some genuinely good books in the line. But we’ve got ten X-books this week and I’d struggle to recommend more than two, maybe three. That’s not a good hit rate.
X-Force #8 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
There are a ridiculous number of new titles out this week – eight ongoing titles in total, plus one miniseries – so I won’t be doing annotations for all of them.
X-FORCE vol 7 #8
“The Devil’s Lesson”
Writer: Geoffrey Thorne
Artist: Marcus To
Colour artist: Erick Arciniega
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Editor: Mark Basso
X-FORCE:
Forge. La Diabla spells out fairly directly the criticism that I figured the book was making of Forge: he has undue faith in his ability to create machines, and doesn’t pay proper attention to whether he’s building the right machine. In other words, he has such faith in his ability to come up with the answers that he doesn’t think carefully enough about whether he’s asking the right question.
Captain Britain. She can make magical protection wards using her sword.
Askani. The psychic regulators that Forge gave her last issue seem to work well.
Tank. He’s the first to attack “Colossus”, although the guy has threatened to kill everyone. Forge seems to think that Colossus should be of particular interest to him, though. He uses his weapon-creation powers to summon up knuckledusters to punch Colossus with; they seem to have some sort of energy attack. He remains mostly silent until directly challenged by Colossus to speak, at which point he expresses disdain for people who talk a lot, and insists quite confidently that this Colossus is an impostor. You could obviously read this as a hint that Colossus is inside the costume (though remember, we’ve also seen him playing long distance chess in X-Men).
Exceptional X-Men #6 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
There are a ridiculous number of new titles out this week – eight ongoing titles in total, plus one miniseries – so I won’t be doing annotations for all of them.
EXCEPTIONAL X-MEN #6
Writer: Eve L Ewing
Artist: Carmen Carnero
Colour artist: Nolan Woodard
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Editor: Tom Brevoort
THE CORE CAST:
Axo. He’s the only cast member sympathetic to the stated goals of Sheldon Xenos’ Verate app. He identifies with Xenos as a fellow visible mutant and feels that his teammates don’t know what this is like. He’s receptive to Xenos’ attempts to befriend and mentor him, and inclined to trust him. He understands why people are sceptical about the data privacy issues, but makes an impassioned argument (no doubt informed by his connection with Xenos) that everyone else is being too insular and paranoid in dismissing the possibilities offered by a fellow mutant and his technology.
Axo uses his powers to save Xenos from two apparent muggers; they turn out to be stooges at the end of the issue, but Axo’s powers apparently don’t pick up on this. It’s possible that the whole thing is an act and that Axo doesn’t realise this, but the idea seems to be that their true emotional state is consistent with what they seem to be doing. It’s still a risky play by Xenos, since Axo uses his powers to make them talk about how much they hate what they’re doing. Luckily, their answers are consistent with both their cover story and the truth.
Uncanny X-Men #10 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
There are a ridiculous number of new titles out this week – eight ongoing titles in total, plus one miniseries – so I won’t be doing annotations for all of them.
UNCANNY X-MEN vol 6 #10
“Off the Leash, part 2”
Writer: Gail Simone
Artist: Andrei Bressan
Colour artist: Matthew Wilson
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Tom Brevoort
THE X-MEN:
Nightcrawler. He regards Haven as a “home” rather than a “school”, “base” or “country”. If we leave aside for a moment the confusing explanations we’ve had about the nature of Rogue and Cyclops’ disagreement, the actual distinction between X-Men and Uncanny X-Men is that X-Men features a mission-focussed strike team operating out of a utilitarian base, while Uncanny X-Men features a quasi-family cast with none of those trappings. Rogue presumably considers that this is the real core of the X-Men. Kurt’s standpoint seems to be that this isn’t really the X-Men, and he rather likes it that way. He isn’t sure he wants to go back to something more formal and seems rather wistful about MacKenzie Deneer and her family.
Chelsea thinks Kurt is worried about the Outliers even before there’s any word of a problem at the mall, although he insists otherwise. He certainly seems to be putting on a cheerful face for her, and perhaps for himself.
Charts – 14 February 2025
Apparently we’re paying attention to the Superbowl half time show now, are we?
Four weeks. The logjammed top five which we’ve had of late is finally broken as a result of most of the tracks involved being hit by the downweighting rule, which was to be expected. We’ll come to their replacements in a bit.
7. Alex Warren – “Ordinary”
This is his first top 10 hit; his previous best was number 23 for “Carry You Home”, which rebounds to 28 this week. It’s a heartfelt ballad built to a familiar template, but pretty well done if you like that sort of thing. His other previous hit, “Burning Down”, re-enters at number 34.
The X-Axis – w/c 10 February 2025
ASTONISHING X-MEN INFINITY COMIC #10. By Tim Seeley, Edoardo Audino, K J Díaz & Clayton Cowles. Well, there’s some nice art on this. And it’s got beyond the improbable “Captain America doesn’t seem to have noticed that Juggernaut is an X-Man now” stuff to a more plausible angle of Cap not having worked much with this guy and being a bit sceptical about him. It’s also pretty well designed to give them a problem that their powers aren’t particularly well designed to solve. But it’s still a fairly basic “fight then team up” story which isn’t really getting to grips with the more interesting bits about Black Tom. And… you know, I’ll be honest, this is not the time to give me stories about Captain America, old-school beacon of decency. That character is going to be the walking dead until someone comes up with a story that adjusts to 2025 (and persuades Disney to publish it, and good luck with that).
X-MEN #11. (Annotations here.) Corsair returns from outer space, and everyone assumes that he’s there to get the X-Men’s help in fending off space mercenaries. But it’s a (slightly contrived) misunderstanding as they’re actually after Cyclops. Um… fine, I guess? The team banter in the background works for me, and while the book seems to be trying for broadly the same interpretation of Corsair that crashed and burned in Phoenix, it’s done here with a bit more balance that makes it easier to square with his history. It helps, of course, that in this story the idea that he’s only out for himself is just misdirection. But it’s still ultimately “space baddies attack for some reason”, and I’m not sure there’s an issue’s worth of material in this chapter.
