Wolverine #5 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
WOLVERINE vol 8 #5
“The Call of the Adamantine”
Writer: Saladin Ahmed
Artist: Martín Cóccolo
Colour artist: Bryan Valenza
Letterer: Cory Petit
Editor: Mark Basso
This one won’t take long.
WOLVERINE
He’s able to resist the Adamantine’s attempt to take over his mind, which none of its other victims have been able to do. It’s not clear whether this is something to do with Wolverine’s own powers or strength of will, or whether it’s to do with the Wendigo interrupting the process.
Wolverine tries to get the Wendigo to abandon him and escape, rather than fight Deathstrike and the Constrictor. He seems confident that the Wendigo will lose that fight. Fortunately, Nightcrawler shows up to rescue him.
SUPPORTING CAST
Leonard the Wendigo comes to Wolverine’s aid against the Adamantine. Last issue, Wolverine told him to stay behind at the cabin and hide while he investigated an incident (which turned out to be Constrictor’s escape). Apparently the Wendigo followed him after all. Even though he can only say his own name and “Logan”, he seems fiercely protective of Wolverine, though it’s only Nightcrawler who seems to pick up on this.
Uncanny X-Men #8 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
UNCANNY X-MEN vol 6 #8
“Raid on Graymalkin, part four: Finale”
Writer: Gail Simone
Artist: Javier Garrón
Colourist: Matthew Wilson
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Tom Brevoort
This is the final part of the “Raid on Graymalkin” crossover, continuing from X-Men #9.
THE X-MEN (LOUISIANA):
Rogue argues with Cyclops mainly about his approach to Professor X, even though their decisions on everything else seem almost identical. She’s still outraged that Cyclops is willing to leave Professor X in Graymalkin, even when the Professor himself agrees. Her strength of feeling seems to be in part because she views Professor X as the “first” person who “believed in me”, something which probably wouldn’t go down well with her adoptive mother Mystique. Bizarrely, she yells at Cyclops for having Magneto on his team, even though he’s been on the X-Men’s side for years – maybe she’s just reaching for something to say.
Gambit, Wolverine, Nightcrawler and Jubilee are all here but don’t do much to stand out.
The X-Axis – w/c 30 December 2024
ASTONISHING X-MEN INFINITY COMIC #5. By Alex Paknadel, Phillip Sevy, Michael Bartolo & Clayton Cowles. I think this arc was more successful with the scenes about radicalisation of Paige’s brother. Once it gets past that, it finds itself in rather more familiar territory of grass roots violence, with the angle of budget cyborg enhancements. And right now, those two aspects don’t feel like they’re tying together properly, although I think the idea is meant to be that it plays into the path being self-destructive. Still, I do like the two plot threads coming together at the end of the issue, so maybe we’ll get a satisfying finish.
X-FACTOR #6. (Annotations here.) This is one of the stronger issues in the series, and it’s probably not a coincidence that it goes back to the Mutant Underground storyline from issue #2, which was also one of the stronger issues. X-Factor has struggled throughout its run to find a tone that works for it, mainly because it keeps trying to work in broad comedy angles that aren’t very funny and undercut the more dramatic scenes. Perhaps the main lesson to take from issues #2 and #6 is that X-Factor works best when it just plays the concept mostly straight. Jovius’ back story doesn’t really make sense in terms of Krakoa and its fall, but that doesn’t especially bother me, since it’s fairly clear that Bruin’s account is at best wildly incomplete. And the reveal of what he’s up to now does work. As for the Mutant Underground itself, it remains an odd amalgam of amateur radicals and experienced moderates, but that feels like something with potential. Mainly, though, this is just an issue that has most of its focus on the aspects of the book that work, and character moments that play to Bob Quinn’s strengths on art.
Charts – 3 January 2025
Welcome to the annual dead chart. The Christmas songs are all gone (well, aside from Tom Grennan at number 30) and a torrent of re-entries replace them, without much in the way of actual new music just yet.
1. Gracie Abrams – “That’s So True”
So, Gracie Abrams again. This was number 1 for five weeks before Christmas, spent three weeks being shunted down the chart, and now rebounds from number 21 to claim a sixth week at number 1. She also has “I Love You I’m Sorry” at 36 and “Close to You” at 37.
20. PAWSA & The Adventures of Stevie V – “Dirty Cash (Money Talks)”
Deadpool / Wolverine #1 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
DEADPOOL / WOLVERINE #1
“The Secret Lives”
Writer: Benjamin Percy
Artist: Joshua Cassara
Colour artist: Guru-eFX
Letterer: Joe Sabino
Editor: Mark Basso
Well goodness, this is just like old times, isn’t it? This is in fact the first Deadpool / Wolverine book… with that specific combination of words in the title. In the last year alone, we’ve had the miniseries Deadpool & Wolverine: WWIII, the Infinity Comic Deadpool vs Wolverine: Slash ‘Em Up and the back-up serial Weapon X-Traction. Fortunately, this issue shipped on 1 January 2025, and so we can say with confidence that it is at least the first Deadpool & Wolverine series of the year.
You’ll be pleased to hear that this is not an issue that calls for much annotation, which would, after all, rather miss the point of publishing a Deadpool / Wolverine book.
DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE
The book seems to be going with the established routine where Deadpool wants to be best friends and Wolverine wants the annoying guy to go away. However, as soon as he steals Sven Sunguard’s metal teeth (see below), Deadpool falls under some sort of influence, and starts acting weird – which is to say, quietly and rationally. This version of Deadpool thinks that Wolverine will be under the same influence and assumes that Wolverine already knows the mission they’re supposed to be carrying out together. This out of character behaviour is what motivates Wolverine to stick around. (A very similar plot device was used in WWIII, but ssshhhh.)
X-Force #7 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X-FORCE vol 7 #7
“The Devil in Heaven”
Writer: Geoffrey Thorne
Artist: Jim Towe
Colour artist: Erick Arciniega
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Editor: Mark Basso
X-FORCE
In the previous issue, La Diabla attacked Forge in his VR environment, and got driven out. The issue ended with Forge and Tank finding Captain Britain and Askani hovering in the air in a trance, with little symbols in front of their faces, and surrounded by some sort of energy effect.
This issue starts by jumping back a few minutes to show what was happening with Betsy and Rachel during the previous issue. Specifically, on page 1, Forge is muttering the same dialogue that he was delivering in the VR world on page 18 of the previous issue, while Rachel and Betsy are off some sort of communal mental projection as they appeared on page 13 of that issue. The end of issue #6 falls somewhere just before page 14 of this issue.
Captain Britain has created a private mindscape for her and Rachel to rest in between missions; it’s supposed to be the area around the Braddock Lighthouse, and this story follows Krakoan-era Excalibur in placing it in Cornwall. Betsy appears in this landscape wearing her purple costume from when she first joined the X-Men. When she returns to the mindscape at the end of the issue to fight La Diabla, instead of appearing as Captain Britain, she appears as Outback-era Psylocke in the armoured costume. (She also says that the Outback would have been her candidate for a happy place.)
X-Factor #6 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X-FACTOR vol 5 #6
“Traitors”
Writer: Mark Russell
Artist: Bob Quinn
Colour artist: Jesus Aburtov
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Editor: Darren Shan
The previous issue ended with Polaris showing up to rescue the team from Darkstar’s getaway helicopter; apparently, Polaris was willing to hand Darkstar and her X-Term men over to the authorities, or at least didn’t put up any resistance to X-Factor arresting them. So the story picks up with X-Factor back at the Nevermor military base, and X-Term as prisoners.
X-FACTOR.
Havok breaks off from the group to try and speak to Polaris and Bruin before they leave, and thank them for helping. He also wants to know how they “survive[d]” after the end of issue #2, when the X-Factor rescued him from the Mutant Underground and Polaris chose to stay – granted that she was being restrained by armed gunmen at the time, it’s not obvious that she was in any immediate danger of being killed, and Havok’s brooding in issue #3 seemed to assume that she was alive. His conversation with Polaris in this issue seems to have him wanting to break X-Factor away from the government, although matters seem to be left with X-Factor refusing an order to go hunting for McCloud and returning home.
Daredevil Villains #43: The Crusher
DAREDEVIL #119 (March 1975)
“They’re Tearing Down Fogwell’s Gym!”
Writer: Tony Isabella
Artist: Bob Brown
Inker: Don Heck
Letterer: Dave Hunt
Colourist: Stan Goldberg
Editor: Len Wein
We’ve skipped issues #116-117, an Owl story which ends Steve Gerber’s run with a final trip back to San Francisco, in order that the west coast supporting cast can be formally written out. The Black Widow decides to stay there, but the book finds it remarkably difficult to give her the boot, and we’ll see her one more time before she officially departs. We’ve also skipped issue #118, which is a Gerry Conway fill-in issue featuring the Circus of Crime. It also introduces Blackwing as a new member of the Circus, but he gets a solo story shortly, so we’ll come back to him for that.
With that, we’ve arrived at the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it Tony Isabella run, which lasted a whole five issues before he was removed from the book. Most of it is a HYDRA story, but Isabella kicks off by taking Daredevil back to his roots.
Charts – 27 December 2024
The final chart of the year covers the streaming period from 20 to 26 December, which means it covers the heaviest days of Christmas streaming. The one post-Christmas day makes no difference to that, and what we get is a chart in which the Christmas records surge even further, shouldering everything else aside. On top of that, the two biggest non-Christmas records both get hit by the downweighting rule this week, and drop straight out of the top 20 as a result. It’s a weird chart.
This is reassuringly normal, though. “Last Christmas” spends its third week at number 1 this year, and its tenth in total. It will be gone next week. So will all of the new entries listed below – and there are new entries, courtesy of the festive playlists.
30. Darlene Love – “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)”
This charted for the first time in 2018, when it reached an all-time peak of 22. It’s been back most years since (2020 was the exception), usually landing in the 29-31 range. Love’s only other solo hit in the UK was “All Alone on Christmas” from the soundtrack of Home Alone 2, which reached number 31 at Christmas 1992. She was also the lead singer on “He’s a Rebel” by the Crystals (number 19 in 1962). I say “by the Crystals”, but “credited to the Crystals” would be more accurate – that particular track was recorded by Love’s group the Blossoms under their name because the real Crystals were off on tour at the time.
The X-Axis – w/c 23 December 2024
You’d think Christmas Day might be a quiet one for new releases, but here we are…
ASTONISHING X-MEN INFINITY COMIC #4. By Alex Paknadel, Phillip Sevy, Maichael Bartolo & Clayton Cowles. And yes, this came out on Monday, I know. Anyway, the link between the two plot threads is someone who’s been giving shonky cyborg upgrades to low-rent Purifer types, which makes sense. Still, the main interest in this arc lies more in the material about radicalisation than the actual plot, and this issue (unavoidably, for plot reasons) tacks away from that to some interrogation cliches with Sean and some more sentimental stuff with Paige’s brother. All fine as far as it goes, but it’s more on the mechanical side of this story.
X-MEN #9. (Annotations here.) Part 3 of “Raid on Graymalkin”, and I’m kind of fascinatined that both books have wound up doing partial fill-in art on what you’d think would be a priority storyline. Then again, I still see this arc as something of a distraction from the more interesting things going on in both books because – repeat after me – I’m still not sold on the Graymalkin prison as bringing anything new to the table. I guess I’m mildly interested in why Scurvy is on their side, and I’m cerainly interested in Scott’s rejection of Professor X – though I really don’t buy him being willing to leave Xavier in this particular jail. There are a few moments with the two casts meeting, but there are also a lot of characters running around and, aside from the Outliers, seeing them interact with one another isn’t really that much of a novelty.
