Dark X-Men #1 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
DARK X-MEN vol 2 #1
“There is a Kingdom” / “Do You Love Me”
Writer: Steve Foxe
Artist (“There is a Kingdom”): Jonas Scharf
Artist (“Do You Love Me”): Nelson Dániel
Colour artist: Frank Martin
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Editor: Jordan D White
DARK X-MEN. This is the second Dark X-Men miniseries, but it has no connection to the first, which was a Dark Reign tie-in about Norman Osborn’s rival X-Men team.
COVER / PAGE 1. The cast pose. We’ll get to who all these people are shortly.
PAGE 2. Madelyne Pryor dreams.
Madelyne became the ruler of Limbo in New Mutants #25-28.
The Grim Reaper figure in her dream is holding the headdress from Havok’s costume.
PAGES 3-4. Alex Summers and Madelyne Pryor wake up.
The Limbo Embassy. This improbable location was debuted in the epilogue to Dark Web: Finale #1, after Madelyne Pryor regained control of Limbo and put a stop to its attacks on New York (even though she’d been complicit in them to start with). According to that issue, Krakoa helped talk the USA into accepting the embassy, but Madelyne more or less threatened to keep causing trouble unless the Limbo Embassy was tolerated in New York.
X-Men Red #14 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X-MEN RED vol 2 #14
“To War We March”
Writer: Al Ewing
Artist: Yildiray Cinar
Colour artist: Federico Blee
Letterer: Ariana Maher
Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Editor: Jordan D White
COVER / PAGE 1. Storm and her allies pose for action, with the giant statues of Apocalypse and Genesis from the Valley of the Fallen in the background. The stone texture is there, but the slight colouring and the positioning makes them look more like figures of the characters themselves.
PAGE 2. Tribute to John Romita.
PAGE 3. Genesis wakes Arakko.
The narrator. The start of page 19 has the narration continuing directly from the extract from The New History of Arakko on the previous page. So apparently all of the narration is from that source, and it’s the voice of Xilo.
“Genesis reaches out with her mind, with her mutant weapon…” Genesis’s powers have never been very clearly defined. But in Hickman’s X-Men #13 (2020), she’s shown using her powers to conjure up plants that ensnare enemy monsters, so presumably the idea is not that Genesis has telepathic powers, but rather that she has plant control abilities. There may be a suggestion here that her powers brought Okkara – the island that later split into Arrako and Krakoa – to life in the first place. Note that Xilo calls her “the mother of Arakko”.
Arakko has been dormant since the attack by Uranos during A.X.E.: Judgment Day.
Charts – 11 August 2023
For the first time in a while, this is a dead week for the singles chart.
1. Dave & Central Cee – “Sprinter”
That’s 10 weeks, tying with Miley Cyrus’s “Flowers” as the longest running number one of the year. In theory, the next target is Ed Sheeran’s “Bad Habits”, which had 11 weeks in 2021. But “Sprinter” is due to be hit by the downweighting rule next week, so in practical terms it has no prospect of getting there. The top three is all non-movers – in fact, there are six non-movers in the top 10 – so Billie Eilish has a reasonable shot of taking the number 1 by default next week.
20. Doja Cat – “Paint the Town Red”
Doja Cat’s previous single “Attention” stalled at number 37, but probably achieved its actual goal of signalling that she’s tacking away from pop. That means we can follow it up with a track with a nice familiar sample – “Walk On By”, which reached number 9 for Dionne Warwick in 1964. Warwick’s biggest UK hit was actually “Heartbreaker”, which got to number 2 in 1982. “Walk On By” has also been a hit single for the Stranglers (number 21 in 1978), Sybil (number 6 in 1990) and Gabrielle (number 7 in 1997). The 1962 top 5 hit of the same name by Leroy Van Dyke is a different song entirely.
The X-Axis – w/c 7 August 2023
X-MEN UNLIMITED INFINITY COMIC #99. By Alex Segura, Alberto Alburquerque and Pete Pantazis. The end of the Polaris four-parter, which turns out to be pretty straightforward, really. Mesmero wants to prove something because he sees his first encounter with Polaris as the only time he was really an A-lister. For reasons that aren’t exactly clear, he controls Dani and gets her to do the attacking rather than just mind-controlling Lorna directly – um, why is Dani, who actually has psychic powers, an easier target than Lorna? And there’s a fairly routine “overcoming our past” bit at the end. Inoffensive, I guess, but it only touches on any of the themes it raised, and it’s nothing you need to go out of your way to read.
IMMORTAL X-MEN #14. (Annotations here.) Okay, after a slightly shaky start Fall of X seems to be hitting its stride. We’re no longer doing the spotlight issues here – instead, we’re following the former members of the Quiet Council, or at least those who aren’t off in their own books. Professor X is still keeping his silent vigil on Krakoa – and Gillen and Werneck demonstrate that they’re good enough to spend five pages recapping the plot and still make it interesting through the montage approach and the intercutting with his blank reactions. Sebastian Shaw has belatedly figured out that he’s been outwitted by Mother Righteous, because he doesn’t understand magic as well as he thinks he does, and he sets about trying to rectify the situation. And Exodus gets to do… well, I mean, of course his reaction to being dumped in a desert with the civilian population of Krakoa is to do Moses. The guy calls himself Exodus. This is the role he’s always wanted. Moreover… all this does read like a finite story rather than a long-term return to the 198, which is what worried me initially. So that’s reassuring.
Children of the Vault #1 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
CHILDREN OF THE VAULT #1
“Tomorrow’s Children”
Writer: Deniz Camp
Artist: Luca Maresca
Colourist: Carlos Lopez
Letterer: Cory Petit
Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Editor: Sarah Brunstad
COVER / PAGE 1. The Children of the Vault – specifically, Serafina, Perro and Fuego – stand triumphant over Cable and Bishop.
PAGES 2-4. The Children of the Vault emerge from suspended animation.
This sequence pretty much assumes that you’ve been reading X-Men and know what’s going on. For anyone who doesn’t:
The Children of the Vault debuted in X-Men #188 (2006), by Mike Carey and Chris Bachalo. The basic idea is that they were an attempt to create vastly evolved humans by having them develop in a bubble society within a time distortion vault, so that centuries of development pass for them without any significant time passing on Earth. They’re not mutants, they’re technologically enhanced posthumans. Traditionally, the Children of the Vault believe that they’re the destined inheritors of the world. During Jonathan Hickman’s run, we established that they tend to create endless iterations of the same characters, supposedly always working towards improvement.
Immortal X-Men #14 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
IMMORTAL X-MEN #14
“Sympathy for the Scarlet Witch”
Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artist: Lucas Werneck
Colourists: David Curiel & Erick Arciniega
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Editor: Jordan D White
COVER / PAGE 1. Professor X on the beach of Krakoa, confronting the ruins of a half-buried Sentinel. Presumably a Planet of the Apes riff.
PAGE 2. John Romita tribute.
PAGE 3. Professor X stares into space.
The very fact that we’re seeing him without his Cerebro helmet is a symbol of the Krakoan era being over.
“X weeks later. Krakoa, population: 1.” The “X weeks later” tag also appears in X-Men #25 (well, as “X weeks ago”, but same difference). Oddly, this week’s Children of the Vault #1 just opts for “weeks later”. X-Men: Hellfire Gala 2023 ends with a caption noting the population of Krakoa as 1.
PAGE 4. Professor X recalls Destiny asking him to get Mystique to safety if something happens at the Gala.
This puts a different complexion on the scene at page 57 of Hellfire Gala 2023 where Professor X very aggressively tries to force Mystique to go through the gates, apparently giving her a stroke and prompting her to fall to her death. Destiny has very explicitly asked for this.
Charts – 4 August 2023
Not even Barbie can shift this. Well, not yet.
1. Dave & Central Cee – “Sprinter”
That’s nine weeks – it needs one more week to match Miley Cyrus’s “Flowers” from earlier in the year. It’s not due to get hit by the downweighting rule last week because it isn’t far enough past its peak yet, so it’s got a decent chance of getting there. It’s not a track I would have predicted having this much sustained popularity, but there you go. Central Cee has another track out this week too, but we’ll get to that later.
It’s holding off three Barbie tracks – Billie Eilish at 2, Dua Lipa at 3 and Nicki Minaj & Ice Spice at 4, with Charli XCX also entering the top 10 at number 9.
10. Travis Scott featuring Drake – “Meltdown”
13. Travis Scott featuring Playboi Carti – “Fein”
21. Travis Scott – “Hyaena”
That’s the maximum three tracks from Travis Scott’s fourth album “Utopia”. It’s his first UK number 1 album, but since the chart positions for the previous three were 22, 19 and 3, it’s not a huge surprise. He’s not a consistent singles act in the UK, despite having a few big hits to his credit (his peak was number 2 in 2019 with “Highest in the Room”). The lead single for this album was “K-Pop”, which got to number 24 last week, and gets immediately shouldered aside by these tracks.
The X-Axis – w/c 31 July 2023
X-MEN UNLIMITED INFINITY COMIC #98. By Alex Segura, Alberto Alburquerque & Pete Pantazis. Oh, okay, we’re not doing the obvious arch-enemy for Polaris after all. So the issue of ignoring what happened to Malice in Excalibur doesn’t arise. Instead, we’re going even further back to the villain from Lorna’s first appearance from the Silver Age. Which was originally meant to be Magneto, but he was retconned into being a robot in that story. So instead it’s good old Mesmero, which I guess does make the point that Lorna has been stuck in this kind of storyline literally since day 1. The downside is… well, it’s Mesmero, who’s always been one-dimensional, and probably hasn’t even crossed Lorna’s mind in about 50 years of publication time. And we don’t get much in this issue to explain why he ought to be a big deal – and yes, he does need the help. Still, I get the logic of what we’re doing here.
X-MEN #25. (Annotations here.) “Grindhouse of X”, it says on the recap page, and … I dunno, I think the tone here lands a lot closer to grimdark than the gleefulness that that implies. I’m kind of annoyed, as well, that they sold the premise in Hellfire Gala as “all the mutants get marched through the gates”, and now – sure, there’s always going to be a few stragglers, but we seem to have enough still lying around to fill entire detention centres, and that feels too much like backtracking. The Ms Marvel death also feels like a mess, where the X-books are acting as if it played out entirely differently from the way it did, allowing it to be handwaved away. Anyway, this is a double-length issue devoted to setting up the Fall of X status quo, which (in the end) it does well enough. Despite X-Men ostensibly being a team book, it’s really a Kate Pryde story as we have her going back into depressing and reverting to the quasi-ninja Shadowcat… oh god, must we… Shadowkat persona. The prologue flashback with Kitty and her rabbi is probably the best thing in the book. I get what they’re doing, and the art’s pretty good, but… no, this isn’t really doing much for me. I’m not sold on the direction and there are just too many irritating points of detail to boot.
House to Astonish Presents: The Lighting Round Episode 15
The mystery of Scourge deepens while Atlas gets drunk, and we look at Thunderbolts issues 40-42 (with a brief detour into Avengers 32 for good measure) and the T-Bolts begin the twisty, turny climb towards issue 50. It’s all go around here!
The podcast is here, or available via the player below. Let us know what you think, in the comments, on Twi… *sigh*, X, via email or on our Facebook fan page. And a shirt? Might we interest you? Very chic!
Astonishing Iceman #1 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
ASTONISHING ICEMAN #1
“Out Cold, part 1”
Writer: Steve Orlando
Artist: Vincenzo Carratù
Colourist: Java Tartaglia
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Editor: Mark Basso
COVER / PAGE 1. Just a straightforward shot of Iceman in action. This is a five-issue miniseries – since it’s part of Fall of X and it’s written by Steve Orlando, I’m going to assume it’s a core title.
PAGE 2. Montage of Iceman sightings.
As in X-Men #25, several weeks have passed since Orchis attacked the Hellfire Gala in X-Men: Hellfire Gala 2023, where Iceman was apparently killed by Nimrod. However, along with a pro-Orchis voice over, this is a montage of generally positive images of Iceman being sighted doing good old fashioned superhero stuff. Considering this is Fall of X, the tone is really very upbeat, which is doubtless the point.
