Betsy Braddock: Captain Britain #5 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
BETSY BRADDOCK: CAPTAIN BRITAIN #5
“Thou Art More Near Thy Death”
Writer: Tini Howard
Artist: Vasco Georgiev
Colourist: Erick Arciniega
Letterer: Ariana Maher
Design: Tom Muller with Jay Bowen
Editor: Sarah Brunstad
COVER / PAGE 1. Betsy and an assortment of other Captain Britains in action.
This is the final issue of the series, and this time round it doesn’t seem to be in line for a relaunch after the season break. While this book and Knights of X were more or less insta-cancelled, it’s only fair to note that between those two titles and Excalibur, Tini Howard’s run comes to 36 issues, which is a more than respectable total.
Taken together, this issue and the previous one show definite signs of racing to wrap up plots that were intended to play out over a much longer period, but that’s how these things tend to go.
PAGES 2-4. Captain Britain, S.T.R.I.K.E. and Excalibur make plans.
The pile of action figures and the doll’s house on the table belong to Maggie Braddock, who was using them to make plans for the attack on Morgan’s home at the end of the previous issue.
X-Force #41 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X-FORCE vol 6 #41
“The Ghost Calendars, part 2”
Writer: Benjamin Percy
Artist: Paul Davidson
Colour artist: Guru-eFX
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Design: Tom Muller with Jay Bowen
Editor: Mark Basso
COVER / PAGE 1: The makeshift X-Force on a mound of skulls – Colossus, Wolverine, Domino, Omega Red, elderly Kid Omega and alt-future Deadpool. (The real one was left behind last issue.)
PAGES 2-5. Beast buries clones of himself at world heritage sites.
It’s not entirely clear whether this is something Beast is actually up to now, or simply part of the back story of the future timeline, but it doesn’t really matter. Beast’s basic idea here is audaciously silly: the best way to make sure his clones survive into the future is to hide them within world heritage sites, because nobody’s going to mess about with them. Which kind of begs the question of how he got in in the first place, and how he expects that shallow grave in Stonehenge to go unnoticed, but let’s assume he’s bribing or mind controlling people or whatever.
Over in Wolverine, Beast was paranoid about his clones undermining his control, but presumably he’s not so bothered about these guys, because he doesn’t expect to be around. Or perhaps these are more spare clone bodies in which he can be resurrected with his own mind, as happened (somehow) in the epilogue of Wolverine #30. But probably not, because Quentin’s explanation last issue was that Beast “has planted various versions of himself to influence the future.” He described them as “experimental hatchlings and mutations”.
Charts – 16 June 2023
Intro.
1. Dave & Central Cee – “Sprinter”
Dave and Central Cee hang on for a second week, and the other two tracks from the “Split Decision” EP both climb – “Trojan Horse” moves 14-12, and “UK Rap” 17-14.
2. J Hus featuring Drake – “Who Told You”
More UK rap, but it’s not quite enough to shift Dave. This is comfortably J Hus’s biggest hit – he made it to number 5 in 2019 with “Must Be”, but he hasn’t made the top 10 since then. His only other top 10 hit was in 2017, when “Did You See” managed a week at 9. This is the second single from his upcoming album, following “It’s Crazy”, which could only manage number 15. Drake’s name is likely hurting here, even though his actual contribution is on autopilot. But the record itself is also one of J Hus’s more commercial tracks.
The X-Axis – w/c 12 June 2023
WOLVERINE #34. (Annotations here.) This is the heaviest week we’ve had in a while, which is not usually a good thing. It’s also a week with a lot of middle chapters where there isn’t much new to be said. This, for example, is part 4 of “Weapons of X”, with half an issue of action sequences in a curiously icebound North Sea, followed by a weird scene of Wolverine and Beast in a restaurant. Beast is a cartoon villain at this point, and you’d struggle to say there’s any real character interest to this, but there’s still something surreal about the way this arc is playing out that I do find quite endearing. Juan José Ryp is okay on the routine action scenes, but he excels when he’s asked to do something grotesque. Two pages of Beast repulsively eating a lobster is an unusual request, but Ryp can certainly pull it off.
X-MEN RED #12. (Annotations here.) Jon Ironfire fills in the back story of how he wound up on Mars, which means most of the issue is the White Sword and his 100 champions, plus a bit of Genesis. Al Ewing has done sterling work on this book in reinventing Arakko and making it much more interesting than the one-dimensional concept that had been established beforehand. As a result, he has got me interested in the characters on Arakko itself. But the White Sword and Genesis haven’t had the benefit of that work, and while they’re given a bit more nuance here than they had in the past, I can’t say I’m immediately interested in seeing more of either character. Honestly, we’ve barely seen Genesis when she wasn’t under the influence of Annihilation, and despite her prominence in “X of Swords”, her main function has been as something for Apocalypse to react to. I’m somewhat interested in knowing what Apocalypse has been up to. Genesis, though, still needs serious work to persuade me that there’s anything to her.
Wolverine #34 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers and page numbers go by the digital edition.
WOLVERINE vol 7 #34
“Weapons of X, part 4”
Writer: Benjamin Percy
Artist: Juan José Ryp
Colourist: Frank D’Armata
Letterer: Cory Petit
Design: Tom Muller with Jay Bowen
Editor: Mark Basso
COVER / PAGE 1: Wolverine attacks Beast’s giant walking skull base thingy.
For the purposes of this post, there isn’t very much to say about this issue – it’s pretty much self-explanatory, much of it is an extended action sequence, and there aren’t many references to other issues. None of that is a criticism, by the way; it’s just the sort of issue this is.
PAGES 2-7. Wolverine and Maverick get Jeff Bannister to call off the army.
This picks up from the end of the previous issue, where Beast had just blown up an oil pipeline between Norway and the UK, drawing the attention of both Wolverine and Maverick on the one hand, and Jeff Bannister on the other – who, for some reason, has been put in charge of a military unit. They’re attacking Wolverine because they’ve mistaken him for one of the Beast’s Wolverine clones.
X-Men: Red #12 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X-MEN: RED #12
“Storm Warning”
Writer: Al Ewing
Artist: Jacopo Camagni
Colour artist: Federico Blee
Letterer & production: Ariana Maher
Design: Tom Muller
Editor: Jordan D White.
COVER / PAGE 1. Jon Ironfire in the foreground, with Nova, Sunspot and Storm surrounding him, and an image of the White Sword in the background.
PAGES 2-6. Flashback: The White Sword frees Jon Ironfire and sends him to Arakko.
Essentially, the White Sword knows that Genesis’s forces are coming and that he’s going to wind up under her control. He sends Jon Ironfire away with his sword, partly to save Jon, partly to alert Arakko, and partly to keep the sword itself out of Genesis’s hands.
The White Sword and Genesis‘s back story was covered in “X of Swords”. Basically, the Sword and his personal army of 100 champions battled the enemy forces on Amenth for centuries, with the Sword using his omega healing powers to resurrect them all daily. On page 3, the White Sword refers to Genesis’s shifting alliances in the past. Originally, she led the forces of Arakko in their battle against the demons of Amenth – the Sword regards them as bringing up the rear. Later, she fell under the control of Annihilation, via its demonic helmet, and led the Amenth forces against the White Sword.
Charts – 9 June 2023
So, “Miracle” doesn’t hold on for a ninth week at number 1. Instead…
1. Dave & Central Cee – “Sprinter”
14. Dave & Central Cee – “Trojan Horse”
17. Dave & Central Cee – “UK Rap”
For once, this isn’t three tracks from an album. “Sprinter” was released as a regular single and dutifully sails to number 1 with 13.4 million streams in its first week. The other two tracks are from a surprise follow-up EP, “Split Decision”. “Sprinter” appears on the EP too, but the remaining track, “Our 25th Birthday”, gets disqualified by the three-song rule. As that title might suggest, even though Dave has been having hits for longer, they’re the same age – their birthdays are one day apart, and the EP was timed for that.
The X-Axis – w/c 5 June 2023
IMMORTAL X-MEN #12. (Annotations here.) The Colossus spotlight issue was always going to be interesting, given his weird status quo as the puppet of a Russian novelist. For the most part, Immortal has been content to leave that as a lurking issue in the background, but the premise suits Kieron Gillen’s style perfectly – in fact, it’s arguably more at home in this book than it was in X-Force. I’m still not sure how far we’re meant to take this narration as literally describing Piotr’s state of mind and how far we should see it as reflecting Scrivener’s, but that’s fine – it’s an interesting tension in itself. A bit more consistency on the ground rules between titles wouldn’t have gone amiss, but this works well. And again, Gillen and Lucas Werneck get plenty of visual interest into a very talky, political story – nearly half of this issue by page count consists of people talking in the Quiet Council chamber, but you wouldn’t know it. What’s surprising me somewhat is how quickly the Council seems to be falling apart after Sins of Sinister, but then maybe that’s in the nature of a system with no checks and balances that concentrated all the power in twelve secretive people. It works up until it doesn’t, at which point it goes really, really wrong, really, really fast.
X-MEN #23. (Annotations here.) One of those stories that exists largely to build up a new threat, in this case the Stark Sentinels. I’m not entirely sold on the concept of these things – the Iron Man iconography feels like it doesn’t have much to do with this book – but I can see the point that if you’re going to do the Sentinels, they need a bit of rehabbing. And borrowing some credibility from Iron Man might not be the worst way to do that. It makes for a decent enough fight scene, at any rate, though I’m not altogether sure it plays to Joshua Cassara’s strengths as an artist. . It’s the opening scene with Mother Righteous and Dr Stasis that works best for me, though, since the relationship between the various Sinister iterations seems like something worth exploring.
X-Men: Before the Fall – Mutant First Strike #1 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X-MEN: BEFORE THE FALL – MUTANT FIRST STRIKE #1
“Mutant First Strike”
Writer: Steve Orlando
Artist: Valentina Pinti
Colourist: Frank William
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Editor: Jordan D White
COVER / PAGE 1: The Krakoan rescue squad search underground.
This is the second of four Before the Fall one-shots, all written by regular X-book writers. The first one was effectively the final issue of Legion of X. This one is… not obviously connected to anything much, but maybe it’ll play into something down the line.
PAGES 2-3. Milford, New Hampshire gets hit by something mysterious.
It’s a real town, population circa 16,000. It used to be famous for its granite quarries, although they’re almost all closed now.
PAGE 4. Hostile news coverage of the Milford incident.
Basically, this is a false flag attack by Orchis and the media is blaming the mutants. It’s a story where the Krakoans show up and act heroically, they impress the locals, and it has no impact on the wider media narrative. In fairness, it appears that Judas Traveller has planted faked evidence of mutant DNA being present at the attack, so there is at least some legitimate reason for people to think it’s a mutant attacker (though no particular reason to associate them with Krakoa). The point, presumably, is to illustrate the effectiveness of Orchis’s control of the narrative (which isn’t even presented as being contested within the media) and perhaps to get Judas Traveller established as an Orchis character, since thus far he’s been seen in that role only in somewhat peripheral books.
Immortal X-Men #12 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
IMMORTAL X-MEN #12
“Part 12: The Idiot”
Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artist: Lucas Werneck
Colourist: David Curiel
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Editor: Jordan D White
COVER / PAGE 1: Colossus fights Kate – not a scene which happens in the issue, though there is conflict between the two.
PAGE 2. Data page: the opening of Scrivener’s latest chapter.
This, of course, is Colossus’s spotlight issue, and so we come to the status quo that this book inherited from X-Force. Colossus is currently under the control of Scrivener, a Russian reality warper who can apparently control people by writing them into his stories. How this works has been somewhat inconsistent between different books, but we’ll come back to that shortly.
The author identifies himself simply as “a scrivener” and gives his name in Russian at the end of the issue (as he often did in X-Force data pages). There is a passing mention later on that Piotr is ultimately under the control of his brother Mikhail Rasputin, which again is the established set-up from X-Force. X-Force also clearly establishes that Scrivener is himself a prisoner of Mikhail, which is why he describes himself as “in a Russian cell”.
