Immoral X-Men #1 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
IMMORAL X-MEN #1
“Sins of Sinister, part 4: The Bond Age”
Writer: Kieron Gillen
Penciller: Paco Medina
Inkers: Walden Wong & Victor Olazaba
Colour artists: Jay David Ramos & Chris Sotomayor
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Design: Jay Bowen
Editor: Jordan D White
IMMORAL X-MEN is the temporary Sins of Sinister re-branding of Immortal X-Men, obviously. The previous chapter of the story was in Nightcrawlers #1.
COVER / PAGE 1. Sinister-ised Emma Frost subdues the original Mr Sinister.
PAGES 2-3. Professor X wipes out a rebel cell before they can actually achieve anything.
He’s not actually named, but that’s the current Nick Fury leading the group.
New Essex is obviously a re-named New York (Essex also being an English location, just in case any American readers didn’t know that). We saw it in Sins of Sinister #1, but it wasn’t named there.
Charts – 17 February 2023
This is the week after the Brit Awards, which has… to be honest, almost no impact on the chart. With one exception, which we’ll come to. But it’s a quiet week otherwise.
Five weeks. The number 2 single is still “Escapism” by Raye, which has been there for five weeks too.
7. Harry Styles – “As It Was”
This is the one obvious impact of the Brits: last year’s Harry Styles number 1 rebounds into the top 10. It was still hanging around the fringes of the top 40 anyway – it’s actually a climber from 34 – but there’s no apparent reason for it to be here beyond the Brit Awards. Particularly since a lot of its chart points are coming from views of the video above. I’m not sure why, since I don’t think it’s an especially great live performance… but there you go.
Marauders #11 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
MARAUDERS vol 2 #11
“Pre-Genesis, part 1”
Writer: Steve Orlando
Artist: Eleonora Carlini
Colourist: Matt Milla
Letterer & production: Travis Lanham
Design: Tom Muller
Editor: Jordan D White
COVER / PAGE 1. Fang and Lockheed fight Brimstone Love.
PAGE 2. Data page. This is a reprint of page 8 of Legion of X #1, with Kate’s post-it note added. Here, it’s serving mainly to establish Kurt as Krakoa’s ethical philosopher.
PAGE 3. Kate contemplates the map.
Dead Mutant Cove is the surfing bay from X-Force #25-26. In this book, it was previously seen in issue #8, when Tempo and Theia went to watch the sunset there.
The map was in the mysterium puzzle box that Kate received in Marauders Annual #1, effectively the first issue of Orlando’s run.
“It seems the first blood spilled between us is yours.” This is what Cassandra said last issue when Kate defeated her and stranded her in the past – the immediately preceding line was “Good work, Sprite… proud of you.” Kate’s logic in that issue was that she was taking revenge for the death of her father (as one of the many slaughtered on Genosha at Cassandra Nova’s instance in New X-Men #115), in which case the first blood was obviously spilled by Cassandra. Kate is apparently dwelling on what Cassandra meant by her comment. Perhaps Cassandra was simply alluding to the time travel angle, which meant that Kate was objectively taking revenge for something that hadn’t happened yet, though the fact that our attention is being drawn to the comment suggests there’s more to it.
Wolverine #30 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
WOLVERINE vol 7 #30
“The Beast Agenda: Beast Must Die”
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: The Beast holding Wolverine’s adamantium skull (the one from the Wolverine he killed in issue #26).
PAGE 2. Wolverine washes in the sea.
I’m tempted to ask where all these seagulls came from, but Benjamin Percy’s stories have always been unique in showing Krakoa with actual wildlife.
“I haven’t trusted this island in a long time.” In Percy’s stories, Wolverine has been sceptical of Krakoa from the outset, at least in the sense of not buying into it as a utopia. On the other hand, he was actively accusing Krakoa of consuming Kid Omega in X-Force #30, and that was last August.
The flashback panels show Beast killing Wolverine at the Legacy House auction in issue #26.
X-Men #19 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X-MEN vol 6 #19
“Lord of the Brood, part 1”
Writer: Gerry Duggan
Artist: Stefano Caselli
Colour artist: Federico Blee
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Design: Tom Muller with Jay Bowen
Editor: Jordan D White
COVER / PAGE 1. The X-Men fight the Brood. The image continues on the cover of Captain Marvel #46, which is cross referenced on the recap page – but that strand of the storyline, “Revenge of the Brood”, actually began back in Captain Marvel #43. None of that is recapped in this issue, and in fairness, none of it directly matters yet. But here’s what happened:
In Captain Marvel #43, Captain Marvel receives a fragmented video message from Rogue. She asks the X-Men about it, and Cyclops and Jean Grey establish that Rogue has gone into space. Another distress call comes in, this time from Binary. (The current Binary is a duplicate Carol Danvers that gained sentience and has been around for several arcs now.) Captain Marvel leads a team into space to investigate, consisting of herself, Hazmat, Spider-Woman, Polaris, Wolverine (Laura), Psylocke and Hazmat. They find Rogue infected with the Brood.
Nightcrawlers #1 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
NIGHTCRAWLERS #1
“Sins of Sinister, part 3: Voices of Fire”
Writer: Si Spurrier
Artist: Paco Medina
Colourist: Jay David Ramos
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Design: Tom Muller with Jay Bowen
Editor: Jordan D White
NIGHTCRAWLERS is the temporary title of Legion of X during the Sins of Sinister crossover.
COVER / PAGE 1: The Nightcrawler chimeras emerge from the shadows, led by the Wolverine version.
PAGE 2. Vox Ignis explores the Sanctum Sanctorum.
The Sanctum Sanctorum is Dr Strange’s base, and while he’s been known to disguise it as abandoned from time to time, it seems to be genuinely abandoned here. Vox Ignis tells us that Mother Righteous has sent them “to scavenge for items of power” – we’ll see at the end of the issue that she apparently has a plan that involves using iconic superhero memorabilia to bring down Sinister, and that the Eye of Agamotto is on her list.
Banshee tells us that everyone occult has fled to Otherworld, the magical world from Excalibur and Knights of X – apparently they’ve given up on trying to liberate Earth. In Sins of Sinister #1, Storm mentioned that all the Spirits of Vengeance had left the Earth about five years before this point.
New Mutants #31-33
NEW MUTANTS vol 4 #31-33
“The Sublime Saga”
Writer: Charlie Jane Anders
Main story artist: Alberto Alburquerque
Main story colourist: Carlos Lopez
“Young Shela & Morgan” artists: Ro Stein & Ted Brandt
“Young Shela & Morgan” colourist: Tamra Bonvillain
Letterer & production: Travis Lanham
Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Editor: Sarah Brunstad
Now, I quite like Escapade as a concept. But I can see why this arc might annoy people. New Mutants has been drifting for a little while, wandering from arc to arc without all that very much to tie it all together, beyond drawing on the cast of the 1980s series. And to cap off the series, we have a three issue arc by a completely different creative team, which has not a great deal to do with anything that came before, and that foregrounds a completely new character.
It’s not exactly the last three issues of the series, since there’s a follow-up mini, New Mutants: Lethal Legion, starting in March. But it’s fair to say that this is not a New Mutants story in any terribly meaningful way. Mirage and Karma show up at the start of part 1 to lament the state of creative writing on Krakoa. Wolfsbane’s in the whole thing, but she doesn’t really do a great deal (and certainly nothing that has anything to do with her ongoing storyline about her missing son). Martha Johanssen is in it a lot, and she’s at least a regular supporting character. But… no, it’s not a New Mutants story, let’s be honest.
Charts – 10 February 2023
The top three has now been static for a month, which is… exciting…?
1. Miley Cyrus – “Flowers”
Four weeks. It’s still miles ahead of anything else, and it’s holding Raye’s “Escapism” – a former number 1 – in the number 2 place. Of somewhat more interest is the fact that SZA’s “Kill Bill” has spent five straight weeks at number 3. That’s not quite the biggest hit of her career, if you count her guest appearance on Doja Cat’s “Kiss Me more” – which had a total of six weeks at number 3 – but it’s far and away her breakout hit single as a solo act.
8. PinkPantheress – “Boy’s A Liar”
Officially, this is a re-entry for the track that spent a week at number 38 at the end of January, but the version now being pushed is the Ice Spice remix. Clearly she’s making a big difference here, but since it hasn’t officially been nominated as the lead version, she doesn’t get a chart credit.
Storm & The Brotherhood of Mutants #1 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
STORM & THE BROTHERHOOD OF MUTANTS #1
“Storm’s Seven”
Writer: Al Ewing
Artist: Paco Medina
Colourist: Jay David Ramos
Letterer: Ariana Maher
Design: Tom Muller with Jay Bowen
Editor: Jordan D White
STORM & THE BROTHERHOOD OF MUTANTS. This is X-Men Red, re-titled for the duration of the “Sins of Sinister” crossover. In practice, this is X-Men Red #10A. It’s part 2 of the crossover.
By the way, my plan for this year is to generally limit annotations to ongoing titles (or books like this that are stand-ins for them), partly so that I can make some time to catch up on reviews. I’m making an exception for Sabretooth partly because I’ve already started it and partly because it’s really good, but I’m going to skip over Bishop: War College and save that one for reviews.
COVER / PAGE 1. Storm being generally impressive amidst what’s presumably meant to be the rubble of Arakko.
The logo has a Sinister diamond in Storm’s name, but don’t worry, fans, she’s still herself. As pointed out in Sins of Sinister #1, Sinister can’t take advantage of Storm’s resurrections to mess with her mind, because she renounced the option of resurrection in order to prove herself to the Arakkii in X-Men Red #4.
Charts – 3 February 2023
It’s a fairly quiet week. The top 5 is static, which means the number 1 is still…
… which has double the points of the number 2 single as it spends a third week at number one. It’s a good record but I’m surprised it’s doing quite this well – it’s certainly not simply Miley’s star power, since her previous number 1 was back in 2013. It does stand out, genre-wise, in the current chart, which can’t hurt.
11. KSI featuring Oliver Tree – “Voices”
Well, that remix thing finally gave Oliver Tree a mainstream hit, so let’s have a go at capitalising! And that means… a collaboration with KSI? Okay, then. It actually enters one place below “Miss You”, which is still in the top 10 after a total of 11 weeks. The song itself is fairly conventional; the video is – well, Oliver Tree’s an idiosyncratic director, and he’s evidently not minded to shift on that. I can see this making the top ten, though. And it doesn’t have any of that awkwardness of cloning a bootleg remix…
