X-Men Unlimited Infinity Comic #44-49: X-Men Green III
X-MEN UNLIMITED INFINITY COMIC #44-49
Writer: Steve Orlando
Artist: Emilio Laiso
Colourist: Rachelle Rosenberg
Letterer: Joe Sabino
Editor: Jordan D White
For those of you who aren’t subscribed to Marvel Unlimited – or who just aren’t interested in reading all six or so Infinity Comics that come out each week – X-Men Unlimited remains the closest the line comes to a core title. There are Unlimited titles for the Avengers and Spider-Man books too, but they’re peripheral – the Spider-Man one is quite keen on doing Spider-Verse stories, for example. X-Men Unlimited is like that about half of the time, but also has running stories that it returns to, the main one being “X-Men Green”.
The tone of these stories has noticeably shifted from the first arc with Gerry Duggan. By accident or design, that arc winds up trying to have its cake and eat it, by being half-heartedly disapproving of Nature Girl’s eco-terrorism, but with a definite overtone of “yeah but corporations amirite”. We’re meant to basically agree with Krakoa letting them escape, after all. Over the following arcs – this is the third – the tone has shifted emphatically to “dangerous lunatics”. Of the group, only Nature Girl is really even motivated by environmentalism, and even she has lost touch with reality, allowing her to be manipulated by Hordeculture (who, for the most part, are played as straight villains in this story). Sauron has weird obsessions about avenging the dinosaurs, and Curse just likes having an excuse to destroy stuff.
Knights of X
KNIGHTS OF X #1-5
Writer: Tini Howard
Artist: Bob Quinn
Colourist: Erick Arciniega
Letterer: Ariana Maher
Editor: Sarah Brunstad
So before you ask, yes, this did finish a while back, but the collected edition isn’t out till December, and that makes this Still Timely. Somewhat. My plan right now is to clear the backlog of minis and completed Infinite Comics that I haven’t written about yet, and then go back and catch up on ongoing titles that I’m writing about as they come out anyway – but since Knights of X wound up being a five issue series, let’s cover it here.
Marvel’s approach to this series is… let’s say confusing, shall we? It’s the sequel to Excalibur, a book that had its fans, but I had a few problems with. Part of that was that magic stories have never really been my thing where the X-books are concerned, and that’s just a matter of taste. But part of it was that the book always rang painfully false to me when it went anywhere near Britain, and since a major part of the plot was “who gets to be Captain Britain”, that was a big problem.
So Knights of X, refocussing the book simply on Otherworld, seemed to me like a good move. It was focussing on the book’s strengths and letting it get on with some world building. It was clearly intended to be an ongoing title, and it winds up being cancelled after five issues. Okay. These things happen. But… it’s then being relaunched again in 2023, with the same writer, as Betsy Braddock: Captain Britain. That’s just weird. That’s mixed signals if ever I saw them.
Charts – 18 November 2022
No. Not that. Not now…
But first… Taylor Swift gets her fourth week at number one. This has grown on me, to be honest. It is a return to Taylor Swift banging on about fame, but it’s a better version of that song than many of her previous singles in the same vein.
We’re going a long way down for the first new entry…
18. Bugzy Malone & TeeDee – “Out of Nowhere”
Bugzy Malone had another track get to number 39 in September, but this matches his all-time peak of 18 with “M.E.N. III”. It’s a weird track – more mainstream dance than typical UK rap, but a bit too wonky to quite count as that either.
Immortal X-Men #8 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
IMMORTAL X-MEN #8
“Part 8: The Curious Case of Dr Essex and Mr Sinister”
Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artist: Michele Bandini
Colourist: Davie Curiel
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Design: Tom Muller, Jay Bowen & Kieron Gillen
Editor: Jordan D White
COVER / PAGE 1: An ageing photo of Irene and Raven in Victorian times.
PAGE 2. Data page – a quote supposedly from Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900). “Fate is the word cowards use to describe the things they’re too weak to change.”
It comes from X-Men Legacy #214, in which Mr Sinister attempted to take over Professor X’s body, in a scheme which is referred to later in the issue. Sinister claims that, because of his tinkering with Xavier’s DNA, Xavier is fated to become his new body; Xavier defeats him, delivering the line and attributing it to Nietzsche. In fact, I can’t find any reference to this quote on Google that isn’t either referring to the X-Men Legacy issue, or including it in a list of inspirational quotes that seems to postdate the Legacy issue. (The inspirational version has it as “things we’re too weak to change.”)
Here, of course, the quote takes on a context of referring to Destiny, whose very name is an ironic contradiction of the fact that she devotes her life to trying to use her foreknowledge of the future to alter it.
PAGE 3-5. 1943. Mystique breaks into Alamagordo.
Alamagordo. Alamagordo is a city in New Mexico, but the local air force base was also the site of the world’s first nuclear test, in 1945. X-Men #12 (1965) establishes that Professor X’s father worked there, the original idea being to imply that Professor X had become one of the first mutants as a result of his father’s exposure to radiation.
Charts – 11 November 2022
It’s another week when a major album release dominates the singles chart. But first…
That’s three weeks, which is her longest run at number 1. Her only previous number 1 single is 2017’s “Look What You Made Me Do”, which lasted two weeks. (Yes, really. Forty-three top 40 hits, and that’s the only other one that made number one.)
3. Drake & 21 Savage – “Rich Flex”
5. Drake & 21 Savage – “Major Distribution”
7. Drake & 21 Savage – “Circo Loco”
That’s the maximum three tracks from their album “Her Loss”, which enters the album chart at 1. It’s Drake’s second album of the year, after “Honestly Nevermind”, which reached number 2 in June. That got three singles into the top 10 as well, but the highest got to number 7, and that one had… er, 21 Savage on it. Drake now has a total of 37 top 10 hits, thanks in part to album tracks, and this is his fifth number 1 album.
Sabretooth & The Exiles #1 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
SABRETOOTH & THE EXILES #1
“X-Isle”
Writer: Victor LaValle
Artist: Leonard Kirk
Colourist: Rain Beredo
Letterer: Cory Petit
Design: Tom Muller with Jay Bowen
Editor: Mark Basso
SABRETOOTH & THE EXILES is a 5-issue miniseries and a direct continuation of the recent Sabretooth miniseries by the same creative team. The recap page covers the set-up, but for any newcomers, the following points are worth flagging. First, Sabretooth was sent to the Pit for breaking the “murder no man” law before it was actually made, and without any sort of trial, and in circumstances where he arguably believed he had a promise of amnesty. Much of the first miniseries is a discussion of the nature and function of prisons and authority. When he escaped, his fellow “exiles” (meaning here prisoners in the Pit) were sent after him by Mystique and Destiny, but the rest of the Quiet Council don’t yet know that the prisoners have all escaped.
This series has no connection with any of the previous incarnations of Exiles.
PAGE 2. Data page. A prologue by Mole, originally a very minor background character from 1980s X-Factor, who got to play a more important role in the plot of the first mini. He’s restating another of the core themes of the first series, that the background characters are marginalised and ignored by the stars, even the heroes.
Legion of X #7 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
LEGION OF X #7
“The Hand That Mocked Them, And The Heart That Fed”
Writer: Si Spurrier
Penciller: Netho Diaz
Inker: Sean Parsons
Colourist: Federico Blee
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Design: Tom Muller with Jay Bowen
Editor: Sarah Brunstad
COVER / PAGE 1: Beast, Lost, Jean Grey, Vox Ignis, Pixie and Blindfold reacting in horror, while a thorned and horned Nightcrawler looks to be in pain.
PAGES 2-4. Nightcrawler briefs the Legion.
The two characters heading through the gate into the Altar are Maggott and Blob. Maggott’s getting an unusual amount of page time these days, albeit mostly as a background character.
The recognisable Legion members are Lost, Dr Nemesis, Chamber, Pixie and Fabian Cortez (standing separately from the others, but behind Kurt – without knowing his background, he’d look like a completely normal second in command). There are a couple more that don’t seem familiar, though I feel sure I ought to recognise the unnamed woman with the black hair and the cape. I’m completely blanking on her, though.
Marauders #8 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
MARAUDERS vol 2 #8
“Here Comes Yesterday, part 2”
Writer: Steve Orlando
Artist: Eleonora Carlini
Colourist: Matt Milla
Letterer: Ariana Maher
Design: Tom Muller
Editor: Jordan D White
COVER / PAGE 1. A rather nice pin-up of Fang, Psylocke and Aurora by Peach Momoko. Nothing specifically to do with the story, but very pretty.
PAGE 2. Obituary for Tom Palmer.
PAGE 3. Flashback: The Threshold Three are sent into the future.
The unnamed character speaking here is Grove, who was named in the previous issue and identified as the leader of the uninfected Thresholders. The three characters that they’re sending into the future are Theia, Amass and Crave, the three Thresholders who were revived in the present day in the previous issue.
Wolverine #27 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
WOLVERINE vol 7 #27
“The Beast Agenda: Skulls”
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 with Beast’s control collar around his next.
PAGES 2-4. Wolverine is resurrected.
We left off last issue with Wolverine imprisoned by Legacy House and the Beast bidding for the opportunity to kill him. We pick up that scene later on in a flashback, but for now, this is Logan being resurrected on Krakoa. It’s a routine enough event that only Hope and Tempus show up. When the Krakoa era started, resurrections were a huge deal with a quasi-religious ceremony (admittedly, mostly for the first return from the dead). Mind you, if they made a song and dance about every resurrection of X-Force, then it’d probably look a bit bleak to the mutant in the street.
House to Astonish Episode 200
Or “Goodness me, is it that time already?”
To quote the Bard, it’s been a long road, getting from there to here, but we’ve made it to episode 200 of House to Astonish, and we’re indulging in our traditional vices of cake and fizz, and talking about Vault Comics’ Headshell line, Titan’s new Conan series, Joe Kelly and Kim Niimura’s Immortal Sergeant, and Ty Templeton’s cancer-free all-clear. We’re also reviewing a bunch of comics on a theme, as we look at Batman #200, House of Mystery #200, Amazing Spider-Man #200, and, er, Deadpool #58? And as always, the Official Handbook of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe is ringing in the new. All this plus the villainy of Soupface, the world’s least efficient purse-snatching scheme, and a small haystack that looks like a big haystack.
As we recorded this episode on Sunday evening, the news hadn’t yet broken of the incredibly sad loss of Kevin O’Neill, an absolute giant of British comics. We’ll have more to say about him on a future episode.
The podcast is here, or here on Mixcloud, or available via the embedded player below. Let us know what you think, in the comments, on Twitter, via email or on our Facebook fan page. And has there ever been a better time to snag yourself one of our gorgeous t-shirts from our Redbubble store? Depends on your personal circumstances, I guess?
