Charts – 27 May 2022
Well, if there was any doubt that Harry Styles was an A-lister, this should answer it.
1. Harry Styles – “As It Was”
2. Harry Styles – “Late Night Talking”
3. Harry Styles – “Music for a Sushi Restaurant”
That, of course, is the maximum number of singles from the same lead artist permitted under chart rules, introduced a few years back to put a stop to the phenomenon where major album releases swamped the top 20. The parent album “Harry’s House” is of course number 1 on the album chart; that’s his second number 1. His 2017 self-titled debut did spent a week at number 1, and hung around the top 10 for three weeks, but it was out of the top 40 after 15 weeks – a decent size hit but not Ed Sheeran territory. Its follow up “Fine Line”, from 2019, is another matter – although it entered at 3 and never got above number 2, it spent 62 weeks in the top 10, and 126 in the top 40.
Legion of X #1 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers to by the digital edition.
LEGION OF X #1
“Do What Thou Wilt”
Writer: Si Spurrier
Artist: Jan Bazaldua
Colourist: Federico Blee
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Sarah Brunstad
LEGION OF X is the relaunch of Way of X (or, if you prefer, Way of X was the prequel which did the set-up for this book).
COVER / PAGE 1: Well, that’s Legion and Juggernaut in the background, Nightcrawler at the front, and Pixie with the wings (who isn’t really in this issue, but was a recurring character in Way of X). The woman with the techno-stuff on her head is Weaponless Zsen, who’s introduced in this issue.
PAGE 2. Legion’s opening monologue.
Legion is addressing Blindfold, but we’ll come back to that. He’s also helpfully recapping Way of X for anyone new (like Blindfold). The opening panel seems like a meta nod to the season break since the last arc, too.
The Altar was introduced in Way of X and Legion’s explanation of it here is about as clear as anything else we’ve had in the past. Legion talks it up as a mutant dimension and then kind of backs off from that – we don’t entirely have a sense yet of how many mutants are using the Altar, or what kind of people they are. Broadly speaking, it seems to function as a hub of mutant culture with therapeutic overtones. Using it as the base for the Legion of X is slightly at odds with that – or maybe not, given that Kurt sees it as an essential part of a nation-building project, and as rehabilitative to boot.
Charts – 20 May 2022
After weeks of me complaining about the singles chart being moribund, this is a bit more like it.
Not that it’s shifting Harry Styles, admittedly. But it was close. He holds on by the equivalent of 4,300 sales, and he’s lucky to do that. The CD single of “As It Was” was offered for pre-order a while back, intended for the hardcore fans. Due to production problems, it didn’t ship until this week, at which point the 9,000 odd pre-orders were added to his total. If it had shipped on time, those sales would have been credited to an earlier week, and he wouldn’t be number one.
2. Sam Ryder – “Space Man”
This is the UK entry for this year’s Eurovision Song Contest. We have a tradition in this country of entering records we don’t like, don’t buy and don’t listen to, and then sulking when the Germans agree with us. This time we’ve entered a record we actually like, and it came second. And considering that nobody was beating Ukraine in a public phone vote in 2022, that’s pretty good.
Wolverine #21 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
WOLVERINE vol 7 #21
“Glory Daze”
Writer: Benjamin Percy
Artist: Adam Kubert
Colourist: Frank Martin
Letterer: Cory Petit
Editor: Mark Basso
COVER / PAGE 1: Wolverine and Deadpool getting shot at.
PAGES 2-4. Wolverine chases Deadpool to get the briefcase back.
The opening pages have a similar layout to the opening pages of the previous issue. Wolverine and Deadpool’s eyes now appear in the spaces around the big circular panel.
I have to say that I simply can’t follow the action in this sequence. On page 2, Deadpool has the briefcase, and it’s still attached by a pair of handcuffs to the severed hand of its previous owner (which was cut off in the previous issue). Wolverine tackles Deadpool, and on page 3 panel 2 Wolverine clearly doesn’t have any handcuffs. Then, two panels later, Wolverine and Deadpool are handcuffed together. What?
PAGE 5. Recap and credits, with annotations from Deadpool. He bills himself as “Head of X”, which used to be Jonathan Hickman’s billing.
PAGES 6-8. Deadpool visits Weasel.
Weasel was Deadpool’s tech support guy throughout the Joe Kelly run. As this scene would indicate, they fell out rather badly. The footnote to Spider-Man / Deadpool – the ongoing series from 2016 to 2019 – is basically accurate. In that series, Weasel got himself resurrected as “Patient Zero” by making a deal with Mephisto to participate in a scheme to capture Spider-Man’s soul. He’s been resurrected twice more since then, and Deadpool’s basically correct to say that the details of their continuity aren’t worth keeping track of any more, and that it really all just goes round in circles. Mainly, Weasel wants revenge on Deadpool for the way Deadpool treated him when they were supposedly allies, but sometimes he grits his teeth and gets on with it for the money.
X-Force #28 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X-FORCE vol 6 #28
“Cerebrax”
Writer: Benjamin Percy
Artist: Robert Gill
Colourist: Guru-eFX
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Editor: Mark Basso
COVER / PAGE 1: X-Force, with Kid Omega in his Juggernaut form (which we’ll come to in the story). It’s marked “after Rob”; I assume the intended homage is to Rob Liefeld’s cover for X-Force vol 1 #3.
PAGES 2-4. Cerebrax decides to eat some more mutants.
This is very much X-Force in grindhouse mode, which means it doesn’t call for a huge amount of annotation. Which is very welcome news in a week with five X-books.
What we seem to be establishing here is that Cerebrax (as it calls itself later) is instinctively consuming mutants as a version of its remit to catalogue them, and having absorbed Forge, it picks up his building instincts too. Presumably that means that Cerebrax’s personality will continue to develop as it eats more people.
New Mutants #25 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
NEW MUTANTS vol 4 #25
“The Labors of Magik, part 1: Best Laid Plans…”
Writer: Vita Ayala
Artists: Rod Reis (main story) & Jan Duursema (flashbacks)
Colourists: Rod Reis (main story) & Ruth Redmond (flashbacks)
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Editor: Sarah Brunstad
COVER / PAGE 1. Magik doing magic.
PAGE 2. Data page. This is indeed a quote from Heracles by the Greek dramatist Euripedes (c.480-c.406 BC), as translated by EP Coleridge. The story takes place after the twelfth labour of Hercules (the capture of Cerberus), and involves Hercules being driven mad by Iris and the personification of Madness, and killing his family in a frenzy. In the passage quoted, he’s lamenting what he has done and observing that he is now a social outcast. The ellipsis makes this rather obscure. The full passage reads:
Last, ah, woe is me! I have dared this labor, to crown the sorrows of my house with my children’s murder. I have come to this point of necessity; no longer may I dwell in Thebes, the city that I love; for suppose I stay, to what temple or gathering of friends shall I go? For mine is no curse that invites greetings.”
A more modern translation has it as:
“And this – ah, this! This here is my last labour! This bloody deed I performed and crowned the miseries of my house with the death of my own sons! And so, here I am! I have now arrived at this sorry state! Piety forbids me from living here, in Thebes, the city I love, because if I do stay here, to which temple or to what friends could I turn? The horror of my curse will not allow for friendly greetings.”
PAGES 3-4. S’ym produces a mace.
S’ym was Belasco’s henchman in Magik’s origin story, and served as Magik’s own highly untrustworthy henchman in New Mutants until he eventually turned on her. He was originally a nod to Dave Sim’s Cerebus the Aardvark, hence the waistcoat.
X-Men Red #2 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X-MEN RED #2
“Man on Fire”
Writer: Al Ewing
Artist: Stefano Caselli
Colourist: Federico Blee
Letterer: Cory Petit
Editor: Jordan White
COVER / PAGE 1. Storm fighting Vulcan. It seems to be going rather better for Vulcan than it does in the issue itself.
PAGES 2-5. Flashback: Professor X and Cyclops confront Vulcan.
This takes place before issue #1 (when Vulcan had already been kicked out of the Summer House), and shortly after X-Men: Trial of Magneto #5 (when the Scarlet Witch created the Waiting Room).
The Summer House is the Summers family’s home on the Moon – though with Cyclops and Jean Grey in New York with the X-Men, Kid Cable no longer in this timeline, and Rachel with X-Factor and now in Knights of X, it may just be Vulcan, Havok and Wolverine actually living there now.
The three aliens on page 2, and their dialogue, come from X-Men #10 of the Hickman run. It’s a straight recap of what was set up in that issue, which didn’t identify them or shed much further light on their plans.
Petra and Sway. Oh god.
Immortal X-Men #2 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
IMMORTAL X-MEN #2
“All Mankind’s Woes”
Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artist: Lucas Werneck
Colourist: David Curiel
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Jordan White
COVER / PAGE 1: Storm, Exodus and Magneto fight Selene.
PAGE 2. Hope reacts to Selene’s giant monster.
This is the creature that Selene created by bringing the Arakko gate to life at the end of the previous issue.
PAGE 3. Recap and credits. Hope’s image is shown in colour, presumably to indicate that this is her spotlight issue. (The same was done with Mr Sinister last issue, but it wasn’t as obvious because as a Winter member, his group colour is a dark purple.)
PAGE 4. Selene arrives in London.
Coven Akkaba are villains from Excalibur – basically an anti-mutant mystical cult which has somehow or other acquired influence over the UK government. We’re not told quite why they’re dealing with Selene, but evidently the plan is for Selene to get herself onto the Quiet Council by proving her point that the mutants need someone who knows how to deal with mystical threats. Whatever she planned to do after that, the Coven clearly think it’s going to be helpful.
Devil’s Reign: X-Men
DEVIL’S REIGN: X-MEN #1-3
Writer: Gerry Duggan
Artist: Phil Noto
Letterer: Cory Petit
Editor: Jordan White
Three issues, huh? There’s a trade paperback of this listed on Amazon for August, with a page count of 112 – I can only assume they’re pairing it with something to be announced. Anyway, I skipped over this when it came out, since it’s not a core X-book. It’s closer than many, though.
Publishing it in X-Men might have been a stretch, since it’s an Emma Frost story, and she’s not in the cast of that book. But it’s by Gerry Duggan and Phil Noto, an established Krakoan creative team. And it picks up on a subplot from Duggan’s Marauders run about Emma having some sort of back story with Wilson Fisk, running missions for him in exchange for him helping Lourdes Chantel to start a new life away from Sebastian Shaw.
House to Astonish Presents: The Lightning Round Episode 9
Lightning keeps striking! Good lord! It’s just bizarre by this point! We’re back to look at Thunderbolts issues 22, 0 and 23 (in that order) and Avengers 12 (not in that order). Thrill to Hawkeye losing his AirBnB deposit! Be wowed by Vision’s capacity for complaining! Wonder aloud at whether Hercules and Atlas had a fling! It’s all go here!
The episode 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 through our Facebook fan page. And look, far be it from me to say, but our t-shirts are very reasonably priced and would look amazing on you.
