HOUSE TO ASTONISHOLD MAN LOGAN VOL 3PART 4: WORLD WAR IICABLE #4 ANNOTATIONSTHE INCOMPLETE WOLVERINE, PART 3 House to Astonish Presents: The Lightning Round Episode 3. Posted on Tuesday, May 25, 2021 by Al in Podcast. Lightning never strikes twice, but luckily for us it strikes three times, because we’re back with the third episode of our spinoff reread podcast covering Marvel’s

most

HOUSE TO ASTONISH » CHARTS Charts – 23 April 2021. Posted on Saturday, April 24, 2021 by Paul in Music. Another week with only three new entries on the singles chart. 1. Lil Nas X – “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)”. Four weeks, and miles ahead of the number 2 single (which is Justin Bieber’s “Peaches”, for the third week). I’ll come back to the

climbers

HOUSE TO ASTONISH » CHARTS Charts – 7 May 2021. Posted on Tuesday, May 11, 2021 by Paul in Music. Well, here’s a track I didn’t expect to get to number 1. “Montero” drops to 2 after five weeks, and. 1. Tion Wayne & Russ Millions – “Body”. That’s the remix video above, which HOUSE TO ASTONISH » CHARTS Debut hit. Noizu is an LA producer, and this is well, ultra-faithful retro. It even samples the “Yeah” hook from Moby’s “Go”, which came out in 1989.(Which is, in turn, a sample from Jocelyn Brown’s “Love’s Gonna Get You”, but if Noizu went back to the original source, he’s certainly treated it HOUSE TO ASTONISH » MUSIC Yes, it’s the release of Olivia Rodrigo’s album “Sour”, which enters at number 1 on the album chart, and promptly places the maximum three tracks in the single chart.Demonstrating her ability to write about her break-up in any musical genre, “Good 4 U” is the Paramore version, and climbs to number 1 on its second week out. HOUSE TO ASTONISH » CHARTS Pretty much where his previous album landed. One of those albums where you feel the music can’t possibly live up to song titles like “The Triumph of King Freak (A Crypt of Preservation and Superstition”, “The Eternal Struggles of the Howling Man”, “The Satanic Rites of Blacula” or “18th Century Cannibals, Excitable Morlocks and a One-Way Ticket on the Ghost Train”. HOUSE TO ASTONISH » X-AXIS The X-Men, now with Storm as field leader, duly defeat the new Brotherhood and save Kelly; Kitty and Kate swap back. “Days of Future Past” is a classic X-Men story, but it’s not particularly central for Wolverine. He does get to use his senses to verify that

Kate

HOUSE TO ASTONISH » CHARTS Charts – 30 April 2021. Uneventful, really. 1. Lil Nas X – “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)”. Five weeks, and still performing strongly. Not that it’s facing much in the way of new challengers – it heads up a static top three, with “Peaches” spending its fourth week at number 2. HOUSE TO ASTONISH » X-MEN #10 ANNOTATIONS X-Men #10 annotations. As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition. COVER / PAGE 1. Vulcan, Petra, Sway, Cyclops, Marvel Girl and Wolverine in the new Cotati garden on the moon. This is an Empyre tie-in, so it also gets the Empyre trade dress on top of the regular X-Men design. PAGES 2-5. HOUSE TO ASTONISH » X-FORCE #19 ANNOTATIONS X-Force #19 annotations. As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition. COVER / PAGE 1. Marvel Girl is plagued by demonic images of X-Force. PAGE 2. Phoebe calls Jean for help. Jean is talking about the nightmare vision she had in the previous issue, one of a number of nightmare hallucinations that were HOUSE TO ASTONISHOLD MAN LOGAN VOL 3PART 4: WORLD WAR IICABLE #4 ANNOTATIONSTHE INCOMPLETE WOLVERINE, PART 3 House to Astonish Presents: The Lightning Round Episode 3. Posted on Tuesday, May 25, 2021 by Al in Podcast. Lightning never strikes twice, but luckily for us it strikes three times, because we’re back with the third episode of our spinoff reread podcast covering Marvel’s

most

HOUSE TO ASTONISH » CHARTS Charts – 23 April 2021. Posted on Saturday, April 24, 2021 by Paul in Music. Another week with only three new entries on the singles chart. 1. Lil Nas X – “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)”. Four weeks, and miles ahead of the number 2 single (which is Justin Bieber’s “Peaches”, for the third week). I’ll come back to the

climbers

HOUSE TO ASTONISH » CHARTS Charts – 7 May 2021. Posted on Tuesday, May 11, 2021 by Paul in Music. Well, here’s a track I didn’t expect to get to number 1. “Montero” drops to 2 after five weeks, and. 1. Tion Wayne & Russ Millions – “Body”. That’s the remix video above, which HOUSE TO ASTONISH » CHARTS Debut hit. Noizu is an LA producer, and this is well, ultra-faithful retro. It even samples the “Yeah” hook from Moby’s “Go”, which came out in 1989.(Which is, in turn, a sample from Jocelyn Brown’s “Love’s Gonna Get You”, but if Noizu went back to the original source, he’s certainly treated it HOUSE TO ASTONISH » MUSIC Yes, it’s the release of Olivia Rodrigo’s album “Sour”, which enters at number 1 on the album chart, and promptly places the maximum three tracks in the single chart.Demonstrating her ability to write about her break-up in any musical genre, “Good 4 U” is the Paramore version, and climbs to number 1 on its second week out. HOUSE TO ASTONISH » CHARTS Pretty much where his previous album landed. One of those albums where you feel the music can’t possibly live up to song titles like “The Triumph of King Freak (A Crypt of Preservation and Superstition”, “The Eternal Struggles of the Howling Man”, “The Satanic Rites of Blacula” or “18th Century Cannibals, Excitable Morlocks and a One-Way Ticket on the Ghost Train”. HOUSE TO ASTONISH » X-AXIS The X-Men, now with Storm as field leader, duly defeat the new Brotherhood and save Kelly; Kitty and Kate swap back. “Days of Future Past” is a classic X-Men story, but it’s not particularly central for Wolverine. He does get to use his senses to verify that

Kate

HOUSE TO ASTONISH » CHARTS Charts – 30 April 2021. Uneventful, really. 1. Lil Nas X – “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)”. Five weeks, and still performing strongly. Not that it’s facing much in the way of new challengers – it heads up a static top three, with “Peaches” spending its fourth week at number 2. HOUSE TO ASTONISH » X-MEN #10 ANNOTATIONS X-Men #10 annotations. As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition. COVER / PAGE 1. Vulcan, Petra, Sway, Cyclops, Marvel Girl and Wolverine in the new Cotati garden on the moon. This is an Empyre tie-in, so it also gets the Empyre trade dress on top of the regular X-Men design. PAGES 2-5. HOUSE TO ASTONISH » X-FORCE #19 ANNOTATIONS X-Force #19 annotations. As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition. COVER / PAGE 1. Marvel Girl is plagued by demonic images of X-Force. PAGE 2. Phoebe calls Jean for help. Jean is talking about the nightmare vision she had in the previous issue, one of a number of nightmare hallucinations that were HOUSE TO ASTONISH » CHARTS 37. Riton x Nightcrawlers featuring Mufasa & Hypeman – “Friday”. This is set to climb – the midweeks have it at 23. Riton had top 20 hits in 2016 and 2019. The higher one is “Turn Me On”, which got to 12. This track is based on a sample from “Push the Feeling On” by the Nightcrawlers, which reached number 3 in 1995.

HOUSE TO ASTONISH

She’s not going without a fight. 1. Olivia Rodrigo – “Drivers Licence” The midweeks had Olivia Rodrigo being dethroned by “Wellerman”, but in the end she hangs on for a ninth week – by a margin equivalent to 742 sales. HOUSE TO ASTONISH » CHARTS Charts – 26 March 2021. Posted on Monday, March 29, 2021 by Paul in Music. In which Justin Bieber has a new album out, and so everyone just stands back and lets shim get on with it. 1. Nathan Evans, 220 Kid & Billen Ted – “Wellerman”. Two weeks at number one, with a

comfortable lead.

HOUSE TO ASTONISH

Ariana Grande’s new album “Positions” enters at number 1, which is entirely unsurprising – it’s her fourth straight number 1 album, in a run extending back to 2016’s “Dangerous Woman”.She duly gets the maximum three album tracks in the singles chart. The current single “Positions” gets a second week at the top, and the other cherrypicked tracks are “34+35” (which does HOUSE TO ASTONISH » CHARTS Charts – 22 January 2021. Posted on Friday, January 22, 2021 by Paul in Music. As the charts settle back down to normal, the first new number one of the year is settling in for a residency. 1. Olivia Rodrigo – “Drivers License”. 32. Olivia Rodrigo – “All I

Want”.

HOUSE TO ASTONISH » THE INCOMPLETE WOLVERINE Part 1: Origin to Origin II | Part 2: 1907 to 1914 Part 3: 1914 to 1939 | Part 4: World War II Part 5: The postwar era | Part 6: Team X Part 7: Post Team X | Part 8 HOUSE TO ASTONISH » THE INCOMPLETE WOLVERINE by Chris Claremont, John Buscema, Al Williamson, Klaus Janson & Glynis Oliver. November 1988 to January 1989. When Wolverine learns that Mariko’s personal secretary Noburo Kojima was on a hijacked plane, he tracks the plane to Telambang, Indonesia, where the survivors are held hostage by Banapur Khan ‘s pirate gang. HOUSE TO ASTONISH » HOUSEKEEPING Zach – granted, ‘Avengers’, while having glimmerings of good ideas, does have a lot of Bendis’s worst writing tics. But ‘New’ and ‘Secret’ are both very good comic books. HOUSE TO ASTONISH » FURTHER HOUSEKEEPING Paul and I are both seriously snowed under with work at the moment, to the extent that it’s been close to impossible for us to coordinate a time to record, hence our silence this week – our best guess is that we’ll be recording on Friday evening UK time, but it could be as

late as Sunday.

HOUSE TO ASTONISH » WATCH WITH FATHER #2: WAYBULOO To a grown-up viewer who may still be reeling from first contact with In The Night Garden, Waybuloo looks comfortingly normal at first glance. A gentle theme tune plays as the camera pans over the magic land of Nara while the Piplings – four smiling elfin thingies – fly happily around. After that, most episodes open with one of the Piplings bouncing happily onto the screen and talking HOUSE TO ASTONISHOLD MAN LOGAN VOL 3PART 4: WORLD WAR IICABLE #4 ANNOTATIONSTHE INCOMPLETE WOLVERINE, PART 3 House to Astonish Presents: The Lightning Round Episode 3. Posted on Tuesday, May 25, 2021 by Al in Podcast. Lightning never strikes twice, but luckily for us it strikes three times, because we’re back with the third episode of our spinoff reread podcast covering Marvel’s

most

HOUSE TO ASTONISH » CHARTS Charts – 7 May 2021. Posted on Tuesday, May 11, 2021 by Paul in Music. Well, here’s a track I didn’t expect to get to number 1. “Montero” drops to 2 after five weeks, and. 1. Tion Wayne & Russ Millions – “Body”. That’s the remix video above, which HOUSE TO ASTONISH » CHARTS Charts – 23 April 2021. Posted on Saturday, April 24, 2021 by Paul in Music. Another week with only three new entries on the singles chart. 1. Lil Nas X – “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)”. Four weeks, and miles ahead of the number 2 single (which is Justin Bieber’s “Peaches”, for the third week). I’ll come back to the

climbers

HOUSE TO ASTONISH » X-AXIS The X-Men, now with Storm as field leader, duly defeat the new Brotherhood and save Kelly; Kitty and Kate swap back. “Days of Future Past” is a classic X-Men story, but it’s not particularly central for Wolverine. He does get to use his senses to verify that

Kate

HOUSE TO ASTONISH » CHARTS Charts – 30 April 2021. Uneventful, really. 1. Lil Nas X – “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)”. Five weeks, and still performing strongly. Not that it’s facing much in the way of new challengers – it heads up a static top three, with “Peaches” spending its fourth week at number 2. HOUSE TO ASTONISH » THE INCOMPLETE WOLVERINE by Jim Shooter, Mike Zeck, John Beatty & Christie Scheele. 12-issue miniseries. May 1984 to April 1985. The mysterious, cosmic Beyonder abducts various heroes and villains to his patchwork Battleworld, made up of bits stolen from other worlds (including a suburb of Detroit). HOUSE TO ASTONISH » X-FORCE #19 ANNOTATIONS X-Force #19 annotations. As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition. COVER / PAGE 1. Marvel Girl is plagued by demonic images of X-Force. PAGE 2. Phoebe calls Jean for help. Jean is talking about the nightmare vision she had in the previous issue, one of a number of nightmare hallucinations that were HOUSE TO ASTONISH » X-MEN #10 ANNOTATIONS X-Men #10 annotations. As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition. COVER / PAGE 1. Vulcan, Petra, Sway, Cyclops, Marvel Girl and Wolverine in the new Cotati garden on the moon. This is an Empyre tie-in, so it also gets the Empyre trade dress on top of the regular X-Men design. PAGES 2-5. HOUSE TO ASTONISH » THE INCOMPLETE WOLVERINE by Chris Claremont, John Romita Jr, Dan Green, Steve Leialoha & Glynis Wein. June 1985. When the news reports that the Juggernaut is back, the X-Men track him down, but he seems just to be going about his business. Nimrod attacks the Juggernaut, and the X-Men help to drive

the robot away.

HOUSE TO ASTONISH » JUGGERNAUT #4 ANNOTATIONS PAGES 3-4. The Juggernaut breaks into Arnim Zola’s base. D-Cel’s summary of the previous issue is basically accurate, except that in that issue, Quicksand’s isotopes were said to be traceable to a for-profit prison run by Absolution Solutions, under the control of Arnim Zola. Here, D-Cel describes it as “an abandoned Factor-3 base

built

HOUSE TO ASTONISHOLD MAN LOGAN VOL 3PART 4: WORLD WAR IICABLE #4 ANNOTATIONSTHE INCOMPLETE WOLVERINE, PART 3 House to Astonish Presents: The Lightning Round Episode 3. Posted on Tuesday, May 25, 2021 by Al in Podcast. Lightning never strikes twice, but luckily for us it strikes three times, because we’re back with the third episode of our spinoff reread podcast covering Marvel’s

most

HOUSE TO ASTONISH » CHARTS Charts – 7 May 2021. Posted on Tuesday, May 11, 2021 by Paul in Music. Well, here’s a track I didn’t expect to get to number 1. “Montero” drops to 2 after five weeks, and. 1. Tion Wayne & Russ Millions – “Body”. That’s the remix video above, which HOUSE TO ASTONISH » CHARTS Charts – 23 April 2021. Posted on Saturday, April 24, 2021 by Paul in Music. Another week with only three new entries on the singles chart. 1. Lil Nas X – “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)”. Four weeks, and miles ahead of the number 2 single (which is Justin Bieber’s “Peaches”, for the third week). I’ll come back to the

climbers

HOUSE TO ASTONISH » X-AXIS The X-Men, now with Storm as field leader, duly defeat the new Brotherhood and save Kelly; Kitty and Kate swap back. “Days of Future Past” is a classic X-Men story, but it’s not particularly central for Wolverine. He does get to use his senses to verify that

Kate

HOUSE TO ASTONISH » CHARTS Charts – 30 April 2021. Uneventful, really. 1. Lil Nas X – “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)”. Five weeks, and still performing strongly. Not that it’s facing much in the way of new challengers – it heads up a static top three, with “Peaches” spending its fourth week at number 2. HOUSE TO ASTONISH » THE INCOMPLETE WOLVERINE by Jim Shooter, Mike Zeck, John Beatty & Christie Scheele. 12-issue miniseries. May 1984 to April 1985. The mysterious, cosmic Beyonder abducts various heroes and villains to his patchwork Battleworld, made up of bits stolen from other worlds (including a suburb of Detroit). HOUSE TO ASTONISH » X-FORCE #19 ANNOTATIONS X-Force #19 annotations. As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition. COVER / PAGE 1. Marvel Girl is plagued by demonic images of X-Force. PAGE 2. Phoebe calls Jean for help. Jean is talking about the nightmare vision she had in the previous issue, one of a number of nightmare hallucinations that were HOUSE TO ASTONISH » X-MEN #10 ANNOTATIONS X-Men #10 annotations. As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition. COVER / PAGE 1. Vulcan, Petra, Sway, Cyclops, Marvel Girl and Wolverine in the new Cotati garden on the moon. This is an Empyre tie-in, so it also gets the Empyre trade dress on top of the regular X-Men design. PAGES 2-5. HOUSE TO ASTONISH » THE INCOMPLETE WOLVERINE by Chris Claremont, John Romita Jr, Dan Green, Steve Leialoha & Glynis Wein. June 1985. When the news reports that the Juggernaut is back, the X-Men track him down, but he seems just to be going about his business. Nimrod attacks the Juggernaut, and the X-Men help to drive

the robot away.

HOUSE TO ASTONISH » JUGGERNAUT #4 ANNOTATIONS PAGES 3-4. The Juggernaut breaks into Arnim Zola’s base. D-Cel’s summary of the previous issue is basically accurate, except that in that issue, Quicksand’s isotopes were said to be traceable to a for-profit prison run by Absolution Solutions, under the control of Arnim Zola. Here, D-Cel describes it as “an abandoned Factor-3 base

built

HOUSE TO ASTONISH » CHARTS Charts – 23 April 2021. Posted on Saturday, April 24, 2021 by Paul in Music. Another week with only three new entries on the singles chart. 1. Lil Nas X – “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)”. Four weeks, and miles ahead of the number 2 single (which is Justin Bieber’s “Peaches”, for the third week). I’ll come back to the

climbers

HOUSE TO ASTONISH » ANNOTATIONS X-MEN vol 5 #15 “X of Swords, Chapter 20” by Jonathan Hickman, Mahmud Asrar & Sunny Gho. COVER / PAGE 1: Apocalypse’s bloodstained sword, reflecting the Annihilation mask. PAGES 2-5. Cyclops and Marvel Girl prepare to address the Quiet Council. HOUSE TO ASTONISH » HOUSE TO ASTONISH PRESENTS: THE House to Astonish Presents: The Lightning Round Episode 2. Released: Mar 27, 2021. Al Kennedy and Paul O'Brien are back with the second episode of The Lightning Round, an in-depth re-read show all about Marvel's Most Wanted, the Thunderbolts! If you haven't read the series before, be aware that this episode does contain spoilers for the

issues

HOUSE TO ASTONISH » THE INCOMPLETE WOLVERINE Part 1: Origin to Origin II | Part 2: 1907 to 1914 Part 3: 1914 to 1939 | Part 4: World War II Part 5: The postwar era | Part 6: Team X Part 7: Post Team X | Part 8 HOUSE TO ASTONISH » CHARTS Charts – 22 January 2021. Posted on Friday, January 22, 2021 by Paul in Music. As the charts settle back down to normal, the first new number one of the year is settling in for a residency. 1. Olivia Rodrigo – “Drivers License”. 32. Olivia Rodrigo – “All I

Want”.

HOUSE TO ASTONISH » WOLVERINE by Chris Claremont, John Romita Jr, Bob Wiacek, Brett Breeding & Glynis Wein. February 1984. Wolverine doesn’t appear in the January issue, in which Lilandra and Binary leave with the Starjammers, and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants attack Kitty and Colossus. In this issue, the X-Men come to the rescue. HOUSE TO ASTONISH » HOUSEKEEPING (2) I think the “augmented reality” part of the announcement is gimmicky; I actually think the Infinite Comics part — stories that take advantage of the digital format rather than just taking stuff intended for print and putting it online — is pretty interesting. HOUSE TO ASTONISH » CHARTS Charts – 5 March 2021. Well, this is quiet. 1. Olivia Rodrigo – “Drivers Licence”. Eight weeks. As mentioned last week, it’s the longest run at number 1 since the tail end of 2019, when “Dance Monkey” managed 11 weeks. And once again, it’s a long way down to the highest new entry. In the meantime, there’s just a bit of HOUSE TO ASTONISH » CHARTS Ah, the A list. This is the title track from the surprise album of the same name, which was released today. It’s her seventh number one, starting with her debut UK hit “Problem” in 2014. The reviews are middling to positive, and certainly this is a track which never quite gets past “above average”. 3. HOUSE TO ASTONISH » THE X-AXIS CATCH-UP Welcome back! It’s been a few weeks since I’ve written one of these, and we’re going to be in catch-up mode for a little while. As I write this, I haven’t got around to reading any of the books that

came out while I

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Sep 8

8

HOUSE TO ASTONISH EPISODE 177 Posted on Sunday, September 8, 2019 by Al in Podcast It’s been far too long, but we’re back with a brand new episode, talking about the shuttering and reopening of Manga Rock, Conan copyright scuffles, Terrific Production’s _Youngblood_, Brian Wood being shown the door at Dark Horse, the return of _Hellboy_, _Once and Future_ becoming an ongoing, Marvel’s _Incoming!_ and the newly-announced Disney+ MCU shows. We’ve also got reviews of _Everything_ and _Harley Quinn & Poison Ivy_, and the Official Handbook of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe could run and run. All this plus Marvel Unlimed, Snow White and the Seven Nazis and

Mollie Sugden.

The podcast is here

,

or here at Mixcloud, or available via the embedded player below. Let us know what you think, in the comments below, on Twitter, via email or on our Facebook fan page . And remember, you can get one of our fantastic t-shirts over at our Redbubble store

.

Sep 7

0

CHARTS – 6 SEPTEMBER 2019 Posted on Saturday, September 7, 2019 by Paul in Music How long till they start tinkering with the rules again to speed up the chart, I wonder? 1.  ED SHEERAN FEATURING STORMZY – “TAKE ME BACK TO LONDON” Second week, and I imagine it’s settling in for the long haul. “TASTE (MAKE IT SHAKE)” BY AITCH climbs 6-3 – this is easily his biggest credited hit, though he’s also on the remix version of “Take Me Back to London”, and his guest verse on YOUNG T & BUGSEY’S “STRIKE A POSE” climbs 12-10 this week. “SORRY” BY JOEL CORRY climbs 7-6, and “RANSOM” BY LIL TECCA climbs 9-7 – the parent debut album “WE LOVE YOU TECCA” enters at 15. 11. POST MALONE – “CIRCLES”

(more…)

Sep 5

59

HOUSE OF X #4 ANNOTATIONS Posted on Thursday, September 5, 2019 by Paul in x-axis As always, this contains spoilers, and page numbers are going by the

digital edition.

PAGE 1 (COVER): The X-Men fighting the Orchis Project footsoldiers. PAGE 2: The epigraph comes from the captions in which Professor X reacts to the apparent deaths of the Orchis Project team, later in the

issue.

PAGE 3: Straight into the credits this time. The issue title is “It Will Be Done”. That refers back to Cyclops’s dialogue in _Powers of X_ #2 when he was briefed on this suicide mission. (“Does it need doing?” “Yes” “Then it will be done.”) The small print reads “The House of Xavier and the way we treat our children.” “Children” here seems to refer at the same time to mutants in general (the Mother Mold compares mutants to the titans, the children of the primordial gods); the X-Men in particular (Xavier seems to have them in mind in his closing monologue); and the machines themselves (the Mother Mold says that “while you war, we children sit in judgment of those above us”). As others have pointed out, Hickman seems quite keen on mother imagery in this series. PAGE 4: A data page on previous events which have led to the near extinction of mutants. The banner – “Look at what they’ve done” – cuts across the usual matter-of-fact tone of these pages. The list of anti-mutant criminals and their body counts is largely drawn from _X-Force_ #3 (2008), which had a double-page spread introducing the Human Council of the Purifiers and giving their affiliations and body counts. The Human Council were former big-league anti-mutant villains who had become infected with the techno-organic virus so as to become part of Bastion’s collective, so it’s a story that fits quite well with Hickman’s broader themes. He’s added two names to the list: the Scarlet Witch and Mr Clean. (more…)

Sep 1

3

DOMINO: HOTSHOTS

Posted on Sunday, September 1, 2019 by Paul in x-axis You thought I’d forgotten about this one, didn’t you? Or, more likely, you’d forgotten about it. Weirdly tagged on to the end of a _Domino_ ongoing series whose final issue read as if everything was being rushed to a conclusion, this is… a five issue miniseries which is basically another five issues of _Domino_, even though the logo says _Hotshots_ in big letters and _Domino_ in really, really small ones. But it’s still Gail Simone and David Baldeón, and it’s still the cast that were established in their _Domino_ ongoing, which was kind of an ensemble book already, treating Diamondback and Outlaw as virtual co-stars. The same applies here, but with a rather wider group, and a little bit more flexibility in terms of who gets to be

the narrator.

It’s one of those stories in which a dangerously powerful macguffin surfaces, and everyone is chasing after it to make sure that it stays out of the wrong hands. This particular macguffin falls from space, and transforms everyone who touches it by… well, by turning them into a Jack Kirby character, pretty much. Black Widow is the one who supposedly wants to keep it out of the wrong hands, and she hires Domino’s crew for the purpose, with White Fox (the South Korean character who’s being steadily introduced into the mainstream Marvel Universe) coming along too. The tension here, of course, is whether any of these guys would trust any of the others to walk off with the

cosmic macguffin.

(more…)

Sep 1

11

X-FORCE #5-10: “THE COUNTERFEIT KING” Posted on Sunday, September 1, 2019 by Paul in x-axis Alright, I should be more accurate: issue #7-10 are “The Counterfeit King.” Issues #5 and #6 are origin issues for Cable and Stryfe (“Some 2,000 Years From Yesterday” and “2,000 Years From Tomorrow”). But the ten issues of this run of _X-Force_ are a single extended story, one that looks like a false start given that we’re getting yet another different “X-Force” team after the relaunch, while Cable gets packed off to the new _Fallen Angels_ title. In the bigger picture, I suppose the main purpose of this series is to establish the revamped version of Cable and get him up and running, ready for use after the relaunch. The origin issues are drawn by guest artist Damian Couciero, though in a style that turns out to fit quite nicely with the regular series – there’s not quite the same cartooning sensibility as Dylan Burnett’s work on the rest of the series, but it’s decent work and the colouring helps bring it all together with the other issues. The idea here is that the Silver Age X-Men’s extended trip to the future messed up the timeline in a way that was starting to have an impact even on Cable’s youth in the far future. And yes, we’re back to the New Canaanites and all that, a world with characters called things like Tetherblood and Flintshard. (Find your own Cable’s Largely Forgotten Youthful Acquaintance Name by choosing words from columns A and B! You could be Lobsterscrub, Whackstalk, or maybe Plinthquartz!) Good old Blaquesmith explains that time is being rewritten, and so young Cable is sent back in time early to sort it all out. And of course the characters from the “new” timeline, which is overwriting the old one, would quite like it to stick around – one of those being the new version of Stryfe.

(more…)

Aug 31

18

UNCANNY X-MEN #17-22 – “WE HAVE ALWAYS BEEN” Posted on Saturday, August 31, 2019 by Paul in x-axis There’s a moment in these six issues that I really like. It’s at the end of issue #17, when Cain – who only showed up partway through the previous arc – finally takes a look at the X-Men’s hit list of mutants they want to track down and asks why Emma Frost isn’t on the list. And everyone turns to look at him and asks: Who’s that? It’s a lovely reveal, since it’s not telegraphed, but at the same time, Emma is such a prominent character that it is indeed odd for nobody to have mentioned her up to that point. It’s really well done. Viewed as a whole, though, “We Have Always Been” goes in the pile marked “interesting failure.” It’s taken me a while to get around to reviewing this, and it does benefit from being viewed in the context of the stories that surround it. Matthew Rosenberg’s run came out alongside the “Age of X-Man” crossover, with most of the cast off in a mock utopia for several months; understandably enough, it contrasts with that by going in the opposite direction, and cranking up the angst and misery.

(more…)

Aug 30

1

CHARTS – 30 AUGUST 2019 Posted on Friday, August 30, 2019 by Paul in Music This is getting repetitive. 1.  ED SHEERAN FEATURING STORMZY – “TAKE ME BACK TO LONDON” So, since May, the number 1 position has gone like this: Stormzy’s “Vossi Bop” (2 weeks), Ed Sheeran & Justin Bieber’s “I Don’t Care” (8 weeks), Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello’s “Senorita” (1 week), Ed Sheeran’s “Beautiful People” (1 week), “Senorita” again (5 weeks) and now Ed Sheeran & Stormzy (1 week and counting). Woo. In fact, we’ve had only ten different acts at number one all year – and that’s counting Mendes and Cabello separately, plus including Khalid for his featured appearance on “Beautiful People”. It’s a slow year, dominated in the second half by Ed Sheeran (and in the first by Ariana Grande).

(more…)

Aug 29

44

HOUSE OF X #3 ANNOTATIONS Posted on Thursday, August 29, 2019 by Paul in x-axis As always, this post contains spoilers. COVER (PAGE 1): The X-Men and the Mother Mold (apparently coming to life, given the light in her eye), and the sun behind. All pretty straightforward, though note that Mystique is absent from the team on

the cover.

PAGE 2: This issue’s epigraph is Professor X praising Cyclops on page 4. The common theme with the closing quote (from Magneto) seems to be the X-Men’s symbolic value to Professor X’s project. They may think they’re the heroes but they’re not the ones driving the plot here – after all, this is the sixth Hickman issue and the first time we’ve actually seen an X-Men team. PAGE 3: The credits page. The text in the bottom right reads: “The house of Xavier and the eternal war of man.” The other Krakoan text just reads “House of X” and “Three”. PAGE 4: Professor X and Magneto’s final pep talk for Cyclops, which is decidedly paternalistic in tone. Even though they’re sending Cyclops on an apparent suicide mission, Professor X sounds like he’s talking to a small child (“Such a brave face you’re wearing for me…”), and it’s not the first time we’ve seen this sort of “there, there” tone from him – see issue #1 where he’s talking to Jean. The less than reassuring message is that Cyclops and his team won’t die, in the sense that they’ll be remembered for ever as the founders of a nation. In other words, they’re going to die, but boy, it’s really going to help Professor X and Magneto’s political project. In fact, when we get to the attack at the end of the issue, Orchis turn out to be rather underprepared for the most part.

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Aug 25

1

CHARTS – 23 AUGUST 2019 Posted on Sunday, August 25, 2019 by Paul in Music After a couple of very slow weeks, things… pick up a little bit? I mean, at least there’s something going on in the bottom half of the

singles chart. Fi

1. SHAWN MENDES & CAMILA CABELLO – “SENORITA” Six weeks. Don’t worry, it won’t be here much longer – next week will be its tenth on chart, and since it peaked a few weeks back, it’s almost certain to get whacked by the downweighting rule. Filling out the top 20 we have a bunch of minor climbers, which I shall dutifully now list: “HIGHER LOVE” BY KYGO & WHITNEY HOUSTON climbs 5-4; “RANDOM” BY LIL TECCA climbs 13-7; “SORRY” BY JOEL CORRY climbs 16-10; “STRIKE A POSE” BY YOUNG T & BUGSEY FEATURING AITCH climbs 15-14; and “CASTLES” BY FREYA RIDINGS climbs 18-16.  Most notable of that bunch is “Higher Love”, which has overtaken the number 5 position of Whitney Houston’s last major hit (2009’s “Million Dollar Bill”).  It now stands as her biggest hit in 20 years, going back to “My Love Is Your Love”, which got to number 2 in 1999. 18. JORJA SMITH FEATURING BURNA BOY – “BE HONEST”

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Aug 23

32

POWERS OF X #3 ANNOTATIONS Posted on Friday, August 23, 2019 by Paul in x-axis As always, this is going to be full of spoilers, and I’ll be using the page numbers from the digital edition. But before we get to the detail, let’s look at the big picture for this issue. After two issues following the same pattern – Year 1, Year 10, Year 100, Year 1000 – _Powers of X_ breaks from that format entirely to give us an entire issue set in the Year 100 time frame. This issue has a straightforward plot: as promised last issue, the Year 100 “X-Men” embark on a heroic suicide mission to recover vitally important data, which turns out to be the details of when and how Nimrod came into existence. Moira is woken from suspended animation and given the data, and then she allows Wolverine to kill her. The narrator then reveals that this is Moira’s ninth life – the one _before_ established continuity, where she was allied with

Apocalypse.

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