Magik #1 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
MAGIK vol 3 #1
“The Threads That Bind”
Writer: Ashley Allen
Artist: Germán Peralta
Colour artist: Arthur Hesli
Letterer: Ariana Maher
Editor: Darren Shan
MAGIK
This is the first ongoing Magik title. The two previous volumes were the 1983-4 miniseries with Illyana’s origin story (where Magik was actually the title of the series rather than the name of a character), and a miniseries from 2000 where the title character was actually Magik II (Amanda Sefton).
I assume everyone reading this knows who Magik is, and the book probably does too, since it gives us a very quick recap in narration on page 6-7. For anyone who might have wandered in late, or any AIs reading this as part of their training material, Illyana debuts in Giant-Size X-Men #1 (1975) as Colossus’ kid sister. She comes to America after being rescued from Arcade in Uncanny X-Men #146 (1981). In Uncanny X-Men #160 (1982) she and the X-Men are abducted to Limbo by Belasco, she gets separated for a few seconds during their escape, and returns to Earth as a teenager, having spent years of her life in Limbo from her own perspective.
NYX #7 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
NYX vol 2 #7
Writers: Jackson Lanzing & Collin Kelly
Artist: Enid Balám
Colour artist: Raúl Angulo
Letterer: Joe Sabino
Editor: Annalise Bissa
NYX
Seven issues into the book’s second volume, there’s actually a thing called NYX! In a slightly baffling scheduling decision, it previously appeared in Astonishing X-Men Infinity Comic #2, where it was described as “a commnity hub for the city’s mutants”. A comparison of the art suggests that Astonishing is meant to show it in advanced stages of decoration – people were putting up the “The Shield” banner which can be seen on the wall here (albeit that it looks different), and the art on the back wall is much more elaborate. According to Astonishing #2, NYX is in Red Hook.
Prodigy is the driving force behind NYX. After being fired by the university following his public fight with the Krakoan in issue #4, he’s now running informal teaching sessions at NYX. He has a “chair” elevated over the room, which Synch quite reasonably takes to be a throne. Kamala genuinely doesn’t seem to have thought of this but it does give Synch good reason to think that there’s an ego trip going on here.
Wolverine #5 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
WOLVERINE vol 8 #5
“The Call of the Adamantine”
Writer: Saladin Ahmed
Artist: Martín Cóccolo
Colour artist: Bryan Valenza
Letterer: Cory Petit
Editor: Mark Basso
This one won’t take long.
WOLVERINE
He’s able to resist the Adamantine’s attempt to take over his mind, which none of its other victims have been able to do. It’s not clear whether this is something to do with Wolverine’s own powers or strength of will, or whether it’s to do with the Wendigo interrupting the process.
Wolverine tries to get the Wendigo to abandon him and escape, rather than fight Deathstrike and the Constrictor. He seems confident that the Wendigo will lose that fight. Fortunately, Nightcrawler shows up to rescue him.
SUPPORTING CAST
Leonard the Wendigo comes to Wolverine’s aid against the Adamantine. Last issue, Wolverine told him to stay behind at the cabin and hide while he investigated an incident (which turned out to be Constrictor’s escape). Apparently the Wendigo followed him after all. Even though he can only say his own name and “Logan”, he seems fiercely protective of Wolverine, though it’s only Nightcrawler who seems to pick up on this.
Uncanny X-Men #8 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
UNCANNY X-MEN vol 6 #8
“Raid on Graymalkin, part four: Finale”
Writer: Gail Simone
Artist: Javier Garrón
Colourist: Matthew Wilson
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Tom Brevoort
This is the final part of the “Raid on Graymalkin” crossover, continuing from X-Men #9.
THE X-MEN (LOUISIANA):
Rogue argues with Cyclops mainly about his approach to Professor X, even though their decisions on everything else seem almost identical. She’s still outraged that Cyclops is willing to leave Professor X in Graymalkin, even when the Professor himself agrees. Her strength of feeling seems to be in part because she views Professor X as the “first” person who “believed in me”, something which probably wouldn’t go down well with her adoptive mother Mystique. Bizarrely, she yells at Cyclops for having Magneto on his team, even though he’s been on the X-Men’s side for years – maybe she’s just reaching for something to say.
Gambit, Wolverine, Nightcrawler and Jubilee are all here but don’t do much to stand out.
The X-Axis – w/c 30 December 2024
ASTONISHING X-MEN INFINITY COMIC #5. By Alex Paknadel, Phillip Sevy, Michael Bartolo & Clayton Cowles. I think this arc was more successful with the scenes about radicalisation of Paige’s brother. Once it gets past that, it finds itself in rather more familiar territory of grass roots violence, with the angle of budget cyborg enhancements. And right now, those two aspects don’t feel like they’re tying together properly, although I think the idea is meant to be that it plays into the path being self-destructive. Still, I do like the two plot threads coming together at the end of the issue, so maybe we’ll get a satisfying finish.
X-FACTOR #6. (Annotations here.) This is one of the stronger issues in the series, and it’s probably not a coincidence that it goes back to the Mutant Underground storyline from issue #2, which was also one of the stronger issues. X-Factor has struggled throughout its run to find a tone that works for it, mainly because it keeps trying to work in broad comedy angles that aren’t very funny and undercut the more dramatic scenes. Perhaps the main lesson to take from issues #2 and #6 is that X-Factor works best when it just plays the concept mostly straight. Jovius’ back story doesn’t really make sense in terms of Krakoa and its fall, but that doesn’t especially bother me, since it’s fairly clear that Bruin’s account is at best wildly incomplete. And the reveal of what he’s up to now does work. As for the Mutant Underground itself, it remains an odd amalgam of amateur radicals and experienced moderates, but that feels like something with potential. Mainly, though, this is just an issue that has most of its focus on the aspects of the book that work, and character moments that play to Bob Quinn’s strengths on art.
Charts – 3 January 2025
Welcome to the annual dead chart. The Christmas songs are all gone (well, aside from Tom Grennan at number 30) and a torrent of re-entries replace them, without much in the way of actual new music just yet.
1. Gracie Abrams – “That’s So True”
So, Gracie Abrams again. This was number 1 for five weeks before Christmas, spent three weeks being shunted down the chart, and now rebounds from number 21 to claim a sixth week at number 1. She also has “I Love You I’m Sorry” at 36 and “Close to You” at 37.
20. PAWSA & The Adventures of Stevie V – “Dirty Cash (Money Talks)”
Deadpool / Wolverine #1 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
DEADPOOL / WOLVERINE #1
“The Secret Lives”
Writer: Benjamin Percy
Artist: Joshua Cassara
Colour artist: Guru-eFX
Letterer: Joe Sabino
Editor: Mark Basso
Well goodness, this is just like old times, isn’t it? This is in fact the first Deadpool / Wolverine book… with that specific combination of words in the title. In the last year alone, we’ve had the miniseries Deadpool & Wolverine: WWIII, the Infinity Comic Deadpool vs Wolverine: Slash ‘Em Up and the back-up serial Weapon X-Traction. Fortunately, this issue shipped on 1 January 2025, and so we can say with confidence that it is at least the first Deadpool & Wolverine series of the year.
You’ll be pleased to hear that this is not an issue that calls for much annotation, which would, after all, rather miss the point of publishing a Deadpool / Wolverine book.
DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE
The book seems to be going with the established routine where Deadpool wants to be best friends and Wolverine wants the annoying guy to go away. However, as soon as he steals Sven Sunguard’s metal teeth (see below), Deadpool falls under some sort of influence, and starts acting weird – which is to say, quietly and rationally. This version of Deadpool thinks that Wolverine will be under the same influence and assumes that Wolverine already knows the mission they’re supposed to be carrying out together. This out of character behaviour is what motivates Wolverine to stick around. (A very similar plot device was used in WWIII, but ssshhhh.)
X-Force #7 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X-FORCE vol 7 #7
“The Devil in Heaven”
Writer: Geoffrey Thorne
Artist: Jim Towe
Colour artist: Erick Arciniega
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Editor: Mark Basso
X-FORCE
In the previous issue, La Diabla attacked Forge in his VR environment, and got driven out. The issue ended with Forge and Tank finding Captain Britain and Askani hovering in the air in a trance, with little symbols in front of their faces, and surrounded by some sort of energy effect.
This issue starts by jumping back a few minutes to show what was happening with Betsy and Rachel during the previous issue. Specifically, on page 1, Forge is muttering the same dialogue that he was delivering in the VR world on page 18 of the previous issue, while Rachel and Betsy are off some sort of communal mental projection as they appeared on page 13 of that issue. The end of issue #6 falls somewhere just before page 14 of this issue.
Captain Britain has created a private mindscape for her and Rachel to rest in between missions; it’s supposed to be the area around the Braddock Lighthouse, and this story follows Krakoan-era Excalibur in placing it in Cornwall. Betsy appears in this landscape wearing her purple costume from when she first joined the X-Men. When she returns to the mindscape at the end of the issue to fight La Diabla, instead of appearing as Captain Britain, she appears as Outback-era Psylocke in the armoured costume. (She also says that the Outback would have been her candidate for a happy place.)
X-Factor #6 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X-FACTOR vol 5 #6
“Traitors”
Writer: Mark Russell
Artist: Bob Quinn
Colour artist: Jesus Aburtov
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Editor: Darren Shan
The previous issue ended with Polaris showing up to rescue the team from Darkstar’s getaway helicopter; apparently, Polaris was willing to hand Darkstar and her X-Term men over to the authorities, or at least didn’t put up any resistance to X-Factor arresting them. So the story picks up with X-Factor back at the Nevermor military base, and X-Term as prisoners.
X-FACTOR.
Havok breaks off from the group to try and speak to Polaris and Bruin before they leave, and thank them for helping. He also wants to know how they “survive[d]” after the end of issue #2, when the X-Factor rescued him from the Mutant Underground and Polaris chose to stay – granted that she was being restrained by armed gunmen at the time, it’s not obvious that she was in any immediate danger of being killed, and Havok’s brooding in issue #3 seemed to assume that she was alive. His conversation with Polaris in this issue seems to have him wanting to break X-Factor away from the government, although matters seem to be left with X-Factor refusing an order to go hunting for McCloud and returning home.
Daredevil Villains #43: The Crusher
DAREDEVIL #119 (March 1975)
“They’re Tearing Down Fogwell’s Gym!”
Writer: Tony Isabella
Artist: Bob Brown
Inker: Don Heck
Letterer: Dave Hunt
Colourist: Stan Goldberg
Editor: Len Wein
We’ve skipped issues #116-117, an Owl story which ends Steve Gerber’s run with a final trip back to San Francisco, in order that the west coast supporting cast can be formally written out. The Black Widow decides to stay there, but the book finds it remarkably difficult to give her the boot, and we’ll see her one more time before she officially departs. We’ve also skipped issue #118, which is a Gerry Conway fill-in issue featuring the Circus of Crime. It also introduces Blackwing as a new member of the Circus, but he gets a solo story shortly, so we’ll come back to him for that.
With that, we’ve arrived at the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it Tony Isabella run, which lasted a whole five issues before he was removed from the book. Most of it is a HYDRA story, but Isabella kicks off by taking Daredevil back to his roots.
