Laura Kinney: Wolverine #2 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
LAURA KINNEY: WOLVERINE #2
“The Devil in Me, part 1”
Writer: Erica Schultz
Artist: Giada Belviso
Colour artist: Rachelle Rosenberg
Letterer: Cory Petit
Editor: Mark Basso
WOLVERINE.
It’s a “they clash then they team up” story. Laura isn’t surprised that Elektra doesn’t want her help, and tries to talk to her at first. But she loses her temper when Elektra says something about not wanting to work with mutants – see below. (The art seems to have Elektra throwing the first punch, but if so, it’s not clear why – and besides, the whole story revolves around Laura being the impulsive one.) Laura clearly finds Elektra condescending, and not without reason.
As usual, she feels strongly about any sign of children being used as weapons, and all the more so when anti-mutant forces are involved. Charitably, this might explain why her self-control and planning skills seem to be at rock bottom in this story, giving Elektra plenty of opportunity to play the older and wiser role. Laura also yells at Luke Cage for not banning an anti-superhero march (see below). Elektra regards Laura as impulsive.
Storm #4 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
STORM vol 5 #4
“Flame in the Wind”
Writer: Murewa Ayodele
Artist: Lucas Werneck
Colour artists: Alex Guimarães & Fer Sifuentes-Sujo
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Editor: Tom Brevoort
STORM:
She dresses up for her dinner with Dr Doom, in the dress that she borrowed from Rogue last issue – which might explain why it’s in Rogue’s signature colour of green. Apparently Rogue and Storm are exactly the same size, or close enough that the dress can be really quickly altered. (It’s hard to imagine Rogue getting much use out of this ballgown, but if she owns one at all then fair enough, she’ll probably have it at Haven at the moment.)
A flashback shows a five year old Ororo eating her father’s gumbo and loving it. Young Ororo is remarkably precocious, to the point where it seems that it has to be a plot point – her father does remark on it, and she replies “Well, I’ve lived a long life.”
Exceptional X-Men #5 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
EXCEPTIONAL X-MEN #5
Writer: Eve L Ewing
Artist: Carmen Carnero
Colour artist: Nolan Woodard
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Editor: Tom Brevoort
THE CORE CAST
Kate Pryde. The issue opens with several pages of flashback that take place during X-Men #25 (2023), immediately after the fall of Krakoa.
Page 4 panel 1 shows a flashback from that issue, which took place immediately after X-Men: Hellfire Gala 2023, where Kate found that she could now use the Krakoan gateways. She fell into an Orchis station where she was surrounded by Orchis soldiers, and initially gives them a chance to surrender. The Orchis soldiers strongly imply that they’re going to kill her, at which point she kills them all singlehandedly. The narration in that scene justifies her actions as keeping secret her ability to use the Krakoan gates. However, at the end of the scene she does kill one Orchis soldier who is explicitly trying to surrender.
In her narration, Kate accepts that she could make a case that she acted in self-defence, but thinks that something “broke” inside her when Krakoa fell. This is basically the idea that the original scene was going for.
Charts – 10 January 2025
Well, it’s still quiet on the singles chart and the albums are just plain dead. But things are starting to get back to normal.
1. Gracie Abrams – “That’s So True”
Seven weeks at number 1, and with a lead of more than two weeks over the number 2 single – which is still Rosé and Bruno Mars. The midweeks have this as its last week, though.
Number 5 is a rather odd re-entry for “Who” by Jimin, originally a number 4 hit in August. It has been hanging around the lower reaches for an extended period since then, but given that it only managed a week in the top 10 first time round, this is odd behaviour. It did qualify for a reset on the strength of last week’s increase in streams (following the Christmas clear-out), and that accounts for part of the jump, but it’s still curious. The midweeks have falling straight back to number 27, so there’s some sort of weird surge going on here, organic or otherwise.
21. SZA – “BMF”
The X-Axis – w/c 6 January 2025
ASTONISHING X-MEN INFINITY COMIC #6. By Alex Paknadel, Phillip Sevy, Michael Bartolo & Clayton Cowles. This is the end of the “Back to Roots” arc, in which Banshee and Husk deal with anti-mutant thugs who’ve been getting budget cyborg upgrades. I’m not sure it really works. The good stuff in this arc was mostly the radicalisation angle, and I kind of like the idea of a cobbled-together middle ground between the real world and Kirbytech. But when you actually get to the climax, you’re basically left with a fight against henchman-level bad guys. In fairness, the story is trying to set up the villain behind the tech for future use. I’m not thrilled about this take on the X-Cutioner – whose original schtick wasn’t so much that he hated mutants as that he resented mutants who thought they were above the law – but I guess it was established in Marauders and we’re running with it. Still, the first half of this arc was the stronger part.
UNCANNY X-MEN #8. (Annotations here.) So the “Raid on Graymalkin” crossover was a weird thing, and not a particularly successful one. I generally like both X-Men and Uncanny in their current incarnations, but this story doesn’t play to either of their strengths – the best material in this crossover is the character stuff with Calico. The Graymalkin prison still doesn’t feel like it’s bringing anything we didn’t see (at grinding and inordinate length) with Orchis last year. I’m kind of interested in Scurvy, but I’m not seeing what distinguishes Corina Ellis from a thousand other anti-mutant types. And the whole hook of the two X-Men teams fighting just doesn’t work – if we’ve got past the first major conflict between the two groups and I still don’t really understand what the disagreement is meant to be, we’ve got a problem.
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.
