Charts – 23 October 2026
For once, a genuinely busy week on the singles chart. And if it’s largely the result of two album releases, at least they’re not obvious candidates to have that sort of impact.
1. Jamie Miller – “Babydoll”
This wasn’t in the script. This was supposed to be Olivia Rodrigo and Chappell Roan’s week, with the single version of “Expectations” coming out, and a bunch of pre-ordered physical singles giving it a first-week boost. In the event, the top three turns out to be an unusually tight race and, even with the benefit of those physical singles, “Expectations” winds up third.
The X-Axis – 23 October 2026
UNCANNY X-MEN #37. (Annotations here.) This is a transitional issue, serving both as an epilogue to the exorcism arc and as a lead-in to the Scavengers arc that’s up next. With hindsight, there really are some curious choices being made in this series – what was the deal with the New Mutants acting as if Rogue and Gambit were abandoning them, only for them to come back within a few days? And why was Sarah Gaunt used as the expendable prisoner for Monet to beat up, only for us to go back to writing her as a major threat a few issues later? Literally anyone could have been put in that role. Still, none of that really touches on the retrenching of Rogue and Gambit’s relationship, which serves as a nice ending to that arc, with some nicely delicate art on the flashbacks. The Scavenged are somewhat interesting characters, though a lot depends on what motivation they’re given for siding with Sarah when we go further with them. And if having Sarah lose so quickly to Monet was an error of some sort, at least this issue does something to rebuild her mystique, though I’ll be honest, it’s still taken quite a serious hit.
X-MEN UNITED #8. (Annotations here.) Remember when I used to say nice things about Exceptional X-Men? Well, it’s turned into this now, and this is a disaster. In a series which is only running ten issues, this is basically a Blade story – the only regular character in it is Prodigy, and he does barely anything. The plot points down to Blade storming a vampire stronghold and rescuing his daughter, with a barely-developed subplot about Justina Laguardia having something to do with it in the background. Wither’s arc is reduced to an offhanded mention of how he shouldn’t let himself become a murderer by killing, uh, vampires. You know, the same vampires who are offhandedly slaughtered by everyone else in the issue.
Inglorious X-Force #10 annotations
INGLORIOUS X-FORCE #10
“Past, Present … and Future”
Writer: Tim Seeley
Artist: Michael Sta Maria
Colour artist: Romulo Fajardo Jr
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Editors: Mark Basso & Alanna Smith
COVER: X-Force (minus Cable) pose with their guns. This is the final issue of Inglorious X-Force, but the series effectively continues next month as Fugitive X-Force.
PAGES 1-5. X-Force fight Cable/Catharsix to stop him from killing the future Kamala Khan.
This picks up from the end of the previous issue, when Cable (possessed by Catharsix) travelled back to the future to try and kill Kamala Khan, as seen in issue #1, and the rest of X-Force followed him.
“According to the fan profiles I’ve read of Reed Richards, changing time results in a whole new universe.” This is how time travel used to officially work in the Marvel Universe, as established in Fantastic Four. In practice, a lot of Marvel stories don’t work by those rules at all, and the X-books have never taken them very seriously. Nonetheless, the future Kamala Khan evidently has no memory of these events.
X-Men United #8 annotations
X-MEN UNITED #8
“Blood Debts”
Writers: Eve L Ewing & Evan Narcisse
Artist: Tiago Palma
Colour artist: Fer Sifuentes-Sujo
Letterer: Joe Sabino
Editor: Annalise Bissa
COVER: Wither using his powers on Jubilee and Blade, against a wartorn backdrop. Nothing remotely like this happens in the issue. Interestingly, the solicitation also asked “Who’s behind a spate of recent deaths in Atlanta”, which had more to do with the previous issue’s story.
PAGES 1-7. Blade and Dani attack vampires in a nightclub.
St Paul’s Cathedral Catacombs. This is a baffling caption. The art clearly shows a very large nightclub. There aren’t any such establishments under St Paul’s. It does have a crypt, but there’s no way on earth you’d be holding raves there, not least because it contains a graveyard and a war memorial. Simply mystifying. EDIT: As pointed out in the comments, St Paul’s does have a deal with Fabric to use the main cathedral for shows, and it’s possible the writers were thinking of that. But although Fabric are best known for their nightclub, they use St Paul’s as a concert venue (and they’ve specifically said it wouldn’t be a suitable venue for dance music). This is from one of their shows.
Uncanny X-Men #37 annotations
UNCANNY X-MEN vol 6 #37
“Soul Deep”
Writer: Gail Simone
Artist: Juan Frigeri
Colour artist: Matthew Wilson
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Tom Brevoort
COVER. Wolverine fights Sarah Gaunt.
The cover lists this as “Soul Deep, part 1”. But the credits page just gives the title as “Soul Deep”, and the solicitation for the next issue lists it as “The Scavenged, part 1”.
PAGE 1. Dazzler meets the officials.
This is Graymalkin, obviously, which was shut down back in issue #29. Apparently all of the prisoners have officially gone by this point (though we find out on the next page that Sarah Gaunt is still there), and Dazzler has come back to help with dismantling the place. The subterranean labs which she mentions were flagged by Captain Ezra in issue #31, when he explained that the prison was a cover for a plan to “make Wolverines”. We’ll come back to what exactly he said that entailed. Apparently this underground lab has been located, but it’s heavily boobytrapped.
Charts – 16 October 2026
One of those weeks where at least the album chart is doing something.
1. Taylor Swift – “Patient Zero”
Three weeks. Taylor Swift is in the happy position of having fans who buy physical product in large numbers, and who are willing to wait for it to come out. So she shipped another 33,000 CDs last week, which would very nearly have been enough to get her to number 1 even before looking at her streaming points. And her streaming is substantial, but if she didn’t have those CDs, she’d be at number 8. The number one would be Jamie Miller’s “Babydoll” (and “Rein Me In” would once again be claiming to be the rightful number one on the basis of unadjusted streams).
15. Pink featuring Nate Ruess – “Just Give Me A Reason”
Apparently they’ve just rediscovered this over on TikTok. It is a good song, to be fair. It spent two weeks at number 2 in 2013, when it had the misfortune to be kept off number 1 by a one-week resurgence for PJ & Duncan’s “Let’s Get Ready to Rhumble” after Ant & Dec performed it on their ITV show.
The X-Axis – 14 October 2026
DNX #3. (Annotations here.) Three issues into this five issue series, it feels oddly structured. I get the format of putting the core plot in this book and the side quests in X-Men itself – I don’t particularly like it, because the climax of an X-Men story ought to be happening in X-Men, but it’s a venerable way of doing things and Marvel’s standard operating practice. But that plot essentially involves the X-Men defeating 3K in the first half of the book and Magneto getting cured off panel. So does that mean the X-virus is going to be taken care of in the next two issues? That feels like a bit of an anticlimax. I mean, it can’t go out of control in the way that it did in “Age of Revelation” because this is a shared universe. I guess you could permanently transform Juniper and leave it at that. But… it feels like we’re speed running things here.
X-MEN #39. (Annotations here.) The X-Men tie-in is stronger, fortunately. This is Greycrow’s solo story, and basically completes the face turn that leads to him joining the X-Men. And that’s a storyline that’s been well built over time, starting with Hellions in the Krakoan era and moving into the Psylocke and X-Men books. Rehabbing this particular character ought to be a major task, and having him repeatedly insist that he doesn’t think it’s possible either has been a nice hook to get him there. Yes, Z*E*R*O are decidedly one-dimensional – as the extremist wing of an already extremist O*N*E, they’re a slightly shaky idea to start with – but I can kind of accept the concept of the low-ranking members who don’t realise how dodgy their organisation actually is and think it ought to be dodgier. Besides, they’ve appeared in two issues now, both times in the dramatically vital role of cannon fodder. And the Glob Herman twist is very well executed – taking the time to give him thirteen issues in a coma gives it all the more impact when we get to this point.
Generation X-23 #9 annotations
GENERATION X-23 #9
“Have a Nice Trip
Writer: Jody Houser
Artist; Marco Renna
Colour artist: Erick Arciniega
Letterer: Ariana Maher
Editors: Mark Basso & Alanna Smith
COVER: Wolverine (Laura) fights the scorpion robot thing that hasn’t got a name yet.
PAGES 1-7. The Generated beat up some bigots.
“An actual wolverine given to us by a super hero who talks to squirrels.” Jonathan was given to Laura and Gabby by Squirrel Girl in All-New Wolverine #7.
“These past few months…” The next scene confirms that we’ve jumped forward three months from the previous issue. That fits with the Generated’s performance having improved. This is apparently the Generated’s first outing against actual bad guys, and while they’re at the lowest level, they’re still at least plausibly capable of doing Surprise! some harm.
X-Men #39 annotations
X-MEN vol 7 #39
“Siege”
Writer: Jed MacKay
Penciller: Netho Diaz
Inker: Sean Parsons
Colourist: Arthur Hesli
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Tom Brevoort
COVER. John Greycrow defends Glob Herman from Z*E*R*O.
PAGE 1. Abbie Bennett briefs Z*E*R*O.
Z*E*R*O. This group previously appeared in issue #19, as a splinter group of exceedingly anti-mutant O*N*E agents who consider the main organisation insufficiently radical. They attempted to kill Revelation, with predictable lack of success. Strictly speaking, it was Bei who killed the Z*E*R*O agents, not Revelation himself. Abbie Bennett is a new character, and I don’t think her husband was actually named in the original story.
DNX #3 annotations
DNX #3
Writer: Jed MacKay
Artist: Federico Vicentini
Colour artist: David Curiel
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Tom Brevoort
COVER: The X-Men and the FF fight 3K.
PAGE 1. The virus spreads through Juniper.
This picks up directly from the cliffhanger of issue #2, where the Chairman released the X-virus in Juniper after being prevented from doing so in Philadelphia. Since Juniper isn’t a real place, I do wonder whether the idea is going to be that the virus is contained but Juniper is permanently transformed.
The Trask Statute. The mysterious statue of Bolivar Trask, which appeared in Juniper mysteriously, was the subject of the Juggernaut solo story in X-Men #34.
