Uncanny X-Men #23 annotations
UNCANNY X-MEN vol 6 #23
“Where Monsters Dwell, part one”
Writer: Gail Simone
Artist: David Marquez
Colour artist: Matthew Wilson
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Tom Brevoort
COVER: The X-Men look shadowy in a swamp.
The cover still has the “Shadows of Tomorrow” strapline. It also bills this as “Where Monsters Dwell, part one”, using the logo of the Where Monsters Dwell series that ran for 38 issues between 1970 and 1975 and consisted of reprints of old monster books. (The first issue reprinted “I Brought the Mighty Cyclops Back to Life!” from Tales of Suspense #10, “Gorgolla! The Living Gargoyle!” from Strange Tales #74, and “I Alone Know the Dread Secret of Gor-Kill, the Living Demon!” from Tales of Suspense #12. You know, that sort of book.)
THE X-MEN:
Gambit. He’s being corrupted by the Left Eye of Agamotto. Exactly as predicted by Sadurang, he’s started hunting cats to eat (presumably a stray rather than one of his own pets) and he’s bitten Rogue in his sleep, somehow managing to draw blood. When the rest of the team stage an intervention, he starts by denying a problem, then refuses to give up the Eye on the grounds that he’s a monster and nothing can change that; finally, he fights the other X-Men to hold on to the Eye. It’s an addiction angle, basically.
House to Astonish Presents: The Lightning Round Episode 29
It had to happen. And now, it finally has. It’s time for me and Paul to bite the bullet and step into the squared circle to take on Marvel’s Most Merciless, the Masters of Mayhem, the Mush-Mangling Mavens of the Marquis of Queensbury, the… Thunderbolts?
It’s Fightbolts time, but will they float like butterflies, or sting like bees?
The episode is here, or available through the player below. Let us know what you think, in the comments, on Bluesky, or via email.
Daredevil Villains #71: Sunturion II
DAREDEVIL #224 (November 1985)
“Abe”
Writer: Jim Owsley
Pencillers: Daniel Jurgens & Geoff Isherwood
Inkers: Mel Candido & Bruce Patterson
Letterer: Janice Chiang
Colourist: Ken Feduniewicz
Editor: Ralph Macchio
We’re only two issues away from the end of Denny O’Neil’s run, but there’s still time to squeeze in one more fill-in. It’s a weird story, and not in a good way.
Daredevil is investigating Continental Trucking, a transport firm which is secretly a front for the mob. He fights his way into their warehouse, planning to interrupt a drug deal. But moments before he reaches the real bad guys, someone else gets to them first, incinerates them all, and disappears. Naturally enough, Daredevil turns his attention to this vigilante killer.
The one survivor of the massacre is the building’s janitor, Abe. Abe is an old blind man who has been working at Continental since the days when it was a legitimate business. He was kept on as janitor after he lost his sight, but he doesn’t know anything much about the mob – in fact, he assumes that he was kept around precisely because he wouldn’t be able to identify anyone.
Charts – 30 January 2026
Well, there aren’t many new entries this week, but at least they’re notable.
1. Harry Styles – “Aperture”
This is the lead single from his upcoming fourth album, “Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally”. The last album was 2022, and we haven’t heard from him in the top 40 since its final single “Satellite” in 2023. Now in his thirties, he’s the sort of star who can get away with releasing a track like “Aperture” – it’s the longest number 1 of the century at over five minutes, and takes its time on a slow build. On a first listen, I was wondering if he’d discovered the Postal Service. It’s a grower, though, for all its lyrical obscurity and liminal-spaces video.
The X-Axis – 28 January 2026
There weren’t any X-books this week.
There you go, that was easy.
Daredevil Villains #70: The Council of Ten
DAREDEVIL #220-221 (July-August 1985)
“Fog” / “Behold My Vengeance”
Writer: Denny O’Neil
Artist: David Mazzuchelli
Colourist: Christie Scheele
Letterer: Joe Rosas
Editor: Ralph Macchio
We’ve skipped another a couple of issues. Issue #218 is a Jester story. Issue #219 is a small-town crime story by Frank Miller and John Buscema where Matt only appears as a silent, unnamed stranger. As a straight crime story with one-off villains, it doesn’t get an entry in this feature, but it’s an intriguing oddity that has more in common with Sin City than it does with Miller’s previous Daredevil stories.
That brings us to issues #220-221, which will be our final entry for the Denny O’Neil run. He stays on the book for a few issues more, but issue #222 involves some people fighting over a sample of Mr Fear’s fear gas, and issue #223 is a Secret Wars II tie-in, with the Beyonder as the antagonist. Issue #224 is another fill-in (which we’ll be covering), issue #225 is the Vulture, and issue #226 is the Gladiator.
Charts – 23 January 2026
You’d think more people would see the lack of competition in January as an opportunity. But no.
I mean, seriously, brace yourself for anticlimax after the fold.
1. Dave & Tems – “Raindance”
We do have a new number one, although it’s hardly a new record. This track entered at number 5 alongside the release of the parent album back at the start of November, and has never dropped out of the top 30, even during the Christmas deluge. It’s now being promoted as an actual single, hence the video above, but it’s basically the same record that’s been hanging around the top 10 for the better part of three months. Dave’s romantic ballads never do much for me, honestly, and this strikes me as Just Fine.
It also carries the same asterisk that I’ve repeated for the last few weeks: if it wasn’t being downweighted under the ACR rules, Olivia Dean’s “Man I Need” would be number one. Admittedly, it’s quite impressive that “Raindance” has been out for thirteen weeks without getting hit by ACR.
The X-Axis – 21 January 2026
X-MEN #24. (Annotations here.) This is billed as a second epilogue issue to “Age of Revelation”, though I’m not sure that’s the best way of framing it. As I’ve said before, “Age of Revelation” really works best if you think of it as a middle phase in Jed MacKay’s overarching X-Men storyline. And these two issues aren’t really epilogues, so much as characters in the present day changing direction in light of what they’ve learned from that future timeline. This is the villain issue, focussing on 3K – half of it is the remaining members of 3K’s inner circle squabbling for power in the Beast’s absence, and the other half is him returning and announcing that he knows how to create the X-virus. It’s a pretty good issue, at its best with the individual character work – although the 3K X-Men get shortchanged a bit, and I’m still not quite sure I buy the Beast having quite so much influence over this otherwise murderous assortment. Tony Daniel does a rather good take on the snow-white Beast design from “Age of Revelation”, which the Krakoan Beast has evidently decided to adopt without explaining why – we seem to be heading towards a romantic triangle with Jen Starkey and two Hanks, which is cute – and I really like the final page of the 3K base hanging serenely over a mountain landscape, with the tiniest little dot showing Schwarzchild’s body being dumped over the side.
INGLORIOUS X-FORCE #1. (Annotations here.) Last year’s X-Force didn’t really work out, being cancelled after ten issues and rushed to a conclusion. It also didn’t have much to do with the X-Force name at all. This time, Tim Seeley and Michael Sta. Maria take the more conventional route with Cable landing back in the present day and prompting recruiting Archangel, Hellverine and Boom Boom as a new version of X-Force. Despite Archangel and Hellverine being in the book, Seeley isn’t a grimdark writer, and seems much keener on the early 90s version of X-Force, which was more of a sugar rush than anything else. And I quite like the way that Cable seems to be trading on X-Force’s history and reputation as a way of encouraging the rest of the cast to stay with him (for ulterior motives); if nothing else, it provides a legitimate reason to brand this as an X-Force title.
Inglorious X-Force #1 annotations
INGLORIOUS X-FORCE #1
“A Force to be Expected”
Writer: Tim Seeley
Artist: Michael Sta. Maria
Colour artist: Romulo Fajardo Jr.
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Editor: Mark Basso
COVER: The core four members of the new X-Force. There’s a fifth character too, but we’ll get to her.
This is the first issue of a new series, which gets the “Shadows of Tomorrow” banner. The previous volume of X-Force only ran for ten issues in 2024-2025, and has nothing to do with this iteration whatsoever. It is, however, very keen to position itself as a successor to the original X-Force from the early 1990s. The cover doesn’t have a legacy number, but it would be issue #301.
The story title might be referencing the story title of X-Force #1 back in 1991 (“A Force to be Reckoned With”).
X-FORCE:
Cable. This version is looking a bit battered. He favours skulking around in a cloak, even when turning up in someone’s office, and seems to be using “synthetic flesh” to patch up the appearance of his face (presumably covering up the techno-organic virus). He still presents himself to everyone as an all-knowing authority figure with the perspective of a time traveller from the future, but there’s a definite impression here that this is partly an act and that he doesn’t know as much as he thinks he does.
X-Men #24 annotations
X-MEN vol 7 #24
“Three Thousand”
Writer: Jed MacKay
Penciller: Tony Daniel
Inker: Mark Morales
Colourist: Fer Sifuentes-Sujo
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Tom Brevoort
COVER: The core members of 3K, with the Chairman still in his previous body, to avoid spoilers in the solicitations.
As with the previous issue, this is billed both as a “Shadows of Revelation” issue and as an “Age of Revelation: Epilogue”.
The X-Men themselves don’t appear in this issue, which covers what was happening with 3K while the Chairman was absent in the future, and what happens upon his return.
3K:
The Chairman refers to the ruling group as the “Great Table”, a name which previously came up in issue #14, and feels like it has echoes of the Krakoan Quiet Council.
As we saw in X-Men: Age of Revelation – Finale, the Chairman’s body went into lockdown when the future Beast from the Age of Revelation timeline attempted to swap places with him. As a result, he’s missing for a week. In this time, 3K is already falling apart, with Cassandra Nova and Astra fighting one another for control; evidently this organisation depends on the Chairman to hold it together. In fact, the others seem to have remarkable deference to him.
