The Incomplete Wolverine – 1984
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: Weapon X
Part 9: Department H | Part 10: The Silver Age
1974-1975 | 1976 | 1977 | 1978 | 1979
1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983
Welcome to the era of event comics.
UNCANNY X-MEN vol 1 #178
“Hell Hath No Fury…”
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. It turns out to be a diversion to draw the X-Men away from the Mansion, so that Mystique can kill Professor X as revenge for taking Rogue away from her. Rogue talks Mystique down, and Mystique spares Professor X in exchange for safe passage for the Brotherhood.
So not a Wolverine story, then. He does note that Storm is taking on some of Yukio’s traits, and suggests that he doesn’t think this is a great idea – understandably, since Yukio’s role in the Wolverine miniseries was to offer the temptation of succumbing to his instincts.
Charts – 12 March 2021
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. This surely has to be the end, right?
“Wellerman” has spent seven weeks now hovering between 2 and 3. It finally gets a proper video this week, which is, um… well, it’s so obviously thrown together that you have to wonder why it took seven weeks to appear. Covid issues, maybe. “The Business” by Tiesto climbs 4-3, which is his highest position since 2014. And the big release of this week…
4. Drake – “What’s Next”
6. Drake featuring Rick Ross – “Lemon Pepper Freestyle”
10. Drake featuring Lil Baby – “Wants and Needs”
That’s all three of the tracks from his EP “Scary Hours 2”. I struggle to get worked up about Drake, to be honest, but there’s no doubt that he’s still in the peak phase of his career. The two B-sides are somewhat more interesting than some of his singles have been, but this is very much a relative thing.
X-Factor #8 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X-FACTOR vol 4 #8
“Suite No. 8: Scio Me Nihil Scire (Tritone Substitution – Jazz Arrangement)”
by Leah Williams, David Baldeon & Israel Silva
COVER / PAGE 1: X-Factor overshadowed by the Morrigan.
PAGE 2. Aurora and Northstar watch TV.
This scene takes place just before the final page of the previous issue. That final page showed Daken, Prodigy and Eye-Boy hiding from the Morrigan in the living room, with Rachel, Polaris, Aurora and Northstar already dead.
Aurora is wet because she was in a hot tub with Daken, in the immediately preceding scene of the previous issue.
PAGES 3-4. Rachel finds Eye-Boy.
It’s the old trope that animals can sense things that humans can’t, although in this case it’s Amazing Baby detecting something that the normal-by-Krakoan-standards Rachel can’t pick up.
Children of the Atom #1 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
CHILDREN OF THE ATOM #1
“Uncanny”
by Vita Ayala, Bernard Chang & Marcelo Maiolo
Children of the Atom. This is the first series of that name (though there was a miniseries called X-Men: Children of the Atom in 1999). “Children of the Atom” used to be part of the X-Men’s intro text back in the 70s, the original idea being that the upsurge in mutants was connected with the development of nuclear weapons.
The central characters never actually call themselves by this name in the story, but I’ll use the name anyway for ease of reading.
COVER / PAGE 1. A straightforward pin-up of the cast, giving nothing away beyond the very obvious parallels to existing X-Men characters.
PAGES 2-3. The Children of the Atom interrupt an armed robbery.
Hell’s Belles. As explained later int he issue, the three villains seen here are Flambé (with the flamethrowers), Vague (in the white hood) and Tremolo (the, er, other one). Their only significant previous appearance was in X-Factor #80-81, back in 1992. Despite that, the information we’re given later on about their depowering is established canon – all three appear on the long list of depowered mutants in New Avengers #18, and their teammate Briquette doesn’t. Briquette showed up, with powers intact, attending a mutant support group in Domino Annual #1.
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 position-switching among the established hits. “Friday” by Riton x Nightcrawlers climbs 7-5, and “Goosebumps” by Travis Scott & HVME climbs 9-8. “Your Love (9pm)” by ATB, Topic & A7S climbs 15-12. “Up” by Cardi B is up one place to 16, “Commitment Issues” by Central Cee up 1 place to 17. We hit a peak of excitement at number 19, which “My Head & My Heart” by Ava Max climbing a whole six places – which is still only the peak that her spring 2020 single “Kings & Queens” reached.
20. Joel Corry x RAYE x David Guetta – “Bed”
Hellions #10 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
HELLIONS #10
“Funny Games, Part II: Hitbox”
by Zeb Wells, Stephen Segovia & David Curiel
COVER / PAGE 1. Some of the Hellions in the foreground, with Arcade gloating in the background. For some reason this issue has old-style 1980s cover boxes, which doesn’t really seem to play into anything much (though it does get the characters who aren’t in the main pose onto the cover).
PAGE 2. The now-usual opening quotation from Nightcrawler. This time he’s telling us what a valuable experience it is to face our demons and grow.
PAGES 3-6. Arcade talks to Sinister.
Arcade traditionally wouldn’t be in anything approaching Sinister’s league when it comes to power. But he does tell us that Sinister’s powers are being dampened by the chair. And Sinister seems to be a lot less physically powerful in his current incarnation anyway.
House to Astonish Episode 190
Coo-ee! Only us! Back again with more nattering about comics. This time, we’re remembering Si Spencer, and talking about the Linearverse, Wonder Girl, Milestone’s new creative teams, Legends of the Dark Knight, the Year of Spawn, X-Corp and The Blue Flame. We’re also reviewing Stray Dogs and Nuclear Family, and the Official Handbook of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe is ramming jade eggs into Nosferatu’s chest. All this plus Batman’s Techno-Hat, the Tangent Spider-Ham universe, and ‘Eeper-Temps.
The podcast is here, or here on Mixcloud, or available via the embedded player below. Let us know what you think, on Twitter, via email or on our Facebook fan page. And t-shirts! You can buy t-shirts! Of course you can!
The Incomplete Wolverine – 1983
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: Weapon X
Part 9: Department H | Part 10: The Silver Age 1974-1975
1976 | 1977 | 1978 | 1979 | 1980 | 1981 | 1982
We left off with the Brood arc, which extends into early 1983. The X-Men and the Starjammers had just figured out that Professor X was infected by the Brood, and were racing back home to sort it out. Along the way, they stop for a flashback in Excalibur vol 1 #116, in which Kitty and Kurt insist on doing what they can to help a Sidri starship in trouble. Wolverine’s there, but he doesn’t contribute much.
UNCANNY X-MEN vol 1 #167
“The Goldilocks Syndrome!”
by Chris Claremont, Paul Smith, Bob Wiacek & various
March 1983
The X-Men storm the Mansion in pursuit of the Brood-infected Professor X, only to encounter his latest recruits the New Mutants – Cannonball (Sam Guthrie), Psyche (Dani Moonstar), Wolfsbane (Rahne Sinclair), Karma (Xi’an Coy Manh) and Sunspot (Roberto Da Costa) – who try to defend their home. After the usual fight, both teams join forces to defeat the Brood Queen, and Sikorsky clones Xavier a new body. This body can walk, but Xavier still has psychosomatic issues for a little while. Since Deathbird has seized control of the Shi’ar Empire, Lilandra also stays on Earth for now. And the Professor infuriates everyone by demoting Sprite to the New Mutants.
As you might expect, Wolverine’s not the focus here. He completely outclasses the New Mutants that try to deal with him – he even shrugs off Karma’s possession powers – but dutifully notes that they’ll be more dangerous once they’ve had time to train. He supports killing the Professor, but only because he’s unaware of the cloning option.
Charts – 26 February 2021
It’s not budging.
1. Olivia Rodrigo – “Drivers License”
That’s seven weeks. So it’s time to start paying attention to the records. Two records managed six weeks last year: Ariana Grande’s “Positions” and Joel Corry & MNEK’s “Head & Heart”. “Drivers License” now overtakes them both. The next step is a big challenge, though – “Dance Monkey” by Tones & I, which lasted 11 weeks at number 1 in 2019. I don’t see Rodrigo making it that long – she’s had one close call already. But we’ll see.
The rest of the top 3 is static, with “Calling My Phone” by Lil Tjay & 6LACK at 2, and Nathan Evans’ “Wellerman” at 3. And it’s a long, long way down to the first new entry. “The Business” by Tiesto climbs 6-4, becoming his highest placing single since 2014. “Friday” by Riton x Nightcrawler featuring Mufasa & Hypeman climbs 10-7. Remarkably, “Save Your Tears” by the Weeknd continues to climb despite having been available as an album track for months, and now moves 13-11. “Latest Trends” by A1 & J1, which entered at 19 and climbed to 17 last week, gathers momentum by climbing to 12. “Your Love (9pm)” by ATB, Topic & A7S climbs 21-5. Cardi B’s “Up” climbs 22-17. Central Cee’s “Commitment Issues” climbs 23-18. “Heat Waves” by Glass Animals climbs 26-23. “My Head & My Heart” by Ava Max climbs 29-25, which coincidentally leaves it one place above “Head & Heart”, still hanging in there months after it left number 1.
28. Ella Henderson & Tom Grennan – “Let’s Go Home Together”
New Mutants #16 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
NEW MUTANTS vol 4 #16
“One Step Behind”
by Vita Ayala & Rob Reis
COVER / PAGE 1: The faces of the New Mutants in a shadowy cloud, presumably the Shadow King. Once again, Scout is shown with the team, somewhat jumping the gun in terms of the actual story.
PAGES 2-3. Some kids sneak into Otherworld.
The Braddock Lighthouse is the headquarters of Excalibur, as seen over in their own book. That’s Rictor hanging around near the gate and being sneaked past, though the character model is a little off (the X-logo on his chest is usually drawn bigger than that).
The three kids are Monica, Josh and Liana. Monica’s the one with the red hair. Technically it’s the first appearance for all three of them, but versions of these characters previously appeared as background prisoners in Ayala’s Age of X-Man: Prisoner X miniseries. We established in the previous issue that the prison in that series included a bunch of filler characters who were copies of real-world mutants but apparently were not simply counterparts of them – from the look of it, Ayala is importing a whole bunch of these background characters into mainstream continuity.
