X-Men #29 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X-MEN vol 6 #29
“House of Doom”
Writer: Gerry Duggan
Artist: Joshua Cassara
Colour artist: Marte Gracia
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Editor: Jordan D White
COVER / PAGE 1. The X-Men fight the Daggers of Latveria.
PAGES 2-4. Flashback: Dr Doom intervenes as Professor X is about to announce Krakoa to the human race.
This is an insertion into the flashback that opens House of X #6. The opening dialogue and Xavier’s Magneto’s speech about ending all the disagreements between them is from the original, as the opening line that Professor X delivers before Doom answers him back. The rest of the scene is original material that takes place between pages 4 and 5 of House of X #6, boldly shoehorned into the middle of Professor X’s speech.
It doesn’t entirely make sense that Doom has a V-for-Victor style Cerebro helmet of his own, before Professor X has even publicly debuted with this design, though he does suggest later in the issue that he is relying on some sort of actual foreknowledge of events, rather than simply correctly predicting that Krakoa’s collapse. And the design is wonderful.
X-Men Blue: Origins #1 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X-MEN BLUE: ORIGINS #1
Writer: Si Spurrier
Artists: Wilton Santos (with Oren Junior) & Marcus To
Colour artist: Ceci De La Cruz
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Editor: Sarah Brunstad
COVER / PAGE 1: Mystique and Nightcrawler (in his Spider-Man costume) in action together. I think the thing in the background is meant to be the Stark Sentinel from Uncanny Spider-Man #4.
X-Men Blue: Origins. The title is a play on the ongoing series X-Men Blue that ran for 36 issues in 2017-2018.
PAGES 2-5. Flashback: Mystique resists Professor X’s mental control and falls off a cliff.
This is a straight recap of a scene in X-Men: Hellfire Gala 2023 #1. We were told in that issue that her body was taken away by the sea, and naturally she showed up again in New York in Uncanny Spider-Man #1.
The recap narrator is the mysterious Bamf that hangs around talking to Nightcrawler, invisible to everyone else, in Uncanny Spider-Man; for present purposes, though, he just gives us a bare-bones recap of Hellfire Gala.
PAGE 6. Flashback: Mystique escapes the Hellfire Gala.
Basically, Mystique picks herself up pretty much immediately, already obsessing about “my baby” (as she has been in Uncanny Spider-Man). She kills and replaces a random Orchis soldier and escapes that way.
Uncanny Spider-Man #4 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
UNCANNY SPIDER-MAN #4
“Slice and Dice”
Writer: Si Spurrier
Artist: Lee Garbett
Colour artist: Matt Milla
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Editor: Sarah Brunstad
COVER / PAGE 1. Nightcrawler and Spider-Man fighting a Stark Sentinel.
PAGES 2-5. Nightcrawler watches Spider-Man deal with an anti-mutant mob.
Nightcrawler decides to leave it to Peter to deal with this – and he’s probably right that Peter’s better placed to try and calm the mob than he is. But the little ghost Bamf clearly sees this as another example of Kurt hiding from his problems. And he’s probably right too.
The Bamf also tells us directly that he isn’t an illusion. Admittedly, he would, wouldn’t he? But that’s consistent with issue #1, where he seemed to be able to shield Kurt from the Stark Sentinel’s detection.
Immortal X-Men #17 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
IMMORTAL X-MEN #17
“The White Hot Danger Room”
Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artist: Juan José Ryp
Colour artist: David Curiel
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Editor: Jordan D White
COVER / PAGE 1. Jean Grey in contemporary costume, surrounded by images of her from various points in her life. From left to right, that’s:
- A Jean we can’t see enough of to place.
- Late 1980s X-Factor Marvel Girl
- Late 1960s X-Men Marvel Girl
- Phoenix / Black Queen from the Dark Phoenix Saga.
- Early 1990s X-Men Jean Grey
- Early Silver Age Marvel Girl
- Phoenix in X-Men #101, rising from the water with Cyclops in front of her.
- X-Men Red Jean Grey
- Morrison/Quitely New X-Men Jean Grey
- Another Jean too small to identify.
The X-Axis – w/c 13 November 2023
X-MEN UNLIMITED INFINITY COMIC #113. By Steve Foxe, Steve Orlando, Guillermo Sanna, Java Tartaglia & Travis Lanham. Infinity Comics don’t really lend themselves to writing reviews of individual chapters, since they’re often just extended scenes – something that’s absolutely fine when you’re releasing on a weekly schedule. This is one such issue, and on those terms, perfectly decent. It’s Firestar trying to help Orchis capture her ex-fiancée Justice in order to keep up her cover. We don’t see much of Justice in the X-books, despite the fact that he’s a relatively high profile mutant, but it makes sense to bring him over for a Firestar arc. If you want to have Firestar feel uncomfortable about how she’s perceived by her friends while undercover, Justice is a much better choice for that role than any of the regular X-Men. The plot is exactly what you’d expect, but it’s handled quite nicely, with Justice knowing Firestar well enough to get that none of this makes sense, and Firestar bringing up uncomfortable bits of past continuity in order to sell him on her supposed sincerity.
JEAN GREY #4. (Annotations here.) Some of the Fall of X minis are already ending, others are on their penultimate issue. That was quick. At this point, it seems clear enough that some books are central to key storylines (X-Men, Immortal X-Men, X-Men Red, Invincible Iron Man); some are just carrying on with their own thing (Wolverine, X-Force, Legion of X / Uncanny Spider-Man); and… well, the publishing schedule says we still need more books. Jean Grey is three issues of What If…? stories based on points in Jean’s life, with a fourth issue that spells out the message we’re meant to be taking from the first three. That message, more or less, is that Jean shouldn’t be second guessing her past choices because anything else that she could have done would have been worse. For that to work, you have to accept that the Phoenix Force is being honest with her. But if it’s not, what’s the story? Even taking it at face value, though, I don’t think this sticks the landing. I’ve generally enjoyed this series as what it is, but I’m not convinced it’s taken Jean anywhere. It’s not as if this sort of self-doubt has been a key character note; if anything, Gerry Duggan tends to write her as supremely confident in her power and her moral choices, albeit with the occasional bit of hand-wringing about that time Dark Phoenix committed genocide. This issue is working hard to sell the idea that the last few issues have taught us something important about Jean, and I’m really not convinced that they have.
Children of the Vault #4 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
CHILDREN OF THE VAULT #4
“Kill the Future!”
Writer: Deniz Camp
Artist: Luca Maresca
Colour artist: Carlos Lopez
Letterer: Cory Petit
Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Editor: Sarah Brunstad
COVER / PAGE 1. Cable and Bishop fight the Children of the Vault.
PAGE 2. Cable threatens to shoot the City.
This is where we left off last issue.
PAGE 3. Recap and credits.
PAGE 4. Rodrigo Muñoz reacts – kind of – to the battle.
We saw Rodrigo before in issue #1. He was the kid wandering around the lithium fields just before the City showed up overhead.
As Martillo explained in issue #2, the Children’s “Message” transforms people “first in mind, then in body”; most humans will die in the process, but the tiny minority who survive will become Children of the Vault. Clearly, Rodrigo is some way into his transformation.
“Tierra Desnuda”, the name of Rodrigo’s Children-built “Tomorrow Town”, was previously given in issue #1.
Jean Grey #4 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
JEAN GREY vol 2 #4
“Ashes to Ashes”
Writer: Louise Simonson
Artist: Bernard Chang
Colour artist: Marcelo Maiolo
Letterer: Ariana Maher
Design: Jay Bowen
Editor: Sarah Brunstad
COVER / PAGE 1. Assorted Jean Greys squabble over who gets to touch the Phoenix Force.
PAGE 2. Jean is surrounded by other Jean Greys.
This is where we left off last issue. Leaving aside the two Jeans who are shown only in silhouette, the other Jeans on page 2, from left to right, are:
- Jean in her costume from the 2018 X-Men Red series.
- Jean in X-Men #100, just before she becomes Phoenix.
- Dark Phoenix.
- The Goblin Queen.
- Late 1960s Marvel Girl
- Time-travelling “Silver Age” Jean Grey from All-New X-Men.
- Jean Grey from the Morrison/Quitely New X-Men.
Astonishing Iceman #4 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
ASTONISHING ICEMAN #4
“Out Cold, part 4”
Writer: Steve Orlando
Artist: Vincenzo Carratù
Colour artists: Java Tartaglia with Chris Sotomayor
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Designers: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Editor: Mark Basso
COVER / PAGE 1. Iceman and Spider-Man in action.
PAGE 2. Iceman races off from his citadel.
The previous issue ended with Iceman getting back home but quickly heading straight back out to deal with a problem in New York, which we saw was Feral (as a Hound) attacking Spider-Man. Mr Clean was fairly obviously engineering these events to lure Iceman away from the citadel and leave it unguarded. As we’ll see later on, Iceman has actually got some security measures in place – he’s not an idiot – but they don’t get the job done.
PAGE 3. Recap and credits.
Dark X-Men #4 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
DARK X-MEN vol 2 #4
“Up Jumped the Devil”
Writer: Steve Foxe
Artist: Jonas Scharf
Colour artist: Frank Martin
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Editor: Jordan D White
COVER / PAGE 1. Chasm in the foreground, with Feint, Gambit, Goblin QUeen and Havok behind.
PAGES 2-5. Gambit brings Rogue up to speed.
Rogue is appearing over in Uncanny Avengers. So far, we’ve glossed over the question of why the two married characters aren’t together – but then, Rogue is a previous Avengers, and somebody needs to keep an eye on the Limbo Embassy.
“What he is not used to … is being the most honourable, responsible person in the room.” I’m not sure it’s that unprecedented, given the time he’s spent in the Thieves Guild, or indeed his stint with the Marauders… but sure, Gambit is normally the wild card rogue, and he’s being forced here into playing the role of the last normal X-Man.
Charts – 10 November 2023
Really?
I mean, really?
1. The Beatles – “Now and Then”
Okay, so. This was at number 42 last week because it was released in time to get 10 hours of streaming registered for last week’s chart. That would have been an artificially low placing, because only a few streamers report data that late, and the figures for the others would have been estimated from their data earlier in the week (which, in the case of a last minute release, is zero).
However, it’s not number one thanks to streaming. Its chart score is equivalent to 78,200 sales, which includes 38,000 physical copies, and a further 10,000 odd downloads. No record has sold that volume of physical copies since the 2014 X Factor winner, because that’s just not how regular audiences consume music any more. Obviously, something that can be marketed as a last Beatles single appeals heavily to an audience who rarely pay attention to new releases and haven’t updated their format preferences in 20 years or more.
