The X-Axis – w/c 1 July 2024
X-MEN: FROM THE ASHES INFINITY COMIC #4. By Alex Paknadel, Diógenes Neves, Arthur Hesli & Clayton Cowles. Moving on to the book’s second arc – which still feels like weird timing when X-Men #1 isn’t even out yet, but okay. And it seems we have an actual regular creative team on this book now, which is a different approach. This arc, “What Charlie Did…”, is about journalist Sally Floyd trying to make sense of Professor X’s recent heel turn and his handing himself in to the authorities after Fall of the House of X. If you’re struggling to place Sally Floyd, then she’s the alcoholic journalist from Generation M, a miniseries from the Decimation period. After that, she got shunted over to the wider Marvel Universe as one of its cast of available journalists, but I don’t think the X-books have done anything with her since Generation M, and she doesn’t seem to have been used anywhere in several years. Still, if you’re looking for a viewpoint character to write about mutantdom, she’s as good as any.
This first chapter is really just restatement of ideas. Sally’s basic role as a talented journalist and recidivist alcoholic is set up again, and we get a recap of all the things Professor X has done wrong- specifically, the things that were turning points in how the character was interpreted – coupled with a reminder of his more straightforwardly heroic moments that have been downplayed over the years. The project here is apparently to explain how these conflicting versions of the character are meant to work together, but part of the angle is some weird Arthurian connection in Xavier’s self-image. Hard to say at this point where they’re going with this, and it certainly seems a bit early to be setting up Xavier for rehabilitation from the end of Krakoa, but we’ll see.
Daredevil Villains #29: The Tribune
DAREDEVIL #70-71 (November & December 1970)
“The Tribune” / “If an Eye Offend Thee…”
Writer: Gary Friedrich (#70), Roy Thomas & Lein Wein (#71)
Penciller: Gene Colan
Inker: Syd Shores
Letterer: Sam Rosen (#70) & Artie Simek (#71)
Colourist: not credited
Editor: Stan Lee
This is the third story in a row to deal with political radicals. In issue #68, Phoenix were so vague as to be meaningless; in issue #69, the Thunderbolts were a clumsy stab at social relevance. So a third extremist story might sound less than promising. And when you find that the first half is by a fill-in writer, and the second half has two credited writers, neither of whom worked on the first half… you could be forgiven for not getting your hopes up.
But this story has neither the timidness that sank the Phoenix story, nor the over-earnestness of the Thunderbolts. It’s absolutely mad.
The Tribune is movie star Buck Ralston. Despite being enormously famous, Buck likes to give soapbox speeches to passers-by on the streets of Hollywood. “It’s about time patriots like us stopped being a silent majority!” he says. Karen Page is up for a part in his next film, but to the horror of her agent, she tells Ralston to his face that he’s an extremist. Ralston naturally concludes that she’s a commie. “Gotta watch anybody that says you can be too patriotic!”
X-Men: Heir of Apocalypse #2 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X-MEN: HEIR OF APOCALYPSE #2
Writer: Steve Foxe
Penciller: Netho Diaz
Inkers: JP Mayer with Sean Parsons
Colour artist: Alex Sinclair
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Tom Brevoort
APOCALYPSE
Despite being the title character, Apocalypse is barely in this issue. Aside from more brief flashbacks to show how he selected some of his twelve contestants, he doesn’t show up until two pages from the end, where he confirms that he did indeed lure Genocide to Egypt as part of his test – although Genocide isn’t in on it.
Apocalypse is unimpressed by his candidates’ performance against “my most despised child”. We’re not told why Apocalypse feels that way about Genocide – I don’t think the two have ever met – but the idea from the original Uncanny X-Force storyline which introduced Genocide was that Apocalypse viewed him as a threat. It might also be that Apocalypse views Genocide as a moron who hasn’t understood his philosophy at all.
Apocalypse’s new base on Mars is an Egyptian-stye pyramid, albeit with more modern construction in the grounds.
Daredevil Villains #28: The Thunderbolts
DAREDEVIL #69 (October 1970)
“A Life on the Line”
Writer: Roy Thomas
Artist: Gene Colan
Inker: Syd Shores
Letterer: Artie Simek
Colourist: not credited
Editor: Stan Lee
No, not those Thunderbolts.
This story is set in Harlem, and there are multiple black characters with speaking parts. It’s Marvel in 1970, so that can only mean one thing: it’s time for an improving exercise in social commentary.
Daredevil stops two black gang members from robbing a warehouse. A third tries to escape, only to crash their van into a brick wall. He turns out to be a 15-year-old boy. The Black Panther shows up, and the heroes race the kid to hospital. His unspecified injuries call for a top surgeon, which Daredevil and the Panther are able to sort out. Although the story doesn’t labour the point, the clear implication is that the kid would otherwise have died thanks to the wonderful American health care system.
While our heroes wait for the outcome of the surgery, the Black Panther fills in some back story with an extended flashback. This is the period where the Panther had a civilian identity as school teacher Luke Charles. The kid is his brightest student, Lonnie Carver. Lonnie idolises his older brother Billy, who has just returned from Vietnam. Despite having become a pacifist as a result of his experiences, Billy wears his army uniform around the streets of Harlem, just in case we were in any doubt as to his status as a saintly veteran.
Daredevil Villains #27: Phoenix
DAREDEVIL #68 (September 1970)
“Phoenix and the Fighter!”
Writer: Roy Thomas
Artist: Gene Colan
Inker: Syd Shores
Letterer: Artie Simek
Colourist: not credited
Editor: Stan Lee
No, not that Phoenix.
After four issues in Hollywood, Daredevil is back in New York, but without Karen Page in tow. She’ll be back, but she’s out of the picture for the moment. In the meantime, Daredevil moves on to something else entirely.
Daredevil arrives at the DA’s office to find Foggy in a shouting match with three guys from an extremist group called Phoenix. The only one who gets a name is called Kragg. The Phoenix members wear brightly coloured tunics with logos on the chest – Kragg’s costume has a phoenix head, and the others have a sort of stylised flame thing. They generally look like they’ve wandered out of a Buck Rogers story and left their ray guns at home.
Kragg is trying to get Foggy to stop “hounding” his group. After Daredevil shoos the extremists away, we learn that Foggy is investigating them because they’ve mysteriously bought the contract of middleweight boxing contender Kid Gawaine. The Kid has an upcoming title match at Madison Square Garden, and his trainer, Pop Fenton, once trained Battlin’ Jack Murdock. For obvious reasons, a story of boxing corruption piques Daredevil’s interest, and he decides to look into Phoenix himself.
X-Men: Heir of Apocalypse #1 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X-MEN: HEIR OF APOCALYPSE #1
Writer: Steve Foxe
Penciller: Netho Diaz
Inker: JP Mayer
Colour Artist: Alex Sinclair
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Annalise Bissa
And on we go. X-Men: Heir of Apocalypse is a four-issue miniseries shipping over June and July. It has a weird position on the schedule. On the one hand, this is one of the first X-books from the new office, it picks up a major plot point from X-Men #35, and the premise generally seems as if it ought to be significant. On the other hand, the fact that it appears between the end of Krakoa and the launch of the new X-Men titles – alongside a bunch of Wolverine minis and Blood Hunt tie-ins – positions it as a decidedly second-tier release. Still, it’s as significant as X-books are going to get in the remainder of June.
As I said in the post about Free Comic Book Day 2024: Blood Hunt / X-Men, I’m thinking of altering the format of these posts in what I expect to be a less inter-connected line going forward. Besides, the new regime seems to be much more relaxed about doing its own footnotes. So let’s see how the approach I used for the FCBD issue works out here…
THE STATE OF MUTANTKIND
We’re after X-Men #35 but before any of the relaunched X-Men titles, and so this is another book which is awkwardly coy about the status quo of the mutants from Earth.
Daredevil Villains #26: Brother Brimstone
DAREDEVIL #65-66 (June & July 1970)
“The Killing of Brother Brimstone” / “…And One Cried Murder!”
Writer: Roy Thomas
Penciller: Gene Colan
Inker: Syd Shores
Letterer: Artie Smiek
Colourist: not credited
Editor: Stan Lee
Once again, we’ve skipped a couple of issues with returning villains. Issue #63 is a Gladiator story, and issue #64 is the return of Stunt-Master. There have been some developments in those two issues.
After months of pestering Matt to quit as Daredevil, Karen Page has lost patience and walked out. She was expecting Matt to stop her at the airport, but he was too busy being Daredevil to show up. So Karen is now living in Los Angeles with her old college roommate Sally Weston. And Matt has followed her out there, which means we get four issues in Hollywood. In issue #64, Daredevil fails to locate Karen, who is avoiding him. Instead, Daredevil gets sidetracked by Stunt-Master.
Now, obviously, Daredevil has pursued Karen to the other side of the country because he’s a romantic lead. It’s not like he’s some sort of stalker! So in issue #65, he breaks into Karen’s bedroom to find out where she’s working.
As it happens, Sally Weston is the assistant director on gothic daytime soap opera Strange Secrets, and she’s got Karen some acting work on the show. Readers at the time would have recognised Strange Secrets as the ABC daytime soap Dark Shadows, which ran from 1966 to 1971. Accordingly to Wikipedia, it “became popular when vampire Barnabas Collins (Jonathan Frid) was introduced ten months into its run. It would feature ghosts, werewolves, zombies, man-made monsters, witches, warlocks, time travel and a parallel universe.” By early 1970, the show was past its peak, which is in fact how Strange Secrets is presented here.
X-Men #35 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X-MEN vol 6 #35
“Dream’s End”
Writers: Gerry Duggan, Kieron Gillen & Al Ewing
Artists: Joshua Cassara, Phil Noto, Lucas Werneck, Leinil Francis Yu, Walter Simonson, Mark Brooks, John Romita Jr, Scott Hanna, Jerome Opeña, Luciana Vecchio, Stefano Caselli & Sara Pichelli
Colour artists: Romulo Fajardo Jr, Phil Noto, David Curiel, Laura Martin, Sonia Oback, Marcio Menyz, Matt Hollingsworth & Matthew Wilson
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Jordan D White
COVER / PAGES 1-2. The Krakoan era cast, including some of the villains, make their way across the page, Official Handbook style – though at a gentle stroll. Some of the villains are included. I’m not quite sure how Gateway made the cut for this, but it’s nice to see him. (If you’re wondering why this is two pages in the digital edition, page 1 is the cover as it looks on the shelf, and page 2 is the entire gatefold.)
This is the final issue of X-Men vol 6, and the final comic of the Krakoan era – although some unfortunate scheduling means that Ms Marvel: Mutant Menace #4, which takes place before Fall of the House of X, also came out this week. The other X-book this week, Wolverine: Blood Hunt #1, is post-Krakoan, and comes from the new editorial office.
Applying “legacy numbering”, Marvel also regard this issue as Uncanny X-Men #700.
Wolverine #50 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
WOLVERINE vol 7 #50
“Sabretooth War, part 10: Coup de Grace”
Writers: Benjamin Percy & Victor LaValle
Pencillers: Geoff Shaw & Cory Smith
Inkers: Geoff Shaw & Oren Junior
Colour artist: Alex Sinclair
Letterer: Cory Petit
Editor: Mark Basso
COVER / PAGE 1. Armoured Wolverine fights Sabretooth.
PAGES 2-6. Graydon Creed’s final showdown with Wolverine is cut short when Sabretooth kills him.
Basically, Graydon turns out to have been a red herring – after reanimating the battered Stark Sentinels to keep X-Force occupied, he tries to give his speech about following the footsteps of his father’s urge for destruction, only to get summarily killed by Sabretooth, who doesn’t seem to care about him in the slightest. Even Wolverine is surprised by that.
The gauge in page 6 panel 1 is a progress bar as the armour restores Wolverine’s powers, as revealed later in the issue.
PAGE 7. Recap and credits. We’re told here that the Muramasa Blade that Wolverine is carrying is capable of causing wounds that Sabretooth’s healing factor can’t heal. This was a heavily emphasised feature of the Muramasa Blade which appeared extensively in Wolverine: Origins, but the one Wolverine is carrying here seems to be one of the blades that were made by Muramasa for “X of Swords”. I’m not sure these swords have previously been established as having the same properties, but they were shown to be able to cut through adamantium in X-Force #13.
Rise of the Powers of X #5 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
RISE OF THE POWERS OF X #5
“Now and Forever”
Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artist: Luciano Vecchio
Colour artist: David Curiel
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Editor: Jordan D White
COVER / PAGE 1. Jean Grey as the reborn Phoenix.
PAGE 2. Phoenix is reborn in the White Hot Room.
Or the “Once-White Once-Hot Room”, as the narrator has it. Issue #4 ended with Jean on her funeral pyre as it was set alight, and the other Dominions telling Enigma that if the Phoenix returned then they would answer his call for help. That plot thread then gets picked up in X-Men: Forever #2-4. In Forever #2, we see Hope lighting the pyre, and Jean being restored, but a confused Phoenix Force resisting its rebirth. In Forever #3-4, Hope and Legion destroy the Phoenix, apparently freeing up Hope to be reborn as the infant Phoenix (the small bird seen here), and completing the Phoenix’s personal time-loop. Meanwhile, Jean prevents Enigma from interfering with Hope’s origin story, and turns out to be responsible for Hope’s mother’s pregnancy.
We’re more or less picking up directly from that issue, although there’s no obvious reason why Jean is emerging again from her pyre again. At any rate, whatever the reason, she’s back in the classic green Phoenix costume from the 1970s.
