Daredevil Villains #24: Crime-Wave
DAREDEVIL #60 (January 1970)
“Showdown at Sea!”
Writer: Roy Thomas
Penciller: Gene Colan
Inker: Syd Shores
Letterer: Sam Rosen
Colourist: not credited
Editor: Stan Lee
At his core, Crime-Wave ought to work. He’s built up over three issues of sub-plot as the top criminal menace in New York. He’s talked about as an unprecedented threat to the rule of law. Intimidation of witnesses and jurors is apparently a big thing. He’s a kingpin of organised crime and a natural opponent for Foggy as DA and Matt as his assistant. He’s not just a street-level threat but a systemic one. It’s precisely the sort of thing that works for Daredevil in later years.
But Crime-Wave doesn’t work, and never returns.
Issue #60 is where Daredevil finally meets him. But his on-panel debut is in issue #59, where Willie Lincoln meets him and escapes alive. That issue rather sums up the problems with Crime-Wave. It opens with Crime-Wave’s thugs demanding protection money from a corner shop. True, the whole point is that Crime-Wave is a systemic background threat, and the shopkeeper does refuse to testify, but it’s still fairly underwhelming stuff for an archenemy.
Daredevil Villains #23: The Torpedo
DAREDEVIL #59 (December 1969)
“The Torpedo Will Get You if You Don’t Watch Out!”
Writer: Roy Thomas
Penciller: Gene Colan
Inker: Syd Shores
Letterer: Artie Simek
Colourist: not credited
Editor: Stan Lee
Roy Thomas was determined to give Crime-Wave a big build-up before he faced off against Daredevil in person. So not only did Crime-Wave get trailed in a subplot during the Death’s-Head story, but the next two issues are devoted Daredevil fighting Crime-Wave’s underlings. Last issue, we had Stunt-Master, an gimmick character who was an odd fit for Crime-Wave. This time, Thomas plays it straight, and brings us the Torpedo.
Another Torpedo will debut in Daredevil in 1975, and go on to be a supporting player in Rom. That’s a different character entirely. This Torpedo is a one-off costumed hitman. Hence the name “torpedo”, which is just dated slang for a hitman. So at least he fits Crime-Wave’s theme.
In practice, this issue is mainly about building up Crime-Wave for the next issue. It opens with Daredevil dealing with a protection racket, only to find that the store owner is too scared to testify against Crime-Wave. But Willie Lincoln has found Crime-Wave’s secret base and escaped alive. More about that next time. For the moment, the important point is that Willie is going into protective custody to keep him safe from Crime-Wave. You’d have thought they could just raid the address and gather more evidence, but apparently Willie is a devastatingly important witness.
X-Men Forever #4 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X-MEN: FOREVER #4
“No Hope”
Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artist: Luca Maresca
Colour artist: Federico Blee
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Design: Tom Muller, Jay Bowen & Kat Gregorowicz
Editor: Jordan D White
COVER / PAGE 1: Hope enters a glowing portal, casting the shadow of the Phoenix behind her. This is the final issue of X-Men: Forever, which in turn is an extension of Immortal X-Men – although the story continues into Rise of the Powers of X #5.
PAGES 2-3. Destiny and Mr Sinister talk.
This is the former Quiet Council meeting chamber, in somewhat dilapidated condition. Even through Krakoa (the persona) is back on the island, it hasn’t taken its established position in the room. Unusually, Destiny has removed her blank face mask – dropping both her normal role and her usual distanced persona.
As in the previous issue, Destiny is in despair: all the timelines that she can see involve Enigma winning and her beloved Mystique dying. Sinister has two counter-arguments to reassure Destiny. First, as I pointed out last time, the Phoenix plan involves altering the timeline from the outside – so Destiny wouldn’t be able to see it until it happens. Second, Sinister claims that his own exploration of the future using his “Moira Engine” shows that Destiny vastly overestimates the chances of Mystique dying. He theorises that Destiny’s concern for Mystique causes her to pay disproportionate attention to those timelines.
Free Comic Book Day 2024: Blood Hunt / X-Men #1 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers and page numbers go by the digital edition.
FREE COMIC BOOK DAY 2024: BLOOD HUNT / X-MEN #1
“The Fire Still Burns”
Writer: Gail Simone
Artist: David Marquez
Colour artist: Edgar Delgado
Editor: Tom Brevoort
Welcome to the post-Krakoan era. This issue has a 10-page X-Men story, which is the first output of the new editorial office, and a prologue to Gail Simone and David Marquez’s Uncanny X-Men run. The other half of the issue is a prologue to the Blood Hunt crossover, but that’s beyond our remit here.
I haven’t decided yet how we’re going to do this post-Krakoa. The original idea of doing annotations was tied to the fact that the line was heavily interlinked, and it looks like the post-Krakoa line will be dialling that back. And not all books necessarily lend themselves to the annotation approach anyway – I probably wouldn’t be doing it with Wolverine if we hadn’t already come this far. Right now, I’m planning to do something along the lines of the annotations posts for the three core X-Men titles, and at least the first issues of the other ongoings, and then decide what seems to make sense.
Aside from that, the scene-breakdown format isn’t always the best way of talking about story points, so I’m thinking of tweaking that. Let’s test a different approach…
Wolverine #49 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
WOLVERINE vol 7 #49
“Berserker”
Writers: Victor LaValle & Benjamin Percy
Artist: Geoff Shaw
Colour artist: Alex Sinclair
Letterer: Cory Petit
Editor: Mark Basso
COVER / PAGE 1. Wolverine leaping into battle in his adamantium armour.
PAGE 2. Flashback: Sabretooth is caught by Cypher’s seed.
This is a recap of issue #47. We saw Sabretooth emerging from the seed cocoon on page 23 of issue #48, so this issue is going back to fill in what happened in the meantime.
PAGE 3. Recap and credits.
PAGES 4-5. Sabretooth meets therapist Cypher.
This is a callback to scenes from the first Sabretooth miniseries, where Cypher similarly inserted himself into Sabretooth’s experiences in the Pit, in an attempt to reason with him. (This Cypher is also accompanied by a Warlock, taking the form of his pad.) This isn’t the real Cypher, but a persona programmed into the seed by Cypher before he gave it to Nekra in Sabretooth #5. He does, however, claim that the Cypher we saw in Sabretooth was the real one.
X-Men: Forever #3 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X-MEN: FOREVER #3
“Unhappy in Their Own Way”
Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artist: Luca Marseca
Colour artist: Federico Blee
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Design: Tom Muller, Jay Bowen & Kat Gregorowicz
Editor: Jordan D White
COVER / PAGE 1. Destiny and Mystique fight, while Nightcrawler tries to intervene.
PAGES 2-3. Krakoa releases Cypher.
Cypher was spirited away by Krakoa in Immortal X-Men #13 and hasn’t been seen since. The only reason Krakoa gives in that issue is “I must protect him.” (Hope is able to understand that by copying Cypher’s powers, but then she loses contact with him, so she can’t ask Krakoa to elaborate.) Obviously, Krakoa anticipated the fall of Krakoa; they explain here that they could “sense the changing of the seasons”, though whether that’s a vague precognitive power or something else isn’t clear. It’s also a pun on “fall”, of course. Cypher has apparently slept peacefully through the whole “Fall of X” phase. It’s ambiguous whether he’s been within Krakoa itself or concealed somewhere on the island where Professor X couldn’t locae him.
“They tell me about the gala…” X-Men: Hellfire Gala 2023.
Daredevil Villains #22: Stunt-Master
DAREDEVIL #58 (November 1969)
“Spin-Out on Fifth Avenue!”
Writer: Roy Thomas
Penciller: Gene Colan
Inker: Syd Shores
Letterer: Sam Rosen
Colourist: not credited
Editor: Stan Lee
Roy Thomas created a lot of new villains for Daredevil. Very few of them had any lasting impact. Stunt-Master is as close as we get to an exception.
Not because he stuck around in Daredevil, mind you. We’ll see him again in issues #64 and #67, after which he vanishes. But in 1974, he was dusted off to join the supporting cast of Ghost Rider, and he stuck around in that book for a couple of years. By the standards of the new villains created in Roy Thomas’ Daredevil run, this qualifies as a resounding success.
But that’s a little unfair. Roy Thomas’ strongest ideas, and his top priorities, were more about the book’s existing cast. He could see perfectly well that Matt and Karen’s relationship needed to advance somehow. So the previous story ended with Matt unmasking to Karen, allowing the book to move on to a new status quo. In this phase, Foggy is the DA, Matt is the assistant DA. Karen loves Matt, but she wants him to retire as Daredevil. Matt says he will. Soon. Really. Honest. Karen gets increasingly frustrated and alarmed until the penny drops that he’s never going to do it.
The X-Axis – w/c 29 April 2024
X-MEN UNLIMITED INFINITY COMIC #137. By Steve Foxe, Steve Orlando, Nick Roche, Yen Nitro & Travis Lanham. When a story as slight as this makes it to part 17 and counting…
X-MEN #34. (Annotations here.) One of the problems with Marvel’s approach to crossover events is that they take a storyline from an ongoing title, but spin off a miniseries to carry the core plot for the event, which leaves the original title to hang around doing stuff on the margins of its own plot. That’s pretty much what we have in this issue of X-Men, which feels very much like the bonus material to fill time while the plot takes place in Fall of the House of X. Specifically, that means a further fight with MODOK, who already fled Orchis in defeat in Fall #2. Still… fair enough, he might as well be brought down for a bit more finality.
X-Men #34 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X-MEN vol 6 #34
“Love-Hate”
Writer: Gerry Duggan
Artist: Joshua Cassara
Colour artist: Romulo Fajardo Jr
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Editor: Jordan D White
COVER / PAGE 1. Assorted cast members in front of Krakoa. On the left, Cypher is in the branches, and below him we have Firestar, Forge, Synch, Talon, Magneto, Wolverine and Shadowkat. On the right are Sunfire, Polaris, Magik, Emma Frost, Apocalypse, and a reunited Scott and Jean.
PAGE 2. Paul Neary obituary.
PAGE 3. A montage of Professor X.
Panel 1 shows him with the original X-Men in the very early Silver Age. At least, Iceman’s appearance suggests the very early Silver Age; Scott and Jean are holding hands, but they didn’t become a couple until long after the X-Men dumped the black and yellow uniforms.
Wolverine #48 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
WOLVERINE vol 7 #48
“Sabretooth War, part 8: Alone Together”
Writers: Benjamin Percy & Victor LaValle
Penciller: Cory Smith
Inker: Oren Junior
Colourist: Alex Sinclair
Letterer: Cory Petit
Editor: Mark Basso
COVER / PAGE 1. A symbolic image of Wolverine being torn apart by two sets of hands – which the caption indicates are “two Creeds”. I haven’t got a clue what this has to do with the issue, or which two Creeds they had in mind. (Victor and Graydon would be the obvious ones in terms of their role in the story, but Graydon doesn’t have anything to do with Wolverine in this issue.) My best guess would be that this is a hangover from an abandoned early version of the story, although the solicitation copy for this issue does match the content well enough.
PAGES 2-6. Wolverine and Sabretooth separately reflect on their lives.
Obviously, these two monologues in first person narration are presented to emphasise the parallels between the two characters. The key theme for Wolverine is that while Sabretooth’s attack on the Greenhouse drove him into a rage, Kid Omega’s psychic attack on him last issue shifted his perspective and made him focus more on the positive reasons to fight – his loner tendencies are about the fear of getting other people hurt, but he does ultimately feel happier around others.
