Thursday, March 05, 2026

Spider-Man and the X-Men

I've been playing Spider-Man 2 on the Playstation recently so this comic book caught my eye as a free download on Prime Reading. I'm very out of touch with current Marvel continuity, but that wasn't really an issue here. The elevator pitch is that there's a mole in Professor Xavier's School and Peter Parker has been tasked by Wolverine to take on a teaching role with a class of new mutants to ferret out the truth. All of the students were new to me as characters, but they're an engaging bunch especially Glob Herman (a skeleton inside a translucent blob like body) and Shark-Girl (a well, you get the idea). 

The do the classic X-Men thing of rushing into danger, getting captured and having hi-jinks whilst Mr Spider-Man tries to teach them something about great power and great responsibility, blah, blah, blah. Each issue in this collected edition features a different set of villains, with the mystery aspect of who is the mole being nicely done and paying off in the end.  

Not sure this would get me back into regular comic reading, but probably one of the better ones I've read since the collected Ms Marvel series.




Catkin

Walking in the woods
Soft pussy willow catkins
Blowing in the warm breeze

Every Picture Tells a Story by Rod Stewart

Everybody knows Maggie May, the standout hit from this album, but I hadn’t realised it was originally released as the B side to Reason to Believe (a cover of a Tim Hardin song from 1961). The rest of the album more than holds up though - a pleasing mix of blues, rock and folk traditions, played and sung with aplomb. As well as the Hardin song there’s also an excellent version of Tomorrow is a Long Time by Bob Dylan.

I get the feeling that everyone involved was enjoying themselves (as can be seen on their iconic performance on Top of the Pops where they all have huge grins and start kicking a ball around while John Peel gamely mimes playing a mandolin). 

Rod’s distinctive gravelly voice is to the fore here, and it’s something of a surprise to see that he was only 26 when this was recorded. Having said that, at this point he had two solo albums under his belt as well as being lead singer in The Faces and the Jeff Beck group, so that counts as being a grizzled veteran in this biz.

Mandolin-tastic!

https://album.link/gb/i/1469580609




Wednesday, March 04, 2026

New Moon

I'd like a new moon
The old one has been lost since
Ninteen ninety nine

Faust IV by Faust

The term Krautrock was a snooty and dismissive expression coined by the British music press who didn’t like the idea of German bands coming over here and playing rock, instead of proper British bands playing pop - if only there was a term for that, eh? Anyhoo, Faust hit back with the first track on this album, an 11 minute epic called Krautrock that does exactly what it says on the tin. Metronomic motorik beats, temperamental analogue synths, weird electronic glitches and fuzzed out guitars all turned up to 11. Wunderbar!

The other tracks on this album are of slightly more variable quality, ranging from bizarre songs to short, experimental pieces, but generally all worth a listen even if only to say “what the heck was that supposed to be?”. I’d still choose krautrock over yet another boring yacht rock album any day though.

Kraut-tastic!

https://album.link/gb/i/714051180




Tuesday, March 03, 2026

Of Bloody Bastards and Boar Knights

The mysterious lyre-playing woman seemed to be set up for a tea party including cakes and dainty teacups. She invited us in but we were all suspicious of the chalk circle that surrounded her. Aodhan accepted the invitation to take a seat and then the circle vanished! The ghostly woman introduced herself as Lucretia and briskly departed, leaving an empty sarcophagus and all of the other accoutrements vanished as if they had never been, even the fairy cakes! We then remembered that Lucretia was the wife of the tyrant - oops.

We followed the corridor out and through several turns until we found fresh footprints in the dust leading into the darkness. Bastonn decided to check out a doorway to the north and we came into a room decorated with murals, inscriptions and most importantly four heavily armed people apparently guarding stairs leading down. One of them was dozing but the other three greeted us cautiously, explaining that they were working for Belynda the Bloody and were recovering from a battle with the boar knights on the next floor down.

Aodhan inspected the murals seeing a picture of chained, hooded figure - possibly the tyrant, in chains and hanging from a scaffold. The other murals were of nun like figures with elaborate white hoods and hawklike faces. The tablets were witness testimonies from the trial of the tyrant and his tyrannical tyrannies.

We backtracked and followed the footprints to a wall that turned out to be an illusion leading into a room where we found Belynda, her mage Florian and four of her wounded mercenary bastards. She was sharpening a large axe whilst the mage was tending to the wounded. Aodhan wasn't impressed by the mage's fancy robes. "I'd rather be Einstein than Liberace!"

Krisanna cast some jealous glances at the mercenaries collected loot but eventually they all agreed to team up to take out the tyrant.

The warband returned to the library and headed down the stairs with Krisanna in front. We came into a large room with a barricade =between us and the Boar Knights - heavily armed skeletal knights with pig like helmets. Aodhan called out in an ancient language to ask who their master was and what their role was.

In return they challenged us to prove our honesty by awakening the hawk sisters and driving out the pretenders - at this Belynda and her crew started to draw their swords against us, shouting "kill them all!"

Aodhan cast a fireball at Belynda, scorching her and Krisanna threw a dagger which ricocheted off the mercenary's armour and back at the unfortunate halfling. Makander weighed in with his axe ripping Belynda to shreds. The Boar Knights calmly killed half of the mercenaries before the remainder turned tail and ran.

We headed back up the stairs to the library and took the east door which lead us into a room where several giant beatles were eating spilt food. There were four fonts on the wall of different types on the walls. Curiouser and curiouser.




 

Evening

Dixon of Dock Green
Would break the fourth wall with a
Cheery "Evening all!"