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Al Ewing
New for Patrons: Guide to Marvel’s Angela
Surprise! I’m back with a second new guide in a row for Patrons of Crushing Krisis, for yet another Asgardian leading lady… although, she started out somewhere very different (both within Marvel continuity and before she arrived at Marvel)…
One thing that DC Comics is very well known for that Marvel Comics is absolutely not known for is incorporating the characters from other publishers into their line.
Even before Crisis on Infinite Earths gave DC the infinite flexibility to subsume entire lines of characters like Wildstorm and Alan Moore’s America’s Best Comics, the DC juggernaut had absorbed entire universes of characters. They incorporated many Charlton Comics characters like Blue Beetle and Captain Atom (who also doubled as inspiration for Watchmen), and before them Fawcett Comics’ Shazam! Not to mention their self-incorporation of the many properties that branched out into the Vertigo line back to DC continuity.
Plus, DC never hesitates to engage in cross-company crossovers, as long as it’s not with Marvel. Even relatively recently we’ve seen Batman cross paths with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Gotham Academy with Lumberjanes!
The only time Marvel really came close to a wholesale import of characters was through their acquisition of Malibu Comics’ Ultraverse, which they hastily shuttered.
We could speculate endlessly about why this is the case. Is it Marvel’s self-reliance that borders on stinginess? The sacrosanct nature of their 616-Universe? That DC’s characters are more iconic and stand up better to other media properties? That Marvel has less adventurous fans?
Regardless of the why, it is a very big deal when any kind of outside character makes their way into Marvel’s Universe. It’s an even bigger deal when that character was created by Neil Gaiman, was one of the original big draws during the launch of Image Comics, and has been involved in a somewhat nasty set of legal battles with her now-no-longer-officially-recognized co-creator Todd McFarlane.
I am, of course, talking about Neil Gaiman’s Angela. [Read more…] about New for Patrons: Guide to Marvel’s Angela
SWORD (2021) #1: Krakoa’s Mutants Return to Space! | This Week in X
It’s This Week in X for SWORD (2021) #1, making its series debut on 9 December 2020!
SWORD (2021) #1 sees mutants returning to space in a major way as Abigail Brand commandeers the SWORD station (courtesy of Cable) as a mutant launching pad into deeper space. But, who are THE SIX she has assembled, and what are they meant to find within the folds of space?
We had SO MUCH to say about Al Ewing, Valerio Schiti, & Marte Gracia’s work in this issue. Literally – we talked about twice as much material as what made it into the final cut of this episode… so, in a way, this is a “Greatest Hits” discussion. We cover every single mutant on the massive cast list, dissect fictional bureaucracy, and share our wonder in the magic of Schiti,
Join Peter, Tyler, and Fariha’s specially-nominated guest New Mutant, Harry, for this epic discussion.
Need help making sense of reading and collecting the X-Men? Crushing Comics can help!
- Guide to Hickman’s Age of Krakoa in X-Men
- Definitive X-Men Reading Order
- Guides to all of Marvel Comics
Want to keep up with comics commentary all week long? Follow Crushing Comics on Twitter and subscribe to my channel on YouTube.
The Pull List: Avengers in No Surrender, Detective Comics, Mister Miracle, Paradiso, & more!
Welcome to the second week of “The Pull List,” where I give a quick rundown of all of the non-X comics I read this week.
My pulls this week came from a wide spread of publishers – Marvel, DC, Image, Aftershock, and Valiant! It was also a week where the minutia of the craft really took me out of enjoying the storytelling. I had a lot of bones to pick with letterers, and many comments about pace and continuity.
This week’s Pull List included:
- Avengers (2017) #675
- Detective Comics (1937/2016) #972
- Judas (2017) #2
- Mister Miracle (2017) #6
- Monstro Mechanica (2017) #2
- Ninjak vs. The Valiant Universe (2018) #1
- Paradiso (2017) #2
- Port of Earth (2017) #3
- Rise of the Black Panther (2018)
- Runaways (2017) #5
- Sleepless (2017) #2
- Witchblade (2017) #2
- Wonder Woman (2016) #38.
You might be surprised at which of these books I loved and which left me in a seething rage. There’s at least one where I disagree with seemingly 99% of the folks who I’ve seen react to the book in the past few days. [Read more…] about The Pull List: Avengers in No Surrender, Detective Comics, Mister Miracle, Paradiso, & more!
20 Must-Read Marvel runs (that ought to be an omnibus) from 2012 to 2015
Each year, a mysterious and intrepid comic book fan known only as Tigereyes reaches out to some of the biggest collected editions communities on the web to ask them a single question: What are the top 10 Marvel Omnibuses you’d most like to buy?
Thus, the Most-Wanted Marvel Omnibus Secret Ballot was born.
While we only get to see the top 50 or so results of the survey each year, based on the number of voters it’s entirely possible that there are over ten times that many omnibuses nominated by voters. The long tail of the survey would make not only for interesting analysis, but terrific rainy-day reading.
To help inspire that long tail as well as your own rainy day reads, I’m covering dozens of Marvel runs that would make for terrific omnibuses. For the past four days I highlighted every potential missing X-Men omnibus from 1963 to 2015. Now, I’m going to stroll backwards through time to look at the rest of Marvel, starting with their newest comic runs released from 2012 to present.
The fact that these books aren’t currently omnibuses (and may never be) doesn’t have to stop you from sampling them – even if you’ve never read a comic before in your life! Each one is a terrific self-contained comic experience that can be enjoyed without any crossovers or companion series.
You can either pick up existing collections as outlined by Crushing Comics’s Guide to Collecting Marvel Comic Books, or just sign up for Marvel Unlimited, a Netflix-for-comics where 100% of the issues from today’s post are available to read on any device.
[Read more…] about 20 Must-Read Marvel runs (that ought to be an omnibus) from 2012 to 2015