Al Ewing

New Comics & Collected Editions: Marvel Comics – February 7 2024

February 3, 2024 by krisis

It’s the sixth new comic book day of the new year! This post covers Marvel Comics February 7 2024 releases. Missed last week’s releases? Check out last week’s post covering Marvel Comics January 31 2024 new releases.

(No, you haven’t time-travelled to the future – this post is now a few days earlier to give you an earlier heads up on what’s coming next week and to make way for some other planned posts that will occupy the Tuesday slot.)

This week in Marvel Comics: the debut of a new Ultimate Black Panther, an adventure for Bats the Dog, a treat for Liz Allen super-fans, an almost-completed Captain America Epic line, and more!

This list includes every comic and digital comic out from Marvel this week, plus collected editions in omnibus, hardcover, paperback, and digest-sized formats. For each new release, I’ll point you to the right guide within my Crushing Comics Guide to Marvel Comics to find out how to collect each character in full – and, if a guide is linked from this post, that means it is updated through the present day!

Marvel Comics February 7 2024 Collected Editions

Captain America Epic Collection Vol. 21: Twilight’s Last Gleaming
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1302956349 / digital)
See Guide to Captain America – Steve Rogers. This is the second-to-last Epic Collection covering Cap’s 1968 series. The final one, Man Without a Country, already exists.

However, I think the bigger news about this collect is that it means we now have the entirety of Mark Gruenwald’s landmark run on the title collected in Epic Collections Volume 12-21. That’s not a big shocker, since Marvel is about to kick off a long-awaited omnibus run of Gruenwald’s Cap, so it made sense for them to wrap up the Epics first. This run is to pre-2000 Cap what Brubaker’s is to post-2000 Cap – lengthy, defining, and essential.

We only need TWO more Epics to complete the coverage of Cap’s 1968 title (Vol. 7-8), but we could be waiting for a while since now we know the classic Epic line will continue to cover his titles through 2004 when Brubaker’s run kicks off the “Modern Epic Collection.”

Cult of Carnage: Misery
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1302951986 / digital)
See Guide to Carnage (eventually). Are you a Liz Allen super-fan? I’m not sure how many of you are out there, but this book is for you! Despite the “Carnage” wrapper on the title, this book is all about dissecting Liz Allen’s history, her motivations, and her connection to Harry Osborn. Yeah, there’s also some symbiote nonsense involving a sliver of the Carnage symbiote and Carnage’s various progeny, but if you aren’t interested in Allen and her family this is going to fall flat for you. (And, if you don’t even know who I’m talking about, you should skip it).

Magneto: Magneto Was Right
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1302954215 / digital)
See Guide to Magneto. One of Marvel’s many retcon flashback series, this 2023 mini is set during the excellent mid-40s of Claremont’s New Mutants – a fertile period for more Magneto stories, as he was certainly up to a lot back then! [Read more…] about New Comics & Collected Editions: Marvel Comics – February 7 2024

New Comics & Collected Editions: Marvel Comics – January 24, 2024

January 23, 2024 by krisis

It’s the fourth new comic book day of the new year! This post covers Marvel Comics January 24 2024 releases. Missed last week’s releases? Check out last week’s post covering Marvel Comics January 17 2024 new releases.

This week in Marvel Comics: a ROMnibus appears, Straczynski & Gillen’s Thor runs finally reunited, Al Ewing up to something with Magneto, and more!

Marvel Comics January 24 2024 Collected Editions

Marvel Two-in-One Epic Collection: Two Against Hydra
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1302931766 / digital)
See Guide to Fantastic Four or Guide to Thing (eventually). Marvel is slowly-but-surely pressing on with their collections of this Thing team-up title, which included a few more significant stories than its sibling Marvel Team-Up (1972). This volume (and all collections of this material, in general) skips issue #21, which includes a team-up with Doc Savage – Marvel no longer has the rights to reprint it.

ROM: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus Vol. 1
(2024 oversize hardcover, ISBN 978-1302956714 / digital)
See Guide to ROM, Spaceknight. We never thought it could exist, but here it is – the ROMnibus! FYI, there are THREE DM variants of this omnibus cover – Frank Miller X-Men, George Pérez, and Sal Buscema. Marvel will cover this series in a trio of omnibuses, and there’s no guarantee they will print it in any other format (like Epic Collection), so this could be your one chance to finally own a reprinted, remastered collection of this material.

Siege
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1302952792 / digital)
See Guide to Marvel Universe Events. Marvel has been working through paperback reprints of most of their line-wide events in the past year, likely to serve as complements to the Epic and Modern Era Epic lines. This event isn’t particularly satisfying to read on its own – all three of the Avengers books at the time heavily filled out the action, in particular New Avengers.

Star Wars Legends Epic Collection: The Menace Revealed Vol. 4
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1302953911 / digital)
See Guide to Star Wars Legends – The Old Expanded Universe. This is not only the last Epic of this era (which stretches from pre-prequels through the prequel trilogy), but also potentially the second to last of the Legends Epics! There’s only one major uncollected series remaining – Star Wars: Invasion (2009) #0-16. After that, we’re just down to recollecting old Star Wars comics coverage omnibus format and Epic reprints.

Strange Academy: Year Two
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1302953003 / digital)
See Guide to Doctor Strange. This collects the back half of the original 2020 series and its “Finals” mini-series from 2022. Strange Academy had such a massive cast to start that sometimes it could be hard to zero in on the characters, their histories and powers, and how they related to each other. Here at the end the book is hyper-focused on one particular relationship and conflict, which escalates to a pretty epic level by the end. This is a rare in-continuity Marvel book that would work well for a YA crowd, though I’d perhaps call it for 10YO+ due to some themes related to drug use.

Thor by Straczynski & Gillen Omnibus
(2024 oversize hardcover, ISBN 978-1302953010 / digital)
See Guide to Thor, The Odinson. This is a relatively rare release from Marvel in that it specifically expands the content of a prior omnibus release! The Thor by JMS omnibus was a great read that kicked off the modern era of Thor, but it has always been an incomplete work since Gillen dropped in to finish off JMS’s abandoned plot threads before Matt Fraction took the reins. Now this volume completely plugs that gap, butting perfectly up against Thor by Matt Fraction and Loki by Gillen. Plus, it adds Gillen’s excellent Beta Ray Bill material. Strong recommendation from me on this one for Thor fans – it’s the ground level of his modern comics! [Read more…] about New Comics & Collected Editions: Marvel Comics – January 24, 2024

New Comics & Collected Editions: Marvel Comics – September 13, 2023

September 12, 2023 by krisis

It’s time to take a look at what’s out from Marvel Comics this week! This post covers Marvel Comics September 13 2023 releases.

Plus, I’m getting close to caught up on reading all of the Marvel Universe – so I have some commentary on some of the single issues and new collections.

Marvel Comics September 13 2023 Collected Editions

Bishop: War College (2023 paperback, ISBN 978-1302948054 / digital)
See Guide to X-Men – The Age of Krakoa. I read the first issue of this book back when it was released, and it’s an odd bird. A book about Bishop training young X-Men in the defense of Krakoa would’ve been a solid hit, but what we actually got was Bishop dealing with an inane alternate universe side quest while the X-kids got cornered by a villain in their own subplot. If I’m being honest, this pitch never should’ve received a green light.

Captain America: Cold War (2023 paperback, ISBN 978-1302952389 / digital)
See Guide to Captain America – Steve Rogers. This collects the crossover intersection between the Steve Rogers and Sam Wilson Cap titles. There’s only another three issues of both titles combined after this, which makes it odd that they didn’t simply close out the runs in this volume, but there will be a separate “Finale” volume in a few months with Sentinel of Liberty #14, Cap #750, and a Finale issue.

Captain America by Ed Brubaker: Captain America Lives! Omnibus [AKA Vol. 3] (2023 oversize hardcover, ISBN 978-1302954468 / digital)
See Guide to Captain America – Steve Rogers. This omnibus reprint tracks the return of Steve Rogers at the end of the period where Winter Soldier was serving as the primary Captain America. This book doesn’t stand so well on its own – you probably want to first read Brubaker Omnibus, Vol. 2: The Death of Captain America (2009 hardcover, ISBN 978-0785138068 / 2021 oversize hardcover, ISBN 978-1302929619) to understand the story.

Captain Marvel: Game On (2023 digest-sized paperback, ISBN 978-1302951153)
See Guide to Captain Marvel – Carol Danvers. In a totally brilliant move by Marvel, this is a recollection of the all-ages Marvel Action Captain Marvel (2019) #1-6 and Marvel Action Captain Marvel (2021) #1-5. Both the kid and I absolutely loved these books – they’re very close to actual Marvel continuity and Sam Maggs’s writing for Carol is spot on. Highly recommended for Captain Marvel fans of truly any age!

Captain Marvel: The Saga of Monica Rambeau (2023 “Saga of” paperback, ISBN 978-1302950996 / digital)
See Guide to… Monica Rambeau? Hmm, I should probably have one of those… maybe you should check back in a week or two 😉. In the meantime, Monica’s comics appear in Guide to Captain Marvel – Carol Danvers. If you want Monica’s early comics history, this is a fairly complete collection of her greatest hits and solo stories of the 80s and 90s reprinted from a 2019 Direct-Market-only volume.

Marvel Studios’ Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness: The Art of the Movie (2023 hardcover, ISBN 978-1302945879)
See Guide to Doctor Strange.

Marvel-Verse: Kraven The Hunter (2023 digest-sized paperback, ISBN 978-1302950644 / digital)
In a relief to me specifically, this “kids and libraries” targeted digest-size collection does not collect any in-continuity Spidey stories, so it is not covered by any of my guides! It collects Collects Marvel Action Spider-Man (2018) #5-6, Marvel Adventures Spider-Man (2005) #7, Marvel Adventures Super Heroes (2010) #4, Spidey (2015) #9.

Moon Knight Vol. 4: Road to Ruin (2023 paperback, ISBN 978-1302947354 / digital)
See Guide to Moon Knight. This is more of Jed MacKay’s spectacular Moon Knight run, one of of my favorite books at Marvel! While I think this series is worth reading from the start, this story does pick up from a solid jumping-on point for the big antagonist in the past year of this run.

Star Wars: Sana Starros – Family Matters (2023 paperback, ISBN 978-1302933074 / digital)
See Guide to Star Wars Expanded Universe Comics (2015-Present).

Venom Epic Collection: The Madness (Vol. 3) (2023 paperback, ISBN 978-1302953874 / digital)
See Guide to Venom. This is the the third Epic Collection volume in the Venom line, but it’s actually the first that is fully collecting Venom’s own mini-series, rather than mostly his appearances in Amazing Spider-Man. While his landmark first mini Lethal Protector is in the prior volume, this collects his mini-series from 1993 and 1994.

Wolverine Omnibus Vol. 4 (2023 oversize hardcover, ISBN 978-1302953997 / digital)
See Guide to Wolverine – Logan. This collects the year of stories leading up to Logan losing his adamantium in issue #75 in 1993, which is the final issue in this collection – as well as the original graphic novels and Marvel Comics Presents issues released at the same time.

X-Men Epic Collection: Proteus (2023 paperback, ISBN 978-1302950538 / digital)
See Guide to Uncanny X-Men by Chris Claremont (1975-1991). If it’s helpful to you to think about this another way, we could call this Epic Collection “Phoenix Saga Prologue.” It covers the break-up and reunion of the team after their throwdown with Magneto in his volcano base, plus the debuts of Alpha Flight, Arcade, and Proteus! That’s a lot of major X-Men history packed all into one book. If you enjoy Phoenix Saga, this is a natural extension for you. However, if you only enjoy later 80s X-Men, it might not be a total slam dunk – Claremont is still getting his feet under him at this point, and his character voices don’t quite meet the standard of his amazing plots just yet.

Read on for a summary of all of the Marvel Comics September 13 2023 single issue and digital releases! [Read more…] about New Comics & Collected Editions: Marvel Comics – September 13, 2023

New Comics & Collected Editions: Marvel Comics – September 6, 2023

September 5, 2023 by krisis

It’s time to take a look at what’s out from Marvel Comics this week! This post covers Marvel Comics September 6 2023 releases.

This list includes every comic and digital comic out from Marvel this week, plus collected editions in omnibus, hardcover, paperback, and digest-sized formats. For each new release, I’ll point you to the right Crushing Comics guide to find out how to collect each character in full – and, if a guide is linked from this post, that means it is updated through the present day!

Plus, I’m getting close to caught up on reading all of the Marvel Universe – so I have some commentary on some of the single issues and new collections.

Marvel Comics September 6 2023 Collected Editions

Captain Marvel by Kelly Thompson Vol. 1
(2023 paperback, ISBN 978-1302950989 / digital)
See Guide to Carol Danvers, Captain Marvel. This is effectively a “Complete Collection by Kelly Thompson,” recollecting the first two trades worth of this ongoing series. That’s actually somewhat short for a complete – it would take five volumes to collect the entire series, at this rate! I love this comic, and it comes with a ringing endorsement from me.

Captain Marvel, Vol. 10: Revenge of the Brood, Pt. 2
(2023 paperback, ISBN 978-1302947637 / digital)
See Guide to Carol Danvers, Captain Marvel. This is the final half of the final arc of Kelly Thompson’s multi-year Captain Marvel epic, plus a double-sized final issue that is entirely reflective. I think this arc is one of the shakier of the series, simply because Thompson is juggling a massive cast without much time to focus on Carol. While I’m a big proponent of picking up any comic run with any issue to get started, I’d say if you’re planning to read this run you ought to start from the beginning.

Loki Modern Era Epic Collection: Everything Burns (Vol. 2)
(2023 paperback, ISBN 978-1302952655 / digital)
See Guide to Loki. The second (and final?) volume of the Loki Modern Era Epic Collection line, collecting the back half of his run of Journey Into Mystery including crossovers with New Mutants and Thor. The contents of this are just slightly different than the contents of a previous Complete Collection.

Mighty Marvel Masterworks: The Incredible Hulk Vol. 3 – Less than Monster, More than Man
(2021 digest-size paperback, ISBN 978-1302949037 / digital)
See Guide to Hulk, Bruce Banner. This continues the digest-sized reprint of Hulk’s Silver Age Tales to Astonish (1959) material.

Spider-Man 2099: Dark Genesis (2023 paperback, ISBN 978-1302952235 / digital)
See Guide to Spider-Man 2099. This is a Steve Orlando mini-series set in 2099 continuity.

Red Goblin Vol. 1: It Runs in the Family (2023 paperback, ISBN 978-1302948634 / digital)
Hmm, this still has no guide to call home! But, I have caught up on this book to present day, and I dig it! Alex Paknadel is writing a very different title than anything else going on at Marvel right now. I wish he’d lean even further into the intergenerational aspects of the book and its lead characters, but I liked all of this first volume.

She-Hulk by Mariko Tamaki (2023 paperback, ISBN 978-1302950774 / digital)
See Guide to She-Hulk, Jennifer Walters. Collects the entire run by Eisner-winner Mariko Tamaki from All-New All-Different Marvel and Marvel Legacy. This book is not a similar tone to most She-Hulk runs or the She-Hulk MCU show. It starts out subtle and decompressed, focusing on She-Hulk’s trauma in the wake of Civil War II, picking up just a hint of the typical acerbic She-Hulk wit towards the end.

Venom Vol. 4 by Al Ewing & Ram V: Illumination (2023 paperback, ISBN 978-1302948504 / digital)
See Guide to Venom. This continues Ewing’s multi-timeline Venom epic (V has departed the title), but with a slightly more grounded story than the past 1o issues. What I think works well about this is you absolutely could jump in here and be tantalized with references of what has come before, which to me is good comics-making.