Alyssa Wong

New Comics & Collected Editions Releases: Marvel Comics – May 8 2024

May 3, 2024 by krisis

It’s the 18th new comic book day of the new year! This post covers Marvel Comics May 8 2024 releases. Missed last week’s releases? Check out last week’s post covering Marvel Comics May 1 2024 new releases (plus, Marvel’s Free Comic Book Day 2024 issues!)

This week in Marvel Comics: Blood Hunt expands, first trades for Captain America by JMS & Marvel by Wong, a Black Armor flashback, historic Miracleman, Dagger goes solo, Thing & Torch get a job, penultimate Wolverine & X-Men Forever, 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. I recap and review every new single issue. Plus, for every 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 May 8 2024 Collected Editions

Captain America by J. Michael Straczynski Vol. 1: Stand
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1302955670 / digital)
See Guide to Captain America – Steve Rogers. Even though I’m slightly down on this JMS run on Cap (more on that, below), I think this initial trade does have something special going for it with the flashback scenes to Steve’s pre-Super-Soldier-serum youth in the slums of NYC.

Some of this adventurous plot for the spindly, sickly Steve Rogers might seem slightly apocryphal, but if you love the first 15 minutes of the first Captain America film then this book is for you! I’ve seen a pretty wide consensus that this flashback material to the early days of World War II and Nazi sympathizer rallies being held in the US is strong stuff.

Plus, the present day plot includes some fun material with Doctor Strange (who feels like the hero that JMS really ought to be writing).

Captain Marvel Vol. 1: The Omen
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1302957056 / digital)
Guide to Captain Marvel. The start of the 2023 run by Alyssa Wong ties in heavily to the plot of The Marvels, with Carol Danvers swapping places with a mystical thief due to a pair of malfunctioning Nega Bands being hunted by a powerful force from another dimension.

I don’t recommend this run for Carol fans. It simply doesn’t have much to say about her, nor is her voice very specific. Just keep re-reading your Kelly Thompson run!

Contest of Chaos
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1302955038 / digital)
See Guide to Scarlet Witch. This Annuals crossover was really a Scarlet Witch & Agatha Harkness mini-event, though most of the stories were of heroes being randomly compelled to fight each other. However, it ended with an intriguing and all-new status quo for Agatha Harkness and for the Darkhold, which now has significance during Blood Hunt. [Read more…] about New Comics & Collected Editions Releases: Marvel Comics – May 8 2024

New Comics & Collected Editions Releases: Marvel Comics – April 24 2024

April 19, 2024 by krisis

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

This week in Marvel Comics: excellent X-Men ’97 synergy, uncollected Avengers West Coast, all of Ahmed’s Ms. Marvel, Blade & GODS both end, Gillen’s X-Men endgame, Darth Maul strikes back, and more!

Marvel Comics April 24 2024 Collected Editions

Avengers Inc.: Action, Mystery, Adventure
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1302953393 / digital)
See Guide to Avengers flagship titles (2010 – Present). I’ll always be a bit miffed about how this Al Ewing Avengers series rolled out. It was simply a second arc of his brilliant run on Janet van Dyne as Wasp from earlier in 2023, but with a noir spin. But, a drab noir look does not work on Janet at all – she needs to pop off of every page in bold color. (The book does not look as stylish on the interior as it does on the cover.)

As a result, we got a curiously sombre detective comic without an Avengers team that didn’t make great use of its feature character. It’s actually a fun read, but if you didn’t read (and enjoy) the Wasp series that preceded it I can’t recommend it on its own.

Avengers West Coast Epic Collection Vol. 7: Ultron Unbound
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1302956448 / digital)
See Guide to Avengers West Coast. This is a long-awaited Epic Collection, because it finally collects the issues in the #83-91 range of Avengers West Coast! Even if we’re still awaiting a final epic to take us from issue #96 through the end of the title in #102, we’ve had that material in paperback several times over – this book represents our last true collecting gap and means that all of this series will now be present on Marvel Unlimited.

Also, this presses far enough that a final volume can collect the seven issues of #96-102 plus all of the mini-series and errata that ought to be joined with the end of this series, which has always been a collection challenge. In addition to those seven issues there are more than 20 other issues that fully cover the end of this team, and Epic Collections usually top out in the 20-22 issue range. It could include U.S. Agent (1993) #1-4, Avengers: The Terminatrix Objective (1993) #1-4 (which has USAgent and War Machine), all of Blood Ties (Avengers #368-369, X-Men #26, & Uncanny X-Men #307), Spider-Woman (1993) #1-4, Scarlet Witch (1994) #1-4, material from Marvel Comics Presents (1988) #143-144, and possibly also Hawkeye (1994) #1-4 (though this will be in the Hawkeye Epic Line).

I think that leaves us with an interesting question of whether Volume 8 really will conclude this Epic Line (and necessarily skip some of that material – likely Terminatrix Objective and Hawkeye to get down to 23 issues), or if it will simply end with issue #100, with another volume pushing beyond that and onward into the team’s relaunch as Force Works!

New Comics & Collected Editions Releases: Marvel Comics – April 17 2024

April 12, 2024 by krisis

It’s the 16th new comic book day of the new year! This post covers Marvel Comics April 17 2024 releases. Missed last week’s releases? Check out last week’s post covering Marvel Comics April 10 2024 new releases.

This week in Marvel Comics: the very complete Captain America, hell breaks loose for Daredevil, original Micronauts, Widow vs. Hawkeye, the real fake Thor, Ultimate Black Panther intensifies, an amazing Spider-Boy & Spider-Woman, and more!

Marvel Comics April 17 2024 Collected Editions

Captain America Epic Collection Vol. 6: The Man Who Sold The United States
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1302955205 / digital)
See Guide to Captain America – Steve Rogers. This Epic picks up shortly after the original “Secret Empire” storyline and collects into the start of Jack Kirby’s solo run on the title. We’ve had this material collected several times over in other formats at this point, but the exciting part is that we are now just two Epic Collections away from complete coverage of Cap from 1963 to 1996!

Daredevil Vol. 1: Hell Breaks Loose
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1302947729 / digital)
See Guide to Daredevil. I love love love this Saladin Ahmed take on Matt Murdock. It hasn’t been received with the rapturous response of the past two relaunches from Charles Soule and Chip Zdarsky, and that bugs me. I think there’s a long history of fans balking at supernatural elements in Daredevil – from Ann Nocenti to Diggle’s Shadowland – only for the runs to be reappraised and re-embraced later on.

Could we possibly just skip all of that nonsense and appreciate this run while it is happening? It’s so nuanced both in Murdock’s personal life and his heroic one. Top recommendation from me – and you can start cold with with collection edition.

Marvel Masterworks: Captain America Vol. 16
(2024 hardcover, ISBN 978-1302955212 / digital)
See Guide to Captain America – Steve Rogers. This collects a ten-issue run of J.M. DeMatteis’s Cap from the late 200s, which has already been hit in Epic Collections, and brings us within two years of the start of Mark Gruenwald’s Cap, which is about to be omnibused. It’s wild to see all of the gears of Marvel’s collected edition lines churning at once within a single 10-year range of a single run.

There’s a lot of coordination to appreciate here – how they just reprinted the Kirby Omnibus so they can leave those Epic Collections to last, and how they will have the first Gruenwald omnibus out far enough ahead of the Masterworks hitting in 2027 that they won’t completely cannibalize its sales. [Read more…] about New Comics & Collected Editions Releases: Marvel Comics – April 17 2024

New Comics & Collected Editions: Marvel Comics – February 21 2024

February 15, 2024 by krisis

It’s the 8th new comic book day of the new year! This post covers Marvel Comics February 21 2024 releases. Missed last week’s releases? Check out last week’s post covering Marvel Comics February 14 2024 new releases.

This week in Marvel Comics: Fall of X collections, an Alien anthology, an unexpected Sentry, a major Spider-Woman cliffhanger, 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 21 2024 Collected Editions

Black Panther by Christopher Priest Omnibus Vol. 2
(2024 oversize hardcover, ISBN 978-1302953683 / digital)
See Guide to Black Panther. This was one of the most-requested Marvel Omnibuses for a long while, so it’s amazing to see it finally completed with a second volume! This run has the distinction of establishing tons of familiar modern Black Panther lore (including Okoye and the the Dora Milaje) but also being batshit crazy, as all Christopher Priest comics are. If you’ve never read it before, Fariha and I covered the first half of this run (the entire first omnibus) in our Black Panther Reading Club six years ago this month back in 2018!

Blade Vol. 1: Mother of Evil
Vol. 1: Mother of Evil (2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1302952105 / digital)
See Guide to Blade. I just caught up on this Bryan E. Hill series this week. This first arc is about Blade coming up against an ancient evil much bigger than anything he is used to fighting. That sounds mega-fun, but it’s told through Bryan E. Hill’s authorial filter – which is all about expository two-person dialog. Y’all remember Fallen Angels (2019), right? While this book isn’t the catastrophe that one was, this arc is a lot more about talking about what might happen than it is about character moments or coherent action. I think that made this arc slightly unsatisfying, but the book does pick up afterward with some shorter, tighter stories.

Children of the Vault
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1302952464 / digital)
See Guide to X-Men – The Age of Krakoa. First things first: This Fall of X book should be titled “Cable & Bishop.” While the Children of the Vault are the featured foe, if you go in expecting to spend quality time getting to understand them in a way that pays off what Carey and Hickman created you’ll be sorely disappointed. Instead, go in assuming you’re in for some guerrilla warfare from a pair of X-Men who traveled through centuries as sworn enemies. I think this sputters at the end, but Deniz Camp shows a flair for terse sci-fi that makes me excited to read more from him at Marvel.

Daredevil Epic Collection: A Woman Called Widow
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1302957933 / digital)
See Guide to Daredevil. Despite the title, this reprint of an existing Epic actually collects the period just prior to Black Widow taking over as the titled co-star of Daredevil (1964). [Read more…] about New Comics & Collected Editions: Marvel Comics – February 21 2024

Deadpool – The Definitive Collecting Guide and Reading Order

Updated Mar 25, 2025! The Deadpool comic books definitive issue-by-issue collecting guide and trade reading order for omnibus, hardcover, and trade paperback collections. Find every issue and appearance! Part of Crushing Krisis’s Crushing Comics. Last updated March 2025 with titles scheduled for release through December 2025.

Looking for Cable? He used to live on this page, too! See The Definitive Cable Collecting Guide and Reading Order.

Deadpool is now a multi-media star – perhaps one of Marvel’s most-visible characters – but he had humble beginnings.

He was introduced in 1991 in one of the final issues of New Mutants, created by Rob Liefeld and Fabian Nicieza as mercenary who was an oddball cross between Spider-Man and DC Comics’ Deathstroke.

Deadpool was just one of a slew of newly-introduced extreme characters that leaned into the bloodlust of early 90s fans. Yet, he stood out in the crowd in his remarkably sparse early appearances. That was largely because Nicieza gifted him with a unique, sardonic, self-deprecating voice, which other writers gladly picked up.

After six years of guest appearances, Deadpool landing his own ongoing in 1997 penned by newcomer Joe Kelly only tiny handful of issues into his career. The series stuck – it was one of the few to survive Marvel’s early 2000’s cull, and Deadpool would never again go without at least one ongoing series to his name.