Crushing Krisis

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Captain Marvel

Haul Around the World: Excalibur, Luke Cage, Monica Rambeau, & Punisher as an avenging angel!

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It’s another Classic Collection version of Haul Around the World, shot BEFORE my big move! This was my order from mid-February 2019.

In this order I get to freak out with excitement over Marvel hitting a number of very different gaps in their color collections coverage – the end of Luke Cage’s original solo title, the post-Claremont pre-Davis gap in Excalibur, Monica Rambeau’s solo stories as Captain Marvel and the deeply weird Punisher: Revelations.

Plus… a tease of the next oversize book to hit my shelf, which might be my most-anticipated omnibus of the decade!

In this haul:

The Pull List: Action Comics, Avengers, Calexit, Detective Comics, Jim Henson’s Labyrinth, The Terrifics, Thanos, & more!

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This week The Pull List is holding steady at a still-staggering 32 comic books.

I’m not sure if I was being a moody reader or if every company shipped some bunk books this week, but the average rating for the week was 2.70 – a full third of a point lower than the past few weeks. While that means most of the books were still better than average, it’s not by a whole lot.

Artwork from Thanos #16, line art by Geoff Shaw with color art by Antonio Fabela.

Here’s what I pulled this week, with *s on adds (whether I just caught up with them or started them fresh):

  • DC Comics
    • Action Comics #998
    • Detective Comics #975
    • The Flash #41
    • * Mera – Queen of Atlantis #1
    • Milk Wars: JLA/Doom Patrol Special
    • Raven: Daughter of Darkness #2
    • * Suicide Squad #36
    • Teen Titans #17
    • The Silencer #2
    • * The Terrifics #1
    • Wonder Woman #41
  • Image Comics
    • * The Beef #1
    • Days of Hate #2
    • Gasolina #6
    • Twisted Romance #4
    • Void Trip #4
  • Marvel Comics
    • All-New Wolverine #31
    • Avengers #682
    • Captain Marvel #129
    • * Champions #17
    • Legion #2
    • * Lockjaw #1
    • Moon Knight #192
    • Thanos #16
    • X-Men Blue #22
  • Smaller Publishers: Aftershock, Black Mask, Boom! Studios, Dark Horse, Titan
    • Abbott #2, Boom! Studios
    • * Alisik #1, Titan Books / Statix Press
    • Backways #3, Aftershock Comics
    • * Calexit #2, Black Mask Studios
    • Hungry Ghosts #2, Dark Horse / Berger Books
    • * Jim Henson’s Labyrinth: Coronation #1, Boom! Studios
    • * The Wilds #1, Black Mask Studios

Picks of the Pull

Big Two (Marvel/DC) Issue of the Week:
Detective Comics (2016) #975

A great-looking, contemplative issue that brings together the members of the Bat-Family we don’t usually see in this book – Nightwing, Batgirl, Red Hood, and Damian.

Batman has pulled these trusted lieutenants together as an inner council to decide Batwoman’s fate as a member of the Bat-family, yet in some ways their conversation is also a litigation of Bruce and his methods as the head of this dysfunctional household. Meanwhile, Batwoman holds herself accountable for her own actions, with a surprising result.

This isn’t an issue that’s going to appeal to a more casual reader – it looks amazing, but it has hardly any conflict. However, for someone who has been reading from the start this pierces right to the heart of this title and the ideological divide between Batwoman and Batman that has been brewing all along.

Part of what makes it so power is that Batwoman also has an avowed “no kills” philosophy, but she is willing to make exceptions when other lives hang in the balance. Batman won’t make exceptions, so he gets to watches thousands of Gothamites die from his moral high ground.

It’s heartbreaking to think of this book writing by someone other than Tynion or with a cast other than this one. Everything about it works so incredibly well. Yet, we’re in the “disassembled” phase, and there’s certainly more conflict to come before Tynion moves on.

Best Small-Pub Issue of the Week:
The Wilds (2018) #1, Black Mask Studios

A strong and sombre new zombie comic, The Wilds is definitely a descendent of Walking Dead but with a completely different tone – due in no small part to its pair of woman creators, Vita Ayala and Emily Pearson.

We get the same old zombie-pocked landscape with isolated camps trading resources and doing their best to survive, except the zombies are walking plant life – humans who have turned into semi-sentient flower pots. It makes for strangely calming, beautiful zombies to see all of their typical goriest bits covered in blooming flowers.

Pearson’s art evokes such masters of the modern form as Allred and Noto, employing their same plain, truthful faces and uncomplicated backgrounds.

Beneath the flowery dressing, this is the familiar story of a single senior errand runner who thinks it might be time to get out of the game, and how an act of compassion on her last journey might spell the end of the safety of her heavily fortified compound. There’s no slam bang action beats in this one, but the strange stillness of it is pulling me towards reading more.

[Read more…] about The Pull List: Action Comics, Avengers, Calexit, Detective Comics, Jim Henson’s Labyrinth, The Terrifics, Thanos, & more!

The Pull List, Jan. 31, 2018: Dark Ark, Detective Comics, Moon Knight, Reactor, The Realm, and more!

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My pull list keeps growing in size as I get caught up with more current comic books! I read 21 new comics released earlier this week on January 31 – and I would have read even more if I managed to catch up on my Superman reading in time for these reviews!

Here’s The Pull List for the week, as broken out by publisher (though they’re reviewed in alpha order, below).

  • Aftershock Comics: Dark Ark (2017) #5
  • Amigo Comics: Call of the Suicide Forest (2018)
  • Dark Horse Comics: Hungry Ghosts (2018) #1
  • DC Comics: Dark Nights: Metal #5, Detective Comics (2016) Annual 1, Milk Wars (2018) JLA/Doom Patrol Special, Mystik U (2018) #2, The Silencer (2018)
  • IDW Publishing: Dread Gods (2017) #3
  • Image Comics: Bonehead (2018) #2, God Complex: Dogma (2017) #4, The Realm (2017) #5, Void Trip (2017) #3
  • Marvel Comics: Avengers (2017) #678, All-New Wolverine (2016) #30, Captain Marvel (2017) #128, Jean Grey (2017) #11, Moon Knight (2017) #191, Old Man Logan (2016) #34, Phoenix Resurrection: The Return of Jean Grey (2018) #5
  • Vault Comics: Maxwell’s Demons (2017) #2, Reactor (2017) #2, Songs For The Dead (2018) #1

As you will discover below, I am not shy about giving low ratings to comic books. A lot of sites shy away from covering comics they think are weak or bad, but I think that does the fans and industry a disservice. We can’t only talk about comics that are brilliant or at least better-than-average – that signals a death of critical discourse!

I’m just as interested in the weak books as the strong ones, because they help set the standard of what’s great in comics and the tough reviews might still help those books find fans.

Enough chatter – let’s take a look at my top Big Two and Indie books of the week before getting to the full list.

Top Marvel/DC Comic of The Week

Detective Comics (2016) Annual 1, DC Comics

A stunningly good tragic origin story for Clayface with the best artwork I’ve ever seen from Eddie Barrows, which is really saying something because I always love Eddie Barrows.

This is the kind of comic book single issue you can hand to a brand new fan who only vaguely knows the Batman mythos. Tom King has been knocking out terrific one-offs like that on Batman, but this James Tynion story is different in that it delves into the core of an existing character instead of inventing a new plot.

My understanding is that this departs a bit from the established Clayface original, which we’ve seen several times in the past – so, I appreciate if some regular Bat-readers aren’t into getting more of it. However, considering the events of the recently concluded story arc in Detective, this feels like the perfect time to reestablish Basil’s origin.

Top Indie Comic of the Week

The Realm (2017) #5, Image Comics

4.5 starsThis comic is on fire!

The Realm has quickly become one of my favorite comics on the stands with its blend of post-apocalyptic terrain with fantastical monsters out of a Dungeons and Dragons campaign. This issue has a downright wild amount of siege action coming from every which direction, which puts the central quest on hold while our protagonists fight for their lives. (They aren’t all successful in that fight.)

There are major shades of Helms Deep here, with the goblins trying to breech the wall of a make-shift city. The action was frantic, but never hard to follow. It even revealed some new information about our characters in the midst of the chaos. There was some wonderful panelling to build tension to a fever pitch during the battering ram portion, but it also gave us several moments to reveal things about our cast…

…the ones that survive, anyhow.

And now, on to the other 19 comics I read that were released on January 31, 2018!

[Read more…] about The Pull List, Jan. 31, 2018: Dark Ark, Detective Comics, Moon Knight, Reactor, The Realm, and more!

Back Issue Review: Alan Moore’s The Courtyard, Captain Canuck, Dark Ark, & more!

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Welcome to a pilot of a new series of comic book posts on Crushing Krisis – Back Issue Review!

If I tried to complete my quest to read 2018 comic issues in 2018 purely by keeping up with new releases, I’d have to read 39 new comics every week!

Since my pull list isn’t quite that deep, I pad out my new release reading (and my playing catch-up to get current with new releases) with a healthy amount of back back issue reading, both from my own ridiculously deep collection and in browsing for digital deals.

Here’s the rundown of the back-issues I’ve read this week and reviewed below:

  • Alan Moore’s The Courtyard (2003) #1-2
  • Aquaman (2016) #1-6
  • Avengers/Champions: Worlds Collide (Avengers #672-674 & Champions #13-15)
  • Captain Canuck (2015) #1-2
  • Captain Marvel (2016) #6-10
  • Civil War II (2016) – The Oath
  • Dark Ark (2017) #1-4
  • Freelance (2017) #1
  • Grimm Fairy Tales: Return to Wonderland (2007) #0-3
  • Judas (2018) #1
  • Monstro Mechanica (2017) #1
  • Port of Earth (2017) #1-2
  • Realmwalkers (2017) #1-3
  • Silk (2016) #14
  • Spencer & Locke (2017) #1-4
  • The Skeptics (2016) #1-4
  • Toil and Trouble (2015) #1

Interested in what I have to say about other random pulls? Leave a comment about a series you’d love to see me dig into in the coming weeks. Given the scope of my collection, you might be surprised to learn I already own a copy! [Read more…] about Back Issue Review: Alan Moore’s The Courtyard, Captain Canuck, Dark Ark, & more!

Captain Marvel by Peter David Omnibus, Vol. 1 – The #58 Most-Wanted Marvel Omnibus of 2017

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Captain Marvel by Peter David Omnibus, Vol. 1 is the #58 Most-Wanted Marvel Omnibus of 2017 on Tigereyes’s Secret Ballot. 

Visit the Marvel Masterworks Message Board to view the original posting of results by Tigereyes.

What Is It? Captain Marvel (1999/2000) was a new superhero title and relatively new superhero launched in late 1999 by Peter David. The series spun out of the events of the 12-issue maxi-series Avengers Forever, itself a spinoff of Kurt Busiek’s concurrent revival of Avengers (1998).

The series revived Marvel’s previously dormant heroic mantle “Captain Marvel” in the most straight-forward legacy fashion possible – by introducing Genis-Vell, the half-Kree/half-Eternal son of the original Silver Age Captain Marvel (who was a colleague of the current Captain Marvel, Carol Danvers).

Not only was this new Marvel related to the old one, but he begins his series bonded to the same Earthling host – Rick Jones, the kid who Bruce Banner saved from the Gamma Bomb blast back in the Silver Age (who had been a sort of sidekick and non-hero reality star ever since).

Captain Marvel began with a #0 issue in November 1999 and then a #1 in 2000, which is why different guides list it under different years. It ran for 35 issues from January 2000 t0 October 2002, and then relaunched in November 2002 for a 25-issue run to September 2004.

Past Ranking: This year is the book’s debut placement in the ballot results.

It was one of my “50 More Marvel Runs That Deserve an Omnibus” in 2016 and “12 Must-Read Marvel Runs (that ought to be an omnibus) – 1998 to 2008” last week.

Creators: Written by Peter A. David with the majority of the 2000 series penciled by ChrisCross (AKA Christopher Emmanuel Williams) with Jim Starlin, Patrick Zircher, Leonard Kirk, and others, inks by Anibal Rodriguez (with Walden Wong), colors by Steve Oliff, VLM, and Chris Sotomayer, and letters by Albert W. Deschesne and Wes Abbott (both of Comiccraft).

Probable Contents: This book would definitely collect Captain Marvel (1999/2000) #0-26, at minimum. Issue #26 marks Marvel’s (and his host’s) return to earth after a lengthy period in space.

Click to expand a discussion of further content for this volume.

Can you read it right now? Not entirely. In print collections, #7-14 and 17-35 of the 2000 series are uncollected; see the Guide to Captain Marvel for more details. Marvel Unlimited has both the 1999/2000 series and the 2002 series, though it is is missing #26-35 of the 2000 series and does not include all of the lead-up issues from other titles (though it does have all of Avengers Forever).

The Details: 

Genis-Vell is trying to settle in to playing hero on Earth while sharing a body with his father’s alter-ego, Rick Jones – frequent sidekick to the Avengers.

Jones would probably prefer Genis-Vell to stay dormant, but they keep finding themselves in situations where Rick has to tap together his pair of Nega-Bands to bring forth Captain Marvel – just as he used to do with Genis-Vell’s dad so many years ago. [Read more…] about Captain Marvel by Peter David Omnibus, Vol. 1 – The #58 Most-Wanted Marvel Omnibus of 2017