Crushing Krisis

Comic Books, Drag Race, & Life in New Zealand

Captain Marvel

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

Marvel series still awaiting an omnibus from the Masterworks Era (1961 – 1980)

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This is the final post in our series time-traveling backwards through Marvel’s era of comic books to see what books would make fantastic omnibuses, and this is a big one – it’s what I’m calling “The Masterworks Era.”

After this post, you should have more than enough ammo to fill out your 2017 Most Wanted Marvel Omnibus Secret Ballot, which is due by Sunday at midnight! I’ve suggested over a hundred possible votes!

What exactly is “The Masterworks Era,” aside from something I just made up? It refers to the period of comcis that Marvel has covered with their deluxe, standard-size hardcover Marvel Masterworks reprint line. The Silver Age portion of the line begins with Fantastic Four #1 in 1961.

The end is a little fuzzier. The Silver Age is understood to end in 1970-71, but with a handful of exceptions Marvel has already pushed past that point with every line of Masterworks collections. In fact, their newest two Masterworks lines are The Spectacular Spider-Man (1976), Spider-Woman (1978), and The Savage She-Hulk (1980)! 

Yes, that’s right – Masterworks now cover comics that began in the 1980s! That’s like when the oldies station of my youth started playing Madonna songs. Plus, the farthest outlier, Uncanny X-Men, has reached all the way up to issue #188 in 1984.

When it comes to classic Omnibuses, until this year Marvel followed a specific formula almost every time – one omnibus contained three Masterworks volumes. We’re now seeing them deviate from that formula with Amazing Spider-Man, Daredevil,  and Thor, all of which contained more than the customary three volumes.

To figure out what comics are due for potential omnibuses to feature in this post, I had to first figure out both what has been covered by Masterworks volumes and what has been skipped! That’s not really a part of this discussion, but if you’re interested, I’ve shown my work.

A list of titles that are eligible for Masterworks treatment

How am I defining “due” here? It’s any superhero universe series that the Masterworks line has skipped entirely or any Masterworks line with three or more un-omnibused volumes.

Any comic with a Masterworks line that’s in-progress with only one or two volumes is not included: Ka-Zar, Luke Cage, Marvel Team-Up, Marvel Two-in-One, Not Brand Echh Vol. 1, Rarities Vol. 1, Rawhide Kid, She-Hulk, Spectacular Spider-Man, Spider-Woman.

I also didn’t include the one-and-done Masterworks volumes Champions and Deathlok as potential omnibuses, since the omnibus would be the same as the Masterworks!

Are you ready to travel back in time from 1980 to the beginning of Marvel’s Silver Age in 1961? Here we go! [Read more…] about Marvel series still awaiting an omnibus from the Masterworks Era (1961 – 1980)

10 Marvel runs from the 80s that ought to be omnibuses – 1981 to 1989

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It’s the penultimate stop in our trip backwards through time to find all of the Marvel runs most in need of Omnibus treatment.

Why? For fun. For accumulating rainy-day reading. And, to fuel our 2017 Most Wanted Marvel Omnibus Secret Ballot votes!

Marvel in the 1980s is really a tale of two different Marvels. The first half of the decade featured many continuing 70s series, a handful of limited series, and relatively few new ongoing titles – most of which were direct spinoffs of characters from other books.

However, after Secret Wars II in 1986 the line got a serious shake-up, with many titles outside of what I think of as “The Big 9” and their satellite books getting cancelled or rebooted, plus tons of new ongoing and limited series and a whole new line of comics with New Universe!

(“The Big 9” are all of the lines of books that made it from the Silver Age to 2005 while being published continuously, even if that meant being restarted along the way – , Avengers, Captain America, Daredevil, Iron Man, Fantastic Four, Hulk, Spider-Man, Thor, and X-Men. After 2005, Thor went on hiatus, and Fantastic Four has been on hiatus since 2015.)

(In a totally weird turn of events, we can now probably add Deadpool to that list of evergreen lines.)

Marvel released a lot of comics in the 1980s, so what should Marvel prioritize getting into omnibuses? I’ve already covered all of the X-Men runs from this period, and I’m not touching Spider-Man or Fantastic Four mapping at the moment. Plus, many key 80s runs are on the survey already, like Peter David’s Hulk, Iron Man by by Michelinie & Layton Ann Nocenti’s Daredevil – but that still leaves a ton of potential runs to cover! [Read more…] about 10 Marvel runs from the 80s that ought to be omnibuses – 1981 to 1989

20 Must-Read Marvel runs (that ought to be an omnibus) from 2012 to 2015

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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