Christos Gage

New Comics & Collected Editions Releases: Marvel Comics – May 15 2024

May 9, 2024 by krisis

It’s the 20th new comic book day of the new year! This post covers Marvel Comics May 15 2024 releases. Missed last week’s releases? Check out last week’s post covering Marvel Comics May 8 2024 new releases.

This week in Marvel Comics: a Hickman/Greene Doom one-shot, Gillen says farewell to hope, original Marvel Apes, an adamantium-free Wolverine omnibus, an “Oops All Wolverines” conclusion, and more!

Here’s a wild statistic that speaks to the mess that is Marvel’s publishing strategy at the moment – out of 14 comics out this week, only three are issues from ongoing series.

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 15 2024 Collected Editions

The Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection: Assassin Nation
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1302957902 / digital)
See Guide to Spider-Man – Peter Parker (1963 – 2018). This is a reprint of the Epic collecting a very fun 1989 run of Spider-Man just after his initial confrontations with Venom and just before the true excesses of the 90s kick in on his title.

Astonishing Iceman: Out Cold
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1302952495 / digital)
See Guide to X-Men – The Age of Krakoa (2019 – 2024). Iceman seemingly died in the Hellfire Gala, but this Steve Orlando series brings him back!

I never enjoyed enjoyed Iceman’s previous 2017 and 2018 solo turns by Sina Grace, which made him out to be the most generic 20-something American gay guy you could imagine without any connection to who he was as a character. This Steve Orlando take is a little more interesting – focusing on how Bobby’s death may have actually taught him something about his capabilities, both as a mutant and as a person. Plus, interiors artist Vincenzo Carratú is well on his way to becoming one of the next big things at Marvel!

This is a book you can enjoy as an Iceman fan without having to be fully engaged in the Fall of X, and it’s one of the better uses of him as a character throughout all of the Krakoa era.

Captain America Epic Collection: Bucky Reborn
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1302957858 / digital)
See Guide to Captain America – Steve Rogers. This volume follows Cap out of the 60s and into the 70s as his title becomes a bit more socially conscious of current events of the day – plus, it begins to regularly star The Falcon as his regular sidekick! This is a good place to dip your toes into classic Cap if early Silver Age stories feel a bit too generic for you.

New Comics & Collected Editions Releases: Marvel Comics – May 1 2024

April 25, 2024 by krisis

It’s the 18th new comic book day of the new year! This post covers Marvel Comics May 1 2024 releases. Missed last week’s releases? Check out last week’s post covering Marvel Comics April 24 2024 new releases.

This week in Marvel Comics: Blood Hunt begins, Captain America de-iced, Daredevil Unmasked, the improbable X-Men 2099, Deadpool & Wolverine go to war, Iron Man & Magneto team up, and more!

Marvel Comics May 1 2024 Collected Editions

Captain America Omnibus Vol. 1
(2024 oversize hardcover, ISBN 978-1302957995 / digital)
See Guide to Captain America. This omnibus collects the start of Cap’s Silver Age return – though, since it is based on the Masterworks mapping, it omits his actual return in Avengers (1963) #4.

We go straight from him despairing over a photo of Bucky in Tales of Suspense (1959) #59 to fighting Baron Zemo in Tales of Suspense (1959) #60. Even if Lee & Kirby lean on action-oriented plots, there are still those moments of Steve being a man out of time trying to absorb the modern day and its new challenges.

Carnage Vol. 1: Born Again
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1302955014 / digital)
See Guide to Carnage. This is the very creepy kickoff of Torunn Grønbekk’s 2023 Carnage series, which finds the Carnage symbiote getting back to Earth after nearly attaining godhood and deciding to return to what it knows best – serial killing, one victim at a time.

Marvel Studios’ Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania – The Art of the Movie
(2024 hardcover, ISBN 978-1302956592)
See Guide to Ant-Man.

Mighty Marvel Masterworks: Daredevil Vol. 3: Unmasked
(2024 digest-size paperback, ISBN 978-1302954284 / digital)
See Guide to Daredevil. Marvel’s digest-sized Silver Age collection presses on to the third year of early Daredevil comics. I’m somewhat surprised Marvel extended the Mighty Masterworks line to Daredevil, as his early stories aren’t considered to be particularly significant.

She-Hulk by Rainbow Rowell Vol. 4: Jen-Sational
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1302957117 / digital)
See Guide to She-Hulk. This is labeled “Volume 4” despite being the first collection of Sensation She-Hulk (2023) because it picks up directly from the end ofRowell & Company’s 2022 She-Hulk series. While you could pick this up and easily follow it with no preamble, the 15 issues of the prior series are absolutely delightful slice-of-life romance stuff with a just-right amount of punching. [Read more…] about New Comics & Collected Editions Releases: Marvel Comics – May 1 2024

New Comics & Collected Editions Releases: Marvel Comics – April 10 2024

April 6, 2024 by krisis

It’s the 15th new comic book day of the new year! This post covers Marvel Comics April 10 2024 releases. Missed last week’s releases? Check out last week’s post covering Marvel Comics April 3 2024 new releases.

This week in Marvel Comics: Modern Black Widow Epics, actually classic Daredevil, Carnage’s identity struggle, Star-Spider, X marks the Stark, Ms. Marvel vs. Mojo, 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 April 10 2024 Collected Editions

Black Widow Modern Era Epic Collection Vol. 3: Chaos
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1302956431 / digital)
See Guide to Black Widow. This collects all of Nathan Edmonson & Phil Noto’s 2014 Black Widow series. I enjoyed it. It often played Widow as someone whose plans were constantly ruined, but that came across less as a character flaw and more as the theme of the series – “chaos”!

This being “Vol. 3” has interesting implications for what two volumes before it will contain! While Vol. 2 could wind up being a verbatim reprint of Widowmaker (2020 paperback, ISBN 978-1302921446 / digital), which collects all of her 2009-2010 material, I wonder if perhaps they would shift the first series in that book – Black Widow: Deadly Origin (2009) #1-4 – out of that and into Vol. 1 to make room for Captain America & Black Widow (2012) #636-640 even though it is part of Cap’s line and not Natasha’s.

Daredevil Omnibus Vol. 3
(2024 oversize hardcover, ISBN 978-1302955182 / digital)
See Guide to Daredevil. This collects what I consider to be the first truly great run of Daredevil – his entire San Francisco period, including Black Widow as his co-star (and her solo stories from Amazing Adventures (1970) #1-8). If you really want to read classic Silver and Bronze Age Daredevil, I’d just skip the first two omnibuses and start with this one!

Marvel Masterworks: The Incredible Hulk Vol. 1 (Re-Masterworks)
2024 “Re-Masterworks” hardcover, ISBN 978-1302951382 / digital)
See Guide to Hulk – Bruce Banner. Marvel hasn’t reprinted Masterworks volumes since prior to 2010 with some of the big lines like X-Men and Spider-Man, but their new Re-Masterworks program is giving them an excuse to both revise and expand the contents of these early Masterworks volumes by upgrading the artwork throughout.

I’ve just ordered my first of these re-issues, so I’ll be able to comment on the art restoration soon. From what I’ve seen online, it’s mostly just cleaner, thinner, more-defined ink lines – so, if you’re not the kind of person who would notice that sort of thing, there’s no reason to rush to buy these if you have the original Masterworks or the omnibus that was reprinted in 2022. [Read more…] about New Comics & Collected Editions Releases: Marvel Comics – April 10 2024

New Comics & Collected Editions: Marvel Comics – March 6 2024

February 29, 2024 by krisis

It’s the 10th new comic book day of the new year! This post covers Marvel Comics March 6 2024 releases. Missed last week’s releases? Check out last week’s post covering Marvel Comics February 28 2024 new releases.

This week in Marvel Comics: a major Moon Knight omnibus, Dark Droids collections, the new arc of MacKay’s Strange, Iman Vellani’s return to Ms. Marvel, and more!

Marvel Comics March 6 2024 Collected Editions

The Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection, Vol. 5: The Secret of the Petrified Tablet [reprint]
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1302957810 / digital)
See Guide to Spider-Man – Peter Parker (1963 – 2018). It’s less interesting that Marvel is reprinting this Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection of issues #68-85 & Annual 5 and more interesting that this is when they are reprinting it. The first printing of this book was just four years ago, and it means Marvel has gotten the first five Epics back into print in a three-year span.

I think that’s really interesting, considering they also now have the Mighty Marvel Masterworks in play to cover this Silver Age material. It shows a real commitment to making their most-historic comics evergreen in an affordable format. Take note DC.

Daredevil Modern Era Epic Collection, Vol. 2: Underboss
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1302956332 / digital)
See Guide to Daredevil. Speaking of interesting Epic Collections, this second volume of Epics covering Daredevil from 1998 to present is the first time issues #20-25 have ever been collected continuously alongside issues #16-19 & 26-30, which are by Bendis.

Plus, it collects Daredevil: Ninja (2000) #1-3! This is what the Modern Epic collections ought to be doing – not just parroting existing mediocre maps of Complete Collections.

Mighty Marvel Masterworks: Captain America Vol. 3: To Be Reborn
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1302954321 / digital)
See Guide to Captain America – Steve Rogers. In an unusual twist, this Mighty Masterworks line is now behind what was collected in the original hardcover Masterworks of the same volume number. The two lines aren’t meant to match up with each other, but I’ve been working from the expectation that these books would go slightly more aggressively to cover more material, faster.

Moon Knight: Marc Spector Omnibus Vol. 2
(2024 oversize hardcover, ISBN 978-1302956899 / digital)
See Guide to Moon Knight. This is a big deal, y’all! This omnibus collects the end of Moon Knight’s 90s series for the first time, as well as his subsequent 1998 and 1999 mini-series. It also means we have every issue of Moon Knight in oversize format from his debut through the beginning of Marvel Now at the end of 2012. That’s pretty major! It’s amazing what some MCU exposure can do for the collected edition coverage of a Marvel character who hasn’t had a single continuous series from the Silver Age to present day. [Read more…] about New Comics & Collected Editions: Marvel Comics – March 6 2024