Crushing Krisis

The Newest Oldest Blog In New Zealand

DC Comics

DC Comics Collected Editions Releases – January 2017

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To continue this week’s DC theme, here is the lineup of collected editions from DC Comics out this month – including their first round of Rebirth collections!

(Looking for Marvel’s January releases? I covered those previously.)

One of the biggest stumbling blocks that kept me from adding DC Comics guides to Crushing Krisis was a knowledge gap – and not just about the comics stories, themselves. I know all of Marvel’s formats by heart – Masterworks, Epic Collections, Complete Collections, and more.

As I work on my 52 DC Comics Guides, I find that I have to do a lot of getting acquainted with their collected editions to understand their major reprint lines outside of Rebirth and New 52. While DC is committed to keeping their biggest stories in evergreen print, they don’t share Marvel’s philosophy that just about every major series ought to be covered in reprinted editions – their 80 and 90s reprints are more sparse, and pre-Crisis 70s and 80s reprints are reserved only for the most acclaimed of runs!

Of course, I didn’t know anything about Marvel’s formats and strategies when I began the X-Men guides in 2010 – that was kind of the point of starting them. So, I’m not going to let that stop my exploration of DC! Plus, posts like this will help both you and I keep up with DC’s newest collections until I have guide pages to cover more of their heroes!

All of the links below are to Amazon. Note that Amazon (and other mass market retailers) receive books two weeks later than direct market sellers like comic shops. Still, I find Amazon convenient for their uniform format of displaying information like contents and ISBNs. If you purchase though an Amazon link on CK I receive a minor credit as your referrer; your purchase price remains the same. [Read more…] about DC Comics Collected Editions Releases – January 2017

Comic Book Review: DC Universe Rebirth Special

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Have you ever attempted to make a new first impression on someone? Did it actually change their opinion about you?

I think it’s a near-impossible feat. First impressions are the ones that last. After that, each successive impression provides an increasingly diminished return until you’re barely changing someone’s opinion about you at all with each meeting – just reinforcing it.

How could you make a brand new first impression? It’s not enough to simply say, “Hey, look, I’m different now!” Even if your target believed you, they would still weigh your new behavior against the old you.

No, to make a new first impression you need an explosive bombast of both context and contradiction – a shy friend who slays a karaoke, or a messy coworker with an impeccable neat home. You need to convince them that their first impression was demonstrably wrong – or, at least, so incomplete or controverted as to be useless.

Every piece of fiction has the dilemma of making a first impression by introducing you to a universe you’ve never entered before.  It’s hard enough to make a good impression introducing yourself let alone an entire universe! Even if they’re successful with that first impression, sequential storytelling mediums sometimes have to re-impress you, as with the season premiere of a TV show.

Few other mediums do what comic books so often do – willingly relaunch dozens of books at the same time with new directions as a means of screaming, “LOOK! We’re really, really different now! All-new, all-different, actually.”

And, of those that have, hardly any have ever put all the onus of an entire multi-title universe on a single episode the way DC Comics did on DC Universe Rebirth last July. Read my critical take on the issue below, and then head to the DC Rebirth Guide to follow your favorite characters from here.

DC Universe Rebirth #1   Amazon Logo  

Written by Geoff Johns with line art by Gary Frank, Ethan Van Sciver, Ivan Reis with Joe Prado, and Phil Jimenez with Matt Santorelli and color art from Brad Anderson, Jason Wright, Gabriel A. Eltaeb, and Hi-Fi Colour Design

DC Universe Rebirth is exciting and inscrutable – a tantalizing glimpse of change for continuity nerds and a tangled skein of contradictory continuity for new readers.  It’s a love note dense with heartfelt apology to longtime fans that weathered all of New 52 and a Rosetta Stone for DC’s new continuity.

It is not necessarily the first comic you ought to read if you’re new to DC Comics or coming back from a lengthy lapse … unless you happen to be a major Flash fan.

The issue uses the device of Wally West trying to return to the present day from within the Speed Force, where has has been trapped since the Flashpoint event that lead to New 52. He follows several hunches on who can pull him out of the aether of time and back into reality. It’s not just about survival. West has critical information that might help to amend a timeline that has grown dark and cynical (and lost a decade of memories along the way).

Like the Ghost of The Fastest Christmas Ever, he first visits Batman (he’s the best detective!), an old guy named Johnny (he has the best chance to remember things!), and his former partner Linda (love will bind them together!), each without much success. Finally, he says hello from the other side to current flash Barry Allen (super-bros FTW!). [Read more…] about Comic Book Review: DC Universe Rebirth Special

New Collecting Guides: DC Comics Rebirth & New 52 (plus: What is DC Rebirth, anyway?)

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It’s a new year and with it comes something I never thought I’d be saying on Crushing Krisis:

Today I’m announcing the first pair of what will eventually be 52 DC Comics Guides coming to CK –DC Comics Rebirth and DC Comics New 52.

Yes, really. Each guide comprehensively covers the issues of their era, with every comic listed and every collection linked.They’re available thanks to my supporters on Patreon. If you find them useful, I’d love it if you’d chip in $1 a month.

Why DC? Why now? And, what is DC Rebirth, anyway?

That’s a slightly longer story.

I get a modest amount of reader mail. It’s always extremely generous and kind and makes me obscenely happy. I try to respond to every message.

The vast majority of the questions therein can be classified into two categories. One is “Will you extend your X-Men Reading Order into Marvel Now?” (The answer is: “I’d really love to, but it would take a very long time.”)

The other is, “Would you ever consider creating guides to DC Comics?” [Read more…] about New Collecting Guides: DC Comics Rebirth & New 52 (plus: What is DC Rebirth, anyway?)

DC Rebirth Era – The Definitive Collecting Guide

A comprehensive guide to every title in DC Comics’ 2016 Rebirth relaunch and how they can be read via omnibuses, hardcovers, and trade paperbacks. Part of Crushing Krisis’s Crushing Comics. Updated September 2017 with titles scheduled for release through June 2018.

DC Rebirth isn’t just a reboot – it’s a recontextualization of everything that happened in DC New 52 – all of which now “counts” or “matters” more than ever before. That thanks in part to DC Rebirth putting all of DC’s post-Crisis history back into play!

It all begins in DC Universe: Rebirth, collected in its own deluxe hardcover (since the original comic was already available as a perfect-bound book) and in the DC Rebirth Omnibus (where it appears along with all of the initial 2016 Rebirth one-shots).

Generally, any series in DC in-continuity that began after July 2016 will be included on this page, regardless of it specifically carried Rebirth branding.

Want to read more about Rebirth? Check out my blog posts about DC Rebirth. [Read more…] about DC Rebirth Era – The Definitive Collecting Guide