Doctor Strange

New Comics & Collected Editions: Marvel Comics – April 26, 2023

April 23, 2023 by krisis

It’s time to take a look at what’s out from Marvel Comics this week! This post covers Marvel Comics April 26 2023 releases.

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 Crushing Comics guide.

Marvel Comics April 26 2023 Collected Editions

All-Out Avengers: Teachable Moments (2023 paperback, ISBN 978-1302947019 / digital)
See Guide to Avengers Flagship Titles (2010 – Present). This new “All-Out” brand for Marvel indicates an all-action series that is a non-stop five issue fight, here created by Derek Landy & Greg Land. The Landy-Land team continues to a new volume, Avengers Beyond, below.

Cosmic Ghost Rider by Donny Cates (2023 paperback, ISBN 978-1302949891 / digital)
See Guide to Ghost Rider. This paperbacks collects all of Donny Cates’s Cosmic Ghost Rider material, which is a subset of the material from the 2021 omnibus. However, there is really just one full CGR series in this collection – his first 2018 five-issue limited series. All the other material in this book are his debut in Thanos (2016) and guest-starring and team membership issues. Bottom line: This is the right buy if you’re a Cates fan or looking purely for origin material, otherwise you should buy the omnibus instead.

Deadpool & Cable Omnibus (2023 oversize hardcover, ISBN 978-1302949921)
See Guide to Deadpool or Guide to Cable for this complete reprint of their 50-issue 2004 team-up series.

Fantastic Four by Millar & Hitch Omnibus (2023 oversize hardcover, ISBN 978-1302949716 / digital)
See Guide to Fantastic Four. This omnibus fits directly prior to Jonathan Hickman’s run and pair of omnibuses. This run’s reputation tends to be overshadowed by Hickman, but there are some enjoyable big ideals here and I enjoy seeing Millar in his less-audacious mode when he’s not writing mature books.

Midnight Suns (2023 paperback, ISBN 978-1302947187 / digital TBA)
See Guide to Ghost Rider or Guide to Blade. This series featured a peculiar hodgepodge of a team of supernatural heroes… and Logan, with a cast of Magik, Wolverine, Blade, Spirit Rider, and Nico Minoru.

Thor Epic Collection Vol. 9: Even An Immortal Can Die (2023 paperback, ISBN 978-1302948689 / digital)
See Guide to Thor – The Odinson. This material has been covered in Masterworks and in bits and pieces across several old trades, but it has never been collected comprehensively in paperback before.

Strange, Vol. 2: The Doctor Strange of Death (2023 paperback, ISBN 978-1302946746 / digital)
See Guide to Doctor Strange. The second (and final) volume of Jed MacKay’s volume of Clea as the Sorcerer Supreme before the relaunch of Doctor Strange last month.

X-Terminators (2023 paperback, ISBN 978-1302946999 / digital)
See Guide to X-Men – The Age of Krakoa. Leah Williams takes Dazzler, Jubilee, Boom Boom, and Wolverine (X-23) on a high-action, high-comedy spin.

Read on for a rundown of Marvel Comics April 19 2023 single-issue releases, including a link to their accompanying guide pages on Crushing Comics.

Tigereyes Most Wanted Marvel Omnibus 11th Annual Secret Ballot Results & Mappings

April 17, 2023 by krisis

This morning I had the absolute pleasure of announcing the results of the Most Wanted Marvel Omnibus 11th Annual Secret Ballot with Near Mint Condition!

The Most Wanted Marvel Omnibus Secret Ballot is an annual poll conducted by a mysterious comic book forum user named Tigereyes. The rules are simple: anyone can email Tigereyes up to 10 picks for their most-wanted, never-before-printed omnibuses of material originally printed by Marvel, even if they may no longer own the licensing rights.

Each first vote gets 10 points, each second vote gets 9 points, all the way down to your tenth vote getting just 1 point. After the voting period, Tigereyes goes through the gargantuan effort of tallying up all the votes – which also involves figuring out what everyone meant by their sometimes inconsistently-named or cryptically-described votes.

For me, the reveal of the results of the Tigereyes Secret Ballot is an international comics-loving holiday. I used to be the primary person on the internet creating statistics from the results every year! However, when I attempted to cover the entire poll entry-by-entry in 2017 I stalled out at the halfway point as the results straddled our move to New Zealand.

That’s why it was worth waking up at 4am NZ time to be ready to share this year’s results with my good friends Omar and Jess on the Near Mint Condition channel, thanks to some last-minute planning with Omar over the weekend.

Our show was nearly three hours long as we dug into the potential contents of every book on the list and whether we’d read them or not. As always, I had just as much fun appearing on-camera as I did chatting with all of the wonderful Minties in the live chat!

Don’t have time for the full 3-hour tour? We actually run down the full 60-book list in just 15 minutes, starting just before the 12-minute mark. I’m sharing the full list below, but it’s more than just a list – every omnibus includes a full suggested omnibus mapping along with a link to the relevant collecting guide on Crushing Comics.

That’s right, y’all – this is a post with SIXTY omnibus mappings in it, mapping well over 2,000 issues of comics. (Actually, it’s even more than that – there’s one tie, and in several entries I get into mapping second volumes if they would complete a run). That makes that one of the longest blog posts in 23 years of CrushingKrisis history.

Are you ready to be rocked by the Most Wanted Marvel Omnibus vote? Strap in, true believers, and prepare to be mapped like you’ve never been mapped before.

The Pull List: Batman, Brave and The Bold, Damnation, Maestros, Mighty Thor, Punks Not Dead, and more!

February 25, 2018 by krisis

Doctor Strange: Damnation #1, art by Rod Reis

I know it seems impossible, but The Pull List has grown even bigger this week for the third week in a row! That’s because I finished catching up to present on a number of DC and Marvel books, plus I picked up five smaller press books.

DC Comics
- Batman #41
- Batman & the Signal #2
- The Brave and The Bold #1
- Damage #2
- Deathbed #1 (Vertigo)
- Justice League #39
- Milk Wars – DC Cave Carson Has a Cybernetic Eye / Swamp Thing Special
- Super Sons #13
- Superman #41
- Trinity #18
Image Comics
- The Further Adventures of Nick Wilson #2
- Ice Cream Man #2
- Maestros #5
- Redlands #6
- Twisted Romance #3
Marvel Comics
- Astonishing X-Men #8
- Avengers #681
- Deadpool vs. Old Man Logan #5
- Doctor Strange – Damnation #1
- Generation X #87
- Infinity Countdown Prime
- Mighty Thor #704
- Tales of Suspense #102
- The Incredible Hulk #713
- Venom #162
- X-Men Gold #22
Smaller Publishers: Dark Horse, Dynamite, IDW, Vault Comics, Zenescope
- Belle Beast Hunter #2, Zenescope
- Heathen #6, Vault Comics
- James Bond: The Body #1, Dynamite Comics
- Mata Hari #1, Dark Horse / Berger Books
- Musketeers #1, Zenescope
- Punks Not Dead #1, IDW Publishing / Black Crown

Pick of the Pull

Big Two (Marvel/DC) Issue of the Week:
Mighty Thor (2016) #704

A bloody, thrilling, heart-rending comic. Aaron has somehow amped up the drama in each of the last three issues as we hasten towards a potential Ragnarok at the hands of the Mangog and Jane Foster’s death at her own hands if she takes up the mantle of Thor just one more time.

Yet, beyond those looming disasters there is still Makelith’s war on the Ten Realms. Mangog is just one facet of that. Even in the dimness and tragedy, Aaron finds shining moments – Jane with her friend in the cancer ward, a father and son joined in battle, and a mother casting aside a snake that has wounded her before.

All the while, Dauterman and Wilson are turning in a quality of artwork never seen before at Marvel comics – truly, one of the pinnacles of art at Marvel in over 75 years of publishing.

This story has officially become the best Thor story in my eyes, and it just might be Marvel’s best longform story of all time. I’d place it alongside Mark Gruenwald Captain America and Chris Claremont X-Men at this point.

Best Small-Pub Issue of the Week:
Punks Not Dead (2018) #1, IDW Publishing / Black Crown

An utterly madcap introduction to Punks Not Dead (and, for me, to Black Crown comics, which are edited by Shelly Bond distributed by IDW). This book is part Injection, part Sid and Nancy, and a little dash of the more lighthearted issues of Sandman.

It follows a teenage boy and his scam artist mom as the kid picks up some kind of supernatural echo of the deceased Sid Vicious in a dingy airport bathroom. Meanwhile, the beleaguered Department for Extra-Usual Affairs is busy putting minor demons out of the closet at 10 Downing Street with a staff of one.

This book is funny, unique, and looks freaking brilliant. Artist Martin Simmonds is simply incredible, drawing a real-seeming Britain with amped up color and clever use of cut-and-pasted patterns to ground it in real, textured reality. I am in love with this book, and will not only be keeping up with it, but also checking out other titles from Black Crown. [Read more…] about The Pull List: Batman, Brave and The Bold, Damnation, Maestros, Mighty Thor, Punks Not Dead, and more!

Crushing Comics S01E32 – Unboxing my October haul of DC Super Hero Girls, Shutter, Epic Collections, and more!

December 5, 2017 by krisis

Today is a *true* unboxing, as I unpack the contents of my October comics order from the states! Still no spiders in the mysteriously ratty mail bag (whew), but a few books I was hotly anticipating, two new Epics, and a pair of odd Marvel trades.

Want to start from the beginning of this season of videos? Here’s the complete Season 1 playlist of Crushing Comics.

Episode 32 features DC Super Hero Girls, Vol. 4: Past Times At Super Hero High (Amazon), Shutter, Vol. 05: So Far Beyond (Amazon), Spider-Man: The Daily Bugle (Amazon), Bloodstone & The Legion Of Monsters (Amazon), Thor Epic Collection, Vol. 3 – The Wrath Of Odin (Amazon / Thor Guide), Doctor Strange Epic Collection, Vol. 13 – Afterlife (Amazon / Doctor Strange Guide), and Shang-Chi, Master Of Kung Fu Omnibus Vol. 4 (Amazon / Shang-Chi Guide)

Not a fan of watching videos – or just not able to watch right now? First, did you know you can speed up YouTube videos? Just click the little gear icon to change the speed settings. I know that makes me much more apt to watch.

Alternately, you can keep reading for the full transcript. Please keep in mind that this season of videos is shot off the cuff with no chance to review the books ahead of time, so I might occasionally fudge some facts (usually addressed in the video by subtitles).

Doctor Strange by Roger Stern – The #48 Most-Wanted Marvel Omnibus of 2017

May 16, 2017 by krisis

Doctor Strange by Roger Stern is the #48 Most-Wanted Marvel Omnibus of 2017 on Tigereyes’s Secret Ballot.

What’s it about? Should you read it? What issues does it include? Can you get them right now? Read on to learn the answers! And, visit the Marvel Masterworks Message Board to view the original posting of results by Tigereyes.

What Is It? Roger Stern first wrote Doctor Strange (1974) with #27 in February 1978 and departed after #37 in October 1979. He later return for a longer run with #46 in April 1981 to #75 in February 1986.

Stern’s lengthier run was marked by several distinct periods of Strange – one focused on his relationship to Clea, a second where his connections to reality proved to be a weakness to be exploited, and a third mostly comprised of one shot stories that ended with the resolution of the Clea relationship.

The title would continue for another six issues until #81 under author Peter Gillis at which point Doctor Strange was relaunched as half of Strange Tales (1987), still under Gillis.

Past Ranking: This volume debuted at #19 in 2014, disappeared in 2015, and returned at #28 in 2016.

Creators: Written by Roger Stern with pencils by Tom Sutton, Alan Kupperberg, Gene Colan, Michael Golden, Marshall Rogers, Brent Anderson, Paul Smith, Kevin Nowlan, Steve Leialoha, Bret Blevins, and Sal Buscema, and inks by Sutton, Smith, Leialoha, Ernie Chua, Rudy D. Nebres, Pablo Marcos, Dan Green, P. Craig Russell, Terry Austin, Joe Rubenstein, Rick Magyar, and Mark Badger

Probable Contents: None!

I think this omnibus is wishful thinking and would never be produced as imagined by voters, which would presumably contain Doctor Strange (1974) #27-37, 46 (b-story, 47-75 (though Stern doesn’t write #63-64 & 74), Chamber of Chills (1972) #3-4 (and maybe material from Fantastic Four #267-277 leading into #75).

Instead, I think this ought to be rethought as a vote for a volume titled “by Roger Stern & Peter Gillis” AKA Doctor Strange, Volume 4, which begins with the b-story of #46 and 47 and finishes his 1974 series. [Read more…] about Doctor Strange by Roger Stern – The #48 Most-Wanted Marvel Omnibus of 2017