Gerry Duggan

New Comics & Collected Editions Releases: Marvel Comics – April 17 2024

April 12, 2024 by krisis

It’s the 16th new comic book day of the new year! This post covers Marvel Comics April 17 2024 releases. Missed last week’s releases? Check out last week’s post covering Marvel Comics April 10 2024 new releases.

This week in Marvel Comics: the very complete Captain America, hell breaks loose for Daredevil, original Micronauts, Widow vs. Hawkeye, the real fake Thor, Ultimate Black Panther intensifies, an amazing Spider-Boy & Spider-Woman, 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. 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 April 17 2024 Collected Editions

Captain America Epic Collection Vol. 6: The Man Who Sold The United States
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1302955205 / digital)
See Guide to Captain America – Steve Rogers. This Epic picks up shortly after the original “Secret Empire” storyline and collects into the start of Jack Kirby’s solo run on the title. We’ve had this material collected several times over in other formats at this point, but the exciting part is that we are now just two Epic Collections away from complete coverage of Cap from 1963 to 1996!

Daredevil Vol. 1: Hell Breaks Loose
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1302947729 / digital)
See Guide to Daredevil. I love love love this Saladin Ahmed take on Matt Murdock. It hasn’t been received with the rapturous response of the past two relaunches from Charles Soule and Chip Zdarsky, and that bugs me. I think there’s a long history of fans balking at supernatural elements in Daredevil – from Ann Nocenti to Diggle’s Shadowland – only for the runs to be reappraised and re-embraced later on.

Could we possibly just skip all of that nonsense and appreciate this run while it is happening? It’s so nuanced both in Murdock’s personal life and his heroic one. Top recommendation from me – and you can start cold with with collection edition.

Marvel Masterworks: Captain America Vol. 16
(2024 hardcover, ISBN 978-1302955212 / digital)
See Guide to Captain America – Steve Rogers. This collects a ten-issue run of J.M. DeMatteis’s Cap from the late 200s, which has already been hit in Epic Collections, and brings us within two years of the start of Mark Gruenwald’s Cap, which is about to be omnibused. It’s wild to see all of the gears of Marvel’s collected edition lines churning at once within a single 10-year range of a single run.

There’s a lot of coordination to appreciate here – how they just reprinted the Kirby Omnibus so they can leave those Epic Collections to last, and how they will have the first Gruenwald omnibus out far enough ahead of the Masterworks hitting in 2027 that they won’t completely cannibalize its sales. [Read more…] about New Comics & Collected Editions Releases: Marvel Comics – April 17 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 20 2024

March 14, 2024 by krisis

It’s the 12th new comic book day of the new year! This post covers Marvel Comics March 20 2024 releases. Missed last week’s releases? Check out last week’s post covering Marvel Comics March 13 2024 new releases.

This week in Marvel Comics: Franklin Richards’ secret revealed, Gillen’s final X-book, Spider-Woman old and new, repackaged collected editions, and more!

Marvel Comics March 20 2024 Collected Editions

Astonishing X-Men Modern Era Epic Collection, Vol. 1: Gifted
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1302957971 / digital)
See Guide to Astonishing X-Men. On one hand, I’m all for any recollection of the brilliant first two arcs of this title, which should always been easily accessible to new readers. On the other hand, this is an exact copy of a prior Ultimate/Complete collection, which bums me out because it would be cool to see an Epic line of this title include some or all of Kitty Pryde: Shadow & Flame, Phoenix: Endsong, or Phoenix: Warsong – which were all extensions of this title. (For that matter, so was House of M).Shadow and Flame would have fit perfectly as another five issues in this collection.

Captain America Omnibus Vol. 4
(2024 “Vol. 4” oversize hardcover, ISBN 978-1302955137 / digital)
See Guide to Captain America. This is a reprint of “Captain America by Jack Kirby” simply rebranded to fit seamlessly into the omnibus line. That means it’s actually totally fine to buy as a standalone book – that’s how it’s been sold for well over a decade! If you want to read the beautiful madness that is Kirby drawing and writing Cap, it’s all here.

Carnage Epic Collection Vol. 3: The Monster Inside
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1302956363 / digital)
I’m working on this Carnage Guide right now, I swear! It’s been a busy month. This is a third (and likely last) “Classic” Carnage collection, picking up in 1998 and cruising all the way through 2009 to pick up some of his modern mini-series.

Doctor Strange by Jed MacKay Vol. 2: The War-Hound of Vishanti
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1302951177 / digital)
See Guide to Doctor Strange. I wouldn’t recommend picking up this book as a standalone, as it’s all payoff for the mystery that was set up expertly in the first volume by MacKay. That said, this is immensely enjoyable. It shows off just how good modern Strange comics can be. There’s a way to build off of old magical continuity and established foes without being slavishly devoted to it in a way that is dull or alienating to new fans. MacKay is the author to perfectly walk that tightrope, and it yields a fascinating puzzle box of plot for our Doctor. [Read more…] about New Comics & Collected Editions: Marvel Comics – March 20 2024

New Comics & Collected Editions: Marvel Comics – March 13 2024

March 7, 2024 by krisis

It’s the 11th new comic book day of the new year! This post covers Marvel Comics March 13 2024 releases. Missed last week’s releases? Check out last week’s post covering Marvel Comics March 6 2024 new releases.

This week in Marvel Comics: Thor’s most-titanic stories yet, a collected hunk of multi-versal Deadpool, Black Widow & Hawkeye team up, Carnage crosses over with Venom, Ghost Rider’s Final Vengeance, and more!

Marvel Comics March 13 2024 Collected Editions

Deadpool-Verse: Deadpool Corps
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1302958527 / digital)
See Guide to Deadpool. Don’t confuse this collection with the “Marvel-Verse” digest-size books collecting scattershot all-ages stories for their focus character like the Wonder Man volume below. This is actually a very chunky standard-size paperback collecting all of the Deadpool Corps material from the Prelude mini-series and the 12-issue main series.

This is one of the main “Deadpool in the multi-verse” sorts of stories, which tracks well with the themes of the Deadpool & Wolverine film from what we’ve seen in the marketing material.

Immortal Thor by Al Ewing Vol. 1: All Weather Turns To Storm
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1302954185 / digital)
See Guide to Thor – Odinson. This run is a massive blockbuster that somehow manages to tell a Thor story even bigger than the two runs that came before. However, if you like Thor throwing his hammer at a clearly-defined villain, this one’s not for you. It’s about the concept of Thor, of godhood, and of stories. Also, it looks absolutely gorgeous. More on this run below in the single issue section!

Marvel-Verse: Wonder Man
(2024 digest-size paperback, ISBN 978-1302954543 / digital)
Hmm, I don’t have a guide to Wonder Man, but with Marvel pumping out collections in anticipation of his debut in the MCU maybe I need to move him up the priority list! This digest-size intro to the character collects Avengers (1963) #9, Marvel Two-in-One (1974) #78, Wonder Man (1986) #1, and Avengers (1998) #14.

Moon Knight Vol. 5: The Last Days of Moon Knight
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1302950910 / digital)
See Guide to Moon Knight. Jed MacKay brings his 30-issue Moon Knight series to a spectacular conclusion. Normally I’d say, “don’t start with the final volume!” However, this opens with a truly outstanding issue in the giant-sized #25, and I think you could read this brisk conclusion in order to catch up to the new Vengeance of Moon Knight (2023) title and be left hungry to catch up on the four volumes that came before. [Read more…] about New Comics & Collected Editions: Marvel Comics – March 13 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