Crushing Krisis

Comic Books, Drag Race, & Life in New Zealand

Inhumans

Marvel United: Multiverse makes more mutants, plus Inhumans enter the fray with War of Kings!

by Leave a Comment

We interrupt this post I had just started writing about the Marvel United: Multiverse Kickstarter campaign to bring you breaking news from the Marvel United: Multiverse Kickstarter campaign! Today, CMON announced their first new expansion box of the campaign, and it’s a massive one: War of Kings, including the entire primary cast of Inhumans and two X-character Shi’ar foes!

Let’s talk about this newly-announced box for a moment, and then I’ll get back to what I was already in the process of writing about – which is the many mutant characters who have been popping up as stretch goals over the past couple of days.

I have a 800+ character wishlist for Marvel United. I’ve ever grouped them into potential boxed sets whenever I could theme a group of them together. I know some of them are far beneath CMON’s threshold for notice. Maybe we could get Wiz-Kid, but we’ll probably never have my beloved Siena Blaze.

The Inhumans are one of those potential boxed sets, but I wasn’t sure if they were popular enough to merit their own expansion. They haven’t had their own ongoing for several years, and they were unceremoniously excised from the Marvel Universe. Casual comic fans likely only know half the royal family at best. CMON has snuck in many niche characters like Cloak & Dagger and the Starjammers via a steady drip of Stretch Goals, and I thought if we were lucky we could score half the royal family that way.

I was far to pessimistic about our chances! We’re getting the full royal family that I selected in my spreadsheet – Black Bolt, Medusa, Crystal, Gorgon, Karnak, & Triton. Plus, a full sculpt and set of cards for Lockjaw! Plus, Gladiator – leader of the Shi’ar Imperial Guard – as a dual-playing Anti-Hero that can be a hero or a villain. And, one fully-evil Vulcan, the lost Summers brother.

ALL IN ONE BOX. For $35, that’s less than $4 per character. The only way this box could be any better is if they made Vulcan a hero (after all, all mutants fight for Krakoa!) – but I can take care of that on my own.

Cue me screaming my head off in Marvel geek delight. Also, all of their figure sculpts look amazing, and their power dynamics sound unique. Crystal can use her earth control to block villains from moving into a location, and Triton gets special advantage in locations marked with water tokens.

Meanwhile, the post I was already working on is this: CMON has really stepped up on filling in mutants they didn’t get to in their X-Men campaign. We’re only on Day 3 and they’ve already completed the entire Starjammers, gotten two characters into Generation X, and added everyone’s favorite good boy – Doug Ramsey!

Let’s take a quick look at which X-Characters have been announced and who remains MIA. [Read more…] about Marvel United: Multiverse makes more mutants, plus Inhumans enter the fray with War of Kings!

Crushing Comics S01E041 – The little things that keep you alive + War of Kings & Realm of Kings

by

Today I muse over our self-image, how I used to be called “Spockchild,” and how my first haircut in Wellington made me think of how we sometimes take for granted all of the little aspects of life that keep us alive.

Then, I unwrap a massive hunk of Cosmic Marvel and get to talk about Nova, War of Kings, and Realm of Kings … plus throw a little shade about how Abnett & Lanning ran a better X-Men and Inhumans event than Marvels actual Inhumans vs. X-Men even in early 2017.

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

Episode 41 features Nova: Annihilation, War of Kings, Realm of Kings, Annihilators, and The Thanos Imperative. See Marvel Universe Events for more information.

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

by

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)

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

by

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

The Definitive Inhumans Collecting Guide and Reading Order

The Inhumans comic books definitive issue-by-issue collecting guide and trade reading order for omnibus, hardcover, and trade paperback collections. Find every issue and appearance of all of the Inhumans Royal Family – like Black Bolt and Medusa – plus newer characters like Ms. Marvel and Moon Girl! Part of Crushing Krisis’s Crushing Comics. Last updated November 2018 with titles scheduled for release through January 2019.

inhumans

The Inhumans were a creation of the Stan Lee and Jack Kirby run on Fantastic Four, yet another uncanny spin on a common sci-fi tropes. They’ve stuck around for over 50 years due to the power of love, a well-timed re-launch, and an unparalleled space epic all paving the way for them to become one of Marvel’s marquee franchises.

inhumans

In their initial arc of Fantastic Four #45-48, the Inhuman Royal Family were presented as deposed rulers of a secret nation, currently resided in New York. That explained why their queen, Medusa, was a collaborator in The Frightful Four!

Inhumans_Vol_2_1_TextlessThe family’s true home was hidden in the depths of the Andes Mountains, where they had perfected the art of genetic engineering to grant superpowers to every member of their society. In contrast to this evolved race, their despotic current king Maximus employed a fleet of Alpha Primitives – a sort of devolved neanderthal – against the Royal Family.

That could have been the end of the Inhumans’ story – especially because the end of their arc happened to be the debut of Silver Surfer, a prohibitive Silver Age classic that could easily eclipse other solid stories.

Yet, the Inhumans hung on, largely due to their female cast members. Crystal became a love interest of Human Torch and a replacement member of the FF when Sue Storm was pregnant with Franklin. Medusa also continued to appear, as both friend and foe.

The Inhumans were a particular passion of Jack Kirby’s; he would return to both write and illustrate them in the anthology series Amazing Adventures in 1970. They even merited their own series in 1975, written by Doug Moench (of Moon Knight fame).

Past that, the Inhumans were relegated to guest star status – mostly with the Fantastic Four – through the 90s. Crystal became their breakout character, graduating from the FF and dating Human Torch to The Avengers and marrying Quicksilver.

The modern era of The Inhumans began in 1998 with a stellar 12-issue maxi-series from Paul Jenkins and Jae Lee. This series presaged the darker tone of early-2000s Marvel Knights titles, and focused on every aspect of the race’s embattled society. The series acted as a soft reboot of the Inhumans, who would star in a pair of additional mini-series through 2003. However, outside those series, their appearances were still scant.

That all changed in 2006 thanks to two developments.

First, Brian Bendis’s inclusion of Inhuman King Black Bolt in The Illuminati, would permanently raise the character’s profile and make him an essential tool for writer Jonathan Hickman in his run on Fantastic Four and Avengers from 2009-2015.

Second, the Inhumans’ Silent War during Civil War launched them onto a path that would intersect members of the X-Men and the Annihilation story that launched the modern Guardians of the Galaxy. The intersection, called War of Kings, is a seamlessly executed space epic that combines superheroes, palace intrigue, and massive space battles unlike anything else in Marvel’s history.

As a result of the combination of those eight years of  developments, The Inhumans were perfectly poised as a new franchise for Marvel in the wake of their Infinity event. In 2014, they received their own mini-event, “Inhumanity,” as well as their first ongoing series, Inhuman, and their first standalone spinoff hero, the new Ms. Marvel – Kamala Khan. Plus, Inhumans were highlighted in TV’s Agents of SHIELD, culminating in a major arc in 2015. 

In the wake of Hickman’s Secret Wars in 2015 their influence in the Marvel line expanded even further, with multiple books and a strong influence on major events in the Marvel Universe.

inhumans

The tricky thing about the Inhumans is that from their introduction in 1965 through 1998 they only had their own ongoing title two times (both in the 70s) plus a handful of one-shots. Their mythology frequently moved forward during their various guest appearances, especially in Fantastic Four.

This guide tracks the appearances of the Inhuman Royal Family from their introduction in 1965 through the beginnings of War of Kings in 2007. From 2007 on, it continues to track all major limited and ongoing Inhumans titles.

[Patreon03][/Patreon03]

[Read more…] about The Definitive Inhumans Collecting Guide and Reading Order