To view this content, you must be a member of Peter's Patreon at $1.99 or more
Unlock with PatreonAlready a qualifying Patreon member? Refresh to access this content.
Iron Man
Crushing Comics S01E043 – Survival Skills + Mighty Avengers, Dark Avengers, and more!
Today I start out by wondering how I – or, anyone, for that matter – learns basic survival skills like how to balance their checkbooks and what flowers not to eat in the wild.
After that, I unwrap quite a large brick of oversized hardcovers, and give some rapid fire thoughts on Dan Slott’s Mighty Avengers, Brian Bendis’s Dark Avengers, a brief history of Thunderbolts, Iron Man: Iron Age, Fear Itself, and more!
Want to start from the beginning of this season of videos? Here’s the complete Season 1 playlist of Crushing Comics.
Episode 43 features Dan Slott’s Mighty Avengers: Dark Reign, Brian Bendis’s Dark Avengers, Invaders Now, Iron Man: Iron Age, Onslaught Unleashed, and Fear Itself: Shattered Heroes.
Crushing Comics, S01E02: Thor by JMS & Invincible Iron Man by Matt Fraction
Here’s the first full-length episode of my new show, Crushing Comics! (Episode 1 was just a brief teaser.)
The main theme of Season 1 will be unwrapping dozens of anonymous bricks of books from my collection, which each contain an oversize surprise. It’s liking unboxing my past seven years of hauls all over again!
Episode 2 features Thor by JMS Omnibus (Amazon / eBay), as covered by the Guide to Thor and Iron Man by Matt Fraction (Amazon Vol. 1 / Amazon Vol. 2 / eBay) as covered by the Guide to Iron Man.
All three books get a thumbs-up from me, but you’ll have to watch to here all about Thor’s big Ragnarok, plus learn how I cannot pronounce the names of either of the major creators on that run.
Iron Man by Michelinie & Layton – The #33 Most-Wanted Marvel Omnibus of 2017
Have you been anxiously waiting for me to tackle the top half of this year’s Most-Wanted Marvel Omnibus poll? Well, the wait is over. Now that I’m totally settled in New Zealand (along with my massive comics collection) I’m finally able to focus on completing this monstrous series if posts. I’ll be posting them with their originally scheduled dates from this spring.
If you’ve been waiting for more of this series with bated breath, please consider chipping in to Crushing Krisis’s Patreon campaign. I don’t have the personal budget to keep CK alive with support from readers, and your contribution of even $1 a month accounts for about 1% of my hosting costs.
I
ron Man by Michelinie & Layton is tied as the #33 Most-Wanted Marvel Omnibus of 2017 on Tigereyes’s Secret Ballot. Visit the Marvel Masterworks Message Board to view the original posting of results by Tigereyes and collect all of these issue right now as detailed in my Guide to Iron Man.
Past Ranking: Ranked #11 in 2016
Probable Contents: Iron Man #215-250 and material from Annuals 9 and 10.
Your eyes do not deceive you – this Iron Man run is actually not sequential to the Michelinie and Layton run that was already Omnibused ending with #157. Denny O’Neil writes the majority of the intervening issues before Michelinie and Layon return.
The cover of issue #250 bears the Acts of Vengeance banner, but it doesn’t continue directly to the next two issues with the banner, so the omnibus can safely end there (although, Layton did return for #254 and 256, and the next Epic Collection begins on #257, suggesting this could continue through #256).
Creators: Co-written by David Michelinie and Bob Layton, Sr. Co-writing and art (including colors) by Barry Windsor-Smith on #232.
Bob Layton, Sr. provided a range of art through the run, from pencils to finishes to inks. Pencils and/or breakdowns were drawn by Mark “Doc” Bright through #231 and by Jackson ‘Butch’ Guice from #233 (with Denys Cowan on #241, Alan Kupperberg on #242, and Paul Smith on #245). Additional inks by Don Hudson (#239), Barry Windsor Smith (#243), Roy Richardson (#245), Herb Trimpe (#246), Tim Dzon (#247), and a massive team on #244.
Colors by Bob Sharen (#215-243) and Paul Becton (#245-250) with Julianna Ferriter (#217), Nelson ‘Nel’ Yomtov (#226), and a team on #244. Letters by Janice Chiang (with Bill Oakley on #232).
Can you read it right now? Mostly. Issues #215-232 & Annual 9 are collected in Iron Man Epic Collection: Stark Wars, but #233-248 remains an unreprinted gap. Plus, every single issue is on Marvel Unlimited!
The Details:
Co-writers David Michelinie and Bob Layton returned to Iron Man in 1987 after five years away writing (and, in Layton’s case, illustrating) other titles. [Read more…] about Iron Man by Michelinie & Layton – The #33 Most-Wanted Marvel Omnibus of 2017
Avengers West Coast by Thomas & Thomas – The #40 Most-Wanted Marvel Omnibus of 2017
Completionism is a a crazy impulse. There are hundreds of Avengers issues unrepresented by oversized volumes, but omnibus collectors are super-focused on getting the relatively unheralded back third of Avengers West Coast into an oversize volume to complete their bookshelves.
The funny thing is, I’m not sure all of the voters realize just how strong and cohesive this Roy & Dann Thomas run on Avengers really is.
The Avengers West Coast by Thomas and Thomas Omnibus is the #40 Most-Wanted Marvel Omnibus of 2017 on Tigereyes’s Secret Ballot. Visit the Marvel Masterworks Message Board to view the original posting of results by Tigereyes and head to the Guide to Avengers West Coast to see how you can read this run right now.
Past Ranking: This volume leaps up five spots from #45 in the 2016 survey.
Probable Contents: Avengers West Coast (1989) #63-100, 102, & Annual 5-8, Avengers Annual 19, Darkhawk Annual 1, and Iron Man Annual 13,
That’s 43 issues, which means the book could also include the full Bloodties crossover: Avengers West Coast (1989) #101, The Avengers (1963) #368-369, Uncanny X-Men (1963) #307, & X-Men (1991) #26.
However, that would leave behind 20 issues of five related miniseries – U.S. Agent #1-4 (after #95 & Annual 8), Avengers: The Terminatrix Objective #1-4 (after #97), Spider-Woman #1-4 (after #101), Scarlet Witch #1-4 (after #101), and Hawkeye #1-4 (after #102).
What to do? More on how to reconcile that, below.
Creators: Written by Roy Thomas and Dann Thomas with pencils by Paul Ryan and Dave Ross with Tom Morgan, George Freeman, Herb Trimpe, and Andrew Currie.
Can you read it right now? Mostly. Issue #76-79 and #83-88 remain uncollected (as is the U.S. Agent mini-series), but everything else has been captured. Visit Guide to Avengers West Coast for the full details. Unfortunately, most of this run is not on Marvel Unlimited.
The Details:
Avengers West Coast had gone for years as a forgotten era of Avengers as far as reprints were concerned until Marvel’s Cinematic Universe began focusing strongly on its core cast of Iron Man and Hawkeye, and later Scarlet Witch and Vision.
Suddenly, West Coast reprints were abounding – a set of Marvel Premier Classic hardcovers, corresponding paperback reprints, two omnibuses, half of an Avengers by John Byrne volume, and a handful of trades covering the latter run of the series. The only remaining gaps are #76-79 and #83-88, two stories split by the massive “Galactic Storm” crossover.
Comic books fans are nothing if not obsessive completists, so that makes a final omnibus edition of Avenger West Coast sorely tempting – especially since it’s all co-written by comic book royalty Roy Thomas along with his wife Dann (who was the first woman to ever script an issue of Wonder Woman!) mostly to illustration by a pair of strong pencillers – Paul Ryan through #69 and Dave Ross from #71 through the end of the series. [Read more…] about Avengers West Coast by Thomas & Thomas – The #40 Most-Wanted Marvel Omnibus of 2017