Crushing Krisis

Comic Books, Drag Race, & Life in New Zealand

Joshua Williamson

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

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It’s the 16th new comic book day of the new year! This post covers DC Comics April 17 2024 releases, which actually hit comic stores on Tuesday April 16 2024. Missed last week’s releases? Check out last week’s post covering DC Comics April 10 2024 new releases.

(DC is still releasing their comics on Tuesday until the start of July, but I think most folks think of Wednesday as release day, so that’s how I’m labelling my posts until then – which means this is the DC Comics April 17 2024 New Releases post… for releases on April 16 😂 )

This week in DC Comics: Jurassic Justice, Tynion & Martinez Bueno Dark omnibus, Catwoman’s final lives, Constantine in America, the 300th Nightwing issue, Titans are manipulated, Wonder Woman loses, and more!

These DC New Releases posts will be a work in progress. I’m 30 months behind on my DC reading, and some of my DC Guides are twice that far behind on updates. I thought it might be a good idea to do all my reading and updating before beginning this series of posts, but there’s no better way to catch up on all of that than diving deep into New Releases! Sometimes you’ve got to build the plane while you are flying it!

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 DC 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!

DC Comics April 17 2024 Collected EditionsJustice League Dark Rebirth Omnibus, a DC Comics April 17 2024 new release

Batman: White Knight Presents – Generation Joker
(2024 hardcover, ISBN 978-1779524904 / digital)
More of Sean Murphy’s ongoing White Knight mini-verse, this features the future children of Joker and Harley Quinn.

City Boy
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1779524874 / digital)
A series by Greg Pak and Minkyu Jung that was part of DC’s short-lived “We Are Legends” line introducing new Asian heroes.

The Jurassic League
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1779524898 / digital)
The Justice League as dinosaurs drawn by indie mega-star Daniel Warren Johnson with his trusty colorist Mike Spicer. Either that sentence sounds like complete gibberish to you or you want that in your eyeballs right now!

Justice League Dark Rebirth Omnibus
(2024 oversize hardcover, ISBN 978-1779525888)
I won’t refer you to my Justice League guide, since that’s in line for a massive update in the coming weeks. However, I will say that this very complete collection of James Tynion’s run on Justice League Dark (with art largely by Alvaro Martinez Bueno) is an absolute delight. It’s dark, it’s twisted, it’s funny, it’s gorgeous, and the stories often feel big enough to be an entire DC event while still feeling like they have the right scope for one flagship title. FYI, this also collects the Ram V back-up stories!

Naomi: Season Two
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1779524829 / digital)
Collects the second go-round on this made-for-TV DC teen from Brian Bendis, David Walker, & Jamal Campbell.

Tim Drake: Robin Vol. 2 – A Case of Chaos
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1779524911 / digital)
See Guide to Robin(s). The second-half of Meghan FitzMartin’s short-lived Tim Drake series that concluded nearly a year ago. I’m convinced this sputtered so quickly not because of Drake (and the recent revelation of him being bisexual), but because Riley Rossmo’s cartoonish art work is a total non-fit for a Tim Drake detective story.

Read on for a summary of all of the DC Comics April 17 2024 single issue and digital releases! [Read more…] about New Comics & Collected Editions Releases: DC Comics – April 17 2024

New Comics & Collected Editions Releases: DC Comics – April 10 2024

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It’s the 15th new comic book day of the new year, but it’s my first ever DC Comics New Releases post!! This post covers DC Comics April 10 2024 releases, which actually hit comic stores on Tuesday April 9 2024.

(DC is still releasing their comics on Tuesday until the start of July, but I think most folks think of Wednesday as release day, so that’s how I’m labelling my posts until it becomes official.)

This week in DC Comics: Rebirth Flash in Omnibus, House of Brainiac begins, the delightfully macabre Dylan Dog, Lanzing & Kelly’s Outsiders swings big, Dreamer vs Amanda Waller, and more!

These DC New Releases posts will be a work in progress. I’m 30 months behind on my DC reading, and some of my DC Guides are twice that far behind on updates. I thought it might be a good idea to do all my reading and updating before beginning this series of posts, but there’s no better way to catch up on all of that than diving deep into New Releases! Sometimes you’ve got to build the plane while you are flying it!

This list includes every comic and digital comic out from DC Comics April 10 2024, 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 DC 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!

DC Comics April 10 2024 Collected EditionsThe Flash Omnibus by Joshua Williamson Vol. 1, released by DC Comics April 10 2024

DC vs. Vampires Vol. 2 [paperback]
(2023 hardcover, ISBN 978-1779521248 / 2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1779520296 /  digital)
Collects DC vs Vampires #7-12, part of James Tynion & Matthew Rosenberg’s vampire-focused Elseworld.

Detective Comics – Batman: Detective Comics Vol. 4 Riddle Me This [paperback]
(2023 hardcover, ISBN 978-1779520678 / paperback 2024, ISBN 978-1779524867 / digital)
See Guide to Detective Comics (Post-Crisis). DC still has a select number of titles where they released an initial hardcover and have a paperback staggered behind by nearly a year. That means this Detective Comics collection is still collecting material from before Ram V took over the book. Detective Comics (1937) #1059-1061 feature the arc directly following Mariko Tamaki’s weekly run of the entire Bat-Family (minus Bruce) starring in the book, plus a Sina Grace back-up story.

The Flash By Joshua Williamson Omnibus Vol.1
(2024 oversize hardcover, ISBN 978-1779526984)
See Guide to Flash. I really enjoyed this DC Rebirth Flash series, although after the first year of double-shipping it began to chase its own tail a bit. However, this omnibus collects just some of that first year burst of brilliant fun from Flash: Rebirth (2016) Rebirth & #1-35, the “The Button” crossover with Batman (2016) #21-22, plus Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps (2016) #32, Justice League (2016) #32-33, and a story from DC Holiday Special 2017 #1.

Tales of The Titans
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1779527141 / digital)
I do have a Guide to Teen Titans, Titans, & Young Justice, but it hasn’t been updated for 2024 yet. I’ll tackle it when the next issue of Titans hits! This collects the brief Tales of the Titans (2023) #1-4 featuring solo stories of the team, itself a wink at a similarly-named title that’s now nearly 40yrs old.

The Vigil
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1779523433 / digital)
This is part of the “We Are Legends” line of new comics focused on Asian heroes that launched in the wake of 2023’s Lazarus Planet mini-event. This book was from superstar writer Ram V and artist Lalit Kumar Sharma. It followed a team of vigilante metahumans trying to disrupt trade of next-gen weaponry. This collects the full series, The Vigil (2023) #1-6.

Read on for a summary of all of the DC Comics April 10 2024 single issue and digital releases! [Read more…] about New Comics & Collected Editions Releases: DC Comics – April 10 2024

Haul Around the World: Excalibur, Luke Cage, Monica Rambeau, & Punisher as an avenging angel!

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It’s another Classic Collection version of Haul Around the World, shot BEFORE my big move! This was my order from mid-February 2019.

In this order I get to freak out with excitement over Marvel hitting a number of very different gaps in their color collections coverage – the end of Luke Cage’s original solo title, the post-Claremont pre-Davis gap in Excalibur, Monica Rambeau’s solo stories as Captain Marvel and the deeply weird Punisher: Revelations.

Plus… a tease of the next oversize book to hit my shelf, which might be my most-anticipated omnibus of the decade!

In this haul:

The Pull List: Action Comics, Avengers, Eternity Girl, Infidel, Judas, Marvel Two-in-One, Vampironica, & more!

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The Pull List was slightly lighter this week than the past three, partially due to me not managing to pick up any additional ongoings from Marvel or DC. I made a heroic effort to catch all the way up with Doctor Strange, but fell an arc short.

This week’s comics felt a little ho-hum for me, with even typical standouts like Flash and Paradiso falling flat. However, it also brought not one but two near-perfect comics, plus one unexpectedly great debut.

Here’s The Pull List for the 14th of March, 2018. New adds to the pull list are marked with *; dropped titles are marked with #.

Artwork from Infidel #1 cover by Aaron Campbell & José Villarrubia

  • DC Comics
    • Action Comics (2016) #999
    • Batgirl and The Birds of Prey (2016) #20
    • Detective Comics (2016) #976
    • *Eternity Girl (2018) #1
    • The Flash (2016) #42
    • Mister Miracle (2017) #7
    • Sideways (2018) #2
    • Suicide Squad (2016) #37
    • Titans (2016) #21
    • Trinity (2016) #19
    • Wonder Woman (2016) #42
  • Image Comics
    • Bonehead (2018) #3
    • *#Dry County (2018) #1
    • *Infidel (2018) #1
    • Paradiso (2017) #4
    • #Sleepless (2017) #4
    • Slots (2017) #6
    • VS (2018) #2
  • Marvel Comics
    • All-New Wolverine (2016) #32
    • Astonishing X-Men (2017) #9
    • Avengers (2017) #684
    • Marvel Two-in-One (2018) #4
    • New Mutants – Dead Souls (2018) #1
    • Old Man Logan (2016) #36
    • Weapon X (2017) #15
    • X-Men: Blue (2017) #23
  • Smaller Publishers: Aftershock Comics, Archie Comics, Black Mask Studios, & Boom! Studios
    • Judas (2017) #4, Boom! Studios
    • *Come Into Me (2018) #1, Black Mask Studios
    • *Vampironica (2018) #1, Archie Comics
    • *Betrothed (2018) #1, Aftershock Comics

Before we begin, a reminder that 2.5 stars on my rating scale is an average comic book and my bell curve distribution peaks at 3/5 stars! Don’t freak out and assume a comic book is terrible because it has 2 stars. That means it’s just a hair below average (and there are a lot of those this week)

Picks of the Pull

Big Two (Marvel/DC) Pick of the Week:
Action Comics (2016) #999, DC Comics

Dan Jurgens leaves us with a truly perfect, contemplative issue of Superman that puts a wrap on his stellar Rebirth run but also addresses his writing from over 25 years ago, as beautifully rendered by artist Will Conrad and colorist Ivan Nunes.

In Metropolis, Lois is newly reunited with her estranged Army General father after saving him from execution in the last arc. It’s his first time meeting Jon (sort of), but General Lane isn’t in on the Superman secret, so he thinks Jon is a regular kid. That makes it even more tense as Lois and her father square off across the dinner table about the philosophy of Superman. Jon has never been exposed to this kind of hatred and xenophobia about his father before – which is also, by extension, aimed at him.

Meanwhile, Superman is in space dealing with a routine chore of breaking up an asteroid that will stray a bit too close to Earth for STAR Labs liking. Superman is thinking about fathers – General Lane, his own father Jor-El, as well as Zod – all of whom were tangled in the cross-time plot he just wrapped with Booster Gold.

Superman can see the errors in the ways of each of those parents and they in turn reflect his errors back upon him. Clark Kent is good-natured to a fault, but he’s not always right. General Lane isn’t entirely wrong about him – sometimes his absolute power corrupts him, both in how he metes out justice and in how he isn’t accustomed to apologizing for his actions.

As a result, Superman decides to put right two wrongs. One is with Hank Henshaw, the Cyborg Superman, who he currently has imprisoned in the Phantom Zone. The other, eventually is General Lane. [Read more…] about The Pull List: Action Comics, Avengers, Eternity Girl, Infidel, Judas, Marvel Two-in-One, Vampironica, & more!

The Pull List: Action Comics, Avengers, Calexit, Detective Comics, Jim Henson’s Labyrinth, The Terrifics, Thanos, & more!

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This week The Pull List is holding steady at a still-staggering 32 comic books.

I’m not sure if I was being a moody reader or if every company shipped some bunk books this week, but the average rating for the week was 2.70 – a full third of a point lower than the past few weeks. While that means most of the books were still better than average, it’s not by a whole lot.

Artwork from Thanos #16, line art by Geoff Shaw with color art by Antonio Fabela.

Here’s what I pulled this week, with *s on adds (whether I just caught up with them or started them fresh):

  • DC Comics
    • Action Comics #998
    • Detective Comics #975
    • The Flash #41
    • * Mera – Queen of Atlantis #1
    • Milk Wars: JLA/Doom Patrol Special
    • Raven: Daughter of Darkness #2
    • * Suicide Squad #36
    • Teen Titans #17
    • The Silencer #2
    • * The Terrifics #1
    • Wonder Woman #41
  • Image Comics
    • * The Beef #1
    • Days of Hate #2
    • Gasolina #6
    • Twisted Romance #4
    • Void Trip #4
  • Marvel Comics
    • All-New Wolverine #31
    • Avengers #682
    • Captain Marvel #129
    • * Champions #17
    • Legion #2
    • * Lockjaw #1
    • Moon Knight #192
    • Thanos #16
    • X-Men Blue #22
  • Smaller Publishers: Aftershock, Black Mask, Boom! Studios, Dark Horse, Titan
    • Abbott #2, Boom! Studios
    • * Alisik #1, Titan Books / Statix Press
    • Backways #3, Aftershock Comics
    • * Calexit #2, Black Mask Studios
    • Hungry Ghosts #2, Dark Horse / Berger Books
    • * Jim Henson’s Labyrinth: Coronation #1, Boom! Studios
    • * The Wilds #1, Black Mask Studios

Picks of the Pull

Big Two (Marvel/DC) Issue of the Week:
Detective Comics (2016) #975

A great-looking, contemplative issue that brings together the members of the Bat-Family we don’t usually see in this book – Nightwing, Batgirl, Red Hood, and Damian.

Batman has pulled these trusted lieutenants together as an inner council to decide Batwoman’s fate as a member of the Bat-family, yet in some ways their conversation is also a litigation of Bruce and his methods as the head of this dysfunctional household. Meanwhile, Batwoman holds herself accountable for her own actions, with a surprising result.

This isn’t an issue that’s going to appeal to a more casual reader – it looks amazing, but it has hardly any conflict. However, for someone who has been reading from the start this pierces right to the heart of this title and the ideological divide between Batwoman and Batman that has been brewing all along.

Part of what makes it so power is that Batwoman also has an avowed “no kills” philosophy, but she is willing to make exceptions when other lives hang in the balance. Batman won’t make exceptions, so he gets to watches thousands of Gothamites die from his moral high ground.

It’s heartbreaking to think of this book writing by someone other than Tynion or with a cast other than this one. Everything about it works so incredibly well. Yet, we’re in the “disassembled” phase, and there’s certainly more conflict to come before Tynion moves on.

Best Small-Pub Issue of the Week:
The Wilds (2018) #1, Black Mask Studios

A strong and sombre new zombie comic, The Wilds is definitely a descendent of Walking Dead but with a completely different tone – due in no small part to its pair of woman creators, Vita Ayala and Emily Pearson.

We get the same old zombie-pocked landscape with isolated camps trading resources and doing their best to survive, except the zombies are walking plant life – humans who have turned into semi-sentient flower pots. It makes for strangely calming, beautiful zombies to see all of their typical goriest bits covered in blooming flowers.

Pearson’s art evokes such masters of the modern form as Allred and Noto, employing their same plain, truthful faces and uncomplicated backgrounds.

Beneath the flowery dressing, this is the familiar story of a single senior errand runner who thinks it might be time to get out of the game, and how an act of compassion on her last journey might spell the end of the safety of her heavily fortified compound. There’s no slam bang action beats in this one, but the strange stillness of it is pulling me towards reading more.

[Read more…] about The Pull List: Action Comics, Avengers, Calexit, Detective Comics, Jim Henson’s Labyrinth, The Terrifics, Thanos, & more!