Leonard Kirk Archives

Captain Marvel by Peter David Omnibus, Vol. 1 is the #58 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.

What Is It? Captain Marvel (1999/2000) was a new superhero title and relatively new superhero launched in late 1999 by Peter David. The series spun out of the events of the 12-issue maxi-series Avengers Forever, itself a spinoff of Kurt Busiek’s concurrent revival of Avengers (1998).

The series revived Marvel’s previously dormant heroic mantle “Captain Marvel” in the most straight-forward legacy fashion possible – by introducing Genis-Vell, the half-Kree/half-Eternal son of the original Silver Age Captain Marvel (who was a colleague of the current Captain Marvel, Carol Danvers).

Not only was this new Marvel related to the old one, but he begins his series bonded to the same Earthling host – Rick Jones, the kid who Bruce Banner saved from the Gamma Bomb blast back in the Silver Age (who had been a sort of sidekick and non-hero reality star ever since).

Captain Marvel began with a #0 issue in November 1999 and then a #1 in 2000, which is why different guides list it under different years. It ran for 35 issues from January 2000 t0 October 2002, and then relaunched in November 2002 for a 25-issue run to September 2004.

Past Ranking: This year is the book’s debut placement in the ballot results.

It was one of my “50 More Marvel Runs That Deserve an Omnibus” in 2016 and “12 Must-Read Marvel Runs (that ought to be an omnibus) – 1998 to 2008” last week.

Creators: Written by Peter A. David with the majority of the 2000 series penciled by ChrisCross (AKA Christopher Emmanuel Williams) with Jim Starlin, Patrick Zircher, Leonard Kirk, and others, inks by Anibal Rodriguez (with Walden Wong), colors by Steve Oliff, VLM, and Chris Sotomayer, and letters by Albert W. Deschesne and Wes Abbott (both of Comiccraft).

Probable Contents: This book would definitely collect Captain Marvel (1999/2000) #0-26, at minimum. Issue #26 marks Marvel’s (and his host’s) return to earth after a lengthy period in space.

Click to expand a discussion of further content for this volume.

Can you read it right now? Not entirely. In print collections, #7-14 and 17-35 of the 2000 series are uncollected; see the Guide to Captain Marvel for more details. Marvel Unlimited has both the 1999/2000 series and the 2002 series, though it is is missing #26-35 of the 2000 series and does not include all of the lead-up issues from other titles (though it does have all of Avengers Forever).

The Details:

Genis-Vell is trying to settle in to playing hero on Earth while sharing a body with his father’s alter-ego, Rick Jones – frequent sidekick to the Avengers.

Jones would probably prefer Genis-Vell to stay dormant, but they keep finding themselves in situations where Rick has to tap together his pair of Nega-Bands to bring forth Captain Marvel – just as he used to do with Genis-Vell’s dad so many years ago. [Read more…] about Captain Marvel by Peter David Omnibus, Vol. 1 – The #58 Most-Wanted Marvel Omnibus of 2017

Back after a while in mothballs, it’s my X-collections recap!

Marvel hardly lets a single comic book issue go uncollected in book form, which means every week brings new hardcovers and trade paperbacks packed with their most major heroes – including The X-Men.

Read on for capsule reviews of the X-books out in the second half of September, which were unusually focused on past stories. Plus, get the skinny on all of Marvel’s other new collected editions from the latter half of the month.

If you’re looking for more X-info, head over to my Definitive Guide to Collecting X-Men Graphic Novels. Or, for a more basic approach, my Intro to X-Men (on a budget). New to the X-Men? Try my Where to Start Reading X-Men to pick a place to jump in.

X-Men Collection of the (latter half of the) Month:
New Mutants: Fall of the New Mutants TPB

CK Says: Buy it! When I first picked up the hardcover version of this collection earlier this year it was out of habit, but I quickly discovered the book was impossible to put down. Writer Zeb Wells capitalizes on a dangling plot thread from 80s blockbuster Inferno anda year of slow-boil character development to deliver a complex saga worthy of the X-Men’s rich dramatic history.

It’s hard to imagine a story more harrowing or epic than what the team had just endured in Second Coming, but Well’s pulls it off with art from Leonard Kirk, an efficient, unflashy penciler I’ve grown to love. I don’t want to spoil the story – if you enjoy this team of characters you’ll love it, particularly developments for Cannonball, Moonstar, Karma, and Magik.