Crushing Krisis

Comic Books, Drag Race, & Life in New Zealand

Peter J. Tomasi

Guide to Ghost Machine – Geoff Johns’ Image Comics Imprint (New for Patrons!)

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Today I’m back with another new indie guide for Patrons of CK! It’s a guide for an Image Imprint that has created non-stop chatter over the past year, including a constant hum on my Pull List streams. You might be surprised that I devoted a whole guide to it, since I’m historically not a fan of its main author! But, like every guide on the site, this one was borne from me having a question about the comics that no one else on the internet answered to my satisfaction. That’s why I now have my second guide to a creator-centric imprint with my Guide to Ghost Machine – an Image Comics imprint helmed by Geoff Johns!

Guide to Geoff Johns’ Ghost Machine

Guide to Ghost Machine, an Image Comics imprint from Geoff Johns

This guide is available exclusively to Patrons and will be available to the public later this year with the release of the First Ghost (2025) series and an end-of-year wave of collections.

Anyone who has followed me across various videos and message boards in addition to this blog knows I have no great love for Geoff Johns as a scripter. I enjoy him occasionally, especially during DC’s New 52, but often I just don’t vibe with his plot and character choices.

Then why am I making a guide for his Image Comics imprint, launched in 2024 to gather together a pair of existing mini-series and launch a new line of ongoing titles by Johns, Peter Tomasi, letterer Rob Leigh, and their artistic collaborators?

Two words: Shared Multiverse.
[Read more…] about Guide to Ghost Machine – Geoff Johns’ Image Comics Imprint (New for Patrons!)

New Comics & Collected Editions Releases: DC Comics – February 5 2025

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Absolute Superman (2024) #4, a DC Comics February 5 2025 new releaseNext week is the 6th new comic book day of 2025! This post covers DC Comics February 5 2025 new releases. Missed this week’s releases? Check out last week’s post covering DC Comics January 29 2025 new releases.

This week in DC Comics: Absolute Power collected, DC’s Finest Teen Titans, Atoms gone wild, a Grace-full Shazam one-shot, Poison Ivy flips out, Two-Face’s trials, a new Birds of Prey arc, and more!

The Krisis Pick of the Week: I hate to repeat myself, but I’ve got to stick with Absolute Superman (2024) #4. I think this Absolute Universe book from Jason Aaron, Rafa Sandoval, Ulises Arreola, and Becca Carey is the pinnacle of superhero comics right now. it would be at the top of my stack for the entire month, so of course it’s my top pull of the week!

This post includes every comic out from DC Comics February 5 2025, plus collected editions in omnibus, hardcover, paperback, and digest-sized formats.

This isn’t the typical comic releases post you can find on other sites. Why? I explain each collection and review every in-continuity series with a new issue out this week. Plus, for most new releases, I’ll point you to a personally-curated guide within the Crushing Comics Guide to DC Comics to find out how to collect that title in full!

There’s no other website on the internet that can claim that.

And now, onto DC Comics February 5 2025 new releases! [Read more…] about New Comics & Collected Editions Releases: DC Comics – February 5 2025

DC Rebirth – Every 2016 Rebirth One-Shot Ranked

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DC Comics was full of bold movies in 2016.

Not only did they relaunch their entire line with the DC Universe Rebirth one-shot, but they followed it up with 21 additional one-shots to launch the majority of the books in their line – and I’m here to rank them!

(That left out non-Rebirthed books like Action and Detective Comics, plus heroes who jumped off of their appearances in these initial issues straight to their own series, like Superwoman and Harley Quinn.)

The one-shots are a double-edged sword for new readers. They make for easy, low-risk, low-commitment samplers. That means it’s likely that – like me – most fans would read most or all of them out of curiosity.

However, there’s a risk that they’re exactly that – samplers. It’s hard to craft a one-shot so good that it tells its own story plus pulls you in for a subsequent series.

To achieve that goal, I think a solid Rebirth issue needs to do three things:

  1. Give a sense of the character’s recent and relevant history
  2. Portray a vital truth and inherent coolness about the title character
  3. Set up a reason to keep reading the series (i.e., Always leave them wanting more!)

How many of the 21 Rebirth one-shots of 2016 hit the mark? Below, I’ve ranked every issue, rating it and giving the percentage chance that I might keep reading its respective series?

Place your bets now – did I love my long-term favorite Wonder Woman? Did I find a way to get excited about the staid Superman or enjoy the typically impenetrable Green Lantern? And, what about relative B-listers in this muscular line-up like Batman Beyond, Deathstroke, and Blue Beetle?

Find out now, and then head to my DC Rebirth Guide to snag the upcoming collections of the titles that pique your interest.

Rebirth Ranked: The Best!

Superwoman #1 

I know, I know – it’s not a Rebirth one-shot. It should have been. It’s a phenomenal issue full of action, explanation, and heart that will definitely leave you surprised – plus, stunning pencils from writer/artist Phil Jimenez. Read it and keep reading with Superwoman Vol. 1: Who Killed Superwoman?

Nightwing: Rebirth 

I hope all future Rebirth one-shot writers took notes, because Tim Seely delivered an absolutely perfect comic book in Nightwing: Rebirth.

It was so good that it makes me not only want to read subsequent issues of Nightwing, but I feel compelled to go back to New 52 to read past issues because this comic made them sound so freaking awesome.

Tons of exposition and backstory? Check. Emotional scenes with a protege that weren’t all they seemed to be on first read? Check. Bisexual flirting? Check. Uncharacteristically light, bouncy figurework from Yanick Paquette? Check.

If you’re looking for lightweight, snappy DC reading in Rebirth that’s Batman adjacent, you’ve found your book.

Chances I keep reading: 200% – that’s 100% for reading forward into Rebirth and another 100% for reading backwards into New 52. I’m hooked. Keep reading with me with Nightwing Vol. 1: Better Than Batman. [Read more…] about DC Rebirth – Every 2016 Rebirth One-Shot Ranked