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New Comics & Collected Editions: Marvel Comics – January 17, 2024

January 16, 2024 by krisis

It’s the third new comic book day of the new year! This post covers Marvel Comics January 17 2024 releases. Missed last week’s releases? Check out last week’s post covering Marvel’s January 10 2024 releases.

This week in Marvel Comics: Gaiman & Buckingham close a chapter of Miracleman, Nicieza returns to Cable, and an omnibus of Gillen’s almost-perfect Marvel event!

This list includes every comic and digital comic out from Marvel this week, 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 Marvel 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!

Marvel Comics January 17 2024 Collected Editions

The Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection, Volume 27: The Clone Saga
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1302953669 / digital)
See Guide to Spider-Man, Peter Parker (1963-2018). For many years we’ve assume that the Epic line would cut off prior to the Clone Saga in Amazing Spider-Man, if only because there are already a well-mapped set of “Epic” collections for this period across the Spider-line. Well, guess what? Marvel generally follows the Disney rule that it’s always a good idea to re-release popular material every 7-10 years, and that’s how long it has been since the last set of paperback reprints! It’s unclear right now if the Epic line will collect this period as comprehensively as the prior paperbacks or the omnibuses. This stretches a bit farther than I’d expect in Amazing Spider-Man if it was going to collect everything that ran alongside it, but we’ll need to see a Volume 28 to be certain.

Avengers: Beyond
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1302952044 / digital)
See Guide to Avengers Flagship Titles (2010 – Present). This collects a fun, five-issue Derek Landy & Greg Land series with ties to the original Secret Wars that follows up on their All-Out Avengers (2022) #1-5. All-Out was much more fun with its one-off issues, whereas this is one continuous story. For me, more of a “read it digital” than “buy it.”

The Incredible Hulk Vol. 1: Age of Monsters
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1302954161 / digital)
See Guide to Hulk – Bruce Banner. I can’t say that I’m a fan of this Phillip Kennedy Johnson run on Hulk, though it looks great thanks to Nic Klein’s artwork. The majority of Phillip Kennedy Johnson comics include domestic abuse, sexual assaults, and threats of sexual violence – all largely against women, even if it’s just offhand comments or background action. When I’m looking for consistency from a writer, that’s not what I’m talking about.

A.X.E. Judgment Day Omnibus
(2024 oversize hardcover, ISBN 978-1302952907 / digital)
See Guide to Marvel Universe Events – AXE: Judgement Day. Want to read a good Marvel event? Maybe a “Top 5 of All Time” Marvel Event? What if I told you that fully HALF of this event and its tie-ins (and by extension this omnibus) were written ENTIRELY by Kieron Gillen, and then another third of it by his X-Office brain trust of Al Ewing, Gerry Duggan, & Si Spurrier. The result is a high quality event with just a few dull issues (we’re looking at you, Ben Percy). However, for maximum impact you’re going to want to read all of Gillen’s Eternals (2021) first – the entire series is a prologue to this event.

Note that the Events Guide has this material in PERFECT reading order, as worked out with my co-reader VapourSnake.

Marvel Masterworks: Daredevil Vol. 18
(2024 hardcover, ISBN 978-1302953164 / digital)
See Guide to Daredevil. This is wild to say or even to think about, but… Marvel Masterworks is now PAST the initial run of Frank Miller material in Daredevil! This entire volume begins after Miller’s initial departure. Of course, Daredevil is never not good (except for maybe post-300-pre-Kevin-Smith), so this is still Masterworks-caliber material. However, for me personally, my Masterworks shelf ends with Volume 17. [Read more…] about New Comics & Collected Editions: Marvel Comics – January 17, 2024

New Comics & Collected Editions: Marvel Comics – January 10, 2024

January 9, 2024 by krisis

It’s the second new comic book day of the new year! This post covers Marvel Comics January 10 2024 releases. Missed last week’s releases? Check out last week’s post covering Marvel’s January 3 2024 releases.

This week in Marvel Comics: Hickman & Checchetto launch Ultimate Spider-Man, Zdarsky & Checchetto’s Devil’s Reign omnibus, and the Rise of the Powers of X (not drawn by Marco Checchetto)!

Marvel Comics January 10 2024 Collected Editions

The Avengers by Jed MacKay, Vol. 1: The Impossible City
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1302947699 / digital)
See Guide to Avengers Flagship Titles (2018-Present). This is the first collection of Jed MacKay’s Avengers relaunch. I’ve heard folks say this has been a bit slow-moving, but that’s often code for “I have no patience,” so I need to read this myself now that the entire first arc is complete!

Deadpool Epic Collection: Drowning Man (Epic Collection Vol. 3)
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1302953324 / digital)
See Guide to Deadpool. Continuing Deadpool’s status as Marvel most perfectly-collected character, they are now re-collecting his original 1997 series in Epic Collection after it has already been completely covered in Classic and Omnibus format.

Devil’s Reign Omnibus
(2024 oversize hardcover, ISBN 978-1302952921 / digital)
See Guide to Marvel Universe Events. A massive all-in-one collection of all of the tie-ins to the act break in Chip Zdarsky & Marco Checchetto’s Daredevil series. I don’t think any of these mini-series really add all that much to the main story in the event title, so if you’re not desperate to fill an oversize gap in your shelf you could simply pick up the trade paperback verison.

Doctor Strange Epic Collection: I, Dormammu (Epic Collection Vol. 2)
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1302953157, digital)
See Guide to Doctor Strange. Doctor Strange was the rare Epic line that didn’t kick off with sequential releases of its earliest volumes interspersed with later volumes, probably due to the fact that Marvel had released a (slim) early omnibus around the same time. Now we’re finally getting the second Epic collection filled in.

Marvel-Verse: Spider-Man & Madame Web
(2024 digest-size paperback, ISBN 978-1302954581 / digital)
Do I need a Madame Web guide now? Anyway, here’s some Amazing Spider-Man issues starring Madame Web, in case you wanted to compare Sony’s new movie to the comics.

New Comics & Collected Editions: Marvel Comics – January 3, 2024

January 2, 2024 by krisis

It’s the first new comic book day of the new year! This post covers Marvel Comics January 3 2024 releases.

This week in Marvel Comics: a hidden X-Men omnibus, two of the best issues of Fantastic Four of all time, a new Venom, and more!

Marvel Comics January 3 2024 Collected Editions

Black Panther by Eve Ewing: Reign at Dusk, Vol. 1
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1302948832 / digital)
See Guide to Black Panther. This is the first collection of Ewing’s 2023 Black Panther relaunch. This finds T’Challa stalking the streets of a Wakandan city that is analogous to NYC rather than some future utopia. That allows Ewing to focus on the community and culture of Wakanda more than superhero action. That might prove to be too dense or slow a read for some fans, but for fans of the Ta-Nehisi Coates run who were left wanting to see more of Wakanda outside of the capital, this will hit the spot.

Clobberin’ Time
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1302934668 / digital)
The Ever-Lovin’ Blue-Eyed Thing has been experiencing a real resurgence the past few years, including this series written and illustrated by Steve Skroce. It feels like Thing spent most of the 2010s being somewhat uncool and under-utilized, only really featured prominently by Brian Bendis in Guardians of the Galaxy. However, he got the most attention of the entire team in Dan Slott’s Fantastic Four run – not a surprise, since Slott has written him in the past. And now he is often the centerpiece of Ryan North’s F4 run, and he gets his own adventure here from Skroce, ho has an outstanding talent for toeing the line between the heartfelt and the profane (as seen in on of my all-time favorites, Maestros).

Daredevil by Mark Waid & Chris Samnee Omnibus, Vol. 2
(2024 oversize hardcover, ISBN 978-1302952808 / digital)
See Guide to Daredevil. This is a new printing of the tome that collects the back half of the Waid/Samnee run. While the run is delightful overall and this is self-contained enough to be enjoyed without the first volume, I think this second bit isn’t quite as strong as the first bit. You might as well start at the start.

Fantastic Four by Ryan North Vol. 2: Four Stories About Hope
(2023 paperback, ISBN 978-1302934927 / digital)
See Guide to Fantastic Four. I just caught up on this run last week for the April solicits show on Near Mint Condition, and issues #10-11 are two of my favorite Fantastic Four issues of all time. Ryan North is turning in an all-time great run on this title in one- and two-issue installments. [Read more…] about New Comics & Collected Editions: Marvel Comics – January 3, 2024

New Comics & Collected Editions: Marvel Comics – September 20, 2023

September 19, 2023 by krisis

It’s time to take a look at what’s out from Marvel Comics this week! This post covers Marvel Comics September 20 2023 releases.

Plus, I’m getting close to caught up on reading all of the Marvel Universe – so I have some commentary on some of the single issues and new collections.

Marvel Comics September 20 2023 Collected Editions

The Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection, Vol. 22: Round Robin
(2015 paperback, ISBN 978-0785192688 / 2023 paperback, ISBN 978-1302950545 / digital)
See Guide to Spider-Man, Peter Parker (1963-2018). I’ve just updated all of the Amazing Epic Collections on the guide and I was shocked at how many of them have been back to print in the past three lines. Even Epics of relatively insignificant runs! Marvel has truly found a way to create a Manga-Style, well-organized, evergreen line of their entire comics history and we love to see it.

The Avengers Omnibus Vol. 4
(2023 oversize hardcover, ISBN 978-1302953621 / digital)
See the freshly rebuilt Guide to Avengers (1963-1996)! This is the last of the four reprints in addition to a brand new Volume 5 out this month. We love to see this line advancing without new Avengers movies on the big screen, which used to be the only way it got a new volume.

Bloodline: Daughter of Blade
(2023 paperback, ISBN 978-1302924423 / digital)
See Guide to Blade. This series has an awkward history – originally it was meant to be launched by Tim Seeley several years ago, and then it was shelved and seemingly lost before it was revived (and revised) by Danny Lore. Unfortunately, this just didn’t hold together for me. It wasn’t Lore’s fault – I think the artist had trouble keeping up with a story that repeatedly mixed casual scenes with action scenes. The discontinuity of storytelling in the art eventually wore me down.

Captain Marvel: The Saga of Carol Danvers
(2023 paperback, ISBN 978-1302951818 / digital)
See Guide to Captain Marvel – Carol Danvers. This is a peculiar trade that’s more of a sampler for the movie crowd then a trade for a consistent bookshelf. It collects the opening eights issues of Kelly Sue DeConnick’s 2012 Carol Danvers series (which includes a great pair of issues where she meets up with Monica Rambeau) as well as the origin-redefining The Life of Captain Marvel (2018), which brought her comic origins more in line with the MCU (booo!).

New Comics & Collected Editions: Marvel Comics – September 13, 2023

September 12, 2023 by krisis

It’s time to take a look at what’s out from Marvel Comics this week! This post covers Marvel Comics September 13 2023 releases.

Plus, I’m getting close to caught up on reading all of the Marvel Universe – so I have some commentary on some of the single issues and new collections.

Marvel Comics September 13 2023 Collected Editions

Bishop: War College (2023 paperback, ISBN 978-1302948054 / digital)
See Guide to X-Men – The Age of Krakoa. I read the first issue of this book back when it was released, and it’s an odd bird. A book about Bishop training young X-Men in the defense of Krakoa would’ve been a solid hit, but what we actually got was Bishop dealing with an inane alternate universe side quest while the X-kids got cornered by a villain in their own subplot. If I’m being honest, this pitch never should’ve received a green light.

Captain America: Cold War (2023 paperback, ISBN 978-1302952389 / digital)
See Guide to Captain America – Steve Rogers. This collects the crossover intersection between the Steve Rogers and Sam Wilson Cap titles. There’s only another three issues of both titles combined after this, which makes it odd that they didn’t simply close out the runs in this volume, but there will be a separate “Finale” volume in a few months with Sentinel of Liberty #14, Cap #750, and a Finale issue.

Captain America by Ed Brubaker: Captain America Lives! Omnibus [AKA Vol. 3] (2023 oversize hardcover, ISBN 978-1302954468 / digital)
See Guide to Captain America – Steve Rogers. This omnibus reprint tracks the return of Steve Rogers at the end of the period where Winter Soldier was serving as the primary Captain America. This book doesn’t stand so well on its own – you probably want to first read Brubaker Omnibus, Vol. 2: The Death of Captain America (2009 hardcover, ISBN 978-0785138068 / 2021 oversize hardcover, ISBN 978-1302929619) to understand the story.

Captain Marvel: Game On (2023 digest-sized paperback, ISBN 978-1302951153)
See Guide to Captain Marvel – Carol Danvers. In a totally brilliant move by Marvel, this is a recollection of the all-ages Marvel Action Captain Marvel (2019) #1-6 and Marvel Action Captain Marvel (2021) #1-5. Both the kid and I absolutely loved these books – they’re very close to actual Marvel continuity and Sam Maggs’s writing for Carol is spot on. Highly recommended for Captain Marvel fans of truly any age!

Captain Marvel: The Saga of Monica Rambeau (2023 “Saga of” paperback, ISBN 978-1302950996 / digital)
See Guide to… Monica Rambeau? Hmm, I should probably have one of those… maybe you should check back in a week or two 😉. In the meantime, Monica’s comics appear in Guide to Captain Marvel – Carol Danvers. If you want Monica’s early comics history, this is a fairly complete collection of her greatest hits and solo stories of the 80s and 90s reprinted from a 2019 Direct-Market-only volume.

Marvel Studios’ Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness: The Art of the Movie (2023 hardcover, ISBN 978-1302945879)
See Guide to Doctor Strange.

Marvel-Verse: Kraven The Hunter (2023 digest-sized paperback, ISBN 978-1302950644 / digital)
In a relief to me specifically, this “kids and libraries” targeted digest-size collection does not collect any in-continuity Spidey stories, so it is not covered by any of my guides! It collects Collects Marvel Action Spider-Man (2018) #5-6, Marvel Adventures Spider-Man (2005) #7, Marvel Adventures Super Heroes (2010) #4, Spidey (2015) #9.

Moon Knight Vol. 4: Road to Ruin (2023 paperback, ISBN 978-1302947354 / digital)
See Guide to Moon Knight. This is more of Jed MacKay’s spectacular Moon Knight run, one of of my favorite books at Marvel! While I think this series is worth reading from the start, this story does pick up from a solid jumping-on point for the big antagonist in the past year of this run.

Star Wars: Sana Starros – Family Matters (2023 paperback, ISBN 978-1302933074 / digital)
See Guide to Star Wars Expanded Universe Comics (2015-Present).

Venom Epic Collection: The Madness (Vol. 3) (2023 paperback, ISBN 978-1302953874 / digital)
See Guide to Venom. This is the the third Epic Collection volume in the Venom line, but it’s actually the first that is fully collecting Venom’s own mini-series, rather than mostly his appearances in Amazing Spider-Man. While his landmark first mini Lethal Protector is in the prior volume, this collects his mini-series from 1993 and 1994.

Wolverine Omnibus Vol. 4 (2023 oversize hardcover, ISBN 978-1302953997 / digital)
See Guide to Wolverine – Logan. This collects the year of stories leading up to Logan losing his adamantium in issue #75 in 1993, which is the final issue in this collection – as well as the original graphic novels and Marvel Comics Presents issues released at the same time.

X-Men Epic Collection: Proteus (2023 paperback, ISBN 978-1302950538 / digital)
See Guide to Uncanny X-Men by Chris Claremont (1975-1991). If it’s helpful to you to think about this another way, we could call this Epic Collection “Phoenix Saga Prologue.” It covers the break-up and reunion of the team after their throwdown with Magneto in his volcano base, plus the debuts of Alpha Flight, Arcade, and Proteus! That’s a lot of major X-Men history packed all into one book. If you enjoy Phoenix Saga, this is a natural extension for you. However, if you only enjoy later 80s X-Men, it might not be a total slam dunk – Claremont is still getting his feet under him at this point, and his character voices don’t quite meet the standard of his amazing plots just yet.

Read on for a summary of all of the Marvel Comics September 13 2023 single issue and digital releases! [Read more…] about New Comics & Collected Editions: Marvel Comics – September 13, 2023