Crushing Krisis

Comic Books, Drag Race, & Life in New Zealand

X-Men

Uncanny Avengers & A+X – Collecting Guide and Reading Order

The definitive, chronological, and up-to-date guide and trade reading-order on collecting Uncanny Avengers comic books via omnibuses, hardcovers, and trade paperback graphic novels. A part of Crushing Krisis’s Crushing Comics. Last updated November 2024 with titles scheduled for release through February 2024.

Collecting Uncanny Avengers

Before 2012 the word “Uncanny” had always been a mutants-only adjective at Marvel and The Avengers franchise included relatively few mutant members.

Uncanny Avengers Acuna promo

That all changed in the wake of Marvel’s massive Avengers vs. X-Men crossover in 2012. The flagship book of their new Marvel Now line-up was Uncanny Avengers – a greatest hits combination of the most recognizable members of both teams, all striving to maintain Professor Xavier’s message of unity and the Avenger’s mandate of protecting the Earth.

What felt like an uneasy alliance to start began to feel more natural with 2016’s All-New, All-Different Marvel. Maybe that’s because the book felt less like X-Men problems pasted onto the Avengers, or maybe it’s the mix of characters – now also includes of The Inhumans.

The third volume (there was a brief second one after Axis) jettisons the idea that the team must be comprised entirely of major stars like Wolverine and Thor and leans hard into Rogue as the central character. It rotated more Avengers in and out of the mix, plus brought in Deadpool and then Cable (the latter of whom has always been a great partner and foil to Rogue when they occasionally bump up against each other, as they did early in Mike Carey’s X-Men Legacy run).

Now, over half a decade since their debut, Uncanny Avengers feel like their own institution distinct from their pair of parent franchises. Who knows how that feeling will be affected by “No Surrender,” mega all-Avengers crossover in early 2018 that will see all of the books merged down to a single Avengers weekly title.
[Read more…] about Uncanny Avengers & A+X – Collecting Guide and Reading Order

Marvel says “NO” to reboot, launches new Marvel NOW! titles this fall – UPDATED

by

News of Marvel’s post-Avengers vs. X-Men plans has leaked, and it’s everything a fan could hope for – major creator changes, new titles, and an intact sense of Marvel’s over seven decades of superhero continuity!

A sneak peak at the future of Marvel from the pen of Chief Creative Officer Joe Quesada.

How are they doing it? With Marvel NOW! – a relaunch of one new title a week for five months – 22 new books to stand along some long-running favorites. The official news breaks later today on EW.com, but it hit the web last night.

  • Avengers, written twice monthly by Jonathan Hickman
  • Uncanny Avengers, written by by Rick Remender with art by John Cassady!
  • X-Men, written by Brian M. Bendis

There are other rumored changeovers not covered by EW – namely, Bendis on Guardians of the Galaxy, Frank Cho on Wolverine, Ed McGuinness on Nova, Matt Fraction on Fantastic Four, plus Uncanny X-Men writer Kieron Gillen talking the helm of Iron Man. Plus, already-announced changes like James Asmus on Gambit, and Kelly Sue DeConnick on Captain Marvel starring Carol Danvers.

That’s just 10 of a rumored 22 titles!

What does that mean for readers? Let’s take a look.

Avengers by Jonathan Hickman

Marvel currently runs five Avengers titles separated by blurry lines, and it sounds like some of them will end this fall to make way for this twice-monthly monster.

Hickman is the Marvel architect that reinvented Fantastic Four as a smash hit with a story that spanned 50+ issues and more than quintupled the core cast, but still resolved into several brief, funny arcs. He’s also the author and designer of some mind-bending creator-owned work like Nightly News and Pax Romana. 

Now he’s unleashed on one of Marvel’s two big teams, with reportedly 18 characters in a mix of standalone adventures and cosmic smashes. Plus, his one potential weakness – a slowly unfolding meta-story – will be aided by an accelerated ship schedule – already a success on The Amazing Spider-Man.

This is the Avengers everybody wants to be reading after the movie, and it marks an even bigger cast and more prominent role for Hickman, who has yet to misfire. It’s going to be awesome.

Uncanny Avengers by Rick Remender

Remender’s Uncanny X-Force has been a hit since day one, especially because it focuses equally on its cast instead of only featuring Wolverine.

Holy total status quo change, Batman! While The Avengers have had their share of mutant members, Wolverine is the only full-time X-Man to stay with the team for any length.

Now Remender is getting all sorts of X into the Avengers, bringing them X-Men’s traditional adjective along with a team that reportedly boasts Wolverine, fan-favorite Rogue, and First Class star Havok alongside Captain America and Thor.

No one is better for this job than Remender. After bubbling under on a solid run on Punisher he exploded on Uncanny X-Force, a stunningly grim and hilarious take on Wolverine’s secret execution squad. It sent readers into endless fangasms when its first year concluded with the epic Dark Angel Saga. Now Remender in the saddle of what will unarguably be Marvel’s flagship title, with all of the star power of the Marvel Universe at its disposal.

In late-breaking news, art star John Cassaday of Planetary and Astonishing X-Men will be joining Remender, at least for the first arc.

Says Remender:  “In 1943, Arnim Zola, who was this bio-fanatic engineer, recorded the Red Skull’s consciousness, and set it to wake up 70 years later. So the Red Skull [in Uncanny] is right out of 1943-44. Prime Nazi scumbag. In his mind, he’s taking that vitriol and hate and Nazi horror and methodology, and pointing it at the mutant species.”

For everyone who argued if the Avengers or the X-Men was Marvel’s Justice League, here’s the answer: it’s both. This is about as huge as a single Marvel comic can be, both in characters and creators.

All New X-Men by Brian Bendis

Fans both love and loathe Avengers impresario Bendis, who has steered the line for nearly a decade. He’s introduced a consistency and gravitas to the once meandering Avengers, bringing them to prominence and expanding a single book to a line of five. He also has steered Marvel’s snappy Ultimate Spider-Man title since day one. But he’s a slow, decompressed storyteller who relies on a lot of talking heads and domestic scenes, and he uproots long-running plot threads for his own plans.

The community buzzed with heartbreaking rumors that he would be wresting control of the entire X-line from beloved authors like Remender, Gillen, and Aaron, but this move is a total left-turn from there! Bendis gets a single X-book, with a time-displaced team of the original five X-Men made popular in every form of media – Cyclops, Iceman, Beast, Angel, and Jean Grey!

This is the best possible weapon for Bendis – fan favorite characters in a new context that’s not a side-universe. It lets him tell stories fans love without the interference they loathe.

Marvel is shaking up its existing architects, with four of them shuffling titles and Rick Remender seemingly replacing Ed Brubaker.

With Avengers vs. X-Men involving the reality-bending Phoenix Force fans have feared the worst for the post-event landscape; fans would riot if Marvel conducted a DC New 52 style full-line reboot. However, if this is the tone the soft relaunch of Marvel will be taking, it looks like readers will have plenty to celebrate.

Marvel’s development over the past few years has been steered by five major authors – Marvel Architects. Brian Michael Bendis on the entire Avengers line; Matt Fraction on Iron Man, Uncanny X-Men, Thor, and The Defenders; Jonathan Hickman’s ground-breaking run on Fantastic Four and cult Secret Warriors; Jason Aaron on Wolverine and his integration into X-Men, and Ed Brubaker on all things Captain America.

It looks like Brubaker is stepping down from his Architecture role, and Remender is stepping up! Meanwhile, a new class of fan favorites like Kieron Gillen, Ed McGuinness, Christoph Gage, and James Asmus has been racking up excellent runs and major sales. If Remender’s move to Uncanny Avengers is any indication it looks like this under-bill of writers is about to step into the spotlight.

Top 12 X-Men Collections of 2011 – New Material

by

Uncanny X-Men issue #534.1, from Uncanny X-Men: Breaking Point

Today I bring you a list of the best collections of new X-Men material released in 2011, which collect stories originally published over the last 18 months of comics.

Occasionally I wonder if comic collecting as an adult is merely a shameless attempt at recapturing our youth now that we have the budget to appreciate it properly – especially as I and many other fans (let’s be honest) fetishize premiere format reprints of the comics we coveted as a kids. (Last week’s post covered the best of those from 2011.)

Is there anything to this hobby other than rewarding our inner teenage geeks?

If there’s an answer to be found in X-Men comics, it must be on this list. These are the twelve new X-Men stories that captured my imagination like those old issues I still obsess over, and I categorize “the wonder of feeling like a kid again” separately from “trying to recapture youthful feelings with a dose of well-preserved nostalgia.” [Read more…] about Top 12 X-Men Collections of 2011 – New Material

Top 12 X-Men Collections of 2011 – Reprinted Material

by

Welcome to 2012 – I am still a comic book geek.

Specifically, the X-Men.

Yep. That’s a lot of comic books.

Specifically, I own something like 95% of every X-Men comic book ever reprinted.

On New Years’ Eve I said to myself, “You dashingly handsome scoundrel, how can you use your obsession to aid people who like the X-Men a normal, healthy amount – unlike you?”

The answer? I will count down for you the top twelve collected editions reprinting X-Men comics originally released before 2010. There’s a vast world of thousands of X-Men comics that have been released since 1963, and not all of them are readily available to buy in book format. These reprints mean that hard-to-get, or never-before-reprinted issues can be bought in handy collections with better reproduction of the line art than original issues.

(As for new X-Men material from 2011, that will require a whole new post to cover!) [Read more…] about Top 12 X-Men Collections of 2011 – Reprinted Material

Marvel Hardcover & Trade Paperback Review, October 2011 Edition

by

I’m here with my weekly peek at Marvel’s collected editions, packing recent and classic comic storylines into handy hardcovers and trade paperbacks.

Since I’m still at a bit of a lag, this week we’re taking a lot at all of October – and there were a slew of great collections that month! Read on for capsule reviews of the X-Men books out in October, plus the skinny on all of Marvel’s other new collected editions from last month.

If you’re looking for more X-Men books, head over to my Definitive Guide to Collecting X-Men Graphic Novels. Or, some X-background, read my Intro to X-Men (on a budget). Trying to decide where to jump in? Check out Where to Start Reading X-Men.

xXx

Marvel X-Men Collection of the Month:
Daken: Dark Wolverine – Big Break Hardcover
Collects issues #10-14 and 9.1

Note: This is not the cover of the collection, though the issue does appear inside of it.

CK Says: Buy it! This isn’t the first time I’ve featured Daken as my top pick, and it won’t be the last. There’s something about the dastardly, amoral, bisexual, pheromone-exuding, tattooed, illegitimate son of Wolverine that I find delightfully subversive when written well, and a year into his solo outing Rob Williams has him down pat.

This collection finds Daken trying to take control of LA the only way he knows how – putting the screws to the existing bad-guys a la Joker in Dark Knight, and sleeping his way into secrets of the scene with a young up-and-coming actor.

The twist? Daken samples the street drug du jour and is both terrified and thrilled to find it shuts off his healing factor! The result are some bloodier-than-usual fights as Daken enjoys handicapping himself while tripping out in Ralph Steadman-esque illustrations. (PS: The interiors are not quite so froggy as the front cover.) Available for pre-order as a TPB.

xXx

Marvel Non-X Collection of the Month:
Fantastic Four by Jonathan Hickman Vol. 4 TPB
Collects Fantastic Four #583-588 

CK Says: Buy it. Writer Jonathan Hickman has re-made a Fantastic Four fan out of me with his operatic two-year run leading up to the issues in this collection. He divides comics’ first family with a war on multiple fronts against traditional foes like Galactus, Namor, and Annihilus as well as by their hard feelings at home, but this story is anything but old school.

Though the big build-up was for the death of a team-member, what’s really worth witnessing here is the rebirth of the FF franchise as one of Marvel’s hottest titles. Interior artist Steve Epting draws such stately, beautiful characters you’ll swear you’re reading Superman.

You may want to pick up Volumes 1, 2, and 3 as well – you can score the entire four-volume run for under $50! Also available in hardcover.

xXx

What X-title do I hate with such a passion that I have to abstain from giving it a rating at all? Keep reading to find out, plus get capsule reviews of books from X-Men: Legacy, X-Factor, and X-23 and summaries of the rest of the Marvel Universe. [Read more…] about Marvel Hardcover & Trade Paperback Review, October 2011 Edition