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Zeb Wells

Hellions (2020) #7 – All of Sinister’s schemes dissected | This Week in X

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It’s This Week in X for Hellions (2020) #7, released 2 December 2020!

We’re taking a slightly different approach to This Week in X this week – each issue gets its own video, released one per day.

Hellions (2020) #7 is another twisted delight from Zeb Wells as we see the ramifications of the full team wipe from last issue – and, especially, the results of dying in Amenth. What unstable resurrection spurs Sinister’s next mission for the team? And, what is the surprising reveal that makes Fallen Angels relevant again?

We’re intrigued with Sinister’s schemes and how they affect the newly “honed” team. (Honed how, exactly?) Plus, Mr. Sinister has… fans (😯) in Psylocke (🤔) and Clive (😂), and we see a familiar face at the end!

Join Peter, Tyler, and Fariha’s specially-nominated guest New Mutant, Harry, for this dissection (with a special guest appearance from our wayward mutant sister, Fariha).

 

Need help making sense of reading and collecting the X-Men? Crushing Comics can help!

Want to keep up with comics commentary all week long? Follow Crushing Comics on Twitter and subscribe to my channel on YouTube.

Recapping X of Swords, Week 9: X-Force #14, Hellions #6, and Cable #6 | This Week in X

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Join Peter, Tyler, and Fariha as we dissect the penultimate ninth week of X of Words in the X-Men comics of 18 November, 2020 – X-Force (2020) #14, Hellions (2020) #6, and Cable (2020) #6.

They’re the 17th, 18, & 19th chapters of X of Swords, and it’s all about duels and double-crosses. We discuss Sinister’s duplicitous plans, ponder whether we’re eager to see the resurrection process go awry, and charge through a lightning round chat about EVERY ONE of the tournament match-ups this week.

Plus, Fariha brings along a special surprise!

Need help making sense of reading and collecting the X-Men?

Recapping X of Swords, Week 4: Hellions #5, New Mutants #13, & Cable #5 | This Week in X

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Join Peter, Tyler, and Fariha as we dissect the fourth week of the 22-chapter X of Swords crossover in three issues – Hellions (2020) #5, New Mutants (2019) #13, and Cable (2020) #5.

In this episode we fawn over Sinister’s plumage, discuss Krakoa’s decadent phase, talk about violence as language, ponder if Cyclops & Jean are acting weirder than their normal Dawn of X selves, and more!

Need help making sense of reading and collecting the X-Men?

Amazing Spider-Man: Brand New Day Omnibus, Vol. 1 – The #51 Most-Wanted Marvel Omnibus of 2017

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Amazing Spider-Man: Brand New Day Omnibus, Vol. 1 is the #51 Most-Wanted Marvel Omnibus of 2017 on Tigereyes’s Secret Ballot. 

Amazing_Spider_Man_1963_0549See the Guide to Spider-Man for how you can collect this run today. Visit the Marvel Masterworks Message Board to view the original posting of results by Tigereyes.

What Is It? In January 2008 Marvel collapsed their line of several Spider-Man titles down to just Amazing Spider-Man, which accelerated to releasing three issues a month from a rotating cast of writers starting with #546. This coincided with a minor reset of some details of Spider-Man’s continuity – more on that below.

While the story arc “Brand New Day” ran from #546 to 564, the title is commonly used to refer to the entire period of accelerated schedule with multiple writers, which ran through #647 in December 2010 – three entire years comprised of 102 issues of Amazing Spider-Man!

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

Creators: Many!

The rotating writers considered to be Spider-Man’s steering brain-trust consistently including Dan Slott, Marc Guggenheim, Bob Gale, and Zeb Wells – though others like Mark Waid and Joe Kelly also contributed arcs in this period.

This initial chunk of Brand New Day included runs of pencil art from Steve McNiven, Salvador Larroca, Phil Jimenez, Chris Bachalo, Barry Kitson, Marcos Martin, Mike McKone, and John Romita Jr..

Probable Contents: Collects The Amazing Spider-Man (1963) #546-577, The Amazing Spider-Man: Swing Shift Director’s Cut (2008), Venom Super Special (1995) #1, Secret Invasion: Spider-Man #1-3, and material from The Amazing Spider-Man Extra! (2008) #1.

For a full map of how the Brand New Day period could fit into omnibus volumes, see the end of this post.

Can you read it right now? Yes! Marvel has begun to recollect Big Time in a series of Complete Collections. A first omnibus probably wouldn’t cover all three collections. See the Guide to Spider-Man for full physical collecting info.

Plus, every one of these issues is available on Marvel Unlimited!

The Details:

To talk about this run, we have to first talk about the story that immediately precedes it – “One More Day.”

“One More Day” is one of the most-hated Spider-Man stories of all time, neck-and-neck with its later sequel “One Moment In Time.”

Fans tend to dislike any revisions to their favorite elements of continuity, but this one was particularly egregious – not only breaking up Spider-Man and Mary Jane, but retroactively causing their marriage to cease to exist due to a very out-of-character deal with a literal devil. Their relationship and all of their stories continued to exist – just not their marriage.

The story did come with a few fringe benefits. The world would forget Spider-Man’s secret identity (recently revealed in Civil War), but that meant he was now in hiding due to the Superhuman Registration Act. It revived Harry Osborn from the dead. And, it resulted in the cancellation of all of Marvel’s other Spider-Man titles, which allowed them to accelerate Amazing Spider-Man to be released three times a month. [Read more…] about Amazing Spider-Man: Brand New Day Omnibus, Vol. 1 – The #51 Most-Wanted Marvel Omnibus of 2017

Top 12 X-Men Collections of 2011 – New Material

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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

X-Men Hardcover & Trade Paperback Review, Late September Edition

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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.

[Read more…] about X-Men Hardcover & Trade Paperback Review, Late September Edition