Crushing Krisis

Comic Books, Drag Race, & Life in New Zealand

krisis

Krisis has been creating Crushing Krisis since 2000, writing songs since 1996, and reading comics since 1991. He is a Customer Success and Digital Brand Strategy executive, serial organizer, parent, and feminist, among other things. Based in Philly through 2017, he now resides in Wellington, NZ.

Updated: Guide to X-Treme X-Men

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I’m back with another X-Guide Update! This guide was NOT a guide I expected to have to update this year, and certainly not for two different reasons. First, Marvel is relaunching this title (with its original creative team!) into a new series later this year that picks up directly from its end in 2004. Second, certainly related to that, Marvel is publishing the first of two omnibuses that will cover the entire run! Of course, I’m talking about my Guide to X-Treme X-Men!

Guide to X-Treme X-Men

This guide covers all three volumes of X-Treme X-Men – the 2001 Claremont/Larroca team of fan-favorites that ran alongside Grant Morrison’s New X-Men, Greg Pak’s 2012 Exiles-style revival starring Dazzler, and the newly-announced Claremont/Larroca flashback series.

You can find the trade reading order for all of that, where three different supporting mini-series (Savage Land, X-Pose, & Mekanix) fit into the original run, where characters can be found next, plus links to buy physical and digital collections and read right now on Marvel Unlimited!

Drag Race Philippines Season 1 Episode 5 – Miss Shutacca, Review & Power Ranking

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Mabuhay! Welcome to my review and power rankings of the fifth episode of Drag Race Philippines Season 1 – Miss Shutacca, a realistic beauty pageant with the queens dancing and improv-ing stereotypical beauty queen roles.

For me, this episode is terrific example of what Drag Race can be. It had everything: a cruel choreographer, technical difficulties that crossed over from being annoying to be just as camp as the challenge, a strong runway, and a terrific set of judge’s critiques.

I found “Miss Shutacca” to be a fascinating challenge because it asked a cast full of reality show contestants to fake being beauty pageant contestants in a very real pageant. When Race Race had done this in the past, the pageant itself was deliberately satirical – as on Canada’s Drag Race Season 1.

Here, the pageant was played incredibly straight, save for some of the hosts’ banter. It was also very long – one of the longest sequences of improve we’ve ever seen on Drag Race, with four distinct segments plus choreography. That meant at points the queens couldn’t help but let their inner competitors shine through their characters – especially in the Q&A portion.

It was fascinating to see how some queens broke character in that moment, while others used it to dive more deeply into it. Similarly, I was entranced by how seriously real life Miss Universe 2015 Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach took this fake pageant full of drag queens. She was resplendently beautiful and a natural as a judge; I wouldn’t be surprised to see her return to the show. Meanwhile, KaladKaren got to show off her absurd side as a co-host of the pageant.

The competition to stay entrenched in the Top 3 is really heating up as we approach the halfway mark of the season. Of the remaining seven queens, five of them feel entirely possible as finalists. That resulted in a shake-up at the top of the ranking this week compared to last week’s ranking.

If you want to watch Drag Race Philippines outside of the Philippines and Canada you can sign up for WowPresentsPlus to watch the many worldwide Drag Race franchises for $4.99 a month or $50 a year. (Note that if you’re in the home country of a franchise you will need to use a VPN to “visit” another country to see that content.)

Readers, start your engines! And, may the best Filipino drag queen win! [Read more…] about Drag Race Philippines Season 1 Episode 5 – Miss Shutacca, Review & Power Ranking

Updated: Guide to X-Statix & The X-Cellent

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When I originally launched my many X-Men guides in 2010, my policy was that no title that only had a single volume could merit its own guide. After all, guides were meant to make things simpler, not harder to follow! However, this particular title has now graduated from the grips of the Guide to X-Force thanks to it is new 2022 incarnation, The X-Cellent. Of course, I am talking about the groundbreaking run by Peter Milligan, Mike Allred, & Laura Allred now covered in its entirety by my Guide to X-Statix & The X-Cellent!

Guide to X-Statix & The X-Cellent

X-Statix from the cover of X-Statix (2002) #1

Even if you know X-actly how to collect X-Statix already, check out the guide for my intro essay about the context of the X-Men line at the time, and how X-Statix arrived at the birth of reality television as we now know it. Or, watch and listen as I wax poetic about the X-Statix Omnibus, diversity, inclusion, and acceptance on Crushing Comics on YouTube.

Updated: Guide to X-Force

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This week I have another update to one of the original Crushing Comics launch guides that I created back in August of 2010. Despite updating it many times over the years, I decided to tear this one down and re-built it from scratch to make it easier than ever to find the physical and digital collections you want – plus, I added over a dozen new collected editions! Welcome to my all-new, all-different Guide to X-Force.

Guide to X-Force

Guide to X-Force

My last update of the Guide to X-Force was before the first collections from Dawn of X were announced, so clearly I had a lot of updating to do! That not only included collections of Benjamin Percy’s 2019 Age of Krakoa series, but also X-Men Milestones reprints of several major crossovers and several new X-Force Epic Collections announced over the past few years.

That’s not the only big addition to this guide. I’ve added all of the features of the newest guides on the site, including a “Where to Start” section, a summary of both oversized hardcovers and paperback Epics & Complete Collections, digital purchase links, and links to read on Marvel Unlimited!

Like I said: rebuilt from scratch. Even though the guide includes a lot more information, it’s also significantly simpler than it ever has been before.

That rebuild included one subtraction, but it was for a good reason! Since X-Statix made a comeback this year into their all-new The X-Cellent series by original creators Peter Milligan and Mike & Laura Allred, I decided it was time for X-Statix to graduate to it’s own guide! X-Statix is one of my favorite X-runs of all time, but they’ve never really had anything to do with X-Force other than squatting in their title for 14 issues.

I’ll be back tomorrow to share that new X-Statix spinoff guide once I’ve polished it up a bit. For now, enjoy this renewed Guide to X-Force – and, let me know in the comments which X-Force incarnation is your favorite version of the team.

New for Patrons: Guide to Infinity Inc.

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I’m back with a third and final foray (for now) into my initial exploration of the JSA after my Guide to Doctor Fate and Guide to Justice Society of America launches over the past week for Pledgeonaut Patrons of CK. For this third guide, I realized that a title I was trying to mash into the JSA guide deserved its own space – just as its cast broke away from the JSA in 1984 to form their own superhero that withstood the transition from Earth Two to Earth One. Of course, I’m referring to JSA’s original next generation, now covered in my Guide to Infinity Inc!

This guide will remain exclusive to Patrons even after the public debut of the JSA Guide in October.

Infinity Inc. occupies a unique and often-forgotten corner of the DC Universe as a book that had as many Pre-Crisis issues set on Earth Two as it had Post-Crisis issues set in DC’s main continuity.

If you’re not familiar with any Crisis other than me, allow me to explain that to you!

In 1984, the Teen Titans were a wildly popular title for DC – effectively, their X-Men and New Mutants rolled into one! If the Teen Titans were the next generation of the Justice League, then it made sense to introduce Infinity Inc. as the next generation of the Justice Society of America (JSA) of Earth Two. The JSA were DC’s Golden Age heroes who kept on living and aging on a parallel Earth to the main Silver Age and Bronze Age Earth where they introduced the Justice League.

At the time, the JSA didn’t even have a present-day title of their own, so the launch arc for their junior team had to be a time travel story set in 1942 in the pages of the JSA’s retcon title, All-Star Squadron! The original team a number of JSA legacy heroes like Alan Scott’s children Jade and Obsidian, The Atom’s godson Nuklon, Hawkman and Hawkgirl’s son Silver Scarab, Wonder Woman & Steve Trevor’s daughter Fury, Batman and Catwoman’s daughter Huntress, Superman’s relative Powergirl, and more.

Infinity Inc. became the home to Earth Two adventures in DC’s Universe in 1984 and 1985, where the team battled the evil Helix – including a character modern readers would come to know as the D.E.O.’s Director Bones! Then, Crisis on Infinite Earths happened. This was DC’s way of simplifying their complex, multi-Earth history – including merging Earth Two into Earth One! [Read more…] about New for Patrons: Guide to Infinity Inc.