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.

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)!

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 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.

Guide to Echo, Maya Lopez (New for Patrons!)

January 8, 2024 by krisis

It’s time for another new Marvel Comics reading order for Patrons of Crushing Krisis, and this one is right on time for a big MCU TV debut! This guide is for a character who has appeared in Marvel Comics for the past 25 years, but has only been truly highlighted for the first time in the past few years. Want to read only her appearances that mattered the most? Then check out my Guide to Echo!

Guide to Echo – Maya Lopez

As someone who has kept up with all of Marvel’s in-continuity comics since 2010, I’ve read many issues with Echo in them. However, as I started putting together this Echo Guide I realized I didn’t really understand her origins – or her abilities!

That’s in part because I had never read David Mack’s pair of arcs that introduced Echo in Daredevil (1998) – in part because they weren’t collected and in print when I did my Daredevil read back in 2014. The issues are just as dense and entertaining now as they were 25 years ago. The first arc closely maps to Echo’s story in the MCU Hawkeye show, and the second delves into her origins in the style of a 1990s Vertigo comic (or, more-accurately, Mack’s own indie book Kabuki).

However, as I assembled this guide I realized my absence of knowledge is also because Echo is so often in the background of the comics where she appears, rather than at the center of a story.

RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 16, Episode 1 – “Rate-a-Queen” Power Rankings

January 7, 2024 by krisis

RuPaul’s Drag Race is back with the first episode of Season 16, Rate-A-Queen – complete with an MTV Spring Break Talent show and a “RuVeal Yourself” runway! When I saw the episode title I couldn’t resist making my return to do the same thing, rating and power ranking the amazing drag artists featured on the show!

Drag Race officially got out of control in 2023, with more franchises than I could even keep up with! In addition to the US flagship and its All Stars edition, in 2023 there was also UK, Canada, Down Under, España, France, Philippines, Belgique, Sverige, Germany, Mexico, & Brazil – plus Queen of the Universe. That’s over a dozen winners in a single year!

All but two of those franchises are expected to return in 2024 (sorry Sverige and Queen of the Universe), plus we have another season of UK vs. The World incoming, a new España All-Stars, the return of Drag Race Thailand, and another new Ru-hosted series.

There isn’t even enough time in my day to watch all of these incredible drag artists from around the world, let alone rank and recap them all! But, when it comes to meeting the new American queens and watching them battle to be America’s Next Drag Superstar, I can always find a little time in my schedule.

With so many drag artist finding their way onto our screens every year, it’s starting to feel like Drag Race has become a game of archetypes. As a dozen dozen queens walk through the workroom doors each year, it’s more important than every to have a defined brand without being stuck in a box.

A successful drag artist needs to know the mold they fit into best and also must understand how to shatter the weight of those expectations. Looking at this past year of winners, we’ve had beauty queens who can do it all, dancers who are funny, and experienced showgirls with a youthful attitude.

This week we had the first part of a split premiere, with seven queens showing off their entrance looks, talent show, and a “Ruveal Yourself” runway before doing their own power rankings with a special Rate-a-Queen gimmick. How did they stack up? Keep reading for my totally personal, totally subjective power rankings of this first half of the cast.

Readers, start your engines. And, may the best drag queen win!

Guide to What If? (New for Patrons!)

January 3, 2024 by krisis

New Year, New Comic Guides! In 2023 I launched a massive 33 new comic collecting guides and reading orders exclusively to Patrons of Crushing Krisis, released 11 guides to the public, plus updated dozens of existing guides to Marvel, DC, & Indie Comics. What if I beat those numbers in 2024? That’s a reality I want to live in, and it’s also the titular question of today’s brand new guide for CK Patrons: Guide to What If?

Guide to What If?

Creating a What If? Guide is a different kind of project than my typical comic reading orders. That’s because What If? doesn’t have an order – and it hasn’t had a single ongoing series for over 25 years!

What If? was Marvel’s original way of exploring alternative realities, as narrated by The Watcher. It debuted in 1977, with each issue asking a “What If…” question that altered one essential building block of the Marvel Universe. What if Spider-Man Joined The Fantastic Four? What if Jane Foster Had Found the Hammer of Thor? What If Phoenix Had Not Died? What if Spider-Man’s Clone Lived? What if Conan the Barbarian Were Stranded in the 20th Century?

Of course, we’ve seen all five of those What Ifs come to pass in the decades since the original series launched, and many more of the questions posed by the original series. What were seen as immutable building blocks of the Marvel Universe in 1977 became fun and sometimes shocking story beats in the 90s and beyond. [Read more…] about Guide to What If? (New for Patrons!)

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