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Crushing Comics includes definitive comic book guides, essays about characters and titles, collecting strategies, comic reviews, and more!

Black Panther Book Club, Week 1 of 4: Black Panther by Christopher Priest issues #1-12

February 6, 2018 by krisis

Tonight is the first of four sessions of Black Panther Book Club to celebrate the release of Marvel’s Black Panther film later this month.

We’ll spend three weeks tackling the first half of the Christopher Priest run that massively influences the movie, then switch gears to read Ta’Nehisi’s Coates’ modern run on the character.

In today’s installment, we meet the Dora Milaje for the first time, learn why T’Challa is on American soil, and see his sovereign rule nearly usurped back in Wakanda!

Want to keep up with the reading assignments all this month? Here’s our full schedule for the month – visit the Guide to Black Panther to learn how to collect these issues.

Tuesday, February 6: Fantastic Four (1961) issues #52-53 and Black Panther (1998) issues #1-12
Tuesday, February 13: Black Panther (1998) issues #13-24
Tuesday, February 20: Black Panther (1998) issues #25-35
Tuesday, February 27: Black Panther (2016) issues #1-12

Crushing Comics S01E069 – Your Nostalgic Favorites + Deadly Hands of Kung Fu, Vol. 1

February 5, 2018 by krisis

I start this episode by explaining my shirt and asking about your nostalgic favorites and if they’ve held up over the years. Then, I unwrap the first of the pair of Deadly Hands of Kung Fu omnibuses. Since I don’t know too much about the magazine content of the issues reprinted here, I dive in and read a few excerpts.

Want to start from the beginning of this season of videos? Here’s the complete Season 1 playlist of Crushing Comics.

Episode 69 features the Direct Market cover version of Deadly Hands of Kung Fu, Vol. 1. See how the back-up stories fit in to Shang-Chi’s continuity in the Guide to Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu.

Back Issue Review: Hawkeye’s reunion, Justice League’s identity crisis, Mech Cadet Yu’s charm, & Runaways’s revival

February 4, 2018 by krisis

This week’s Back Issue Review is hyper-focused on four really amazing recent runs that would get me caught up on comics coming up on this week’s pull-list.

Seriously, these were some of the best comics out in 2017 and I didn’t even know it! They really put into perspective how energizing a well-made big and adventurous comic can be.

Join me in falling in love with these four excellent comics ahead of their new issues out this week:

Hawkeye (2017) #12-14
Justice League (2016) #34-37
Mech Cadet Yu (2017) #1-5
Runaways (2017) #1-5

The Pull List, Jan. 31, 2018: Dark Ark, Detective Comics, Moon Knight, Reactor, The Realm, and more!

February 2, 2018 by krisis

My pull list keeps growing in size as I get caught up with more current comic books! I read 21 new comics released earlier this week on January 31 – and I would have read even more if I managed to catch up on my Superman reading in time for these reviews!

Here’s The Pull List for the week, as broken out by publisher (though they’re reviewed in alpha order, below).

Aftershock Comics: Dark Ark (2017) #5
Amigo Comics: Call of the Suicide Forest (2018)
Dark Horse Comics: Hungry Ghosts (2018) #1
DC Comics: Dark Nights: Metal #5, Detective Comics (2016) Annual 1, Milk Wars (2018) JLA/Doom Patrol Special, Mystik U (2018) #2, The Silencer (2018)
IDW Publishing: Dread Gods (2017) #3
Image Comics: Bonehead (2018) #2, God Complex: Dogma (2017) #4, The Realm (2017) #5, Void Trip (2017) #3
Marvel Comics: Avengers (2017) #678, All-New Wolverine (2016) #30, Captain Marvel (2017) #128, Jean Grey (2017) #11, Moon Knight (2017) #191, Old Man Logan (2016) #34, Phoenix Resurrection: The Return of Jean Grey (2018) #5
Vault Comics: Maxwell’s Demons (2017) #2, Reactor (2017) #2, Songs For The Dead (2018) #1

As you will discover below, I am not shy about giving low ratings to comic books. A lot of sites shy away from covering comics they think are weak or bad, but I think that does the fans and industry a disservice. We can’t only talk about comics that are brilliant or at least better-than-average – that signals a death of critical discourse!

I’m just as interested in the weak books as the strong ones, because they help set the standard of what’s great in comics and the tough reviews might still help those books find fans.

Enough chatter – let’s take a look at my top Big Two and Indie books of the week before getting to the full list.

Top Marvel/DC Comic of The Week

Detective Comics (2016) Annual 1, DC Comics

A stunningly good tragic origin story for Clayface with the best artwork I’ve ever seen from Eddie Barrows, which is really saying something because I always love Eddie Barrows.

This is the kind of comic book single issue you can hand to a brand new fan who only vaguely knows the Batman mythos. Tom King has been knocking out terrific one-offs like that on Batman, but this James Tynion story is different in that it delves into the core of an existing character instead of inventing a new plot.

My understanding is that this departs a bit from the established Clayface original, which we’ve seen several times in the past – so, I appreciate if some regular Bat-readers aren’t into getting more of it. However, considering the events of the recently concluded story arc in Detective, this feels like the perfect time to reestablish Basil’s origin.

Top Indie Comic of the Week

The Realm (2017) #5, Image Comics

This comic is on fire!

The Realm has quickly become one of my favorite comics on the stands with its blend of post-apocalyptic terrain with fantastical monsters out of a Dungeons and Dragons campaign. This issue has a downright wild amount of siege action coming from every which direction, which puts the central quest on hold while our protagonists fight for their lives. (They aren’t all successful in that fight.)

There are major shades of Helms Deep here, with the goblins trying to breech the wall of a make-shift city. The action was frantic, but never hard to follow. It even revealed some new information about our characters in the midst of the chaos. There was some wonderful panelling to build tension to a fever pitch during the battering ram portion, but it also gave us several moments to reveal things about our cast…

…the ones that survive, anyhow.

And now, on to the other 19 comics I read that were released on January 31, 2018!

This Week in X: Phoenix Resurrection: The Return of Jean Grey concludes, plus All-New Wolverine #30, Jean Grey #11, and Old Man Logan #34

February 2, 2018 by krisis

It’s the fifth week of new comics in 2018, and it’s a climactic week for the X-Men!

Tom Taylor and the stellar art team of Juan Cabal and Nolan Woodard wrap up the “Orphans of X” arc in All-New Wolverine #30. Jean Grey goes through an unexpected transformation in Jean Grey #11. Our aged Logan has a brief reunion with a lost love and then the plot lurches onward in Old Man Logan #34. And, finally Phoenix Resurrection: The Return of Jean Grey concludes with issue #5 and … you guessed it, the return of Jean Grey!

I was underwhelmed by the conclusions of both Jean Grey books, which felt much ado about nothing to me. It would have been more interesting to have Jean appear out of nowhere. I have a lot more to say about this on this week’s “This Week In X”!