Crushing Krisis

Comic Books, Drag Race, & Life in New Zealand

comic books

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

Updated: The Definitive Guide to Deathlok

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Today I bring you an updated guide of a character who tended to operate on the fringes of the Marvel Universe until he got pulled into the MCY via Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – The Definitive Guide to Deathlok.

Deathlok is a character who is really eight different characters. Maybe it would be easier to describe him as a concept – a lot like The Terminator. Did that pique your interest? Before you head to the guide, get the short story on Deathlok, including where he’s been recently and what amount of his comics have been printed in collected editions to date.

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Crushing Comics S01E09 – New Avengers (2005) Vol. 3-4, Young Avengers (2005), & Avengers/Invaders

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It’s my first episode in high definition! The potato-quality era of Crushing Comics is over, and to celebrate my first hi-def segment I pull a hefty four-book bundle down from the shelf! Watch my high speed explanation of the beginning of the Bendis’s era of New Avengers, including where Young Avengers and Invaders/Avengers fits into things.

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

Episode 9 features New Avengers, Vol. 3 (Amazon/eBay) and Vol. 4 (Amazon/eBay), Young Avengers (2005) (Amazon/eBay/new TPB), and Avengers/Invaders (Amazon/eBay), all of which are covered in my Guide to New Avengers (2005) and Guide to Young Avengers.

 

Crushing Comics, S01E08 – Uncanny X-Men Omnibus, Vol. 2

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On this episode I unwrap what may be my favorite classic of all time in Uncanny X-Men, Vol. 2, leading me to reminisce about buying my first (of several) copies of the Dark Phoenix Saga when I was 11.

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

Episode 8 features Uncanny X-Men Omnibus, Vol. 2 (Amazon / eBay) as covered by my Guide to Claremont-era X-Men.

Updated: The Definitive Guide to Namor, The Sub-Mariner Comic Books

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The Guide to Namor, The Sub-Mariner is newly updated not only with recent and upcoming collections, but with a major formatting and continuity clean-up!

In 2010 Namor was newly-gifted with an X-branded ongoing for the first time and I felt compelled to give him his own page in my X-Men Collecting Guide, despite the fact that I knew next to nothing about the character, his Golden Age history, or the tons of different teams where he has had a passing membership.

Since then I’ve done a lot of cleaning up of his page, but it’s remained a sort of ugly step-child of my original guides. Well, today that ugly duckling has turned into a sea-faring swan, because Namor’s page is finally up to the standard of my newest, most-modern guides.

Don’t need a guided tour of Namor’s every appearance from the 1940s to present? Keep reading for a briefer overview of the Sub-Mariner’s history, where to start reading him, and his newest collections. Plus, find out how much of Namor’s lengthy history has been reprinted in collected editions?

 

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Brian Bendis leaves Marvel for DC! (Plus, breaking down Marvel Legacy’s writer roster)

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A few hours ago DC Comics dropped the biggest bombshell comics industry news we’ve heard in years. Forget special events or character deaths – this is truly a “nothing will ever be the same” kind of event.

It’s hard to imagine industry news bigger than that, aside from perhaps Jim Lee abandoning DC to head back to Marvel! Anything less couldn’t possibly compare. That’s because Bendis’s hand in steering the development of Marvel’s comic universe over the course of the past 17 years cannot possibly be overstated.

Brian Bendis completely rebuilt the Avengers franchise into a multi-title behemoth over the course of seven years, defining Marvel’s Universe along the way in a series of major events that fundamentally altered the company’s status quo.

He has solely written the Ultimate version of Spider-Men since 2001, including creating Miles Morales and bringing him to the main Marvel Universe.

He created Jessica Jones and set Daredevil on a course that had seen continued critical success through present day. He took previously forgotten characters like Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and Spider-Woman and brought them back to prominence for other writer’s to develop.

That assessment doesn’t even mention his Guardians of the Galaxy, X-Men, Iron Man, or any number of other major titles.

Brian Bendis has  just written a lot of comic book issues and stories. Even as a non-fan of most of Bendis’s output, I cannot possible deny his impact.

While it will be a little while before we learn who will be the new driving force behind Marvel’s creative direction, the more imminent question is: who will replace Bendis writing four titles a month!? We’re heading into Marvel Legacy with him writing Spider-Man, Iron Man, Jessica Jones, and The Defenders.

Plus, we have to make sure to leave at least two writers with room to steer The Avengers franchise, which will be up for a shake-up in April. Plus, we need to staff the impending returns of Wolverine and the Fantastic Four (both heavily speculated as potential Bendis territory). And, finally, we ought to spare at least one writer for a marquee X-book.

Let’s take a moment to dissect Marvel’s current roster of writers in Marvel Legacy and figure out how to reassign those books. [Read more…] about Brian Bendis leaves Marvel for DC! (Plus, breaking down Marvel Legacy’s writer roster)