comic books

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

Guide to Morbius, The Living Vampire (New for Patrons!)

February 5, 2024 by krisis

I’m back with the first new guide of February 2024 for all Patrons of Crushing Krisis – and it’s their January Patron’s Choice! It’s a guide for one of the horrific stars of 1970s Marvel, of the first Marvel characters to anchor two titles at the same time, and the most alive vampire you’ll ever meet. That’s right, folks, it’s Morbin’ time, with my Guide to Morbius – The Living Vampire.

Guide to Morbius – The Living Vampire

Morbius is one of those characters who I had next to zero exposure to prior to beginning my Marvel Zombie “read everything” approach to comics in 2011. That meant I had two seemingly conflicting ideas of the character in my mind – that he was a major Spider-Man villain and probably had been in the Sinister Six and that he was some sort of supernatural hero who was an ally of Ghost Rider.

Now that I’ve read every single Morbius appearance to write this Guide to Morbius, I know both those ideas were completely wrong! A better way to describe him would be as a reluctant monster and a begrudging anti-supernatural avenger, but even that fails to fully capture the nuance of his character… at least, when writers remember that he has nuance!

New Comics & Collected Editions: Marvel Comics – February 7 2024

February 3, 2024 by krisis

It’s the sixth new comic book day of the new year! This post covers Marvel Comics February 7 2024 releases. Missed last week’s releases? Check out last week’s post covering Marvel Comics January 31 2024 new releases.

(No, you haven’t time-travelled to the future – this post is now a few days earlier to give you an earlier heads up on what’s coming next week and to make way for some other planned posts that will occupy the Tuesday slot.)

This week in Marvel Comics: the debut of a new Ultimate Black Panther, an adventure for Bats the Dog, a treat for Liz Allen super-fans, an almost-completed Captain America Epic line, and more!

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 February 7 2024 Collected Editions

Captain America Epic Collection Vol. 21: Twilight’s Last Gleaming
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1302956349 / digital)
See Guide to Captain America – Steve Rogers. This is the second-to-last Epic Collection covering Cap’s 1968 series. The final one, Man Without a Country, already exists.

However, I think the bigger news about this collect is that it means we now have the entirety of Mark Gruenwald’s landmark run on the title collected in Epic Collections Volume 12-21. That’s not a big shocker, since Marvel is about to kick off a long-awaited omnibus run of Gruenwald’s Cap, so it made sense for them to wrap up the Epics first. This run is to pre-2000 Cap what Brubaker’s is to post-2000 Cap – lengthy, defining, and essential.

We only need TWO more Epics to complete the coverage of Cap’s 1968 title (Vol. 7-8), but we could be waiting for a while since now we know the classic Epic line will continue to cover his titles through 2004 when Brubaker’s run kicks off the “Modern Epic Collection.”

Cult of Carnage: Misery
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1302951986 / digital)
See Guide to Carnage (eventually). Are you a Liz Allen super-fan? I’m not sure how many of you are out there, but this book is for you! Despite the “Carnage” wrapper on the title, this book is all about dissecting Liz Allen’s history, her motivations, and her connection to Harry Osborn. Yeah, there’s also some symbiote nonsense involving a sliver of the Carnage symbiote and Carnage’s various progeny, but if you aren’t interested in Allen and her family this is going to fall flat for you. (And, if you don’t even know who I’m talking about, you should skip it).

Magneto: Magneto Was Right
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1302954215 / digital)
See Guide to Magneto. One of Marvel’s many retcon flashback series, this 2023 mini is set during the excellent mid-40s of Claremont’s New Mutants – a fertile period for more Magneto stories, as he was certainly up to a lot back then! [Read more…] about New Comics & Collected Editions: Marvel Comics – February 7 2024

Announcing Marvel May 2024 Collected Editions – LIVE on Near Mint Condition

February 1, 2024 by krisis

Today I’m live with Near Mint Condition @ 1pm ET to announce Marvel’s May 2024 collected editions – including omnibuses, Masterworks, Epic Collections, and new trade paperbacks.

I’ll be on a panel with Omar of Near Mint Condition, Jess the Omnidog, & Ødfel to discuss every new release. And, per usually, I’ve read just about everything new from Marvel in this catalog, so I have plenty to say!

Tune in to Near Mint Condition on YouTube live @ 1pm ET today or watch our stream as a replay to hear all the announcements.

Announcing Marvel May 2024 Collected Editions on Near Mint Condition

Want to see more of me on Near Mint Condition? I will be Omar’s special guest every Thursday in February, sharing new announcements, talking potential reprints, and battling over evergreen choices. Every time I get to hang out with Omar and our comic-loving friends brings a burst of pure joy into my life – I hope you enjoy the shows even a faction as much as I do.

Thundercats Comic Books Collecting Guide & Reading Order

Guide to ThunderCats (New for Patrons!)

January 31, 2024 by krisis

New Guide, HO! I’m back with another special mid-week licensed property guide exclusively for Pledgeonaut Patrons of Crushing Krisis. This guide is for a property I love dearly, which rocketed from the obscurity of nostalgia to be the most pre-ordered comic book of the decade, due out a week from today! That’s right, it’s a Guide to ThunderCats – HO!

Guide to ThunderCats comic books

I was surprised when I heard that the new ThunderCats comics by Declan Shalvey & Drew Moss from Dynamite Entertainment had the highest pre-orders of any comic so far in the 2020s. Did people still love this property that much? And, hadn’t there already been plenty of ThunderCats comics?

That led me down a rabbit hole that got surprisingly deep, thanks to one particular long-running ThunderCats series most readers have likely never seen or heard of.