consume

The Pull List: Batman, Damage, Dark Fang, Ales Kot, & more!

January 20, 2018 by krisis

Welcome back the The Pull List, where I review every new comic I digitally picked up this week that wasn’t X-Men?

I’m still a few weeks away from being caught-up on non-X Marvel books, so my reads were restricted to some young DC titles, DC’s first “New Age of Heroes” launch, and Tom King’s Batman – which I mostly stay caught up upon for the hot takes.

This week’s Pull List includes:

Avengers (2017) #676
Batman (2016) #39
Damage (2018) #1
Dark Fang (2017) #3
Days of Hate (2018) #1
The Further Adventures of Nick Wilson (2018) #1
Ice Cream Man (2018) #1
James Bond: The Body (2018 #1.

This Week In X: All-New Wolverine, Generation X’s big moment, & more!

January 19, 2018 by krisis

It’s the third week of new comics in 2018, and it brings a batch of five X-titles that vary very widely in quality.

We have another installment of “Orphans of X” in Tom Taylor’s All-New Wolverine (2016) #29, Declan Shalvey’s Deadpool vs. Old Man Logan (2017) #4 (of 5), a pivotal issue of Christina Strain’s Generation X (2017) #86, a new arc in Greg Pak’s Weapon X (2017) #13, and an epilogue to the “Negative Zone War” in Marc Guggenheim’s X-Men: Gold (2017) #20/

I’m incredibly impressed with All-New Wolverine and Generation X, and several different shades of disappointed with the other three.

(Weirdly, YouTube decided to only feature a low-res version of this episode.)

Crushing Comics S01E062 – Jonathan Hickman’s Infinity + brushes with the supernatural

January 18, 2018 by krisis

I open this episode by discussing my abridged history of brushes with the supernatural, including memorable stories CK posts like the blue hair dream and the graveyard ghosts. Then, I unwrap a pair of books that were the anchor to the early part of Jonathan Hickman’s run on Avengers and New Avengers – Infinity and Infinity Companion.

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

Episode 62 features Jonathan Hickman’s Infinity and the Infinity Companion hardcover. See my Guide to Marvel Events for more information.

Crushing Comics S01E061 – Comic Book Tattoo + The Music of Tori Amos

January 17, 2018 by krisis

Today brings a rare book that I could identify in its wrapping simply by picking it up thanks to its peculiar shape and heft. Comic Book Tattoo is an anthology of stories based on the songs of singer/songwriter Tori Amos, including work from comics stars like Colleen Doran and Jonathan Hickman. That makes this a sort of hybrid episode that’s half Crushing Comics and half a journey through Tori’s massive discography.

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

Episode 61 features the hardcover slipcased edition of Comic Book Tattoo: Tales Inspired by Tori Amos.

From The Beginning: Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman (1989), Issue #1

January 16, 2018 by krisis

Tonight’s discussion focuses not only on Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman (1989) issue #1, but who Gaiman was as an author at the time. (Spoilers: he wasn’t very well-known!)

The Sandman (1988) #1 is not a perfect comic, but it’s an excellent one. The issue tracks Dream from his imprisonment in 1916 through his reemergence in 1988.

He does very little in those years, but the world changes around him even as some people sleep the entire time away and others never have a true dream. While Dream is imprisoned and they dream, his tools are stolen and dispersed around the world and his original captor passes away.

Gaiman’s script here is impossibly tight, filled with little details in every inch of narration. Sam Kieth’s art is memorable but a bit haggard at points – this is early in his career, still a few years before defining work on Ghost Rider or Maxx.

Some of Kieth’s long-faced, dropping facial work detracts a bit from the otherwise stellar issue – it’s probably not what you expected from Sandman based on the covers, later interiors, or Overture.