Crushing Krisis

Comic Books, Drag Race, & Life in New Zealand

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A Bendis Avengers Reading Order

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I’m excited to unveil my first non-X-Men comprehensive reading order: Avengers Reading Order – The Bendis Years (2004 – 2012)

The guide includes the story-by-story or “trade reading order” of all the Avengers team titles from Brian Bendis taking over Avengers with issue #500 in 2004 to the end of his run on the 2010 volumes of Avengers and New Avengers in the wake of Avengers vs. X-Men in 2012. That’s over 350 individual issues from more than a dozen titles. In most cases, I explain the placement of each story and offer special notes for reading.

Head to the guide right now, or read on for more background on the period and how I assembled this Avengers resource.

BNAvgV01 - 0001rian Bendis completed the modernization of the Avengers begun by Kurt Busiek in 1998, taking them from a quaint card-carrying club of do-gooders to the Marvel’s Justice League. If Busiek helped to centralize and modernize a team that had lost its core in the mid-90s, Bendis made them Marvel’s ubiquitous, movie-ready flagship.

After his introduction of new members like Spider-Man, Wolverine, Luke Cage, and Dr. Strange, it became completely normal for any Marvel hero to be drafted into the team if it served a story. The period also expanded the team franchise from its previous all-time high of two books in the late 80s to a minimum of four.

It also tangled with a crazy line-up of line-wide events, rivaling 90s X-Men for the amount of interruptions of its plot – to the point that the interruptions became the plot, and standalone arcs were mere breaks in the action.

I am historically not a major Avengers reader. In my backlog of 90s floppies I have a decent run of 300s-era Avengers, but it’s mostly owing to Steve Epting’s amazing covers rather than being particularly allegiant to the series.

My early collected edition bookshelf reflected that, with just a few Avengers books marking major Scarlet Witch stories. (Just like Marvel and Fox, I consider her to be as much an X-Men character as an Avengers one.)

That changed in 2012. We were surging towards Avengers vs. X-Men, which came with rumors of Brian Bendis taking over the X-Men books. I foolishly thought knowing something about The Avengers’ recent history would help me be less depressed about the shoe-horning of Avengers into a rightfully X-Men story or Bendis likely derailing all of their awesome plotlines.

I browsed through New Avengers collected editions trying to decide what to sample, and I realized I could not make heads or tails of them. There were two different New Avengers runs with similar numbering and a set books with similar titles and covers that had wildly different contents! [Read more…] about A Bendis Avengers Reading Order

Music Monday: “All The Rage” – Allie X

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You may recall that I was a huge fan of Violet Chachki’s aethsetic on last year’s seventh season of Drag Race, so whenever she tweets about a fashion or art influence I’m generally all ears. When I clicked through this tweet, I was expecting to learn a little about Helmut Newton, not get absolutely slayed by an amazing pop song.

Quite suddenly, I was introduced to the pop genius of Allie X on her new single, “All The Rage.”

“All The Rage” is slightly squalling and I might not have made it through the full length had it just streamed without a visual. That would have have been a mistake. Luckily, this weirdly transfixing low-budget video held my attention long enough to hear just how many hooks are tucked away in the electronic cacophony of synthesizers.

I bought it approximately 15 seconds after the video ended.

There are so many jagged little bits of lyrics and melody. It starts with a wickedly catchy repeated refrain that jumps an octave on the word “up” while descending just a second on “down / out.” I didn’t automatically catch the intervals on first listen, but the machine-gun delivery paired with the up/down device is an immediate earworm. I was singing it back before the song was over – always a good sign.

allie-x-violet-chachki-all-the-rage-stillThen, the pre-chorus uses a clever and very Gaga-esque trope of starting mid-word, then repeating the word and rhyming it. You have to be careful not overuse these sort of tricky dropped sound devices, but here’s it just enough.

-jected, I was rejected
I wasn’t good enough to be elected
Lava, it was like lava
Moving through my body like fire
-jected, I was rejected
I wasn’t good enough to be elected

Then, the core is pure shout-along pop in the mold of Icona Pop. The underlying sound never rely changes, but each section of the song is transformed by the vocal. Coming out of the chorus, the top of the second verse is in the highest, purest tone Allie X summons the entire time. The contrast is great.

It’s pretty rare for me to get blind-sided by an artist who already has an album out – her debut, CollXtion I – so I cannot believe this will be from her sophomore effort – especially when Idolator intros this song by saying, “Allie X has quietly put together one of the most consistent bodies of work of any new pop artist over the last couple years.”

Sign me up!

Fandom, sources, subjective truth, and the Lee/Kirby X-Men Omnibus variant cover

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I won’t bury the lede: the variant edition of the Stan Lee / Jack Kirby classic X-Men Omnibus, Vol. 1 is the Kirby cover.

X-Men Omnibus Vol. 1 by Lee Kirby variant kirby classic cover

This is the variant cover. Don’t trust me – read the third section of this post for proof.

By the way, that was the answer to life, the universe, and everything. It’s turns out it’s not 42 – it’s that the X-Men Omnibus, Vol. 1 direct market variant is the Kirby cover.

How and why I’m making a blog post to answer that question is more interesting than the question or the answer.

When it comes to fandom on the internet, it’s assumed that everyone is working from the same primary source – the material they’re all fanning over.

Since everyone is consuming the same thing, deliberate misinformation would be obvious. Thus, information doesn’t tend to be questioned as it spreads across hundreds of blogs, wikis, lyric sites, comic databases, etc – and, none of those sites ever state their sources, because the source is assumed to be the actual material.

There is a problem with that assumption. Sometimes the source is the material, but sometimes it’s just the whisper down the lane from other secondary sources. Sometimes the source is the material, but it’s being interpreted incorrectly.

There is a lot of room for error without any malicious intent to spread disinformation, and without even the tacit citations of Wikipedia you’ll ever know the providence of the information you’re consuming. Due to ouroboros-like nature of the internet, one slight discrepancy introduced into the system will make the rounds, continuing a feedback loop until a little piece of misinformation swells to prohibitive truth – determining the outcome of arguments and dictating the sale price for rare memorabilia.

Fans like to pretend they’re experts, but a lot of times they’re just another parroting back the feedback. I’ve encountered three examples in the past week, and even with my pseudo-scholarly approach to being a fan I managed to be the parrot one time.

What happens when one of these pieces of information actually matters and the echo chamber is the only possible source? You don’t have to look far to find out – it happens every day. News networks pick up parody articles as truth! People cite statistics that aren’t real! The AP makes up tons of stuff and people take it at face value because, you know, AP. And those are journalists.

It makes me worry that as we put more of our consciousnesses and knowledge into the vast matrix of the internet, the concept of “truth” is becoming increasingly subjective.

Fair warning: the first section of below uses a sometimes derogatory word for vagina twice in the context of quotes about the lyrics to a song. We should not be afraid of words, only what people mean by them. Say it sometime. [Read more…] about Fandom, sources, subjective truth, and the Lee/Kirby X-Men Omnibus variant cover

RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Power Rankings, S2E1 – “All Star Talent Show Extravaganza”

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Wow. Just… wow.

The first episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Season 2 was like the summer blockbuster movie of drag: it had tons of flashy effects and big twists, but the ending wasn’t much of a surprise.

The blockbuster status isn’t just because of a cast of 10 mostly-flawless queens, but because the show finally let the queens perform exactly as they would in their own drag shows with a unthemed talent show.

Honestly, I can understand why Ru wouldn’t try this on any old season – some of the typical queens might have messy routines or rely entirely on licensed music to make things work. However, for 10 all-stars at the top of their games it was a different story entirely.

How did the rankings shake out after the show compared to my Pre-Season Rankings from Thursday given the shocking rules changes for Season 2, all of the talents on display, and the ouster of Coco Montrese? Let’s take a look.

Roxxxy Andrews on the RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars Season 2 Talent Show1. Roxxxy Andrews

Runner-Up, Season 5. Pre-Season Rank: 7

Roxxxy Andrews was flawless in this episode.

Flawless.

Her entrance look was one of the best of all time. Roxxxy was breathtakingly gorgeous, modern and feminine, but aspects of it were still exaggerated enough to read as drag. Her burlesque routine was a hot little number, and she looked like a curvy woman while she did it.

Most importantly, she got to be the one to test-drive the new “Top queen kicks off the bottom queen” system, and it showed just how tactically she plays this game. She passed over kicking off two competitors most likely self-sabotage in the future in Phi Phi and Adore (one with utterly rabid fans) for a competitor who could reasonably beat her in a Lip Sync and doesn’t have the huge fanbase to vilify her.

Screen Shot 2016-08-29 at 9.45.19 PMWill the smarts and unshakeable confidence last? I say yes – this really felt like an all-new Roxxxy. But in this new format the moment a strong contender winds up in the bottom two she’s toast.

Can Roxxxy really stay out of the bottom until the final episode, or at least manage to wind up in the bottom with the bigger threats Alaska or Katya? Let’s recall, she only lip synced a single time in her original season. It could happen. [Read more…] about RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Power Rankings, S2E1 – “All Star Talent Show Extravaganza”

RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Power Rankings, S2 Pre-Season

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drag-queens-rupauls-drag-race-all-stars-2-thThe second season of RuPaul’s Drag Race All-Stars starts tonight on both Logo and VH1!

That means we all get a second glorious run of weekly drag queens this year, only this time its starring 10 seasoned queens we already know and who I largely love.

However, not ever All-Star can enter the Hall of Fame. How do I see things shaking out? Here’s my Power Rankings of these ten glittering queens heading into tonight’s premiere.

Here’s where I see their chances headed into tonight’s premiere. You can grab a season pass for all the eleganza in stunning streaming HD for $20 on Amazon.

1. Alaska Thunderfuck 5000

rpdr-as-s2-singles-AlaskaRunner-Up, Season 5

Pro: Alaska is the obvious heir apparent to the RuPaul crown in the same way Chad Michaels was at the start of the first season of All-Stars. She’s a multi-media superstar, she executes her twisted alien vision flawlessly, and Ru and World of Wonder come calling again and again for her to anchor tours, interview on red carpets, and pretend to be Anna Wintour on the S7 premiere.

Basically: she’s already treated like royalty. Her losing to Jinkx Monsoon was fair but it was a near thing that Ru can easily amend.

Con: Alaska isn’t the squeaky-clean queen that Chad was, both in presentation and reputation. There’s also her decidedly scatological sense of humor, which is riotous during a solo video or show but not as honed when competing for airtime with nine other girls. If Ru sees her fleet of Champions as the ultimate brand representatives, Alaska might not be the best choice to join them.

Plus, does she even need to the title to be more successful? In a way, she’s the next evolution of Raven – someone who will continue to endure and grow in popularity even as an eternal runner up. So, why waste a winner’s spot on her?

Ru-buttal: The Drag Race brand might need Alaska in the same way it needed Bob or Kim Chi in Season 8 – these girls represent a new generation of drag for an ever-widening group of mainstream fans who were born long after Ru stopped enjoying getting dragged up every day. Plus, Alaska is a trained actor – if Ru needs a spokesperson, she can nail it.

2. Yekaterina Petrovna Zamolodchikova AKA Katya

5th Place, Season 7

rpdr-as-s2-singles-KatyaPro: Katya’s insanity has eclipsed Season 7, some of Season 8, the entire schedule of World of Wonder web shows, and most other queens from recent seasons. What seems like non-sequitur, dadaist humor is the finest-honed, completely deadpan self-deprecation delivered with a natural sense of comedic timing.

Also? Her looks are frequently less man-in-wig and more actual woman on her commute to work realness.

Con: Katya’s not ready for this crown because her best feature is that she’s a compelling underdog. Even after her season, she continues to buckle under pressure when it’s time to impress, whether it’s her slo-mo dancing in big lip syncs or her bombing at a few high-profile gigs. She doesn’t vary her looks as much as her competition, and when she does it’s usually for determinedly fugly outfits – they’re on-brand for her, but not for Drag Race. Crowning her right after the similarly hilarious and salacious Bob seems redundant.

Plus, she’s still early in her recovery, and while that gives her a lot of manic energy, it’s also not the ideal story for Ru’s #1 brand representative. She needed another few years to bake, just like Alyssa and Alaska.

Ru-buttal: That’s all valid, but the fans have spoken on this one. If Ru wants to cross over into the mainstream with a modern update of her own outsized personality, Katya’s a fine choice. [Read more…] about RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Power Rankings, S2 Pre-Season