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RuPaul’s Drag Race UK vs. The World Season 2, Episode 3 – Drag Race World Power Rankings

February 24, 2024 by krisis

It’s another week of the Olympics of Drag Race! RuPaul’s Drag Race UK vs. The World Season 2 Episode 3 was “Drag Race World,” a tricky commercial challenge that paired personal branding with creating a marketable immerse experience. It was paired with a franchise-favorite “Ruveal Yourself” runway.

This was one of those “is the challenge bad or are the queens not getting it” weeks of Drag Race for me.

The assignment was to advertise an experiential VIP fan experience unique to the brand of each queen’s drag. Effectively, queens had to make commercials for themselves – and for what it would be like to meet them in person.

Some queens got the VIP experience part, and some queens got the brand part, but only a handful of queens were able to marry them in a way that made sense, was funny, and also was something sellable.

That lead one queen to ruveal more than just a runway look, but also a previously-secret talent she has kept under wraps through her entire Drag Race experience. It also gave us a fresh pair of winners, one surprisingly near-flop, and two very different senses of humor on the runway from a pair of UK queens. That lead to a number of shakeups in our power ranking compared to last week’s fairytale-themed “Happy Ending Ball” challenge.

(Want to watch RuPaul’s Drag Race UK vs. The World outside of the UK? For most of the world, it’s available with a Wow Presents Plus subscription as soon as the episode is done airing.)

Readers, start your engines. And, may the best international drag superstar win!

Drag Race Belgique Season 2, Episode 4 – “Masquerade” & Mille et Une Belgiques à l’Eurovision runway Power Rankings

February 23, 2024 by krisis

Bon retour, mes chers lecteurs, dans plus de classements! Drag Race Belgique Season 2 Episode 4 was titled “Masquerade,” which gave the queens a chance to propose a law as a part of Belgium’s first Drag Government. It was followed by Mille et Une Belgiques à l’Eurovision as the runway theme (“1,001 Belgiums at Eurovision”) – a chance to pay tribute to iconic Eurovision looks.

This is the first episode that allowed the cast to fully show off their intelligence and personality in a challenge. That created a night-and-day difference compared to the Girl Groups challenge last week. These queens are clearly more cerebral than they are choreographers – even the weakest speeches of this challenges were better than the safe verses from last week!

This episode also had a brief moment of controversy, with Star and Gabanna walking onto set before the judges arrived to peak at their notes behind the desk. Despite the campy “security footage” confirming their snooping, it did not seem like a very serious offense to me. Unusual and certainly inappropriate, yes – but, I question how a pair of queens in the middle of getting into drag even walked behind the judge’s table without a producer or director stopping them!

I know international seasons often have their workrooms and runways on the same set, sometimes even facing each other, but… this was in the middle of the full camera coverage of the queens getting ready. Heaven only knows how it happened, but I do think it’s funny that this supposed crime was perpetrated by both the oldest and the most youthful contestant (if not the youngest).

Aussi… mes amis, je dois être honnête avec vous: writing about Belgique this year has not resulted in much ongoing readership after the first episode. Of course, if you are reading this, you’re part of the solution, not the problem! And, it could simply be that this season isn’t very popular – it is one of the least-seen franchises. However, unless things change, this might be the only non-English franchise I cover this year. As much as I love to write about Drag Race, I could use this same time to write about comic books!

If you’re enjoying my writing (either during the run of the season or after the fact), please share this post on social media or in your favorite Drag Race communities or group chats! I’d love to have a reason to continue to cover every franchise of Drag Race.

An intellectual episode evened out our powers rankings a bit compared to last week’s disastrous Girl Groups challenge and its big power rankings shakeup. I think we now have a clear-eyed look at how this season might progress from here.

(Want to watch Drag Race Belgique outside of Belgium? For most of the world, it’s available with a Wow Presents Plus subscription as soon as the episode is done airing.)

Lecteurs, start your engines. Et, que la meilleure Drag Queen gagne!

New Comics & Collected Editions: Marvel Comics – February 28 2024

February 22, 2024 by krisis

It’s the 9th new comic book day of the new year! This post covers Marvel Comics February 28 2024 releases. Missed last week’s releases? Check out last week’s post covering Marvel Comics February 21 2024 new releases.

This week in Marvel Comics: Gang War ends, Tony Stark’s X-era, nostalgic Power Pack perfection, the conclusion of unexpectedly great turns on Punisher & White Widow, 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 28 2024 Collected Editions

The Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 8: Spider-Man’s First Hunt
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1302953447 / digital)
See Guide to Spider-Man – Peter Parker (2018 – Present). This collects the arc that directly precedes Gang War and vaguely follows up on Dark Web with a focus on new comedy character Rep-Rap. It was fine, but ever since the initial meta-arc of this book wrapped up in issue #25 it has felt a bit directionless. I wouldn’t call this a jumping-on point.

Daredevil Modern Era Epic Collection: Underboss
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1302956332 / digital)
See Guide to Daredevil. This recollects Brian Bendis’s run from the start. However, it is not the same mapping as Daredevil by Bendis & Maleev Ultimate Collection, Vol. 1 because it collects the typically skipped arc from #20-25! This is the first time that arc has ever been collected in sequential order along with the issues that surround it.

The Invincible Iron Man Vol. 2: The Wedding of Tony Stark and Emma Frost
(2023 paperback, ISBN 978-1302947590 / digital)
See Guide to Iron Man – Tony Stark. If you haven’t been reading Iron Man I imagine that title might warrant an eye-roll or the assumption that this is a big sales gimmick forcing a romance between Tony and Emma. In reality, this is a surprisingly organic outgrowth of the continuing plot of Fall of X extending out of the 2023 Hellfire Gala.

In this collection, Iron Man is 100% an X-book, and here’s a secret: Gerry Duggan is way better with a solo title with one or two characters than a big team book, so importing Emma here means he has room to really have fun with both her and Tony. Issues #9-10 are perfection, especially if you’ve also been reading Duggan’s X-Men (2021).

Debating our Evergreen DC Omnibus List – LIVE on Near Mint Condition

February 21, 2024 by krisis

Are you ready to rumble? Tomorrow, on Thursday 22 February at 5:30 pm US ET I’m live with Near Mint Condition to share my Evergreen DCOmnibus List – that means the books should never go out of print!

Omar of Near Mint Condition, Jess the Omnidog, Lars of Mad Norwegian Press, and more distinguished panelists will share their lists, too… and then we’ll fight tooth and nail over our officially endorsed Evergreen DC Omnibus List of 10 books.

It’s the show that is half serious recommendations, half a cut-throat game show of all of us trying to block other people’s recommendations so that all of our own make the list. How many Batman books will make the cut? Can we manage to shut out all of Omar’s choices for the second stream in a row?

Tune in to Near Mint Condition on YouTube find out!

RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 16, Episode 7 – The Sound of Rusic Rusical Power Rankings

February 18, 2024 by krisis

RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 16, Episode 7 was our annual Rusical! “The Sound of Rusic” recast familiar tropes from The Sound of Music as a pop music musical set in a high stakes pageant in a remote town.

It was paired with a “I Can Buy Myself Flowers” runway themed to match the lip sync tune “Flowers,” Miley Cyrus’s recent Grammy-winner for Record of the Year

We’re at a point in the evolution of Drag Race where not only every contestant comes ready to smash the Rusical, but the show itself has a vested interest in the Rusical looking amazing. Even though this was unseen to us, it’s a virtual guarantee that the queens had an extra 1-2 days to rehearse this show “off camera” between when we saw them go home on Day 1 and when they hit the runway on “Day 2.”

As with “Wigloose” last year, that resulted in a musical with no obvious worst performance, unless we’re going to get nitpicky about a wardrobe malfunction. That means we do have to get nitpicky, not only about that, but about whether people looked alive behind the eyes or made the most out of their little bits of business.

That lead to a cutthroat and somewhat hard to predict set of bottom queens. However, it was the runway that confirmed our top queens, as three of our drag artists had the objective best looks of the night (and a fourth queen’s fashionable runway may have saved her from the bottom).

What does that mean for our Power Rankings compared to last week’s “Welcome to the DollHouse”? One queen fights her way back into the Top 3 while another queen falls out of the Top 4 for the first time, and the four queens marooned outside of the Top 5 are going to have to get serious about their game theory to see if they can last long enough to play spoiler against a frontrunner.

Readers, start your engines. And, may the best drag queen win!