Crushing Krisis

RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Season 3 Power Rankings S03E02 – Divas Lip Sync Live

February 3, 2018 by krisis

This week on RuPaul’s Drag Race, the show sinks to new depths of low-effort self-promotion with a VH1 Divas Live impersonation concert where every one of nine famous divas are singing RuPaul songs.

This was an episode full of buffoonery, riggery, and straight up tomfoolery.

It could have been a truly iconic and hilarious event, as shown by BenDeLaCreme’s instantly-memorable performance lip syncing to RuPauls’ “Mother” as recorded in the style of Julie Andrews by actress/impersonator Christina Bianco.

Why was that performance so incredibly memorable, and all the others much less so? Two reasons.

First, “Mother” was sung in Andrews’ style but over what essentially sounded like original RuPaul backing track. It doesn’t stand up to a direct comparison, but it was a simulacrum of what you’d expect from Ru and nothing like a Julie Andrews song. BenDeLa benefited from the dissonance because she could play up the element of frantic, held-hostage nervousness in her performance. All of the other divas essentially sang an unrecognizable RuPaul song in their own style, which was less funny and gave many of them much less to do.

The second reason connects to that last bit. Essentially, Todrick Hall done fucked up drag race. He went totally ham on the choreography of Ben’s track because there was a lot for her to do. He also went ham on Janet Jackson and Mariah Carey, but barely touched the six other routines. Note his uncontained glee on the judges’ panel as the girls perform his super basic voguing during BenDeLa’s song, while he basically left the capable Thorgy (and, let’s be honest, Trixie) out to dangle.

Where does that leave our rankings? They’re not too shook compared to last week, though one queen is making her own case for an advance on the final three.

The Pull List, Jan. 31, 2018: Dark Ark, Detective Comics, Moon Knight, Reactor, The Realm, and more!

February 2, 2018 by krisis

My pull list keeps growing in size as I get caught up with more current comic books! I read 21 new comics released earlier this week on January 31 – and I would have read even more if I managed to catch up on my Superman reading in time for these reviews!

Here’s The Pull List for the week, as broken out by publisher (though they’re reviewed in alpha order, below).

Aftershock Comics: Dark Ark (2017) #5
Amigo Comics: Call of the Suicide Forest (2018)
Dark Horse Comics: Hungry Ghosts (2018) #1
DC Comics: Dark Nights: Metal #5, Detective Comics (2016) Annual 1, Milk Wars (2018) JLA/Doom Patrol Special, Mystik U (2018) #2, The Silencer (2018)
IDW Publishing: Dread Gods (2017) #3
Image Comics: Bonehead (2018) #2, God Complex: Dogma (2017) #4, The Realm (2017) #5, Void Trip (2017) #3
Marvel Comics: Avengers (2017) #678, All-New Wolverine (2016) #30, Captain Marvel (2017) #128, Jean Grey (2017) #11, Moon Knight (2017) #191, Old Man Logan (2016) #34, Phoenix Resurrection: The Return of Jean Grey (2018) #5
Vault Comics: Maxwell’s Demons (2017) #2, Reactor (2017) #2, Songs For The Dead (2018) #1

As you will discover below, I am not shy about giving low ratings to comic books. A lot of sites shy away from covering comics they think are weak or bad, but I think that does the fans and industry a disservice. We can’t only talk about comics that are brilliant or at least better-than-average – that signals a death of critical discourse!

I’m just as interested in the weak books as the strong ones, because they help set the standard of what’s great in comics and the tough reviews might still help those books find fans.

Enough chatter – let’s take a look at my top Big Two and Indie books of the week before getting to the full list.

Top Marvel/DC Comic of The Week

Detective Comics (2016) Annual 1, DC Comics

A stunningly good tragic origin story for Clayface with the best artwork I’ve ever seen from Eddie Barrows, which is really saying something because I always love Eddie Barrows.

This is the kind of comic book single issue you can hand to a brand new fan who only vaguely knows the Batman mythos. Tom King has been knocking out terrific one-offs like that on Batman, but this James Tynion story is different in that it delves into the core of an existing character instead of inventing a new plot.

My understanding is that this departs a bit from the established Clayface original, which we’ve seen several times in the past – so, I appreciate if some regular Bat-readers aren’t into getting more of it. However, considering the events of the recently concluded story arc in Detective, this feels like the perfect time to reestablish Basil’s origin.

Top Indie Comic of the Week

The Realm (2017) #5, Image Comics

This comic is on fire!

The Realm has quickly become one of my favorite comics on the stands with its blend of post-apocalyptic terrain with fantastical monsters out of a Dungeons and Dragons campaign. This issue has a downright wild amount of siege action coming from every which direction, which puts the central quest on hold while our protagonists fight for their lives. (They aren’t all successful in that fight.)

There are major shades of Helms Deep here, with the goblins trying to breech the wall of a make-shift city. The action was frantic, but never hard to follow. It even revealed some new information about our characters in the midst of the chaos. There was some wonderful panelling to build tension to a fever pitch during the battering ram portion, but it also gave us several moments to reveal things about our cast…

…the ones that survive, anyhow.

And now, on to the other 19 comics I read that were released on January 31, 2018!

This Week in X: Phoenix Resurrection: The Return of Jean Grey concludes, plus All-New Wolverine #30, Jean Grey #11, and Old Man Logan #34

February 2, 2018 by krisis

It’s the fifth week of new comics in 2018, and it’s a climactic week for the X-Men!

Tom Taylor and the stellar art team of Juan Cabal and Nolan Woodard wrap up the “Orphans of X” arc in All-New Wolverine #30. Jean Grey goes through an unexpected transformation in Jean Grey #11. Our aged Logan has a brief reunion with a lost love and then the plot lurches onward in Old Man Logan #34. And, finally Phoenix Resurrection: The Return of Jean Grey concludes with issue #5 and … you guessed it, the return of Jean Grey!

I was underwhelmed by the conclusions of both Jean Grey books, which felt much ado about nothing to me. It would have been more interesting to have Jean appear out of nowhere. I have a lot more to say about this on this week’s “This Week In X”!

Crushing Comics S01E068 – Rick Remender’s Fear Agent + The Impermanence of Information

February 1, 2018 by krisis

I begin today by musing on the ephemeral nature of the vast amounts of information we publish daily in this digital age. How will the archeologists and historians access all of this data, and what will they think of it?

After those deep thoughts, I unwrap the pair of library editions of Rick Remender’s Fear Agent. My memory of the plot of this modern take on sci-fi pulp is a bit dim, but I share some of the history of the series as related in iFanBoy’s fantastic three-part oral history and attempt to explain why I don’t love this series.

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

Episode 68 features Fear Agent Library Edition Volume 1 and Volume 2 from Dark Horse Comics. These editions are about to get very scarce, as Rick Remender has moved the publishing rights for this series back to Image Comics!

Crushing Comics S01E067 – X-Men, Vol. 1 & Ed Piskor’s X-Men: Grand Design (+ My Origin Story)

January 31, 2018 by krisis

This episode is all about humble beginnings.

First, I share a story about my t-shirt, Philly, and how I became comfortable performing on stage and in front of the camera thanks to a connection to a relatively new super-star, as I’ve related in the past.

Then, I unwrap the legendary first volume of X-Men’s classic Silver Age run by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Roy Thomas, and Werner Roth! Is this volume still worth reading now that you can simply read Ed Piskor’s terrific summary in 40 pages in X-Men: Grand Design #2?

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

Episode 67 features the X-Men Silver Age Omnibus, Vol. 1. For more information (and details on how to collect this run other than in its hard-to-find omnibus), see my Guide to Silver Age X-Men.