Crushing Krisis

What If? Classic Omnibus, Vol. 1 – The #60 Most-Wanted Marvel Omnibus of 2017

May 8, 2017 by krisis

The What If? Classic Omnibus, Vol. 1 is the #60 Most-Wanted Marvel Omnibus of 2017 on Tigereyes’s Secret Ballot.

Visit the Marvel Masterworks Message Board to view the original posting of results by Tigereyes.

What Is It? What If (1977) featured a round robin of Marvel creators telling one-shot, alternate reality tales that altered key elements of the company’s biggest heroes.

What If? ran for 47 issues from February 1977 to October 1984.

Past Ranking: Unranked in 2014-2016; #18 in the 2013 survey

Creators: Many!

Probable Contents: What If? (1977) #1-12 & 14-25 (#13 featured Conan, whose stories Marvel does not have the rights to reproduce.)

What If? (1977) issues had 35-40 story pages per issue for the duration of the title’s run, which means we could fit a max of just over 30 total issues of the series into a single omnibus (the biggest of which is currently 1344 pages).

[Thanks to CBR’s Rincewind for giving me a heads up on the page length!]

That would leave us with a follow-up What If? Classic Omnibus, Vol. 2 containing What If? (1977) #26-38, 40-42, 43 (1st story only), and 44-47. (Issues #39 and 41 featured Conan stories.)

Note that issue #16 was absent in the earlier reprints because it featured Shang-Chi and his father Fu Manchu, but would likely be available again now that Marvel has reached a new licensing agreement with Sax Rohmer’s estate regarding Fu Manchu stories.

Can you read it right now? Yes! This series has been printed in its entirety (save for issues with licensing conflicts) in seven Classic collections: Volume 1, Volume 2, Volume 3, Volume 4, Volume 5, Volume 6, Volume 7. They happen to each be available right now for $5.50 on Kindle! Also, Marvel Unlimited currently has issues #1-38.

The Details:

While this imaginative series probably wouldn’t last more than a few issues today, anthology style series and stories sold just fine back in the 70s and 80s – especially when they were stacked with a cast of Marvel’s most major heroes. [Read more…] about What If? Classic Omnibus, Vol. 1 – The #60 Most-Wanted Marvel Omnibus of 2017

on burning your (free) (comic) books (and Secret Empire’s FCBD issue)

May 7, 2017 by krisis

Have you ever burned something in effigy?

The book The House of Leaves being burned by Learning Lark

Photos of an old lover. A flag. Perhaps a Milli Vanilli record?

Burning an object is a way to symbolically exorcise bad memories, a bold form of protest, and a sure way to destroy something you are determined to repudiate.

What about a burning a book?

Book burning carries a slightly different connotation than torching your pop music records, because it can evoke the censorship and destruction of irretrievable historical records. It conjures echoes of the destruction of the Library of Alexandria and Nazi book-burning – of lost knowledge and repression. Regimes and religions alike have used book burning as a public spectacle to symbolize the purification of their subjects after being exposed to some kind of wrongful thinking.

I propose that this sort of ritual destruction exists on a spectrum of acceptability that begins at the intensely personal (photos), continues through the overtly political (flags), and finally comes to rest at objecting to thought (art, history), and the context through which we view each destructions is dictated by the relative power of the people doing the burning compared to the people being burned.

(Now I have to explain some comic book stuff for a few paragraphs, but this isn’t really a post about comic books. Seriously.)

Yesterday was Free Comic Book Day (FCBD), where local comic book stores (LCS) spend money on special $0 cover price comics from every major (and many minor!) publishers that they can hand out for free to customers. It drives one of their biggest business days of the year, and fans wind up purchasing tons of store stock before they walk away flush with dozens of books.

One of this year’s FCBD issues was of Nick Spencer’s Secret Empire – that controversial event comic where Captain America is and has always been an agent of the Nazi-stand-ins Hydra as penned by Nick Spencer. (Not sure what I’m talking about? Here’s my essay and review of #0.)

Some comic book consumers decided to pick up said free single issue and then torch it, taking photos of the process to share on social media.

To say there is tension within the comic fan community over Secret Empire right now is quite the understatement. I’ve seen both sides of the argument want to paint the other as liberty-hating dummies who don’t pay attention to the comics they read. I’ve seen both conservatives and liberals both support and oppose the story – so now we have liberals calling conservatives “book-burning stuck-up Nazis” and conservatives calling liberals “attention-seeking SJW fascists.”

(Can we even pause to evoke Godwin’s Law when the actual comic book is being burned over its allusions to Nazism?)

Okay, enough about comics in the specific. Back to books in the general. [Read more…] about on burning your (free) (comic) books (and Secret Empire’s FCBD issue)

After these messages…

May 6, 2017 by krisis

Are you looking for another three days of Marvel Omnibus posts, plus a Drag Race ranking?

You’re in the right place! I have family visiting this week, so my editing time is quite slim – and right now all of those posts are a mess of run-on sentences that you definitely don’t want to read.

Please tune back in on Sunday and Monday to catch up on those posts. Plus, the results of the 2017 Most Wanted Marvel Omnibus Secret Ballot will begin to be revealed on Monday – and you only have until Sunday at midnight to send your vote to (all one word, no spaces) marvel omni secret ballot at gmail dot com!

RuPaul’s Drag Race Power Rankings, S09E07 – “9021-HO”

May 6, 2017 by krisis

This week on RuPaul’s Drag Race, the cast flashes back 27 years to parody a TV show from before some of them were born!

That’s right, it’s time for one of Drag Race‘s acting challenges.

If you aren’t familiar with them from past seasons, the scripts are “skit from your high school English class that still makes you wince whenever you think about it” realness. The challenges tend to be less about acting or memorization and more about delivering nonsense lines or surviving characters obviously meant to send a queen to the bottom two (generally, any character you’d describe as “butch”).

Yet, this group of queens is so solid that the only person who turns in a real clunker of a performance does so entirely due to her own inner saboteur – and continues her downward slide in the rankings as a result.

Meanwhile, a vague runway theme of “Big Hair” doesn’t help queens like Alexis Michelle, who do better with a little more guidance like they had on last week’s Madonna runway.

Meanwhile, it seems like the season’s top three is starting to really solidify, with a pair of queens sparring for the fourth spot in the last episode before the finals. Can all four girls hold off the competition from the other three remaining queen?

All it takes is a single misstep to sashay away.

Marvel series still awaiting an omnibus from the Masterworks Era (1961 – 1980)

May 5, 2017 by krisis

This is the final post in our series time-traveling backwards through Marvel’s era of comic books to see what books would make fantastic omnibuses, and this is a big one – it’s what I’m calling “The Masterworks Era.”

After this post, you should have more than enough ammo to fill out your 2017 Most Wanted Marvel Omnibus Secret Ballot, which is due by Sunday at midnight! I’ve suggested over a hundred possible votes!

What exactly is “The Masterworks Era,” aside from something I just made up? It refers to the period of comcis that Marvel has covered with their deluxe, standard-size hardcover Marvel Masterworks reprint line. The Silver Age portion of the line begins with Fantastic Four #1 in 1961.

The end is a little fuzzier. The Silver Age is understood to end in 1970-71, but with a handful of exceptions Marvel has already pushed past that point with every line of Masterworks collections. In fact, their newest two Masterworks lines are The Spectacular Spider-Man (1976), Spider-Woman (1978), and The Savage She-Hulk (1980)!

Yes, that’s right – Masterworks now cover comics that began in the 1980s! That’s like when the oldies station of my youth started playing Madonna songs. Plus, the farthest outlier, Uncanny X-Men, has reached all the way up to issue #188 in 1984.

When it comes to classic Omnibuses, until this year Marvel followed a specific formula almost every time – one omnibus contained three Masterworks volumes. We’re now seeing them deviate from that formula with Amazing Spider-Man, Daredevil, and Thor, all of which contained more than the customary three volumes.

To figure out what comics are due for potential omnibuses to feature in this post, I had to first figure out both what has been covered by Masterworks volumes and what has been skipped! That’s not really a part of this discussion, but if you’re interested, I’ve shown my work.

A list of titles that are eligible for Masterworks treatment

Marvel Spotlight (1971), an anthology series which branches to:
- Red Wolf (1972) – This has never been reprinted in color, but does not have enough material for an omnibus.
- Werewolf by Night (1972) – This has been reprinted in Omnibus, but could still be Masterworked
- Ghost Rider (1973) – This has never been reprinted in color and is listed below!
- Son of Satan (1975) – This received a TPB collection in 2016 and is too short to be an omnibus on its own.
- Spider-Woman (1978) – This has begun to be Masterworked and could be an omnibus, but we need more MMW volumes first.
- Moon Knight (1980)– Collected in color in Epic collections and could be an omnibus; it is listed below
- Plus, the Deathlok MMW line, Warriors Three stories in the Thor MMW line, and a Fury story in the Nick Fury MMW line
The Cat (1972) – Collected in the Women of Marvel Omnibus
Chamber of Chills (1972) – A horror anthology; this has never been reprinted fully in color.
Marvel Premiere (1972), an anthology series featuring:
- Warlock (1972) – This has been fully Masterworked and could be an omnibus; it is listed below
- Doctor Strange (1974) – This has begun to be Masterworked and could be an omnibus; it is listed below
- Iron Fist (1975) – This has been fully Masterworked and could be an omnibus; it is listed below
- Doctor Who – This is licensed material.
- And shorter runs and one shots of Hercules, Satana, Legion of Monsters (Ghost Rider, Man-Thing, Morbius, Werewolf by Night), Liberty Legion, Woodgod, Monark Starstalker (before Star Wars!), Solomon Kane, 3-D Man, Weirdworld, Torpedo, Seeker 3000, Tigra, Paladin, Jack of Hearts, Man-Wolf, Ant-Man (Scott Lang), Falcon, Alice Cooper, Black Panther, Caleb Hammer, Wonder Man, Dominic Fortune, and Star-Lord
Night Nurse (1972), collected in the Women of Marvel Omnibus
Shanna, the She-Devil (1972), collected in the Women of Marvel Omnibus
Supernatural Thrillers (1972), a horror anthology; this has never been reprinted fully in color.
Tomb of Dracula (1972) and Dracula Lives (1973) – This has been reprinted in Omnibus, but could still be Masterworked
Frankenstein (1973) – Collected in color in TPB and is too brief for an omnibus
Vampire Tales (1973) – An anthology series featuring Blade and Morbius. This has been collected in TPB and could be Masterworked, but it’s too short to be an omnibus without including other material.
Haunt of Horror (1974), which included Satana stories
Master of Kung Fu (1974) and The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu (1974) – Collected in Omnibus but not Masterworked.
Man-Thing (1974 / 1979) – Collected in both an omnibus and a Complete Collection line, but not Masterworked.
The Invaders (1975) – Collected in a pair of Complete Collections, and previously in Classics; could still be Omnibused – listed below.
Marvel Chillers (1975), an anthology series featuring:
- Modred the Mystic, not collected
- Tigra, not collected
Marvel Presents (1975), an anthology series featuring:
- Bloodstone, not collected
- Guardians of the Galaxy, which has been collected in omnibus and could conceivably hit Masterworks
Super-Villain Team-Up (1975) – Collected in a single Complete Collection; too short for omnibus, but could appear in a Namor omnibus line.
Captain Britain (1976) – Collected entirely in a pair of OHCs; could still be Masterworked, but an omnibus would be redundant since there’s nothing left to add.
The Eternals (1976) – Collected in one of Marvel’s early omnibuses; could still be Masterworked
Howard the Duck (1976 / 1979) – Collected in both an omnibus and a Complete Collection line; could still be Masterworked
Nova (1976) – Collected completely in a paperback Classic line, but not omnibus or Masterworks – so it’s covered below!
Omega the Unknown (1976) – Too short to be an omnibus; has been collected in TPB, but could be Masterworked
What If? (1977) – Collected in a paperback Classics line, but not in omnibus – so it’s covered below!
Devil Dinosaur (1978) – Previously collected in omnibus, and recently in paperback; could be Masterworked!
Machine Man (1978) – Collected in a single TPB in 2016 and has previously appeared on the survey; however, without the rights to reprint 2001: A Space Odyssey material Marvel likely can’t expand this to an omnibus.
Amazing Adventures (1979), an anthology series which branches to:
- Inhumans content in their MMW line; could be omnibused
- Beast content in the X-Men MMW line; could be omnibused
- Killraven, which has not been reprinted in color and could be omnibused
Marvel Spotlight (1979), an anthology series which branches to:
- the final volume of the Captain Marvel MMW line
- A handful of Dragon-Lord stories, uncollected
- Star-Lord, collected variously with Guardians of the Galaxy (including in Omnibus)
- Captain Universe, as a spin-off from Micronauts, collected in Captain Universe: Power Unimaginable; not enough material for ominbus

This list omits Western titles like Tex Dawson, Gunslinger (1973), Gun-Slinger (1973), and Gunhawks (1972) and licensed material Marvel can’t Masterwork, including Conan, Doc Savage, Godzilla, The Human Fly, John Carter, Kull, Micronauts, Planet of the Apes, Red Sonja (in her own title and in Marvel Feature (1975), Shogun Warriors, Star Trek, Tarzan, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and The Wizard of Oz (based on the film).

How am I defining “due” here? It’s any superhero universe series that the Masterworks line has skipped entirely or any Masterworks line with three or more un-omnibused volumes.

Any comic with a Masterworks line that’s in-progress with only one or two volumes is not included: Ka-Zar, Luke Cage, Marvel Team-Up, Marvel Two-in-One, Not Brand Echh Vol. 1, Rarities Vol. 1, Rawhide Kid, She-Hulk, Spectacular Spider-Man, Spider-Woman.

I also didn’t include the one-and-done Masterworks volumes Champions and Deathlok as potential omnibuses, since the omnibus would be the same as the Masterworks!

Are you ready to travel back in time from 1980 to the beginning of Marvel’s Silver Age in 1961? Here we go! [Read more…] about Marvel series still awaiting an omnibus from the Masterworks Era (1961 – 1980)