Crushing Krisis

Avengers Omnibus Mapping for the Tigereyes Most Wanted Marvel Omnibus 12th Annual Secret Ballot

March 25, 2024 by krisis

For the next two weeks, I’ll be loosely mapping missing and most-wanted Marvel omnibus volumes every day! Today I’ll be looking at all of the omnibuses that don’t yet exist for Avengers team books from 1963 to the present day.

This post explains titles and potential Avengers Omnibus Mapping for entries on the Tigereyes Most Wanted Marvel Omnibus 12th Annual Secret Ballot. You can vote right now (until 5 April 2024 @ midnight US ET) or watch our mega-length announcement stream reviewing every single voting option.

Marvel has always had a strong game when it comes to printing Avengers omnibuses, but a lot of that was linked to the MCU release schedule. In this vast gulf between Avengers films, what Avengers omnibuses do you want to see printed the most? And, what Avengers runs do you still need to dig into?

If you’re not sure of what to vote for, stick around for my explanations. Or, if you’ve already voted, learn why the team behind the poll decided on these books and titles – including some of my mistakes and regrets as one of the editors of the options on the final poll.

Or… just find some great comics to read!

Remember: These mappings are just my suggestion of how Marvel could assemble these books. They are meant to help you decide on your votes and build your personal reading list, but your vote on the poll is NOT an endorsement of my specific map. It’s a vote in favor of Marvel creating a book with that title or covering that period.

Over-the-top comics posts like this one are made possible via the support of Patrons of Crushing Krisis. For less than the cost of a single comic issue a month you can fuel my in-depth comics coverage, plus gain access to dozens of exclusive collecting guides & reading orders – including all of the Crushing Comics Guide to Marvel Comics.

RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 16, Episode 12 – Bathroom Hunties Power Rankings

March 25, 2024 by krisis

RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 16, Episode 12 was called “Bathroom Hunties,” an interior design challenge with a heavy helping of improv. On the runway, the theme was “Chain Reaction” – and a few queens served imaginative chained-up looks different from anything we’ve seen before.

Drag Race occasionally serves these oddball “experiential” challenges that profess to be about giving the judges a live walkthrough of interior design. We’ve seen it before in “Queen of Clubs” on All Stars Season 4 (whispers “club 96″) and “Get A Room!” on All Stars Season 5.

What some fans – and queens – miss about these challenges is they’re not about design. The challenge is never to design the best room or create the most credible commercial. They’re either about improv or branding. Maybe both! The brief is basically “what would you do with an empty room,” in the same way that many of the marketing commercial challenges are “what would you do with a green screen.” Queens who get mired in painting the walls are missing the forest for the trees.

Of course, there’s also something to be said for the fact that Trixie Mattel is one of the very few queens to sell her own solo show with Trixie Motel – an interior design show! It’s not unusual for Drag Race to borrow from the success of their favorite alums to inspire challenges, and I think that was intentional here.

It was no surprise to see the two queens with the strongest brands easily win this challenge, although watching their process revealed some interesting things about them both. While they retained their spots compared to last week’s “Corporate Queens” drag seminars challenge power rankings, the rest of the semi-finalists shuffled their standings as they vie for the chance to be second-runner-up.

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

Announcing Tigereyes Most Wanted Marvel Omnibus 12th Annual Secret Ballot! – LIVE on Near Mint Condition

March 24, 2024 by krisis

It’s time for the most wonderful Omnibus time of the year! That’s right, today is the kickoff of Tigereyes Most Wanted Marvel Omnibus 12th Annual Secret Ballot – and, I am thrilled beyond words to say that I am both announcing and co-organizing this year’s poll alongside the legendary Tigereyes and Omar!

[cue screaming in excitement and waving my arms around Kermit-style]

Announcing Tigereyes Most Wanted Marvel Omnibus 12th Annual Secret Ballot!

This annual Tigereyes Marvel Omnibus poll is the reason many of you even know who I am or visited CrushingKrisis in the first place! This year, I’m not only co-hosting the announcement of the poll – I’m also a part of the team that’s actually constructing, monitoring, and tabulating the poll alongside Tigereyes! Read on to understand what that means – and why it’s so necessary this year.

RuPaul’s Drag Race UK vs. The World Season 2, Episode 7 – Haters Wedding Roast power rankings

March 23, 2024 by krisis

I’m back with more coverage of the Drag Olympics of Drag Race! RuPaul’s Drag Race UK vs. The World Season 2 Episode 7 – Haters Wedding Roast, a stand-and-plant stand-up challenge delivered from behind a wedding dais paired with a “Take Me Up The Aisle” bridal runway.

If you engage in a retrospective Ru-watch of Drag Race, it’s interesting to watch how the show transforms over the years from a competition where drag queens must occasionally be funny to a full-fledged comedy competition. At this point, the show is known (and memed) as much for its laugh-out-loud absurd moments as for its fashion. At this point, there’s no way to win RuPaul’s lasting affection if you’re not at least a little bit funny.

The peculiar thing about that transformation into a full-on comedy competition is that it hinges entirely on RuPaul’s sense of humor. What Ru finds funny is grounded strongly in references that are older than most of her competitors. Though she’s twenty years older than me, RuPaul and I have an incredibly similar set of comedy references – Lucille Ball, Carol Burnett, 80s sitcoms like The Golden Girls, campy game show hosts and guests, and the deadpan early seasons of Saturday Night Live.

That’s a big reason why campy queens and old souls tend to do so well with RuPaul – they tap into her comfort zone when it comes to humor. Would someone learning to be funny today for the young consumers of now be funny to RuPaul? Would they do well on Drag Race? I’m never sure. I think we got a hint of this with Willow Pill, who has a darker, edgier kind of humor that’s right on the edge of Millennial and Gen Z. RuPaul ate that up. Yet, most times when we see anyone with a more youthful sense of ironic humor on the show, Ru is quick to serve them neutch and chop them down at the first chance.

This Haters Comedy Roast included two sets that were legitimately hilarious for audiences of all ages. That gave us a tiny but critical shuffle to the rankings compared to last week’s Strictly Come Prancing power rankings. What does that mean for next week’s finale? I think we have a clear powerhouse pair of potential winners, but also a black horse (wonk wonk) who could come through and surprise them both.

I’ll be back next week to congratulate our winner and reflect on my predictions and power rankings for the season!

(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 8 – Grande Finale

March 22, 2024 by krisis

Bon retour, mes chers lecteurs, dans mon classement final! Drag Race Belgique Season 2 Episode 8 was the Season 2 Grande Finale! That means a winner was crowned, and there are no more performances to rank!

Producing a season of Drag Race is a delicate process. Any reality competition show relies on the strength of its casting. The alchemy of the cast is what makes a show compelling. Eliminations serve a dual purpose of narrowing the field to both the best competitors and the strongest personalities who will produce good television. A reality competition based on art is even more fragile – now, the show relies not just on the personalities of its cast, but their talent and inspiration.