Crushing Krisis

Comic Books, Drag Race, & Life in New Zealand

Book Club

Batwoman Book Club, Week 3 of 4: Batwoman (2011) #12-24 & 0

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Welcome to the penultimate week of Batwoman Book Club!

Today we discuss the latter half of the J.H. Williams III and W. Haden Blackman New 52 run on Batwoman! FanGirl and I both felt like the wheels came off this run after a weirdly stoic story-book plot with Wonder Woman and a muddled climax battling the mythical Medusa in Gotham.

This embed is the first of two parts of our Week 2 discussion – each video ends with a link to the next part.

Want to catch up with the reading assignments? Here’s our full schedule for the month – visit the Guide to Batwoman to learn how to collect these issues.

Starting Next Week: An Epic X-Men (Re-) Read

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I started unwrapping my oversize hardcover collect on November 1st, and a week from today I will be posting my final unwrapping video. That’s 84 videos and over a hundred books in five months, not including haul videos and the launch of new series like “Book Club” and “This Week In X”!

The end of my unwrapping saga comes with a question: what’s next?

It’s no secret that many comics fans found my site via my X-Men guides and reading orders, and throughout my video series there has been a constant demand for more X-Men. Well, now it’s time to pull out your back issues, because I am introducing a seven week pilot X-Men Epic Re-Read challenge!

Don’t worry – we’re not just going to start in the Silver Age! Inspired by Marvel’s line of Epic Collections, we’ll be jumping around the first 50 years of the X-Men’s history to read brief runs. Some of them will be key issues, others will tie in to new comics or films, while others will be totally random!

For this pilot season, I’ve chosen some of the most widely-owned and repeatedly-collected X-Men stories in existence, along with a few modern tales – all of which are available to read on Marvel Unlimited. [Read more…] about Starting Next Week: An Epic X-Men (Re-) Read

Batwoman Book Club, Week 2 of 4: Batwoman (2010) #0 & (2011) #1-11

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Welcome back to another week of Batwoman Book Club!

Today we discuss the first half of the J.H. Williams III and W. Haden Blackman New 52 run on Batwoman, which I first reviewed here on CK way back in 2011! Hear how Williams and Blackman push Kate Kane into a much more mythological and horrific place in Gotham than Batman usually occupies. Plus, discussion of Maggie Sawyer vs. Cameron Chase, sex intercut with violence, and if Batwoman ought to kill.

This embed is the first of five parts of our Week 2 discussion – each video ends with a link to the next part.

 

Want to catch up with the reading assignments? Here’s our full schedule for the month – visit the Guide to Batwoman to learn how to collect these issues.

  • Tuesday, March 6: Detective Comics (1937) #854-863
  • Tuesday, March 13: Batwoman (2010) #0 & (2011) #1-11
  • Tuesday, March 20: Batwoman (2011) #12-24 & 0
  • Tuesday, March 27: Detective Comics (2016) #934-940 & 948-949 + Batwoman (2017) Rebirth & #1-6

Batwoman Book Club, Week 1 of 4: Detective Comics #854-863

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After some technical difficulties earlier this week, I’m proud to present the first week of our Batwoman Book Club!

The format of this round of Book Club is slightly different than the last two rounds. FanGirl and I are pre-recording our discussions rather than live-streaming, which allows me to do fun things like break the video into segments, insert the interior pages we mention, and occasionally turn FanGirl into an anime character with hearts for eyes.

This embed is the first of four parts of our Week 1 discussion – each video ends with a link to the next part.

This first week sees us covering Batwoman by Greg Rucka and JH Williams III in its entirety. It was Batwoman’s first solo story, and nearly a decade after its release it still feels like the pinnacle of superhero comics craft.

In our videos, we spend time discussing Batwoman identity as a lesbian, the color looks from Dave Stewart that separate the many parts of Batwoman’s life, why speaking entirely in Alice In Wonderland quotes can be a bad thing, and why you can get away with more tragedy as a writer when your characters have agency.

Want to catch up with the reading assignments all this month? Here’s our full schedule for the month – visit the Guide to Batwoman to learn how to collect these issues.

  • Tuesday, March 6: Detective Comics (1937) #854-863
  • Tuesday, March 13: Batwoman (2011) #0 & 1-11
  • Tuesday, March 20: Batwoman (2011) #12-24 & 0
  • Tuesday, March 27: Detective Comics (2016) #934-940 & 948-949 + Batwoman (2017) Rebirth & #1-6