Crushing Krisis

The Newest Oldest Blog In New Zealand

Brian K. Vaughan

Back Issue Review: Black-Eyed Kids, Lady Mechanika, Warframe, and more!

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Welcome to another week of Back Issue Review! In this post, I share my capsule reviews of comic books I read that were not newly-released this month.

My reading this week was entirely focused on non Big Two comics (that means no Marvel and no DC) and largely on checking out books with women protagonists I hadn’t read before.

This post includes reviews of:

  • Black Cloud (2017) #1-2
  • Black-Eyed Kids (2016) #1-15
  • Bonehead (2018) #1
  • Dread Gods (2017) #1-2
  • God Complex: Dogma (2017) #1-3
  • Interceptor (2016) #1-5
  • Justice League (2016) #22-24
  • Lady Mechankia (2010) #0-2
  • Maxwell’s Demons (2017) #1
  • Morea (2017) Vol. 1
  • Paper Girls (2015) #11-15
    (AKA Volume 3)
  • Reactor (2018) #1
  • The Realm (2017) #1-4
  • Rose (2017) #1-4
  • Tarot: Witch of the Black Rose (2000) #1
  • Void Trip (2017) #1-2
  • Warframe (2017) #1

Unfortunately, most of those weren’t very good, but I did come away with a pair of new favorite titles, plus one I enjoyed but couldn’t commit to because we’re from such different worlds. [Read more…] about Back Issue Review: Black-Eyed Kids, Lady Mechanika, Warframe, and more!

Back Issue Review: Maestros, Super Sons, Umbrella Academy, Victor LaValle’s Destroyer, & more

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Welcome to my third pilot post of Back Issue Review, where I give you the run-down on all the not-new comics I read this week. (Did you miss last week’s edition?)

This week I read very little Marvel and DC, instead focusing on a ton of indie comics series that are easy to pick up with no prior comics background. As it turns out, a pair of the most-popular series fell a bit flat with me, while a few more obscure titles totally blew me away. I even found a new favorite comic book to add to my pull list!

Today’s back issue review includes write-ups on:

  • Backways (2017) #1
  • Captain Canuck (2015) #4-5
  • Dept. H (2016) #1-12
  • Eternal Empire (2017) #1-4
  • Gasolina (2017) #1-4
  • Justice League (2016) #20-21
  • Maestros (2017) #1-3
  • Mercury Heat (2015) #1-12 & FCBD
  • Paper Girls (2015) #6-10
  • Super Sons (2017) #1-4
  • The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite (2007) #1-6
  • Victor LaValle’s Destroyer (2017) #1-6

I’ll tell you now that Maestros and Victor LaValle’s Destroyer are two of the best comics I’ve read from 2017 – they both totally blew me away!

Please let me know if you like this this post – I’m still experimenting with this new weekly series, but there’s no guarantee it will be back for more with you reading it.

And now – let’s get to the comics! [Read more…] about Back Issue Review: Maestros, Super Sons, Umbrella Academy, Victor LaValle’s Destroyer, & more

The Pull List: Babyteeth, Black Bolt, Captain America, Crosswind, Giant Days, and more!

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What did I read this week that was newly released and wasn’t X-Men?

I’m still a long way off from being caught up to all of present-day Marvel, so I have to choose my battles – reading series that are in the early stages of their Legacy numbering or have few enough issues that I can catch up all the way. A handful of indie series I follow (one only begrudgingly) also dropped this week.

This post covers:

Updated: The Definitive Guide to Marvel’s Runaways Comic Books

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Today Marvel’s Runaways become stars of the small screen with the debut of their series on Hulu and their much-wanted omnibus collection has finally been announced. To commemorate this momentous double occasion, I’ve updated The Guide to Marvel’s Runaways!

If you don’t need a complete listing of every comic book issue the Runaways have ever starred in, but would like to learn a little bit more about them and figure out where to start (or, even just figure out of you want to watch their TV show), just keep reading!

[Read more…] about Updated: The Definitive Guide to Marvel’s Runaways Comic Books

Runaways by Brian K. Vaughan – The #44 Most-Wanted Marvel Omnibus of 2017

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Before Saga and Ex Machina (and early in Y: The Last Man), Brian K. Vaughan’s Runaways was a blast of pure, bright imagination (still with sinister undertones) in 2003, as Marvel was succeeding with imaginative reboots and Mature Readers updates. The initial, self-contained run about a group of teens thrust together as they flee a deadly secret is a perfect book to introduce new fans to reading comics.

Runaways_2003_0018Runaways by Brian K. Vaughan is the #44 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. And, check out the Guide to the Runaways to track down every single issue.

Past Ranking: A 2017 debut!

Probable Contents: Collects Runaways (2003) #1-18 & Runways (2005) #1-24.

A second volume would be “Runaways by Joss Whedon, Terry Moore, & Kathryn Immonen” – check out 12 Must-Read Marvel Runs (that ought to be an omnibus) – 1998 to 2008 to see my predicted contents.

Creators: Writer Brian K. Vaughan and penciller Adrian Alphona created the team, with Alphona alternating art duties with Takeshi Miyazawa (宮沢武史) with inkers David Newbold and Craig S. Yeung.

(If those pencillers sound familiar, it’s because they are also the team on G. Willow Wilson’s ultra-popular Ms Marvel.)

Both pencillers are initially colored by Brian Reber, with Christina Strain taking over from issue #8 and remaining with the team across all of their runs.

Can you read it right now? Yes!

Runaways might be Marvel’s most thoroughly-reprinted series of the modern era outside of Grant Morrison’s New X-Men! You can get it in original hardcovers and paperbacks, oversize hardcover, pocket-sized digests, and hefty Complete Collection paperbacks – all as described in the Guide to the Runaways to track down every single issue. It’s also available in full on Marvel Unlimited!

The Details:

Runaways is about a group of unwitting teen heroes finding their powers and themselves amidst an unravelling mystery about their families.

Notice I didn’t call them a “team.”

Brian K. Vaughan and artist Adrian Alphona created a cast who were teenagers first and superheroes second. Or third. Or maybe not at all. [Read more…] about Runaways by Brian K. Vaughan – The #44 Most-Wanted Marvel Omnibus of 2017

Review: Paper Girls, Vol. 1 by Vaughan & Chiang

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E and I had our first DVD player when we lived in Pine Street, just after I graduated college. I suppose it was in a laptop of hers, because we didn’t have a television and I remember watching movies in bed.

I was excited to reclaim some of the films of my youth long since lost on the beta tapes they were captured on, so between that year and the next I filled them all in. Dark Crystal, The Lost Boys, Labyrinth, and more.

The thing about these nostalgia viewings is that you can re-watch the thing you once loved, but it might not produce the same magic. I was so excited to show E The Lost Boys, labelling it as a sort of proto-Buffy as we settled into bed to watch it, but it was laugh-out-loud lame. Yet, there are still new layers to unravel in Labyrinth.

The 80s produced so much of those wonderful coming of age stories, and I don’t think I’m saying that because I was young at the time. Actually, I was ignorant of most of the stuff like Stand By Me and The Goonies, because at the ripe old age of seven I already felt I was too old for their messages. The Lost Boys, at least, had vampires. Yet, looking back there are so many seminal movies in that Amblin Entertainment model set by E.T. and Goonies that are still referenced today, right down to their feel being aped by films like Super 8.

Paper-Girls-vol-01I’ve never seen Stand By Me or The Goonies. I know, I know – it’s sacrilege. Just now I looked them up on Wikipedia to make sure I wasn’t mistaking them for something else.

It’s odd for me to watch this new generation of media being produced by the folks who came of age with the first set – usually a few years older than me, probably old enough to have seen these films in theatres on their own.

The 80s vibe is unmistakeable, but I don’t know all their influences by heart the way I do things that reference David Bowie or Buffy The Vampire Slayer.

Paper Girls, Vol. 2 2.0 stars Amazon Logo

Collects issues #1-5 written by Brian K. Vaughan with line art by Cliff Chiang, color art by Matt Wilson, and letters by Jared K. Fletcher.

Tweet-sized Review: Vaughan and Chiang’s Paper Girls tries for all-girls Goonies but maybe foregrounds too many monsters too soon

CK Says: Skip it (for now)

Paper Girls is the newest Brian K. Vaughan jam to hit its first collection, but I think you’d be better off waiting for a second trade paperback before you start reading.

Vaughan is the master creator of critical hits like Y: The Last Man, Ex Machina, Marvel’s Runaways, The Private Eye, and the still-running deeply personal space fantasy Saga, which is currently the biggest independent comic after The Walking Dead. Vaughan is joined on this creator-owned Image Comics series by artist Cliff Chiang, directly from his run on DC’s Wonder Woman, and uber-colorist Matt Wilson, from everything.

Paper Girls promised a return to normalcy after the devious Saga, focusing on a group of girls on their 1988 paper route. Of course, Vaughan would never go full-normal on us – these girls would surely tangle with something fantastical. [Read more…] about Review: Paper Girls, Vol. 1 by Vaughan & Chiang