Christopher Priest

Marvel’s Most-Wanted Omnibuses of 2016 – #35 to 31

June 9, 2016 by krisis

Omnibus on Shelf Today I’ve got numbers #35 through 30 of the Most-Wanted Marvel Omnibus secret ballot by TigerEyes. I covered #40-36 in the last installment.

This group of contenders are all returning Top 50 votes from last year’s survey save for one, which weirdly has vaulted onto the survey after being collected for the first time (usually that sort of thing takes the edge off of people’s desire for an omnibus).

Do you own an oversized tome of your favorite character’s comic books? My Marvel Omnibus & Oversized Hardcover Guide is the most comprehensive tool on the web for tracking Marvel’s hugest releases – it features details on every oversize book, including a rundown of contents and if the volume is still readily available for purchase.

Here we go with #35 through 31! [Read more…] about Marvel’s Most-Wanted Omnibuses of 2016 – #35 to 31

Newly Released Graphic Novels & Collected Comics – Sept. 1, 2015 Edition

September 1, 2015 by krisis

This month I’m going to revisit an old habit, where I blog the new collected comic releases each week with some color commentary. If you find this useful I’d really appreciate a comment or a tweet – I already know what I’m buying every week, so it’s only worth it to do this if you’re finding it helpful!

Dark Horse Comics

Aliens: Salvation Premiere HC

A $11 hardcover reprint of a 1993 David Gibbons / Mike Mignola take on Aliens where two mean abandon ship and are left alone with a xenomorph? Pretty damn tempting, I’d say, but I feel that way about most things Mignola. Pity they didn’t pair it up with the 2001 sequel Aliens: Salvation and Sacrifice, though.

Conan, Vol. 18: The Damned Horde HC – Collects Conan the Avenger. #7-12

I know, you’re looking at this and asking yourself, “Volume 18? Really? Do I need to pick up all 17 other volumes?” And I don’t know what to tell you, because I own all of one Conan comic and it was my father’s and I’ve still never read it.

Here’s what I can say: Fred Van Lente is a reliable scripter, and they wouldn’t have just rebooted the title if Vol. 17 wouldn’t be a halfway-decent picking up point despite the number stretching from Conan the Barbarian and Conan: Road Of Kings before that and Conan The Cimmerian before that and just plain old Conan before that way back in 2003. So, if you love Conan and want to get back to his comic roots (well, he was a novel first, but then very famously a comic), maybe you should start there. Or, you know, dip way back to Vol. 1, still readily available in TPB, because Dark Horse knows how to manage their backlist.

Hmm… now I kind of want to read Conan. This is how it happens. (Note that the awesome cover is not drawn by the interior artist Brian Ching, but I think his art is strong – it’s just not the cinematic style of the cover.) [Read more…] about Newly Released Graphic Novels & Collected Comics – Sept. 1, 2015 Edition

Black Panther Reading Order & Collecting Guide

Updated Apr 10, 2025! The definitive issue-by-issue comic book collecting guide and reading order for Marvel’s Black Panther in omnibus, hardcover, trade paperback, and digital. Part of Crushing Krisis’s Crushing Comics. Last updated April 2025 with titles scheduled for release through June 2025.

Black Panther Original_Sin_Vol_1_2_Dell'Otto_Variant_Textless

T’Challa, The Black Panther. He was the marquee black hero of both Marvel and DC in the early 60s, invented by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby as Reed Richard’s equal and then adopted into the cast of The Avengers by Roy Thomas & John Buscema.

Even with that pedigree, and a later solo turn by Kirby himself, Black Panther was never a major solo character for Marvel. He disappeared for most of the 1980s only to return in the anthology Marvel Comics Presents (1988) and in a pair of mini-series.

T’Challa wouldn’t have his real breakout moment until he was launched into his own series in 1998 by Christopher Priest. The wordy, range-y, and often inane tale took Panther from American inner-city streets to Wakandan Palace intrigue. Along the way, Priest created the vast majority of Panther’s supporting cast and Wakanda’s mythology out of whole cloth.

After that, T’Challa had a streak of solid solo series penned by Reginald Hudlin, Jason Aaron, and Jonathan Maberry before Jonathan Hickman adopted him as a main player in his universe-altering New Avengers (2013) in the drive to his Secret Wars.

Panther returned from Secret Wars as perhaps Marvel’s highest-profile character. He not only had an MCU film incoming, but also had his series piloted for five years by internationally acclaimed journalist and non-fiction literary star Ta-Nehisi Coates. Coates and a list of literary luminaries he pulled in as collaborators gave us the biggest explosion of additions to the world of Wakanda since Priest.

Panther’s path has been slightly rockier since Coates’s departure in 2020. A brief run from screenwriter John Ridley fizzled with little noise, and a Wakanda-centered run from Dr. Eve Ewing was cancelled just as it found its footing. With T’Challa out of the MCU due to the tragic untimely passing of actor Chadwick Boseman, Marvel seems content to keep Black Panther as an anchor on The Avengers.