Crushing Krisis

Comic Books, Drag Race, & Life in New Zealand

Epic X-Men Re-Read

The Epic X-Men (Re-)Read: New Mutants (1983) #26-28 – The origin of Legion! (Ep002)

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It’s the second episode of our entirely out-of-order dive into my 50-year collection of X-Men comics, and today we’re leaping to a character who has become a multi-media sensation in the past year: David Haller – Legion.

Legion’s debut in New Mutants (1983) #26-28 is a brief arc filled with thematic content that still resonates strongly in the modern day. See the Guide to New Mutants & Young X-Men for collection information.

Is the David Haller of this story recognizable to viewers of FX’s Legion? Do these comics still hold up today? And, does Claremont leave the series doing right by his cast of indomitable-willed woman? Watch this mega-sized episode and find out!

The Epic X-Men (Re-)Read: X-Men (1991) #1-3 (Ep001)

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After nearly a decade of collecting and planning, it’s finally here: I’m tackling my entire 50-year collection of X-Men comics with the intent of reading every single issue, and you’re invited along for the ride!

Rather than start from The Silver Age and trundle forward through a lot of very wordy classic comics, we’re taking inspiration from Marvel’s Epic Collections and jumping around from era to era and title to title.

I don’t know how I could start anywhere but with the arc that brought me to comic collecting, which marks the end of the truly classic period of X-Men – Chris Claremont and Jim Lee’s X-Men (1991) #1-3 (found in the Guide to X-Men, Vol. 2). This story arc is the platonic ideal of a major faceoff against Magneto with a cast of a dozen X-Men, many of them in the Jim Lee uniforms that would follow them to X-Men: The Animated Series a year later.

Do these comics still hold up today? And, does Claremont leave the series doing right by his cast of indomitable-willed woman? Watch this mega-sized episode and find out!

Want to keep up with the next six weeks of (re-)reading? Here’s our schedule: [Read more…] about The Epic X-Men (Re-)Read: X-Men (1991) #1-3 (Ep001)

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