Crushing Krisis

Comic Books, Drag Race, & Life in New Zealand

Green Lantern

New Comics & Collected Editions Releases: DC Comics – May 15 2024

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It’s the 20th new comic book day of the new year! This post covers DC Comics May 15 2024 releases, which actually hit comic stores on Tuesday May 14 2024. Missed last week’s releases? Check out last week’s post covering DC Comics May 8 2024 new releases.

(DC is still releasing their comics on Tuesday until the start of July, but I think most folks think of Wednesday as release day, so that’s how I’m labelling my posts until then.)

This week in DC Comics: all-new iconic Superman villains, an all-in Justice League omnibus, best-ever Poison Ivy, Blue Beetle swings big, Outsiders after the reveal, the House of Brainiac continues, Batman & Dylan Dog concludes, Hal reunites with the Corps, and more!

This list includes every comic and digital comic out from DC this week, plus collected editions including omnibus, hardcover, paperback, and digest-sized formats. I recap and review every new single issue. Plus, for every new release, I’ll point you to the right guide within my Crushing Comics Guide to DC Comics to find out how to collect each character in full – and, if a guide is linked from this post, that means it is updated through the present day!

DC Comics May 15 2024 Collected EditionsAdventures of Superman: George Pérez 2024 hardcover, a DC Comics May 15 2024 new release

Adventures of Superman: George Pérez
(2024 hardcover, ISBN 978-1779525871/ digital)
See Guide to Action Comics (Post-Crisis, 1987 – Present) or Guide to Superman (Post-Crisis, 1987 – Present). This collects George Pérez’s work on Superman from two different transitional periods – from Action Comics in 1989 just after the year of “Action Comics Weekly” (and just before the Triangle Era), and his launch of Superman (2011) for DC New 52.

The late-80s material is much more compelling, but it’s just starting to be covered in omnibus right now – so the only reason to pick this up is if you’re a major George Pérez fan rather than a huge Super-fan.

Batman: Fortress
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1779525086 / digital)
DC’s solicit text calls this Gary Whitta & Darick Robertson mini-series an “Elsewords-style” story about Batman breaking into the Fortress of Solitude, which means it’s not in current DC continuity.

As a result, I haven’t caught up on this one – but I’ve seen it savaged by fans online. While we should all make up our own minds (when do I ever agree with fans online?), there’s also a surplus of fantastic Batman material right now – both in and out of continuity. For an easy-to-pick up Batman series, check out my rapturous reaction to Batman / Dylan Dog (2023), below.

Justice League International Omnibus Vol. 3
(2024 oversize hardcover, ISBN 978-1779525642)
See Guide to Justice League. This isn’t just an International omnibus, it’s a dream League omnibus. That’s because as this omnibus line has pressed on past the initial run of Justice League International it has collected everything Justice League in the Post-Crisis era. It collects Justice League America (1989), Justice League Europe (1989), and Justice League Quarterly (1990).

This volume adds some 00s era material by Keith Giffen, John Dematteis, & Kevin Maguire, which makes me slightly nervous this is a final volume. Fingers crossed that DC keeps up this all-in omnibus line – you can see the mapping in my Justice League Omnibus Mapping post from earlier this week!

[Read more…] about New Comics & Collected Editions Releases: DC Comics – May 15 2024

New Comics & Collected Editions Releases: DC Comics – April 17 2024

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It’s the 16th new comic book day of the new year! This post covers DC Comics April 17 2024 releases, which actually hit comic stores on Tuesday April 16 2024. Missed last week’s releases? Check out last week’s post covering DC Comics April 10 2024 new releases.

(DC is still releasing their comics on Tuesday until the start of July, but I think most folks think of Wednesday as release day, so that’s how I’m labelling my posts until then – which means this is the DC Comics April 17 2024 New Releases post… for releases on April 16 ? )

This week in DC Comics: Jurassic Justice, Tynion & Martinez Bueno Dark omnibus, Catwoman’s final lives, Constantine in America, the 300th Nightwing issue, Titans are manipulated, Wonder Woman loses, and more!

These DC New Releases posts will be a work in progress. I’m 30 months behind on my DC reading, and some of my DC Guides are twice that far behind on updates. I thought it might be a good idea to do all my reading and updating before beginning this series of posts, but there’s no better way to catch up on all of that than diving deep into New Releases! Sometimes you’ve got to build the plane while you are flying it!

This list includes every comic and digital comic out from Marvel this week, plus collected editions in omnibus, hardcover, paperback, and digest-sized formats. I recap and review every new single issue. Plus, for every new release, I’ll point you to the right guide within my Crushing Comics Guide to DC Comics to find out how to collect each character in full – and, if a guide is linked from this post, that means it is updated through the present day!

DC Comics April 17 2024 Collected EditionsJustice League Dark Rebirth Omnibus, a DC Comics April 17 2024 new release

Batman: White Knight Presents – Generation Joker
(2024 hardcover, ISBN 978-1779524904 / digital)
More of Sean Murphy’s ongoing White Knight mini-verse, this features the future children of Joker and Harley Quinn.

City Boy
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1779524874 / digital)
A series by Greg Pak and Minkyu Jung that was part of DC’s short-lived “We Are Legends” line introducing new Asian heroes.

The Jurassic League
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1779524898 / digital)
The Justice League as dinosaurs drawn by indie mega-star Daniel Warren Johnson with his trusty colorist Mike Spicer. Either that sentence sounds like complete gibberish to you or you want that in your eyeballs right now!

Justice League Dark Rebirth Omnibus
(2024 oversize hardcover, ISBN 978-1779525888)
I won’t refer you to my Justice League guide, since that’s in line for a massive update in the coming weeks. However, I will say that this very complete collection of James Tynion’s run on Justice League Dark (with art largely by Alvaro Martinez Bueno) is an absolute delight. It’s dark, it’s twisted, it’s funny, it’s gorgeous, and the stories often feel big enough to be an entire DC event while still feeling like they have the right scope for one flagship title. FYI, this also collects the Ram V back-up stories!

Naomi: Season Two
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1779524829 / digital)
Collects the second go-round on this made-for-TV DC teen from Brian Bendis, David Walker, & Jamal Campbell.

Tim Drake: Robin Vol. 2 – A Case of Chaos
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1779524911 / digital)
See Guide to Robin(s). The second-half of Meghan FitzMartin’s short-lived Tim Drake series that concluded nearly a year ago. I’m convinced this sputtered so quickly not because of Drake (and the recent revelation of him being bisexual), but because Riley Rossmo’s cartoonish art work is a total non-fit for a Tim Drake detective story.

Read on for a summary of all of the DC Comics April 17 2024 single issue and digital releases! [Read more…] about New Comics & Collected Editions Releases: DC Comics – April 17 2024

New for Patrons: Guide to Hal Jordan, Green Lantern

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It’s time for the biggest of the Green Lantern guides for ALL Patrons of CK – and I’m certain there isn’t another one on the internet anything like it!

Hal Jordan, Green Lantern – The Definitive Guide

Working on comic guides is a curious chicken vs. egg situation. Do I start the guide because I’m fascinated with a character’s history, or do I become fascinated with a character’s history because I started the guide?

In this case, I’m firmly in the latter camp.

Part of what was causing me to drag my feet on this guide was that Hal Jordan didn’t seem at all fascinating to me. He was a space cop, went mad with power, and then got redeemed because people love their Silver Age dudes. Plus, that last bit has been obsessively covered by many other websites who actually like this character.

What more was there to know? What could I possibly add?

I found that both of those questions were answered by the same two facts.

First, because Hal Jordan wasn’t altered much (if at all) by Crisis on Infinite Earths, the internet is not obsessed with dealing with his Post-Crisis retcon chronology. Yet, there’s actually an interesting sequence of almost a dozen series published after Crisis that fit prior to his 1990 ongoing return.

I didn’t think it would be too big a deal to list these in story order with some context attached, but I just skimmed five of the top Green Lantern guides on the web and none of them have these details in full.

Second, Hal’s transformation from Lantern to Parallax to The Spectre back to Hal. I only saw a single guide get close to really nailing this story order – and it didn’t give any context!

I’ve never understood this sequence of events before and it’s never been collected succinctly in one place. I assumed that DC wanted to rehabilitate him and just rammed him into their spot as The Spectre so he could atone for his many sins.

That’s not quite how it happened. [Read more…] about New for Patrons: Guide to Hal Jordan, Green Lantern