• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Crushing Krisis

The Newest Oldest Blog In New Zealand

  • Archive
  • DC Guides
    • DC New 52
    • DC Events
    • DC Rebirth
    • Batman Guide
  • Marvel Guides
    • Omnibus & Oversize Hardcover DB
    • Marvel Events
  • Star Wars Guide
    • Expanded Universe Comics (2015 – present)
    • Legends Comics (1977 – 2014)
  • Valiant Guides
  • Contact!

Jeff Lemire

The Pull List: Batman, Black Bolt, Deathstroke, Dodge City, Elsewhere, Infinity Countdown, Oblivion Song, Shade The Changing Woman, & more!

March 11, 2018 by krisis

The Pull List is holding strong as 33 issues this week thanks to a huge number of new pickups – including eleven new number one issues (plus two already-running series I finally caught up to reading)!

This was an intense Marvel Comics week on my pull list and a lighter DC week for me. Marvel had only two books out from titles I’m not up to speed on, where DC had a lot of comics out in lines I’m not yet caught up on and no “New Age of Heroes” books, plus only one new number one – a relaunch of Shade.

Meanwhile, it is a big week for new debuts from independent publishers – though a few of them weren’t to my tastes (and one was entirely unreadable!).

Artwork by Becky Cloonan.

Here’s The Pull List for the 7th of March, 2018. New adds to the pull list are marked with *; dropped titles are marked with #.

  • DC Comics
    • Batman #42
    • * Deathstroke #29
    • Exit Stage Left: The Snagglepuss Chronicles #3
    • Justice League #40
    • * Shade, The Changing Woman #1
    • Superman #42
  • Image Comics
    • * Elsewhere #5
    • *# Gideon Falls #1
    • * Oblivion Song #1
    • * Prism Stalker #1
  • Marvel Comics
    • * Avengers – Back to Basics #1
    • Avengers #683
    • Black Bolt #11
    • Captain America #699
    • Doctor Strange – Damnation #2
    • Hawkeye #16
    • Iceman #11
    • Infinity Countdown #1
    • Rise of the Black Panther #3
    • Rogue & Gambit #3
    • Spider-Man #238
    • Venom #163
    • X-Men: Gold #23
    • X-Men: Red #2
  • Smaller Publishers:
    Aftershock Comics, Boom! Studios, Dark Horse, Humanoids, IDW Publishing, Oni Press

    • *# The Ballad of Sang #1, Oni Press
    • * Dodge City #1, Boom! Studios
    • * Exo #1-3, Humanoids
    • Giant Days #36, Boom! Studios
    • * Highest House #1, IDW Publishing
    • Incognegro – Renaissance #2, Dark Horse
    • Mech Cadet Yu #7, Boom! Studios
    • # Monstro Mechanica #4, Aftershock Comics
    • *# The Spider King #1, IDW Publishing

Before we begin, a reminder that 2.5 stars on my rating scale is an average comic book! It should be my most-assigned score, but I tend to err on thinking average comics are good (confusing, I know), so 3 stars is the peak of my very distributed bell curve of ratings.

That means a 2/5 comic is not bad. That’s my rating for “uneven.” So, don’t freak out and assume a comic book is terrible because it has 2 stars. “Bad” and “Terrible” are 1/5 and .5/5, respectively, and I’ve only given those scores to 2.35% of the comics I’ve read so far this year.

Picks of the Pull

Big Two (Marvel/DC) Pick of the Week: 
Infinity Countdown (2018) #1

4.5 starsThis galaxy-spanning series is ecstatic – maybe the first time I’ve felt like the comics incarnation of Guardians of the Galaxy has resembled the tone of movie since the first film was released.

This book is built on a year of Guardians plot, but it could not possibly be more inviting to a new reader. All of the action is massive, all of the jokes land, and Aaron Kuder’s style of subtle figures paired with ultra detail is the perfect match for big space blowouts. It’s definitely the first time I’ve ever liked Drax, and the issue is full of amazing moments for Groot.

The Guardians have split their attention between a showdown with the murderous Gardener and defending a massive Infinity Stone along with the Nova Corps. Drax and the Corps start out faring better defending the stone than the rest of the assembled Guardians do agains The Gardener, but as both fights wear on the balance begins to tip.

With the [hugely shocking spoiler] scene on Earth that ends this issue, I understand why Duggan got this story upgraded from being just a Guardians story arc to a universe-wide event. He’s a writer who has been in Marvel’s big leagues for a few years now, and it’s terrific to see him writing an event that touches so many of Marvel’s big franchises without needlessly interfering with their ongoing titles.

I am absolutely subscribed to Infinite Countdown from this point forward, and it has moved Duggan’s Guardians run even further up my “to-read” list.

(Why in heaven’s name would you put a Nick Bradshaw cover on a book with interiors by Aaron Kuder and Mike Deodato? It makes no sense to me whatsoever.)

Small-Pub Pick of the Week:
Exo (2017) Hardcover AKA #1-3, Humanoids

This is the first English translation of this work, originally released as three French graphic albums and here released by Humanoids as three digital issues or a single hardcover.

Exo is a sci-fi motion picture waiting to be optioned. It combines two seemingly separate plots into one perfectly tense story – one of a NASA scientist on Earth, the other of a military strike force on the moon.

John Koenig is a perfectly average scientist who happens to have located a potentially habitable planet in another solar system and tasked a probe to fly its way. His announcement makes for a sleepy press conference, since any potential findings from the probe are almost two years away. The discovery is just another day at the office for Koenig – he goes for a routine physical afterward, and the heads into LA to retrieve his adult daughter, who calls him John.

Meanwhile, a projectile arcs from the moon to Earth, shattering part of an International Space Station en route to crashing into a field in Colorado before it starts to… branch out. Unfortunately, one of its findings is a schizophrenia man named Charles, who it is unable to control.

As Charles’s new crew seeks John, the military responds to the projectile by putting boots on the lunar ground – but they aren’t ready for what they might find there.

That describes just a sliver of the first 40 pages of this 120 page graphic novel, and it doesn’t even include the drug trip!

Exo has the same third act struggles as any massive sci-fi plot, but the tension that proceeds it is makes it worth a read. Even if a lot of the story draws from familiar tropes, it has the brash inventiveness to combine them in a way that we all hope to see from sci-fi films (think: Arrival).

[Read more…] about The Pull List: Batman, Black Bolt, Deathstroke, Dodge City, Elsewhere, Infinity Countdown, Oblivion Song, Shade The Changing Woman, & more!

Filed Under: comic books, reviews Tagged With: Aftershock Comics, Andrea Sorrentino, Avengers, Batman, Black Bolt, Black Panther, Captain America, Chris Evenhuis, Christopher Priest, Damnation, DC Comics, Deathstroke, Dodge City, Elsewhere, Exit Stage Left: The Snagglepuss Chronicles, Giant Days, Gideon Falls, Hawkeye, Highest House, Iceman, Image Comics, Incognegro - Renaissance, Infinity Countdown, Jeff Lemire, Justice League, Marvel, Mech Cadet Yu, Monstro Mechanica, Oblivion Song, Prism Stalker, Rise of the Black Panther, Robert Kirkman, Rogue & Gambit, Shade The Changing Girl, Sjan Weijers, Spider-Man, Superman, The Ballad of Sang, The Pull List, The Spider King, Venom, X-Men Gold, X-Men Red

The Pull List: Action Comics, Avengers, Calexit, Detective Comics, Jim Henson’s Labyrinth, The Terrifics, Thanos, & more!

March 4, 2018 by krisis

This week The Pull List is holding steady at a still-staggering 32 comic books.

I’m not sure if I was being a moody reader or if every company shipped some bunk books this week, but the average rating for the week was 2.70 – a full third of a point lower than the past few weeks. While that means most of the books were still better than average, it’s not by a whole lot.

Artwork from Thanos #16, line art by Geoff Shaw with color art by Antonio Fabela.

Here’s what I pulled this week, with *s on adds (whether I just caught up with them or started them fresh):

  • DC Comics
    • Action Comics #998
    • Detective Comics #975
    • The Flash #41
    • * Mera – Queen of Atlantis #1
    • Milk Wars: JLA/Doom Patrol Special
    • Raven: Daughter of Darkness #2
    • * Suicide Squad #36
    • Teen Titans #17
    • The Silencer #2
    • * The Terrifics #1
    • Wonder Woman #41
  • Image Comics
    • * The Beef #1
    • Days of Hate #2
    • Gasolina #6
    • Twisted Romance #4
    • Void Trip #4
  • Marvel Comics
    • All-New Wolverine #31
    • Avengers #682
    • Captain Marvel #129
    • * Champions #17
    • Legion #2
    • * Lockjaw #1
    • Moon Knight #192
    • Thanos #16
    • X-Men Blue #22
  • Smaller Publishers: Aftershock, Black Mask, Boom! Studios, Dark Horse, Titan
    • Abbott #2, Boom! Studios
    • * Alisik #1, Titan Books / Statix Press
    • Backways #3, Aftershock Comics
    • * Calexit #2, Black Mask Studios
    • Hungry Ghosts #2, Dark Horse / Berger Books
    • * Jim Henson’s Labyrinth: Coronation #1, Boom! Studios
    • * The Wilds #1, Black Mask Studios

Picks of the Pull

Big Two (Marvel/DC) Issue of the Week:
Detective Comics (2016) #975

A great-looking, contemplative issue that brings together the members of the Bat-Family we don’t usually see in this book – Nightwing, Batgirl, Red Hood, and Damian.

Batman has pulled these trusted lieutenants together as an inner council to decide Batwoman’s fate as a member of the Bat-family, yet in some ways their conversation is also a litigation of Bruce and his methods as the head of this dysfunctional household. Meanwhile, Batwoman holds herself accountable for her own actions, with a surprising result.

This isn’t an issue that’s going to appeal to a more casual reader – it looks amazing, but it has hardly any conflict. However, for someone who has been reading from the start this pierces right to the heart of this title and the ideological divide between Batwoman and Batman that has been brewing all along.

Part of what makes it so power is that Batwoman also has an avowed “no kills” philosophy, but she is willing to make exceptions when other lives hang in the balance. Batman won’t make exceptions, so he gets to watches thousands of Gothamites die from his moral high ground.

It’s heartbreaking to think of this book writing by someone other than Tynion or with a cast other than this one. Everything about it works so incredibly well. Yet, we’re in the “disassembled” phase, and there’s certainly more conflict to come before Tynion moves on.

Best Small-Pub Issue of the Week:
The Wilds (2018) #1, Black Mask Studios

A strong and sombre new zombie comic, The Wilds is definitely a descendent of Walking Dead but with a completely different tone – due in no small part to its pair of woman creators, Vita Ayala and Emily Pearson.

We get the same old zombie-pocked landscape with isolated camps trading resources and doing their best to survive, except the zombies are walking plant life – humans who have turned into semi-sentient flower pots. It makes for strangely calming, beautiful zombies to see all of their typical goriest bits covered in blooming flowers.

Pearson’s art evokes such masters of the modern form as Allred and Noto, employing their same plain, truthful faces and uncomplicated backgrounds.

Beneath the flowery dressing, this is the familiar story of a single senior errand runner who thinks it might be time to get out of the game, and how an act of compassion on her last journey might spell the end of the safety of her heavily fortified compound. There’s no slam bang action beats in this one, but the strange stillness of it is pulling me towards reading more.

[Read more…] about The Pull List: Action Comics, Avengers, Calexit, Detective Comics, Jim Henson’s Labyrinth, The Terrifics, Thanos, & more!

Filed Under: comic books, reviews Tagged With: Abbott, Action Comics, Aftershock Comics, Ales Kot, Alex de Campi, Alisik, All-New Wolverine, Avengers, Backways, Batman, Batwoman, Berger Books, Black Mask Studios, Boom Studios, Calexit, Captain Marvel, Champions, Dan Jurgens, Dark Horse, Days of Hate, DC Comics, Detective Comics, Doom Patrol, Emily Pearson, Gasolina, Hungry Ghosts, Image Comics, James Robinson, James Tynion, Jeff Lemire, Joshua Williamson, Labyrinth, Legion, Lockjaw, Marv Wolfman, Marvel Comics, Mera, Mera - Queen of Atlantis, Milk Wars, Moon Knight, Raven, Raven: Daughter of Darkness, Rob Williams, Simon Spurrier, Statix Press, Suicide Squad, Superman, Teen Titans, Thanos, The Beef, The Flash, The Pull List, The Silencer, The Terrifics, The Wilds, Titan Books, Tom Taylor, Trungles, Twisted Romance, Vita Ayala, Void Trip, Will Conrad, Wonder Woman, X-Men Blue

DC New 42 Review: Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E. #1

September 20, 2011 by krisis

Is there really anything to say here? The cover of this book features Frankenstein wielding a gattling gun, backed up by his four-armed bride and a Japanese school girl wielding a revolver.

My hopes, they were not high.

Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E. #1

Written by Jeff Lemire, art by Alberto Ponticelli

Rating: 4 of 5 – Excellent

In a Line: “And so far, I must say I am worried. This place is an advertisement for mad science bound to go wrong.”

#140char Review: Frankenstein #1 makes magic happen w/outlandish plot, gruff antihero, & messy/sketchy art. Perfectly exciting debut left me howling for more

CK Says: Buy it!

Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E. #1 is a great comic book, and I’m shocked it’s out as an ongoing under the banner of DC. It goes to show that The New 52 isn’t completely for show – some different concepts are really getting a trial run as marquee titles, and it’s up to readers to show their support.

I was cold to this book for about half the issue. A miniature base in a a bubble that requires agents to shrink down to size to enter. Disposable organic robots that dissolve after a day of use. A master who randomly swaps bodies every decade, and is currently inhabiting an Asian school girl. A special forces squadron of volunteer monsters.

It all sounds rather tiresome. Yet, somewhere in the middle of the issue it turned from an obligatory read to a page-turner.

A lot of that has to do with the constant slinging of madcap plot points from author Jeff Lemire. (Yes, that’s the same Lemire that illustrated Animal Man. He is amazing.) If oddball details had been hammered into the ground I would have found them awkward. Instead, each was treated as routine – just another minor facet of an outlandish and compelling world constructed around our titular horror. Not explaining the ridiculous reality of the book gives the reader tacit permission to just not care where Frankenstein came from or why he’s a hero. The book became immediately more enjoyable.

I’d be lying if I said it was solely my suspension of disbelief that kept me hooked until I was really hooked. Actually, that can be chalked up to art from Alberto Ponticelli. I love the deliberate messiness of his pages, things left sketchy and roughly hewn. Yet, he can also scale back to show a clean panel of faces. At points he is definitely reminiscent of Chris Bachalo’s DC work.

The plot? Some sort of hell mouth has opened in a remote town, expelling hordes of carnivorous monsters. The Bride of Frankenstein went missing trying to contain it. Now it’s up the Frankenstein and his horrific team to monster mash their way through the town to plug the hole and locate Bride. If it sounds silly… well… it sort of is, but the book never descends into humor despite a few consistently wisecracking characters and an even-funnier straight man werewolf.

Frankenstein’s DC history is short and relatively recent, and doesn’t seem to have much bearing on the proceedings here. Lemire uses SHADE’s computer to narrate through a few otherwise incomprehensible situations. For a while we’re left to think it’s talking to Frankenstein, but by the end of the book it is addressing us directly. Again, advantage Lemire, who am I now mildly obsessed with.

This isn’t a perfect issue, but it is perfectly entertaining and absolutely worth a purchase. Pick this up while you still can, and while we can still send a signal to DC that we want more of Lemire and Ponticelli’s edgy horror on the slate for many months to come!

(I’ll offer the minor caveat that I have a confirmed soft spot for horror tropes used in not-entirely-horror idioms. See also Marvel’s Tomb of Dracula, Whedon’s Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Kripke’s Supernatural, etc.)

Filed Under: comic books, Crushing On, reviews Tagged With: Alberto Ponticelli, DC, DC New 52, Frankenstein, Horror, Jeff Lemire

Primary Sidebar


Support Crushing Krisis on Patreon
Support CK
on Patreon


Follow me on Twitter Like me on Facebook Contact me
Follow me on Instagram Watch me on Youtube Subscribe to the CK RSS Feed

About CK

About Crushing Krisis
About My Music
About Your Author
Blog Archive
Comics Blogs Only
Contact Krisis
Terms & Conditions

Crushing Comics

Marvel Comics
Marvel Events Guide
Marvel Omnibus Guide
Spider-Man Guide

DC Comics
DC New 52
DC Rebirth

Valiant Comics

Copyright © 2017 · Foodie Pro Theme by Shay Bocks · Built on the Genesis Framework · Powered by WordPress

Crushing Krisis is supported by SuperHeroic Sponsor Omnibuds' Café


Links from Crushing Krisis to retailer websites may be in the form of affiliate links. If you purchase through an affiliate link I will receive a minor credit as your referrer. My credit does not affect your purchase price. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to: Amazon Services LLC Associates Program (in the US, UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain), eBay Partner Network, and iTunes Affiliate Program. Note that URLs including the "geni.us" domain name are affiliate short-links.

Podcast powered by podPress v8.8.10.17