Crushing Krisis

The Newest Oldest Blog In New Zealand

Luke Cage

Haul Around the World: Excalibur, Luke Cage, Monica Rambeau, & Punisher as an avenging angel!

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It’s another Classic Collection version of Haul Around the World, shot BEFORE my big move! This was my order from mid-February 2019.

In this order I get to freak out with excitement over Marvel hitting a number of very different gaps in their color collections coverage – the end of Luke Cage’s original solo title, the post-Claremont pre-Davis gap in Excalibur, Monica Rambeau’s solo stories as Captain Marvel and the deeply weird Punisher: Revelations.

Plus… a tease of the next oversize book to hit my shelf, which might be my most-anticipated omnibus of the decade!

In this haul:

Crushing Comics, S01E05 – Collected Editions Unboxing (September Haul)

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On today’s episode of Crushing Comics I unveiled the first international comics haul of new comics collected editions that’s arrived since I’ve been here in New Zealand! I don’t know how I made it this long without a fresh supply of books (and hopefully not any spiders).

Here’s what I unboxed in alphabetical order, along with their accompanying guides (if applicable):

Updated: The Definitive Guide to Luke Cage, Power Man

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Today I have another freshly spruced-up comic character guide for you: The Definitive Guide to Luke Cage.

Need the short story on what Luke Cage has been up to in 2017 both in comics and in collected editions? Keep reading for a recap, plus a quick reintroduction to the character and a final tally of how many of his starring comics have been collected in color.

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10 Marvel runs from the 80s that ought to be omnibuses – 1981 to 1989

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It’s the penultimate stop in our trip backwards through time to find all of the Marvel runs most in need of Omnibus treatment.

Why? For fun. For accumulating rainy-day reading. And, to fuel our 2017 Most Wanted Marvel Omnibus Secret Ballot votes!

Marvel in the 1980s is really a tale of two different Marvels. The first half of the decade featured many continuing 70s series, a handful of limited series, and relatively few new ongoing titles – most of which were direct spinoffs of characters from other books.

However, after Secret Wars II in 1986 the line got a serious shake-up, with many titles outside of what I think of as “The Big 9” and their satellite books getting cancelled or rebooted, plus tons of new ongoing and limited series and a whole new line of comics with New Universe!

(“The Big 9” are all of the lines of books that made it from the Silver Age to 2005 while being published continuously, even if that meant being restarted along the way – , Avengers, Captain America, Daredevil, Iron Man, Fantastic Four, Hulk, Spider-Man, Thor, and X-Men. After 2005, Thor went on hiatus, and Fantastic Four has been on hiatus since 2015.)

(In a totally weird turn of events, we can now probably add Deadpool to that list of evergreen lines.)

Marvel released a lot of comics in the 1980s, so what should Marvel prioritize getting into omnibuses? I’ve already covered all of the X-Men runs from this period, and I’m not touching Spider-Man or Fantastic Four mapping at the moment. Plus, many key 80s runs are on the survey already, like Peter David’s Hulk, Iron Man by by Michelinie & Layton Ann Nocenti’s Daredevil – but that still leaves a ton of potential runs to cover! [Read more…] about 10 Marvel runs from the 80s that ought to be omnibuses – 1981 to 1989

10 Marvel runs from the 90s you might have missed (and that ought to be omnibuses) – 1990 to 1997

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It’s our third installment of backwards time travel through Marvel runs that could easily fit into an omnibus volume to help inspire your votes on the Most-Wanted Marvel Omnibus Secret Ballot.

Today I’m taking a slightly different perspective than I did for 1998 to 2008 and 2008 to present. For those installments, I focused on runs I knew well or at least could recommend from context. However, when it comes to runs I’ve read, the 90s are pretty thoroughly covered over both by existing omnibuses and the current votes of the poll. Add to that how much of this period are covered by the end of runs from the 80s, that I’ve already mapped X-Men, and my temporary avoidance of exhaustively mapping Fantastic Four and Spider-Man, and the pickings wind up being pretty slim!

Thus, this list comes with a caveat – I’m not necessarily suggesting you run out and buy and read all of these runs right now. I mean, I own nearly all of them, and even having not read them cover to cover I can tell you that most of them are very 90s comic books.

However, they also represent under-collected material that’s relatively unknown to modern readers. While it might be more reasonable to see all of it covered with Epic Collections, I think it would be more expedient to see them collected in this format than to wait around for trade paperbacks.

Ready to dig deep into the extreme 1990s? [Read more…] about 10 Marvel runs from the 90s you might have missed (and that ought to be omnibuses) – 1990 to 1997

The Definitive Jessica Jones Collecting Guide and Reading Order

The Jessica Jones comic books issue-by-issue collecting guide and trade reading order for omnibus, hardcover, and trade paperback collections. Find every issue and appearance! Part of Crushing Krisis’s Crushing Comics. Last updated November 2018 with titles scheduled for release through July 2019.

jessica_jones_vol_1_1_maleev_variant_textlessJessica Jones went from a random adults-only non-hero made up from the whole cloth of spaces between superhero bash-ups to one of Marvel’s biggest screen stars.

Brian Bendis invented Jessica Jones for the 2001 Marvel MAX title Alias. It was by far the most explicit in-continuity title Marvel had published to date, featuring the hard-drinking, nymphomaniac, perennial failure Jessica Jones and her one-woman agency, Alias Investigations.

Unlike the first season of her Netflix show, the title wasn’t all about Purple Man – there were several plots of Jones’s investigations and entanglements on the fringes of the superhero world.

Jessica Jones caught the attention of Marvel readers, as did her author Brian Bendis. When he made the jump from writing more fringe, street-level titles to the big leagues of relaunching The Avengers, he brought Luke Cage with him. Luke had been reintroduced to readers in Alias, and Jessica Jones wasn’t far behind.

That left the character in an odd spot for an entire decade. The roguish, messed-up, inappropriate Jessica of Alias was irretrievably erased in favor of a nagging romantic partner and occasional straight-up superhero – and she was entirely controlled by Brian Bendis. She was still fun to read, but that original magic wore off.

2016 brings with it her first solo series since The Pulse ended in 2006 – this time, simply bearing her name. Yes, it’s still written by Brian Bendis, but it also features original penciler Michael Gaydos and colorist Matt Hollingsworth.

Will the magic return with the original creators reunited? We’ll see.

Just want to read the core JJ material? No problem. I’ve highlighted all of her major stories, and I sum up all of the skippable guest appearances and cameos.

Want to understand every issue, ever? I cover every single appearance Jessica Jones has made, explaining were to collect the major ones and what happened in the minor ones so you don’t feel like you have to track them down if you don’t want to. [Read more…] about The Definitive Jessica Jones Collecting Guide and Reading Order