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Crushing Comics S01E059 – Building a Mystery (not the song) + X-Men by Claremont & Lee Omnibus, Vol. 1

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I begin this episode by asking “where is the mystery?” – or, more accurately, the persistence of mystery and why as consumers of stories have lost our appetites for long-running mysteries in fiction. (I think it’s all JJ Abrams’ fault.)

Appropriately, after that introduction I finally unwrap a pair of my most-cherished collected editions – X-Men by Chris Claremont, Jim Lee, and Marc Silvestri! I had so much to say about them that this turned into a two-parter! In this edition, hear the tale of the unravelling of the X-Men, who spend thirty entire issues not being a team even as their popularity soared.

I tackle this book nearly issue-by-issue to explain how the X-Men get from their confrontation with Mastermind to the beginning of their reunification in Genosha during X-Tinction Agenda.

Want to start from the beginning of this season of videos? Here’s the complete Season 1 playlist of Crushing Comics.

Episode 69 features X-Men by Chris Claremont & Jim Lee Omnibus, Vol. 1. To learn more about this book and its contents, visit the Guide to Uncanny X-Men by Chris Claremont.

Crushing Comics S01E054 – X-Men Inferno & Operation: Zero Tolerance (+ the vicarious thrill of natural disasters)

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As I unwrap I talk about the combined thrill and terror of living through natural disasters like hurricanes and earthquakes. I always said that Philly was relatively immune to such apocalyptic events, but now I live right on a fault line (and right on the water).

Then, I open what might be the most sought-after X-Men hardcover today – Inferno! Is the story worth all of the hype and high prices? I walk you through how it came to be, including a brief history of Madelyne Pryor, and speculate if it was Chris Claremont’s way of “fixing” his master plan after the debut of X-Factor. (I have much less to say about Operation Zero Tolerance.)

Want to start from the beginning of this season of videos? Here’s the complete Season 1 playlist of Crushing Comics.

Episode 54 features X-Men: Inferno and X-Men: Operation Zero Tolerance, which are covered in the guides to Uncanny X-Men by Chris Claremont and X-Men (1991), respectively.

Wolverine, Vol. 3 AKA by Hama & Silvestri – The #38 Most-Wanted Marvel Omnibus of 2017

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Of a number of Marvel authors who pulled half-decade-or-longer runs on their titles in the 80s and 90s, Larry Hama’s run on Wolverine tends to be one that gets overlooked. Maybe that is because Hama wrote such a far-ranging, diverse take on Wolverine that saw him as both superhero and civilian, savage and strategic, and solo and surrounded by friends and allies.

While these initial years aren’t necessarily the best of that run, they might be the best looking thanks to increasingly flashy art from Marc Silvestri leading up to his departure to launch his own Cyberforce for Image Comics.

Wolverine_1988_0049Wolverine Vol. 3 AKA Wolverine by Hama & Silvestri is tied as he #38 Most-Wanted Marvel Omnibus of 2017 on Tigereyes’s Secret Ballot. Visit the Marvel Masterworks Message Board to view the original posting of results by Tigereyes and visit Guide to Wolverine for details on how to collect every Wolverine issue, ever.

Past Ranking: Ranked #47 in 2016, it’s debut

Probable Contents: Wolverine (1988) #31-57, along with at least the three OGNs, which stood in for annuals in this period – Wolverine: The Jungle Adventure, Wolverine: Bloodlust, and Wolverine: Rahne of Terra.

Since those issues have been recently recollected in paperback (and are just a modestly-sized book when combined), this volume could also include some or all of other contemporaneous Wolverine material including stories from Marvel Comics Presents #62-71, 85-92, & 97-100, Marvel Fanfare #54-55, and Marvel Collector’s Edition; plus any or all of Fantastic Four (1961) #347-349, Wolverine/Punisher #1-3, Spider-Man (1990) #8-12, and the original graphic novels Wolverine: Bloody Choices and Hearts of Darkness.

Creators: Issues of the main Wolverine series were written by Larry Hama with a single fill-in by Peter David.

The run was penciled by Marc Silvestri (with fill-ins by Larry Stroman and Jerry DeCaire and an arc by Andy Kubert) with Silvestri inked by Dan Green. The run was colored by Glynis Oliver, Mark Chiarello, and Steve Buccellato.

Can you read it right now? Yes! This omnibus will primarily be a collection of three paperbacks – Wolverine by Hama & Silvestri Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 and Weapon X Unbound. Unfortunately, only six issues of this run are on Marvel Unlimited at the moment.

The Details:

There have always been two kinds of Wolverine runs – ones where he works adjacent to the X-Men being a superhero, and others where he’s entirely off on his own.

This initial two-year burst of Larry Hama’s lengthy run as writer is unusual because it contains both. The stories feel a little insubstantial today after 25 more years of Wolverine adventures and revelations, but some of the beats of these stories set the tone for Wolverine (and the shattered memories of his past) for years to come. [Read more…] about Wolverine, Vol. 3 AKA by Hama & Silvestri – The #38 Most-Wanted Marvel Omnibus of 2017

Oversize X-Men: A map of every existing omnibus, plus what’s missing (Part 1: 1963 to 1991)

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The Most Wanted Marvel Omnibus Secret Ballot allows collected editions fans to play “Fantasy Collections Department” by picking the runs they’d most like to see in an oversized format.

Now that I’ve recapped the history of past years of the Ballot, we’re up to two weeks of the really fun stuff – thinking up dozens upon dozens of suggestions for Marvel omnibuses we’d love to see on our shelves!

I highlighted 50 runs that deserved an omnibus at the close of the survey last year, but this time I’m going to be a lot more comprehensive.

I’ll begin on my home turf: The X-Men. It’s how Crushing Comics guides began, and I own every issue of X-Men in either single issue or collected format, so I’m accutely aware of the gaps in oversized content.

Today I’ll cover both existing and potential Omnibuses for X-Men from their debut in 1963 through the launch of X-Men, Vol. 2 in 1991. Then, tomorrow we’ll look at the tumultuous and under-collected 90s, before finishing up on Wednesday with the pair of most recent X-Men eras – from Grant Morrison’s New X-Men in 2001 through present day.

After that, we’ll rinse and repeat this exercise in reverse for the entire Marvel Universe, working backwards from the current All-New All-Different Marvel to look at the top possible omnibuses across the entire line from every period until we’re back to the few books still left uncollected from the 1960s.

So, if you haven’t yet voted in the poll or just need a few more books to fill out your personal Top 20, get ready – the next two weeks of CK will have over 100 omnibus suggestions for you to choose from!

Now, let’s get to some X-Tensive X-Men omnibus mapping, staring with the Classic X-Men era from 1963-1974, before moving on to Chris Claremont’s tenure on X-Men from 1975-1991 (plus, all of the tie-in series from that era.

There are 19 potential omnibus volumes in this material! Collected Edition mapping can be exact and contentious work, so if you have a correction or disagreement don’t hold back – sound off in the comments below!

[Read more…] about Oversize X-Men: A map of every existing omnibus, plus what’s missing (Part 1: 1963 to 1991)

From The Beginning: WildStorm Universe – Killer Instinct (WildCATS #5-7 & Cyberforce, Vol. 2 #1-3)

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This post is part of my month-long "Blog of Tomorrow" celebration of the launch of Crushing Krisis's Patreon. Learn more or become a Patron today!



Jim Lee and Marc Silvestri made slightly different decisions about the continuations of their flagship properties, but both roads led to Image’s first major inter-imprint crossover, Killer Instinct.

On the WildStorm side, over half a year had elapsed since the release of WildCATs #4, which was supposed to be the back half of WildCATs #3, which came out another three months prior.

Sure, Lee and company had filled the void with Trilogy and Special #1, but a big part of the draw of WildCATs was Lee himself and he had been absent from both affairs. That was surely a motivator to continue the numbering with #5 rather than risk confusion of a third WildCATs #1 issue solicited in the same six months.

(Although, in his introduction Lee says the continued numbering was mostly for “psychological reasons” of not having to do another #1 issue – if only Marvel 2016 would re-read that memo!)

Silvestri had his own schedule struggle with Top Cow’s Cyberforce. The initial four-issue mini-series took ten months to complete – a year if you tack on the subsequent #0 issue. Maybe starting a new series could also be good for psychological reasons – Cyberforce would maintain a roughly bi-monthly schedule for the remainder of Silvestri’s run on pencils.

But, enough about calendars – what about the comics?

I was in my comic-buying prime when Killer Instinct hit the stands, and there was nothing that looked anywhere near as good coming from any publisher. That’s not all down to Lee and Silvestri, with Scott Williams on inks for both. I give a huge amount of credit to colorist Joe Chiodo and his team of separators.

These colors are over 20 years old and I’d still say they’re as good as high-gloss superhero comics get. From the metallic reds on Zealot’s boots to the greenery in Velocity’s training session to the pink energy discharge in Spartan and Heatwave’s faceoff, they all pop off the page without the sickly skin-tone gradients of modern books. He makes the comics look like a million bucks.

Killer Instinct’s story is slightly less sparkling. The concept of a shared past between claw-handed Warblade and Ripclaw has legs, as does their damaged love triangle with the conniving psychic Misery. The mistaken identity plus some psychic misdirection that brings the teams into conflict is tried and true comics manipulation to get heroes to fight each other.

cyberforce-v02-0001-coverThe crossover has a firm set-up across two prelude issues and its initial pair of WildCATs #6 and Cyberforce #2, but then the final two issues are a muddle of unevenly-paced fighting. Misery never develops as a character and just gets shriller and more conflicted, and Warblade’s super power seems to be more about coming back from a good thrashing than having sharp, pointy fingers.

Lee and Choi seem to have a better handle on their team at the start of this outing than they did before, including playing up smaller personal moments amidst the carnage. The prelude to the crossover in issue #5 is by far their best issue yet, while #6 sinks back to the typical kinetic action sans relationships and #7 barely hangs together. It’s incredible to think Choi was scripting such a sure title on Stormwatch while swinging so ham-handedly here.

With Voodoo taken off the field early on and Grifter and Zealot fading into the background, there’s not much team for Choi to write. Spartan is still a boy scout, Maul still has a single line about getting bigger that he delivers repeatedly, and Warblade takes center stage.

Warblade gains a bit of depth from the exercise, but you probably won’t come away feeling differently about him than you did at the start. There is such a thing as leaning on Wolverine too much (there’s one memo Marvel actually read), and giving Warblade and Ripclaw a shared SpecOps backstory when we’re getting the same thing for Grifter and Deathblow is a little much.

Silvestri (with co-scripter brother Eric) nails the double duty of a debut issue that’s also a crossover prelude. I’ll admit, I think there’s a certain tackiness to crossing over so early in the life of the title, but marketing is marketing. Despite the tale being framed with a personal story about Ripclaw that serves the crossover, we get introductions and context for everyone else on the team save for Impact. With a strong mini-series behind them, the Silvestris…

that looks so weird as plural, I think we’re going to go with the singular…

…The Silvestri have room to introduce everyone without dropping us into action.

The Silvestri also effortlessly handle a thankless flashback issue in #2 by intertwining Misery’s history with the team’s own defection from CyberData. It’s crafted in such a way that you could have missed WildCATs and the story would still make sense coming from #1. While none of their characters wind up with much time in the spotlight, they all get things to do that are well-matched to their motivations.

The inconsistencies of a speedy wrap-up in #3 can be forgiven, especially since they come with so many interesting little moments, like Velocity’s struggle with taking a life.

Want the play-by-play? Keep reading for a summary of these two teams going head to head. Here’s the schedule for the rest of this month’s WildStorm re-read – tomorrow we’ll read Stormwatch #6-8, which occurs simultaneous to this story.

Need the issues? This is the rare early WildStorm story that’s been collected in full, in a 2004 DC-issued TPB! Good luck finding it – on Amazon it goes for too-high prices, but it goes for cover on eBay. Or, you can pick up single issues – try eBay (Cyberforce & WildCATs) or Amazon (Cyberforce #1, 2, 3 & WildCATs #5, 6, 7, alt WildCATs #5, 6, 7). If you’re picking up singles of Cyberforce, be careful not to buy the preceding limited series by mistake!

[Read more…] about From The Beginning: WildStorm Universe – Killer Instinct (WildCATS #5-7 & Cyberforce, Vol. 2 #1-3)

Marvel’s Most-Wanted Omnibuses of 2016 – #50 to 45

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rsz_2016-06-06_095604One of my favorite comic community happenings of each year is when a message board member named TigerEyes announces that it’s time for the “Annual Secret Ballot: Marvel’s Most-Wanted Omnibus.”

For the uninitiated, what this means is that over a hundred of the biggest Marvel fans and collectors who like to chat each other up on the internet send in their picks for what Marvel material is most worthy of compiling into an oversize Marvel Omnibus Edition, massive tomes that sometimes run over 1,000 pages and up to 50 issues of collected comics.

Whether it’s causation or correlation, books from the secret ballot tend to get printed by Marvel. Here’s the breakdown from the first three years of the survey:

  • 2013 survey: 10 of 29 books were later printed as Omnibus (or are solicited).
  • 2014 survey: 12 of 52 books were later printed as Omnibus (or are solicited).
  • 2015 survey:  7 of  52 books were later printed as Omnibus (or are solicited).

That makes the secret ballot not only a fun exercise, but a useful straw poll to get an idea of what could be coming our way. In fact, the majority of omnibuses released in 2016 that are not from the past three years of comics are from the poll.

I’ll be tackling the results of the 2016 poll starting with this post, complete with likely contents, explanations, how to read the material right now, and the likelihood we’ll ever see the books in print.

Let’s get started! And, if you want to know more about all of the books that have been released to date, my Marvel Omnibus & Oversized Hardcover Guide is built on a database full of all of the information about these massive tomes so you can sort and filter them. It’s the only tool of its kind on the web!

[Read more…] about Marvel’s Most-Wanted Omnibuses of 2016 – #50 to 45