Mark Waid

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

April 13, 2024 by krisis

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 Editions

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

Doctor Strange Omnibus Mapping for the Tigereyes Most Wanted Marvel Omnibus 12th Annual Secret Ballot

March 31, 2024 by krisis

Until April 5, I’ll be loosely mapping missing and most-wanted Marvel omnibus volumes every day! Today I’ll be starting a brief trip into the mystical side of Marvel by peering into all of the omnibuses that don’t yet exist for Marvel’s Doctor Strange.

This post explains titles and potential Doctor Strange Omnibus Mapping for entries on the Tigereyes Most Wanted Marvel Omnibus 12th Annual Secret Ballot. You can vote right now (until 5 April 2024 @ midnight US ET) or watch our mega-length announcement stream reviewing every single voting option.

Doctor Strange has been around since the 60s, but he is a curious case where Marvel has focused most of their omnibus energy into his late-80s and 90s series. They knocked that out in three large volumes, but his original Silver Age line lags – as does his modern material (aside from Jason Aaron’s 2015 run reviving the character)

If you’re not sure of what to vote for, stick around for my explanations. Or, if you’ve already voted, learn why the team behind the poll decided on these books and titles – including some of my mistakes and regrets as one of the editors of the options on the final poll.

Or… just find some great comics to read!

Remember: These mappings are just my suggestion of how Marvel could assemble these books. They are meant to help you decide on your votes and build your personal reading list, but your vote on the poll is NOT an endorsement of my specific map. It’s a vote in favor of Marvel creating a book with that title or covering that period.

Over-the-top comics posts like this one are made possible via the support of Patrons of Crushing Krisis. For less than the cost of a single comic issue a month you can fuel my in-depth comics coverage, plus gain access to dozens of exclusive collecting guides & reading orders – including all of the Crushing Comics Guide to Marvel Comics.

New Comics & Collected Editions: Marvel Comics – January 3, 2024

January 2, 2024 by krisis

It’s the first new comic book day of the new year! This post covers Marvel Comics January 3 2024 releases.

This week in Marvel Comics: a hidden X-Men omnibus, two of the best issues of Fantastic Four of all time, a new Venom, and more!

This list includes every comic and digital comic out from Marvel this week, plus collected editions in omnibus, hardcover, paperback, and digest-sized formats. For each new release, I’ll point you to the right guide within my Crushing Comics Guide to Marvel 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!

Marvel Comics January 3 2024 Collected Editions

Black Panther by Eve Ewing: Reign at Dusk, Vol. 1
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1302948832 / digital)
See Guide to Black Panther. This is the first collection of Ewing’s 2023 Black Panther relaunch. This finds T’Challa stalking the streets of a Wakandan city that is analogous to NYC rather than some future utopia. That allows Ewing to focus on the community and culture of Wakanda more than superhero action. That might prove to be too dense or slow a read for some fans, but for fans of the Ta-Nehisi Coates run who were left wanting to see more of Wakanda outside of the capital, this will hit the spot.

Clobberin’ Time
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1302934668 / digital)
The Ever-Lovin’ Blue-Eyed Thing has been experiencing a real resurgence the past few years, including this series written and illustrated by Steve Skroce. It feels like Thing spent most of the 2010s being somewhat uncool and under-utilized, only really featured prominently by Brian Bendis in Guardians of the Galaxy. However, he got the most attention of the entire team in Dan Slott’s Fantastic Four run – not a surprise, since Slott has written him in the past. And now he is often the centerpiece of Ryan North’s F4 run, and he gets his own adventure here from Skroce, ho has an outstanding talent for toeing the line between the heartfelt and the profane (as seen in on of my all-time favorites, Maestros).

Daredevil by Mark Waid & Chris Samnee Omnibus, Vol. 2
(2024 oversize hardcover, ISBN 978-1302952808 / digital)
See Guide to Daredevil. This is a new printing of the tome that collects the back half of the Waid/Samnee run. While the run is delightful overall and this is self-contained enough to be enjoyed without the first volume, I think this second bit isn’t quite as strong as the first bit. You might as well start at the start.

Fantastic Four by Ryan North Vol. 2: Four Stories About Hope
(2023 paperback, ISBN 978-1302934927 / digital)
See Guide to Fantastic Four. I just caught up on this run last week for the April solicits show on Near Mint Condition, and issues #10-11 are two of my favorite Fantastic Four issues of all time. Ryan North is turning in an all-time great run on this title in one- and two-issue installments. [Read more…] about New Comics & Collected Editions: Marvel Comics – January 3, 2024

Unstoppable Wasp Guide – now available to the public!

February 15, 2023 by krisis

I’m happy to announce that my Unstoppable Wasp Guide is now available to all readers to celebrate the release of Ant-Man & the Wasp: Quantumania, in theatres today!

Guide to Unstoppable Wasp, Nadia van Dyne

This Unstoppable Wasp Guide includes a complete reading order of every Nadia van Dyne appearance, from her debut in Free Comic Book Day (FCBD) 2016, through her stint in The Avengers, into Secret Empire and out into the Champions on the other side – plus, Nadia’s own delightful book, Unstoppable Wasp.

Throughout the reading order, I indicate where some books are very tonally different for the character (a-hem, Secret Empire), in case you’re reading along with the kids in your life. If you’re Not in the mood for a full-on Unstoppable Wasp reading order, I also provided a slimmed-down list of “Greatest Hits” issues so you can get only the core of Nadia’s story without background appearances and cameos.

Nadia occupies an interesting space in Marvel’s mythology. She is Hank Pym’s daughter, but she is not his daughter with The Wasp (Janet van Dyne) that neatly aligns with Hope van Dyne of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Instead, Nadia is Hank’s previously unknown child with his first wife, Maria Trovaya. Maria was introduced via flashback in the Silver Age debut of Janet van Dyne. As Hank recalls in that 60s comic, Maria was abducted by foreign agents on their honeymoon and presumed dead for decades of comic continuity. Even when it was later suggested that she was kept alive and held captive, there was nary a hint of a secret daughter until Mark Waid created Nadia in 2016.

Even if Nadia isn’t the same as Hope, there’s something very clever about how she has been handled. That’s because she has allowed Janet van Dyne to take on a maternal role (even giving Nadia her last name!) without aging her to be the mother of a teenager of her own. While moms absolutely can be (and are) heroes, Marvel is always shy to make a female hero into a mom without artificially aging up her child – as we’ve seen with both Jean Grey and Scarlet Witch!

(Sue Storm remains Marvel’s mom-in-chief, parenting two teenagers who aged up off-panel alongside her during an eight-year gap spent tending to other universes after Secret Wars).

This Unstoppable Wasp Guide exists thanks to the ongoing support of the amazing Patrons of Crushing Krisis. They’ve had early access to the guide for three weeks. Now, the guide is open to the public and updated through the present day.

New for Patrons: Guide to Unstoppable Wasp, Nadia van Dyne

January 24, 2023 by krisis

My newest guide for all Patreon supporters of Crushing Krisis is for one of Marvel’s newest characters to hold down her own solo title – two of them, in fact! In my humble opinion, hers are the finest all-ages comics Marvel has produced in their main 616 continuity in the past decade and I absolutely treasure the memories of reading them for the first time with my daughter. She’s not quite the same as her MCU sibling, nor is she quite the hero you might expect her to be. It’s my brand new Guide to Unstoppable Wasp, Nadia van Dyne!

Guide to Unstoppable Wasp, Nadia van Dyne
This guide is now available to the public thanks to the unstoppable support of Patrons of Crushing Krisis!

Nadia van Dyne was one of many Legacy characters introduced to take up classic heroic mantles in All-New All-Different Marvel in 2016.

At the time, it was obvious that Marvel’s editors wanted to replace the entire Avengers starting line-up with newer versions, even if they weren’t currently Avengers- Sam Wilson as Cap, Jane Foster as Thor, Riri Williams as Ironheart, Scott Lang as Ant-Man, and Amadeus Cho as Hulk (plus Kamala Khan as Ms. Marvel, Miles Morales as Spider-Man, and Sam Alexander as Nova, for good measure).

There’s only one founding Avenger missing from that line-up – The Wasp!

The tricky thing about that plan is that Marvel had brought back the original Wasp, Janet van Dyne, in the pages of Uncanny Avengers just as they had finished sweeping aside Steve Rogers, Odinson, Tony Stark, Hank Pym, and Bruce Banner to make way for their new cast of Legacy Heroes.

Oh, and one more complication: Marvel had just introduced a Wasp in the MCU, but she was Hank Pym’s & Janet van Dyne’s grown-up daughter. They couldn’t replicate that in the comics… could they?