Marvel Comics

Guide to ThunderCats (New for Patrons!)

January 31, 2024 by krisis Leave a Comment

New Guide, HO! I’m back with another special mid-week licensed property guide exclusively for Pledgeonaut Patrons of Crushing Krisis. This guide is for a property I love dearly, which rocketed from the obscurity of nostalgia to be the most pre-ordered comic book of the decade, due out a week from today! That’s right, it’s a Guide to ThunderCats – HO!

Guide to ThunderCats comic books

I was surprised when I heard that the new ThunderCats comics by Declan Shalvey & Drew Moss from Dynamite Entertainment had the highest pre-orders of any comic so far in the 2020s. Did people still love this property that much? And, hadn’t there already been plenty of ThunderCats comics?

That led me down a rabbit hole that got surprisingly deep, thanks to one particular long-running ThunderCats series most readers have likely never seen or heard of.

New Comics & Collected Editions: Marvel Comics – January 31, 2024

January 30, 2024 by krisis Leave a Comment

It’s the fifth new comic book day of the new year! This post covers Marvel Comics January 31 2024 releases. Missed last week’s releases? Check out last week’s post covering Marvel Comics January 24 2024 new releases.

This week in Marvel Comics: Danny Rand’s early Iron years, Sabretooth post-exile, late-breaking mutant resurrections, Secret Wars that should’ve stayed secret, 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 31 2024 Collected Editions

Betsy Braddock: Captain Britain
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1302950750 / digital)
See Guide to Captain Britain. By the start of 2023 Betsy had held the Captain Britain title for over three years of comics, but this was her first solo title. Unfortunately, it also marked the end of her exploits as a leading lady in the Age of Krakoa. I wasn’t always on Tini Howard’s side as an author of Betsy, but I think this was one of her tighter arcs with the character.

If you were waiting for more of the focus Howard showed on the Malice material from the end of Excalibur (2019), this feels closer to that. Plus, it has the historically bisexual Betsy actually dating a woman (who happens to be one of my favorites characters)!

Daredevil: Born Again Gallery Edition
(2024 “Gallery Edition” oversize hardcover, ISBN 978-1302953041)
See Guide to Daredevil. This oversize Gallery Edition hardcover collects all of Frank Millers return alongside David Mazzucchelli for the all-time classic “Born Again” story in issues #226-233.

Dark Avengers Modern Era Epic Collection: Osborn’s Reign
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1302952709 / digital)
See Guide to Thunderbolts & Dark Avengers. It’s funny to me that this is an “Epic Collection” when really it’s just a more complete “Complete Collection” since it doesn’t skip over the Dark Avengers / Uncanny X-Men crossover material like the previous Complete did.

The fact that a one-off run like this is getting an Epic Collection just goes to prove how “all-in” Marvel has gone on moving all of their classic paperback reprints into Epic format. This is my favorite Brian Bendis comic and you really don’t need to know these characters from Thunderbolts to appreciate how awful (in a good way) they are as Norman Osborn’s Avengers.

Iron Fist – Danny Rand: The Early Years
(2024 oversize hardcover, ISBN 978-1302954857 / digital)
See Guide to Iron Fist. This is a much-needed omnibus edition that combines the contents of the single Iron Fist Marvel Masterworks with all of his Deadly Hands of Kung-Fu magazine material. This marries up neatly with the run of Power Man & Iron Fist on the other side.

However, like all of his other collections, it still puzzlingly excludes Marvel Team-Up (1972) #31 – one of his major starring appearances in this period! I guess that’s an oversight that will never be corrected, at this point. Even without that issue, this is a terrific read – largely written by Chris Claremont. [Read more…] about New Comics & Collected Editions: Marvel Comics – January 31, 2024

ROM, Spaceknight – Collecting Guide & Reading Order

Guide to ROM, Spaceknight (New for Patrons!)

January 24, 2024 by krisis 2 Comments

Today, Marvel Comics is releasing an omnibus we never thought would come to exist, so I’m releasing a guide I never thought I’d ever make exclusively for Pledgeonaut Patrons of Crushing Krisis. It’s a guide to a toy that became a comic that defined the toy (which was a bit of a flop, as it turns out), but is now back thanks to our collective nostalgia. That’s right, it’s a Guide to ROM, Spaceknight – including his reading order at both Marvel Comics and IDW Publishing!

Guide to ROM, Spaceknight

Okay, I know what you’re thinking (unless you are exactly in the Gen X age range to have specific existing nostalgia for this comic book). You’re thinking: “Really, Krisis? A whole guide just for a comic book about a toy? Is this really necessary?”

In a word: YES.

In several more words: ROM is perhaps the most-shining example of Marvel’s 1970s and 1980s licensed character comics, which involved a bevy of Marvel’s best creators breathing life into media properties and toy lines in the form of a richly-built world and dynamic supporting casts.

Of course, Marvel’s Star Wars continuity is well-known and well-loved. And, Larry Hama’s G.I. Joe is rightfully lauded for its incredible tight coordination with the continuity of the toy line (for which he wrote all of the packaging copy). However, ROM by Bill Mantlo, Sal Buscema, & Steve Ditko is remarkable for expanding a single failed toy launch into a heroic, dramatic, and occasionally tragic seven-year comic run that crossed over with the likes of the X-Men, the Avengers, Incredible Hulk, Power Man & Iron Fist, and more!

Except… Marvel was never allowed to reprint any of the issues… UNTIL TODAY, the day of the release of the first of three ROMNIBUS volumes collecting Rom’s complete 1979 series as well as the handful of guest appearances that Marvel has always been forbidden to reprint.

New Comics & Collected Editions: Marvel Comics – January 24, 2024

January 23, 2024 by krisis Leave a Comment

It’s the fourth new comic book day of the new year! This post covers Marvel Comics January 24 2024 releases. Missed last week’s releases? Check out last week’s post covering Marvel Comics January 17 2024 new releases.

This week in Marvel Comics: a ROMnibus appears, Straczynski & Gillen’s Thor runs finally reunited, Al Ewing up to something with Magneto, and more!

Marvel Comics January 24 2024 Collected Editions

Marvel Two-in-One Epic Collection: Two Against Hydra
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1302931766 / digital)
See Guide to Fantastic Four or Guide to Thing (eventually). Marvel is slowly-but-surely pressing on with their collections of this Thing team-up title, which included a few more significant stories than its sibling Marvel Team-Up (1972). This volume (and all collections of this material, in general) skips issue #21, which includes a team-up with Doc Savage – Marvel no longer has the rights to reprint it.

ROM: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus Vol. 1
(2024 oversize hardcover, ISBN 978-1302956714 / digital)
See Guide to ROM, Spaceknight. We never thought it could exist, but here it is – the ROMnibus! FYI, there are THREE DM variants of this omnibus cover – Frank Miller X-Men, George Pérez, and Sal Buscema. Marvel will cover this series in a trio of omnibuses, and there’s no guarantee they will print it in any other format (like Epic Collection), so this could be your one chance to finally own a reprinted, remastered collection of this material.

Siege
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1302952792 / digital)
See Guide to Marvel Universe Events. Marvel has been working through paperback reprints of most of their line-wide events in the past year, likely to serve as complements to the Epic and Modern Era Epic lines. This event isn’t particularly satisfying to read on its own – all three of the Avengers books at the time heavily filled out the action, in particular New Avengers.

Star Wars Legends Epic Collection: The Menace Revealed Vol. 4
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1302953911 / digital)
See Guide to Star Wars Legends – The Old Expanded Universe. This is not only the last Epic of this era (which stretches from pre-prequels through the prequel trilogy), but also potentially the second to last of the Legends Epics! There’s only one major uncollected series remaining – Star Wars: Invasion (2009) #0-16. After that, we’re just down to recollecting old Star Wars comics coverage omnibus format and Epic reprints.

Strange Academy: Year Two
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1302953003 / digital)
See Guide to Doctor Strange. This collects the back half of the original 2020 series and its “Finals” mini-series from 2022. Strange Academy had such a massive cast to start that sometimes it could be hard to zero in on the characters, their histories and powers, and how they related to each other. Here at the end the book is hyper-focused on one particular relationship and conflict, which escalates to a pretty epic level by the end. This is a rare in-continuity Marvel book that would work well for a YA crowd, though I’d perhaps call it for 10YO+ due to some themes related to drug use.

Thor by Straczynski & Gillen Omnibus
(2024 oversize hardcover, ISBN 978-1302953010 / digital)
See Guide to Thor, The Odinson. This is a relatively rare release from Marvel in that it specifically expands the content of a prior omnibus release! The Thor by JMS omnibus was a great read that kicked off the modern era of Thor, but it has always been an incomplete work since Gillen dropped in to finish off JMS’s abandoned plot threads before Matt Fraction took the reins. Now this volume completely plugs that gap, butting perfectly up against Thor by Matt Fraction and Loki by Gillen. Plus, it adds Gillen’s excellent Beta Ray Bill material. Strong recommendation from me on this one for Thor fans – it’s the ground level of his modern comics! [Read more…] about New Comics & Collected Editions: Marvel Comics – January 24, 2024