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

New Comics & Collected Editions: Marvel Comics – September 20, 2023

September 19, 2023 by krisis

It’s time to take a look at what’s out from Marvel Comics this week! This post covers Marvel Comics September 20 2023 releases.

Plus, I’m getting close to caught up on reading all of the Marvel Universe – so I have some commentary on some of the single issues and new collections.

Marvel Comics September 20 2023 Collected Editions

The Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection, Vol. 22: Round Robin
(2015 paperback, ISBN 978-0785192688 / 2023 paperback, ISBN 978-1302950545 / digital)
See Guide to Spider-Man, Peter Parker (1963-2018). I’ve just updated all of the Amazing Epic Collections on the guide and I was shocked at how many of them have been back to print in the past three lines. Even Epics of relatively insignificant runs! Marvel has truly found a way to create a Manga-Style, well-organized, evergreen line of their entire comics history and we love to see it.

The Avengers Omnibus Vol. 4
(2023 oversize hardcover, ISBN 978-1302953621 / digital)
See the freshly rebuilt Guide to Avengers (1963-1996)! This is the last of the four reprints in addition to a brand new Volume 5 out this month. We love to see this line advancing without new Avengers movies on the big screen, which used to be the only way it got a new volume.

Bloodline: Daughter of Blade
(2023 paperback, ISBN 978-1302924423 / digital)
See Guide to Blade. This series has an awkward history – originally it was meant to be launched by Tim Seeley several years ago, and then it was shelved and seemingly lost before it was revived (and revised) by Danny Lore. Unfortunately, this just didn’t hold together for me. It wasn’t Lore’s fault – I think the artist had trouble keeping up with a story that repeatedly mixed casual scenes with action scenes. The discontinuity of storytelling in the art eventually wore me down.

Captain Marvel: The Saga of Carol Danvers
(2023 paperback, ISBN 978-1302951818 / digital)
See Guide to Captain Marvel – Carol Danvers. This is a peculiar trade that’s more of a sampler for the movie crowd then a trade for a consistent bookshelf. It collects the opening eights issues of Kelly Sue DeConnick’s 2012 Carol Danvers series (which includes a great pair of issues where she meets up with Monica Rambeau) as well as the origin-redefining The Life of Captain Marvel (2018), which brought her comic origins more in line with the MCU (booo!).

New for Patrons: Guide to Monica Rambeau – Photon, Spectrum, & Captain Marvel

September 18, 2023 by krisis

This week I’m back with a new guide for all Patrons of CK to spotlight a character who used to be just a footnote in another guide! She has been known by many names at Marvel, but ever since she was created by Roger Stern 41 years ago she has never quite disappeared from sight. Now, in 2023, she’s poised to have her biggest year ever thanks to this Novembers The Marvels. That’s right, it’s her time to shine: Guide to Monica Rambeau – Photon, Spectrum, & Captain Marvel.

Guide to Monica Rambeau – Photon, Spectrum, & Captain Marvel.

I adore Monica Rambeau and get excited every time she shows up on the page. Yet, I really hadn’t read her at all before I encountered her in a guest appearance in Captain Marvel (2012) #7-8 to argue with Carol over who should use the Captain Marvel name!

That’s because all of Monica’s past appearances – as Captain Marvel, Photon, and Spectrum – fell curiously between my prime reading years. I always knew that Monica Rambeau was a creation of Roger Stern’s for his run in Avengers, but those weren’t the back-issues I was tracking down in my X-crazed 90s collecting years, and she was mostly absent from comics the entire time I was collecting save a handful of solo stories. Then, I totally missed out on her 2006-2010 resurgence when I came back to reading in 2010!

I thought I’ve picked up a lot from context over the past 13 years of reading, but now that I’ve been through every single Monica Rambeau appearance I realize just how much I was missing – which makes me even happier to have created this guide.

Updated: Guide to Avengers (1963-1996)

September 15, 2023 by krisis

This year celebrates the 60th anniversary of several major Marvel Comics publishing milestones. Yesterday I shared an update to my Silver Age X-Men Guide to mark the 60th Anniversary of X-Men (1963) #1, with a cover date of September 1963 (though it actually hit the stands in July – cover dates functioned as a “sell by” date in the Silver Age). The X-Men weren’t the only team to hit the newsstands in the middle of 1963, because the same month featured the debut of Marvel’s iconic supergroup – and another one of their most-iconic franchises – The Avengers! Today I’ve not only updated but completely rebuilt one of the most important Crushing Comics guides – my Guide to Avengers (1963-1996)!

Guide to Avengers (1963-1996)

I originally launched this guide back in November of 2011 as my first guide to comics outside of the X-Men line! It has been incrementally updated many times over since then. However, I never fundamentally changed the structure of the guide as Marvel’s collection strategy evolved to include more omnibuses, comprehensive coverage of universe-spanning events, and the amazing Epic Collection line to cover all of the gaps in each long-running series. The Avengers have transformed from an occasionally-collected title with major gaps – especially in the 90s – to a 400+ issue title with just a handful of issues left uncollected.

Today, I have completely rebuilt this guide from the ground up! What does that mean? Not only did I list every collected edition of Avengers (1963), but I also did all of the following… [Read more…] about Updated: Guide to Avengers (1963-1996)

Updated: Guide to Conan The Barbarian

September 13, 2023 by krisis

On Monday I released a new guide celebrating a new #1 comic I loved in Birds of Prey (2023) #1. Today I’m back with a major guide update for another new comic I am really digging – the new Titan Comics relaunch of Conan the Barbarian (2023)! You can find that, and every other Conan comic ever published, in my Guide to Conan!

Guide to Conan The Barbarian

The last time my Conan guide had a major overhaul was in 2019. It was still early in Marvel’s relaunch of the licensed property – around the time of their launch of the in-continuity Savage Avengers (2019).

A lot has happened with Conan since then! [Read more…] about Updated: Guide to Conan The Barbarian