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Marvel Comics
New for Patrons: Guide to Gamora
Even with plenty of drag and indie comics to focus on this month, I still found the time to squeeze in another new Marvel guide for all Patrons of CK. This guide follows a character who started off both dangerous and incredibly complex when she was introduced by Jim Starlin in 1975, and that’s never changed – although she has changed considerably in her nearly 50 years of comics. It’s time for a Guide to Gamora!
If I was totally off-base about my ideas of about Star-Lord when I got to work on his guide, working on a Guide to Gamora confirmed my assumptions and just made me love the character even more.
In fact, I’d go so far as to say that out of all of the Guardians of the Galaxy, Gamora is both the one who is closest to her comic version in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. That’s despite the fact that she is missing a critical element of her first 30 years of comics in the MCU.
Updated: Guide to New X-Men by Grant Morrison
I’m taking a brief breather from my Indie Comics Month today to continue my weekly series of X-Men guide updates! After last week’s update to my Guide to Uncanny X-Men in the 00s, it’s time to take a look at its sibling title and what might be the most-definitive X-Men run after Chris Claremont’s in my Guide to New X-Men & X-Men Vol. 2 the 00s (AKA Guide to New X-Men by Grant Morrison).
Guide to New X-Men & X-Men Vol. 2 the 00s.
AKA Guide to New X-Men by Grant Morrison
There are two pieces of major collected edition news in this Guide to New X-Men update!
First, there is a new fifth printing of Grant Morrison’s New X-Men Omnibus out in just a few months! This is one Marvel’s most-reprinted omnibuses, which after years out of print is now as close to “evergreen” as any single run at Marvel Comics.
Second, Marvel finally finished their “Complete Collection” reprint sequence of this material last year with their X-Men by Peter Milligan: Blood of Apocalypse, which is effectively “X-Men by Peter Milligan Vol. 2.” The first collection included the volume number in the title, so it’s puzzling that this one does not.
The printing of this collection not only concludes Marvel’s reprint of this period, but finally makes one of the hardest-to-find and most-expensive original X-Men trade paperback collections obsolete!
The original Blood of Apocalypse collection was murderous to find 13 years ago when I started collecting, and it hasn’t gotten any easier since then. At the time it was one of the few collections I had to finally break down and pay over cover price to acquire. I just don’t think that many of them were printed relative to the print runs of collections on either side.
That doesn’t mean I only added two collections to this guide! I added much more detail to the New X-Men section, including breaking the pair of paperback printings into separate sub-sections. I clarified the recollection coverage of the Austen and Milligan period, including how issue #165 is orphaned in a Complete Collection of mostly Uncanny X-Men. I explicitly placed of the two annuals in this run in reading order. And, finally, I added digital purchase links and Marvel Unlimited reading links to bring this guide in line with the new Crushing Comics guides.
That means all of my X-Men team book guides are now up-to-date through 2008! However, there are still several more pages to update to cover the intervening 15 years of titles between there and the present day – plus, several solo guides to update as well. Make sure to keep an eye on the CK homepage each week for my newest guide updates.
LIVE SHOW: Marvel Collected Editions, Thursday March 2 @ 1pm ET with Near Mint Condition
It’s time to play the music! It’s time to light the lights! It’s time to stream with Omar @ Near Mint Condition Thursday March 2 @ 1pm ET!
Omar and I will be reviewing Marvel’s upcoming slate of collected editions from their June solicits. That’s not just collections out in June – it’s several months’ worth of Omnibuses, Masterworks, Epics, and trade paperbacks. Eagle-eyed readers may have spotted some of these books pop up on Amazon or in my recent guide updates, but for many of these books this will be the first official word from Marvel about their content.
Omar has sworn me to absolute secrecy when it comes to what’s included in our slate of announcements. Don’t try combing through this post for any hints, because there’s nary a one! All I’m allowed to say is that I’ve been doing A LOT of reading to prepare for the discussion. If I reveal anything more, I hear Marvel will dispatch Namor and a team of Atlanteans to cut New Zealand’s undersea internet cable, and we certainly don’t want that. NZ has had enough natural disasters lately without getting Namor involved.
(I’m hoping that if I behave myself this time Omar might convince the Marvel overlords to let me trickle out teeny teaser or two if I’m invited back for another round in the future.)
I am buzzing with excitement for the chance to join in another set of Marvel announcements with Omar. I always love chatting with Omar & his incredibly kind community of Minties. Catch us Thursday March 2 @ 1pm ET (which is Friday March 3 @ 7am NZT, which means I’ll be visiting the hair and make-up team bright and early tomorrow morning).
(The hair and make-up team is me.)
Near Mint Condition: Marvel announces THREE new Volume 3 omnibuses out in late 2023
As I was in the final pass of editing on that Drag Race Belgique post I got a notification about a new video on the Near Mint Condition channel, so I decided to take quick break from drag to catch up on Omar’s newest comics news.
OMG, I am so glad that I did! Omar’s Sunday morning Near Mint Condition video announces not one, not two, but THREE brand new Marvel omnibuses coming out later this year. Two of them are X-books, and all three of them are third volumes in their omnibus lines!
I’d never steal Omar’s thunder by spoiling his announcements within an hour of them being made, but here’s a hint: If you know what my favorite X-series of all time is, and if you have been following my recent guide updates and announcements about some young and new heroes, then you’ll know why I am so excited about these announcements.
I’ll react more to all three of them, including their delightful mapping, a little later in the week. It’s 2am here in New Zealand right now, and I have a comic guide to finish tomorrow (well, today, but you get my drift)!