Crushing Krisis

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Tom Taylor

This Week in X: All-New Wolverine #32, Astonishing X-Men #9, New Mutants – Dead Souls #1, Old Man Logan #36, Weapon X #15, & X-Men Blue #23

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It’s the eleventh week of new comics in 2018, and This Week in X has six new titles to review – so many that I mistakenly omitted one the first time I edited this video. I’ve never had to count as high as six before!

This week, I cover:

  • All-New Wolverine #32, a pleasant (if pandering) one-shot epilogue to “Orphans of X”
  • Astonishing X-Men #9, a dull middle chapter that does a lot of telling rather than showing
  • New Mutants – Dead Souls #1, a solid hit for lovers of every era of New Mutants
  • Old Man Logan #36, which flirts with some heavy themes before turning into a MacGuffin hunt
  • Weapon X #15, a surprisingly satisfying (and unsurprisingly bloody) tussle
  • X-Men Blue #23, far and away the best issue of this series and a return to form for Cullen Bunn

Learn more about how each of those series reached their current issues and hear which ones I’d recommend picking up.

The Pull List: Action Comics, Avengers, Calexit, Detective Comics, Jim Henson’s Labyrinth, The Terrifics, Thanos, & more!

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This week The Pull List is holding steady at a still-staggering 32 comic books.

I’m not sure if I was being a moody reader or if every company shipped some bunk books this week, but the average rating for the week was 2.70 – a full third of a point lower than the past few weeks. While that means most of the books were still better than average, it’s not by a whole lot.

Artwork from Thanos #16, line art by Geoff Shaw with color art by Antonio Fabela.

Here’s what I pulled this week, with *s on adds (whether I just caught up with them or started them fresh):

  • DC Comics
    • Action Comics #998
    • Detective Comics #975
    • The Flash #41
    • * Mera – Queen of Atlantis #1
    • Milk Wars: JLA/Doom Patrol Special
    • Raven: Daughter of Darkness #2
    • * Suicide Squad #36
    • Teen Titans #17
    • The Silencer #2
    • * The Terrifics #1
    • Wonder Woman #41
  • Image Comics
    • * The Beef #1
    • Days of Hate #2
    • Gasolina #6
    • Twisted Romance #4
    • Void Trip #4
  • Marvel Comics
    • All-New Wolverine #31
    • Avengers #682
    • Captain Marvel #129
    • * Champions #17
    • Legion #2
    • * Lockjaw #1
    • Moon Knight #192
    • Thanos #16
    • X-Men Blue #22
  • Smaller Publishers: Aftershock, Black Mask, Boom! Studios, Dark Horse, Titan
    • Abbott #2, Boom! Studios
    • * Alisik #1, Titan Books / Statix Press
    • Backways #3, Aftershock Comics
    • * Calexit #2, Black Mask Studios
    • Hungry Ghosts #2, Dark Horse / Berger Books
    • * Jim Henson’s Labyrinth: Coronation #1, Boom! Studios
    • * The Wilds #1, Black Mask Studios

Picks of the Pull

Big Two (Marvel/DC) Issue of the Week:
Detective Comics (2016) #975

A great-looking, contemplative issue that brings together the members of the Bat-Family we don’t usually see in this book – Nightwing, Batgirl, Red Hood, and Damian.

Batman has pulled these trusted lieutenants together as an inner council to decide Batwoman’s fate as a member of the Bat-family, yet in some ways their conversation is also a litigation of Bruce and his methods as the head of this dysfunctional household. Meanwhile, Batwoman holds herself accountable for her own actions, with a surprising result.

This isn’t an issue that’s going to appeal to a more casual reader – it looks amazing, but it has hardly any conflict. However, for someone who has been reading from the start this pierces right to the heart of this title and the ideological divide between Batwoman and Batman that has been brewing all along.

Part of what makes it so power is that Batwoman also has an avowed “no kills” philosophy, but she is willing to make exceptions when other lives hang in the balance. Batman won’t make exceptions, so he gets to watches thousands of Gothamites die from his moral high ground.

It’s heartbreaking to think of this book writing by someone other than Tynion or with a cast other than this one. Everything about it works so incredibly well. Yet, we’re in the “disassembled” phase, and there’s certainly more conflict to come before Tynion moves on.

Best Small-Pub Issue of the Week:
The Wilds (2018) #1, Black Mask Studios

A strong and sombre new zombie comic, The Wilds is definitely a descendent of Walking Dead but with a completely different tone – due in no small part to its pair of woman creators, Vita Ayala and Emily Pearson.

We get the same old zombie-pocked landscape with isolated camps trading resources and doing their best to survive, except the zombies are walking plant life – humans who have turned into semi-sentient flower pots. It makes for strangely calming, beautiful zombies to see all of their typical goriest bits covered in blooming flowers.

Pearson’s art evokes such masters of the modern form as Allred and Noto, employing their same plain, truthful faces and uncomplicated backgrounds.

Beneath the flowery dressing, this is the familiar story of a single senior errand runner who thinks it might be time to get out of the game, and how an act of compassion on her last journey might spell the end of the safety of her heavily fortified compound. There’s no slam bang action beats in this one, but the strange stillness of it is pulling me towards reading more.

[Read more…] about The Pull List: Action Comics, Avengers, Calexit, Detective Comics, Jim Henson’s Labyrinth, The Terrifics, Thanos, & more!

This Week In X: All-New Wolverine, Legion, & X-Men Blue

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It’s the ninth week of new comics in 2018, and This Week in X we have an unusually light week of X-Men. There are just three new titles and three collections to cover, although one of those collections is a really big deal to me!

  • All-New Wolverine (2016) #31 is a fun-filled one-off team-up of Honey Badger and Deadpool.
  • Legion (2018) #2 is a comic book that does not star Legion nor appeal to his fans from any medium.
  • X-Men: Blue (2017) #22 finds some character moments in this symbiote space saga, but skimps on details.

Learn more about how each of those series reached their current issues and hear which ones I’d recommend picking up. Plus, learn what new X-collections are out this week, including Legion – Son of X, New Mutants, and Weapon X!

This Week In X: The debut of X-Men Red, plus X-Men Gold, Rogue & Gambit, and Iceman (February 7, 2018)

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It’s the sixth week of new comics in 2018, and this week in X brings a massive new team book debut with it – X-Men: Red!

X-Men: Red #1 has the outstanding Tom Taylor putting Jean Grey in the driver’s seat of her own X-squad in the absence of both Xavier and Cyclops as guiding forces for mutant-kind. Seeing Jean as a leader is always a thrill, but does Taylor’s take hold up for me?

Plus, a new arc in X-Men: Gold #21, another romantic issue of Rogue & Gambit #2 (but maybe not in the way you think), and a story wraps up in Iceman #10.

This Week in X: Phoenix Resurrection: The Return of Jean Grey concludes, plus All-New Wolverine #30, Jean Grey #11, and Old Man Logan #34

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It’s the fifth week of new comics in 2018, and it’s a climactic week for the X-Men!

Tom Taylor and the stellar art team of Juan Cabal and Nolan Woodard wrap up the “Orphans of X” arc in All-New Wolverine #30. Jean Grey goes through an unexpected transformation in Jean Grey #11. Our aged Logan has a brief reunion with a lost love and then the plot lurches onward in Old Man Logan #34. And, finally Phoenix Resurrection: The Return of Jean Grey concludes with issue #5 and … you guessed it, the return of Jean Grey!

I was underwhelmed by the conclusions of both Jean Grey books, which felt much ado about nothing to me. It would have been more interesting to have Jean appear out of nowhere. I have a lot more to say about this on this week’s “This Week In X”!

This Week In X: All-New Wolverine, Generation X’s big moment, & more!

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It’s the third week of new comics in 2018, and it brings a batch of five X-titles that vary very widely in quality.

We have another installment of “Orphans of X” in Tom Taylor’s All-New Wolverine (2016) #29, Declan Shalvey’s Deadpool vs. Old Man Logan (2017) #4 (of 5), a pivotal issue of Christina Strain’s Generation X (2017) #86, a new arc in Greg Pak’s Weapon X (2017) #13, and an epilogue to the “Negative Zone War” in Marc Guggenheim’s X-Men: Gold (2017) #20/

I’m incredibly impressed with All-New Wolverine and Generation X, and several different shades of disappointed with the other three.

(Weirdly, YouTube decided to only feature a low-res version of this episode.)