Wolverine

Crushing Comics S01E14 – Wolverine: Enemy of the State, Wolverine/Elektra: Redeemer, & SHIELD: Architects of Forever (plus, the Jonathan Hickman indie library)

November 14, 2017 by krisis

It’s part two of talking through the massive brick of comic books I pulled off the shelf last episode, including a Wolverine blockbuster, and apocryphal tale of Elektra, and the one Jonathan Hickman book I just hate – plus, a quick overview of Jonathan Hickman’s indie bibliography.

Want to start from the beginning? Here’s the complete Season 1 playlist of Crushing Comics.

Episode 14 features Wolverine: Enemy of the State (Amazon / eBay), which was also in the Wolverine by Mark Millar Omnibus (Amazon / eBay) along with Old Man Logan; Wolverine/Elektra: The Redeemer by Greg Rucka (Amazon / eBay); and SHIELD: Architects of Forever (Amazon / eBay). Both Wolverine books are covered in the Guide to Wolverine.

Wolverine by Jason Aaron, Vol. 2 – The #33 Most-Wanted Marvel Omnibus of 2017

May 31, 2017 by krisis

I read Jason Aaron’s run on 2010’s Wolverine series live as it was happening… and I did not like it at the time.

In fact, “did not like” isn’t really strong enough language to describe my reaction to Jason Aaron writing Wolverine. If I was ever going to consider burning some comic books, it would have been this run, which I considered to be offensively bad.

However, with the hindsight of where Jason Aaron took Wolverine after this run I can appreciate what he accomplished, and even enjoy some of the individual turns. Weirdly, if this omnibus ever came to pass, I’d be sorely tempted to buy it.

Wolverine by Jason Aaron, Vol. 2 is the #33 Most-Wanted Marvel Omnibus of 2017 on Tigereyes’s Secret Ballot. Visit the Marvel Masterworks Message Board to view the original posting of results by Tigereyes and collect all of these issue right now as detailed in my Guide to Wolverine.

Past Ranking: A 2017 debut!

Probable Contents: This would mirror a pair of Jason Aaron Complete Collections by collecting Wolverine (2010) #1-20, 5.1, & 300-304, plus Astonishing Spider-Man & Wolverine #1-6 and material from Wolverine: Road to Hell.

It should also add X-Men: Schism #1-5 and the digital-first series “Wolverine: Japan’s Most Wanted” co-written by Aaron with Jason Latour.

Creators: Written by Jason Aaron.

Wolverine series letters by Cory Petit. Wolverine #1-5, 10-14, & 20 pencils by Renato Guedes, inks by Oclair Albert and Jose Wilson Magalhães, and colors by Matt Wilson (with backups drawn by Jason Latour with colors by Rico Renzi). Wolverine #6-9 art by Daniel Acuña (with Jefte Palo colored by Nathan Fairbairn on #5.1). Wolverine #15-16 line art by Goran Sudžuka with color art by Matt Wilson. Wolverine #17-19 line art by Ron Garney with color art by Jason Keith. Wolverine #300-304 by multiple artists, including Ron Garney, Adam Kubert, and Steven Sanders.

Astonishing Spider-Man and Wolverine pencils by Adam Kubert, inks by Mark Morales and Dexter Vines, colors by Justin, and letters by Rob Steen. X-Men: Schism by multiple artists. Wolverine: Japan’s Most Wanted co-written by Jason Latour with line art by Paco Diaz, color art by Marte Gracia and Israel Silva, and letters by Cory Petit.

Can you read it right now? Yes! This run was very thoroughly collected in modern Premiere Hardcovers and trade paperbacks, all listed in the Guide to Wolverine – the simplest way to do it is to pick up Wolverine by Jason Aaron Complete Collections Volume 3 and Volume 4.

Plus, every single issue is on Marvel Unlimited – head to Astonishing Spider-Man and Wolverine, Wolverine, X-Men: Schism, and Wolverine: Japan’s Most Wanted.

The Details:

You can think of Jason’s Aaron’s time with Wolverine in three parts – Vicious Wolverine, Vengeful Wolverine, and Fatherly Wolverine.

Yeah, that last one wouldn’t work so well as a title as the first two.

The first Jason Aaron omnibus contains all of the Vicious Wolverine stories. These are super-bloody, knock-down drag out tales that – despite being forgettable – got Wolverine back to short-arc adventures after his ongoing got burdened with bigger stories and event tie-ins.

Fatherly Wolverine is entirely contained in Wolverine and the X-Men by Jason Aaron, which features a kinder, more-custodial version of our hero.

That leaves the most remarkable, marketable, and contentious portion of Aaron’s run uncollected in oversize format. [Read more…] about Wolverine by Jason Aaron, Vol. 2 – The #33 Most-Wanted Marvel Omnibus of 2017

Wolverine, Vol. 3 AKA by Hama & Silvestri – The #38 Most-Wanted Marvel Omnibus of 2017

May 26, 2017 by krisis

Of a number of Marvel authors who pulled half-decade-or-longer runs on their titles in the 80s and 90s, Larry Hama’s run on Wolverine tends to be one that gets overlooked. Maybe that is because Hama wrote such a far-ranging, diverse take on Wolverine that saw him as both superhero and civilian, savage and strategic, and solo and surrounded by friends and allies.

While these initial years aren’t necessarily the best of that run, they might be the best looking thanks to increasingly flashy art from Marc Silvestri leading up to his departure to launch his own Cyberforce for Image Comics.

Wolverine Vol. 3 AKA Wolverine by Hama & Silvestri is tied as he #38 Most-Wanted Marvel Omnibus of 2017 on Tigereyes’s Secret Ballot. Visit the Marvel Masterworks Message Board to view the original posting of results by Tigereyes and visit Guide to Wolverine for details on how to collect every Wolverine issue, ever.

Past Ranking: Ran ked #47 in 2016, it’s debut

Probable Contents: Wolverine (1988) #31-57, along with at least the three OGNs, which stood in for annuals in this period – Wolverine: The Jungle Adventure, Wolverine: Bloodlust, and Wolverine: Rahne of Terra.

Since those issues have been recently recollected in paperback (and are just a modestly-sized book when combined), this volume could also include some or all of other contemporaneous Wolverine material including stories from Marvel Comics Presents #62-71, 85-92, & 97-100, Marvel Fanfare #54-55, and Marvel Collector’s Edition; plus any or all of Fantastic Four (1961) #347-349, Wolverine/Punisher #1-3, Spider-Man (1990) #8-12, and the original graphic novels Wolverine: Bloody Choices and Hearts of Darkness.

Creators: Issues of the main Wolverine series were written by Larry Hama with a single fill-in by Peter David.

The run was penciled by Marc Silvestri (with fill-ins by Larry Stroman and Jerry DeCaire and an arc by Andy Kubert) with Silvestri inked by Dan Green. The run was colored by Glynis Oliver, Mark Chiarello, and Steve Buccellato.

Can you read it right now? Yes! This omnibus will primarily be a collection of three paperbacks – Wolverine by Hama & Silvestri Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 and Weapon X Unbound. Unfortunately, only six issues of this run are on Marvel Unlimited at the moment.

The Details:

There have always been two kinds of Wolverine runs – ones where he works adjacent to the X-Men being a superhero, and others where he’s entirely off on his own.

This initial two-year burst of Larry Hama’s lengthy run as writer is unusual because it contains both. The stories feel a little insubstantial today after 25 more years of Wolverine adventures and revelations, but some of the beats of these stories set the tone for Wolverine (and the shattered memories of his past) for years to come. [Read more…] about Wolverine, Vol. 3 AKA by Hama & Silvestri – The #38 Most-Wanted Marvel Omnibus of 2017

X-Force by Kyle & Yost Omnibus – The #57 Most-Wanted Marvel Omnibus of 2017

May 11, 2017 by krisis

The X-Force by Kyle & Yost Omnibus is the #57 Most-Wanted Marvel Omnibus of 2017 on Tigereyes’s Secret Ballot – and I’ve included the complete X-Force reading order (and casualty count) below!

Visit the Marvel Masterworks Message Board to view the original posting of results by Tigereyes.

What Is It? X-Force (2008) maintained the proactive mandate of 1991’s X-Force iteration but added a no-holds-barred bloody approach to the X-Men’s take on counterterrorism.

That’s what you get when Cyclops appoints Wolverine to lead a team of hunter-killers, although he’s not too happy about his line-up. X-23 is there – despite Wolverine trying to steer her to non-violence, as is Warpath – a reluctant killer, both Angel and Rahne – not entirely in control of themselves, and later Domino, Vanisher, and Elixir.

X-Force (2008) ran for 28 issues and one annual from April 2008 to September 2010.

Past Ranking: This year is the book’s debut placement in the ballot results.

Creators: Written by Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost with art by Clayton Crain along with pencils by Mike Choi, Alina Urusov, Carlo G. Barberi, Gabriele Dell’Otto, and Jason Trent Pearson, inks by Sandu Florea, colors by Sonia Oback, Edgar Delgado (AKA Pato), and Dave Stewart, and letters by Jeff Eckleberry and Cory Petit.

Probable Contents: X-Force (2008) #1-25 & Annual 1, X-Force: Sex & Violence #1-3, Cable (2008) #13-15 (and material from #6-7 & 12), Messiah War one-shot, X-Men: Future History – The Messiah War Sourcebook, X-Force/New Mutants: Necrosha One-Shot, X-Necrosha: The Gathering, and X-Force Special: Ain’t No Dog, as well as some background material. See below for a full reading order.

[Thanks to John S. on FB for catching two of the one-shots I omitted!]

Click to expand a discussion of further content for this volume.

Can you read it right now? Yes!

With the exception of Messiah War and Second Coming, X-Force has now been released in four formats! A pair of oversized hardcovers – Volume 1 and Volume 2 – are the quickest way to collect the non-event issues, but Complete Collection Volume 1 and Volume 2 paperbacks add the Necrosha material.

See the Guide to X-Force for every possible iteration. Or, just head to Marvel Unlimited – every issue is available there (although, note you have to type “X Necrosha” to find the Necrosha one-shots in search.

The Details:

There no other way to say it: X-Force was a shock.

Up to this point it the X-Men’s 40 years of history we had seen plenty of bloody panels – many of them courtesy of Wolverine, Cable, and Deadpool, but also some in books like X-Statix. Yet, even when the X-Men were at their most proactive and forceful, they were rarely a team of killers. That’s something we associated more with their enemies, like the Marauders or Omega Red.

(And of course, there were some major-scale genocidal wipeouts courtesy of Dark Phoenix (billions!) and the mega-sentinel at the beginning of Grant Morrison’s New X-Men (millions!).)

X-Force was the first time that we had an X-Men team devoted to merciless killing. [Read more…] about X-Force by Kyle & Yost Omnibus – The #57 Most-Wanted Marvel Omnibus of 2017

House of M Omnibus – The #59 Most-Wanted Marvel Omnibus of 2017

May 9, 2017 by krisis

The House of M Omnibus is the #59 Most-Wanted Marvel Omnibus of 2017 on Tigereyes’s Secret Ballot.

Visit the Marvel Masterworks Message Board to view the original posting of results by Tigereyes.

What Is It? House of M (2005) is an alternate reality mystery that finds the Avengers and the Astonishing X-Men in a world where mutants dominate a society that is racist against regular humans. It prominently stars Wolverine, Cyclops, Emma Frost, Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, and Magneto.

House of M was Marvel’s first major, line-wide event since Onslaught in 1996 as well as the first significant X-Men and Avengers crossover since then. It was also the first time that Marvel thrust its entire line into an alternate universe story (in an expansion of their strategy for the X-Men-only Age of Apocalypse in 1995).

House of M resulted in massively changed status quo for several Marvel characters, including Ms. Marvel and Wolverine. In its aftermath, Marvel’s mutant population was decimated from millions to just a few hundred, which began a six-year mega-arc that eventually ended in Avengers vs. X-Men in 2012.

The House of M (2005) mini-series event ran for 8 issues from August 2005 to November 2005.

Past Ranking: This is the debut appearance of this book on the ballot!

Creators: Written by Brian Michael Bendis with pencils by Olivier Coipel, inks by Tim Townsend (with Scott Hanna, Rick Magyar, & John Dell III), colors by Frank G. D’Armata (with Paul Mounts), letters by Chris Eliopoulos, and covers by Esad T. Ribic.

Probable Contents: This omnibus would definitely collect House of M (2005) #1-8 plus The Pulse: House of M Special (2005) #1 and Secrets of the House of M (2005).

Those contents have already been published in an oversize hardcover, which is just 312 pages long. Marvel reprinted a similar hardcover of Civil War for their 2016 film, but it was not relabelled as an omnibus. What else could this volume contain?

Click to expand a discussion of further content for this volume.

There were three oversize hardcovers worth of House of M tie-ins, each weighing in at about 350 pages – House of M: No More Mutants, House of M: Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, X-Men, and House of M: Wolverine, Iron Man, Hulk. They are all now out of print and relatively expensive to obtain.

It is likely that most voters had that all-inclusive volume in mind when selecting this choice for their ballot. Together, those tie-ins represent 1048 pages of material, which (combined with the main event) would produce a 1360 page omnibus. That’s larger than Marvel’s current biggest printed volume by a signature (16 pages). The length is potentially feasible, though it would leave no room for the bonus materials many fans look forward to in omnibus editions.

We’ll call that version, “House of M Complete Collection Omnibus.”

Alternately, all of that material could be saved for a sizable “House of M Companion” omnibus, and this volume could instead include both lead-up and aftermath stories to the event. Excalibur (2004) #11-14 in Excalibur, Vol. 3 contained the lead-in to the event – another 96 pages. The quintet of X-Men: The Day After, X-Men: Generation M, X-Men: Son of M, X-Men: The 198, and Sentinel Squad O.N.E. covered the fallout of the event, called “Decimation.” Together, they account for a combined 712 pages. New Avengers #16-20 was not part of Decimation, but it also served as an epilogue – another 120 pages.

An omnibus of all that material would be a slightly-more-reasonable 1344 pages – as long as Marvel’s longest current book. Less the inessential lead-in from Excalibur and the disconnected Avengers epilogue, it would be 1120 pages.

We’ll call that version, “House of M: No More Mutants Omnibus.”

If Marvel went with the “No More Mutants Omnibus,” it would reasonable to see the additional material from the “Complete Collection” omnibus as its own “House of M Companion.” Conversely, if Marvel went with the “Complete Collection Omnibus,” it would also be reasonable to see a “House of M Companion: Decimation” omnibus containing all of the follow-up material.

For the full details on all of the issues contained in the prelude, tie-in, and aftermath titles and how they are presently collected, see the Guide to Marvel Universe Events.

Can you read it right now? Yes! The House of M trade paperback has “evergreen” status at Marvel – meaning they always keep it in print. However, all of the various supporting books are long since out of print and may cost you a lot of money to purchase. Learn more about them in the Guide to Marvel Universe Events.

And, fear not – every single issue of House of M and its tie-ins are available on Marvel Unlimited for just $10 a month!

The Details:

House of M is one of Marvel’s biggest and most-accessible stories of all time for a litany of reasons.

It featured a team of blockbuster creators, told an alternate reality tale that was massive in scope, kicked off Marvel’s modern age of yearly line-wide events, and was an Avengers and X-Men team-up that actually changed everything that came afterwards for both teams.

However, it might be most notable for being a major inflection point for Marvel. The pre-House of M Marvel of early 2005 would be unrecognizable to readers of both today and of a decade prior to House of M.

Marvel’s line was beginning to expand after their gaunt late-90s bankruptcy years, but it was not the interconnected universe to which fans of the early 90s were accustomed. Titles tended to keep to themselves, without major interaction across Marvel’s Universe. Crossovers were all but extinct. Most of the hype and fan interest was around Marvel’s Ultimate Universe, which launched fresh, modernized version of their four core franchises starting in 2000.

Yet, the prior year had brought with it two major shake-ups in the main Marvel Universe that captured fan imagination (and, in one case, ire). [Read more…] about House of M Omnibus – The #59 Most-Wanted Marvel Omnibus of 2017