Welcome to The Comic Crush Presents… From Panels to Pictures for our review of Spider-Man: No Way Home! Liz and Paul are joined by Keith Eyles of Home Media Minefield to discuss the themes, action, and heart of the latest Spider-Man film in this full spoiler special. In this extended episode, the trio gives their reaction to the most highly-anticipated MCU movie since Avengers: Endgame.

Watch on YouTube: From Panels to Pictures: Spider-Man: No Way Home

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Dark Knights of Steel #1
Tom Taylor (w), Yasmine Putri (a)
DC Comics

Liz says: This is Tom Taylor doing what he does best: taking the DC Universe and turning it on its head, reimagining it to wondrous effect. Part ‘Game of Thrones’, part ‘Marvel: 1602’, ‘Dark Knights of Steel’ is a fantasy epic set in a medieval version of the DCU, with all the magic, politics, and familial drama that description entails. In this (Else-) world, Superman’s parents crash-land to earth moments before their super-son’s birth, surviving to reign as King and Queen of the Castle of El. Jumping forward twenty years, the world around them has been shaped by their arrival: fraught with political rivalries and magical threats, all of which come in the form of high-profile DC characters. As with the aforementioned ‘Marvel: 1602’ (Neil Gaiman’s brilliant take on an alternate medieval version of the Marvel Universe), it takes some initial conjecture to divine who’s who. The Kingdom of Storms is ruled by Jefferson Pierce; the oft-mentioned Green Man turns out to be the Green Lantern; the young mystic who foresees the future while speaking in tongues is John Constantine. Bruce Wayne is a Witcher who hunts down users of magic at the behest of Castle El, while the Banshee he pursues is Black Canary. While the book’s title implies a Batman story (Dark Knights, as it were), it’s clear from the onset that this is a tale that envelops the whole DC Universe, proper. Bruce is no doubt a key player, whose own background is sensationally convergent from the classic Batman origin story. The final panels will leave you as breathless and on-the-edge-of-your-seat as any great episode of Game of Thrones, with as many questions racing through your mind as to what will happen next. This was a thrilling first issue, rife with potential outcomes. I look forward to seeing how it all plays out.

X-Men #7
Jonathan Hickman (w), Leinil Francis Yu (a)
Marvel Comics

Liz says: Jonathan Hickman’s X-Men series continues to astonish, one magnificent issue after another – this week by confronting the events of M-Day, when the Scarlet Witch depowered ninety percent of the world’s mutant population.

In HoX/PoX, Hickman made the X-men essentially immortal with the help of The Five, who collectively possess the power of resurrection. In X-Men #7, he reveals what this means for those who lost their powers through a ritual called Crucible.

For practical reasons, The Five are unable to simply restore the million depowered mutants all at once (there are already millions of dead mutants for them to resurrect first). This is where Crucible comes into play.
Crucible is a ceremony during which mutants who lost their powers on M-Day are allowed to fight Apocalypse to the death so that they might be reborn, having symbolically earned their powers back through the sacrifice.

Even knowing how it would play out, reading this was brutal – watching Melody Guthrie face Apocalypse to die and be reborn was simultaneously horrific and beautiful. There were a lot of other standout moments in this issue – the quiet camaraderie between Scott and Wolverine, Nightcrawler questioning his religious beliefs and also the ‘new rules’ by which they live, and what they might mean for the future. Issue by issue, Hickman’s run is reinventing the X-Men from the ground up, a rebirth of sorts in itself – and I am living for it.

Batman: Pennyworth RIP #1
James Tynion IV, Peter Tomasi (w), Various (a)
DC Comics

Liz says: Grief is a messy emotion, one that is expressed in many different ways. When a beloved family member dies, denial, anger, bargaining, and depression all pave the road toward acceptance.

‘The Bat Family walks into a bar’ may sound like the beginning of a joke, but there is nothing humorous about the conversation that follows. After the funeral service of the Wayne family butler, the core family members – Bruce, Dick, Jason, Tim, Barbara, and Damian – convene in a rented-out dive bar as their unlikely venue. Dick (or ‘Ric’ as he’s been calling himself since he was shot in the head and lost his memories) offers to bartend as the others share stories and raise a glass to their dearly departed loved one.

The best moments of the issue are the flashbacks featuring Alfred, each a bittersweet testament to why the character is so beloved. One by one, the family members tell stories epitomizing their particular bond with Alfred, each drawn by a different artist. The Damian-centred sequence drawn by Chris Burnham (the primary artist on distinctive segments of the Morrison run, in which Damian was introduced and during which his dynamic with Alfred was formed) was especially wonderful and evocative of happier times.

As desirable as it may have been to see Bruce step up to the plate and bring his family together in mourning, it is far more fitting that he is incapable of doing so. Bruce is a man of immeasurable will, self-discipline, and strength, but he is deficient when it comes to coping with loss. Bruce is paralyzed by grief, unable to act when his adoptive sons and protégés cry out for help and walk away from him, one after the other.

After the deaths of Thomas and Martha Wayne, Alfred effectively became Bruce’s father, so when Bruce dedicates a children’s hospital to Alfred and erects a statue in his honor (the exact sort of memorials that have been built in the name of the Waynes), it’s his own clumsy, emotionally stunted way of demonstrating that he considers Alfred to be their equal as his parent.

Alfred Pennyworth has always been the beating heart of the Bat-Family, providing guidance, support, and love to Bruce and the children who followed him. Without him, they are a rudderless ship, and certainly a long way from healing. But though their reunion was brief, it allowed Alfred a chance to bring them together one more time – exactly as he would have wanted.

DC’s Crimes of Passion #1
Various (w), (a)
DC Comics

Liz says: Love hurts, especially when you’re a crime-fighting hero. DC’s Crimes of Passion #1 packs in ten eight-page stories feature an assortment of DC characters for bittersweet tales of temptation, betrayal and broken hearts – just in time for Valentine’s Day. The first story is a Batman tale featuring a canonical but mostly-forgotten paramour of Bruce Wayne’s, Linda Page. Told in the form of a letter from Bruce to Linda, this story best encapsulates the golden age tone and aesthetic that Crimes of Passion riffs on – a classic tale of heartbreak that feels like it’s straight out of a noir film. After that, we get an assortment of stories featuring super-couples (Green Arrow and Black Canary, Nightwing and Batgirl) and characters that often prefer to be single (Catwoman, The Question) as well as lesser-known characters like Wildcat and even Slam Bradley. A couple of the standouts were the Pied Piper story, in which the Flash villain-turned-hero is faced with temptation; the Nightwing and Batgirl story in which Dick and Barbara struggle to define their relationship; and the Batwoman story in which Kate is forced to team up with her ex, Detective Maggie Sawyer, to take down a villainess who’s badly wronged her. There really are no let-downs here, though- every story was entertaining and despite it being an 80-page special, the book just flew by. Lost love may be painful, but reading about it was a pleasure – Happy Valentine’s Day!

Deadpool: The End #1
Joe Kelly (w), Mike Hawthorne (a)
Marvel Comics

Liz says: How do you kill an unkillable killer? Deadpool: The End #1 tells you how in not one but twenty-five different ways! The latest installment of Marvel’s ‘The End’ (a series of one-shots relaying a potential last story for a titular character), this issue is as appropriately wacky, hilarious and fourth-wall-breaking as any final Deadpool should be. While our anti-hero Wade Wilson has survived the unsurvivable at least a million times over, writer Joe Kelly offers up a number of entertaining and vaguely credible death scenes for the Merc with a Mouth. It’s fitting that Kelly (the writer largely credited with defining the character) should be tasked with writing Deadpool’s final story, and he certainly doesn’t disappoint. The mostly single-page entries range from “death-by-joyous-orgy” to “death-by-office-admin”, with all sorts of crazy in-between – amidst the many set-ups, we’re given differing possible scenarios in which Deadpool joins the Avengers and dates a member of the team (one male, one female), a bored-marriage scene between Deadpool and his longtime paramour Death, and a funny dig at DC Metal (the Batman-Who-Laughs in particular). Most notably, there are two very plausible (and surprisingly touching) endings that would make any true fan weep. If this truly is Joe Kelly’s last words on Deadpool, I couldn’t have asked for a better “The End”.

True Believers: The Criminally Insane Purple Man #1
Stan Lee (w), Joe Orlando (a)
Marvel Comics

Liz says: How did the Purple Man get his powers of persuasion? True Believers: The Criminally Insane Purple Man #1 reprints the first appearance of Zebediah Kilgrave in Daredevil #4 (1964). This early issue of Daredevil features Matt in the yellow costume (it changes by #7) and the first appearance of a character who has recently been ranked one of Marvel’s best villains. In his first appearance, Kilgrave uses his power to rob a bank, hypnotize Karen Page and recruit an army of body-builders from the local gym as his minions. We also find out his origin story as a spy who was accidentally doused with an experimental nerve-gas that turned his skin purple and gave him his power. This issue was a lot of fun – it’s always interesting to see the first glimpse of an enduring character. The ‘True Believers: Criminally Insane’ series features first appearances of villains such as Green Goblin, Bullseye, the Masters of Evil and many more – all well worth a read!

Archie #710
Mariko Tamaki, Kevin Panetta (w), Laura Braga (a)
Archie Comics

Liz says: Who’s that girl? That’s what the Archie gang wants to know! A mysterious newcomer has arrived in Riverdale and she’s ready to take the spotlight – but not everyone is happy about it.

You may never have heard of Katy Keene, but the character has been around since 1945, having made her debut in Wilbur Comics #5. Katy was introduced as an entrepreneurial young career woman – a model/actress/singer marketed as “Queen of the Pin-ups”. Her book was uniquely interactive with its readers, who were encouraged to submit original designs for clothes, cars, etc. – selected submissions were featured in the comics.

The modernized Katy is equally enterprising; she’s a singer, fashion-designer and Instagram sensation whose arrival in Riverdale makes a big splash. Everyone wants a glimpse of her, and when she makes her stage debut at a local venue she’s the talk of the town. Unfortunately, this comes at the expense of Archie, whose heartfelt musical performance was outshined by Katy’s sensational talent. It seems everyone is infatuated with Katy but him.

Katy’s arrival in Riverdale is sure to stir up more drama, for the Archie gang and for Katy herself. It will be fun to see what writers Mariko Tamaki and Kevin Panetta and artist Laura Braga have in store for the rest of this four-issue arc!

Thor #1
Donny Cates (w), Nic Klein (a)
Marvel Comics

Liz says: Given the unenviable task of following Jason Aaron’s well-loved seven-year run on Thor, Donny Cates nonetheless smashes it with his first issue, seamlessly transitioning from Aaron’s story into his own. The issue picks up a short time after the aftermath of the War of the Realms, with the Thunder God on the throne of Asgard. But heavy is the head that wears the crown – although, in Thor’s case, it’s his hammer Mjolnir that’s weighing unusually heavy. Thor still isn’t entirely at ease in the role of All-Father, and conversations with his brother Loki and the Lady Sif (now the All-Seer) bring out the cracks in his façade of confidence. So it comes as no surprise that when disaster strikes, Thor seemingly jumps at the chance to gallivant off to protect the realms. What is surprising however is the transformation that takes place to put him on his quest. Donny Cates and Nic Klein have done a masterful job of easing readers in with a first issue that reflects on the previous run, but storms off in its own unique direction by the end – a perfect beginning to a new era for the God of Thunder.

Spider-Man #1
Henry Abrams, J.J. Abrams (w), Sara Pichelli (a)
Marvel Comics

Liz says: Coming out swinging with a stellar first issue, Spider-Man is the origin story of a brand new webslinger: son of Peter and MJ, Ben Parker. Ben is a troubled teenager with plenty of reason to have a chip on his shoulder, mostly to do with his fractured family. One of the best things about Ben’s introduction is how simple it is; while the tropes are familiar, they’re extremely effective in putting the story on track and fully investing us in Ben’s character. Co-written by Henry Abrams and his father J.J. (maybe you’ve heard of him), this issue hit all the emotional beats in a manner that would make the senior Abrams’ mentor Steven Spielberg proud. I’ll certainly be looking forward to seeing what’s next for young Ben.