ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Welcome back to Collecting Issues, your monthly comic book book club!
This month, Mick and Ben are strapping in (and trying not to burst out of identical tight t-shirts) to review Assorted Crisis Events, Volume 1, collecting issues #1-5 of the hit 2025 Image Comics series. Created by the powerhouse team of Deniz Camp (20th Century Men, Absolute Martian Manhunter) and artist Eric Zawadzki, with breathdtaking colours by Jordie Bellaire, this book asks the ultimate question: What happens when timeline-shattering multiversal events happen to ordinary, everyday people instead of A-list superheroes?
It’s The Twilight Zone meets Black Mirror, but deeply grounded in the grim, weird, and human reality of 2026.
- Issue #1: Apocalypse Now – We follow Ashley Cargill through a chronally displaced city where reality is stranger than fiction, blending pop-culture commentary with an impending nightmare around every corner.
- Issue #2: Slaughterhouse Nine to Five – A devastating, visceral look at the immigrant experience, generational trauma, veganism... and velociraptors. Plus, we rave over Eric Zawadzki's savant-level panel layouts.
- Issue #3: Crisis on Hearth 2 – A brilliant Crisis on Infinite Earths homage that serves as an unflinching metaphor for displacement, immigration, and how quickly society fractures when doppelgangers move into town.
- Issue #4: Time Flies – Mikey has made some terrible choices (like some really terrible choices), but is he just an adrenaline-junkie leaping through time, or is this a tragic look at regret and impulse decisions?
- Issue #5: Strange Loops – The world-building issue (kind of)! We meet Anna, a woman who survives a 60-second time loop that lasted 30 million years. We trace the Easter eggs, time-loop tropes, and finally start piecing together the overarching mystery of the jetpack hobo.
Next Month's Book: We are shamelessly riding the cinematic hype train! In preparation for the upcoming movie, we’ll be reading Tom King and Bilquis Evely’s incredible Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow.
Listen to the Absolute Martian Manhunter Episode
Listen to our 20th Century Men Episode
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Time Stamps:
0:00 Intro
00:32 Spoiler Warning Banter
02:02 Multiverse Fatigue Explained
03:32 What This Series Is
04:33 Deniz Camp Track Record
06:40 Anthology Shared World
09:49 Personal Crisis Metaphor
15:46 Issue One Breakdown
21:37 Art Layout Praise
31:43 Issue Two Slaughterhouse
35:10 Gore Vegan Subtext
37:19 Panel Layout Color Work
42:20 Crocodile Trauma Origins
43:43 Blood Fear and Family Cycles
46:33 Crisis on Hearth Two
48:00 Doppelgangers and Displacement
53:06 Chaos Camp and Panel Mirrors
56:33 Time Flies Bad Choices
59:40 Unreliable Narrator Debate
01:05:02 Strange Loops Worldbuilding
01:11:08 Medium Tricks and Rereads
01:12:07 Final Thoughts and Next Read
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