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Deathlok – Definitive Collecting Guide and Reading Order

The Deathlok comic books definitive issue-by-issue collecting guide and trade reading order for omnibus, hardcover, and trade paperback collections. Find every issue and appearance! A part of Crushing Krisis’s Crushing Comics. Last updated September 2024 with titles scheduled for release through December 2024.

Deathlok has a curious history in the Marvel Universe.

The character was originally introduced in 1974 as Luther Manning, an American soldier reanimated in the future as a cyborg and then sent back to the past Terminator-style (but, years before the first Terminator movie!). This time-displaced Deathlok I has made only limited appearances after his initial run of stories in the 70s and 80s.

After the appearance of a short-lived, all-robotic Deathlok II, third and fourth versions were introduced in rapid succession. Deathlok III was John Kelly, whose human brain interfered with his Deathlok mission and was promptly terminated.

Deathlok IV, Michael Collins, replaced Kelly as the consciousness in that unit and anchored his own series – struggling to contain the more murderous urges of his cyborg body’s programming.

Late in that series, we meet Deathlok V – present-day Luther Manning. An unrelated Deathlok VI is introduced as part of a 1990s X-Men crossover meant as a launching-pad for a trio of tech-focused heroes.

A decade later, Wolverine encounters a potential future seemingly inhabited entirely by Deathlok versions of heroes like Captain America and Spider-Man. Luckily, one self-conscious and seemingly unfamiliar unit stood against them (again, cribbing from Terminator – only this time Terminator actually happened first). This Deathlok VII – known as Unit L17 – joins Wolverine’s covert X-Force team, and later becomes a guest-instructor at the Jean Grey Institute.

With Deathlok appearing in Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. television show, the core concept of a human soldier made into a killer robot seems to be entrenched firmly in Marvel’s narrative. A new title was launched with Deathlok VIII to more-closely align to the show.

We even met a female version in 2013 – AKA Deathlocket – in Avengers Arena (but she’s not tracked in this guide). [Read more…] about Deathlok – Definitive Collecting Guide and Reading Order

Black Panther Reading Order & Collecting Guide

Updated Apr 10, 2025! The definitive issue-by-issue comic book collecting guide and reading order for Marvel’s Black Panther in omnibus, hardcover, trade paperback, and digital. Part of Crushing Krisis’s Crushing Comics. Last updated April 2025 with titles scheduled for release through June 2025.

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T’Challa, The Black Panther. He was the marquee black hero of both Marvel and DC in the early 60s, invented by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby as Reed Richard’s equal and then adopted into the cast of The Avengers by Roy Thomas & John Buscema.

Even with that pedigree, and a later solo turn by Kirby himself, Black Panther was never a major solo character for Marvel. He disappeared for most of the 1980s only to return in the anthology Marvel Comics Presents (1988) and in a pair of mini-series.

T’Challa wouldn’t have his real breakout moment until he was launched into his own series in 1998 by Christopher Priest. The wordy, range-y, and often inane tale took Panther from American inner-city streets to Wakandan Palace intrigue. Along the way, Priest created the vast majority of Panther’s supporting cast and Wakanda’s mythology out of whole cloth.

After that, T’Challa had a streak of solid solo series penned by Reginald Hudlin, Jason Aaron, and Jonathan Maberry before Jonathan Hickman adopted him as a main player in his universe-altering New Avengers (2013) in the drive to his Secret Wars.

Panther returned from Secret Wars as perhaps Marvel’s highest-profile character. He not only had an MCU film incoming, but also had his series piloted for five years by internationally acclaimed journalist and non-fiction literary star Ta-Nehisi Coates. Coates and a list of literary luminaries he pulled in as collaborators gave us the biggest explosion of additions to the world of Wakanda since Priest.

Panther’s path has been slightly rockier since Coates’s departure in 2020. A brief run from screenwriter John Ridley fizzled with little noise, and a Wakanda-centered run from Dr. Eve Ewing was cancelled just as it found its footing. With T’Challa out of the MCU due to the tragic untimely passing of actor Chadwick Boseman, Marvel seems content to keep Black Panther as an anchor on The Avengers.

Nova – Definitive Collecting Guide and Reading Order

Updated Dec 22, 2024! The definitive, chronological, and up-to-date guide and trade reading order on collecting Nova comic books via omnibuses, hardcovers, and trade paperback graphic novels. Part of Crushing Krisis’s Crushing Comics. Last updated December 2024 with titles scheduled for release through July 2025.

Marvel was known in the 1970s for piloting both new and returning heroes in anthology titles before promoting them to their own series. That’s why it was so remarkable that the original Nova, Richard Rider, debuted in the first issue of his own series in 1976!

It was a prescient move by Marvel, with the 70s sci-fi craze due to hit its peak the following year with Star Wars! The character was originally designed by Marv Wolfman and Len Wein a decade earlier in a 1966 fan-zine.

Nova was the first of Marvel’s many attempts to recapture the youthful magic of early Spider-Man at a point in the 70s when very few heroes in their line-up still came off as starry-eyed teenagers.

That gave Nova a strong focus during his ongoing series, but meant he was stranded with few connections in a world of adult heroes once it was over. He disappeared from Marvel for nearly a decade.

That changed when Marvel finally collected a number of existing teen heroes (plus a few new ones) into New Warriors, a sort of unbranded companion to New Mutants transition into the self-directed X-Force. The title ran for years and over time felt more like a family than a team with a charter.

Much like Nova’s original teendom restricted his connections, so did his association with the New Warriors brand. It took another half decade for them to finally break out of their orbit, but it was in a big way.

Richard Rider became one of the heroes to anchor Annihilation, a massive space blow-out that would revive Marvel’s cosmic line of heroes and cultures. It thrust Nova into an amazing five-year epic, during which he becomes a formidable commander who goes toe-to-toe with Thanos.

That all ends with the Thanos Imperative, and Nova going missing in its wake. After a few years of silence, Marvel brought back Nova – only, it wasn’t Richard Rider! Sam Alexander took up the mantle of Nova, but not from Rider – from his father, another prior (and missing) Nova.

Sam carried on the proud tradition of both Spider-Man and Richard Rider as a bumbling, well-meaning teen who does more damage than good. His series is a charming, high-gloss coming of age tail that dovetails into him being drafted by the real Avengers – and, also, finally meeting Richard Rider.

Black Widow – Definitive Collecting Guide and Reading Order

Updated Apr 10, 2025! The definitive, chronological, and up-to-date guide and trade reading order for collecting Black Widow comic books via omnibuses, hardcovers, and trade paperback graphic novels. Part of Crushing Krisis’s Crushing Comics. Last updated April 2025 with titles scheduled for release through June 2025.

No Marvel character has been so important to the company’s rich continuity yet so on the fringe for as many years as Natasha Romanoff, the Black Widow.

Black Widow has been a villain and a spy, a symbol of the Cold War and of the triumph of democracy, a love interest and a superhero. Yet, for the first few decades of her publishing history it wasn’t uncommon for her to disappear from view for years at a time. It took over 40 years for her to merit her own ongoing title, and over 50 for one to last longer than a year!

Black Widow began as one of the first femme fatales of Marvel’s superhero era when she was introduced as a Russian spy in the Iron Man title Tales of Suspense in 1964 by Stan Lee, Don Rico, and Don Heck. She was unique not only as a female villain but as a non-costumed antagonist to start in an era where mutants, machines, and Asgardian gods were dominating the villain line-ups. In fact, she was Russia’s answer to Captain America – a super-spy rather than a super-soldier, who is resistant to the effects of disease and time.

Soon thereafter, she became one of Marvel’s earliest character to flip from villain to hero, following suit of her early collaborator Hawkeye and the mutant twins Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. She followed in their footsteps to appear regularly in The Avengers beginning with #29 in 1966, though she was not recognized as a member until #111 in 1976.

Black Widow continued to serve as a female sidekick or team member for another three decades, notably in Daredevil, Captain America,The Avengers, and The Champions. Still, she was a supporting player even as she was voted a full-time member of the Avengers in #329 in 1991. From there she finally had her first series of headline releases, albeit as one-shot graphic novels rather than ongoing series. She still was not considered a core Avenger enough in 1996, when she did not join her teammates in the Heroes Reborn universe. Because of the fleeting nature of her appearances, collecting her is a challenge – aside from a few collections of her anthology stories and her run in Daredevil, there aren’t a lot of major Black Widow runs before the 90s.

It wasn’t until 1999 that Black Widow finally attained her own headline title (still: a limited series) as part of the more adult-oriented Marvel Knights line. Ironically, it came while defending her codename from a usurper and villain named Yelena Belova. However, from that point forward she increasingly became part of the core fabric of the Marvel Universe, appearing in several limited series, playing a major role in Civil War, co-starring in Iron Man, and taking over Captain America along with Bucky Barnes while Steve Rodgers was presumed dead.

Who can say if it was her Iron Man origins or this resurgence that lead to Black Widow being written into Iron Man 2 in 2010 and cast with the hugely popular Scarlett Johansson. Even if Johansson wasn’t the best fit for the femme fatale, her casting was definitely the best thing that ever happened to Natasha in the comic books. She was finally granted her own ongoing series that same year. Even though that ended after eight issues, Black Widow had clearly received a promotion to featured player, appearing regularly across the full range of Avengers titles even before she subsequently found her way into The Avengers movie in 2012 in lieu of several other famous female team members.

Since 2010 every year features Black Widow in more stories and starring turns than the one before. 2014 was inarguable Natasha Romanoff’s best year yet. In film, she shared top billing with Chris Evans’s Captain America in The Winter Soldier. At the same time, she launched another solo series drawn by fan and critical favorite Phil Noto. This one lasted as long as possible – 20 issues before being shut down by Marvel’s linewide re-launch in the fall of 2015 – and then relaunched by Chris Samnee and Mark Waid in 2016!
[Read more…] about Black Widow – Definitive Collecting Guide and Reading Order

Guardians of the Galaxy – Collecting Guide & Reading Order

Updated Feb 17, 2025! The definitive issue-by-issue comic book collecting guide and reading order for Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, in omnibus, hardcover, trade paperback, and digital. Part of Crushing Krisis’s Crushing Comics. Last updated February 2025 with titles scheduled for release through September 2025.

In 2014 Marvel introduced the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise to the entire planet with their movie version of the team consisting of Starlord, Gamora, Drax, Rocket Raccoon, and Groot.

However, the Guardians have only existed in that configuration since 2008! The only similar team was the 1990s cosmic group The Infinity Watch, which included Gamora and Drax. Historically, Guardians of the Galaxy referred to a very different, specific group of characters from Marvel’s far flung future with little overlap to the 2008 version of the team.

What both groups have in common is that they are a set of space-faring heroes who stand against the forces of destruction in the universe. They are, in effect, the Cosmic Avengers.

With that mandate in mind, this guide looks at more than just the titles named “Guardians of the Galaxy.” It also follows all of the core members of the various incarnations of that team, most of whom have never maintained an ongoing title. It also covers prominent cosmic hero Adam Warlock, who lead the Infinity Watch.

If you are interested in the cinematic incarnation of the team, this is your path:

Rocket Raccoon & Groot: The Complete Collection has all of the significant appearances of this whimsical pair of characters prior to Annihilation.
Avengers vs. Thanos covers the origins of Gamora an Drax. (Optionally, pick up Death of Captain Marvel to complete this story.)
Star-Lord: Guardian of the Galaxy collects the earliest adventures of the title character, when he was a pulp sci-fi character with no ties to the Marvel Universe.
Jump to Annihilation: Conquest, below and proceed from there. Though Drax played a role in the prior Annihilation event, this is where the team really begins to form. Their first series spins out of this.