All-New All-Different Marvel

New for Patrons: Red She-Hulk AKA Harpy

August 22, 2022 by krisis Leave a Comment

I’m back today with a highly-specific guide for “pledgeonaut” Patrons of CK. This one also spun out of last week’s update to my Guide to She-Hulk, because it’s also a Guide to She-Hulk! No, not that She-Hulk, the other She-Hulk – it’s a Guide to Red She-Hulk!

Be warned: Even though the guide itself is careful not to spoil details of Red She-Hulk’s secret identity while covering pre-reveal issues, I’m talking about it openly in this post.

Honestly, it was only a secret for nine months 12 years ago! But, I think it was a fun secret executed well, so I try not to ruin it for people who might be coming to the run for the first time.

Marvel was going through an interesting period from 2005-2012 where at first they were revitalizing lines and characters purely out of the business instinct to stay alive, but then they started adjusting them even more due to the popularity of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

To me, this began with the period of Bendis launching New Avengers through the death of Captain America at the end of Civil War, with House of M sandwiched between them. Despite Marvel using the “All-New, All-Different” tagline since the Bronze Age, this was the first time in a while that the main 616-Marvel Universe felt like a truly new and different place.

(A lot of that was down to the sales and popularity pressure from the Ultimate Universe, which at that point was threatening to subsume the main one.)

One result of that period was character lines that felt larger than they used to. Marvel’s major Silver Age characters feel encouraged to reinvent their casts and build their own huge events. That was certainly true for Hulk, which went from a Marvel also-ran to one of their hottest titles on the strength of Greg Pak’s “Planet Hulk” storyline, which spun into the line-wide “World War Hulk” event.

In the wake of that, Pak and Jeph Loeb had more leeway than ever to expand the scope of Hulk comics. Suddenly, there were a lot of Hulks and Gamma-powered characters. We had Bruce Banner as Hulk, Jennifer Walters as She-Hulk, Doc Samson, Rick Jones as A-Bomb, the newly-birthed Skaar, and even Lyra – Hulk’s daughter from a potential future!

(Spoilers begin here.) [Read more…] about New for Patrons: Red She-Hulk AKA Harpy

Updated: Guide to Avengers Flagship Titles, 2010 – Present

July 21, 2022 by krisis Leave a Comment

Today I’m excited to bring you a complete from-the-ground-up re-build and major update of one of the most-important guides to reading Marvel Comics from 2010 to present… Avengers flagship titles (2010 – present) – The Definitive Collecting Guide!

This massive update was made possible by Patrons of Crushing Krisis. It covers hundreds of issues across over 20 volumes of comics that have been collected in more than 250 different print editions, spanning four major eras of Avengers. Whether you want to buy collected editions, build a digital collection, or read as a Marvel Unlimited subscriber, this guide has you completely covered. [Read more…] about Updated: Guide to Avengers Flagship Titles, 2010 – Present

Avengers & New Avengers flagship titles (2010 – present) – The Definitive Collecting Guide & Reading Order

The definitive, chronological, and up-to-date guide on collecting Avengers flagship title comic books from 2010 to present, including Avengers & New Avengers, via omnibuses, hardcovers, and trade paperback graphic novels. A part of Crushing Comics – Guide to Marvel Comics. Last updated July 2022 with titles scheduled for release through March 2023.

In 2005, Marvel stopped publishing a comic called “Avengers” for the first time since 1963 in the wake of Brian Bendis’s “Avengers: Disassembled” event. In its place was his relaunched New Avengers, and later Mighty Avengers along with it.

That changed in 2010, when Marvel and Bendis launched the twin Avengers flagship books of Avengers (2010) and New Avengers (2010), each focused on a different element of the team – the heavy-hitters and the street-level characters. He would later add Avengers Assemble (2012) to focus on a movie-friendly team.

After that point, Avengers flagships continued into Jonathan Hickman’s relaunch of Avengers (2012) and New Avengers (2013), his Infinity (2013) event, the addition of Avengers World (2014), and the lead-up to his Secret Wars in 2015.

The return of the Marvel Universe launched with two flagship titles – All-New All-Different Marvel included Mark Waid’s All-New All-Different Avengers (2015) and Al Ewing’s New Avengers (2016). It later added David Walker’s Occupy Avengers (2016).

The refocus on classic characters and foes in Marvel Legacy saw those two flagship titles transform into Waid’s Avengers (2017) and Ewing’s U.S.Avengers (2017), culminating in the “Avengers: No Surrender” weekly event. (Some of the All-New team also spun out into Waid’s Champions (2017) – see Guide to The Champions.)

Then, Marvel Fresh Start kicked off with the launch of Jason Aaron’s lengthy run on Avengers (2018), which includes the Heroes Reborn (2021) event and tie-ins to Avengers / X-Men / Eternals: Judgment Day (2022). (While “Avengers: No Road Home” is listed below, for Savage Avengers see Guide to Conan).

This guide tracks all of those flagship Avengers titles from 2010 forward as well as supporting books and events tied closely to those titles and Avengers one-shots from those periods.

For Avengers+X-Men titles from 2010 to present, check out the Guide to Uncanny Avengers. Also, see Guide to Young Avengers, which includes both actual “Young Avengers” titles as well youthful or in-training teams like Avengers A.I. (2013).