Lucifer

Every Missing Sandman Universe Omnibus, Mapped | 2025 Tigereyes Most Wanted DC Omnibus Poll

May 12, 2025 by krisis

It’s time to map the DC Universe! In June, I’ll be joining with Near Mint Condition to launch the Tigereyes Most Wanted DC Omnibus 2nd Annual Poll! This post explains every Sandman Universe omnibus that does NOT exist – all of which will appear as options on the 2025 poll.

Through the end of May I’ll be covering DC entire publishing history by mapping missing omnibus volumes to fill in every gap in your DC oversize shelf! That’s all leading to the kickoff of the Tigereyes Most Wanted DC Omnibus 2nd Annual Poll on Near Mint Condition the first week of June.

There’s a school of though that all Sandman collected editions are now doomed due to the allegations against Neil Gaiman. However, Neil Gaiman penned just a fraction of Sandman Universe material – and that’s all been collected in its entirety in omnibus save for four issues of Black Orchid (1988)! There are still several omnibuses of other material without Gaiman’s name involved at all.

And, we’ve seen that DC has some appetite to release this material in a post-allegations world because we finally are seeing the back half of Sandman Mystery Theatre collected later this year in Compendium!

Vertigo Heroes & The Sandman Universe Omnibus Mapping for the Tigereyes Most Wanted DC Omnibus 1st Annual Poll

May 11, 2024 by krisis

It’s time to explore the darker side of DC – Vertigo heroes and the Sandman Universe omnibuses! I’ll be loosely mapping missing and most-wanted DC omnibus volumes every day until May 19th! Then, on the 19th, I’ll be joining with Near Mint Condition to launch the first annual Tigereyes Most Wanted DC Omnibus Annual Poll! This post covers omnibuses missing from DC’s in-continuity Vertigo titles – and not creator-owned Vertigo work.

This post explains potential Vertigo heroes and Sandman Universe Omnibus Mapping for votes on the Tigereyes Most Wanted DC Omnibus 1st Annual Secret Ballot. I’m posting all of these maps before the poll begins to give people the time to consider their favorites, correct our mapping mistakes, and catch books I might have missed.

What characters am I including in this broad category? Any Vertigo character who originated in DC continuity or later returned to it. That includes Animal Man, Hellblazer, Shade The Changing Man, Swamp Thing, and the extended Sandman Universe (including Black Orchid, Books of Magic, The Dreaming, Lucifer, & Sandman Mystery Theatre).

If you don’t know DC well enough to know what to vote for, stick around for my explanations! Learn why the team behind the poll decided on these books and titles – including giving us feedback if we missed the mark.

If voting is now open, you can use this as your crib sheet! Or… just find some great comics to read!

Remember: These mappings are just my suggestion of how DC could assemble these books. They are meant to help you decide on your votes and build your personal reading list, but your vote on the poll is NOT an endorsement of my specific map. It’s a vote in favor of DC creating a book with that title or covering that period.

High-effort, heavily-researched, over-the-top comics posts like this one are made possible via the support of Patrons of Crushing Krisis. For less than the cost of a single comic issue a month you can fuel my in-depth comics coverage, plus gain access to dozens of exclusive collecting guides & reading orders – including all of the Crushing Comics Guide to DC Comics.

Guide to DC Comics Lucifer – now available to the public!

August 4, 2022 by krisis

I’m happy to announce that my Guide to Lucifer at DC Comics is now available to all CK readers to celebrate for The Morningstar’s appearance in Netflix’s adaptation of The Sandman by Neil Gaiman thanks to the ongoing support of the Mighty Patrons of Crushing Krisis.

Guide to Lucifer

Many viewers have wondered if Tom Ellis’s seductive version of Lucifer would appear in Netflix’s The Sandman, and were surprised to learn that the character would instead be an androgynous golden-haired version played by Gwendoline Christie.

If you read Gaiman’s introduction of the character with Sam Kieth and Mike Dringenberg in The Sandman (1988) #4 you’ll see yet another depiction – The Morningstar is drawn as an overt homage to a pre-Ziggy Stardust David Bowie!

My guide lists all of Lucifer’s appearances throughout The Sandman as well as how to collect the subsequent 75-issue Lucifer series by Mike Carey, on which the CW show is very loosely based.

Plus, don’t miss on Dan Watters’ excellent 2018 revival of the title and character for DC’s relaunched Sandman Universe!

New for Patrons: The Definitive Guides to The Sandman Universe

October 30, 2018 by krisis

Today’s new guide Patrons of Crushing Krisis is actually three guides (or maybe four, by the time you read this), which seems like overkill for what is essentially a single title with an obvious ten-volume paperback line. But, it’s really so much more than that…

Sandman Universe – The Definitive Reading Order and Collecting Guide

Books of Magic – The Definitive Reading Order and Collecting Guide

Lucifer – The Definitive Reading Order and Collecting Guide

I am fascinated by how Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman (and, in fact, all of the extended Sandman Universe) bridges the gap between comic books and serious literature.

That fascination has lasted for over 25 years – almost as long as Gaiman’s reinvention of the Golden Age character has existed.

Even the most-knowledgable comic fan could be forgiven for not knowing that Morpheus the King of Dreams was merely an iteration on an already-rebooted Golden Age DC hero. The original Sandman, Wesley Dodds, was a minor character who ran for seven years in the Golden Age and then popped back up twenty years later in the Earth 2 Justice Society of America in the Silver Age.

Without Gaiman and Morpheus, Dodds would probably be that one JSA member whose name you could never recall. His Silver Age iteration certainly wouldn’t jog your memory – a Kirby/Simon creation meant to be Mr. Sandman who lasted just six issues and who was later retconned in Wonder Woman to be a professor lost in the world of dreams.

There was no harm in Neil Gaiman revamping such a character to a more adult version early in the Post-Crisis years in 1989. At the time, Gaiman was still a relative unknown, coming off of the slept-on Black Orchid mini-series – a similar act of excavation and reinvention. He was so used to tepid reception to his early work that he expected Sandman to run just eight issues, which is why the first eight form such a satisfying arc despite being a mix of one-shots and continuing stories. He though that would be the whole series!

Instead, The Sandman became the springboard off of which Gaiman launched his multimedia fame in a miraculous three-year run from 1990-93 that saw him release Books of Magic at DC, the novel Good Omens (with Terry Prachett), win a World Fantasy Award in a category where Sandman wasn’t even eligible, essentially give birth to what we know as the modern American graphic novel market with the first two Sandman trade paperbacks, and top it off with the landmark Death: The High Cost of Living (the collection of which would be introduced by his friend and frequent name-checker, Tori Amos). [Read more…] about New for Patrons: The Definitive Guides to The Sandman Universe

DC Comics Lucifer – The Definitive Collecting Guide and Reading Order

The definitive issue-by-issue collecting guide and trade reading order for DC Comics Lucifer comic books in omnibus, hardcover, and trade paperback collections. Find every issue and appearance! Part of Crushing Krisis’s Crushing Comics. Last updated August 2022 with titles scheduled for release through January 2023.

Lucifer Morningstar. Rebellious Angel of Heaven. Lord of Hell.

We first meet the DC Comics Lucifer of the Sandman Universe in The Sandman (1989) #4, where he is modeled on Space Oddity era David Bowie. He is a prickly and clever opponent for the still-recovering Morpheus, but one who allows for a battle of wits with his proxy rather than a physical confrontation.

That’s why it’s so surprising when Lucifer abdicates his throne in “Season of Mists,” handing the key to his kingdom to his former foe, Morpheus and decamping to the mortal coil to live on Earth.

Lucifer continues as a supporting character through the end of Neil Gaiman’s run on Sandman, also appearing in The Demon and Books of Magic in the 90s. When we find him in Mike Carey’s 1999 mini-series, he is running a piano bar in his exile when an agent of Heaven asks him to intervene in a human wish-granting scheme.

This highlights the central conflict of this version of Lucifer. Does he have free will? Does anyone? In choosing to abandon hell or aid heaven, is Lucifer flouting the shape of God’s plan or going along with it? This Lucifer seems to yo-yo between rebellion and self-destruction, never quite sure which which will cause more deviation from God’s plan. [Read more…] about DC Comics Lucifer – The Definitive Collecting Guide and Reading Order