New Comic Book Guide

Guide to Ghost Machine – Geoff Johns’ Image Comics Imprint (New for Patrons!)

April 9, 2025 by krisis Leave a Comment

Today I’m back with another new indie guide for Patrons of CK! It’s a guide for an Image Imprint that has created non-stop chatter over the past year, including a constant hum on my Pull List streams. You might be surprised that I devoted a whole guide to it, since I’m historically not a fan of its main author! But, like every guide on the site, this one was borne from me having a question about the comics that no one else on the internet answered to my satisfaction. That’s why I now have my second guide to a creator-centric imprint with my Guide to Ghost Machine – an Image Comics imprint helmed by Geoff Johns!

Guide to Geoff Johns’ Ghost Machine

This guide is available exclusively to Patrons and will be available to the public later this year with the release of the First Ghost (2025) series and an end-of-year wave of collections.

Anyone who has followed me across various videos and message boards in addition to this blog knows I have no great love for Geoff Johns as a scripter. I enjoy him occasionally, especially during DC’s New 52, but often I just don’t vibe with his plot and character choices.

Then why am I making a guide for his Image Comics imprint, launched in 2024 to gather together a pair of existing mini-series and launch a new line of ongoing titles by Johns, Peter Tomasi, letterer Rob Leigh, and their artistic collaborators?

Two words: Shared Multiverse.
[Read more…] about Guide to Ghost Machine – Geoff Johns’ Image Comics Imprint (New for Patrons!)

Guide to Daken AKA Akihiro (New For Patrons!)

April 2, 2025 by krisis Leave a Comment

Today I get to debut a new X-Men character reading order for Patrons of CK! I’ve wanted to dig into making a guide for this character for years, because I’ve already read every issue he’s appeared in and I love them all! When I realized his newest fiery series is an ongoing rather than a limited series, I knew I couldn’t let another week of my Marvel New Releases posts go by without him having a full guide of his own. That’s right, it’s time for a page devoted to everyone’s favorite pansexual murder son – Guide to Daken – Akihiro, Son of Wolverine!

Guide to Daken – Akihiro, Son of Wolverine

As a new X-Men guide, this page is available exclusively to all levels of Patreon supporters! Thank you for helping me keep this site alive.

First, let’s clear something up about this character’s name.

This character’s given name is “Akihiro.” His code name “Daken” is an anglicization of “駄犬,” a slur about the character’s mixed-race parentage which means “mongrel” or “cur” – a dog of no clear breed. While the slur was assigned to him by others in his youth, he later took it on as his codename of his own accord – and it certainly mirrors his father’s noble-sounding codename of “Wolverine.”

(In a way, the fictional Akihiro’s choice to adopt a taunt as his chosen name is mirrored by how real life drag queen Trixie Mattel reclaimed “Trixie” from being a homophobic slur aimed at her in her youth).

As the character gained wider exposure and began to develop a familial relationship with his half-sister Laura Kinney, fans took exception with his name being a Japanese slur coined by a team of white writers. Increasingly, writers began to refer to him simply by his given name of Akihiro – although he has sometimes taken on other short-lived codenames such as “Fang.”

That said, to many fans this character is still known as Daken, which was how he was introduced and the title of his second ongoing series in 2010. To the best of my knowledge, the term “駄犬” is not a slur that’s an offensive word to simply speak or write – it’s only offensive used in the context of a person.

Furthermore, it is disingenuous to treat a fictional character’s previous name as if it is a real life “deadname” that can cause stress and even dysphoria to a person. Ultimately, people have always searched for “Daken” over “Akihiro,” so in the service of helping people find information about this character I will continue to refer to him by both of his names. [Read more…] about Guide to Daken AKA Akihiro (New For Patrons!)

Guide to Giant Generator – Rick Remender’s Image Comics Imprint (New for Patrons!)

March 26, 2025 by krisis Leave a Comment

Today I’m back with a different kind of guide for Patrons of CK – one that I’ve been considering for well over half a decade and finally decided to buckle down and complete. And, let me tell you, this is not the one I ever expected to be the first example! But, after an entire quarter of reading almost every comic out in the Direct Market, there’s one imprint that has been sticking out to me for generating non-stop positive reactions from readers with a wide array of comics. Some of them have even hooked me, noted curmudgeon. And, that’s why today I’m bringing you my first ever guide to a creator-centric imprint with my Guide to Giant Generator – an Image Comics imprint helmed by Rick Remender!!

Guide to Rick Remender’s Giant Generator

This guide is available exclusively to Patrons and will be available to the public later this year with the release of Giant Generator’s recently teased Wave 3 of comic titles.

Choosing Giant Generator as my first creator-centric guide was genuinely a big shock to me. Back in 2012 when Rick Remender’s Uncanny X-Force (2010) wrapped up I was sure that he was one of my favorite comic writers. But, after reading almost all of what he has recently deemed “Wave 0” of his creator-owned Giant Generator titles like Black Science (2013), Deadly Class (2014), and Low (2014) I felt like I wasn’t vibing with Remender all all?

So, what changed?
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Guide to Energon Universe – GI Joe & Transformers (New for Patrons!)

March 19, 2025 by krisis Leave a Comment

After a few months packed with catching up on reading new releases from Marvel, DC, and Image for my weekly YouTube show “The Pull List,” I’m excited to get back to launching new comic guides to Patrons of CK! And, I’m especially excited about this first new guide, because it breaks ground on covering a comics property that is incredibly close to my heart. Fire up your 80s nostalgia, grab your favorite action figures, and get ready to shout “YO JOE” and “AUTOBOTS ROLL OUT” because it’s time for a Guide to the Energon Universe – GI Joe & Transformers!

Guide to the Energon Universe – GI Joe & Transformers

This guide is available exclusively to Patrons and will be available to the public in June 2025 with the release of the first trade of the new G.I. Joe (2024) ongoing series!

As I’ve been catching up on my Energon Universe reading I’ve looked around the web to see what collecting guides and reading orders exist. Some of my colleagues have put together handy quick guides to each series, but from my perspective they were all missing something. [Read more…] about Guide to Energon Universe – GI Joe & Transformers (New for Patrons!)

Guide to Magik (New For Patrons!)

January 20, 2025 by krisis Leave a Comment

This week I have the somewhat rare pleasure of debuting a new X-Men reading order for Patrons of CK – rare because I cover so many X-Men titles already! When this character got her own ongoing series earlier this month it was an easy choice to dig in and create a reading order for her every appearance because she is one of my favorites – a feeling shared by many fans and players of Marvel Rivals! Of course, I’m referring to the woman who is the magic, the muscle, and the teleporting-through-Limbo school bus of Cyclops’s X-Men… yep, it’s a brand new Guide to Magik – Illyana Rasputin!

Guide to Magik – Illyana Rasputin

CK readers have requested many different X-Men solo guides and given an infinite amount of time I’d love to create them all!

One of the deciding factors of what guides I’m actually willing to attack is whether a character who has rarely had a solo title still has an identifiable story arc. There’s a big difference between Magneto, who has a finite number of gradual pivots to and from heroism, and Storm, who has just been in a whole heckin’ lot of comics every single month for the past 50 years.

Odfel Cosplay as Magik Illyana Rasputin shot by The Portrait Dude

Ødfel Cosplay as Magik – Illyana Rasputin, as shot by The Portrait Dude.

Magik is experiencing a surge of popularity right now thanks to her appearance in the recently-launched Marvel Rivals. That led us to finally hold an often-teased “Map My X: Magik” panel on Near Mint Condition’s channel last week… which is a super-obvious thing to do when your panel always includes Ødfel, who is an amazing Magik cosplayer!

In prepping for the panel, I started to re-read every Magik appearance – which, fun fact, I have read all but five issues of already. As I rea-read everything there is to read about Illyana Rasputin, my mapping notes for the show quickly morphed into the beginnings of a Guide to Magik. I quickly realized that Magik is one of those X-Men characters who has a specific arc despite going 40 years without a solo title of her own.

I also realized writers love Magik. She is never in the cast of a comic purely as an accessory or a background player. Every time she has appeared in a run over the past four decades she has been used often and used well. There are truly no bad Magik stories.

Really, Magik has had three arcs over the course of her publishing history.