New Comic Book Guide

Guide to Aliens Comic Books – New for Patrons!

January 15, 2024 by krisis

It’s the first Indie & Licensed comics guide of the year for Patrons of Crushing Krisis! This is a guide to the comics for one of my favorite film properties, which was published by Dark Horse Comics for over 30 years before joining the Marvel Comics umbrella after Disney acquired Fox. That’s right, both Ellen Ripley and the xenomorph queen are now a kick-ass Disney princesses, and I’ve got a Guide to Aliens Comic Books!

Guide to Aliens Comic Books

My first exposure to Aliens was watching either Alien or Aliens at way too early an age from the floor of my grandmother’s living room.

I’m pretty sure the family was showing it to me because I already knew Sigourney Weaver from Ghostbusters… and, Aliens isn’t that much scarier than Ghostbusters, right? Right?! [Read more…] about Guide to Aliens Comic Books – New for Patrons!

Guide to Echo, Maya Lopez (New for Patrons!)

January 8, 2024 by krisis

It’s time for another new Marvel Comics reading order for Patrons of Crushing Krisis, and this one is right on time for a big MCU TV debut! This guide is for a character who has appeared in Marvel Comics for the past 25 years, but has only been truly highlighted for the first time in the past few years. Want to read only her appearances that mattered the most? Then check out my Guide to Echo!

Guide to Echo – Maya Lopez

As someone who has kept up with all of Marvel’s in-continuity comics since 2010, I’ve read many issues with Echo in them. However, as I started putting together this Echo Guide I realized I didn’t really understand her origins – or her abilities!

That’s in part because I had never read David Mack’s pair of arcs that introduced Echo in Daredevil (1998) – in part because they weren’t collected and in print when I did my Daredevil read back in 2014. The issues are just as dense and entertaining now as they were 25 years ago. The first arc closely maps to Echo’s story in the MCU Hawkeye show, and the second delves into her origins in the style of a 1990s Vertigo comic (or, more-accurately, Mack’s own indie book Kabuki).

However, as I assembled this guide I realized my absence of knowledge is also because Echo is so often in the background of the comics where she appears, rather than at the center of a story.

Guide to What If? (New for Patrons!)

January 3, 2024 by krisis

New Year, New Comic Guides! In 2023 I launched a massive 33 new comic collecting guides and reading orders exclusively to Patrons of Crushing Krisis, released 11 guides to the public, plus updated dozens of existing guides to Marvel, DC, & Indie Comics. What if I beat those numbers in 2024? That’s a reality I want to live in, and it’s also the titular question of today’s brand new guide for CK Patrons: Guide to What If?

Guide to What If?

Creating a What If? Guide is a different kind of project than my typical comic reading orders. That’s because What If? doesn’t have an order – and it hasn’t had a single ongoing series for over 25 years!

What If? was Marvel’s original way of exploring alternative realities, as narrated by The Watcher. It debuted in 1977, with each issue asking a “What If…” question that altered one essential building block of the Marvel Universe. What if Spider-Man Joined The Fantastic Four? What if Jane Foster Had Found the Hammer of Thor? What If Phoenix Had Not Died? What if Spider-Man’s Clone Lived? What if Conan the Barbarian Were Stranded in the 20th Century?

Of course, we’ve seen all five of those What Ifs come to pass in the decades since the original series launched, and many more of the questions posed by the original series. What were seen as immutable building blocks of the Marvel Universe in 1977 became fun and sometimes shocking story beats in the 90s and beyond. [Read more…] about Guide to What If? (New for Patrons!)

New for Patrons: Guide to Monica Rambeau – Photon, Spectrum, & Captain Marvel

September 18, 2023 by krisis

This week I’m back with a new guide for all Patrons of CK to spotlight a character who used to be just a footnote in another guide! She has been known by many names at Marvel, but ever since she was created by Roger Stern 41 years ago she has never quite disappeared from sight. Now, in 2023, she’s poised to have her biggest year ever thanks to this Novembers The Marvels. That’s right, it’s her time to shine: Guide to Monica Rambeau – Photon, Spectrum, & Captain Marvel.

Guide to Monica Rambeau – Photon, Spectrum, & Captain Marvel.

I adore Monica Rambeau and get excited every time she shows up on the page. Yet, I really hadn’t read her at all before I encountered her in a guest appearance in Captain Marvel (2012) #7-8 to argue with Carol over who should use the Captain Marvel name!

That’s because all of Monica’s past appearances – as Captain Marvel, Photon, and Spectrum – fell curiously between my prime reading years. I always knew that Monica Rambeau was a creation of Roger Stern’s for his run in Avengers, but those weren’t the back-issues I was tracking down in my X-crazed 90s collecting years, and she was mostly absent from comics the entire time I was collecting save a handful of solo stories. Then, I totally missed out on her 2006-2010 resurgence when I came back to reading in 2010!

I thought I’ve picked up a lot from context over the past 13 years of reading, but now that I’ve been through every single Monica Rambeau appearance I realize just how much I was missing – which makes me even happier to have created this guide.

New for Patrons: Guide to Birds of Prey

September 11, 2023 by krisis

After a lengthy southern hemisphere winter hiatus, I’m back with the first of a new series of guides for Patrons of CK! This wasn’t the next guide on my list before last week, but thanks to a brilliant new #1 issue from Kelly Thompson, Leonardo Romero, Jordie Bellaire, & Clayton Cowles last week I decided it was time for this new guide to fly: Guide to Birds of Prey!

Guide to Birds of Prey

Birds of Prey is a comic with a dedicated fanbase, in large part to Gail Simone’s star-making turn writing it for the better part of seven years prior to DC’s 2011 Flashpoint event. And, it got a raised profile with the Harley Quinn & The Birds of Prey flick in 2020.

But, if I had to boil down the title to a single summary or mission statement for my new Birds of Prey Guide, what would that be? [Read more…] about New for Patrons: Guide to Birds of Prey