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Roy Thomas
Guide to Invaders (New for Patrons!)
I’m back with another new guide for Patrons of CK! In a way, this guide is a combination of the last two. It significantly revises and expands existing guide content like the Guide to Old Man Logan, but it’s also a guide that refers to real world dates like the Guide to Stranger Things Comics & Novels! That meant putting together the reading order was a lot of fun, since in this case it involved a bit of actual historical research! Plus, I got to page through a lot of comics I own and love. That’s right, I’m introducing the most complete reading order on the internet to Marvel’s World War II heroes with my Guide to Invaders!
This guide is available exclusively to Patrons at this time.
As with many new reading orders that involve expanding an existing section of a guide, when I began this Invaders reading order I thought to myself, “This can’t be too hard, right? I already know every Invaders series that has existed!”
The Invaders have two distinct periods of continuity – their World War II adventures and their various reformations in the modern day.
The modern day material is simple enough. But, the WW2 material hasn’t always been released in the order it works in continuity. And, since the team canonically stayed together to the very end of the war, that means they existed through the presumed death of Steve Rogers and Bucky.
Oh and, also, the original Human Torch killed Hitler.
Now do I have your attention?
Every Missing Justice Society Omnibus, Mapped | 2025 Tigereyes Most Wanted DC Omnibus Poll
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 Justice Society 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.
The Justice Society of America is one of the most confusing concepts in DC continuity – so confusing that they have repeatedly decided to erase it from continuity, only to bring it back!
Here’s the most basic explanation: The Justice Society was the Justice League of the Golden Age, gathering together a number of popular solo heroes into a team – including Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. However, when DC created the Justice League in the Silver Age, it no longer made sense for earlier incarnations of the characters to have been on a team together.
As a result, the JSA stayed firmly rooted in Golden Age “Earth-Two” continuity – which DC then began to bring back for their annual “Crisis on Multiple Earths” stories in Justice League. This eventually blossomed into the JSA getting their own alternate-Earth title in the 1970s and 1980s. However, that was deemed too confusing, so Crisis on Infinite Earths merged the Earths. In the process, it did away with any JSA character that conflicted with a main continuity version (like Wonder Woman), but kept unique characters (like Jay Garrick as Flash and Alan Scott as Green Lantern).
Got it? Good, because there’s more.
After a decade of tellings JSA stories set largely in the past (which were now in continuity), in 1999 the surviving modern day JSA members reformed the JSA with a focus on mentoring younger heroes. That lasted until Flashpoint in 2011! Since Flashpoint collapsed all of DC’s history to have occurred in just five years, it once again erased the JSA – relegating those characters to exist only in a revised version of Earth Two. However, in Rebirth DC decided that the erasure of the JSA was actually THE CAUSE of New 52 happening, as explored by Doomsday Clock, which led to Scott Snyder & James Tynion bringing the team back (both to the present day and to DC’s history) during Justice League (2018).
Whew!
Maybe owing to that intense level of continuity confusing, the JSA have only ever merited omnibuses in that 1999 modern day run, mostly written by James Robinson & Geoff Johns. However, as you can imagine from the explanation above, there is a lot more to collect than that! To see my full bibliographic coverage of every JSA comic book, check out the Guide to the Justice Society of America (JSA).
DC Teams: JSA, Trinity, & Justice League Omnibus Mapping for the Tigereyes Most Wanted DC Omnibus 1st Annual Poll
It’s time to map some team titles! 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 the Justice League, Justice Society (AKA JSA), as well as “Trinity” team-ups between Batman, Superman, and/or Wonder Woman.
This post explains potential Justice League 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.
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 Morbius, The Living Vampire (New for Patrons!)
I’m back with the first new guide of February 2024 for all Patrons of Crushing Krisis – and it’s their January Patron’s Choice! It’s a guide for one of the horrific stars of 1970s Marvel, of the first Marvel characters to anchor two titles at the same time, and the most alive vampire you’ll ever meet. That’s right, folks, it’s Morbin’ time, with my Guide to Morbius – The Living Vampire.
Guide to Morbius – The Living Vampire
Morbius is one of those characters who I had next to zero exposure to prior to beginning my Marvel Zombie “read everything” approach to comics in 2011. That meant I had two seemingly conflicting ideas of the character in my mind – that he was a major Spider-Man villain and probably had been in the Sinister Six and that he was some sort of supernatural hero who was an ally of Ghost Rider.
Now that I’ve read every single Morbius appearance to write this Guide to Morbius, I know both those ideas were completely wrong! A better way to describe him would be as a reluctant monster and a begrudging anti-supernatural avenger, but even that fails to fully capture the nuance of his character… at least, when writers remember that he has nuance!
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