Stan Lee

Updated: Guide to Silver Age X-Men

February 10, 2023 by krisis 1 Comment

I’m excited to share this much-needed guide refresh, especially in the wake of yesterday’s broadcast with Near Mint Condition – which included a key omnibus this page was missing! Welcome back to my uncanny Guide to Silver Age X-Men – covering every major collection format for Uncanny X-Men (1963) #1-66, their hiatus years guest appearances, and modern “Hidden Years” stories inserted into that period!

Guide to Silver Age X-Men

My Guide to Silver Age X-Men hasn’t had a significant update since 2016, although I did stop by to add a few Epic Collections in the past seven years.

Fortunately, the landscape of Silver Age X-Men collections hasn’t shifted too much since the introduction of the Epic line. Yet, there are still new collections to add to the guide. The big news has been the recent initiation of a new line of paperback “Mighty Marvel Masterworks,” plus the recent announcement of an omnibus of John Byrne’s retcon insert series, X-Men: The Hidden Years. There have also been a number of reprinted books along the way, including both classic omnibuses, and they’ve all been added explicitly to the guide.

I added those new collections, as well as gave the guide a facelift to bring it in line with my newer style guides. That means it now includes publishing years, full ISBNs, and links to buy and read digitally.

Many folks don’t hold this Silver Age run in high regard past the initial handful of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby issues. However, I think a lot of it is worth reading for modern X-Men fans. In particular, I’d suggest reading issues #1-6 to see Namor and Magneto’s first meeting, issues #12-13 for Juggernaut’s first story, and issue #14-16 for the first Sentinels story – as well as some of the Roy Thomas and Neal Adams material from issues #56-66.

This Guide to Silver Age X-Men update is just the first of many X-Men guide updates to come, which have been the most-demanded updates from Patrons and the general public alike. I hear you! There are now over 200 guide pages to update, but the X-Men guides will always be the closest to my heart and I know that’s true for many of you as well.

Updated: Guide to She-Hulk

August 16, 2022 by krisis

Are you read to go green? I’ve completely overhauled my Guide to She-Hulk to mark this week’s debut of the new Marvel Cinematic Universe series, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, on Disney +.

She-Hulk stars the mega-talented Tatiana Maslany as Marvel’s Jennifer Walters, a mild-mannered attorney pulled into the heroic life of her Avenger cousin Bruce Banner … or, at least, that’s the story we know from the comics. And if you don’t know the story yet, don’t worry – I’ve got you covered with a guide that includes every She-Hulk series, every appearance, and links to find collected editions, buy digital versions, and read online with Marvel Unlimited.

Guide to She-Hulk, Jennifer Walters

My Guide to She-Hulk will always hold a special place in my heart and memory, because it is one of the first two guides I completed after leaving my tech start-up job in 2016 to be a stay-at-home parent.

At the time, the kid didn’t spend a single second of time looking at screens, so my only downtime from wake-up to goodnight were her mid-day naps. In overhauling this guide, I saw so many places in it where I remembered, “yep, that’s when she woke up,” or other such toddler-motivated interruptions from my guide-making.

As weird and as confusing as a time as that was in my life, it was also a time where I value every single second and every memory. I have so many photos and videos of our adventures, and my She-Hulk Guide is like the negative space of that – one of the few things I was doing in the time I had to myself.

While the guide has always been complete and completely definitive, there were many half-finished thoughts throughout, and I never had the time to refine the the structure and table-of-contents to my typical level of perfectionist completion.

That’s no longer the case. I’ve completely changed my approach to presenting Jennifer Walters’ many series and guest-starring turns, plus added a “Where To Start Reading” section and highlighted the quickest ways to build a She-Hulk shelf in oversize hardcover or paperback.

Some Marvel characters find a niche early on and stick to it. Others grow through a single, continuous arc.

She-Hulk’s progression has been more about evolving with the idea of what being a “powerful woman” means to the broader pop culture in any given publishing era. [Read more…] about Updated: Guide to She-Hulk

Crushing Comics S01E067 – X-Men, Vol. 1 & Ed Piskor’s X-Men: Grand Design (+ My Origin Story)

January 31, 2018 by krisis

This episode is all about humble beginnings.

First, I share a story about my t-shirt, Philly, and how I became comfortable performing on stage and in front of the camera thanks to a connection to a relatively new super-star, as I’ve related in the past.

Then, I unwrap the legendary first volume of X-Men’s classic Silver Age run by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Roy Thomas, and Werner Roth! Is this volume still worth reading now that you can simply read Ed Piskor’s terrific summary in 40 pages in X-Men: Grand Design #2?

Want to start from the beginning of this season of videos? Here’s the complete Season 1 playlist of Crushing Comics.

Episode 67 features the X-Men Silver Age Omnibus, Vol. 1. For more information (and details on how to collect this run other than in its hard-to-find omnibus), see my Guide to Silver Age X-Men.

Namor, The Sub-Mariner Silver Age Omnibus, Vol. 1 – The #56 Most-Wanted Marvel Omnibus of 2017

May 11, 2017 by krisis

The Namor, The Sub-Mariner Silver Age Omnibus, Vol. 1 is the #56 Most-Wanted Marvel Omnibus of 2017 on Tigereyes’s Secret Ballot.

Visit the Marvel Masterworks Message Board to view the original posting of results by Tigereyes.

What Is It? The Sub-Mariner (1968) was Namor’s first solo ongoing title after almost thirty years of starring in anthology series. It ran for 72 issues from May 1968 to September 1974.

Before that, Sub-Mariner split Tales to Astonish (1959) with the Incredibly Hulk for 32 issues from #70-101 from August 1965 to March 1968.

Past Ranking: This year is the book’s debut placement in the ballot results.

Creators: Written by Stan Lee and Roy Thomas (with Archie Goodwin and Raymond Marais) with pencils by Gene Colan and John Buscema (with Werner Roth, Marie Severin, & Dan Adkins), inks by Vince Colletta, Dick Ayers, and Frank Giacoia (with Dan Adkins & Jerry Grandenetti), and letters by Art ‘Artie’ Simek.

Probable Contents: Most Silver Age omnibuses collect the contents of three Marvel Masterworks volumes, so this volume would almost certainly contain Marvel Comics #1, Daredevil #7, and Tales To Astonish (1959) #70-101, Iron Man and Sub-Mariner #1, and The Sub-Mariner (1968) #1-13.

However, Marvel has recently shown a little bit of adventurousness when it comes to expanding the contents of their Silver Age omnibuses in Daredevil, Thor, Amazing Spider-Man, so it’s not a stretch to think this would include another 10-14 issues.

The question is – which 10-14 issues! Click to expand a discussion of further content for this volume.

Can you read it right now? Yes! This run is entirely covered by the Sub-Mariner Masterworks volumes, which are out-of-print but not terribly expensive – Vol. 1, Vol. 2, Vol. 3. For more details, see the Guide to Namor, The Sub-Mariner.

Plus, Marvel Unlimited has the complete contents of Tales To Astonish, the single issue Iron Man and Sub-Mariner, and The Sub-Mariner (1968) #1-14.

The Details:

Namor, The Sub-Mariner was Marvel’s original anti-hero – the tempestuous prince of an undersea kingdom long past its halcyon days who takes out his unending aggression on the above-the-waves world of the surface dwellers.

You may not know this, but he was also the first major hero that Marvel unthawed in the Silver Age, although this unthawing was metaphorical rather than him being relieved from an actual block of ice like Captain America.

And, actually, it was Namor who was partially responsible for freeing Cap!

But now we’re getting ahead of ourselves. [Read more…] about Namor, The Sub-Mariner Silver Age Omnibus, Vol. 1 – The #56 Most-Wanted Marvel Omnibus of 2017

Silver Surfer – Definitive Collecting Guide and Reading Order

The Silver Surfer comic books definitive issue-by-issue collecting guide and trade reading order for omnibus, hardcover, and trade paperback collections. Find every issue and appearance! A part of Crushing Comics. Last updated September 2023 with titles scheduled for release through April 2024.

Silver_Surfer_Vol_7_1_Francavilla_Variant_Textless Silver Surfer has had several ongoing titles over the years collected in a variety of formats. However, there are a few specific formats of books that cover large portions of this title, and I’ll cover those first – Essentials, Epics, Masterworks, and Omnibuses. [Read more…] about Silver Surfer – Definitive Collecting Guide and Reading Order