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comic books

Crushing Comics includes definitive comic book guides, essays about characters and titles, collecting strategies, comic reviews, and more!

Updated: Guide to X-Factor

January 12, 2023 by krisis

Now that I’m digging back into my comic guides, it’s time to start attacking my backlog of 150+ guides that haven’t had a significant revision in half a decade! Time flies when you’re reading comics. This week, I’ve reached back to update one of CK’s earliest guides. Actually, I re-wrote every word and rebuilt every link from scratch to make it easier than ever to find the physical and digital collections you want. Welcome to my all-new, all-different Guide to X-Factor.

Guide to X-Factor

an excerpt from the cover of X-Factor (1986) #71, covered in the Guide to X-Factor

My last update of the Guide to X-Factor was in the middle of the Reign of X, which means it wasn’t missing too many collections – just the newest Epics and the relatively fresh second and third volumes of the Peter David Omnibus line.

However, that doesn’t meant the page was easy to use! The guide had grown to be a labyrinth of collections with 20 years worth of competing oversized hardcovers, Epics, and paperbacks. That approach to guide organization predates Marvel’s more-organized approach to the contents of Omnibuses and Epic collections. Now that collection formats are getting tidier, the guide should follow! Now, major collection formats have their own sections that you can easily open or skip.

As a result, I rebuilt every collection link on the page. That’s not the only big change to this guide. I’ve added all of the features of the newest guides on the site, including a “Where to Start” section, digital purchase links, reformatted images, and links to read on Marvel Unlimited!

This was one of my milder rebuilds, since it didn’t require adding many new collections or researching character appearances. It still took a whopping five hours altogether, which is almost as long as it takes to create a small new guide from scratch! I’ve got my work cut out for me keeping everything updated, but the more often I do it the easier and quicker it becomes.

Enjoy this renewed Guide to X-Factor – and, let me know in the comments which of my 200+ guides you’d love to see me update next!

Filed Under: comic books Tagged With: All-New X-Factor, Bob Layton, Havok, Howard Mackie, Jamie Madrox, Jean Grey, Leah Williams, Louise Simonson, Polaris, X-Factor, X-Men

New for Patrons: Guide to Werewolf by Night

January 10, 2023 by krisis

I’m excited to be back on my comic-guide-making A-game, picking up right where I left off with a guide for all Patreon supporters of Crushing Krisis to one of Marvel’s many 1970s horror characters that followed in the wake of the easing of the Comic Code. Thanks to his entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, there’s some renewed attention on Jack Russell, and you can read every issue of his comic book history in my Guide to Werewolf by Night!

Guide to Werewolf by Night

Jack Russell is one of those Marvel characters who appeared consistently throughout the Bronze Age and then had a hard time finding his footing afterward. I’m never sure if that’s down to the departure of creators who favored a character or simply the changing landscape of comics in the late-80s and early 90s.

In this case, I think it’s a combination of both. [Read more…] about New for Patrons: Guide to Werewolf by Night

Filed Under: comic books Tagged With: Marvel Comics, New Comic Book Guide, Werewolf by Night

The Year Comics Broke Up With Me

January 6, 2023 by krisis

I didn’t read any new comics in 2022.

It wasn’t about me. It was about the comics. And, I can prove that with data.

More on that in a moment.

Image by ???? Cdd20 from Pixabay

I started reading new comics again in 2010 after 15 years away. Since then, I’ve read nearly every Marvel comic from the end of Avengers vs. X-Men in 2012 through the end of 2021. The same is true for DC from the beginning of Rebirth in 2016.

Plus, since 2017 I’ve read nearly everything from Aftershock, Valiant, Vault & Zenescope, plus a wide selection of new titles from Black Mask, Dark Horse, Dynamite, IDW, Image, Mad Cave, Scout, and many, many more!

That adds up to reading a lot of comics every year. Marvel alone reliably releases an average of 14 in-continuity issues every week, with DC chipping in up to 10 more. Then, we add in my other “every comic” publishers, ongoing indie titles I keep up with, and new releases I’m checking out.

That results in an average pull list of 48 comics per week – or about 2500 issues a year. It means I read well over 50% of the new single issue releases in the American comics market.

I kept up that pace for five years. That doesn’t mean I was buying 48 comics a week. My reading habits were a balance of snatching up new digital issues of the things I loved the most, waiting a bit longer for digital discounts on others, and catching up on other comics for a minor subscription fee via Marvel Unlimited (MU), DC Universe (DCU), and Comixology Unlimited (CXU).

2022 began with a big change: the death of Comixology as we knew it.

What used to be a standalone site with a decent web-based reader was absorbed entirely by its owner, Amazon. My ability to easily read and reference issues before they hit MU and DCU was scuttled. Using CXU was over. That knocked out my entire indie comics habit, since the vast majority of them only distribute digitally through that single channel.

I told myself I would enjoy a three month break and then start catching up via MU and DCU.

That never happened because of a more gradual change: I stopped liking comics. Or, at least, I thought I did.

This is where the data comes in. [Read more…] about The Year Comics Broke Up With Me

Filed Under: comic books Tagged With: data

Guide to Ant-Man & Giant-Man – now available to the public!

January 4, 2023 by krisis

I’m happy to announce that my Guide to Ant-Man (and Giant-Man!) is now available to all CK readers ahead of the debut of the Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania trailer out next week! This guide exists thanks to the ongoing support of the Astonishing Patrons of Crushing Krisis.

Guide to Ant-Man & Giant-Man

Guide to Ant-Man & Giant-Man

This Guide to Ant-man doesn’t only cover the current MCU Ant-Man, Scott Lang. It covers all of Marvel’s Ant-Men, including Hank Pym and Eric O’Grady, plus Bill Foster as Giant-Man and Goliath! I’ve updated the guide to include every comic released through present day, plus collections solicited through the end of this quarter.

If you want to catch up on Scott Lang’s journey as Ant-Man in Marvel Comics, they’ve collected the vast majority of his solo series and major appearances in just three trade paperbacks:

Ant-Man: Scott Lang (2015 paperback, ISBN 978-0785192664 / digital) – This collection picks up Scott Lang from his first appearance in 1979 and collects the first few years of his major stories. This version of Lang is more of a former criminal screw-up and less of the lovable goof from the MCU.

The Astonishing Ant-Man: The Complete Collection (2018 paperback, ISBN 978-1302911324 / digital) – This collection includes both writer Nick Spencer’s run across two Ant-Man series. He writes Scott Lang very much in the mold of his MCU character. Many of these stories will feel like small-time capers he pulls between the Ant-Man films.

Ant-Man: The Saga of Scott Lang (2023 paperback, 978-1302950651 / digital) – This collection includes three unconnected miniseries from 2018-2020, plus a pair of one-shot stories. If you are less interested in ongoing story continuity and just want some fun, stand-alone adventures, this is a fine book to sample!

Filed Under: comic books Tagged With: Ant-Man, Marvel Comics, New Comic Book Guide, Scott Lang, Updated Comic Guide

Updated: Guide to X-Treme X-Men

September 9, 2022 by krisis

I’m back with another X-Guide Update! This guide was NOT a guide I expected to have to update this year, and certainly not for two different reasons. First, Marvel is relaunching this title (with its original creative team!) into a new series later this year that picks up directly from its end in 2004. Second, certainly related to that, Marvel is publishing the first of two omnibuses that will cover the entire run! Of course, I’m talking about my Guide to X-Treme X-Men!

Guide to X-Treme X-Men

This guide covers all three volumes of X-Treme X-Men – the 2001 Claremont/Larroca team of fan-favorites that ran alongside Grant Morrison’s New X-Men, Greg Pak’s 2012 Exiles-style revival starring Dazzler, and the newly-announced Claremont/Larroca flashback series.

You can find the trade reading order for all of that, where three different supporting mini-series (Savage Land, X-Pose, & Mekanix) fit into the original run, where characters can be found next, plus links to buy physical and digital collections and read right now on Marvel Unlimited!

Filed Under: comic books Tagged With: Chris Claremont, Greg Pak, Marvel Comics, Salvador Larroca, Storm, Updated Comic Guide, X-Men, X-Treme X-Men

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