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

Dawn of X Review: HiX-Men Report’s Favorite Series (so far)

September 18, 2020 by krisis

Join 3/4ths of the reformed HiX-Men Report – Peter, Fariha, & Tyler – as we catch up for the first time in nearly a year to discuss our favorite elements of Dawn of X. We’ll talk about what we loved the most from the end of HOXPOX to the beginning of X of Swords, including each of our favorite series from the line.

Want to relive the deepest dive into HOXPOX on the entire internet? In 2019 we recorded nearly 24hrs of content covering House of X and Powers of X (with me providing musical interludes for most of the episodes) on The HiX-Men Report.

Need help making sense of the X-Men? Visit my comprehensive guides to reading and collecting Marvel Comics or my definitive X-Men Reading Order.

on Artists Writers & Artisans (AWA) and supporting new publishers

September 13, 2020 by krisis

Earlier this year, the comics world saw the debut of a new publisher – Artists, Writers & Artisans (AWA). The new indie was founded by industry heavy hitters Axel Alonso, Bill Jemas ,and Jonathan Perkins Miller, with its debut book The Resistance anchored by superstars J. Michael Straczynski & Mike Deodato Jr.!

I know MANY of you know me because of Marvel Comics and their X-stuff, but one of my other favorite things about what we’ll call my “Third Era” of comic reading is supporting new publishers from their first issue onward.

I love to be the first one to know if something cool emerges, regardless of if it comes with huge names attached. I think having more perspectives in comics publishing is always a good thing! Plus, there have been hints that some AWA books will be in a shared universe, which I love! The problem is just finding the time to read them.

I’ve now read four series from the new AWA line, and I enjoyed half of them. That’s not bad, and I still have more of their launch line to get through!

I dug the first issues of Grendel Kentucky andBad Mother, but I didn’t connect with the opening three issues of The Resistance or Archangel 8.

Supporting new publishers when they launch helps us grow the comic marketplace and bring new perspectives to all readers.

It also gives new creators entering the industry more places to gain experience before they become our favorites – whether that’s at indie, Big Two, or both!

Over the past few years I’ve read Aftershock, Black Mask, Lion Forge Catalyst, Vault, Black Crown, Ahoy, Humanoids’ H1, and now Artists Writers & Artisans from the start – plus discovered smaller pubs like Amigo, Cave Pictures, Red 5, and Mad Cave. Most of those produced AT LEAST one memorable title.

I guess what I’m saying is I hope you take a chance on a book when you see a new publisher. It’s only $4 to sample something! Don’t wait for friends or critics to tell you if it’s worth reading, because by that point it might be too late for that series (or publisher!).

For my part, when I talk about indie books all around the internet I need to do more to explain WHY I like or dislike books from these small pubs throughout the year BEFORE I get to my big year-end countdown. It’s not enough for me to just say, “I dug it.” That tells you nothing. I want to invite more of you along for the ride.

Doom Patrol Guide – First Month Donation to The Marsha P. Johnson Institute

August 1, 2020 by krisis

Thanks for all of your support of my new Doom Patrol guide!

It’s a niche guide that’s not the source of huge amount of traffic, but that’s okay: I still made a donation of $50 to The Marsha P. Johnson Institute to support their national relief fund for Black trans people during COVID-19, among other initiatives.

Doom Patrol Guide – now available to the public!

June 26, 2020 by krisis

Big news: My new Doom Patrol guide is now available to all readers of CK! Thank you to CK’s Patrons for making this guide possible.

Before you watch the new season of their TV show, browse the complete reading order of the rise, fall, & rebirth of DC’s weirdest Silver Age heroes.

I’ll donate all profit from this page thru July 31 to The Marsha P. Johnson Institute.

I’ve recently delayed some planned comics content due to the weighty things happening in both comics and the wider world. I’ve decided to move forward with this first one, but use it to support an organization that protects and defends the human rights of black transgender people.

New for Patrons: Guide to Doom Patrol

June 14, 2020 by krisis

I’m taking a brief break from the world of Lanterns to publish a team guide for Pledgeonaut-level Patrons and up that will be helpful to many readers (and TV viewers) later this month…

Doom Patrol – The Definitive Guide

Doom Patrol is sometimes referred to as DC’s analog for The X-Men, but really it’s a uniquely perfect example of DC’s peculiar revolving door of publishing continuity.

They began as a Silver Age team at the same time as the X-Men, introduced in the sci-fi pulp anthology My Greatest Adventure in 1963 before spinning off into their own title later that year.

While Doom Patrol’s “The Chief” was an Xavier-like figure, their members are much closer to a take on the Fantastic Four. Team anchor Robotman is as orange and inhuman as The Thing after losing his physical body in a car crash. The radioactive Negative Man shares his origin with the F4, and Elasti-Girl is like Mr. Fantastic’s powers in Sue Storm’s spot as the token female.

The original lineup was rounded out by Beast Boy, the wild young member analogous to Human Torch. He’d later be stole by Teen Titans and become a breakout star in his own right.

Like The X-Men, Doom Patrol didn’t quite have the sales to make it out of the Silver Age and into the Bronze. Their ongoing title was canceled in 1969 with the seeming death of the entire team.

It took nearly a decade before Robotman was resurrected and paired with a new trio of teammates. They made only a handful of appearances, but Robotman (and the memory of the original team) was kept alive by Beast Boy as star of the massively popular Teen Titans.

Doom Patrol returned in Post-Crisis DC in 1987, as part of the trend of DC reviving forgotten Silver and Bronze age concepts (along with Animal Man and Suicide Squad).

While the initial run by Paul Kupperberg is often ignored, it’s delightfully solid mid-80s comics – as good as the many supporting X-books springing up around that same time.

Everything changed in 1989 when Grant Morrison took over, in the middle of an increasingly-bizarre run of Animal Man. If his Animal Man flirted with the fringes of DC’s heroic universe, Doom Patrol broke through those borders entirely. It became a lasting hallmark of the intellectual side of 90s comics, and one of the most popular works in Morrison’s lengthy bibliography.

(A following run by Rachel Pollack isn’t as well-known, but is much loved by longtime fans. It’s notable for being one of the first mainstream comics to include a transgender featured character – Coagula.)

It’s after the Vertigo run ends that things get interesting.

That’s because DC tries three different times to integrate Doom Patrol back into their mainstream heroic universe. All three iterations have their own successes and failures, and they all lasted almost exactly two years. Notably, in 2004 John Byrne tried to erase the entire past continuity of the team, which was then fixed by Infinite Crisis (which resolved many continuity tangles that had accumulated since Zero Hour).

A misguided Doom Patrol revival in New 52’s Justice League was much worse, restoring the Silver Age cast but again trying to wipe the slate clean of their continuity, more necessary than ever as Beast Boy was now considered a permanent fixture of the Titans franchise.

As with many titles outside of the tight core of Justice League and popular solo heroes, it felt like Doom Patrol’s rich Silver Age and Vertigo history would never again be acknowledged. While DC’s Rebirth relaunch in 2016 was wildly popular with fans, its slightly tweaked continuity still left out dozens upon dozens of major Post-Crisis heroes whose history was still in question after Flashpoint.

Then, Young Animal arrived.

Young Animal was an alternative imprint chaired by My Chemical Romance’s Gerard Way, who had become a popular indie comics author by way of his Umbrella Academy for Dark Horse. Way was tasked with finding a different wavelength for DC’s continuity in the midst of Rebirth. Way curated a team of authors to re-envision old heroes like Shade and Cave Carson, but he kept the jewel of the line for himself: Doom Patrol.

The ensuing series is something truly all-new, and all-different. It’s not just heroic, nor is it trying to recapture Vertigo’s magic. This Doom Patrol a vibrant tangle of familiar characters and new ideas. It’s not a continuation of Vertigo Doom Patrol – or any other prior version – but it is a worthy successor. And, it was positioned perfectly to take advantage of the altogether strange 2019 TV adaption of the team for DC Universe!

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