comic books

Harley Quinn – The Definitive Collecting Guide and Reading Order

You cannot see this page because it is currently exclusive to Patreon supporters.

Thank you for being a reader and supporter of Crushing Krisis!

This site would have never grown past the original guides to X-Men without readers like you, and I will never forget that!

It not only takes (a lot of) time to produce hundreds of pages of comics content, but also money for hosting, registration, and software. The financial support from Patreon pledges has kept this site running when I would otherwise have had to suspend it or refocus my spare time on freelance work.

I completely understand if you cannot afford to support CK or are not interested in doing so. The core of my coverage of the X-Men and the Marvel Universe is available to all readers for free – absolutely nothing has changed about that. I still appreciate your support and you are always welcome to ask me questions in comments here or on Twitter or YouTube!

As a thank you to readers who support Crushing Krisis on Patreon, I provide early access to new guides like this one. Patrons generally chip in $1-2 a month to help cover the costs of hosting CK and to make awesome new content like this possible.

I literally could not have launched the DC section of Crushing Comics without the support of Patrons, nor would I have worked on Star Wars or Conan, nor would I have the time to launch a YouTube channel or revise the X-Men Reading Order.

That said, all readers benefit from the support of Patrons – because all of those exclusive guides eventually become regular free content for every reader.

Guides launched with the support of Patrons and now available to all readers: 22 Guides!

DC Comics: DC New 52, DC Rebirth, DC Elseworlds & Infinite Earths, DC Universe Events, Detective Comics, Batman, Batman by Grant Morrison, Batwoman, Gotham, Green Arrow, John Constantine – The Hellblazer, Robin(s), Watchmen, & Wonder Woman

Marvel Comics: Marvel Era: Fresh Start, Marvel Ultimate Comics, Jessica Jones AKA Alias, Magneto, New Warriors, Star Wars, & X-23

Other Publishers: Conan (Marvel & Dark Horse)

Plus, top-to-bottom revisions to guides including: Iron Fist; X-Men Reading Order Eras 0, 1, and 2; Uncanny X-Men #281-393; Uncanny X-Men #394-544

Current Exclusives For Crushing Cadets ($1/month): 8 Guides!

DC Guides: Batman – Index Ongoing Titles, Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight

Marvel Guides: Alpha Flight, Domino, Legion, Marvel Era: Marvel Legacy, Scarlet Witch, Vision

Current Exclusives For Pledgeonauts ($1.99+/month): 31 Guides!

DC Guides: Animal Man, Aquaman, Catwoman, Batman – Index Ongoing Titles, Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight, Flash, Justice League, Nightwing, Outsiders, Suicide Squad, Teen Titans & Young Justice

Marvel Guides: Alpha Flight, Ant-Man & Giant-Man, Champions, Darkhawk, Dazzler, Domino, Falcon, Gwenpool, Legion, Marvel Era: Marvel Legacy, Moon Boy / Moon Girl & Devil Dinosaur, Ms. Marvel: Kamala Khan, Power Pack, Scarlet Witch, Sentry, Silk, Spider-Gwen, Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Venom, Vision

New For Patrons: The Definitive Guide to Marvel’s X-Man, Nate Grey

November 5, 2018 by krisis Leave a Comment

Today’s new guide for Patrons of Crushing Krisis covers an unusual X-Men character, a copy of another character who went one to helm one of the longest-running X-Men solo series before disappearing into the aether (literally) for nearly a decade…

X-Man, Nate Grey – The Definitive Reading Order and Collecting Guide

Let’s get one thing out of the way first: yes, this is really a guide for one 80-issue ongoing and fewer than 50 additional appearances by a character who went forgotten for a decade, and then for another half decade after a brief return.

That’s it! And, yet, X-Man AKA Nate Grey is about to make a major comeback to the world of X-Men, so it was time he got his own guide.

He debuted as part of “Age of Apocalypse” in 1995, and it’s important to remember that this event was quite specifically not an alternate reality at the time. It was the only version of Marvel’s reality that existed in the present day thanks to Legion going back in time to murder his father, Charles Xavier, rather than his target Magneto. (Oops!)

Nate Grey was a critical figure in the Age of Apocalypse – a version of Cable unravaged by time and the TO virus. While our Cable relied on his tactical skill and his leverage over the timestream to thwart his enemies, Nate Grey only needed Cable’s heritage of raw, uninhibited mutant power – the kind that Mr. Sinister had spent years trying to realize in our original timeline.

Age of Apocalypse was well-received and marvelous fun to read at the time. The idea of four of its characters and one of its titles persisting into Marvel-616 continuity was thrill! Of course, it made the most sense for that title to be X-Man, the most unique and singular of all the converted books.

However, there was the question of what to do with Nate Grey. In the Age of Apocalypse he was the most-powerful rebel, but in 616 Marvel he had nothing to rebel against. There was no narrative to welcome Nate Grey to the main Marvel timeline. [Read more…] about New For Patrons: The Definitive Guide to Marvel’s X-Man, Nate Grey

X-Man, Nate Grey – The Definitive Collecting Guide and Reading Order

You cannot see this page because it is currently exclusive to Patreon supporters.

Thank you for being a reader and supporter of Crushing Krisis!

This site would have never grown past the original guides to X-Men without readers like you, and I will never forget that!

That said, all readers benefit from the support of Patrons – because all of those exclusive guides eventually become regular free content for every reader.

Guides launched with the support of Patrons and now available to all readers: 22 Guides!

Marvel Comics: Marvel Era: Fresh Start, Marvel Ultimate Comics, Jessica Jones AKA Alias, Magneto, New Warriors, Star Wars, & X-23

Other Publishers: Conan (Marvel & Dark Horse)

Plus, top-to-bottom revisions to guides including: Iron Fist; X-Men Reading Order Eras 0, 1, and 2; Uncanny X-Men #281-393; Uncanny X-Men #394-544

Current Exclusives For Crushing Cadets ($1/month): 8 Guides!

DC Guides: Batman – Index Ongoing Titles, Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight

Marvel Guides: Alpha Flight, Domino, Legion, Marvel Era: Marvel Legacy, Scarlet Witch, Vision

Current Exclusives For Pledgeonauts ($1.99+/month): 31 Guides!

New for Patrons: The Definitive Guides to The Sandman Universe

October 30, 2018 by krisis Leave a Comment

Today’s new guide Patrons of Crushing Krisis is actually three guides (or maybe four, by the time you read this), which seems like overkill for what is essentially a single title with an obvious ten-volume paperback line. But, it’s really so much more than that…

Sandman Universe – The Definitive Reading Order and Collecting Guide

Books of Magic – The Definitive Reading Order and Collecting Guide

Lucifer – The Definitive Reading Order and Collecting Guide

I am fascinated by how Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman (and, in fact, all of the extended Sandman Universe) bridges the gap between comic books and serious literature.

That fascination has lasted for over 25 years – almost as long as Gaiman’s reinvention of the Golden Age character has existed.

Even the most-knowledgable comic fan could be forgiven for not knowing that Morpheus the King of Dreams was merely an iteration on an already-rebooted Golden Age DC hero. The original Sandman, Wesley Dodds, was a minor character who ran for seven years in the Golden Age and then popped back up twenty years later in the Earth 2 Justice Society of America in the Silver Age.

Without Gaiman and Morpheus, Dodds would probably be that one JSA member whose name you could never recall. His Silver Age iteration certainly wouldn’t jog your memory – a Kirby/Simon creation meant to be Mr. Sandman who lasted just six issues and who was later retconned in Wonder Woman to be a professor lost in the world of dreams.

There was no harm in Neil Gaiman revamping such a character to a more adult version early in the Post-Crisis years in 1989. At the time, Gaiman was still a relative unknown, coming off of the slept-on Black Orchid mini-series – a similar act of excavation and reinvention. He was so used to tepid reception to his early work that he expected Sandman to run just eight issues, which is why the first eight form such a satisfying arc despite being a mix of one-shots and continuing stories. He though that would be the whole series!

Instead, The Sandman became the springboard off of which Gaiman launched his multimedia fame in a miraculous three-year run from 1990-93 that saw him release Books of Magic at DC, the novel Good Omens (with Terry Prachett), win a World Fantasy Award in a category where Sandman wasn’t even eligible, essentially give birth to what we know as the modern American graphic novel market with the first two Sandman trade paperbacks, and top it off with the landmark Death: The High Cost of Living (the collection of which would be introduced by his friend and frequent name-checker, Tori Amos). [Read more…] about New for Patrons: The Definitive Guides to The Sandman Universe

Vertigo’s Timothy Hunter and The Books of Magic – The Definitive Collecting Guide and Reading Order

You cannot see this page because it is currently exclusive to Patreon supporters.

Thank you for being a reader and supporter of Crushing Krisis!

This site would have never grown past the original guides to X-Men without readers like you, and I will never forget that!

That said, all readers benefit from the support of Patrons – because all of those exclusive guides eventually become regular free content for every reader.

Guides launched with the support of Patrons and now available to all readers: 22 Guides!

Marvel Comics: Marvel Era: Fresh Start, Marvel Ultimate Comics, Jessica Jones AKA Alias, Magneto, New Warriors, Star Wars, & X-23

Other Publishers: Conan (Marvel & Dark Horse)

Plus, top-to-bottom revisions to guides including: Iron Fist; X-Men Reading Order Eras 0, 1, and 2; Uncanny X-Men #281-393; Uncanny X-Men #394-544

Current Exclusives For Crushing Cadets ($1/month): 8 Guides!

DC Guides: Batman – Index Ongoing Titles, Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight

Marvel Guides: Alpha Flight, Domino, Legion, Marvel Era: Marvel Legacy, Scarlet Witch, Vision

Current Exclusives For Pledgeonauts ($1.99+/month): 31 Guides!

Vertigo’s Lucifer – The Definitive Collecting Guide and Reading Order

You cannot see this page because it is currently exclusive to Patreon supporters.

Thank you for being a reader and supporter of Crushing Krisis!

This site would have never grown past the original guides to X-Men without readers like you, and I will never forget that!

That said, all readers benefit from the support of Patrons – because all of those exclusive guides eventually become regular free content for every reader.

Guides launched with the support of Patrons and now available to all readers: 22 Guides!

Marvel Comics: Marvel Era: Fresh Start, Marvel Ultimate Comics, Jessica Jones AKA Alias, Magneto, New Warriors, Star Wars, & X-23

Other Publishers: Conan (Marvel & Dark Horse)

Plus, top-to-bottom revisions to guides including: Iron Fist; X-Men Reading Order Eras 0, 1, and 2; Uncanny X-Men #281-393; Uncanny X-Men #394-544

Current Exclusives For Crushing Cadets ($1/month): 8 Guides!

DC Guides: Batman – Index Ongoing Titles, Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight

Marvel Guides: Alpha Flight, Domino, Legion, Marvel Era: Marvel Legacy, Scarlet Witch, Vision

Current Exclusives For Pledgeonauts ($1.99+/month): 31 Guides!