Crushing Krisis

Comic Books, Drag Race, & Life in New Zealand

comic books

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

Updated: Guide to The Sandman Universe

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Gearing up for this week’s debut of Netflix’s adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman? I’ve updated my Definitive Guide to The Sandman Universe with all of the newest collected formats of Gaiman’s landmark 75-issue series, plus its continuation in the 2018 Sandman Universe!

If you’re looking to pick up the entire original run of Sandman for a binge-read after your binge-watch, you currently have five different physical format choices – all summarized below! For full collection information for each book and plenty of additional information, see the full guide. [Read more…] about Updated: Guide to The Sandman Universe

Krisis Returns to a Random Circuit 42! – Podcast Appearance

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This week I made my return to Circuit 42 alongside co-hosts Ian and Sandra Soapbox for a completely random episode where we followed the conversation wherever it flowed.

We discussed the changing nature of Peter Parker’s geekdom through the ages, Drag Race local blackouts, macabre kid media, fan-casting Stranger Things women into their next roles, Mara Jade, Equus, the Aquaman 2006 CW pilot, fandom vs. standom, and much more!

Ian and the Circuit 42 crew are a consistently kind and thoughtful group, and they are such massive fans of so much cool geek stuff! It’s always a pleasure to drop in for another episode. Keep up with the gang on their Facebook page or subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.

Updated: Guide to Avengers Flagship Titles, 2010 – Present

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Today I’m excited to bring you a complete from-the-ground-up re-build and major update of one of the most-important guides to reading Marvel Comics from 2010 to present… Avengers flagship titles (2010 – present) – The Definitive Collecting Guide!

This massive update was made possible by Patrons of Crushing Krisis. It covers hundreds of issues across over 20 volumes of comics that have been collected in more than 250 different print editions, spanning four major eras of Avengers. Whether you want to buy collected editions, build a digital collection, or read as a Marvel Unlimited subscriber, this guide has you completely covered. [Read more…] about Updated: Guide to Avengers Flagship Titles, 2010 – Present

Guide to The Eternals – now available to the public!

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I’m happy to announce that my Guide to The Eternals is now available to all CK readers as part of the Crushing Comics Guide to Collecting Marvel Comics! This guide covers ever Eternals series and every major Eternals character!

This Eternals guide was originally launched in 2021 thanks to the ongoing support of the eternally awesome Patrons of CK. I’m launching it today to coincide with Marvel’s big summer event – Avengers / X-Men / Eternals: Judgment Day!

Guide to The EternalsEternals (2008) 0001

Part of what is so interesting about The Eternals at Marvel is that their separation from human society in continuity is mirrored by their isolation in publishing.

The Eternals have rarely made guest appearances aside from some arcs of Thor while they had no title of their own, plus Sersi’s time on Avengers). They’ve never had a series run more than 20 issues, and they’ve often gone for a half a decade or more with no series or significant appearances.

(That last bit was truly surprising to me. Even the previously obscure Inhumans and Guardians of the Galaxy had a way of turning up every few years before their fame. Not so for the Eternals – they really keep to themselves!)Eternals (2021) #1

That means, of all of Jack Kirby’s concepts that launched at Marvel, The Eternals in their way remain one of the purest. Aside from Neil Gaiman briefly breathing new life into the group in the mid-00s, it doesn’t feel like anyone has strayed especially far from his blueprint.

In the run-up to The Eternals film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel began paying more attention to their progenitors – The Celestials. They centered them in Jason Aaron’s 2018 Avengers run (which, by the way, kicked off with his wholesale genocide of all of the Eternals), and then relaunched the group into their own headlining title from Kieron Gillen, Esad Ribic, and Matthew Wilson in January of 2021.

Gillen & Co’s Eternals is a thrilling comic because it hews closely to Kirby’s legacy for the characters while also showing the connections between their history and Jonathan Hickman’s recent “Dawn of X” relaunch of the X-Men line.

The book is deliberate, intricate, but often laugh out loud funny as it follows the rebirth of The Eternals and their discovery that there is a serious flaw in their regenerative code… in the form of one of Marvel’s most-recognizable villains!

Gillen’s Eternals feels almost like a compressed version of the first two years of the entire X-Men line… which turned out to be a very intentional similarity as the Eternals come to blows with The Avengers and The X-Men in Marvel’s 2022 summer event – Avengers / X-Men / Eternals: Judgment Day!

Now you can read EVERY appearance that leads to that series by following my Eternals Guide! Nothing can stop you, since they’ve now all been reprinted in color and they’re all on Marvel Unlimited!