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!

Guide to Lumberjanes – now available to the public!

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While some of my brand new Guides to Indie & Licensed Comics will remain exclusive to Patrons of CK, I don’t want to keep anything about this guide a secret! Plus, the 9YO demanded that her hard work as my editorial assistant be visible to the general public! That’s why today I’m happy to fling wide the cabin doors to my Guide to Lumberjanes!

Guide to Lumberjanes

This Lumberjanes Guide not only includes an easy-to-follow list of all 22 main Lumberjanes releases in chronological order, but also includes their original graphic novels, prose novels, and Spanish and French editions.

Plus, the 9YO conducted her own very own week-long research project to confirm the continuity placements of all of the one-shots, specials, OGNs, and novels relative to the main series! Don’t worry, she was compensated for her efforts with a brand new copy of The Lumberjanes BEASTiary: The Most Amazing Guide to All the Coolest Creatures You’ve Ever Heard Of and a Few You Haven’t – which was the one title we were unaware of when we started putting this guide together.

I could not possibly recommend this series any more highly for the kids in your life. We started reading it together when the kid was still a toddler. Each book is wholesome and entirely silly adventure to learn more about a new group of lovable (though slightly scary) wilderness cryptids. Despite some minor monster-thumping, one summer romance, and one adult frenemy hunter with a gun and some dynamite, Lumberjanes is carefully curated to be appropriate for readers of any age.

Updated: Guide to X-Force (+ Guide to Sabretooth, for Patrons of CK)

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My weekly X-Men guide updates continue as I revisit one of the guides I rebuilt in 2022! Does that make this update too easy? Well, that is sorta the point of getting everything back on schedule again, but don’t worry – there’s a reason my band’s motto used to be “Make It Harder.” That’s why today I not only have an update to my Guide to X-Force, but also an update to my Guide to Sabretooth exclusively for Patrons of CK!

Guide to X-Force

Guide to X-Force

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Guide to Sabretooth

Guide to Sabretooth

Of this pair of X-Guides, it’s Sabretooth who has seen more recent collected edition action. [Read more…] about Updated: Guide to X-Force (+ Guide to Sabretooth, for Patrons of CK)

New Comics & Collected Editions: Marvel Comics – April 5 2023

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Let’s take a look at what’s out from Marvel Comics this week! This post covers Marvel Comics April 5 2023 releases.

This list includes every comic and digital comic out from Marvel this week, plus collected editions in omnibus, hardcover, paperback, and digest-sized formats. For each new release, I’ll point you to the right Crushing Comics guide.

Marvel Comics April 5 2023 Collected EditionsAdam Warlock Omnibus, one of Marvel Comics April 5 2023 releases

This is a slim week for new collected editions – there’s just four books out, and one is a reprint!

Adam Warlock Omnibus (2023 oversize hardcover, ISBN 978-1302949877 / digital)
See Guide to Adam Warlock. This collects Warlock’s full Silver & Bronze Age Warlock saga all in one place for the first time, from his debut as “Him” in the pages of Stan Lee & Jack Kirby’s Fantastic Four to Jim Starlin’s psychedelic late-70s space epic! You can read this and continue directly to Infinity Gauntlet.

Fantastic Four Epic Collection Volume 3: The Coming of Galactus
(2023 paperback, ISBN 978-1302950415 / digital)
See Guide to Fantastic Four. This is the third time this particular Epic has been back to print. That speaks not only to the fact that it’s one of the Marvel’s most-significant stories of all time, but also speaks to the ongoing success of the Epic Collection line as we head into its second decade. It’s doing exactly the thing it’s meant to do – getting books all into the same format and reprinting them whenever necessary!

Marvel-Verse: Guardians of the Galaxy (2023 digest-size paperback, ISBN 978-1302950705 / digital)
See Guide to Guardians of the Galaxy. This collects a smattering of stand-alone Guardians stories from the middle of Bendis’s run through the beginning of Duggan’s run, including one previously uncollected issue – Guardians of the Galaxy: Dream On (2017) #1. A decent, if scant, sampler platter if you’re averse to sampling digitally on Marvel Unlimited – but it’s hard to take it seriously without any material from the 2008 series.

Star-Lord: The Saga of Peter Quill (2023 paperback, ISBN 978-1302950712 / digital)
See Guide to Star-Lord, Peter Quill. This is the collection if you want to grab Star-Lords earliest set of continuity stories in the Marvel Universe. I say “continuity” stories because the character of Peter Quill as Star-Lord first debuted in the 1970s, but all of his early adventures have been since rendered as occurring in a separate reality due to some unresolvable time travel shenanigans. That means when Quill pops up in the 2003 Thanos ongoing series, it’s technically his first appearance (though, making things even more confusing, at the time he was assumed to still be the same character as that 1970s version). All of this and more is explained in my guide!

Read on for a rundown of Marvel Comics April 5 2023 single-issue releases, including a link to their accompanying guide pages on Crushing Comics. [Read more…] about New Comics & Collected Editions: Marvel Comics – April 5 2023

Patron’s Choice: Guide to Black Hammer by Jeff Lemire

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Indie Comics Month may be over, but I have a promise to fulfill to all Patrons of CK – their first ever indie Patron’s Choice guide! Out of 25 independent and licensed comics franchises in their February poll, my indefatigable Patrons have selected one of the newest extended universes in comics. It’s one that has proven to be a hit with fans and critics alike! Welcome to my Guide to Black Hammer by Jeff Lemire!

Guide to Black Hammer by Jeff Lemire!

Black Hammer is like a modern retake on Astro City by Kurt Busiek. Jeff Lemire imagines a city of iconic heroes struck from familiar, archetypal molds whose history spans from the Golden Age through the end of the Bronze Age and the transition to the modern era.

Yet, the most iconic of those heroes never make the transition to the modern era. That is the story of Black Hammer.
[Read more…] about Patron’s Choice: Guide to Black Hammer by Jeff Lemire