To view this content, you must be a member of Crushing Krisis Patreon at $1.99 or more
Unlock with PatreonAlready a qualifying Patreon member? Refresh to access this content.
comic books
Crushing Comics includes definitive comic book guides, essays about characters and titles, collecting strategies, comic reviews, and more!
Updated: Guide to Astonishing X-Men & Amazing X-Men
Today I have an update to one of the first guides that I created for the site, 12 years ago in August 2010 – my Guide to Astonishing X-Men & Amazing X-Men!
Guide to Astonishing X-Men & Amazing X-Men
No new collections have been released for the three series in this guide – Astonishing X-Men (2004), Amazing X-Men (2014), and Astonishing X-Men (2017). However, that doesn’t mean there was nothing to update and improve! The guide now includes ISBNs for all collections, links for digital purchasing options, links to read on Marvel Unlimited, an improved table of contents, and more-specific information about creators and release dates.
Updating the Guide to Astonishing X-Men always makes me feel old in X-Men years, because hen I first penned this guide it was entirely about Joss Whedon & John Cassaday’s Astonishing X-Men! I launched my original X-Men guides before “Second Coming” was over in 2010, and was just catch up on the team’s move from San Francisco in general to Utopia in specific.
One of the great things about both Astonishing X-Men and Amazing X-Men is that they were always books that appealed to mega-fans but were easy to pick up for casual readers. Every creator change on either title brings a new jumping-on point, whether that’s Whedon’s self-contained run, Marjorie Liu’s character-focus, or Christopher Yost’s throwback to vintage Claremontian themes.
If you’re a multi-media X-Men fan who has always wanted to check out their comics, even single section of the Guide to Astonishing X-Men & Amazing X-Men could be a good place for you to start.
Hellcat, Patsy Walker – Definitive Collecting Guide and Reading Order
New for Patrons: Red She-Hulk AKA Harpy
I’m back today with a highly-specific guide for “pledgeonaut” Patrons of CK. This one also spun out of last week’s update to my Guide to She-Hulk, because it’s also a Guide to She-Hulk! No, not that She-Hulk, the other She-Hulk – it’s a Guide to Red She-Hulk!
Be warned: Even though the guide itself is careful not to spoil details of Red She-Hulk’s secret identity while covering pre-reveal issues, I’m talking about it openly in this post.
Honestly, it was only a secret for nine months 12 years ago! But, I think it was a fun secret executed well, so I try not to ruin it for people who might be coming to the run for the first time.
Marvel was going through an interesting period from 2005-2012 where at first they were revitalizing lines and characters purely out of the business instinct to stay alive, but then they started adjusting them even more due to the popularity of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
To me, this began with the period of Bendis launching New Avengers through the death of Captain America at the end of Civil War, with House of M sandwiched between them. Despite Marvel using the “All-New, All-Different” tagline since the Bronze Age, this was the first time in a while that the main 616-Marvel Universe felt like a truly new and different place.
(A lot of that was down to the sales and popularity pressure from the Ultimate Universe, which at that point was threatening to subsume the main one.)
One result of that period was character lines that felt larger than they used to. Marvel’s major Silver Age characters feel encouraged to reinvent their casts and build their own huge events. That was certainly true for Hulk, which went from a Marvel also-ran to one of their hottest titles on the strength of Greg Pak’s “Planet Hulk” storyline, which spun into the line-wide “World War Hulk” event.
In the wake of that, Pak and Jeph Loeb had more leeway than ever to expand the scope of Hulk comics. Suddenly, there were a lot of Hulks and Gamma-powered characters. We had Bruce Banner as Hulk, Jennifer Walters as She-Hulk, Doc Samson, Rick Jones as A-Bomb, the newly-birthed Skaar, and even Lyra – Hulk’s daughter from a potential future!
(Spoilers begin here.) [Read more…] about New for Patrons: Red She-Hulk AKA Harpy
New for Patrons: Guide to Hellcat, Patsy Walker
Working on last week’s Guide to Black Cat and this week’s update to my Guide to She-Hulk drew my attention to Marvel’s other major feline heroine, who has been a diva along with Felicia Hardy and a BFF to Jennifer Walters. That’s right – today’s new guide for “Pledgeonaut” Patrons of CK is an issue-by-issue Guide to Hellcat, Patsy Walker!
Hellcat is actually one of Marvel’s longest-running characters! Her civilian alter-ego Patsy Walker debuted in the Golden Age as one of the stars of Marvel’s burgeoning line of teen and romance comics. While most people assume those books petered out by the time the Silver Age began with Fantastic Four in 1961, Patsy’s titles kept on running – one of them as late as 1967!
Yet, in that time she was never a hero – just a regular teenage girl who liked to hang out with her best friend Hedy.
(And, actually, if we’re being specific, those comics are not actually Patsy’s earlier continuity, but a fictionalized version of it that existed as in-universe comic books in the Marvel 616 as written by Patsy’s mother!) [Read more…] about New for Patrons: Guide to Hellcat, Patsy Walker