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Titans, Teen Titans, & Young Justice – The Definitive Collecting Guide and Reading Order

Updated Mar 19, 2025! The definitive issue-by-issue collecting guide and trade reading order for Teen Titans, Titans, & Young Justice comic books in omnibus, hardcover, and trade paperback collections. Part of Crushing Krisis’s Crushing Comics. Last updated March 2025 with titles scheduled for release through November 2025.

In 1965 the Silver Age of comics was in full swing, with all of DC’s iconic heroes starring in their own titles as well as in the the Justice League.

One element that DC generally lacked at the time was the youthful energy of Marvel’s Silver Age titles, which included hip young heroes like Spider-Man and The X-Men alongside more iconic DC analogs like The Avengers or Thor. It wasn’t that they lacked for young characters. It seemed the every DC hero had a teen version of sidekick. They hadn’t been assembled all in one place.

That changed with The Brave and The Bold (1955) #54 in 1964, which combined Golden Age creation Robin (Dick Grayson) with the more recently-made sidekicks of Kid Flash (Wally West), and Aqualad. Their next appearance in issue #60 added a formalized version of Wonder Girl (Donna Troy) and gave the group a name – “The Teen Titans.”

After just one more anthology series appearance (in Showcase (1956) #59), the Teen Titans graduated into their own title in 1966. While many other teen heroes appeared, only one became a more permanent member – Speedy, Green Arrow’s sidekick. The team-up was revived in 1973 and then shuttered in 1978 as the heroes felt they were growing too old to be “teens.”

Marv Wolfman and George Pérez reawakened the franchise in 1980. In an astounding act of creation, they introduced team mainstays Cyborg, Starfire, and Raven in a preview story in DC Comics Presents (1978) #26, where they also reintroduced Beast Boy as “Changeling.”

Wolfman and Pérez would become synonymous with the Teen Titans for the next decade in the same way Chris Claremont was with the X-Men, who the Titans rivaled in popularity. Along the way the co-writers introduced Slade Wilson as Deathstroke and changed Dick Grayson to Nightwing. Their characters made it through Crisis on Infinite Earths relatively unscathed as DC chose not to rock the boat of their most-popular team franchise. [Read more…] about Titans, Teen Titans, & Young Justice – The Definitive Collecting Guide and Reading Order

Marvel Legacy Era (2017-2018) – The Definitive Guide

RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 10 Power Rankings, Episode 04 – The Last Ball On Earth

April 14, 2018 by krisis

This week brings back an interesting conundrum I last faced in my Season 8 and All Stars 2 recaps, but never this early in the season: What happens when the judging completely diverges from my take on the performances?

And, for bonus points: what happens when despicable personalities get rewarded by the show?

I came to Drag Race in Season 6, which you could accuse of being the beginning of “RuPaul’s Best Friends’ Race.” Sure, Gia had her shady moments and Darienne had it in for BenDelaCreme, but it was mostly a sweet season about being great at drag – and I loved it. There was no villain and everyone pretty much got exactly as far as they deserved to get.

That became my model for Drag Race – that it was a total meritocracy and that it had evolved past the nastiness I glimpsed when going back to prior seasons. Even if her fashion was aces, how could I love Raja when she was a mean girl who labeled other people “Boogers”? Even if their fashion was stellar, why would I root for RoLaskaToxxx if their sole reason for being became bullying Jinkx?

We haven’t really seen a serious villain since then, but it’s not a coincidence that the two seasons I quit ranking before the finale were the two that really turned my concept of drag meritocracy on its ear. I couldn’t understand the departure of Acid Betty and the lack of rewards for Thorgy in Season 8, and I was puzzled by the EZ-Pass given to Alaska (and, sometimes, Detox) in All Stars.

A broken meritocracy and the return of villainy have converged here on Season 10. This is the third week in a row the judging hasn’t even commented on an obvious challenge winner in order to serve a heavy-handed narrative. We have Monique Heart being criminally ignored and the early emergence of an “always a bridesmaid” story for Miz Cracker. Meanwhile, the judges fawn over any decent look from Aquaria, and Eureka gets a comeback narrative while she comes off as the nastiest queen we’ve had since original-flavor Roxxxy.

I love drag and I love this show, but I can’t get excited about parroting misguided rankings based on the judges’ feedback and the edit. From this point out, I’m going to simply write this up as “Krisis’s Drag Race,” and boost the queens I am personally living for – which so far has not included Aquaria.

Start your engines, readers. And may the best woman … win! [Read more…] about RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 10 Power Rankings, Episode 04 – The Last Ball On Earth

RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 10 Power Rankings, Episode 03 – Tap That App

April 7, 2018 by krisis

This is an all-time classic episode of Drag Race, with a difficult marketing maxi-challenge, a stunning runway theme, and a helping of drama (if you like that sort of thing) (and I don’t).

This episode’s feather-themed runway is one of the strongest themes in the history of the show. The majority of these looks would be winners against any other runway lineup, and a two of them will probably go down as a pair of the most memorable looks in Drag Race history.

Behind the scenes in Untucked, the queens get into a serious discussion of Drag Race and race when Aquaria suddenly turns timid after coming for The Vixen’s borrowed red wig. The debate isn’t that Aquaria’s argument is valid (and it’s not, really), but that their confrontation is the perfect model of how white queens never get the blame when it comes to drag drama while queens of color get vilified for clapping back.

Vixen really appeals to me here as a queen who understands the tragedy that playing the game her way – which includes calling out bullshit where she sees it – is going to earn her hate just because of the color of her skin. A white queen with the same strategy would be an all-time fan favorite, but she will inevitably go down as a more divisive contestant.

Yet, instead of playing the coquette, she chooses to lean into her personality. That recontextualizes her “here to fight” entrance line. It’s not that Vixen is mean or messy. It’s that she is unequivocally herself, and she’s not going to back down from that.

I have zero interest in the petty side of Drag Race, which means a contestant who is “here to fight” is a total turnoff for me no matter the color of her skin. Yet, I’m conscious enough of my implicit bias to understand that I can be quicker to dismiss a black queen who is being messy even without intending to be racist. Just because I love Bob, Shangela, and Chi Chi doesn’t mean I don’t have my own racism to confront.

By contrast, Aquaria now looks extra-bad for her equally deliberate confrontational nature from these past three episodes. She’s a brainy queen who knows exactly what she’s doing whens she provokes Vixen or Cracker, but she also knows she can squeak by on the power of being an easily-forgivable pretty white queen.

Wow – that got heavy pretty fast! Let’s get light as a feather with this stunning runway and another week of major shake-ups in the rankings compared to the previous rundown.

Start your engines, readers. And may the best woman … win! [Read more…] about RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 10 Power Rankings, Episode 03 – Tap That App

Avengers by Jonathan Hickman Book Club: Introduction & Syllabus

March 29, 2018 by krisis

It’s a new month, and FanGirl and I are bringing you another comic book reading club! This month, we’re diving right into the heart of the Marvel Universe with Jonathan Hickman’s 2013-2015 run on Avengers and New Avengers. Some of the elements of this run are reflected in the upcoming Avengers: Infinity War film, including Thanos’s Black Order.

Learn more about our book club, including the material and schedule, in our video syllabus.