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Black Widow – Definitive Collecting Guide and Reading Order

Updated Apr 10, 2025! The definitive, chronological, and up-to-date guide and trade reading order for collecting Black Widow comic books via omnibuses, hardcovers, and trade paperback graphic novels. Part of Crushing Krisis’s Crushing Comics. Last updated April 2025 with titles scheduled for release through June 2025.

No Marvel character has been so important to the company’s rich continuity yet so on the fringe for as many years as Natasha Romanoff, the Black Widow.

Black Widow has been a villain and a spy, a symbol of the Cold War and of the triumph of democracy, a love interest and a superhero. Yet, for the first few decades of her publishing history it wasn’t uncommon for her to disappear from view for years at a time. It took over 40 years for her to merit her own ongoing title, and over 50 for one to last longer than a year!

Black Widow began as one of the first femme fatales of Marvel’s superhero era when she was introduced as a Russian spy in the Iron Man title Tales of Suspense in 1964 by Stan Lee, Don Rico, and Don Heck. She was unique not only as a female villain but as a non-costumed antagonist to start in an era where mutants, machines, and Asgardian gods were dominating the villain line-ups. In fact, she was Russia’s answer to Captain America – a super-spy rather than a super-soldier, who is resistant to the effects of disease and time.

Soon thereafter, she became one of Marvel’s earliest character to flip from villain to hero, following suit of her early collaborator Hawkeye and the mutant twins Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. She followed in their footsteps to appear regularly in The Avengers beginning with #29 in 1966, though she was not recognized as a member until #111 in 1976.

Black Widow continued to serve as a female sidekick or team member for another three decades, notably in Daredevil, Captain America,The Avengers, and The Champions. Still, she was a supporting player even as she was voted a full-time member of the Avengers in #329 in 1991. From there she finally had her first series of headline releases, albeit as one-shot graphic novels rather than ongoing series. She still was not considered a core Avenger enough in 1996, when she did not join her teammates in the Heroes Reborn universe. Because of the fleeting nature of her appearances, collecting her is a challenge – aside from a few collections of her anthology stories and her run in Daredevil, there aren’t a lot of major Black Widow runs before the 90s.

It wasn’t until 1999 that Black Widow finally attained her own headline title (still: a limited series) as part of the more adult-oriented Marvel Knights line. Ironically, it came while defending her codename from a usurper and villain named Yelena Belova. However, from that point forward she increasingly became part of the core fabric of the Marvel Universe, appearing in several limited series, playing a major role in Civil War, co-starring in Iron Man, and taking over Captain America along with Bucky Barnes while Steve Rodgers was presumed dead.

Who can say if it was her Iron Man origins or this resurgence that lead to Black Widow being written into Iron Man 2 in 2010 and cast with the hugely popular Scarlett Johansson. Even if Johansson wasn’t the best fit for the femme fatale, her casting was definitely the best thing that ever happened to Natasha in the comic books. She was finally granted her own ongoing series that same year. Even though that ended after eight issues, Black Widow had clearly received a promotion to featured player, appearing regularly across the full range of Avengers titles even before she subsequently found her way into The Avengers movie in 2012 in lieu of several other famous female team members.

Since 2010 every year features Black Widow in more stories and starring turns than the one before. 2014 was inarguable Natasha Romanoff’s best year yet. In film, she shared top billing with Chris Evans’s Captain America in The Winter Soldier. At the same time, she launched another solo series drawn by fan and critical favorite Phil Noto. This one lasted as long as possible – 20 issues before being shut down by Marvel’s linewide re-launch in the fall of 2015 – and then relaunched by Chris Samnee and Mark Waid in 2016!
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Guardians of the Galaxy – Collecting Guide & Reading Order

Updated Feb 17, 2025! The definitive issue-by-issue comic book collecting guide and reading order for Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, in omnibus, hardcover, trade paperback, and digital. Part of Crushing Krisis’s Crushing Comics. Last updated February 2025 with titles scheduled for release through September 2025.

In 2014 Marvel introduced the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise to the entire planet with their movie version of the team consisting of Starlord, Gamora, Drax, Rocket Raccoon, and Groot.

However, the Guardians have only existed in that configuration since 2008! The only similar team was the 1990s cosmic group The Infinity Watch, which included Gamora and Drax. Historically, Guardians of the Galaxy referred to a very different, specific group of characters from Marvel’s far flung future with little overlap to the 2008 version of the team.

What both groups have in common is that they are a set of space-faring heroes who stand against the forces of destruction in the universe. They are, in effect, the Cosmic Avengers.

With that mandate in mind, this guide looks at more than just the titles named “Guardians of the Galaxy.” It also follows all of the core members of the various incarnations of that team, most of whom have never maintained an ongoing title. It also covers prominent cosmic hero Adam Warlock, who lead the Infinity Watch.

If you are interested in the cinematic incarnation of the team, this is your path:

Rocket Raccoon & Groot: The Complete Collection has all of the significant appearances of this whimsical pair of characters prior to Annihilation.
Avengers vs. Thanos covers the origins of Gamora an Drax. (Optionally, pick up Death of Captain Marvel to complete this story.)
Star-Lord: Guardian of the Galaxy collects the earliest adventures of the title character, when he was a pulp sci-fi character with no ties to the Marvel Universe.
Jump to Annihilation: Conquest, below and proceed from there. Though Drax played a role in the prior Annihilation event, this is where the team really begins to form. Their first series spins out of this.

Elektra – Definitive Collecting Guide & Reading Order

Updated Mar 18, 2025! The Elektra comic books definitive issue-by-issue collecting guide and trade reading order for omnibus, hardcover, and trade paperback collections. Find every issue and appearance! Last updated March 2025 with titles scheduled for release through September 2025.

Elektra is arguably Marvel’s most-recognizable female villain, with only Mystique to challenge her for the title.

Except, she was never really a full-fledged villain. She was introduced as an assassin, but she was no more evil than Wolverine. Like Logan, she was simply the best at what she did. And, as with many great Marvel villains, as fans demanded more and more of her, she was eventually made into a hero – or, at least, a noble protagonist who still killed people.

You can think of Elektra’s continuity in two unequal halves.

The first half is entirely written by Frank Miller. Miller used Elektra for less than two years in his run on Daredevil, but his operatic arc of her love and death made her an indelible icon.

Miller was clearly as enamored with the character as her fans were. He returned to her three more times – in the limited series Daredevil: The Man Without Fear and Elektra: Assassin, and in the graphic novel Elektra Lives Again.

By most accounts, Marvel had a gentleman’s agreement with Miller to leave Elektra alone until he was ready to resurrect her. Dardevil’s mid-90s writer D. G. Chichester was the one who broke the embargo, and so began the second half of Elektra’s Marvel career – as a reluctant ally to heroes.

Despite a string of limited and ongoing series, and even a movie to call her own, Elektra has the distinction of being relatively underexposed within the Marvel universe. She had never interacted with a hero other than Daredevil on the page until her run with Wolverine in 1996! Though many characters knew her by reputation, few had actually encountered her prior to the resolution of Secret Invasion over a decade later in 2008.

Daredevil – Definitive Reading Order & Collecting Guide

Updated Mar 25, 2025! The definitive, chronological, and up-to-date guide and trade reading-order on collecting Daredevil comic books via omnibuses, hardcovers, and trade paperback graphic novels. A part of Crushing Krisis’s Crushing Comics. Last updated March 2025 with titles scheduled for release through December 2025.

The debut of Daredevil in 1964 from Stan Lee and Bill Everett took the Marvel method of superheroes to a whole new level. Everett was the creator of one of Marvel’s first heroes – Namor, The Sub-Mariner!

For the past few years, Lee had created an indelible series of flawed, human heroes whose powers doubled as afflictions. The Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, The X-Men – these characters were compelled to be heroes by the curse of their abilities, and they were all as interesting out of costume as in.

Daredevil took the “power as a burden” metaphor to a new level, with Matt Murdock’s origin story granting him enhanced senses but leaving him without the power of sight. The burden of Daredevil’s powers was an actual physical handicap that altered his life as a child for years before he ever donned a costume to avenge his father’s death!

Lee was initially concerned that the idea of his new hero might be offensive to blind people, but was overwhelmed by the positive response from charities working with the blind! See The Men Without Fear documentary for more detail. [Read more…] about Daredevil – Definitive Reading Order & Collecting Guide

#MusicMonday: “Look At Where We Are” – Hot Chip

March 31, 2014 by krisis

hot chip - in our heads When you hear these Indie Pop, or Art Pop, or Indietronica, or Electropop, or Synth Pop, or Alternative Dance – or whatever you would label hip wierdball dance bands like Hot Chip and Dirty Projectors with high-voiced male singers the first thing you almost assuredly notice is their plastic elastic vocals. Just like the skinny-jean culture I loosely associate with their fans, husky(-voiced) boys need not apply.

(I would just call them “Pop” or “Dance” and let them duke it out for attention with Bruno Mars, personally. How they material differ from Paula Abdul I will never understand. But I digress.)

Yet, I don’t trust that we’re always hearing the authentic sound of a real voice singing. It is not just because these are genres that positively glisten with auto-tune. No, it more that as a rule I don’t trust that any vocal that sounds better than George Michael and not as good as Michael Jackson. That’s an uncanny valley that hardly any guy occupies. I’ve heard the subtle stuff you can do with gating and pitch correction and snapping to a click track.

(I actually once questioned Nate from Fun. about that on Twitter, and he swore his own plastic elastic vocals were achieved sans any tuning effects. This was before Some Nights, obvs.)

Then, last week “Look At Where We Are” from Hot Chip’s 2012 record In Our Heads shuffled onto my headphones. It’s such a nude song. A few synth burbles. A two beat kick-snare kick-snare drum loop. Completely unadorned electric guitar, so plaintive you can hear the pick and fingers on the strings. And the voice is right there in your ear. It is not a vacuum-sealed thing in a can. It is silken and easy, and you can hear the air surrounding it.

When all three elements line up, the song turns into some sort of Luther Vandross baby-making jam. Sure, we get some sampled vocals and synths later, but the point has already been made:

(Buy “Look At Where We Are” on Amazon)

Hot Chip can do all of that bippity boopity dance stuff with the best of them, but they don’t need to do it. The best song on the LP is something any kid could do in their bedroom with the most basic instruments out there, yet any kid can’t.

Think it’s an illusion of the studio? Watch this nerdy dude in a sweatshirt who is Hot Chip’s singer deliver a perfect live version complete with the very minor vocal warbles at Coachella:

(Seriously, how freakishly great is his voice?)

Suddenly I find myself liking Hot Chip a lot better, even if they are an indie-art-electronica-indie-synth-pop-dance-indie-alterna-pop band.

Or, you know, A POP BAND, as it was known in 1987.