Crushing Krisis

Comic Books, Drag Race, & Life in New Zealand

DC Comics

New For Patrons: The Definitive Guide to DC’s Catwoman, Selina Kyle

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Today’s new guide for Patrons of Crushing Krisis covers a DC character who went nearly 50 years without her own title before becoming a regular anchor of DC’s monthly lineup…

Catwoman, Selina Kyle – The Definitive Reading Order and Collecting Guide

Putting this Catwoman guide together should have been super easy. She’s had one mini-series and four ongoings since 1989 plus Gotham City Sirens (already covered in the Guide to Gotham).

That, like, two hours of work tops, right?

Well, you know me: my motto is “make it harder.” It wasn’t enough to just knock together a list of collected editions for those series. I also had to list all of Catwoman’s many guest-starring turns, plus explain her continuity a bit.

How did she go from Batman’s ally and lover before Crisis back to a vigilante loner for two decades and then back to ally and lover again in Rebirth?! [Read more…] about New For Patrons: The Definitive Guide to DC’s Catwoman, Selina Kyle

New For Patrons: The Definitive Guide to DC’s Nightwing, Dick Grayson

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Today’s new guide for Patrons of Crushing Krisis fills in one of the major gaps in my DC coverage and brings my collection of Bat-Family guides a little bit closer to being complete:

Nightwing, Dick Grayson – The Definitive Reading Order and Collecting Guide

Dick Grayson occupies a distinct spot in both DC and Marvel history as a rare hero who had a long-standing, in-continuity early identity to which he will likely never be reverted.

That’s because Grayson was the original Robin to Bruce Wayne’s Batman in the Golden and Silver Ages – but, he’s spent the entire Post-Crisis modern age of comics as Nightwing (except for those few years he was Batman).

As a reader of primarily Marvel Comics, the first time I encountered Dick Grayson was during his time as Batman in Grant Morrison’s epic run with the caped crusader. I really didn’t know a thing about him other than that he was the first Robin, which made him seem pretty boring to me – like a character DC kept publishing just out of habit. It seemed like a dull gimmick to turn him into Batman.

I couldn’t have been more wrong. Grayson was new to wearing the cowl, but not to being a hero. He wasn’t as foolproof as Bruce as Batman, but he was more emotionally complex and pragmatic. [Read more…] about New For Patrons: The Definitive Guide to DC’s Nightwing, Dick Grayson

New For Patrons: The Definitive Guide to DC’s The Outsiders

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Sometimes creating a new guide for Patrons of Crushing Krisis turns into a getting-to-know you process about a hero or team I’ve never read before. That was definitely the case with today’s new guide, about a team of heroes who existed entirely outside of my comics knowledge…

The Outsiders – The Definitive Reading Order and Collecting Guide

I’ve always been dimly aware of The Outsiders, mostly because Batman and the Outsiders (1983) #11 was one of the first dog-eared comic books of my early childhood – years before I started collecting.

Yet, as of a few weeks ago, I couldn’t have told you who a single one of the characters in the header image were aside from Katana. Heck, it was years into New 52 before I realized that the Katana I know from that classic cover image was the same one who starred in Birds of Prey and Suicide Squad! Based on her costume, I thought she was some kind of DC Sunfire analog.

What I learned in putting together this team guide is that the Outsiders really are outsiders. Batman formed the team specifically to work outside the rules and regulations of the Justice League. [Read more…] about New For Patrons: The Definitive Guide to DC’s The Outsiders

New For Patrons: The Definitive Guide to Teen Titans, Titans, and Young Justice

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I’m back after a few busy months both online and off with the first of a few new comic guides to thank Patrons of Crushing Krisis for their continued support…

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

This guide covers every in-continuity Teen Titans series, from their first appearance in The Brave and The Bold (1955) #54 and 60 in 1964 to the two titles currently running in Rebirth.

This guide was nowhere near next on my list, but two things changed that. First, I reached Teen Titans and Titans in my DC Rebirth reading. I felt like I didn’t understand who any of the characters were or where they came from. As is my wont, as I read the comics and researched the characters, I sketched in some guide details. Within a few hours I realized I had a solid skeleton for a a complex guide.

Second, earlier this week I polled my friends at The Omnibus Collector’s™ Comic Swap and Community and they overwhelmingly voted that this should be the next guide I tackle!

Want access to this guide today? It’s available, along over a dozen other exclusive guides, in exchange for covering $1.99 a month of CK’s hosting expenses.

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.Teen Titans by George Perez

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