Marvel Comics

Guide to Spider-Man comics from 2018 to present day – now available to the public!

February 1, 2023 by krisis

I’m happy to announce that my Guide to every Spider-Man comic from 2018 to the present day s is now available to all CK readers! This guide covers every Spidey ongoing, mini-series, and event unless it’s headline by another character with their own guide, like Spider-Gwen or Spider-Ham. That includes all of Nick Spencer’s Amazing Spider-Man (2018) run, the 2021 BEYOND! run starring Ben Reilly, and the current Zeb Wells Amazing Spider-Man (2022) run that spun out the Dark Web event. This guide exists thanks to the ongoing support of the amazing Patrons of Crushing Krisis.

Guide to Spider-Man, Peter Parker (2018 – Present Day)

I have a love/hate relationship with my main Guide to Spider-Man, of which this new guide is a spin-off.

If we’re being honest, that main Spidey page less of a guide and more of a complete reading order, not unlike my mega-popular Definitive X-Men Reading Order Guide. It’s one of the longest pages on all of CK. It has literally every Spider-Man appearance from 1963 through the mid-2010s from every single ongoing title, mini-series, and guest appearance.

That’s a lot to wrangle when I want to add just one new collection! [Read more…] about Guide to Spider-Man comics from 2018 to present day – now available to the public!

New for Patrons: Guide to Wasp, Janet van Dyne

January 30, 2023 by krisis

My newest guide for Patreon supporters of Crushing Krisis is for one of the longest-running women of Marvel. In fact, while researching this guide I realized she may be the first Silver Age female Marvel hero to merit her own series of solo anthology stories! She’s also the first woman with a lengthy stint as a team leader at Marvel. All of that makes it absolutely wild that she has never had her own solo series until this month!!! Find all of those Marvel milestone moments in my brand new Guide to Wasp, Janet van Dyne!

Guide to Wasp, Janet van Dyne
This guide is now available to the public thanks to the astonishing support of Patrons of Crushing Krisis!

I won’t lie – getting this Guide to Wasp done was a battle, even though I got a very early start on it!

That’s because Janet van Dyne has appeared in a staggering 1,296 Marvel comics as of this month, which includes 1,295 comics that were not her own comic.

Building a guide for a character who has mostly appeared in their own series is always more straight-forward than building one for a perennial team member and guest star – even if that character has many series like Wolverine. That’s because their series established their prevailing narrative. Even if Wolverine made three times as many guest appearances in a period compared to his number of solo issues, it will be the solo issues that establish his character arc at that time.

Janet van Dyne has never had that privilege. For a character who is about to celebrate her 60th anniversary, her major character moments are relatively few and far between. [Read more…] about New for Patrons: Guide to Wasp, Janet van Dyne

Updated: Guide to Excalibur

January 27, 2023 by krisis

I’m excited to share this X-Guide update, not only because it contains my favorite comic of all time, but because it’s my first ever “normal” guide update! Updated today, it’s my Guide to Excalibur – including a complete Excalibur Reading Order and links to read every physical and digital collection of Excalibur ever released!

Guide to Excalibur

The Guide to Excalibur was the first 2010s guide that I rebuilt to my new style and standard in 2021, which means this is the first routine maintenance update I’ve done so far this decade.

Over the past year, Excalibur wrapped up its collection of the 2019 Tini Howard & Marcus To run in both trade paperback and oversize hardcover. Howard continued some characters and themes of that title into Knights of X (2022) with artist Bob Quinn, which was just five issues and collected in a single trade paperback.

(Howard is still writing Betsy Braddock, but now she has graduated to her own Captain Britain title!)

When it comes to past Excalibur collections, the two years since my last update brought us two major releases – plus some big news in the last month. [Read more…] about Updated: Guide to Excalibur

Unstoppable Wasp, Nadia van Dyne – Definitive Collecting Guide and Reading Order

The definitive issue-by-issue comic book collecting guide and reading order for Marvel’s Unstoppable Wasp – Nadia van Dyne AKA Nadia Pym – in omnibus, hardcover, trade paperback, and digital comics. Part of Crushing Krisis’s Crushing Comics. Last updated December 2024 with titles scheduled for release through February 2024.

The Unstoppable Wasp seemed like the wrong character at the wrong time for Marvel, but she turned into one of their best and most nuanced new heroes – and one of their best all-ages 616 characters of all time.

Nadia van Dyne (AKA Nadia Pym) made her first appearance with the Avengers on the brink of Marvel’s Civil War II. It was a disorganized time in the Marvel Universe that was about to become even more divisive – both for characters and fans. That’s because Marvel was focusing hard on a new generation of “Legacy” heroes like Sam Wilson as Captain America, Jane Foster as Thor, Kamala Khan as Ms. Marvel, and many, many more.

Nadia was an odd addition to this list. First, because Wasp isn’t nearly as popular as the iconic original heroes of those other legacy characters. Second, because the original Wasp – Janet van Dyne – was active at that moment on another Avengers team in another title. Third, because Hank Pym had recently merged with Ultron in that other Avengers title, so Nadia wasn’t even interacting with him.

And, most-importantly, because Nadia was not the Wasp we had just met in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Ant-Man.

That was Hope van Dyne, who existed in several alternate universe, but never in 616. Nadia was not a re-named young version of the MCU’s Hope. Janet wasn’t her biological mother, and she was like half-Wasp half-Black-Widow due to her training in Russia’s Red Room.

At first it felt like there was no point to Nadia’s existence. She stuck with the adult Avengers after Civil War II rather than join the teen Champions, but the choice didn’t seem to make sense.

Then, Jeremy Whitley came along to launch Unstoppable Wasp. Whitley had years of experience writing YA comics, including the delightful Princeless for Action Lab, and was paired with expressive artist Elsa Charretier.

Together, they found a place for Nadia. She simply wasn’t at her best as a brainy young Avenger. Instead, she was leader and a connector meant to bring together the young women geniuses of the Marvel Universe into her G.I.R.L. labs – Geniuses In action Research Labs. The result was a delightful comic that not only invited a slew of new young women, but also interviewed real life lady scientists in every issue! Plus, it highlighted the narrative power of Mockingbird and Janet van Dyne, oft relegated to being supporting characters or love interests instead of mentors.

Nadia’s first series was short-lived, but as she got pulled into the dour Secret Empire and The Champions on the other side of it her fandom snowballed as readers discovered her via trade paperback collections. As it turns out, kids who love comics about scientists aren’t major Wednesday Warriors. As a result, Whitley returned with Gurihiru, a pair of artists revered by fans for their clean-lined animated style on books like Avatar: The Last Airbender, Power Pack, and The Unbelievable Gwenpool

Whitley and Gurihiru delivered another smashing series. Not only was every issue enjoyable, but it tackled tricky topics like mental illness and disability – all without losing the pure joy of Nadia’s character.

In the wake of her two series, Nadia is occasionally a member of The Champions, sometimes a sidekick to Scott Lang or Janet van Dyne, and often a scientist-on-call for Kamala Khan. Wherever she turns up, expect mad science, optimism, and G.I.R.L. Power!

New for Patrons: Guide to Unstoppable Wasp, Nadia van Dyne

January 24, 2023 by krisis

My newest guide for all Patreon supporters of Crushing Krisis is for one of Marvel’s newest characters to hold down her own solo title – two of them, in fact! In my humble opinion, hers are the finest all-ages comics Marvel has produced in their main 616 continuity in the past decade and I absolutely treasure the memories of reading them for the first time with my daughter. She’s not quite the same as her MCU sibling, nor is she quite the hero you might expect her to be. It’s my brand new Guide to Unstoppable Wasp, Nadia van Dyne!

Guide to Unstoppable Wasp, Nadia van Dyne
This guide is now available to the public thanks to the unstoppable support of Patrons of Crushing Krisis!

Nadia van Dyne was one of many Legacy characters introduced to take up classic heroic mantles in All-New All-Different Marvel in 2016.

At the time, it was obvious that Marvel’s editors wanted to replace the entire Avengers starting line-up with newer versions, even if they weren’t currently Avengers- Sam Wilson as Cap, Jane Foster as Thor, Riri Williams as Ironheart, Scott Lang as Ant-Man, and Amadeus Cho as Hulk (plus Kamala Khan as Ms. Marvel, Miles Morales as Spider-Man, and Sam Alexander as Nova, for good measure).

There’s only one founding Avenger missing from that line-up – The Wasp!

The tricky thing about that plan is that Marvel had brought back the original Wasp, Janet van Dyne, in the pages of Uncanny Avengers just as they had finished sweeping aside Steve Rogers, Odinson, Tony Stark, Hank Pym, and Bruce Banner to make way for their new cast of Legacy Heroes.

Oh, and one more complication: Marvel had just introduced a Wasp in the MCU, but she was Hank Pym’s & Janet van Dyne’s grown-up daughter. They couldn’t replicate that in the comics… could they?