Crushing Krisis

Comic Books, Drag Race, & Life in New Zealand

Marvel Comics

New Comics & Collected Editions Releases: Marvel Comics – April 30 2025

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Doom's Division (2025) #2 (of 5), a Marvel Comics April 30 2025 new releaseNext week is the 18th new comic book day of 2025! This post covers Marvel Comics April 30 2025 new releases. Missed this week’s releases? Check out last week’s post covering Marvel Comics April 23 2025 new releases.

This week in Marvel Comics: Ultimate Mysterio’s mystery revealed, Doom’s Division hits Japan, Earth X recollected, our biggest Jeff collection yet, TVA concludes, NYX ends, Fantastic Four counts down, a Spider-Man Modern Era Epic, and more!

Marvel has 15 comics for sale this week (not counting FCBD and giveaways) and only 3 of them are ongoing titles. If that’s not a state of emergency indicating how much trouble Marvel’s line is in, I don’t know what is!

The Krisis Pick of the Week: An easy pick for me this week, since I loved the first issue of this series so much – Doom’s Division (2025) #2! I’m happy to say that issue #1 turned out to be a favorite of the week of mine last month not just because the competition was slim (and it was) but because I loved the easy way Yoon Ha Lee communicated so much information about a new set of characters and an unfamiliar culture. I’m looking forward to more.

This post includes every comic out from Marvel Comics April 30 2025, plus collected editions in omnibus, hardcover, paperback, and digest-sized formats.

This isn’t the typical comic releases post you can find on other sites. Why? I explain each collection and review every series with a new issue out this week. Plus, for every new release, I’ll point you to a personally-curated guide within the Crushing Comics Guide to Marvel Comics to find out how to collect that title in full!

There’s no other website on the internet that can claim that.

And now, onto Marvel Comics April 30 2025 new releases! [Read more…] about New Comics & Collected Editions Releases: Marvel Comics – April 30 2025

Guide to Daken AKA Akihiro (New For Patrons!)

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Today I get to debut a new X-Men character reading order for Patrons of CK! I’ve wanted to dig into making a guide for this character for years, because I’ve already read every issue he’s appeared in and I love them all! When I realized his newest fiery series is an ongoing rather than a limited series, I knew I couldn’t let another week of my Marvel New Releases posts go by without him having a full guide of his own. That’s right, it’s time for a page devoted to everyone’s favorite pansexual murder son – Guide to Daken – Akihiro, Son of Wolverine!

Guide to Daken – Akihiro, Son of Wolverine

Guide to Daken - Akihiro, Son of Wolverine

As a new X-Men guide, this page is available exclusively to all levels of Patreon supporters! Thank you for helping me keep this site alive.

Daken on the cover of Wolverine: Origins (2006) #13First, let’s clear something up about this character’s name.

This character’s given name is “Akihiro.” His code name “Daken” is an anglicization of “??,” a slur about the character’s mixed-race parentage which means “mongrel” or “cur” – a dog of no clear breed. While the slur was assigned to him by others in his youth, he later took it on as his codename of his own accord – and it certainly mirrors his father’s noble-sounding codename of “Wolverine.”

(In a way, the fictional Akihiro’s choice to adopt a taunt as his chosen name is mirrored by how real life drag queen Trixie Mattel reclaimed “Trixie” from being a homophobic slur aimed at her in her youth).

As the character gained wider exposure and began to develop a familial relationship with his half-sister Laura Kinney, fans took exception with his name being a Japanese slur coined by a team of white writers. Increasingly, writers began to refer to him simply by his given name of Akihiro – although he has sometimes taken on other short-lived codenames such as “Fang.”

That said, to many fans this character is still known as Daken, which was how he was introduced and the title of his second ongoing series in 2010. To the best of my knowledge, the term “??” is not a slur that’s an offensive word to simply speak or write – it’s only offensive used in the context of a person.

Furthermore, it is disingenuous to treat a fictional character’s previous name as if it is a real life “deadname” that can cause stress and even dysphoria to a person. Ultimately, people have always searched for “Daken” over “Akihiro,” so in the service of helping people find information about this character I will continue to refer to him by both of his names. [Read more…] about Guide to Daken AKA Akihiro (New For Patrons!)

New Comics & Collected Editions Releases: Marvel Comics – January 1 2025

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Next week is the 1st new comic book day of the new year, and that means I’m back to cover Marvel’s new releases! This post covers Marvel Comics January 1 2025 releases.

This week in Marvel Comics: Ultimate Guardians of the Galaxy, Zdarsky & Checchetto’s dual Daredevils in Omnibus, Pak’s Darth Vader finale, Jed MacKay’s Moon Knight Vengeance, Black Cat vs. The Avengers, Sam Wilson vs. Red Hulk, debuts for Cable & Deadpool, and more!

I was so proud of keeping up with these posts for an entire half a year at the start of 2024. Unfortunately, life conspired to get in the way in June and July. After that, rather than leap right back to the weekly posts, I took five months to update every Marvel Comics guide on Crushing Comics. Every. Single. One.

Even small guides. Even Patrons-only guides. They’re all updated with comics and collections released through the end of 2024 and into 2025. This is the first time all of Marvel has been updated at the same time since 2024! Now that I’m feeling confident about how all of the guides look, it’s time to get back to tracking all of Marvel’s new releases.

The Krisis Pick of the Week: The Ultimates (2024) #8! Denis Camp has been on fire on this Ultimate Universe team book throughout 2024, and his choices of which 616 heroes to adapt keep getting more and more surprising.

This post includes every comic out from Marvel this week, plus collected editions in omnibus, hardcover, paperback, and digest-sized formats. This isn’t the typical comic releases post you can find on other sites. Why? I explain each collection and review every series with a new issue out this week. Plus, for every new release, I’ll point you to a personally-curated guide within the Crushing Comics Guide to Marvel Comics to find out how to collect that title in full! There’s no other website on the internet that can claim that.

And now, onto Marvel Comics January 1 2025 new releases!

Marvel Comics January 1 2025 Collected EditionsDaredevil by Chip Zdarsky [& Marco Checchetto] Omnibus Vol. 2, released by Marvel Comics January 1 2025

Daredevil by Chip Zdarsky [& Marco Checchetto] Omnibus Vol. 2
(2025 oversize hardcover, ISBN 978-1302956264 / digital)
See Guide to Daredevil. This collects the back half of the outstanding Zdarsky/Checchetoo run co-starring Daredevil and Elektra. That includes final arc of Zdarsky & Checchetto’s Daredevil (2019) series, the main Devil’s Reign (2021) event series as well as the supporting Elektra series Daredevil: Woman Without Fear (2022) #1-3, and all of the subsequent Daredevil (2022).

I could not recommend this run any more highly. It is fantastically written and voiced with spectacular artwork. This is peak Daredevil, even among the many peaks the character has enjoyed across the past 25 years of publishing.

Two things to note: First, the solicit for this series has never included Elektra #100, which is an odd omission since it contains Zdarsky content that fits into this era’s story. We’ll see if it turns up in the actual book.

Second, for the full story of the post-Devil’s-Reign plot, you’ll also want to read Jason Aaron’s Punisher (2022) #1-12. It’s an amazing series, which is not something you’ll often hear me say about Aaron or Punisher! See my Guide to Punisher for collection details.

Get Fury
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1302912543 / digital)
See Guide to Punisher. Yes, really! Because Get Fury (2024) #1-6 extend the story of the Punisher MAX universe with this Vietnam-era prequel as written by Garth Ennis. That means this book is NOT in Marvel-616 continuity.

Marvel Masterworks: Marvel Team-Up Vol. 8
(2024 hardcover, ISBN 978-1302955571 / digital)
See Guide to Spider-Man – Peter Parker (1963-2018). Marvel Team-Up (1972) was almost entirely Spider-Man title, with Human Torch occasionally swapping in for a team-up. This volume is notable as much for what it contains (stories by Chris Claremont & Sal Buscema) as for what it doesn’t (it skips issue #79, a team-up with Red Sonja).

Micronauts: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus Vol. 3
(2024 oversize hardcover, ISBN 978-1302957254 / digital)
Collects Micronauts (1979) #55-59 and Micronauts: The New Voyages (1984) #1-20.

Micronauts was a short-lived MEGO toy property whose continuity was vastly expanded by Marvel. The Marvel comics long outlived the toys and Marvel fully integrated the Micronauts in their 616 Universe just as they did with ROM (see Guide to ROM – Spaceknight for more on that!). Today the Micronauts are owned by Hasbro.

This omnibus completes Marvel’s recollection of the entirety of their two main ongoing Micronauts series. However, it controversially skips over the beloved The X-Men and the Micronauts (1984) mini-series by Chris Claremont, Bill Mantlo, & Butch Guice. Marvel gave no hints as to why they skipped that material while collecting similar material in their ROM omnibus line.

Will Marvel announce the mini as a standalone oversize hardcover to please both X-Men fans and Micronauts fans? It feels like a pipe-dream, but stranger things have happened with Marvel’s collections in 2024!

Spider-Man: Shadow of the Green Goblin
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1302957537 / digital)
See Guide to Spider-Man – Peter Parker (2018 – Present), although this J.M. DeMatteis & Michael Sta. Maria retcon series actually fits within the first year of Amazing Spider-Man (1963) with a story of the Osborn family from shortly before Norman is the Green Goblin.

You may be surprised to learn that that was one of my favorite comic books of 2024! I’m a little surprised about it myself. J.M. DeMatteis’s writing for Spidey is as impeccable as it was over 30 years ago. Plus, this retcon story feels substantial and connects several disparate plot threads from decades of existing comics, rather than shoe-horning in something unnecessary and new. Highly recommended for fans of classic Spider-Man comics! [Read more…] about New Comics & Collected Editions Releases: Marvel Comics – January 1 2025