Marvel Comics

The Orphan Report: Marvel’s abandoned omnibuses and open omnibus lines

April 20, 2017 by krisis

In yesterday’s post reviewing what’s been printed from the 2016 Most Wanted Marvel Omnibus Secret Ballot I joked that ballot voters want nothing more than to un-orphan a lonely volume one omnibus.

That got me thinking: How many Marvel Omnibus orphans are there? That is, “Volume 1” omnibuses without a sequel.

While we’re at at, what are all of the open omnibus lines – in effect, a line with more than one book in it with one or more books left to go before the run is entirely covered?

Since comic fans are nothing if not completionists, it seems like these books should all be heavily represented on this year’s Most Wanted Marvel Omnibus Secret Ballot. Was that the cast last year? And, if it’s not, should these books be filling out everyone’s survey choices in 2017?

Let’s find out!

The Orphan Report

There are 24 Little Orphan Omnis out there right now, although only 2/3rds of them are true “Volume 1” orphans. The remaining third are unnumbered books that still imply a continuing volume (or, in one case, a preceding one).

Of the 22 Orphans:

7 orphans saw their sequels appear on the 2016 survey results
6 orphans missed having their sequels on the 2016 results (though 3 of these weren’t true “Volume 1” omnibuses)
9 orphans were printed (or are due) in 2017, so their sequels haven’t had a chance to be voted on yet (including 4 books that were printed after appearing in the 2016 results)
2 orphans did not have enough additional issues for a second volume as of last year’s vote

Let’s take a tour of the Omnibus Orphanage, shall we? [Read more…] about The Orphan Report: Marvel’s abandoned omnibuses and open omnibus lines

The 2016 Most Wanted Marvel Omnibus Secret Ballot – What’s been printed?

April 19, 2017 by krisis

It’s time to vote for your Top 10 most-wanted Marvel Omnibuses for 2018 on the 2017 Secret Ballot, but that begs a question: How many omnibuses from the 2016 Secret Ballot did we get in 2017?

Here’s the short answer:

We saw 10 Omnibuses solicited for 2017 – 20% of the list!

Those books are Amazing Spider-Man, Vol. 3 Omnibus, Alpha Flight by John Byrne Omnibus, Avengers by Jonathan Hickman Omnibus Vol. 1, Spider-Man by David Michelinie and Erik Larsen Omnibus, Loki: Journey Into Mystery by Kieron Gillen Omnibus, The Mighty Thor Omnibus Vol. 3, Deadpool & X-Force Omnibus, Daredevil by Mark Waid Omnibus Vol. 1, Daredevil Omnibus Vol. 1, War of Kings Aftermath: Realm of Kings Omnibus, plus kinda sorta Punisher: Back to the War Omnibus

We also saw some or all of the content of 8 Omnibuses solicited in other formats for 2017 – 16% of the list!

That means, of all the books we desired the most in 2016, we saw some format of 36% of them in 2017. That’s not bad!

Want to know the specifics of what saw print, what we’re still waiting on, and how I did with my “Will We See It in 2017?” predictions from last year? Keep reading!

The 5th Annual Most Wanted Marvel Omnibus Secret Ballot, presented by Tigereyes

April 18, 2017 by krisis

It’s the most wonderful time of the year … for Marvel Omnibus fanatics!

That’s right, it’s time for the 2017 edition of Tigereyes’ Marvel’s Most-Wanted Omnibus Secret Ballot, where Marvel fans from all across the web can vote on their top ten most-wanted omnibus volumes from Marvel Comics.

Each year the survey not only acts as a barometer of the most-wanted deluxe format Marvel runs, but over the past four years it’s established itself to be a solid indicator of what Marvel might be most-interested in reprinted, with 20% of the books generally arriving in omnibus each year and many more being reprinted in other color formats.

Here’s Tigereyes’ official announcement post on the Marvel Masterworks forum (and a mirror on CBR)! I’ve had a chance to trade messages with Tigereyes as he’s prepared for this year’s survey and learned that he is hoping for the biggest response of all time this year.

Of course, I’m happy to help with the hype, since this is like my personal version of a month-long holiday celebration.

Stay tuned to CK during the weeks of of voting, as I’ll be posting regularly to break down the reprint statistics from past surveys and give you suggestions on books to vote for. Then, once Tigereyes begins to reveal the results, CK will feature daily write-ups the winning comic runs – including what they include, why people love them, and where you can read them right now.

How to Vote

You can vote one time before midnight ET on May 7 in one of three ways. Just send a list of your omnibuses numbered from 1 (most-wanted) to 10 (least most-wanted) to Tigereyes in one of the following fashions: [Read more…] about The 5th Annual Most Wanted Marvel Omnibus Secret Ballot, presented by Tigereyes

Conan Comics – Defintive Collecting Guide and Reading Order

Updated Jan 17, 2025! The Conan comic books definitive issue-by-issue collecting guide and trade reading order for omnibus, hardcover, and trade paperback collections. Find every issue and appearance! A part of Crushing Krisis’s Crushing Comics. Last updated January 2025 with titles scheduled for release through August 2025.

Robert E. Howard’s Conan has lived many lives in comics, from a young barbarian to a grizzled old king. Those lives are split into four distinct publishing eras of Conan comics.

His first life in comics was at Marvel from 1970 through 2000, largely under the pen of veteran Roy Thomas in his long-running series Conan the Barbarian as well as the long-running Savage Sword of Conan.

Then, in 2003, Conan comics made the jump to Dark Horse Comics – initially under the pen of Kurt Busiek. Dark Horse launched his book with reverence, assuring fans that they would present adaptations of Robert E. Howard’s original work and its implied connective tissue. The comics were widely-beloved by fans of the character.

Then, in a major twist, Marvel won the license back starting in January of 2019! That not only meant Marvel could release new Conan titles, but that they could also incorporate him into the modern Marvel Universe, as well as reprint their original Conan comics plus reprint the entirety of Dark Horse’s 15 years of Conan in paperback Epic Collection!

Most-recently, at the end of 2023 Marvel relinquished their license back to intellectual property holder Heroic Signatures, who began publishing their own comics directly through Titan Comics in 2023.

Each of those publishing eras is covered in full in the guide below! In each case, titles are listed in the guide chronologically by release date. However, in the table of contents, Marvel’s original run from 1970 to 2000 are listed as an alphabetical index by title, since Marvel published many series outside of the spine of the major ongoing titles.

Patreons make this page possible! Every month, Patrons of Crushing Krisis help to fund its hosting, helper applications, video production, and more! Every dollar contributed by Patrons goes directly to helping sustain and grow this site.

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Laura Kinney, X-23 & Wolverine – Definitive Reading Order & Collecting Guide

Updated Apr 22, 2025! The Wolverine – Laura Kinney AKA X-23 definitive issue-by-issue collecting guide and trade reading order for comic books, omnibus, hardcover, and trade paperback collections. Find every issue and appearance! Part of Crushing Krisis’s Crushing Comics. Last updated April 2025 with titles scheduled for release through December 2025.

X-23 is the original codename of Wolverine, Laura Kinney. She has been called both Logan’s clone and his daughter, but in her own way she’s Marvel’s Harley Quinn.

That’s because, like Quinn, X-23 originated in a medium other than comics. She was created for the cartoon X-Men Evolution by Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost, who would also oversee her comics journey for half a decade in a pair of mini-series and on two teams.

Kyle and Yost’s material is stellar from beginning to end. Their run on X-23 often explored the theme of her savagery – how she was raised to be a perfect assassin without being a person.

Afterwards, Author Marjorie Liu took X-23 over for two years for her first solo ongoing title. Liu focused more on X-23’s human side and her internal emotional life, forging connections with Gambit and Jubilee.

Unfortunately, her development goes on a detour from that point.

With the cancellation of her title in the midst of a reshuffling of the X-Men line, X-23 was shipped to Avengers Academy for a year. Christos Gage extended Liu’s work, but it was in a crowded team title. Afterward, Dennis Hopeless picked up X-23 and other Academy cast members for Avengers Arena – where she was cast mostly an unintentional villain.

After the end of Arena, X-23 is adopted by All-New X-Men, weirdly filling out the young cast of the 1960s original X-Men with a Wolverine analog. She’s mostly played for big action beats and romance, but her development finally gets back on track in the aftermath of Wolverine’s death in Wolverines.

Finally, in the wake of Secret Wars, X-23 regained a solo title for the first time in half a decade – this time taking on the mantle of Wolverine(!) while also continuing in All-New X-Men. [Read more…] about Laura Kinney, X-23 & Wolverine – Definitive Reading Order & Collecting Guide