Crushing Krisis

Comic Books, Drag Race, & Life in New Zealand

New Comic Book Guide

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 Marvel’s Legion, David Haller – The Son of Xavier!

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I’m back with a brief guide for Patrons of Crushing Krisis that covers an obscure character – yet, he’s one who has been getting an outsized amount of attention thanks to having his own television show…

Legion, David Haller – The Definitive Reading Order and Collecting Guide

David Haller is a son that Professor Charles Xavier never knew he had until his introduction in New Mutants #26-28 – and neither did we!

Haller is the product of Xavier’s brief (and somewhat unethical) affair with his patient and eventual colleague Gabrielle Haller, a noted attorney (and, later, an ambassador). When the Haller family becomes the target of terrorism, David unconsciously defends himself with his prodigious mutant powers.

David’s survival comes with a steep cost – his psyche becomes fractured by a post-traumatic dissociative disorder and his nascent powers are shattered along with it. [Read more…] about New For Patrons: The Definitive Guide to Marvel’s Legion, David Haller – The Son of Xavier!

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 Dazzler!

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Let’s be honest – while I have the excuse of creating this guide for Patrons of Crushing Krisis to fill in one more missing link on the Fresh Start era page (for her new one-shot, out tomorrow!), we all knew I did it just because I love…

Dazzler – The Definitive Reading Order and Collecting Guide

I’ve always loved Dazzler, purely because she was the Madonna of the Marvel Universe back when I was originally a reader (and a Madonna fan) back in the early 90s. However, her run on Uncanny X-Men by Claremont was much too expensive for me to buy as back issues (and, for some reason I never sought out her 1980 series as a lot at a convention).

As with all of my guides for individual heroes who have not anchored their own titles for long, putting this page together was punishing. It would be easy to simply link to Dazzler’s solo stories, or even to list all of her guest appearances in order.

Of course, I had to do more than that. I browsed nearly every Dazzler appearance outside of her solo series to figure out which were the most important! [Read more…] about New For Patrons: The Definitive Guide to Dazzler!