Guides to JSA, Doctor Fate, & Infinity Inc. (Early Access for Pledgeonauts and up) (Patreon)
Content
As promised, the past week has been my first pivot back to creating new DC guides since the launch of my Guide to Legion of Super-Heroes back in June. That was originally going to mean the launch of just one DC Guide, but it turned into three. More on that, below.
- Guide to Doctor Fate (Launch Essay)
- Guide to Justice Society of America (Launch Essay)
- Guide to Infinity Inc. (Launch Essay)
Plus, powered-by-Patrons but available for all readers:
- Available to the Public: Guide to Legion of Super-Heroes (Release Post)
- Updated: Guide to Astonishing X-Men & Amazing X-Men (Update Post)
- The contents of Uncanny X-Men Omnibus Vol. 5 explained
Finally, CK celebrated it's 22nd Anniversary on 26 August!
I have now launched 16 Guides to you in the past year - 12 Marvel and 4 DC! To see new guides announced as they happen, keep on eye on the CK homepage.
When you visit a Patreon guide you should be prompted to log in to CK using your Patreon login. If you aren't prompted when visiting a guide page, try visiting the CK login page directly.
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Behind-the-Scenes Krisis
Sometimes working on one guide leads me down a rabbit hole to several other guides. That was the case in the past week with this JSA mini-sprint.
I originally only intended to create the Guide to Doctor Fate last week as part of my ramp-up to the release of the Black Adam film next month. About two hours into the guide, as I tried to untangle Fate's appearances in All-Star Squadron and Infinity Inc., I released that for the guide to make any sense I also needed a Justice Society of America guide.
Doctor Fate's guide was time-consuming, but not difficult. However, the JSA guide was the DC Guide was in my "Top 3 Scariest Comic Guides" list along with my recently-conquered LOSH guide and my yet-to-be-tackled Superman guides.
As it turns it, even with their 80 years of history across multiple earths, it really only required a few hours of reading to straighten everything out. I feel like a lot of comic fans (and DC themselves!) like to make their continuity out to be a lot more complex than it needs to be.
In the case of the JSA, their history is actually incredibly simple! you just have to follow them on a straight line through time from their launch to the present rather than thinking about them in terms of each of DC's successive crisis events. In the process I got to read a lot of All-Star Squadron, plus re-read Zero Hour - always a welcome assignment!
In wrapping up the JSA guide, I felt like I was doing a disservice to the JSA legacy title of Infinity Inc. by cramming into the same page. Infinity Inc. was never a version of the JSA, but something that existed alongside them in the present day of Pre-Crisis Earth Two. It featured a distinct cast of characters with only a minor overlap with the JSA, which meant it made the leap to Post-Crisis continuity seamlessly before disbanding.
That lead me to complete my third DC guide of the week, outlining how Infinity Inc. came to be and where they all went after their title was cancelled.
It feels great to be able to get through three new DC guides for you in a single week. That's not something I could have accomplished six months ago. All the toiling I did in the background of CK for years is finally paying off.
(I know I could've held onto these guides to launch one week at a time to keep you all hooked, but I felt like all three of them needed each other to exist. Plus, it helps no one for me to leave completed guides sitting on a digital shelf!)
Thanks to your votes last week in the August Patron's Choice poll, this month I finally get to make a guide for The White Queen - Emma Frost! Emma is a character with a rich arc containing many distinct periods, the vast majority of which I've already read. I'm excited to outline it all for you in the next few weeks, as well as give you a September Patron's Choice poll.
This week I will turn my attention back to Marvel to knock out a media tie-in guide so you can enjoy some exclusive access before I release it alongside of an upcoming show. (Can you guess what that is?) Afterwards, I will be back to DC to try to puzzle my way through a Guide to Hawkman - now #1 on my "Scariest Guides" list!
Finally, there are definitely some Indie Comics guides scheduled for later this month. Actually, my plan for them is somewhat wild and over-the-top, in true Krisis fashion. We'll see if I can make it work.
There are also many guide updates for me to tackle. I'm trying to ease my way back into that without giving up my steady rhythm of new guide launches for you. I'll have more to say about updates in a post later this month.
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Please tell me...
What guide do you most-desperately wish I would get around to updating?
As always, if you have top-requested guides that you want to see me tackle soon or update first, you are my #1 focus group!
(I know GI Joe has been requested a few times, and I'm finally getting closer to digging into Indie Guides so I can get there. Superman is a top request as well.)
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Current Exclusives for Crushing Cadets ($1/month): 28 Guides!
DC Guides (6): Batman – Index of Ongoing Titles, Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight, Green Lantern Corps, Green Lantern: Hal Jordan, Green Lantern: Kyle Rayner, Omega Men
Marvel Guides (22): Alpha Flight, Angela, Beta Ray Bill, Black Cat, Blade, Captain Britain, Dazzler, Domino, Dracula, Elsa Bloodstone, Heroes for Hire, Legion, Marvel Era: Marvel Legacy, Mister Sinister, Sabretooth, Spider-Ham, Spider-Man - Peter Parker (2018 - present), Thunderstrike, Valkyrie, Vision, Weapon X, X-Man – Nate Grey
Current Exclusives For Pledgeonauts ($1.99+/month): 59 Guides!
All of the 28 guides above, plus 31 more guides…
DC Guides (14): Animal Man, Aquaman, Books of Magic, Catwoman, Doctor Fate, Flash, Harley Quinn, Houses & Horrors, Infinity Inc., Justice League, Justice Society of America, Mister Miracle, Nightwing, Outsiders, Suicide Squad, Swamp Thing
Marvel Guides (15): Ant-Man & Giant -Man, Champions, Darkhawk, Falcon, Gwenpool, Hellcat - Patsy Walker, Loki, Moon Boy / Moon Girl & Devil Dinosaur, Power Pack, Red She-Hulk, Sentry, Silk, Spider-Gwen, Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Venom
Indie & Licensed Comics: None right now