Guide to Wasp, Janet van Dyne (Early Access for Pledgeonauts & Up) (Patreon)

Hello, my astonishing Patrons! My new guide focuses on one of Marvel's earliest leading ladies, who after sixty years of comics anchored her first ever solo issue last month!

• NEW: Guide to Wasp, Janet van Dyne (launch essay)

Plus, powered-by-Patrons but available for all readers:

• Open to the Public: Guide to Spider-Man, Peter Parker (2018 - Present) (Announcement Post)
• Comic News: Marvel’s annual X-Men Vote! 
• Gaming: Marvel United: Multiverse adds a Secret Invasion expansion (plus, 20 events that could be expansion boxes!) 

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.

I learned a few years ago while making the Scarlet Witch guide for you all just how hard that sort of guide can be. It lacks an anchor in a single series or storyline, which can make sifting through 100s of appearances a difficult task!

It took a long time, but I've summarized all of Wasp's major issues throughout her 60 years of history, including everything right up until this month's Wasp (2023) #1! Janet's guide was nearly as difficult as the Guide to DC Events, about which I still have nightmares (and it needs an update!)

The Guide to Spider-Man (2018 - present) now has even more information than when it debuted to you a few months ago, including the second Nick Spencer omnibus, all of Dark Web, and Marvel Unlimited links for every series! Let me know if you can think of anything else I should include.

I have launched 20 Guides to you in the past 365 days - 15 Marvel and 4 DC! Plus, I've also made 15 significant updates to existing guides. The median guide update date is currently Nov 2018 (current goal: April 2022).

To see new guides and guide updates announced as they happen, keep an 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.

##

Behind-the-Scenes Krisis

You'll noticed a new stat in the update above - median guide update date.

Part of the benefit of creating more new guides and updating more existing guides is more data. I'm an analytics junky, and I have data on everything from the time I've worked on a page to the years a character has been active.

Some of that data is what I'd call "vanity metrics," from a business intelligence perspective. It's very "mirror mirror on the wall" - fun to look at, but all it does is tell you that your work is very pretty.

The two very useful pieces of data I've discovered are median guide update time and build-time estimates.

CK is only as good as its guides are updated. Part of the bummer of having some busy, tough, and/or distracted patches over the past few years is that my guides went from having a "freshness date" that was just a few months past due to now being a few years past.

Generally, I think if a guide to current media has been updated within the past year, readers assume it's still fairly accurate. (So does Google.) So, that's what I'm shooting for with my updates - to drag that average up to within the past year.

Just another 165 guides to go!

(I'll have more to say about build-time estimates in the future.)

For now, what's on deck? Updating a guide to young characters, launching a guide for one of their mentors, another young character goes public, and then an update that gets back to the start. Any guesses?

##

No "Question Time" in this update, because I have a poll coming up next!

Of course, I always want to know which guides you want the most - new or updated. A Claremont X-Men update, revised X-Men Reading Orders, GI Joe, and Superman have all had lots of support. I'm all ears 👂 

##

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, Thunderstrike, Unstoppable Wasp, 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 (16): 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): 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, Wasp - Janet van Dyne, Werewolf by Night, Venom

Indie & Licensed Comics: None right now