Guide to Kang the Conqueror (Early Access for Pledgeonauts & Up) (Patreon)

Hello, my timeless Patrons (and welcome to my newest Patrons)! I'm back with a major villain guide that spans 60 years of Marvel Comics and many millennia of Marvel history. It's about a certain blue-faced villain who is currently experiencing an all-time high in his popularity. Of course, I'm talking about...

NEW: Guide to Kang the Conqueror (Launch Essay)

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

Open to the Public: Unstoppable Wasp (Announcement)

Open to the Public: Wasp, Janet Van Dyne (Announcement)

Quick Updates: Black Panther, Captain Marvel - Carol Danvers, Daredevil, Ghost Rider, Namor - The Sub-Mariner, Scarlet Witch, Star Wars Expanded Universe Comics 

This week on CK had fewer new posts than last week, but was much denser with unannounced Guide updates!

The Guide to Kang the Conqueror seemed impenetrable when I began. I nearly quit once I got all of his appearances worked out, and it took me several 5k jogs spent puzzling through how to explain his continuity before it all clicked for me.

It got much simpler once I worked out the places where he transitioned into and out of being Rama-Tut and re-skimmed 1998's Avengers Forever. If you've ever wanted to read only the really great Kang stories, my greatest hits summary is exactly what you're looking for.

The Kang Guide will stay exclusive for a while - perhaps until Kang next pops up in the MCU. I like the idea that villain guides are Patron-exclusives for a longer amount of time, since they tend to be much more complicated than guides to hero series.

As you can see, there was a major Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania theme to this week's guide releases. I think this is the most well-prepared I've ever been for a comic book movie or show! However, I'd love to get every further ahead for some of the upcoming movies so you can enjoy longer exclusive periods with new guides.

(The Wasp - Janet van Dyne guide now has even more appearance summaries, plus a full Greatest Hits section.)

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.

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Behind-the-Scenes Krisis

The past week absolutely flew by. I was busy in nearly every second between work, CK, and family!

Not only was I busy, but New Zealand's north island endured both a cyclone and an earthquake! Luckily, the cyclone was far north of us and the 6.0 earthquake was deep underground - so, though we felt it, but it didn't do any major damage

Unluckily, a lot of people further north of here are suffering in the wake of the cyclone, including folks who have been flooded out of their homes.

New Zealand is such a strange collection of peaks and valleys. Sometimes I forget that even though we're nestled in hills that I have to huff and puff to climb on my jogs, there are people mere minutes from here whose homes are exactly at sea level.

I was pleased with last week's stealthy Quick Updates, so I charged through several more this week. Every one of this week's Quick Updates caught a guide up on every collection released through the present day!

That means I got to update the "updated at" date on the guide pages, which is always satisfying. However, all of the Quick Update guides are still due for an official full update that will earn them a front-page announcement, which is reserved for when I also clean up formatting and add recent guest appearances.

It was humbling to work through several of my guides that were originally launched from 2014-2016. That's when I started making things more complex with the inclusion of guest appearances, but I hadn't cracked the best way to handle that. They look like a mess to me in 2023, but I know they were the best I had figured out how to do back in the day!

I can't wait to give every guide a full facelift to bring them in line with my modern approach to organization and formatting.

I've got some larger CK projects simmering that I'm hoping will come to a boil in March. Plus, a new Drag Race franchise debuted today, so I'll be adding that to my recap schedule this weekend. I know there isn't a massive crossover between Patrons and Drag Race fans, but Drag Race posts bring a ton of traffic to CK and help to boost my overall domain authority. Plus, they're just fun to write!

I have launched 22 Guides to you in the past 365 days - 18 Marvel and 4 DC! Plus, I've also made 17 significant, non-stealthy updates to existing guides (with at least one more huge one coming in the next update). The median guide update date has improved from December 2018 to February 2019! (Current goal: May 2022).

What's up next? I have a DC guide scheduled for next week for a highly-visible character with a highly-confusing publishing history. If it turns out to be too complicated for me to finish in time, I might back off and knock out a new Marvel Guide that would help simplify one of this week's Quick Updates. And, the next two official guide updates are big ones for guides that cover 16 years and 38 years of continuity, respectively. I just finished one of them today!

Any guesses?

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Question Time: How often do you consult the guides on CK?

Only when ordering a new collection? When you're gearing up for a big reading project? All the time out of curiosity?

I'd love to know more about how you use the site.

And, I always want to know which guides you want the most - new or updated. At least one of X-Men Reading Orders, GI Joe, or Superman is getting a bit closer to reality. If you want something else (especially a Quick Update), leave a comment.

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Current Exclusives for Crushing Cadets ($1/month): 29 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 (23): Alpha Flight, Angela, Beta Ray Bill, Black Cat, Blade, Captain Britain, Dazzler, Domino, Dracula, Elsa Bloodstone, Emma Frost - The White Queen, Heroes for Hire, Legion, Marvel Era: Marvel Legacy, Mister Sinister, Sabretooth, Spider-Ham, Thunderstrike, Valkyrie, Vision, Weapon X, X-Man – Nate Grey, X-Men - Age of Krakoa

Current Exclusives For Pledgeonauts ($1.99+/month): 59 Guides!

All of the 29 guides above, plus 30 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 (14): Darkhawk, Falcon, Gwenpool, Hellcat - Patsy Walker, Kang the Conqueror, Loki, Power Pack, Red She-Hulk, Sentry, Silk, Spider-Gwen, Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Venom, Werewolf by Night

Indie & Licensed Comics: None right now (but we're getting closer!)