Guide to Adam Warlock (Early Access for ALL Patrons) (Patreon)

Hello, my magical Patrons - and welcome to all of the new folks! I'm back this week with a guide for a golden-skinned Marvel character with the eldritch name who is about to make his debut on the silver screen! Of course, I'm talking about the one-and-only...

NEW: Guide to Adam Warlock (Launch Essay)

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

Updated: Guide to X-Men Vol. 2 in the 1990s (Announcement)

Quick Updates (All Collections): Captain America, Doctor Strange, Elektra, Iron Man, Moon Knight, X-Men - The Age of Krakoa 

Quick Updates (New Series Only): Hulk, Wolverine - Logan 

Quick Updates (Totally Up-to-Date Pages): Black Cat, Spider-Man - Peter Parker (2018-Present), X-Treme X-Men 

(Also, for Crushing Cadet Patrons who haven't seen the past two posts, I've made full updates to Star Wars Legends - The Old Expanded Universe, Uncanny X-Men by Chris Claremont, & Uncanny X-Men in the 1990s, and quick updates to Black Panther, Captain Marvel - Carol Danvers, Daredevil, Ghost Rider, Namor - The Sub-Mariner, Scarlet Witch, & Star Wars Expanded Universe Comics. Now you're all caught up!)

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Don't forget to vote in the Marvel Omnibus Reprint Poll 2023 from Near Mint Condition!

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I talked about this in my launch essay, but technically Adam Warlock is already covered in my Guide to Guardians of the Galaxy. However, I wasn't satisfied with how little room that left to explain him and his oddball origins or history of death and rebirth.

Plus, he's about to star in a movie and that means he got his own omnibus that perfectly collects his material through the end of his Jim Starlin period.

It felt like time for a guide. And, lemme tell ya, if you've never read those initial Strange Tales Warlock issues from Starlin (which include Gamora's first appearance!) you're in for a ride.

Last week's official page update was the Guide to X-Men Vol. 2 in the 1990s, which is itself is an updated title for the X-Men (1991) page to make it more obvious to both readers and search engines. There weren't many collections to add to the page, but I significantly revised its organization to perfectly match its sibling (the UXM in the 90s Guide, which I updated last week).

Most of my CK time in the past five days has been focused on Quick Updates, since there weren't any last week.

Especially of note to many of you, the Guide to X-Men - The Age of Krakoa page is now totally caught up to present, though there are still some further tweaks I'd like to make as I catch up on reading the line. This guide is still exclusive for you all, and will stay that way until the end of the current "Sins of Sinister" arc.

The "Totally Up-to-Date Pages" list represents my long-term plan in action: once guides are revised to my current style and updated to present with collections, it only takes five minutes to update them every time with a new collection... and, eventually, a fresh set of appearances.

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

I'm in a "life gives you lemons, make lemonade" phase right now.

I've had a string of middle-of-the-night meetings (the cost of working with folks in the UK and US when you live in NZ), but I've just used the downtime while waiting for the calls to knock out all of those quick guides.

I had huge plans for March on CK, but life hasn't made much room for me to prep for them as thoroughly as I wanted. So, I moved some things around so they're now more like medium plans. They're still plans!

Also, while I was writing this one of my molars split while I was eating soup. SOUP! TMI? I'm not quite sure how to make lemonade out of that one yet.

As a reminder, I'll be back on the Near Mint Condition YouTube channel to announce and review Marvel's June solicits on Thursday March 2 at 1pm ET. I'm deep into getting caught up on all the books right now!

I have launched 24 Guides to you in the past 365 days - 19 Marvel and 5 DC! Plus, I've also made 21 significant, non-stealthy updates to existing guides. With this week's new guide, update, and substantial quick updates, the median guide update date has improved from February 2019 to June 2019. (Current goal: May 2022).

That's the biggest jump in the median update date so far, largely thanks to tackling both Cap and Iron Man in the same week. Now some of the oldest guides to tackle are Black Widow and Silver Surfer.

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What's up next on Crushing Comics?

We're about to be in March, and March is going to be TWO different things on CK.

First, it's going to be INDIE COMICS MONTH. I'm finally filling in a few more independent, creator-owned, or licensed comic guides.

Your Patron's Choice of Black Hammer will be one of them. I'll definitely be hitting at least one other 90s Image book to keep my Spawn guide company. And, there will be at least one major licensed property in the mix that has nearly as many toys as Star Wars.

Maybe more. We'll see. I'm confident those three will happen, at least.

Some of these guides aren't going to be interesting to all of you, so March is also going to be a month I expand my coverage of some of a particular (and particularly obvious) cast of Marvel characters.

Any guesses?

I'm never 100% confident on talking about longer term plans for CK, because life has seen fit to interrupt them so many times in the past six years.

However, I think it's safe to say at this point that my goal for 2023 is to come as close to completing my coverage of major Marvel characters outside the X-line as possible. I'd love to be at a point where if Marvel announces a new book for an existing character I can say, "Yep, I've got a guide for that."

If you've got any Marvel trading cards, action figures, or board games, take a look through them and see who jumps out at you as still needing a guide. I promise: they're on the list. But, I'd still like to hear your favorites.

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Tell me what you want!

Whether it's an indie guide, a Marvel character guide, or something else entirely, I love knowing what you want to see more of on CK.

Many of you have already named Superman, GI Joe, and an updated X-Men Reading Orders as items on your lists.

Tell me what other guides you're looking forward to! Your opinions matter the most to me out of everyone on the internet.

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Current Exclusives for Crushing Cadets ($1/month): 30 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 (24): Adam Warlock, 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): 61 Guides!

All of the 30 guides above, plus 31 more guides…

DC Guides (17): 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, Shazam, 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 that might change by the next update...)