Guide to Aliens Comic Books (Early Access for ALL Patrons!) (Patreon)

I'm back with what is kind of a Patrons' Choice guide, because it was the second-highest vote-getter in last year's poll for Indie & Licensed Comics. This was a massive undertaking to put together, but hopefully all of my work makes it simple for all of you to understand and enjoy how to read...

• NEW: Guide to Aliens Comic Books (Launch Essay)
• Quick Updates for Patrons: Blade, Sentry, Spider-Gwen - Ghost-Spider, Spider-Man - Miles Morales 

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

• New Releases: Marvel Comics - January 10, 2024 
• Quick Updates: Avengers Flagships (2010 - Present Day), Captain Marvel, Deadpool, Elektra, Hulk - Bruce Banner, Marvel Ultimate Comics, She-Hulk - Jennifer Walters, Thunderbolts & Dark Avengers, Wolverine, Logan 

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The Guide to Aliens Comic Books really could have started and ended with a list of Marvel's new "The Original Years" omnibus line. I truly almost left it at that!

Except... as I started exploring what all the comics in each omnibus were, I discovered some inconsistencies and mysteries. Why didn't all the titles match up with Dark Horse's releases? Why weren't some mid-2010s comics included? And, were all of these comics really in continuity with each other?

It's questions like that that always lead me to complete a new guide and I'm happy to have xenomorphs as part of the Crushing Comics family - especially since Marvel is producing new comics for them every month!

I spent most of my time working on this guide convinced it was a Patron's Choice guide, when actually it was the runner up in the most-recent Indie Patrons' Choice poll. Oops! Since I had it branded in my brain as a Patrons' Choice already and planned to do a new poll this week, I'm releasing it to everyone. Enjoy!

I also made my second Marvel New Releases post of the year last week, which is what lead to a whole hecking lot of quick updates... and some that were not-so-quick! Updating the Ultimate Marvel Guide definitely took some doing (did you read Hickman's Ultimate Spider-Man?!), as well as making the first true update to the Thunderbolts & Dark Avengers guide in half a decade. There was so much to add!

(Quick Updates are only announced here on Patreon. They include current and future series and collected editions, but not and update to guest appearances or page structure - both of which I save for when I make full guide updates that are announced on the CK main page.)

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

I have launched 36 Guides to you in the past 365 days - 15 Marvel, 2 DC, & 18 Indie! Plus, I've updated 107 of my 200+ guides.

I'm pretty happy with my progress in the last week. I managed to complete this guide and make all of those quick updates without this taking over every waking minute of my entire life. I even had time for a dinner party and my bi-weekly D&D session, plus tons of exercise with the kid in our beautiful summer weather.

Since my last Patreon post the median guide freshness date improved remained January 2021, while the current median freshness goal advanced from April 2023 to May 2023.

The break-out by publisher hasn't changed since last week, but that's due to a big change in how I'm calculating things: Quick Updates no longer count toward my freshness goals. I need to do a real, substantive formatting update and clean-up if I want to improve a freshness date.

• Marvel: median guide freshness is July 2021, median freshness goal is May 2023 (one very old X-Guide is dragging this down)
• DC: median guide freshness is still September 2018 (😱), median freshness goal is January 2023 (I'll be working on this in 2024, but Marvel comes first!)
• Image: median guide freshness is March 2023, median freshness goal is June 2023
• Indie/Licensed: median guide freshness is May 2017(😱), median freshness goal is July 2023 (all because of Star Wars guides)

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What's up next on Crushing Comics?

What do YOU want to see me work on next? Leave me a comment on this post on Patreon to let me know!

Here's what I have in mind:

• There will be a new Patron's Choice poll later this week with a specific theme.
• Look out for a long-awaited DC guide for Pledgeonauts & Up (it's getting closer!)
• I may also launch one or more additional indie guides for Pledgeonauts & Up.

As a reminder, as a $1 Crushing Cadet your Patron level includes all new X-Guides and Patron's Choice Guides. I tend to add many smaller Marvel character guides into the $1 level as well, because y'all really help me keep the lights on at CK and I appreciate that so much! If you can afford to bump up to the Pledgeonauts level it would be awesome.

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Current Exclusives for Crushing Cadets ($1/month): 50 Guides!

DC Guides (7): Batman – Index of Ongoing Titles, Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight, Birds of Prey, Green Lantern Corps, Green Lantern: Hal Jordan, Green Lantern: Kyle Rayner, Omega Men

Marvel Guides (30): Alpha Flight, Angela, Beta Ray Bill, Black Cat, Blade, Captain Britain, Dazzler, Domino, Dracula, Echo, Elsa Bloodstone, Emma Frost - The White Queen, Heroes for Hire, Legion, Marvel 2099, Marvel Era: Marvel Legacy, Mister Sinister, Monica Rambeau - Photon, Rocket Raccoon, Sabretooth, Silk, Spider-Ham, Spider-Man 2099, Thunderstrike, Valkyrie, Vision, Weapon X, Werewolf by Night, What If?, X-Man – Nate Grey

Indie & Licensed Comics (13): Aliens, The Authority, Black Hammer, Brigade, Codename Strykeforce, Cyberforce, Pitt, Princeless & Raven The Pirate Princess, Savage Dragon, ShadowHawk, Stormwatch, Supreme, WildStorm Events

Current Exclusives For Pledgeonauts ($1.99+/month): 80 Guides!

All of the 50 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 (12): Darkhawk, Falcon, Gwenpool, Hellcat - Patsy Walker, Kang the Conqueror, Loki, Power Pack, Red She-Hulk, Sentry, Spider-Gwen, Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Venom

Indie & Licensed Comics (2): Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - IDW Continuity, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Mirage Studios Continuity