Carole

The Best of Juggernaut Comics, A Recommended Reading Order

by Carole
May 27, 2025

There may be no other family tree as complex as the Grey-Summers one in the X-Men Universe, but it doesn’t mean that other characters haven’t had their share of pain and problems with their relatives. Case in point with Marko Cain, better known as Juggernaut, who is also the stepbrother of Professor X!

Unlike Charles Xavier, Juggernaut is not a mutant, but a human empowered by an ancient jewel powered by the deity Cyttorak, which transformed him into the unstoppable Juggernaut. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, he made his first appearance in X-Men #12 (1965) as an enemy of the X-Men. For a long time after his introduction, Juggy was a one-note villain, popping up in one or two issues to rampage and disappear (or get thrown into prison for a while). Still, that didn’t stop him from making a name for himself as a member of the Brotherhood of Mutants and as the criminal partner and BFF of Black Tom Cassidy. For many decades, he fought against the X-Men, as well as Spider-Man and the Hulk.

Things changed for Juggernaut in the early 2000s during Chuck Austen’s infamous run on Uncanny X-Men. While that era is often panned, it is also when Ol’ Jughead got some noticeable character development as he joined the X-Men and officially crossed the line between villain and hero, becoming more of an anti-hero (or anti-villain).

Comic Book News of The Week: Powers celebrates 25 Years and More

by Carole
May 23, 2025

What’s going on in the Comic Book World? Life can be pretty busy, so we highlight recent news and articles that may catch your interest in our seventh edition of Comic Book News.

While there is no bigger anniversary this year than Peanuts’ 75th Diamond Anniversary, it’s not the only one. Creators Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Oeming are celebrating the 25th anniversary of Powers with a new project titled Powers 25. Here’s Dark Horse’s description, now the official publisher after several reprints across different publishers:

This new tale is a fun, dangerous, adult look at a world of heroes through the eyes of special homicide officer Detective Kutter and her brand-new partner, and the first power to ever make the powers division, Moebius Moon. Under the watchful eyes of legendary Captains Deena Pilgrim and Enki Sunrise, the new detectives run through a minefield of all-new dangers. A new unsolvable powers murder has Kutter and Moon questioning EVERYTHING about the world and their place in it.

Powers 25 will take the form of a 12-issue ongoing series, with each issue featuring art from Dark Horse creators including Mike Mignola, Stan Sakai, David Mack, Scott Hepburn, Eric Powell , Jill Thompson. The first issue will be released on September 10.

Re:ZERO Manga Order (Starting Life in Another World)

by Carole
May 16, 2025

Let’s start life in another world! That’s exactly what happens in Re:Zero — also known as Re:Zero − Starting Life in Another World — one of the most popular stories in the isekai genre today, a subgenre of fiction where someone is transported to another world and must learn how to survive in this new world.

In Re:Zero, Subaru Natsuki is a young man who suddenly finds himself in a medieval fantasy-like world. He quickly discovers how dangerous this new place can be when he dies… only to revive a few hours in the past! He learns that he has the power to return to a specific point in time after each death (much like a checkpoint in a video game). These deaths are not without pain, and Subaru also has to deal with memories of what happened before his death, while everybody else has forgotten.

Created by Tappei Nagatsuki, Re:Zero began in 2012 as a web novel on the user-generated content site Shōsetsuka ni Narō (and is still ongoing). Media Factory later acquired the series for print publication, starting the light novels in 2014 with illustrations by Shin’ichirō Ōtsuka. As of now, forty volumes have been released, along with six side story novels and eleven short story collections.

Subaru Natsuki’s adventures don’t stop there. Re:Zero has naturally been adapted into an anime, as well as several manga series and spin-offs — the subject of our article today!

Comic Book News of The Week: Revival Trailer and More

by Carole
May 10, 2025

What’s going on in the Comic Book World? Life can be pretty busy, so we highlight recent news and articles that may catch your interest in our sixth edition of Comic Book News.

As The Eternaut premiered over a week ago on Netflix, with ComicBeat calling the adaptation a “highly bingeable show,” another comic book adaptation is headed to the small screen. Syfy Channel has released the trailer for Revival, based on the comic series by Tim Seeley and Mike Norton. Often described as a horror series, Revival is more of a crime series with a fantastic twist — and features on our list of the 15 Best Crime Comics to read.

If you haven’t yet read it, here’s the official synopsis for the TV Show starring Melanie Scrofano (Wynonna Earp herself!):

On one miraculous day in rural Wisconsin, the recently deceased suddenly rise from their graves. But this is no zombie story as the “revived” appear and act just like they once were. When local officer and single mother Dana Cypress is unexpectedly thrown into the center of a brutal murder mystery of her own, she’s left to make sense of the chaos amidst a town gripped by fear and confusion where everyone, alive or undead, is a suspect.

Best Joker Comics: Your Essential Reading Order for the Clown Prince of Crime

by Carole
May 6, 2025

Everyone knows the Joker. He’s Batman’s archenemy and one of the most dangerous and unpredictable villains in Gotham City (and across DC Comics).

The origins of the Joker are as mysterious as the character himself. Bill Finger, Bob Kane, and Jerry Robinson—credited for the character’s conception—each offer their own version of the story. What can’t be denied was the influence of actor Conrad Veidt’s grinning visage from the movie The Man Who Laughs (1928) as inspiration for the Joker design.

Regardless of the story behind the Joker’s creation, Batman’s villain has become over time a larger-than-life character, an unstoppable force of nature representing everything Batman stands against. He is often used to represent unresolved societal issues and has been, throughout the years, a criminal mastermind, a comical prankster, an anarchist, and a classic trickster who shifts between violence and dark humor.

Star Wars Omnibus Reading Order!

by Carole
May 4, 2025

May the 4th Be With You! Since the movie’s release in 1977, Star Wars Comics have been produced with few interruptions. It all started at Marvel Comics with a six-issue comic book adaptation of the film. It was such a success that it helped Marvel survive the financial difficulties of the time. The series continued with original stories starting from issue #7 and became one of the top-selling titles. Marvel published the series until 1986, totaling 107 issues and three Annuals.

During this period, a newspaper strip was also distributed by the Los Angeles Times Syndicate and the Watertown Daily Times, while Pendulum Press released in 1978 a 31-page loose adaptation designed for classroom use. For several years after Marvel’s comic series ended, there was few Star Wars material. This changed in 1991 when Dark Horse acquired the license and revived the franchise with the release of the novel Heir to the Empire—the first book of a trilogy by Timothy Zahn—which was also adapted into a comic book. After that, the publisher launched dozens of series set in the Star Wars universe over the next 20 years.

A well-established fact now, Dark Horse lost the license in 2014 to Marvel Comics, which became the primary publisher of Star Wars Comics. It marked the end of the Star Wars Expanded Universe and the beginning of a new continuity known as Star Wars Canon. In 2017, IDW Publishing launched the anthology series Star Wars Adventures, and in 2022, Dark Horse started publishing new Star Wars comics and graphic novels.

For Star Wars Day, we look closer at the many Star Wars omnibus editions—from Dark Horse’s older collections to Marvel’s ongoing omnibus line to help you navigate this vast galaxy!

What to Read This Month: The Best Comics of May 2025

by Carole
May 1, 2025

Between Marvel Omnibus, DC Omnibus, the Epic Collection, DC Finest, Compact editions, and everything else publishers put out, there’s always way there’s always more to discover! Launched this past March, What to Read This Month highlights each month’s notable releases. Here’s our selection for May, featuring some great stories from the Suicide Squad, Mickey Mouse, and more. And if you missed last month’s picks, you can find them here.

May’s Comic Picks

All title summaries are taken and/or summarized from copy provided by the publisher.

Suicide Squad by John Ostrander Omnibus Vol. 1
By John Ostrander

In a post-Crisis world, comics legend John Ostrander redefined the Suicide Squad for the modern age in this brutal tale of war and redemption. Still the most celebrated Suicide Squad run ever published, it is now collected in Omnibus!

When new threats emerge deemed too dangerous for the United States military, Batman, and even Superman, who is called in to answer the call of duty? Seems like a job for Task Force X, also known as the Suicide Squad. Led by the no-nonsense federal agent Amanda Waller, this band of notorious super-criminals are faced with a dilemma: accept these highly dangerous missions and stare death in the face to earn their freedom or rot forever in prison.

Best 1980s Marvel Comics: The Stories That Defined a Decade

by Carole
April 28, 2025

These were good years for the comic book industry. Actually, they were great years. The 1980s were a period of tremendous financial and creative growth that transformed the medium. The emergence of the Direct Market, with specialty comic book stores, created more opportunities for creators and led to a wider range of publications.

It was during this decade that Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen, Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns, and Art Spiegelman’s Maus were published, breaking new comic book narrative ground for future writers. It was also during this decade that DC Comics was rebooted with Crisis on Infinite Earths and started its Renaissance with the British Invasion of creators.

The comic book industry rose and fell during the 1980s, including Marvel Comics. The House of Ideas evolved in those years, embracing darker storytelling, launching new comic book series, trying new formats, hiring new talents, and releasing some of the most celebrated and iconic stories in its history.

Maybe one of the most important decades on the creative front, the 1980s helped redefine Marvel’s superheroes by pushing boundaries and going where the industry had never been before. Today, we explore the best Marvel stories of the decade!

Comic Book News of The Week: Grant Morrison returns to Batman and More

by Carole
April 25, 2025

What’s going on in the Comic Book World? Life can be pretty busy, so we highlight recent news and articles that may catch your interest in our fifth edition of Comic Book News.

A week ago, Grant Morrison appeared on the Comic Book Couples Counseling podcast to discuss All-Star Superman and other Man of Steel topics. But what made waves wasn’t the praise for Alex Ross’s Peace on Earth or the reveal that Superman Beyond is a personal favorite. It was the unexpected announcement that Morrison is working on a new Batman project.

As Morrison explained: “I just actually took on a job that I wasn’t expecting because I don’t need to do these things anymore, and I only do them for something interesting. It’s not Superman but it’s a Batman thing. I didn’t ever think I’d go back, but if someone comes to me with something good, and it just strikes a spark and it starts a fire, then of course I’ll do it. I’m not writing it off.”

While there are no more details, this was enough to spark excitement!

Assassin’s Creed Comics Reading Order

by Carole
April 16, 2025

First conceived as an entry in the Prince of Persia series, Assassin’s Creed is now one of the biggest video game franchises that includes thirteen mainline and several spin-offs that also spanned novels, audio drama, comic books, encyclopedias, board games, and a live-action film.

Created by Patrice Desilets and published by Ubisoft, Assassin’s Creed is a mix between historical fiction, conspiracy thriller and sci-fi. It takes place across various periods and revolves around the secret war fought for centuries between The Templar Order, who wish for mankind to be united in peace under their control, and the Assassin Brotherhood, who believe in flawed humanity and fight to maintain the freedom of all humanity.

The Assassin’s Creed video game franchise is famous for telling its stories across two timelines. Most of the game takes place in the historical timeline where players control an Assassin. The Present-day timeline serves as a framing story, tying everything together, showing how past events influence the present and future.

This format is often respected in the Assassin’s Creed comic books. For this reason, this reading guide doesn’t follow a chronological order or a publication order. Instead, the comics have been organized based on storylines, key characters, or specific game tie-ins.