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Daredevil by Frank Miller Reading Order (with Elektra, of course!)

Young Frank Miller wasn’t working at Marvel for very long when he saw an opportunity to do a crime comic with Daredevil. After drawing two issues of Spectacular Spider-Man guest-starring Daredevil, he requested to work on the Daredevil title. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect, as artist Gene Colan wanted to leave Daredevil. While Miller hadn’t yet proven his ability to handle a regular commitment at this stage, as he remembers in The Comics Journal #70, Marvel took a gamble on him, and it paid off.

However, success didn’t arrive with his first Daredevil issue. Initially, Miller only drew the stories, with Roger McKenzie as the writer (and Klaus Janson as the inker). While both men didn’t always agree on everything, they worked well together and conspired to “steal away as many Spider-Man villains as we could.” But sales weren’t improving. Things turned around with the arrival of Denny O’Neil as editor on the title. Following a backup story written by Miller, O’Neil put the artist on writing duties, and the rest is history.

Influenced by Will Eisner, Gil Kane, Harvey Kurtzman, and film techniques, Miller made a name for himself through his care for research and his exploration of darker themes—violence being a major theme of his Daredevil run. He also decided to emphasize that Matt Murdock was a Catholic, as, for him, “only a Catholic could be a vigilante and an attorney at the same time.” (The Men Without Fear: Creating Daredevil, 2003 documentary). He took the time to clearly define the parameters of Daredevil’s powers to make them more believable. He added some martial arts to Daredevil’s fighting skills and introduced Elektra in Daredevil #168 in his first issue as main writer. As Klaus Janson put it, the arrival of Elektra was “the culmination of Frank’s intent to rebuild Daredevil and his supporting cast.”

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DC Compact Comics: Your Guide to the Upcoming Graphic Novel Releases (2024-2025)

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A group of comic book covers from the DC Compact Comics Edition. The titles include "Batman: Hush", "The Court of Owls Saga", "Joker", and "Catwoman"

Following in the footsteps of French publisher Urban Comics and its ‘Urban Nomad’ collection, DC Comics has recently started to release a new line of graphic novels called DC Compact Comics. The concept? A new-reader-friendly collection at a good price that you can take with you everywhere!

What is the DC Comics Compact Edition?

Launched in June 2024 with the ultimate classic DC Comics (and best-seller of all time!) Watchmen, the new DC Compact Comics line is designed to appeal to prose and manga readers with a smaller format than the traditional 6 5/8″ x 10 3/16″. Featuring a 5.5″ x 8.5″ standard book trim—the most widely circulated softcover size in the US—DC wants to attract new readers by offering iconic stories in a more portable and affordable format. With a price point of $9.99, these compact editions deliver a full-color self-contained, best-selling DC stories that you can take with you everywhere!

Spanning stories from many genres, such as science fiction, thrillers, horror, fantasy, adventure, and mystery, the DC Compact Comics line will introduce readers to Green Lantern Sojourner “Jo” Mullein with Far Sector, a sci-fi murder mystery on the other side of the universe, or revisit the myth of Superman with the multiple-award-winning All-Star Superman. While the emphasis is put on self-contained stories, the release of American Vampire Book One shows that the collection isn’t limited to one-off tales but also serves as an opportunity to collect long-running series.Read More »DC Compact Comics: Your Guide to the Upcoming Graphic Novel Releases (2024-2025)

Meet the Web-Warriors, the protectors of the Spider-Verse

Thanks to the animated movie Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and its sequel Across the Spider-Verse, it is no secret that the Marvel Universe contains an infinite number of versions of Spider-Men, Spider-Women, and Spider-villains.

Before Miles Morales and company web-slung onto the big screen, a Spider-Army was created on the pages of Marvel Comics. During the Spider-Verse event, their mission was to protect the Spiders from the Inheritors, a vampiric family who hunt Spider-Totems to access what is called the Web of Life and Destiny, which can be described as a celestial map of the multiverse – and with Spiders created to repair, maintain, and expand it.

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Naruto Universe Manga Order (with Boruto and Light Novels)

While Eikichi Onizuka wants to become the world’s greatest teacher, Naruto Uzumaki aspires to become Hokage! Created by Masashi Kishimoto, the ninja adventures of Naruto started in 1999 in the magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump. Naruto is then a turbulent but ambitious 12-year-old ninja in training whose determination and enthusiasm compensate for his shortcomings.

While Naruto presents himself as a carefree and optimist person capable of befriending anyone, his life is already marked by tragedy and secret: the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox–a malevolent creature that attacked Konohagakure, Naruto’s village– was sealed away in his body when he was just a baby, with his parents sacrificing themselves in the process. Naruto grew up an orphan, ignoring who his parents were, and openly ostracised and resented by many villagers for containing the beast that took many lives.

But nothing will stop Naruto on his track. The boy is determined to obtain respect from his peers and to become the greatest ninja with the help of his teammates, Sasuke and Sakura, facing many obstacles and Big Bads along the way. Naruto became one of the most popular manga, leading to a media franchise including the very successful anime television series, films, video games, toys, and several spin-offs!

Following is a guide to navigating the manga world of Naruto, with the spin-off Boruto, a few other manga spin-offs and many light novels!

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The Inhumans: Unraveling the Origins of Marvel’s Enigmatic Royal Family

The story goes that during the 2010s, Marvel decided to push the X-Men to the side in favor of the Inhumans, as they preferred properties for which they had full screen rights at the time. Their attempt to position the Inhumans as replacements for the X-Men didn’t pay off and, worse, gave the public a misleading image of this superhuman race, which is not comprised of mutants. This effort was further hampered by the failure of the 2017 Inhumans TV series.

However, a look back at their origins in comic book titles reveals that the Inhumans are quite different from the X-Men. Originally conceived with Jack Kirby’s psychedelic aesthetic, they were weirder, their powers crazier, and their stories more otherworldly.

It all started twenty-five thousand years ago when Kree scientists, drawn to Earth beings’ incredible potential, experimented on them to create a superhuman army. These experiments ultimately resulted in the development of the Inhumans, a species with superhuman strength and long lifespans.

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Hasbro Comic Book Universe Reading Order (2005-2018)

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As the Energon Universe featuring characters from Transformers and G.I. Joe is expanding, we take a look back at the previous Comic Book Universe based on several Hasbro brands and published by IDW – The Hasbro Comic Book Universe or HCBU!

IDW picked up the Transformers license in 2005 and obtained the rights for G.I. Joe in 2008, but the Hasbro Comic Book Universe was officially launched in 2016 with the release of the Revolution miniseries, a crossover event involving many characters from Hasbro and establishing a shared universe for all these brands. It was then decided that all the stories previously published were retroactively set in the same continuity.

Revolution wasn’t IDW’s first crossover event connecting several licensed series. The publisher released Infestation at the beginning of 2011 in which a zombie infectation spread between dimensions and reached into the worlds of Transformers, Star Trek, G.I. Joe, and Ghostbusters. None of them interact with each other at any point. A follow up called Infestation 2 was released a year later involving this time The Transformers, Dungeons & Dragons, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, G.I. Joe and 30 Days of Night.

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Creature Commandos Reading Order, the black ops team of monsters (DC Comics)

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DC Comics has a talent for creating unique superhero teams, such as the Metal Men, the robotic superhero team, and Doom Patrol, the iconic group of super-powered misfits. Another unique team from DC is the Creature Commandos, World War II’s weirdest warriors!

Created by writer J. M. DeMatteis and artist Pat Broderick, the Creature Commandos made their first appearance in Weird War Tales #93. It all started in the Midwest, on a spring day in 1942, where Lieutenant Matthew Shrieve introduced the Creature Commandos to various generals, admirals, and senators as part of the mysterious Project “M”—one of those classic World War II government projects creating specialized soldiers!

The team was sent on a mission in France and deployed to Dinosaur Island, but their time on the pages of DC Comics was short-lived, and they quickly disappeared into obscurity. Throughout the years, the Creature Commandos occasionally reappeared and were reimagined as members of S.H.A.D.E. during the New 52 era. They never really left a significant mark and remained in one of those obscure corners of the DC until recently.

The team recently gained mainstream attention for starring in a new adult animated television series as part of the DC Universe, the new shared universe created by James Gunn and Peter Safran, which serves as a soft reboot of the DC Extended Universe.

To learn more about the Creature Commandos of DC Comics, follow our reading order guide, guiding you through the issues featuring this team of monsters!

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Umbrella Academy Reading Order: How to Start reading Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba’s comic book series?

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You may know Umbrella Academy thanks to its television adaptation by Netflix. Written by Gerard Way (of My Chemical Romance) and illustrated by Gabriel Bá, Umbrella Academy is described as a “dysfunctional family of superheroes” — and part of our 15 Dark Horse Must-Read Comic Books.

All began with an inexplicable worldwide event, where forty-three extraordinary children were spontaneously born by women who’d previously shown no signs of pregnancy. Millionaire inventor Reginald Hargreeves adopts seven of the children and prepares them to save the world from an unspecified threat as the Umbrella Academy.

The members are Spaceboy (Luther Hargreeves), The Kraken (Diego Hargreeves), The Rumor (Allison Hargreeves), The Séance (Klaus Hargreeves), The Boy (Number Five), The Horror (Ben Hargreeves), and The White Violin (Vanya Hargreeves).

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The Penguin, Your Recommended Reading List for Batman’s Iconic Enemy

There is no doubt that The Penguin has stood out like few other Batman villains on the small and big screen. Burgess Meredith’s memorable portrayal in the 1960s television series influenced the comic book representation of the character, while Danny DeVito’s iconic portrayal in Batman Returns delivered the scariest version of Cobblepot. Played with gusto by Robin Lord Taylor, The Penguin was also the breakout character of the show Gotham. And now, Oswald Cobblepot headlines his own television series, played by Colin Farrell, reprising his role from the 2022 movie The Batman.

In a way, The Penguin is one of those characters (like Lois Lane) who are more famous for their representation in other media than in comics. Despite being introduced more than 80 years ago, The Penguin has remained an obscure antagonist for a long time. More often than not, he is part of a larger event or story but rarely in the spotlight. Oswald Cobblepot likes to stay in the shadows so much that there are relatively few stories focused solely on him compared to some other members of Batman’s rogues gallery.

For new readers who want to learn more about Oswald Cobblepot or seasoned readers who want to reconnect with the character, here is a recommended reading guide for The Penguin.

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JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Manga in Order

One of the longest manga series, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure will ensure long reading sessions with more than 134 volumes released (and more coming). Created by Hirohiko Araki more than 35 years ago – it started in 1987 to be precise -, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure tells the story of the Joestar family and their endless conflict with the supernatural.

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure became one of the most famous manga for its art style, flamboyant characters, wild humor and bloody battles. Split into nine parts (at this date), each one explores different characters and themes, thriving to deliver something different at every opportunity.

The manga became very popular in 1989 with its most iconic arc Stardust Crusaders, and grew into a media franchise including spin-off manga, light novels, video games, TV anime, and live-action films.

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