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Squirrel Girl Reading Order, the Unbeatable Comic Book List!

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Many Marvel superheroes have been defined by tragedy, from the death of Peter Parker’s Uncle Ben to Matt Murdock being hit by a truck full of chemicals and losing his father. While tragedy and bizarre accidents have created many heroes, it’s nice to be reminded sometimes that you can be happy and superheroic—just like Squirrel Girl!

Right now a playable character in Marvel Rivals (voiced by Milana Vayntrub), Squirrel Girl was created by Will Murray and Steve Dikto.  Also known as Doreen Allene Green, she made her first appearance in Marvel Super-Heroes vol. 2 #8, published in 1991. In this issue, she teamed up with Iron Man and defeated the villainous Doctor Doom with the help of her squirrel sidekick, Monkey Joe. After this one-off partnership with Iron Man, Squirrel Girl didn’t become an instant hit and largely disappeared from comics for years.

She made her return to the Marvel Universe thanks to Dan Slott, in GLA: Misassembled, a miniseries about the Great Lakes Avengers—a team of superheroes with seemingly “useless” or odd powers. This comic book series also introduced her new squirrel sidekick, Tippy-Toe. After that, she popped up occasionally, crossing paths with characters like Deadpool before taking on a job as a nanny for Jessica Jones and Luke Cage’s daughter in New Avengers (in 2010).

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DC Absolute Universe Reading Order

A new alternate reality has recently emerged in the DC Universe. As part of the DC All In Initiative, DC Comics has launched The Absolute Universe (AU), an imprint overseen by Scott Snyder that tells stories set on Earth-Alpha and features new versions of of DC’s iconic superheroes.

Similar to Marvel’s Ultimate Universe, this Universe is friendly to new readers. You don’t need to have a PhD in DC’s complex history or its many crisis to enjoy these new comic series.

Ready to explore DC’s newest reality? Here’s a quick guide to the Absolute Universe and how to start reading.

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Static Shock Reading Order

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Helped by a popular 4-season animated show titled “Static Shock” broadcasted between 2004 and 2004 on the WB Television Network’s Kids’ WB programming block, Static became the most popular superhero from the Milestone Comics imprint (distributed by DC Comics). Even before the show started, he was already one of the highlights of the line.

Created by Dwayne McDuffie, Denys Cowan, Michael Davis, Derek T. Dingle, and Christopher Priest, Static made his first appearance in a 3-page preview in Icon #1 before the launch of the ongoing Static comics series written by McDuffie and Robert L. Washington III and illustrated by John Paul Leon. The comic book would last 45 issues but the characters appeared in more comics from the Milestone line as it was part of the shared universe called the Dakotaverse.

Static is really Virgil Hawkins, an African-American teenager living in Dakota City who gains his superpowers during the “Big Bang.” The Big Bang happened when the police disrupted a gang conflict by using an experimental gas with catastrophic consequences. This gas gave many people in the area superhuman abilities.
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Spider-Man Omnibus Reading Order!

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With Great Powers comes many comic book stories! Spider-Man has been web-swinging since his first appearance in 1962. Following his introduction in the pages of Amazing Fantasy #15, Peter Parker has used his intelligence and spider powers to fight crime and help others.

As Marvel’s most popular superhero, the world of Spider-Man has naturally expanded in many directions. He lives many solo adventures in more than one comic book title, has been part of many team-ups, has been a member of several teams, possesses his rogue gallery, and has inspired the creation of countless spider heroes across the Multiverse!

Over the years, Marvel Comics has collected the many tales of Spider-Man in various formats, including classic trade paperbacks, Marvel Masterworks, the popular Epic Collection, and, of course, the Omnibus line!

With more than 30 omnibuses dedicated to Spider-Man—and the number is still growing—, we have decided to create a Specific Spider-Man Omnibus Reading Order. This guide can serve as a roadmap to the spectacular adventures of our Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man in this particular collection, helping new and old readers find their ways in the vast world of Spidey’s Web of Life and Destiny!

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Seraph of the End Manga Order

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From Battle Angel Alita to Attack on Titan and other classics such as Akira and Fist of the North Star, the world of manga is filled with post-apocalyptic stories exploring the survival of humanity. Seraph of the End (Owari no Seraph) is one such manga.

Launched in 2012, Seraph of the End is a dark fantasy manga taking place in a world where an epidemic wiped out every adult on Earth, leaving only children under the age of thirteen alive. From the shadows arose vampires who took advantage of a devastated world to enslave the rest of the human population. In this dark world, Yūichirō Hyakuya wants to avenge his fallen friends, and joins a vampire extermination unit.

Seraph of the End is written by Takaya Kagami, author of The Legend of the Legendary Heroes, with storyboards by Daisuke Furuya, and illustrated by Yamato Yamamoto. From the start, it was more than the manga, as a prequel light novel series exploring this universe before the catastrophe was released at the same time. The franchise has expanded with other light novels, an Anime television series aired in 2015-2016, as well as two video games.

The fight continues as the main manga is still ongoing. We invite you to learn more about the dark fantasy world of Seraph of the End with our reading guide.

This manga reading order has been suggested by one of our readers.

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Roy Harper Comics Reading Order (Team Arrow)

While Robin is the most iconic sidekick in the DC Universe, he is not the only one. Speedy made his first appearance alongside Oliver Queen in More Fun Comics #73 (November 1941). The duo shared similarities with the famous dynamic duo for many years. Like Robin, Speedy would also go on to live many stories far away from his mentor. In fact, Roy Harper built most of his heroic career away from Green Arrow.

Still, Roy Harper’s journey started as a sidekick. Green Arrow took him under his wing and acted as a mentor and father figure for the young man. Roy has been trained in archery and combat, laying the foundation for Roy to become the Superhero Arsenal, and later Red Arrow. Roy also became one of the founding members of the Teen Titans.

One of the most pivotal moments in Roy Harper’s life happened in the early 1970s, in the two-part classic Snowbirds Don’t Fly (Green Lantern/Green Arrow #85–86). Written by Dennis O’Neil and Neal Adams, the story explores Roy’s fall into addiction. He battles to overcome it and chooses to go solo afterward, to find his path in life.

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Milestone Comics Reading Order (Hardware, Icon, Blood Syndicate, and Static)

In 1993, DC Comics launched two major lines: Vertigo and Milestone. The first was developed to cater to an older, more mature audience, than the regular DC Comics line. The second was historically more significant as Milestone Comics was the first minority-owned comic book company, cofounded by four African-Americans who wanted to introduce a more realistic cultural diversity in American Superhero comics.

Dwayne McDuffie, Derek T. Dingle, Denys Cowan, and Michael Davis made a deal with DC Comics. Milestone would control the copyrights, the characters, the merchandising, and the creative direction, while DC Comics would print, license, and distribute the comics for a share of the profits. And so, Milestone Comics was launched in February 1993 with the publication of Hardware #1 by Dwayne McDuffie and Jimmy Palmiotti. Then came Blood Syndicate by Ivan Velez Jr. and Chris Cross, Icon by McDuffie and M.D. Bright and Static by McDuffie, Robert Washington III, John Paul Leon, and Steve Mitchell.

The launch was a total success, but it didn’t last long. Milestone Comics ceased regular publication in 1997 due to financial difficulties. Its cultural impact was nevertheless important (and still is), and its return was discussed for a long time. It finally happened in 2021 and came with a modernised take on the now-classic comics.

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Typhoid Mary Comics Reading Guide, a Marvel List

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Not long after Frank Miller concluded his iconic run on Daredevil, Ann Nocenti came along to put Matt Murdock through hell—literally. While still exploring the darkest corners of our hero’s soul, Nocenti didn’t rely on the same elements as Miller, who introduced Elektra and pitted Daredevil against ninjas. Instead, her more political approach led, among other things, to the creation of Typhoid Mary, one of Daredevil’s most emblematic archenemies today.

Though she has appeared in fewer than 200 issues to this day, Mary Walker cannot be ignored. From her striking beauty (and beautiful hair!) to her psychological instability—she suffers from dissociative identity disorder—Mary leaves an impression wherever she goes. She is undoubtedly a dangerous woman—highly trained as an athlete and martial artist, with the added abilities of pyrokinesis and telekinesis.

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Batman By Grant Morrison Reading Order

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Grant Morrison’s 7-year-long run on Batman remains one of the most celebrated, influential, and divisive takes on the Caped Crusader. It all started in 2005 when editor Peter Tomasi approached  Morrison about writing the monthly Batman comic. As Morrison later explained, he thought at the time he had “said most of what had to say about the character with Arkham Asylum, Gothic, and Batman’s appearances in JLA. Clearly, I was wrong.” (Batman Incorporated Special #1, October 2013).

Morrison’s work on Batman started at the end of the Modern Age and concluded at the start of New 52. His approach—treating the entire publishing history as Batman’s life story—created one of the most iconic sagas featuring the Dark Knight. It’s an epic, metaphysical tale filled with weird sci-fi elements, colorful and dangerous villains, unexpected plot twists, and, at its core, the tragic effects of trauma and broken families. As often, Bruce Wayne’s loss of his parents is still at the heart of the story, the same way that Damian Wayne, Son of Batman, is.

Structured in three parts, Morrison’s epic tale takes the reader on a wild ride, from the deconstruction of Batman’s history in the first part, to the playful spirit of adventure in the second, and finally, to the ambitious, James Bond-style story of the third. Not everything works, but there is no doubt that when it does, it is sort of magical.

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White Tiger Reading Order (Hector Ayala, Angela del Toro, and Ava Ayala)

In 1974, Marvel Comics was in the business of publishing magazines. One of them was The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu, a black-and-white martial arts comics magazine that introduced in its first issue The Sons of the Tiger, a trio of crime fighters. Created by Gerry Conway and Dick Giordano, these characters each possessed an amulet (a tiger’s head and two tiger claws) that increased their fighting skills.

But this didn’t last and after many adventures, the three sons call it quits and throw away their amulets. However, in The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #19, an issue from writer Bill Mantlo and artist George Pérez, they are found by a young Puerto Rican named Hector Ayala who combined them and gained the power that transformed him into the hero called White Tiger!

Like the three sons, Hector Ayala used martial arts but acted like a more traditional superhero with a costume and a secret identity. With The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #33, the comics magazine ended, and the black-and-white adventures of White Tiger with it (his ended in #32 though). A few months later, he made his comeback, in color this time, in Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #9 written by Bill Mantlo who kept using the character that way.

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