Comic Book Treasury

30 Days of Night Reading Order

by Fabien
Updated on October 10, 2023

Published by IDW in 2002, 30 Days of Night is a three-issue horror comic book series written by Steve Niles (The October Faction) and illustrated by Ben Templesmith. Multiple miniseries followed, as well as novels and movie (and audio) adaptations. It did in fact become a movie after Niles wrote the comic version of the unsuccessful film pitch he had developed.

The story is about vampires in Barrow, Alaska, a place where the sun sets for about 30 days. As most of the locals go away during that nightly time, the ones who stayed become the target of a group of vampires. The town’s only hope of survival lies in the hands of Stella and Eben, the local husband-and-wife sheriff team. They have to face the vampire elder Vicente and survive until the sun came back.

Summer of Symbiotes Reading Order, an entire season of symbiote insanity at Marvel

by Fabien
Updated on October 10, 2023
4 Comments

To celebrate 35 years of the first appearance of Venom, the flavor of the summer ’23 at Marvel will be coming from space. It’s the Summer of Symbiotes! It will be Symbiotes crossovers after Symbiotes crossovers with even more Symbiotes. Yes, a lot of Symbiotes.

In fact, everything begins this spring with Carnage Reigns, a crossover that is presented as Miles Morales vs Carnage written by Alex Paknadel and Cody Ziglar and featuring art by Julius Ohta, Jan Bazaldua, Federico Vicentini, and Francesco Manna. Here is how it starts:

Cletus Kasady is back, and of course, he is more powerful and bloodthirsty than ever before! “With his soul trapped within the Extrembiote Armor created by Tony Stark during the King in Black event, Cletus has the means to level an untold amount of chaos and, well, carnage on New York City and the entire Marvel Universe. But like any good Tony Stark invention, the Extremis coursing through Cletus’ symbiotic veins needs POWER, and that means Cletus is HUNGRY. Good thing Brooklyn’s very own Spider-Man is there to stand in his way! If he survives their first encounter, that is.”

Doctor Fate Reading Order

by Fabien
Updated on April 10, 2024

Like with Captain Marvel or Robin, there are multiple superheroes named Doctor Fate. The original version of the character was created by writer Gardner Fox and artist Howard Sherman during the Golden Age of comics era, in the pages of More Fun Comics #55 (May 1940).

Wearing blue-and-yellow tights and a golden helmet, Doctor Fate was operating from a stone tower, windowless and doorless, situated on the outskirts of Salem, Massachusetts–so you know it was about magic. Under the costume, there was Kent Nelson who, while on an archaeological expedition in the Valley of Ur with his father, accidentally awakened Nabu by opening its tomb–and kills his father in the process.

Nabu is a fictionalized version of the Mesopotamian god of the same name, a cosmic being affiliated with the Lords of Order. He takes Kent under his wing, teaching him how to become a sorcerer and fight his enemies, the Lords of Chaos. After two decades, Nabu gave him a mystical helmet, an amulet, and a cloak. Now well-equipped, Kent went back to America and started fighting crimes and supernatural evil–like armies of the undead, the green-skinned Wutan, and other fish creatures and elder gods. Kent also became a founding member of the All-Star Squadron and the Justice Society of America.

Doctor Doom Reading Order

by Carole
Updated on August 21, 2024

Meet Doctor Doom! With recent news that Robert Downey Jr. (aka Iron Man) will portray Doctor Doom in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, making his first appearance in The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025) in a post-credits scene, the popularity of the monarch of Latveria is sure to spike! Not that he needed it—he’s already one of Marvel’s most iconic supervillains.

If you’re here today, it’s because you want to learn more about Doctor Doom, alias Victor Von Doom! Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby as a “super sensational new villain,” he first appeared in The Fantastic Four #5 (July 1962), with his origin story revealed two years later in Fantastic Four Annual #2.

Raised as part of a Latverian Romani tribe, Victor’s mother died when he was young, sacrificing herself to the dark arts. His father was killed while trying to escape an order from Baron Von Doom. Victor survived and discovered his mother’s occult instruments. He chose to study both magic and science, aiming to combine the two. Obsessed with building a machine to free his mother’s soul, his invention backfired and scarred his face. Doom then embraced his iconic iron mask and emerald cowl, becoming Doctor Doom!

Batman Origin Stories: Explore Bruce Wayne’s tragic past in the comics

by Fabien
Updated on April 24, 2023

In 1938, the success of Superman prompt the company now called DC Comics—it was National Comics Publications at that time—to launch another one. Editor Vin Sullivan was tasked to do exactly that in the pages of Detective Comics.

The writer and artist Bob Kane came up with an idea based on Sherlock Holmes, Zorro, and other pulp heroes (like The Phantom), but also, apparently, a Leonardo da Vinci sketch of a bat-winged flying machine. He took all this to the writer Bill Finger who added his own inspiration like the Dracula movie (the one from 1931) and the 1926 silent film The Bat. He then suggested a new costume as Kane’s was then basically Superman with a mask and bat wings (the Da Vinci inspiration). Finger suggested a cape, a cowl, and a gray bodysuit. As a result, The Bat-Man silhouette really looked like a bat.

James Bond Comics Reading Order (Dynamite Entertainment)

by Carole
Updated on October 10, 2023

His name is Bond. James Bond. 007. Created by Ian Fleming in 1953, the most famous British Secret Service Agent launched his career on paper, in the novel Casino Royale, became a movie star, had his own video games and radio drama, but also his own comic book line.

The first James Bond Comics spawned from the success of our Secret Agent after the start of the film franchise in 1962. It was a comic book adaptation of Dr. No published by Classics Illustrated in United Kindgom. It would take 20 years for another James Bond comic to be published afterward, with this time an adaptation of For Your Eyes Only, followed in 1983 by an adaptation of Octopussy.

Permission to Die was the first original James Bond comic, published by Acme/Eclipse in 1989. Then, Dark Horse obtained the rights and released several original stories until 1996. Nothing new will be released for the next 20 years when the comic book publishing license was picked up by Dynamite Entertainment (Red Sonja, Evil Dead).

The Spectre Reading Order

by Carole
Updated on June 7, 2024

In comic books, dead men can come back to life to seek vengeance. Created by by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Bernard Baily, The Spectre belongs to this particular kind of superhero: the avenging spirit.

It all began a very long time ago when Aztar was part of a rebel band of angels led by Lucifer Morningstar. But he came to repent and was punished by becoming the vessel for God’s Wrath.

In More Fun Comics #52 (February 1940), hard-boiled cop Jim Corrigan is murdered by thugs and his spirit is then fused with Aztar/The Spectre. Together, they work to avenge victims and combat evil. He even was part of the JSA.

Jim Corrigan was The Spectre for a very long time, but he has not been the only host of The Spectre. The two other most important hosts were Hal Jordan (a famous Green Lantern) and Detective Crispus Allen. He would also sometimes wander hostless before being bound with another human host.

Though he is weaker without a host, The Spectre is one of DC Comics’ most powerful characters.

Throughout the years, the mythology surrounding him has been explored and expanded, and you can discover more about the Spectre in this following reading order!

DC Icons Series: The Complete list of the DC Young Adult novels

by Carole
Updated on July 21, 2023

In 2017, Warner Bros. and DC Entertainment partnered with Random House Books for Young Readers to publish young adult novels naturally set outside DC Comics’ main continuity. Those are coming-of-age stories centered on the characters when they are younger and discovering who they are and what it means to be a hero.

Those are all original stories, and not retellings of classic origin stories, written by some of the most famous young adult novel writers right now. And if this all began in the book format, some of those stories have also been adapted into graphic novels (it’s DC Comics after all!).

The DC Icons Series is one of the lines developed by DC Comics to attract a younger and new audience to the world of superhero comics and for them to become more familiar with those pop culture icons that everybody knows by name.

Below you’ll find a list of the DC Icons book series, with Batman, Catwoman, Wonder Woman, and more…

The Two Arno Starks: from Iron Man 2020 to Earth-616

by Carole
Updated on April 17, 2023

Once upon a time, 2020 was to be an apocalyptic future. To be more precise, creators Tom DeFalco and Herb Trimpe created Earth-8410 in 1984, an alternate reality set in the then-future of 2020.

It wasn’t a glorious future, but one of those realities taken over by megacorporations. Many heroes disappeared in the 1980s, virtual realities became the main form of entertainment, the working class was replaced by robots, and humans were reduced to being slaves, except for the small upper class.

This earth was the homeworld of Iron Man 2020, a certain Arno Stark…

Captain America Cold War Reading Order, Captain Vs Captain

by Fabien
Updated on November 18, 2023

It’s been a while since Marvel gave us a Captain America crossover event. This one is a small one though, and it’s between the two Captain Americas! And more, of course, as it is presented as a battle between brothers.

Here is the official synopsis: Bucky Barnes, the newest player in a nefarious game that spans all of civilization, makes his most deadly move yet — teaming up with Sam Wilson’s nemesis, Hunter, the White Wolf! When Steve Rogers’ adoptive son Ian, A.K.A. Nomad, is abducted by someone Steve thought a friend, he suspects Bucky’s hand at work, and calls upon the people who know Ian best — Sam, Sharon Carter, and Misty Knight — to help him get to the bottom of the attack.

Why has Nomad been taken, and what does it have to do with a portal to Dimension Z opening over a secret battleground in Alaska? Has Bucky finally gone too far? And when Black Widow joins the fray, whose side is she on?

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