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Superman’s deaths : Exploring the Multiple Deaths of the Man of Steel in the comics

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It’s no secret that Superman is nearly indestructible, except when he’s in the presence of Kryptonite. But, like all other comic book characters, he is not immune to death. On the contrary, killing off Superman is a popular notion that has been explored several times over the years.

Readers are naturally intrigued by the stories dealing with Superman’s death. Because he is one of the most popular and powerful superheroes, his death has a significant emotional impact as well as a mythical meaning. Those storylines may also have high stakes and epic conflicts in order to create a spectacle based on what Superman means to the readers, his allies, and his foes.

Whatever attracts the readers towards Superman’s death, it is a subject that has been explored throughout the years, from forgettable tales to iconic stories.

Warning! As this article discussed how Superman died in several stories, it is full of spoilers. Tread carefully.

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Captain Britain Reading Order, Marvel UK’s Superhero

Captain Britain Reading Order

At the beginning of the 1970s, Marvel Comics expanded its business by opening a new branch in Great Britain: Marvel UK. At first, and for a few years, it was just a way to reprint American comics in a magazine format in order to establish the brand. It didn’t really work. It was then decided that a real line of British comics was needed. This led to writer Chris Claremont being asked to come up with a British character. With artist Herb Trimpe, they created Captain Britain who made his debut in Captain Britain Weekly #1 in 1976.

Brian Braddock was chosen by the sorcerer Merlyn himself to become a hero. Between the sword of might and the amulet of right, Captain Britain emerged as the United Kingdom’s greatest champion from the streets of London to the mystic realm of Otherworld.

In the beginning, the Captain Britain series was written by tourists, Americans who only visited the UK. This didn’t help the book speak to British readers. The first issues are nevertheless important for the introduction of memorable characters like psychic Elizabeth “Betsy” Braddock, Brian’s twin sister, and their older brother Jamie Braddock—The Queen also appeared! The sales didn’t go up so Captain Britain was buried in a Spider-Man reprint title after 39 issues. The two heroes “really” met though, as Brian Braddock made his debut on the American market in a issue of Marvel Team Up.

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Warlord of Mars/Dejah Thoris Reading order (Dynamite Comics)

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Created by Edgard Rice Burroughs in 1911, the Barsoom series — also called the John Carter of Mars series —  is one of the most influential science fiction and fantasy tales of the 20th Century. The story features John Carter, a veteran of the American Civil War who is transported to the planet Mars, known as Barsoom by its inhabitants where he lives dangerous adventures, falls in love with the princess of Mars and saves the world. Some classic tales!

John Carter has influenced characters like Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon, and Superman as well as other massive stories including Dune, Star Wars, and Avatar. He was also a popular character among many famous people like Carl Sagan, Michael Chrichton, Ray Bradbury and Arthur C. Clarke.

This is then no surprise that John Carter found his way into the comic book format. In the past, John Carter has been adapted by companies like DC Comics (as John Carter featured in Tarzan and Weird Worlds), Marvel Comics (in John Carter Warlord of Mars), and Dark Horse (see Tarzan / John Carter: Warlords of Mars).

But the most important publisher is Dynamite (Red Sonja, Evil Dead)  which has released many series in the John Carter Universe since 2010. His main series Warlord of Mars ran from 2010 to 2014 and spawned several spin-offs, most notably Warlord of Mars: Dejah Thoris as the Princess of Mars is the breakout character of the comics. Several crossover stories have also been published, with other popular female characters from Dynamite but also with other franchises.

In 2012, Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc., the family company in charge of handling everything associated with the Edgar Rice Burroughs estate, sued Dynamite Entertainment over trademark infringement. It never stops the publisher who released new comics during all that time. The matter was settled in 2014, and both parties worked together to relaunch the series as John Carter: Warlord of Mars.

The Warlord of Mars franchise is still expanding today, and to help you find your way, follow this Warlord of Mars/Dejah Thoris Reading order!

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Maya Lopez Reading Order (Echo, Ronin, Thunderbird)

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While Matt Murdock/Daredevil became blind following a childhood chemical accident, Maya Lopez was born blind. Her great ability to lip reading when she was young has delayed her diagnosis. Following her father’s death, a Native American of the Cheyenne Nation and a mob enforcer, Maya was taken care of by Wilson Fisk, the one and only Kingpin. She was sent to a boarding school for special children and discovered she has photographic reflexes – the capacity to memorize anything and copy the exact movements of anything. Her education was then pursued in a school for prodigies.

With a special relationship with Kingpin, this is no surprise that Maya made her debut in Daredevil #9 in December 1999. Created by David Mack and Joe Quesada, Maya was manipulated by Fisk who was using her to destroy Matt Murdock and feeding her lies about Daredevil. Maya took the codename Echo to fight Daredevil before discovering the truth and the Kingpin’s manipulations.

After those events, Maya took the road to find herself and this will lead her to take another alias: she was the first person to be Ronin (before Clint Barton), wearing a suit that conceals her identity, and later joined the Avengers. As Ronin and Echo, she participated in many missions, including a fight against the Hood and Secret Invasion.

Following in the footsteps of characters like Monica Rambeau or Hank Pym, Maya tends to change her alias following her circumstances. Recently, she took Thunderbird as a mantle after being chosen by the cosmic entity known as the Phoenix Force to be her new host. She was then gifted with new abilities including telepathy, flight, superhuman strength, and more.

Maya’s place in the Marvel Universe is clearly expanding, thanks to her introduction to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. She was introduced in the series Hawkeye (2021), portrayed by Alaqua Cox, and her own spin-off, Echo, is planned for 2023!

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Star Wars: Hidden Empire Reading Order, the follow-up to Crimson Reign

Star Wars: Hidden Empire is the third and last part of a trilogy that began with Star Wars: War of the Bounty Hunters and Star Wars: Crimson Reign. It’s time for writer Charles Soule and artist Steven Cummings to give us a conclusion to this story focused on Qi’ra and the criminal organization Crimson Dawn.

As the official synopsis reveals, “The mysterious criminal syndicate Crimson Dawn and its leader, Lady Qi’ra, have become the galaxy’s most wanted, now that Emperor Palpatine has realized the scope of their plans against him and moves to destroy her. But Qi’ra still has tricks up her sleeve, and with the help of the Knights of Ren and her many other allies, she will not go down without a fight!”

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She-Hulk Origin Story or the Sensational Idea by Stan Lee

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With a TV show on the streaming service Disney+, a new comic ongoing series at Marvel (and reprints of old stories in new omnibuses), appearances in animated movies and TV shows, and probably some action figures, Jennifer “She-Hulk” Walters is more visible than ever.

Of course, she’s not a new character, and she was always quite hard to miss on the pages of comics—being green sets you apart. She-Hulk was always popular and that led her to have her own series, naturally, but also to join multiple teams like The Avengers, The Defenders, the Fantastic Four, Heroes for Hire, A-Force, and more! A notable success for a character that was primarily created to be trademarked by Marvel.

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DC Infinite Frontier, The Complete Reading Order

At the end of Dark Nights: Death Metal, the DC Universe has expanded into a large Omniverse or a multiverse of multiverses and a new DC era called Infinite Frontier was launched.

Was does it means for you readers? Despite the relaunch of many titles with new creative teams to make it easier for new readers to jump in, Infinite Frontier was not a reboot of any kind. It was the total opposite as the concept now was that anything can be canon.

Some books are more friendlier to new readers than others, especially if a new team was put on the title. Some actually wrote a story for Future State, a two-month-long event preceding Infinite Frontier and taking place in a “possible future” and offering us, for some comics, a sneak peek of what’s to come.

But other books were the continuation of previous runs, like James Tynion IV and Jorge Jimenez’s Batman or Ram V’s Catwoman, making it a little less accessible. And yes, there is a lot of Batman/Bat-family titles during that era!

The Infinite Frontier era (and the event of the same name launching the era) was shepherded by writer Joshua Williamson and lasted less than two years, from March 2021 to January 2023!

Following is a massive reading order for the Infinite Frontier era. I tried to organize this order taking into account family titles and chronology — and I’ll always advise reading about the characters you care about and not all, as this is a lot (and not everything is worth reading!).

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The Venomverse: A guide to Marvel’s Main Symbiote Characters

For a long time, there was only one symbiote: Venom. Today, there are apparently more than 40 known symbiotes in the Marvel Universe. But who’s counting?

Introduced into the Marvel Universe during the 1985 Secret Wars event, the “black costume” was more than a new look for Spider-Man. This was an alien creature that bonded with the superhero and started to influence him. When Peter Parker realized that his new clothes were in fact a conscient being that was changing him not in a good way, he got rid of him… But that was just the beginning.

After that, the symbiote found a new host and was officially named Venom. He instantly became one of Spider-Man’s archenemies. That said, as writers explored the creature from outer space, it evolved as well as its mythology. Venom also had children, some really deadly ones! All had different hosts and powers, but all are vulnerable to intense heat and sonic vibrations.

Also, we are calling them the Symbiotes, but Venom is a member of the extraterrestrial species known as Klyntar. As we learned during the last few years, they were created by Knull, a malevolent god, a primordial Deity–and certainly one of Marvel’s most powerful supervillains –read the King in Black storyline for a better understanding of the menace he represented–, and creator of All-Black the Necrosword.

We are not here to talk about Knull (this is a subject for another article), but to speak about his creations. From Venom and Carnage to Rascal, here is a guide to the major symbiotes that appeared in the Marvel Universe during the last three decades.

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Knight Terrors Reading Order, DC Comics’ horror event of the summer

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Knight Terrors Reading Order

Introduced as the next Dawn of DC milestone event, Knight Terrors is this summer’s massive crossover event at DC Comics. Horror is invading the DC Universe as Super Heroes or Super-Villains must confront their worst nightmares in a “Nightmare Realm.” 

The main Knight Terrors event starts with the oversize special Knight Terrors: First Blood #1 from Joshua Williamson (Dark Crisis) and Howard Porter (The Flash). This introduction sees Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman find the body of one of their earliest enemies inside the Hall of Justice, their investigation takes them past the land of the living, beyond the land of the dead, and directly to a new villain called Insomnia, who uses his powers to engulf every single hero and villain in their own dark and twisted nightmares. The only way to save the world is to call for the help of an unlikely hero—Deadman!

What follows is the four-issue Knight Terrors miniseries written by Williamson with art by Giuseppe Camuncoli (The Joker), Stefano Nesi, and Caspar Wijngaard (Home Sick Pilots), in which Boston Brand—a.k.a. Deadman—serves as the supernatural tour guide. Everyone in the world is trapped inside their nightmares, and Batman and Deadman are trying to figure out who Insomnia really is…and why he wants revenge on the heroes of the DC Universe! 

Then, Wesley Dodds, the Sandman, teams up with Batman and Deadman to uncover one of his oldest cases, which haunted him until the day he died. The trio are pointed in the direction of the Nightmare Stone, but Insomnia has unleashed his army, the Sleepless Knights, to hunt them down.

Most of the event is composed of a host of two-issue miniseries featuring the nightmares of superheroes, but also of villains.

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Explore the Spider-Verse: Your Guide to Marvel’s Spider Family

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There is more than one Spider-Man out there! It’s no secret, especially since the release of the animated movie Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, where a whole new universe of spider heroes swung into the limelight, introducing the large Spider-Family to a new public.

At the center of the web, we naturally find the original and most well know Spider-Man/Peter Parker, created by Stan Lee and Steve Dikto in 1962. Between the comic books and the adaptations on the big screen, Peter Parker’s story is quite known today: When everything started, he was a nerdy high school student from Queens, New York, and an orphan raised by his Uncle Ben and Aunt May. After being bitten by a radioactive spider at a science exhibit, Peter acquired the agility and proportionate strength of an arachnid! At first, he decided to exploit his heightened athletic abilities to make money. But when the robber he refuses to stop becomes responsible for his Uncle Ben’s murder, Peter learns a painful lesson: “With great power there must also come—great responsibility!”

The world of Spider-Man only expanded from there, at first in the mainstream universe with all those clones and the introduction of Jessica Drew as the first Spider-Woman. Then , with all thos different incarnations of the character in alternate universes. From Miles Morales from the Ultimate Universe to the futuristic Miguel O’Hara and more extravagant versions like Spider-Ham, there’s no shortage of Spider-people in the large Marvel Comics Multiverse.

Though most arachnids evolved separately from each other, they had to come together with the event Spider-Verse, and its sequel Spider-Geddon, to defend the multiverse. Such stories are always great occasions to explore old forgotten characters as well as create new ones such as Spider-Gwen. The Spider-Verse is always evolving and growing!

What follows is not an exhaustive Spider-People Guide as there are too many of them out there for that. But you’ll find the most important Spider-Men and Spider-Women, the ones you should know, some fun characters and newly additions to the Spider-Verse in order for you to find your way across the multiverse!

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