Gotta go fast! Like with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the Transformers, or the G.I. Joe franchise, IDW took over the Sonic franchise to tell new adventures with the Blue Blur. The Hedgehog was at Archie Comics for 24 years before entering a new era at IDW which passed a deal with Sega in 2017 to produce a new series of Sonic Comics. The editor even recruited lead writer Ian Flynn and artist Tyson Hesse, who both worked on Archie Comics’s Sonic the Hedgehog before.
Set in a universe similar to the game universe, after the events of Sonic Forces, the Sonic Comics follows the Blue Blur and his friends on new adventures as they race around the world to defeat the evil Dr. Eggman’s robotic forces, and more!
Back in the Chris Claremont days, Carol Danvers and the X-Men fought alongside each other in the original Brood Saga, a famous story that ended with Carol becoming Binary, and the X-Men making sacrifices.
The Broods are back for a double-story arc, “Revenge of the Brood” and “Lord of the Brood.” Captain Marvel is joined once again by the X-Men to fight the parasitic predators known as the Brood. They plan to infect the cosmos and the heroes must stop them.
Here is how Marvel officially introduces the stories:
In “Lord of the Brood,” the X-Men get a distress call from deep space and find that the galaxy’s Brood problem is not as solved as they’d thought! When the X-Men’s close friend Broo became the Brood King, he gained the ability to control the savage alien race he was both a part of and so different from. Now he is experiencing his own nightmare scenario—the Brood are killing his friends, and there is nothing he can do to stop it! Rogue Brood factions have begun running wild, and it’s up to the X-Men to get to the bottom of why!
In “Revenge of the Brood,” Carol Danvers is on an X-press elevator to her own personal hell! And the Brood Empress is determined to ensure the Captain and all of her friends make it to their destination. Rescuing their team and getting out alive has always been the goal, but the odds are more deeply stacked against her team than Carol can even imagine. Overwhelmed and trapped in the Brood’s backyard, Captain Marvel and her team are forced to sacrifice one of their own. But the Brood let Carol through their clutches once before, and in so doing, created one of their worst enemies. They won’t make that mistake again.
This Captain Marvel/X-Men epic cosmic story is coming from Kelly Thompson, writer of Captain Marvel, with art by Juan Frigeri, and Gerry Duggan, writer of X-Men, with art by Stefano Caselli.
Created by Robert Kanigher and Carmine Infantino, Poison Ivy made her debut in Batman #181 in June 1966. She is a botanist with the power to control all plant life. Determined to protect all plants, whatever the costs, she became an “eco-terrorist of global importance,” as she calls herself.
Also known under the name Dr. Pamela Lillian Isley, Poison Ivy is also part of Batman Rogues Galleries, and one of his most famous enemies, at first juggling between wanting him to fall in love with her or kill him.
Poison Ivy walks the fine line between antagonist and antiheroine, as her several team affiliations illustrate it. She has been a member of the Injustice Gang and Secret Society of Super Villains, as well as part of the Gotham City Sirens, the Birds of Prey, and Suicide Squad.
Today, she is most famous for her partnership with her best friend, recurring ally, and love interest Harley Quinn. And like all relations in comic books, it’s complicated!
She has been featured in several adaptations of live-action, animated, and video games. She has been portrayed by Uma Thurman in the movie Batman & Robin; Clare Foley, Maggie Geha, and Peyton List in the television series Gotham, and Bridget Regan in the third season of Batwoman.
This reading order was requested by Nani, one of our readers! Don’t hesitate to leave a comment or write to us with some other suggestions!
A young character in the Star Wars Universe, Doctor Aphra made her debut in Star Wars: Darth Vader #3 in March 2015. Created by writer Kieron Gillen, artist Salavador Larroca and editors Jordan D. White and Heather Antos, she was a breakout character and soon will go to headline her own title.
Doctor Chelli Lona Aphra, called Doctor Aphra, is a criminal archaeologist who is recruited by Darth Vader to help him get an army of droids. Aphra is quickly established as an anti-heroine, a morally ambiguous and sometimes unreliable character who tends to use people to serve her own interests, but also makes mistakes that put her in grave danger. If she succeeds to stay alive, it’s simply because Aphra is quite smart and is good at improvisation.
The best way to become familiar with Aphra is, of course, to read her adventures following this Doctor Aphra reading order! For an expanded experience, check out our Star Wars Canon Comics Reading order.
Things never get easy for the X-Men. Right after A.X.E: Judgment Day and Dark Web, the Mutants are thrown into another crossover event, Sins of Sinister. This time, however, it’s an X-Men-only crossover.
The tagline is: “From his vaunted position on the Quiet Council of Krakoa, Mister Sinister has plotted and schemed. Now, at last, his plans come to fruition beyond his wildest dreams … and his darkest nightmares! Can the X-Men survive the experience? Can anyone?”
If we are to believe Marvel, Sins of Sinister is set in “a horror timeline that makes Age of Apocalypse look like the X-Men Swimsuit Special.” This story takes the Marvel Universe further and further into a dark future, dramatically escalating the stakes with each startling time jump. 10 Years … 100 Years … 1000 Years…
This crossover could be confusing because three current series are renamed for the occasion Immortal X-Men, X-Men Red, and Legion of X are—respectively—replaced by the limited series Immoral X-Men, Storm & The Brotherhood of Mutants, and Nightcrawlers.
Current X-Men writers Kieron Gillen, Al Ewing, and Si Spurrier are in charge of writing the new titles, joined by artists Paco Medina, Andrea Di Vito, and Alessandro Vitti.
Launched in 1991 by Vertigo with a miniseries, The Books of Magic is a creation of Neil Gaiman (with artists John Bolton, Scott Hampton, Charles Vess, and Paul Johnson)—and contrary to some beliefs it was not developed as a spin-off of The Sandman, even if the Endless appeared in it. In fact, it was commissioned by DC Comics as a way to highlight the already existing mystical characters in its universe.
The original miniseries introduced us to Timothy Hunter, a twelve-year-old boy who could be the most powerful magician in the world (a character inspired by T. H. White’s The Once and Future King and other classic fantasy stories). The question is: does he really want to be? To find the answer, Tim goes on a trip through the magical world, guided by John Constantine, Phantom Stranger, Mister E, and Doctor Occult, a group of magicians (aka the Trenchcoat Brigade). They want to aid Timothy in his decision.
Once the original Books of Magic miniseries concluded, the story continued with an ongoing 75-issue series by John Ney Rieber (who wrote the first 50 issues) and artists Gary Amaro, Peter Gross, and Peter Snejbjerg. We reconnected with Tim when an enigmatic man named Tamlin decided that he was the key to saving the dying world of Faerie. But exactly how Tim is supposed to do that? And who Tamlin really is? Read the book to discover the answers!
The Books of Magic ongoing series was punctuated with other miniseries, there even was a two-issue crossover miniseries with Hellblazer. Once it concluded, Tim’s story continued in a five-part miniseries by Dylan Horrocks called Names of Magic that opened the way for a new ongoing series, Hunter and the Age of Magic.
An alternate Tim Hunter was also introduced in 2004 with Si Spencer’s 15-issue series called “The Books of Magick: Life During Wartime.” Another version of Timothy was also created during the New 52 era in a Justice League Dark storyline.
In 2018, when Neil Gaiman launched a new Sandman Universe imprint, The Books of Magic was partially rebooted (by writer Kat Howard). Timothy Hunter is back to being a 12-year boy destined to be the world’s most powerful magician who has to learn how to control his burgeoning abilities as well as figuring out whom he can trust—and who wants him dead. Even if it was somewhat of a fresh start, past events were referenced.Read More »Books of Magic Reading Order, The Adventures of Tim Hunter
Spider-Man’s rogues’ gallery is composed of animal-themed characters like the Vulture, Doctor Octopus, the Lizard, the Scorpion, and plenty more, but also of people who altered—voluntarily or not—their bodies to become super-powered or who built some kind of devices to commit crimes like Sandman, Electro, Shocker, Hammerhead, Hydro-man, and of course, the Green Goblin.
Kraven the Hunter found its place in the middle of that. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko in the pages of The Amazing Spider-Man #15 (see our Spider-Man Reading Order to find the story), Kraven came to New York wanting to hunt Spider-Man. This Russian is after “the most dangerous game.”—like another famous fictional Russian big game hunter, General Zaroff.
Following recent events (with Dark Nights: Death Metal, Generations, and Future State), the DC Multiverse has expanded into a larger Omniverse, where everything was now canon. It was a way for DC to continue what was launched with Rebirth, meaning re-establishing popular past stories and relationships while retaining the new characters and simple backstories from the modern era. DC simply wants the best of both worlds!
This situation leads us to the Infinite Frontier era, where Clark Kent and his son Jonathan Kent are both Superman. Each one of them is the star of his own title, with Clark starring in Action Comics by writer Phillip Kennedy Johnson and artist Phil Hester, and Jon Kent starring in Superman: Son of Kal-El by Tom Taylor and John Timms.
During this period was also published the ongoing series Batman/Superman (vol. 2), Batman/Superman: World’s Finest, and the limited series Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, Superman ’78, Superman and the Authority, and Superman: Red & Blue.
If Nova made his first appearance in The Man Called Nova #1 (September 1976), the character originated ten years earlier by Marv Wolfman in issue #3 of his fanzine, Super Adventures.
At first, he was known as The Star, real name Denteen. He was a doctor who found a spaceship containing alien pills giving him a different superpower every five minutes. Three issues later, Wolfman and Len Wein reinvented the Star into a new hero, now a prisoner named Kraken Roo who becomes the superhero Black Nova. Black Nova’s life was short as he died in Super Adventures #9.
Black Nova was an adult wearing a black and yellow costume with 5 chest stars and a helmet antenna. There were differences alright, but no doubt that, years later, Marv Wolfman and John Romita Jr. revamped the character, with some changes to the costume and a new origin story to create Nova.
It also has to be said that Richard ‘Rich’ Rider was intended as an homage to Spider-Man (with some elements of Green Lantern). They clearly wanted to create a new character with the same essence, with his working-class origins, his tendency to banter in battle, and his inferiority complex. Though, Richard Rider was not as smart as Peter Parker, far from it, and was more of an average student
Rich was first an insecure teenager who inherited the mantle of an intergalactic Nova Centurion, became part of the Nova Corps (an intergalactic police force) and later of the New Warriors. He had to fight in a space war, experienced tragedies, loss of power, and much more.
But Richard Rider is not the only character called Nova at Marvel. There is also Samuel ‘Sam’ Alexander, who made his debut in Marvel Point One #1 (November 2011) at a point where Richard Rider was out of the picture (if we can say that). He starred in his own series beginning in 2013.
Created by Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuinness, Sam was named after Loeb’s dead son. He was a teenager living in Arizona with his family. His father was an alcoholic who talked about being a member of the Nova Corps, though Sam didn’t really believe him. It all changed when his father disappeared, discovered he was telling the truth, and put on his father’s helmet to become, in turn, a member of Nova Corps. Sam also became part of the New Warriors, the Avengers and Champions.
Let’s dive into some comics with this Nova Reading Order!
Like with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, G.I. Joe, and Transformers, IDW has been the house of the Ghostbusters comics for years–starting in 2008, the last miniseries was published in 2020. That’s a lot of miniseries, one-shots, ongoing series, and crossovers.
The Ghostbusters franchise started with the first movie directed by Ivan Reitman and written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis. It introduced us to this team of ghost hunters, professors Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz, and Egon Spengler–quickly joined by Winston Zeddemore–who had to face the evil Zuul to save New York. They became heroes and came back for a second movie, and a lot more.
The Franchise gave us some pretty successful TV animated shows, video games, books, and of course comic books. In that domain, NOW Comics and Marvel UK started publishing The Real Ghostbusters, comics based on the TV series of the same name, in the late 1980s. The Quebec-based comic company 88MPH Studios also did that in the 2000s. There even was a one-shot Manga in 2008.
And then, IDW acquired the right to publish the Ghostbusters comics and went in a different direction, forgetting the TV show to focus instead on the main continuity established by the first two movies–and the 2009 Ghostbusters: The Video Game.
