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Ghost Rider Reading Order

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Marvel introduced a western character named Ghost Rider in 1967, but he is now known as the Phantom Rider. The Ghost Rider we are talking about here made his burning entrance in 1972 in Marvel Spotlight #5 and was created by Roy Thomas, Gary Friedrich, and Mike Ploog.

The original idea behind Ghost Rider came from Gary Friedrich as he developed a villain to be used in the page of Daredevil. Intrigued, Roy Thomas decided that the character should have his own series. He even suggested that the costume should be inspired by one Elvis wore in his comeback special in 1968. Mike Ploog took their concept and designed the biker, introducing the head on fire just because he thought it looked cool.

There is more than one Ghost Rider. The first was Johnny Blaze, a stunt motorcyclist who gave his soul to Mephisto to save his adopted father’s life. After that, he discovers that he was bonded with the demon Zarathos. Now, he is forced to punish the wicked and evil as the Ghost Rider, a violent biker with a flaming head. Though, he only transformed when he is in the presence of evil.

At the beginning of the 1990s, Marvel introduced a new Ghost Rider, the young Danny Ketch. In 2014, it was the turn of Robbie Reyes, a Mexican-American resident of East Los Angeles, who’s not a biker. His ride is a muscle car.

Others became temporarily Ghost Riders, and the mythology behind the characters, as well as its history, evolved through the years. As the host or the ride changed, the Ghost Rider’s abilities also changed. Every rider is different, but the fight against Evil never stops.

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Huntress (Helena Bertinelli) Reading Order

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The Huntress is a DC Character considered part of the Bat-family. But there is also more than one Huntress in the DC Universe, though the one that interests us today is one of the most famous women to bear the name: Helena Bertinelli. She was also the last one to date to become the Huntress…

Way before Helena Bertinelli made her debut, Huntress was a recurring villainess with no name from the Golden Age. Created in the pages of Sensation Comics #68 by artist Mort Meskin and an unnamed writer in 1947, she was retconned in the Bronze Age by writer Roy Thomas.

He gave her the name Paula Brooks and built her a real backstory in Young All-Stars, a title set in DC’s Golden Age. Over the course of the series, Thomas recounted Paula’s transformation, from the superheroine to the villainess named Huntress.

During her short stint, Paula stayed an obscure character. It was a certain Helena Wayne who popularized the name Huntress during the Bronze Age. Created by Paul Levitz and Joe Staton, she made her debut in DC Super Stars #17  (1977).

The daughter of Batman and Catwoman from Earth-2, Helena became a vigilante to avenge her mother’s death and choose the code name The Huntress when she decided to continue to fight crime. Later, Helena found herself fighting against Paula Brooks and winning the right to the name Huntress in All-Star Comics #72.

She bore the name until the destruction of the DC Universe in Crisis of Infinite Earths.

Following the reboot, Helena Wayne died and her family never existed. In this new continuity, Helena Bertinelli is introduced as the Huntress.

Created by Joey Cavalieri and Joe Staton, Bertinelli was conceived at first as a new interpretation of Helena Wayne. Making her debut in The Huntress #1 in 1989, this Helena has no link with Batman/Catwoman, but was born in one of the most powerful mafia families. She became a ruthless vigilante, ready to do justice by any means necessary. It puts her at odds with Batman, and she was for a long time the black sheep in the Bat-family, before Jason Todd/Red Hood was attributed that role. Her origins have been rewritten more than once, and she became the third member of the team Birds of Prey.

She was also recently played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead in the 2020’s film Birds of Prey.

To avoid confusion with Helena Wayne, what follows is a comprehensive reading order for Helena Bertinelli.

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Thanos Reading Order

Marvel Comics supervillain Thanos made his first appearance in The Invincible Iron Man #55 (February 1973) and was created by writer-artist Jim Starlin who was then inspired by Jack Kirby’s work on DC’s New Gods. He was Marvel’s response to Darkseid (following the direction given by Roy Thomas), but he and Drax the Destroyer were inspired by Starlin’s psych classes in college.

Thanos is from Titan, Saturn’s moon, and is the son of Eternals A’lars and Sui-San. After falling in love with the physical embodiment of Mistress Death, Thanos finally became the nihilist murderous monster the universe would fear. He killed millions on Titan, but it was just the beginning. To do more, he started seeking universal power in the form of the Cosmic Cube.

His quest for powers led to the creation of his enemy Drax the Destroyer, to a confrontation with Captain Marvel and more superheroes. But his story ended… for a time. His was indeed resurrected in the 1990s when Jim Starlin launched his Infinity Saga, a classic Marvel tale of epic proportions. Thanos resumed his quest to find the Infinity Gems.

After that, Thanos became a constant menace, concocting evil plans that he always justified in a way that only make sense to him. Even defeated, he always comes back.

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Mister Miracle Reading Order

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For a few short years during the 1970s, Jack Kirby joined DC Comics and introduced revolutionary ideas that are still affecting the DCU to this day–he was not the king of comics for no reason.

His major DC work was what is called “The Fourth World,” a series of interconnected series based around a new mythology surrounding The New Gods–find more about it in our Fourth World Reading Order. Kirby mostly developed it we three titles:  New Gods, The Forever People, and Mister Miracle. The last one is the heart of our article today.

Introduced in Mister Miracle #1 (April 1971), Scott Free is the son of the sage Highfather, ruler of New Genesis, the positive counterpart to the hellish planet Apokolips ruled by Darkseid. To stop the war between the two planets, heirs were exchanged. That’s why Scott grew up in one of Granny Goodness’ “Terror Orphanages” with no knowledge of his own heritage–he still rebelled against the corrupt and violent ideology of Apokolips.

Scott joined the Resistance where he met Big Barda who would later become his wife. He also finally found an exit and fled to Earth where met circus escape artist Thaddeus Brown–whose stage name was Mister Miracle. After Thaddeus was killed, Scott took over his stage identity and became an escape artist, with the help of his assistant and friend, a dwarf named Oberon.

Of course, the war against Darkseid had not ended and, joined by Big Barda, Scott Free kept fighting. He became a hero, and eventually joined the Justice League. He died at some point, like the other New Gods, and was later resurrected too.

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Spider-Man Reading Order, The Complete and Amazing Adventures of Peter Parker

With issue #15 (May 1962), the anthology comic book Amazing Adult Fantasy was renamed Amazing Fantasy, because teenagers were not comfortable buying a book with “Adult” in the title. It was a good choice as this issue was introducing “The Spiderman,” a teenage superhero created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko who was destined to become the headliner of the book, but the Amazing Fantasy comics was canceled. As you know, Spider-Man (the hyphen was added soon after) became an instant hit and, a few months later, got his own comic book series.

The story starts with Peter Parker, a geeky high school student from Queens, New York, and an orphan who was living with his Uncle Ben and Aunt May. After being bitten by a radioactive spider at a science exhibit, Peter acquires the agility and proportionate strength of an arachnid! At first, he decided to use his heightened athletic abilities to make money as a wrestler on television. But when the thief he chose not to stop ended up being responsible for the death of his Uncle Ben, Peter learned a hurtful lesson: “With great power there must also come—great responsibility!”

From that point on, Peter Parker fought criminals, with or without superpowers. But he also struggles to help his widowed aunt pay the rent and to study at the same time. He started working as a photographer for the Daily Bugle, selling pictures of Spider-Man to its loudest opposition, newspaper publisher J. Jonah Jameson. It was difficult, but he kept on going, joining Empire State University where he met his new roommate and best friend Harry Osborn, and girlfriend Gwen Stacy—also, his aunt soon introduced him to the beautiful Mary Jane Watson.

Peter’s life is punctuated by tragedies as he fights his enemies like the Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, the Sinister Six, and a lot more. He lost friends and lovers (but gained new ones along the way). Aunt May had a lot of health issues, as well as money problems. The Marvel Universe expanded and Spider-Man had to fight cosmic entities, insect and animal-themed villains. He sometimes worked with the Fantastic Four, and the Avengers, and he teamed up with almost everybody.

With J. Jonah Jameson telling his readers that Spider-Man was a menace, Peter Parker is as much loved and hated by the public, but Marvel Comics certainly loves him as he became the most popular superhero at the company.

Spider-Man doesn’t really need an introduction. He is the most recognizable comic book hero next to Batman and one of the most popular characters in all fiction. He is the star of movies, TV shows, video games, and even a Broadway show… His face is on lunch boxes, pens, and every other thing you can put it on.

Today, we are only talking about comic books though, and there are a lot of them. We already covered the biggest part of the last thirty years in previous articles, but we are going back to the beginning.

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Thunderbolts Reading Order

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Following the events of 1996’s Onslaught, the Avengers and the Fantastic Four were declared dead. A new group of ‘superheroes’ decided to step in to help protect the world: The Thunderbolts!

Considered the equivalent of DC’s Suicide Squad, The Thunderbolts was created by Kurt Busiek and Mark Bagley and they made their first appearance in The Incredible Hulk #449 (January 1997) before the launch of their ongoing series the following month.

What seemed to be a basic superhero team then changed on the last page, when it was revealed that The Thunderbolts, led by Baron Zemo, were actually the Masters of Evil in disguise! This is known as one of the most famous twists in Marvel history.

With themes of redemption and heroism, The Thunderbolts will walk away from their evil nature, choosing to reject Baron Zemo and try to become heroes in their own right. Throughout the years, this team of anti-heroes has worked to do good things when led by Hawkeye, Luke Cage, and the Winter Soldier, but has also been used as a dangerous and malevolent force by leaders like Norman Osborn and Wilson Fisk. As you can imagine, between changes in leadership and direction, the roster of the team has changed a lot over the years.

A new version of Thunderbolts will soon be on the big screen, as a movie featuring the team will be released in 2024. Before that, you can start reading The Thunderbolts, and exploring their past (and present) history with this reading order!

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Supergirl Reading Order (Kara Zor-El, Matrix, Cir-El)

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It’s a Bird… It’s a Plane… It’s Supergirl! One of Superman’s happiest moments in life was discovering he had a long-lost living relative when Supergirl made her first appearancee in Action Comics #252 (May 1959). This was also one of the most important events in the development of the Superman Universe. Sent to Earth in a rocket by her father, Zor-El, Supergirl is Superman’s cousin from Krypton and she was chosen to star in the backup story of Action Comics even before making her debut.

The first adventures of the Girl of Steel were conceived with the idea of appealing to female readers who “were thought to be more interested in seeing a girl use super powers closer to home.” (American Comic Book Chronicles, The 1950s). While her earlier stories were clearly not as thrilling as the adventures of her more famous cousin, this was only the start for Supergirl, as the character would grow in popularity and complexity.

Since her creation, Supergirl has been killed off, replaced, rebooted, retconned and much much more. The Last Daughter of Krypton has used several names and been part of various teams, including the Legion of Super-Heroes, the Justice League, the Red Lantern Corps, and the DEO. Her history is not simple, complicated by the fact that Kara-Zor-El isn’t the only person to have taken on the mantle of Supergirl!

There’s also no doubt that the Girl of Steel gained popularity thanks to the several iterations of the character on the big and small screen. She first appeared in the film Supergirl (1984), played by Helen Slater. On TV, She has been played by Laura Vandervoort in Smallville and Melissa Benoist in the Arrowverse. Sasha Calle recently portrayed the character in The Flash (2023) while a new version of the character has been announced with Milly Alcock playing the character in Superman: Legacy (2025) and Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow (2026). Naturally, she has also appeared in several animated movies and television series!

Let’s now explore the comic book history of Supergirl, from her first appearance in Action Comics as the Supergirl from Krypton to her recent adventures in space and beyond! Check out our Supergirl Comics Order for a guide to the many stories featuring the Maid of Might!

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Elsa Bloodstone Reading Order (and Ulysses Bloodstone)

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Not everyone is a superhero in the Marvel Universe. Some are Monster Hunters! This is the case of Elsa Bloodstone who, since her first appearance in Bloodstone #1 (Dec. 2001), has made a name for herself as such.

Created by Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning, and Michael Lopez, Elsa Bloodstone is the daughter of another famous Monster Hunter, Ulysses Bloodstone, and the sister of Cullen Bloodstone. Her father was killing monsters with other monster hunters during the Bronze Age. He made a few appearances before meeting his maker, but Ulysses captured the public’s imagination and was after that still referenced in several issues. 

Today, his legacy in the Marvel Universe takes clearly the form of his children, especially Elsa. Introduced in the Bloodstone miniseries, Elsa Bloodstone could be perceived at the time as a mix between Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the adventurer Lara Croft, and didn’t make a lasting impression on readers. A few years down the line, the character was rebooted by Warren Ellis and Stuart Immonen on Nextwave: Agents of HATE, where Elsa really came into her own as a foul-mouthed and violent young woman.

Though Elsa didn’t have a specific place in the Marvel Universe at this time, she became a more prominent character in the 2010s. She was a playable character in several video games, joined the Legion of Monsters, worked with the Thunderbolts and the Defenders, teamed up with Wolverine and Deadpool, and more.

Now, she is making her debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the television special “Werewolf by Night,” where she is played by actress Laura Donnelly.

Following is an Elsa Bloodstone reading order (including information about her father Ulysses and her brother Cullen!) to help you become more familiar with the character and her family!

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Who is the Werewolf by Night? The origin story of Marvel’s lycanthrope

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1972 was a year of transitions for Marvel Comics as Stan Lee was being promoted, he started to hand over to his protégé Roy Thomas his management responsibilities, making him the new editor-in-chief of the company. It was also the time when Marvel finally passed DC in overall sales. And it was a time when superheroes were not that hot. Their popularity was not as strong and Marvel bet on diversification in order to stay relevant.

Taking advantage of the loosening of the Comics Code, Marvel launched new horror titles like The Tomb of Dracula, Ghost Rider, The Man-Thing, and Werewolf by Night, of course. Back then, Roy Thomas was trying a lot of new concepts.

It was not the first time Marvel published a Werewolf by Night story, as the title was already used once in 1953. Back then, it was just a short story collected in Marvel Tales #116. The 1970s Werewolf by Night was, however, something new, based on an idea by Roy Thomas who worked with co-plotter Jean Thomas, writer Gerry Conway, and artist Mike Ploog.

This new character was then introduced to the readers in an anthology book—like most new ones were back then—, Marvel Spotlight #2 (February 1972). The story was in three parts and, after Marvel Spotlight #4, the monster got his own ongoing series launched in September 1972. He even opened the gate for more monsters.

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Kick-Ass Comics, a Reading Guide for the Mark Millar series (including Hit-Girl)

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What would it look like to be a superhero in the real world? This is a question writer Mark Millar and artist John Romita Jr. explored in the famous Kick-Ass comic book series, originally published by Marvel Comics under the Icon Imprint, and later republished under Image Comics, between 2008 and 2019. The universe was expanded with two spin-off series, including one focusing on Hit-Girl. And it has been adapted by director Matthew Vaughn into a successful movie, followed by a less successful sequel.

But let’s go back to the beginning. Dave Lizewski is an ordinary New York teenage boy who loves superheroes. One day, he decides to cross the line, put on a costume, and become a vigilante. Soon enough, he discovers it’s very dangerous and way more real than what he reads in the comic book pages.

Despite the punch and the blood, his actions have some effects, inspiring others. And in his fight against crime, he meets the young Mindy McCready aka the ruthless Hit-Girl…

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