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Harrow County Reading Guide to Cullen Bunn’s Horror series

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Published by Dark Horse Comics, Harrow County is an Eisner-nominated horror fantasy tale created by Cullen Bunn and Tyler Crook that originally began as a serialized prose story called “Countless Haints” written by Bunn and released on his website. A lot changed when the story was repurposed with artist and co-creator Tyler Crook, so here is the synopsis:

Emmy always knew that the woods surrounding her home crawled with ghosts and monsters. But on the eve of her eighteenth birthday, she learns that she is connected to these creatures–and to the land itself–in a way she never imagined.

The original Harrow County series ended after 32 issues in 2008, but now the series has come back as Tales from Harrow County, and there are multiple editions. Here is a guide to help you navigate all this.

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Lois Lane: From her comic book creation to the iconic journalist movie and TV icon

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Lois Lane

Created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster in 1938, Lois Lane is now one of the most iconic characters in comics, which is no small feat for a woman introduced as a counterpart and love interest to Superman and his alter ego Clark Kent.

During the past 80 years, the character has lived through numerous crises and evolved with her time. If she is famously known as one of the greatest reporters in the DC universe, she worked hard to have that title, beginning as a sob sister, having scoops stolen by Clark Kent, and at some times, confined to the role of the jealous girlfriend.

Lois Lane will rise to the challenge, helped by TV and movie adaptations, to go beyond what was expected of women of her time, to be an inspiring tough, ambitious, fearless woman who never gives up. Here are a few facts about Lois Lane, from her creation to her prolific career on screen:

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Avengers & X-Men: AXIS Reading Order

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Avengers & X-Men: AXIS Reading Order

Avengers & X-Men: AXIS, also just called AXIS, is a 2014 Marvel Event written by Rick Remender and penciled by Adam Kubert, Leinil Francis Yu, Terry Dodson, and Jim Cheung. This event put the Avengers, the X-Men, and a group of villains against Red Skull after he succeeded to harness the powers of Onslaught and the recently deceased Professor Xavier.

From Marvel Official synopsis: The Red Onslaught is broadcasting waves of telepathic hate across the globe, and Marvel’s greatest heroes have turned on their moral axis! What will the Avengers and X-Men find in the Red Skull’s bleak re-education camps? What is Tony Stark’s dark secret? And with the heroes “inverted” to evil, who will stand against them? Witness the good go bad, as AXIS turns the Marvel Universe on its head! 

What to read before Avengers & X-Men: AXIS?

following the conclusion of the Avengers vs. X-Men, a superhero team composed of members of the Avengers and X-Men came together, known as the Avengers Unity Squad. This team has been created by Rick Remender and John Cassaday in the title Uncanny Avengers, their stories can be used as a build-up towards the event.

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Invasion! Reading Order, a DC Crossover Event

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DC Invasion Reading Order

Published in late 1988-early 1989 by DC Comics, Invasion! is crossover event plotted by Keith Giffen (from Justice League International) with the main series scripted by Bill Mantlo (with art from Todd McFarlane, Bart Sears, and Giffen). It was the biggest DC event since Crisis on Infinite Earths, and it was about the heroes of Earth facing a massive Alien invasion. It is now known for its introduction of the metagene as the explanation within the DC Universe as to how some people gain superhuman abilities. Also, it’s the inspiration for the 2016 TV crossover event between the series from the Arrowverse on The CW.

Here is the official synopsis: Resilient. Overpowering. Unstoppable. By their very nature, our planet’s superheroes have become a threat to the rest of the universe. Now, an alliance has formed between the fiercest, most calculating alien races (led by the war-like Dominators and Khunds) to pursue a single goal: the elimination of Earth’s guardians. As war erupts all over the world, Superman leads the charge against these would-be alien conquerors. Can our planet’s greatest champions repel an army of invaders, each with the strength to rival the Man of Steel? One thing is certain: surrender is not an option!

What to read before Invasion?

You don’t really need to read anything specific before Invasion!, but these (optional) issues contain minor references to the event to come.

  • Wonder Woman (vol. 2) Annual #1 & #24
  • Adventures of Superman #448
  • The Flash (vol. 2) #20
  • Swamp Thing (vol. 2) #80
  • Spectre (vol. 2) #22

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Grimm Fairy Tales Presents: Wonderland, a Comic Reading Order from the Zenescope Universe

Let’s Go Down The Rabbit Hole and return to Wonderland to discover a new version of Alice and her family in the Grimm Fairy Tales universe from Zenescope.

Taking inspiration from Lewis Carroll’s children’s book, Wonderland was the first Grimm Fairy Tales spin-off and one of the realms of this Multiverse, alongside Myst, Neverland, Oz and Earth. It’s a realm of wonder and imagination, full of gore and violence. Zenescope puts its own dark spin on it, following the adventures of the Liddle family — with Alice, Calie and Violet.

The following books take place in the Zenescope universe where you can also meet Dorothy Gale, Robyn Hood and Van Helsing, but the stories are, generally, independent (with a few connections with the Grimm Fairy Tales series with some events and a few storylines)
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Azrael Reading Order (aka Jean-Paul Valley)

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Introduced in Batman: Sword of Azrael #1 (October 1992), Azrael is a DC Comics character created by Denny O’Neil, Joe Quesada, and Peter Milligan. When we met Jean-Paul Valley, he was a Gotham University graduate student and his father had just died and made him his successor in the Sacred Order of St. Dumas.

He became their warrior known as the vigilante Azrael. He was not an enemy of Batman and eventually joined him and his allies in their fight to protect Gotham City—he also played a controversial role during the Knightfall event.

We later discovered that Jean-Paul was created by “Mother,’ a villain who worked with the Order of St. Dumas. For a time, Azrael did the dirty work the Order needed him to do, but Nightwing put him on the right path so he could help people. He then started to fight crime.

Azrael is an antihero, a conflicted warrior who fights his violent nature and the twisted sense of justice forced on him by his indoctrination in the Order. Because of that, he had to earn his place in the BatFamily, and he often has to prove he is good enough to keep it.

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Robin War Reading Order

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Robin War Reading Order

Published by DC Comics between December 2015 to January 2016, Robin War is a crossover event featuring most of the incarnations of Batman’s crime-fighting partner, Robin, including Damian Wayne, Tim Drake, Jason Todd, and the original, Dick Grayson. It was set during that time when Commissioner Gordon replaced Batman by using a robotic Bat-suit (see Batman New 52 or Batman by Snyder & Capullo) and the We Are Robin movement put the spotlight on the young crimefighters.

Here is the official synopsis: In a Gotham City turned upside down, Robin has become more than a single hero—Robin is a movement. With Bruce Wayne sidelined and the Batman co-opted by the police, a legion of teens are putting on the yellow “R” and following in the footsteps of their crime-fighting icons. But all it takes is one tragic accident for everything to go wrong. And when it does, the crackdown on the Robins is swift and merciless. Now, all of the original Boy Wonders—Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Tim Drake and Damian Wayne—are back in Gotham, determined to save the kids who have taken up their legacy.

This Robin War is not as spontaneous as it seems. From their shadowy lair, Gotham’s oldest and most powerful secret society is manipulating all sides of the conflict—and not even those who trained for years with the World’s Greatest Detective can guess the true purpose behind the Court of Owls’ intricate plan—for more information about the Court here.

What to read before Robin War?

As the Robin War event is connected to the Court of Owls, I invite you to take a look at our reading guide dedicated to this secret society. But the essential is:

Before reading Robin War, you may want to be up-to-date with the new “Robins” group. It’s in the pages of the We are Robin series.

Optional, but if you want to know more about Gordon as Batman, take a look at Batman, Vol. 8: Superheavy, Pt. 1.

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Love and Rockets Reading Order, by the Hernandez brothers

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Love and Rockets is a long-running comic series written by Gilbert and Jamie Hernandez that began in 1981 with a self-published issue edited by their brother Mario. It’s kind of an anthology with science fiction or magical-realist elements, each brother working independently from the other, so there are two stories and more following a large cast of characters throughout their lives.

On Jaime’s side, it’s been one long story named Locas for the last decades about Maggie Chascarrillo and Hopey Glass, two young, queer women living in a fictional California town called Hoppers and their transition into adult life—Maggie and her friends and family have aged in real-time.

On Gilbert’s side, there are more ongoing stories and some short stories too—often infused with magical realism. The bigger one is Palomar & Luba about a poor fictional Central American town and the inhabitants like the hammer-wielding matriarch Luba, the midwife-turned-sheriff Chelo, Fritz the (sometimes X-rated) actress, and many more.

Gilbert and Jaime’s work can be read independently.

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X-Force Reading Order (including Uncanny X-Force & X-Statix)

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X-Force Reading Order

In 1991, the first volume of New Mutants (see the reading order) just ended, but Rob Liefield jumped to a new series called X-Force (introduced in New Mutants #100) with the help of writer Fabian Nicieza. In the beginning, this new (and more military) team included Boom-Boom, Cable, Cannonball, Domino, Feral, Shatterstar, Warpath, and Siryn.

But what is X-Force about? Here is the official synopsis of the beginning of the series. Beset from all sides by a growing roster of vicious foes, the New Mutants and their mysterious mentor Cable have no choice but to transform into a proactive, butt-kicking, take-no-prisoners mutant strike team! But can the new X-Force survive head-on clashes with Deadpool, the Morlocks, Proteus, Stryfe and his Mutant Liberation Front, the Juggernaut, the new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, and…S.H.I.E.L.D.? 

Being part of the X-Men Universe, you can find how to read X-Force with the other X-series in our complete X-Men Reading Order.

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DC One Million Reading Order

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Dc One Million Reading Order

Get ready to go to the 853rd Century! DC One Million was a 1998 event written by Grant Morrison and drawn by Val Semeiks set a million issues in the future – meaning, in the 853rd Century 

In this possible future, Earth remains safe, thanks to the heroics of the JLA of the future. The descendants of Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, and others remain united in combating forces of evil but perhaps have never met anything as deadly as the sentient super-computer Solaris, the Tyrant Sun. As this villainous threat becomes too much to handle, these heroes of the future turn to the only group they know can help: the original JLA.

The core of the event was a four-issue mini-series, and the thirty-four other series then being published by DC also put out a single issue numbered #1,000,000, which either showed its characters’ involvement in the central plot or gave a glimpse of what its characters’ descendants/successors would be doing in the 853rd century.

What to read before DC One Million?

DC One Million is a stand-alone event, meaning that you don’t need any pre-plot knowledge before diving into it.

It takes place during Grant Morrison’s run (see reading order) and more precisely, after JLA #23, as the final two pages of this issue lead into the story. But, those famous two pages have almost never been included in the several reprints (from JLA: Strength in Numbers trade paperback to the digital version available on ComiXology to even the DC One Million Omnibus hardcover or trade paperback collections). 

If you want to read those two pages (which includes the return of Diana as the team’s Wonder Woman), you will have to get hold of JLA Deluxe Edition Vol. 3 hardcover. 

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