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Infinity Saga Reading Order, Jim Starlin’s epic

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Jim Starlin’s epic saga is a trilogy of Marvel Cosmic events published at the beginning of the 1990s – that’s why The Infinity Saga is also known as The Infinity Trilogy.

Everything started when Starlin began writing Silver Surfer in 1990 (with art by Ron Lim) and started a story with Thanos that culminated in the first spin-off limited series of the trilogy. Here is the beginning of the story:

For the Mad Titan, Thanos, the Infinity Gauntlet was the Holy Grail — the ultimate prize to be coveted above all else. With it came omnipotence: the absolute control of all aspects of time, space, power, reality, mind, and soul. But his gaining of supreme might mean the beginning of a black nightmare for the entire universe. Now, on the edge of Armageddon and led by the mysterious Adam Warlock, Earth’s superheroes join in a desperate attempt to thwart this nihilistic god’s insane plunge into galactic self-destruction. Should the heroes fail, the astral gods of the universe wait to step into the fray.

What to read before the Infinity Saga?

If you want some background, Jim Starlin introduced a number of important characters and relationship elements related to the Marvel Cosmic Universe in Warlock:

The quest that led to Infinity Gauntlet began in Silver Surfer! Back from the dead, Thanos is after the power to bring the rest of the universe with him on a return trip! Can the Silver Surfer, Drax the Destroyer, and others stop the cosmic iconoclast before he uses reality as a token of his affection for Death?

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Moon Knight Reading Order

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Created by Doug Moench and Don Perlin in 1975, Marc Spector (alias Moon Knight) was born in Chicago, Illinois, the Jewish-American son of a rabbi. But Marc refused to follow in his father’s footsteps. Instead, he became a boxer before joining the Marines. Later, he worked for the CIA and as a mercenary.

It’s during a mission gone wrong in Egypt that Spector is left for dead at the feet of an idol to the Egyptian god Konshu, moon god and protector of travelers at night. Konshu resurrected Marc, giving him for the occasion enhanced physical abilities, making him the moon’s “knight of vengeance,” the “fist of Khonshu.”

Back in the United States, Spector becomes the crime fighter Moon Knight and creates other identities to help him gain information and navigate between different social circles to fulfill his missions. He uses four other identities: billionaire businessman Steven Grant, taxicab driver Jake Lockley, red-haired little girl Inner Child, and suited consultant Mr. Knight. It is later revealed Marc Spector has dissociative identity disorder, due to childhood trauma or the result of “brain damage”, depending on the story.

To know more about Moon Knight, his crime-fighting activities, and other personalities, follow the guide…

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Dead Boy Detectives Reading Order, From the Sandman Universe

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Neil Gaiman’s Sandman (reading order here) led to the creation of multiple spin-offs, not all became as successful as Lucifer (reading order here). It was the case with The Dead Boy Detectives, two young sleuths that are also ghosts.

Created by Gaiman and artist Matt Wagner in Sandman #25, The Dead Boy Detectives are Charles Rowland and Edwin Paine. Edwin was murdered at his boarding school in 1916 and he went to Hell. But when Hell was emptied of its residents, Edwin and the souls of past teachers and pupils came back to the boarding school when Charles and a few teachers stayed for the holidays.

They didn’t survive and Charles became a ghost, like Edwin. The two boys decided to forego going to the afterlife with Death and became detectives investigating crimes involving the supernatural.

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Spider-Island Reading Order

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Even if Spider-Man is the most popular Marvel superhero, the events centered around him are not as regular as we may think. There are a few though, like 2011’s Spider-Island written by Dan Slott with art by Humberto Ramos.

Here is the official synopsis: Between keeping New York City safe as Spider-Man, being a member of two Avengers teams and the FF, and his day job at Horizon Labs, Peter Parker’s life is as crazy as it’s ever been. And it’s about to get even crazier.

Welcome to Spider-Island, where a million New Yorkers suddenly possess Spider-Man’s powers – but none of the responsibility! Can Spidey play world-saving superhero while the Big Apple gets eaten alive from the inside out when he’s suddenly not quite so special? When he’s surrounded by a million people just as powerful as him? When even his girlfriend is web-swinging through the city? And just wait until you meet J. Jonah Jameson, the Spectacular Spider-Mayor!

What to read before Spider-Island?

Being the first event of the Dan Slott era, there were not a lot of Spider-Man books prior to it. You can take a look at our The Amazing Spider-Man by Dan Slott Reading Order for a full listing.

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Injustice Reading Order, A DC Comics Alternate Universe Where Superman Goes Bad

During the last ten years, DC found real success in the video game market, as we already have seen with the Batman: Arkham franchise. However, it’s not the only game to introduce a widely popular alternate version of the DC Universe.

A few years after the release of Batman: Arkham Knight, NetherRealm Studios launched the fighting game Injustice: Gods Among Us in 2013. A comic book series, serving as a prequel to the game, was published beforehand. Initially written by Tom Taylor (and later by Brian Buccellato), the series featured artwork by Jheremy Raapack, Mike S. Miller, Bruno Redondo, Tom Derenick, and others.

We all know that the Joker could blow up the world and Batman would still not kill him. But what about Superman? Injustice explores what happens when Superman does what Batman would never do and decides to start ruling the world. To be more precise, “when the Man of Steel couldn’t protect those he held most dear, he decided being a hero wasn’t enough. To truly save this world, he would have to abandon his philosophy as the Big Blue Boy Scout and become the ruler he felt humankind needed. Facing a god among men, only one person stands between Superman and ultimate power: the Dark Knight.”

Explore the world of Injustice with our reading guide to this alternate reality where Superman turns bad!

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X-Factor Reading Order

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Launched in 1986 by Bob Layton and Jackson Guice as a spin-off from the X-Men franchise, X-Factor was a team formed by the five original X-Men – Angel, Beast, Cyclops, Jean Grey (Marvel Girl), and Iceman – in response to the outlaw status of the then-current X-Men team.

The five original members X-Men disassociate with the current team because Professor X had placed Magneto as its leader. Quickly, they decide to set up a business advertised as mutant-hunters for hire in New York City, pretending to be “normal” (non-superpowered) humans to their clients. Eventually, the X-Factor team decides that the “mutant hunter” angle was bad for everybody and stops. Louise Simonson took over the title (with art by Walt Simonson) and quickly introduced Apocalypse and other major elements of the X-Mythos.

At that time, the series was massively connected to the other X-Titles and events. In 1991, the original members of X-Factor rejoined the main X-Men team. Marvel didn’t kill the title though. Peter David became the main writer (with art by Larry Stroman) and began by reintroducing X-Factor with new members (with Havok, Multiple Man, Polaris, Quicksilver, Strong Guy, Valerie Cooper, and Wolfsbane).

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Astro City Reading Order, Kurt Busiek’s classic comi book series

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Created and written by Kurt Busiek, the Astro City comic book series is an American superhero anthology comics (mostly) illustrated by Brent Anderson (of X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills’ fame), with character designs and painted covers by Alex Ross.

The series debuted under Image Comics’ Homage imprint in 1995 before changing publishers–it moved to WildStorm when Jim Lee’s imprint was sold to DC Comics and, in 2013, it was relaunched as part of DC’s Vertigo Comics before continuing under DC’s main publishing line. Now, it is back at Image Comics.

Composed of three volumes, some miniseries, and special issues, the Astro City comics are about the superheroes of the City, a mid-sized American metropolis, and the citizens who are affected by the many super-beings who live there since the end of World War I. It’s an exploration of the relationship between society and heroes, and how they shape each other.

It was seen as a modern reinvention of the genre, an exploration of the possibilities coming with a shared universe as Astro City is home to an entire original superhero universe, with its own history, legacy characters, and classic superhero archetypes.

While individual issues often tell complete stories, they contribute to a larger mythos. Kurt Busiek uses the comic book series to deconstruct and celebrate superhero storytelling, blending Silver and Bronze Age sensibilities with modern storytelling depth. Due to its anthological format, you can easily jump into the Astro City comics at any point.

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Milk Wars Reading Order, a DC/Young Animal crossover

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Milk Wars Reading Order (DC/Young Animal crossover)

DC’s Young Animal is a pop-up imprint launched in 2016 in collaboration with Gerard Way, musician and writer of the Umbrella Academy with the purpose of relaunching characters with a more experimental approach. It gives us four ongoing series: Doom Patrol, Shade the Changing Girl, Cave Carson Has a Cybernetic Eye, and Mother Panic.

In the middle of 2018, those four titles entered in collision with the mainstream DC Universe thanks to the Milk Wars event, a crossover with the Justice League, when the inter-dimensional corporation Retconn hijacked the DC Continuity with the goal to make the whole DC Universe more wholesome.

What to read before Milk Wars?

There is no pre-requisite reading for the Justice League, as the story has no connection with what was happening at the time for our heroes. For them, it doesn’t occupy a particular place in the timeline. That’s not the case for the Young Animals’ characters. The Milk Wars event takes place after volume 2 of each title — Doom Patrol’s story leads directly into the event.

With that said, it is a self-contained event supposedly new reader-friendly. Will it be confusing? Probably, but chances are it’ll still be even with prior reading due to the nature of the story itself.

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Marvel Cosmic Reading Order, The Modern Saga by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning (2004-2011)

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Marvel Cosmic Reading Order

What is called “Marvel Cosmic” is mostly every story in the Marvel Universe not connected to Earth. It’s not the perfect definition, because it’s more about what’s connected to Thanos, The Guardian of the Galaxy, Nova, The Silver Surfer, and others. Well, it’s still not a very good definition. Today, we are talking about the cosmic saga that started in 2004 with the crossover event Annihilation. Orchestrated by Keith Giffen, this storyline relaunched most of the outer-space series from Marvel.

It was just the beginning as one crossover event led to the other, from Annihilation to Annihilation: Conquest, to War of Kings, to Realm of Kings to Annihilators. A huge saga that was overseen by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning that reintroduced Nova & the Nova Corps, The Guardian of the Galaxy, and Ronan the Accuser. A captivating and epic story without the usual big names of the Marvel Universe.

We already published individual reading orders for the three main events (Annihilation, Annihilation: Conquest, and War of Kings), but here is a complete guide from that era.

What to read before the Marvel Cosmic Saga?

If you want to take a look back at the origins of some of the main characters used in the coming Annihilation saga, Marvel published a book for you:

  • Annihilation Classic
    Collects Bug #1, Tales To Astonish #13, Nova #1, Quasar #1, Rocket Raccoon #1-4, Marvel Spotlight #6, Logan’s Run #6, Marvel Premiere #1.

You can also explore the previous Marvel Cosmic Sage with our Jim Starlin’s Infinity Saga Reading Order.

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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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