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The Beta Ray Bill Origin Story – Who is this alien Thor?

Looking like he is Thor with the head of a horse, Beta Ray Bill is not a multiverse variant of the Asgardian superhero. He is from the same universe and he is more than a copy or a variant of the God of Thunder.

Introduced by Walt Simonson during his famous run on Thor in 1983 in a 4-issue adventure told in The Mighty Thor #337-340, Beta Ray Bill is a Korbinite, as he comes from the planet Korbin, “Burning Galaxy.” The inhabitants of this part of space don’t look like him as he was transformed into a cybernetic being.

For Walt Simonson, the idea was to use comic tropes to subvert expectations. As he said in an interview published in The Jack Kirby Collector #14, “I designed Bill deliberately as a monster, because I knew that people would look at it and go, ‘Oh, my God, it’s this evil guy.’ I deliberately wrote them so you weren’t sure in the beginning if he was a good guy or a bad guy. His face was designed around a horse’s skull, partly because horses are quite beautiful. I thought it’d be kind of cool to have the structure of a beautiful animal underneath the monster to give this dichotomy between the monstrous and the beautiful in the same face.”

One of the most surprising elements of Beta Ray Bill’s introduction is that he can pick up Mjolnir, the most powerful weapon of the Norse gods, the one that only Thor is supposed to be worthy of using. But Bill is also worthy and, beyond the initial shock of seeing a monster-like character using Mjolnir, it proves that he is a noble warrior on par with Thor.

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Storm Reading Order, Your Ororo Munroe Comic Book Guide!

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One of the first black comic book characters, Storm is also one of the most important female superheroes in the Marvel Universe. She is a member of the X-Men, a descendant of African witch-priestesses with the ability to control the weather and atmosphere, who uses her powers to fight for peace and equal rights.

Created by Len Wein and Dave Cockrum, she made her first appearance in the classic Giant-Size X-Men #1, the famous issue introducing several new X-Men such as Wolverine (who already made his first appearance in The Incredible Hulk #181), Colossus, Thunderbird, and Nightcrawler.

Born Ororo Munroe, Storm is a powerful and strong superheroine with a love of nature. Noticeable for her striking blue eyes and silver-white hair, she is warm, generous, and protective of her friends and family but cold, frightening, and dangerous to her enemies. Recognized as an Omega Level Mutant, she has served multiple times as the leader of the X-Men. Storm has also been worshipped as a Goddess, was Queen of Wakanda, and briefly a member of the Avengers and the Fantastic Four.

Discover now our Storm reading order, guiding you through the essential comics and story arcs featuring Marvel’s iconic weather-controlling mutant!

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Arrowette: A Brief History of Archery Legacy in DC Comics

In the DC Universe, being an expert archer can lead you to live a life of many adventures. While this is mostly a choice for most of the members of the Green Arrow family, one archer in the DC Universe didn’t choose it but proved to be quite the heroine. We’re talking about the Young Arrowette, alias Cissie-King Jones.

Cissie is famously known today to be part of a strict minority of superheroes who chose to retire and stick with it. But before throwing away her bow and arrow, as she said it herself recently, she was trained by her mother Bonnie King to become one of the best archers and be skilled at hand-to-hand combat. Her mother tried her hands at heroism when she was younger under the name Miss Arrowette but had to stop it and push her daughter into a dangerous situation to live her dreams through her.

Cissie would prove to be more than capable of handling herself in dangerous situations and it’s because of her talent that we today know the name Arrowette! Her story is inherently linked to her mother’s and we today dive into the origins and history of Arrowette, from her introduction during the Silver Age to Cissie’s time in the Young Justice! 

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GTO Reading Order (Great Teacher Onizuka Manga Universe)

Not all manga are about facing demons, battling villains, or surviving the Apocalypse. For Eikichi Onizuka, it’s about becoming the world’s greatest teacher. Eikichi Onizuka is the main protagonist of Great Teacher Onizuka, sometimes simply referenced as GTO, a Japanese shōnen manga series written and illustrated by Tooru Fujisawa. While GTO is certainly the most famous manga featuring Onizuka, it is not the only one and it’s also part of a bigger media franchise.

Tooru Fujisawa started writing Eikichi’s story in the nineties, from his delinquent days as a middle schooler in Shonan to his work as a teacher at a private middle school, Holy Forest Academy and beyond. Many spin-off series were created, featuring supporting characters and other stories set in the same universe. The popularity of Great Teacher Onizuka led to several adaptations in anime and live-action.

So let’s go to class with Eikichi! As it is said, “his curriculum may not rely on the reading, writing and arithmetic but he has more than a few good lessons in personal development, fisticuffs and fun to teach a new generation of troubled teens.”

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Marvel’s Black Cat Origin Story, Not Just Another Catwoman

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As Spider-Man wasn’t the first spider-themed superhero, Black Cat wasn’t the first comic book cat-themed cat burglar with an ambiguous relationship with a famous vigilante.

Master thief Felicia Hardy was created by Marv Wolfman, Keith Pollard, and Dave Cockrum and made her first official appearance in The Amazing Spider-Man #194, in 1979. It wasn’t supposed to be her introduction as she was first drawn for the cover of Spider-Woman #9, before the story was even written. But Marv Wolfman left the book and brought his feline villain to another spider-titled series, the “amazing” one.

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15 Best Crime Comics to read, from Criminal to Sin City

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Some may think that comics are all about superheroes, but even the mask vigilantes and other overpowered costume heroes are just fighting crimes. Batman was born in the pages of Detective Comics after all, next to Slam Bradley and others. In fact, he is still doing investigating work in the street of Gotham, when he doesn’t fight super-villains.

Anyways, there have always been crime fighters in the realm of comic books, from Will Eisner’s The Spirit, pulp heroes like The Shadow, to paranormal investigators like Hellboy or Scooby-doo & co. There also are simple private detectives, cops, local sheriffs, and amateur sleuths in the pages of the Big Two comics or independent publishers–we can’t forget anthologies like Crime Suspenstories by EC comics.

If you are a dedicated reader of crime stories, you know that they come in a lot of different flavors. The following list is an attempt at covering the spectrum of the crime genre in comics with what is among the best series published. You can add to it by leaving a comment!

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Batman Dawn of DC Reading Order

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Following the events of the 2022 crossover events Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths and Lazarus Planet, DC Comics put an end to its publishing initiative known as the Infinite Frontier to launch the Dawn of DC line. Introduced as a yearlong storytelling initiative, it became another era of the DC Universe with its relaunches and crossover events.

Like with Infinite Frontier, new creative teams had already taken over the main Batman series before the new ‘era’ began, and they continued to tell their story without much interruption. The Dark Knight continues his adventures in Batman by Chip Zdarsky and Jorge Jimenez, Detective Comics by Ram V and Rafael Albuquerque (and others), Batman/Superman: World’s Finest by Mark Waid and Dan Mora, but also in new volumes of Batman: The Brave and the Bold by Tom King, and Batman and Robin by Joshua Williamson and Simone di Meo.

The Dawn of DC era is developing an overarching narrative that focuses on Amanda Waller’s last nefarious plan. Also, the Justice League didn’t reform following the events of the Dark Crisis. Overall, Batman is not at the center of the big story but still has plenty to do.

Of course, as it is always the case, the following guide is mostly about Batman, but the Bat-Family is also featured. Nevertheless, their books are not necessarily included. Though, you can find them on their dedicated pages: Nightwing, Tim Drake, Damian Wayne, Jason Todd, Cassandra Cain, Stephanie Brown, Barbara Gordon, Batwoman, Catwoman, Harley Quinn, and Terry McGinnis (The Batman Beyond).

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The Origins of Man-Bat, a formidable friend… or foe of the Batman

In 1964, the Batman titles got a “New Look,” but as 1969 ended, it already faded and change was again needed as both Batman and Detective Comics didn’t sell that much anymore. Artist Neal Adams was motivated to bring the Caped Crusader back onto a darker gothic path and worked with writer Frank Robbins—and occasionally Denny O’Neil—toward this goal.

One of the creative highlights of the Adams and Robbins collaboration in 1970 was in the pages of Detective Comics #400 with the introduction of Man-Bat.

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Who is Azrael, Batman’s Ally?

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In 1992, DC Comics published a four-part miniseries titled “The Sword of Azrael,” written by Dennis O’Neil–the editor of the Batman line–and penciled by Joe Quesada. At the time, readers thought it was just another inconsequential adventure of Batman, not knowing that the introduction of the character Azrael was part of a bigger plan that would come to fruition with the Knightfall storyline.

Azrael, Vengeful Angel of the Order of St. Dumas

When Jean-Paul Valley’s father is mortally shot by a gangster he was sent to kill, he gives his son instructions to follow before dying. This led Jean-Paul to Switzerland where he had a rendezvous in a tiny mountain village to meet his destiny. There, a small man dressed as a monk named Nomoz becomes his new teacher. His brutal training starts.

Jean-Paul Valley is to become the new Azrael, the deadly Angel working to protect the Order of St. Dumas–a secret society/religious organization with a long history, dating back to the Crusades, that was originally connected to the Knights Templar. What he doesn’t know is that he was conditioned to take on this role from birth as were his father and ancestors.

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Superman: New Krypton Saga Reading Order

Fifteen years ago, The World of Superman was shaken up by a big crossover story arc involving all the Superman titles in what is called The World of New Krypton – more often reduced to New Krypton. Following the events of Geoff Johns’ Brainiac arc and James Robinson’s Atlas arc on Superman, The Man of Steel must deal with the death of his adoptive father and the fact that 100,000 Kryptonians are now living on Earth, seeing the planet as the New Krypton!

To be more specific, as DC Comics’ official synopsis said ‘The Man of Steel learns that a piece of his home planet Krypton survived – the shrunken, bottled city of Kandor! And when the city is grown to normal size, it looks like Superman finally has the connection to his past he’s been missing all his life as thousands of Kryptonians are suddenly able to walk the Earth. But his happiness soon turns to dread as relations between the Kryptonians and humans dissolve, and the two cultures face a massive clash!’

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