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Marvel Civil War Reading Order, the first one

This article is not about the Captain America movie, of course. It’s about the huge Marvel event published between May 2006 and February 2007. Written by Mark Millar and penciled by Steve McNiven, Civil War is one of the most famous events of the 2000s. It changed a lot, for a short period of time.

Everything started during a televised raid of a house by the New Warriors. Their goal was to apprehend villains that had recently escaped from prison. When Nitro let off a massive explosion that killed the majority of the New Warriors and the children at a nearby elementary school, something had to change.

The U.S. Government proposed the Superhuman Registration Act, intending to register all super-powered beings as living weapons of mass destruction and requiring all costumed heroes to unmask themselves before the government and subject themselves to federally mandated standards.

Heroes had to choose between rallying behind either Iron Man’s pro-registration forces or Captain America’s opposition. The Civil War began.

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Blackest Night Reading Order (a DC Comics event)

Coming from the creative team of Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis, Blackest Night was the massive DC Comics crossover event of 2009-10. It was the culmination of a lot of ideas developed by Johns during his celebrated run on Green Lantern.

Here is the official synopsis: “The Prophecy of the Blackest Night has come to pass—a mysterious force is raising deceased heroes and villains into an army of undead Black Lanterns!

The combined might of the Green Lantern Corps and an armada of living superbeings must now band together in a fight quite literally for their lives. As the war between the different colored Lantern Corps rages on, the prophecy of the Blackest Night descends and it’s up to Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps to lead DC’s greatest champions in a battle to save the Universe from an army of undead Black Lanterns made up of fallen Green Lanterns and DC’s deceased heroes and villains.”

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Infinity Reading Order: The Marvel Event by Jonathan Hickman, a Comic Reading List

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Infinity Reading Order: The Marvel Event by Jonathan Hickman, a Comic Reading List

Written by Jonathan Hickman with artwork by a rotating team of artists including Jim Cheung, Jerome Opeña, and Dustin Weaver, “Infinity” is a 2013 cosmic-size crossover storyline (during Marvel NOW!) set primarily around Avengers and New Avengers.

The Mad Titan Thanos makes his world-shattering return, and his armies fire the opening shots of a galactic war that will be fought both on Earth and in deep space – with our heroes caught between both battles! As every Origin Site on Earth goes active, the Builders enter the Marvel Universe. But can the Avengers win a war against the Builders and Thanos on two different fronts?

What to read before Infinity?

To prepare for “Infinity”, Marvel collected multiple stories from multiple older comics in Infinity Incoming! Let’s notice the effort, here!

  • Infinity Incoming!
    Collects Inhumans Vol. 2 #2, Thanos Rising #1, Avengers Vol. 5 #1-2, New Avengers Vol. 3 #2, and material from Thor Vol. 1 #146-149

More importantly, to have a better understanding of team dynamics, just read the first issues of Avengers and New Avengers by Hickman:

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Jupiter’s Legacy Reading Order: How to read Mark Millar and Frank Quitely’s comics series?

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Jupiter’s Legacy Reading Order

More than a decade after their last collaboration on The Authority, superstar author Mark Millar and artist Frank Quitely are working together again to bring us Jupiter’s Legacy, a complex story of superheroes, family, justice, and power.

Composed of two interconnected series, Jupiter’s Legacy and the prequel Jupiter’s Circle, this story began at the beginning of the 1930s with a group of young Americans finding powers and using it to make America great. Years later, the new generation of superheroes doesn’t share their way of thinking and conflict emerges that will change the fate of humanity.

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DC Future State Reading Order, The DC Comics event that will define the future

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It’s a new year. It’s a new DC continuity. It’s a new future! It was supposed to be a massive reboot named G5, but things changed and it’s now Future State a two-month event spinning out of the finale of Dark Nights: Death Metal (Reading Order) that takes us on a journey from the near future to the end of time to witness the destinies of DC’s heroes.

It’s a future full of surprises for Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, the Justice League, the Teen Titans, and so many more. A future that will see new and younger heroes taking the place of the ones we know. A future that will lead them to hostile territories. A future that will help define a different present.

DC Future State is a collection of 25 miniseries. Most of them are two-issue tales (but some are four-issue stories).

What to read before DC Future State?

As the Dark Nights: Death Metal event (Reading Order) is ending, a new future take form. At the end of Dark Nights: Death Metal #7, there is not one, but two epilogues that are leading us into a new world, one of them is the DC Future State world.

The DC Future State event is—in theory—self contained (a bit like Age of Apocalypse). You’re not really required to read anything outside of it.

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X-Men Age of Apocalypse Reading Order

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Age of Apocalypse Reading Order

Ambitious was 1995 X-Men’s crossover storyline, that’s the least we can say. Like The Clone Saga (reading order), “Age of Apocalypse” became an era-defining moment in the Marvel Universe. With this event was published new X-Men related mini series including X-Calibre, Gambit and the X-Ternals, Generation Next, Astonishing X-Men, Amazing X-Men, Weapon X, Factor X, X-Man, and X-Universe.

Everything began when the mutant known as Legion traveled back in time with the intention to kill Magneto before he can commit multiple crimes against humanity. But instead of Magneto, Legion accidentally kills his own father, Professor Charles Xavier. That tragedy led to a catastrophic change in the timeline. Without Professor X, Apocalypse was able to attack 10 years sooner than he did in the original timeline. He took control of Earth and, from that point on, nothing was the same as before. The victory of Apocalypse is not complete. He’s still opposed by several factions of mutant resistance. One group manages to send the mutant Bishop back in time to prevent the murder of Professor Xavier, undoing the entire timeline.

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Hawkeye Kate Bishop Reading Order: Where to start with the Superior Hawkeye?

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For a moment, Marvel was really all about legacy characters. The result was not necessarily memorable, but there are exceptions like Kate Bishop, the second Hawkeye.

Kate is heir to the Bishop fortune, being the daughter of publishing magnate Derek Bishop. Sometime after her mother died, Kate was attacked in Central Park. Following that event, she began to train hard and started to school herself in the arts of archery and other types of combats. She was determined to help others.

When Kate met the Young Avengers during her older sister’s wedding—when gunmen took the entire church hostage—she decided with Cassie Lang to join the team and that’s where her new career started. Now, she’s a legitimate hero, fighting alone, with a team, or with Clint Barton, the original Hawkeye.

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The Wicked + The Divine ‘WicDiv’ Reading Order (included the Specials), by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie

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The Wicked and the Divine Reading Order

Created by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie, and published by Image Comics, The Wicked + The Divine is a contemporary fantasy comic book series that follows a young teenage girl, Laura, as she interacts with the Pantheon, a group of twelve people who discover that they are reincarnated deities.

It is said that each cycle of The Pantheon will not live past two years from the start of the series and that every 90 years the Pantheon is reincarnated. This cycle is known as the Recurrence. But remember: just because you’re immortal, doesn’t mean you’re going to live forever.

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Batman: Joker War Reading Order, a Batman event by James Tynion IV

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Batman: Joker War Reading Order

Written by James Tynion IV and illustrated by Jorge Jimenez, Batman: The Joker War is taking us to issue #100 of the series with a story in which The Clown Prince of Crime and the Dark Knight Detective go head-to-head for the last time.

So, here is the official synopsis: The Joker has never wanted to win before, he’s never wanted his battle with Batman to end, but now his motivation has shifted. As The Joker’s plan to assemble an army materializes, the only person who can save Batman from the brink of true madness is Harley Quinn. And while all this is happening, the villains of Gotham City are waiting out the carnage Joker has unleashed—and Catwoman assembles an army of her own!

What to read before Batman: Joker War?

  • Batman: Their Dark Designs
    Collects Batman #86-94. This is the previous storyline written by James Tynion IV, which took place before the Joker War. It’s a new day in Gotham City, but not the same old Batman. With Bane vanquished and one of his longtime allies gone, Batman has to start picking up the pieces and stepping up his game. Batman has a new plan for Gotham City, but he’s not the only one. Deathstroke has returned as well, under a mysterious new contract that could change everything.

You can also find a little bit of a prelude to the Joker War in the following issues, showing Joker preparing for the War. These storylines are optional:

  • Detective Comics #1022-1024
  • Nightwing #71-73

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Age of Ultron Reading Order, a post-apocalyptic future Marvel Event

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More than the title of an Avenger movie, Age of Ultron is a crossover storyline by Brian Michael Bendis, with artists Bryan Hitch and Brandon Peterson. Published in 2013, it consisted of 10-issue core miniseries and a number of tie-in books.

Submit or perish! The artificial intelligence known as Ultron has fought for years to eradicate mankind…and now, it has all but succeeded. The few remaining heroes are battered, broken, almost beaten, and left considering desperate measures – some more desperate than others. But when Wolverine breaks ranks and pursues his own plan to defeat Ultron, will his drastic action cause more problems than it solves?

What to read before Age of Ultron?

You will hear voices telling you you waste your time reading Age of Ultron, an event that doesn’t require a lot of preparation thanks to its self-contained nature.

That said, some great stories have been written with Ultron, worth checking out, more than the event itself :

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