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Donald Duck’s Family Tree: Who’s Who, from Grandma Duck to Scrooge McDuck?

One of Don Rosa’s most notorious illustrations is the Duck Family Tree, a genealogical representation of Donald Duck’s family. Being one of the most influential writers/artists to have contributed to the development of the mythology surrounding the legendary Scrooge McDuck and his relatives, Rosa added more than a few ducks to the tree. Of course, the one who really planted the seed and helped it grow to a massive size was Carl Barks.

Their stories are classics—and you can take a look at our reading order for the Fantagraphics collection to see if you missed some of them—and took us through time and around the world more than once. During the small and big adventures of Donald, Scrooge, Huey, Dewey, and Louie, we met more Ducks, MacDucks, Coots, Gooses, and Ganders.

But who are all those characters who are represented in the famous “Duck Family Tree”?

Read More »Donald Duck’s Family Tree: Who’s Who, from Grandma Duck to Scrooge McDuck?

Cloak and Dagger Reading Order (Tyrone Johnson and Tandy Bowen)

Created by Bill Mantlo and Ed Hannigan, Cloak and Dagger is a Marvel superhero duo that came into the scene more than 40 years ago, in Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #64 (March 1982). They are teenagers who were injected with a synthetic heroin that granted them the dual ability to control both light and dark forces.

Cloak and Dagger represent two opposites, from their powers to their backgrounds. Tyrone “Ty” Johnson is a young man from Boston suffering from a chronic stutter and who felt responsible for the death of his best friend after they both witnessed a robbery and Tyrone was unable to talk and defend his best friend to a police officer. Following this tragic event, he ran away to New York where he met Tandy Bowen.

Like Ty, Tandy ran away from home, but she comes from a completely different background. She left behind her privileged upbringing, as her multi-millionnaire mother was more interested in her career and social life than in passing time with her daughter. Oblivious to the danger you can encounter on the streets, Tandy accepted an offer of shelter, with Ty accompanying her to protect her. They are in reality delivered to the criminal chemist Simon Marshall, who injects them with a new synthetic heroin that has killed everyone until then. This time, Tyrone and Tandy survived and fled the scene, but the injection changed them into super-powered beings. Engulfed by darkness, Tyrone can teleport and turn intangible through the darkforce. Dagger can create daggers of light and use her power to heal. They chose to call themselves Cloak and Dagger and to help others.

They have done that since then, with headlining their own titles, many guest appearances, and as part of different teams. They also found their way into television, as the duo was the star of a two-season live-action television series, with Aubrey Joseph as Ty Johnson and Olivia Holt as Tandy Bowen.

Let’s dive into their comic book adventures with this Cloak and Dagger reading order!

Read More »Cloak and Dagger Reading Order (Tyrone Johnson and Tandy Bowen)

Battle Angel Alita Manga Order

One of the most influential and popular seinen manga from the beginning of the 1990s, Gunnm also known as Battle Angel Alita is a cyberpunk series from Yukito Kishiro published initially in Japan between 1990 and 1995.

The story of Battle Angel Alita is a dystopia set in a future where a natural catastrophe caused by a meteorite colliding with the Earth has taken humanity to the brink of extinction. The world is then divided between Zalem, a suspended city reserved for an elite few, and Kuzutetsu, the land that serves as its “dumping ground”, where humanity survives in violence.

The story follows the rebirth of an amnesiac cyborg named Alita (or Gally if you are not reading the English version), as she searches for meaning in her life. Daisuke Ido, a bounty-hunting cybermedic expert, discovers her intact head and chest in suspended animation in the local garbage dump. Ido revives her and, upon discovering she has lost her memory, names her Alita after his recently departed cat.

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25 Best DC Comic Books to Read: Our selection of the best DC Comics

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Everybody knows Batman and Superman and with the DC Universe expanding on the big screen, the general public has been introduced to less familiar characters such as Shazam and Blue Beetle.

Like the Marvel Superheroes, those characters have lived decades of adventures on paper before. As DC is also renowned for its complicated timeline, those characters have been rebooted and rewritten (some more than others) throughout the years, making it sometimes more discouraging for new readers to dive into this world.

It would be regretful to miss out on great stories because of some temporal shenanigans that, more often than not, are not so important to enjoy the wild, fun, and diverse style of adventures you can find on the DC Universe. From some good detective stories to adventures in time and space, horror, comedy, and more, there is something for everybody.

To help you find some of the best DC stories out there, Comic Book Treasury has made a selection of 25 of the Best DC Comics to read. This is not an exhaustive list, and there are easily more great stories from DC out there.

Whether you are a new reader, an old one, or someone who read DC Comics for some past decades and wants to reconnect with the characters, we hope you’ll find something you want to read or re-read in this list.

As said above, this is not an ultimate list, so don’t hesitate to leave your own suggestions for the best DC Comics in the comments below!

Here is our selection of what we consider 25 of the best DC comics to read (in chronological order):

Read More »25 Best DC Comic Books to Read: Our selection of the best DC Comics

Last Updated on March 23, 2024.

Dear Readers, tell us what you think!

Let’s Rap!* Here’s a chance to tell us what you think about Comic Book Treasury.

As of today, there are more than 480 articles published on the website, including 432 reading orders. We have started developing more articles about comics, exploring the origins of our beloved characters in the hope of offering some companion pieces to our reading guides.

We also try, as much as possible, to update our guides. We admit some lateness on the subject and, actually chose sometimes to wait to have more trades collected out there and enough distance to offer a better order for the character. If you want a guide to be updated, don’t hesitate to leave a comment, we will do it!

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Who is Monica Rambeau? From Captain Marvel to Photon, a brief history of Marvel’s heroine

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What do you know about Monica Rambeau? As the character is back on the big screen with the release of The Marvels, we take a new interest in the Marvel superheroine created by Roger Stern and John Romita, Jr. who has been known as Captain Marvel, Pulsar, Photon or Spectrum and a leader of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.

With four decades of history behind her, Monica Rambeau has proved more than once that she was worth reading about!

The Creation of Monica Rambeau

Her story started in the late 1960s, when Marvel gained the trademark “Captain Marvel”, leading to the creation of the first Captain Marvel comic book. But Captain Marvel was not popular, and the decision was made to kill him in one of Marvel’s first-ever graphic novels, The Death of Captain Marvel, in 1982. 

If Marvel wanted to keep ownership of the name “Captain Marvel”, the company needed to use it. Enters the scene: Monica Rambeau. Created by Roger Stern and John Romita, Jr., Monica was conceived to take the mantle of Captain Marvel, though she had no connection with the First Captain, Mar-Vell. Even her powers were different. Monica was still a trailblazing in her own right, as a black female superhero was rare then, but Marvel never intended to give her her own series.

It didn’t mean Monica Rambeau wasn’t destined for great things. On the contrary, since her first appearance in The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #16, Monica joined and ultimately became the leader of the Avengers. She has also been a member of Nextwave and the Ultimates. Her superhero identity has evolved throughout the years, leaving the Captain Marvel name behind her to take other aliases: Photon, Pulsar, and recently Spectrum being the most famous of them.

Read More »Who is Monica Rambeau? From Captain Marvel to Photon, a brief history of Marvel’s heroine

Last Updated on May 7, 2024.

DC Black Label Comics, The Complete Reading List

The World of DC always finds a way to expand and craft new and/or stand-alone stories – mostly outside the current DC Continuity, in the specific case of DC Black Label. Presented at first as an imprint for adults featuring alternate versions of familiar DC Comics characters, DC Black Label was founded in 2018, with Batman: Damned, the first title of the imprint. The limited series made more of a splash for a scene with full frontal nudity than for the story.

Before the official end of Vertigo Comics, DC Black Label had clearly been developed to take the place of the famous imprint under which classic titles like Hellblazer, Fables, Preacher, The Sandman, and more have been published. However, Vertigo declined in the 2010s and was officially discontinued in 2020. New and old titles published under the now-defunct imprint were now published as part of DC Black Label.

No surprise here, you’ll find under the Black Label imprint many Batman stories, as well as several stories with Harley Quinn and the Joker, but also some new takes on Superman, Wonder Woman, Catwoman, and more…

Read More »DC Black Label Comics, The Complete Reading List

Who are the Green Lanterns? A guide of the Emerald Warriors of the DC Universe

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In the DC Universe, there are multiple heroes known as The Flash or Robin, but not as many as there are Green Lanterns. The reason is that, even if the name came with one hero in the 1940s, it became a title. Being a Green Lantern is being a peacekeeper in the Galaxy. It’s being a member of the Green Lantern Corps, an intergalactic law enforcement organization created by the Guardians, a race of immortals residing on the planet Oa, in order to combat evil and create an orderly universe. 

In 1959, the original Green Lantern, Alan Scott was replaced by Hal Jordan. Introduced in the pages of Showcase #22 in a story written by John Broome and drawn by Gil Kane, Hal was a fearless jet pilot who received a power ring from an Alien named Abin Sur, a member of the Green Lantern Corps who’d just crashed on Earth. The idea by editor Julius Schwartz was to go from the vigilante type of stories told with Alan Scott to a full sci-fi reinvention with Hal Jordan.

Read More »Who are the Green Lanterns? A guide of the Emerald Warriors of the DC Universe

Last Updated on June 7, 2024.

Pokémon Adventures Manga Order, Read them All!

Almost 30 years ago, Pikachu was introduced to the world in the Japanese video games Pokémon Red and Pokémon Green. This was the start of what would become the gigantic Pokémon franchise, bigger than Star Wars, Harry Potter, Batman or Spider-Man. Set in a world where people and animals known as Pokémon coexist, human trainers must run around and catch some Pokémon to then train them and engage them in battle where they gain experience and get stronger.

This simple, classic but effective concept spawned many video games, animated series, films, trading card games and, you guessed it, many many manga!

There are several Pokémon manga series out there, the most important one–and generally the one being referenced when someone is talking about the manga–is Pokémon Adventures. Launched in 1997, this is a manga adaptation of the Pokémon game series. As such, each manga arc (or chapter) corresponds to a specific game. Each story is set in a region that is introduced in the video game and focuses on different characters. The series is written by Hidenori Kusaka and was illustrated by Mato for the first nine volumes and has subsequently been illustrated by Satoshi Yamamoto.

Read More »Pokémon Adventures Manga Order, Read them All!

Kathy Kane: The Short History (and Reading Order) of the First Batwoman

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If Robin debuted only one year after Batman, it took more than 15 years for another member of the ‘Bat Family’ to be created. Batwoman first appeared in Detective Comics #233 (July 1956). She was created by writer Edmond Hamilton and artist Sheldon Moldoff to counter Fredric Wertham’s accusations that our dynamic duo was homosexual! Despite this, she was a pioneer, becoming the first female superhero to take on a major male superhero in the pages of DC Comics.

Throughout the next decade, Batwoman fought crime next to Batman and Robin and even puts on a Cat-Woman costume at some point to help obtain some information! And though Batwoman was popular with readers, her career came to a halt when Julius Schwartz took over as editor of the Batman-related comic in 1964, before being killed in the 1970s, then completely removed from the main continuity following Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Nothing is set in stone in the DC Universe, and the characters can have multiple existence as well as being completely reimagined. It is what happened to Kathy Kane when she was reintroduced during Grant Morrison’s run on Batman, with some changes.

There is no doubt that Kathy Kane, as the first Batwoman, is a part of Batman’s rich history, a figure who found her place in the Batman Family and paved the way for future female superheroines to combat crime in Gotham alongside Batman and Robin. So, today, we’ll take a deeper look at Kathy Kane’s background and explore her past and appearances.

Read More »Kathy Kane: The Short History (and Reading Order) of the First Batwoman

Last Updated on February 9, 2024.