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Hellblazer John Constantine Reading Order, from the Swamp Thing to the Justice League Dark

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Created by Alan Moore, Steve Bissette, and John Totleben in 1984 in The Saga of Swamp Thing series, John Constantine is an arrogant foul-mouthed working-class occult detective and con man from London. Originally a supporting character, he continued to appear in the series before getting his own ongoing in 1988, Hellblazer.

As Alan Moore was too busy (or didn’t want to) do it, DC Comics recruited another British writer, Jamie Delano, to develop the Hellblazer comics in which John Constantine was faced with much horror, demons, and others in Great Britain. This quickly cemented him as the antihero of the DC universe. Not loved by many, he still found people to join him during his fight against vile creatures, and they are often the ones who have to pay the harsher price.

Known for his cynicism, his deadpan snarking, his ruthless cunning, and his constant chain-smoking, John Constantine wants to help save lives, but his technique can be deadly if it’s for the greater good. Being his friend can be as dangerous as being his enemy.

The long-running Hellblazer comic book series was part of the Vertigo line and lasted 300 issues. After that, John Constantine was made a little more respectable as he joined the other magic heroes of the DC main universe. He joined teams and helped save the world, the universe, and reality.

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Energon Universe Reading Order (Skybound’s Transformers, GI Joe, Voir Rivals…)

At the end of 2020, IDW lost the license to publish comic books from the Hasbro Universe. Therefore, series like Transformers and G.I. Joe went elsewhere. More precisely, they went to Image Comics via Robert Kirkman’s Skybound Entertainment imprint.

Naturally, the new creative teams didn’t continue with what was done at IDW. Instead, a new comic book universe was launched: The Energon Universe. It uses creative elements from Transformers and G.I. Joe, such as familiar concepts and characters, but also introduces original materials, notably with the all-new Void Rivals.

“I’ve loved these characters for most of my life and to have the opportunity to add to the already rich tapestry Hasbro has built with the all-new Void Rivals is an unbelievable opportunity. If you look at everything done with Transformers and G.I. Joe, you can see the inkling of a vast universe with tremendous potential for crossovers and interaction that will enhance the fan experience while staying true to the individual identities of both concepts. I look forward to exploring that potential for years to come.” – Robert Kirkman.

Juggling between ongoing and limited series, with some one-shots added to the mix, the Energon Universe was officially launched in June 2023. The creative teams are made of top talents with writers like Robert Kirkman, Daniel Warren Johnson, Joshua Williamson, Kelly Thompson, and Dan Watters (and more to come), and artists like DW Johnson, Lorenzo De Felici, Jorge Corona, Tom Reilly, Andrea Milana, Marco Ferrari, and more.

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Darwyn Cooke’s Must-Read Comics: Exploring a Work Filled with Boldness and Hope

Graphic Ink: The DC Comics Art of Darwyn Cooke

Canadian Cartoonist from Toronto Darwyn Cooke (1962–2016) always dreamt of making comics for a living, but it was not economically viable for him for a long time. He instead worked as a magazine art director, graphic and product designer until finally going back to his first love during the 1990s. He answered an ad placed by Bruce Timm that led him to work as a storyboard artist on Warner Bros. Animation shows like The New Batman Adventures, Superman: The Animated Series, Batman Beyond (he created the opening sequence), and Men in Black: The Series (as a director).

Cooke’s pitch to Timm, a Batman story that got him a job in animation, was later discovered by DC Comics art director Mark Chiarello who hired the artist to make a graphic novel based on it. That became the 2000 graphic novel Batman: Ego. Cooke officially transitioned to the comics world.

Despite a short career in comics, Darwyn Cooke’s distinctive artistic style became highly influential as well as his stories. He found popular success with some of his now-considered classic series and gained industry recognition with his work, winning 13 Eisner Awards, 8 Harvey Awards, and 5 Joe Shuster Awards.

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DC Finest: Your Guide to the Upcoming Graphic Novel Releases (2024-2025)

Years ago, Marvel launched its Epic Collection, a great way to read full stories at an affordable price. You choose your favorite heroes and pick one up to have a complete run and arc, to access some old and newer, some classics, some forgotten… It was and still is a massive success. Now, DC Comics has decided to follow this with its own line of books: DC Finest.

What is the DC Comics Finest line?

The model is not completely identical to the Epic Line, but the idea behind it is relatively similar: “a new line of comprehensive collections of the most in-demand periods, genres, and characters from across DC history.” as DC Comics puts it. This large-size paperback collections start at $34.99 and, unlike most of DC’s already established collections, puts the focus on characters and storytelling genres instead of creators.

Each DC Finest book will cover a specific period and, depending on the chronology, a volume dedicated to “Robin” may feature Dick Grayson, Tim Drake, Damian Wayne, or Jason Todd. Idem with the Green Lanterns, expect stories on Hal Jordan, John Stewart, Kyle Rayner, Alan Scott, and others, depending on the era. You’ll have some of the classic silver adventures of Barry Allen and at another time some Modern Age Wally West will run toward danger in one of the Flash books.

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Star-Lord Reading Order, Peter Quill’s Cosmic Adventure in the Marvel Comics Universe

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The introduction of Star-Lord in the Marvel Comics Universe didn’t come with a boom but with editorial complications. Created by Steve Englehart and Steve Gan in Marvel Preview #4 in 1976, he was, according to its creator, planned to go from “being a jerk to the most cosmic being in the universe.” This changed quickly as Englehart left Marvel and Chris Claremont took the character over and revamped him–which led to some legal troubles as the writer too openly used Robert A. Heinlein’s work as inspiration. After that Star-Lord only made a few appearances before going away. This version of the character is not even considered part of the regular Marvel Universe anymore.

In 2005, Peter Quill/Star-Lord was introduced by Keith Giffen and Ron Lim in the Thanos ongoing series. This led him to play a part in the Annihilation saga, and then in the new incarnation of the Guardians of the Galaxy series from Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning. With a newly revised origin story, Peter is revealed to be the son of an alien named J’son who crashed on Earth where he met Meredith Quill. When J’son left to go back to fighting his intergalactic war, he didn’t know that Meredith was pregnant. A decade later, enemies of his father came and killed his mother. Now an orphan, Peter was raised by his mother’s best friend Lisa Chang, a commander at NASA. He was destined to join the stars.

During a mission in Space, Peter Quill’s ship malfunctioned and was found by a group of space pirates led by Yondu, the Ravagers. After some convincing, he was allowed to join them. That’s how his cosmic adventures started.

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The Negative Zone: Marvel’s Antimatter Universe Explained

The Marvel Universe doesn’t lack realities, dimensions, and other parallel Earths. But one is particularly famous as it has been firmly tied to the Fantastic Four for decades now: The Negative Zone.

First introduced in Fantastic Four #51 (published in 1966) by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, the Negative Zone is an antimatter universe–a universe parallel to Earth’s in which all matter is negatively charged. As such, it is a dangerous place for those who come from the regular Marvel Universe, those who are positive matter beings. It’s not immediately dealy for them, but being there for a prolonged period of time is quite dangerous.

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Grendel Reading Order, Matt Wagner’s Epic Comic Book Series

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First published in 1982 by Comico, in Comico Primer #2, Grendel is a creation of Matt Wagner that started as something highly usual at the time. Inspired by Diabolik, Kriminal, Elric, the Beowulf myth, and more, this was the story of an anti-hero, Hunter Rose, an assassin turned mob boss whose Nemesis was Argent the wolf–a powerful and terrifying man-wolf.

The story of this master criminal would soon be retold in Devil by the Deed as a backup story in Wagner’s other series, Mage.

Grendel would eventually become an ongoing series at Comico, from 1986 to 1990. Instead of bringing back Hunter Rose, inspired by the generational aspects of The Phantom, Wagner decided to create a collection of stories exploring the influence of the Grendel identity. The first was Christine Spar, the daughter of Stacy Palumbo who played an integral part in Hunter Rose’s life, then Brian Li Sung who was for a time involved with Christine. After that, Wagner started to adopt a different angle, revisiting Hunter Rose’s career before going progressively into the future.

Continuously evolving, Grendel became a sci-fi story about a dystopic future where a corrupt religious society is disrupted by a powerful Vigilante dressed as Grendel. This led to a revolution and a new status quo as the power shifted and the spirit of Grendel pushed the whole imagery of the Grendel to evolve again. Then emerged the powerful and mysterious Grendel Prime.

As Comico went into bankruptcy in 1990, Grendel’s story was interrupted, but Matt Wagner moved it creation to Dark Horse Comics. Since then, he published new series and revisited old ones, coming back to it multiple times through the years.

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Criminal Reading Order, The Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips’ Celebrated Comics

Originally published by Marvel Comics’ Icon imprint before being moved to Image Comics, Criminal is a long-running creator-owned comic book series by writer Ed Brubaker and artist Sean Phillips (the duo behind Reckless). It has become the most prominent independent crime comic of the last twenty years.

Launched in 2006, Criminal started as a ten-issue series before coming back in multiple formats through the years, from graphic novel to one-shot. Every storyline works as a standalone story that takes place in a much larger narrative–mostly articulated around the Lawless Family and the mob boss Sebastian Hyde.

As a crime comic series, Brubaker and Phillips’ creation explores the many forms of the genre. In an interview with Tom Spurgeon at the launch of the series, Brubaker stated “The kinds of stories we’ll be putting all these characters through, though, run the gamut from the heist caper, to the revenge story, to the man on the run story, and even beyond that to the sort of meta-noir innocent man caught in a web of crime story.” That’s exactly what they did.

Eighteen years later, we have a collection of books, stories that were not written or published in chronological order, featuring a group of recurring characters whose lives we discover through dark and violent events. The following guide is here to help you find the stories you may have missed and to offer multiple ways to read them.

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Deathlok Reading Order, Marvel’s Deadly Cyborgs

Not to be confused with DC’s Deadshot or Deathstroke, Deathlok is a Marvel Comics character. In fact, it’s the codename of more than one character. The First one was created by cartoonist Rich Buckler in Astonishing Tales #25 (he plotted and pencilled it, Doug Moench wrote the script and suggested the name), in 1974, the same year as The Punisher and Wolverine. Marvel was into violent warriors at the time and The Six Million Dollar Man TV Show had popularized the concept of a cyborg just a few months earlier.

Known at first as Deathlok the Demolisher, Luther Manning was an American soldier who was killed and subsequently brought back to life by Simon Ryker who transformed him into a cyborg. This takes place in a dystopian future: 1990. He escaped Ryker’s control and fought against him, up until the end of his Astonishing Tales run when he was sent back in time to the regular Marvel timeline. This was only the beginning for him as he got to meet other Marvel heroes, and eventually went back to his timeline.

Manning was just the first. Through the years, Michael Collins, Jack Truman, Rebecca Ryker, Henry Hayes, and Jemma Simmons used the “Deathlok” identity. They mostly followed the same route, dead humans reanimated as cyborgs.

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Plastic Man Reading Order

Launched as a minor feature in Police Comics #1 in 1941 (originally published by Quality Comics and later acquired by DC Comics), Plastic Man is a creation of artist and writer Jack Cole. He initially thought of a character named the Indian Rubber Man, inspired by sideshow freaks, but Everett Arnold–who was the founder of Quality Comics–suggested naming the character after that material that was all the rage at the time.

According to Art Spiegelman, who profiled Cole for The New Yorker magazine, in 1943, when Plastic Man expanded into his own book, Cole explained the morphing hero to new readers: “If you should see a man standing on the street and reaching into the top window of a sky-scraper…that’s not astigmatism—it’s Plastic Man!… If you happen upon a gent all bent up like a pretzel…don’t dunk him…it’s Plastic Man! All this and bouncing too, you’ll see when the rubber man and his pal Woozy Winks gamble their lives in—The Game of Death.”

This is the story of Patrick “Eel” O’Brian, a lowlife gangster. While committing a robbery, he was accidentally doused by some unnamed acid. Nursed back to health by a reclusive order of monks, Eel became a new man. He now had stretching abilities that defied the laws of physics and, inspired by the teaching of the monks, he was now ready to put his criminal past behind him to protect the law–he first helped the police force and later became a special agent for the F.B.I.

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