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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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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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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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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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King in Black Reading Order: How to read Marvel’s crossover, the sequel to Absolute Carnage?

King in Black Reading Order

Introduced* as a big threat to the Marvel Universe by Donny Cates when he started writing Venom’s new continuing series (go to the Reading Order), Knull, god of the symbiotes, is finally coming to conquer Earth—with an army of thousands of symbiote dragons at his beck and call. Of course, Earth’s heroes will fight back.

Eddie Brock, AKA Venom, is obviously front and center. He has already seen firsthand the chaos that even one of Knull’s symbiotic monsters can wreak. But will he survive an encounter with the God of the Abyss himself?

Here is the official synopsis: Darkness reigns across the Marvel Universe! After a campaign of terror across the galaxy, Knull — ancient and malevolent god of symbiotes — reaches Earth, with an endless army of symbiote dragons at his command! The King in Black is a force unlike any ever faced by Venom and the rest of Earth’s heroes — but now Spider-Man, the Avengers, the Hulk, the Fantastic Four, the Sub-Mariner and many, many more must battle an endless wave of darkness! Outgunned and badly outnumbered, can anyone possibly survive Knull’s symbiotic onslaught? Or will they all be forced to bow to the King?

*Knull was really introduced in Thor: God of Thunder #6, but he was not named and he was just an idea that Cates took and developed.

What to read before King in Black?

As I said, the story began some time ago. Even if Knull played a big part in Donny Cates’ run on Venom (here is the reading order), he also appeared in other series. Here is a guide of what you’ll want to read to be up to date:

  • Knull: Marvel Tales
    Collects Venom (2018) #3-4, Venom : Carnage Born, and Venom (2018) #25. It collects what is essential.
  • Absolute Carnage
    Collects Absolute Carnage #1-5, Absolute Carnage Vs. Deadpool #1-3, Absolute Carnage: Captain Marvel #1, Absolute Carnage: Immortal Hulk #1, Absolute Carnage: Symbiote Spider-Man #1, Absolute Carnage: Symbiote Of Vengeance #1, Absolute Carnage: Lethal Protectors #1-3, Absolute Carnage: Avengers #1, Absolute Carnage: Miles Morales #1-3, Absolute Carnage: Weapon Plus #1, Absolute Carnage: Scream #1-3, Absolute Carnage: Separation Anxiety #1, Amazing Spider-Man #29-31, Venom #16-20, And Absolute Carnage Stinger Pages. For a more detailed look at this event, go to the Absolute Carnage Reading Order.
  • Silver Surfer: Black
    Collects Silver Surfer: Black #1-5.
  • Symbiote Spider-Man: King in Black
    Collects Symbiote Spider-Man: King in Black #1-5. This is and optional miniseries set just after the first “Secret Wars.”
  • King in Black: Namor
    Another optional miniseries set in the past.

We also invite you to read our guide to the main symbiotes characters if you want to refresh your memory about the most important symbiotes in the Marvel universe.

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Spider-Man: Clone Saga Reading Order (with Ben Reilly!)

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The life of Peter Parker, the Amazing Spider-Man is full of incredible situations and life-changing events. The most famous? Probably The Clone Saga. In fact, there are two sagas. The first one was a storyline published during the 1970s. The second one was more than two years of publications, an editorial nightmare that has affected all the regular Spider-Man series, several limited series, and one-shot issues published between 1994 and 1997.

Everything began after the death of Gwen Stacy, the girlfriend of Peter Parker. It was controversial, to say the least. The editorial team decided to bring back Gwen into Peter’s life in the following story arc. Writer Gerry Conway introduced a new villain called the Jackal, a cloning expert. It was not the real Gwen or the only person that was cloned. The Jackal cloned Peter and the story ends with a touch of doubt. Is it the original Spider-Man or his clone who had perished in the bomb explosion?

A few years later, Spider-Man encountered Carrion, who claimed to be a degenerated clone of Warren. Then, the clone of Gwen Stacy reappeared too—but it was not a clone or Gwen. The truth about Carrion was finally revealed.

Time passed, then came the second clone saga. Spider-Man’s clone reappeared! He had survived and had lived his life under the name Ben Reilly (go here for the dedicated Ben Reilly Reading Order). He returned to New York City and became the Scarlet Spider. Peter and Ben must face a resurrected Jackal and Kaine, the unsuccessful first clone of Spider-Man, but also another clone of Spider-Man who became the villain Spidercide. And that’s not all. That’s just the beginning.

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Powers Reading Order (Comics by Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming)

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Powers Reading Order

Created by Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming, Powers is a superhero noir comic. More precisely, it’s a noir crime drama set in a world with superheroes. It tells the story of two homicide detectives, Christian Walker and Deena Pilgrim, assigned to investigate crimes involving “powers”, people with superhuman abilities.

Turns out that Walker used to be one of them, but he lost everything and became a cop. And now, he is working with Deena Pilgrim. She kicks ass and takes names like almost nobody else in the comic universe, just so you know. They started to work together on the famous Retro Girl case, a murder case that will define their lives, even if they don’t know it yet.

The publishing history of Powers is almost chaotic (chic?). Everything started at Image Comics in 2000, but when Bendis’s role at Marvel began to grow, Powers followed him and became one of the first series published by Icon—the created owned imprint by Marvel for Marvel authors. The problem is that Bendis started to work on so many books that the publication of Powers slow down and became erratic. Then, he joined DC Comics where he created his own imprint, JinxWorld, dedicated to his created own work. Powers was reprinted, then a new and final graphic novel was published to end the series. And now, everything is moving again to Dark Horse Comics.

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Lucifer Reading Order (The Sandman spin-off)

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Lucifer Reading Order

Straight from the world of Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman, here comes Lucifer Morningstar himself. Let me start by saying that, if you are here to read about the TV version of Lucifer, you’ll probably be disappointed. Even if the FOX/Netflix show was based on this character, the similitudes are quite limited. That said, those books are really good.

From The Sandman Universe, Lucifer Morningstar is a fallen rebel archangel who was cast out of Heaven as punishment for leading the revolt of the angels. Once upon a time, he rebelled against the Kingdom of Heaven and end up in what became Hell, until the day he decided to close shop. He retired to Earth and ran bar named Lux with his mistress Mazikeen at his side.

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