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Carole

Co-founder and owner of Comic Book Treasury. The woman behind the Batfamily Guide (and the many Robins Guides), the Fables Universe and some of your favorite Spider-People among others!

Doctor Strange Damnation Reading Order (Secret Empire’s fallout)

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Doctor Strange Damnation - Reading Order

Damnation is a short Marvel event centered on Doctor Strange, written by Donny Cates and Nick Spencer and illustrated by Rod Reis. Published in 2018, it deals with the aftermath of Secret Empire, or to be more precise of what happens in Las Vegas. The City of Sin has been completely destroyed during Evil Captain America’s regime and Doctor Strange has raised Las Vegas up from its destruction during this event.

As expected when using magic for something major in Marvel, Doctor Strange inadvertently opens a big door for the embodiment of evil, Mephisto! The devilish villain takes the city for himself and sets his sights on the rest of the world. It’s going to take heroes from all over the Marvel Universe to defeat him, but there’s nothing simple about fighting the lord of Hell.

What to read before Doctor Strange Damnation?

Damnation builds directly on the aftermath of Secret Empire, during which Las Vegas was destroyed. To know more about this major Marvel event, you can check out our full Secret Empire reading order.

  • Secret Empire
    Collects Secret Empire #0-9, Free Comic Book Day 2017 Defenders #1

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Death of Wolverine Reading Order

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Death of Wolverine Reading Order

At the end of 2014, something unimaginable happened in the Marvel Universe: the Death of Wolverine! As one of the most famous X-Man in all the universes and a healing factor, Wolverine was not destined to bite the dust like other Marvel characters.

But all that changed in the pages of Wolverine vol. 5, and when his enemies learned that, finally, Wolverine could be killed, it didn’t take too much time for them to attempt to kill him once and for all. Better yet, there’s a bounty on Wolverine’s head, a price so big his enemies and few assassins can’t pass the chance. The race is on to find Wolverine, but who put out the contract? When Logan discovers that his mystery foe wants him alive, he turns on the offensive. As the hunted becomes the hunter once more, he’s determined to die the way he lived.

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Moon Knight Reading Order

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Created by Doug Moench and Don Perlin in 1975, Marc Spector (alias Moon Knight) was born in Chicago, Illinois, the Jewish-American son of a rabbi. But Marc refused to follow in his father’s footsteps. Instead, he became a boxer before joining the Marines. Later, he worked for the CIA and as a mercenary.

It’s during a mission gone wrong in Egypt that Spector is left for dead at the feet of an idol to the Egyptian god Konshu, moon god and protector of travelers at night. Konshu resurrected Marc, giving him, for the occasion, enhanced physical abilities, making him the moon’s “knight of vengeance,” the “fist of Khonshu.”

Back in the United States, Spector becomes the crime-fighter Moon Knight and creates other identities to help him gain information and navigate between different social circles to fulfill his missions. He uses four other identities: billionaire businessman Steven Grant, taxicab driver Jake Lockley, red-haired little girl Inner Child, and suited consultant Mr. Knight. It is later revealed that Marc Spector has dissociative identity disorder, due to childhood trauma or the result of “brain damage”, depending on the story.

To know more about Moon Knight, his crime-fighting activities, and other personalities, follow the guide…

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Milk Wars Reading Order, a DC/Young Animal crossover

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Milk Wars Reading Order (DC/Young Animal crossover)

DC’s Young Animal is a pop-up imprint launched in 2016 in collaboration with Gerard Way, musician and writer of the Umbrella Academy with the purpose of relaunching characters with a more experimental approach. It gives us four ongoing series: Doom Patrol, Shade the Changing Girl, Cave Carson Has a Cybernetic Eye, and Mother Panic.

In the middle of 2018, those four titles entered in collision with the mainstream DC Universe thanks to the Milk Wars event, a crossover with the Justice League, when the inter-dimensional corporation Retconn hijacked the DC Continuity with the goal to make the whole DC Universe more wholesome.

What to read before Milk Wars?

There is no pre-requisite reading for the Justice League, as the story has no connection with what was happening at the time for our heroes. For them, it doesn’t occupy a particular place in the timeline. That’s not the case for the Young Animals’ characters. The Milk Wars event takes place after volume 2 of each title — Doom Patrol’s story leads directly into the event.

With that said, it is a self-contained event supposedly new reader-friendly. Will it be confusing? Probably, but chances are it’ll still be even with prior reading due to the nature of the story itself.

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Avengers & X-Men: AXIS Reading Order

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Avengers & X-Men: AXIS Reading Order

Avengers & X-Men: AXIS, also just called AXIS, is a 2014 Marvel Event written by Rick Remender and penciled by Adam Kubert, Leinil Francis Yu, Terry Dodson, and Jim Cheung. This event put the Avengers, the X-Men, and a group of villains against Red Skull after he succeeded to harness the powers of Onslaught and the recently deceased Professor Xavier.

From Marvel Official synopsis: The Red Onslaught is broadcasting waves of telepathic hate across the globe, and Marvel’s greatest heroes have turned on their moral axis! What will the Avengers and X-Men find in the Red Skull’s bleak re-education camps? What is Tony Stark’s dark secret? And with the heroes “inverted” to evil, who will stand against them? Witness the good go bad, as AXIS turns the Marvel Universe on its head! 

What to read before Avengers & X-Men: AXIS?

following the conclusion of the Avengers vs. X-Men, a superhero team composed of members of the Avengers and X-Men came together, known as the Avengers Unity Squad. This team has been created by Rick Remender and John Cassaday in the title Uncanny Avengers, their stories can be used as a build-up towards the event.

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Grimm Fairy Tales Presents: Wonderland, a Comic Reading Order from the Zenescope Universe

Let’s Go Down The Rabbit Hole and return to Wonderland to discover a new version of Alice and her family in the Grimm Fairy Tales universe from Zenescope.

Taking inspiration from Lewis Carroll’s children’s book, Wonderland was the first Grimm Fairy Tales spin-off and one of the realms of this Multiverse, alongside Myst, Neverland, Oz and Earth. It’s a realm of wonder and imagination, full of gore and violence. Zenescope puts its own dark spin on it, following the adventures of the Liddle family — with Alice, Calie and Violet.

The following books take place in the Zenescope universe where you can also meet Dorothy Gale, Robyn Hood and Van Helsing, but the stories are, generally, independent (with a few connections with the Grimm Fairy Tales series with some events and a few storylines)
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DC One Million Reading Order

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Dc One Million Reading Order

Get ready to go to the 853rd Century! DC One Million was a 1998 event written by Grant Morrison and drawn by Val Semeiks set a million issues in the future – meaning, in the 853rd Century 

In this possible future, Earth remains safe, thanks to the heroics of the JLA of the future. The descendants of Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, and others remain united in combating forces of evil but perhaps have never met anything as deadly as the sentient super-computer Solaris, the Tyrant Sun. As this villainous threat becomes too much to handle, these heroes of the future turn to the only group they know can help: the original JLA.

The core of the event was a four-issue mini-series, and the thirty-four other series then being published by DC also put out a single issue numbered #1,000,000, which either showed its characters’ involvement in the central plot or gave a glimpse of what its characters’ descendants/successors would be doing in the 853rd century.

What to read before DC One Million?

DC One Million is a stand-alone event, meaning that you don’t need any pre-plot knowledge before diving into it.

It takes place during Grant Morrison’s run (see reading order) and more precisely, after JLA #23, as the final two pages of this issue lead into the story. But, those famous two pages have almost never been included in the several reprints (from JLA: Strength in Numbers trade paperback to the digital version available on ComiXology to even the DC One Million Omnibus hardcover or trade paperback collections). 

If you want to read those two pages (which includes the return of Diana as the team’s Wonder Woman), you will have to get hold of JLA Deluxe Edition Vol. 3 hardcover. 

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The Boys Reading Order, A Guide to Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson’s Satirical comic book series

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The Boys Reading Order

The Boys is a hit TV series on Amazon Prime Video since 2019. Before the TV show, there was the comic book by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson.

The comic book takes place in a world where superpowered individuals are recognized as heroes by the general public and work for the powerful corporation Vought International. In public, those superheroes are exemplary, but away from the camera, they are, most of them, arrogant, corrupt, depraved, and more.

The Boys are a team of vigilantes led by Billy Butcher, working for the CIA in order to keep an eye on the superhero community. And like the superheroes they worked so hard to stop, they are also fuck up people. Everything starts when Wee Hughie – based on Simon Pegg – watched his girlfriend being killed in front of him by a superhero who didn’t care about the collateral damages. Butcher invites him to join his team in the US and teaches him all he needs to know about the birth of superheroes and how they are just propaganda material for a failed military consortium.

The Boys is full of Marvel and DC references, there’s also an Animal House storyline and a lot of really dark and disturbing things, you know, like in a Garth Ennis comics. It’s a satirical comic, with The evolution of Hughie and Butcher at the heart of the story. And like a classic Ennis comic, it’s full of rage, violence, and dark and twisted humor, with interesting characters and some pure emotions.

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Death of Doctor Strange Reading Order

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Death of Doctor Strange Reading Order

Like numerous Marvel characters, Doctor Strange had died several times already. But until now, he didn’t have his classic “Death Of…” storyline, like Wolverine, Captain America, Captain Marvel, Daredevil, Ultimate Spider-Man, or The Mighty Thor. It’s all changed now, with the event Death of Doctor Strange, written by Jed MacKay and penciled by Lee Garbett.

Doctor Stephen Strange is known as the world’s greatest neurosurgeon and Earth’s Sorcerer Supreme (except for that time when, you know, Loki took that title). He defends our planet from the supernatural and interdimensional threats no other hero is equipped to handle. But what would happen if he unexpectedly died? Who would protect Earth and keep the mystical evils at bay? And most importantly…who killed Stephen Strange?!

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Grimm Fairy Tales Presents: Oz, a Comic Reading Order from the Zenescope Universe

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We’re not in Kansas anymore! We’re in the Grimm Fairy Tales universe from Zenescope, where authors and artists explore classic fairy tales with modern twists, sexy covers, and some gore inside.

Taking inspiration from L. Frank Baum’s children’s book, Oz is one of the realms of the Grimm Fairy Tales universe, alongside Myst, Neverland, Wonderland, and Earth. But this is not the Land of Oz from the books and the movie, as Dorothy is not some ordinary farm girl from Kansas.

If the following books take place in the Zenescope universe where you can also meet Robyn Hood and Van Helsing, they do not really connect to the others.

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