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Reading Order

Batman: Zero Year Reading Order (Batman New 52)

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Zero Year is a yearlong crossover event published between June 2013 and July 2014 and written by Scott Snyder and James Tynion IV.

This story takes us back six years in the past and redefines the origin of Batman in The New 52 version of the DC Universe (go to The Batman New 52 Reading Order for more details).

Everything begins with Bruce Wayne’s return to Gotham City. He starts fighting the Red Hood gang. Those events will lead to the birth of the Batman and to a flood in Gotham that will leave him for dead. When he comes back, he has to free the city that has fallen and is now under the control of one of his worst enemies.

What to read before Batman: Zero Year?

Zero Year is a prequel storyline that was published after the Death of the Family storyline (go to Death of the Family Reading Order for more). The story takes place a few years before The Court of Owls.

You can read it here or at another moment before. Some people recommend reading it before The Court of Owls, but I think that being familiar with the style and direction of Snyder’s Batman is better to appreciate this story.

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Batman New 52 Reading Order, from The Court of Owls to the end of the DC You

With New 52, a new era began in the DC Universe (and we have a full reading order of this era). For some heroes, it was a complete reboot. For others, it was not totally the case, like with the famous dark knight. When Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo took over creative duties on Batman’s main series, they didn’t start over from scratch, picking up in a way where the post-crisis era ended. Yet, they offered Bruce Wayne a revised backstory as they built a new mythology around Gotham City.

Snyder and Capullo were not the only authors working on Batman. In fact, there are multiple series: Batman, Detective Comics, Batman Incorporated by Grant Morrison, Batman and Robin by Tomasi and Gleason, Batman Eternal and Batman & Robin Eternal, and Batman: The Dark Knight.

What to read before Batman New 52?

The DC Universe rebooted as the New 52 after the Flashpoint event. Therefore, you could take a look at it before reading anything else. Also, even if New 52 was a new entry point, Batman’s story was not fully rebooted and a few stories began before Flashpoint. You’ll need to take a look at Grant Morrison’s Batman Incorporated volume 1 before jumping into volume 2 and Batman and Robin by Tomasi, but also at Batman: Gates of Gotham written by Scott Snyder that leads into his run. Also, if you want more, take a look at our Batman: The Modern Age reading order.

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Teen Titans Reading Order, The Rebirth Era

Rebirth DC Teen Titans Reading Order

Teen Titans is a team of young heroes, who made its first appearance in The Brave and the Bold #54 (July 1964). After the last team disbanded at the conclusion of the New 52 era, a new team is assembled by Damian Wayne aka Robin, which consists of Wallace West as Kid Flash, Jackson Hyde as Aqualad, Beast Boy, Starfire, and Raven. The title was then written by Benjamin Percy

The Teen Titans teams underwent changes later on, as part of the “New Justice” banner for DC Comics, with a new roster consisting of Robin, Kid Flash, Red Arrow (Emiko Queen), Crush (Lobo’s daughter), Djinn, and Roundhouse. And also a new writer, with Adam Glass taking over the title.

See below our Teen Titans Rebirth Reading Order Guide!

What to read before Teen Titans Rebirth?

The Rebirth era introduces a few continuity changes for the Teen Titans, so there’s no background reading required. You can, for good measure, read DC Universe: Rebirth #1.

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Super Sons Reading Order, Damian Wayne and Jon Kent team-up

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Super Sons Reading Order, Damian Wayne and Jon Kent team-up

In appearance, Jonathan Kent, the son of Superman, and Damian Wayne, the son of Batman don’t have much in common. One grew up on a small town farm, ignoring his father was a superhero, while the other was trained from birth to be an assassin and take over the world as an Al Ghul.

When Robin (Damian Wayne) discovers a connection between a series of mysterious crimes and the aftermath of the bizarre and deadly Amazo Virus, he needs Superboy (Jonathan Kent) to aid in the investigation. This is the start of the Super Sons, the odd couple of young heroes and one of the best friendships in the DC Universe! Facing dangers and many adventures, they will learn to work together and save the world like their fathers in some already classic DC stories.

This specific duo was created during the Rebirth era and has no connection to the imaginary or alternate-dimension versions existing of the team-up before the Rebirth Era.

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The War of the Realms Reading Order, the Marvel Event from Jason Aaron

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The main event of 2019 in the Marvel Universe, The War of the Realms was written by Jason Aaron (with art by Russell Dauterman) who was, at that time, also the writer of the main Thor series. It was the culmination of his run, the conclusion of a story arc he started a long time ago.

For some time now, the Dark Elf known as Malekith the Accursed has been conquering the Ten Realms one by one until there is only one left: Midgard (Earth!). Thor lost his precious Mjolnir, but he’s still fighting to prevent the war. With a lot of Asgardian warriors and Earth’s heroes, they must now fight against a full-on invasion and defeat Malekith.

What to read before The War of the Realms?

Being a Thor Event, The War of the Realms story began in the Thor series. Jason Aaron wrote organically the progression of Malekith the Accursed’s plan into his series from The Goddess of Thunder storyline to the crossover – see the full reading order of his run. That said, you’ll only need to read the last relaunch of the series, Thor #1–11.

It’s optional, but Avengers by Jason Aaron Vol. 2: World Tour is a good introduction to the last iteration of the Avengers team (and the Agents of Wakanda) at the center of The War of the Realms event.

Also, the easiest way to read the essential issues before immersing yourself in The War of the Realms event is a book Marvel published called War of the Realms Prelude.

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Donny Cates’ Venom Reading Order

Donny Cates' Venom Reading Order

Introduced during the first Secret Wars event in the “80s, this alien symbiote was Spider-man’s black costume for a short period of time. When Reed Richards realized it was more than a piece of intelligent fabric, he helped Spidey to get rid of it. Following its rejection, the alien symbiote tried to get back to Peter Parker, but ended up bounding with Eddie Brock. This reporter for the Daily Globe wrote a story exposing the identity of the Sin-Eater but Spider-Man revealed it was not the truth and Eddie lost his job. At the end of his rope, Eddie met the symbiote. Together, they became Venom.

Friend or foe, Venom changed over the years and became a major Marvel player. He went from Eddie Brock to other hosts but came back to Eddie. When Donny Cates took over the writing duties on his title, Venom got back to Eddie who is searching for redemption. To do that, he aligned himself with heroes. During his fight with a cosmic monster, he discovered the real origin of the symbiote, opening a new way in the mythology of this iconic character.

What to read before Venom by Donny Cates?

There are a lot of Venom stories and some are referenced in Donny Cates’ run on Venom. That said, it’s a new start, a new mythology, and clearly a friendly entry point for new readers.

To know more about what came before, go to our Venom Reading Order.

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Buffyverse Comic Book Reboot Reading Order by Boom Studios (2019-)

Dark Horse Comics’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer license expired at the end of 2018, and the license is now in the hands of BOOM! Studios who relaunched the series in 2019 and followed 3 months later with an Angel title.

This is a new beginning, a new Buffy Summers (who still looks like Sarah Michelle Gellar). Go back to high school with this reimagined Buffy the Vampire Slayer under the guidance of series creator Joss Whedon.

Buffy Summers wants what every average teenager wants: friends at her new school, decent grades, and to escape her imposed destiny as the next in a long line of vampire slayers tasked with defeating the forces of evil.

What to read before the Buffy Reboot?

Nothing! If you never read the Dark Horse Comic book series, this is not a problem, as the comics under Boom Studios are part of a rebooted timeline.

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Batman: Death of the Family Reading Order: How to read the Batman’s event by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo ?

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Batman: Death of the Family is a cross-over event in the Batman universe, a 23-issue story arc published in 2012-2013 including the titles Batman, Batgirl, Batman and Robin, Catwoman, Detective Comics, Nightwing, Red Hood, and the Outlaws, Suicide Squad, and Teen Titans. The event takes place during the Scott Snyder/Greg Capullo run.

The story deals with the Joker’s return to Gotham with a plan to get revenge on all the people Batman has come to rely on over the years, and then destroy the family. The title is, obviously, a reference to the classic story arc A Death in the Family, published in 1988.

What to read before Batman: Death of the Family?

There is no reading requirement before going into the Batman: Death of the Family event. At best, Detective Comics #1, collected in Detective Comics: Faces of Death can serve as a prelude, but completely unnecessary to understand the story as everything you need to know will be mentioned in the main storyline.

All there is to know is that the Joker cut his face off then vanished for a long time – a piece of information mentioned in the story. The main story takes place in Batman.

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Absolute Carnage Reading Order

Absolute Carnage Reading Order

Written by Donny Cates and Ryan Stegman, Absolute Carnage is an event taking place in the Marvel Universe, and more precisely in the Venom continuity (go to Donny Cates’s Venom Reading Order).

The story is set around Cletus Kasady’s return as Carnage. After being resurrected by a cult dedicated to the worship of the god Knull and being bonded to the deific primordial Grendel symbiote, he makes his come back to New York in order to collect codices, traces left inside those who wore a symbiote, even once – and that’s a lot of potential victims, even for him!

Naturally, Kasady’s new reign of terror spells misery for Spider-Man and Venom – but the devastation is felt by Miles Morales, the Avengers, Deadpool, Ghost Rider, the Immortal Hulk, and more! But what is Kasady’s horrific endgame? Experience a new level of crazy as Carnage runs wild!

Venom and Spider-Man (Spidey’s Reading Order) must team up to stop him, but they will need even more firepower to achieve that. The heroes of New York City have to join the fight.

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DCeased Reading Order: A DC zombie apocalypse by Tom Taylor

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The DC universe meets the Zombie Apocalypse in DCeased, created by writer Tom Taylor, penciler Trevor Hairsine and inker Stefano Guadiano.

The story takes place in an alternate Earth, where a mysterious techno-virus has been released, infecting 600 million people and turning them instantly into violent, monstrous engines of destruction aka zombies.

And, like DC tell us: that’s just the beginning. Cities. Nations. Undersea kingdoms and paradise islands. One by one, they fall to the monstrous hordes. Now only Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and the rest of the Justice League stand between Earth and utter annihilation… But for how long?

Nothing they’re ever faced has prepared them for an onslaught of this magnitude. Nothing they’ve ever seen can match the scale of the tragedy and terror that have been unleased. As heroes and villains, gods and monsters are wiped out, only one question remains: What happens to the World’s Greatest Heroes if the world ends?

What to read before DCeased?

Nothing. As said, DCeased happens on another Earth, outside the main continuity. So there is no background necessary as this is a stand-alone series.

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