Skip to content

House Of Brainiac Reading Order, a Superman Crossover Event

  • by

DC has teased that something evil was coming during Dawn of DC. Something called the ‘Trinity of Evil’. The infamous Amanda Waller took over in her way following the events of Titans: Beast World while Zur-En-Arrh has been a big part of Chip Zdarsky’s Batman run. A Trinity would be incomplete without a third member who happens to be… Brainiac!

The crossover event story House of Brainiac, marks the return of Brainiac as well as the introduction of the Brainiac Queen, the newest adversary in Superman’s rogues gallery! This story is also part of the year-long initiative Superman Superstars, in which a pair of writers and artists tell a mini-arc in three issues in Action Comics and then hand over the title to a new creative team.

As DC Comics explained, House of Brainiac starts with “Brainiac’s Czarnian army invading Metropolis! The Super-Family and all the superheroes of Metropolis join the fight, but will they be enough to hold off Brainiac’s lethal and crazed soldiers?! Can Superman and Lex Luthor learn what Brainiac is searching for? He’s not bottling Metropolis, so what is he collecting instead?”

Read More »House Of Brainiac Reading Order, a Superman Crossover Event

Bat-Mite: Batman’s Biggest Fan or Hallucination from the 5th Dimension?

  • by

There was a time when Batman’s adventures were a bit wilder, shall we say. The Golden Age of comics (then the Silver Age) gave us some colorful stories full of surprising characters and twists. The autoproclaimed Batman’s biggest fan was the embodiment of that.

Introduced in Detective Comics #267 (May 1959), in a story titled “Batman Meets Bat-Mite” by writer Bill Finger and artist Sheldon Moldoff, Bat-Mite is to the Dark Knight what Mister Mxyzptlk is to Superman, to some extent.

Read More »Bat-Mite: Batman’s Biggest Fan or Hallucination from the 5th Dimension?

Nightcrawler Reading Order, Your Kurt Wagner Comic Book Guide!

In another Earth, Nightcrawler is part of the DC Universe, as creator Dave Cockrum first submitted the character to the competitor of Marvel. But in our reality, DC rejected him, and Cockrum used him when he started working in the X-Men in 1975. Nightcrawler then became German as editor Roy Thomas wanted the new X-Men to be an international team.

The character made his debut in the now classic Giant-Size X-Men #1, an issue written by Len Wein and penciled by Dave Cockrum. The first X-Men story in five years, it also serves as a bridge between the original X-Men and the New Team, introducing several new X-Men such as Wolverine (who already made his first appearance in The Incredible Hulk #181), Storm, Colossus, Thunderbird, and as already said, Nightcrawler.

Nicknamed ‘Elf’ by Wolvie, Nightcrawler would go on to become one of the most well-liked and respected members of the X-Men. Born Kurt Wagner, Nightcrawler is a former circus acrobat and skilled swordsman fan of Errol Flynn! His physical mutation made it impossible for him to go unnoticed in a crowd, with his dark blue fur, two-toed feet and three-fingered hands, yellow eyes, pointed ears, long sharp canines, and a prehensile tail. His demonic look contrasts with his Catholic faith. He also possesses superhuman strength, the capacity to teleport and to wall climb.

Since his introduction almost 50 years ago, Nightcrawler has lived many adventures with the X-Men but also as a founding member of Excalibur, in solo, and more recently as Spinnenmann. Following is a reading order to help you learn more about the character, or rediscover his rich history!

Read More »Nightcrawler Reading Order, Your Kurt Wagner Comic Book Guide!

From Xebel to Atlantis: The Origins of Mera, Aquaman’s Queen

  • by

The World of Atlantis wouldn’t be complete today without his Queen, Mera. As the wife of Aquaman, Mera has lived many adventures undersea and on land, showing what a formidable force she represents in the DC Universe.

Mera possesses the ability to control and manipulate water, showcasing strength and durability. She stands as a formidable superheroine in her own right, although she hasn’t consistently received such recognition since her debut over 60 years ago.

Read More »From Xebel to Atlantis: The Origins of Mera, Aquaman’s Queen

Man-Thing Reading Order, Marvel’s Swamp Monster

The Man-Thing Reading Order

When the Comics Code Authority went into action in the 1950s, the horror genre was the most affected by it. But in 1971, the code was finally revised and the creatures of the night finally got some leeway. A lot of restrictions were still in place, but the undead monsters starting to make a comeback. Before Werewolves and Vampires became prominent again, muck monsters got their chance to scare the readers.

Launched by DC Comics in House of Secrets #92, Swamp Thing created by Len Wein and Berni Wrightson was thought of as a one-off character. In another one-shot simply titled The Heap #1, Skywald Publishing revived The Heap, a swamp monster from the 1950s (another version of the character also appeared in Skywald’s magazine Psycho). And Marvel had of course the Man-Thing.

The timing was strange, but those characters were different enough from one another to avoid any conflict (even if Marvel thought about suing DC for a time). Also, muck monsters were not a new thing in the comics world.

Read More »Man-Thing Reading Order, Marvel’s Swamp Monster

Bane, The Supervillain Who Broke Batman’s Back

Batman: Vengeance of Bane

Unlike some of the most iconic members of Batman’s rogues gallery like Joker and Penguin, Bane is a fairly modern creation, if you consider that thirty years may still be considered recent in the world of the Dark Knight. This international masked criminal debuted in Batman: Vengeance of Bane #1 (January 1993). He was created by writer Chuck Dixon and artist Graham Nolan, but the original idea for the character came from Batman editor Dennis O’Neil.

Bane: Batman’s Back Breaker

O’Neil had the idea of introducing a new Batman and the concept of the long Knightfall storyline. He wanted a new version of the character who could challenge the readers’ expectations. He wanted a Batman who could kill (so, not Nightwing). This is why Azrael was created. He was going to be the replacement. With a new Batman, a new villain was also introduced–especially after the idea of using KGBeast was forgotten, the fall of the Soviet Union apparently made him irrelevant.

Originally named Doc Toxic, Bane was always a Venom addict–a drug introduced by O’Neill in Legends of the Dark Knight #16-20. He was thought of as being Batman’s equal on multiple levels. Chuck Dixon added a touch of the Man in the Iron Mask, and introduced a tragic origin story, making him a “prisoner from birth,” to offer a kind of parallel with Bruce Wayne’s childhood trauma. It was Graham Nolan though who had the idea for the mask, giving him a Mexican Luchador look.

Bane came onto the scene with a plan to push Batman to his limits and, when the moment came, he confronted him and famously broke his enemy’s back.

Read More »Bane, The Supervillain Who Broke Batman’s Back

Fairy Tail Reading Order (including 100 Years Quest and other spin-offs)

  • by

For Christmas, my niece received as a present a volume of Fairy Tail: Happy’s Heroic Adventure. I read a few volumes of Fairy Tail myself, but I hadn’t realized the series inspired several manga! So I recently took a closer look at the franchise created by Hiro Mashima and discovered it was bigger than I thought…

But first… What is Fairy Tail about? Set in a world where magic is commonplace and wizard guilds exist, the story follows the adventures of Lucy Heartfilia, a Celestial Spirit Mage, who joins the Fairy Tail Guild and teams up with Natsu Dragneel, who is searching for the Dragon Igneel. What follows are many missions and adventures!

Created by Hiro Mashima, the shōnen started in 2006 and lasted 11 years, for a total of 63 volumes. But the adventures of Natsu, Lucy, and the other members of Fairy Tail proved to be quite popular and led naturally to an anime adaptation and two movies, but also several manga spin-offs, including a sequel still ongoing!

Read More »Fairy Tail Reading Order (including 100 Years Quest and other spin-offs)

Agents of Atlas Reading Order

This was in 1958. The government had formed a superhero team to rescue President Eisenhower, who had been kidnapped by the Yellow Claw. Following the team’s success in completing this mission, they existed briefly before being disbanded by those in authority. However, nearly 40 years later, their former leader, Jimmy Woo, reunited them to defend humanity. They are the Agents of Atlas!

You may never have heard of the Agents of Atlas because this retro team didn’t actually exist in the 1950s. They originated from an old ‘What If?’ issue which asked, ‘What if the Avengers had fought evil during the 1950s?’, featuring an alternate team of Golden Age heroes. This team reappeared in Avengers Forever, where their reality was destroyed.

Conceived as a love letter to the forgotten heroes of Atlas Comics, the team was finally reintroduced to the twenty-first century and made part of the main continuity as the Agents of Atlas. Although they never became popular, the group gained a cult following, enough to save the world in several short comic book series.

After several years of inactivity, Marvel relaunched the team in 2019 with the creation of a group now made up of Asian and Asian American superheroes. They are the New Agents of Atlas. Despite not having a title of their own for the past years, the team still exists and pops up on some rare occasions.

To find out more about these underrated heroes, check out our Agents of Atlas Comics Guide!

Read More »Agents of Atlas Reading Order

DC Comics’ Manhunter: The History of a Crime Fighter with a lot of Alter Egos

Kate Spencer - Manhunter DC Comics

People working at DC Comics sure love Manhunter. They gave us J’onn J’onzz, the Martian Manhunter, but also the evil Manhunters—predecessors to the Green Lantern who took a bad turn. And then, there is Manhunter, the crime fighter. Well, there is more than one.

The Golden Age Manhunters

The original “Paul Kirk, Manhunter” created by Jack Kirby in Adventure Comics #58 (1941) didn’t use the name Manhunter, he was just a civilian investigator with no secret identity or costume. This Golden Age detective quickly passed the title to a new Manhunter, a former big-game hunter named Rick Nelson who became a proper superhero in Adventure Comics #73—a version created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. The character who tracked down criminals in Empire City in his red costume (with a blue mask) also had to fight the concurrence as Quality Comics just launched his own hero called Manhunter (aka Dan Richards) in the pages of Police Comics #8 (1942).

Already, Manhunter was a popular name for a hero, but that was not the case for Rick Nelson who was renamed Paul Kirk after a few issues—he kept the big game hunter backstory. Also, when Quality Comics was bought by National Comics Publications (previous name of DC Comics), the two heroes kept the fight on, without even knowing they now existed in the same universe. During World War II, they joined teams to fight with, but not the same. Paul Kirk was a member of the All-Star Squadron while Dan Richards joined the Freedom Fighters.

Read More »DC Comics’ Manhunter: The History of a Crime Fighter with a lot of Alter Egos

Something Is Killing the Children Reading Order, Explore The Slaughterverse

Launched as a five-issue limited series by BOOM! Studios in 2019, Something Is Killing the Children has since become a successful award-winning franchise with multiple spin-off series. Created by writer James Tynion IV and artist Werther Dell’Edera, this ongoing comic book series is about hunting monsters!

Everything starts when the children of Archer’s Peak begin to go missing. If some never return, a few resurfaced with horrible stories to tell about terrifying creatures living in the shadows. Those tales seem too improbable for most, but one mysterious stranger named Erica Slaughter believes what the children are saying because killing monsters is what she does. She’s here for that and won’t be stopped. But what will happen when the monsters are dealt with?

As Something Is Killing the Children explores the adventures of Erica Slaughter, her relationship with the mysterious Order of St. George who employs her, and her past, the spin-off series House of Slaughter goes further into the backstory with an exploration of the secret history of the Order. And the new Book of Butcher series is now exploring Maxine Slaughter’s journey from white to black mask.

Read More »Something Is Killing the Children Reading Order, Explore The Slaughterverse