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Superman Infinite Frontier/Dawn of DC Reading Order (with Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Tom Taylor & Joshua Williamson)

Following recent events (with Dark Nights: Death Metal, Generations, and Future State), the DC Multiverse has expanded into a larger Omniverse, where everything was now canon. It was a way for DC to continue what was launched with Rebirth, meaning re-establishing popular past stories and relationships while retaining the new characters and simple backstories from the modern era. DC simply wants the best of both worlds!

This situation leads us to the Infinite Frontier era, where Clark Kent and his son Jonathan Kent are both Superman. Each one of them is the star of his own title, with Clark starring in Action Comics by writer Phillip Kennedy Johnson and artist Phil Hester, and Jon Kent starring in Superman: Son of Kal-El by Tom Taylor and John Timms.

During this period was also published the ongoing series Batman/Superman (vol. 2), Batman/Superman: World’s Finest, and the limited series Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, Superman ’78, Superman and the Authority, and Superman: Red & Blue.

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Nova Reading Order (Richard Rider & Sam Alexander)

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If Nova made his first appearance in The Man Called Nova #1 (September 1976), the character originated ten years earlier by Marv Wolfman in issue #3 of his fanzine, Super Adventures.

At first, he was known as The Star, real name Denteen. He was a doctor who found a spaceship containing alien pills giving him a different superpower every five minutes. Three issues later, Wolfman and Len Wein reinvented the Star into a new hero, now a prisoner named Kraken Roo who becomes the superhero Black Nova. Black Nova’s life was short as he died in Super Adventures #9.

Black Nova was an adult wearing a black and yellow costume with 5 chest stars and a helmet antenna. There were differences alright, but no doubt that, years later, Marv Wolfman and John Romita Jr. revamped the character, with some changes to the costume and a new origin story to create Nova.

It also has to be said that Richard ‘Rich’ Rider was intended as an homage to Spider-Man (with some elements of Green Lantern). They clearly wanted to create a new character with the same essence, with his working-class origins, his tendency to banter in battle, and his inferiority complex. Though, Richard Rider was not as smart as Peter Parker, far from it, and was more of an average student

Rich was first an insecure teenager who inherited the mantle of an intergalactic Nova Centurion, became part of the Nova Corps (an intergalactic police force) and later of the New Warriors. He had to fight in a space war, experienced tragedies, loss of power, and much more.

But Richard Rider is not the only character called Nova at Marvel. There is also Samuel ‘Sam’ Alexander, who made his debut in Marvel Point One #1 (November 2011) at a point where Richard Rider was out of the picture (if we can say that). He starred in his own series beginning in 2013.

Created by Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuinness, Sam was named after Loeb’s dead son. He was a teenager living in Arizona with his family. His father was an alcoholic who talked about being a member of the Nova Corps, though Sam didn’t really believe him. It all changed when his father disappeared, discovered he was telling the truth, and put on his father’s helmet to become, in turn, a member of Nova Corps. Sam also became part of the New Warriors, the Avengers and Champions.

Let’s dive into some comics with this Nova Reading Order!

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Ghostbusters IDW Reading Order

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Like with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, G.I. Joe, and Transformers, IDW has been the house of the Ghostbusters comics for years–starting in 2008, the last miniseries was published in 2020. That’s a lot of miniseries, one-shots, ongoing series, and crossovers.

The Ghostbusters franchise started with the first movie directed by Ivan Reitman and written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis. It introduced us to this team of ghost hunters, professors Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz, and Egon Spengler–quickly joined by Winston Zeddemore–who had to face the evil Zuul to save New York. They became heroes and came back for a second movie, and a lot more.

The Franchise gave us some pretty successful TV animated shows,  video games, books, and of course comic books. In that domain, NOW Comics and Marvel UK started publishing The Real Ghostbusters, comics based on the TV series of the same name, in the late 1980s. The Quebec-based comic company 88MPH Studios also did that in the 2000s. There even was a one-shot Manga in 2008.

And then, IDW acquired the right to publish the Ghostbusters comics and went in a different direction, forgetting the TV show to focus instead on the main continuity established by the first two movies–and the 2009 Ghostbusters: The Video Game.

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Reckoning War reading order, a Fantastic Four event

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After concluding his Iron Man run with the Iron Man 2020 event, Dan Slott also choose to wrap up his four-year run on the Fantastic Four with an event! But not any event as The Reckoning War (penciled by Marco Checchetto) was, as Marvel said it, fifteen years in the making! 

Here is the official synopsis: FIFTEEN YEARS IN THE MAKING – AND IT ALL KICKS OFF HERE! In a time before the Kree, Skrull or Shi’ar Empires. Before the emergence of Galactus. Before the birth of Asgard. There was the First War. The greatest war to ever rage across the Multiverse. Today, it is reignited. This is the Day of Reckoning. And all that stands between all of reality and revenge from the dawn of time are the heroes of Earth, the Fantastic Four and the mind of Mister Fantastic. Starring the FF, She-Hulk, Jack of Hearts, the Unseen, the Silver Surfer and everyone in the whole damn Marvel Universe.

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How old is Deadpool in the comics?

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Trying to guess the age of a comic book character can be considered a sport in itself, as the timeline is never completely fixed, and relaunches and retcons often disrupt the timeline. It becomes yet more complicated when your character is shrouded in a little bit of mystery.

It worsens when your character has a particular relationship with the truth, like Deadpool. It’s not completely his fault, though. Deadpool’s brain doesn’t function normally because of the regenerative nature of his cells and the bizarre experiments he was subjected to, with drugs, virtual simulations, death, and memory implants.

Some rumors on the web imply that Deadpool was born Wade Wilson in Regina Saskatchewan, Canada, in 1973, but that information has never been verified (and comes from the movie, anyway). He may have had an ordinary childhood. Or not. He may have killed his parents. Or maybe they’re alive.

Wade Wilson has a lot of pasts, making it difficult even for him to know the truth about himself. If we’re not sure when and where Wade Wilson was born, what do we know?

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DC Vs. Vampires Reading Order, a DC Vampire Apocalypse by James Tynion IV and Matthew Rosenberg

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After depicting a Zombie Apocalypse in DCeased, another reality in DC Comics was confronted with undead creatures. This time around, the creatures of the night known as vampires were responsible for the Apocalypse set in Earth 63, the Earth of DC Vs. Vampires! 

Coming from James Tynion IV and Matthew Rosenberg, with artwork by Otto Schmidt, Simone Di Meo, Daniele Di Nicuolo and Francesco Mortarino, this superhero horror comic book is set on a alternate universe where the Justice League has protected the planet from many alien invaders but failed to realised a new threat were emerging among them, with vampires infiltrating their ranks and making our heroes unsure on who they could trust… until it was too late! 

A mysterious new vampire lord has already put a plan in motion to conquer the Earth, and his horde is hunting on the streets of Gotham. Can Batman save his city—or will he succumb to the undead plague? The answer and more in the DC Vs. Vampires comics! 

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Lazarus Planet Reading Order, a DC Magical Crisis

Barely one month after the conclusion of Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths, the DC Universe is affected by another crisis. Writer Mark Waid teams up with Riccardo Federici, Gene Luen Yang, Billy Tan, Nicole Maines, Skylar Patridge, Francis Manapul, Dan Watters, Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Josie Campbell, and more, for the Lazarus Planet, a Magical Crisis where heroes are transformed, secrets are revealed and powers are unleashed. Here is the official synopsis:

Following the events of Mark Waid and Mahmud Asrar’s Batman vs. Robin #4 this December, the Lazarus Volcano has erupted—spewing dangerous and transformative chemicals into Earth’s atmosphere, resulting in chaos across the DC universe! As these Lazarus clouds rain down upon the planet, people across the globe begin to develop strange new abilities, watch their already-extraordinary abilities change, and witness a whole host of chaos, unlike anything the DCU has experienced before!

A lot of DC characters are involved in this event, from the obvious Batman and Robin (Damian Wayne), but also Martian Manhunter, Red Canary, Jon Kent, Poison Ivy, Power Girl, but also Monkey Prince, Shazam/Billy Batson, Mary Marvel, and Yara Flor.

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Reckless: Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips’ Pulp Graphic Novel Series

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At this point, when it comes to crime comics, Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips’s comics have eclipsed David Lapham’s (Stray Bullets). If you talk about the genre, you irremediably think about Criminal, then comes other favorites like The Fade Out, Kill or be Killed, Fatale… 

With the award-winning Pulp, the duo confirmed that they don’t even need to connect their work to Criminal anymore—like with My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies—or to another series to find their audiences in a different format. They became the brand. Everything they try is basically a winner.

Reckless doesn’t contradict that. It is a new crime series, for sure, but the creative team decided to try a different publication approach. Each story is self-contained and collected in one 144-page hardcover graphic novel.

It’s like reading a good old pulp novel, but with Brubaker’s writing, Sean Phillips’s pencils, and Jacob Phillips’s colors, the result could almost qualify as a reinvention of the genre by the form—published by Image Comics.

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Batman White Knight Reading Order, exploring the Murphyverse

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Launched in 2017 with the book Batman: White Knight, The Murphyverse is a universe created by Sean Gordon Murphy (Punk Rock Jesus, The Wake) and published under the DC Black Label imprint.

As the imprint suggests, this is not a series set in the DC continuity—it could qualify as an Elseworlds series. The first book introduced us to a world where the Joker is cured of his insanity and homicidal tendencies. Now a politician under his real name of Jack Napier, The Joker sets about trying to right his wrongs. First, he plans to reconcile with Harley Quinn, and then he’ll try to save the city from the one person who he thinks is truly Gotham City’s greatest villain: Batman!

The success of Batman: White Knight was massive, and the trade paperback quickly became a best-seller (it since has been republished in multiple formats). A sequel was commissioned, Batman: Curse of the White Knight.

This time, the Joker recruits Azrael, a knight of the Order of St. Dumas, to help him expose a shocking secret from the Wayne family’s legacy. As Batman rushes to protect the city and his loved ones from danger, the mystery of his ancestry unravels, dealing a devastating blow to the Dark Knight.

This second limited series confirmed the popularity of this alternate version of Batman. This prompted DC Comics to give Sean Murphy his own line of books to be published under its Black Label imprint. The Murphyverse was born.

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Iron Fist Reading Order (Danny Rand and Lin Lie)

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In the early 1970s, Marvel Comics was quick to respond to cultural trends sweeping across America. With Blaxploitation cinema captivating audiences, Marvel introduced Luke Cage, Hero for Hire in 1972—the first African-American superhero to headline his own comic. Simultaneously, martial arts were booming in popularity, thanks in part to Bruce Lee’s rise and the influx of kung fu films from Hong Kong. Marvel’s answer to this new craze was the creation of Iron Fist.

Debuting in Marvel Premiere #15 in May 1974, Iron Fist was the creation of writer Roy Thomas and artist Gil Kane. Thomas, inspired by the martial arts films he and others at Marvel were watching at the time, crafted a character who blended the mysticism of Eastern legends with the action-packed energy of superhero comics. It’s worth noting that Shang-Chi, another Marvel martial artist influenced directly by Bruce Lee, had already launched in Special Marvel Edition #15 in 1973.

Iron Fist’s origin begins with young Daniel Rand, who, after witnessing his parents’ deaths during an expedition in the Himalayas, is taken in by the mystical city of K’un-Lun. There, he trains for a decade in martial arts and gains the power of the Iron Fist by defeating the dragon Shou-Lao the Undying.

Armed with superhuman chi and unmatched fighting skills, Rand returns to the Western world to avenge his parents. Though his solo series was short-lived, he gained new life when he teamed up with Luke Cage in the popular Power Man and Iron Fist series, turning them into Marvel’s go-to street-level duo.

After a brief “death” and resurrection in the ’90s, Iron Fist starred in acclaimed runs like The Immortal Iron Fist, which expanded his mythology and introduced a long line of past Iron Fists. Most recently, in 2022, the Iron Fist mantle was passed to Lin Lie, formerly known as Sword Master. With Danny Rand having lost the power of the Iron Fist, he now serves as a mentor to Lin, showing that while the torch has been passed, Rand’s journey is far from over.

Iron Fist has also entered the mainstream thanks to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Portrayed by Finn Jones, Danny Rand appeared in the Netflix series Iron Fist, The Defenders, and the second season of Luke Cage. Though the show received mixed reviews, it brought renewed attention to the character and introduced Iron Fist to a new generation of fans.

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