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.
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.
Ambitious was 1995 X-Men’s crossover storyline, that’s the least we can say. Like The Clone Saga (reading order), “Age of Apocalypse” became an era-defining moment in the Marvel Universe. With this event was published new X-Men related mini series including X-Calibre, Gambit and the X-Ternals, Generation Next, Astonishing X-Men, Amazing X-Men, Weapon X, Factor X, X-Man, and X-Universe.
Everything began when the mutant known as Legion traveled back in time with the intention to kill Magneto before he can commit multiple crimes against humanity. But instead of Magneto, Legion accidentally kills his own father, Professor Charles Xavier. That tragedy led to a catastrophic change in the timeline. Without Professor X, Apocalypse was able to attack 10 years sooner than he did in the original timeline. He took control of Earth and, from that point on, nothing was the same as before. The victory of Apocalypse is not complete. He’s still opposed by several factions of mutant resistance. One group manages to send the mutant Bishop back in time to prevent the murder of Professor Xavier, undoing the entire timeline.
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. After that, 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.
Created by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie, and published by Image Comics, The Wicked + The Divine is a contemporary fantasy comic book series that follows a young teenage girl, Laura, as she interacts with the Pantheon, a group of twelve people who discover that they are reincarnated deities.
It is said that each cycle of The Pantheon will not live past two years from the start of the series and that every 90 years the Pantheon is reincarnated. This cycle is known as the Recurrence. But remember: just because you’re immortal, doesn’t mean you’re going to live forever.
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:
More than the title of an Avenger movie, Age of Ultron is a crossover storyline by Brian Michael Bendis, with artists Bryan Hitch and Brandon Peterson. Published in 2013, it consisted of 10-issue core miniseries and a number of tie-in books.
Submit or perish! The artificial intelligence known as Ultron has fought for years to eradicate mankind…and now, it has all but succeeded. The few remaining heroes are battered, broken, almost beaten, and left considering desperate measures – some more desperate than others. But when Wolverine breaks ranks and pursues his own plan to defeat Ultron, will his drastic action cause more problems than it solves?
What to read before Age of Ultron?
You will hear voices telling you you waste your time reading Age of Ultron, an event that doesn’t require a lot of preparation thanks to its self-contained nature.
That said, some great stories have been written with Ultron, worth checking out, more than the event itself :
Ultron Unlimited – Ultron invades and slaughters the Slorenian population and the Avengers risk all to stop him. (recommended)
Annihilation: Conquest – Ultron takes over the Kree galaxy after the Annihilation war. (it is recommended to have read Annihilation for a better understanding)
American comic book series created by writer Jeff Lemire and artist Dean Ormston, Black Hammer is published by Dark Horse Comics and tell a rather different superhero story.
Everything started ten years ago when the famous Black Hammer and six other superheroes from Spiral City fought the deadly Anti-God in order to save the world.
They win, but they also disappeared after the fight. The world believes them dead, but they became trapped in Rockwood, a small city in the middle of nowhere. They just can’t leave. Black Hammer died trying. They must live mundane lives in this timeless rural city.
They don’t really know where or when they are and they lost almost all hope to leave one day or to discover the truth about what happened to them.
Created by writer Fabian Nicieza and artist/writer Rob Liefeld, Deadpool first appears in The New Mutants and X-Force as a supervillain before becoming one of Marvel’s most iconic anti-heroes.
He is a mercenary aware of his existence as a fictional comic book character, often breaking the fourth wall and conversing with his two internal monologues (but how old is he?).
His past remains shrouded in mystery, with multiple versions of his origin. Whether his childhood was difficult or not, we do know that Wade Wilson became an international assassin, working for various governments. After developing an aggressive form of cancer, he enrolled in the Weapon X program, which gave him a healing factor from another member (you know… Wolverine) and put him to work for them.
The consequences of his time there included a diminished mental state, a healing factor that couldn’t cure his cancer or heal his scars, an infatuation with death, and the freedom to return to mercenary work.
Also known as “The Merc with a Mouth” he set out as Deadpool to kill and have a good time doing it. With time, Deadpool walked the fine line between criminal and hero, working with or against X-Force, the X-Men, and the Avengers. He made a big name for himself in the Marvel Universe and shines in his many team-ups, but it has to be said, there’s no one he loves as much as Spider-Man!
As the name suggests, Spider-Geddon is a Spider-Man event taking place in the Marvel comics universe. It’s a sequel to the massively popular event Spider-verse.
The Inheritors have escaped their radioactive prison planet and made their way to the Marvel Universe. As the villains draw first blood, a whole Spider-Army must reunite to keep them at bay!
Prepare to meet Web-Slinger, Spidey of the Wild West! May Parker: Spider-Ma’am! And more! But as the threat they face builds, things do not look good for our web-heads and wall-crawlers. The end of the Spider-Verse is here!
What to read before Spider-Man: Spider-Geddon?
The way comics are written, there is plenty of exposition, you will probably understand most of the event even if you didn’t read the Spider-verse event (go to the Reading Order), but I’m quite sure that reading is pretty much required to understand and to enjoy everything.
Spider-verse
Collects Amazing Spider-Man (2014) #7-15, Superior Spider-Man #32-33, Spider-Verse #1-2, Spider-Verse Team-Up #1-3, Scarlet Spiders #1-3, Spider-Woman (2014) #1-4, Spider-Man 2099 (2014) #6-8 And Material From Free Comic Book Day 2014 (Guardians Of The Galaxy) #1.
Also, you can check out our Spider-Man Reading Order that covers the adventures of Spidey from the start to today.