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Mister Miracle Reading Order

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For a few short years during the 1970s, Jack Kirby joined DC Comics and introduced revolutionary ideas that are still affecting the DCU to this day–he was not the king of comics for no reason.

His major DC work was what is called “The Fourth World,” a series of interconnected series based around a new mythology surrounding The New Gods–find more about it in our Fourth World Reading Order. Kirby mostly developed it we three titles:  New Gods, The Forever People, and Mister Miracle. The last one is the heart of our article today.

Introduced in Mister Miracle #1 (April 1971), Scott Free is the son of the sage Highfather, ruler of New Genesis, the positive counterpart to the hellish planet Apokolips ruled by Darkseid. To stop the war between the two planets, heirs were exchanged. That’s why Scott grew up in one of Granny Goodness’ “Terror Orphanages” with no knowledge of his own heritage–he still rebelled against the corrupt and violent ideology of Apokolips.

Scott joined the Resistance where he met Big Barda who would later become his wife. He also finally found an exit and fled to Earth where met circus escape artist Thaddeus Brown–whose stage name was Mister Miracle. After Thaddeus was killed, Scott took over his stage identity and became an escape artist, with the help of his assistant and friend, a dwarf named Oberon.

Of course, the war against Darkseid had not ended and, joined by Big Barda, Scott Free kept fighting. He became a hero, and eventually joined the Justice League. He died at some point, like the other New Gods, and was later resurrected too.

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Supergirl Reading Order (Kara Zor-El, Matrix, Cir-El)

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It’s a Bird… It’s a Plane… It’s Supergirl! One of Superman’s happiest moments in life was discovering he had a long-lost living relative when Supergirl made her first appearancee in Action Comics #252 (May 1959). This was also one of the most important events in the development of the Superman Universe. Sent to Earth in a rocket by her father, Zor-El, Supergirl is Superman’s cousin from Krypton and she was chosen to star in the backup story of Action Comics even before making her debut.

The first adventures of the Girl of Steel were conceived with the idea of appealing to female readers who “were thought to be more interested in seeing a girl use super powers closer to home.” (American Comic Book Chronicles, The 1950s). While her earlier stories were clearly not as thrilling as the adventures of her more famous cousin, this was only the start for Supergirl, as the character would grow in popularity and complexity.

Since her creation, Supergirl has been killed off, replaced, rebooted, retconned and much much more. The Last Daughter of Krypton has used several names and been part of various teams, including the Legion of Super-Heroes, the Justice League, the Red Lantern Corps, and the DEO. Her history is not simple, complicated by the fact that Kara-Zor-El isn’t the only person to have taken on the mantle of Supergirl!

There’s also no doubt that the Girl of Steel gained popularity thanks to the several iterations of the character on the big and small screen. She first appeared in the film Supergirl (1984), played by Helen Slater. On TV, She has been played by Laura Vandervoort in Smallville and Melissa Benoist in the Arrowverse. Sasha Calle recently portrayed the character in The Flash (2023) while a new version of the character has been announced with Milly Alcock playing the character in Superman: Legacy (2025) and Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow (2026). Naturally, she has also appeared in several animated movies and television series!

Let’s now explore the comic book history of Supergirl, from her first appearance in Action Comics as the Supergirl from Krypton to her recent adventures in space and beyond! Check out our Supergirl Comics Order for a guide to the many stories featuring the Maid of Might!

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The Joker’s Last Laugh Reading Order

The Joker was disrupting the DC Universe at the beginning of the noughties. He was  first accidentally given nigh-unlimited reality-shaping powers by Mr. Mxyzptlk and reshaped the universe in his image in Superman: Emperor Joker. Not long after that, the Joker was at it again, spreading chaos in the way less received event The Joker’s Last Laugh (also known as The Joker: Last Laugh), written by Chuck Dixon and Scott Beatty with art by Pete Woods.

What The Joker’s Last Laugh is about? The Joker is a prisoner at the Slabside Penitentiary when a prison doctor informs them that they have found a malignant tumor after a brain scan. The Joker is going to die. Facing this news, The Clown Prince of Crime decides he wants to go out with a bang. He concocts a scheme to carry on his legacy by transforming his fellow villains into “jokerized” versions of themselves.

Published in 2001, this storyline comprises a six-issue miniseries and 25 tie-ins, covering almost everything that was published at the time, from the Batman titles to the Superman family, and more.

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Green Lantern Reading Order

Created in 1940 by Martin Nodell and Bill Finger in DC Comics’ All-American Comics #16 (July 1940), the first superhero named Green Lantern was Alan Scott–one of the founding members of the Justice Society of America.

Alan Scott was the first, but certainly not the last. He was a Golden Age hero (read all about Alan Scott here) and, with the Silver Age, a new Green Lantern appeared: Hal Jordan. This test pilot was given a power ring and a battery (the famous lantern) by a dying alien named Abin Sur whose spaceship crashed on Earth. The ring wants only go to someone “utterly honest and born without fear,” and there is more than one human being fitting that description as new Green Lanterns from Earth appeared in the DC Comics Universe through the decades: John Stewart, Guy Gardner, Kyle Rayner, Simon Baz, Jessica Cruz, and more.

Once chosen by the ring, Hal and the others automatically joined the Green Lantern Corps, an intergalactic law enforcement organization founded by the Guardians, a race of immortals residing on the planet Oa. The Green Lanterns must protect the 3600 “sectors” of the universe–Earth is in Sector 2814.

The Lanterns have only one weapon, but it’s the most powerful one in the DC universe: the power ring. Those who wear a ring gain incredible abilities and control them with their own willpower. The ring protects the Lanterns and, with it, they can form constructs of Oan energy: thoughts become physical constructs. There are downsides, like the need to recharge the rings or the effects of the color yellow (for a time thought).

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Young Justice Reading Order

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They are the next generation of superheroes and want to have their own adventures, far away from their mentor. They are the Young Justice! The team was founded by Robin (Tim Drake), Superboy (Kon-El), and Impulse (Bart Allen) but will soon become a beacon for the young superheroes in the DC Universe.

Created by Todd Dezago and artist Todd Nauck, the Young Justice made its first appearance in 1998, in Young Justice: Secret #1 at a time when the Teen Titans had become the Titans and they were no current superheroes’ teen team.

The team’s base was established in the empty JLA headquarters in Happy Harbor, Rhode Island, where they met Red Tornado. The sentient android stayed with the team as an adult supervisor and adviser. Soon enough, some new members were added to the team: Wonder Girl (Cassandra “Cassie” Sandsmark), Arrowette (Cissie King-Jones), and Secret (Greta Hayes). Other heroes would come and go from the team: Empress, Li’l Lobo/Slobo, The Ray, but also Teen Lantern, Jinny Hex, and Amethyst. Red Tornado was also eventually replaced with civilian Snapper Carr.

If Young Justice was created on paper, the team made also a name for itself on television, thanks to the Young Justice animated television series, launched in 2010 on Cartoon Network. It is not an adaptation of the comic book series (and not in continuity), but the adventures of another version of the team from another Earth. And there are tie-ins to the television adventures!

To know more about the Young Justice, let’s dive into this reading order!

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From Crisis to Crisis: A DC Comics Reading Order

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For decades now, every DC Comics reader has been dealing with continuity issues. Some see that as a problem and, in order to fix it, multiple reboots/relaunches were introduced, installing a new status-quos, and launching new “eras.” All that with the use of what are called “Crisis” events.

The original “Crisis” took place in Justice League of America #21, titled “Crisis On Earth-One!” The story introduced the idea of two different realities, explaining how the heroes of the Justice League teamed up with their predecessors from the Justice Society of America. This led to multiple crossovers between Earth-One and Earth-Two.

But what cemented “Crisis” as a synonym for “universe-altering event” was the 1985 Crisis on Infinite Earths, the famous crossover storyline from Marv Wolfman and George Pérez. This 12-issue limited series is now credited with popularizing the idea of a large-scale crossover in comics. At the time, the goal was to create a single and unified DC Universe.

Crisis on Infinite Earths was used to launch what is now called the Modern-Age era. It became–and still is for a lot of readers–a good entry point into the DCU. The event didn’t fix everything and other Crisis events try to do more. The DCU was just destined to become a confusing affair once more.

Nevertheless, reading from Crisis to Crisis is not a simple task as the series are numerous, as well as the crossovers. If you want to explore this rich story, the task is overwhelming. There are a lot of roads to follow, but you may only want the short version–or at least, the essential reading recommendation.

This reading guide is here to offer one possible road to follow. It’s not definitive, feel free to submit more books to read in the comment section (and tell us why they are a must-read!).

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Green Lantern Rebirth Reading Order

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After almost five years, the New 52 era came to an end to make way for a new era, a new beginning: Rebirth! It had, from a continuity point of view, minimal impact on the Green Lanterns, as their story simply continues from the previous era.

From a more behind-the-scene angle, new creative teams worked on the title. Or titles should I write, as the main Green Lantern series was replaced by two books. Simon Baz and Jessica Cruz headlined Green Lanterns, written by Sam Humphries for its first 32 issues and for the most part penciled by Robson Rocha. Humphries was followed by Tim Seeley (#33-47), Aaron Gillespie (#48-49), and Dan Jurgens (#50-57) with art from Ronan Cliquet, Carlo Barberi, V. Ken Marion, Mike Perkins and Marco Santucci. Our two Green Lanterns were also members of the Justice League during this period. At the same time, Hal Jordan was still flying with writer Robert Venditti and artist Rafa Sandoval in Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps. 

Things changed not long after Dark Nights: Metal. Grant Morrison took over and teamed up with British comic book artist Liam Sharp for a run on Green Lantern. There was also some shake-up in the Justice League, following the No Justice arc, with the creation of different teams. Simon Baz stayed with the classic Justice League, but Jessica Crews joined the Justice League Odyssey, a team formed to bring order to the newly created space sector known as the Ghost Sector. And a little bit later, a new Green Lantern was introduced…

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Superman Reading Order, The Modern Age (Post-Crisis)

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It’s a Bird… It’s a Plane… It’s Superman! Created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster in Action Comics #1 (1938), Superman is an alien from the planet Krypton who fights crime in Metropolis and the rest of the world. Under the costume is Kal-El, who was sent to Earth when he was a baby, and adopted by farmers Jonathan and Martha Kent who named him Clark Kent and raised him in the little town of Smallville. As Clark developed superhuman abilities, his parents taught him to use his talents to help humanity.

Clark relocated to Metropolis to pursue a career in journalism. He landed a job at the Daily Planet, where he met the love of his life and journalist Lois Lane, photographer Jimmy Olsen, and editor-in-chief Perry White. In parallel, he put on a colorful costume and used the codename Superman to fight powerful enemies, including General Zod, Brainiac, and the most emblematic of them all, the narcissistic-genius Lex Luthor.

The superhero genre wouldn’t be the same without Superman. Though there was other before him that could be said to fit the bill, he established the conventions and popularized the whole genre, being the best-selling superhero in American comic books up until the 1980s.

As the DC Universe was becoming more complicated and sales were declining, a new page of history was written following a Crisis like no one else: Crisis on Infinite Earths (see reading order). This was the beginning of the Modern Age and the creation of new instant-classic stories. The event was used to retconned the histories of most of the characters. The idea was to clean up the timelines (something DC is still trying to do, in vain) and to update the superheroes in order to appeal to a contemporary audience. 

This is when this Superman reading order begins. This article doesn’t cover the previous decades (or the Pre-Crisis). Our Man of Steel got a new origin story with the help of John Byrne, and it would only be the first of several ones during this long period. Kal-El’s past was explored, revisited, and modified, as the character lived some bold adventures, even making headlines for dying (something so ordinary today… to die in the comics, not the mainstream media coverage).

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Hawkman Reading Order

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There is more than one DC Comics superhero named Hawkman. Created by writer Gardner Fox–who was apparently inspired by the sight of a bird while trying to come up with new superheroes–and Dennis Neville in Flash Comics #1 (January 1940) during the Golden Age of comic books, the first of the several incarnations of Hawkman was Carter Hall, a reincarnation of the ancient Egyptian prince Khufu.

Hall had discovered the “ninth metal” (aka “Nth metal”) that allow him to fly by negating the effects of gravity. He put on a costume and started to fight crime. He soon became a founding member of the Justice Society of America–and even became the chairman of the team. Also at that time, he started romancing Shiera Saunders, the reincarnated bride of Khufu, who became known as Hawkgirl.

Like most of the superheroes of the Golden Age, Hawkman disappeared for a while during the 1950s and was reinvented for the Silver Age under the guidance of famed DC editor Julius Schwartz. Revived in The Brave and the Bold # 34 (Feb–Mar 1961), his powers were quite similar but Hawkman was this time a police officer from the planet Thanagar–not a human anymore! Named Katar Hol he came to Earth with his wife Shayera in search of a criminal and stayed–the couple adopted secret identities, becoming Carter and Shiera Hall who worked at a museum in Midway City.

This time again, he joined the main DC Team, the Justice League of America, and met the original Hawkman during crossovers with the JSA from Earth-Two.

Like the rest of the DC Universe, the 1985 Crisis on Infinite Earths changed a lot for Hawkman and Hawkwoman. Everything became quite confusing until the 1989 Hawkworld series rebooted the Hawkman story. This time, Katar Hol and his partner Shayera were sent to Earth after rebelling against the Thanagarian government whose policy was predatory against other worlds.

Their arrival on Earth forced a retcon of the Golden Age Hawkman and Hawkgirl, as they were still alive and well. It was then revealed that the Nth metal was in reality from Thanagar. Also, we learned that it was really Fel Andar, a Thanagarian agent, who was the 1980s Hawkman who previously joined the JLA in order to spy on the heroes. All these corrections didn’t simplify the Hawk mythology as new events added complications to the point that DC decided to put the Hawks aside for a while.

It was in the 1990s, in the JSA series, that the continuity was revised. We then learned that Carter Hall and Shiera who got their powers from Thanagarian Nth metal had been reincarnated multiple times since ancient Egypt. Katar Hol come to Earth during the 1990s and Fel Andar returned to Thanagar. The reincarnation angle was used to launch a new Hawkman series in 2002.

All of this is the simple version, things were even more complicated in the books…

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Legion of Super-Heroes Reading Order, the team from the future

When Superboy met three teenagers and members of the Legion of Super-Heroes for the first time in the comic book Adventure Comics #247 (April 1958), he couldn’t predict how popular this young team would become. Created by writer Otto Binder and artist Al Plastino for a one-off story, the Legion is a team of young superheroes from the 30th and 31st centuries.

They proved so popular that they returned again and again, eventually becoming a regular feature in Adventure Comics #300. Sharing the spotlight with Superboy for years, the Legion finally earned its own comic title in the 1970s.

By the 1980s, the Legion of Super-Heroes was among DC’s best-selling series, alongside Uncanny X-Men and New Teen Titans. During this time, Paul Levitz wrote some of the most iconic stories in Legion history, including The Great Darkness Saga. Later, Keith Giffen took the series in a darker, more experimental direction, but not without its share of continuity challenges.

To reconnect with a lighter and simpler Legion, the Legion of Super-Heroes title was rebooted by Mark Waid, Tom McCraw, and Stuart Immonen In 1994. Ten years later, sales were failing, and despite good reviews, Waid and Barry Kitson rebooted the series again, creating a third incarnation of the Legion.

Generally, when a new version of the Legion was introduced, the previous team was usually erased from continuity, as they all occupied the same place in history. Each team was meant to represent a different possible future for DC. In 2008, writer Geoff Johns changed this concept with Final Crisis, revealing that the different versions of the Legion come from separate worlds but still interact with the main Earth’s history. This allowed all the Legion teams to coexist, and the pre-Crisis team was restored to continuity for the occasion. In 2019, a new version of the team was introduced by Brian Michael Bendis.
 
The Legion became a beloved team, with a history that’s anything but simple. Full of stories ranging from lighthearted to dark and serious, from soap opera to high sci-fi, and everything in between, you can now explore their rich past with our Legion of Super-Heroes Comics reading order!

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