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The Best of Magik Comics, Our Illyana Rasputin Recommended Reading Order (X-Men)!

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While it’s obvious to think about Scarlet Witch or Clea and Stephen Strange when talking about magic users in the Marvel Universe, it would be a great mistake to disregard Magik, also known as Illyana Rasputina.

Created by Len Wein and Dave Cockrum, Illyana made her first appearance in the comic book Giant-Size X-Men #1 (May 1975), like many other X-Men characters such as Nightcrawler, Storm, Thunderbird, and her brother Colossus! For a long time, she was only known as Colossus’ little sister until Chris Claremont and Sal Buscema sent her to the magical realm of Limbo. In her time there, Illyana aged seven years,  developed her teleportation abilities and became a sorceress later known as Magik.

Since her debut, Illyana has been abused by demons during her formative years, de-aged, exploited by her government, killed by a Virus, resurrected, turned on the Dark Side and more! With those many traumatic experiences, Magik became one of the most fascinating and ambiguous X-Men and well deserving of her own reading order! 

So today, let’s explore Magik’s history with her best comics to understand her character and motivations, learn more about her place among the X-Men, her relationship with her brother, Shadowcat and more!

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Venom War Reading Order

As summer comes, Marvel Comics delivers a new Symbiotes event–one year after the Summer of Symbiotes. It’s time for the Venom War event from writer Al Ewing and artist Iban Coello. This time, it’s a family affair:

“The Venom symbiote has bonded with both Eddie Brock and his son Dylan at different points. Now, both Brocks are going head-to-head, determined to be the one true Venom! Father versus son in a showdown of showdowns that threatens to tear the world asunder!”

Of course, this being an event, it’s not just about Eddie and Dylan fighting over Venom. Agent Anti-Venom (aka Flash Thompson), Red Goblin (aka Normie Osborn), Widow (aka Natasha Romanov), Carnage (aka Cletus Kasady), Spider-Man (aka Peter Parker), and Meriduis (a future version of Eddie Brock) are taking part in this war.

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Doctor Octopus: Origin Story of Spider-Man’s “Superior” Enemy

Among Spider-Man‘s many iconic enemies, Doctor Octopus occupies a notable place–right after the infamous Green Goblin. Octopuses are not natural enemies to the spiders, so this is an exception. Introduced in 1963 in the pages of The Amazing Spider-Man #3, this supervillain was created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.

Doc Ock’s real name is Otto Octavius. He is a mad scientist who is highly intelligent, myopic, and in control of four mechanical arms that he built himself. Those arms were the original idea of Steve Ditko. He suggested it to Stan Lee who came up with the rest, the name and the origin story.

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The Beta Ray Bill Origin Story – Who is this alien Thor?

Looking like he is Thor with the head of a horse, Beta Ray Bill is not a multiverse variant of the Asgardian superhero. He is from the same universe and he is more than a copy or a variant of the God of Thunder.

Introduced by Walt Simonson during his famous run on Thor in 1983 in a 4-issue adventure told in The Mighty Thor #337-340, Beta Ray Bill is a Korbinite, as he comes from the planet Korbin, “Burning Galaxy.” The inhabitants of this part of space don’t look like him as he was transformed into a cybernetic being.

For Walt Simonson, the idea was to use comic tropes to subvert expectations. As he said in an interview published in The Jack Kirby Collector #14, “I designed Bill deliberately as a monster, because I knew that people would look at it and go, ‘Oh, my God, it’s this evil guy.’ I deliberately wrote them so you weren’t sure in the beginning if he was a good guy or a bad guy. His face was designed around a horse’s skull, partly because horses are quite beautiful. I thought it’d be kind of cool to have the structure of a beautiful animal underneath the monster to give this dichotomy between the monstrous and the beautiful in the same face.”

One of the most surprising elements of Beta Ray Bill’s introduction is that he can pick up Mjolnir, the most powerful weapon of the Norse gods, the one that only Thor is supposed to be worthy of using. But Bill is also worthy and, beyond the initial shock of seeing a monster-like character using Mjolnir, it proves that he is a noble warrior on par with Thor.

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Storm Reading Order, Your Ororo Munroe Comic Book Guide!

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One of the first black comic book characters, Storm is also one of the most important female superheroes in the Marvel Universe. She is a member of the X-Men, a descendant of African witch-priestesses with the ability to control the weather and atmosphere, who uses her powers to fight for peace and equal rights.

Created by Len Wein and Dave Cockrum, she made her first appearance in the classic Giant-Size X-Men #1, the famous issue introducing several new X-Men such as Wolverine (who already made his first appearance in The Incredible Hulk #181), Colossus, Thunderbird, and Nightcrawler.

Born Ororo Munroe, Storm is a powerful and strong superheroine with a love of nature. Noticeable for her striking blue eyes and silver-white hair, she is warm, generous, and protective of her friends and family but cold, frightening, and dangerous to her enemies. Recognized as an Omega Level Mutant, she has served multiple times as the leader of the X-Men. Storm has also been worshipped as a Goddess, was Queen of Wakanda, and briefly a member of the Avengers and the Fantastic Four.

Discover now our Storm reading order, guiding you through the essential comics and story arcs featuring Marvel’s iconic weather-controlling mutant!

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Marvel’s Black Cat Origin Story, Not Just Another Catwoman

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As Spider-Man wasn’t the first spider-themed superhero, Black Cat wasn’t the first comic book cat-themed cat burglar with an ambiguous relationship with a famous vigilante.

Master thief Felicia Hardy was created by Marv Wolfman, Keith Pollard, and Dave Cockrum and made her first official appearance in The Amazing Spider-Man #194, in 1979. It wasn’t supposed to be her introduction as she was first drawn for the cover of Spider-Woman #9, before the story was even written. But Marv Wolfman left the book and brought his feline villain to another spider-titled series, the “amazing” one.

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Marvel’s Blood Hunt Reading Order, Vampires Takes Over The World

Hot on the heels of Gang War, a far more primal menace has emerged … and this time, the carnage isn’t contained to the streets of New York. It’s a global extinction event. Welcome to BLOOD HUNT, Marvel’s definitive vampire epic.

Coming from the bloodthirsty duo of Jed MacKay and Pepe Larraz, this event begins as the sun vanishes, leaving the Marvel Universe at the mercy of the children of the night. As the official synopsis warns: ‘Earth’s final night has fallen. Can even the heroes of this doomed world stem the tide of blood?’ From the front lines of the Avengers and Doctor Strange to the personal battles of Blade, Bloodline, and the X-Men, this is the complete map to navigating Marvel’s darkest hour.

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Gambit Comics Reading Order, Your Favourite Cajun (X-Men)

He’s a cajun, a professional thief, and one of the X-Men’s most charming members. A master of kinetic energy from New Orleans, he has been called Le Diable Blanc but he is known as Gambit alias Remy LeBeau!

Gambit was created in 1990 by Chris Claremont and Jim Lee. Initially, the writer had planned for him to be, at first, an adversary or traitor to the X-Men. Following Claremont’s departure from the X-Men, the writers altered the original plan to better fit the readers’ expectations of the character. Our charming thief had indeed quickly conquered the hearts of the readers and became one of the most popular X-Men characters of the 90s.

Gambit made his first appearance in Uncanny X-Men #266. In the story, he helped a de-aged Storm with amnesia and they formed a partnership as thieves. When Storm returned to her true self, she invited Remy to join the X-Men. The secretive Gambit accepted the proposition to redeem himself of past actions. While Gambit’s past will eventually catch up with him, he quickly integrated into the team and formed close relationships with several members, including Rogue – with the two starting a turbulent romance and becoming one of the most iconic X-Men relationships.

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Jeff The Land Shark, Marvel’s cult-favorite landshark (with a reading order!)

It’s been only five years since Jeff the Land Shark first showed up in the Marvel Universe, stealing the hearts of West Coast Avengers readers. Created by Kelly Thompson and Daniele di Nicuolo, Jeff the Land Shark, also called Jeffrey, became the adorable pet sidekick of superheroine Gwenpool, named after Gwen’s own kitten.

Jeff quickly became a hit online and won over Marvel fans with his undeniable cuteness, landing him numerous cameo appearances and variant covers (this would make a great ‘Where’s Jeff?’ book!). All of this will naturally lead to our boy Jeff headlining his own series, and prompting Comic Book Treasury to make a dedicated Jeff The Landshark Reading Order, further solidifying his place as a cherished icon in the Marvel universe.

But first…

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Nick Fury Reading Order

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Created by writer/artist Jack Kirby and writer Stan Lee, Colonel Nicholas Joseph “Nick” Fury Sr. has a long career in the Marvel Universe! Born around 1920, he enrolled in the American Army at the age of 20 and became leader of an elite U.S. Army Ranger unit during WWII in Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos #1 (1963).

After the war, he trained and became a Colonel in the Central Intelligence Agency O.S.S., the predecessor of the CIA. He worked for them until Tony Stark recruited him to lead the counterespionage agency known as S.H.I.E.L.D. Nick Fury has never been the type of man sitting behind a desk and he transformed himself into a sort of James Bond-like spy, going on the field for important missions. The agency grew under his command and built important alliances with the Avengers and other teams of superheroes.

But all is not what it seems in the spy world, and soon, Nick Fury finds himself in some complex spying game, leading him to disband and rebuild the S.H.I.E.L.D. Like many Marvel Characters, be assured that Nick died at some point and came back, quit, or retired from his position. And more improbable things completely change his place in the Comic book world.

So today, we dive into the long history of Nick Fury (and his many SHIELD missions!) with this Nick Fury Reading Order!

This reading order was suggested by Jal Hicham, one of our readers! Don’t hesitate to leave a comment or write to us with some other suggestions!

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