Marvel

Created by Stan Lee, Don Rico, and Don Heck, Black Widow made her debut as Tales of Suspense #52 in 1964. During her first decades on the pages of Marvel Comic books, the woman also known as Natasha Romanoff has been a villain and a hero, a femme fatale and a spy, a love interest and a superhero. Once she chose the path of heroism, she was at first reduced to being Hawkeye’s girlfriend, then Daredevil’s.

Trained by the “Red Room” to be the ultimate Super Spy, Black Widow is a former Russian KGB Agent who defected to the United States of America and joined the S.H.I.E.L.D. Later, she would also become a member of the Avengers and has been part of the team on several occasions. A woman with a mysterious past, Black Widow served for a long time as a female sidekick or team member in Daredevil, Captain America, The Champions, and of course, The Avengers.

It took her almost 40 years to finally have her own title, a limited series part of the Marvel Knights line when she found herself having to defend her codename from a certain Yelena Belova. From then on, Black Widow became a more prominent figure in the Marvel Universe, and her introduction in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2010, played by Scarlett Johansson, clearly helped solidify her place.

She is now one of the most famous Marvel characters, and it’s time to explore her history with this Black Widow/Natasha Romanoff reading order!

Read More »Black Widow Reading Order (Natasha Romanoff)

David Haller was the first X-Men character to receive a live-action TV Series. You could then easily imagine that he was a prominent X-Men. Even though he made his debut in the 80s, he doesn’t appear in many Marvel comic books. Despite that, David Haller, also known as Legion, left his marks on the X-Men Universe and the readers.

Created by writer Chris Claremont and artist Bill Sienkiewicz, David Haller made his first appearance in New Mutants #25 (March 1985). He is the mutant son of Charles Xavier, the famous leader of the X-Men, and Gabrielle Haller, a Holocaust survivor who chooses not to tell Xavier she was pregnant after their amicable breakup. Xavier would learn sometime after founding the New Mutants that David was his son.

David is one of the most powerful mutants who have the ability to create spontaneous mutations with varying attributes and can warp reality. He also suffers from a dissociative identity disorder. David can absorb the psyche of someone upon their death and create new alter egos. Each one of his personalities is associated with a power, like telepathy (Jemail Karami), telekinesis (Jack Wayne) or pyrokinetic (Cyndi).

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

Read More »David Haller (Legion) Reading Order

Making his first appearance in Fantastic Four #48, published in 1966, The Silver Surfer didn’t have a name at first. In fact, even Stan Lee who is credited as its co-creator didn’t have an idea of who he was. It was Jack Kirby who imagined him. Following the “Marvel Method, ” Lee pitched to his collaborator “the Galactus trilogy,” a new ambitious story that included the god-like creature Galactus, but no surfer.

Charged with coming up with the details while plotting and drawing the book, Kirby apparently thought that an entity as powerful as Galactus would certainly require “a herald who could serve as an advance guard.” Kirby simply called him “The Surfer,” and draw him as a gleaming bald man on a surfboard. Stan Lee loved the character and bring him back for more FF stories before giving him his own solo book two years later.

With artist John Buscema, Lee worked at giving a backstory to the surfer–without consulting Jack Kirby. We learned that he was Norrin Radd and he offered Galactus to take him as his herald in exchange for the life of the inhabitants of his home planet, Zenn-La. Lee loved the Surfer so much that he prohibited anyone to use him without his approbation. This stands until the 1980s.

In 1982, John Byrne wrote and draw a Silver Surfer one-shot, then the second ongoing series was launched with Steve Englehart as the writer. But it was when Jim Starlin, then Ron Marz, took over (after #31) that the book really found its success–leading to the Infinity Saga. The series ran 146 issues, through 1998.

At the beginning of the 2000s, the Silver Surfer came back for a short series before appearing in the famous Annihilation event, but he only got multiple miniseries after that for some years. It was only in 2014 that he got another ongoing series, this time in a different style than the previous ones, as writer Dan Slott wrote it as a Doctor Who-inspired adventure–drawn by Mike Allred.

As a Marvel character, Silver Surfer is really powerful and moves fast. He wields the Power Cosmic, granting him superhuman strength, endurance, and senses and the ability to absorb and manipulate the universe’s ambient energy. He fought villains like Doctor Doom, Mephisto, Thanos, and more. He teamed up with the Fantastic Four of course, but also with the Hulk, Namor, and Doctor Strange in “The Defenders.” He saved the Universe, found love (more than once), dealt closely with symbiotes, was displaced in time, and more.

Read More »Silver Surfer Reading Order

During his third stint at Marvel (1975-1978), Jack Kirby — famous for being the co-creator of characters like Captain America, Hulk, Thor, Iron Man, the X-Men and more — wrote the improbable Devil Dinosaur series. Marvel wanted a similar series to Kirby’s Kamandi published by DC but with a dinosaur, as those reptiles were quite popular at the time among young audiences.

The original series chronicled the adventures of Devil Dinosaur and his ape-like humanoid companion Moon Boy. If Kirby imagined Devil and Moon Boy as a Dinosaur and an early human from Earth’s past, the duo is now considered to originate from the Dinosaur World aka Earth-78411. 

The original series lasted only nine issues but is considered a cult classic now. Most importantly, it was not the end of the road for Devil (or Moon Boy), as other writers at Marvel were attracted to the concept and used the character for other stories, and the duo, or just Dinosaur, has made sporadic appearances in several Marvel titles.

Starting in 2016, Devil Dinosaur co-starred in a new series called Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, conceived as a direct sequel to the Moon-Boy and Devil Dinosaur series. But who is Moon Girl? Created by writers Brandon Montclare and Amy Reader and artist Natacha Bustos, her real name is Lunella Lafayette. She’s a nine-year-old and, apparently, the smartest person in the Marvel universe – smarter than Reed Richards from the FF or Amadeus Cho.

She’s also fearful of the Inhuman genes inside her and wants to get rid of her Inhuman DNA. But her life is turned upside down when a famous red-scaled tyrant is teleported from the prehistoric past to her present-day New York City! And so begins this new Marvel Team-Up!

Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur headlined their own series, but appeared also in a few Marvel events and teamed up with other Marvel superheroes since their first meeting. They are also, now, the stars of a Disney+ animated series.

To read all about their adventures, follow our Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur Reading Guide!

Read More »Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur Reading Order

Like Captain Marvel, there are several characters known as Ant-Man. As you may know, Scott Lang is Ant-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (where he is played by Paul Rudd and has actually published a memoir). No doubt about it, he is Ant-Man for a lot of people out there. But Scott Lang wasn’t the first Ant-Man to grace the pages of a Marvel Comic book.

Created by Jack Kirby, Stan Lee and Larry Lieber in Tales to Astonish #27 (January 1962), the first Ant-Man was Hank Pym, one of Marvel’s first Silver Age superheroes and a founding member of the Avengers. Despite his initial success, Hank Pym never became a top seller or had his own book. Soon, Pym began to assume other superhero identities, including Giant-Man, leaving his Ant-Man persona behind him.

Scott Lang is introduced as the second Ant-Man at the end of the seventies. Created by David Michelinie, Bob Layton and John Byrne in the pages of The Avangers #181 (1979), he was not your classic Marvel superhero. He was neither a rich guy nor a scientific guy, but an ex-convict, electronics expert, and a divorced single parent. He stole the Ant-Man suit to help his sick daughter and became the second Ant-Man after Pym discovered it and allowed him to wear the suit.

Following Scott Lang’s death, The name and costume were used by Eric O’Grady (until his own death). Created by Robert Kirkman and Phil Hester, O’Grady made his first appearance in The Irredeemable Ant-Man #1 (Dec. 2006). As the title suggested, the character had an immoral attitude and behavior.

Finally, Scott Lang, after being returned to life, took back the persona (in  2011) and is our official Ant-Man.

Read More »Ant-Man Reading Order, From Hank Pym to Scott Lang