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Groot Reading Order

A well-known member of the Guardians of the Galaxy, Groot didn’t start out as a hero, but as a villainous alien intent on capturing humans for experimentation. He first appeared in Tales to Astonish #13 (November 1960), created by writer Stan Lee, artist Jack Kirby and scripter Larry Lieber. Of course, this is not the Groot we know today.

In 2006, he was reimagined as a heroic character in Annihilation: Conquest – Star-Lord #1 (2007), written by Keith Giffen. Hailing from the planet X, a world characterised by sentient plant life, Groot belongs to the Flora Colossus species. Distinguished by his arboreal physiology and limited verbal expression, he primarily communicates through tone, inflection, and context, which is understood by those familiar with him, such as his friend Rocket Raccoon. Despite his linguistic limitations, Groot exhibits considerable emotional depth and intelligence, as well as formidable strength and regenerative capabilities. He often serves as both protector and moral anchor within his narrative contexts.

Throughout his cosmic adventures, Groot has demonstrated several unique abilities, including regenerative healing, size manipulation, limited photokinesis, and the power to grow and control plant matter. He has died and regenerated multiple times, with each incarnation sometimes being treated as a rebirth or a new version of the character. The cinematic version, voiced by Vin Diesel, introduced in 2014 in the Guardians of the Galaxy movie directed by James Gunn, made that element quite popular with “Baby Groot” and later “Teen Groot.”

In solo or with his friends, Groot certainly went through epic adventures in space during the last two decades. So, let’s follow the guide!

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Avengers Disassembled Reading Order, the beginning of Brian Michael Bendis’s era

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After having found success at Marvel Comics with Ultimate Spider-Man, Daredevil, and Alias, Brian Michael Bendis took over The Avengers more than twenty years ago. The writer started his run with Avengers Disassembled, a story that concluded the previous era, before he relaunched the team with New Avengers — the start of the modern era for the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.

More than that, it was the beginning, like it or not, of one of the most impactful runs in Marvel History. Because, soon enough, the arc became simply the first part in a trilogy of events orchestrated by Bendis that would continuously reshape the Marvel Universe for almost ten years. From one event to another, superheroes would die, lose their minds or their powers, or reveal they are not what they seemed to be. And it all started with Avengers Disassembled, called “The Worst Day in Avengers History.”

Avengers Disassembled is often presented as a perfect entry point in the world of Marvel, in particular the Avengers, as things are blown up before being completely rebuilt. To help you in your Marvel Journey, following is our reading guide to the Avengers Disassembled story, exploring the main event and all the tie-ins!

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Batman The Court of Owls Reading Order

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Created by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo, The Court of Owls first appeared in Batman (vol. 2) #2 in 2011, at the start of the New 52 era. Previously, the Owls were not part of the DC Universe, but Snyder provided hints about the organisation in his earlier Batman work, Batman: Gates of Gotham.

The shadowy Court of Owls is an organised crime group and secret society made up of wealthy Gothamites. It has existed in Gotham City since colonial times. For a very long time, the Court was just an urban legend, until Batman discovered one of their secret base of operations. There, he found a series of old photographs of the Court’s members with one of their assassins, the Talon (William Cobb), an undead, reanimated killer. The Court kidnaps child circus performers to train and transform them into assassins known as Talons.

The Court of Owls is composed of some of Gotham City’s oldest and wealthiest families. It has controlled Gotham City for centuries, wielding political influence throughout history through murder and money. They revealed themselves to Batman when they decided to send their killer after Bruce Wayne, who had announced plans to rebuild and reshape Gotham City for the future.

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Age of Apocalypse Reading Order, an X-Men crossover event

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The 1995 crossover storyline Age of Apocalypse was one of the most ambitious crossover events in X-Men history. Much like The Clone Saga in the Spider-Man titles, this story became an era-defining milestone within the broader Marvel Universe.

Unlike traditional crossover events, which build upon existing continuity, the Age of Apocalypse storyline temporarily replaced the main X-Men titles with entirely new series set in an alternate universe. These included X-Calibre, Gambit and the X-Ternals, Generation Next, Astonishing X-Men, Amazing X-Men, Weapon X, Factor X, X-Man and X-Universe. Each of these limited series explored different aspects of a dystopian timeline dominated by the ancient mutant Apocalypse, offering radically altered reimaginings of familiar characters and dynamics.

The story kicks off when Legion (David Haller), the mentally unstable son of Professor Charles Xavier, travels back in time intending to assassinate Magneto in the hope of preventing the ideological conflict that would later erupt between Magneto and Xavier. However, Legion’s mission ends in tragedy when he inadvertently kills Xavier instead. This assassination fractures the timeline, giving rise to an alternate reality in which Apocalypse begins his conquest of Earth a decade earlier than in the original continuity.

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Chew Comics, Your Reading Guide to the Cannibal detective Series

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Meet Tony Chu. He’s a cibopath, which means that whenever he eats food, he learns everything about that food, from how it was grown and the pesticides used, to how the animal was killed, and much more. The only food that does not give him these sensations is beets, so Tony eats a lot of them!

Tony Chu is the lead of Chew, a comic book written by John Layman and illustrated by Rob Guillory. It was published by Image Comics between 2009 and 2016. During this time, Tony Chu mostly worked as a cop for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, using his special skills to solve food-related crimes. 

Although Chew is now established as one of the most popular titles from Image Comics, it was not an easy sell to make for creator John Layman. He explained, “Nobody would give me the time of day on this Chew pitch.” Many people did not think it would sell, but Layman decided to go ahead anyway. he said he “did it as suicide.[…] It was almost my last gasp of comics.” (sktchd.com).

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Thor by Jason Aaron Reading Order

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In 2012, Jason Aaron took over writing duties on Thor. Before that, Matt Fraction was writing The Mighty Thor, while Kieron Gillen was in charge of the Loki-focused title Journey Into Mystery. This was during Marvel’s Heroic Age initiative, which gave way to Marvel NOW! later that same year.

As part of Marvel NOW!, Aaron began his run with Thor: God of Thunder, with artist Esad Ribić. While Ribić didn’t stay on the book, which was renamed multiple times throughout the run, Aaron went on for almost seven years, finally ending in 2019 with the crossover event The War of the Realms. During that period, he explored multiple eras of Thor’s life, juggling between storylines in the past with a brash Young Thor, the present Avenger Thor, and the future All-Father King Thor at the end of the universe. 

During this period, the series introduced iconic characters such as Gorr the God Butcher and Jane Foster as the Goddess of Thunder. After being deemed unworthy of wielding Mjolnir, Thor Odinson experienced a prolonged identity crisis that explores his ‘worthiness’ as a God and a leader in Asgard. 

This era is now considered one of the most influential, next to Walt Simonson’s. It put back the emphasis on the Gods and focused on epic fantasy and cosmic adventures storytelling. 

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Flashpoint Reading Order, a DC Comics event by Geoff Johns and Andy Kubert

Since the conclusion of Crisis on Infinite Earths, the DC Universe has existed in an era now referred to as the Modern Age. This period began in 1986 and ended in 2011 with Flashpoint. This comic book crossover story arc, written by Geoff Johns and illustrated by Andy Kubert, radically altered the status quo by ending the New Earth continuity and leading to the relaunch of the New 52.

Following his recent resurrection at the end of the Final Crisis, Barry Allen is back, fighting the Rogues in the streets of Central City. The world has moved on in his absence, but one thing has not changed: Eobard Thawne’s hatred towards him. The Reverse Flash is back with a plan to get his revenge, but something even bigger is lurking on the horizon. As he was ready to take his enemy down, Barry woke up in an altered DC Universe in which he seems to be the only one aware of significant differences between the regular timeline and the altered one.

In the Flashpoint version of the universe, Cyborg occupies the place of the world’s quintessential hero, much like Superman is in the main timeline, with Superman himself being held captive as a lab rat by the United States government within an underground facility in Metropolis. In addition, Thomas Wayne is Batman, and a war between Wonder Woman and Aquaman has decimated Western Europe.

Flashpoint consists of 61 issues, with sixteen separate three-issue miniseries, and a number of one-shots.

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The Goon Reading Order

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Making his first official appearance in 1998 in the pages of Avatar Illustrated, The Goon has since moved to other publishers (going back and forth between Albatross Funnybooks and Dark Horse Comics), completed a full run, had a few one-shots, a graphic novel, and eventually came back for a new run. It certainly is a tumultuous adventure in comics publishing, but it’s nothing compared to the craziness of The Goon and Franky’s daily life!

We first meet The Goon when he is working as an enforcer for a gangster named Labrazio. He is a hulking, rough-edged enforcer with a tragic past who runs his operation by collecting money, killing deadbeats and generally being violent, with the help of his best friend and foul-mouthed, wisecracking (and equally violent) sidekick, Franky.

We are in Lonely Street, a crumbling American town filled with zombies, mutant creatures, ghostly priests, fishmen, mad scientists, hobos, and monstrous babies, a grotesque caricature of 1930s-50s pulp Americana, with everything from dingy alleys to dilapidated carnivals.

The Goon and Franky must deal with any sort of craziness, taking us on a journey going from absurd comedy one day to grim tragedy the other. It’s a very violent life and, even drawn in a gorgeously painted and cartoonish manner, it’s a gory one, a dark comedy with a sad heart and an affinity for anarchy, mixing noir-style crime fiction, horror, slapstick humor, and supernatural. Definitely, it’s for a mature audience. 

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The Amazing Spider-Man by Nick Spencer, a Fresh Start Reading Order

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After his controversial run on Captain America, which culminated in the Secret Empire crossover event, writer Nick Spencer was chosen to succeed long-time writer Dan Slott to relaunch The Amazing Spider-Man as part of Marvel’s Fresh Start Initiative.

It was a classic back-to-the-basics approach for Marvel’s favourite superhero that stripped Peter of his credentials and work at the Daily Bugle. He was, once again, broke and had to return to the University to earn his college degree while sharing an apartment with Randy Robertson and Frederick Myers, also known as the super-villain Boomerang. On the positive side, Peter had recently rekindled his relationship with Mary Jane, the first time since their relationship was retconned during the infamous One More Day storyline.

Nick Spencer’s run lasted three years, a period during which the Spider-Family was once again in peril during Spider-Geddon, the original Doctor Octopus returned, and major events such as One More Day, Sins Past and Kraven’s legacy were revisited.

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Young Avengers Reading Order

When Brian Michael Bendis took over the Avengers in 2004, the writer started by dismantling the team in the “Avengers Disassembled” crossover storyline. The Earth’s Mightiest Heroes were no more, raising the question: who would protect the Earth? From the aftermath of this story, two new Avengers teams emerged. The New Avengers took over the place of the classic Avengers, with the creative team of Brian Michael Bendis and David Finch, while another team was introduced not long after: The Young Avengers.

Created by Allan Heinberg and Jim Cheung, the Young Avengers focused on teenage heroes who were either inspired by the classic Avengers or related to them. These young heroes united to fill the gap left by the original Avengers, despite facing disapproval from the Avengers themselves and skepticism from Marvel Comics and its readers!

The Young Avengers quickly gained both critical and public success, securing their place in the Marvel Universe despite only having two official runs. Since then, several members have become popular characters in the Marvel Universe.

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