Back in the Chris Claremont days, Carol Danvers and the X-Men fought alongside each other in the original Brood Saga, a famous story that ended with Carol becoming Binary, and the X-Men making sacrifices.
The Broods are back for a double-story arc, “Revenge of the Brood” and “Lord of the Brood.” Captain Marvel is joined once again by the X-Men to fight the parasitic predators known as the Brood. They plan to infect the cosmos and the heroes must stop them.
Here is how Marvel officially introduces the stories:
In “Lord of the Brood,” the X-Men get a distress call from deep space and find that the galaxy’s Brood problem is not as solved as they’d thought! When the X-Men’s close friend Broo became the Brood King, he gained the ability to control the savage alien race he was both a part of and so different from. Now he is experiencing his own nightmare scenario—the Brood are killing his friends, and there is nothing he can do to stop it! Rogue Brood factions have begun running wild, and it’s up to the X-Men to get to the bottom of why!
In “Revenge of the Brood,” Carol Danvers is on an X-press elevator to her own personal hell! And the Brood Empress is determined to ensure the Captain and all of her friends make it to their destination. Rescuing their team and getting out alive has always been the goal, but the odds are more deeply stacked against her team than Carol can even imagine. Overwhelmed and trapped in the Brood’s backyard, Captain Marvel and her team are forced to sacrifice one of their own. But the Brood let Carol through their clutches once before, and in so doing, created one of their worst enemies. They won’t make that mistake again.
This Captain Marvel/X-Men epic cosmic story is coming from Kelly Thompson, writer of Captain Marvel, with art by Juan Frigeri, and Gerry Duggan, writer of X-Men, with art by Stefano Caselli.
What to read before Revenge of the Brood/Lord of the Brood
As I said in the introduction, if you want some historical background, check out the original Brood Saga.
- X-Men: Starjammers by Dave Cockrum
Collects Uncanny X-Men (1981) #107–108, 154–158, 161–167; X-Men: Spotlight on Starjammers #1–2.
Revenge of the Brood Reading Order
Revenge of the Brood Reading Order: Collected Editions
- Captain Marvel Vol. 9: Revenge of the Brood Part 1
Collects Captain Marvel (2019) #42–46. - Captain Marvel Vol. 10: Revenge of the Brood Part 2
Collects TBA - More to come…
Revenge of the Brood Reading Order: Issue by Issue
Thanks to Yuankun for the heads up on this one, and for his guide. As always, this list will be updated if necessary as the event progresses.
- X-Men #18
- Captain Marvel #43–45
- X-Men #19
- Captain Marvel #46
- X-Men #20
- Captain Marvel #47
- X-Men #21
- Captain Marvel #48–49
After Revenge of the Brood/Lord of the Brood
Too soon to tell. Comeback later!
You’re welcome. I can’t wait for X-Men #19. They have changed the release date. It would be February 8, but now is February 15, being released on the same day as Captain Marvel 46.
I can’t wait for this.
I’m not a Captain Marvel fan but issues 43 to 45 were very well written and they did justice to the power of each characters involved.
Hello, I’ve read X-Men 19 and Captain Marvel 46.
I got tell you, so far seem to separate stories not connected. Sure they have the same villain, the Brood, but the stories are out of sync.
Look at this.
https://twitter.com/XMenNation1/status/1626201073890508804
In that tweet I found an error. Jean contacted some telepaths to find out where Broo is, but one of them is Psylocke, who supposedly is fighting the Brood in space with Captain Marvel. We have two problems, it seem like Jean was contacting telepaths on Earth, if so, then Psylocke wasn’t on Earth at that moment. And if she did contacted Psylocke who come she didn’t tell Jean what was going on?
This was clearly an artistic error. The artist was told to place some telepaths on that scene in X-Men 19, and they went “Hey how about Emma, Psylocke and the Stepford Cuckoos? That’s pretty much it. The artist either forgot or wasn’t informed that Psylocke was being used in Captain Marvel which is supposed to be connected to X-Men for this story.
Anyway, that error aside, the story was lovely. And I enjoyed very much.
The way it is promoted suggests a bit of editorial improvisation, I’m not that surprised that the two books barely connect with each other–and that there are artistic errors.
I don’t know why Marvel seems to force the X-Men into more and more crossovers with other big names. Well, I know why, I just don’t understand why so much lately. I’m always for a good event that is working logically into a larger narrative, but the Marvel editorial team is clearly too busy to have the time to do this right and it shows, even on smaller storylines like this.
Maybe this Brood story will quickly shape up to become more intertwined.
You said it better than I ever could. I think the X-Men is still one of the Marvel’s best sellers. So they want to crossover the X-Men with ever other hero to get people to like other books. And that actually works. I’m not a fan of Captain Marvel, but because of this crossover I have read and bought all the issues for this event. I’m also not a big fan of Spider-Man but because of the Dark Web crossover I end up buying and reading all the other Spider Man books of the current run. So, now I’m all caught up with Spider-Man (only the Amazing Spider-Man current run).
I’m guessing, maybe, they could still successfully intertwine X-Men and Captain Marvel for this crossover, that will depend on the next issues. So far, despite the artistic errors, I’m enjoying very much the story. I don’t even like Captain Marvel and their books were very interesting.
And X-Men which I love, was even better. I honestly can’t wait for March 8th to read X-Men 20. I love when the writer really understands the powers of the characters and I felt like X-Men 19 was very well explained.
I guess we’ll talk more next month. March 8th I’ll be here. Until then.
Just read X-Men 20 and it was amazing. So many surprises. This issue is the one who finally mentions Captain Marvel during the story connecting the books in this event. Also, answers a question that no Writer answered me when I asked them during the Event Devil’s Reign. I’m going to talk about a little spoilers bellow, don’t read whoever don’t want to know.
SPOILERS: During Devils Reign event last year, I’ve kept asking the Writer in charge of the book and some others if Mary was still considered a mutant cause during her whole story in Daredevil they never ever mentioned her being a mutant or getting the called from Xavier about Krakoa when he called all mutants in the World. So, considering that Marvel keeps doing Retcons all the time, I was unsure if she was still a mutant or not. But in X-Men 20 they answered this question. I’m glad they finally answered.
As for this X-Men and Captain Marvel crossover vs the Brood, I got tell you, as a X-Men fan I’m enjoying it a lot more than Sins of Sinister which is a X-Books crossover.
And as for reading order, so far I see no reason to change.
I have read Captain Marvel 47 and it was a nice read. So far the reading order remains the same. Little spoilers ahead.
SPOILERS: The connection between the books is still thin. In X-Men 20 is the only time that Captain Marvel is mentioned. She is mentioned by Nightmare who is revealed to be the cause for the Brood attack. And in Captain Marvel 47 is mentioned that the Brood infestation has something to do with their dreams. That’s pretty much it. The error of using Psylocke in the X-men 19 book didn’t got fixed or explained. It was just an artistic error, the artist probably didn’t know Psylocke was being used in the Captain Marvel story. So far the team in X-Men did not contacted the team in Captain Marvel. I’m wondering if they will ever do. It seems like this will be just two separate stories where they’re fighting the same villain, the Brood, for different reasons. There’s still one final issue for the X-Men (X-Men 21) and 2 issues for Captain Marvel (48 and 49).
The lack of connection between stories and the artistic error aside, these stories are nice. I’m enjoying them a lot more than the crossover Sins of Sinister.
Thanks for keeping us up-to-date!
I like that type of crossover more than the Sins of Sinister type, but the lack of connection and the error is always a bit insulting, from my reader’s pov, but it’s me. Still, if the story is good, it’s easier to swallow.
You’re welcome, and I agree with you. The art error always kills me, no matter if it is crossover or not. That’s why I’m disliking Immortal X-Men so much. Every single book there’s an art error.
What I’m liking about X-Men and Captain Marvel in this crossover is that the characters are being written and displayed truthful to their personalities and powers. At least so far.
I hate when a powerful character is downgraded to useless in favor to make a weak character to look more powerful.
Can’t wait until April 12 which is when X-Men 21 and Captain Marvel 48 will be released.
I think the best reading order because of the disconected stories between both titles is this:
– X-Men #18
– Captain Marvel #43–47
– X-Men #19-21 (in #19 there’s a reference to cap marvel 46) (in #21 Cyclops ask to be teleported to where the fight is with captain marvel to issue 48-49)
– Captain Marvel #48–49
Hello Rodrigo, thanks for trying to figure it out.
I guess what you’re suggesting could work too. But the way it was posted works too. This crossover wasn’t very tight connected. We get some clues in some books, and thats it.
In Captain Marvel 44 is when Psylocke sends the message to the X-Men, and they receive this message in X-Men 21, which makes sense cause they were far away and very busy. In Captain Marvel 47 Rogues speculate what she heard about the Queen be able to get freed of the King Egg, cause of “something about dreams”, which is explained in X-Men 20 that it was Nightmare the one responsible for getting the brood freed. And in X-Men 21 the X-Men finally gets the message (from Captain Marvel 44) and goes to help which will be showed in Captain Marvel 49.
So, reading the way you’re suggesting could work just fine. And reading the way it was proposed early it is also fine. These two options don’t contradict each other.
I think if I had to read all over again, I’d chose the way you’re suggesting cause we would stay more time in each book, instead of jumping from one to the other.
I can’t wait for the conclusion on May 3.
Yeah, I hate jumping from one book to another. Thanks for the details and for making this guides.
My final thought about this “Event”.
They’re two separate stories with the same type of enemy, The Brood.
If you’re a X-Men fan you don’t need to read Captain Marvel to understand what’s going on in this story. You can read X-Men 18 to 21 and you’re fine. But reading Captain Marvel is like a bonus to see other former members of the X-Men (Polaris, Rogue, Laura, Psylocke and Gambit) in action fighting the Brood.
It’s said in Captain Marvel that Broo had the control of the Brood and they don’t understand what’s going on. Is in X-Men where they explain what happened to that.
I guess, although these stories crossover, they can be read separately. The current Krakoan X-Men team didn’t need the help of Captain Marvel in the X-Men books but Captain Marvel and a supporting team of the X-Men needed the help of the main X-Men team in the pages of Captain Marvel boos.
It was a good read but I thought that the story was going to be more connected with a huge battle in the end with everyone in it, but that kind happened in Captain Marvel as a sub plot, not as the main thing going on.
My score,3 out of 5? I guess that’s fair.
Thanks for your input, as always!