Comic Book Herald

A Comic Book Reading Order Guide For Beginners & Fans

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Moon Knight By Brian Michael Bendis & Alex Maleev Review!

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Marc Spector is a troubled man. In the opening pages of Moon Knight #1 by writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Alex Maleev, we see the origins of these troubles – betrayed and gravely wounded by his partner Bushman, a brown-haired mercenary collapses at the foot of a statue of the Egyptian god Khonshu and apparently dies. However, it turns out that we are not witnessing the 616 origins of Marc Spector, Moon Knight, after all. We are watching the cliffhanger ending of the first episode of “Legend of the Khonshu”, a television show Spector is producing in his new stomping grounds of Hollywood. Here we have an in-story fictionalization of events whose truth has been questioned over decades of publication history – was Marc Spector truly saved from the brink of death by an ancient Egyptian god, or is psychological trauma contributing to a dangerous delusion? [Read more…] about Moon Knight By Brian Michael Bendis & Alex Maleev Review!

Clea Reading Order!

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Clea has come a long way since her introduction by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko in 1964. Starting out as an unnamed stock-standard damsel in distress for Doctor Strange to rescue in the Dark Dimension, she became Strange’s disciple and lover, before leading a rebellion in her native dimension and taking it over as ruler. Across her comic book history, she’s fought her uncle the Dread Dormammu and other mystical menaces, been a member of the Defenders, and now, in the aftermath of Marvel’s recent Death of Doctor Strange storyline, she is the new Sorcerer Supreme, taking up the mantle and legacy of Stephen Strange.

Having spent a lot of time as little more than a secondary character and love interest in Doctor Strange comics from the 60s to the 80s, it has taken until the 2000s to see her break away from the good doctor’s shadow and appear in titles away him, and until 2022 for her to be the main character of her own ongoing series, the upcoming Strange. So read ahead to get caught up on her comic history, as Clea takes her place in the spotlight ! [Read more…] about Clea Reading Order!

Omnibussin: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Mapping

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Doctor Strange (1974) #4’s iconic cover by Frank Brunner.

Whether you enjoy the Marvel Cinematic Universe or not, in one respect at least it has turned out to be of indisputable benefit to comic readers: if a character’s showing up in a movie, you can bet your bottom dollar Marvel Comics is gonna give them a title even if they haven’t had a regular one since 1983 (as was the case with Shang-Chi). And Marvel’s collections arm is also gonna devote the entire year their movie comes out to cranking out new or reprinted collections of their old material. Now, that’s the kind of comics-to-movies-back-to-comics synergy I can get behind! Thankfully, that was the case with one of my favorite characters in this universe: the top wizard; the chief magicman; the Sorcerer Supreme himself, Doctor Stephen Strange (M.D.). [Read more…] about Omnibussin: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Mapping