A Comic Book Reading Order Guide For Beginners & Fans
Marvel’s Loki deserves so much more.
To understand why I say this, it is important to know how I was introduced to the character in the comics. I had originally met Loki as a guilt ridden yet mischievous Kid Loki in Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie’s Young Avengers
In Young Avengers, Loki magically grew older and was slightly wiser by the end of the series. From there, I followed Loki to their solo series Agent of Asgard
For decades, the Scarlet Witch has been an enigmatic character. Her “hex powers” have made stories more interesting, her life is filled with drama, and she has got hands-down the best of Jack Kirby’s “weird headgear and stage performer” aesthetics going. But she’s also been a runaway powerhouse, smashing through the Marvel universe, its laws, and her own good-will with fans. She’s a character that can do seemingly anything… so why is it these pitfalls happen? Why can’t Scarlet Witch’s character get out of this madness-shame-power-up pattern? And how could it be fixed?
We’ll take a deep-dive into Wanda and find out. I’ll be citing my references, but fans may still want to take a crack at our reading order for the Scarlet Witch before we begin. [Read more…] about The Great Pretenders: Regarding Wanda | A Look at the Character of the Scarlet Witch
The Black Panther franchise has seen its popularity soar since the cinematic adaptation hit theaters in 2018. The newest installment into the Epic Collection, Panther’s Prey revisits Don Mcgregor’s 1988 work of the same name, Panther’s Quest (Marvel Present #13-#37) and the spackling of Black Panther micro appearances in SOLO Avenger’s #1, Marvel Fanfare (1982 #60) and Fantastic Four Unlimited #1. After Panther’s Quest, the collection features Black Panther in a series of standalone appearances. In The Vanities of Philip Whitehead, Black Panther teams up with Hawkeye against Plant Man.
Don McGregor and Billy Graham are partially responsible for Black Panther’s ascension to the mainstream masses at a time where most superheroes were white men. Billy Graham had previously worked on Luke Cage, and McGregor was one of the few writers of his day who had an interest in telling a great Black Panther story, so when the two met it was a match made in Wakandan heaven. The two created the now legendary Jungle Action
You’ve arrived here if you’re ready for a re-read of the Hickman era of X-Men (which began in July 2019 and is not even close to being over) or you’re curious what all the hullabaloo is about. If the latter is true for you, you will certainly get something out of this first in a perhaps interminable series of essays. Enjoy! However, before going further, I strongly recommend that you read ahead, at least to the end of the two six-issue limited series—House of X and Powers of X
—that kicked off Hickman’s X-Men coup. Read those twelve issues before returning here for the re-read.
After this opening essay, spoilers will abound, but I will keep them restrained, revealing nothing further than six issues ahead. So, the initial installments that cover both limited series, HOX and POX, will assume that you’ve read that complexly interwoven 12-issue story. [Read more…] about How to (Re)Read the Jonathan Hickman Era of X-Men
As the Disney+ series WandaVision is released, Comic Book Herald critics will explore Wanda Maximoff’s comic book history, and where the character may be going moving forward, in an ongoing weekly series we’re calling “The Great Pretenders: What To Do With Marvel’s Scarlet Witch?!”
Wanda Maximoff’s fall from grace was more gradual than is generally acknowledged, but for our purposes, it mostly took place through the stories Avengers Disassembled, House of M, and Decimation. After causing countless calamities with her infamous “no more mutants” line, an amnesiac Wanda ended up in Wundagore, then engaged to Doctor Doom in Latveria, before regaining her memories in The Children’s Crusade
As such, though Wanda seemed to be on a path to healing as far back as 2010, it’s been quite an uphill battle. As recently as the Empyre crossover