Welcome to the Comic Book Herald Complete Marvel Reading Order Guide. Some quick words of explanation that should help answer the most frequent questions.
In the years I’ve worked editing and updating this guide, I’ve focused primarily on the modern era of comics from the late 90’s through the 2000’s. If you’re interested in every year of Marvel, I recommend ‘My Marvelous Year‘ the Comic Book Herald reading club that takes you through every single of year of Marvel comics. You can also check out the individual character reading orders below for a quick dive into a favorite (or new favorite!). For the most part the list below is for the Marvel Universe around the launch of Marvel Knights and up through present day.
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Otherwise, I believe the list is largely easy to follow. If you have questions, or guides you’d like to see, let me hear about it here.
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This list is continually updated as new events occur, and as new trades are released, so if you’re interested in the power of reading your Marvel books in a chrono-logical order, you can subscribe to the Comic Book Herald Reading Club newsletter. This way you’ll be the first to know when the guide is updated! Thanks for stopping by and happy reading!
Image copyright Marvel ComicsFast Tracks & Other Reading Lists
* 1961 to 2000 Essential 25 Trade Collections Fast Track *
* 2000 – 2012 Essential 25 Trade Collections Fast Track *
* The Best 100 Marvel Stories From 1998 to 2015 *
* Marvel Cosmic Comics From 1963 to Present *
Dave’s Note: You do not need to read Star Wars comics as part of the Marvel reading order, and vice versa! That said, Marvel Unlimited offers a GREAT selection of Star Wars comics.
* Marvel Ultimate Universe (2000 – 2015) + Marvel Ultimate Universe 2 (2023 – ) *
Dave’s Note: Important for new readers to know that Marvel in the 2000’s has two primary Universes. You have Earth-616, which is the main continuity that began all the way back in 1961 with Fantastic Four #1 (links below). And then you have the brand new Earth-1610 (the Ultimate Universe) which was launched to reimagine Marvel for the 2000’s (link above). They do not need to be read together, and only rarely cross over!
Marvel Earth-616 (Full Main Universe Continuity)
* Early 2000s Until Avengers Disassembled *
* Avengers Disassembled and Tie-Ins (July 2004 – Jan 2005) *
* When Should I Read Secret War? *
* Comics Getting You From Disassembled to House of M (July 2004 – December 2005) *
* House of M and Tie-Ins (2005) *
* Decimation and Tie-Ins (2006) *
* Comics Getting You From House of M to Civil War (Nov ’05 – July ’06) *
* Read Spider-Man: The Other Crossover *
* What about Marvel Cosmic? (Annihilation Goes Here) *
* Civil War and Tie-Ins (July 2006 – Jan 2007) *
* Comics Getting You From Civil War to Secret Invasion (Dec 2006 – June 2008)
* Read Silent War *
* World War Hulk and Tie-Ins (July 2007 – Jan 2008) *
* World War Hulk: Aftersmash – Red Hulk, Skaar & Hercules *
* X-Men Events Fast Track (2007 to 2012) *
* Secret Invasion and Tie-Ins (June 2008 – Jan 2009) *
* Comics Getting You From Secret Invasion to Dark Reign (June 2008 – Dec 2008) *
* Dark Reign and Tie-Ins (Dec 2008 – Dec 2009) *
* Fall of the Hulks & World War Hulks (Dec 2009 – August 2010) *
* Comics Getting You From Dark Reign to Siege (Dec 2008 to Dec 2009) *
* Siege and Tie-Ins (Dec 2009 – May 2010) *
* Comics Getting You From Siege to the Heroic Age (Jan 2010 – May 2010) *
* The Heroic Age and Tie-Ins (May 2010 – November 2010) *
* Shadowland (Daredevil) and Tie-Ins (July 2010 – Dec 2010) *
* Chaos War and Tie-Ins (Oct 2010 – March 2011) *
* Comics Getting You From Heroic Age to Fear Itself (May 2010 – April 2011) *
*Fear Itself, Shattered Heroes, and Tie-Ins (April 2011 – April 2012) *
* Comics Getting You From Fear Itself to Avengers vs. X-Men (April 2011 – April 2012) *
* Avengers Vs. X-Men and Tie-Ins (April 2012 – Sept 2012) *
* Comics Getting You From Avengers vs. X-Men to Marvel NOW! (April 2012 – October 2012) *
* Marvel NOW! Reading Order (October 2012 – 2015 ) *
Dave’s Note: The Marvel NOW! reading order includes every Marvel comic from AvX Aftermath, Marvel NOW!, All-New Marvel NOW!, and series launched in 2015 leading up to Secret Wars. It is inclusive of below events, and is quite possibly the only guide you’ll ever need. I blacked out for like 3 weeks and this is what happened. I also have a Marvel NOW! fast track for the essentials only.
* Age of Ultron (March 2013 – June 2013) *
* Infinity and Tie-Ins (Aug 2013 – Dec 2013) *
* Original Sin and Tie-Ins (March 2014 – September 2014) *
* Death of Wolverine & Tie-Ins (September 2014 – 2015) *
* Axis and Tie-Ins (September 2014 – December 2014 ) *
* Spider-Verse and Tie-Ins (September 2014 – February 2015) *
* Guardians of the Galaxy & X-Men: The Black Vortex (January 2015 – ) *
* Secret Wars: From The Original to Present Day (1984 – 2015) *
* Secret Wars to Marvel Legacy Fast Track (2015 to 2017) *
Dave’s Note: The All-New All-Different and Marvel Now 2.0 era of Marvel Comics is controversial, divisive, and at the end of the day, just a general downward slope from 2015’s Secret Wars. Nonetheless, there are still very good comics produced during this time, and I’ve provided a link above to the 20 essential reads getting you from Secret Wars to October 2017’s Marvel Legacy!
* All-New All-Different Marvel * (October 2015 – May 2016 )
*Avengers: Standoff!* (Mar 2016 – April 2016)
*X-Men: Apocalypse Wars* (Mar 2016 – June 2016)
* Civil War 2 * (May 2016 – December 2016)
* Spider-Man: Clone Conspiracy (October 2016 – February 2017) *
* Inhumans vs. X-Men (December 2016 – March 2017)
* Marvel Now 2.0 (October 2016 – October 2017 ) *
* Monsters Unleashed (January 2017 – March 2017) *
* Secret Empire (April 2017 – September 2017 ) *
* X-Men: ResurreXion (April 2017 – October 2017 ) *
* Venomverse (July 2017 – October 2017) *
* Generations (July 2017 – October 2017) *
* Marvel Legacy (October 2017 – April 2018) *
* Infinity Countdown + Infinity Wars (February 2018 – December 2018) *
* Marvel Damnation (February 2018 – May 2018) *
* Hunt for Wolverine (Jan 2018 – February 2019) *
* Fresh Start Pt. 1 (May 2018 – 2021) *
* Marvel Fresh Start Fast Track! (May 2018 – ) *
* X-Men Extermination (August 2018 – December 2018) *
* Spider-Geddon (September 2018 – December 2018) *
* Age of X-Man (February 2019 – May 2019) *
* The War of the Realms (April 2019 – July 2019) *
* Hickman X-Men (July 2019 – ) *
* Absolute Carnage (August 2019 – December 2019) *
* Iron Man 2020 (January 2020 – February 2020) *
* Empyre (July 2020 – August 2020 ) *
* X-Men: X of Swords (September 2020 – November 2020) *
* King in Black (December 2020 – February 2021) *
* Reign of X (December 2020 – ) *
* Heroes Reborn (April 2021 – June 2021) *
* Infinite Destinies (Summer 2021) *
* The Last Annihilation (July 2021 – September 2021) *
* X-Men Inferno (September 2021 – December 2021) *
* The Death of Doctor Strange (October 2021 – January 2022) *
* Complete Fresh Start Pt. 2 (2022 – ) *
* Devil’s Reign (January 2022 – April 2022) *
* Reckoning War (February 2022 – July 2022) *
* Judgment Day (May – November 2022) *
* Dark Web (Fall 2022 – Jan 2023 ) *
* Sins of Sinister (January 2023 – April 2023 ) *
* X-Men: Fall of X (May 2023 – ) *
* Fall of the House of X and Rise of the Powers of X (Jan – June 2024) *
* Blood Hunt (May 2024 – July 2024) *
* One World Under Doom (2025) *
Image copyright Marvel ComicsIndividual Character/Team Guides
Brian Michael Bendis Marvel-Verse (2000 to 2018)
Donny Cates’ Marvel Universe Reading Order
Hawkeye (Clint Barton, Kate Bishop)
Infinity Trilogy (Gauntlet, War, Crusade)
Jonathan Hickman’s Marvel-Verse (2008 to 2016)
Ms. Marvel (All)
Original Graphic Novels (OGNs)
The X-Men (Modern Era) — Modern X-Men Event Fast Track
The X-Men (Chris Claremont Era)
Notice: Comic Book Herald is not in any way associated with Marvel Comics. The site has never even been to New York. This guide is simply my personal attempt to catalog their materials for avid readers like myself. For official Marvel products and opinions, you can visit their website at Marvel.com.
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Why is Blood Hunt not a reading guide like all the others?
What about Venom War?
thanks, nice break down of the massive comic lineup. Still looking from where to start but It’s nice to have for anyone trying to figure out the best reading path.
“Venom War” is missing from the main reading order list on this page. it goes after Blood Hunt
“Venom War” is missing from the main reading order list on this page. it goes after “Fall of the House of X”
Please can you give this list a best formatting?
I mean, the work you did on DC reading guide is amazing mostly because you distributed eras and each with its own recommendations and tips, but this one is messy and isn’t intuitive at all, lacks the numbering/hierarchical nomenclature the complete DC has.
Anyways thanks for the good job and keep going stronger!
I don’t really understand this guide.
The YT videos gave me a better understanding of it
So perfect. I was looking for this for so long, is helping me a lot. Thank you!!
Just out of curiosity, why does this list become so messy at around Marvel 2.0 and after that it’s pretty much just event reading orders? I’m really confused by what order I should be reading comics and even events in around that time.
Where do i start reading comic
I already watched Phase 1-4
Movies don’t matter, comics are completely different thing
In trying to load 2000 – 2012 Essential 25 Trade Collections Fast Track https://www.comicbookherald.com/the-modern-marvel-universe-in-25-trade-collections-2000-to-2012-fast-track/
The page only loads the first 3 TPBs, I have tried on different devices and different browsers.
Is the page broken? any solutions? can someone send me the full list?
Hey, new comic reader and loving this guide! Only thing I’m confused about is how I should follow the guide once it reaches the Marvel NOW! point. Should I be reading both NOW! and the other reading guide pages at the same time to follow chronology or should I read all of the NOW! guide and then go back and read the other events?
If you’re new and trying to get into comics, do you start from ‘Marvel Earth-616 (Full Main Universe Continuity)’? Also, is there a wait time for new comics to be released on Marvel Unlimited?
There is currently a 3 month wait time on Marvel Unlimited. So if it’s published in comic shops now (in April 2022), it will be put on Marvel Unlimited in July 2022. Usually, that’s how it works.
As far as trying to get in to Marvel Comics, the Marvel Universe can be very…”cyclical” . Every 3 to 6 years provide a good fresh start period. So it depends on how far back you want to go. I think the “modern” era of Marvel comics begins with Brian Michael Bendis’ “Avengers” relaunch in 2004, (or arguably with Grant Morrison’s “X-Men” starting in 2000 and J. Michael Stracynski’s “Amazing Spider-Man” in 2001).
“Marvel Unlimited” launched in 2007 after “Civil War” had concluded, and all of “Civil War” is on the app, and they’ve uploaded almost every Marvel comic published since then. So some see “Civil War” (2006/2007) as a great starting point. Some see everything from “House of M” in 2005 to “Siege” in 2010 as one long story arc. I believe they’ve got every Marvel Comic from 2005 and 2006 on the app by now. Actually, I think they’ve got every Marvel Comic from 2000 to 2005 uploaded to the app by now, and all of the Marvel Comics from the 1960’s. It’s just the comics from the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s that are incomplete (Marvel is slowly adding those in over the years).
If you want a more recent “starting” point, for the last several years, Marvel has provided several “jumping on” points:
2010’s “Heroic Age” line of comic books:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heroic_Age_(comics)
2012’s “Marvel Now!” line of comic books:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvel_NOW!
2015’s “”All New, All Different” line of comic books:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All-New,_All-Different_Marvel
And 2018’s “Fresh Star” line of comic books:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fresh_Start_(comics)
So it’s kind of “pick one and choose”. Or if you’re really brave, just start reading the latest issues that get uploaded each week (though you’ll be starting mid-storyline for some books).
This is a fantastic answer to that question, thanks mate.
I myself, after getting Marvel Unlimited, decided to start at the beginning of the Age of Crossovers, with the Marvel Earth-616 Full Main Universe Continuity. It’s a long read, surely and after a couple of years I’m only getting to House of M, but it’s been overall great (there are a few lackluster issues here and there, obviously).
Regarding the availability of MU, the only book I haven’t seen from what I’ve been trying to read is Punisher Max from 2004, which is a fantastic series by Garth Ennis and Lewis Larosa. I’m going to USA soon and I plan on picking it up on paper.
the title liest
this doesn’t even start in 1939
Boy am I going to need this guide. I haven’t read Marvel comics since grocery stores & gas stations stopped selling comics in the 90s & I’m getting super bored with the same tropes & character types in manga over & over again.
Thanks for having individual character guides. Mr. Sinister is probably the main reason I’m getting back into X-Men. Hellions was so freaking funny. Pretty interested in the whole Krakoa island thing too.