The Marvel Cinematic Universe is about to dive into one of the more interesting long-form stories they've told in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries: The Secret Invasion. The comic book series took place throughout most of 2008, and was a sloppy, divisive mess with a lot of very cool moments and ideas buried under a pile of mediocre plot points and side stories. The main series was a bit of a turd, especially given how promising the build up to it had been. But the build up and then the fallout were some of the best bits of storytelling Marvel has done. I'm going to present this story three ways. First, All Of The Trade Paperbacks That Have Secret Invasion Somewhere In The Name. There are twenty-seven of them, and I'm going to give you a brief run down of all of them in as close to a satisfying chronological order as is possible, given Marvel's complicated relationship with how time functions. Next, I'm going to cut everything down to The Best Ten Books Of The Series. You might notice that the order is slightly different and that's because it doesn't have to track with a bunch of dull side-stories. I hope the upcoming series is similar to this core set of books. Finally, are the books surrounding Secret Invasion that tell a Marvel-encompassing story. It's my own continuity. All but one of the books on the list I consider to be four or five stars and they do build up to The Secret Invasion, and then give you a cool epilogue. Most of the reading guides I've encountered suggest you read the main title, Secret Invason, first, and then expand your knowledge by reading all the side stories. I politely disagree. The main volume of Secret Invasion is a jagged mess of continuity that tries to incorporate the main storybeats of the tie-in volumes which mainly take place in New York, while also telling the story of The Avengers and New Avengers dealing with a Skrull infestation in the Savage Land. I think the main title works best as a recap engine rather then setting up the story. S0 here's how I would read All Of The Secret Invasion Tie-Ins, if I had to. 1. The Complete Marvel Secret Invasion1. Captain Marvel Secret Invasion This volume begins back during Marvel's Civil War, where we discover that the Kree warrior, Captain Mar-vell, who has been dead in canon since the 1980s. No longer infected with the lung cancer that killed him many years ago, Mar-Vell is living in France where he obsesses over a painting in the Louvre. Soon, the outside world becomes aware of his seeming ressurection. A cult pops up. Tony Stark, the current head of SHIELD wants to know how Mar-Vell is alive again. Mar-Vell's mentee, Carol Danvers (herself, a future Captain Marvel) tries to help him understand his place in the world. Oh, and the Skrulls seem to somehow be involved, which makes Mar-Vell very nervous. This is one of the best books in the whole Secret Invasion line, and it shows a lot of heart and reverance for Mar-Vell and the universe he inhabits. It's on all three versions of my Secret Invasion list. 2. Secret Invasion Infiltration This is a prelude anthology featuring several of the issues that lead up to the actual Secret Invasion. Shows like Buffy The Vampire Slayer used to do pre-credit teasers to remind you of the important storybeats that led you to the current episode. And some series (I think "Lost" might have done this) do an entire full episode where they recap the series highlights just before the final episode. This is collection is like that. Here are four of the most important stories that set up Secret Invasion, stretching all the way back to the first appearance of The Skruls in the 1960s. It's a decent collection, and certainly does its job at setting up the event. 3. Secret Invasion: Inhumans A book of diminishing returns, this book focuses on the Kree-created inhumans who've discovered (as we did in Secret Invasion Infiltration, that one of their own has been replaced by a Skrull. While the Skrulls engage in a massive invasion of the Inhumans' base, a core group of Inhumans go off in search of revenge, and to discover what happened to the person who was replaced. There are some nifty art choices, but this was the first disappointing book in the series 4. Secret Invasion: Thor If you like mediocre Thor stories, this is every one issue mediocre Thor story extended into three issues using extensive narration boxes. It's supposed to be a feel good story about how the people of Midgard come to the aid of their Asgardian neighbors but it's really just an excuse to involve Asgard in the Secret Invasion. It's written by Matt Fraction, who must have been busy with other projects because this is one of his least impressive books. 5. Secret Invasion: Fantastic Four Read the second half of this volume first, it includes a couple of issues that set up the first half of this book (Marvel's trade collection editors are notoriously awful at understanding how narrative structure works). Once you've read the 20th century stories, flip back to the beginning and see how The Thing and The Flash, the Richards children, and the top of the Baxter Building end up in The Negative Zone, and what that has to do with the sudden influx of Skrulls in the Marvel Universe. I think this is one of the better Secret Invasion books but that opinion doesn't appear to be unanimous among Marvel fans. 6. Mighty Avengers Vol 3: Secret Invasion A really enjoyable pre-Secret Invasion book, this volume contains four behind-the-scenes skrull activities set just before/at the beginning of The secret Invasion. Nick Fury in hiding. Nick Fury and Quake (yes, from the Agents of SHIELD show) recruit and form The Secret Warriors, the Skrulls fuck with the mentally unstable Sentry, and Hank Pym is targeted. Each story is solid, and gives insight into some of the impending storylines from the main series. It's definitely worth reading, no matter how involved you would like to get with Secret Invasion. It's a top tier side story collection. 7. Avengers The Intiative Vol 3: Secret Invasion The Initiative was a post-Civil War book that threw 50 new teams together and tried to follow cool characters from several of them. It was too crowded with ideas and characters, and apart from a few interesting issues, it was mostly just a book to test out new characters as it waited to be canceled. Here, we got two interesting characters to focus on, and an ending that could have been really impactful is nerfed by bad pacing and general sloppiness. Even the timely return of Skrull Kill Krew went from oooooh to ewwwww pretty quickly. Feel free to skip this one 8. Secret Invasion: War Machine Spinning out of a scene in Avengers The Initiative 3: Secret Invasion is this story about how Rhodey (aka War Machine) deals with the Skrull infiltration. It is, by far, the worst of the Secret Invasion books. It doesn't have any interesting concepts, there are no impactful character beats, it's a very generic superhero story focused on a character that isn't given much personality. It could seriously kill the momentum of someone who's enjoyed this Secret Invasion readthrough thusfar, so if you do read it and are thinking of tapping out, know that it never gets worse than this book 9. Noval Vol 3: Secret Invasion Kieth Giffen, Dan Abnett, and Andy Lanning brought Marvel's cosmic universe characters back to relevance around the time that Civil War and Secret Invasion were dominating the Earth-focused stories. The space soap opera does a great job at explaining alien races' goals and interrelationships. In this volume, Marvel's top space cop has to deal with failing technology, Galactus, and intergalactic politics, and THEN he becomes aware of the impending Skrull invasion. There's an effortless flow of plots in this book that makes me want to go back and read the entire 21st century Marvel Cosmic stories 10. Captain Britain & MI3 Vol 1: Secret Invasion This is the first volume that had to over come one of my prejudices. I just don't care about the British portion of the Marvel Universe or its magical/historical aspects. This book didn't help me win me over. It's filled with really melodramatic British nationalism, including a character being resurrected by a bunch of British flags weaving themselves together in the air. The only part of the books I found interesting was another Good Skrull storyline. 11. New Avengers Vol 8: Secret Invasion Perhaps the strongest anthology style volume, so far, as Bendis shows us the setup to Secret Invasion through the eyes of Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Wolverine, Maya Lopez, and the Skrulls on homeland. Each story is interesting but the first two are especially strong. There's also an issue that takes place in the Savage Land during the midst of the main series. That issue is a mess, and hard to follow, even if you have an A in Marvel comic reading. 12. Secret Invasion: Who Do You Trust? A waste of paper. This should only be bought if you have a serious completist fetish. It has barely any stories in it, mainly devoting pages to Marvel Encyclopedia style information about the characters in the Secret Invasion. There is a brief story about Captain Marvel that comes after the excellent Captain Marvel Secret Invasion, and it's not great, and certainly not good enough to justify paying for the rest of this book. 13. X-Factor Vol 6: Secret Invasion This is the first part of a crossover with She-Hulk that I'm calling Secret Invasion: Detroit, it has a promising sense of story. There's a focus on recent X-Men character, Darwin, the return of Longshot, and an intriguing connection to the Skrull Invasion. Unfortunately, it's saddled with what may be the worst art in the history of Marvel Comics. Larry Stroman was talented. His work on David's 90s X-Factor run was very much of the era but with an interesting sense of style. His work here looks like he metaphorically and literally took a dump on a page and then ran his fingers idly through it. It's unreadable. 14. She-Hulk Vol 8: Secret Invasion Part Two of Secret Invasion: Detroit, there's some overlap here, as we see She-Hulk's friend, a reformed Skrull warn her of the impending Secret Invasion before they end up caught up in X-Factor's madness. This is followed by The Good Skrull battling her father and her past. It has some real cheesy moments but the idea behind the story is interesting. 15. Secret Invasion: Young Avengers/Runaways Part one of Meanwhile In New York. A messy crossover of two previously excellent books. Brian K Vaughan's Runaways was fantastic, as was Jim Cheung's Young Avengers. Neither of them workd on this book. Each team has Good Skrulls (TM) on them so it should lead to some theoretically interesting twists but it's just a boring paint by numbers Marvel adventure with some Skrull action sequences. 16. Secret Invasion: Home Invasion I tend to enjoy books where you see a superhero universe through the eyes of a reporter or some random schlub. This is a random schlub story about an unimportant girl whose brother turns out to be a Skrull, even though he doesn't appear to be anyone worth impersonating. She escapes to her prom to meet up with her bf, and then they're chased by Skrulls until they run into The Young Avengers (but no Runaways), Binary, and Nick Fury. It's a very melodramatic teen book which wasn't my favorite but doesn't deserve the wrath I've seen other reviewers direct towards it. Part 2 of Meanwhile In New York. 17: Secret Invasion: The Amazing Spider-Man Except it's not Spider-Man because he's in The Savage Land fighting The Secret Invasion so this book, the third Meanwhile In New York story follows relatively new Spider-family member, Jackpot, and some of Spidey's other B characters from the time. This is an inoffensive and unimpressive book that isn't necessary to follow the events of Secret Invasion, but it's a fun read. 18. Secret Invasion: X-Men The Skrulls in San Francisco think they'll have it easy until they realize that the mutants have recently settled in Utopia, an island off the coast of California. This book does an excellent job of using many characters but using them well, and tying into previous storylines that have nothing to do with The Skrulls but that become important to how they free The Bay Area from Skrull concentration camps. 19. New Avengers Vol 9: Secret Invasion Book 2 The best of the Secret Invasion anthologies, we see the setups and crises of Secret Invasion through the eyes of specific New Avengers and their rogues gallery. This volume is Bendis at his best. 20. Secret Invasion: New Warriors The previous New Warriors team was responsible for the incident that caused Marvel's Civil War. This newer roster is mainly just a bunch of C-grade or less characters thrown together. I just didn't care about anything that happened in this book 21. Incredible Hercules: Secret Invasion Despite the "Secret Invasion" label on this cover, it's referred to as the "Sacred Invasion" within the story. I found this story about various human gods versus various Skrull gods absoutely impenetrable. I would really have to struggle to care less about a single character or plot detail in this book. It has zero effect on the overall secret invasion story. 22. Carol Danvers: The Ms Marvel Years Book 2 The Secret Invasion focused portion of this book is long out of print, but this book stretches from the birth of The Initiative (which plays heavily in Secret Invasion anyway) to the aftermath of the invasion with a strong focus on some scenes from the main Secret Invasion title where Carol Danvers, a well-known Kree warrior, is believed to be a Skrull 23. Thunderbolts: Secret Invasion Norman Osborn is about to be The Big Bad of the Marvel Universe at the end of Secret Invasion. Here we see his team of supposedly reformed criminals trying to get good PR by fighting The Skrulls. Apart from a brief Captain Marvel scene (which also appears in the main Secret Invasion book), this is a story of some pretty good ideas, poorly written. 24. Deadpool: Secret Invasion For a better book explaining Osborn's rise to power (though he barely appears in the book), Deadpool is the way to go. It's a silly Wade Wilson vs Skrulls and Super Skrulls book that manages to include a key plot to the setup for Dark Reign that doesn't appear in any other book. This was the very beginning of Daniel Way's run on Deadpool, which is probably the best run in the title's history. 25. Mighty Avengers Vol 4: Secret Invasion Book 2 Marvel made some strange editorial choices when it came to telling the Secret Invasion story. This book is one of them. This is not the story of what The Mighty Avengers were going through during The Secret Invasion, it's five major events of The Secret Invasion that all took place behind-the-scenes of the main book. The only connective tissue is that Skrulls are involved. Each book focuses on different characters and at very different points in the main storyline. I love it, but it's not really connected to The Mighty Avengers. 26. Secret Invasion: Front Line One of two Secret Invasion books that focus on the point of view of non-superheroes, there is a lot to like in this collection. Ben Urich of one of Marvel's great background characters, particularly when he shows up in Daredevil. Here, he's doing an interview when the Skrull invasion hits and has to reckon with his mortality, his relationship with his wife, and his commitment to his job. We also see a police officer trying to do the right thing and a daughter trying to connect with her father during the crisis. There are a few great emotional beats in this story. It does suffer from some of that good old accidental racism of early 2000s comics. Why do we need to have a gang pop up in the middle of this story? Why do they have to be Black? What purpose does that story tell that couldn't have been more compelling if it were a group of skinheads or just a random assortment of people consumed by the chaos of the invasion? It took me out of the story for a few pages as I thought about why that particular storyline needed to be injected into this narrative. Otherwise, this was a solid read. 27. Secret Invasion In professional wrestling, there are all sorts of different type of matches. There are technical masterpieces, strong style sluggers, hardcore violent matches, and spotfests, to name a few. In comics, I'm usually a fan of technical masterpieces. Stories that build up to a complex confrontation with twists, and turns. Even when you can easily guess the outcome, it's fascinating to watch the journey. Secret Invasion is Brian Michael Bendis's spotfest. It's less a story, and more of a bunch of cool reveals that bounce you to the next surprise plot point. It never really settles enough for you to get invested in the characters because it's always And This Person Is A Skrull And That Person Dies And This Person Is A Skrull And Look At All These Skrulls Who Is A Skrull Now Oh My God What Will Happen Now That We Know That Person Is A Skrull. 2. The Best Of Marvel's Secret InvasionAll of the descriptions for this list are in the above entry. This is just the streamlined order for people who don't have time to read the mediocre to terrible books. 1. Captain Marvel Secret Invasion 2. Secret Invasion Infiltration 3. Mighty Avengers Vol 3: Secret Invasion 4. Secret Invasion: Fantastic Four 5. Nova Vol 3: Secret Invasion 6. Mighty Avengers Vol 4: Secret Invasion Book 2 7. New Avengers Vol 9: Secret Invasion Book 2 8. Black Panther: Secret Invasion 9. Secret Invasion 10. Frontline: Secret Invasion 3. The Marvelous Secret InvasionHere's a look at a few of the most important storylines of 21st century Marvel, with some preamble, a focus on The Secret Invasion, and an epilogue that ties up some loose ends that don't, necessarily, involve Skrulls. 1. Marvels The ultimate classic retelling of the early days of the Marvel Universe from the Golden Age of the 1930s to the early Silver Age of the 1970s, Kurt Busiek gives an in-depth study of the world's initial reactions to superheroes, mutants, and the mid-twentieth century science boom through the eyes of photographer Phil Sheldon. This is densely packed primer on Marvel history by one of its best writers. It's also the series that introduced the world to Alex Ross. Long gone are the days when I was interested in his endlessly static and uninspiring covers, but in this book, you really get a sense for why he was such a big deal when the world was first exposed to his art. 2. West Coast Avengers Epic Coll Vol 3: Vision Quest A spin-off of the Avengers series, the West Coast Avengers were a chance for writers to explore some of the less popular but equally interesting characters. So, no Iron Man, Captain America, or Thor but Moon Knight, She-Hulk, Hawkeye, Vision, and Scarlet Witch. There are several stories of varying quality in this collection, but for us, there's the problem of The Scarlet Witch's children. Where they came from, who they are. This book is the inspiration for WandaVision, as well as some later books on this list. It's a fascinating conceit. 3. The Death Of Captain Marvel Marvel's first ever graphic novel, this is the story of how an early hero succumbs to cancer as a result of his superheroing career. It features a bunch of Avengers, and other hero cameos. 4. Skull Kill Krew Two of the biggest writers of early 21st century comics, Grant Morrison and Mark Millar, cut their Marvel teeth on this violent mini-series where the Skrulls who were turned into cows way back in Fantastic Four #2 are slaughtered and served as beef, infecting the human population who became heroes who hunted down Skrulls who were already, in the mid-90s, infiltrating the Marvel Universe. 5. Marvel Boy By Grant Morrison A Kree warrior is on a quest to kill Skrulls when he gets caught on Earth, and loses all of his friends and loved ones and has to start his life over after being a prisoner of one corporation, only to be re-imprisoned by SHIELD. It's there that he declares war on Earth. 6. Avengers Disassembled Brian Michael Bendis is the main architect of Secret Invasion, and this was the first huge Marvel event by him that caught my attention. The Avengers are in a flux period, their roster isn't exactly The Best Team Ever. At a pool party, someone inadvertantly mentions an event from the past that ends up completely destroying the team. 7 & 8. New Avengers Vol 1 & 2 Six months after Diassembled, a breakout at a supervillain prison called The Raft means that a new, all-star team of Avengers comes together, featuring Captain America, Iron Man, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, Spider-Woman, and The Sentry. And once the supervillains have been rounded up, the new team must figure out who exactly The Sentry is, and whether they can help him stay sane. 9. & 10. House Of M Prelude: Exclaibur, House Of M While discussing staying sane, Wanda is stil recovering from Disassembled, and her father, Magneto, wants to protect her from the rest of the world. Professor X and a small team of mutants joins him to try and keep Wanda from harming herself and the world. Only they do a terrible job, and Wands creates an entire new universe where mutants rule, and humans are the oppressed minority. Every mutant essentially gets what they wanted. But a new character who "knows things" starts showing up and giving mutants and humans their memories of the previous universe. This temporary group of heroes must band together and restore the proper universe. 11. Young Avengers Ultimate Collection This original run of Young Avengers by Jim Cheung features a new generation of Avengers assembled by Vision who believes the real Avengers team will never get back together (apparently, he isn't reading my chronology). These young versions of the classic heroes have their own problems, and a couple of them seem like they might be connected to the Disassembled event. 12. & 13. The Road To Civil War, Civil War See the birth of the Marvel Universe's Illuminati. Check out how Iron Man is giving Spider-Man a new lease on crime fighting life. And, hey, The Fantastic Four battle (who else?) Dr. Doom when some Asgardian nonsense comes into play. Then the actual Civil War. A group of young heroes makes a mistake, and a villain kills 600 people while they're filming a reality TV show. Ooof. So the United States decides to pass The Superhero Registration Act, which doesn't go over well with, let's say half the heroes. This is one of the best Event Comics in Marvel history, despite a ton of delays, and some inconsistent side stories. 14. The Death Of Captain America Complete Collection This came out during the Batman Is Dead (actually, he's just traveling through time somehow) era of comics. I remember my coworker reading the issue where Cap dies, and flinging the book across the room, calmly walking over, picking it up, and tearing it in half before hanging it up on our Variant Wall as "Captain America Torn Variant". I think, as a piece of the larger Ed Brubaker run, it's fine. There's a lot of Winter Soldier in this volume, and once you get past the death of Cap and realize it's a comic book, and death is never permanent, you get a solid look at SHIELD and the Marvel Universe in a post-Civil War America. Brubaker is one of the best writers in comics, and he is at the top of his game here. The color scheme is a little dark for me, but this was during Marvel's muddy phase so there's not a lot to do about it. 15 & 16. Annihilation Ultimate Collection 1 & 2 If you love the MCU's Guardians of the Galaxy movies, you should know that the inspiration for those films starts here. The cosmic corner of the Marvel Universe had long been kind of dark, broody, and removed from everything else. The Guardians were often cheesy characters who screamed out the names of their loved ones during tragedies. It was super hokey in a way that some people love. Not my thing. But here, Keith Giffen, Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning, and a host of other creators tell the story of how Annihilus assembles an armada of war ships so large and threatening that every major Marvel cosmic character must team up to stop them. One of the many casualties of this war are the Skrull, which hastens their push towards The Secret Invasion. 17. X-Men Endangered Species At the end of House Of M, The Scarlet Witch declared "No More Mutants", and the population of mutants in the Marvel Universe went from billions down to 198. While many of the other X-Men still act as superheroes, battling Apocalypse, and their usual cast of villains, Beast goes on a trek to restore the X-gene and see how to increase the number of mutants in the world. 18. Planet Hulk The Illuminati that we met during The Road To Civil War have had to make difficult decisions throughout Marvel history. One of them is what to do about the constant stream of destruction that surrounds Bruce Banner/The Hulk. So they ask him to go to space to fix a satellite, only for him to discover that they're actually shipping him off to a planet without other life so he can live out his days peacefully, not harming anyone. He reacts by wrecking the ship, taking him to a planet with plenty of hostile life, where he becomes a gladiator during his attempt to find a ship and return home. 19. World War Hulk Probably the weakest of any series in this chronology, we follow The Hulk and his surviving friends and family from the Planet Hulk saga as Banner returns to Earth for revenge on those who jettisoned him into space. 20. New Avengers The Trust Our ultimate team of super Avengers are on an away mission to Japan to battle The Hand when they discover that one of their best frenemies has, at some point, been replaced by a Skrull, and they worry about the possibility that an invasion is underway. Perhaps, a Secret Invasion. 21-30. The Best Of Marvel's Secret Invasion (see above) This is the Best Of Marvel's Secret Invasion in its entirety, except that I've removed the epilogue, Secret Invasion Frontline, as, instead of needing a wrapup, we're going to explore a little further into the aftermath of the invasion. 31. Punisher Dark Reign Norman Osborn rose to power during the Skrull Invasion, and has groups of Avengers and X-Men under his power. He's being treated as a new Iron Man figure called The Iron Patriot. Frank Castle decides that this can not stand, and sets out to destroy Osborn, as well as any surviving Skrulls. 32. Secret Warriors Complete Collection Vol 1 During the Secret Invasion, Nick Fury put together a new team to ferret out not only Skrulls but also Hydra members who infiltrated SHIELD. This is the story of how they operate during Norman Osborne's Dark Reign 33. Avengers Prime Captain America (oh yea, he's alive again, don't ask how), Thor, and Iron Man must put apart their Civil War differences to save Asgard, after it seems to be destroyed as a consequence to Seige (the final portion of Dark Reign, which isn't worth the read). This is a story about repairing relationships, and it's pretty well told. 34. Avengers Children's Crusade
The Young Avengers go off in search of The Scarlet Witch, who has been mostly missing since the end of House Of M (we did see her pop up in X-Men Endangered Species). We get some answers to some questions that have been lingering since the West Coast Avengers Epic Coll Vol 3 Vision Quest. It may not be a wrap up on The Skrulls (we haven't really had one yet, and their recent appearances require way more continuity than I want to put on this already long, complex list), but it's a fun read, and really feels like the end of a very long Marvel storyarc.
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Carlos Williams requested a Flash comics chronology. Personally, I'm not a big fan of reading a comic about someone who runs fast. The character is much better suited for TV, and the CW is doing an incredible job with the current Flash TV show, and it's spin-off, "Legends Of Tomorrow". "Arrow" sucks, though. If I were to make a five season chronology for The Flash, I would skip out on all the silver-age Barry Allen stories. So, unlike some of the previous chronologies, you're not going to get a ton of origin stories and first appearances of villains. The Flash will follow Wally West (who is not like the Wally West in the TV show...instead of being Iris's brother, he is her nephew) and the villains he inherited from the previous Flash. Fuck you uncle Barry! art by Greg Larocque Season 1: Terminal Velocity (Showrunner: Mark Waid) Serial 1: The Flash By Mark Waid Book One
written by Mark Waid, art by Greg Larocque, Jim Aparo, and Pop Mhan Wally West is Barry Allen's favorite nephew. But Barry has always been careless with chemicals and lightning, so he accidentally, and against astronomical odds, recreates the situation that turned him into The Flash, thus turning Wally into Kid Flash. Idiot. But it's not too long before Wally has to go from Kid Flash to regular old Flash when Uncle Barry disappears saving the universe. Kid Crisis. 2 episodes. Serial 2: The Flash By Mark Waid Book Two written by Mark Waid, art by Greg Larocque and Sal Velluto It seems like just one serial ago when Wally West was Kid Flash and Barry Allen rescued the universe, meaning he was gone forever. Oh, wait. It was. Then how is Barry back already? And why is he such a dick? Original Recipe Flash, Jay Garrick, and some Green Lanterns step in to try and solve the mystery. The Premature Return Of Barry Allen . 2 episodes Serial 3: Impulse Reckless Youth, The Flash Terminal Velocity written by Mark Waid, art by many One of the things that drives me crazy about Flash books is that there are So Many Characters whose power is that they can run fast. And this series adds even more! Bart Allen, Barry's grandson from the future (comics, sigh), finds himself in the present, and it's up to Wally West, Jay Garrick , Johnny and Jesse Quick, and Max Mercury (alliteration, ugh) to train him, lest he become any more of a bratty nuisance. Impulse Control. 3 episodes Episode 8: The Flash Dead Heat (written by Mark Waid, art by Oscar Jiminez, and Humberto Ramos) The lamest part of the Flash tv series is how terribly CGI the villain Savitar looks. It's so substandard to the other effects on the show that I have a hard time taking him seriously. Well, in this book we meet Oh So 90s Savitar, who looks like Rob Liefeld designed him but someone with talent and opposable thumbs got to draw him. Once again, all the speedsters are in this book. And Savitar, also a speedster, has brought a new army of speedsters. So much running. So much hair. Faster Than The Fastest Man Alive. 1 episode Episode 9: The Flash Race Against Time written by Mark Waid and Brian Augustyn, art by Oscar Jiminez, Anthony Castrillo, Jim Cheung, and Sergio Cariello Another another goddamned Flash??? This one wears a blue suit and, like very other new Flash before him, his arrival changes everytthzzzzzzZZZZzzzzzzzZZZZxxxxXXZXZxzzxzx, huh? Oh, changes everything. While this Flash is in the present, Wally West is doing some serious Ghost Of Christmas Future adventuring around the timeline on his way home from defeating Savitar. Blue Steal. 1 episode Serial 4: The Flash Emergency Stop written by Grant Morrison and Mark Millar, art by Paul Ryan...not the spineless Speaker Of The House Wally West is dead. And it's up to the eight billion speedster characters, including Wally West, himself (totally not dead) to solve his murder. In addition to yet another speedster villain, we get some time to visit with classic villains like Mirror Master and Captain Boomerang. The Suit. 2 episodes Serial 5: The Flash The Human Race written by Grant Morrison and Mark Millar, art by Paul Ryan and Pop Mhan Alien gamblers arrive on Earth and demand a champion speedster human race an alien speedster. Sure. Featuring all the speedsters, and even new speedsters! Alien speedsters! Speedsters that Wally might have encountered when he was a child! And then, The Black Flash. No, it's not a cool new character of color, it's a...speed force demon doppelganger maybe? It runs! Fast! And Wally must conquer it to avenge yet another death that may or not be permanent! The Human Race. 3 episodes Season 1 of The Flash is 15 episodes that don't go as fast as you might imagine a book about speed would. The Avengers franchise is what made Marvel Studios the completely dominant force in comic based entertainment. The way they streamlined Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, and other characters into an expansive universe that also includes television shows like Daredevil and Agents Of SHIELD is something that has never been achieved before in motion picture entertainment. The Avengers continuity, even without including the individual characters is supremely daunting. So, I’ve put together a chronology of some of the best Avengers related books that are currently or were recently available in collected editions (the recently available are still around for pretty cheap on various online outlets and in bookstores) into ten TV seasons. Last season ended with an almost out of control three cosmic battles. It’s hard to imagine how this season could have more cosmic consequences, and more at stake without tossing in the DC Universe, too. But that will never hap---oh, ok. Cosmic Scavenger Hunt, anyone? art by Ed Benes Season 2: Crossing Worlds (showrunners Kurt Busiek and Geoff Johns) Serial 1: Avengers Epic Coll Operation Galactic Storm
(written and with art by many) The Sh’iar and The Kree go to war, and, of course, The Avengers are caught in the middle. Galactic Storm. 3 episodes Serial 2: JLA/Avengers (written by Kurt Busiek with art by George Perez) Yeup. DC’s greatest heroes and Marvel’s greatest heroes collide as we get a typical cosmic entity presents heroes with a quest to save their universe. It’s only fun because you get to hear what DC heroes think of Marvel 616, and Marvel characters react to DC’s Earth One. It’s otherwise a pretty typical tale of betrayal, finding understandings, and saving the day. It did take twenty-five years between when Perez started working on the first issue and when DC and Marvel finally got it together and release the final issue, though JLA Avengers. 3 episodes Serial 3: Avengers Citizen Kang (written by Roy Thomas and Mark Gruenwald, art by Larry Alexander, Geof Isherwood, and Herb Trimpe) An entire town goes missing in Wisconsin, as does The Vision. The Fantastic Four and the Avengers team up to try and find him, and the town. Of course, Kang is involved, so things are about to get weird.er. Citizen Kang. 2 episodes Serial 3: Avengers Supreme Justice (written by Kurt Busiek, art by George Perez) Scaling things back just a bit. What if a similar story happened between The Avengers and The Squadron Supreme. Of course, The Kree are involved, too. And Carol Danvers just doesn’t feel as important as she wishes she was. Be patient, Carol, your time is coming. Supreme Justice. 2 episodes Episode 11: Marvel Boy (written by Grant Morrison, art by JG Jones) One of the Kree’s greatest weapons is a child named Noh-Varr who crashes on Earth, only to be abducted for his technology. The way he is handled by Earth’s heroes might be a terrible mistake. Noh-Varr. 1 episode Serial 3: Avenger World Trust, Avengers Standoff, Avengers Red Zone (written by Geoff Johns, Dan Jurgens, and Mike Grell, art by Keiron Dwyer, Rick Remender, Gary Frank, Jon Sibal, Alan Davis, Ivan Reis, and Oliver Coipel) After some Kang-centric shenanigans, The government decides to make The Avengers an official task force, as opposed to Nick Fury and SHIELD’s secret friends. But how will the nation react to The Avengers becoming sanctioned American superheroes? Plus, Jack Of Hearts has custody issues. Thor gets reprimanded by Secretary Of Defense, Tony Stark, and a familiar terrorist releases chemical warfare at Mount Rushmore. World Trust. 5 episodes Serial 4: The Search For She-Hulk (written by Geoff Johns, art by Scott Kollins and Stephen Sadowski) Jack Of Hearts searches for purpose, Ant-Man tries to patch things up with Wasp, and both The Avengers and The Hulk try to help She-Hulk with her rage issues. And someone totally dies (but not anyone most people remember). What Happens In Vegas. 2 episodes Serial 5: Avengers Disassembled (written by Brian Michael Bendis, art by David Finch) Dead Avengers come back to life, only to immediately die again. Kree attack. She Hulk goes even crazier. The Avengers mansion is burned to the ground. One drunk slip by an Avenger causes all hell to reign down on them, and they’re going to have to seriously rebuild if they’re going to remain a team. Disassembled. 2 episodes This season falls apart at 20 episodes Interseason Special: Jessica Jones Alias (AKA Jessica Jones) Vols 1-3 (written by Brian Michael Bendis, art by Michael Gaydos) A small-time New York City detective specializing in superhuman affairs used to be an Avenger named Jewel (no, she didn’t live in her car and put out a popular folk-pop album in the 90s). This story is also part of my Daredevil continuity because it plays a big part in his story, but she also has a relationship with Luke Cage that’s going to make her an important part of this continuity, as well. I was never much into The Green Lantern, but I started working in comic book stores right before Geoff Johns brought Hal Jordan back to prominence as a major character in the DC Universe. There are about five seasons worth of stories that I’ve read that fit pretty neatly into the continuity that Johns mined from, and then created himself. Season 2 brings us the downfall of Hal Jordan, and introduces us to yet another Green Lantern of Earth, Kyle Rainer. Almost an entire season of Kyle as The Green Lantern? Haters gonna haaaaate. Art by Dale Eaglesham Season 2: Ion (showrunners Ron Marz and Judd Winnick) Serial 1: Emerald Twilight New Dawn, Zero Hour Crisis In Time
(written by Ron Marz, art by Darryl Banks) Hal Jordan’s hometown, Coast City, is destroyed in the wake of The Death Of Superman. Because the guardians won’t allow him to save the city where he was raised, Hal goes absolutely bonkers, destroys Oa, and kills as many Green Lanterns as he can. Once he becomes Parallax, he tries to repair Coast City as well as the timeline. Several DC superheroes step in to try and stop him. Emerald Twilight. 2 episodes Serial 2: Green Lantern Baptism Of Fire (written by Ron Marz, art by Darryl Banks, Paul Pelletier, Romeo Tanghal, and Albert de Guzman) Kyle Rainer is the new Green Lantern of Earth and has no corps or guardians to train him. So he seeks out some of The Justice League to try and teach him how to wield the green power ring. Batman, The Flash, and Wonder Woman guest star. Baptism Of Fire. 2 episodes Episode 5: Green Lantern Emerald Allies (written by Ron Marz and Chuck Dixon, art by Darryl Banks and others) It’s the next generation of Green Lantern/Green Arrow as Kyle Rainer teams up with Connor Hawke to solve some serious daddy issues. Emerald Allies. 1 episode Episode 6: Green Lantern Emerald Knights (written by Ron Marz and Chuck Dixon, art by Darryl Banks) Kyle goes into the past and brings Green Lantern Hal Jordan back to the present to battle Parallax Hal Jordan. Emerald Knights. 1 episode Episode 7: Justice League New World Order (written by Grant Morrison, art by Howard Porter and John Dell) Now that Justice League International has been stripped down to a core group of superheroes, Kyle Rainer is given a spot in the Big Seven. New World Order. 1 episode Episode 8: Green Lantern Traitor (written by Steven Grant) Another three stories across time collection. This time it’s Abin Sur, Hal Jordan, and then Kyle battling a villain called The Traitor. The Hal Jordan portion is the least compelling, but it’s nice to spend some time with Abin Sur, particularly in The American West. Traitor. 1 episode Episode 9: Green Lantern Circle Of Fire (written by Brian K Vaughan and Scott Beatty) Kyle Rainer gathers a group of fringe DC heroes to battle a villain called Oblivion. This is the only DC proper story I’ve read by Brian K Vaughan, and it’s of a higher quality than much of the Kyle Rainer stuff. Circle Of Fire. 1 episode Episode 10: Green Lantern New Journey Old Path (written by Judd Winnick) Yellow power rings? Oh, dear. A prisoner at a mental hospital is given access to a yellow power ring before escaping and wreaking havoc that captures the attention of The Justice League and Kyle Rainer. Yellow. 1 episode Episode 11: Green Lantern The Power Of Ion (written by Judd Winnick, art by Dale Eaglesham, Eric Battle, Brandon Badeaux, Jamal Igle, and Pat Quinn) Kyle loses his Green Lantern identity in a battle with Oblivion. But fear not, he’s now the Green Lantern-like hero called Ion. Ion. 1 episode Episode 12: Green Lantern Brother’s Keeper (written by Judd Winnick) This is a fairly preachy story, pretty consistent with Judd Winnick’s early work. Homophobia and bigotry are bad, yo. And Judd’s not afraid to let you know it. Repeatedly. There’s also an interesting Alan Scott story here. Brother’s Keeper. 1 episode Episode 13: Green Lantern Passing The Torch (written by Judd Winnick) The end of Winnick’s run. Ion and Jade go to the reformed Oa and meets with the reformed guardians. Jon Stewart stays behind to protect Earth. Passing The Torch. 1 episode Serial 3: Green Lantern Rebirth (written by Geoff Johns, art by Ethan Van Sciver and Prentis Rollins) That was an intensely long season of Kyle Rainer to read through but there needed to be some dramatic tension before Hal Jordan, former Green Lantern, former Paralaxx, and former Spectre, comes back to the Green Lantern Corps. Yes, Corps. The Corps is back! Jon Stewart, Kyle Rainer and the Justice League are onhand for Hal’s redemption. Rebirth. 2 episodes Season 2 is 15 episodes One of the easiest questions I get asked about Batman is, "Where do I start?"
Since most of us have a finite amount of time to devote to comics, and a possibly more finite budget, the ability to track down a copy of Detective Comics #27 and start reading from there is a crack pipe dream. Sure, DC has collected the beginning of the Detective and Batman comics in their DC Archive hardcovers, and DC Chronicles, and, yes, if you don't care about the art being colored, you can save yourself a chunk of change and start buying the Showcase collections DC has been putting out. But, for those of us who didn't grow up with, or grow to love Golden Age and Silver Age comics, these options represent an unrealistic level of dedication. So when a customer walks into the store, and says "I love Batman. Can you recommend a good place to start reading from?" I always recommend Frank Miller's "Year One" I'll get to why I start there in the next entry. The problem is when a customer buys Year One, loves it, and returns, asking "What's next?" There is almost too much next to contemplate. Unlike your favorite indie comic, or your favorite television show, Batman doesn't have a straightforward chronology. Hundreds of writers have written official DC Batman stories in the pages of Detective Comics, Batman, Gotham Knights, Shadow Of The Bat, Batman & Robin, World's Finest, Streets Of Gotham, and Batman/Superman to name a few. Plus, he is often a member of the Justice League Of America, and shows up in just about all of the big DC Crossovers. It is nigh improbable to come up with a chronology for Batman, even if you start at Year One (which came out in 1986). But that's what I'm going to attempt to do here. I'm not going to go issue by issue through the Bat-verse. I'm going to go by the trade paperback collections that DC comics has released, including all the titles I mentioned above, plus the spin-off series such as Robin, Nightwing, Birds Of Prey, Batgirl, and others. Apart from skipping the Elseworlds tales (stories that take place completely outside of DC's main universe), I'm going to be as thorough as I can. I've been buying most of the trades at local comic book stores, and even finding some out of print books in used bookstores, and online. The order that I recommend reading Batman in is not necessarily by issue number. It is by what I think is currently in continuity, and how it would be presented if the book was by one author (other than Grant Morrison, who has a more complex understanding of how time works than I). I am absolutely open to people presenting alternate chronologies. So if you read an entry, and think "Hey, that event took place before" for example: "No Man's Land. There's no way it can happen after Bruce adopts Tim Drake as his son." You don't need to send me hate mail, or call me a clueless moron, just tell me why you think I'm wrong, and I'll either explain my reasoning, or else defer to yours and make a correction. The only real limit I have is that because DC makes interesting decisions when compiling and releasing trades, there will be hiccups in the reading order. For complaints about DC's trade paperback policy, please e-mail Dan Didio, not me. I'm forward dating this entry, so it will always be up top. It may be edited as the series progresses. Hope you enjoy reading this, and that it's helpful. Feel free to comment. I tend to only bite when provoked. As you will learn through the course of this blog, I have a very love/hate relationship with Grant Morrison's Batman. And while my recent feelings towards his Caped Crusader usually involve me blacking out with rage, I'm a huge fan of his 80s and 90s work.
One of the things I find most intriguing/frustrating about Morrison's Batman is how he plays with time and dreams. In stories such as Gothic (Legends Of The Dark Knight 6-10), Morrison gives us his signature coded dreams that tie into Bruce Wayne's real life. Whereas in recent years, I've felt his dream sequences and time fluctuations detract from the stories he tries to tell, in Gothic the dreams are placed in context almost immediately. This story also gives us a rare glimpse into Bruce's childhood. Most writers seem to think there was nothing to his youth other than the night his parents were shot. Morrison presents us with a trauma of a different sort, as Bruce is nearly the victim of a serial killer who moonlights as the headmaster of the Bruce's very creepy alma mater. The killer, Mr. Whisper (no relation to Hush, though it's interesting that the two villains connected to Bruce Wayne's childhood both have names with a quiet theme), returns during Batman's early days to take down a group of criminals who had tried to kill him shortly after Bruce was pulled out of school. These sort of chronological coincidences usually rankle me the wrong way. All the characters and subplots of the story wrap up a little neatly for my taste. I do appreciate that there's a misdirect early on in the story when a young nun shows up, looking very similar to Selina Kyle's sister from Year One, and My Sister's Keeper. While it's probably due more to editorial reasons than Morrison's shortcomings as a writer, it is disappointing that we don't see any other continuity characters in this arc. The criminals don't appear to have any connections to the Falcones, and there's no mention of James Gordon. We do have the first use of a, not the, a Bat-Signal in this issue, when the nervous criminals attach an upside-down Bat logo to a spotlight to get the caped crusader's attention. Story 3/5, Art 3/5 In 1993, DC comics asked Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale to create a Halloween special issue for their Legend Of The Dark Knight series. The pairing of this creative team would go on to create The Long Halloween and Dark Victory, two of my favorite Batman stories. Haunted Knight is a precursor to those storylines. While it's not as tight a narrative as the other two collections, it does feature some plot points that will come up later.
The major problem I have about this collection is that it's set up in the order that the specials were released, which doesn't appear to be the order that the stories take place. So, while I don't suggest reading the collection manga style, I do recommend reading the third chapter in this collection, Ghosts, first. My reason being that I believe this collection should be read as 48 hours in the life of Batman, not three different years on Halloween. Ghosts starts the night before at a banquet where The Penguin makes his first appearance, interrupting one of Bruce Wayne's shindigs. Batman captures the villain, retrieving a medallion Penguin stole from Lucius Fox. The medallion features either an exact mock up of the Wayne family door knockers, or else Bruce's father's face. Either way, the charm induces a sort of hypnosis on Bruce, and the story turns into a Halloween retelling of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol, with Thomas Wayne as Jacob Marley, Poison Ivy as The Ghost Of Christmas Past, The Joker as The Ghost Of Christmas Present, and a grim reaper as The Ghost Of Christmas Future. Among the memories is a primer as to how Lucius Fox got into Wayne's life, as well as unintentional foreshadowing to Final Crisis and Blackest Night. Next up is chapter two: Madness. In it, The Mad Hatter kidnaps Jim Gordon's niece, Barbara, who he's just adopted. Adoption is a bit of a theme in this book, as we are also introduced to Leslie Thompkins, a doctor who helped Alfred raise Bruce after (brace yourselves, new info here) his parents were killed. (Note: If you want to turn this website into a drinking game, sip a beer every time I make a joke at the expense of Grant Morrison, and a shot every time I have to mention that (spoiler alert) Bruce's parents were killed.) This story also injects Alice In Wonderland into the Batman mythos. I grew up loving the book, but I find its saturation in comics, particularly Batman, a bit overwrought. This story is not one of the finest examples of working the book in subtly. The "through the looking glass" line hurt to read, but the rest of the story is pretty solid. The first chapter, Fears, takes us back to another Wayne Halloween party. While Ghosts and Madness could happen in the same timeframe, this party and the party from Ghosts can't really be the same party, so let's say, for argument's sake, Wayne scheduled a second party due to his guilt over the first one being crashed by The Penguin. This party is slightly more successful, as none of the rogues gallery interrupts, but a woman named Jillian Maxwell attempts to seduce Bruce, much to the disdain of Alfred. Alfred does his own detective work while Batman is off dealing with The Scarecrow, and discovers Jillian is a black widow who serially marries and then murders rich husbands under a variety of names. While all three of these stories are very good, the highlight of this collection is Tim Sale and Gregory Wright's art. The panel layouts are effortlessly complex. Despite their nontraditional placement, there's never any doubt where the eye should go next. And Wright's colors are an integral part of the story. I especially love his greyscaled pages with the lightly colored narrative boxes. Story 4/5, Art 5/5 There's something nearly poetic about how many of the books that portray Batman as being a bad guy are, themselves, terrible. I lumped Batman Deadman and Teen Titans Year One together mostly to get them out of the way.
Batman Deadman is by James Robinson, who has done a lot of work for DC, and is best known for Starman. While I highly recommend the Starman series (currently being released in omnibus hardcovers), none of his mainstream character work really stands out to me as good. So, while I read this blind for the first few pages, I quickly flipped to the cover to see who was killing my post-Trinity Batman buzz and was not surprised to see Robinson's name on the cover. Robinson's writing, like Grant Morrison's, tends to stray from typical stories. And while I applaud him for that initiative, I don't tend to connect with his characters. And if I don't feel something for the characters, no amount of interesting plot concepts is going to win me over. What did win me over was John Estes's art, which looks like early 90s Vertigo, if it were made using colored pencils and watercolors. The details in the background and props make up for the, at best, mediocre dialog. The basic premise of the story is that while pursuing The Joker, Batman seems to black out and when he wakes up, he is believed to have killed police officers, and is holding an innocent woman at knife point. The story descends into magic and possession and demons, which are not my favorite aspects of comics. Most of the focus on this book is on characters involved with Deadman, although we do have some Alfred and Jim Gordon moments. (a biased against possession) Story: 2/5, Art: 5/5 While the two stories aren't supposed to be intertwined, and have two different demons, possession of Batman, and other members of the JLA is also at the core of Amy Wolfram's Teen: Titans Year One. This time we see Batman's possession through the eyes of Robin. Batman is behaving as though he was in Frank Miller's All Star Batman And Robin, but with less rat eating and cursing. Batman isn't the only one behaving strangely, though. The entire JLA is possessed by a demon called Antithesis. Robin rounds up a few of his sidekick friends in order to discover why the heroes are behaving strangely. So this collection features the chronological debut of Kid Flash, Aqua Lad, Speedy, and Wonder Girl. This collection is intended for children, and so the voice of the characters is skewed from how they're written in other books. But The Teen Titans are an important part of the Batman mythos, so I felt their origin story needed to be included. It's cartoony style is a little out of place in the chronology, but as the debut of the sidekicks as heroes, it's brightness in both art and storytelling can be seen as metaphorical. And it makes what happens to the team down the line seem all the darker. Story: 3/5, Art: 4/5 I'm going to add Full Circle to this entry, though it doesn't contain a possessed Batman, but it does continue the theme of characters written in an odd voice. Batman Full Circle features a very silver-agey Dick Grayson as Robin. Lots of cheesy one liners, and the classic Batman benches Robin storyline. Much like the book that this is a direct sequel to, Fear The Reaper, this book has a lot of tropes, and suffers because the tropes are not used as well as they are in other collections. The concept behind this story is the next generation of the families from Fear The Reaper. Joe Chill's son and grandson, Rachel Caspian's relationship to The Reaper, and, of course, Batman and Robin. We also have another appearance by Leslie Thompkins, and your requisite hookers and nuns. Todd Mcfarlane drew this book, and it's not his best work. He seems not to know quite how to draw The Reaper. His proportions linger somewhere on the border of inconsistent and awful. And Batman and Robin look too golden agey when presented against the designs of the other characters. Story: 2/5, Art: 2/5 The Full Circle Story is also included in the Year Two: Fear The Reaper Trade. I would say "I wouldn't waste my money buying this collection on its own." but clearly I not only would, but did. |
October 2024
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