The Complete Marvel Reading Order Guide

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.

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 Iron Man: Extremis*

* 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) *