In preparation for a big list that’s coming up (as soon as Siege #4 stops that whole being delayed thing), I figured I would lighten my load a bit and give you not one, but two event-related lists. While you can follow most events and their tie-ins by their publishing order, it’s always nice to have a clear chronological order when all is said and done. Follow the jump to find out what falls where in both Marvel’s Civil War and Secret Invasion.
Civil War is one of those few crossover events that you really don’t have to read any tie-ins to completely understand. The closest to being mandatory out of any of the tie-ins is Amazing Spider-Man, but even then most readers would be able to fill in the gaps. While Civil War wasn’t necessarily great, it was quite interesting to see how the various characters reacted to the changes going on in the Marvel Universe. As such, I chose to focus on the more prominent characters of the 616, though nearly every title Marvel was publishing at the time crossed over with the event.
Here’s the abridged list:
- Civil War #1
- Amazing Spider-Man #532
- New Avengers #21
- Civil War #2
- Amazing Spider-Man #533
- Fantastic Four #538
- Captain America #22
- Iron Man #13
- Civil War #3
- Civil War #4
- Amazing Spider-Man #534
- Fantastic Four #539
- Civil War: Choosing Sides
- Captain America #23
- New Avengers #23
- New Avengers #24
- Captain America #24
- New Avengers #25
- Civil War: Iron Man/Captain America
- Fantastic Four #540
- Amazing Spider-Man#535
- Civil War #5
- Fantastic Four #541
- Fantastic Four #542
- Iron Man #14
- Amazing Spider-Man #536
- Amazing Spider-Man #537
- Winter Soldier: Winter Kills
- Civil War: The Return
- Civil War #6
- Civil War #7
- Amazing Spider-Man #538
- Fantastic Four #543
- Captain America #25
- Civil War: The Confession
As a side note, when you read it with the various tie-ins, Cap and Stark have a ridiculous amount of ceasefires to discuss things, which is quite different from the action packed main book.
Secret Invasion was met with a good amount of derision, and it is certainly true that the pacing was rather off if you just read the main title. However, I think that anyone who follows an event without reading the tie-ins that are written by the same person writing the main title is making a very obvious mistake (Final Crisis and Superman Beyond, anyone?). Once you throw in the New Avengers and Mighty Avengers tie-ins that Bendis wrote, Secret Invasion becomes significantly better (though still not amazing). Along with Bendis’ tie-ins, I find Avengers: The Initiative and Thunderbolts to be very important to Secret Invasion, for while we looked at Civil War from the perspective of how it affected characters on an individual level, Secret Invasion affected large groups of characters at a time, thus making it work very well in team books.
The best reading order for these five titles is:
- Mighty Avengers #12
- New Avengers #40
- Avengers – The Initiative #14
- Secret Invasion #1
- New Avengers #41
- Mighty Avengers #13
- Thunderbolts #122
- Secret Invasion #2
- New Avengers #42
- Mighty Avengers #14
- Secret Invasion #3
- New Avengers #43
- Mighty Avengers #15
- Avengers – The Initiative #15
- Secret Invasion #4
- New Avengers #44
- Mighty Avengers #16 Continued below
- Avengers – The Initiative #16
- Secret Invasion #5
- New Avengers #45
- Mighty Avengers #17
- Avengers – The Initiative #17
- Thunderbolts #123
- Thunderbolts #124
- Mighty Avengers #19
- Secret Invasion #6
- New Avengers #46
- Mighty Avengers #18
- Avengers – The Initiative #18
- Thunderbolts #125
- Secret Invasion #7
- Avengers – The Initiative #19
- Secret Invasion #8
- New Avengers #47
- Mighty Avengers #20
Obviously, neither of my lists contain every single tie-in; instead, I have picked out the various titles that I feel are most important to the story and the 616 as a whole. If there’s a specific tie-in that you’re interested in, though, don’t hesitate to ask for its placement. Come back in two/three weeks (hopefully) for a massive list Marvel fans shouldn’t miss out on!
