Queen in Black Reading Order

As with past reading orders, my methodology is that the main event series is the ultimate guide for the reading order. Next come any tie-is written by the writer of the event, followed by the rest using my best judgment (though, this event skews heavy towards Al Ewing). In a few sections, the specific reading order does not matter as tertiary tie-ins often can be shuffled around with little to no impact. In those cases, the order that I have here is simple personal preference/instinct. This is just my personal guide and it may change over rereads. Comments are added to clarify choices with as few plot details mentioned specifically, so, if you haven’t read the event, you won’t have anything spoiled if you wish to use this guide for your first time reading it.

The formatting is as follows: Bold means main event series, underlined means tie-in (co-)written by Al Ewing, and no additional formatting is for the other four issues. Normally, I’d try to further distinguish with a level ‘essential/important’ but, as Queen in Black is such a small event, that seems unnecessary.

* Knull #1-5, Comics Giveaway Day 2026: Amazing Spider-Man/Queen in Black #1, and Queen in Black: Hela #1: These are all prologue comics. I’ll admit that I have not read the first two, but I’m confident that they act as lead-ins. The Hela one-shot is the only comic from the event proper and, while I think you can slot it after the first issue if you prefer, it’s much more suited to a prologue placement in my view. Judging from my lack of reading the Knull mini and the CGD tease, the Hela one-shot gives enough information leading into the event.

* Queen in Black #1

* Queen in Black: Venom Unchained #1: Mostly takes place before the event/references the beginning of Hela’s invasion.

* Queen in Black #2

* Venom #260 and Queen in Black: Venom Unchained #2: Both reference the cliffhanger ending of Dylan Brock being captured by the Symbiote Intelligence.

* Queen in Black #3

* Queen in Black: Defenders of Light and Dark #1, Queen in Black: Thor #1, Queen in Black: Defenders of Light and Dark #2, and Black Cat #14: I found where to slot the Defenders of Light and Dark mini-series a little tricky. As of the second issue of the core series, they hadn’t actually left Earth, so, before the fourth issue seemed like the best spot to place the first two issues with the Thor one-shot in between as it overlaps directly with the beginning of the Beta Ray Bill/Tyr fight. Black Cat #14 is referenced in the third issue and has its resolution shown in the fourth, so here seems fine. While it violates the “show it in the main series first” rule, placing it after issue four hampers the momentum of the story, I find.

* Queen in Black #4

* Venom #261 and Queen in Black: Defenders of Light and Dark #3: the two big elements of leading into the final issue are shown in more depth.

* Queen in Black #5

* Venom #262 and Queen in Black: Venom Unchained #3: Expansions of what happens in the fifth issue, while also acting as epilogues for the event. One concluding Ewing’s time on the book and the other leading into the new Charles Soule-written relaunch.

Hopefully, this is a help to anyone looking to make sense of how to read the event and its various tie-ins.

Stomping on a Box that I Thought was Empty 07 – Black Cat #14

It wouldn’t be an event without a proper tie-in. In that, Black Cat #14 is something of a unicorn in Queen in Black. The sole issue of an ongoing series that doesn’t have to be a part of the event. In the 17 issues that make up Queen in Black, 13 are (co-)written by Al Ewing, three are the Venom Unchained mini that seeks to bridge Charles Soule’s Carnage and Venom runs, and, then, there’s Black Cat #14, an issue of an ongoing series given over to this event. The only other ongoing series that ties into it is Venom, which is both written by Al Ewing and obviously a key book in this big Symbiotes invading Earth event. While Black Cat is related to Venom/Symbiotes via Spider-Man, you’ll note that there are no titles bearing his name in the lineup. Black Cat #14 being part of this event is nothing that seems like it should happen and, in fact, in the first version of Queen in Black’s checklist of titles, it wasn’t present. I imagine the motivation is some mixture of it seeming like a fun thing to do and efforts to get some more eyeballs on the book, a particular cocktail that Ewing has been known to indulge in himself.

(I was going to say that this also bears the distinction of the only comic in the event not edited by Jordan White, but the Hela and Thor one-shots were overseen by Will Moss, Ewing’s editor on Thor, if that gives a clue as to which side of things those issues fall.)

As a tie-in, I’ll admit that I was expecting more, particularly since this is an issue that’s been referenced no fewer than three times in the event thus far. As someone who rather likes Josemaria Casanovas’s painted cover, I’ll admit that I was a little let down that nothing approximating it occurs in the issue. We do get Felicia Hardy in a similar-ish spacesuit and on a mission to help strike a blow to Hela’s Symbiote army, but at no point does she actually come face to face with any Symbiotes. Instead, it’s your basic ‘get Black Cat to steal something’ issue, which makes sense – in this case, one of the seeds that grow into a Supreme Intelligence to help stop the Symbiote Intelligence. It is probably the most inessential issue in a rather tightly-orchestrated event, approximating one of those three-to-five page bits in the core series where some random heroes take out a unique Symbiote/alien combination, except expanded to a full issue.

That feeling that this issue was entirely skippable is normally a common one in big superhero events, except it’s a half-dozen to dozen issues like that. Here, it stands out. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think that G. Willow Wilson and Gleb Melnikov produced a poor comic by any means; I’m not entirely convinced that it’s the sort of comic that I’m particularly interested in, but I like to think I’ve developed enough sense to recognise the difference between ‘good and not for me’ and ‘bad,’ and this isn’t bad (even if it’s framed with my most hated cliché of “I bet you’re wondering how I got here” before a flashback explains how the character got there). It happens to be a comic that’s set up to look worse because of its unique position as the only inessential tie-in issue. Unless the Symbiote Intelligence being reverted to your regular Supreme Intelligence is a key element in the rest of the event, this is an issue that was referenced numerous times and had a plot that skirts around the edges of the event.

Which, normally, is fine. That’s what tie-in issues of mostly unrelated ongoing series are meant to be. Honest efforts by the creative team to find a hook that allows their book to tell a story that doesn’t seem like a complete departure from what the series is normally but also factors into the larger event enough to feel like it’s part of the bigger picture. That’s precisely what Black Cat #14 does and does fairly well. It’s light, it’s entertaining, there’s character and charm, and it addresses one of the threats introduced earlier in Queen in Black – and, like I said, unless something comes of this issue, if you skipped it, you wouldn’t really miss anything. I imagine when Queen in Black is finished, we won’t be wondering what happened to every specific Symbiote we saw. There will probably be some general explanation of the defeat of Hela and her army that will cover all of that. So, Black Cat #14 looks fairly skippable.

Except it’s the only tie-in of its kind in a really small, contained event. If there were even two or three other comics like it, it wouldn’t seem so strange. As it is, it stands out as something of an anomaly. From a structural standpoint, it doesn’t fit and that bothers me. I’m struggling to think of an event like this that has one single issue that doesn’t fit in the same way. And I’m completely overthinking it, because the logic behind this issue is that series are usually free to jump in on the event fun and it just happened that this was the only one to do so outside of Al Ewing’s little bubble of titles. It’s a bit fitting because you can almost see Felicia finding herself in a situation where she’s out there, all by herself, and should be self-conscious but walks proudly. In that way, this issue is entirely appropriate in the larger Queen in Black event.

Next week, it’s back to the core series with issue four of Queen in Black and the third (and final) issue of Defenders of Light and Dark.

CBR Review: The Unexpected #1

I recently reviewed The Unexpected #1 for CBR and, in the process, wrote the following sentences: "Anthology books are a crapshoot, especially in comics. Short stories are so rarely published and creators so rarely geared towards even writing single-issue stories that an anthology featuring seven eight-page stories and one six-pager doesn’t inspire confidence. Nor is it surprising when the results are lackluster like they are in The Unexpected #1. Where it succeeds is as an art sampler for the likes of Dave Gibbons, Jill Thompson, Denys Cowan, Farel Dalrymple, and more talented artists. The Rafael Grampá cover sets the tone: good art is to be found in this comic."

You can read the rest HERE!

CBR Review: Air #8

I recently reviewed Air #8 for CBR and, in the process, wrote the following sentences: "Air #8 isn’t a bad comic. It’s simply another in a long line of comics that are just sort of there. Some events happen, characters seem to think they’re important, but none of that really comes across. Nor does much of a sense of who these people are or why they do what they’re doing. Granted, there is a sense that Blythe isn’t 100% certain as to what’s going on, so that helps, but she comes across here as such a cipher that it’s hard to tell."

You can read the rest HERE!

Book of the Week 10: Air #7

[Sometimes, a book that I don't review for CBR warrants its own discussion beyond a couple of barely strung-together sentences. Sometimes, a comic costs $1 and, therefore, gets purchased by me. Sometimes, today is sometimes. (And, sometimes, I'm very, very lame.)] So, Vertigo is offering new ongoing series' first issues at $1 (USD) and they've even been kind enough to extend that to Air #7. Me being me, I figured I'd give any and all $1 Vertigo books a look, mostly because I'm usually tempted to give any and all Vertigo books a look, so offering them at 1/3 the price really gives me no excuse.

I'd read mixed things regarding Air. Some praised it, others called it mediocre, few outright damned it. The worst comments were usually along the lines of "interesting, but not well executed," which, honestly, is the sort of comment that will make me pick up a book. It's no secret that I love works with ambition even that ambtion leads to horrible failure. Fuck it, I support ambition, because even if it only truly succeeds 1 time out of 50, it's worth it--and much better than supporting safe, spineless works that succeed because the bar is set so low that a blind monkey scripting and a deformed, stillborn tadpole drawing could still leap over it with kilometres to spare. But, I didn't pick up Air because of intuition. It didn't call to me. I know, that makes little to no sense, but a big part of what I decide to buy is based on what "feels" right. Why did I pick up Young Liars #1, but not Air #1? I honestly can't say, beyond I had a feeling that Young Liars would be my sort of thing and Air wouldn't. It's not any more or less complicated than that. And, you know what, my intuition is rarely wrong. I am damn good at walking into a comic, book or music store, browsing, and buying things sight unread/listened, and they turn out to be awesome. Sometimes, it's the description, sometimes it's the cover, sometimes it's the title... there's no logic or reason behind it, but it works for me. (And, obviously, it works for me, so I'm not suggesting anyone else adopt my odd methods. Even I don't really want to use my odd methods, but I sort of have to.)

Air #7 is a puzzler as I'm not sure it proved my instincts wrong. But I'm also not sure it didn't.

Before getting into that, I want to commend Vertigo and G. Willow Wilson on the way this issue is presented: the price in large print on the cover, a page of quotes from various sources praising the book and, then, an introduction from Wilson that recaps the first six issues in an interesting, non-recap manner. While I'm all in favour of direct recaps with headshots and character bios, I also never read those, because they're fucking awful, so good on Wilson for trying to make the recap interesting and more like an introduction you would find in a trade paperback or book.

The actual comic itself leaves me questioning the wisdom, while also not. In many ways, this is completely new reader friendly, mostly in relating to plot. I followed the plot perfectly fine: Blythe is in Zayn and lives through his life starting at ten, both aware of her situation and unable to deviate from what happened, slowly forgetting that she's not really him... until we reach a recent event involving Zayn and herself, and she snaps out it. Zayn's life is of a Saudi sent to the US for schooling and what happens there. It's an intriguing story, one that's not entirely original but still got me interested in the character and, as things progressed, the world he lives in. So, plot-wise, things are solid.

Where it fails is emotionally: the climax of the issue, at the end, as we see Zayn's perspective on the recent event with Blythe, giving her insight into what he was thinking, it's obvious that this scene would work if I'd read the first six issues. As it is, it reads like an in joke between a couple where you can tell that what's being said has meaning, but you just don't get it. You could ask about it, but you don't really want to. I know that this explicit lack of meaning is meant to make me want to read the first six issues and then keep on reading the book, but it doesn't quite.

I've been thinking about this on and off since reading the issue yesterday, and I'm sure I'll keep on thinking about it right up until seeing issue eight on the stands next month, but I'm honestly not sure if I'll keep reading Air. I can see how some would love this. I can see how it's meant to be more ambitious and interesting, but can't really express those ideas fully yet. The book has potential--and I really like MK Perker's art, but... I don't know.

But, I am closer to buying this series than I was on Tuesday and that's an improvement.