I have too many of these stickers lol. I lived in Ottawa for the majority of my life :)

For Marvel I recommend checking out Hickman's X-Men series, you can start the story arch by reading House of x/ Powers of X. If you enjoy reading that you can pickup X-Men by Jonathan Hickman Omnibus. Its follows House of X/ Powers of X. (My order just arrived). Spider-Man: Life Story would be my follow up recommendation, it follows Peter's life throughout multiple decades. Its really easy to read and has great artwork inside.

For DC I recommend Batman Year one, its a great place to start reading Batman. To follow-up I recommend Batman The Long Halloween. I just finished its sequel Dark Victory which introduces Dick Grayson. Both are great detective reads!

More:
Watchman, V for Vendetta, Dark Knight, Kingdom Come

​

Let me know what comic you end up reading :)

inhales deeply and cracks fingers

Right, well it's worth mentioning that if you're not going to read everything, you're not going to understand everything, especially if you're new to comics. The less you read, less will make sense to you, naturally.

That said, if you're jumping on with Trial of Magneto, you'll want to start with House of X/Powers of X - this is the 12 issue miniseries that establishes the current status quo for the X-Men. You'll then definitely want to read #10 of X-Factor, as the conclusion of this book leads directly into the events of Trial of Magneto.

X-Factor #10 is an issue that took part during the Hellfire Gala event, and so to give you context for that issue and for the X-Men currently (HoX/PoX was released 2 years ago, a lot has happened since then), you should also read the Hellfire Gala "red issues" (the issues of the event in which the important stuff happens). The Hellfire Gala red issues are as follows (in reading order):

Marauders #21

X-Men #21

Planet-Size X-Men

S.W.O.R.D. #6

If we were talking absolute essentials, I'd say House of X/Powers of X, the Hellfire Gala red issues and X-Factor #10 would give you the bare minimum needed to understand what's going on in Trial of Magneto.

As you are brand new to comics, I'm going to give you some more recommendations that'll help you better understand what's going on in current continuity.

After reading HoX/PoX, you should read X-Men. This is the main title of the new era and it runs for 20 issues, and then concludes with #21, one of the Hellfire Gala red issues. In this series, you're going to get the main plot of the current era.

About halfway through X-Men, the 22 issue crossover event X of Swords happens. X of Swords includes (in reading order):

X of Swords: Creation

X-Factor #4

Wolverine #6

X-Force #13

Marauders #13

Hellions #5

New Mutants #13

Cable #5

Excalibur #13

X-Men #13

X of Swords: Stasis

X-Men #14

Marauders #14

Marauders #15

Excalibur #14

Wolverine #7

X-Force #14

Hellions #6

Cable #6

Excalibur #15

X-Men #15

X of Swords: Destruction

Now, obviously tracking down each individual issue would be a bit of a nightmare. Fortunately, there are both paperback and hardback collections of X of Swords available. There is also an X of Swords Handbook available, which is basically just an issue full of background information on the major players of the event - this will be particularly useful for a new reader. Some pretty big things happen during this event, with consequences that become integral to the plot of the books that follow, particularly the Hellfire Gala red issues.

The two books that set up the plot of X of Swords are X-Men and Excalibur. As you can see from the X of Swords reading order, both X-Men and Excalibur are at #13 during X of Swords. So, as well as reading X-Men, I'd recommend you read the first 12 issues of Excalibur before X of Swords.

Finally, because X-Factor #10 leads directly into Trial of Magneto, I recommend that you read the rest of X-Factor, so you understand what's going on in that issue, and by extension, Trial of Magneto. As you can see, X-Factor is at #4 during X of Swords, so you should read the first 3 issues of X-Factor before X of Swords.

So, to clarify, here is my recommended list, in reading order, for a brand new comics reader who wants to understand what's going on in Trial of Magneto #1

House of X/Powers of X

X-Men #1-12

Excalibur #1-12

X-Factor #1-3

X of Swords Handbook

X of Swords

X-Men #16-20

X-Factor #5-9

Hellfire Gala red issues

X-Factor #10

Buying the books

Now, getting hold of all of this, obviously, is going to cost money, and picking up all the individual issues isn't a practical approach. So, your options are:

House of X/Powers of X

Buy House of X/Powers of X paperback

or

Buy House of X/Powers of X hardback

X-Men #1-20

Buy X-Men (paperback) volumes 1, 2 and 3 (released August 31 2021)

or

Buy the X-Men Omnibus (released December 7th 2021, also includes X-Men #21 plus the Giant-Size oneshots Hickman wrote, which aren't essential, but are great and worth adding to your reading list)

Excalibur #1-12

Buy Excalibur (paperback) volumes 1 and 2

or

Buy Excalibur (hardback) volume 1

X-Factor #1-10

Buy X-Factor (paperback) volumes 1 and 2 (released September 23rd 2021)

X of Swords

The Handbook might be available at your local comic book shop, otherwise the best place to find it is eBay

Buy X of Swords hardback

or

Buy X of Swords (paperback) volumes 1 and 2

or

Buy X of Swords (paperback) complete collection (released January 11th 2022)

Hellfire Gala

Buy the red issues (Marauders #21, X-Men #21, Planet-Size X-Men and S.W.O.R.D. #6) individually - there's a good chance these should still be available at your local comic shop, as they were released in the last couple months

or

Buy Hellfire Gala red issues collection (paperback) (released November 9th 2021)

or

Buy Hellfire Gala Red Carpet Edition (released October 12th 2021)

The Digital Alternative

If you have a tablet, I would strongly recommend you get a Marvel Unlimited account. It costs less monthly than a Netflix subscription and it gives you access to thousands of Marvel comics. It is, theoretically, a library of Marvel's entire back catalogue. There are a few gaps here and there as they are still uploading some of the older comics, and when it comes to current stuff, the rule is that new books hit Marvel Unlimited three months after their physical release.

Everything I've listed here will be available on Marvel Unlimited. There are no gaps (as far as I'm aware) in the Krakoa era X-Men comics. The only books that you won't be able to read are some of the newer issues, such as the Hellfire Gala stuff, as it hasn't been 3 months since their physical release yet. However, by the time you've read the rest of the books I've recommended, they'll have arrived on MU.

Next

Whether you only read the absolute essentials or you follow my recommended reading order, you'll want to pick up the rest of Trial of Magneto (obviously) - it's a five issue mini-series, so there's four more issues to come.

You'll also want to pick up #1 and #2 of the relaunched X-Men, written by Gerry Duggan, which again should be available at your local comic book shop due to the recency of release. #3 is released on September 22nd 2021 and each subsequent issue is released on a monthly basis.

X:Men: The Onslaught Revelation is a oneshot, released on September 22nd 2021, which will definitely make a pretty big impact on future stories in Krakoa. Similarly to the way in which Excalibur sets up X of Swords and X-Factor sets up Trial of Magneto, Way of X sets up Onslaught Revelation.

So, if you're going to read Onslaught Revelation, you should read Way of X (you should read it regardless, it's absolutely amazing). Way of X is a five issue mini-series, and the last issue was just released last week, so again you might be able to pick up all five issues at your local comic book shop, or you can pick up the complete collection (paperback, released November 16th 2021).

Finally, we have Inferno. Inferno is a four issue mini-series, the direct sequel to House of X/Powers of X, and Jonathan Hickman's swansong on the X-Men for the foreseeable future. You will definitely want to pick this up, #1 is released on September 29th 2021.

Good luck.

I hope you survive the experience.

doo doo doo-doo doooooo doo dooo, doooo-doo

GONG

It's available to order on Amazon here in the uk.