The founding set signed Jason Latour and Robbi Rodriguez , started on February 25, 2015 and continued through two revivals, remains unsurpassed. Next comes the series of Seanan McGuire and Bengal , launched on October 24, 2018, which moves the character. Recent mini-series can be read separately, without obligation.
A writing difficulty runs through this entire corpus: this character comes from elsewhere. It belongs to a parallel universe, and each creative team must decide what to do with this discrepancy — exploit it, forget it, or make it painful.
Series are judged by this choice, much more than by their plots.
First of all: the problem of three numbers 1
Clarification is necessary from the outset, otherwise you will buy at random.
The main series has been revived twice in less than two years. A first issue appears on February 25, 2015 , a second October 14, 2015 , a third 1erFebruary 2017.
These three launches do not correspond to different teams or narrative breaks. These are essentially editorial adjustments linked to the structure of the catalog of the time. The story continues from one set to another.
Practical consequence:don't try to distinguish three runs where there is only one. In bound volumes, continuity restores itself and the problem disappears. This is the strongest argument in favor of the collections on this issue.
The founding run: accepting the gap
The series due to Jason Latour to the text and Robbi Rodriguez on the boards, started at the beginning of 2015, constitutes the heart of the corpus and its best success.
Her solution to the gap problem is the most interesting: she treats it not as a handicap but as a point of view. The character evolves in his own universe, where everything is slightly shifted from what the reader knows - the same figures occupy other places, the same events had other outcomes.
This device produces a permanent pleasure of recognition, and it allows freedoms that an established continuity would prohibit.
Three qualities distinguish this run.
Rodriguez's drawing. Nervous, distorted, very colorful, the opposite of dominant realism. It gives the character an immediately recognizable graphic identity, and it carries a large part of the success.
The musical register. The character plays in a band, and the series adopts the rhythm and culture of this universe. It's unusual in the genre, and it helps reach an audience who didn't read comics.
The relationship with the father. The story maintains a family anchor that the costume intrigues never completely cover. This is what prevents it from being just an exercise in style.
This is the entry point that I recommend, without hesitation.
The 2018 series: moving the character
Launched on October 24, 2018 , written by Seanan McGuire and drawn by Bengal, this series completely changes approach.
The character leaves his universe to evolve in that of the reader, which completely reverses the previous system. The gap is no longer a fun decoration: it becomes a situation of exile, with all that this implies in terms of isolation and adaptation.
This proposal is darker and more intimate. It explores what it means to live in a world where we have familiar landmarks but no legitimate place.
Bengal's drawing, supple and luminous, fortunately tempers this darkness. It prevents the series from falling into complacency.
To read after the founding run, of which it extends and returns the acquired knowledge. Taken in isolation, it loses most of its strength.
Recent mini-series
Three short publications complete the picture since 2022, with different ambitions.
Gwenverse , launched on March 9, 2022 by Tim Seeley with David Nakayama on the covers, presents the character through multiple alternative versions. It is a playful exercise, assumed as such, which will please those who like formal variations and will leave anyone looking for a story cold.
Shadow Clones , started on 1erMarch 2023 under the pen of Emily Kim, adopts a more classic register and can be read without prerequisites.
Smash , launched on December 13, 2023 by Melissa Flores, returns to the musical dimension of the character — that is to say, to what made the founding run original.
None of these three are essential. They are suitable for an already convinced reader who wants to prolong, not for someone who is discovering.
What the character owes to his universe
An observation which sheds light on the hierarchy between these series.
The parallel universe in which she evolves goes well beyond the setting: it functions like a writing device. It authorizes definitive deaths, relationships impossible elsewhere, variations on known figures - without any of this engaging the main continuity.
This freedom explains the liveliness of the founding run. It also explains why the stories that take her out of it lose something: outside her world, the character once again becomes a heroine among others, subject to the same constraints as everyone else.
For the reader, this suggests a simple selection rule:favor publications that take place at home. These are the ones where the authors have the margin that made the character successful.
The 2018 series constitutes the exception which confirms the rule: it assumes the tearing away instead of undergoing it, and makes it its subject.
Why the founding run remains unsurpassed
An observation that explains the hierarchy above.
This character was originally designed for a one-time appearance in an accompanying miniseries. Nothing was planned beyond that. Its regular series was born out of public demand, not an editorial project.
This origin produced a rare freedom. The authors of the founding run were working on a character with no past, no obligations of continuity, in a universe that they were inventing as they went along. They could afford anything.
The following teams inherited a character already defined, with precise expectations and an established aesthetic. Their margin was necessarily narrower.
This is a pattern that we often find: the best period of a recent character is generally at the beginning, before the constraints accumulate. The opposite of the case of old figures, whose peaks arrive decades after their creation.
This observation also applies as a reading guide for the future: each time a publication distances the character from their world, ask yourself what it offers in exchange. When the answer exists, like in 2018, the series is worth the detour. When she is missing, we get an interchangeable heroine in a setting that does not belong to her.
What is better not to do
Three blunders often recur among those who approach this corpus.
Start with a recent mini-series. They assume we know the essentials and explain nothing. We come away without understanding what attracted so many readers.
Look for the character in major events. She appears there regularly, but her interest lies precisely in her own universe and her particular tone – two things that a collective narrative erases.
Buy the booklets rather than the collections. On a corpus fragmented by three revivals, the linked volumes reestablish a continuity that the numbering has blurred. They cost less and read better.
A fourth pitfall deserves to be noted:expect the founding run to explain its universe. He never does it completely, and that's deliberate. The differences with the usual universe are discovered throughout the pages, without prior explanation. A reader looking for a map of the territory will remain frustrated; those who agree to let themselves be surprised will find most of the pleasure there.
A fifth point, for readers coming from animation: the animated versions take the silhouette and tone of the founding run, but freely rearrange the plots. You will find the atmosphere, rarely the exact events.
A journey in three stages
The most satisfactory progression follows the evolution of the system.
The founding run, in volumes, in its entirety. The shift is a game, the universe a land of discovery, the tone light despite real issues.
The 2018 series, which turns this device upside down and makes it painful. The effect only works if you have read the above.
A recent mini-series, your choice, according to your taste: the formal variation, the classic story, or the return to the musical register.
Allow a few weeks for the whole thing. The corpus is short, and this is one of its attractions: you can know it completely without spending a year on it.
Pricing questions are handled in ourrating analysis; identification of prints in ourvariation guide.
Finally, note that this corpus is a quick read. A handful of volumes are enough to cover the essentials, and the character is recent enough that no period has become impractical. This is a real advantage for anyone who wants to discover a figure without spending months on it.
A word on availability
Practical point which simplifies things a lot: this entire corpus exists in volumes, widely distributed and inexpensive.
This is an advantage specific to recent creations. On a character that appeared in 2014, no period is out of print, no collection cannot be found, and the prices of the volumes remain aligned with those of new books.
The consequence is clear:nothing justifies buying booklets to read this corpus. Reserve them for the collection, where they also pose identification questions that the volumes avoid entirely.
Let us add that the fragmentation into three numberings makes the fascicles particularly difficult to order. The bound volumes solve this problem themselves, which constitutes an additional argument.
The most asked questions
By the founding ensemble due to Jason Latour and Robbi Rodriguez, started on February 25, 2015. Its solution to the problem of discrepancy is the richest: the parallel universe is not a handicap but a point of view, where the same figures occupy other places. Rodriguez's drawing and the musical register do the rest.
Because the main series was relaunched twice — on October 14, 2015 and then on February 1, 2017 — for reasons of editorial adjustment, without a change of team or narrative break. The story continues from one set to the next. In bound volumes, continuity restores itself and the problem disappears.
A lot, provided you approach it at the right time. Written by Seanan McGuire and drawn by Bengal, it takes the character out of his world and places him in that of the reader: the shift becomes a situation of exile rather than an amusing setting. Darker, more intimate — but it loses most of its power if you haven't read the above.
None. Gwenverse (March 9, 2022, Tim Seeley) presents the character in alternative versions, a fun exercise. Shadow Clones (March 1, 2023, Emily Kim) adopts a classic register. Smash (December 13, 2023, Melissa Flores) returns to the musical dimension. They are suitable for a reader who is already convinced, not for someone who is discovering.
A few weeks are enough. A handful of volumes cover the essentials, and the character is recent enough that no period has become impractical or unobtainable. This is a real advantage for anyone who wants to discover a figure without committing months of reading.
Because the character was designed for a one-time appearance: his series was born from public demand, not from an editorial project. The authors therefore worked without a past, without obligations of continuity, in a universe that they invented. The following teams inherited an already defined character, with a necessarily narrower margin.
Considerable freedom of writing: definitive deaths, relationships impossible elsewhere, variations on known figures — without compromising the main continuity. This explains the liveliness of the founding run, and why the stories that come out of it lose something. So favor publications that take place at home.
Not to discover it. She appears there regularly, but her interest lies in her own universe and her particular tone – two things that a collective narrative systematically erases. Stick to the titles that belong to it, and prefer the collections: on a corpus fragmented by three revivals, they reestablish a continuity that the numbering has blurred.
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