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The Black Vortex (Reading Order)
Series · 8 books · 2015

Books in series

Guardians of the Galaxy & X-Men book cover
#1

Guardians of the Galaxy & X-Men

The Black Vortex Alpha #1

2015

The Black Vortex starts here! The Black Vortex, an ancient artifact imbued with immeasurable power, is now in the hands of Mr. Knife! With billions of lives potentially at stake, Peter Quill, the Legendary Star-Lord, is going to have to dust off his thieving gloves. But with Knife's Slaughter Squad protecting him, Peter's probably going to need some help.
All-New X-Men (2012-2015) #38 book cover
#4

All-New X-Men (2012-2015) #38

2015

BLACK VORTEX PART 4. With some of their members captured by the villainous Mr. Knife, the team must decipher the secrets of the Black Vortex. And quickly! But with the galaxy in chaos, they don't have too many options open to them. Maybe there's an old war-buddy Peter can call to help them out?
All-New X-Men (2012-2015) #39 book cover
#5

All-New X-Men (2012-2015) #39

2015

BLACK VORTEX PART 5 Storm formulates a plan as the heroes fail to penetrate Mr. Knife's Flying Fortress. Meanwhile, Beast and Kitty travel to Spartax to decipher the secrets of the Vortex book. And to make matters worse, Kitty and Peter's relationship takes a downward turn!
Guardians Team-Up #3 book cover
#6

Guardians Team-Up #3

2015

The Black Vortex continues to ravage the galaxy! When the Black Vortex strikes at the heart of the Kree Empire, Ronan the Accuser must join the battle with the Guardians! Will Ronan make the ultimate betrayal to save his Kree brothers?
Guardians of the Galaxy (2013-2015) #25 book cover
#7

Guardians of the Galaxy (2013-2015) #25

2015

BLACK VORTEX PART 7 Rocket and Magik in action! Beast defeated and broken! Gamora on the offensive! Ronan deposed! Star-Lord defiant! Nova gives chase! This issue surely has it all!
Nova #28 book cover
#8

Nova #28

2015

Black Vortex tie-in! Nova joins the Guardians of the Galaxy and the X-Men for a huge adventure. With the Black Vortex itself in his possession, Sam goes on the run for his life. Good thing they call him the human rocket!
Captain Marvel (2014-2015) #14 book cover
#11

Captain Marvel (2014-2015) #14

2015

The Black Vortex arrives! Captain Marvel gets pulled into the cosmic event of the year! But will the power of Vortex be too strong for Earth's Mightiest Hero? Especially when facing off against the cosmically-powered Iceman and Groot?
Guardians of the Galaxy & X-Men book cover
#1-13

Guardians of the Galaxy & X-Men

The Black Vortex

2015

The Black Vortex, an ancient artifact of immeasurable power, is now in Mr. Knife’s hands! With billions of lives at stake, Star-Lord must steal it back—with the help of both the Guardians and the X-Men! But as a schism forms between the heroes, Knife’s Slaughter Squad closes in! Beast and Kitty must decipher the Vortex Book as Ronan, Nova and the Brood get involved, and Spartax falls! The Vortex grants near-infinite power to Knife’s forces; to counter them, the heroes will have to submit to its power themselves! Will the X-Men and Guardians lose their humanity forever? Collecting: Guardians of the Galaxy & X-Men: The Black Vortex: Alpha, Omega; Guardians of the Galaxy 24-25; Legendary Star-Lord 9-11; All-New X-Men 38-39; Guardians Team-Up 3; Nova 28; Cyclops 12; & Captain Marvel 14

Authors

Kelly Sue DeConnick
Kelly Sue DeConnick
Author · 108 books

Kelly Sue DeConnick’s work spans stage, comics, film and television. Ms. DeConnick first came to prominence as a comics writer, where she is best known for reinventing the Carol Danvers as “Captain Marvel” at Marvel and for the Black Label standard-setting Wonder Woman Historia: The Amazons at DC. Her independent comics Bitch Planet and Pretty Deadly (both from Image Comics) have ranked as New York Times best-sellers and been honored with Eisner Awards, British Fantasy Awards and Hugo nominations. Ms. DeConnick’s screen work includes stints on Captain Marvel, a film that earned $1B for Disney worldwide, and 2023’s forthcoming The Marvels with Marvel Studios; in addition to having consulted on features for Skydance and ARRAY, and developed television for NBCUniversal, Legendary Entertainment and HBOMax. Her most recent stage work is the mythic spectacle AWAKENING, which opened at the Wynn Resort Las Vegas in November 2022. Mission-driven, Ms. DeConnick is also a founding partner at Good Trouble Productions, where she has helped to produce non-fiction and educational comics including the “Hidden Voices” and “Recognized” series for NY Public Schools and Congressman John Lewis’ Run, in partnership with Abrams Comics. In 2015, Ms. DeConnick founded the #VisibleWomen Project, whose mission is to help women and other marginalized genders find paid work in comics and its related industries. The project continues to this day and recently expanded in partnership with Dani Hedlund of Brink Literacy. Ms. DeConnick lives in Portland, OR with her husband, writer Matt Fraction, and their two children.

Brian Michael Bendis
Brian Michael Bendis
Author · 632 books

A comic book writer and erstwhile artist. He has won critical acclaim (including five Eisner Awards) and is one of the most successful writers working in mainstream comics. For over eight years Bendis’s books have consistently sat in the top five best sellers on the nationwide comic and graphic novel sales charts. Though he started as a writer and artist of independent noir fiction series, he shot to stardom as a writer of Marvel Comics' superhero books, particularly Ultimate Spider-Man. Bendis first entered the comic world with the "Jinx" line of crime comics in 1995. This line has spawned the graphic novels Goldfish, Fire, Jinx, Torso (with Marc Andreyko), and Total Sell Out. Bendis is writing the film version of Jinx for Universal Pictures with Oscar-winner Charlize Theron attached to star and produce. Bendis’s other projects include the Harvey, Eisner, and Eagle Award-nominated Powers (with Michael Avon Oeming) originally from Image Comics, now published by Marvel's new creator-owned imprint Icon Comics, and the Hollywood tell-all Fortune and Glory from Oni Press, both of which received an "A" from Entertainment Weekly. Bendis is one of the premiere architects of Marvel's "Ultimate" line: comics specifically created for the new generation of comic readers. He has written every issue of Ultimate Spider-Man since its best-selling launch, and has also written for Ultimate Fantastic Four and Ultimate X-Men, as well as every issue of Ultimate Marvel Team-Up, Ultimate Origin and Ultimate Six. Brian is currently helming a renaissance for Marvel’s AVENGERS franchise by writing both New Avengers and Mighty Avengers along with the successful ‘event’ projects House Of M, Secret War, and this summer’s Secret Invasion. He has also previously done work on Daredevil, Alias, and The Pulse.

John Layman
John Layman
Author · 95 books
John Steele Layman is an American comic book writer and letterer. Layman is most known for writing Chew, published by Image Comics.
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The Black Vortex (Reading Order)