A year ago, Nick Fury selected a team of costumed-heroes and sent them on a secret mission to Latveria. The mission was so secret, not even they even remember it. But the team’s actions are coming back to bite them and Fury’s about to face the consequences of from both sides…
Now expecting a baby with Luke Cage, former-private eye Jessica jones has recently found herself in a new role, working with Ben Urich of the Daily Bugle to focus on stories about the costumed community.
Crossover: The main story runs through Secret War, with a tie-in story running alongside in the Pulse; there was also a one-shot featuring character profiles.
Must Reads: Story arcs marked with a ✔are must-read stories.
Spoilers: The issue descriptions and fallout section contain spoilers, so be warned!
Want to keep it simple? Here’s the chronological reading order without story descriptions, or spoilers:
- ✔ Secret War #1-3
- The Pulse #6
- ✔ Secret War #4-5
- The Pulse #7-9
- Secret War: From the Files of Nick Fury #1
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| Must Reads | Title, Issue & Synopsis |
| ✔ | Secret War #1 (pp.1-3) An assassin breaks into the home of Luke Cage and Jessica Jones, causing a huge explosion… 1st appearance: Lucia von Bardas |
| The Pulse #6 (pp.3-8) Despite having unbreakable skin, Luke is rushed to hospital after taking the brunt of the blast from his mystery attacker to protect Jessica and their unborn baby. Luke is in a coma. | |
| ✔ | Secret War #1 (pp.4-5) Aboard the SHIELD Helicarrier, Nick Fury hears the report about Luke’s condition. |
| ✔ | Secret War #1 (pp.6-7) / The Pulse #6 (pp.9-10) Jessica Jones becomes suspicious when Nick Fury comes to visit Luke at the hospital… |
| ✔ | Secret War #1 (pp.8-24) Fury recalls events from a year earlier when SHIELD discovered most technology-based costumed criminals were being funded by the new Latverian Prime Minister, Lucia von Bardas. Despite this altering the status of these criminals from petty crooks to internationally-funded terrorists, the President ordered Fury not to get involved. Now, he’s regretting his past actions as something clearly happened, back then… 1st appearance: Jack O’Lantern/’Jason Macendale Jr’ (real name unrevealed) |
| ✔ | Secret War #2 (pp.1-19) One year rago, going against the President’s direct orders, Nick Fury recruited Luke Cage, the Black Widow, Captain America, Daredevil, Spider-Man and Wolverine for a secret mission: entering Latveria and shutting down Lucia von Bardas. They were joined by fresh young SHIELD agent Daisy Johnson, aka Quake – secretly the daughter of the super-villain Mister Hyde. 1st appearance: Quake/Daisy Johnson |
| ✔ | Secret War #2 (pp.20-21) / The Pulse #6 (pp.10-11) In the present, Captain America bursts into the hospital and punches out Nick Fury… |
| ✔ | Secret War #3 (pp.1-5) Spider-Man starts having flashbacks of the mission in Latveria… |
| ✔ | Secret War #3 (pp.6-7) / The Pulse #6 (p.12) Captain America warns Jessica to get out of the hospital and find somewhere safe. |
| The Pulse #6 (pp.13) Jessica Jones tries to call her lawyer, Matt Murdock, but only gets his answerphone. | |
| ✔ | Secret War #3 (p.8-19) Spider-Man catches up with Daredevil to ask if he’s having similar flashbacks. Returning to Matt’s apartment, they hear Jessica’s message. The two of them come under attack by Scorcher and a new Diamondback while making their way to the hospital. When their foes flee, Spidey and DD find Cap and Fury arguing at the hospital. Captain America remembers the ‘Secret War’… 1st appearance: Diamondback/Debbie Bertrand |
| The Pulse #6 (pp.14-18) Becoming increasingly paranoid, Jessica Jones becomes suspicious of everyone at the hospital. There’s an explosion at that rocks the entire hospital… |
| Must Reads | Title, Issue & Synopsis |
| ✔ | Secret Wars #3 (pp.20-22) The explosion is caused by the assembled Scorcher, Constrictor, Crossfire, Goldbug, Grim Reaper, Lady Octopus, Mentallo, Mister Fear, Scorpion, Shocker, Wizard and a brand-new Crimson Dynamo and Hobgoblin… 1st appearance: Crimson Dynamo, Hobgoblin |
| The Pulse #6 (pp.19-22) Jessica rushes back to Luke’s room and finds someone’s made off with him and his visiting friend, Danny Rand (aka, Iron Fist). | |
| ✔ | Secret War #4 At the Xavier Institute, Wolverine is attacked by technological assailants. In New York, Fury and the others lead the fight away from the hospital and out to the pier. With Boomerang. King Cobra, Trapster and a Spider-Slayer joining the villains, the heroes are massively outnumbered. The Fantastic Four show up to lend a hand, but the arrival of Lucia von Bardas swings things back in the villains’ favour. Von Bardas has rigged the villains’ tech to trigger a bomb when they’re all in one place. And now it’s about to go off… |
| The Pulse #7 Jessica seeks help from Ben Urich in her search for Luke Cage. When J Jonah Jameson refuses to allow Urich to get involved, Jessica angrily goes it alone. But the exhaustion leads to her passing out on the street where she’s found by Hyrda agents… | |
| The Pulse #8 Hydra offer Jessica a place alongside them. In exchange, they’ll help her find Luke Cage and pay her large sums of money. Jessica tells the agents where they can stick their cash. SHIELD agent Clay Quartermain bursts in to Hydra’s base with a squad of agents, praising Jessica’s actions. | |
| ✔ | Secret War #5 Six hours after the clash with the tech-villains, the new Director of SHIELD Maria Hill questions Quake over what happened at the hospital. Quake joined the fight and used her seismic powers to create a surge in Lucia von Bardas’ chest – the source of her powers – killing her and breaking the circuit. When the X-Men arrived, Nick Fury reluctantly revealed how he’d taken the squad of heroes to Latveria a year earlier to bring Castle Doom down on von Bardas’ head as a warning. Enraged, Wolverine gutted Fury who’s revealed to be a Life Model Decoy (LMD) operated from afar by the real Fury. Through what’s left of the LMD, Fury tells the gathered heroes that they’ll never see him again as he’s going underground. Now Director Hill tells Quake she’s off assignment, unware she plans to continue to act as an agent for Fury in secret. The President advises Hill to take a ‘zero tolerance’ stance on the costumed community. |
| The Pulse #9 (pp.1-8) As she’s no closer to finding Luke Cage, she turns to Wolverine for help. | |
| The Pulse #9 (pp.9-10) / The Pulse #6 (pp.1-2) Wolverine is clearly suffering due to Nick Fury’s recent actions. | |
| The Pulse #9 Realising she’s being played by a rogue SHIELD agent and was meant to provoke Wolverine into hunting and killing Nick Fury, Jessica Jones returns to the Daily Bugle. Follwoing another confrontation with J Jonah Jameson, she quits her job. Ben Urich leads Jessica to the secret medical facility run by Night Nurse where she’s reunited with Luke. Jessica gets a chance to tell Nick Fury’s hologram to go screw himself. The Bugle decide not to break the story of the ‘Secret War’ to avoid causing an actual war. | |
| Secret War: From The Files of Nick Fury #1 SHIELD’s profiles on the heroes and villains engaged in the ‘secret war’ along wth interviews conducted by SHIELD agents looking into what really happened. |
| Must Reads | Issue & Fallout | Event/ Crossover |
| ✔ | New Avengers #1-6 (2005) Luke Cage (having fully recovered), Captain America, Spider-Man and Wolverine work together again, becoming members of a new line-up of the Avengers; many of the captured villains escape the Raft prison for super-human criminals; Maria Hill openly declares her dislike of the Avengers. | BREAKOUT |
| GLX-Mas Special #1 (2006) Killer Shrike is revealed to have survived. | ||
| Fantastic Four Special #1 (2005) Doctor Doom reclaims Latveria. | ||
| ✔ | New Avengers #18 (2006) Daisy Johnson returns, assisting both SHIELD and the Avengers. | DECIMATION |
| Punisher War Journal #4 (2007) Grizzly returns to a life of crime. | ||
| ✔ | Civil War #7 (2007) Tony Stark replaces Maria Hill as Director of SHIELD. | CIVIL WAR |
| ✔ | Mighty Avengers #13 (2008) Nick Fury and Daisy Johnson form a new strike force made up of young super-humans. Secret Invasion #3 (2008) Nick Fury emerges from the underground with his new Commandos (who go on to becomes the Secret Warriors). | SECRET INVASION |
| Secret Invasion #8 (2009) SHIELD is rebranded as HAMMER with Norman Osborn as Director. | SECRET INVASION | |
| Siege #4 (2010) Steve Rogers (the former Captain America) becomes Director of SHIELD. | SIEGE | |
| ✔ | Battle Scars #2 (2012) Daisy Johnson becomes Director of SHIELD. | SHATTERED HEROES |
| ✔ | Winter Soldier #1-5 (2012) Lucia von Bardas returns, working with the Red Ghost in a plot to frame Doctor Doom. | |
| ✔ | Invincible Iron Man #6-10 (2017) Following Doom’s abdication from the Latverian throne, Lucia von Bardas tries to turn the country into a world power and is opposed by Sharon Carter and Ironheart. | |
| Invincible Iron Man #593 (2017) Lucia von Bardas is seen clashing with the Avengers. | MARVEL LEGACY | |
| Spider-Man #239-240 (2018) The Sinister Six sell a stolen Helicarrier to Lucia von Bardas. | MARVEL LEGACY |
| Collected Edition Title | Collects… |
| Secret War | Secret War #1-5 Secret War: From the Files of Nick Fury |
| The Pulse vol.2: Secret War | The Pulse #6-9 |
| Jessica Jones: The Pulse – The Complete Collection | The Pulse #1-14 New Avengers Annual #1 |
| Collected Edition Title | Includes… |
| Secret Wars: Battleworld Box Set | Secret War #1-5 Secret War: From the Files of Nick Fury |
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