9 Comics You Need to Read Before ‘Avengers: Endgame’

No matter how big the movies of the Marvel Cinematic Universe are, each one of them continues to pull inspiration from the ever-expanding Marvel source material it’s based on. Unlike Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame isn’t necessarily based on a direct adaptation of comics per se; it will instead likely draw at least some inspiration from various different titles from the history of Marvel Comics.

Leading up to the film, we wanted to compile a group of comics the movie could pull inspiration from. It should be noted that the Russo Brothers previously said they don’t think there’s an exact comic that the movie is based on, so the following comics are best guesses based on what we’ve seen in Infinity War and the film’s marketing.

Keep scrolling to see some of the comics you should read before heading to the theater later this week!

Avengers: Endgame is due out April 26th.

Note: This is not a sponsored post, but if you purchase one of the awesome products featured above, we may earn a small commission from the retailer. Thank you for your support.

Welcome to Earth’s Mightiest Week! From April 22nd to April 26th, ComicBook.com is celebrating the culmination of the Marvel Cinematic Universe so far with a series of exclusive articles, lists, arguments, and more. If you’d like to check out some of our other offerings from this week, you can click the image above.

The Infinity Gauntlet

While the majority of Infinity Gauntlet inspiration has already been used up in Avengers: Infinity War, this is still the single most important comic run you can read prior to Endgame. While they likely won’t adapt the Infinity Gauntlet ending, it’s still worthwhile to know what goes on with Thanos and Nebula in a situation that could find its way to the screen one way or another. Without spoiling too much, Thanos eventually ends up teaming up with the heroes in a roundabout way to finally bring calm to the universe.

You can read The Infinity Gauntlet here.

Warlock and the Infinity Watch

No, this comic isn’t suggested reading because we think that Adam Warlock will be making his on-screen debut in Avengers: Endgame. Rather, there’s a great chance that should the Infinity Stones survive the movie, the heroes of the Marvel Cinematic Universe will band together to form an Infinity Watch to look over the stones to make sure they don’t get used for harm once again. The Infinity Watch is a little too on-the-nose for a live-action blockbuster, so the group could possibly go after something like…

You can read the first volume of Warlock and the Infinity Watch here.

New Avengers: Illuminati

As it stands now, only two — three if you count ABC’s Inhumans as a part of the mix — of the six members of Marvel’s version of the Illuminati actually exist in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. With a similar setup to the Infinity Watch, the Illuminati is a more modern take that would likely translate to live-action much better than its ’90s counterpart. Again, should the Infinity Stones survive, it’d be very surprising if Marvel Studios didn’t come up with a stone-watching group of some sort.

You can read New Avengers: Illuminati here.

Avengers: Forever

A maxi-series involving mind-bending time-travel, Avengers: Forever is one of the most recognizable Avengers tales featuring time travel. Though it features characters who likely won’t appear on screen like Kang and Immortus, the plot is something that could certainly unfold. Essentially, Rick Jones — another character we have yet to see — is able to pluck different Avengers from different points in time to help take down the impending threat. With time travel something that’s been speculated on ever since the infamous snap, the story arc of Avengers: Forever would seem like the film’s most likely inspiration.

You can read Avengers: Forever here.

The Gatherer’s Saga

The Gatherer’s Saga is similar to Avengers: Forever in the sense that it involves various Avengers from different timelines and the like. This story, in particular, makes our list because it’s mysteriously being reprinted later this month alongside titles of characters and plot points directly involved with Avengers: Endgame. Sure, the “True Believers” reprint could be nothing more than a coincidence, but with an outfit like Marvel Studios, one can never be too sure.

One of the more expansive storylines on this list, “The Gatherer’s Saga” takes place from The Avengers (vol. 1) #343 to #375.

Annihilation

Once upon a time, the title for the fourth Avengers film was said to have been Annihilation. Even though that essentially boiled down to an overzealous fan blog, Annihilation a one major comics event that the studio likely has on its radar at some point. Dealing with Annihilus and his massive Negative Zone swarm, Avengers: Endgame could be the right movie to launch a story arc drawing inspiration from this cosmic tale, especially with the universe in such a devastatied form.

You can read the first volume of Annihilation here.

New Avengers: Ronin

When it comes to Ronin, there’s not entirely all too much backstory you’ll need to get yourself caught up on. First showing up as the new superhero alter ego of Maya Lopez (Echo), she eventually passes down the role and uniform to Clint Barton. The comic storyline is pretty different from what we’re bound to see on screen, but then again, there’s not too much Ronin mythos you’ll need to get caught up on beforehand.

Maya’s version of Ronin debuts earlier in New Avengers (2005), and the Barton stories are mostly kept to New Avengers #27 to #39.

Vision Quest

Once upon a time, the various secret police organizations of the world determined Vision too large of a risk for the world, banding together to disable the android. As fate would have it, Vision returned in a desaturated, black-and-white form to prove he’s just as much a hero as the rest of the Marvel characters. They won’t be adapting this storyline per se, but the movies did introduce the black-and-white version of Vision. If you’ve watched Avengers: Infinity War once or twice by now, you’ll notice that the android lost all color the second Thanos plucked the Mind Stone from his head. Since Shuri was already in the process of separating him from the Mind Stone, perhaps the Avengers are able to restore some of his consciousness so that he can fight alongside them, even if he isn’t his typical green-and-scarlet colors.

You can read Vision Quest here.

Fallen Son: The Death of Captain America

And finally, the one title we didn’t want to include but need to out of necessity. Avengers: Endgame is likely the end of the road for at least one of the primary Avengers, with many fans thinking it will be Captain America (Chris Evans) biting the dust. Because of the speculation, we’ve decided to include Fallen Son in your required Avengers: Endgame reading. It deals with Cap’s death during the fall out of the first Civil War, and though his death will certainly be changed on-screen, we’ll still likely see how the world is impacted without the superhero moral compass.

You can read Fallen Son here.