Secret Wars: Guidance on a Reading Order?

[Taral-DLOS]

I'm really enjoying Secret Wars, and have been reading the main series and many of the tie-ins.

I have a structure with my reading of new comics, that I read everything I buy the week it's out, and then a second time in full arcs before I file them away (in ways that I can retrieve them for more reading later). This is easy with most comics (buy Amazing X-Men, read 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and then 1-5). But it's a bit more complicated with events, because I want that second read to be in chronological order.

So I'm hoping to come up with a reading order for Secret Wars. One that is fairly comprehensive, but also fairly accessible.

I haven't read everything, but among everyone around we all have read everything a few times over. I would therefore be grateful if someone could provide additional insight into chronology that I've missed. I will put my tentative chronology below, and will integrate new comments as people post them.

Note: I'm not really breaking this up issue by issue (except for the main series), nor am I breaking up individual stories in the anthology titles. If people do have more precise timing for those, let me know and we'll re-arrange as needed.

BASIC TIMELINE:
Here's a very quick, rough timeline that I think we can get behind (for those who want to keep things fairly simple):
-Time Runs Out
-Secret Wars 0-1
-All Last Days stories
-Secret Wars 2
-All Warzones stories
-Secret Wars 3-4
-All Battleworld stories
-Secret Wars 5-9

MORE COMPREHENSIVE TIMELINE:

Here's the much more detailed one, for which I would appreciate help refining it. In general, as they are largely independent of the main story, I've put Warzones together after our first glimpse of Battleworld in Secret Wars 2. I've put whatever timeline indicators I can find in the appropriate line. There are some spoilers, especially vis-a-vis character deaths.

-Avengers World 17-21 (Before Time Runs Out)
-Avengers 35-44 and New Avengers 24-33 (essentially alternating) (Time Runs Out)
-Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider-Man 10-12 (essentially Ultimate Last Days; unrelated story that ends with incursion)
-Captain America and the Mighty Avengers 8 (Last Days; I understand this also starts before the incursion)
-Spider-Woman 10 (Last Days; I understand this also starts before the incursion)
-Black Widow 19-20 (Last Days; I understand this also starts before the incursion)
-Secret Wars 0
-Secret Wars 1
-Loki: Agent of Asgard 14-16 (Last Days)
-Captain America and the Mighty Avengers 9 (Last Days)
-Ms. Marvel 16-19 (Last Days)
-Magneto 18-21 (Last Days)
-Punisher 19-20 (Last Days)
-Silk 7 (Last Days)
-Deadpool 45 (Last Days, but not branded as such)
-Last Days: Ant-Man one-shot (Last Days)
-Silver Surfer 13-15 (Last Days; takes place after the incursion)
-Loki: Agent of Asgard 17 (Last Days; takes place after the incursion)
-Secret Wars 2 (Battleworld is a thing now)
-Secret Wars Journal 1-5 (Battleworld title; anthology stories scattered around the timeline, before our main story - issue 1 must be before Siege, as Kate Bishop ends up on the Shield)
-Secret Wars: Battleworld 1-4 (Battleworld title; anthology stories scattered around the timeline, before our main story)
-A-Force 1-5 (Warzone; must take before Siege, as America Chavez ends up on the Shield)
-Master of Kung Fu 1-4 (Battleworld; not sure if there are any chronology indicators)
-Inferno 1-5 (Warzone; must take place after SW2, as Maddie is deposed as Baron, but before SW6, as Maddie is Baron once more)
-X-Tinction Agenda 1-4 (Warzone)
-Infinity Gauntlet 1-5 (Warzone)
-X-Men '92 Infinite Comic 1-8 (Warzone)
-E is for Extinction 1-4 (Warzone)
-Years of Future Past 1-5 (Warzone)
-Old Man Logan 1-5 (Warzone)
-House of M 1-4 (Warzone)
-Secret Wars 2099 1-5 (Warzone)
-Marvel Zombies 1-4 (Battleworld; must take place before Siege)
-Armor Wars 1-5 (Warzone)
-1872 1-4 (Warzone)
-Weirdworld 1-4 (Warzone)
-Where Monsters Dwell 1-5 (Warzone)
-Spider-Verse 1-5 (Warzone)
-MODOK: Assassin 1-5 (Warzone)
-Giant-Size Little Marvel: AvX 1-4 (Warzone)
-Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows 1-5 (Warzone)
-Spider-Island 1-5 (Warzone)
-Captain Marvel and the Carol Corps 1-4 (Warzone)
-Hail HYDRA 1-4 (Warzone)
-Mrs. Deadpool and the Howling Commandos 1-4 (Warzone)
-Hank Johnson, Agent of HYDRA one-shot (Warzone)
-Howard the Human one-shot (Warzone)
-Secret Wars: Secret Love one-shot (Battleworld anthology)
-Secret Wars: Agents of Atlas one-shot (Warzone)
-Korvac Saga 1-4 (Warzone)
-Captain Britain and the Mighty Defenders 1-2 (Warzone)
-1602: Witch Hunter Angela 1-4 (Warzone)
-Civil War 1-5 (Warzone; if there is peace at the end of the series, then this must take place after Captain Britain)
-Planet Hulk 1-5 (Warzone; definitely after one of the SW Journal stories, which takes place prior to Greenland being devastated)
-Future Imperfect 1-4 (Warzone)
-Squadron Sinister 1-4 (Warzone)
-Secret Wars 3
-Runaways 1-4 (Warzone)
-Age of Ultron vs. Marvel Zombies 1-4 (Battleworld; should take place after 1872, as it appears Hank Pym has been away from Timely for some time; msut also take place before Siege)
-Secret Wars 4
-Inhumans: Attilan Rising 1-5 (Battleworld; presumably takes place in the middle of the series; may depend if we see either Medusa or Black Bolt as the Baron, or future references to the mind control devices)
-Ghost Racers 1-4 (Battleworld)
-Star-Lord and Kitty Pryde 1-3 (Battleworld; must take place after SW4)
-Guardians of Knowhere 1-4 (Warzone; must take place after Star-Lord and Kitty Pryde, as 616-Quill is in it)
-Thors 1-4 (Battleworld; presume after SW4, especially if 616-Thor shows up in issue 4)
-Red Skull 1-3 (Battleworld; shows negotiations between Zombies and Annihilation Wave, which pays off in Siege)
-Secret Wars 5
-Secret Wars 6
-Siege 1-4 (Battleworld; final issue is an important marker for progress among the Battleworld and Warzone titles)
-Age of Apocalypse 1-5 (Warzone; definitely set after SW6, where Apocalypse is still Baron)
-Secret Wars 7
-Secret Wars 8
-Ultimate End 1-5 (Battleworld; this one is hard to place right now, but must happen near the end, as we have life raft survivors in Manhattan, and everyone's aware of Battleworld's true nature. Presumably the mind control towers described in Inhumans are destroyed)
-Secret Wars 9

[resipsaloquitur]

I continue to maintain that putting large-scale events like this in a reading order is impossible given the amount of a) uncertainty where the titles don't place themselves anywhere, and b) the amount of overlap involved. If you think I'm kidding, check out this World War Hulk timeline that they did on the Unofficial Appendix page. It's impressive, but unreadable in comics form unless you seriously want to do a lot of page flipping. Also, it's apparent that the writers aren't necessarily doing strict coordination with each other. The appearance of two specific barons in Secret Wars #6 confirms this, even if Brevoort and Hickman fell back on the "those could be alternate counterparts" excuse.

The best you can do is maintain a rough "awareness" of where some books take place in relation to each other. Marvel Zombies must be before Siege, because the wall is still up in that book. A-Force #1 is before Siege #1, since America Chavez gets in trouble in the former and is banished to the Shield in the latter.

Having said that, I would put Old Man Logan approximately concurrent with Ultimate End given that the two seem to tie into each other in their final issues.

[Pat Thomas]

I continue to maintain that putting large-scale events like this in a reading order is impossible given the amount of a) uncertainty where the titles don't place themselves anywhere, and b) the amount of overlap involved. If you think I'm kidding, check out this World War Hulk timeline that they did on the Unofficial Appendix page. It's impressive, but unreadable in comics form unless you seriously want to do a lot of page flipping. Also, it's apparent that the writers aren't necessarily doing strict coordination with each other. The appearance of two specific barons in Secret Wars #6 confirms this, even if Brevoort and Hickman fell back on the "those could be alternate counterparts" excuse.

The best you can do is maintain a rough "awareness" of where some books take place in relation to each other. Marvel Zombies must be before Siege, because the wall is still up in that book. A-Force #1 is before Siege #1, since America Chavez gets in trouble in the former and is banished to the Shield in the latter.

Having said that, I would put Old Man Logan approximately concurrent with Ultimate End given that the two seem to tie into each other in their final issues.

I've fallen so far behind on new comics in general, that when I decided to go ahead and read Secret Wars, I first read the main series until
current, and then started working on them in alphabetical order. It might be out of sequence, but since most of the titles are self-contained,
I haven't noticed any problems with what I'm doing. I've still got a ton to read, though, and I don't know how I'll ever catch up on about
the last 1 1/2 years of Marvel (pre-Secret Wars), DC books, and some independents I've been pulling all along. I was probably following close
to 100 books and was able to read them all from one week to the next, but once I fell behind, I lost my rhythm. It's since spiraled out of control.
One of these days, I'll have to figure out a reading strategy.

[Coppertheft]

There's a few of these threads around here, and each of them has both Silver Surfer and Loki before SW#2. Reading those first spoils the really big surprise in the first scene. Definitely read Surfer before Loki.

With the possible exception of Siege (has the wall talked at any time in the main series? if not, seeing that in SW#6 might be weird.), i don't think any of the mini's are actually important.

I'd say read 'Time Runs Out', then 'Before TRO' (refers to things shown in TRO), 'SW 0 & 1', then the Last Days skipping Surfer & Loki
Secret Wars 2-6, Siege to expand that one scene, then all the mini's and Surfer & Loki.

I see absolutely no point in disrupting the narrative flow to read books that have no impact whatsoever on said narrative. Quickly counted, it looks like you have over 150 books between SW#2 & 3, not one of which matters to the main story.

If you'd like to be slavish to it though i'll help you out... Will try to avoid big spoilers
-Pretty sure Strange refers to Old Man Logan with one throw away line in SW#3, so that should most likely be broken up into single issue listings. The same panel might set up Planet Hulk as well. Inferno is also mentioned, but it sounds like everything is normal, so that series might be after.
-Almost positive the Master of Kung-Fu mentions absolutely nothing about Battleworld, or anything beyound Kun Lun's border... no Thors or God or nothing.
-Mile's book is I think a 3 issue story, happening back to back to back, but I'd need confirmation on that.
-Missing Deadpool's final issue as well as a Last Days (just before/during the incursion), and like Miles maybe be multiple issues.
-Watch Beta Ray Bill, that'll help place some books before Thors and space out some series into single issues. Just putting it out there, the old thor in SW#2 and the old thor in Thors are different characters.
-Watch Planet Hulk Cap, he's seen in a few books before getting sent to Greenland.
-The Thanos in Infinity Gauntlet is not the 616 Thanos. Fairly certain this has been confirmed in an interview, but it's confirmed in the main series (#5) anyway.
-I'd have to look, which I'm not going to, but I think Siege takes place in the 3 week window in SW#6. (which is how you have it listed, so not really sure why I'm bothering to type this)
-Ghost Racers might be the last Killiseum story. Maybe not.

I'm sure there's more, but hope that helps a bit.

[Omega Alpha]

Apart from Siege, none of the tie-ins matter.

[Taral-DLOS]

I continue to maintain that putting large-scale events like this in a reading order is impossible given the amount of a) uncertainty where the titles don't place themselves anywhere, and b) the amount of overlap involved. If you think I'm kidding, check out this World War Hulk timeline that they did on the Unofficial Appendix page. It's impressive, but unreadable in comics form unless you seriously want to do a lot of page flipping. Also, it's apparent that the writers aren't necessarily doing strict coordination with each other. The appearance of two specific barons in Secret Wars #6 confirms this, even if Brevoort and Hickman fell back on the "those could be alternate counterparts" excuse.

The best you can do is maintain a rough "awareness" of where some books take place in relation to each other. Marvel Zombies must be before Siege, because the wall is still up in that book. A-Force #1 is before Siege #1, since America Chavez gets in trouble in the former and is banished to the Shield in the latter.

Having said that, I would put Old Man Logan approximately concurrent with Ultimate End given that the two seem to tie into each other in their final issues.

There's a few of these threads around here, and each of them has both Silver Surfer and Loki before SW#2. Reading those first spoils the really big surprise in the first scene. Definitely read Surfer before Loki.

With the possible exception of Siege (has the wall talked at any time in the main series? if not, seeing that in SW#6 might be weird.), i don't think any of the mini's are actually important.

I'd say read 'Time Runs Out', then 'Before TRO' (refers to things shown in TRO), 'SW 0 & 1', then the Last Days skipping Surfer & Loki
Secret Wars 2-6, Siege to expand that one scene, then all the mini's and Surfer & Loki.

I see absolutely no point in disrupting the narrative flow to read books that have no impact whatsoever on said narrative. Quickly counted, it looks like you have over 150 books between SW#2 & 3, not one of which matters to the main story.

If you'd like to be slavish to it though i'll help you out... Will try to avoid big spoilers
-Pretty sure Strange refers to Old Man Logan with one throw away line in SW#3, so that should most likely be broken up into single issue listings. The same panel might set up Planet Hulk as well. Inferno is also mentioned, but it sounds like everything is normal, so that series might be after.
-Almost positive the Master of Kung-Fu mentions absolutely nothing about Battleworld, or anything beyound Kun Lun's border... no Thors or God or nothing.
-Mile's book is I think a 3 issue story, happening back to back to back, but I'd need confirmation on that.
-Missing Deadpool's final issue as well as a Last Days (just before/during the incursion), and like Miles maybe be multiple issues.
-Watch Beta Ray Bill, that'll help place some books before Thors and space out some series into single issues. Just putting it out there, the old thor in SW#2 and the old thor in Thors are different characters.
-Watch Planet Hulk Cap, he's seen in a few books before getting sent to Greenland.
-The Thanos in Infinity Gauntlet is not the 616 Thanos. Fairly certain this has been confirmed in an interview, but it's confirmed in the main series (#5) anyway.
-I'd have to look, which I'm not going to, but I think Siege takes place in the 3 week window in SW#6. (which is how you have it listed, so not really sure why I'm bothering to type this)
-Ghost Racers might be the last Killiseum story. Maybe not.

I'm sure there's more, but hope that helps a bit.

Thank you both for your input! I've made a few changes to reflect this. I know that in this story it's probably best not interrupted by unrelated material, but I like reading events in as precise a chronological experience as I can. I recently did a re-read of Age of Ultron, Age of Apocalypse, and AXIS like this, putting tie-ins between relevant main story issues. To this end, I would keep Before Time Runs Out at the beginning, even though it probably is best read after Time Runs Out (best as a prequel rather than a start).

Noting that most Warzones titles aren't referenced anywhere, I still get value of reading them in their most appropriate spot. And thankfully, the narrative breaks enough between Secret Wars 1 and 2 to facilitate the Last Days titles easily, and the narrative between Secret Wars 2 and 3 isn't so strong that I can't break it up here. Alternatively, we could put them between 4 and 5, as 4 is a major plot point and 5 is something of a quieter, unrelated period (though, for the sake of chronology, Sheriff Strange is seen in some stories and so it's better to put them when he's alive).

I love Events in general, and have been enjoying Secret Wars. I've bought a number of the tie-ins, and the ones I haven't I'll likely buy when the price drops on Comixology or when there's a Comixology sale.

But here are my comments to these proposals:
-I added Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider-Man 10 and 11, so as to include that whole story.
-I also added Deadpool 45 aka Deadpool 250, which ends with the Earths colliding.
-I was also debating adding Spider-Man 2099 9-10, which are not really tie-ins, but there is some weird implication of an incursion between Future Imperfect and 2099. It might've just been a weird time travel problem, but because they never re-addressed it, and because the 2099 in Battleworld is different from the Spider-Man one, it seems like a light tie-in.
-I moved Ghost Racers lower, so that it's after all other references to the Killiseum.
-I am considering breaking up Old Man Logan, though I'd wait a bit before doing so. Issue 1 appears to be just before SW3 (referenced by Strange), and issues 2 and 3 must take place before Age of Apocalypse (a bit later in the chronology), but you say issue 5 ties into Ultimate End, which I think takes place later still. Can someone advise if Old Man Logan contains any time periods that allow for a longer time between issues?
-I'd be grateful for more clarification on Planet Hulk. What other books does Cap star in? What else implies that it could take place across time (or just, part of it must take place prior to SW3 and part after)?
-Will look more closely for Beta Ray Bill.
-I moved Guardians of Knowhere, Thors, and Red Skull to between Secret Wars 5 and 6. There is a three week gap that didn't have anything in it. Red Skull fits well here, because Doom laments the uprisings on his world.

Apart from Siege, none of the tie-ins matter.

See, I disagree. Siege is the only one that has really directly affected the main story, but that's not what I care about. I care about the whole thing; the experience of Battleworld.