Last Updated: Jan 30, 2026
Welcome to ReadThingsRight, a website designed to help you navigate the complex world of interconnected universes. With some of these universes as massive as they are, a good starting point and viewing sequence isn't always simple to find. This website is here to try and determine to perfect order for the best audience experience, prioritizing story and cohesive flow over chronological order or release order. I have broken my orders down into ones based on comic books, ones based on movies, and ones based on television shows, all of which generally shoot for the same goals. So if you're stuck on how to read or watch something, here's how to ReadThingsRight.
Each reading and viewing guide is ranked on 3 scales, each from 0 to 5. Quality is how good I think the story is on average. Cohesion is how much the story makes sense, even when put into it's best possible order; sometimes things are just really disconnected until the crossover. Accessibility is how accessible the story is for newcomers, assuming they have no pop culture knowledge of the characters.
A heartfelt discussion and analysis of what it's like to live in a world of superheroes. Written entirely by Kurt Busiek, Astro City takes place in a world inspired by the worldbuilding of Marvel and DC and examines what it would be like for the people living there, both the normal and the superhuman. The worldbuilding is incredible, and helps elevate the masterful storytelling, using incredibly human characters to talk about what it means to be a hero and live life to your fullest. While it may not land as hard for those unfamiliar with Marvel's and DC's tropes, it is a must-read for anyone who loves superheroes.
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Starting in 1975, writer Chris Claremont took over writing X-Men with what was essentially a reboot of the series,
picking up from Len Wein's initial continuation a few issues earlier. This run lasted until 1991, so I will be
breaking it up into a few reading orders. This era is entirely written by Claremont (and Wein), including all of
the many spin-offs. This does not cover every X-Men appearance in this era, but focuses on Claremont's sprawling
ongoing story to form a cohesive experience. This half of Claremont's reading order goes from 1975 to 1986,
focusing on the X-Men and their spin-off series New Mutants. The main book is technically called X-Men until issue
141, but I will be referring to the entire run as Uncanny X-Men for the sake of simplicity.
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Starting in 2008, Marvel Studios released a series of connected films known as the Marvel Cinematic Universe. While you
could treat these as a set of films, I see them as more like a TV series, where you need to watch the previous
episodes if you want to understand the current ones. The most connected and powerful story here is the Infinity Saga,
released across 22 films from 2008 to 2019, culminating with Avengers: Endgame. While the MCU continued beyond this point,
it is far less connected and story-driven, so this watch order will focus solely on the Infinity Saga.
Minor spoilers for the Infinity Saga.
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Starting in 2005, classic series Doctor Who came back with a revival starring Christopher Eccleston and Billie
Piper, with Russel T Davies running the show. While the main actors and showrunners have changed numerous times,
the series continues having follow-ups to old plots all the way past its thirteenth season. In addition to the main seasons,
Doctor Who has numerous specials and a number of spin-off series that expand on the supporting cast, which is where
this watch order comes in, placing the specials and spin-offs in just the right place so nothing is missed.