Marvel Event Reading
For anyone interested in Marvel NOW!, or the Age of Ultron event, this is a list of catch up material in chronological order that should fill you in on some of the big universal shifts in the Marvel Universe. As a warning, there are spoilers in the summaries. If you are only interested in the titles, they are in bold, just don't read the summaries.
House of M
An insane Scarlet Witch's powers go out of control, altering all of reality, leaving the mutants as the dominant species. In the end, Scarlet Witch blames her father Magneto, before reverting all the changes, and uttering the words, "No more Mutants", leading into the Decimation storyline during which the X-Men discover that nearly all of the worlds mutants were depowered, leaving the mutants an endangered species.
Civil War
Superhero Reality Show team The New Warriors takes on more dangerous villains in a bid for better ratings, leading to a fight with Nitro the Exploding Man, who detonates, leveling Stamford, Connecticut. The Government calls for Superhumans to register their identities, and become government agents. Iron Man backs this decision, while Captain America rebels, leading to a superhero civil war. Iron Man builds a prison in the negative zone to hold the revolting heroes. In the endgame, civilians begin attacking Captain America's team, which causes Cap to question his actions, and surrender. After this, Stark is appointed Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., with his co-director being Maria Hill.(Maria Hill had been director after Nick Fury went into hiding after his disastrous Secret War) This story leads into the Death of Captain America storyline.
World War Hulk
After the Illuminati (Professor X, Namor, Iron Man, Black Bolt, Mister Fantastic, and Doctor Strange) send the Hulk into space for the safety of Earth, Hulk crash lands on the savage planet Sakaar, is made a slave and a gladiator, and eventually becomes the Emperor of Sakaar. After fathering a child, the ship Hulk came in explodes, killing Hulk's wife and many of his subjects. Gathering his team, the Warbound, Hulk swears vengeance on the Illuminati, and declares war on Earth, forcing the Illuminati (except for Professor X who Hulk says had been punished enough already) to fight as gladiators, leading to a final fight between Hulk and Sentry. Hulk defeats the Sentry before one of his Warbound, Miek, kills Rick Jones, and reveals that he (Miek, not Rick) had sabotaged the ship, because he believes Hulk could only be content with something to fight. Tony Stark activates a satellite to revert Hulk to human form. Banner is imprisoned. This leads into the Red Hulk/Green Hulk storyline
Secret Invasion
The Illuminati make a pre-emptive strike on the Skrulls, who capture and study them, then release them. After the skrull homeworld is destroyed by Galactus, the Skrulls invade earth, replacing an unknown number of Earth's superhuman community. After several clashes between skrull and superhero forces, Norman Osborn makes a bid for power, intercepting information Deadpool was hired to collect, and using it to kill the Skrull Empress Veranke. This storyline leads into the Dark Reign, during which Norman Osborn becomes director of S.H.I.E.L.D, now rechristened H.A.M.M.E.R. and brings together his own team of Avengers.
Siege
Loki manipulates Norman Osborn into laying seige to Asgard, now floating over Oklahoma. The attack culminates in Thor's return and the death of the Sentry, as well as the outing of Norman Osborn as a psychopath, and the Green Goblin. This storyline leads into the Heroic Age shift of status quo, that saw the reorganization of the Avengers. Also the direct followup entitled Avengers Prime shows the mending of the wounds left over from Civil War between Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor.
Fear Itself
The Asgardian God of Fear, the Serpent, returns to take over the Earth with his emissaries. Odin decides to abandon the Earth to its fate, even proposing using it as a trap to kill the Serpent by razing the planet to the ground. Thor objects, insisting on defending the Earth. Tony Stark meanwhile, begs Odin to give the humans a chance. Odin cedes on both counts, providing Thor with the Odinsword, and allowing Tony Stark to forge weapons from Uru for the heroes. Thor manages to kill the Serpent, but is mortally wounded in the process. Odin returns to Asgard with the corpse of the Serpent, his brother, sealing Asgard off from the Earth and stranding some Asgardians there. This storyline leads into Shattered Heroes, which explores the consequences and implications of Fear Itself, including the introduction of the new God of Thunder, Tanarus
Schism
After a U.N. mutant peace summit is attacked by Kid Omega, many countries begin mobilizing Sentinels. Cyclops begins taking a more militaristic stance, believing that the many mutant teens in his care should learn to defend themselves, while Wolverine feels that the children should not be made to fight, but should be able to count on the X-Men to defend them. Wolverine ends up threatening to detonate the island of Utopia to destroy an attacking Sentinel, while Cyclops stands his ground, preparing the young mutants to fight. The two men begin arguing about Jean Grey, and a fight breaks out. Cyclops and Wolverine end up destroying the Sentinel, but part ways over idealogical differences, with the former remaining in Utopia to head up his team, while the latter returns to New York to open the Jean Grey School for the Gifted. This storyline leads into X-Men Regenesis, a re-branding of the X-Men titles, depicting the two factions of X-Men.
AvX and Marvel NOW!
This should bring you up to speed on major events up to the Avengers Versus X-Men event, which I didn't want to spoil because its pretty recent. After that storyline, the fallout is dealt with in the rebranding Marvel NOW!. Marvel NOW! relaunched a lot of Marvel titles in the wake of AvX to reflect the new status quo, for example, Uncanny Avengers features a team composed of mutants and Avengers, and A+X features a team up of one X-Man and one Avenger each arc. Hope this helps people who want to pick something up without wading through ten years of continuity. I did the wading for you, because that's what I do.
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