Force Works #21-22 and War Machine #24-25 are included to wrap up their respective series, because otherwise those issues would be orphaned unless placed in a volume of issues contained in the Avengers/Iron Man:  First Sign TPB (basically containing all issues of Avengers and Iron Man between the end of the Crossing and the beginning of Onslaught.)

Unfortunately, most online reading orders do not agree on the placement of a lot of issues in the middle of the event and the comics themselves never presented a clear reading order.  Most “to be continued” boxes at the end of issues basically contained the next published issues of all of the series involved.  Below is a list of chronology or prerequisite clues from several issues, attempting to be as spoiler-free as possible.

Trying to maintain a day-by-day chronology across all four titles involved probably does not hold up. And being a story involving time manipulation, there is some wiggle room for some events to appear out of order.  But I’m trying to keep a logical chronology for individual characters.  For instance, if there is a run of Avengers issues all taking place in the same night, I don’t want to include an Iron Man issue in the middle that takes place during the day.

Chronology/Pre-requisite clues:
Iron Man #319 – starts plans for Avengers reunion “tomorrow”
Avengers #390 – Prelude to the Crossing
Avengers: The Crossing #1 – an Avengers reunion / ends around midnight
Avengers #391 - occurs past midnight following the events of The Crossing #1
Force Works #16 – characters returning from events of The Crossing #1 / occurs during the day, up to “sunset” / opening sequence set at “midnight” is not what it first appears
Avengers #392 – opens at morning, supposedly within 24 hours of the events of The Crossing.
Iron Man #320 – opens on another morning, events of The Crossing were “earlier this week”
Iron Man #321 – references Avengers #391
Force Works #17 – Iron Man explains events of The Crossing to the team as “the day of the reunion”, implying that it is now several days later
War Machine #20 – indirect references to events in Force Works #17, direct reference to Avengers #391
Iron Man #322 - reference to Avengers #391 and War Machine #20
Force Works #18 – has a subplot pick up from last page of Iron Man #322
War Machine #21 – continues subplot from Force Works #18
Iron Man #323 – WM #21 was a few hours ago, reference to Avengers #392
Avengers #393 – directly continues from Iron Man #323
Force Works #19 – Avengers #393 was moments ago, references to WM #21 and Iron Man #323
War Machine #22 – direct continuation from FW #19 / Black Widow and others leave to reappear in IM #324 / main cast continues directly into FW #20
Iron Man #324 – Black Widow appears from WM #22
Force Works #20 – direct continuation from WM #22, runs parallel to IM #324
War Machine #23 – reference to Force Works #20
Avengers #394 – leads into Timeslide
Avengers: Timeslide #1 – continues from Avengers #394
Iron Man #325 – continues from Timeslide
Avengers #395 – continues from Iron Man #325
Age of Innocence: The Rebirth of Iron Man #1

War Machine #22 features two groups of characters working together (one group with Black Widow, one group with Scarlet Witch).  Black Widow’s team leaves and is next seen in Iron Man #324.  Scarlet Witch’s team continues into Force Works #20.  There is a point where both teams communicate via video chat in both issues, but there is no shared dialogue between the two scenes which allows them to be two different conversations.  I’ve chosen to place Iron Man #324 in between War Machine #22 and Force Works #20 for pacing purposes.

War Machine #23 doesn’t have any other references other than taking place after Force Works #20, so it could go almost anywhere after that issue, depending on pacing preferences.

War Machine

War Machine Ashcan Edition (optional)
War Machine #1-8
Iron Man #310
Force Works #6 (Hands of the Mandarin part 1)
War Machine #9 (Hands of the Mandarin part 2)
Iron Man #311 (Hands of the Mandarin part 3)
Force Works #7 (Hands of the Mandarin part 4)
War Machine #10 (Hands of the Mandarin part 5)
Iron Man #312 (Hands of the Mandarin part 6)
War Machine #11-14
War Machine:  Brothers in Arms #1 (flipbook with Force Works #12)
War Machine:  Brothers in Arms #2 (flipbook with War Machine #15)
War Machine:  Brothers in Arms #3 (flipbook with Iron Man #317)
War Machine #15-19

continued in Avengers:  The Crossing (featuring War Machine #20-25)

-Marvel Comics Presents #152-155 feature a War Machine story by the writers of the War Machine series, and would go prior to the Ashcan Edition.
-The War Machine Ashcan Edition features an 8 page black and white story that is an expansion of the dream sequence that opens War Machine #1.  Completely optional, but it is smaller than comic size.  A full sized version is available in the War Machine Classic TPB.
-There are multiple editions of War Machine #8 and Iron Man #310, as some came polybagged with a promo insert for the Marvel Action Hour.  The insert isn’t needed for War Machine, so it doesn’t matter which edition you end up with.
-Marvel Comics Presents #169-172 contain stories that tie into Hands of the Mandarin.  I skipped them because they seemed to be more focused on Force Works or Iron Man.
-The last story page of Brothers in Arms #1 shares a page with the last story page of Force Works #12.  The back of the last pages of Brothers in Arms #2-3 will have upside down letter pages.  The main stories from Force Works #12 and Iron Man #317 are not needed.

Force Works:

Avengers West Coast 102
Force Works Ashcan (see notes below)
Force Works 1–5
Marvel Comics Presents 169–170 (“In the Hands of the Mandarin”, Parts 1 & 2)
Force Works 6
Marvel Comics Presents 169 (“Century”)
Marvel Comics Presents 170 (“Suzi”)
War Machine 9
Marvel Comics Presents 171 (“War Machine”/”Recorder”)
Iron Man 311
Force Works 7
Marvel Comics Presents 172 (“US Agent”/”Scarlet Witch”)
War Machine 10
Iron Man 312
Force Works 8–12
War Machine 15 (“Brothers in Arms”, Part 2)
Iron Man 317  (“Brothers in Arms”, Part 3)
Force Works 13–18
Century: Distant Sons
Force Works 19
War Machine 22
Force Works 20–22

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Notes:

You could always just start with FW #1, but that last issue of AWC is also written by Abnett & Lanning and does a good job of setting up FW.

The undersized Force Works Ashcan comic poses a bit of a problem, as 1) it’s a good 1/4 smaller in size than a regular comic and 2) it’s a mix of prequel and teaser for the upcoming series. The story in the ashcan actually takes place during FW #1, but you really can’t slip it in there without throwing everything off. I plan on creating a pocket for the ashcan on the inside back cover I can slip it into, but I’ve seen it simply bound before FW #1.

FW #19->WM #22->FW #20 is one long story beat, so not including WM there would make for pretty choppy reading.

If you choose to include the “Brothers in Arms” backup story arc, you will need to get a hold of two copies of FW #12, as the last page of the main story and of the backup share the same page (due to it being a flip book).

Extras to include: Cover and interview from Marvel Age #132, and the Iron Man & Force Works Collectors Preview, which is actually pretty substantial.