Need help with Marvel Universe

[scrai]

Hi, I am generally new to comics but I really like them. I am trying to read the Marvel Universe right now because I seem to find the characters more interesting to me. I am trying to get caught up but I am kind of anal and I have to start at the begining. I know I could just look up on Wikipedia.org and get the entire backstory on characters and just start from the current issues but what is the fun in that?
I am just looking for help compiling the most important characters and the most important IP series to get me caught up. I really like X-Men, Spiderman, and the Avengers. The thing that is confusing me is the 40 different X-Men titles and the 20 Spiderman and Avengers titles. I know not all are ongoing and I am trying to research it all but it is confusing. So, if anyone could respond or e-mail me informing me of Trades, Essentials, and what IP series would be crucial in getting the core of the marvel Universe. I know I need to read Iron Man, Hulk, Cap, FF, and other things like that but I am not sure if I need to read stuff like Iron Fist or Doctor Strange to know what is going on in Civil War and other new/current cross-overs and main Marvel Stories that effect everyone.
Sorry if this is to much to ask, I am just looking for a little help is all. Currently I have Essential Avengers Vol. 1, Essential Amazing Spiderman Vol. 1, and Essential X-Men Vol. 1(94-119). I prefer trades to individual issues if that also helps. I just prefer buying things in bulk so its all together and I can get it at once.
Thank you to anyone who helps and I hope I didn't sound to much like a person incredibly ignorant of the Marvel Universe. Sorry if this huge wall of text bored people too.

Thanks,
Scrai

[horatio616]

Hi, I am generally new to comics but I really like them. I am trying to read the Marvel Universe right now because I seem to find the characters more interesting to me. I am trying to get caught up but I am kind of anal and I have to start at the begining. I know I could just look up on Wikipedia.org and get the entire backstory on characters and just start from the current issues but what is the fun in that?
I am just looking for help compiling the most important characters and the most important IP series to get me caught up. I really like X-Men, Spiderman, and the Avengers. The thing that is confusing me is the 40 different X-Men titles and the 20 Spiderman and Avengers titles. I know not all are ongoing and I am trying to research it all but it is confusing. So, if anyone could respond or e-mail me informing me of Trades, Essentials, and what IP series would be crucial in getting the core of the marvel Universe. I know I need to read Iron Man, Hulk, Cap, FF, and other things like that but I am not sure if I need to read stuff like Iron Fist or Doctor Strange to know what is going on in Civil War and other new/current cross-overs and main Marvel Stories that effect everyone.
Sorry if this is to much to ask, I am just looking for a little help is all. Currently I have Essential Avengers Vol. 1, Essential Amazing Spiderman Vol. 1, and Essential X-Men Vol. 1(94-119). I prefer trades to individual issues if that also helps. I just prefer buying things in bulk so its all together and I can get it at once.
Thank you to anyone who helps and I hope I didn't sound to much like a person incredibly ignorant of the Marvel Universe. Sorry if this huge wall of text bored people too.

Thanks,
Scrai

What I recommend you do is keep your eyes and ears open for the essential "runs" on any given series. I wouldn't worry as much about reading these so that you'll be able to understand the universe better (in which case you'd have to read almost everything), but just look out for what's considered 'the best'.

Avengers:

The Korvac Saga

Kree-Skrull War

The first George Perez run around the 200s, not sure if it's collected

Volume 2 Avengers with Busiek/Perez. Storytelling's a bit dated IMO, but it was pretty popular.

New Avengers

Mighty Avengers

Ultimates 1 & 2

[mikegraham6]

i'd add in the Avengers: Disassembled trade, read that before the New Avengers

[horatio616]

i'd add in the Avengers: Disassembled trade, read that before the New Avengers

Oh yeah, I liked that better than most people. Some swear by Avengers Forever, which I thought was continuity porn but the Pacheo art was great.

[mikegraham6]

Whether people like it or not, it's definitely crucial to understanding what's happened in the Marvel U. it was a big focal point for change

oh and Civil War is another one that has a some hatred on the net but it's very important continuity wise

[ryan79]

I think the current Captain America series needs to be on your list.

[jimski]

Welcome Scrai, and God bless. 90% of the time, it seems the first time I see a new poster in the forum, that poster is loudly complaining about something. You are already a breath of fresh air.

If I had just started out and somebody were to sit me down and offer me this advice, I'd hope they'd start me out (as stated above) with the Avengers Disassembled trade; they also just put out a New Avengers hardcover that has the first 10 issues and the annual in it, and that book is like the epicenter of what's going on in the Marvel world.

The recent moves in Spider-Man were made for you. Now is the time to board that train.

Do I recommend Civil War, or do I not recommend Civil War? Hrm. Ask Again Later.

X-Men are insurmountable; better men than me have tried and failed. Now, Astonishing X-Men... there's a fine book.

[mikegraham6]

Welcome Scrai, and God bless. 90% of the time, it seems the first time I see a new poster in the forum, that poster is loudly complaining about something. You are already a breath of fresh air.

If I had just started out and somebody were to sit me down and offer me this advice, I'd hope they'd start me out (as stated above) with the Avengers Disassembled trade; they also just put out a New Avengers hardcover that has the first 10 issues and the annual in it, and that book is like the epicenter of what's going on in the Marvel world.

The recent moves in Spider-Man were made for you. Now is the time to board that train.

Do I recommend Civil War, or do I not recommend Civil War? Hrm. Ask Again Later.

X-Men are insurmountable; better men than me have tried and failed. Now, Astonishing X-Men... there's a fine book.
no love for New X-men? i think it's a pretty valid jumping on point for the X-men, especially if he picks up Astonishing and is wondering were the hell Jean Grey is at

[horatio616]

no love for New X-men? i think it's a pretty valid jumping on point for the X-men, especially if he picks up Astonishing and is wondering were the hell Jean Grey is at

You really can't go wrong with anything X-Men from the beginning all the way up to Age of Apocalypse. Anything after that you're better off avoiding until you get to New X-Men and Astonishing.

Highlights:

Neal Adams run. It's in trade.

Claremont/Byrne

Claremont/Paul Smith

Claremont/John Romita Jr. (Where I jumped on.)

Claremont/Silvestri

Claremont/Jim Lee

[cormano]

If you are strictly trying to catch up with what is going on, start with Civil War and the New Avengers issues from during and after that. Catch up on New Avengers from there, pick up Mighty Avengers from the beginning (only 9 issues out so far) and you're set for Avengers.

For Spider-Man, pick up the last six issues of Amazing Spider-Man, all of the Brand New Day issues, and you will be fine.

For X-Men… I don't know. You can pretty much start wherever and you will be confused about some stuff, but if you stick it out, you should be able to put it together as you go. As for which series of X-Men to pick up, they're going through a relaunch thing right now so it's hard to say. Uncanny is a safe bet, as it's the flagship title, I plan to pick up X-Men Legacy and Young X-Men because of the creative teams, but it's really hard to tell what is going to be really important right now.

All that should get you caught up, if you're just looking for good stories, there are tons of other great recommendations in this thread already. Good luck!

[jimski]

X-Men is really like... I imagine someone coming to my mom and saying, "I really want to get into 'Days of Our Lives.' What's a good starting point?"

"Umm... turn on the TV and watch the show?"

"But like, there are 75 characters in the middle of 15 convoluted unceasing stories that go back decades!"

"Yyyyyyyyep. Have fun!"

Of course, the Days of Our Lives story doesn't occasionally hop into one of six spinoffs. The characters never pop up on Everybody Loves Raymond.

If push came to shove, I'd say wait for the "Messiah Complex" trade and hope for the best from there.

[cormano]

That's a really good comparison, Jimski. Days of our lives is daily, though so spinning into six other monthly books is still less of a time commitment, unfortunately it's a lot more expensive.

I totally agree with the idea that you just have to jump on and be prepared to confused for a while, but hopefully have fun along the way.

[scrai]

Well, I was considering starting with the Marvel Essentials lines as they are lots of issues for a decent price. I am currently working on essential x-men, avengers, and spiderman. I plan on picking up essential captain america, thor, hulk, iron man, fantastic four, and the defenders as it seems they are the most prominent characters i hear about and most seem centric to most crossover events. It is things like Secret Wars and House of M that I get confused on because I am not sure what i should read to understand them and when they take place. I know I should probably just hop on right now and work through it till I am not confused anymore but I really like starting at the begining.

[scrai]

I think what I am trying to say is that I am having trouble organizing the books so that I can get a good solid complete list in cronological order. Like, Essential Thor and the series now, Thor. Are there books in between that bridge them and if so what are they?

I have a list of all the essentials in order for Uncanny X-Men, Amazing Spiderman, Avengers, Captain America, Ironman, Fantastic Four, and the Hulk. What I am looking for is, what are the books that bridge times like Essential Avengers to New Avengers or Essential Captain America to Captain America now and where does Fallen Son: The Death of Captain America come in? I'm just a little lost trying to piece together complete lists of TPB and Essentials that complete series like X-Men and Spiderman. Like, once I'm done reading the last X-Men essential, what are the next books that continue the series? I'm trying to use wikipedia.org and amazon.com to piece all this together but its difficult.

If this makes any more sense to anyone thank you for helping me.

(I'm not really looking for the "important runs/events" im looking for books that continue the series after essentials and things like that.

Sorry if this is a tall order to expect from people to search and type that much.

[cormano]

There is a lot of stuff that isn't reprinted. It's a sad reality, I know because I'm coming up on the end of the Essential Spider-Man trades. If you're trying to do all of those series, though, you shouldn't have to worry about getting to the end any time soon.

[animalvader1]

This is a VERY tall order here. I've been a solid Marvel fan for over 20 years, and I'm having trouble telling you where to even start with this. I'll do my best though.

Marvel has put out something a few years back just for you dude: Comics on DVD/PC disk. The first 500 issues of Amazing Spider-Man, X-Men, Avengers, etc all for $50-100. This will help you a great deal.

For hard copies it gets a lot harder. As said before, a lot of the books between the Essentials and current books aren't reprinted. If you look on the back of your Essential trades, you'll see exactly what issues are reprinted. You could go to this site (http://www.comics.org/index.lasso) to see cover shots and issue numbers for the books that come after that to help you hunt them down. I also suggest using the publication dates for trade paper backs to get a basic "timeline"

For the event books like Secret Wars, Civil War, etc. you're better off just jumping in and reading them as a stand alone story. Even though most of the major titles "tie in" to these events, you almost never have to read them to understand the events themselves. However, you do have to read the events to understand changes in the main books themselves after they reach a certain point. For example: Amazing Spider-Man #251 and Fantastic Four #264 happen before Marvel Superheroes Secret Wars #1-12. During Secret Wars, Spidey gets his Black costume and the Thing leaves the FF and is replaced by She-Hulk. These changes are reflected in Amazing Spider-Man #252 and Fantastic Four #265. Thankfully back then when things like this would happen, they would always be referenced in a small text box during the story called and Editors Note followed by a specific title and issue number where that story/event being referenced can be found. For more recent events, they no longer do that so for specific questions like "When did Scarlet Witch go nuts and kill her team mates?" you'll have to ask us here, where we'll say "Avengers: Disassembled".

[guardedmarman]

ya i have to agree with Animalvader1 you should try to get some of the pc/dvds there about 30-50 bucks each but if you add it all up its worth is, also i would recomend reading most of the big blockbuster comics that came out over the last couple of years like- House of M and Civil War also you could try to pick up some guides or the marvel encycopedias for refrences when your stuck on something. Oh they even have the civil war dvd but I would recomend not getting that and just read the trade and maybe front lines, and all the Avengers titles are important to read mainly New and Mighty.