The best stuff to read from early Marvel

[Darkseid Is]

I'm talking 60's. Stan and Jack and Steve and all those guys. I'm talking Fantastic Four, Amazing Spider-Man, The Avengers, X-Men, Journey Into Mystery, Strange Tales, Tales of Suspense, Tales to Astonish, Daredevil, Hulk all those books that have all been collected.

I'm sure they're all a lot of fun but what are the best to read in your opinion? What are your favorites? Also, are any of them awful?

[JackDaw]

I read the Lee/ Kirby run recently, and think it’s still a terrific read, possibly still the best introduction to somebody brand new to Marvel, if the bias is not to dive straight into the current stuff.

Not been remotely tempted to re-read any of the other 60’s stuff...though my distant memories suggest there were some good Sgt Fury/ Howling Commandos stories.

[etrumble]

Speaking as a huge Avengers guy, I find their early adventures just "meh", really taking off in the '70s with the Kree-Skrull war forward.

FF starts slow but builds quickly. Try a tpb like this https://www.amazon.com/Fantastic-Fou...pic+collection

If you like it, jump to the Silver Surfer series(the original Lee/Buscema from the '60s). FF improves significantly after the early issues.

You can pick up a lot of the early Marvel stuff in Masterworks cheap(which I did). I enjoyed the stories more for historical interest than the actual quality of the stories. FF and Silver Surfer were early examples of world building with ongoing stories that led to changes in the characters, rather than the more stand alone stories from Tales to Astonish, Strange Tales, etc.

[Tulku]

Of course, it depends on one's taste, but the Doctor Strange storyline in Strange Tales # 130-141 is worth a read. And just pause for a moment to consider that, in 1965, Marvel did a continuing story that ran for almost a year (until the February 1966 issue). These days, we are used to stories lasting that long, but it was very unusual in the 1960s. The story features the second epic battle between Strange and Dormammu (with Dorrie operating through Mordo). Lots of twists, and wild concepts (it also features the first depiction of Eternity). It is a very satisfying story, IMHO.

[Mike_Murdock]

I would argue the Amazing Spider-Man probably starts the strongest. The Fantastic Four takes a bit of time to get its feet under it, but might be the strongest overall. When it comes to Doctor Strange, Strange Tales doesn't start great, but gets better around the time Dormammu shows up. I think the Eternity Saga is one of the strongest Marvel Age stories around and would highly recommend that (ETA: The post above gives the issue numbers for this story).

Looking at other characters: Daredevil isn't great, but it's always fun to look for potential. Unlike the others where I think it takes time to figure out, Daredevil actually gets weaker over time. If you're reading him, I'd recommend reading the first eight issues. For Journey into Mystery, Thor starts off pretty weak (although a lot of his iconic villains appear if you want to cherrypick some stories). There's a good article suggesting that everything changes when the Tales of Asgard backups start appearing.. For Tales of Suspense, I've only read some of the Iron Man stuff and none of the Cap stuff. I thought the stories were relatively consistent, but the book got dramatically better when it relaunched as Iron Man.

[MRP]

I'd say my favorite (and one of the best) is the Ditko/Lee run on Doctor Strange in Strange Tales from 110-146.

The weakest for me would be the Human Torch run in Strange Tales (it doesn't get any better when Thing becomes the co-star) and the early Ant-Man/Giant-Man stories from Tales to Astonish.

As others said, early Thor is a little weak until Kirby returned to the strip full force and then it became one of the better early Marvel strip until Kirby's departure. Kirby did the first couple of stories in JiM (up through 89 iirc), then turned it over to others for a stretch, and then came back full force which coincided with the introduction of the Tales of Asgard back ups starting with #100. It took a few issues for it to gear up at that point, but once it does it becomes one of the best early Marvel runs fueled by Kirby's imagination.

I am also a fan of the mid to late Lee/Kirby run on FF. It starts a little slow for me and hits its stride somewhere in '65 and '66 (in the 40s) and the Ditko/Lee Spidey.

Cap and Iron Man are good sporadically through their Tales of Suspense run with some good stories and some really bad ones. Iron Man stabilizes once Gene Colan comes on board as the regular artist, and The Kirby issues featuring the Sleeper storyline in Cap are it's peak during the TOS run.

Nick Fury is hit or miss until Steranko comes on board then it hits its stride and stays a must read run until Steranko leaves in '68/'69.

The rest of the stuff is a mixed bag, with some good stories and some bad, without any real sustained stretches of especially high or low quality.

-M

[Mantis Dad]

in 1976 or 1977 marvel had these small paperback size reprint books. fantastic four, spiderman, hulk for sure. they included like the first 6 issues of each series and spiderman actually had 3 books that took you all the way to 18 or 20?
i might be from an older generation, but i simply adored this stories and thought all of them were the greatest! i had never ever read anything from those series first few issues, so i was in awe and loved each and every story. i carried those books with me like they were priceless.

[gurkle]

Avengers has two "growing the beard" moments, a small one in issue #16 with the famous replacement of the entire original lineup, and then a big one around 1968 when Roy Thomas and John Buscema started to introduce a lot of the concepts that would define the book. Issue # 52 is a good jumping-on point because it's Black Panther's first issue as an Avenger and the introduction of the Grim Reaper as one of the first Avengers-specific villains, and then from there the book starts introducing Ultron, the Vision, Yellowjacket, etc. and going pretty strong (with some exceptions obviously) to the end of the Kree-Skrull war in issue # 97.

[KC]

I think Lee and Kirby's Fantastic Four is worth reading. If you don't want to read all of it I would recommend reading Annual #3 then #44-53. This is considered to be the best period for Lee and Kirby's Fantastic Four with the Marriage of Reed and Sue, the creation of the Inhumans, the creation of the Black Panther and The Galactus Trilogy.

I would also recommend Lee and Ditko's Amazing Spider-Man.

[Witchfan]

Lee/Kirby Fantastic Four
Neal Adams issues of X-Men
Roy Thomas/John Buscema issues of Avengers
Steve Ditko issues of Doctor Strange
Amazing Spider-Man
Silver Surfer

[comicscollector]

First two that i think of when Reading the question is Amazing Spider-Man and Fantastic Four for sure.
Just great comics.

[My Two Cents]

I love anything Marvel put out between 1966 thru 1975 the most

[jackolover]

The Good

FF from the Frightful Four till Black Panther
Amazing Spider-Man from #14 to #37
Tales to Astonish Hulk the Ditko run
Daredevil the Gene Colon run
Journey into Mystery Thor from Absorbing Man for the next 30 issues.
Avengers #4 - 8
Strange Tales Dr Strange the whole Dormammu/Mordo chase through the dimensions till the Eternity fight, by Ditko.
Tales to Astonish Submariner the whole Gene Colon run
X-Men #1 - 12

The Bad

All the premoidal stuff is hokey till they mature, but it is more darker than other comic companies of the time. By the time Stan Lee writes them, in his Shakespear period, is when it becomes great.

[Triniking1234]

Amazing Spider-Man is pretty good since they managed to balance Pete's normal and hero lives pretty well and he has pretty good villians. However the book really picks up after Ditko leaves.

I can read early FF with ease. It helps that I watched the 90s cartoon since the show is mostly based on that era. Lee/Kirby was pretty good.

Avengers sucks until Vision and Ultron are added.
Lee/Kirby were on drugs cuz they were doing like 10 panels per page and **** starts to drag. I passed out reading the Space Phantom issue. Hawkeye kinda saved the book tbh. Black Panther's intro (Lee wasn't on the book) was a fight with Grim Reaper. T'Challa gets bullied pretty easily; it's funny as hell.

X-Men was weird as hell. Good art after Kirby dipped. Magneto and Doom are doing evil a-hole gymnastics in that era. God damn. Thank God it got rebooted.

[Ying Ko]

Probably Fantastic Four and Amazing Spider-Man although it takes a while before they get really good.

But even those are just so... wordy that it's almost painful to read them now. Still, back in the day they were lightyears ahead of anything published by other companies.