I’m a DC fan. I love DC comics but every so often I feel the need to change things up a bit.
And every time I do, I just get discouraged or frustrated and happily go back to reading dc.
Thing is I just can’t “get the hang of” Marvel. That’s kinda a stupid way of putting but yeah…
So this is pretty much my marvel reading experience and how i felt about it :
1, Infinity Gauntlet - it started off good but, the whole Thanos losing the Gauntlet because he subconsciously wanted to lose thing just felt like a total cop out, people hype this story up so much and it felt so overrated. I get the influence this story had on the marvel universe in the long run but as a standalone story it just didn’t seem that great.
2, secret wars - Another comic that shows up in every top 10 list that makes me scratch my head. The hole plot basically consists of a bunch of heroes and villains fighting at one place, regrouping and then getting back together to fight some more. And the ending just pissed me off. I mean after 12 issues there was no real resolution to the story. Who is this beyonder? What happened to Dr. Doom? Who is this Spider-Women? The way she had been written in the story seemed like she was going to play some pivotal role, but she didn’t! Why was she even there? Why make her so suspicious? It was cool seeing how spiderman got the symbiote suit but that didn’t affect the plot. Secret wars left me with a lot of questions and no answers. And afterwards I learned the entire reason for it was to sell toy. Why is this story so highly regarded again?
3, Civil War - Great comic, no complaints really
4, Secret wars(2015) - Marvels “flashpoint” as I like to call it. Jumped into this without knowing anything, was a little confused at first but I got the basic gist of the story. It was pretty enjoyable for the most part.
5, Secret Empire - This brings me to the most recent event that I read from Marvel. When the Hydra Cap first happened a lot of people hated it. But I was actually intrigued. I wanted to know what the big mystery was. So I started reading Caps ongoing title. I also read Civil War 2 which I kind of enjoyed to be honest. The tone and feel was a break from Dc and the art was nice, but I was more interested in the Miles Morales/Hydra Cap subplot than the actual “Civil War” that was going on. And when secret empire finally came out it was a huge disappointment. The story just dragged, and there were way too many things that weren’t essential to the plot. It became a chore to read plus the political nagging was a big turn off but I stuck with it because I had been following this plot line for too long to just let it go, and still wanted to know the truth. And after being promised something special, when it was all done and over with, it was just meh. Nothing mind-blowing, quit lazy writing imo. I felt like I’d wasted all of that time for nothing and haven’t read anything marvel since.
So my question is this :
What are some good Marvel stories! In chronological order what are some of the most essential events I need to read to understand the history and character Dynamics within the Marvel Universe. And what should I read leading up to those stories/events. What’s going on at the moment, any good ongoing series? Plus feel free to address/answer any of the above things I mentioned.
Thanks