It'll get you a lot farther than trying to buy those issues! I use Marvel Unlimited a lot and there are quite a few things you;'d be surprised to find. I wouldn't trust their indexes though. For example, if you wanted to look up all the appearances of Wyatt Wingfoot, he's not even listed. Or if you search by character than filter by title, you may find that's not very complete either. I've never tried Comixology unlimited but that may be another option although I don't know the cost offhand.
Appreciation Thread Indexes
Marvel | Spider-Man | X-Men | NEW!! DC Comics | Batman | Superman | Wonder Woman
Crap? Those Silver Age stories are classics! Heck, yes, Kirby and Ditko wrote a lot of those stories. They deserve CREDIT, not “blame.” They and their heirs fought like crazy to get their fair credit. Ditko’s heirs and others are still battling for their rights. Those comics were published when Marvel was actually great.
Personally, I love the Cold War stuff, too, as much as the post-Watergate stuff. The Soviet Union sucked, and there’s no reason to mince words about it. The Chinese Communists sucked, too. Indeed, Russia and China continue to stink. America is far from perfect, but at the moment, we are not full-on authoritarian. It was responsible to educate the young ones over how horrible those regimes were through the funny books. I also fully approve of Marvel going full-on hippie under the likes of Englehart and Starlin. Groovy!
As for X-Men, yes, it gets much better over time. You should not have quit before the Roy Thomas-Neal Adams issues starting at #56. Those issues are incredible.
What about the ‘50s Marvel monster stories? Some of those — like Groot — are in-continuity canon.
Also, what about the profusion of b&w and color horror titles? I think you do a disservice to yourself not to read some of the licensed properties. Marvel’s Star Wars, Godzilla, Micronauts, Rom, Dracula, Conan, Planet of the Apes and more were all definitely Marvel titles, whether licensed or not. Those titles always were a big step above the Distinguished Competition, as well as Warren’s b&w mags. Same goes for Epic and Epic titles. Those were essentially licensed works, too. I don’t care that it belongs to Starlin lock, stock and barrel, I can’t imagine Marvel Comics without those first 9 issues of Epic featuring Starlin’s Metamorphosis Odyssey. Those ARE Marvel Comics, they published them, under license, but it’s part of the company and its publishing history.
Last edited by Brian B; 01-24-2022 at 03:06 PM.
I respect the effort but no way I could do it. I can barely look at pre 2000 comics! A friend of mine has a lot of old comics and I’ve looked at some old DC stuff. It was AWFUL! He said I might like Marvel better and he was kind of right. Marginally better. No way I could do Silver Age stuff though. The secret identities and goody goody characters would be too much.
I always found silver age DC to be pretty bad. My aunt used to keep some in her basement for her grandson and she used to let us look through them when he was done with them. Anything featuring Super-Man and Lois Lanes eternal quest to find out his secret identity or get his attention were just really bad. All you have to do is scan through the covers and go "What were they thinking"
But there was a definite difference in Marvel. I was reading it when the Thing was not so cuddly and the team was much more rambunctious. I think Slott's FF is a regression and the characters don't have much depth. I will take the Lee/Kirby FF over Slott's any day of the week, esp from their run from about issue #35 onward.
Taking Doctor Doom for an example, in the early issues his origins are a bit sketchy and we don't find out he's from a country called Latveria until Fantastic Four annual #2. It's interesting to see how the character evolves over the decades and throughout different titles.
Or take the cosmic side of Marvel, which really took off in the Fantastic Four and to some extent the Avengers. Before Kirby would leave for DC, you had the intro of the Silver Surfer, Galactus, the Skrulls, the Inhumans, the introduction of different concepts like the Microverse, time travel and so forth.
Last edited by Iron Maiden; 01-24-2022 at 04:40 PM.
You're right, none of those are available to me. And actually, neither is Conan. Turns out there's far more unavailable through the app than I'd thought.
I'm beginning to think you might be right.
Comixology Unlimited's not an option for me; I only have access to the regular Comixology. The Marvel indexes are more incomplete than you might think. If ya look up someone like Namor, for example, ya won't find all his appearances, just the ones Marvel thinks are key.
Who's Wyatt Wingfoot? The son of Namor and John Walker?
Unlike Madeleine Swann, I don't have all the time in the world. Nor all the money either. I'd love to be able to read everything Marvel ever published but, for now, if it's not available through this app, I can't afford it.
I think it's because at certain periods Marvel would lose the rights from the estate of R.E Howard. However, he has been appearing in a new Marvel Conan series and also the recent Savage Avengers series where he teams up with Doctor Strange and Doctor Doom.
If you look up Barry Smith the artist of the early issues, none of his Conan work comes up on Marvel Unlimited. But you can buy the single issues on Comixology for $1.99. You used to be able to buy digital comics on the Marvel site but they closed their store a some years back and turned it over to Comixology. So I can't figure that one out but my guess is Marvel isn't going to give that one away if they are paying the estate of REH for the rights.
Oh I agree. Many times I notice that myself. I don't think their staff has done a complete job of cross referencing everything. I was thinking of volunteering to help with some of it.
I was going to reply "You'll find out when you read the Lee/Kirby Fantastic Four. But in short, he's someone Johnny meets when he is enrolled in college (to this day AFAIK Johnny never graduated!) and they became friends. My guess is that since Wyatt is there mostly for his skills as a football player, he's like Marvel's Jack Thorpe only without the controversy. Stan Lee & Jack Kirby gave the FF a number of supporting characters but sometimes they get lost along the way or current writers are interested in them. Wyatt still shows up every so often.
Last edited by Iron Maiden; 01-24-2022 at 09:34 PM.
I doubt those Epic Magazine issues are on Comixology Or Marvel Unlimited anyway. I'm sure you can find them somewhere uploaded without Marvel's permission.
But here is a collection of their covers.
Actually, doesn't Unlimited avoid including anything meant only for mature audiences. That would explain Conan, and I wouldn't be surprised if books like Punisher are patchy too for that reason.
Appreciation Thread Indexes
Marvel | Spider-Man | X-Men | NEW!! DC Comics | Batman | Superman | Wonder Woman
I think you're right about the Marvel Max imprint, which barely exists anymore. Punisher Max which is usually done by Garth Ennis has probably been in print the longest. It's listed on Marvel Unlimited but I tried different volumes and they all come up digital issue is not currently available. Again, you will find them on Comixology for purchase. One volume is on their Unlimited section. The same goes for the Jessica Jones Alias. It's listed on Marvel Unlimited but digital version is not available. It must have been at one time because it looks like they're set up for browsing single issues but if you click on an issue you get the not available message. It is on Comixlogy to buy in the TPB format only. Volume 1 and Volume 4 are on their Unlimited side
Last edited by Iron Maiden; 01-25-2022 at 10:09 PM.
I don't really care too much about the educational value of a silly world with black and white view that tries to talk like US of A is the greatest creation humanity ever had, if I'm wasting my time with anything I don't wanna be bored, and if I'm seeing Thor fight a bunch of boring looking, regular soldiers instead of an actual super-villain, that needs contrived logic for them to even stand a chance against him, then I'm getting bored lol.
At the very least, they got Radioactive Man, even if he randomly has hypnotism powers lol.
Loki is just as overused as the anti-communist nonsense, and while I feel like he shows up too much as well, at least his stories have funnier stuff happening.
I didn't quit, I just stopped for now, and I stop reading anything at random even if I'm enjoying it.As for X-Men, yes, it gets much better over time. You should not have quit before the Roy Thomas-Neal Adams issues starting at #56. Those issues are incredible.
Also, starting in #56 it becomes good? That's like 34 issues from where I stopped, and those old X-Men comics are so long...
Better to just use adblocks lol.
For organizing, your best bet will be to use something like Mike's Amazing World of Comics' Newsstand feature. Set the filter to Marvel and the month and year you want to start at, and progress through, month by month.
Then look on Marvel Unlimited to see if the books for each month are available.
Last edited by Lee Stone; 01-25-2022 at 07:01 PM.
"There's magic in the sound of analog audio." - CNET.
I found Mike's Amazing World to be a bit difficult to navigate. This website was much simpler for me.
Really? I find it quite simple. All you have to do is click on the Newsstand section, pick Marvel as the publisher and then put in any month/year If you click on the comic itself then it gives details. And you can click forward or backward for that particular title.