New to Marvel

[Sqquid]

Hi. Over the years my interest in Marvel Comics has grown, probably because of the movies, and I figures now is as good a time as any to get into the medium. I picked up a couple books from my local comic book store, However after reading them I was very confused on what was going on. So is there a definitive place to start reading Marvel Comics? Any recommendations?

Some characters I am interested in are:
Captain America
Iron Man
Thor
Daredevil
Spider-Man

[Raye]

Usually when starting fresh you should start with the first issue of a creative team, since writers usually tend to tell relatively self contained stories these days.

- Captain America - this one will be tough right now since he is in the middle of an event that has (temporarily!) altered him fairly drastically. To see how he got this way, you actually need to pick up a number of related books all by Nick Spencer. First you need Captian America: Sam Wilson, which is about Cap's old sidekick Falcon taking over the mantle after he got aged up in the previous writer's run. Then, there was a bit of an event called Standoff, which led into Captain America: Steve Rogers. Sam Wilson and Steve Rogers ran concurrently with each other for a while, until Secret Empire began. A bit confusing sounding, I know. But i personally enjoyed it. I am not really a cap person, so for a more.... traditional take, I will let someone else give suggestions.

- Iron Man - also in a bit of a weird place. But, at the moment, you want the books by Brian Bendis. first you start with International Iron Man and Invincible Iron Man, then Civil War II, then Infamous Iron Man and Invincible Iron Man again.

- Thor is more straightforward, but it's a doozy, many issues. It is a fairly epic story by Jason Aaron and since it is so long, I will try and give 2 potential jumping on points. If you are ok with going to the beginning, or want a more traditional take on the character, start with God of Thunder, which ran 25 issues. Alternately you can start with just 'Thor' which immediately followed that, and is the beginning of the story of the female Thor who took over from the original Thor (she currently still holds the mantle, but Thor Odinson will be getting it back probably within the year). leading into Mighty Thor, the current volume. Also there was a miniseries recently called Unworthy Thor which is good to read if you are interested in the original Thor, and I really enjoyed it, but is not strictly necessary, as events are recapped in Mighty Thor later. But it's only a few issues so may as well. For bonus reading, you could read the event Original Sin and the tie-in to that, Thor and Loki: the Tenth Realm, to see how Thor became unworthy of his hammer, but again, not strictly necessary. (For MORE bonus reading, if you are curious just what is up with Loki, why he looks and acts the way he does in this run, that is an epic in itself. Start with Kieron Gillen's Journey Into Mystery, which, I am afraid is very convoluted to follow along due to a few crossovers with Thor and the New Mutants, but there is an omnibus available putting it all in the right order, or reading lists online. Then, Kieron Gillen's Young Avengers, then Al Ewing's Loki: Agent of Asgard, (those last two ran concurrently with God of Thunder) then he begins appearing in Mighty Thor. )

- Sorry, I have never been a big reader of Daredevil, I heard Mark Waid's recent run was very good though and it is probably a good place to start.

- Spider-Man has been under the control of Dan Slott for many years now, so it's really hard to tell you to go back to the beginning of that, it would end up longer than Thor's reading list. But you are in luck, a new series, Peter Parker: the Spectacular Spider-Man by Chip Zdarsky JUST started, and is only on issue 2! it should be a good jumping on point with a Spidey that bears a lot of resemblance to what you are likely familiar with in the movies.

If you sign up for Marvel Unlimited, even for just a little while, that should make reading all these runs cheaper. Except the new Spider-Man, it won't be on the service yet, it runs a few months behind.

For all of these, there are runs from the past, such as Walt Simonson's Thor, or Frank Miller's Daredevil, Warren Ellis' Extremis for Iron Man (though, that one is short, so no harm in checking it out) which are very well regarded, and/or contain important aspects of the character's history, but I am kind of assuming you are trying to jump on to the current books.

[Midnight_v]

Hi. Over the years my interest in Marvel Comics has grown, probably because of the movies, and I figures now is as good a time as any to get into the medium. I picked up a couple books from my local comic book store, However after reading them I was very confused on what was going on. So is there a definitive place to start reading Marvel Comics? Any recommendations?

Some characters I am interested in are:
Captain America
Iron Man
Thor
Daredevil
Spider-Man

"Run Away. . ." - Hills Have Eyes2

If you came out of nowhere from the movies to read Marvel Comics you're going to be in for quite a doozy.
Marvel has spent the last few years making the original characters i.e. The ones in the movies villainous or completely different from their most popular representations.
Full disclosure:
Captain America was retconed into a Nazi a leader of Hydra.
Thor was can declared to be unworthy losing not only his hammer but also the name Thor was passed on to Jane Foster... In a way that was never satisfactorily for many people defined.
Iron Man. Has been replaced both by Doctor Doom and a teenage female African American Girl named Riri Williams who is said to be more intelligent than Tony Stark. Tony himself was beaten into a coma by Captain Marvel after Civil War Two
Spider-Man... Spider-Man was replaced by Doctor Octopus while simultaneously becoming a venture capitalist. I admit I kind of tapered off right around then.
Daredevil seems pretty familiar still to be honest.

If you're interested in just a great storytelling I hear very positive things about Spider-Man renew your vows and I believe the first trade paperback of that is available.
It's all a lot to take in it's mostly a part of the all new all different Marvel initiative.
I agree with Raye if you're interested in reading the characters in their most popular forms I suggest trying Marvel unlimited or getting some trade paperbacks from years past.
Those trade papers have some of the best stories in classic tales of the characters that are most beloved. Good luck.

[rui no onna]

If you own a tablet, I heartily recommend Marvel Unlimited.

Some reading recommendations:
Captain America (2004) run by Ed Brubaker
Daredevil (1998) run by Brian Michael Bendis

[Rosebunse]

I would actually recommend looking up the wiki on characters first. That's what I did when I got started. It's all very overwhelming at time, but if you go slow, use the internet when you're confused, ask questions, you'll be fine.

Just remember, it's comics, where the weird is expected.

[iPodwithnomusic]

I am a big fan of Spider-Man, Daredevil, and Captain America so I can give you some advice there.

Ed Brubaker had an amazing Captain America run that I would highly recommend you read. It includes Captain America (2005 / Vol 5) #1-50 followed by Captain America #600-619. There are a couple other series he did after that (Captain America Vol 6 and The Winter Soldier) but I would recommend the issues I stated to start, if you really liked them you can go further.

Ed Brubaker and Brian Michael Bendis had an epic run on Daredevil, there were a couple other writers as well but you should read it all. It includes Daredevil (1998 / Vol 2) #1-119 followed by Daredevil #500, Dark Reign: The List: Daredevil, Daredevil #501-512 + Shadowland #1-5.

As for Spider-Man, I would recommend started at Amazing Spider-Man #648 and reading until issue #700. Then read Superior Spider-Man #1-31, and then the relaunched Amazing Spider-Man series (2014 / Vol 3) #1-18. You could alternative start by reading Amazing Spider-Man #546-700, but there were quite a few parts of those first ~100 issues I didn't like. There's also a lot of great stuff in those issues as well, so the choice is up to you.

I really enjoyed the recent Iron Man series, Invincible Iron Man (vol 2) #1-14, so you could read that, and then jump in to the current series Invincible Iron Man vol 3 and Infamous Iron Man.

[acnblj]

I'm new to Marvel also and am starting at the beginning with Epic Collections. Very dated in art and dialogue, but I love it!

[gurkle]

My advice for what it's worth is to pick a run you've heard good things about, and just start reading. Even if you don't understand everything that's going on at the beginning, eventually you'll pick up on what you need to know, because the writers and editors usually try to get readers caught up. It's better to do that than read wiki entries on a lot of these characters, because those character histories are extremely confusing and self-contradictory, and give you tons of information that isn't relevant to the stories.

So the Ed Brubaker run on Captain America, which most people (including me) recommend as a good jumping-on point, doesn't tell you everything right away, and mentions some old plot points that seem pretty ridiculous to a new reader (see below). But what you need to know, it will tell you.

Captain America v5 002-006.jpg

[Panfoot]

It's best to just go back and read some of the more character defining stories first and then branch out to the more current stuff if you really feel like it. The only one I can really speak for is Iron Man, which I would recommend Extremis, Armor Wars, War Machine, Demon in a Bottle, and the Busiek/Chen omnibus. Avoid the Bendis stuff from the past two years, it's real bad.

[penthotal]

Hi. Over the years my interest in Marvel Comics has grown, probably because of the movies, and I figures now is as good a time as any to get into the medium. I picked up a couple books from my local comic book store, However after reading them I was very confused on what was going on. So is there a definitive place to start reading Marvel Comics? Any recommendations?

Some characters I am interested in are:
Captain America
Iron Man
Thor
Daredevil
Spider-Man

I think the best suggestion I can give you is: don't listen to all the negative and whiny people that will tell you that right now Marvel s**ks, the characters are different from the movies and so on. They are just too attached to the comics they read when growing up and are pathologically unable to accept changes.

Some actual suggestions:

THOR:

Thor: God of Thunder Volume 1, 2, 3 and 4 (paperback)
Thor Vol 1 and 2
Mighty Thor Volume 1, 2 and 3
by Jason Aaron

DAREDEVIL:

Daredevil Volume 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 (paperback)
By Mark Waid

CAPTAIN AMERICA:

Captain America, Vol. 1: Winter Soldier Ultimate Collection
Captain America: Red Menace
Death of Captain America: The Complete Collection
Captain America The Man with No Face
Captain America Road to Reborn
Captain America Reborn
Captain America Two Americas
Captain America No Escape
Captain America The Trial of Captain America
Captain America Prisoner of War
By Ed Brubaker


You can find all of them on Amazon at a low price, just start with the first volume of the first book I listed.

Personal suggestions:

Hawkeye Omnibus
By Matt Fraction and David Aja

Superior Foes of Spider-Man Omnibus
By Nick Spencer and Steve Lieber

Fantastic Four Omnibus Volume 1 and 2
By Jonathan Hickman


Enojy!

[Beorg]

Thor:

Thor God of Thunder by Jason Aaron 2012
The Mighty Thor by Walter Simonson

[Prof. Warren]

I think the best suggestion I can give you is: don't listen to all the negative and whiny people that will tell you that right now Marvel s**ks, the characters are different from the movies and so on. They are just too attached to the comics they read when growing up and are pathologically unable to accept changes.

Well said!

[Jekyll]

Daredevil is and has always been my favorite Marvel hero. In general Marvel has mostly left him alone, so jumping in with him is a lot easier than other marvel heroes.
Here is what I recommend:
Frank Miller Volume 1-3 a lot of the Netflix show is based off of Millers run.
Also by Miller: Born Again and Man Without Fear

Brian Michael Bendis did a great run it has three large paperback volumes or 12 smaller and cheaper volumes.
The same with Ed Brubaker.

Mark Waid had one of the more recent runs that you can purchase as well.

All of these can be found on EBay or Amazon.

[CaptCleghorn]

If you came out of nowhere from the movies to read Marvel Comics you're going to be in for quite a doozy.

In a way. I'm an old-timer who started reading Fantastic Four because of the cartoon (1960s). There were characters in the comic book that weren't in the cartoon. Why didn't Reed and Sue have a baby in the cartoon?

The difference between movies and books is that movies present a single story. The comics present more of an ongoing presentation. If you're into more in-depth analysis of a character, then the books will be great. If you're OK with accepting Conan Doyle's original Sherlock Holmes along with multiple series and movies, then differences with media changes shouldn't bother you.

[WebLurker]

If you're interested in just a great storytelling I hear very positive things about Spider-Man renew your vows and I believe the first trade paperback of that is available.

I like that series a lot, too. There are technically two trade paperbacks out; the Secret Wars miniseries by Dan Slott that started it all and then the Brawl in the Family trade that collects the first five issues of the ongoing series that builds off of the mini. The ongoing series does retcon quite a few things from the mini but they do build off of each other a lot. It's a bit like the Incredibles, so if you like that movie, odds are you'd probably find something to enjoy in it.

If you want Spider-Man stuff but aren't worried about it being in the 616 continuity, Brian Michael Bendis's Ultimate Spider-Man run is a very good first comic; it's very accessible and self-contained, re-telling the Spider-Man mythos from scratch with some new twists and created a legacy that I think rivals the main ASM series. (It's also been the basis for pretty much all the movies or parallel them in many ways.)