Starting Point : Marvels
Marvels by Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross is one of the greatest comics of all time. It was a four issue limited series that came out in ’94 that allows us to see the history of the Marvel universe by showing through the eyes of photographer, Phil Sheldon. We see four defining Marvel moments in each issue such as Namor VS. The First Human Torch, The Rise Of The X-Men, The Coming of Galactus and The Death of Gwen Stacy. Full of easter eggs and appearances by hundreds of famous Marvel Characters we begin to not only unravel the themes and history of Marvel but also we get a perfect introduction to comics in General. Busiek and Ross are two of the finest creators at the top of their game with this one. Using photo-realism Ross is able to present to us a world where we see as both realistic and fantastical. This is essential reading for any comic fan.
Spider-Man : You know, I was really happy when I asked Alyssa who she wanted to know more about and one of her first answers was Spider-Man. Not only do I know a good amount about the character but I also have some huge Spider-Man fans on our team who were able to help me out a bit.
So if you wanna start with an origin story then you really have your pick of them. There are quite a few different books out there that Focus on Peter’s beginning’s as our friendly neighborhood hero but my personal favorite just came out a few years ago and that’s
Learning To Crawl by Dan Slott and Ramón Pérez.
Pérez’s art is one of the first things I noticed when I picked this up. Already knowing Slott’s talent as a writer I already expected something great but the art is what really impressed me. It has all of the style of a classical comic but done with Modern technology. Even Ian Herring’s colors look like something done out of the 1960’s and that might make it sound dated but it couldn’t be further from the truth. It’s a callback to something traditional and it comes together so well. I mean, just look at the old school costume :
With this story we basically get to see behind the scenes of the first two Amazing Spider-Man comics. Fight with the Fantastic Four? Check. Chameleon framing Spider-Man? Check. Vulture cameo? Check. Slott is really able to bring out something fresh while still maintaining the truth of the character. It’s always been one of his biggest strengths during his run. In this story we don’t see the confident, altruistic Spider-Man. No, we instead see a Peter Parker that is bound and determined to use his powers to provide for his aunt. He’s young, he makes mistakes and overall it’s just a great starting point for his character.
Other suggestions : Ultimate Spider-Man, Birth Of Venom, Death Of The Stacy’s and Spider-Man : Blue
Spider-Gwen: Most Wanted?
In stark contrast to Alyssa giving me an easy one with Spider-Man, now we get a character that I knew next to nothing about at the time. Sure, I knew that it was an alternate reality Gwen Stacy as Spider-Woman but I had hardly read anything about her besides Spider-Verse. So I figured I would pick up her first graphic novel and just go with it. I was not disappointed at all.
Latour makes the entire comic feel like it’s own. It felt initially like it was just Marvel’s version of Black Canary(By Fletcher and Wu, check out the DC Fandom For You Article.) But it quickly became something else. Basically, Gwen gets bitten instead of Peter, Peter gets obsessed with Powers, becomes the Lizard and then Gwen is left with the Guilt after she defeats him and he dies in her arms. It’s a really great origin for a new character because it’s so familiar and yet so different. The true essence of this book relies on that. It’s basically a “What If?” Comic that maintains all of the emotional stakes of a traditional Spider-Man comic. There’s multiple callbacks to characters from the original universe such as Matt Murdock, Frank Castle, Vulture, Jean DeWolff, Kingpin and many more but they’re all just slightly different. It makes for a great comic and for me it was a great introduction to the character so I would suggest it to any new readers as well.
Other Suggestions : Spider-Verse, she’s still pretty new so she hasn’t had a lot of stories just yet.
Guardians Of The Galaxy :
This one was a difficult one for me because you really have two roads to go down, you can either read the book that inspired the film or the book that was inspired by the film. Either way is great but I give a slight edge to the Bendis stuff because it’s just so easy to jump into.
Guardians Of The Galaxy : Cosmic Avengers by Brian Michael Bendis and Steve McNiven
The first graphic novel of the Guardians revival was a perfect jumping on point for fans of the film or for people who just wanted to learn a bit more about the Guardians. It starts with a retelling of Peter Quill’s origin but sticks to the comic book version so his mother’s death is different, his father is a different character entirely and there’s no Yondu but it’s fine because it lays it all out there and it’s really easy to jump into. The second chapter of the book jumps right into the fun with the rest of the gang, Gamora, Rocket, Drax and Groot and they’re even joined by a new face : Iron Man. That’s right, Tony Stark has been a Guardian before and it was pretty great. This book is honestly just a lot of fun and it’s a great read for fans of the film and gives you an idea of what they changed for the Big screen.
Other Suggestions : Guardians Of The Galaxy by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning
This book is what inspired the film and it brought the Guardians into a more relatable story. It’s a great read but it’s still a bit difficult to understand everything if you haven’t read Annihilation and everything else that came before it. It’s definitely worth picking up but I wouldn’t suggest it if it’s the first one you’ve ever read.
Doctor Strange : The Way Of The Weird By Jason Aaron and Chris Bachalo
Doctor Strange is one of those characters where I knew who he was but I never really followed his massive character arcs or anything like that. He’s a great character but he is very weird and honestly the best part of this book is the fact that he runs with that like Quicksilver. Right from the start, it has to be said that Bachalo was the perfect artist for this because his work always looks foreign and wild just like Strange should.
Exhibit A :
So the art is all over the place but I mean that in the best way possible. As for the story, Aaron has been pretty consistent in the last few years but honestly the reason that I call him “The Next Bendis” is because he’s at his best when he gets to focus on character moments and in this we really get to learn a lot more about Stephen, Wong and the difficult relationship they have. I love the whole “Magic always has a cost.” concept and I’m actually hoping that they include more of that in the next film, I understand that the films probably couldn’t go into the darker side of it as much as this book does but I’m sure they could turn it around to where it’s a bit more accessible for most audiences.
Speaking of Accesible, it helps to know a few things like The Ancient One was originally a Man and The Eye Of Agamotto doesn’t house an Infinity Stone in the comics.
The only issue I had with this book is that it’s a lot of setup for the second one. When the primary conflict gets there is when the book ends and there’s nothing wrong with that but it is a bad cliffhanger.
Captain America : Winter Soldier The Complete Collection by Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting
If you thought I was going to mention any other comic then you don’t know me very well. Now the movie veers off of the original story in multiple different ways but they did it in a way that worked by recreating some fan favorite scenes and still holding true to the core storyline. Winter Soldier stands out above the rest by being the start of Brubaker’s six year run with the character. Everything about his run calls back to these first 14 issues. If by some chance you don’t know the major spoiler for this story then I won’t be the one to spoil that here but I will instead tell you why this story works.
I’ve said before that Captain America works very well with political commentary as long as they keep cap true to his character. This book does it in one of the best ways that it could. It genuinely makes you question : What would a man from WWII say and do in a post-9/11 world. It’s never preachy but it also doesn’t shy away from some very difficult subject matter. These are some of the best stories featuring Cap, Falcon, Black Widow and the rest and I absolutely endorse this run for anyone but you have to start here at the beginning.
