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Best Marvel for New Readers?

I'm kind of new to Marvel in general, and have focused mainly on Vertigo and indie titles over the last few years. I have recently been into Ms. Marvel and Hawkeye, but what else would people recommend? Especially looking for newer titles.
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Comments

  • jaydee74jaydee74 Posts: 1,526
    Newer titles? So like stuff basically that starts with Marvel Now? I would try She-Hulk. It's a pretty good title with a great writing and hit or miss art. I have loved Loki: Agent of Asgard. You can't go wrong with Amazing Spider-Man. The solo Cyclops series is very good as well and I've heard some great things about the new Winter Soldier series. Hope that helps.
  • Given your Vertigo and indie background, I would second She-Hulk, and add Silver Surfer, Ghost Rider, and Moon Knight. You might also want to keep an eye out for the upcoming Squirrel Girl series.
  • jaydee74jaydee74 Posts: 1,526
    Oh. I would also add Rocket Raccoon. That book is great.
  • Evening639Evening639 Posts: 368
    edited November 2014
    I very much second Silver Surfer and would also add Captain Marvel, especially since you're already reading Ms. Marvel and I feel those two books are very similar in tone. Kelly Sue DeConnick's writing is fun and quirky with Star Wars references galore. And David Lopez's artistic take on the character is vaguely reminiscent of Amanda Conner's Power Girl, both of which highlight the characters as simultaneously strong but vulnerable women first and superheroes second.

    The first six issues of Captain Marvel just came out in trade and if the first volume of Silver Surfer isn't out yet, it should be coming out soon, making both of those titles easily accessible. Also, I personally knew next to nothing about Carol Danvers or the Surfer aside from their basic origins and found both books very easy to follow, so I would definitely say they're reader-friendly to someone just starting out in Marvel.

    @jaydee74 How is Cyclops now that it's seen it's first Ruckaless issue? I have really enjoyed it thus far but I'm a bit behind and still need to read issues #5 and #6.
  • jaydee74jaydee74 Posts: 1,526
    I've enjoyed it. Truth be told, I can't afford comics anymore but I do get a chance to read stuff here and there and I still think that Cyclops is a pretty decent comic. It's sort of the comic I've always wanted to see with Cyclops though so I'm a bit biased. I just like seeing young Cyclops having adventures.
  • Just get the Marvel Unlimited app and a subscription. $10 a month and they are already putting up issues of Cyclops, Original Sin, etc... It is saving me TONS of money and I like reading on my tablet.
  • David_DDavid_D Posts: 3,884

    Just get the Marvel Unlimited app and a subscription. $10 a month and they are already putting up issues of Cyclops, Original Sin, etc... It is saving me TONS of money and I like reading on my tablet.

    Seconded! It is like Netflix-- you can use it to keep (almost) current with the new stuff, or go back for classics. You can search by story arc, creator, title, character, etc. And at that price, you can branch out and read things without any single choice feeling like a risk.
  • jaydee74jaydee74 Posts: 1,526
    I have been thinking about that. I don't have a tablet though and I hate reading comics on my phone but when and if I get a tablet, I'll be looking into the Marvel Unlimited. I have heard nothing but good things about it.
  • David_DDavid_D Posts: 3,884
    jaydee74 said:

    I have been thinking about that. I don't have a tablet though and I hate reading comics on my phone but when and if I get a tablet, I'll be looking into the Marvel Unlimited. I have heard nothing but good things about it.

    Also, if it helps, it doesn't have to be a tablet or a device. I had Marvel Unlimited (back then it was the Marvel DCU) before we had an iPad, and I read a LOT of comics (I think this was also before we had kids) via our destop iMac. I tend to use the tablet for it now, but sometimes I miss reading comics on a screen that big.
  • spidspid Posts: 203
    If you want something that is more mainstream, but is also standalone I would recommend Jason Aaron's God of Thunder run especially the first two trades.
  • jaydee74jaydee74 Posts: 1,526
    David_D said:

    jaydee74 said:

    I have been thinking about that. I don't have a tablet though and I hate reading comics on my phone but when and if I get a tablet, I'll be looking into the Marvel Unlimited. I have heard nothing but good things about it.

    Also, if it helps, it doesn't have to be a tablet or a device. I had Marvel Unlimited (back then it was the Marvel DCU) before we had an iPad, and I read a LOT of comics (I think this was also before we had kids) via our destop iMac. I tend to use the tablet for it now, but sometimes I miss reading comics on a screen that big.
    Well, I have a mac. Awesome. Thanks @David_D
  • Moon Knight might be an option.
  • random73random73 Posts: 2,318
    AxelBrass said:

    Moon Knight might be an option.

    the first 6 issues were great.
  • shanebshaneb Posts: 109
    That's the Warren Ellis run? I read the first issue of Moon Knight and that was great!

    Just curiously, is there any period or segment of Marvel that was similar to the revisionist/pre-Vertigo area of the DCU? I'm thinking of titles like Shade the Changing Man, Sandman, Doom Patrol, Animal Man, Swamp Thing, etc. Was there ever runs that came in like this on Marvel? I am aware of Garth Ennis's MAX run on Punisher, but not much else.
  • shaneb said:

    That's the Warren Ellis run? I read the first issue of Moon Knight and that was great!

    Just curiously, is there any period or segment of Marvel that was similar to the revisionist/pre-Vertigo area of the DCU? I'm thinking of titles like Shade the Changing Man, Sandman, Doom Patrol, Animal Man, Swamp Thing, etc. Was there ever runs that came in like this on Marvel? I am aware of Garth Ennis's MAX run on Punisher, but not much else.

    I think the closest they came to the feel of the proto-Vertigo books was when Warren Ellis first came to Marvel in the mid-’90s and took over the Hellstorm series and did the Druid mini-series. Marvel had started their Midnight Sons line a year or so beforehand, but those books were still more superhero than horror, more action based than thought provoking.

    You might be able to include X-Force/X-Statix too. While the team started out as X-Force in name only (as it was comprised of completely new characters), the book was done in much the same spirit as the proto-Vertigo books, and it was written by Peter Milligan who did a lot of work for Vertigo in its heyday.
  • David_DDavid_D Posts: 3,884

    shaneb said:

    That's the Warren Ellis run? I read the first issue of Moon Knight and that was great!

    Just curiously, is there any period or segment of Marvel that was similar to the revisionist/pre-Vertigo area of the DCU? I'm thinking of titles like Shade the Changing Man, Sandman, Doom Patrol, Animal Man, Swamp Thing, etc. Was there ever runs that came in like this on Marvel? I am aware of Garth Ennis's MAX run on Punisher, but not much else.

    I think the closest they came to the feel of the proto-Vertigo books was when Warren Ellis first came to Marvel in the mid-’90s and took over the Hellstorm series and did the Druid mini-series. Marvel had started their Midnight Sons line a year or so beforehand, but those books were still more superhero than horror, more action based than thought provoking.

    You might be able to include X-Force/X-Statix too. While the team started out as X-Force in name only (as it was comprised of completely new characters), the book was done in much the same spirit as the proto-Vertigo books, and it was written by Peter Milligan who did a lot of work for Vertigo in its heyday.
    I would add to that some of the best of the Marvel Knights line (and I think all of these were Marvel Knights to start with, but if not, they were around this same time and era). This would include the (pre-MAX) Punisher by Ennis and Dillon; Daredevil first by Smith and Quesada, and later (and better, in my opinion) by Bendis and Maleev. The Marvel Boy mini by Grant Morrison and J.G. Jones. And the excellent volume of Black Panther by Christopher Priest (and a lot of different artists).

    Like the titles @nweathington‌ named, these books had room to be a little edgier, more esoteric, in some cases darker, and in all their cases, they were mostly left alone to do their own thing. I don't know that all of them have been collected at all in print (in the case of Black Panther) or kept in print. But they make for some excellent reading on Marvel Unlimited.
  • Evening639Evening639 Posts: 368
    edited November 2014
    shaneb said:

    That's the Warren Ellis run? I read the first issue of Moon Knight and that was great!

    Just curiously, is there any period or segment of Marvel that was similar to the revisionist/pre-Vertigo area of the DCU? I'm thinking of titles like Shade the Changing Man, Sandman, Doom Patrol, Animal Man, Swamp Thing, etc. Was there ever runs that came in like this on Marvel? I am aware of Garth Ennis's MAX run on Punisher, but not much else.

    J.M. DeMatteis' first run on Spectacular Spider-Man with Sal Buscema and the Claremont/Sienkiewicz run on The New Mutants both always struck me as being more at home at late 80's DC/early 90's Vertigo. Especially Sienkiewicz's art on New Mutants. Beautiful and nightmarish all in the same panel. And it looked like nothing Marvel was publishing at the time.

    Both of those runs are also very dark and psychological and really concentrate more on character development than action.

    Not sure if they're exactly what you're looking for but they are good reads.


  • If you like Hawkeye, chances are you will like to the Brubaker/Fraction/Aja run on Iron Fist from 2006. I'm actually reading them now for that exact reason and loving it.

    (Cheap plug) Review of first book on my site: http://www.exploringmarvelu.com/2014/11/the-immortal-iron-fist-last-iron-fist.html

    Other books you might dig:
    Alias #1-28 (2001) - I can't recommend this one highly enough!
    The Inhumans #1-12 by Jenkins (1998)
    Charlie Huston's Moon Knight (2006)
  • shanebshaneb Posts: 109
    Alias is in the MAX line, yeah? Any other stand out MAX books?
  • jaydee74jaydee74 Posts: 1,526
    pfinnegan said:

    If you like Hawkeye, chances are you will like to the Brubaker/Fraction/Aja run on Iron Fist from 2006. I'm actually reading them now for that exact reason and loving it.

    This was one of my favorite runs from Marvel in some time. I would recommend this as well. Also, I really liked The Avenging Spider-Man. It was some fun team-ups with Spider-Man and various heroes. Also, if you like a different kind of hero in a different setting, check out Scarlet Spider. It's really quite good.
  • shaneb said:

    Alias is in the MAX line, yeah? Any other stand out MAX books?

    Garth Ennis's Punisher was all kinds of awesome. The Fury books, also by Ennis was excellent and I'm shocked they didn't get more attention. And Gerber came back for a Howard the Duck mini-series that was well worth your time and money. The rest is kind of pick and choose...those are the ones that really stand out in my mind.

  • Chuck_MelvilleChuck_Melville Posts: 3,003
    edited November 2014

    The Fury books, also by Ennis was excellent and I'm shocked they didn't get more attention.

    Was that the series where Fury killed an opponent with his own intestines? I was just reading about that in Marvel Comics – The Untold Story. Seems that it got exactly the wrong kind of attention in Hollywood and helped to kill a Nick Fury proposal that had been in the works. Avi Arad was (according to the account in the book) tearing his hair out trying to reconcile his film proposals with what was then being published in the books and interested investors were shying away from the darker content they were seeing.
  • shanebshaneb Posts: 109

    The Fury books, also by Ennis was excellent and I'm shocked they didn't get more attention.

    Was that the series where Fury killed an opponent with his own intestines? I was just reading about that in Marvel Comics – The Untold Story. Seems that it got exactly the wrong kind of attention in Hollywood and helped to kill a Nick Fury proposal that had been in the works. Avi Arad was (according to the account in the book) tearing his hair out trying to reconcile his film proposals with what was then being published in the books and interested investors were shying away from the darker content they were seeing.

    That's fascinating. I wonder if it worked in the opposite direction for The Punisher as they were able to essentially see an "R-rated" version before the film property went forward. This could also be one of the business problems for simply trying to take well known properties over to an adult imprint, rather than having a separate set of characters entirely.
  • David_DDavid_D Posts: 3,884
    edited November 2014
    shaneb said:

    The Fury books, also by Ennis was excellent and I'm shocked they didn't get more attention.

    Was that the series where Fury killed an opponent with his own intestines? I was just reading about that in Marvel Comics – The Untold Story. Seems that it got exactly the wrong kind of attention in Hollywood and helped to kill a Nick Fury proposal that had been in the works. Avi Arad was (according to the account in the book) tearing his hair out trying to reconcile his film proposals with what was then being published in the books and interested investors were shying away from the darker content they were seeing.

    That's fascinating. I wonder if it worked in the opposite direction for The Punisher as they were able to essentially see an "R-rated" version before the film property went forward. This could also be one of the business problems for simply trying to take well known properties over to an adult imprint, rather than having a separate set of characters entirely.
    I remember that anecdote from the Untold Story book, too. And it surprised me, given that the MAX books are such a niche thing-- the singles are direct market only, they tend to be small print runs, etc. Of course it might be the Internet echo chamber effect that a would-be producer Googles Nick Fury, and finds some recent bit of noise made by people online about the MAX stories. But the anecdote is strange, as when that Fury MAX story came out (2007), they had to have already shot, or been close to shooting, Jackson as Fury in Iron Man. So whether or not the old and white Nick Fury was behaving or misbehaving in small print run comics should have had no effect on whether or not they make a Nick Fury movie with the version that had been appearing in the much more popular and widely printed (and book market hit) Ultimate Spider-Man and The Ultimates for nearly 10 years.

    The book presents it as a cause-and-effect that just doesn't ring true to me. I mean, I'm not saying that some suit didn't get nervous because of blog chatter around those Ennis and Robertson stories. But it seems like if that reservation *actually* mattered it would have been easy to smooth over.

    I think it is more likely that a standalone Nick Fury movie, maybe with the "classic" version of Fury had been in development for years, and it got scrapped in favor of the Sam Jackson Ultimate Fury that was going to move across the various cinematic universe franchises as they built towards Avengers.
  • shanebshaneb Posts: 109
    Just started reading Jason Aaron's Thor and its great. Are other Thor books this targeted towards the mythology, or is that unique to this run?
  • shaneb said:

    Just started reading Jason Aaron's Thor and its great. Are other Thor books this targeted towards the mythology, or is that unique to this run?

    Unique to him. His was one of the most radical Marvel Now changes.

  • shaneb said:

    Just started reading Jason Aaron's Thor and its great. Are other Thor books this targeted towards the mythology, or is that unique to this run?

    If you want more mythologically inclined Thor, I recommend picking up the collection of Kirby’s “Tales of Asgard” back-ups from early in the original series, as well as the Kurt Busiek/Steve Rude mini-series Thor: Godstorm. Also, Charles Vess’ Thor stories for Marvel Fanfare were excellent, though most of them focused more on the Warriors Three than Thor himself.

    Beyond that, there are lots of stories and arcs from various runs that gear more towards the mythology—there have been multiple Ragnarok stories, for example—but you'll have to hunt and peck for them.
  • I was just thinking about Thor too... I recommend Thor the Mighty Avenger by Langridge and Chris Sample (currently of Daredevil fame) which sadly lasted only 10 issues. plus the one-offs by Matt Fraction prior to his actual ongoing run on the book.
  • shanebshaneb Posts: 109
    I'm trying to catch up to the most current issues of Thor, but how are people liking the first couple issues of the new run? Does it keep a similar tone to the 25 issues before?
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