Friday, January 08, 2021

Marvel Comics reading order

Yeah, yeah.  You've seen all the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies.  And you probably have your own favorite viewing order: generally release order or chronological order (pocket-lint, empireonline, techradar, collider, nerdest, digitalspy includes TV shows, cnet w/ TV,  cnet2, gamesradar w/ TV, amctheatres - thematic, theverge: Disney+).  I think I like the cnet2 order.

But now that you have watched all the movie (and waiting for the next one), what about the comics that the movies are based on?  Yes, there is a timeline for those too.  CMRO (the complete Marvel reading order) aka Travis Starnes has created one, starting with Fantastic Four no. 1.

From the FAQ, "The goal of the order is to put all the comics of the main Marvel universe in a readable order. To have the events form issues flow in a way that makes sense, so if an event or comic is referenced in one issue, you have already read the comic being referenced. The Order also tries and keep all the characters where they should be. So if the Hulk is wandering around in Siberia, he isn’t seen intermittently in Nevada at the same time. There are of course times with the convoluted nature of the Marvel universe will make this impossible, but the goal is to get it as close as we can."

The order starts off with Fantastic Four #1 (cover date November 1961, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby), then Tales to Astonish #27 (January 1962 - Henry Pym, later to be Ant-Man, Larry Lieber and Jack Kirby), Incredible Hulk #1 (May 1962, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby), Amazing Fantasy #15 (August 1962 - Spider-Man, Stan Lee and Steve Ditko), Journey Into Mystery #83 (August 1962 - Thor, Larry Lieber and Jack Kirby), Strange Tales #101 (October 1962 - Johnny Storm, The Human Torch, Larry Lieber and Jack Kirby), Tales of Suspense #39 (March 1963 - Iron Man, Larry Lieber and Don Heck), Amazing Spider-Man #1 (March 1963 - Stan Lee and Steve Ditko), Tales to Astonish #44 (June 1963 - The Wasp, Larry Lieber), Strange Tales #110 (July 1963 - Doctor Strange, Stan Lee and Steve Ditko), The X-Men #1 (September 1963, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby), The Avengers #1 (September 1963, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby), Tales of Suspense #49 (January 1964 - The Watcher, Larry Lieber),  Daredevil #1 (April 1964, Stan Lee and Bill Everett), Tales to Astonish #60 (October 1964 - The Hulk, Stan Lee and Steve Ditko), Tales of Suspense #59 (November 1964 - Captain America, Jack Kirby), Strange Tales #135 (August 1965 - Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby), Tales to Astonish #70 (August 1965 - Sub-Mariner, Stan Lee and Gene Colan), The Mighty Thor #126 (March 1966, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby), Iron Man and Sub-Mariner #1 (April 1968, Roy Thomas and Gene Colan), Captain America #100 (April 1968, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby), Iron Man #1 (May 1968, Archie Goodwin and Gene Colan), Marvel Super-Heroes #12 (December 1967 - Captain Marvel, Gene Colan), Captain Marvel #1 (May 1968, Gene Colan), Sub-Mariner #1 (May 1968, Roy Thomas and John Buscema), Doctor Strange #169 (June 1968, Roy Thomas and Dan Adkins), Silver Surfer #1 (August 1968, Stan Lee and John Buscema), Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD #1 (June 1968, Jim Steranko), Amazing Adventuers #1 (August 1970 - The Inhumans and the Black Widow, Jack Kirby).

The last Avengers by Lee and Kirby was #8.  Don Heck took over in #9 (October 1964).  The last X-Men by Lee and Kirby was #11.  Alex Toth took over for Kirby in #12 (July 1965), though Kirby still did the layouts through #17.  The last Captain America by Lee and Kirby was #112.  Jim Steranko took over for Kirby in #113 (May 1969).  Actually Steranko also did #110-111 too.  The last Thor by Lee and Kirby was #179.  Neal Adams took over for Kirby in #180 (October 1970).  The last Fantastic Four by Lee and Kirby was #102, John Romita Sr. took over for Kirby in #103 (October 1970).

When Kirby left Marvel, that's kind of when I stopped buying comics.  Well actually I still bought some of Kirby's works for D.C. (Kamandi, OMAC, etc.) and when Kirby returned to Marvel (Captain America, Black Panther, etc.).   But the thrill was gone for me with the Lee and Kirby split.

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