How should I get started with Marvel comics?

I have just recently started reading comics. I began with DC, which was easy enough as they have the New 52 reboot of nearly all their series. However, having watched a few Marvel films, I really want to try reading some Marvel comics. Many people I know say that Marvel is better than DC. Would you say so? How should I begin with Marvel comics? Do they have their own equivalent of the New 52?

On a side-note, I noticed you can now sign in with Google+. Can I connect my existing account or do I need a new one?

Find some stuff from the 60s and stop right after Civil War.

@joshmightbe: Really? Is the newer stuff that bad? I heard Civil War was fantastic, but that's all I know.

Marvel Now is awesome. Start from there.

Read Old Man Logan, Planet Hulk, Marvels & Civil War

@wolverine08: What is Marvel Now? I heard about it. Some people called it Marvel's own New 52, but from what I've seen it's just bringing some of the superheroes into a modern setting - not actually rebooting their lore. I mean, I don't actually know how complicated the stories from Marvel are. Do the superheroes have really complex backgrounds that I'd be confused about by not reading a series from the beginning?

@runawayavenger: I actually don't know of many of Marvel's superheroes, besides the more prominent ones which have received movies. Ironman always seemed cool in The Avengers film, but I assume that the comics are quite different from the movies - right?

Marvel Now is Marvel in the aftermath of AvX. Most series were renumbered to number 1, and no, Marvel characters don't have complex that you won't understand. If you do start picking up Marvel

I'd recommend you start these series from issue number 1.

Thor: God of Thunder

Indestructible Hulk

Daredevil (begin from issue 28)

Scarlet Spider (start from issue 18)

Uncanny Avengers

Hawkeye

New Avengers

Avengers

and Savage Wolverine

I'll be honest and say that the X-Men characters never interested me. Out of Marvel, I've been so far interested by the following characters:

Deadpool

Ironman

Hulk

Captain America

@brad387:

Hmmm, for Hulk, start picking up Indestructible Hulk by Mark Waid from Marvel Now. For Cap, pick up the "Captain America: Winter Soldier" TPB by Ed Brubaker and the whole of his Captain America run. For Iron Man, pick up the "Extremis" TPB by Warren Ellis and get Matt Fraction's run on Iron Man. I don't know much about Deadpool, so I can't give you much info on that.

I'll give you what I'm reading

Indestructible Hulk (if you like Hulk in the Avengers movie you will like this)

Thor God of Thunder (if you like epic action great story bad ass villain and is tough enough to handle 3 Thor's at once this is a wise choice. It's a great title plus Infinity just started)

Avengers (If you liked the movie or are interested in epic cosmic stories definitely pick this up)

Uncanny Avengers (Even if you're not the biggest X-Men fan like me you will like this it mixes both the Avengers and X-Men sides of the Marvel Universe mixing the best of both worlds it's a fantastic series only if you do plan on getting this skip the Age of Ultron tie in as it's mediocre and pretty pointless)

All these are perfect jumping on points for you you don't really have to have read anything else from the past to understand what's going on. although in Indestructible Hulk they talk about Avengers vs X-Men in a panel and Uncanny Avengers deals with a bit of the fall out from that event so you could read that event if you want but it's not important and you could still jump into these series and enjoy them.

Start with Planet Hulk & World war Hulk on up

Even if you aren't interested in them right now, i'd recommend trying one of the new Marvel Now! series. They're all excellent and the movies don't do the X-Men a lot of justice imo.

I don't really know what to recommend for Deadpool. You could jump into the new series which is only like 14 issues in. For Iron Man Extremis, and Fraction's Invincible Iron Man run are some of the best. The new series is very easy to jump into for people who have just seen the movies but doesn't become very good until the "Secret origin of Tony Stark' arc. For Hulk read Mark Waid's current series. Ed Brubaker's Cap stuff was great and so is Rick Remender's current Marvel Now! series.

Look, If you want to read ONE comic that can introduce you to the Marvel Universe as a whole, I would recommend Avengers by Busiek.

The story is this: EVERYONE who has ever been an Avenger have been attacked so they get the band together to figure out what is going on.

This is the book that got me into Marvel. It has a ocean of great characters and a killer story. One of the really good thing about this book is that it also tell you a lot of the history of the earths greatest superhero team, but in a way that doesn't feel forced.

@wolverine08: This is a great list. Only one I haven't read is Savage Wolverine, I might pick up the first trade and try it.

I would add Deadpool. It's not for everyone though. It doesn't take itself seriously and the humor can be juvenile, but I'm smiling and laughing each issue.

@brad387:

man u should really be reading marvel I believe marvel and dc comics are about the same but marvel feels more grounded. anyway you should read MARVEL NOW I mean you have too.I recommend the only best of the best so I wuld say Superior Spiderman(must buy), Thor:God of Thunder (really a must buy), Indestructible Hulk, Daredevil(awsum book his writer won an award), Hawkeye(art is awsum)New Avengers(best team book right now) and if you are in to xmen get All new xmen they have many choices but these are the ones I recommend man oh and how could I forget Captain America too

@waezi2 said:

Look, If you want to read ONE comic that can introduce you to the Marvel Universe as a whole, I would recommend Avengers by Busiek.

The story is this: EVERYONE who has ever been an Avenger have been attacked so they get the band together to figure out what is going on.

This is the book that got me into Marvel. It has a ocean of great characters and a killer story. One of the really good thing about this book is that it also tell you a lot of the history of the earths greatest superhero team, but in a way that doesn't feel forced.

awwwwwwwwwwww yeah

There's a similar title for X-Men e_e

@thedarklordpandamonium: What X-Men book is that?

I recommend reading Volume 5 Captain America stories by Ed Brubaker.

Collected Editions

• Captain America: Winter Soldier Volume 1 (#1-7)
• Captain America: Winter Soldier Volume 2 (#8-9 & 11-14)
• House of M: World of M Featuring Wolverine (#10 and other House of M tie ins)
• Captain America: Red Menace Volume 1 (#15-17 and Captain America 65th Anniversary Special)
• Captain America: Red Menace Volume 2 (#18-21)
• Civil War: Captain America (#22-24 and Winter Soldier: Winter Kills)
• Captain America: The Death of Captain America Volume 1: The Death of the Dream (#25-30)
• Captain America: The Death of Captain America Volume 2: The Burden of Dreams (#31-36)
• Captain America: The Death of Captain America Volume 3: The Man Who Bought America (#37-42)
• Captain America: The Man With No Face (#43-48)
• Captain America: Road to Reborn (#49-50 and volume 1 #600-601)
• Captain America: Reborn #1-6
• Captain America: Two Americas (#602-605 and Captain America: Who Will Wield the Shield?)
• Captain America: No Escape (#606-610)
• Captain America: The Trial of Captain America (#611-615 & 615.1)
• Captain America: Prisoner of War (#616-619)

If you're into Hulk, you should really read Planet Hulk through World War Hulk. It's just a great read and a good way to start with Hulk. You don't need to continue his series after that, you could start with Indestructible Hulk so you don't have to spend so much money getting up to date.

A lot of people say you should read Civil War to really get into Marvel. For me, Civil War turned me off of comics for a while. The Cosmic events that happened during Civil War were great, but the Civil War arc is a long road of a lot of dull stories that just don't seem as important as the writers tried to make it. Read Annihilation, Annihilation: Conquest, and Planet Hulk instead if you want to read some really great arcs from that time period. In Civil War, a bunch of heroes are fighting over a dumb law, while in Annihilation (which was happening at the same time), an overlord and Thanos are bringing forces from the negative zone to annihilate the universe. When you put it into perspective, the Civil War was very unimportant as compared to the Universal threat during Annihilation and it seemed silly that all these characters were so worried about legislation on Earth.

No clue. But it has to deal with the X-Genes that have been affected by Professor X going haywire or something.

@thedarklordpandamonium: Oh god, you are not talking about the one were Prof X and Maggie turn into Onslaught, right?

I started with Now Iron man's art is horrible avengers is convoluted and confusing, Indestructible hulk is fun but feels a little pointless and New Avengers has been incredible. Must say I can't read wolverine due to the 90s.

i would suggest to only read Scarlet Spider, it's the only decent book marvel is running now. Tight fights, fun stories and enough panel time for everyone, only setback is that Kaine is saying in every panel " im nothin like Parker", but acts like Parker a lot

@brad387: Since Indestructible Hulk is already mentioned, I'd recommend the current Captain America by Rick Remender. It's more fantastical and adventurous than Ed Brubaker's run. The first arc is cap separated from all his side character and thrown into a dangerous wilderness where he must survive. The isolation means it's the perfect picking up point and it shows flashbacks to Cap's childhood so you can get a feel for what kind of character he is.

Stay away from iron man and thunderbolts

What's wrong with Iron Man? He seemed a cool in the movies. I'm planning on reading the Extremis storyline for his origin story and then the Volume 4 series of Invincible Iron Man. After that, if I'm enjoying the character still, I might read the Now prints of Iron Man.

Hulk seems cool, as I said. I'm starting with Iron Man and also Thor, if someone here could point me in the right direction. Where should I get started with Thor?

I'd start with the current volumes of Captain America, and Indestructible Hulk.

The current Avengers and New Avengers books would be confusing to a newcomer I think.

Nova and the Guardians of the Galaxy are fun comics that don't require a lot of backreading to enjoy.

I'd say if you are interested in starting, then any of the Marvel Now titles would be a good jumping on point. They all started with number ones to my knowledge. Otherwise you can go back and pick up trades from previous story lines and events. Like Infinity Gauntlet, Civil War, AvX, Avengers: Disassembled, House of M, etc.

@brad387: well they rebooted their series more recently than the new 52 but they just renumbered them unlike dc's new earth. Id start reading a character you like and branch off, but id pick up avengers, Uncanny avengers, and all new x men, because those are the major teams and issues in marvel, their also having acooli series event thats called infinity and it just came out and it was great but id do some research on whats happened leading up to it before you buy a copy.Yeah you dont have to pick up on trades and alot of the comics right now are jump on friendly, just go on marvel.com and see whats coming out each week. The dc vs marvel thing, well im a big DC fan and love justice league and batman, so im reading all 3 justice leagues because theirs an event tieing the three together and constantly am buying batmans, now the thing with marvel is they have characters theat you can more relate too or at least thats how it was planned back wwhen the characters were created by stan lee, and DC has more godlike heroes and heroines, i cant decide wich over the other, its really all about what you like, So what are you into?

@brad387: Start with the current Marvel Now stuff it's a perfect jumping on point for new readers. Indestructible Hulk is at issue 12 and Thor God of Thunder is at issue 11 so you still have time to catch up.