A Crisis of Chronology: An Intro to Marvel

Unlike DC, Marvel rarely revamps their heroes’ origin stories. While this can certainly be considered a good thing, as we don’t have to read the same story over and over again with a few touched up details, it doesn’t help bring in newer readers. No matter how amazing the classics are, it’s often hard for new readers of the current generation to get past the somewhat dated dialogue and not as glossed up artwork of the 60’s and 70’s. Luckily, Marvel tends to keep its current storylines rather accessible (recap pages certainly help), but for those who like to start from the beginning the wonderful world of Marvel Comics can be quite daunting. Continuing the theme from last week, today’s column will be a look at the early years of Marvel’s heroes, with a focus on that which is easily accessible to new readers. Follow the jump if your interest is piqued.

The Marvels Project

The great team behind the revival of Captain America reunites for a look at the really early years of Marvel Comics. I’m talking before Marvel Comics even existed. The stories of Captain America, Namor, the Human Torch and more are retold in this great miniseries which ends this Wednesday. This is exactly the kind of story that Marvel needed to get people interested in the origins of the Marvel Universe, as opposed to just the current goings-ons. Epting’s art is nothing short of magnificent, and Brubaker gives a great modern flair to the WWII era classics. As I said in my previous column about the JSA, who can say no to punching Nazis?

Lee and Kirby’s Fantastic Four

Ok, I know I made it sound like there would be no “vintage” stuff on this list, but I’m pretty sure that if you don’t enjoy Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s Fantastic Four than you can’t enjoy superhero comics (maybe some, but not the genre as a whole; this is, again, my opinion). The 67 issues collected in the first three Essential volumes are a must have for any comic fan, introducing some of the most note-worthy characters in the Marvel Universe as well as containing the legendary Galactus Saga. The storytelling and wonderful characterization of the world’s favorite family in comics is top-notch, and I shouldn’t need to say anything about Jack Kirby’s penciling. Let’s leave it at this: there’s a reason his nickname is The King.

If the stories don’t seem particularly dated to you, I suggest picking up the Essential collections for other characters so you can get the originals rather than retellings. Otherwise, I would continue on this list. As a note: the Essential collections are printed on newspaper quality paper in black and white. Some people don’t like this, but I feel it’s a small trade when you’re getting ~20 issues for less than $20. Besides, coloring back in the day was rather ho-hum anyways.

Loeb and Sale’s “Color” Books

Jeph Loeb is certainly a writer who gets a lot of flak nowadays, and I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t one of those who heavily criticizes the man. However, for whatever reason, whenever he gets together with artist Tim Sale the results are always great. Hulk: Grey, Daredevil: Yellow and Spider-Man: Blue are each great stories that look at the early years of each respective hero. While Spider-Man: Blue is the only one that doesn’t really touch on the character’s origin, I’m pretty sure we have all heard Spider-Man’s origin more than enough. Each story is absolutely beautifully illustrated by Tim Sale, who has a very extravagant and unique style (man, his Green Goblin looks excellent). Most local shops I’ve run across have at least one of these books in stock, and they’re well worth the investment.

X-Men: Children of the Atom

Written in 1999, Children of the Atom retold the origin of the “first class” of the X-Men; that being Cyclops, Beast, Iceman, Jean Gray and Angel. While the story is slightly out of continuity, many of the same ideas from Lee and Kirby’s original stories are used in this brief 6-issue miniseries. While this is available in trade, if your local store has an extensive selection of back-issues you may be able to find a series called Professor Xavier and the X-Men, which, despite the rather flawed 90’s art, was relatively good and covered a longer time period.

Continued below

Avengers: The Origin

Written by Joe Casey, the same person who wrote Children of the Atom, Avengers: The Origin recounts the formation of Marvel’s premier super-team. The mini is still currently ongoing, with #2 just having come out this past Wednesday, though it seems like the kind of story that would be better to wait for the trade. It’s still too early to judge whether this will be a good mini or not, but what I’ve read so far has been pretty solid. Another good choice in this spot would be the first Essential volume of The Avengers, which covers the formation of the group as well as the addition of Hawkeye, Quicksilver and The Scarlet Witch. While most of the team hasn’t been introduced in this list yet (unless you read those Essentials I mentioned earlier), either collection serves as a fine enough introduction to the characters.

Death of the Stacys

Another one of the most famous Marvel story arcs of all time, the Marvel Premier Classic Hardcover edition of this story contains both the death of Gwen Stacy as well as the death of her father some issues beforehand. Well, I guess I spoiled a bit there, but it’s right on the cover and one of the most renowned stories of its time, so I can’t be faulted too much. Sure, the dialogue is slightly dated, but it will always and forever be the classic Spider-Man story, so you might as well check it out.

Claremont’s X-Men

Since we didn’t get too much of a focus on the X-Men as most people know them, I think it’s a good idea to pick up the first two volumes of Marvel’s Essential X-Men collections, containing Chris Claremont’s revival of the series. Between just those two collections you have some of the most famous X-Men stories, including The Dark Phoenix Saga, one of the most famous comic storylines of all time. I believe I said this in my previous column about Cosmic Marvel, but these two Essential collections and those three Fantastic Four ones should be part of the library of any superhero fan who doesn’t mind the format.

To wrap it all up, here’s this week’s list: