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A Crisis of Chronology: Cosmic Marvel

By | March 28th, 2010
Posted in Columns | 4 Comments


With the release of Annihilation, Marvel’s cosmic setting got the boost of attention that it really needed. It was easily accessible to new readers, and caused said newer readers to become well acquainted with Marvel’s until then under-appreciated space tales. If you’ve read Annihilation and the series that have spun out of it (Nova, Annihilation: Conquest, and Guardians of the Galaxy), you may have gained a hunger for the original stories that set up this great setting. And so do I bring you a (slightly abridged) history of Marvel’s cosmic setting! Just follow the jump for all sorts of space adventures.

The Essentials

If you’re a big fan of the old combo of Stan the Man and the King of Comics (Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, for those not in the know), you might already own a few of the Essential Fantastic Four collections. For those who aren’t familiar with this line, Marvel’s Essential collections reprint large amounts of older comics in large, affordable trades. The downside? They’re printed in black and white on newspaper-quality paper. I don’t mind this because the coloring back in the day wasn’t great anyways, but people always have their preferences. The first three volumes of the Essential Fantastic Four introduce some of the key players in Marvel’s cosmic setting, including the Kree, the Skrulls, and the Inhumans, as well as everyone’s favorite devourer-of-worlds, Galactus and his herald, the Silver Surfer. These aren’t completely necessary, but for those who want to go back to the source, this is the easiest way. Additionally, Essential X-Men vol 1 introduces the Shi’ar for the first time, as well as containing a story that is later heavily referenced in this list. The second volume of Essential X-Men isn’t nearly as important to this list, but I still recommend picking it up.

The Kree-Skrull War
Speaking of classic stories, The Kree-Skrull War was one of the best story arcs of its’ time, and remains one of the most influential of Marvel’s cosmic tales. Published in the pages of The Avengers, The Kree-Skrull War was one of the main stories responsible for making cosmic Marvel more and more its’ own setting. Also of importance was the focus on Captain Marvel, who had just had his title put on hold (some of that series is also available in a Marvel Essential collection). If you want some of the best comics the 70’s had to offer, I recommend The Kree-Skrull War whether or not you intend to read the rest of this list. The story is either available in a single, colored trade or yet another Marvel Essential collection, volume four of The Avengers. As a note, this story comes before the aforementioned X-men stories, though neither truly affect the other.

The Death of Captain Marvel

The first of the Marvel Graphic Novel line, Jim Starlin’s The Death of Captain Marvel is forever immortalized as one of the most poignant and timeless superhero stories ever told. While The Kree-Skrull War serves as a good introduction to Mar-Vell, The Death of Captain Marvel needs little familiarity with the character to truly hit home. If you can find it, I also recommend the out-of-print trade paperback The Life of Captain Marvel, which collects the issues of Captain Marvel that Starlin wrote before this, as well as the introduction of Thanos. I’ve also heard that they’ve been collected into a single volume entitled The Life and Death of Captain Marvel, so that is another option.

Rebirth of Thanos

Hold on a minute, I just mentioned Thanos being introduced and now I am talking about his rebirth? Unfortunately, Thanos’ defeat at the hand of Adam Warlock (which happens before The Death of Captain Marvel) has only been collected in the second volume of the Marvel Masterworks collection of Jim Starlin’s Warlock series, which has quite the hefty price tag ($60 for 14 issues). If you’re willing to dump that much for the second volume, you might as well buy the first; otherwise, the story can be safely passed without too much trouble. Silver Surfer: The Rebirth of Thanos, again written by Starlin, includes not only the rebirth of the mad titan, but also the critically acclaimed Thanos Quest that lead into the epic Infinity Gauntlet saga.

Continued below

The Various Infinity Arcs

Probably the most massive arcs done in Marvel’s cosmic setting until the release of Annihilation were Starlin’s various Infinity sagas. All three of the originals (Infinity Gauntlet, Infinity War and Infinity Crusade) are great examples of excellent story-telling, and show Starlin’s ability to juggle many characters at once. The first in particular is stellar, but the other two should not be ignored. Unfortunately, Starlin’s last Infinity book, 2002’s Infinity Abyss, was mediocre at best, and a significant let-down to those who had such high hopes from the previous three. Read it if you want to know what Thanos and Adam Warlock were up to at that time, or to get introduced to the new Captain Marvel, Genis-Vell.
Captain Marvel by Peter David

Though he had two series before Peter David’s run, Genis-Vell’s career as Captain Marvel is only collected in the four trades that make up David’s 25-issue run. This series also introduces Phyla-Vell, who plays a major role in both Annihilation series and who eventually becomes a member of the Guardians of the Galaxy. There’s really nothing to complain about here, as Peter David almost always writes an excellent story, but it isn’t absolutely essential for later on.

Vulcan and the Shi’Ar

In X-Men: Deadly Genesis, Ed Brubaker introduced the third Summers brother, Vulcan. Following this story he escaped into space and slowly took over the entirety over the Shi’ar Empire. I’ve never been too interested in the Shi’ar, and Deadly Genesis was one of the few things by Ed Brubaker that I read and didn’t particularly care for. Along with Deadly Genesis, Vulcan’s story continues into The Rise and Fall of the Shi’ar Empire, Emperor Vulcan and X-Men: Kingbreaker, the last of which is collected in the Road to War of Kings trade.

Annihilation
Annihilation completely revitalized the cosmic setting of Marvel. After all the praise Matt gave the series in a previous Multiversity 101, I see little point in saying anything more than commending its incredible scope and execution. If you haven’t read it, I would go so far as to suggest that you read Annihilation first and then read the rest of this list. Spinning out of the event was the new Nova series, centered around the one leading character in the current cosmic Marvel status quo that I haven’t devoted any time to up until now. Unfortunately, Richard Rider’s history is so involved on Earth as well as cosmic Marvel that it is better to just pick up the title right after Annihilation, after Abnett and Lanning completely revamped the Nova Corps. The next event, Annihilation: Conquest, was just as ambitious and nearly as great as the original, and similarly resulted in another great ongoing: The Guardians of the Galaxy.

The Inhumans and Secret Invasion

Remember those Inhumans I mentioned earlier? Blackbolt and his subjects are quite important to the War of Kings event, so I highly recommend Paul Jenkin’s Marvel Knights miniseries to get to know the cast better. Son of M and Silent War are both story arcs that are very important to the Inhumans, but they rely too much on House of M (which is far removed from cosmic Marvel) to really get onto this list. So long as you read Jenkin’s series you should have enough information to understand what is going on in the Secret Invasion: Inhumans arc. Indeed, while Secret Invasion is semi-cosmic in nature, this miniseries, along with the Nova tie-ins, should be enough to show how the invasion affected Marvel’s cosmic setting.

War of Kings

Marvel’s latest cosmic event, War of Kings, brought together the loose ends from the two Annihilation events, the various Vulcan and Shi’ar-centered plot lines, and Secret Invasion. While anything set in Marvel’s cosmic setting for the time being will always have the misfortune of being compared with Annihilation, War of Kings was very well written, even if it wasn’t as good as Annihilation (which seems to be the main complaint towards the book). The recently released hardcover has everything you need to follow the event, and while the Nova and Guardians of the Galaxy tie-ins aren’t necessary, you should pick them up in trade if you enjoy the series (which you will). After reading War of Kings, you’re completely caught with this epic realm, and have no excuse to pick up the ongoing Nova and Guardians of the Galaxy series.

Continued below

Put into chronological order, we have:

  • Essential Fantastic Four vol 1-3
  • The Kree-Skrull War
  • Essential Captain Marvel vol 1*
  • The Life of Captain Marvel
  • Essential X-Men vol 1 (and maybe 2)
  • The Death of Captain Marvel
  • Marvel Masterworks: Warlock vol 1 and 2*
  • Silver Surfer: The Rebirth of Thanos
  • Infinity Gauntlet
  • Infinity War
  • Infinity Crusade (in two volumes)
  • Inhumans by Paul Jenkins*
  • Infinity Abyss*
  • Peter David’s Captain Marvel (in four volumes)*
  • X-Men: Deadly Genesis
  • Annihilation (in three volumes)
  • The Rise and Fall of the Shi’Ar Empire
  • Nova: Annihilation: Conquest (stop after issue 3)*
  • Emperor Vulcan
  • Annihilation: Conquest
  • Nova: Knowhere*
  • Guardians of the Galaxy: Legacy
  • Nova: Secret Invasion
  • Secret Invasion: Inhumans
  • Nova: Nova Corps
  • Road to War of Kings
  • War of Kings (and the Nova and Guardians of the Galaxy tie-ins, if you’re interested)

* indicates the choice is optional


//TAGS | A Crisis Of Chronology

Walt Richardson

Walt is a former editor for Multiversity Comics and current podcaster/ne'er-do-well. Follow him on Twitter @goodbyetoashoe... if you dare!

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