10 Best Marvel Comics For Essential Reading

10 Best Marvel Comics For Essential Reading

Contents

The comics and the events within them have served as the cornerstone on which the Marvel Multiverse was formed.

You Are Reading :[thien_display_title]

10 Best Marvel Comics For Essential Reading

No matter if they are seasoned veterans or are just getting started thanks to the MCU, Marvel has inspired generations of True Believers for decades. The comics have held sway over the films for decades, and to say they’ve helped shape the MCU is no embellishment. However, not every major or game-changing storyline from the comics has made it into the MCU.

Moments like Bucky Barnes turning into the Winter Soldier, or Iron-Man butting heads with Captain America during Civil War were definitely huge events in the comics, but it’s equally essential to read those books that set up the biggest heroes, have the most lasting impact, or are some of the most unique. These are the comics that, whether they make it to the big screen or not, every Marvel fan should read.

10 Amazing Fantasy #15 By Steve Ditko and Stan Lee

10 Best Marvel Comics For Essential Reading

If there’s one origin story everyone knows by heart, it’s either that of Gotham’s Caped Crusader or New York’s Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. Peter Parker’s debut from the ’60s practically set the events of all of Marvel into motion, and it’s a story that’s been told and retold countless times over ever since he first swung onto pages in 1962.

Every reboot or reimagining of Peter’s story all starts here, in or out of the MCU. He’s bitten by a radioactive spider, fails to stop a criminal that kills his Uncle Ben, and takes up his oath to protect the city from any villainous threat.

9 Marvel Essentials: X-Men By Chris Claremont

10 Best Marvel Comics For Essential Reading

Marvel Essentials: X-Men contains the best of the best of the ’80s runs of the X-Men. Every classic member is present and they’re all outfitted in their best and most memorable attire, and they all embark on their most action-packed adventures.

Starting with Giant-Sized X-Men, it covers the bases for an ideal sampling of the team. There’s practically not an X-Men film, game, or TV show that doesn’t take at least a fraction of inspiration from Claremont’s runs.

8 Marvel: 1602 By Neil Gaiman

10 Best Marvel Comics For Essential Reading

Whether they are caused by portals to other dimensions, magicians mucking about, or Loki variants screwing up the sacred timeline, alternative universes for Marvel’s legions of heroes and villains happen enough times to warrant a list of their own. However, there’s one that stands out.

See also  90 Day FiancĂ© Cast Members Who Proved They Weren’t Gold Diggers

Neil Gaiman’s Elizabethan approach to Marvel’s heroes is a unique and distinctive approach to familiar faces. With artwork inspired by woodcuts and paintings of the era, and of course Gaiman’s brilliant writing, this 2003 run is one multiverse worth exploring further. It would be so easy for Loki season 2 to take a few notes.

7 Captain America: Winter Soldier By Ed Brubaker

10 Best Marvel Comics For Essential Reading

It should be blatantly obvious where the MCU film of the same name pulled most of its inspiration. What separates Ed Brubaker’s original 2003 run other than design and delivery is the experience itself. Novels and comics alike are different mediums, and both offer different takes on the same story.

The movie’s plot pulls more than a few narrative choices from Brubaker’s comics as Captain America is reunited with his old pal Bucky, now the infamous Winter Soldier. It’s as emotional as it is action-packed, and it thoroughly explores the relationship between the two friends turned bitter enemies thanks to HYDRA’s manipulation.

6 Rocket Raccoon: Guardian Of The Keystone Quadrant By Bill Mantlo

10 Best Marvel Comics For Essential Reading

Come for the ridiculous ’80s era artwork, stay for the over-the-top sci-fi action. This run was Rocket Raccoon’s first solo adventure away from the rest of the Guardians of the Galaxy, and to say it was a product of its time is a gross understatement, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t fun or had an influence on his film persona. Bill Mantlo’s over-the-top adventure might be stuck in 1985, but that doesn’t mean modern Marvel didn’t learn from it.

Although Rocket has traded in his spandex for tactical jumpsuits, there are little tidbits and easter-eggs calling back to Rocket’s time aboard the Rack-N-Ruin. References to Lyla, Halfworld, and even Star-Lord calling him “Ranger Rick” all come from his comic book origins.

5 Spider-Man: Blue By Loeb and Sale

10 Best Marvel Comics For Essential Reading

The death of Gwen Stacy is one of the most tragic and character-developing events in all the Marvel universe, and while the original comic surrounding the events is one of the most important events in all of Spider-Man’s stories, there’s one adaptation that offers a more personal and emotional approach.

The events are framed by Peter Parker, now moving in with his beloved MJ, listening to a tape on an answering machine containing the last friendly words from Gwen. If comic fans enjoyed Loeb and Sale’s Batman: The Long Halloween, they should give their 2003 variation on Spider-Man a chance.

4 Civil War By Mark Millar

10 Best Marvel Comics For Essential Reading

Passions, tensions, and relationships run exceptionally high in this iconic series. Seeing beloved heroes fight villains like Doctor Doom, Electro, and Kingpin is both enjoyable and par for the course, but seeing them fight amongst each other is a different story entirely.

See also  Animal Crossing New Horizons Player Recreates Dark Souls Summoning Sign

From 2006-2007, Mark Millar wrote one of the biggest events that stretched across all of the Marvel universe. A house divided will not stand, and that message is thoroughly presented through Marvel’s Civil War. The comic series involves more than just a battle of ethics and friendships between Iron-Man and Captain America, even going as far as involving other heroes. But the MCU did bring out the best highlights the original story had to offer.

3 X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills By Chris Claremont

10 Best Marvel Comics For Essential Reading

Art reflects life and vice versa, but there is perhaps no better representation of that maxim than the controversial God Loves, Man Kills by Chris Claremont. Claremont and the X-Men are a package deal when it comes to essentials, but this thought-provoking dive into the world of men and mutants is particularly potent, arguably the biggest comic event of 1982.

This parable in comic book form not only influenced readers but many X-Men films, namely X-Men United. Even so, a proper adaptation has yet to be seen. With hope, maybe the MCU will step up to the plate with a new generation of mutants.

2 Marvels By Kurt Busiek

10 Best Marvel Comics For Essential Reading

1994’s Marvels is an adventure that covers all the bases for what fans want out of a comic book, but it’s told in a rather unorthodox way. It features all the best characters the company has to offer, but all seen through the eyes of photographers, journalists, and citizens of New York City. Kurt Busiek fills his panels with everything that makes Marvel’s best heroes great, and his writing makes them jump right off the page.

Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, and even the Silver Surfer have a large role to play, but the perspective gives it a much more relatable point of view in a world populated by superheroes, mutants, and metahumans. In a way, it sums up the end goal of the MCU, to bring all of these classic characters together for one big adventure.

1 The Infinity Gauntlet By Jim Starlin

It’s honestly extremely difficult not to give the top spot to Jim Starlin’s revolutionary Infinity Gauntlet series from 1991. While the MCU’s adaptation of the war against Thanos was one of the biggest events in the history of the series, the comics take a much deeper dive and involve more heroes and villains than the films could permit.

Not only does Thanos wield the fully-powered gauntlet, but the plot involves the forces of Death, Mephisto, and even an appearance from Warlock that the films were so tragically lacking. It’s big, it’s epic, and it features a full-color war against the forces of evil other than the Mad Titan, but it also offers a lot of elements that couldn’t be contained in just two movies.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/best-marvel-comics-essential-reading/

Reviews -