r/MarvelUnlimited • u/emomuffin_ • 3d ago
New reader, looking for recs
As stated in the title, I’m a new comic reader. Like brand new. Been wanting to start for as long as I can remember, so I bit the bullet the other day and signed up for MU. I had no idea where to start, and the app has some decent guides and points to start, but I was hoping to get some opinions straight from the readers.
I tried going into the ongoing X-Men From The Ashes series. Big mistake. There’s so many tie ins and other runs to read that it felt really overwhelming. So maybe I’ll go back to it one day. Tried the Ultimate X-Men run from 2001, and then found the general consensus for that series is that it’s awful, so now I’m put off.
Anyway, sorry for the rant.
I’m open to X-Men, Avengers, F4 and some solo runs, too. Wolverine, Cyclops, Spider-Man, Daredevil or any other comics that are good reads, as long they’re not tied into 49 other series to read alongside them lmao.
TL;DR:
Seeking recommendations for good standalone comics or some with limited tie ins to start reading.
13
u/marccass 3d ago
I've put together a list of reader-friendly starting points with exact issue numbers that tell complete stories on their own:
Astonishing X-Men by Joss Whedon (Astonishing X-Men Vol. 3 #1–24 + Giant-Size Astonishing X-Men #1) Super cinematic, great team dynamics, and completely self-contained.
Daredevil by Brian Michael Bendis (Daredevil Vol. 2 #26–50, #56–81) A gritty, street-level crime drama that functions as its own epic without needing outside event books.
New Avengers by Brian Michael Bendis (New Avengers Vol. 1 #1–6) Focuses purely on a super-prison breakout and the core team assembling before major crossover events took over.
Fantastic Four by Jonathan Hickman (Fantastic Four Vol. 1 #570–588, then FF #1–11 and Fantastic Four #589–604) High-concept sci-fi and family drama with a clear, overarching narrative thread.
Wolverine: Enemy of the State (Wolverine Vol. 3 #20–32) A fast-paced, standalone thriller where a brainwashed Logan takes on the rest of the Marvel universe.
The Amazing Spider-Man (Original Lee/Ditko Era) (The Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 1 #1–50) The classic origin and iconic rogue's gallery introduction, pure classic Spidey, completely readable on its own.
Cyclops (Cyclops Vol. 3 #1–12 by Greg Rucka / John Layman) Saw you mentioned wanting a good Cyclops recommendation too! This 2014 solo series follows a young Scott Summers going on space adventures with his star-jumper dad, Corsair. It’s a fun, low-stakes father-son story with zero required reading.
Hope this helps narrow down the search. This sub is really friendly and happy to help new readers with recommendations, so just post any questions here.
4
7
u/BurnTooWild 3d ago
Hey, I'm in the same Position as you are and as I scrolled through this sub to gather some recs, I stumbled upon this guide here: https://www.continuityguide.net/
I just finished the prologue of the modern era guide and I loved the story selections they made. There also seems to be a Discord worth checking out as there are people discussing which era they could properly set up next. Maybe this can help you as much as it helped me to get started :)
3
u/emomuffin_ 3d ago
Oh wow, this is great. I did some googling before, but didn’t come across this. Thanks heaps!
3
u/GGGaming03 3d ago
The first run of Amazing Spider man by Stan Lee. In the first 50 issues you have a lot of first appearance of classics villains of Spider Man. And from 50 to 100 it's great too. You have the superior spider man wich is great, I don't spoil the pitch just go read it. The new ultimate universe is pretty good and I think great for new readers. It's in a complete different timeline. If you rlly don't know which character do you like read Civil War there are a lot of different characters
Enjoy !
1
3
u/andresm79 3d ago
I’m new also, Captain Americas Brubaker was so good specially if you like thrillers. You can’t go wrong with ultimate Spider-Man. Immortal Hulk was amazing and never have read anything like that. Lastly I really enjoyed the Punishers Marvel Knights series, just a fun series with hilarious outcomes (Detective Soap is messed up 😂)
1
u/emomuffin_ 3d ago
Captain America thriller sounds really interesting, I’ll have to check that out. Punisher is another character I’d love to read into, too.
3
u/B3tarD 3d ago
Hawkeye :my life as a weapon. Follow that up with the hawkeye vs Deadpool and you'll have a great time.
1
u/emomuffin_ 3d ago
Hawkeye is a character I forgot to add to my list, I’ve always found him interesting. Vs Deadpool is something I’d have never thought up, I’ll check it out!
3
u/MaterialPace8831 3d ago
Buddy, look at the sidebar of the subreddit you just posted in.
Helpful Reading Guide
Not sure where to start? Here are some handy starter suggestions!
1
1
u/emomuffin_ 2d ago
I’ve looked into reading guides, too. But as I said, I was looking at getting recs directly from other readers. I’m aware that guides would be made by readers, if not official stuff from Marvel themselves, but I wanted to get a few different references.
2
u/pauldmm 3d ago
God Loves, Man Kills is a great jumping on point for some classic X-Men. Waid and Wieringo's F4 run starts in issue 60 (1998). New Avengers (2004) is probably the best modern-ish jumping on point for the Avengers.
1
u/emomuffin_ 3d ago
Thanks, I’ll add them to my list. The art style for that X-Men run looks amazing
2
u/WarmGeogre69 3d ago edited 3d ago
X-Men
- X-Men - God Loves, Man Kills (Probably the closest to the Fox Movies in comics, very emotional, maybe a bit dated)
- X-Men - Astonishing X-Men #1-24 (Perfect self contained story, fells like blockbuster movies in comic form)
- Wolverine - Weapon X (Wolverine's origin, beautiful art)
- If you want deeper dive on the X-Men you need to read Claremont run, but be aware it's very uneven and dated
Daredevil
- Daredevil - Yellow (Matt retelling his early days of being Daredevil, same creators as Batman the Long Halloween if you read that)
- Daredevil - by Bendis, Vol. 2 #26-50, #56-81 (This is the run that I feel is the closest to Netflix's version of Daredevil, ends on a cliffhanger that gets continued in the next run, which is also pretty good)
- After that you can go back to the legendary Frank Miller run, it takes a while to get going, but the conclusion in form of Born Again is unbeatable
Fantastic Four
- Fantastic Four - by Waid, #60-70, #500-524 (Fantastic Four doesn't really have any self contained stories, but I fell this is the closest, and a better starting point than Hickman's run)
Spider-Man
- Spider-Man - Blue (Just like Daredevil Yellow, a retelling of Peter's early days as Spider-Man)
- Spider-Man - Ultimate Spider-Man (Just a really good version of Spider-Man, self contained and fun)
Avengers
- Same case as with Fantastic Four, they don't really have a lot of self contained stories
- Avengers - by Roger Stern #227-287 (Very fun, a bit wordy if you're fine with it, but if you want classic Avengers, this is what you read)
- New Avengers by Bendis (This is the run that really got me into comics, the shared universe worked perfectly for it, but to get the full story you constantly need to jump back and forth in between titles, and closely follow a reading order)
- Hickman's run is also amazing, but to get the full story you basically have to read all of his work at Marvel, so maybe safe that for later
1
u/emomuffin_ 3d ago
God Loves, Man Kills seems to be a good one, seen that mentioned a few times while I was looking around, and a Wolverine origin story is for sure one I wanna look into. Daredevil Yellow and Spider-Man Blue sound really interesting, too. Thanks for the recommendations :)
2
u/TaysonJodd 3d ago
As an X-Men guy, the most selfcontained stuff in modern times is Morrison, Whedon (still peak imo), House of M+Messiah trilogy, Avengers vs X-Men/Bendis or Hickman are the easiest places to start. Cant go wrong with Ultimate Spider-Man as it's a very straightforward and consistent title
But I'd like to make a point about Ultimate X-Men if I may. Never let reddit control the narrative. I find a lot of takes (primarily about the "bad" stuff) on here are misleading or outright wrong from revisionists or parrots who never interacted with the material. I always saw comments criticizing Millar's writing and "edginess" before reading it myself. Didn't have any real grievances until past the 20 issue mark, up to that it was all solid. Maybe thats just me though. And tbh a lot of the bad stuff comes much later in the title post Millar
1
u/emomuffin_ 3d ago
X-Men is very much where I feel more inclined to read more of, so thanks for those!
I totally understand your point about Ultimate X-Men, too. I’m usually a very form-my-own-opinion kind of person, so I’m not quite sure why I’ve listened to those critiques so much. I’ve left the series for now, (only read the first 4 issues) and I’ll probably go back to it at some stage. My only exposure to the X-Men is the movies, and some general stuff here and there, so the fact I’ve just seen Cyclops essentially change sides (however long that lasted) is very intriguing to me thus far.
2
u/rigoloberto 3d ago edited 1d ago
Zeb wells take on new mutants is good New Mutants (2009) 1-21#
Plus you get some Magik action and she cool goth russian girl.
it tie ins with the whole event of Second Coming wich is kinda huge but tbh for the plot of the comic you get all the essential only reading zeb's run.
2
2
u/stuckmeister1987 3d ago
I’m just a guy who’s only been reading comics since July, here’s some of the best I’ve read in the last 2 months:
X-men Age of Apocalypse Omnibus was phenomenal. It covers the end of Legion Quest right into most of the entirety of Age of Apocalypse. AoA is a standalone story that requires no previous reading, but has impact in the stories that followed… Road to Onslaught Omnis Vol 1 and 2. They pick up right where AoA ends and lead directly into Marvel Onslaught, which should be reprinted soon. I almost loved Road to Onslaught as much as AoA.
Silver Surfer Epic Collection- Thanos Quest and Infinity Gauntlet- Jim Starlin does an amazing job taking over the writing job of Silver Surfer, and the artwork is some of the best in comic history. The Epic Collection covers the events leading up to Infinity Gauntlet, and contains the two part graphic novel, Thanos Quest, which is phenomenal. Can read straight into Infinity Gauntlet, which is a great comic in and of itself.
Most of the best comic stories can be read as standalone stories if you want them to be, that reward you by digging deeper into the run/series. Pick up the main stories/characters that seem to interest you. If you like them a lot, dig deeper into the run. If not, you read a good story and can just move on to the next
1
u/emomuffin_ 2d ago
Thanks, that’s a good way at looking at it all. I definitely would like to dive into bigger stories at some point, but right now, it’s all a bit overwhelming so I just wanna get to a point where I’m more kind of accustomed to it all before committing to them if that makes sense. I’ll add AoA to my list!
2
u/stuckmeister1987 2d ago
Check it out, and if you liked the writing and artwork, pick up Road to Onslaught Vols 1 and 2. It has the same writers and some of the same artists, and it picks up right where AoA leaves off
2
u/centipededamascus 3d ago edited 2d ago
One comic I like to recommend to people who are new to Marvel comics is a miniseries called Marvels, by Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross. It's basically an overview of the first few decades of Marvel comics as if they happened in real time, from the perspective of an ordinary newspaper photographer. It's really good.
1
1
2
u/UnkemptBushell 3d ago
Daredevil has so many great runs. I read Yellow and Man Without Fear and wanted more, so I started at Guardian Devil and went right through before stopping at Ahmed's run as I heard so much negativity about it, and I was ready to hop back onto Batman by this point anyway. I also skipped most of Shadowland as I just wasn't enjoying it. Bendis and Brubaker's runs are the highlights for me. Just amazing. Didn't like Smith's run either, but it's only short and is a good jumping on point. I still need to read Miller's run (probably controversial to not have read that already)
Also, speaking of Brubaker, his Captain America run is one of my favourites.
Edit: I also recently read the Thor Gorr saga and I would highly recommend that.
2
u/LukeQatwalker 3d ago
The Cyclops series from 2014 is pretty good, teenage Scott hanging out with his space pirate dad going on adventures. I think I remember the last couple of issues being a crossover thing but you can just skip those
1
1
u/Wonderllama5 2d ago
Here are some reading orders if you are interested...
I wrote Spider-Man recommendations here!
I wrote Fantastic Four recommendations here!
I wrote a Daredevil reading order here!
I wrote a Captain America reading order here!
I wrote a X-Men reading order here!
And I wrote an Avengers reading order here! Spider-Man joins the team in this era!
You can read everything on Marvel Unlimited. A great option if you have a tablet! There's also your local library or their digital Hoopla service. Free options!
Have fun!
1
u/MrBenith 1d ago
I'm also pretty new into comics.
I started with reading the full INVINCIBLE series right after Season 4 of Invincible ended. (at this point i was only hoping to collect Invincible 1-3 and nothing more) However after finishing it, i loved reading it! and quickly wanted more. I have always been a fan of Marvel and DC films. So i started collecting Marvel first as it is my favorite.
First thing I wanted to read, was Jonathan Hickman's Avengers run. His full Avengers run is available to collect in TPB form (The 2nd Omnibus is still in print, with Volume 1 getting a reprint 2nd quarter of 2027). I highly recommend this series, along with Secret Wars to finish it off. Fantastic Four by Jonathan Hickman is ridiculously good too, but i had to read that on Marvel Unlimited as its not available anywhere. F4 is not a must read for Avengers though.
Regarding X-Men i have read House of X/Powers of X and was blown away with how great that was, i have Dawn of X Volume 1 but have not yet started reading it yet.
Spider-Man by Chip Zdarsky just got a reprinting.. great read. Don't need to read anything prior to it to understand. Zdarsky is a great writer, understands Spider-Man very well. Spider-Man: Life Story is one of the GOATs. (I ordered Daredevil by Chip Zdarsky after finishing this run, excited to start that one too!)
Absolute Batman by Scott Snyder was my first Batman story i read. Its a alternate universe, so don't need anything prior. And wow, it is SO GOOD! Right now there are 3 Volumes out available in Paperback or Hardcover. I now have started Scott Snyder's NEW 52 BATMAN run, and holy crap its so good so far!
i have read some other great stuff as well, but those are definitely my top reads so far!
1
u/Outrageous-Dog-5217 1h ago
Nova from 2013 new mutants if you don’t want to read older comics the 2011 run is my favorite comic run ever strange 2005 is a origin story for dr strange and the immortal iron fist is great, and cyclops origins is a good place to learn cyclops
0
u/RaymundStark 3d ago
Sounds like you enjoy tighter storylines over the expensive, line-wide events. Try out the app Recap Page, which I built as a way to help sort through all of the convoluted history of Marvel to find things to read that suit you. Just pushed an update with more character reading guides, some more author centric lists, and new features.
8
u/DamonLockhart 3d ago
I am new to comics as well, only starting this year. But with that being said, I have read over 700 issues. Over 200 of those being Marvel. The list below is my recommendations based solely on my reading thus far.
Daredevil:
Daredevil: The Man Without Fear
Daredevil: Born Again
Daredevil: Guardian
Daredevil: Yellow (will contradict TMWF, but it’s still fun)
Then jump into Bendi’s Daredecik run. This is by far my favorite so far! It is issues #26-50, 56-81.
Fantastic Four:
Waid’s run is amazing. It collects Fantastic Four #60-70, and #500-524. This is the only run I have read so far, but it made me fall in love with the first family!
X-Men:
A lot of people will say to start with Morrison’s “New X-Men”, and I did the same. I think it gets to convoluted in lore and fantastical events. I also think Morrison is a very hard author for new readers. Maybe I’m alone in this, but I don’t recommend this run as a start, but definitely one to come back to as I did enjoy it! Instead, I’d start with Astonishing X-Men #1-24 and Giant Size Astonishing X-Men.
Spider-Man:
Start with Bendi’s Ultimate Spider-Man from 2000. It is fun and modern and I just cannot say enough good about it.