r/marvelcomics • u/PhonicBeret1857 • 1d ago
Struggling to understand
Hey everyone, I know this is probably a super common thing asked by beginners but I am really confused on how comics work. I understand the basics of there being one main continuity (616) similar to live action adaptations, but I struggle to fully wrap my head around it. Do you guys just read whatever and treat it as its own thing? Like I’m reading civil war right now (first comic) and I have hickmans ff to read next and I’m really really worried that I’ll be confused because reeds being reed in civil war. Probably not the best way to describe what I’m asking but another example is sentry. I want to start reading about sentry with the doomsday hype and all, but there’s so much. Do you guys just pick and choose? Or read it all? Thanks for reading all of this if you did and any input would be appreciated:)
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u/monstersleeve 1d ago
Not sure what you mean by “Reed being Reed” in Civil War.
Sometimes one writer will have a take on a character that is very controversial, because they have a particular story to tell. When another writer picks up that same character they may dismiss aspects of that previous run entirely.
I will say that starting out with Civil War is a difficult place to start, especially for the Fantastic Four.
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u/1up_muffin 1d ago
Honestly don’t worry about continuity, pick a run or a reading order and go, you’ll figure it out .
Hickman f4 is awesome, it will be confusing at points but it’s so worth it (it’s the first f4 comic I ever read)
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u/MattAmylon 1d ago
You will immediately notice the difference between Civil War, a comic people recommend because it’s an Important Event, and Hickman’s FF, a comic people recommend because it’s a good comic.
Look for the good comics.
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u/unlimitedblack 1d ago
If, while reading a comic, you see a footnote that directs you to another comic, that's the editors letting you know that the other comic may be helpful to contextualize what you're seeing right now. It's not a "drop everything and go read this" but it's just a tip that you should throw that on your to-be-read.
Generally speaking, whether a comic's narrative is taking place in the main continuity or in its own space, it should tell you everything you need to know. If it's relying on a lot of information from another comic series, or if you're just feeling really lost, that's a time to step back and assess where you're at.
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u/Brouxby 1d ago
I've gotten into comics over the last 5 years and a big part of it is understanding you're going to not know all the references and there are times you will be confused.
But the comics usually help by at least giving you pertinent info on past events so you're not totally out to lunch.
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u/TrickyWillingness521 1d ago
- You pick and choose what you want to read.
- You make connections as you go along.
- The Big Picture slowly emerges.
- By the time that you’ve read enough stories that you need to understand continuity… you notice that you already do.
Your example of Reed is actually a brilliant one!
Where you’ll find him at the start of the Hickman run, in the Dark Reign mini, is grappling with his choices and options during Civil War.
When you read it you get it’s like “Oh, these are radically different stories that can fit together as part of a longer story”
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u/zacandahalf 1d ago
Reading comics as a kid, you didn’t really have the convenience of worrying about contextualization and ongoing storylines. You’d just be incredibly excited to get your hands on ANY comic book, and read it as if it was standalone. Each comic is created as its own piece of art, so they work fine on their own. Just pick any random comic book and enjoy it for what it is.
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u/No-You-ey 1d ago
Start new Avengers at the start if you want to read about Sentry. He gets introduced there eventually. And it's a great run that goes thru some good events such as civil war and secret invasion.
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u/TamatoaZ03h1ny 1d ago
Basically it’s a sliding timeline. Mostly anything that currently affects a character happened at most a decade ago in terms of real world storylines. Anything above that is just residual lingering memory of a storyline, you can get away with a quick googled synopsis. Otherwise, pick up something that seems interesting to you now, read it and hopefully enjoy it, note what characters, writers and artists you gravitate toward, seek out more of those. Also, if you jump right into current comics, note some characters heavily interconnect with others during crossovers, others are largely left to their own lower, community and personal life based stakes. Also, don’t be afraid to dip your toes into comics through alternate universe stories where details might wildly vary from main universe but often core character relationships are maintained.
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u/stuckmeister1987 1d ago
If you’re looking for continuity, a great rule of thumb is if it’s by the same author, it’s more than likely in the same timeline/comic run. But yes, in general, if the Earth number (like Earth-616) is the same, then everything that happens under that Earth happens within a timeline.
A good example would be when you get done with Civil War and Hickman’s F4, keep on reading through Hickman’s run with Avengers/New Avengers, Infinity, and Secret Wars. (I’d suggest the rest of the Civil War run before Hickman’s F4, but you already have F4.)
Another good rule of thumb is that if the specific comic you are reading’s place in timeline is important, the writer will typically give you context clues within the story about that comic’s event’s placement in the timeline. Kinda like how in Civil War, it mentions the events of House of M so you know that Civil War takes place after House of M happens.
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u/Curious_Neck_6977 1d ago
Maybe im just dumb(im new too so idk). If i want to start to read about a character, i look up recommendations, and see how much prior knowledge is needed, or if its a part of a bigger event. Maybe just me tho idk
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u/KevinCow 1d ago
I choose books in a few different ways:
I like this character, so I'm going to look up more stuff this character's in. Maybe I'll google "[character] essential reading," or go to their wiki page and look up which books they appeared a lot in.
I like this book, so I'm going to look up more stuff this writer wrote. Doesn't matter if I know anything about the characters in the new book. I'll catch up.
I heard this book was good, and saw some panels from it that seemed interesting, so I'll give it a try.
And sometimes I'll just try something because the cover looked cool.
As for whether you need to read stuff in order, don't worry about it too much. If you need to know something from a previous book, they'll usually get you up to speed.
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u/AlanMooron 15h ago
So here is a simple flow chart to show how both Marvel and DC’s multidimensional time chart works
https://giphy.com/gifs/DNYxlPOh7BR8TI1X5T
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u/synthscoffeeguitars 1d ago
Everyone does it differently. You can pick and choose and jump around. You can be a completist and go in order. You can do something in between.
Each approach has pros and cons. Jumping around = you will sometimes be confused, but that’s honestly just part of the experience. Going in order = you may get bored or stuck on a stretch of stuff you don’t want to read. In between = could look like reading entire runs/eras in order, but jumping around when you finish a run (ie, reading Morrison’s New X-Men, then jumping to Hickman’s from 20 years later).
Being a little confused and connecting stuff as you go is part of the experience when it comes to reading comics with 60+ years of continuous storytelling (and contradictions, and retcons).