I'm a newfound Marvel comic book geek, how do I get caught up with the storylines?

Question

I've just become completely obsessed with the Marvel universe, but with so much backstory, I'm finding it difficult to get caught up with all of it.

Wikipedia has helped, but there's gotta' be a better way

What about the Ultimate Marvel comics?
Also, are the Ultimate Marvel comics available in graphic novel form?

Very good answers so far, and some have raised a few other questions of mine.

It's a well-known fact that the Marvel Universe gets pretty convoluted in storylines, how do you deal with that and comprehend it all?

and also, I had originally considered simply reading only a few of the storylines (X-Men and Spider-Man seemed the best to me) but then a friend brought it to my attention that the characters storylines intersect often, and are reallly at their best during these times, making it seem like it was all or nothing. Help in that area would be nice.

Answer 1

Yes, Marvel storylines are very convoluted, with backgrounds of characters often being 'reinvented.' The Ultimate Marvel comics are a very interesting and inventive take on existing heroes and tend to be more gritty and realistic, I'm not a big comic fan but have read a few of them and think they're good and yes they are available in graphic novel form. Marvel is starting to release many of their comics as entire almost self contained graphic novels, including many of their really old stories. I'd go for those.

Answer 2

My advice to you is don't even bother because the characters have gone through so many changes, and some even have new origins. And when a new writer takes over, everything that you thought you knew about the characters is completely false.

Characters that were once dead come back to life.

But if you still want to learn, read the fan letters at the end of the comic book. They often bring up interesting questions that you might find useful.

I don't know if Marvel still makes them anymore but back in the old days, you can buy books that tells all the characters that have ever appeared in a Marvel comics. I think it was called Marvel Comics Guide to the Marvel Universe or something like that. There's also The Book of the Dead that tells the story about how individual Marvel characters died.

You can also go to the bookstore and pick up books from Marvel that tells the story about the main characters. There are books for Spider-Man, X-Men, and Avengers. You can't miss them. They're really big books.

You can also get back issues, but it's going to cost you.

Best thing to do is just start from now and go forward. As you read, you can pick up clues about the past.

Answer 3

Hope you have a lot of money and time. You are talking over 30+ years of backstory. All you can do is read it, there are no easy ways around it if you want to know everything.

Most storylines are new reader friendly to a point. You can start reading without knowing ALL the backstory.
If you have a favorite character or two, read up on them and go on from there.

If knowing the backstory is needed to understand a current storyline or comment made by a character in the current plot Marvel is usually pretty good at noting where you need to read for that backstory.

Anyway, it is actually better that you do not go too far into the backstory. It will only tick you off anyway. New writers come into Marvel all the time that have NO clue about the back story and screw it up anyway.

Answer 4

Herein is the bane of my problems with Marvel. There are some storylines that are best forgotten, and many things that have happened, such as the "House of M" storyline should just be ignored. I recommend reading New Avengers, as this is the one title that has some cohesion to it, and often explains at least a little bit about some of the past. If you can, try to obtain copies of the Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe, which were published in the mid 1980's. These have profile information about specific characters, listed alphabetically, and often explain plenty of the stories associated with each character. There is also a book called the Marvel Encyclopedia, and explains some of these topics. Check out Marvel Comics' website. I also encourage you to type in "Marvel Comics Info" for a general search and search from there. You will be lead to many sites run by fans that explain in detail not only storylines, but specific issues from Marvel's comic books. It is also recommended you try to talk to someone who is familiar with comics, and I guarantee they will be happy to give you their knowledge. The Ultimate Marvel comics line is O.K., but it is far different in many ways from the "regular" Marvel line. Yes, there are Graphic Novels from the Ultimate line, and they contain back issue compilations. It can cause some confusion, so I can't recommend it personally, but I do know it had been popular for awhile. You are welcome to contact me with questions, if I can help in any way. Good Luck!

Answer 5

My personal favorite whay of being caught up is reading articles at
www.wikipeidia.org where fans are obsessed with putting down every detail.

The cheapest ways of getting big hunks of Marvel history are the cheap Marvel Essentials line of black and white paperbacks, which reprint about thirty issues at a clip.

The other way is to get Marvel Comics on DVD Rom where they reprint 40 some years of comics on one disc (pdf fromat for your computer. So far they have out:

X-Men
Fantastic Four
Ultimate X-Men
Spider-Man
Ghost Rider (check on this one though I have not seen it but some websites have it out, but I have not seen it in stores).
AVengers

According to the disks coming soon is:
Captain America
Dare Devil
Hulk

I usualy get mine at www.talesofwonder.com or www.amazon.com.

Somebody told me one of the special editions of the Fantastic Four move came out with a bonus disk with the Ultimate Fantastic Four comics on it.

Lastly the majority of the Ultimates line (those not delayed by publishing problems) are out in paperback. Check the fore-mentioned sources.

Good Luck

Answer 6

I read randomly for a good while. First thing I got really involved in was War Machine. When that stopped, I basically stopped reading comics for along time, last year I started picking stuff up randomly here an there again. Now... Civil War has me rehooked. As far as I'm convinced... buy up and read all the Civil War stuff you can.. that's all that matters from here on out.

Answer 7

the marvel universe IS a universe, and you can explore it in many directions and yet still have limited view

try the parallels, each story line have footnotes (asterisk)

of specialize in one comic book series, you eventually encounter the rest

Answer 8

Go to book stores or comic stores and buy trade paperbacks, they are collections of complete storylines

Answer 9

Buy some back issues from a comics dealer.

Answer 10

On Marvel's web site, they have a link to every Marvel character and their history, it will also tell you what they are currently up to. Welcome to the Marvel universe!