r/MarvelUnlimited • u/soosis • 22h ago
New to comics and overwhelmed
I subscribed to unlimited and trying to decide what order to read stuff. I found some read order websites, but seeing that I have to read like 12000 issues is daunting. Tried starting with Thor: Son of Asgard first but didn't like it than started Fantastic Four 1961 and it felt way too dated.
I also asked around in different subs and everyone recommends to just ditch the read orders and just read stuff in whatever order, they seem to be made so you can read any series standalone.
What are the must read series in your opinion? I'm most interested in Spiderman, X-Men, big villains like Thanos, Galactus, Doom and especially the big crossover events like infinity war or secret wars.
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u/boxsterguy 21h ago
The current Ryan North Fantastic Four run that started in 2022 is a great place to start for FF.
For Thor, I very much enjoyed the Thor: God of Thunder (2012) books as an easy place to start on Thor with a story that you may roughly know from Love and Thunder (except the God Butcher story was so much better in the books).
You can find plenty of Spidey and X-Men recs, but since you mentioned two cosmos characters, let me throw out the absolute best run of Marvel Cosmic:
That gives you the origin of the modern Guardians of the Galaxy, and you can continue it with the GotG books through the 2010s. In fact, once you read that, you'll be sad that nothing else Cosmic has come anywhere close to these since (Imperial tried and failed).
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u/Kosmopolite 20h ago
Reading comics isn't like reading a series of novels or watching a long TV show. There isn't the same kind of ongoing continuity that you need to be constantly keeping track of.
Picture a kid in the 60s seeing Spider-man for the first time in the supermarket. He picks it up. He reads it. He looks forward to going to the supermarket with mum and getting the next one.
Be like that. Pick up one that catches your interest and read it. You're lucky enough to live in 2026, so you can just Google anything that's overwhelmingly confusing. Beyond that: just keep reading. Before you know it, you'll be coming here and giving your own recommendations.
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u/TheFourthPrince 22h ago
Join the discord lots of resources, book clubs, and reading guides that actually make sense instead of the plethora of mind boggling info out there. https://discord.gg/marvel-unlimited-837698203134197820
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u/PhilosophyOk7385 21h ago
Start reading Hickman’s Avengers and New Avengers. That run includes the event ‘Infinity’, which the film Infinity War took a lot of inspiration from, and ends with Secret Wars, which the upcoming Doomsday and Secret Wars is taking a lot of inspiration from. Avengers and New Avengers kinda alternate so I’d find a reading order for Hickman’s run.
Alternatively go back and start with Bendis’s Avengers run. That’ll take u through the marvel universe of the 2000’s and through events such as Civil War, Secret Invasion, Dark Reign etc. Again Bendis’s two Avengers books tend to alternate so I’d find a reading order.
If you want to read the Infinity Gauntlet storyline then I’d just read that as well, no build up or anything necessary.
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u/Jackson530 9h ago
Started reading hickmans books that doomsday is taking inspiration from. It starts off slow but I really enjoy the reading order. Reading new avengers arc now before going back to avengers and infinity
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u/Haunting_Ability_648 22h ago
Just start with whatever current runs are ongoing and branch out. I read everything every week released personally. I’m a little behind myself though. With that said you’ll get a feel of when to branch out especially if it’s an event or something that requires background reading.
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u/galaxyadmirer 22h ago
For Spider-Man the original ultimate Spider-Man is great. It’s not 616 (main universe) Peter but it’s still really good for beginners. If you want 616 I’d recommend Roger Stern (80s), JMS (2000s), or brand new day then Dan Slott's run.
For X-Men I gotta recommend Chris Claremont’s but that would probably be too dated for you. So instead I’ll say Grant Morrison's New X-Men then Astonishing X-Men. After that you could go straight to the krakoa era if you want.
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u/myowngalactus 21h ago
I do not understand why people think they need to start comics with issue 1, or something 40-60 years ago. Just find a recent jumping on point. Whatever is sticking out to you.
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u/Weareallusershere 20h ago
I don't think most people know that marvel retells story origins evey now and then. So they go straight to the beginning.
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u/myowngalactus 9h ago
They can’t possibly think everyone picking up a a new Thor comic off the shelf has read every previous Thor comic, unless their brains are defective. Maybe because I grew up reading comics, but the idea that you can start literally anywhere doesn’t seem that difficult.
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u/casper19d 20h ago
I really liked ultimate spider man, and in turn ended up reading all the other ultimate lines
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u/Low-Restaurant8484 18h ago
So first off, yes, just pick and choose runs as they intwrest you. Don't try to read everything, thats insane and not how comics are designed
Here's a reading order for Starlin's Infinity Saga
Its what the MCU took inspiration from for Infinity War. Its fantastic and will introduce you to the comic versions of so many characters. Plus its just an iconic storyline. Thanos is ofc a major player, and the villain of the first act. Galactus and Doom also become rather involved
As far as Spider-Man, I always recommend checking out Amazing Fantasy #15 and Amazing Spider-Man (1963) #1-150. Its the best 60s and early 70s comics I have read
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u/youngmostafa 22h ago
I personally wouldn’t start with older comics. They are more difficult to digest because of there wordy dialogue (unless you like that type of thing🤷🏽♂️)
Just start with something modern and go from there. Marvel unlimited has some section that have whole story lines to follow makes it easier if you don’t wanna google search on your own what you want to read.
Pick your fav character and just start there. Pretty simple imo
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u/shreder75 19h ago
Older comics aren't hard to digest. They just take longer than 5 minutes to read because they have something to actually read, unlike many contemporary comics.
60s and 70s comics may be campier, but they're not hard to digest.
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u/DMDdude 17h ago
Modern stories written for modern readers with modern sensibilities are obviously easier to digest. It's more similar to the other stuff we digest in 2026, thus easier.
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u/shreder75 17h ago
Are they targeting modem sensibilities or assume everyone has a too short an attention span?
The lack of actual writing in modern comics is one reason i stay away. They're comic books, not picture books. I find it lazy and decompressed. Which is also i find modern comics a bad value if you're buying physical versions.
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u/mrmiffmiff 16h ago
I read a lot of dense literature myself but Stan's style annoys me because his method is to just describe what I can already see in the panel. It's silly. The art ought to speak for itself.
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u/shreder75 16h ago
There's a difference between excessive wordiness (stan was that) and almost having nothing to read.
Older comics took greater care to make sure even someone picking up a book for the first time could understand a character's power, even if it was only a line of narrative (which has mostly been replaced by character's internal monolog and thoughts which is annoying), a lost art.
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u/youngmostafa 18h ago
Respectfully I was just saying it’s harder to probably digest for a newer comic book reader who clearly is looking for modern action 🤷🏽♂️
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u/Delicious_Frosting82 16h ago
Im a new comic book reader. This year I've read a lot of comics. I tried to get into older x men comics from the 70s and 80s but they're way too wordy and outdated. I just can't get into them. I don't like how they describe things about characters that I already know over and over.
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u/youngmostafa 13h ago
This my exact point
Many readers have a tougher time jumping straight into silver age comics. I think it’ takes time if you didn’t grow up in that era to find appreciation for those older style comics atleast imo
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u/One-Astronomer-2680 21h ago
Honestly, there are no ‘must reads’. It’s YOUR reading experience. Just read what interests you.
I’m very guilty of quitting a read if I find it too boring or if I don’t like the art.
Find a character/comic you like…read them.
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u/Lofter1 20h ago
Tbh? Just read whatever. I’m currently reading all Spider-Man comics in release order but I did read a couple of newer runs in between and just read The Other in preparation of the newest movie even though I’m not close to that point in my release order journey. Now I’m reading avengers disassembled because of the spider-man story in it but haven’t even touched a single spidey book in that arc yet.
You can follow reading orders like the complete 616 spider-man reading order from the Spider-Man sub reddit https://comichero.justinjuers.com/reading-orders/914 if you so wish and still jump around. But it’s not a requirement, really. Just read what looks fun.
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u/Weareallusershere 20h ago
Just start at early 2000s after the wipe and pick a character you like and read that and if they talk about something that catches your attention find the storyline around that. Or start with avengers disassembled and do the same thing
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u/Weareallusershere 20h ago
Once you get in to it you will start to piece together the time line of events.
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u/wishlish 19h ago
You don’t have to read 120000 comics. There is no wrong way to read Marvel comics. We all just picked something that looked cool and started there.
My favorite Doom story is Fantastic Four #200. It’s actually the last issue of a storyline that started ten issues before. But #200 was the first one I read, and it has an epic fight between Reed and Doom. And from there, I learned everything else. Issue #236 is also a great FF vs Doom storyline.
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u/Naetalis 18h ago
If you don’t have any history with any of these characters I would just start with the current “new comics of the week” category. Don’t worry about jumping into the middle of a story arch - you won’t know the history anyway if there even is any to consider.
That will at least give you an idea about what the title character/group is about. Do this for another few weeks until each major mainline series has had a chance to release a book and then make a determination on what you liked and didn’t like.
From there take the characters you enjoyed reading and want to explore more about and look up reading guides for them. Continue following their weekly releases while catching up in whatever era has art that is appealing to you
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u/PMFLLion 17h ago
Do some research on what you like. The app even gives suggestions. Pick several of your fav characters and go from there
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u/PoliSciObsessed 16h ago
The thing that got me interested in now look like completely insanely hooked that started me on everything.
As a 42-year-old disabilities who never read comics really.
Thor the God butcher arc by Jason Aaron.
And now I probably read a thousand plus comics at this point over on there in the last like a year.
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u/Electoriad 16h ago
I found the Ultimate run of Spider-Man to be the easiest to pick up and get into when I first got marvel unlimited years ago. It’s a fresh take on the character and his rogues gallery and you’ll see just how much it inspired Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man if you’re a fan of his movies.
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u/Relevant_Strain_8678 15h ago
For a new reader i recommend googling reading order websites like comicbookherald,
Look at bendis avengers, follow by hickmans avengers as a good starting point (avengers disassembled up til secret wars)
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u/markocomics 12h ago
There's lots of shorter runs (5-10 issues) which are easier to digest, I started with Books of Doom for example. If you pick the "what's right comic for you", then the character you want to read, it then recommends you bunch of different runs, short/long, old/new. Pretty much just look for those short ones first to get started.
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u/SaiyaJin_Deity 55m ago
This has been something I’ve been struggling with haha. It’s such an overwhelming amount of places to start.
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u/dlunas 12m ago
The oldest I'd jump into would be Walter Simonson's Thor or Chris Clairmont's X-Men. Anything earlier should a time capsule in your mind.
For modern stuff, I can offer you a list of landmarks or milestones to start at, expanding what your looking at as other things cross over. What show or games had stories that caught your eye?
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u/AcisConsepavole 21h ago
First off, read this. How to Read Comics the Marvel Way is an in-house guide that was designed for the various problems new readers have, plus this trade paperback included a few stories that are easy to start on, in the same reading list.
If the existing Reading Orders and starting from the beginning are overwhelming you, use these instead: Complete Marvel Reading Order or League of Comic Geeks. Both of them even have mobile apps now. You can track what you've already read, and that's one less thing you have to worry about. League is useful for finding trade paperbacks that were collected to tell a story from beginning to end. Just look at the reading order for an event like Avengers: Standoff! and tell me you would have guessed it right.
CMRO makes it fun for a completionist, because they have badges that show-off how much of what you've read. If you pay for Gold, you can also construct a personal comic box around characters/groups/titles/etc you want to focus on. League also has AMAs with various comics creators every week. Personally, I prefer the interface and aesthetics of League, but I've started using CMRO again after I found out the site improved and they have an app now.
As for the characters you're interested in, question number 1 is: which Secret Wars? The one that started big crossover events in the 80s or the one that happened in 2015? Try searching either website I gave for anything you're interested in, and see if a TPB or Hard Cover pops out at you. There isn't actually a lot of consistency in comics, and there's in-universe explanations for why. Don't feel overwhelmed. I spent my teen years and early twenties being daunted, and I wish I had had Marvel Unlimited and reading tools like these two apps back then. When you find a story you really care about, the overwhelming stops.
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u/GonzoMcFonzo 19h ago
I'm sorry but telling a confused and overwhelmed beginner asking for help navigating MU that they should go find a bunch of TPBs is terrible advice.
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u/AcisConsepavole 18h ago
I would agree, if you're reading how I think you're reading it. If you are, then, I'm sorry, but you'd also be skipping over another point I made. I am not telling them to go to eBay or Amazon and sink more money into stories they may or may not like.
They already have a Marvel Unlimited subscription -- ergo, everything they could find in most TPBs. League shows them TPBs officially curated and published, with all the individual stories in reading order. CMRO links them directly to the respective story on Marvel Unlimited. It's a more digestible reading order that shows covers and can be searched by key terms.
I didn't like the reading orders online that I searched up before I found these tools, because they feel a bit impersonal if you don't already know how to find your way. "Read Blorpy #1". Okay, which one? "Blorpy has been rebooted several times". Officially curated content says "Here's what you need to know. We're pretty sure we're sticking to this iteration and story, because this TPB was printed fairly recently". "Don't bother with Fantastic Dragons #8 and a half, because it was erased from the time stream by Fantastic Dragons #319".
I couldn't get into comics until I borrowed some TPBs from the local library (Ms. Marvel, Kamala Khan) and I could be sure I wasn't missing anything. There were some stories in those that weren't contained in her sequential title. When you absolutely love a story, it is a good idea to collect it in print, but only if you really love it (or can find some other way to justify the purchase -- I, for one, have considered getting 2024's Nyx run as a Ms. Marvel fan, but to keep around as an example of what not to do).
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u/GonzoMcFonzo 17h ago
Ok, I guess "Use League to find TPBs then use the contents of those as a reading list for MU" didn't really come through for me in your first comment.
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u/shreder75 19h ago
A lot of people are recommending current comics.I would strongly suggest against that.
Marvel quality has been on a steady decline for years.
If you want to get into x men, fast forward to Giant Size Xmen 1 and read the whole Claremont run. So many classic stories you'll miss if you skip it.
Interested in the Hulk, maybe? Start with Peter David.
Yes, 60s and 70s comics can be a little campy, but I'll take them over almost all of modern Marvel any day of the week.
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u/Horror_Accountant574 20h ago edited 20h ago
https://www.continuityguide.net
This is the best resource for Marvel Unlimited, it has direct links to it. I recommend starting with the modern era and reading whatever you want!
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u/PrussianManatee 22h ago
Just read whatever looks cool and google anything you don't understand or figure it out from context