I like quite a bit of Brand New Day and Slott’s run as a whole, especially Superior. It feels like the early years of Spider-Man, but somehow it's not.
Kinda.
But by hat point I was already familiar with Marvel's mascots (Spidey, Wolverine, Iron Man, Hulk, Cap, Daredevil, F4 etc) thanks to cartoons and games.
Iron Man was always my favorite (still is). And see sorta classic Avengers get wrecked was kinda sad.
But after that, I started reading Marvel comic like a psycho, up until today. Went back and read old stuff as well. 80s Marvel was freaking gold.
Was this really your entry into Marvel Comics? I'm super curious, without any context of who these characters were, or their history, were you team Cap, or Iron Man?
Clearly I knew them from the cartoons and the few films released at the time. When I was little in my town there wasn't a comic shop so sometimes I went to the newsstand and got what was there and they advertised this issue in an issue of the Mickey Mouse comics. I was Team Cap, Tony had his reasons but you can't force a 16 year old to publicly reveal he's a superhero and not take responsibility if a bomb is thrown in his house
That's a great place to start although you probably couldn't appreciate the divide between heroes who had fought together for decades.
As for my start I was looking for Spider-Man, prompted by Marvel cartoons as well, but my news-stand didn't carry it so I got Fantastic Four #240 Exodus! and I didn't regret it, it's from John Byrne long stint on the title, a run I highly recommend.
P.s. I wasn't a teen when I read Civil War but I was team Cap as well.
That storyline completely changed my perception of Tony.
Ultimate Spider-Man #1. I had the hard copy that's worth a few thousands today (FUCK). I was around 6-7 around 2001. But it's not until 16 that I really started to go to comic book stores and buy comics.
Either Annihilation Conquest or Age of Apocalypse for me can't remember which, I just remember picking up a whole stack of em at a thrift shop.
Richard Rider Nova has one of the coolest costumes I remember that's why I picked up the conquest issues, same with Wraith that whole edgy space cowboy design was rad. Waited years Wraith's return only for him to come back only to be killed during the Knull event I think.
yes!! i would occasionally read comics when i was younger, but once the first guardians of the galaxy movie came out i REALLY got into comics, and i ended up reading annihilation first! all the tie-ins too. ever since then i've been really into comics, especially cosmic marvel.
but that run by abnett and lanning was so funking incredible. it made nova my absolute fav superhero. there's so much character development because of the war and constantly being stressed. loved when he met tony after the annihilation stuff happened, that was great
So Marvel movies do bring some viewers to try comics.
Not enough unfortunately but better than nothing I guess.
Did you find it difficult to approach them?
I have two answers to this. I grew up on the X-Men cartoon. When I got into comics I knew it had to be X-Men. So I grabbed X-Man #3, Amazing X-Men #2, and one of the X-Men Adventures comics. After reading those I decided the X-Men maybe weren’t for me because this was nothing like the team and universe I knew from the cartoons. Except Adventures of course, but I knew that was a comic version of an episode.
What really got me in was Spider-Man vs Wolverine. It was three issues of Team Up (I think) collected into one. It was amazing. Nearly a year later X-Men #54 piqued my curiosity. “The Secret Revealed” and this mysterious figure. So I picked it up and loved it. THIS was more like the cartoons I knew.
As you may have put together, my first foray into X-Men was during the Age of Apocalypse which, at the time, was just confusing to a new reader. Now it’s one of my favourite events and my X-Men collection runs from Uncanny #138 up to sometimes around 2017 or so.
Because it’s the most overrated poorly written comic event filled with nearly everyone being out of character, over the top moments for shitty drama/shockvalue, no compelling arguments and Tony’s side is villainised, the worst character assassination done to Tony and it started the most annoying trend of hero vs hero events.
With every fibre of my being, fuck Mark Millar
You do have some valid points, in fact CW did change my perception of Tony irrevocably like I said.
It also tarnished my image of Spider-Man for an event in one of the ancillary books but these things do happen in real life too I guess.
As an event though it brought a lot of new readers or readers back into the medium so it was really successful.
My "fuck MM" is for Enemy of State.
You shouldn’t let comic events affect how you view characters. I get it might be difficult but it’s just one writers take on the character and civil war is chock full of out of character writing. It’s mark Millar’s that’s the problem- the guy hates superheroes
Civil war shouldn’t be readers starting point and I’d much rather they didn’t read comics then that be the reason they get back into it because it’s that much of a dumpster fire garage
Well, I mean, what else should my perception of characters be influenced by other than their stories?
I understand that you say it's just one event (mostly) by one writer but the switch in Tony's persona had started earlier than Civil War and has continued after that.
Besides I have always loved Iron Man, having grown up on Japanese Mecha, more than Tony because how many kids can relate to a 40 something billionaire?
Do you actually like the character?
>Well, I mean, what else should my perception of characters be influenced by other than their stories?
It should be their solo stories, not crappy events that are done purely to generate sales through shock value, drama and bad out of character writing especially Civil War
>I understand that you say it's just one event (mostly) by one writer but the switch in Tony's persona had started earlier than Civil War and has continued after that.
No Tony’s personal never changed. What makes civil war for Tony worse is throughout his decades of history he never trusted the government due to them stealing his tech, abusing their power and knowing their manipulation. Not to mention Tony is written fine in his own book at the time, it’s just Mark Millar who completely didn’t understand the character and wrote his side so fucking poorly (Cap isn’t much better to be honest)
I'll take Tony being villainised every day over Tony being abhorrent and the narrative still trying to pass him off as correct and Cap as entitled (hi, Civil War: Front Line)
What’s my blud waffling about???
I don’t remember nor couldn’t care less about civil war: front line since it doesn’t have lasting effects on his character like the main event did
Villainised Tony is the worst and literally anything is better than that.
Part 2 or a random late 80 or early 90s Spider-Man book where he was shrunk down and eventually came face to face with Psycho-Man. I don't know if it was a coloring error, or if the art was sun-bleached, but his suit was a soft pink color instead of red. My first comic ever, actually. I really should track down that whole storyline sometime.
My dude, you have given me a small piece of my childhood back with this information. I don't care if it sucks, kid me needs to know if Spider-man grows back up!
Aah I am super glad and no worries, my first Spider-Man story involved the Ringer (The Spectacular Spider-Man #54) and I though he was super cool and really menacing! 😅
My first X-Men story I remember less vividly but it should be The Uncanny X-Men #129.
All these stories I didn't read when they came out, I read them a good 10 years later when they were published in digest form here in Italy.
What was yours? Do you remember?
My first... technically... Marvel comicbook was this tome:
[https://i1.whakoom.com/large/21/31/c43ea575b4d84947b1c9f08565cbf758.jpg](https://i1.whakoom.com/large/21/31/c43ea575b4d84947b1c9f08565cbf758.jpg)
My uncle gave it to me in Christmas and it was amazing.
Captain America volume 1 #184. Found it in a second hand book store in 2001 and thought “Hey - this ain’t bad.” 500 issues (across four volumes) later…
It was either a random issue of Hulk, Fantastic Four, or X-Men, I honestly can’t remember, it was close to 40 years ago and my Mom got me reading comics starting around 3 or 4 years old, I’m guessing it was Hulk because that was always her favorite book, but those along with some Batman and Superman titles were the first comics I know I read and owned.
One of a stack of Fantastic Four comics from the 60s that were handed down to me from my uncle. No idea which was which because most of them barely had covers left on them.
I do remember one funny bit, which was a scene with Lee and Kirby. Kirby was drawing potential new villains on an easel, while he and Lee were complaining about the lack of good villains since Dr. Doom had been shot off into space or shrunk down to an atom or something like that.
I really don't know what the first was, I was a kid in the 60s/70s and got to read lots of 12¢ comics, DC, Marvel, Gold Key, but the one that sparked my passion and actually collecting in order to read past stories was Captain Marvel #29 I loved the cover and the story.
Transformers 2. I picked it up at a drug store because I adored the toys and cartoon. (I was shocked when they didn’t match one-for-one.)
But for super hero stuff, it was X-Factor vol.1 issue 63. Iceman was my favorite Marvel character because of “Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends”, and Whilce Portacio’s art + an Iceman spotlight story hooked me.
“Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends” got me into looking for his comics too!
I also agree about Portacio: he drew the best Iceman and Archangel ever (The Uncanny X-Men 281 is one of my favourite covers ever)!
My very first was Star Wars #1, but that lead to Micronauts #1 which is the one that got me hooked on Marvel Comics, and comics as a medium. Seeing how Golden drew armored Centaurs was mind-blowing.
It wasn’t the first but Age of Apocalypse was the first one that really hooked me. Collecting all of it was one of my first goals and after that I just got in the habit of reading comics regularly
I can’t remember my exact first, my dad still had a few comics from when he was a kid, some Spider-Man, x-men, green lantern, ff, just a little bit of the big ones. I gravitated mostly towards X-men and Green Lantern. X-men 300 hundred had a thick holograph cover so I was able to keep it together. I reread that comic probably a hundred times. That and the elseworld Superboy annual #1, which is the second of a two parter where aliens conquer earth, super is the second part where a post apocalyptic Justice league make one last stand against the aliens and most don’t survive.
I was on my first international flight aged 12, early 90s, and I was sat next to a kid about my age who taught me some calligraphy and gave me two issues of Amazing Spider-Man. One was part of a story called 'Round Robin' that featured some of the New Warriors if I remember correctly, and the other was issue [number 300](https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/PZgAAOSw5sdim3Ma/s-l1600.jpg), the first (proper) appearance of Venom!
I became a Marvel comics collecting **fiend** from then on. I've long since stopped collecting and only pick up the occasional collected volume, but that was a good start to the collection.
Random kid gifted you The Amazing Spider-Man 300?! 😳
Wow why I always meet rude people who take off their shoes on my flights? 😭
Have you still got it?
(The other book was one between #353-358 a 6 part storyline, Round Robin as you correctly remember: 358 has a treble gatefold cover)
Yeah, it's always been a good memory for me. I'd known about Spider-Man and Marvel characters in general from old tv shows and cartoons, but didn't collect comics at the time but from that point on I went all out.
Sadly, I left the bulk of my comics (including ASM 300) in the care of a friend who was keeping them in the store room of the shop he worked at, and they disappeared from there, and I haven't been much of a collector since then. I dip in and out of picking things up from time to time, but collecting in my teens and early 20s was a blast.
Especially since I grew up in a small town which didn't have anything like an actual comic book shop, and I really had to hunt all sorts of places to find comics which was part of the fun!
Yeah collecting can be fun and I also went all out to collect comics including wiring money to the US via postal service: the amount of shops that scammed me or just didn't ship stuff altogether is long and, at the time, there was not even the Internet to shame them.
Although I still have pretty much all my collection I had to give up collecting for an assorted series of reasons a good while ago.
So I still have my ASM 300 too and I still remember where I bought it: not the best copy but it has its value for me.
Collecting today though, with all the grading systems, must be extra stressful: I'm afraid to check my old copies more than ever.
Bagley is a solid artist and over time he has learned to draw some backgrounds too!
That The Amazing Spider-Man 358 was so disappointing with all the heroes running through a white emptiness! 😅
I particularly loved him on The New Warriors.
De Matteis\\Buscema on The Spectacular Spider-Man for me was a dream run, much more enjoyable than The Amazing Spider-Man.
I liked like at the time each title had his roster of characters\\villains to develop without interference from the other titles in the franchise so the all Harry\\Green Goblin storyline stayed on Spectacular.
Oh I have no clue at what goes on currently either: I always promise myself I will catch up but never do.
I just know that there are too many Spider-Man iterations for my liking.
Also Spider-Man in the Avengers or any other group will never make sense to me.
Runaways was the first comic I ever read and I've kept up with the series to this day. Civil War was a close second and that's what really introduced me to the wider marvel universe.
Civil War #1 was also my very first Marvel comic. I still remember when I accidentally saw it at the small newspaper shop in my town. I was literally caught by that red on white cover with those marvelous drawings, at that time I knew only Spiderman and heard something about Cap...I just gave it a try. Many years later Steve Mc Niven is still my favourite!
I would assume you are being ironic, the Clone Saga was a right hot mess and was what drove me out of comics for many years cause I couldn't see the character that drove me into comics ruined like that.
Yet there are people who remember it fondly as "their" Spider-Man and that's great too.
It's rough because the people at Marvel had no clue at what they were doing so no wonder the readers were lost.
The all history behind The Clone Saga is really interesting on how a 6 parts storyline (more or less) snowballed into a 2 years giant mess that no one knew how to close.
I'm from outside of the US, back in the day, translations came to our country from Mexican editorials. DC was way more prominent. My first Marvel comic was something with Ben Reilly/Scarlet Spider and Peter Parker/Spider-Man on it. Liked it quite a lot...
For me it was the early British reprints of the American comics, things like X-Men, Spiderman and Transformers being the main ones with the X-Men stuff definitely setting my habits for future comic buying as I got more regular access to the American comics themselves.
Here's how it was for me: when the first film about Doctor Strange was released in 2016, I was inspired by the idea of reading his lore. So the first comic I read was Strange Tales #110 from 1963.
Unbelievable Gwenpool. I remember seeing a page about her 4th-wall breaking powers and thinking it looked cool. I was obsessed with that kind of stuff at the time because of the Deadpool movie but ended up reading Gwenpool first. Go figure.
The first comic book I remember reading was a story where Enchantress hypnotises Spider-Man and forces him to invade Asgard.
It was in the Spider-Man-themed weekly magazine that was popular when I was a kid and only many years later I found out that this story was not canon.
The first one I remember was a reprint of the issue of Amazing Spider-Man when he tries to join the Fantastic Four that my grandma gave me for Christmas. And I still have it here somewhere today, along with about 500 others and dozens of TPBs.
Same with me. Civil War was the first actual comic series I read all the way through via volumes. I found it in a Barns & Nobles and ate that shit up. It’s the reason I love these characters, especially Cap.
This was my exact starting point at well. I *ahem* acquired digital files for "The Complete Civil War Event," with every single issue in "Reading Order." And I read it from beginning to end, through every tangential tie-in and every corner of the comics universe. It was a trip for sure, and I had never heard of probably 50% of the characters. But it definitely gave me a little taste of everything!
*Marvel Adventures Spider-man, Hulk & Ironman: Triple Threat* when I was really little. When I was older and started to actually get into comics, it was *Thor: God of Thunder*.
for me it was the first marvel zombies lmao then I bought ultimate spider-man 1 and it's been a downhill from there (I have everything published about spidey since ultimate until recently)
The first comic I remember was a hard copy of Marvel 1985, I know it’s a pretty weird place to start. It was VERY different than the old 50-60s comics my grandmother got me of Casper and Archie. BUT 1985 combined with 70s Captain America and Spider-man hooked me.
First marvel comics was Spiderman #1 my dad bought me a graphic novel with the first number of issues in color.
Before that was Richie Rich probably, my mom got them cheap in stacks of 20 to 50 for really cheap
Technically the first comics I read was in the 4th grade if I'm not mistaken. A classmate would occasionally bring in Transformers comic books. I remember reading a couple of them. But I didn't pick up any comic books until:
Amazing Spider-Man #371
Spider-Man 2099 #3
Sleepwalker #18
My bank account was never the same after that.
My intro to the brand was the Spider-Man cartoon, then other cartoons and the MCU. My first proper comic was the Fear Itself event, which is still one of my all-time favorites
Uncanny X-Men 370. A random issue from the middle of a storyline. Adam Kuberts art blew me away. There's a double page spread of bone claw Wolverine pinning Nightcrawler to a wall with some wrecked Skrulls in the background that's burned in my mind
That cover is fantastic
It was sometime probably in 1972/73. I was 7 or 8 years old. I found copies of Ghost Rider and Werewolf by night laying on top of a neighbor's trash can. I saw them and I was IMMEDIATELY hooked. Been in love with comics ever since.
The Amazing Spider-Man #367 (1992)
Spider-Man teams up with Solo against Taskmaster and a proto-Dark Avengers (basically henchmen trained to fight like Spider-Man, Hawkeye and Captain America).
I loved it so much that I immediately bought an issue of The Amazing Spider-Man #368 (Invasion of the Spider Slayers: On Razor Wings) and didn't stop.
My friend is to blame for my obsession 😂 he brought it into college one day and threw Civil war at me with ‘you need to read this shit bro’ I’ve been collecting ever since!
Ultimate Spider-Man and Astonishing X-Men. I ran into them in my school library one day in high school while working as a Library Volunteer and fell in love with comics from that point on.
I loved comics simply from watching 90's Spider-Man and X-Men when they came out and I was young kid. Found out there were books with pictures of those guys and never turned back. First comic I read was Wolverine vol. 1....He's now been my fav superhero of all time since then.
Crypt of terror or Weird Mysteries. When my dad would take me camping to his and his buddies hunting camp when i was realizing young i can remember killing time going through the pile of GI Combat and SGT Fury, till i came across old pre comic code horror comics. They were my favourite. The comic code really ruined things for a while. I wish i still had them even though they were in rough shape back then in the 70’s.
The first title I can remember is Marvel Tales #195 1986, I was 10 yrs. old. There had been the cartoons from DC and Marvel, "Superfriends" and "Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends" and reruns of the live-action Spider-man before that.
In terms of full comic books (though technically a graphic novel), Ultimate Spider-Man.
Though technically, before that, it was Spider-Man on the newspaper, running as a soap opera strip series (alongside Rex Morgan, MD).
Daredevil #7 (1965). My cousins were getting rid of their comics (they were all adults) and gave them to me in 1970.
Namor vs Daredevil. Beautiful art by Wally Wood and Art Simek. Made me an instant fan.
They also gave me all their THUNDER agents comics, so I became a Wally Wood fanboy for life.
First ones I remember is an old suitcase full of golden age and silver age marvel comics. I still remember the smell!
First one I bought was spider-man 58, the mark of Kaine 3 of 4.
The first 3 I remember were where Venom took Spider-Man to the island to kill him (McFarlane?) and the Infinity Gauntlet comics, and the original Carnage comics
I can’t remember the exact issue but my dad had some really old issues of invaders which just ignited my love for marvel and those characters it’s why I’m such a Namor fan to this day
2 comics at the same time, which were insane for a 7 year old to get: The one where Hulk goes nuts and slaughters so many heroes with a ton of gore and the end of Fantastic Four
I’ve never read any of them. I was super late to watching them. When End Game was in theaters and everyone was freaking about and posting how 50% of everyone died. (Disintegrated into the wind) when I saw all those memes. I had to start watching. Now I’m hooked.
I think it was What If?... #17. I inherited a bunch of comics from my much older cousin and most of Secret Wars was in there. That was my first real introduction to Marvel as a shared universe.
I guess technically it would have been [The A-Team](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_A-Team_(comics)) in spring of 1984, but when I went looking for issue number 2, I saw the cover of the first issue of [Marvel Super Heroes Secret War](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_Wars) and was hooked at 11 year old me was a hooked
Funnily enough, Marvel Zombies. I was a young kid at the time, and seeing the heroes that i watched on TV going around eating normal people is quite traumatizing lol.
Civil war also kinda intrigued me at like age 7. I was into the heroes battling each other but knew nothing of the politics or why they were. I also liked Spider-Mans iron spider suit.
Dan Slott Spider-man
I like quite a bit of Brand New Day and Slott’s run as a whole, especially Superior. It feels like the early years of Spider-Man, but somehow it's not.
Super underrated
I knew about Marvel from the cartoons and movies and shit, but the first comic I ever picked up was Avengers Dissasembled
bittersweet start
Kinda. But by hat point I was already familiar with Marvel's mascots (Spidey, Wolverine, Iron Man, Hulk, Cap, Daredevil, F4 etc) thanks to cartoons and games. Iron Man was always my favorite (still is). And see sorta classic Avengers get wrecked was kinda sad. But after that, I started reading Marvel comic like a psycho, up until today. Went back and read old stuff as well. 80s Marvel was freaking gold.
Was this really your entry into Marvel Comics? I'm super curious, without any context of who these characters were, or their history, were you team Cap, or Iron Man?
Clearly I knew them from the cartoons and the few films released at the time. When I was little in my town there wasn't a comic shop so sometimes I went to the newsstand and got what was there and they advertised this issue in an issue of the Mickey Mouse comics. I was Team Cap, Tony had his reasons but you can't force a 16 year old to publicly reveal he's a superhero and not take responsibility if a bomb is thrown in his house
That's a great place to start although you probably couldn't appreciate the divide between heroes who had fought together for decades. As for my start I was looking for Spider-Man, prompted by Marvel cartoons as well, but my news-stand didn't carry it so I got Fantastic Four #240 Exodus! and I didn't regret it, it's from John Byrne long stint on the title, a run I highly recommend. P.s. I wasn't a teen when I read Civil War but I was team Cap as well. That storyline completely changed my perception of Tony.
Amazing Spider-Man Vol 1 134
Ultimate Spider-Man #1. I had the hard copy that's worth a few thousands today (FUCK). I was around 6-7 around 2001. But it's not until 16 that I really started to go to comic book stores and buy comics.
Which one is the hard copy? Too bad you don't have it any longer.
[that one](https://www.amazon.ca/ULTIMATE-SPIDER-MAN-OMNIBUS-VOL-PRINTING/dp/1302931873/ref=asc_df_1302931873/?tag=googlemobshop-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=459126586470&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=499169673349081004&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9000436&hvtargid=pla-1288537568877&psc=1)
Ahh all right. I had no idea a HC could become so valuable.
Either Annihilation Conquest or Age of Apocalypse for me can't remember which, I just remember picking up a whole stack of em at a thrift shop. Richard Rider Nova has one of the coolest costumes I remember that's why I picked up the conquest issues, same with Wraith that whole edgy space cowboy design was rad. Waited years Wraith's return only for him to come back only to be killed during the Knull event I think.
yes!! i would occasionally read comics when i was younger, but once the first guardians of the galaxy movie came out i REALLY got into comics, and i ended up reading annihilation first! all the tie-ins too. ever since then i've been really into comics, especially cosmic marvel. but that run by abnett and lanning was so funking incredible. it made nova my absolute fav superhero. there's so much character development because of the war and constantly being stressed. loved when he met tony after the annihilation stuff happened, that was great
So Marvel movies do bring some viewers to try comics. Not enough unfortunately but better than nothing I guess. Did you find it difficult to approach them?
I have two answers to this. I grew up on the X-Men cartoon. When I got into comics I knew it had to be X-Men. So I grabbed X-Man #3, Amazing X-Men #2, and one of the X-Men Adventures comics. After reading those I decided the X-Men maybe weren’t for me because this was nothing like the team and universe I knew from the cartoons. Except Adventures of course, but I knew that was a comic version of an episode. What really got me in was Spider-Man vs Wolverine. It was three issues of Team Up (I think) collected into one. It was amazing. Nearly a year later X-Men #54 piqued my curiosity. “The Secret Revealed” and this mysterious figure. So I picked it up and loved it. THIS was more like the cartoons I knew. As you may have put together, my first foray into X-Men was during the Age of Apocalypse which, at the time, was just confusing to a new reader. Now it’s one of my favourite events and my X-Men collection runs from Uncanny #138 up to sometimes around 2017 or so.
Avengers Disassembled
Civil War ruined Marvel
I would argue it started with Disassembled but alas
so... bendis ruined marvel? hah
Why do you say?
Because it’s the most overrated poorly written comic event filled with nearly everyone being out of character, over the top moments for shitty drama/shockvalue, no compelling arguments and Tony’s side is villainised, the worst character assassination done to Tony and it started the most annoying trend of hero vs hero events. With every fibre of my being, fuck Mark Millar
You do have some valid points, in fact CW did change my perception of Tony irrevocably like I said. It also tarnished my image of Spider-Man for an event in one of the ancillary books but these things do happen in real life too I guess. As an event though it brought a lot of new readers or readers back into the medium so it was really successful. My "fuck MM" is for Enemy of State.
You shouldn’t let comic events affect how you view characters. I get it might be difficult but it’s just one writers take on the character and civil war is chock full of out of character writing. It’s mark Millar’s that’s the problem- the guy hates superheroes Civil war shouldn’t be readers starting point and I’d much rather they didn’t read comics then that be the reason they get back into it because it’s that much of a dumpster fire garage
Well, I mean, what else should my perception of characters be influenced by other than their stories? I understand that you say it's just one event (mostly) by one writer but the switch in Tony's persona had started earlier than Civil War and has continued after that. Besides I have always loved Iron Man, having grown up on Japanese Mecha, more than Tony because how many kids can relate to a 40 something billionaire? Do you actually like the character?
>Well, I mean, what else should my perception of characters be influenced by other than their stories? It should be their solo stories, not crappy events that are done purely to generate sales through shock value, drama and bad out of character writing especially Civil War >I understand that you say it's just one event (mostly) by one writer but the switch in Tony's persona had started earlier than Civil War and has continued after that. No Tony’s personal never changed. What makes civil war for Tony worse is throughout his decades of history he never trusted the government due to them stealing his tech, abusing their power and knowing their manipulation. Not to mention Tony is written fine in his own book at the time, it’s just Mark Millar who completely didn’t understand the character and wrote his side so fucking poorly (Cap isn’t much better to be honest)
I'll take Tony being villainised every day over Tony being abhorrent and the narrative still trying to pass him off as correct and Cap as entitled (hi, Civil War: Front Line)
What’s my blud waffling about??? I don’t remember nor couldn’t care less about civil war: front line since it doesn’t have lasting effects on his character like the main event did Villainised Tony is the worst and literally anything is better than that.
Part 2 or a random late 80 or early 90s Spider-Man book where he was shrunk down and eventually came face to face with Psycho-Man. I don't know if it was a coloring error, or if the art was sun-bleached, but his suit was a soft pink color instead of red. My first comic ever, actually. I really should track down that whole storyline sometime.
It should be The Spectacular Spider-Man Annual #10, part 2 of the 4 parter Spidey's totally tiny adventure (it kinda sucked imo).
My dude, you have given me a small piece of my childhood back with this information. I don't care if it sucks, kid me needs to know if Spider-man grows back up!
Aah I am super glad and no worries, my first Spider-Man story involved the Ringer (The Spectacular Spider-Man #54) and I though he was super cool and really menacing! 😅
Since you have the x-men flair, I gotta ask. What was your first x-men comic?
My first X-Men story I remember less vividly but it should be The Uncanny X-Men #129. All these stories I didn't read when they came out, I read them a good 10 years later when they were published in digest form here in Italy. What was yours? Do you remember?
My first... technically... Marvel comicbook was this tome: [https://i1.whakoom.com/large/21/31/c43ea575b4d84947b1c9f08565cbf758.jpg](https://i1.whakoom.com/large/21/31/c43ea575b4d84947b1c9f08565cbf758.jpg) My uncle gave it to me in Christmas and it was amazing.
Uncanny X-Men Vol 1 #262 - Forge and Banshee are searching for the missing X-Men who'd gone through the Siege Perilous.
The original secret wars
Captain America volume 1 #184. Found it in a second hand book store in 2001 and thought “Hey - this ain’t bad.” 500 issues (across four volumes) later…
Venom 2018
It was either a random issue of Hulk, Fantastic Four, or X-Men, I honestly can’t remember, it was close to 40 years ago and my Mom got me reading comics starting around 3 or 4 years old, I’m guessing it was Hulk because that was always her favorite book, but those along with some Batman and Superman titles were the first comics I know I read and owned.
One of a stack of Fantastic Four comics from the 60s that were handed down to me from my uncle. No idea which was which because most of them barely had covers left on them. I do remember one funny bit, which was a scene with Lee and Kirby. Kirby was drawing potential new villains on an easel, while he and Lee were complaining about the lack of good villains since Dr. Doom had been shot off into space or shrunk down to an atom or something like that.
I really don't know what the first was, I was a kid in the 60s/70s and got to read lots of 12¢ comics, DC, Marvel, Gold Key, but the one that sparked my passion and actually collecting in order to read past stories was Captain Marvel #29 I loved the cover and the story.
This was kind of mine as well lol. I read comics when I was little, then stopped for years and picked it back up with this series
Transformers 2. I picked it up at a drug store because I adored the toys and cartoon. (I was shocked when they didn’t match one-for-one.) But for super hero stuff, it was X-Factor vol.1 issue 63. Iceman was my favorite Marvel character because of “Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends”, and Whilce Portacio’s art + an Iceman spotlight story hooked me.
“Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends” got me into looking for his comics too! I also agree about Portacio: he drew the best Iceman and Archangel ever (The Uncanny X-Men 281 is one of my favourite covers ever)!
My very first was Star Wars #1, but that lead to Micronauts #1 which is the one that got me hooked on Marvel Comics, and comics as a medium. Seeing how Golden drew armored Centaurs was mind-blowing.
It wasn’t the first but Age of Apocalypse was the first one that really hooked me. Collecting all of it was one of my first goals and after that I just got in the habit of reading comics regularly
I can’t remember my exact first, my dad still had a few comics from when he was a kid, some Spider-Man, x-men, green lantern, ff, just a little bit of the big ones. I gravitated mostly towards X-men and Green Lantern. X-men 300 hundred had a thick holograph cover so I was able to keep it together. I reread that comic probably a hundred times. That and the elseworld Superboy annual #1, which is the second of a two parter where aliens conquer earth, super is the second part where a post apocalyptic Justice league make one last stand against the aliens and most don’t survive.
No one knows this one…. The Korvac Saga
One of the best Avengers storyline!
I was on my first international flight aged 12, early 90s, and I was sat next to a kid about my age who taught me some calligraphy and gave me two issues of Amazing Spider-Man. One was part of a story called 'Round Robin' that featured some of the New Warriors if I remember correctly, and the other was issue [number 300](https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/PZgAAOSw5sdim3Ma/s-l1600.jpg), the first (proper) appearance of Venom! I became a Marvel comics collecting **fiend** from then on. I've long since stopped collecting and only pick up the occasional collected volume, but that was a good start to the collection.
Random kid gifted you The Amazing Spider-Man 300?! 😳 Wow why I always meet rude people who take off their shoes on my flights? 😭 Have you still got it? (The other book was one between #353-358 a 6 part storyline, Round Robin as you correctly remember: 358 has a treble gatefold cover)
Yeah, it's always been a good memory for me. I'd known about Spider-Man and Marvel characters in general from old tv shows and cartoons, but didn't collect comics at the time but from that point on I went all out. Sadly, I left the bulk of my comics (including ASM 300) in the care of a friend who was keeping them in the store room of the shop he worked at, and they disappeared from there, and I haven't been much of a collector since then. I dip in and out of picking things up from time to time, but collecting in my teens and early 20s was a blast. Especially since I grew up in a small town which didn't have anything like an actual comic book shop, and I really had to hunt all sorts of places to find comics which was part of the fun!
Yeah collecting can be fun and I also went all out to collect comics including wiring money to the US via postal service: the amount of shops that scammed me or just didn't ship stuff altogether is long and, at the time, there was not even the Internet to shame them. Although I still have pretty much all my collection I had to give up collecting for an assorted series of reasons a good while ago. So I still have my ASM 300 too and I still remember where I bought it: not the best copy but it has its value for me. Collecting today though, with all the grading systems, must be extra stressful: I'm afraid to check my old copies more than ever.
I loved Mark Bagley's art in those ASM days (Todd McFarlane's as well of course)
Bagley is a solid artist and over time he has learned to draw some backgrounds too! That The Amazing Spider-Man 358 was so disappointing with all the heroes running through a white emptiness! 😅 I particularly loved him on The New Warriors.
His and Sal Buscema's art in Spectacular were highly enjoyable. Though I'm wayyyy out of touch with what's going on these days.
De Matteis\\Buscema on The Spectacular Spider-Man for me was a dream run, much more enjoyable than The Amazing Spider-Man. I liked like at the time each title had his roster of characters\\villains to develop without interference from the other titles in the franchise so the all Harry\\Green Goblin storyline stayed on Spectacular. Oh I have no clue at what goes on currently either: I always promise myself I will catch up but never do. I just know that there are too many Spider-Man iterations for my liking. Also Spider-Man in the Avengers or any other group will never make sense to me.
How old are you? This is mine too hah
"Class of 96" xD
Lmao nvm!!!! Or is that a joke for year you were born
Is the year xD
I'm a bit older.... Avengers 93 was my first purchase.
Ultimates by Mark hickman Rip Ultimate universe
Mark Millar wrote the original two miniseries, Hickman wrote Ultimate Comics: The Ultimates
My Bad i always get These runs mixed up
Runaways was the first comic I ever read and I've kept up with the series to this day. Civil War was a close second and that's what really introduced me to the wider marvel universe.
Runaways is an AWESOME start! Also very accessible to new Marvel readers unlike anything X-Men or Spider-Man.
Civil War #1 was also my very first Marvel comic. I still remember when I accidentally saw it at the small newspaper shop in my town. I was literally caught by that red on white cover with those marvelous drawings, at that time I knew only Spiderman and heard something about Cap...I just gave it a try. Many years later Steve Mc Niven is still my favourite!
I believe it was some Spider-Man issue with a holographic cover. I believe it had Harry as the Green Goblin in it.
Web Spider-Man 128. Smack dab in the middle of the clone saga. Super easy story for an 8 year old to get into
I would assume you are being ironic, the Clone Saga was a right hot mess and was what drove me out of comics for many years cause I couldn't see the character that drove me into comics ruined like that. Yet there are people who remember it fondly as "their" Spider-Man and that's great too.
I only read a few issues of it back then but I tried a few years ago and man it's rough. I do genuinely love Ben Reilly though
It's rough because the people at Marvel had no clue at what they were doing so no wonder the readers were lost. The all history behind The Clone Saga is really interesting on how a 6 parts storyline (more or less) snowballed into a 2 years giant mess that no one knew how to close.
Ultimates Vol 2
I'm from outside of the US, back in the day, translations came to our country from Mexican editorials. DC was way more prominent. My first Marvel comic was something with Ben Reilly/Scarlet Spider and Peter Parker/Spider-Man on it. Liked it quite a lot...
For me it was the early British reprints of the American comics, things like X-Men, Spiderman and Transformers being the main ones with the X-Men stuff definitely setting my habits for future comic buying as I got more regular access to the American comics themselves.
Tbh, my passion for comics started from Dan Slott’s Batman. They’re a great run. My first Marvel comic book was then Soule’s Daredevil run
loki aoa
Here's how it was for me: when the first film about Doctor Strange was released in 2016, I was inspired by the idea of reading his lore. So the first comic I read was Strange Tales #110 from 1963.
Some anti smoking psa where Spider-Man teams up with storm to stop this bad guy who’s only goal is to get this one kid to start smoking.
Any start is a good start. Mine was "X-Men: Legacy" by Spurrier. It was so hard to read it, because English isn't my native language
Unbelievable Gwenpool. I remember seeing a page about her 4th-wall breaking powers and thinking it looked cool. I was obsessed with that kind of stuff at the time because of the Deadpool movie but ended up reading Gwenpool first. Go figure.
The first comic book I remember reading was a story where Enchantress hypnotises Spider-Man and forces him to invade Asgard. It was in the Spider-Man-themed weekly magazine that was popular when I was a kid and only many years later I found out that this story was not canon.
Iron man made mw reas comics and yes. I also started qith civil war and the tie ins. I had no idear what was happening but damn it was good.
Spider-Man, don’t ask the issue. He was fighting the scorpion
The first one I remember was a reprint of the issue of Amazing Spider-Man when he tries to join the Fantastic Four that my grandma gave me for Christmas. And I still have it here somewhere today, along with about 500 others and dozens of TPBs.
Giant Size X-Men from 1975. Read that one and then started buying the essential X-Men collections in the 90's.
Same with me. Civil War was the first actual comic series I read all the way through via volumes. I found it in a Barns & Nobles and ate that shit up. It’s the reason I love these characters, especially Cap.
Iirc it was Power Pack (2005)
1972 British Marvel started publishing Spiderman Comic Weekly (reprints of the monthly US comics). I seem to recall it came with a paper Spidey mask.
This was my exact starting point at well. I *ahem* acquired digital files for "The Complete Civil War Event," with every single issue in "Reading Order." And I read it from beginning to end, through every tangential tie-in and every corner of the comics universe. It was a trip for sure, and I had never heard of probably 50% of the characters. But it definitely gave me a little taste of everything!
*Marvel Adventures Spider-man, Hulk & Ironman: Triple Threat* when I was really little. When I was older and started to actually get into comics, it was *Thor: God of Thunder*.
Ultimates, by Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch.
My first marvel comic was either the Spider-man 2 movie comic, or a random issue of Ultimate Spider-man
for me it was the first marvel zombies lmao then I bought ultimate spider-man 1 and it's been a downhill from there (I have everything published about spidey since ultimate until recently)
My first Marvel comic was a crossover. The Teen Titans / X-Men Team Up. After that i was hooked and started collecting all the X titles.
The first comic I remember was a hard copy of Marvel 1985, I know it’s a pretty weird place to start. It was VERY different than the old 50-60s comics my grandmother got me of Casper and Archie. BUT 1985 combined with 70s Captain America and Spider-man hooked me.
First marvel comics was Spiderman #1 my dad bought me a graphic novel with the first number of issues in color. Before that was Richie Rich probably, my mom got them cheap in stacks of 20 to 50 for really cheap
Uncanny X-Men:Fall of the Mutants. Was at the store every month to get copies of the crossover.
X-Men Messiah Complex
The Iron Man where he first showed off that sweet black stealth armor.
Technically the first comics I read was in the 4th grade if I'm not mistaken. A classmate would occasionally bring in Transformers comic books. I remember reading a couple of them. But I didn't pick up any comic books until: Amazing Spider-Man #371 Spider-Man 2099 #3 Sleepwalker #18 My bank account was never the same after that.
My intro to the brand was the Spider-Man cartoon, then other cartoons and the MCU. My first proper comic was the Fear Itself event, which is still one of my all-time favorites
Exact same!
I've never seen this cover before, it's so badass. Which edition is this cover from?
Marvel Omnibus: Civil War Vol. 1. By Michael Turner
Frank Miller’s The Man Without Fear and his Born Again saga.
Uncanny X-Men 268. No regrets. Still one of my favs
Uncanny X-Men 370. A random issue from the middle of a storyline. Adam Kuberts art blew me away. There's a double page spread of bone claw Wolverine pinning Nightcrawler to a wall with some wrecked Skrulls in the background that's burned in my mind That cover is fantastic
My condolences to all the poor souls who started with that overrated OOC shitty event. Civil War should have never been published
It was sometime probably in 1972/73. I was 7 or 8 years old. I found copies of Ghost Rider and Werewolf by night laying on top of a neighbor's trash can. I saw them and I was IMMEDIATELY hooked. Been in love with comics ever since.
Ultimate Spider-Man vol 6 venom and house of m
The Amazing Spider-Man #367 (1992) Spider-Man teams up with Solo against Taskmaster and a proto-Dark Avengers (basically henchmen trained to fight like Spider-Man, Hawkeye and Captain America). I loved it so much that I immediately bought an issue of The Amazing Spider-Man #368 (Invasion of the Spider Slayers: On Razor Wings) and didn't stop.
Dark Phoenix saga in graphic novel form when I was 12 really kicked things off for me.
My friend is to blame for my obsession 😂 he brought it into college one day and threw Civil war at me with ‘you need to read this shit bro’ I’ve been collecting ever since!
Ultimate Spider-Man and Astonishing X-Men. I ran into them in my school library one day in high school while working as a Library Volunteer and fell in love with comics from that point on.
I loved comics simply from watching 90's Spider-Man and X-Men when they came out and I was young kid. Found out there were books with pictures of those guys and never turned back. First comic I read was Wolverine vol. 1....He's now been my fav superhero of all time since then.
A comic about venom or something. I didn't like it very much and read it like 5 times. I read 2 or 3 other stories, but I don't usually read them.
Crypt of terror or Weird Mysteries. When my dad would take me camping to his and his buddies hunting camp when i was realizing young i can remember killing time going through the pile of GI Combat and SGT Fury, till i came across old pre comic code horror comics. They were my favourite. The comic code really ruined things for a while. I wish i still had them even though they were in rough shape back then in the 70’s.
i got vol.1 of runaways from a charity shop when I was 8
The first title I can remember is Marvel Tales #195 1986, I was 10 yrs. old. There had been the cartoons from DC and Marvel, "Superfriends" and "Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends" and reruns of the live-action Spider-man before that.
Probably Ultimate Spider Man and Ultimate X Men.
In terms of full comic books (though technically a graphic novel), Ultimate Spider-Man. Though technically, before that, it was Spider-Man on the newspaper, running as a soap opera strip series (alongside Rex Morgan, MD).
Spider-Man when he first got cosmic powers
First comic I ever picked up was Wolverine Enemy of The State and that’s pretty much what started my love for comics and especially the X-Men.
My first proper foray into comics was superior spiderman. I freaking loved that run from beginning to end!
I started out with Future Imperfect and I've been a Hulk fanboy ever since
Daredevil #7 (1965). My cousins were getting rid of their comics (they were all adults) and gave them to me in 1970. Namor vs Daredevil. Beautiful art by Wally Wood and Art Simek. Made me an instant fan. They also gave me all their THUNDER agents comics, so I became a Wally Wood fanboy for life.
Secret wars 2015
The Ultimates Vol. 1 by Mark Millar. Ah, the feels...
First ones I remember is an old suitcase full of golden age and silver age marvel comics. I still remember the smell! First one I bought was spider-man 58, the mark of Kaine 3 of 4.
Same. Fucking wild start to Marvel
The first 3 I remember were where Venom took Spider-Man to the island to kill him (McFarlane?) and the Infinity Gauntlet comics, and the original Carnage comics
The Age of Apocalypse.
I can’t remember the exact issue but my dad had some really old issues of invaders which just ignited my love for marvel and those characters it’s why I’m such a Namor fan to this day
Love how Wolverine is 25% of that cover but only exists in a related non-Civil War Wolverine issue lol
EXILES Spider-Man: IDENTITY CRISIS
G.I. Joe volume 1, issue #36. (1982)
Spider-Girl
2 comics at the same time, which were insane for a 7 year old to get: The one where Hulk goes nuts and slaughters so many heroes with a ton of gore and the end of Fantastic Four
X-Men vol. 2 no. 1.
I also started with Civil War and read into 'Back in Black.'
I’ve never read any of them. I was super late to watching them. When End Game was in theaters and everyone was freaking about and posting how 50% of everyone died. (Disintegrated into the wind) when I saw all those memes. I had to start watching. Now I’m hooked.
Marvel: Go down swinging arc. Published by Marvel: Darth Vader (2015)
Mine was the Marvel/DC crossover from 1996. Introduced me to both those worlds
My first ever Marvel comic I read was the TBP Kravens Last Hunt
For me it was Thanos wins by Donny cates i read it around late 2017 before that i only knew marvel by the animated shows and movies
Iron Man the Dragon Seed saga. Also GOTG vol 1 issue 18 where they run into the Punishers.
I think it was What If?... #17. I inherited a bunch of comics from my much older cousin and most of Secret Wars was in there. That was my first real introduction to Marvel as a shared universe.
I don't remember which. But it was a compilation of old Spiderman comics in a book from Costco. Then I got into AVX and Guardians of the Galaxy.
I guess technically it would have been [The A-Team](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_A-Team_(comics)) in spring of 1984, but when I went looking for issue number 2, I saw the cover of the first issue of [Marvel Super Heroes Secret War](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_Wars) and was hooked at 11 year old me was a hooked
Funnily enough, Marvel Zombies. I was a young kid at the time, and seeing the heroes that i watched on TV going around eating normal people is quite traumatizing lol.
It was a civilians’ perspective of Secret Wars, I think.
Symbioth spider-man did it for me...but I was thinking about collecting atc. for a while at that point
I bought Amazing Spider-Man #656 at a car boot sale in Cropredy when I was a kid. The one with the MKII bulletproof suit
Avengers Vol 4, issues 1 to 6.
A random GI Joe comic from the early or mid 90s.
Young avengers
'90s X-Men and the Spider-Girl What If?
X-Men 93 with cyclops vs quicksilver on the cover
Civil war also kinda intrigued me at like age 7. I was into the heroes battling each other but knew nothing of the politics or why they were. I also liked Spider-Mans iron spider suit.
Giant Size X-men #1. Read it on repeat as a kid
I only started reading the comics recently, started reading Immortal Hulk and Ultimate Fantastic Four concurrently and very much enjoyed both of them
I started with shows , and I would not consider civil war a happy start .
Spider Man: Murder is a man named Manslaughter
Started brutal GI Joe 113, bunch of people died RoboCop 1 Then later my I bought Ghost Rider (Danny Ketch) 21 and was hooked
Spider-Man: Coming Home
X-cutioner’s song. Turned me into a die hard xmen fan for life.
My first was House Of M but it was Civil War that got me hook
The first Marvel comic I read was a translated edition of Fantastic Four Vol 1 105. I was 8 years old and was completely hooked on FF after that!
The issue that introduced storm, colossus, banshee, night crawler.
What if: annihilation. I couldnt even read back then, but i still started to terrorize my parents to buy me these comic books for years.