Before I begin, let me ask you a couple of questions.
Have you been wanting to dive headfirst into the emotional maelstrom of comics and have zero idea where to start?
Are you particularly interested in what Marvel has to offer?
If the answer to both of these is a yes, then this will be the article for you.
Marvel NOW! is a shifting type of relaunch instead of a full reboot, with creative team changes, as well as resetting the issue numbers to #1, following the events of Avengers vs. X-Men. There are still 10 titles to be released in the next couple of months, but what should you consider picking up out of what’s been released? More importantly, will you need past knowledge to enjoy all of the titles?
While a few of the titles require some past knowledge (mostly X-Men and Avengers titles), many are easy to flip open and enjoy. Here are my top five recommendations in no particular order.
All New X-Men
All New X-Men is absolutely one of the titles you need previous history to fully appreciate the story. I’d recommend you read Avengers vs. X-Men, as well as the mini-series immediately following, AvX Consequences, before picking this up. Beast’s mutation has taken a turn for the worse, leaving him dying and refusing to leave the world as it is. He makes the decision to travel back in time in the hopes that the past version of Cyclops will be able to smack sense into the current Cyclops. It is by far the most emotional of the titles so far as this choice of Beast’s has many repercussions, perhaps even some even he hasn’t thought of.
Thor
Instantly engrossing, you need absolutely no background reading and absolutely no foreknowledge of the Norse god of thunder to enjoy this story. Gorgeous art, perfect pacing and a story featuring the Godkiller, an entity killing off every god he can find, is right up your alley if you’re a new reader and a fan of Thor. The viewpoints alternate between a youthful Thor, present time Thor, and an elderly Thor, who bears a striking resemblance to the Allfather. Barely three issues in and I can already tell you it is my favorite of the titles so far.
Deadpool
When it was announced that comedian, Brian Posehn, would be writing the Merc with the Mouth, I considered myself intrigued. A slightly painful pun-filled first issue disappointed me, but luckily the second and third issue had me laughing out loud and enjoying Deadpool as he takes on dead presidents. This title is also a wonderful series to try out the Marvel AR app as pages range from pre-colored sketches to how Posehn comes up with the dialogue. This is another series where you need no background reading or information.
Captain America
American’s hero meets hardcore science fiction in this series, so most of that Captain America trivia can fly out the window. I genuinely don’t want to spoil any bit of this serious side of Cap, but suffice to say that it’s a ride a lot unlike any other. I’ve never been a fan of his solo series but this one is full of intrigue and he faces real dangers, so it will be fun to see where it goes.
Morbius: the Living Vampire
Hold back all that frustration aimed at vampires due to a horrendously written book series turned movie saga. Hold back all the objections to picking up a title about a villain the vast majority of people have never heard of. Morbius was created through science instead of traditional methods, and although he is not the villain to spring to mind when you think Spider-Man, the first issue in his new ongoing series is downright fun and worth a chance.
HONORABLE MENTION: Avengers Arena
Which titles have you picked up?
Leia Calderon
Co-Editor
@ladyvader
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No love for Mattastic Four?
While I did find Fantastic Four to be nicely done…you couldn’t pay me to care about the Fantastic Four in general. It was good but not memorable enough to make this list.
Thor is just….wow. I can’t believe how much i love it. the art is perfection and I KNOW i’m going to be upset already when the story arc is over.
Mmhm. Thor has been wonderful!
Everyone should be checking out (or when they come out) Fearless Defenders, Journey into Mystery and Uncanny X-Force. Fearless Defenders is an all female team, JiM is lead by Sif now, and Uncanny X-Force is a female dominated team, unlike many of the other new teams being spun out. Fantasic Four with three female leads is also rather impressive. They’re doing things I had hoped DC would have done. Red She-Hulk also has her own ongoing.
Uncanny X-Force
I can’t justify picking up a book purely because the team is female…to me that doesn’t excuse a poor story, much like I found with Journey Into Mystery. I will read both #1s for Uncanny X-Force and Fearless Defenders regardless of team and continue them if I enjoy them.
whoops forgot to finish my thought. Uncanny X-Force is lead by Psylocke and features Storm, Spiral and a new character Cluster.
Young Avengers spinning out of Kid Loki’s run on Jim seems to position Miss America as a key member and focus of attention.
So far I have been loving both Fantastic Four and FF, Captain America and All New X-men have been pleasant surprises and Hickman has already got me hooked on Avengers and New Avengers. Two books that have been huge let downs are Uncanny Avengers and Avengers Arena. U.A just doesn’t live up to being a flagship book and A.A has been being carried by the art since page one. The story is thin and its clear that its trying to be a shock comic not a well crafted story.
Fantastic Four had a great intro comic, but I’m not a fan of the F4 nor of Allred’s work on FF. Captain America…I am definitely diggin’ the science fiction aspect of it, but I’m waiting on issue 3 to solidify my opinion. I would enjoy Hickman’s Avengers and New Avengers if I wasn’t so boooored during them, lol.
That is most likely the problem I am a huge F4 fan and was actually worried when Fraction was taking the books over but he has done great job. lol Yeah Hickman is a writer that likes to build up a story slowly but so far all of his slow burns have paid of greatly and I expect the same here. Only problem I have with the Avengers is the artist can not draw Captain Marvel, they really need to get all the artist on the same page with her.
Is there any future Marvel Now titles you are thinking of picking up?
Out of the remaining ones…I’m excited for Young Avengers the most, but will read all the others…I think Uncanny X-Men might have surprises, but since it’s a Cyclops/his team type of viewpoint and I hate Cyclops, I’m unsure how much I’ll like it. Both Wolverine titles look interesting, as does Fearless Defenders, but I’m worried about Uncanny X-Force, Without Remender at the helm, I’m just a teensie bit concerned. We shall see!!!
I’m unsure of what to think about Young Avengers I’m not to familiar with the characters but I am thinking of giving the first storyline a shot. Yeah I can’t stand the new mindset Scott has so I do not see myself picking up Uncanny X-Men. Cornell did a great job on Demon Knight so I think his Wolverine will be pretty good. Uncanny X-Force is a title that I do not know what to think of the team looks interesting and I am confused as to what is going on with Storm (Is she getting back with T’challa?). Defenders looks interesting and I know I will pick that up, I am just happy to see some love for Misty Knight and it would be cool for marvel to have an all female team but they should change there name to the Furies as a throw back to Valkyrie and her origin.
I can’t wait to pick up Young Avengers, since some of the characters are coming over from Avengers Academy. Uncanny X-Men I’ll probably get because it’ll deal with the other side of the coin when it comes to all the AvX fallout. UXF…I enjoyed it immensely when Remender was on the title, but I’m iffy on continuing it.
I am really enjoying FF. Despite being critical acclaimed, I find Mike Allred to be much undervalued by most comic fans. I remember one fan in particular who threw a copy of Xfactor down in disgust, stomped and then spat on it. This was after he found out Mr.Allred was taking over pencilling duties on the title. So, as a huge fan of the man I am reading FF just for the art alone.
Cap America, New Xmen, don’t care much for Hulk….aside from that
just waiting for a Ghost Rider reboot!
Perhaps my dislike of FF was increased by the fact I don’t care for Allred art…to be fair, this is why I can’t get into the Captain Marvel title, purely because the art kills it for me!
I agree that a Ghost Rider reboot would be neat, but it’d probably be with the female one we got right before Marvel NOW!
I would love there to be a Ghost Rider Marvel Now title! I do not think it will be the female rider in the last issue she lost the power became a villain (it was random) and Johnny was once again give the powers of Ghost Rider so it would be him again. I have a feeling that the next time we see Ghosty will be in a team book because the last series did not sell well and the movie tanked. So they will have to rebuild his credibility as a kick ass hero.
Maybe we’ll get lucky and GR will team up with Morbius!
HAWKEYE! You need to be reading Hawkeye!
That technically wasn’t Marvel NOW! until like…issue #8 so I didn’t include it :p