What's up, /co/? its me again, a random newfag. 5 months ago I decided that I was going to start reading comics seriously, and I decided the best way to start was going by ages. I found a guide with the most important stuff and I've been following it ever since, beginning with the DC Silver Age. I havent much to say about it, I did like most of the Deadman stuff, especially cause of the amazing art, and also some metal men and doom patrol. Well, now is time to start my Marvel silver age. I know Im a bit fucked at the start cause I've already read some early Fantastic Four and I found stressful to read the amount of dialogue, but its time for a second try. Do (you) have anything in mind I should read? Any underrated or essential story? I'm all ears. I do have one question tho: The DC timeline wasn't that consufing to understand since theres post and pre-crisis timelines, it made it easier to understand where everything fits, but not for Marvel (at least to my newbie knowledge). So how does the Marvel timeline works? Do they just keep retconning stuff? i.e "this character fought in WW2, actually it was in Korea, atually it was in Vietnam, actually Afghanistan, etc."? Seems pretty hard to connect the silver age with their more modern comics. Any help is appreciated.
Captain America lives again!
>>150624954My post will probably be useless since it's something that could be obvious, but Ditko and Romita's runs on ASM are some of the best comics of all time. I recommend you to read all of them. After Romita leaves, ASM is still good but definitely not as great as it was before. It even started to jump the shark. And the worst part was the dialogue, it can be unnecessary and dumb. But Stan could also write some entertaining lines sometimes. Leaving that aside, they're excellent in almost everything else
>>150624954>So how does the Marvel timeline works? Do they just keep retconning stuff?Yeah basically. I prefer this instead of DC's reboots since many things are still present in the canon in some way, even though sometimes it can get confusing
Don't sleep on Namor, great book.
>>150624954That's gonna be rough.
>>150624954>So how does the Marvel timeline works? Do they just keep retconning stuff?More or less. The trick to comics is to not get lost in minutia. At least not before you even start reading. I feel like this is something a lot of new readers over fixate on. They want to know about everything before it even happens. Even the big DC reboots aren't as much of a brick wall if you just, and this isn't an insult, shut up and read.
>>150624954>I found stressful to read the amount of dialogueReading some silver age stories made me understand what Frank Miller meant when he called American comics constipated.
>>150625219Frank Miller is a retard
>>150625248Miller was right.
>>150624954should do a storytime thread for one of the issues or volumes
>>150625395By all means. Enjoying the silver age is an acquired taste, but everyone should read at least a few issues from it.Stan's narration just can't be replicated and they tried after he stopped writing the dialogue.
>>150625192Thanks, that was the one thing I hadnt quite figured it out yet. I did buy some modern comics that are supposed to take place at the beginning of the timeline according to the guide (Thor son of Asgard also but not in pic) that im going to read before just to get used to the characters, Marvel is the one place where I feel the most lost when you exclude stuff like spider man and F4
>>150625248Nah, he's 100% right. Even his comics suffered from that a bit.
How does the original run of the Avengers end?
>>150625514I read some of the original run of Spider-Man, certainly rough in some areas, but also a lot of fun.
>>150624954I think if you stick with ASM and the FF you will eventually warm to the style. There’s a lot of characterization and world building in there. Don’t het me wrong there are going to be times when you wan’t Stan to stfu. He does get better as time goes on. When I first turned my attention to older comics I had the same issue, but I got past it.
Essentially, you have to brainwash yourself into liking this brand of comics writing. You suffer through it for the art and/or for the love of the IP. It's not actually good.
ITS AVENGING TIME
60s were the best decade for capeshit
>>15062877380s were the best decade for capekino.
>>150628773Why? All I see in these threads is it getting trashed
>>150629778Where? I always see people saying it's good
>>150626675>How does the original run of the Avengers end?As in the Stan Lee era, or the original volume of Avengers that ended in 1996? The Stan Lee run ends with him just passing the writing duties on to Roy Thomas in the second part of the first Living Laser story, volume 1 ends entirely with tie-ins to the Onslaught event, and then most of the team being thought killed at the end of that event (but actually they're reborn in a 'pocket universe' created by Franklin Richards and they come home a year later).
>>150626675#500
>>150624954>So how does the Marvel timeline works?that doesn't matter
>>150624954>So how does the Marvel timeline works?its mostly fucked up. it has runs of being stable, but any sort of time travel leads to retcons. marvel has broke reality a few times also.world was re-written by the cosmic cube a few times, m'kraan crystal broke the universe & created new ones, earth was destroyed in ragnarok & incursions. ultron, la fey, legion & wanda all changed reality. moira & sinister reset the timeline 100 times since 2020. spidergwen just altered reality a few weeks ago with the cosmic cube.
>>150629795People love to glaze the 60s and I don't know why.
>>150632447Wholesome, charming art, uncomplicated stories, many beloved characters introduced
>>150624954The Marvel timeline really isn't very complicated. Yes there are retcons as you go but they don't really matter, and you can really just ignore them
>>150632569>Wholesome, charming artThe art is great, and "wholesome" has nothing to do with it.>uncomplicated storiesWe have those every decade.>many beloved characters introducedIt's always down to characterfaggotry.
>>150632710>uncomplicated stories>We have those every decade.Those are the exception the further you get from the 60s. Especially today everybody wants to write The Story, their version of Batman The Long Halloween or the Days of Future Past, so they get royalties when it gets made into a movie.In the 60s it was literall villain of the month. Maybe you'd get a two parter if the creative team really wanted to milk a storyline for all it was worth.
>>150625610Did you ever watch Law and Order or any other case of the week show on tv back in the time before netflix? If you did I bet you didn't start from the beginning. You just when with whatever episode happened to be on. You didn't need to know how the characters met to follow what was going on, and if they mentioned things that had happened in previous episodes you probably just accepted it and figured out what was going on as you watched more. Comics are the same way, you can just let yourself learn the history as you come across it instead of treating it like a research project. 90% of the time they aren't going to be acknowledging previous stories anyway.
>>150624954Bump
>>150634240Thanks for the bump kind stranger
>>150624954Why does this cover look so cool?
>>150624954I feel like most of the pastiches and parodies of the Silver Age are better than the Silver Age books themselves. It's that bad. X-Men? DogshitSeven stars. Alan Moore's jokey superhero group is so much better than so much of what I've read from the Silver Age. It's worth a lot because it's funny and the plot and plotting are surprisingly good. It's not just lazy jokes..
>>150634802Number 1 because the Jack Kirby was a great artist. But also because making the covers look cool was considered hugely important, since back then it was often how they sold (people walking by a newsstand see a cool looking comic cover and get interested). Of course covers are still important, but more so back then.
>>150624954Have fun! But yeah, it is a product of its time but I remember being patient and being rewarded for it when reading these black and white reprints in my local library of the Avengers and Amazing Spider-Man.Reading it I understood why Marvel was a breath of fresh air at the time. For all its goofiness, there was a true sense of character and theme with the books that went beyond their contemporaries. I still think back to that one early issue of ASM where he foils a store robbery before they even got started and then it's Spider-Man who gets in trouble for harassing innocent citizens. The frustration the reader shares with Spider-Man in that moment is so palpable, I love it. It's still a power fantasy but it dares to question fundamentals while still relishing in the theatrics of its genre.
>>150624954I can personally vouch for F4 and ASM being the best (F4 is my favorite, I love the wild slapstick humor). Second-best is Thor tied with Doctor Strange (Thor takes a bit to find its feet, but once it does it's stellar).X-Men by Kirby/Lee is up and down; there's some really plodding stories, but also some really fuckin good ones, so I'd call it worth a shot for those first 23ish(?) issues. After them it gets irredeemably boring though, even imo during the end of the Silver Age X-Men when Neal Adams took over as writer and they introduced Havok & Polaris - up to you though, skip to those and try them. I'd probably just skip to Claremont's run after Kirby/Lee, tho.Avengers is very goofy but a bit eh at first, but from what I understand it gets really good Thomas-onwards? Haven't read it that far (nor the following), but I heard Kirby's Silver Age run on Captain America is very good too.Iron Man is a goofball, but overall it's boring imo; he doesn't get interesting solo until the Michelinie run -onwards. Dunno about Hulk, maybe someone else can fill me in on him prior to Peter David? Can't comment on Ant-Man or Daredevil, but I hear they're the weakest of the Silver Age.
bump
>>150636529Last one just to be sure
>>150624954bump
>>150624954Here's what you need to know:>The first few Hulk comics are rough and are a chore to get thru, but if you stick with it, it gets good. I recommend picking up both Hulk Epic Collection Vol 1 and the Omnibus Vol 1. The Epic Collection has all of his early crossover appearances. Just power thru his first 5 books and it starts getting good after that.> Avengers is hit or miss until issue 15, and they had to remove characters from the book, because it was too complicated for heroes to appear in multiple books at one time.>Captain America starts out as a filler book with side stories and WW2 flashbacks, because he was having his nig stories in Avengers initially. His book picks up once the Sleepers appear. >Some early stories are very crude, because artists like Jack Kirby would be pumping out a crazy number of books a month at a number that nobody could reasonably do.A few other notes: I really recommend reading them physically, but it can get pricey, and if you're reading physical try to avoid the Essential Collections unless there's no other option. A lot of these stories are best read in color. Jack Kirby really does pop art that needs color to really be appreciated. I recommend most of the Omnibus Collections, but in the case of Hulk it leaves out material.
>>150638680Another thing, it becomes more and more apparent as you read and follow different artists, that the artist is really writing the books. This becomes apparent during Captain America after Jack Kirby leaves and the book meanders unsure of where to go until John Romita starts drawing it. Suddenly at that point you start seeing a lot of world building. This is also why Spider-Man starts out good, since Ditko's an interesting writer and then Romita replaces him too.
>>150638680Thanks. I wont buy any physical books cause silver age stuff is quite expensive imc, and also Ive already bought lots of books, will post it all once we eventually get to the monthly shelf thread
Cap won
>>150641259Won what, exactly?
>>150638680>>150634806>>150632447>>150629778 >>150627458I will never understand Silver Age haters.
>>150625610I wouldn't even rely on guides to heavily. There's a big issue of information overload these days it seems. I'd just put anything outside of what you're currently reading out of your head. Take everything in the context presented and you'll naturally make sense of it as you go.
>>150642295I don't hate the Silver Age, I just don't get why people say it's the peak era for comic books.
Stan Lee was a shit writer, Roy Thomas was even worse.They need to re-release these arcs with altered scripts, better inking and colors, but keeping the pencils the same.
>>150643614Because it was the era that gave us most of the most iconic characters in marvels entire library.
>>150644810That doesn't mean much to a non-characterfag.
>>150643614Kirby
>>150643614The Silver Age, as seen through the eyes of those who grew up reading those comic books, is great. Most of the classics from the 1980s and 1990s are writers creating their dream books based on their favorite books, and today, we readers take these reimaginings as our own. But for those of us who weren't born at that time, we shouldn't view that era without a critical eye. Gen X/Boomer writers didn't see it that way.
