WOOF WOOF! Hey guys, it's me Marcus aka the Maddogg and we're back with another video!
i've done a few of these where to start before i'd recommend checking out the full playlist but
basically if you are trying to get into marvel comics this is hopefully going to be the one
video that you need to watch and hopefully recommend you a title that will both get you
interested in marvel comics itself and also give you a good story without you needing to know too
much about the universe already if my face pick it only feels fair that i tell you about the first
ever marvel comic that i've read and that was ultimate spider-man in the early 2000s marvel was
trying to modernize their most popular characters so that people could get into them today without
needing to read the 40 or so years of continuity that came before it and to be completely honest
with you not everything that came out of the marvel universe was created equally but the
one thing that stands above pretty much everything else within this universe is ultimate spider-man
this was also brian michael bendis when he was the new kid on the block and he had something to prove
so you get some of his best writing throughout his entire career you've also got great art from
mark bagley stuart imminent and david lafawente and if you stick with this series you will even
get to see the introduction of miles morales as well with this title i can't really think of any
other run that's really going to introduce you to as many characters within the spider-man roster as
this one book next up for anybody who's looking to get into the mutant side of the marvel universe i
would definitely recommend astonishing x-men this also made it quite high in my where to
start x-men video and i know that some people disagreed with this because they felt like new
x-men would be better from newer readers but honestly i think that that's for somebody who
maybe knows a bit more about grant morrison's writing but with astonishing x-men even though
yes there is some fallout because of the fact that obviously colossus isn't in the picture at
the beginning comparing that to just how enjoyable of a title this was even though there is a little
bit of entry knowledge that is needed this is still one of the best titles that i think new
readers can pick up you might disagree with me and that's fine but this was my first x-men book
and i've been pretty fine since then you also get some of john cassidy's best art throughout
his entire career it's got colossus in it looking all beautiful and shiny wolverine's heavy which is
kind of the way that i like him and with x-men you very rarely get titles that are completely
separated from the continuity that give you just a story within a nutshell but i think astonishing
x-men is one of the only ones that does that well full disclosure though i haven't read every single
x-men run that's ever existed so maybe there will be one that other people would suggest
just leave it in the comments section below next suggestion in this one might be a bit of a
curveball but it's the young avengers specifically i'm talking about the run by alan heinberg but you
can also read the keeming gill and one as well but the 2004 edition of this team was the first time
that we'd seen this rusty you've got characters like iron lad patriot hulkling and wiccan and if
all those names don't really mean anything to you i did a video where i covered all them in fall but
this was just a really fun engaging story there was time travel involved and if you don't know
anything about any of the other marvel characters you will see quite a lot of them interacting with
this team so you do get appearances from jessica jones kang the conqueror and even the avengers
like captain america and iron man and one massive mistake that people make is that they hear the
word young and they think that it's instantly for a kid audience but that isn't the case with this
book it does touch on some dark subject matter you've got people going through drug use you've
got characters that had suffered some kind of assault in the past so don't be disheartened
if you haven't read this before because of the fact that it's got younger the title because
i definitely think that this is something that anybody that's looking to get into marvel comics
can pick up and read thirdly and i'm gonna have to pick it up for myself because i'm just happy
that i've got this dm variant but it's captain america by ed brubacher this was something that
i read very early on in my comic reading journey and it's something that has stuck with me for a
while when i'm doing this where to start what i've got to take into consideration is the fact that
most people probably have watched at least one marvel movie so we've got that advantage that you
probably do know who captain america is and also at the minute you probably know about the winter
soldier i think this is phenomenal writing from ed brubacher and even though he doesn't keep that
pace and that tension throughout the entire run it's still something that at the very beginning
is rare to find in another book it's one of the only titles as well where big events such as civil
war happen but this book somehow manages to adapt to it and tell the story that it was gonna tell
anyway as well the steve acting art i don't really think there's enough that i can say about it it's
got this very realistic tone but at the same time you still know that you're reading a superhero
story this is some of the best development to this character that captain america has ever
received and maybe he's your favorite avengers from the film and if there's one title that i
would recommend that you pick up it's gonna be this one but i can't recommend a captain america
title without being fair to iron man and there is only one title that i can recommend to you
and it's gonna be iron man by matt fraction and you're probably wondering hey mad dog is there
an easy way that i can pick that up and read well no they tried doing some oversized hardcovers and
they gave up on that i thought there was going to be some luck when they did complete collections
but unfortunately they stopped after one [ __ ] volume i don't know that's something that i said
i'd only talk about with my therapist but in 2008 when the ironman movie was coming out and nobody
knew if it was going to be good like seriously that was a weird time to look back on marvel
knew that they needed a new series that people could go and pick up if they were hyped after the
film and the writer that they chose to do that was matt fraction and the artist was salvador lavoker
they then went on to craft possibly the best iron man run that i've ever read he's a character that
unfortunately hasn't received too much love in the comic book realm especially when you compare him
to his movie counterpart but i do think that this was the one time where a lot of attention
was paid to this character and they really tried to make this work and it completely shows you've
got iron man on the run you've got the fallout from civil war so even though you do need some
minor background knowledge about those events if you just jump into issue one of this title you
can still read this and figure it out as it goes along and admittedly like i said where to start
isn't about giving you the first origin point also it'd always be a silverage title that i'm
probably gonna recommend whether something like invincible iron man you've probably watched at
least one of the movies so this would be perfect for you and as well if you can just please buy it
so that marvel knows that people want to actually get this in some kind of collected edition well i
might as well continue on with the avengers theme because next is going to be thor by jason aaron
now you'll notice that a lot of my picks are from the modern age is because i do feel like these are
some of the best entry points for new readers but thought is a character that has actually
got a ton of great runs if you look through his history you've got stuff like walter simonson
dan jurgens but when jason aaron took over this title no one was prepared for exactly
how good this would be i've only pretty much only read the first arc of this with the god butcher
and it's some of the best thor stories i've ever read they need to come out with anonymous i feel
like it's inevitable but from what i've heard from the rest of the run as well when you get
into jane foster stuff and then obviously it's got the climax of war the realms this is just some of
the best long strand thor storytelling that we've probably ever seen donning kate is also
doing some cool stuff with thor at the moment but that's still in progress we don't really know if
that's gonna stick the landing but this jason aaron run i've heard that it's enjoyable all
the way up until kane thor so based on the fact that i've only read the first nine or so issues
and i still enjoyed it that much it's definitely going to get its place in this list it's possibly
the thor story that i'd recommend to any new reader the art's also really badass like i know
i'm not touching on the art too much but yeah the art is great in this and it's not even your
typical comic book art that you probably used to seen like i said might as well round out the
avengers and the next one that i've got is planet hulk i think what's most impressive about this is
the fact that planet hulk sounds like a story that probably shouldn't have worked because of
how much destruction he was causing the heroes of earth decided to shoot the hulk into space
and ended up crash landing on this planet and to summarize it if you watched the movie gladiator
with russell crowe and the only thing you thought was it was good but i wish the hulk was in it this
is the book for you like i said i'm trying to cater to as many different takes as i can
and that might possibly be one but you get taken on this journey that's completely separated from
what's going on on earth because i think at the time it would have been civil war so this is great
for new readers possibly more than something like hulk by jeff loeb it's also a weirdly emotional
story you find yourself getting very invested in it and just wanting the best for the hulk there's
none of that bruce banner crap as well he's not walking down a sad road with a sad song playing
like you probably used to if you watch that weird tv show from the 70s i think this is a great
jumping on point for the hulk and also think it's one of the most underrated stories that's come out
of marvel in the last 20 years you're probably thinking to yourself as well you've suggested a
book for every individual member of this team but you haven't actually given us one for the
avengers well to save myself a wave of all capital letter comments down below i'm going to suggest
to you avengers by kirbusik the arts also done by the legendary george perez and i think that
this is the best avengers run for new readers to me this is pretty much the marvel equivalent of
jla by grant morrison it's not going to give you the origin story of each and every one of these
characters but it's still going to take you on a journey that you can jump into if you haven't read
any of these before it also came out in the 90s and admittedly it is quite wordy sometimes just
for the sake of being but i do think we genuinely get the best ultron storyline that we've ever got
in comics in this title right here i just love the way that the characters interacted with each other
as well this is something that i really want to go back and revisit because it's been a good number
of years since i last gave it a read but it still stuck with me in that time or maybe you're not
the type of person who wants a bright and happy superhero story in which case i would recommend
alias again this is brian michael bendy's like i said he was at his peak when he was writing this
and arguably i might prefer this storytelling over something like ultimate spider-man this is
a much more adult story that he's telling about jessica jones who you might recognize from the
tv show jessica jones she's a private investigator but she's also dealing with the trauma of her own
past and similar to what i said about thor maybe you don't like the standard type of comic book art
that you used to see well this is completely different it's michael gadis who does it and
it's got this weird kind of watercolor painted style to it it just works for this book because
it isn't your standard superhero storytelling and if this is a book that is for you i think it will
also be one of the quickest reads that you'll probably ever have i loved what they did with
the purple man i wasn't really too sure if he was a villain before this but i remembered exactly who
he was after this and this boot was so good at retroactively making a character in the marvel
universe that i actually didn't realize for a while that this was her first ever appearance
but maybe you don't want a book that's all about trauma and people working the way through that and
you just want something a bit more light-hearted and fun i would recommend something like fantastic
four by mark wade and mike ringo still not sure from pronouncing his last name correctly yes i
respect that stan lee and jack cooby brought the fantastic four into the world with one of
the best and longest runs that's ever existed in comics but for a new reader that might be a little
bit difficult to get into in which case i think you should go for something more modern and mark
wade's run is probably the best for that i've said before that i think he's one of the most
underrated writers in all of comics and yes of course he's marked [ __ ] weight but this just
captures the dynamic between the family and it's also got one of my favorite doctor doom stories
sure not every part of this book is 10 out of 10 there's a weird bit with the thing in the middle
of it which i'm not really going to get into here but still for something that captures that classic
feeling of the fantastic four but also does it for a modern audience there's probably going to be no
better than this and i know what you're probably thinking why didn't i suggest fantastic four by
jonathan hickman admittedly i don't really think that jonathan hickman is very good for new readers
i think his stories are great and it did really enjoy his run on ff we do need to know a lot about
the future foundation some of the stuff that has happened in the past whereas mark wade just wants
to take you on a journey in that one book now as much as i may not be the biggest fan of this
character i understand that a lot of people want to get into marvel comics through deadpool in that
case the one book that i would recommend to you is cable and deadpool and yes i realize at this point
that it might seem like i'm just repeating a lot of suggestions from my top 10 one and done marvel
omnibuses but still cable and deadpool is great for new readers maybe you have to know a little
bit about cable maybe you didn't watch deadpool 2 because i really hear too much buzz about
that film but going right here i read this in the original ultimate collections that came out and i
just love this book it's got great action it's great art it's pretty much your quintessential
buddy cop type storyline obviously it's going to deadpool twist and i think that this was before
the character really reached that saturation point so yeah even though he does still have his quirks
and not turned up to 11 like he used to now i think this is when the character really peaked
and having a character that's a bit more stern like cable just really helped to balance him
out i pretty much enjoyed every part of this run when i read it a few years ago and i definitely
recommend it to somebody who's trying to get into any of these characters next suggestion i'm not
really sure what the blanket term for these is but it's the colors by jeff loeb and tim sayle so
you've got daredevil yellow you've got spider-man blue you've got hulk grey admittedly these two are
definitely the peak of this book that's not to say that hulk graves bad it's just not as good
as the other two that came before but these are just really nice short stories about these
characters going through different parts of their life journey daredevil yellow is matt murdock
reminiscing about how he ended up getting into the situation that he's in and you get to see that
ghastly original costume that he had spider-man blues peter parker reflecting on his time early
on in his career when he was still in love with gwen stacy and hulk gray is pretty much just the
hulk feeling a little bit sorry for himself i am pretty much just simplifying that it is still a
great story you also seem get to beat up iron man at one point but these stories don't expect you
to know everything it will give you pretty much a crash course into the history of these characters
there was also one for captain america but i haven't had a chance to read that yet but
jeff loeb and tim cell are one of the best creative teams in all of comics and i think
it's unfair that this gets a bit overshadowed by something like batman the long halloween that just
shows to me how high of a caliber their content is that something like this can somehow be in the
background but if you've seen some of my videos in the past you know that by far my favorite marvel
character is daredevil and yes even though it did just mention daredevil yellow i still have
to give a huge shout out to dead ever by brian michael bendys i know that a lot of people are
going to disagree with me on this but this was the run that made me properly get into comics that's
just how good this is so i didn't have a lot of knowledge about daredevil before i just remember
seeing one of the covers and going i don't know what that is but i need to read it honestly it's
just so crazy to see how many great titles brian michael benny's had coming out at the same time
at the beginning of this century and you know i said the ultimate spider-man was probably where
he peaked i said the alias was probably where i peaked i've been lying to myself the entire time
it was daredevil i didn't realize just how good comics could be until i read this this takes you
on a journey from the start until the very end there's even a silent issue that's pretty much
one of my favorite issues in all of comics you see daredevil pushed to his limits his identity
is exposed and near enough every main character within the daredevil universe is featured within
this book like holy [ __ ] there is a point midway through this where the entire fabric of daredevil
storytelling is just completely changed it did a full 180 it turned itself on its head it used
every other cliche that i can probably think of but honestly this was [ __ ] amazing if there was
one book that i had to give somebody to try and get them into marvel comics it would be this one
but still keep watching the video i've got two more suggestions next up i've got black panther
by reginald huddly i know what you're thinking why aren't you recommending christopher priest i think
that that is a really good run i haven't finished it all out i think i've got two books into it but
reginald huddling i think is a bit more new reader friendly yes it does integrate itself a bit more
into the main marvel universe but admittedly that's what these titles should be doing they
should be expanding your interest expanding your knowledge of certain characters so storm does
feature quite prevalently within this and also it does deal with stuff like civil war any book
that came out around that time is probably gonna deal with it as well so it's something that you
should probably get used to but a lot of people are discovering black panther as a result of the
movie but there's been great comic ones that have come well before that and if you're looking for
something that really does balance his duties of wakanda but also that of being the black panther
i think this is gonna be the perfect balancing point for you especially if you're a new reader
and my last suggestion is for anybody who listened to all those suggestions and went yeah but that's
for kids what's for the real adults here the type of people that light a cigar with the barrel of a
hot gun i've got you covered because of course i'm gonna recommend punisher welcome back frank this
was by golf anything it was part of the marvel knights run that i recently reviewed for 12 issues
garth ennis will take you on the best journey with frank castle that you could imagine yes i do still
really love jason aaron's max run but welcome back frank just knew how silly it was gonna be but you
leaned into that it played into the comical nature of frank castle whilst also still respecting who
this character is what came before was a bit of a mess for the punisher he'd gone on some kind
of mystical demon quest that just didn't really make sense for him so garth knew that he had to
bring him back to basics which is going to be the perfect jumping on point for anybody who wants to
get into this character and because of how long of a run gothanis had with this character if you
enjoyed this you can either go into the rest of his marvel knights one or you could just read his
max series it's also got great art from the late steve dylan like i said i've already done a review
of this entire run so i'd recommend checking that out but for one punisher boot that i think
is really going to give you an enjoyable journey and it's not going to be too heavy on you but at
the same time still make you realize exactly what you love about the punisher it'd be this
book those are my suggestions and hopefully this video hasn't come across as too rushed
like i said there's a lot of circumstances that are going on behind the scenes then try and work
around and try not like get to me too much i'm trying not light affect the video and hopefully it
hasn't but i'd like to hear your suggestions what are the first marvel books that you ever read and
what would you recommend to new readers and if you like this video please give it thumbs up and if
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stay reading the best books that you can find and stay mad all you dogs woof woof see the next video