Update 1.5.17: There’s a new review of MU for 2017!
This week’s question comes from Shai, in the comments of my original Marvel Unlimited review.
So it’s been a year since you have published this.. I am so interested in reading comics.. i am completely new to this rabbit hole and well i dont know anything. Since i am not as rich as tony stark and i cannot really get every issue out there (since i like physical copies).. do you really recommend this?
I was thinking of getting the marvel unlimited service and then start getting Marvel Now! in physical copies.. i dont know 🙁
Don’t be sad Shai, and other would-be Unlimited subscribers! I’ve got your answer right here:
The Artist Formerly Known As Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited
Way back in the ancient times when I started Comic Book Herald (we had to walk to our websites uphill both ways in the snow, and selfies hadn’t even been invented yet – it was a simpler time), one of the first popular posts I wrote was about this new, relatively unknown service: Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited.
MDCU as it was known at the time was a web-browser only comics subscription service. For an annual fee of $59.99 you could read over 10,000 Marvel comics. And if you wanted to read on your smartphone, you just needed an inventive flash-based hack and a severe addiction to comics.
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In many ways, a lot has changed with Marvel Unlimited (they lost the ‘digital comics’ part of the acronym, presumably because the DCU is already kind of a rival universe). Just three months after my initial glowing review highlighted the lack of a mobile option, Marvel released the Marvel Unlimited app for freebies.
While the app has had more than its fair share of detractors (yours truly included), it’s primarily a beneficial and positive development. As I’ve said before, tablets are the role comics were born to play (what?) and an easy free Marvel Unlimited app makes the service immensely appealing to fans with tablets.
Is There Any Reason You Would Hesitate To Recommend Marvel Unlimited?
I’m rephrasing the question because my short answer to “Would you still recommend Marvel Unlimited” is a resounding yes. I really recommend it, even at the increased price of $69.99 a year. If you’re worried about what to read, I have a list for that.
I have a few qualms with the service as a whole, such as missing issues in the middle of runs, increasing annual rates (you don’t get grandfathered into a better annual rate) with a weird inability to apply promotions (if you’re already signed up but find a better deal), and of course, the Android app dilemma (since, greatly improved!).
For the most part, these issues are nothing more than slight inconveniences in one of my favorite services of all time. Here are the types of reasons I would actually caution signing up for Marvel Unlimited:
You Don’t Like Older Comics or You’ve Read Most of the Marvel Universe
Marvel Unlimited is most useful for anyone who wants to catch up on a vast, overwhelming library of 10,000 plus comics. It’s for readers who want to consume every story ever told.
It’s not great for readers who want to keep up with the latest and greatest in Marvel publishing. If you want to know what’s going on in Amazing Spider-Man right now, Marvel Unlimited is not the service for you. Your best bet is going to be picking up Amazing Spider-Man issues from your local comic shop, or digitally through Amazonology.
Now, if you can wait 6 months (or so), even the newest comics are added fairly regularly. For example, you can totally start diving into Secret Wars, Marvel’s event of 2015 (just make sure you have a Secret Wars reading guide at the ready).
But again, Marvel Unlimited is not Spotify. You can’t tune in the day of a new release and find what you’re looking for (speaking of which – how on earth does Spotify get away with that? Not complaining, just amazed).
You’re Only Going to Read Using the Marvel Unlimited Android App
(Ed Note: The Below has improved mightily since the time of writing. If you’re an Android app user, things are looking much better these days. Nonetheless, below will give you a sense of the type of issues you may encounter with MU.)
At SXSW, Marvel announced significant changes to their iOS app. Panel to panel transitions improved dramatically, as did the ability to transition from one comic to the next in the series.
Now, these changes have been mentioned as “upcoming” for Android. As we all know, though, Android just about always gets the short end of the stick. As of right now, as I write this, the Android app is really frustrating.
If you sign up for the purposes of reading comics on your Android device, you’re going to be disappointed. Plain and simple.
There are workarounds, such as reading through a web browser instead of the app (if you’re always reading while connected to Wi-Fi), and at the end of the day the app does work. I use the Unlimited app on my Samsung Galaxy S4 daily, and though it requires a lot of pinching and zooming, it does work.
I wouldn’t fully dissuade you from the service based on all this, but I would highly recommend you test the app on your devices before the annual subscription. Even at its best, the technology requires the patience of our saint Alicia Masters.
You Don’t Have a Tablet / Smartphone to Read Comics On
This one feels somewhat snobbish, and to be clear, I used my laptop for the first 2 years of my subscription. A laptop will work just fine.
My hesitation recommending it, though, is that every recent development in Marvel Unlimited is focused on tablets (in particular the iPad). Marvel Laptop reading has been using the same “Beta Reader” for over a year. At this point it seems like that beta reader was designed more to enhance the tablet the experience than it was ever meant to improve laptop reading.
The simple answer here is that tablets make for a better single page comic reading experience. The width of a laptop screen makes a single page of comic narrow and small, and the smart panel reading can be a less pleasant way to navigate a story.
Again, though, I’d recommend some of the free sample options before you commit. It’s possible you have no problem with reading on your laptop. And I’d recommend this guide, if you’re in the market for both Marvel Unlimited and a tablet.
It’s All About the Comics
In the end, you know why I’ve been a loyal Marvel Unlimited subscriber for nearly five years? The comics! Where else am I going to get to read every Marvel comic in the history of Marvel comics for less than $100 a year? My local library or a bittorrent? Even then, only maybe, and I’m left either sitting in the children’s section or behaving like a criminal with a pet cashew.
There are absolutely ways I’d like to see the service improve. No doubt. But in the meantime?
Make mine Marvel Unlimited.
If you have any questions of your own, you can send them to @comicbookherald on Twitter, or dave@comicbookherald.com. If you want to join a Marvel Unlimited reading club, check out My Marvelous Year.
Okay, it’s 2022, I’m an Android user and late to comics.
I LOVE MU. I’ve been using the guides and, to date, have only had to buy (via Comixology) one issue that might have been there but was totally unfindable.
Admittedly, I’m starting from scratch and so the latest issues are not an issue (made sense in my head), but I wholeheartedly recommend this service.
No.. Marvel Unlimited is not worth it.. and here is two good examples of why. Randomly selected content. Yes if you want to read every series since 2005 then go for it.. But most of it is unreadable crossover mega crap anyhow. There’s very few good series especially with Bendis writing so much (and every one sounding exactly the same). So give me some diversity and some older comics.. not just new crap.
https://goo.gl/photos/mP4eQe7pBF7Zbsfb8
There’s a tremendous amount of material from before 2005 as well.
Now that it FINALLY tracks what you’ve read, it might make it easier to follow along a particular series for a while, then drop back to a different one, rather than (as I’ve been doing) reading everything available in order.
It took a little while to get going, but I’m really enjoying the Nick Fury vs Shield book from 1988. The Winter Soldier film has shades of it.
I want Nick Fury to look and sound like Sam Jackson though. Sorry for old-school Nick Fury fans LOL.
I’m INCREDIBLY frustrated by how broken the Marvel Unlimited website is, and by the fact there’s no Windows “app” version.
The iOS version is kinda-sorta pretty decent now. It FINALLY even marks stuff as read, and lets show only read or only unread stuff. I assume that’s in Android too, and I assume that that’s server side, syncing what you’ve read.
The website however doesn’t show what you’ve read…if it’s keeping track of that server side (please, please tell me it is…) they don’t bother exposing that on the website.
Even worse, navigation is just utterly horrific. It’s pretty simple to choose a year and then sort as you like on iOS…there’s ZERO ability to do that on the website.
It’s frustrating multiple times over. I’d LOVE to be able to read Marvel Unlimited on a normal PC, but I realistically can’t. Even more than that, I literally have no reason to buy anything but a Surface tablet anymore EXCEPT that Marvel obnoxiously doesn’t support them. I *literally* bought an iPad Pro *ONLY* because of MU support. I really, REALLY wish that when I go to replace my iPad 2 I could replace it with a Surface…
For that matter, I wish Marvel would put MU up on Amazon’s store. You’d think it wouldn’t really require much work since it’s basically just Android. Some of those Fire tablets are pretty decent as limited use tablets, for the price.
As long as I’m complaining, all versions need an option to dial down brightness below a devices minimum brightness. That’s SUPER common in iOS reading programs, to the point where I THOUGHT all of them supported that, but MU doesn’t. (I guess what they’re doing is lowering the brightness to its minimum, and then simulating lower still through making the colors darker…which does help some!)
Hey, yeah, the website is terrible. However, the android app is quite good, and you can get free android emulators (like http://en.bignox.com/) that make the whole experience a lot better than the web viewer. It’s how I view MU on both my computer and my Windows hybrid that I take when I travel.
Cheers!
$69/year price??? Where is that?
Marvel unlimited can be useful if you want to read new comic that you didn’t read before.
I start reading Spider-gwen last week, each issue cost 4$ and there 12 so far so it will cost 48$.
But even that marvel unlimited will not gave me the last 6 issues i still get 6 issues for 10$ a month so i saved 14$ (24$ of 6 issues – 10$ monthly fee)
I can’t say how many times i gave up on read ongoing title for knowing how much it will cost.
Right now i plan to read ms. Marvel it will cost me 83$ wow
But with marvel it will cost me 10$ + last 6 issues price 24$ = 34 $ save 50$ so i think it great.
Is the Marvel Unlimited website supposed to automatically save what comic you last read like the app does? It doesn’t do it for me and it’s really frustrating because I have to remember which issue number I last read.
No. It’s poorly structured. You’re gonna have to find what works for you. I was going through “What’s New” and saving everything, which grew my library to over 5,000 comics which froze my app and made it useless. I finally DID have to delete 4000 comics in order to get the app to work. It’s still kinda slow but WAY better than with 5,000 in the library.
Since there is absolutely no convenient option to delete from your library when you finish reading, the best way I found to keep my library low is I use an iPad with the Internet browser logged into my Marvel account and set the page for my library and showing 50 issues a page. Then I have the MU app open and decide which comics I want to read and put them in my “read offline” library (12 comic limit). And then, as I finish, depending on what I’m reading I have a spreadsheet app open and as I finish comics I put them in there as listed in the MU app so I can search for what I’ve already read. Then I go back to the browser and delete the comics from there. Much easier than scrolling through an unorganized listing in the MU app.
@Bobby:
It could just be that I don’t have an understanding of how this site is run, but my reply should’ve posted by now, unless it takes more than 8 hours from posting. But, also, Apple was involved on my end, so there’s that. In which case, if this post actually gets posted, then this will mostly be somewhat repeated but not exactly in the same order.
I couldn’t find anywhere on the website that looked like the app for “just read” items, after I sign in I would think it would show me that but takes me to a page to have me sign in, so can’t help you there. Also just realized that my first reply that hasn’t posted yet has more to do with what I said back in February. Sorry I couldn’t help. Now I’m off to reply to my earlier post to announce the solution for a poorly designed app.
Figures.
@Bobby
Sorry my “May 7, 2016 at 10:06 pm” post didn’t help you, or my other one for that matter. And I don’t know why this site doesn’t show me stuff I post until after I post again. Any help with that Dave?
MARVEL:
While I still would love to ENJOY the app, in it’s current iteration I am having too many problems. Unfortunately no one will take responsibility for the problems. If only Reed were here to show them how to do it. You tell Marvel about the problem, they blame the device OS or your internet. You tell Apple about the problem they blame the app or your internet (haven’t checked it at other wi-fi spots just hotspot from phone. But still what’s the point? If I did find a place that worked, what? I can only read comics sitting on a hard chair at Starbucks?) I believe I have one solution to my problem but it involves deleting my library, and I’d hate to delete 5k+ comics only to find out that’s not the problem. Currently in the process, as I’m writing this, of updating the iPad with latest iOS as Marvel states to do and will see if problems persist.
Right now the biggest problem with my app is it’s not productive at all and is never consistent, if I’m especially lucky, I can make it through 2 or 3 issues before I have problems, but that’s only if I have them in my offline library where the problems are still present just not as often. I can’t read straight from library without having it happen often.) Not exactly sure when it started maybe a year or so ago. Basically it just keeps crashing or has a big lag in loading stuff rendering the experience unenjoyable, frustrating and practically unusable. Right now my current process is once I see that the app stops working which is at least once or twice an issue it takes so long that it’s just easier to close the app and restart it. However the problem doesn’t end there because if the app hangs up and you close it and restart it, then it hangs up on the app splash screen on the start up so I have to wait a few seconds before I have to close that one and start it again which then loads into the app. I have to do the same thing when adding issues to the library. I usually can only add 4 to 5 issues before it crashes and I have to do the double restart to continue adding.
It would be nice if you could search your library to delete comics you’ve read since there is no “comics you’ve read” section in the app. Or even an option to delete it from your library once you’ve read it like the option to remove from offline library and if you delete it from your library have it be marked as “already read” so you don’t waste time reading something over unless you want to.
How about making the library work like the browse section where you can search for a title but also be able to sort by title a-z, release date (not that those are exactly accurate) to make it easier to select what you need to delete from your library instead of searching through your library to delete a series, finding the first issue you want to delete and then have to scroll through 40 comics until you get to the next issue to select and repeat until you select all the ones you want to delete. Just makes more sense to have a search option to make that easier. Also with the smaller series or collections like Marvel Zombies have a “delete all” option. Search Marvel Zombies. Oh, look there’s Marvel Zombies Vol. 1, Vol. 2, etc. I’ve finished Vol. 1, let me select Vol.1 to delete all instead of having to go in and find all issues from Vol. 1.
How about importing your Marvel app purchases into Marvel Unlimited so you know which ones you already purchased and don’t end up purchasing twice, for whatever reason you would do that since mostly everything I bought on Marvel app is free in Marvel Unlimited.
And how about the ability to subscribe to a certain issue where when new issues are added they are automatically added to your library so you don’t miss any?
OK, so I’ve updated my OS to the latest and it still doesn’t work. Since I’m not ready to delete 5k+ comics only to find out that still doesn’t help the app. I have found another solution that does work as seamlessly as the app should but am reluctant to say it so it also doesn’t suffer the same fate as the app. Just be happy I won’t have to cancel my sub.
How can I see my progress when reading on browser?
Why the issues I read on browser doesn’t show up in the mobile app?
Hi I just read your article and I must say, I am now interested (well at least 80%) in subbing for MDCU. Just one quick question though, regarding the reading order for the events and the tie-ins, is there like an option where I can put it in order or a recommended reading order?
Marvel Unlimited doesn’t have any sort of “custom playlist” feature in-app. That would be completely awesome, but not an option yet.
In terms of event reading orders, within Marvel Unlimited you can filter by a pre-selected number of major events, and then MU will order those comics based on released date. So for example, if you want to read Civil War, you simply select that event, and MU will give you those comics in an order of their choosing.
Now, on occasion, those orders don’t quite match up with the chronological order of events (release date doesn’t always follow story order), or they might miss a few comics. That’s why you’ll see all sorts of Marvel reading orders on Comic Book Herald. I recommend giving them a look as you get started.
Enjoy the comics!
Unfortunately, I believe that I’m not getting certain issues to download because I refuse to update the iOS on my iPad3 from the crappy iOS7 to the crappier iOS8/9. I’m sure if I did, I wouldn’t have any problems getting them to download. But the problem issues appear to come through on my iPhone 5 with iOS6.1 just fine, except hard to read, but doable. So I can’t really fault the Marvel service. I’d rather fault Apple for holding people hostage with forcing upgrades on older products that the new iOS’s won’t work on so everyone HAS to buy a new, faster iWhatever that can handle the latest iOS. So I still stand by the Marvel Unlimited service as totally worth the price.
I’ve been using Android App since December of 2013, and I rarely have problems. I used on my HTC Evo, and it was tough with the screen. I still read the entire AvX event and much more on my phone. Loved every second of it.
I side loaded on my Kindle Fire HD and that has been awesome. Every Google play update of app I would transfer new .apk to my tablet and download. Works awesome, no problems.
I now have the HTC One M8 and I read mostly from my phone. The new landscape reading update is on point. Even for smaller phones, you can turn your phone sideways, just scroll down to read. Awesome addition.
I read comments while in app, and people complain that specific comic won’t load, yet it works fine for me. Never understood it, but I’m not complaining.
Overall, I will continue to use this awesome app. In the whole scheme of comic world, six months is nothing. I have no problem waiting. My friends don’t read comics, so it’s not like I need to keep up with someone. I’m more than good.
Marvel support is not bad. I’ll check to see what comics are supposed to release every Monday. Sometimes a comic that’s supposed to be there isn’t. I’ll throw an email, and a few days later I get a response and the comic is up.
I recommend to everyone who loves Avengers and all that. Good starting point is Avengers vs X-Men, then Marvel Now!, All-New Marvel Now!, then Avengers Now!, which is where we’re at now. Or you can wait after Secret Wars and start fresh with new Marvel Reboot All-New All-Different whatever.
Enjoy!
Joe
Great feedback, Joe, thanks for sharing!
Hello! I had a very specific question about the Marvel Unlimited subscription: will it enable me to read all the Uncanny X-Men comics, and the surrounding titles related to the X-Men story lines and universe? If not, how could I affordably do this?
Thank you!
For the most part. But there have been several times where I’ve run into reading Deadpool. And to see what happened during a section it said to check out X-Men #77. Went to read that one and was not available. Only went to like #50 then continued in the hundreds somewhere. But, still, for the price, I can’t not pay for it. If you want every issue, check the library if everything you want to read is there. But I would just pay $9.99 once and try it for the month. But that’s how I got hooked now I can’t stop.
I purchased it a year ago and never looked back. There is ALWAYS something to read, so much that it’s almost overwhelming.
That’s where Dave here at Comic Book Herald comes in. Whenever I’m conflicted, I come here and sort out my priorities.
I will probably be a subscriber the rest of my life unless I become rich enough to purchase physical copies… but still, the risk of ruining them!
Also, this makes a great gift.
Currently starting the Venom reading guide, thanks Dave!!!!
I purchased it a year ago and never looked back. There is ALWAYS something to read, so much that it’s almost overwhelming.
That’s where Dave here at Comic Book Herald comes in. Whenever I’m conflicted, I come here and sort out my priorities.
I will probably be a subscriber the rest of my life unless I become rich enough to purchase physical copies… but still, the risk of ruining them!
Also, this makes a great gift.
Currently starting the Venom reading guide, thanks Dave!!!!
It’s 2015 an the Marvel Unlimited app still lacks a proper landscape mode. On comiXology I almost exclusively read in fit-to-with even though I have an iPad (the old non-retina one) because I don’t have perfect vision and I like to see details.
Also panel-view is pretty much broken on Marvel Unlimited, in almost every issue there are several panels with dialogue cut which makes it unreadable (I don’t have this problem on comiXology).
And the worst thing is that the pages are too heavy compressed.
Yes, it’s cheap and I won’t cancel the service because I cannot buy every trade/omnibus out there, but Marvel Unlimited leaves much to desire.
While writing this I noticed that there was an update yesterday and MU now supports fit-to-width <3
Haha yes, it JUST happened. Haven’t played with it too much yet, but the latest update appears to be significant.
Is it just me or is Scott Lobdell almost entirely uncredited on Marvel Unlimited? He only has three comics in there if you search by writer, but most of his stuff, (Alpha Flight, Uncanny, X Men) is there but missing the credit. Uncanny 390 even seems to have removed his name from the interior credits too! Other runs like his Gen X just are not there at all.
Did he have a big falling out with Marvel or something? Or is it some weird technical cock up?
Huh, that’s an interesting discovery. I would guess – just a hunch – that’s a database error. Although it would be way more interesting if that’s a calculated move by Marvel.
That would be 100% my assumption too, were it not for Uncanny 390- the credits box on the splash page with Beast is missing his credit too. I checked and the original wasn’t like that, so it’s not just an error with the original copy. But then, why do that on just one comic?
Sometimes when I search for particular artists, its hit or miss if they actually come up in the MU search results. I just look online for what issues I want to read by which creators and I specifically look for that issue.
I made the mistake of buying a one month subscription before checking if the comics I want are included. Of course they aren’t.
The only thing I am currently reading is the new Star Wars series (and then all of the related minseries). I am also interested in MCU tie ins (like the Age of Ultron prequel).
NONE OF THAT IS INCLUDED. So much for being “unlimited”.
Yep, definitely not a service for getting comics as they’re released. Can’t say I blame Marvel. I don’t know why anyone would buy floppies if that were the case.
The MCU tie-ins will likely be included later in the year, although at that point Avengers 2 will be in the rearview.
Star Wars is an interesting one. I’m hopeful this is included in Marvel Unlimited, but we won’t know for sure until June/July. The series is so high profile that I would think they’ll include, but the franchise may have different licensing regulations.
In the meantime, if you’re unsure of what to read, I have a mega guide that may be of some help. There are a ton of great Marvel comics available through the service.
MU has basically made me love comics. I had never been particularly interested before, but after watching Marvel movies I was curious about Agent Coulson in the comics. So I thought I would read “Battle Scars”. And then I thought I would read something else. And then I thought I would try Marvel Unlimited. And oh boy, all what I’ve been missing!
I have a 7 inches Android tablet which is just big enough for the purpose. And the app sometimes (quite often) makes me want to punch someone. But then it’s $6 a month and I’m constantly finding new interesting series. So I totally recommend it for newbies like me.
And thanks a million for your reading guides. They´re making a huge difference.
Glad you dig the guides, and thanks for the comment! Hope to see you around.
Thank you for these lists. I got back into comics circa 2002 for several years, but then fell out again after Avengers: Dissembled. No particular reason, just lapsed. But now starting to get back into them and catching up is daunting. Wait, Magneto’s a good guy? Wtf!? With the guide though I can catch up without a huge amount of research or more confusion.
That’s the hope! Glad you’re enjoying. Although I’ll warn you that the Magneto “good guy or bad guy” conundrum really lingers throughout the decade 🙂
I fell out of comics for a few years, but after seeing Iron Man, decided to get back in… but the Marvel U was a very very different place by then. Best thing I ever did was collect and read everything to do with Civil War, and World War Hulk.
I discoverwd alot of characters and books I wouldn’t have otherwise considered following The run of Hercules was, IMHO absolutely brilliant… X-Factor, Runaways, to name just a few.
I would highly recommend Civil War, or perhaps the 12 months of books leading up to Civil War, as a good jumping on point…
I read exclusively on my Desktop (old fashioned, I know), but since I got the subscription earlier this year, I managed to catch up from Civil War (which was about the time I stopped reading comics) all the way through Siege using your guides and MU. You’ve done a great job with the site and for anyone thinking about the subscription – go for it. 9.99 a month is the cost of about three books on the stand these days, as long as you don’t mind waiting that six month hold time.
Thank you! I’m glad you enjoy comic book herald, and definitely agree with your take on MU
Are customers able to activate on more than one device? Would a friend and I be able to split the subscription with a common email or account like with Netflix?
There’s no official documentation on this (that I’ve seen), but this should work with a common email (Marvel account). I have my own Unlimited active on 3 devices at any given time. I used to get booted out occasionally, but that seems to be happening less and less. Won’t say it couldn’t start, but for now, you should be able to split.
Whoops.
Absolutely worth it. I didn’t really know about it until it was too late. I was only using the Marvel comic app on iOS and even then I was only buying comics on Marvel Mondays when they are $.99 and when they had arcs like House of M, Civil War and Siege. Unfortunately by the time I found out about Unlimited, with all the money I spent on reading .99 comics I could have bought 9 years of Unlimited. So I would say Go for the current $69/year price to try it instead of the $9.99/month. You won’t be sorry.
Oh… As a follow up if I may, this collection is for the ‘616’ universe and not Ultimate right? Does the Ultimate universe have all these cool ‘events’ or are the story lines mostly kept separate? If so, is it better to focus on 616 instead of Ultimate, even though it has a much longer history to catch up on?
Thanks again!
Yep, my guide covers the 616 marvel u. I recently put together an ultimate spidey reading order, but otherwise it’s separate. The ultimate u has its own events (ultimate war, ultimatum, cataclysm) but I’ve found that it’s slightly less tie – in heavy.
The second part of your question is a really good one. Personally I like th history and the canonical heft of 616, but the ultimate u is significantly less sprawling. It really just comes down to preference. I’d say read some of each and if you like how accessible ultimate spidey feels compared to amazing spider man, roll with that for a while.
The one bit I will add is the advantage of 616 is reading the events catches you up with the currently published marvel events. The ultimate u is slightly marginalized today by comparison.
Hey, this website and Marvels list of Reading has just won me over into joining the Marvel Universe!
Although I do have a question, if one is literally just starting to read comics as an adult (Marvel Unlimited) do you suggest I follow the timeline across all of the titles, or start and follow only a few.
I like being thorough and was thinking of just starting from “Early 2000’s”, but having reviewed all of the different titles, I am not sure they would all appeal to me. If I stuck to a few titles eg. Spidey/Avengers, I might get more involved in the characters. The only downside would be missing out on some of the story lines.
So help me please, which is best? All of the comics at once or a few (and which ones?)
Thanks a million Dave!!!
I almost skipped Black Panther, because I’ve never really been a fan… and I have to tell you, the first 15 or so Black Panther comics out of that run are probably some of the best I’ve ever read. I’d say read what interests you… but man, there’s some gems in there that I wouldn’t have picked up otherwise.
Hey Mark,
Awesome to hear you’re getting started reading Marvel comics. What to read is a good question, and certainly most of my guides are for completists.
Definitely focus on what you like, but I would encourage you to try a few titles outside of the norm, since that’s where a lot of the best stories are. To begin I’d include daredevil, new x men, black panther, and x – statix.
I think trying to read all of the comics can feel a bit overwhelming and take some of the fun out of the experience. So grab a few titles you like and enjoy the ride! There’s always tomorrow for the next book.
Thanks for stopping by!
Thank you for these lists. I got back into comics circa 2002 for several years, but then fell out again after Avengers: Dissembled. No particular reason, just lapsed. But now starting to get back into them and catching up is daunting. Wait, Magneto’s a good guy? Wtf!? With the guide though I can catch up without a huge amount of research or more confusion.
Awesome, I’m glad you dig the site. That’s exactly why I started putting some lists together (although in my case it was “Wait, Juggernaut’s a good guy??!!”). Happy reading!
Got an update to the Marvel Unlimited Android app today and the pages now fill the screen which is a big improvement.
Thanks for this blog. With most Marvel titles going back to issue #1 every couple of years it’s really useful to have lists of the various events and their tie ins. Keep up the good work!
Thanks, and glad you dig the blog!
Pretty happy with the Android app update so far. Fleshed out a few thoughts here: Marvel Unlimited Android app update.
My fiance bought me a MU subscription for Christmas (what a woman!), and I pretty much exclusively read on android, typically my Nook HD+ running Cyanogen (I also have a Nexus 5, but it gets less use for MU).
Is the app frustrating? You bet it is. I have to wait for the darn thing to log in every time I step away from it long enough for the screen to lock.
But even as an Android only user… it’s still completely, totally worth the price. It’s probably worth the price of MU and a tablet to run it on, to be honest.
Also, a big thank you to you, comicbookherald. Using MU, I’ve started following your “Complete Marvel Reading Order Guide). It finishes out the holy trifecta for Marvel comics.
My recommendation for Shai? Heck yeah it’s worth it, without even the slightest hesitation.
Thanks for the feedback, and glad you dig the site!
The MU subscription is a GREAT gift. That’s one smart fiance.