Catching up with..Marvel

 

I gave up reading new Marvel Comics (with the exception of the Fantastic Four until #25 and a short lived attempt at Spider-Woman) after being so thoroughly disappointed with the ending of the Secret Invasion crossover. These multi-title crossovers were hugely expensive and though I enjoyed Planet Hulk, World War Hulk and Civil War (with reservations) collecting these was not just expensive but some of the "tie-ins were in name only.

Then came the lifting of the Pandemic restrictions and Panini relaunched it's comics albeit in a very different format to those I occasionally purchased previously though not for a while either. I tried both The Amazing Spider-Man and Marvel Universe X-Men and to date I've kept on with these two comics returning to the world of Marvel which used to be one of my favourite fictional playgrounds.

There's been a lot of changes. Of all Marvels titles it was the X-Men I gave up on first because there was just too much to read. This current title narrows the field down for me and has a high level of science-fiction story telling plus the foray into the mystical world of Excalibur proved an interesting sideline. Trouble is there have been so many changes.

I have no idea who some of the newer possibly minor mutants are and although I had heard Doc Ock was dead I didn't realise there was a female replacement. Same for Electro. I need to read how Peter Parker got his secret identity back after the Civil War debacle. I know Mephisto was involved but there is so much out there I just didn't know where to start.

It was accidentally getting off at a wrong bus stop near a Waterstone's and decided to see what graphic novels were available. I started with Civil War II which was a very good story and and I ended up buying Infinity volumes one and two at a later visit. I would assume most Marvelites have read this excellent cosmic adventure. Both story-lines get a 5 Star Rating from me.

Then with a little birthday money and some savings I went for my first visits in a long time to the Forbidden Planet and Orbital returning with four more tomes (only one of which I had planned to buy. They didn't have the ones I wanted).  These included Avengers: No Road Home and Thor: Godbomb. I've now read these and would recommend them. I still  have Avengers: Star Brand Reborn and War of the Realms in my  reading pile along with some other items.

I have it in mind to purchase some more titles at a much slower rate for financial reason over the coming year and intend picking up Spider Island, Spidergeddon, Secret Empire, Thor: The Asgard-Shiar War and X-Men: Fall of the Shiar Empire. I would welcome suggestions from readers as to what they would recommend.