A Green Mushroom

Secret Wars turned out to be really fun to read.  After checking out some of the side stories that tie into it, like Spider-Verse and Old Man Logan, I thought I would check out the main Secret Wars series. Apparently, over the last few weeks of Marvel binge I've absorbed enough information about the general state of the Marvel universe to actually appreciate this giant crossover. Secret Wars sees the end of all the worlds across all Marvel properties as they slowly crash into each other and are destroyed.  This results in Doom becoming a god and jamming a bunch of sections of different universes together into Battleworld... the last planet in existence. It's a fun setting where they can remix characters and they're not afraid to kill heroes off. I've had a lot of fun tearing through a ton of Marvel comics on Marvel Unlimited lately but I think I'm finally to the point where if I wanted to check up any further I would have to buy comics individually becau...

Continuing with my Marvel Unlimited browsing and reading: Silk This is a spin-off of Amazing Spider-Man and Spider-Verse.  Silk is a female version of Spider-Man who was bitten by the same spider.  Her story is really interesting and doesn't overstay it's welcome.  It also ties into Secret Wars... which many of the modern comics do. Infinity Gauntlet This was a Secret Wars comic about the infinity stones and Nova Corps.  I'm not super familiar with either but I gave it a shot because it looked interesting.  Unfortunately I bounced off of it after less than two issues.  I think it required more background knowledge than I have to actually get into. Amazing Spider-Man I had basically already read the middle 50% of this run of Spider-Man because I read Spider-Verse.  I liked it a lot so I thought I would finish the run by reading the other 25% on each side of what I had already read.  It's very good and I would have read more if it wasn'...

One of the recommendations I got from listeners was to check out the Spider-Verse storyline in secret wars.  I did, and I liked the premise a lot. Basically, a bunch of spider-men and spider-women (and a spider-pig) come together from different universes and team up to defeat a big bad.  The secret wars storyline was a quick 5 issues but I saw more Spider-Verse runs listed in Marvel Unlimited and after looking at them I quickly realized there was a massive storyline from multiple spider-man comic runs that all link up. I thought I would sample some of the more interesting looking ones but what actually happened is that I read the entire storyline, just a bit out of order.  I read all the Spider-Verse storyline issues for: Amazing Spider-Man Spider-Verse Spider-Verse Team Up Edge of Spider-Verse Spider-Gwen Spider-Woman Scarlet Spiders Spider-man 2099 There might have actually been 1 or 2 more series that contributed that I'm forgetting.  But all ...

I've had my Marvel Unlimited subscription for awhile since I got a really good deal on a year long sub, but I haven't checked in and browsed much until lately.  Here's a quick sampling of what I've been checking out: Civil War Civil War was very comic booky... and not in a good way.  I didn't enjoy it since it was so over the top and it couldn't go more than 2 pages without trying to reveal a new hero in the fight or have someone switch sides.  I know it was a big thing at the time, and now I'm glad I know the source material for the upcoming movie, but I don't think this storyline holds up. Old Man Logan I didn't realize what Secret Wars was until like half way through this series.  But it's a short 6 comic run.  Secret Wars is basically a bunch of alternate universe earths that have all been jammed together into one planet somehow via the power of Doom.  It sounds dumb, but it lets the writers do mini storylines in any universe setti...

One of the recommendations I got from a few people after the comic podcast was to check out the first two runs of The Ultimates comics. It turns out these are fantastic. The Ultimates is definitely a huge source of inspiration for the Marvel Cinematic Universe version of The Avengers.  The Ultimates is the start of it's own separate universe from the main Marvel comics so they're not burdened with all the history of all the characters.  It gets to assemble it's own Avengers for the very first time and it does a great job. The pacing of the story is fast and I love that about it.  Every issue moves multiple storylines forward which is something very few comics can say. I don't really want to spoil anything about the plot because it's so good. My main takeaway is that this is going to go into my back pocket as a recommendation for people who ask me what comics they should check out.  I think most people will like The Ultimates and The Ultimates 2.

After hitting a few runs of comics that I didn't much enjoy I asked a friend for suggestions within the Marvel universe.  I'm trying to make the most of Marvel Unlimited while I have it since I'm still not sure how long I'll keep it. He gave me some recommendations and the one that seemed the most off the beaten path was Moon Knight.  So, I started there. And I loved it!  Moon Knight is basically Batman.... if Batman was crazy... and didn't give a fuck about collateral damage.... or killing people who deserve it.  Also, he wears white so enemies can see him coming and he's the embodiment of an ancient Egyptian god kind of.  It's really weird, but it works. I read the whole 2014 run in one night and I wish there was more.  I might have to dive into the back-catalog and see if there are other runs of Moon Knight too. If you like heroes that aren't typical and you have Marvel Unlimited you should really check it out.

I don't always know exactly how to refer to the comics that I've been reading on Marvel Unlimited.  There are so many comics with such similar titles about the same heroes.  After reading a bunch of character centered comics that started in 2012 I also decided to try to get into the Avengers comic that was started at the same time and used those same versions of the characters. I thought Avengers (2012) would be a surefire hit for me.  I loved the ensemble cast in the movies with the friendly banter and inter-squad tensions.  I think they make for great storytelling.  But now I'm realizing that a lot of that might be because Joss Whedon knows how to write dialog and not because the Avengers themselves are a great plot device. The Avengers comics that I read didn't click with me.  They brought in so many different characters that I couldn't keep track of them all.  I hadn't even heard of most of the characters that were in these comics.  Th...

Thor: God of Thunder is an awesome run of comics.  I want to tell you about it but I haven't done much writing about comics in the past.  I'm going to try anyway. By picking up a Marvel Unlimited subscription earlier this month I've been able to dive into the entire Marvel backlog of comics.  Without having to worry about price I've been exploring all kinds of comics.  I give a new series an issue or two to grab me and then I either read the entire run or I move on to something else. Thor: God of Thunder has been one of the best runs I've read. It requires no previous knowledge about Thor or the greater Marvel Universe.  This is a huge plus for people like me who are just starting to get into comics. The run comes in at about 25 comics, which is also a plus for me.  Long enough to tell some big story archs with weight behind them.  But not too long to overstay it's welcome. Thor: God of Thunder actually covers Thor in three different time...

I need to stop saying I'm not a comic guy.  I bought a month subscription to Marvel Unlimited and I'm loving it! For those of you that don't know, Marvel Unlimited is a subscription service where you get access to the entire Marvel back-catalog of comics. I was convinced to buy into a month subscription because Marvel just put their old Star Wars comics onto the service. I started poking around in the Star Wars comics on the service and I was severely disappointed.  They're old... they don't appeal to my modern tastes.  Then I thought I'd dive into the classic superhero comics.  They were super boring too. So I just started clicking on comics I had never heard of and reading the first issue of different series.  That's when I started finding diamonds in the rough.  Apparently I like non-traditional comics. Runaways is an amazing series about teenagers who discover that all their parents are supervillains so they run away from home together. ...