Technically, that was Timely. Marvel Comics started with FF#1 (although it’s really the same company.)
Well, it’s been nice knowing you all 
Runs off to read FF#1
Fair point, but what about comics since Marvel that have taken place in WWII or before. Like say…Wolverine: Origins taking place in the 1800s?
That part of the past hasn’t happened yet.
Anyone care to take a guess on how long it would take to read it all start to finish? Plus there’s new stuff coming out all the time. You’d eventually catch up, but I imagine it would take a while.
I take great joy in knowing that by the time I retire – assuming the apocalypse hasn’t happened – all comics ever will be available in a single click.
This calls for a race. Every 50 you have to answer 5 randomly selected questions about the comics (to prove you actually read them). First one to the Age of Apocalypse wins a coke. Go!
It’s publication order (mostly). Anything in the vein of a flashback will be on the list when it was published.
Then it’s not in chronological order. raaaaaaaaaargh
Externally chronological not Internally chronological. I expect that there are too many retconsto do an accurate internal chronological order.
What’s the point then it’s not a read order =/
It’s not about the order in which the events occur (or even published) that is important, it’s the order in which those events should be experienced.
An internal chronological order for the marvel universe already exists. This lets you experience the universe in the order that it was created. It all comes down to what your preference is.
It does?! Where
This one has chronologies for characters:
This one is more comprehensive:
That’s sick and what I thought this topic was about to begin with!
There’s also torrent packs with the comics in order. I’m not sure if the orders are consistent with each other, but they do tend to have some of those random one-shots that can be hard to find.
I am the guy making the reading order, and it is not in publishing order. It is fairly chronological, but groups story arcs together so you aren’t jumping from one story to another then back to the previous arc, or in the case of some chronological orders breaking books appart so you are going back and forth.
The WWII stuff isn’t in as of now, but there will be an “earlier suggested order” added later where those will be available to read. Stuff like wolverine origins will go closer to their publishing order but marked as flashback, since reading those then reading a book from the 60’s really breaks the intent and meaning of those early books. We (a lot of people in the forums there are helping to fine tune the parts of the orders are done) are trying to make it so characters are where they should be at a given time, so if thor is off on asgard and hasn’t returned you don’t then read a issue where he is in new york with the avengers. The goal is to make it a real reading order.
There are also tools there so you can build you own reading order with just the groups/characters you care about, or read the only the books from the order featuring a specific character/group/story arc. You can mark books you have read and it will then feed you the next book in the order, and issues that are available through Marvels Digital Subscription service have links to that so you can quickly get to them to read.
Hope you guys stop by the site and the forums there, say hi, and start reading some marvel comics (as of this posting we just hit 1980).
Thanks for the explaination. It’s a very interesting concept to do a reading order based on the story chronology, rather than a publicaton date. Once you guys get into the late 90s I’ll be able to start looking at my collection and seeing if what you’re doing makes sense for the books that I have and read.
Wow! That’s a lot of work. Thanks for the effort, and thanks for stopping by to say hi.