Secret Wars - 1984 - The Original Reading List on Marvel Unlimited!

Greetings Superfriends!

Thanks for making this blog another stop on your regular web circuit! I will continue to add new reading arcs for you frequently as 2016 proceeds, so check back often for new reading arcs, links to cool products and even expansion to DC and indy publishers.

This post is about the original Secret Wars miniseries, still a classic story that impacts the entire Marvel Universe. Working with Mattel, Marvel’s Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter developed a series that would have a tie-in with action figures, and the writing ended up being significant for a handful of great additions to the Marvel Universe history, like the black suit of Spider-Man’s that later become… Okay, I know it is too late for spoilers, but we’ll pretend to avoid spoilers anyway!

You can see all of the Secret Wars Miniseries at a glance on Marvel Unlimited here.

1. Secret Wars (1984) #1 - Heroes and villains alike are transported across the universe by a mysterious being known as the Beyonder.
2. Secret Wars (1984) #2 - The first battle between heroes and villains begins as Galactus watches.
3. Secret Wars (1984) #3 - Doom creates new villains!!
4. Secret Wars (1984) #4 - Molecule Man drops a mountain on the heroes??
5. Secret Wars (1984) #5 - X-Men strike back!
6. Secret Wars (1984) #6 - Spider-Woman?
7. Secret Wars (1984) #7 - First full appearance new Spider-Woman
8. Secret Wars (1984) #8 - Spider-Man uses the wrong machine to rebuild his costume and ends up with the black costume!
9. Secret Wars (1984) #9 - The fight against Galactus to prevent world devouring is on!
10. Secret Wars (1984) #10 - Death to the Beyonder!
11. Secret Wars (1984) #11 - Doom kills the heroes (but they are resurrected next issue!)
12. Secret Wars (1984) #12 - The end of the miniseries, Thing stays behind because he can change into human form.

Some of the covers have been used in homages over the years since, and the black suit continues to impact Marvel stories on a monthly basis. This year-long event ran from May 1984 to April 1985 back at a time when there were not many long events, crossovers or anything like that.

As this was before decompression, the content in one regular book might exceed the story in two or three books today. Overall, a worthwhile series to check out on MU!

Check out the links below if you’d like to buy collected editions at discounted prices.

Until next time,

Excelsior!!!

Amazon has the trade paperback editions for low prices as shown below.

 

Thor - Early Bests on Marvel Unlimited

Hello super fans,

Thor proved to be a powerhouse at the box office, and with Marvel’s announcement that Thor is losing his hammer, it seems like a great time to cover some important appearances of the character on Marvel Unlimited.

From his first appearance in Journey Into Mystery #83 on into his own modern volumes and membership in the Avengers, Thor’s played a pivotal role as a powerful “God” in the Marvel universe. A number of mini-series and crossover arcs concentrated on Thor and characters from Asgard. The Marvel Wikia has a great article on his alter ego, Donald Blake, with a nice explanation of how Thor became Donald Blake (and not the other way around as first shown). This is an early silver age story that was retconned in 1983 (Thor #337).

From the Description of JIM #83

Introducing...the Mighty Thor! The most exciting super hero of all time! When the Stone-Men from Saturn invade Earth, only the lame Dr. Donald Blake can stop them -- but he stands no chance, not until he strikes a wooden stick on the ground and finds himself transformed into Thor, God of Thunder! Watch as Thor learns how to wield his hammer in battle! Only this new hero can save the Earth from being conquered!

Thor has such a wealth of appearances and incredible stories, it would be hard to pick the best among them to do story arc link lists, so suggest your favorites in the comments and the top picks will be done in an upcoming post! Here are a few popular early issues: Avengers #1, Thor #126 (continued numbering from Journey Into Mystery #125), and Thor #165 (Galactus).

Do you have favorite silver age Thor stories? Please share them in the comments below! Amazon has great trade paperbacks for Thor, including the Essential Thor Volume 1 for less than $10. Check out their full offerings today!

Until next time,

Excelsior!!!

Article resources included: Stack Exchange on Thor, Marvel Wikia on Donald Blake (Earth-616), Bleeding Cool Best Thor Issues and Comic Vine (many pages).

AVENGERS - Now on Netflix!

In case you’ve been waiting, it’s arrived! Check out The Avengers on Netflix now!

Unfortunately, the Edward Norton portrayal of the Hulk is not on Netflix, but don’t worry, there are other options if you want to have a Marvel-movie-universe marathon. Thor is still streaming, but the Iron Man movies have been removed. Instead, take a look at Captain America: The First Avenger. My recommended order: Cap, then Thor, then the Avengers. If after all of that you still ache for some Marvel superheroes, check out the large collection of animated features and series.

Here’s a partial list:

• Invincible Iron Man - animated movie where ultra-rich Tony Stark uncovers evil and designs the suit to combat it.
• Iron Man: Armored Adventures - series with 52 episodes where Tony Stark is a teen genius sporting the retro (late 70s) Iron Man armor.
• The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes - 2 seasons of good animated fun!
• Spider-Man (1967) - 72 episodes make up this classic cartoon series centered on Peter Parker and his battles with Doctor Octopus, the Green Goblin and many others.
• Spider-Man (1981) - this single season of Spiderman is poorly animated, as were most cartoons in the early 80s, but it does have some funny spots. Additionally, episode 6 features Magneto - years before the X-Men got a series. Magneto asks for “$100 million in gold” -- CLASSIC!
• Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends - this was my childhood favorite because I had gotten into the X-Men and Bobby Drake was one of Spidey’s amazing friends!
• Ultimate Spider-Man - focuses on SHIELD and Norman Osborn with Peter as a 16-year-old.
• X-Men - this is the first series devoted to the team, and lasted for 5 “volumes” (instead of seasons), with a great deal of Claremont story coverage, including a Dark Phoenix Saga retelling. Downside to that is they don’t do sexy Jean Grey or Emma Frost any justice at all.
• X-Men: Evolution - returning the team to a time when they are just awkward teens made for a nice twist to this series, which also chose to retool existing X-Men stories far more than they plotted new ones.

As always, click the titles of any shows available on Netflix and your browser will open for instant streaming access!

Until next time,

Excelsior!!!

 

Uncanny Avengers - GREAT Series

I’m only really heavily following a few new titles. One of them is Uncanny Avengers, which like the current X-Men titles, is doing some cool, deep stories that explore the Marvel mythos in new ways.

This is my favorite variant cover to issue #8, in comic book shops right now.

Until next time,

Excelsior!!!

What If? Avengers Disassembled

Dear readers,

On the heels of yesterday’s clickable Avengers Disassembled reading list, how about a look at what come have been, had things ended differently?

In this issue of What If?, find out how the series could’ve ended in another way altogether!

 

Until next time,

Excelsior!!!

Avengers Disassembled - Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited Clickable Reading List

Special thanks to Dave at Comic Book Herald. His reading order is the best on the web, I’ve only added hyperlinks to the Marvel Unlimited issues.

By the way, this blog post is actually a GREAT example of why this blog is necessary. If you go to Marvel Unlimited online and start with Avengers #500, clicking “Next Issue” gives you Avengers #84. This is like Netflix streaming in the early days only worse. Think HBOGO’s or Amazon Prime’s queuing systems six months ago, then imagine something that sucks a whole lot more.

Follow @ComicBookHerald

Note: you should really check out his blog. There’s more comic book goodness there than I can describe. I’ve made a couple of changes to his list and I hope he doesn’t mind.

You can buy Avengers Disassembled at Amazon.com or at your local shop. I highly recommend Excalibur in Shreveport, La and Lone Star Comics in Dallas/Ft Worth. Please tell them you heard about them from the blog - I get nothing but the satisfaction of helping our local shops stay in business!

Click any of the issues below to open the issue in Marvel Unlimited on the web.

Laying the groundwork for Avengers #500 and the main event, we start out with Avengers Disassembled: Prologue.

Thor #80

Iron Man #84 “Turf War” Part 1

Spectacular Spider-Man #15

Thor #81

Iron Man #85 “Turf War” Part 2

Spectacular Spider-Man #16

Tie-Ins and the Main Event

Thor #82 Ragnarok - the cyborg clone of Thor

Captain America & The Falcon #5

Iron Man #86 “The Singularity” Part 1

Captain America #29

Spectacular Spider-Man #17

The official beginning - Avengers Disassembled Part 1

Avengers #500

Thor #83 "Ragnarok" Part 3 of 6

Captain America & The Falcon #6

Iron Man #87 “The Singularity” Part 2

Captain America #30

Spectacular Spider-Man #18

Fantastic Four #517 “Fortitude” Part 1 of 3

Avengers Disassembled Part 2

Avengers #501

Thor #84 “Ragnarok” Part 4 of 6

Iron Man #88 “The Singularity” Part 3

Captain America #31

Spectacular Spider-Man #19 “Changes” Part 3 of 4

Fantastic Four #518 “Fortitude” Part 2 of 3

Avengers Disassembled Part 3

Avengers #502

Thor #85 "Ragnarok" Part 6 of 6

Iron Man #89 “The Singularity” Part 4

Avengers Disassembled Part 4

Captain America #32

Fantastic Four #519 “Fortitude” Part 3 of 3

Spectacular Spider-Man #20 “Changes” Part 4 of 4

Captain America & The Falcon #7

Avengers #503

Epilogue

Avengers Finale #1

Next?

Excalibur #8

Reminder, if you want to buy from My Comic Shop online, click this link. If you want the coolest blog on the web about comics (sorry, it’s not me, I only wish to be close to his level one day), visit Dave’s blog here.

I’ll be making more of these posts, but make sure you give proper ups and cred to Dave if you link to me or like the reading list. Without Dave’s rundown, this would’ve been a much greater task than the already painful ordeal it was to begin with -- Dave is a superstar who has made enjoying Marvel Unlimited so much easier!

 

Until next time,

Excelsior!!!

Avengers Origins: Quicksilver & The Scarlet Witch

Greetings comic book fans,

If you’ve been a fan of the X-Men as long as I have (my first issue was #130, first appearance of the Dazzler, but more on that in a future post), you already know these two mutants. They were part of the original Brotherhood of Evil Mutants and went on to illustrious careers as heroes with the Avengers in later years. Like many of the characters you’ve read about on this blog, Wanda and Pietro Maximoff have played integral roles in some of the most important events in Marvel history.

It’s Wanda’s utterance of the words “No More Mutants” that brings about the near-total annihilation of the x-gene on Earth-616 and who can forget the House of M, where Wanda’s wish for a “better” world gave Marvel’s superheroes their greatest fantasies come true as Magneto ushered in an era of mutant domination (with the sad side effect of human oppression).

In this Marvel Origins edition, learn how these scared wanderers were taken in by Magneto and how their lives evolved from there.

This is a must-read for Marvel fans, the issue is available on Marvel Unlimited here. Get it while you can!

Until next time,

 

Excelsior!!!